US09944715B2

A monoclonal antibody that binds to a phospholipase D4 (PLD4) protein, or a fragment containing an antigen-binding region thereof.
US09944709B2

The present invention relates to Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) that are recombinant chimeric proteins able to redirect immune cell specificity and reactivity toward selected membrane antigens, and more particularly in which extracellular ligand binding is a scFV derived from a CD123 monoclonal antibody, conferring specific immunity against CD123 positive cells. The engineered immune cells endowed with such CARs are particularly suited for treating lymphomas and leukemia.
US09944708B2

Subject matter of the invention are antibody-cytokine fusion proteins having proapoptotic and immune modulating properties, but wherein the cytokine moiety a priori has a bioactivity which is very low or restricted to certain receptor subtypes. These reagent exert their full biological activity via the corresponding cytokine receptor(s) only after antibody-mediated binding of the fusion protein to a specific cell membrane-expressed target molecule. By suitable choice of the antibody specificity, the cytokine activity is directed to the tissue, e.g. tumour tissue, to be treated, and a therapeutic agent can be produced being specifically designed/optimised for the respective indication/tumour entity.
US09944704B2

The present invention discloses antibodies to canine PD-1 that have specific sequences and a high binding affinity for canine PD-1. The invention also discloses the use of the antibodies of the present invention in the treatment of cancer in dogs.
US09944703B2

Disclosed are humanized RFB4 antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. therapy of B-cell associated diseases, such as B-cell malignancies, autoimmune disease and immune dysfunction disease. Preferably, hRFB4 comprises the light and heavy chain RFB4 CDR sequences with human antibody FR and constant region sequences, along with heavy chain framework region (FR) amino acid residues Q1, F27, V48, A49, F68, R98, T117 and light chain residues L4, S22, K39, G100, V104, and K107. More preferably, the heavy and light chain variable region sequences of hRFB4 comprise SEQ ID NO:7 and SEQ ID NO:8, respectively. In certain embodiments, trogocytosis (antigen shaving) induced by hRFB4 plays a significant role in determining antibody efficacy and disease responsiveness for treatment of B-cell diseases, such as hematopoietic cancers, immune system dysfunction and/or autoimmune disease.
US09944697B2

The present invention relates to antibodies specifically binding CCL17, polynucleotides encoding the antibodies or fragments, and methods of making and using the foregoing.
US09944694B2

The invention relates to the field of immunology and vaccine development. In particular, it relates to antibodies and fragments thereof against Staphylococcus aureus and to therapeutic and diagnostic uses thereof. Provided is an isolated antibody or a functional fragment thereof, which binds to an epitope of the Immunodominant Staphylococcal antigen A (IsaA), wherein said antibody comprises at least four Isa A epitope-binding CDR sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1; SEQ ID NO: 2; SEQ ID NO: 3; SEQ ID NO: 4; SEQ ID NO: 5; SEQ ID NO: 6, and functional equivalents thereof having an amino acid sequence that is at least 85% identical to an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1-6.
US09944691B2

The present invention relates to variants of a parent albumin, the variants having altered plasma half-life compared with the parent albumin. The present invention also relates to polynucleotides encoding the variants; nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides; and methods of using the variants.
US09944684B2

The disclosure provides an antigenic peptide targeting the extracellular, but not the intracellular, form of CETP to reduce the level of LDL (including oxLDL and other derivatives of LDL) and increase the level of HDL. Accordingly, the disclosure provides a CETP vaccine to overcome the low immunogenicity of CETP and for long-term inhibition of CETP activity to prevent or treat oxLDL or other LDL derivative-related diseases/symptoms.
US09944682B2

We describe the rational structure-based design of monomeric and dimeric forms of a nanobody-enhanced GFP (termed vsfGFP) that demonstrates ˜1.3-fold higher brightness than sfGFP in a monomeric form and ˜2.5-fold higher brightness in a dimeric form. These new vsfGFP variants demonstrate high stability and brightness in both bacterial and eukaryotic cells and are thus ideal for in vivo imaging applications. The combination of higher brightness, facile folding, stable expression, and tunable dimerization makes them ideal partners in essentially all in vitro applications already described for fluorescent proteins, including antibody fusion-based molecular probes, for which the higher brightness and tunable dimerization provide distinct advantages. Furthermore, the vsfGFP variants retain folding properties of sfGFP that enable bright fluorescence in oxidizing environments such as the bacterial periplasm. In particular, periplasmic expression enables the general construction of functional, fluorescent single domain antibody fusions, markedly enhancing the breadth and utility and reducing the cost of these molecular probes. Generalization of the vGFP strategy should provide similar improvements to other fluorescent proteins and may be extendable to higher order (and thus higher brightness) complexes.
US09944671B2

The invention relates to double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) compositions targeting the COL1A1, TGF-β, and SMAD2/3 genes, and methods of using such dsRNA compositions to inhibit expression of COL1A1, TGF-β, and SMAD2/3.
US09944666B2

Compounds of formula (I) can modulate the activity of one or more SIP receptors and/or the activity of autotaxin (ATX).
US09944655B2

The present invention provides compounds useful as inhibitors of Acetyl CoA Carboxylase (ACC), compositions thereof, and methods of using the same.
US09944650B2

The invention concerns compounds of Formula (I) (Formula (I)) or pharmaceutically-acceptable salts thereof, wherein R1, R2 and n have any of the meanings defined herein before in the description; processes for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use as anti-proliferative and/or cell-killing agents.
US09944646B2

The present invention provides bicyclic azaheterocyclobenzylamines of Formula I: wherein the variables are defined herein, that modulate the activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) and are useful in the treatment of diseases related to the activity of PI3Ks including, for example, inflammatory disorders, immune-based disorders, cancer, and other diseases.
US09944645B2

The present invention is directed to imidazo[1,2-b][1,2,4]triazines and imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines, and pharmaceutical compositions thereof, which are inhibitors of kinases such as c-Met and are useful in the treatment of cancer and other diseases related to the dysregulation of kinase pathways.
US09944640B2

A compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt thereof. The compound is useful in the treatment of cancer or other diseases that may benefit from inhibition of MTH1.
US09944628B2

A compound having the following structure (I): or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, prodrug, stereoisomer or tautomer thereof, is provided. Related compounds, methods for preparation of the same and uses of the compounds for treatment of various indications, including treatment of necrotic cell diseases and/or inflammation, are also provided.
US09944620B2

Compounds of formula (I) wherein Ra, Rb, Rc, Rd, T, R3, R4, R5, X, Y and Het are as defined in the description. Medicinal products containing the same which are useful in treating pathologies involving a deficit in apoptosis, such as cancer, auto-immune diseases, and diseases of the immune system.
US09944618B2

This document relates to compounds as well as methods and materials involved in modulating neurotransmitter reuptake. For example, compounds, methods for synthesizing compounds, and methods for inhibiting neurotransmitter reuptake are provided. Specifically gamma-amino alcohol derivatives that inhibit the reuptake of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine or norepinephrine are provided as therapeutic agents for the treatment of depression or anxiety in a mammalian subject.
US09944614B2

Described is a method for producing furfural from one or more substances selected from the group consisting of xylose, oligosaccharides comprising xylose units and polysaccha-rides comprising xylose units.
US09944605B2

Provided herein are Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) antagonists having the structure of formula (I), and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compound of formula (I) and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient. Also provided are methods of antagonizing FXR, and methods of treating metabolic disease in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering an effective amount of the FXR antagonists of formula (I) to a subject.
US09944600B2

The present invention relates to novel piperidine derivatives, stereoisomers thereof or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; methods for preparing the compound; and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compound. The novel piperidine derivatives, according to the present invention, having an effect as GPR119 agonist can be used for treatment of metabolic disorders, including diabetes mellitus (especially type II) and related disorders.
US09944590B2

The present invention is generally directed to novel crystalline forms of the acetate salt of (1S,3S,4R)-4-((3aS,4R,5S,7aS)-4-(aminomethyl)-7a-methyl-1-methyleneoctahydro-1H-inden-5-yl)-3-(hydroxymethyl)-4-methylcyclohexanol and processes for their preparation.
US09944582B2

The present disclosure relates to a method for purifying an acid, wherein the method comprises: a) producing a crude product mixture by a partial oxidation reaction, wherein the crude product mixture comprises acrylic acid and acetic acid; b) purifying the crude product mixture by distillation using a high-boiling solvent to purify the acrylic acid; and c) purifying the crude product mixture by distillation using a low-boiling solvent to purify the acetic acid.
US09944580B2

A solubilizer is used to stabilize crude polyol produced from biomass.
US09944577B2

The polymerization of monomers may be at least partially reduced or inhibited by introducing an effective amount of an additive. The additive may be or include at least one hydroquinone, such as but not limited to, 2,6-di-tert-butyl hydroquinone, 2,5 di-tert-butyl hydroquinone, 3,5 di-tert-butyl hydroquinone, 3,5 di-methyl hydroquinone, 3,6 di-tert-butyl hydroquinone, and combinations thereof. The polymerizable monomers may be or include, but are not limited to styrene, butadiene, isoprene, acrylic acid, acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate, and combinations thereof.
US09944575B2

Adsorption towers are filled with adsorbents that adsorb methane gas in coal mine gas and perform a PSA cycle. For each of adsorption towers, a plurality of different pressure states of the internal pressure of the adsorption tower are set as an intermediate pressure state. As a pressure equalization step, an initial pressure equalization step of transferring the gas in one of the adsorption towers that is in a high pressure state to another one of the adsorption towers that is in an intermediate pressure state, and a final pressure equalization step of transferring the gas in one of the adsorption towers that is in the high pressure-side intermediate pressure state to another one of the adsorption towers that is in the low pressure state are performed.
US09944572B2

A method for coupling an alkane with an alkene using a hydrogen transfer catalyst and an alkene dimerization catalyst to form one or more higher molecular weight hydrocarbons.
US09944561B2

A dielectric material includes a composite sintered body in which conductive particles are dispersed in an insulating material, in which a dielectric constant at a frequency of 40 Hz is 10 or higher, and a difference between a maximum dielectric loss value and a minimum dielectric loss value at a frequency of 1 MHz in a surface of the composite sintered body is 0.002 or less.
US09944550B2

There is provided a tempered glass plate, wherein a thickness of the tempered glass plate is less than or equal to 2.7 mm, wherein on a surface of the tempered glass plate, a plurality of stress marks are formed, wherein a distance between closest stress marks of the plurality of stress marks is less than or equal to 20 mm, wherein the surface of the tempered glass plate includes a first virtual circle that is formed by connecting points that are separated from a center of one of the plurality of stress marks by 2.5 mm, wherein the tempered glass plate includes a non elastic-wave region that is not affected by an elastic-wave generated during fracturing, and wherein, in the non elastic-wave region, an average number of cracks that exist in the first virtual circle is greater than or equal to 3.4.
US09944546B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide for anion exchange membranes and processes for their manufacture. The anion exchange membranes described herein are made the polymerization product of at least one functional monomer comprising a tertiary amine which is reacted with a quaternizing agent in the polymerization process.
US09944542B2

WATER GENERATION PROCESS IN SUPERCRITICAL STATE WITH LOWER ENERGY CONSUMPTION THROUGH ULTRASOUND composed by the formation of cavitation bubbles using ultrasound transducers to generate a mechanical pressure. These bubbles will grow up until reaching a size where they collapse. In conventional methods these bubbles collapse randomly, generating effects in a punctual form. In this new process the frequency applied to the fluid varies within a specific range, causing the bubbles to change its size instead of collapsing, delaying the process and allowing for new bubbles to be created. In this way the fluid will have more bubbles than in the conventional form. Another condition required to generate a layer of supercritical water is the uniform collapse of the bubbles. This is made by interposing an equal sign of average frequency making the bubbles to reach a size in which they will collapse all together.
US09944541B2

Techniques for depleting target organisms in water include a waterproof transducer configured for ensonifying a container of water with low intensity sound at one or more ultrasound frequencies for a duration sufficient to prevent maturation of at least 90% of the target organism. In some cases the target organism is mosquito larvae. For example, a portable system for depleting target organisms in water includes a control system and a plurality of waterproof transducers. The system is configured for ensonifying a surface layer of water in an acoustic frequency range from about 40 kilohertz to about 100 kilohertz and in a power concentration range from about 35 milliwatts per milliliter to 100 milliwatts per milliliter for a duration in a range from about 1 to about 100 seconds.
US09944539B2

Strong fabrics are provided that can be used for items that can be moved or gathered while maintaining their integrity. The added strength of the fabric and the performance of the fabric make these fabrics and these items more effective in responding to oil spills. These fabrics and items will remove oil sheen from the surface of water and can absorb more than their dry weight in oil from water. Non-linting socks (e.g., sediment socks or absorbent socks) are also provided.
US09944534B2

The invention provides a method of inhibiting the accumulation of DSP scale in the liquor circuit of Bayer process equipment. The method includes adding one or more particular silane based small molecules to the liquor fluid circuit. These scale inhibitors reduce DSP scale formation and thereby increase fluid throughput, increase the amount of time Bayer process equipment can be operational and reduce the need for expensive and dangerous acid washes of Bayer process equipment. As a result, the invention provides a significant reduction in the total cost of operating a Bayer process.
US09944522B2

A hydrogen separation system and membrane is described for extracting hydrogen from gasifier streams at near atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature conditions. The system can be inserted between a small gasifier and an internal combustion engine which runs a genset to optionally co-produce hydrogen and electricity. The hydrogen is used in a number of important industrial processes.
US09944520B2

An apparatus includes a device having n input ports and n output ports. The n input ports are configured to receive n corresponding physical objects of a physically processed, quantum redundancy coded state. The n output ports are configured to output the n physical objects in the physically processed, quantum redundancy coded state. The device is configured to measure bits of a syndrome of the physically processed, quantum redundancy coded state by passing the n physical objects through the device. The device is configured to measure a parity check bit for the measured bits of the syndrome by the passing the n physical objects through the device.
US09944519B2

A light source (10) comprises a light engine (16), a base (24), a power conversion circuit (30) and an enclosure (22). The light engine (16) comprises at least one LED (12) disposed on a platform (14). The platform (14) is adapted to directly mate with the base (24) which a standard incandescent bulb light base. Phosphor (44) receives the light generated by the at least one LED (12) and converts it to visible light. The enclosure (22) has a shape of a standard incandescent lamp.
US09944515B2

A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device, in which a vacuum-pressure airtight chamber is defined by a space between a first substrate and a recessed portion of a second substrate, includes preparing the first substrate and the second substrate both of which contain silicon, joining the two substrates together, performing a heat treatment to emit hydrogen gas from the airtight chamber, and generating OH groups on the substrates before the joining. In the joining of the substrates together, the OH groups are bonded together to generate covalent bonds, and in the heat treatment, a part on which the OH groups are generated is heated at a temperature rise rate of 1° C./sec or smaller until a temperature of the substrate increases to 700° C. or higher, and a heating temperature and heating time are adjusted to emit hydrogen gas from the airtight chamber.
US09944513B2

The invention provides a micro-electro-mechanical device which is manufactured by a CMOS manufacturing process. The micro-electro-mechanical device includes a stationary unit, a movable unit, and a connecting member. The stationary unit includes a first capacitive sensing region and a fixed structure region. The movable unit includes a second capacitive sensing region and a proof mass, wherein the first capacitive sensing region and the second capacitive sensing region form a capacitor, and the proof mass region consists of a single material. The connecting member is for connecting the movable unit in a way to allow a relative movement of the movable unit with respect to the stationary unit.
US09944509B2

Dispensing device for a drink based on a first fluid to which a second fluid can be added selectively, including a support containing a chamber having a first port communicating with a reservoir of said first fluid, a second port communicating with a reservoir of the second fluid, and an outlet port, further including a dispensing assembly mounted movably relative to the support following: a first displacement arranged to selectively open and close the outlet port and/or the first port by a first actuating element for the first displacement; and a second displacement arranged to open and close the second port selectively by a second element to enable the actuation of the second displacement; the second element being arranged to be actuated after the first element and following a type of motion different to the type of motion necessary for the actuation of the first element.
US09944508B2

The invention concerns a dispenser (1) comprising: —a housing (2) defining an internal space (3), —a beverage preparation unit housed in the internal space, said beverage preparation unit being connected to an electric supply, —a door (4) to get access to the internal space of the housing, said door being assembled to the housing (2) by means of at least one hinge (5), said door comprising one element erecting from the internal surface of the door, said door being configured for switching off the electric supply of the beverage preparation unit when it opens, the switching off being due to the release of a mechanical and electric contact by the at least one erecting element, wherein the dispenser comprises a slider (6), said slider comprising: —a first part (61) configured for switching on the electric supply of the beverage preparation unit when the slider is translated from a first rest position to a second operative position, and —a second part (62) configured for engaging with a locking device (7) when the slider (6) is translated to the second operative position so that the slider is retained in said second operative position by the locking device, and wherein the element erecting from the internal surface of the door is configured for disengaging the second part of the slider from the locking device (7) when the door is closed.
US09944502B2

A cylinder retraction system causes a crawler side frame hoisting hydraulic cylinder, swingably suspended on a ventral surface side of a lower boom, to swing between a retracted attitude, in which the hydraulic cylinder is set along a ventral surface of the lower boom, and an operating attitude, in which the hydraulic cylinder is oriented along a vertical direction. As the rod of the hydraulic cylinder, currently having the operating attitude, is contracted by a predetermined extent, the rod front end of the hydraulic cylinder is guided by the guiding portion until the hydraulic cylinder takes on the retracted attitude. As the hydraulic cylinder, currently having the retracted attitude, is extended by a predetermined extent, engagement between the rod front end of the hydraulic cylinder and the guiding portion is released so as to allow the hydraulic cylinder to take on the operating attitude.
US09944501B2

There is provided a computer program product, a mobile device capable of wireless communications and method for a mobile device capable of wireless communications with a payload handling apparatus for handling payload in a payload handling area. A message from the payload handling apparatus is received and on the basis of the received message it is determined when the mobile device is within the payload handling area of the payload handling apparatus.
US09944500B2

An improved material handling system (15, 115) comprising a material lifting device (16), the material lifting device having a sensor (23) for sensing an operational parameter associated with the material lifting device, a load attachment device (18) configured and arranged to attach a load to the material lifting device, the load attachment device having a data tag (20) containing data regarding one or more parameters associated with the load attachment device, a reader (21) configured and arranged to read the data tag, a processing unit (22) communicating with the reader and the sensor, the processing unit configured and arranged to receive data from the reader and the sensor, and a material handling control device (19) configured and arranged to control operation of the material handling device.
US09944499B2

A computing system (CS) calculates a three-dimensional (3D) position of an origin of a 3D upperworks coordinate system for a crane based on local coordinates of the crane. The origin is located along an axis of rotation between an upperworks of the crane and a lowerworks of the crane that is rotatably coupled with the upperworks. The CS transforms the 3D position of the origin from the local coordinates to global 3D coordinates using absolute position sensing data from first and second positioning sensors attached to the crane and using global 3D coordinates specific to the jobsite where the crane is located. The CS computes positions of at least one movable component of the crane with respect to a tracked object on the jobsite. The CS utilizes the computed positions to provide assistance in maneuvering the crane with respect to the tracked object.
US09944498B2

The present invention relates to a crane (101). The crane (101) has a hoist (113), movable in at least one lateral direction (X, Y), for performing a lifting operation. A controller (125) is provided for controlling lateral movement of the hoist (113). An imaging sensor (127) is provided for detecting a person in a defined safety region (145, 147). The controller (125) is configured to inhibit operation of the crane (101) when the imaging sensor (127) detects a person in said safety region (145, 147). The invention also relates to a control system for a crane (101) and a related method.
US09944496B2

An escalator with a step belt or a moving walkway with a plate belt has a first deflecting region and a second deflecting region, wherein the plate belt or the step belt is arranged to circulate between the first deflecting region and the second deflecting region. The escalator or the moving walkway includes at least one guide rail arranged between the deflecting regions for guidance of the step belt or the plate belt, as well as at least one support, which is arranged between the deflecting regions for supporting the at least one guide rail. The at least one support includes a plurality of plug parts that in an assembled state can be plugged together by plug connections to form a box-shaped support base body.
US09944490B2

A sheet is nipped and held by first and second bend forming rollers of which rotation axes are in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction, the conveying speed of the held portion is made lower than a sheet conveying speed on the upstream side so that a bend is formed on the sheet, the sheet is conveyed toward the bend forming rollers such that the sheet conveying direction to the bend forming rollers passes through a line segment from the rotation axis of the first bend forming roller to a predetermined position on a surface of the first bend forming roller, and the bend formed on the conveyed sheet is pressed from the surface of the sheet in a position on the opposite side of the second bend forming roller with respect to the position where the sheet is in contact with the first bend forming roller.
US09944486B2

User labor relating to determining on an alignment condition is reduced and a stable conveying operation is realized by aligning a sheet bundle also when a sheet bundle is added. A sheet bundle composed of multiple sheet materials is placed on a loading platform. An encoder pulse unit detects the amount of the sheet bundle placed on the loading platform based on the opening amount of a pressure plate. A control unit determines on an alignment condition according to the amount of the sheet bundle. Rotating members align the sheet bundle in accordance with the alignment condition. When it is determined that another sheet bundle has been added to the loading platform, the control unit updates the alignment condition according to the total amount of the other sheet bundle and the sheet bundle remaining on the loading platform.
US09944480B2

An image forming apparatus includes an accommodation unit, feeding, conveying, and separating members, and detecting, control, image forming, and regulating units. The conveying member conveys a fed recording material. The separating member forms a nip and separates recording materials. The detecting unit detects that the recording material has been fed to the nip. The feeding member starts feeding an accommodated recording material and, where a recording material is fed to the nip, causes the feeding to be finished. An image is formed on a fed recording material. The regulating unit regulates an end on an upstream side. The control unit measures a period from a recording material feeding to detection that a recording material is fed to the nip. Based on the measured period, information is output indicating that a position of the regulating unit is deviated from a position according to a size of the accommodated recording materials.
US09944472B2

A beverage dispensing apparatus includes a dispensing structure, a transportation mechanism linked with the dispensing structure and a staging structure linked with the transportation mechanism. A control system is linked with the dispensing structure, staging structure and the transportation mechanism. A sensor mechanism is linked with the control system. The sensor mechanism provides signals indicating the position of a cup. A cup identification system having an interactive display is connected to the control system. The display has visual characteristics indicating the position and characteristics of a cup.
US09944464B2

A stacker crane is provided with: a travelling carriage that is configured to be able to travel along the rack width direction; a first mast that is provided so as to stand on the travelling carriage; a second mast that is provided so as to stand on the same travelling carriage on which the first mast is provided; a first elevator body that is configured to be guided along the first mast; a second elevator body that is configured to be guided along the second mast so as to be able to move up/down independently of the first elevator body, and that is aligned with the first elevator body in the rack width direction in plan view; a first transferring device that is supported by the first elevator body; and a second transferring device that is supported by the second elevator body.
US09944463B2

A multitrack storage system, includes: a plurality of different sets of tracks having a base and opposing sidewalls wherein each of the tracks constitute a single groove having a predetermined width and having connections for removably connecting the tracks to one another; an adjustable tilting mechanism in contact with the tracks; a bumper at the distal end of each of the sets of tracks; at least two separate storage trains on different tracks with a plurality of wheeled storage containers, with the storage containers nested in the tracks; a train movement mechanism; a proximal end for the plurality of different sets of tracks wherein all of the plurality of different sets of tracks converge at the proximal end at a central terminus. Users may store items in the wheeled storage containers at the central terminus and then move the storage train away for storage.
US09944461B2

Some embodiments provide a product storage racking system, comprising: a frame comprising frame beams secured together with support surfaces aligned along a first plane; feet posts fixed to the frame beams; feet cooperated with the feet posts, wherein each of the feet is configured to stackably cooperate with a post of a set of posts that are cooperated with another product storage racking system enabling stacking; at least two rack support systems each secured with the frame and configured to support the weight of the product storage racking system and products stored on the product storage racking system independent of the three or more feet.
US09944454B2

A spray control apparatus for aerosol cans has a can coupling cap with a segmented and discontinuous aerosol can engaging ring. The cap top lip has a locking ledge having a bearing surface facing away from the can engaging ring, a cam track having a bearing surface facing toward the can engaging ring, and a guide slot therebetween. A plurality of generally planar reinforcing ribs radiate inwardly from the cap side wall. An actuator is concentrically within the cap, and has at least one cam protruding radially into the cap top lip. The cam engages the locking ledge bearing surface in a first rotary position and is thereby blocked from axial movement, and engages the cam track bearing surface in a second rotary position and is thereby driven axially toward the can engaging ring, and passes though the guide slot when rotated between the first and second rotary positions.
US09944449B2

A thermally insulating package comprises an outer shell (6) formed from a foam insulating material, a plurality of vacuum insulated panels (12) removably received on the walls of the outer shell (6) and a plurality of phase change material panels (18) arranged within the vacuum insulated panels (12) to define a payload space.
US09944448B2

A container (1) for transportation and/or storage of items is provided with under-slung lifting formations (8, 9) for aiding lifting of the container, rotatable support members (10, 11) upon which the container may be moved, and/or means (17) for securing like containers positioned in side by side relationship to be releasably secured to one another. The invention enables securing together containers in side by side relationship and moving/lifting the containers together between picking or loading locations. Following loading of the containers with at least some material at the distributed picking/loading locations, the containers may be disengaged and separated for onward transportation in separation.
US09944447B2

A valve device for a packaging configured to hold a product releasing a gas. The valve device comprises, in an embodiment, a first inner film provided with a first opening and a second outer film covering the first opening. Between the first inner and the second outer film a first chamber is provided. The first opening provides a gas communication between the first chamber and the interior of the packaging. The first and second films define a channel being in fluid communication with the first chamber. Further, the valve device comprises a second chamber, and the channel connects the first and second chamber. The second chamber comprises a second opening being in fluid communication with the exterior of the packaging. At least one of the first and second chambers comprises a liquid and at least one spacer.
US09944436B2

A tamper-evident container and method is disclosed. The tamper-evident container includes a base portion and a lid (or cover). In an untampered with state, one edge of the lid is removably connected to one edge of the base portion. Namely, the lid includes a tamper-evident tab, wherein the tamper-evident tab includes a grasping overhanging portion that is flanked by at least one breakable joint and wherein the lid is removably connected to the base portion via the breakable joint of the tamper-evident tab. Further, the tamper-evident container comprises an interlocking interface between the base portion and the lid. A method of using the tamper-evident container is provided.
US09944428B2

A cap arranged to interact with a spout. The cap comprises a top section, a side wall section attached to the top section and a tamper element attached to the side wall section in a tearing interface. The tearing interface may be provided with a weakening line that is arranged to break when the cap is unscrewed such that the tamper element is separated from the side wall section. The cap further comprises at least one resilient cutting element arranged to the side wall. The at least one resilient cutting element is arranged to cut off a membrane of the spout when the cap is unscrewed. The cap is arranged such that the weakening line is arranged to break before the membrane of the spout is cut off when the cap is being unscrewed from the spout.
US09944426B2

A substantially paper-based composite container for an off-gassing product includes a paperboard can body having a substantially gas-impervious liner attached to an inner surface thereof, and a pair of substantially paper-based end closures attached to the opposite ends of the can body, each end closure defining a generally cylindrical sealing panel in contact with an inner surface of the can body. Heat-sealable materials are disposed on opposing surfaces of the sealing panel and can body. The sealing panels of the end closures are attached to the can body by heat seals. The heat seal for at least one of the end closures is discontinuous such that at least one vent channel extends through the heat seal so as to establish fluid communication between an interior of the composite container and the environment outside the composite container. The at least one vent channel is operable to vent excess gas pressure from the interior of the container.
US09944420B2

An apparatus and method for orienting a tubular heat-shrinkable sleeve relative to a container. The apparatus includes a sleeve orientation unit that uses a moveable support surface to hold and rotate the sleeve relative to the container. To that end, the apparatus further includes a determining unit for determining an angular position difference between the container and the sleeve relative to an axis perpendicular to the conveyor belt on which the container is transported. The angular position difference is used to control the movement of the support surface.
US09944416B2

The invention relates to a filling device (1) for dispensing a fluid into at least one container, where the filling device (1) has a weighing system (2) and a filling-needle system (3). The weighing system (2) has a positioning device (4) which can be adapted to a container diameter and which may have an annular design. The weighing system (2) is arranged on an accommodation platform (7) which can be moved vertically by means of a linear unit. The filling-needle system (3) is arranged on a displacement unit in a position at a distance in the axial direction above the positioning device (4).
US09944408B2

Systems and methods for recovering unmanned aircraft and controlling post-recovery motion of the aircraft are disclosed herein. An aircraft recovery system for handling an unmanned aircraft in accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure includes a base portion and an elongated aircraft capture member having a first end movably coupled to the base portion and a second, free end opposite the first end. The aircraft capture member includes a first portion and a second portion at a distal end of the first portion and positioned to intercept an unmanned aircraft in flight. The first and/or second portions are generally flexible. The system further includes an energy capture and dissipation assembly operably coupled to the aircraft capture member and positioned to receive at least a portion of the landing forces from the aircraft.
US09944405B2

A method of marking a landing zone on ground for an aircraft in flight. The aircraft projects on the ground a light shape referred to as a “projected light shape” comprising at least one line of light defining a geometrical surface, the aircraft tending to place at least a portion of landing gear of the aircraft on the geometrical surface, the projected light shape being identical regardless of the position of the projector in air space.
US09944404B1

A prognostic failure detection system may be implemented for an unmanned aerial vehicle(s) (UAV). A prognostic failure detection system may include a process of predicting failure conditions that may affect an UAV physical system or structure before they occur. By predicting failure conditions before they occur, the prognostic system allows maintenance centers to perform corrective actions in a timely and cost-effective manner. The prognostic system is intended to monitor and support the functionality of several physical systems and physical structures associated with an UAV. A physical system includes, but is not limited to, the electrical system, power system including the power supply, motor and propeller assemblies including motor controllers, navigation system, and flight controller system.
US09944396B2

An adjustable aircraft passenger seat including a seat bottom, a legrest adjustable in angle relative to the seat bottom, a seatback adjustable in angle relative to the seat bottom, the seatback segmented into a lower seatback and an upper seatback, the lower seatback adjustable in angle relative to the seat bottom and the upper seatback adjustable in angle relative to the lower seatback, and a headrest adjustable in height relative to the upper seatback.
US09944391B2

A system and method for a providing a dynamic backhaul. In one example, the system includes a self-positionable wireless device (for example, a drone) including a dual-band radio configured to establish a wireless connection between the self-positionable wireless device and a wireless system. The dual-band radio initiates a narrowband wireless link with the wireless system via a first narrowband antenna of the self-positionable wireless device and a second narrowband antenna of the wireless system. A navigation system generates location, velocity and error estimate of the self-positionable wireless device. The location is transmitted to the wireless system using the narrowband wireless link. The self-positionable wireless device receives via the narrowband wireless link location, velocity and error estimate of the wireless system. The self-positionable wireless device establishes a directional broadband wireless link with the wireless system using the location, velocity and error estimate of the self-positionable wireless system and the wireless system.
US09944385B2

A lockable actuator has lock segments that move into recesses inside a piston to enable the piston to move. The lock segments may also move radially outwardly from the recesses in the piston to engage a bevel edge of a cylinder housing assembly to lock the piston. Lock rams having ramps force the lock segments radially outwardly into engagement with the bevel edge of the cylinder housing assembly.
US09944383B2

An apparatus and method for controlling a yaw moment of a flight vehicle, such as an aircraft. A wing structure of the flight vehicle has a first opening or actuator positioned by a first apex section of a first side of the wing, and has a second opening or actuator positioned away from or at a distance from a second apex section of a second side of the wing. The first side and the second side can each be positioned or located opposite a centerline of the wing or wing structure. A pressure source or other pressure supply device is in communication with the first opening or actuator and the second opening or actuator to which a pressurized fluid, such as air, is controlled and delivered to control or vary the yaw moment of the flight vehicle.
US09944382B2

A device for controlling the pitch of the blades of a rotor is provided. The device includes a radial shaft, the rotation of which controls the pitch of the blades; a guiding bearing for guiding the radial shaft; a nut which tightens the guiding bearing along the radial axis; and a circumferential rib extending as a protrusion towards the outside of the nut, for guiding a lubrication oil towards the outside of the nut.
US09944377B2

An electric actuator comprises a housing and an output shaft reciprocatingly received by the housing. There is a screw assembly disposed within the housing and coupled to the output shaft. The screw assembly includes a plurality of annular rollers and a central screw received by the annular rollers. The annular rollers are rotatable about the central screw. There is a motor which includes a stator and a rotor. The rotor has an inner bore which engages the annular rollers. Rotation of the rotor causes the central screw to translate axially relative to the rotor and the output shaft to reciprocate relative to the housing.
US09944369B2

A stretchable pillowcase with an inflatable pillow or bladder having an attached pouch that can be folded onto itself and enclose the pillow and cover therein during non-usage. But, the pillow and case can be removed from the pouch, the pillow inflated, to provide a cushion use of the pillow for comfort, and to use as a flotation device, for recreational purposes. The pillow is made of a water-proof and inflatable material, such as polymer and rubber, and the case may be formed of a resilient fabric material. Its pouch likewise, is fabricated from an expandable material, to allow it to fold onto itself, and enclose the pillow and case therein, once the former has been deflated. The pillow in this case may contain a bladder, internally thereof, and which can be inflated with air under pressure to add to its comfortable usage. And, a series of the cases may be interlinked together into the formation for multiple shapes and sizes such as a raft, to provide full body support.
US09944368B1

An inflatable life raft assembly is disclosed, including a deployable and inflatable life raft that a user can voluntarily and repeatedly deploy from a storage carrier, inflate for use, and fold back into the container after use. The carrier is integrally formed with or permanently attached to the inflatable life raft. A compressed gas cylinder and/or manual inflator or pump can assist the user in inflating the life raft. The storage carrier can automatically open when the life raft inflates, by pressure exerted from within the carrier by the expanding life raft. The inflatable life raft can include one or more gas impervious chambers, such as two or more communicated or isolated air chambers.
US09944367B2

A personal life raft includes a rigid compartment, a first flexible arm member in sealed engagement with a first port on a first side of the rigid compartment, a second flexible arm member in sealed engagement with a second port on a second side of the rigid compartment. Each of the first flexible arm member and the second flexible arm member are impervious to water or waterproof such that water does not pass therethrough. The rigid compartment has a body chamber therein having a volume to encompass at least an upper torso of a user of the personal life raft. The rigid compartment displaces sufficient water so that the personal life raft is buoyant while in use by the user.
US09944366B2

A drone equipped with a camera, a wireless communication module, an acoustic sensor, a GPS receiver, software and collapsible floatation device patrols above swimmers. The camera and acoustic sensor capture the video and audio of the swimmers. The information is either streamed to a command center or processed by the onboard software. With audio and video analysis capabilities, software is used to detect a swimmer in distress (SID). Alternatively the information is streamed to lifeguard or volunteers all over the world to spot SID. Another detection method is to let swimmer wear a wearable emergency notification device, which sends wireless signals comprising GPS location data. A SID presses a button to indicate rescue request and the drones fly over by GPS signal guidance. Solar power is used as the optional power source of the drones, which would allow the to sustain operation for a prolonged period of time. Once a SID is identified, the drone or drones fly over the SID and drops the collapsible floatation device.
US09944362B2

A surfboard bag includes a body having first and second sides, a closed end, and an open end. The body is formed from upper and lower exterior surfaces of a first material and upper and lower interior surfaces of a second, different material. The surfaces of the body are joined to one another along the first and second sides of the body and the closed end of the body so as to define an interior cavity. The open end of the body defines a mouth providing access to the interior cavity. One or more release tabs are disposed on the upper exterior surface of the body and/or the lower exterior surface of the body. The release tab(s) are spaced-apart from the first and second sides of the body and spaced-apart from the open and closed ends of the body. The release tab(s) are configured to facilitate breaking a seal created by board sticking between a surfboard disposed within the interior cavity and the upper exterior surface of the body and/or the lower exterior surface of the body.
US09944361B2

A motorized board similar to a surf board is presented for use on a water surface. The motorized board includes a base board having a front end and a back end, a foot pedal on the base board, wherein the foot pedal is rotatable on the base board, and a motor coupled to the base board and connected to a propeller at the back end, the motor being controlled by the foot pedal. A user can stand on the board and turn the motor on with his foot, as well as control the speed with his foot to ride on a water surface with or without waves.
US09944360B2

Disclosed herein is an apparatus with a remotely controlled hydraulically actuated platform, upon which a swimmer may stand in order to be raised out of the water or lower into the water. One version comprises a scissor mechanism assembly bolted underneath the swim deck of a boat, a hydraulic cylinder that extends the scissor mechanism, a retracting stand platform attached to the scissor mechanism that can slide inward and under the deck of the boat for storage, a hydraulic power unit, and a wireless remote control. The most preferred embodiment comprises a hydraulic cylinder that extends above the swim deck of a boat, an anchor assembly that is bolted underneath the swim deck of the boat, a stand platform with a handle, a hydraulic power unit, and a wireless remote control that operates the hydraulic unit and lifts a single swimmer into and out of the water.
US09944349B2

Embodiments of wheel spoking systems and methods of manufacturing and installing. An electrically motorized wheel can include a wheel rim, a wheel hub, and a plurality of wheel spokes connecting the wheel rim to the wheel hub wherein first and second ends of each of the plurality of wheel spokes are connected to the wheel rim and a curved portion of each of the plurality of wheel spokes interface with curved spoke pockets of the wheel hub.
US09944345B2

A bicycle control device is basically provided with a mounting part, a first actuating unit, a second actuating unit and a first operating member. The first actuating unit includes a first actuating member that is connected to a first component part and a first positioning mechanism that selectively maintains a position of the first actuating member with respect to the mounting member. The second actuating unit includes a second actuating member that is connected to a second component part and a second positioning mechanism that selectively maintains a position of the second actuating member with respect to the mounting member. The first operating member is operatively coupled to the first and second actuating units to operate the first actuating unit when the first operating member is moved in a first direction and to operate the second actuating unit when the first operating member is moved in a second direction.
US09944338B2

A collapsible electric scooter, including a base frame enclosing an electric power source, a front assembly rotatably secured to the base frame, where the front assembly includes at least one motorized wheel secured to a front riser with a handle bar, a seat assembly removably secured to the base frame; and a rear assembly rotatably secured to at least one axle of the base frame, where the rear assembly includes at least one rear wheel and at least one rear axle support.
US09944336B2

A part installation machine, when having entered a part installation work area, operates a separation/coupling device to bring a drive carriage section and a part mounting carriage section from a coupled state into a separated state. The part installation machine also operates an engagement device such that the part mounting carriage section is engaged with a transfer system and transported by the transfer system. In this state, the part installation machine controls a travelling speed of the drive carriage section such that a relative position detected by a relative position detection device is maintained within a predetermined range.
US09944335B2

A multi-airfoil element wing includes a central single-airfoil element and an outer dual-airfoil element positioned outboard of each side of the central single-airfoil element. The single-piece member defines aerodynamic surfaces of the central airfoil element and both of the outer dual-airfoil elements. The single-piece member includes a carbon fiber resin hollow body forming at least a portion of the central single-airfoil element and of both outer dual-airfoil elements.
US09944309B2

A steering column device has a downward U-shaped attachment bracket, an upward U-shaped lower jacket, a polygonal cylindrical mid jacket 3, a polygonal cylindrical upper jacket 4 inserted into the polygonal cylindrical mid jacket 3 and a shock energy absorbing mechanism 26 to absorb a shock energy at the time of a secondary collision. The shock energy absorbing mechanism 26 has a contracting guide part 27 to perform sliding and contracting operation of the upper jacket 4 to the mid jacket 3 separately from an energy absorbing part 28. The contracting guide part 27 is formed by interposing a plurality of linear guides 29 at an overlapping part between the mid jacket 3 and the upper jacket 4, linear guides 29 in which a plurality of bolls 29b arranged in the sliding direction of the mid jacket 3 and the upper jacket 4 are connected to each other through holders 29a.
US09944308B2

A steering column for a motor vehicle may include a guide box that accommodates a steering spindle, a bracket for holding the guide box in adjustable fashion on a chassis of the motor vehicle, and a thrust piece through which a clamping shaft extends to fix the guide box relative to the bracket. The thrust piece may be arranged on an outer side of a first side web of the bracket, and the thrust piece may include a dome that extends through a slot of the first side web and serves to generate a force-fitting connection to the guide box.
US09944303B2

A support device for releasable connection to an equipment carrier, and for supporting a medical appliance, a medical instrument or another payload, includes an engagement hook for engaging in an opening on an equipment carrier and a bolt for locking a connection between the engagement hook and an opening in which the engagement hook engages.
US09944301B2

A railcar deck channel pivoting side wall apparatus and methods of making and using the same are provided. Specifically, the railcar deck channel pivoting side wall apparatus comprises a pivoting side wall arranged within a railcar deck channel to allow for the easy installation and/or removal of chain assemblies on railcar decks for the transport of heavy items thereon.
US09944298B2

A driver can intuitively and conveniently perform an operation for instructing a traffic lane change to a vehicle. In a driving support device 10, an image output unit 14a outputs, to a display unit 31, an image containing an own vehicle object representing an own vehicle and a plurality of traffic lanes. An operation signal input unit 14b receives an operation of a user for moving the own vehicle object in the image displayed on the display unit 31 from a first traffic lane to a second traffic lane. A command output unit 14c outputs, to an automatic driving control unit 20 that controls automatic driving, a command for instructing the change of a traveling traffic lane of the own vehicle from the first traffic lane to the second traffic lane when the operation is received.
US09944297B2

A system (1) and method estimates the driving style of a vehicle. The system includes; a device for measuring the longitudinal acceleration (ax) and lateral acceleration (ay) of a vehicle along a measuring path; a memory module (7) in which pairs of the admissible limit values of the longitudinal and lateral accelerations are stored. Such values implement an admissible acceleration curve, closed in a longitudinal acceleration-lateral acceleration plane; an elaboration module (6) configured for: associating to each measured longitudinal acceleration-lateral acceleration pair of the vehicle a corresponding longitudinal acceleration-lateral acceleration pair on said admissible acceleration curve; and providing an indication of the driving style on the basis of the trend of position of the measured longitudinal acceleration-lateral acceleration pair with respect to the corresponding longitudinal acceleration-lateral acceleration pair on the admissible acceleration curve along the measuring path.
US09944289B2

A system and method for controlling a transmission gear shift during a braking event in a vehicle having an electric motor and friction brakes both operable to brake the vehicle includes the step of reducing friction braking to increase wheel torque during the braking event. The braking event includes both friction braking and regenerative braking. The reduction in friction braking to increase the wheel torque is based at least in part on a reduction in the wheel torque resulting from a change in gear ratio of a step-ratio transmission during the transmission gear shift.
US09944282B1

A computer-implemented method of enhancing safe vehicle operation may include, one or more processors, (1) determining a preferred parking spot for an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle; (2) determining a route to the preferred parking spot from a driver drop off point; and (3) causing the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle to travel from the driver drop off point to the preferred parking spot following the route controlled by one or more autonomous operation features. The preferred parking spot may be a covered parking spot, a parking spot in a parking structure, or a parking spot in a residential garage. An autonomous vehicle owner may remotely direct the autonomous vehicle to autonomously return to the driver drop off point, such as via their mobile device. Insurance discounts may be provided to autonomous vehicle owners having the self-parking functionality that mitigates or prevents risk of damage to, or theft of, the vehicle.
US09944278B2

A vehicle includes an engine, a first motor generator, a second motor generator, a transmission, a differential device, and an electronic control unit. The transmission includes an input shaft, an output shaft, and a clutch. The electronic control unit is configured to detect a rotation speed difference between the input shaft and the output shaft when the clutch is controlled so as to be brought into a power transmission shut-off state. The electronic control unit is configured to, when the rotation speed difference detected by the electronic control unit is smaller than a target rotation speed difference between the input shaft and the output shaft that occurs in a case where the power transmission shut-off state of the clutch is established, suppress cranking of the engine by the first motor generator.
US09944277B2

A method for learning an engine clutch kiss point of a hybrid vehicle includes: controlling, by a controller, an engine clutch which connects an engine with a motor or disconnects the engine from the motor so that the engine clutch is engaged after the controller checks stop of the engine and of the motor and stabilization operation for a hydraulic pressure line of the engine clutch is performed; controlling the motor to have a certain speed after the stabilization operation; controlling the engine clutch to be engaged after speed of the motor is stabilized; determining whether torque variation of the motor when the engine clutch is engaged is equal to or greater than a threshold value; and determining a hydraulic pressure at which the torque variation is the threshold value as the kiss point of the engine clutch.
US09944274B2

On simultaneous shifts in which shift control of virtual gear positions overlaps shift control of mechanical gear positions, an electronic control unit is configured to delay output of a shift command on the virtual gear position such that shifts of the virtual gear position and the mechanical gear position are performed in synchronization. Therefore, the virtual gear position and the mechanical gear position are shifted in synchronization, irrespective of a difference between the shift response times, and the feeling of strangeness given to the driver due to shift shock, or the like, is suppressed.
US09944269B2

A system and method for controlling a step-ratio transmission gearshift during a regenerative braking event for a hybrid vehicle having an engine selectively coupled to an electric machine and an automatic transmission control transmission input torque based on a measured shift profile and a target shift profile. A torque trim term may be added to the transmission input torque or electric machine output torque in response to a difference between the measured and target shift profiles. The torque trim term may be used to modify the transmission input torque to speed the shift up or shorten the shift time if the measured shift is progressing too slowly. Likewise, the torque trim term may be used to reduce the transmission input torque or electric machine output torque if the shift is progressing too quickly relative to the target shift profile.
US09944267B2

A method of isolating fault in an electric motor assisted braking system of a vehicle includes calculating a value for each of a plurality of fault signature components and comparing each of the calculated values of the plurality of fault signature components to a respective threshold value for each fault signature component. The method also includes automatically executing a control action to indicate a detected fault of the electric motor assisted braking system in response to at least one of the calculated values of the plurality of fault signature components exceeding a respective threshold value.
US09944264B2

The subject disclosure provides a balance valve and a vacuum booster. The balance valve includes a valve seat (11), a connecting cylinder (16) and a conic cylinder (17) orderly connected from left to right, wherein the valve seat (11) is annular, a sealing flange (12) is provided on an outer periphery of the conic cylinder (17), a protruded lip (13) for sealing is provided on an outer periphery of the valve seat (11), and the valve seat (11) is provided therein with a via hole (14) for communicating a left surface of the valve seat (11) with a right surface of the valve seat (11) outside the connecting cylinder (16). The vacuum booster having the balance valve can reduce a difference between the starting force and the restoring force, thereby increasing the restoring force while keeping the starting force of the same level.
US09944257B1

A washing system to clean a surface with enhanced efficiency and reduced water usage includes a housing member having a first cleaning fluid compartment and a second rinsing fluid compartment separated by a dividing wall, a pair of rollers rotatably mounted to the housing member, and a sponge assembly having a first sponge and a second sponge. The sponge assembly contacts the housing member to permit the first sponge to soak the cleaning fluid in the first compartment and the second sponge to soak the rinsing fluid in the second compartment simultaneously. The sponge assembly is maneuvered to simultaneously permit the first sponge to contact the first roller and dividing wall to remove excess cleaning fluid stored therein and the second sponge to contact the second roller and dividing wall to remove excess rinsing fluid stored therein.
US09944251B2

A vehicle comprises an engine compartment and a hood extending over the engine compartment. An engine is situated within the engine and a pin extends from a top side of the engine toward an interior surface of the hood. An engine cover extends between the top side of the engine and the interior surface of the hood. The engine cover includes an engine cover connection and a grommet coupled to the engine cover connection. The grommet has an entrance, a stop, and an internal cavity 143 extending through the grommet from the entrance toward the stop. The internal cavity 143 is divided into a passive cavity portion and an active cavity portion. The pin rests within the passive cavity portion without passing into the active cavity portion under normal operating conditions.
US09944249B2

A gas generator includes, inside a housing, an ignition device chamber accommodating a transfer charge and an igniter in which an igniter main body is surrounded by an igniter collar. The ignition device chamber is formed such that an inner circumferential wall surface on an opening side of an ignition device chamber cup, which is charged with the transfer charge, is press-fitted to and in close contact with an outer circumferential wall surface of the igniter collar of the igniter. The ratio (Vh2/Vh1) of an average Vickers hardness (Vh1) of the igniter collar, which is measured by a method described in Examples, and an average Vickers hardness (Vh2) of the ignition device chamber cup, which is measured by a method described in Examples, is within a range of 0.25 to 0.65.
US09944239B1

A grommet assembly to support a wiring harness passing through an opening in a panel, the assembly including two rotationally symmetrical components coupled together along a primary coupling face to form a harness-receiving passage therethrough. Each rotationally symmetrical component including a first, thermoplastic structural portion integrated with a second, resilient sealing portion. The structural portions including a plurality of interlocking elements cooperating to couple the components together, and a plurality of retention arms engageable against the panel to retain the assembly and panel together. The sealing portion forming an outer sealing lip having a lip distal edge engageable against a surface of the panel adjacent the opening. The outer sealing lip including lap joints adjacent opposite sides of the primary coupling face. The structural portions including reinforcement tabs extending over each lap joint and designed to resist separation of the lap joints.
US09944238B2

A wiring protection device in a vehicle comprises a support base and a support branch. The support base includes a fixed end and a free end opposite the fixed end and extending away from the fixed end, and a guide rail. The support branch is slidably connected to the support base and includes a first end, a second end and a main body. The first end is adjacent to the free end of the support base at a retracted position, and at least a portion of the main body extends outside the support base at a use position. The extended portion of the support branch and the support base at least partially encloses wiring disposed between a first part and a vehicle part at the use position.
US09944235B2

A stowable computer workstation (“SCW”) for a workplace within a vehicle is described, where the workplace has an inner sidewall of the vehicle. The SCW may include a video display mount assembly and a deployment support attached to the video display mount assembly. The deployment support is configured to deploy and stow the video display mount assembly against the inner sidewall and the deployment support is secured to the inner sidewall.
US09944230B2

A composite running board for use with an automotive vehicle. The running board includes a step portion formed by a top deck and an aerodynamic bottom cover. A mounting portion is formed integrally with the step portion and includes a vertical mounting plate and a horizontal mounting plate for attaching the running board to the vehicle. A plurality of support ribs are sandwiched between the top deck and the bottom cover and connected to the mounting portion to provide structural rigidity to the running board.
US09944229B2

An axle assembly having an axle housing and a bowl cover. The axle housing may have a center portion that may define a bowl opening and a differential carrier opening that may receive a differential. The bowl cover may be mounted to the axle housing and may cover the bowl opening.
US09944224B2

A luminescent planar sheet is constructed to provide illuminated alphanumeric characters particularly suitable for mounting upon the planar surfaces of a vehicle. Preferably the luminescent planar sheet can produce visible light, infrared light, or both. A switching system is connected to the luminescent planar panels for selectively controlling power to produce visible light and/or infrared light. The luminescent planar sheet includes a protective coating which permits the passage of both visible light and infrared light, but substantially blocks most or all ultraviolet light.
US09944221B2

A motor causes a shaft of an actuator to be displaced in an axis direction thereof, at least part of a circuit for driving the motor being mounted on a circuit board. A notch is formed in an end edge of the circuit board. A protrusion is formed inside a case. The protrusion is fitted into the notch, whereby the circuit board is independently supported inside the case.
US09944217B2

An equipment mounting system may include a quick mount track having a backing plate with a center slot, a first outer slot, and a second outer slot, the first outer slot and the second outer slot comprise a plurality of diamond contour target regions, and a plurality of locking pin apertures along the center slot in the backing plate, the locking pin apertures are in horizontal alignment with the plurality of diamond contoured target regions. The equipment mounting system also may include a mount removably coupled to the quick mount track wherein the plurality of diamond contour target regions allow for a round head of a t-shaped stud of the mount to engage the first outer slot and the second outer slot at an angle to the backing plate.
US09944216B2

A retractable cover system includes a frame that provides an opening and includes laterally spaced apart guide rails and includes a drive system. A flexible cover has laterally opposing edge portions with intermittent retainers received in the guide rails. The retainers are configured to slide relative to the guide rails between first and second positions within the opening in response to actuation of the drive system. Multiple spaced apart bows extend laterally between guide rails. The bows provide a laterally and outwardly extending arc that maintains tension on the flexible cover laterally between the retainers.
US09944211B2

A seed carrier includes a frame and a main hopper mounted to the frame. The seed carrier also includes a support arm extending upwardly in relation to the frame, the support arm having a first end and a second end. The seed conveyor also includes a conveyor coupled to the support arm, the conveyor having an intake end and a discharge end and being pivotable relative to the support arm between a self-loading position and an unloading position. The conveyor also includes a main conveyor having a lower end and an upper end and an intake conveyor pivotally connected to the lower end of the main conveyor. The conveyor also includes a lift-assist assembly coupled between the main conveyor and the intake conveyor, the lift-assist assembly applying a force with an upward component to the intake conveyor at a position spaced from the pivot, whereby the weight of the intake conveyor is counterbalanced so as to render the intake conveyor manually pivotable. The conveyor also includes a latch mechanism coupled to at least one of the intake conveyor and the main conveyor.
US09944208B2

A leg rest device of a power vehicle includes: a supporting unit; a first lifting unit pivotally provided at the supporting unit and pivotable with respect to the supporting unit; a second lifting unit mounted to the first lifting unit and movable in a telescoping manner; an actuation unit connected to the supporting unit and configured to drive the first lifting unit; and a linkage unit having a first connecting member, a second connecting member, and a third connecting member, wherein the first connecting member and the second connecting member are separately and pivotally connected to the supporting unit while the third connecting member is separately and pivotally connected to the first connecting member, the second connecting member, and the second lifting unit.
US09944206B2

Systems and methods for actively isolating a payload from a disturbance. In one example, a seat system for a vehicle includes a seat, a support structure that allows the seat to move about an axis of a pivot, a first sensor positioned to detect movement of the vehicle, a second sensor positioned to detect lateral acceleration of the pivot, an actuator configured to move the seat, and a controller configured to receive a first signal from the first sensor and a second signal from the second sensor, generate a command signal based at least on the first and the second signal to instruct the actuator to position the seat at a desired command angle, wherein the controller is configured to correct the command signal for lateral accelerations caused by steering the vehicle, and provide a force command to the actuator to move the seat at the desired command angle.
US09944205B2

A cushion for inserting in the legwell between individual seats in rows of seats, for example in a vehicle, is disclosed. The top of the cushion can act as a surface for a user to lie down. The cushion can be inflatable and can be deflated for easy transport. The cushion can have multiple reservoirs so the internal pressure can be separately adjusted for the base and for the mattress of the cushion, similar to a box spring and a mattress in a common bed.
US09944201B2

A quick adjust power adjuster for adjusting the position of an upper track relative to a lower track of a seat track assembly comprises an elongated guide rod extending axially between opposite first and second ends and fixedly secured to the lower track. A tubular lead screw is slidably coupled to the guide rod. A driven assembly is operatively coupled to the tubular lead screw for axial travel along the tubular lead screw in response to rotation of the driven assembly. A drive assembly is fixedly coupled to the upper track and operatively coupled to the driven assembly for selectively rotating the driven assembly in opposite first and second directions for axial travel along the tubular lead screw. A release mechanism is coupled to the lower track and operable between a locked condition coupled to the tubular lead screw to prevent sliding movement of the tubular lead screw along the guide rod wherein the driven assembly and the drive assembly move axially along the tubular lead screw to slide the upper track relative to the lower track in a power operation mode and an unlocked condition decoupled from the tubular lead screw to allow sliding movement of the tubular lead screw along the guide rod while the driven assembly and the drive assembly remain axially fixed to the tubular lead screw to slide the upper track relative to the lower track in a manual operation mode.
US09944200B2

An exemplary creep torque selection method includes selecting an amount of reverse creep torque for a vehicle. The selecting is independent from an amount of forward creep torque for the vehicle.
US09944199B2

An electric circuit used in a vehicle having an idling stop function of automatically stopping and automatically restarting an engine includes an electric generator, a first electricity storage capable of charging and discharging electric power generated by the electric generator, a second electricity storage connected in parallel to the first electricity storage, capable of charging and discharging the generated electric power, and having high durability against repetitive charge and discharge compared to the first electricity storage, an engine restarter, which is connected to the first electricity storage and the second electricity storage, configured to crank the engine at a time of the automatic restart, and a switch, which is connected between the engine restarter and the first electricity storage, configured to block a flow of current between the engine restarter and the first electricity storage. The switch includes at least a semiconductor switch.
US09944194B1

A system is described to enable charging of electric vehicles. A scheduler determines charging profiles for electric vehicles based on a time period within a day that is beneficial to an electric grid while still meeting the needs of drivers of the electric vehicles. A service provider charges the electric vehicles according to the charging profiles.
US09944185B2

Appropriate collision avoidance support control is enabled in a vehicle configured to carry out regeneration enhancement control. A predictive deceleration support control unit is configured to set a position at which the vehicle is predicted to finish deceleration as a target deceleration end position, and guide a driver to release an accelerator pedal so that the deceleration of the vehicle is finished at the target deceleration end position, to thereby carry out regeneration enhancement control under a state in which the accelerator pedal is released so as to generate a larger deceleration than in a normal state. The predictive deceleration support control unit is configured to read a collision avoidance support control flag from a collision avoidance support ECU, and stop the regeneration enhancement control when the collision avoidance support control is being carried out.
US09944175B2

A fuel tank system has a fuel tank and a storage element. In monitoring the fuel tank system, to check the sealing action of the fuel tank system at regular intervals during driving of the motor vehicle, a first valve is arranged in the first line upstream of the storage element as viewed in the direction of the fresh-air flow, an air pump is arranged between the first valve and the storage element, and a second valve is arranged in the second line between the storage element and the intake line. A mass flow sensor is arranged in the first line between the first valve and the storage element.
US09944171B2

A fuel inlet assembly for an automotive vehicle having an elongated tubular and cylindrical housing open at each end and defining a port in between the ends of the housing. A flapper valve is associated with the fluid port and is movable between an open and a closed position. At least two latches are pivotally mounted to the housing adjacent the fluid port and movable between a latch position and a release position. The latches engage the flapper valve to prevent the flapper valve from moving to its open position. A flexible bump is attached to each latch so that the bump pivots with its associated latch and each bump protrudes radially inwardly from its associated latch. Each bump has a cam surface which, when engaged by a fuel nozzle, pivots the bump and its associated latch to the release position. However, the latch is collapsible in a radially outward direction towards its associated latch when that latch is in its release position thus enabling a fuel nozzle to pass past the collapsed bumps and engage the flapper valve. As such, only a fuel nozzle with a predetermined size range will engage the bumps and pivot the latches to an open position and also allow the fuel nozzle to pass the bumps and extend through the fluid port.
US09944166B2

A hybrid electric vehicle axle includes two separate pinion gears meshing with a single beveled ring gear. One pinion gear conveys power from the internal combustion powertrain while the other pinion conveys power from an electric motor. Power from the electric motor is conditioned by a two-speed gearbox between the electric motor and the second pinion gear. The gearbox may utilize layshaft gearing or planetary gearing such as a Ravgneaux gear set.
US09944159B2

A holding structure of a glass run for an automobile is capable of holding the glass run with a lower channel with excellent insertion workability to hold a door glass securely. In the holding structure of the glass run with the lower channel, the glass run has a first side wall, a second side wall, a third side wall and a fourth side wall, and has a generally rectangular cross section. One part of the side walls is composed of a material with rigidity higher than those of remaining parts of the side walls. A glass slider is attached to an end edge of the door glass below the belt line, and a tip end part of the glass slider, which is continuous with a main part of the glass slider via an opening part of the glass run, is held with the glass run.
US09944158B2

A below belt bracket assembly includes a weatherstrip or glassrun having first and second sidewalls interconnected along a base member that form a cavity configured to receive an associated window edge. A support member has a cavity configured to at least partially receive the weatherstrip. A first end of the support member includes first and second retention members that each operatively engage an end region of the weatherstrip. A recess/opening formed between the first and second retention members is dimensioned to receive the end region of the base member such that the end region of the weatherstrip base member ramps downwardly from the support member base wall through the recess/opening.
US09944150B2

A heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system for an electrically-powered vehicle (EV) having an electric motor powered by at least one battery is described. The HVAC system may comprise a blower, a conduit configured to carry air from the blower to vents leading to a passenger cabin of the EV, and an electric heater positioned in the conduit and configured to heat the air. The HVAC system may further comprise a thermal reservoir heater positioned in the conduit and including a thermal storage component configured to heat the air without using power from the battery.
US09944144B2

A vibration attenuation system for attenuating a transmission of an input signal is disclosed. The system includes a helical spring, a first terminal, and a first damping element. The helical spring includes a plurality of helical coils, a first end, and a second end. The plurality of helical coils define an inner volume of the helical spring intermediate the first and second ends. The first terminal includes a first inner member. The first terminal is coupled to the first end of the helical spring. The first inner member extends into the inner volume of the helical spring. The first damping element is positioned on the first inner member. The first damping element is within the inner volume of the helical spring. When the input signal is provided to the helical spring, the first damping element engages the helical coils and attenuates the transmission the input signal.
US09944143B2

A spring pad arranged between a terminal winding of a helical spring of a vehicle wheel suspension. The winding defines a rolled spring end. A spring plate supports the helical spring. The spring pad having a layered structure having two layers different in their rigidity. The first layer has a higher rigidity than the second layer. The first layer is an outer layer of the layered structure that may engage the terminal winding of the helical spring.
US09944140B2

A mining machine frame having a primary tow plate is disclosed, as well as a tow retrieval system for mounting to the primary tow plate of a mining machine frame. The tow retrieval system may include a brake release mounting plate configured for attachment to the primary tow plate of the mining machine frame. The tow retrieval system may also include a towing attachment also configured for attachment to the primary tow plate of the mining machine frame. The towing attachment may be further configured to receive a retrieval instrument during a towing operation.
US09944139B2

A latch arrangement for a tow bar is disclosed, the tow bar being attached to a vehicle via a hinge, and pivotable about an axis from a towing position to a stowed position, the latch mechanism comprises a primary latch for holding the tow bar in the stowed position and a secondary latch for holding the primary latch in the latched position. A tow bar arrangement for use with the latch arrangement and a mobile power unit to which the tow bar arrangement may be connected, are disclosed. Safety interlock arrangements for creating an interlock between the function of the latch arrangement and the function of the mobile power unit are described.
US09944124B1

Disclosed herein a system and device for providing traction for car wheels in situations in which a vehicle may be stuck or immobilized. The device or system, or Flexible Traction Track, is designed to assist a motor vehicle operator to successfully recover from being stranded off paved road surfaces such as sand, dirt, mud, gravel, ice or snow. The basic elements and features of the preferred embodiment include two tracks providing traction, connected by cables to enable proper place around or under the tire. During use, section one (1) is positioned against the front (leading) edge of a (spinning) tire mounted on any of the powered wheel (axel), between the tire and the ground cover or surface. Once section one (1) and three (3) have been bridged by section two (2) around a tire, the operator may then successfully drive over the terrain.
US09944123B2

An axle housing assembly for a vehicle is provided. The axle housing assembly for a vehicle includes a first axle housing, a second axle housing spaced apart from the first axle housing in a front-rear direction, an upper connector and a lower connector. The upper connector defines a front end connected to the first axle housing and a rear end connected to the second axle housing, and the lower connector is disposed below the upper connector and defines a front end connected the first axle housing and a rear end connected to the second axle housing. A vehicle including the axle housing assembly is also provided.
US09944116B1

A wheel trim system for attachment to a wheel of a vehicle. The wheel typically has a wheel flange and a plurality of studs with each stud shaped to engage at least one lug nut. The wheel trim system preferably comprises a wheel trim member and a fastener shaped to attach to the stud for releaseably attaching the wheel trim member to the wheel. The wheel trim member includes a trim flange, an exterior surface, an interior surface, and an embossment spaced from the trim flange. The embossment surrounds a hole shaped to receive one of the studs. The embossment is of a larger size than the lug nut and is positioned to space the wheel trim member from the lug nut when the lug nut is positioned on the stud.
US09944115B2

A rim for a mountain bike is provided, including a rim body having a rim well, a rim base and two lateral rim flanks and a hollow space device with a hollow space. A width of the rim body is larger than 30 mm. The hollow space device of the rim body is radially outwardly limited by the rim well and laterally and radially inwardly, by an inner enclosing wall including the rim base and the rim flanks. The radially inwardly enclosing wall forms an internal wall that is substantially closed, apart from the nipple accommodations. The rim well includes a plurality of recesses having a surface proportion of at least 10% of a surface of the rim well.
US09944113B2

A paint brush storage and protection device includes a base having an upstanding wall, the upstanding wall being continuous from a first side of an open stem area to a second side of the open stem area, the first side and second side of the open stem area being generally parallel to one another along a longitudinal length of said device. The device also includes a top adapted to close against said upstanding wall and at least one latching mechanism. The at least one latching mechanism can be two latching mechanisms associated with either side of the open stem area.
US09944103B2

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head in which a plurality of nozzles for discharging liquid droplets; and a pattern forming unit configured to form a test pattern used for positional deviation adjustment including a first pattern serving as a reference pattern and a second pattern serving as an adjustment pattern. The first pattern and the second pattern each are a linear pattern that is parallel to a nozzle arrangement direction and has a disconnected portion. The disconnected portion of the first pattern and the disconnected portion of the second pattern are shifted from each other in the nozzle arrangement direction.
US09944091B2

A printer control section arranged to control a printhead, is operable to cause the printhead to: perform a plurality of passes over a swath of a print medium, the plurality of passes including first and second treatment passes; apply treatment to the print medium in each of the treatment passes, the treatment in each treatment pass being applied according to a respective treatment mask, wherein each treatment mask indicates a corresponding set of pixels to which the treatment may be applied in a pass to which the treatment mask is applied, the treatment mask having a weight indicative of the proportion of pixels in the corresponding set of pixels, and the treatment masks of the first and second passes are such that a weight of the first treatment mask is different from a weight of the second treatment mask.
US09944088B2

A static eliminator of the present disclosure includes a light source and a rod-shaped light guide member. The light guide member includes one end surface which light from the light source enters, and emits the light which has entered the one end surface toward an image carrying member. The light guide member includes a reflection portion which reflects light and a light emission surface which emits the light toward the image carrying member. In the one end surface, a concave portion is formed that includes a concave curved surface which is formed in the shape of an arc in a first direction along a direction of light emission extending from the reflection portion toward the image carrying member.
US09944080B2

In one example, a fluid flow structure includes a micro device embedded in a molding having a channel therein through which fluid may flow directly into the device and/or onto the device.
US09944079B2

In one example, a print bar structure includes a beam having two flanges connected by a web and a planar surface along a longitudinal edge of each flange, a printhead mounting structure attached to the beam along the planar surfaces to mount a printhead, and a fluid flow structure positioned between the flanges to carry printing fluid to the printhead mounting structure.
US09944060B2

A method of using an adhesive sheet material application squeegee and method of applying an adhesive sheet material are disclosed. The method includes securing a portion of adhesive sheet material to a surface and applying the adhesive sheet material to the surface with the adhesive sheet material application squeegee.
US09944058B2

A method of making an airdam to be placed along the edge of a composite work piece during a curing process is disclosed. The method comprises forming a strip of peel ply, forming a strip of tacky putty, and automatically affixing the strip of tacky putty to the strip of peel ply without human assistance to form a laminate comprising at least one layer of peel ply and at least one layer of tacky putty.
US09944047B2

An enhanced, co-formed fibrous web structure is disclosed. The web structure may have a co-formed core layer sandwiched between two scrim layers. The core layer may be formed of a blend of cellulose pulp fibers and melt spun filaments. The scrim layers may be formed of melt spun filaments. Filaments of one or both of the scrim layers, and optionally the core layer, may also be meltblown filaments. The fibrous web structure may have a Consumer Preference Indication (governing allocation of melt spun filaments between core layer and scrim layers) greater than 0. Alternatively, the filaments forming the scrim layers may constitute from 1 to 13 percent of the weight of the structure. Alternatively, the scrim layers may have a combined basis weight of from 0.1 gsm to less than 3.0 gsm. A method for forming the structure, including direct formation of layers, is also disclosed.
US09944042B2

A waterproof breathable material has a higher strength-to-weight ratio and higher tear resistance-to-weight ratio than traditional materials, and may be applied in a wide field of potential uses. A non-woven composite material comprises at least one waterproof breathable (W/B) membrane, a first unidirectional non-woven composite layer having multiple fibers enclosed by adhesive in parallel to each other, a second unidirectional non-woven composite layer having multiple fibers enclosed in adhesive in parallel to each other. The first unidirectional non-woven composite layer is positioned such that the fibers are oriented 90° relative to the fibers of the second unidirectional non-woven composite layer, and a space is formed between the first and second multiple fibers. No adhesive is present in the space.
US09944041B1

A composite ballistic shielding material is formed utilizing ribbons of randomly-oriented film, laid up or woven in bias plies. The sheet plies are made narrow strips of PVC films are held side-by-side and rigidly framed as a square, into a thin layer, and then trimmed. The strips may be approximately 0.010″ wide. The formed up layer is then immersed in a low-hardness thermosetting liquid glue and laid down as a first ply. Subsequent plies are made by repeating the same process, and adding the step of rotating the frame to a pre-determined angle before laying down the ply onto the previous ply. When a pre-determined number of layers or a desired thickness is achieved, the lay-up is transferred to a press for curing into panels. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
US09944024B2

A production system for a wind turbine component is described. The system includes an elongate mold assembly extending in a longitudinal direction, the mold assembly comprising a mold surface and having a width that varies in the longitudinal direction. First and second tracks are defined respectively on opposite longitudinal sides of the mold surface. The perpendicular distance between the respective tracks varies along the length of the track. A transport assembly is moveable relative the mold assembly in the longitudinal direction. The transport assembly includes a pair of side supports arranged to move along the respective tracks, and a gantry supported above the mold assembly by the side supports. The gantry extends transverse to the longitudinal direction. The transport assembly is configured such that the side supports move relative to one another in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction in accordance with the varying distance between the tracks as the transport assembly moves in the longitudinal direction.
US09944017B2

A mat unit is formed from at least two layers ultrasonically welded together. Each layer is individually formed from non-vinyl nontoxic thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) material. In ultrasonically joining the two layers together, there is no need to use additional materials, such as adhesive (i.e., chemical attachment) or stitched thread (i.e., mechanical attachment) to form the joint/weld point. Once formed from the two layers, the mat unit has four quadrants and a plurality of longitudinal ribs integrally formed in the first layer positioned in the first and third quadrants, and a plurality of transverse ribs integrally formed in the first layer positioned in the second and fourth quadrants. Additionally, there are a plurality of longitudinal ribs integrally formed in the second layer positioned in the second and fourth quadrants, and a plurality of transverse ribs integrally formed in the second layer positioned in the first and third quadrants.
US09944016B2

An additive manufacturing resin system including an additive manufacturing print head; a continuous carbon fiber or short carbon fibers operatively connected to the additive manufacturing print head; and a tailored resin operatively connected to the print head, wherein the tailored resin has a resin mass and wherein the tailored resin includes an epoxy component, a filler component, a catalyst component, and a chain extender component; wherein the epoxy component is 70-95% of the resin mass, wherein the filler component is 1-20% of the resin mass, wherein the catalyst component is 0.1-10% of the resin mass, and wherein the chain extender component is 0-50% of the resin mass.
US09944008B2

The invention relates to a process for extruding plastic compositions, in particular polymer melts and mixtures of polymer melts, above all thermoplastics and elastomers, particularly preferably polycarbonate and polycarbonate blends, also with the incorporation of other substances such as for example solids, liquids, gases or other polymers or other polymer blends with improved optical characteristics, with the assistance of a multi-screw extruder with specific screw geometries.
US09944006B2

An apparatus and method for adjusting the axial position of a valve pin in an injection molding system, the apparatus comprising: an actuator comprising a housing having a chamber enclosing a drive member for driving a valve pin along an axial path of travel, the actuator housing slidably mounted and adapted for controlled upstream and downstream movement of the drive member along a path complementary to the axial path of travel of the valve pin, a mounting plate and an axial position adjustment screw screwably mounted within the mounting plate upstream of the housing of the actuator for controllably moving the valve pin to selectable starting or ending injection cycle axial positions.
US09943998B2

The disclosure includes a cap having a first portion made of a plastic material and forming a bottom for covering a container neck and a protective side wall for surrounding the container neck, and a second portion made of a flexible material that is compatible with the plastic material of the first portion and separate from the plastic material of the first portion, the second portion being annular and consisting of a flexible seal, which projects from the bottom toward the interior of the side wall and which is welded to the first portion. Thus, the manufacture of the stopper by molding includes injecting a flexible material to produce the flexible annular seal and then the movable portions of the mold are placed such that the flexible material is in a groove that is set back from the planar surface of the mold.
US09943997B2

A formulation for a recycled plastic composite composition, and a method of making the composite composition, is provided. The composite composition includes recycled EVA plastic from 30% to 80%, a stone powder from 20% to 70%; percentages by weight.
US09943995B1

One method for creating barrier products (for example, condoms and gloves) includes: (a) dipping a former into a tank of elastic compound. The former has an indentation extending inwardly from an outer surface for creating a first protrusion on a first face of the barrier product. The method further includes: (b) removing the former from the tank of elastic compound, whereby some of the elastic compound removably adheres to the former and fills the indentation; (c) applying supplemental material to the elastic compound, whereby creating a second protrusion on a second face of the barrier product; and (d) fully drying the supplemental material. One barrier product includes an elastic wall having opposed faces, and first and second protrusions respectively extend from the opposed faces. The first and second protrusions are in cross-sectional alignment whereby rotational input forces on the first protrusion create rotational output forces on the second protrusion.
US09943992B2

An apparatus may comprise a tool capable of holding a part during curing of the part, and a passive temperature control system. The passive temperature control system may have a phase change material selected as having a phase change temperature that may be capable of controlling heat generated by the part during curing of the part held by the tool.
US09943982B2

A concrete mixing transport truck chute washout system with a container unit with an upper region located above and fluidly communicating with a lower region, the upper region having a container unit sealing and seating feature, the upper region having a container unit open mouth, and a rack unit that receives the container portion and which can have a stationary portion and a movable portion.
US09943981B2

The invention relates to a method for producing three-dimensional molded parts in two method steps and infiltrating the molded part, as well as a material system.
US09943979B2

According to some embodiments, a method includes depositing alternating layers of a ceramic powder and a pre-ceramic polymer dissolved in a solvent. Each layer of the pre-ceramic polymer is deposited in a shape corresponding to a cross section of an object. The alternating layers of the ceramic powder and the pre-ceramic polymer are deposited until the layers of the pre-ceramic polymer form the shape of the object. The method includes heating the deposited ceramic powder and pre-ceramic polymer to at least a decomposition temperature of the pre-ceramic polymer. The decomposition temperature of the pre-ceramic polymer is less than a sintering temperature of the ceramic powder. The method further includes removing excess ceramic powder that the pre-ceramic polymer was not deposited onto.
US09943971B2

A cutting tool is described. The cutting tool can provide increased safety in residential, commercial, and/or medical applications. The cutting tool includes a container that can catch and/or hold material that is cut by use of the tool. This can prevent the cut material from flying indiscriminately away from the cutting tool at high velocity and can also prevent the cut material from falling to the floor/ground after cutting. The cutting tool can be sterilized for medical use, such as fish hook or jewelry removal.
US09943968B2

The invention relates to a method or a system for the dependable stopping of axes of an industrial robot. The industrial robot comprises a control device (501, 502), power electronics (201, 202, 203) and a DC source (300), as well as at least one axis (700), which is assigned to an electric motor (100) and to a mechanical brake (600). In order to stop the axis a direct current is supplied by the DC source in at least one motor phase of the motor, which generates a braking torque.
US09943957B2

The method for controlling a medical manipulator is a method for controlling a medical manipulator which drives a driven part by rotating a motor in accordance with an operation input from an operation part. The method includes: a first step of performing a trial driving when the operation input occurs, and evaluating changes in winding resistance based on a temperature rise of the motor, and setting a driving condition of the motor based on the evaluated changes winding resistance; and a second step of performing driving which corresponds to the operation input based on the driving condition of the motor set in the first step.
US09943956B1

A canvas tool caddy designed to removably fit over the handle of a rolling tool chest with telescopic handle. The canvas tool caddy is meant to supplement the tool storage of the rolling tool chest. The canvas caddy is removable from the rolling tool chest telescopic handle. The tool caddy optionally has one or more flexible, bendable spines, to bend the flat tool supporting base wall surface substrate into an open planar flat display configuration which retains its shape while supported on the handle of the rolling tool chest. The rolling tool chest's telescopic handles provide upward load forces counteracting downward load forces of the handle, and the equilibrium is spread equally along an internal horizontal spine, to keep the tool caddy open when opened from a close transport state to an open viewable, tool accessible state.
US09943948B2

A fortified plastic disposable driver having a plastic generally conical nose with a top and bottom, the bottom formed as part of or affixed to the flat top of a body and the top of the nose having a square channel guide with corners, is disclosed. The channel accepts a tool or shaft. At 90 degree orientation from each other are four pairs of force buttressing ribs wherein they have a bottom affixed at said flat top, and each has a support edge affixed to an annular outer wall of the nose. The four pairs of ribs, each pair being positioned along one of the four sides of the square channel. In some instances, each rib further comprises an interior edge and an outer edge, and each outer edge is aligned with a corner. A body and/or handle are used therewith to impart torque for use.
US09943946B2

A tool bit assembly includes a tool bit having a shaft with a first working region disposed at a first end of the shaft and a first reduced diameter portion proximate the working region and disposed between a first shoulder and a second shoulder. A floating sleeve has a rear portion with a pair of opposed window openings, a front portion supporting a magnet, and a pair of balls, with each ball disposed in one of the window openings. The floating sleeve is receivable over the tool bit with the magnet proximate the first working regions and the balls received in the first reduced diameter portion to allow the floating sleeve to move between a first position in which the balls abut the first shoulder and a second position in which the balls abut the second shoulder.
US09943945B2

A water pipe wrench structure consisting of a first wrench body and a second wrench body pin jointed by a control component. The first wrench body includes an actuating piece. A tooth space is positioned on this actuating piece. This actuating piece and a tooth piece extend with a uniform curvature. The second wrench body includes a perforation to pass the control component through this perforation and the tooth space. This control component includes a column piece and a grinding tooth piece, and the grinding tooth piece can be moved by pressure, so that the grinding tooth piece can be engaged to or separated from the tooth space and thus end the movement of the control component.
US09943937B2

A system and method are provided to automate the assembly of a wing panel, such as utilized by commercial aircraft. In the context of a system, a tacking cell is provided that is configured to tack one or more stringers to a skin plank. The system also includes a riveting cell configured to receive a tacked plank from the tacking cell and to rivet the one or more stringers to the skin plank. The system also includes a splicing cell configured to receive a plurality of riveted planks from the riveting cell and to attach one or more splice stringers to the plurality of riveted planks. Further, the system includes a side of body cell configured to receive a spliced panel from the splicing cell and to attach a side of body chord thereto to produce a wing panel.
US09943917B2

An object is to provide a gear edge cut-off tool and a gear edge cut-off device capable of suppressing variation in the amount to cut off side edges of a gear. A gear edge cut-off tool of the present invention has a shape, in a first main plane (rake face) of a first cutting blade portion capable of cutting off a side edge of a gear wheel, that is curved or bent in a concave shape in an edge line direction.
US09943914B2

The invention is directed to a drill system that better uses the power curve of modern machine tools. The drill system uses IC inserts to perform the major hole diameter cutting, and a central drilling system that cuts the remaining minor diameter portion of the hole, and is configured to see less cutting surface footage, due to its position from the rotating center of the tool. A connection between the drill head and a holder body secures the drill head in a manner to effectively absorb lateral drilling forces. The drill system allows for a large diameter deep hole that remains straight throughout to be drilled at higher speed and lighter feed rates thus offering a more productive tool that takes advantage of the power curves and lower thrust capabilities of modern machine tools.
US09943907B2

An apparatus and method for the generative production of a component includes a movably dispensing structure for the disposal of a starting material layer; a bonding device, such as a laser, for the local bonding of this starting material layer to a cross section of the component being produced; a platform for supporting the component being produced, which can be displaced counter to a direction of layer buildup in a motor-driven manner; a position sensing device for sensing a position or change in position, such as vibration, of the platform in the direction of layer buildup with the capability of sensing interference as to whether the movement of the dispensing structure is not free of interference on the basis of the sensed position or change in position.
US09943905B2

An example system for fabricating an infiltrated downhole tool includes a mold assembly having one or more component parts and defining an infiltration chamber to receive and contain matrix reinforcement materials and a binder material used to form the infiltrated downhole tool. One or more thermal conduits are positioned within the one or more component parts for circulating a thermal fluid through at least one of the one or more component parts and thereby placing the thermal fluid in thermal communication with the infiltration chamber.
US09943901B2

A stamping die is provided. The stamping die includes a die block, a punch, and a trap wall. The punch is configured to engage the die block in order to form a part from a sheet metal blank. The trap wall is secured to the punch and configured to restrict the flow of sheet metal into the die block during punch and die block engagement. The trap wall is adjustable with respect to the punch such that a trap wall adjustment alters the flow of sheet metal into the die block.
US09943889B2

A hole cleaning apparatus includes a member, a brush, and a vacuum source. The brush rotates around a longitudinal axis of the member, or translates in a direction which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the member. The vacuum source provides vacuum suction within the member.
US09943888B2

A method for removing solidified ink or varnish from a surface includes applying a cleaning agent to the ink on the surface. The cleaning agent applied to the ink on the surface is substantially solvent-free and water-based and reduces adhesion between the ink and the surface without dissolving the ink. An adhesive side or face of a single-sided or single face adhesive element is applied to the surface. As the adhesive element is removed from the surface, the ink that has been treated with the cleaning agent but is undissolved adheres to the adhesive element and is thus removed from the surface together with the adhesive element without splitting.
US09943882B2

A component sorting mechanism is disclosed. The component sorting mechanism includes a vibrating plate, a feeding tray having a plurality of grooves in an inner bottom surface thereof, the feeding tray mounted on the vibrating plate, and a first driving device connected to the feeding tray. The first driving device drives the feeding tray to swing within a predetermined angle range.
US09943879B2

A method for shaping a coating on a razor blade, and a razor blade produced using the aforesaid method, are provided. The method includes the steps of a) providing a razor blade having a tip end defined by at least one tip surface and a cutting edge; b) applying a surface coating having a first thickness on at least one tip surface; and c) shaping the surface coating on the at least one tip surface to have a second thickness using a fluid stream, which second thickness is less than the first thickness.
US09943860B2

An apparatus and method for collecting mineral particles in the tailings is disclosed. The apparatus may take the form of a filter, a conveyor belt, a collection plate or an impeller configured to contact with tailings of a flotation process, before and/or after the tailings are discharged into a pond. The filter, conveyor belt, collection plate or impeller has a collection area or surface made of, or coated with, a synthetic material having a functional group, e.g., having an ionizing bond to attract the mineral particles of interest. Alternatively, the synthetic material has hydrophobic molecules to render the collection area hydrophobic. When the mineral particles of interest in the tailings are combined with collector molecules, the mineral particles of interest may also become hydrophobic. The hydrophobic mineral particles of interest are attracted to the hydrophobic collection area or surface. The filter, conveyor belt, collection plate and impeller may have a plurality of passage ways or synthetic beads in order to increase the contacting surfaces.
US09943844B2

This applicator comprises a base (22) and a product applicator tongue (25) that projects from the base (22) along an axis (A-A′), said tongue (25) defining a central cavity (30). It comprises a massage element (32) disposed in the central cavity (30), with the massage (32) element and the tongue (25) defining therebetween in the cavity (30) an intermediary product retaining space (33). The massage element (32) and the tongue (25) can move in relation to one another transversally in relation to the axis (A-A′).
US09943833B2

Mixed chloride-bromide bismuth oxyhalide compounds, with the molar ratio chloride:bromide being equal to or greater than 1:1, in the form of microspheres exhibiting flower-like surface morphology, are disclosed. Processes for preparing the compounds, formulations of the compounds and a method for purifying water using said compounds are also disclosed.
US09943828B2

The invention relates to a process for regeneration of an adsorber (A) by contact with a stream (S1), wherein the stream (S1) is heated in advance by at least two heat exchange units (HEU1) and (HEU2). As outflow of the adsorber (A) a stream (S2) is obtained, which is passed through at least two heat exchange units (HEU1) and (HEU2) traversed by stream (S1), wherein the temperature of stream (S2) fed into each heat exchange unit is higher than the temperature of stream (S1) fed into the heat exchange units (HEU1) and (HEU2), in order to directly transfer heat from stream (S2) to stream (S1).
US09943826B2

Silica particles, and methods of making and using silica particles are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the silica particles are hollow, include an outer shell portion having a mesoporous structure, and have a pore volume of at least 4 cm3/g. In some embodiments, the silica particles include an outer shell portion having a mesoporous structure forming a cavity, the silica particles have an average pore diameter of 3 to 100 nm, and at least a portion of the silica particles include one or more core nanoparticles within the cavity. Silica particles as disclosed herein can be useful in a wide variety of applications such as selective separations (e.g., gas separations or purifications) based on structure.
US09943824B2

The present invention relates to a polymerization device for the production of melts of thermoplastic polymers in which the heat of the discharged product can be recovered and used for preheating of the usable raw materials. In addition, the present invention relates to a corresponding method for the production of thermoplastic polymers.
US09943823B2

An instrument and method for high pressure microwave assisted chemistry are disclosed. The method includes the steps of applying microwave radiation to a sample in a sealed vessel while measuring the temperature of the sample and measuring the pressure generated inside the vessel and until the measured pressure reaches a designated set point, opening the vessel to release gases until the pressure inside the vessel reaches a lower designated set point, closing the vessel, and repeating the steps of opening the vessel at designated pressure set points and closing the vessel at designated pressure set points to the sample until the sample reaction reaches a designated high temperature. The designated set points can controllably differ from one another as the reaction proceeds. Microwave energy can be applied continuously or intermittently during the opening and closing steps. The apparatus includes a microwave cavity, a microwave transparent pressure resistant reaction vessel in the cavity, a cap on the reaction vessel, a pressure sensor for measuring pressure in the vessel, a temperature sensor, and means for opening and closing the cap at predetermined pressure set points measured by the pressure sensor to release pressure from the vessel.
US09943819B2

a reactor for conducting laboratory reactions comprises includes reaction vessel, a catalyst holder in the reaction vessel, and a drive system configured to drive reciprocating linear movement of the catalyst basket. The catalyst holder can be configured to hold a plurality of catalyst particles so the catalyst particles remain spaced apart from one another. A reactor for conducting laboratory reactions can also include a reaction vessel, an impeller in the reaction vessel, and a drive system configured to drive reciprocating linear movement of the impeller.
US09943813B2

A dynamic mixer, useful for mixing components of viscous compounds, in particular for components of dental impression compounds, and use thereof, the mixer having a mixing tube that contains a drivable rotor and that has on one end an end wall having at least two inlet openings for components, and at the other end an outlet opening for the mixture thereof. The rotor has a rotor disk having at least one entraining element that faces the end wall, and at least one rotor disk opening for the components to pass through to the side of the rotor disk that is remote from the end wall. At least one mixing element is arranged on the rotor hub between the rotor disk and the outlet opening. At least one projecting pin is arranged on the end wall toward the rotor disk, and the at least one entraining element has at least one recess for the at least one pin.
US09943790B2

The present invention relates to a filtering assembly for filtering at least one fluid flowing in particular in a hydraulic motor or device, comprising: —a filter body which comprises a vessel and a cover which are configured to engage with one another in order to enable the filter body to close, —a tube, in particular a central tube, inside the filter body extending along a longitudinal axis (X), —a removable filter cartridge which is housed in the filter body and includes an upper end plate, a lower end plate and a filter medium which extends between the upper end plate and the lower end plate, the filter cartridge having a tubular opening for surrounding the tube, characterized in that the cover has a circular rib which is formed such as to project into an inner space of the filter body, and in that the upper end plate has a circular edge which is designed to sealingly engage radially and inwardly with said circular rib of the cover.
US09943785B2

Disclosed is a water purifier including a first storage cistern in which an inlet for flowing in water is formed, a second storage cistern for storing the purified water and having a nozzle at the outside thereof, and a filter constituted by a ceramic filter, a cartridge filter, and a mineral filter and installed to the inside of the first storage cistern and the second storage cistern to filter the water flown in the first storage cistern and make the purified water flow in the second storage cistern, the water purifier comprises a ceramic filter formed as a mixture by mixing the conventional used silicon dioxide with its particle size of 1˜100 micrometer with additionally one or two or more selected among silicon dioxide, tungsten, alumina (Al2O3), silver, zinc (Zn), white gold (PT), gold (Au), and titanium dioxide (TiO2) with nano particle size.
US09943781B2

A parallel assembly (2; 11; 51) of chromatography column modules (3a,b,c; 13a,b,c; 53a,b,c, 90a, b) connected in a rigid housing (21; 61), the assembly having one common assembly inlet (15; 55) and one common assembly outlet (17; 57), each column module comprising a bed space (29) filled with chromatography medium and each column module comprises integrated fluid conduits which when the column module is connected with other column modules in the rigid housing are adapted to connect the bed space (29) of the column module with the assembly inlet (15; 55) and the assembly outlet (17; 57), wherein the total length and/or volume of the fluid conduit from the assembly inlet to one bed space together with the length and/or volume of the fluid conduit from the same bed space to the assembly outlet is substantially the same for all bed spaces and modules installed in the parallel assembly.
US09943778B1

A condensate treatment system includes a housing attached to an A/C condensate drain line having a biocide received within an interior chamber. A load cell continuously measures the weight of biocide in the interior chamber in order to calculate a remaining amount. A control unit is in communication with the load cell and various sensors for monitoring operational variables associated with the condensate system. The control unit has Wi-Fi capability to allow the sensor readings and the remaining amount of biocide to be accessed wirelessly from a supervisor's remote computer or smart phone. If the control unit detects rising condensate levels in the drip pan or the housing, it disables the air conditioner to prevent an overflow.
US09943772B2

One example embodiment includes a mobile action sports ramp. The mobile action sports ramp includes an incline portion connected to a vehicle portion by a hinge. The incline portion includes a lower incline portion connected to an upper incline portion by a hinge. The lower incline portion folds onto the upper incline portion and the incline portion then rests upon the vehicle portion when the mobile action sports ramp is collapsed and capable of transportation. The lower incline portion unfolds into alignment with the upper incline portion and the incline portion then raises up when the mobile action sports ramp is erected and capable of use in various action sports. Methods for erecting and collapsing a mobile action sports ramp are also provided.
US09943762B2

A reward associated with a game may be provided based at least partly on a characteristic associated with a user device used to play the game. A threshold or level associated with the device characteristic may be determined. A current level of the characteristic while a user is playing the game via the user device may be determined. Based at least partly on a determination that the current level of the characteristic satisfies the threshold or the level during play of the game, a reward associated with the game may be provided to the user device and/or the user.
US09943761B2

A money transfer system is promoted by providing a user access to a game or contest generated by a promotions engine computer. The user is directed to a customer relations portal accessible via an access device to participate in the game or contest. The customer relations portal comprising a server configured to manage the game or contest and associated with the promotions engine computer. A response is received from the user at the server related to the user's participation in the game or contest. The server determines whether the user is to receive a reward or prize based on the response from the user, and an output is provided to the user on the access device indicating whether the user is to receive the reward or prize.
US09943757B2

A thumbstick for a user input device comprises an adjustable tensioning mechanism configured to modify a tilt tension of a tiltable post. The tiltable post is operable to output a control signal based on a position of the tiltable post relative to a default position. The thumbstick comprises a cap with a cylindrical stem that defines a cavity. An engagement body is located within the cavity and contacts an engagement surface of the adjustable tensioning mechanism. The engagement body includes a cam surface disposed around an axis of the tiltable post. An adjustment body within the cavity of the stem comprises a follower that contacts the cam surface. The follower is configured to traverse the cam surface when the cap is rotated to thereby translate the engagement body along the axis of the tiltable post and adjust the tilt tension of the tiltable post.
US09943748B2

The disclosure is directed at a skate blade system including a boot portion; a blade housing, mounted to a bottom of the boot portion; and a blade portion having a heel and a toe end; wherein the blade portion is fastened at the heel end to the blade housing in a fixed relationship and is unattached from the blade portion blade housing at the toe end.
US09943747B2

A liner assembly for a protective helmet has a wrap-around pad inside the helmet with plural circular cells spaced along a curved line, at least one additional cell at each end of the line and one additional cell located off the line. A crown pad removably engageable in a crown of the helmet and two L-shaped jaw pads removably engageable to jaw flaps of the helmet. Each cell includes an outer sheet welded around its perimeter to the perimeter of an inner sheet, each inner sheet engaging a player's head and defining one enclosure for each cell. Each cell containing a foam cushion and multiple spaced apart hollow protrusions contacting the inside of the helmet. Each protrusion has an open large diameter base near the cushion and flat smaller diameter peak engaging the helmet. Each protrusions also having a conical side wall tapering from base to peak.
US09943746B2

A protective headgear includes, for example, a headgear body that is wearable on a head of the wearer having a top slot in a top portion of the headgear body, wherein the top slot runs from a front portion of the headgear body that covers a forehead of the wearer to a back portion of the headgear body that covers a back of the head of the wearer. A top piece slidably attaches to the headgear body to cover the top slot, wherein the top piece diffuses energy from an impact to the protective headgear by sliding within the top slot. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09943745B2

A digital video ramp assembly incorporates process-formed structural LED tiles with modular components that join in a system of scalable structural LED tiles forming a complete LED display structure with integrated LED embedded tiles with interlocking and inter-trans-positioning features sometimes requiring additional structural framing.
US09943741B2

Practice hockey goaltenders, positionable on a playing surface in front of a hockey goal, include a generally three-dimensional representation of a life-size hockey goaltender disposed in a playing position having a front side and a rear side. The generally rigid three-dimensional representation represents a padded left leg, a padded right leg, a hockey stick, a blocker, a catcher, a torso, and a mask. The practice hockey goaltender includes rearwardly-extending supports, releasably attachable spikes, a weight distribution so that it is supportable in an angled forward orientation on a forwardly and upwardly-extending bottom surface portion, an appearance of being formed from plate-like components, and/or a hollow monolithic structure.
US09943730B2

Golf balls comprising a multi-layer core and a cover are disclosed. The multi-layer core has a very high positive hardness gradient and comprises at least three layers, including at least one thermoset layer and at least one thermoplastic layer.
US09943713B2

Embodiments provide methods for storing a respiratory mask. In one embodiment, the respiratory equipment may include a respiratory mask having a front side and a rear side and a cavity having an opening in the rear side. There may also be provided an inflatable harness adapted to maintain the respiratory mask against the user face, and a storage element comprising a housing In one embodiment, the method may include pulling on the harness on the front side of the respiratory mask in order to place the harness on the respiratory mask in an storage position outside said cavity, and maintaining the harness on the respiratory mask in the storage position and inserting the respiratory mask into the housing of the storage element.
US09943704B1

Method and system fiducials contained in removable a device for use in guided radiation therapy treatment. One embodiment includes an active marker configured to be pre-loaded into a catheter for removeably implanting in the tissue of a patient. Another embodiment of the implantable device includes a stability element coupled to the marker and further coupled to an explant line. In some embodiments, the stability element is configured to hold the marker at a fixed location within the catheter (e.g., known location) with respect to a target in the tissue. In other embodiments, the explant line has a first portion coupled to the marker and/or the stability element and a second portion configured to be at least proximate to the dermis of the patient.
US09943697B2

This application includes systems and techniques relating to wirelessly rechargeable medical apparatus, such as a wirelessly powered medical system including: a wireless power transmitter; and a medical apparatus including a wireless energy harvesting device configured to receive at least one type of wireless power from the wireless power transmitter and be mounted on an exterior surface of a human body, a medical device configured to be implanted in the human body, and one or more electrical conduits configured to couple the wireless energy harvesting device on the exterior surface of the human body with the medical device implanted in the human body, wherein the one or more electrical conduits provide harvested electric power from the wireless energy harvesting device to the medical device.
US09943695B2

A medical device lead connector includes two or more electrically conducting contact rings spaced apart by electrically insulating glass material. The electrically insulating glass material fixes the two or more electrically conducting contact rings in axial alignment.
US09943684B2

Methods for a new, drug-free therapy for treating solid skin tumors through the application of nanosecond pulsed electric fields (“nsPEFs”) are provided. In one embodiment of the invention, the cells are melanoma cells, and the applied nsPEFs penetrate into the interior of tumor cells and cause tumor cell nuclei to rapidly shrink and tumor blood flow to stop. This new technique provides a highly localized targeting of tumor cells with only minor effects on overlying skin.
US09943677B2

Apparatus and techniques for securing a medical device with hemostasis valve are described.
US09943673B2

Apparatus for applying a patch to a subject, the patch having a number of projections thereon, the apparatus including opposable jaws movable between open and engaging positions, wherein in the open position the jaws can receive at least part of the subject, and in the engaging position the jaws can engage the at least part of the subject and a patch support for supporting a patch, and wherein the patch support is for urging the patch against the at least part of the subject.
US09943659B2

A respiratory interface device is provided that includes a mask (10) and a brace (40) assembly. The mask has a faceplate (12) and a cushion (15), and the brace assembly has a brace body (42) and a lever assembly (44). The brace body is coupled to the mask faceplate, and the lever assembly has at least one lever arm (70) and at least one actuator assembly (72) for each lever arm. The at least one lever arm has a body (76) and a pivot assembly (90). The lever arm body is pivotally coupled to the brace body at the pivot assembly. The lever arm body is structured to move between two positions, a first position, where the lever arm body does not effectively engage a portion of the mask, and a second position, wherein the lever arm body effectively engages a portion of the mask.
US09943650B2

A retractable self-destructing safety syringe with pre-attached needle including a barrel, an inner needle base disposed in a barrel neck at an end of the barrel body, and an elastic engagement mechanism formed between the barrel neck and the inner needle base is provided. An asymmetric elastic locking member having an elastic function is disposed at the end of the plunger, with which a sleeve-type retractable locking member on the needle base can be interlocked by the elastic function. After being retracted into the barrel body, the needle base together with the needle will be forced to deflect to one side under an asymmetric force, and the needle therefore will be forced to incline in a direction nearly a 45 degree angle toward to one side of the inner wall of the barrel and is blocked by the barrel neck, so that the needle and the needle base could not be pushed out the barrel neck again and self-destruction of the syringe is truly achieved. The asymmetric elastic locking member is a plastic hook which is formed with the plunger body by one-time molding process.
US09943647B2

A pharmaceutical injection device comprises a main body case (2); a pharmaceutical syringe mounting component (3) that is provided inside the main body case (2) and onto which a pharmaceutical syringe (4) is mounted; a piston (5) provided movably with respect to the pharmaceutical syringe (4) mounted onto the pharmaceutical syringe mounting component (3); a drive mechanism (6) for driving the piston (5); a memory (46) that stores a preset pharmaceutical injection schedule; and a controller (7) that resets a current pharmaceutical dose by comparing a planned cumulative pharmaceutical dose, which is a planned cumulative amount of pharmaceutical injected up to the last time on the basis of the pharmaceutical injection schedule stored in the memory, and an actual cumulative pharmaceutical dose, which is a cumulative amount of pharmaceutical actually injected up to the last time.
US09943640B2

A rectal drainage appliance is disclosed comprising a tubular element having an inflatable balloon at a distal end for anchoring the appliance in the rectum. The appliance includes one or more of: (i) first and second auxiliary lumens communicating with the inflatable balloon to provide independent inflation and pressure monitoring paths coupled to the balloon; (ii) a pressure state indicator defined by a mechanical element configured to flip between first and second states or shapes responsive to sensed pressure; and (iii) a collapsible auxiliary lumen larger than the inflation lumen, and configured to permit admission of irrigation fluid. The pressure state indicator may also be used in intestinal drains.
US09943636B2

An apparatus for extracorporeal treatment of blood (1) comprising a treatment unit, a blood withdrawal line, a blood return line, a preparation line and a spent dialysate line. A control unit (10) is configured to calculate values of a parameter relating to treatment effectiveness based on measures of the conductivity in the spent dialysate line. The value of the effectiveness parameter is calculated using one or more values representative of the conductivity in the spent dialysate line obtained relying on a mathematical model.
US09943625B2

The present invention relates to a magnesium alloy having controlled corrosion resistance properties, which comprises magnesium (Mg) and an alloying element and includes a magnesium phase and a phase composed of magnesium and the alloying element, wherein the difference in electrical potential between the magnesium phase and the phase composed of magnesium and the alloying element is greater than 0 V but not greater than 0.2 V.
US09943610B2

The present disclosure provides compounds with a hydrophilic self-immolative linker, which is cleavable under appropriate conditions and incorporates a hydrophilic group to provide better solubility of the compound. The compounds of the present disclosure comprise a drug moiety, a targeting moiety capable of targeting a selected cell population, and a linker which contains an acyl unit, an optional spacer unit for providing distance between the drug moiety and the targeting moiety, a peptide linker which can be cleavable under appropriate conditions, a hydrophilic self-immolative linker, and an optional second self-immolative spacer or cyclization self-elimination linker.
US09943609B2

Auristatin compounds and conjugates thereof are provided herein. The conjugate comprises a protein based recognition-molecule (PBRM) and a polymeric carrier substituted with one or more -LD-D, the protein based recognition-molecule being connected to the polymeric carrier by LP. Each occurrence of D is independently an Auristatin compound. LD and LP are linkers connecting the therapeutic agent and PBRM to the polymeric carrier respectively. Also disclosed are polymeric scaffolds useful for conjugating with a PBRM to form a polymer-drug-PBRM conjugate described herein, compositions comprising the conjugates, methods of their preparation, and methods of treating various disorders with the conjugates or their compositions.
US09943606B2

Dendritic polypeptides useful for the delivery of therapeutic agents into cells are disclosed, together with their methods of preparation. These dendritic polypeptides serve as carriers of drugs, siRNA, aptamers and plasmid DNA in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer.
US09943603B2

The present invention is directed to a monomer useful in preparing therapeutic compounds. The monomer includes a diversity element which potentially binds to a target molecule with a dissociation constant of less than 300 μM and a linker element connected to the diversity element. The linker element has a molecular weight less than 500 daltons, is connected, directly or indirectly through a connector, to said diversity element, and is capable of forming a reversible covalent bond or non-covalent interaction with a binding partner of the linker element. The monomers can be covalently or non-covalently linked together to form a therapeutic multimer or a precursor thereof. Also disclosed is a method of screening for therapeutic multimer precursors which bind to a target molecule associated with a condition and a method of screening for linker elements capable of binding to one another. The present invention additionally relates to a therapeutic multimer, which includes a plurality of covalently or non-covalently linked monomers, therapeutic monomers, and uses of such dimers and monomers.
US09943600B2

A method for stabilising a human blood protein or human blood plasma protein with a molecular weight of >10 KDa by adding melezitose to a solution comprising the human blood protein or human blood plasma protein with a molecular weight of >10 KDa.
US09943599B2

The present inventors have shown that electroporation with calcium ions are efficient on cutaneous and subcutaneous nodules. In particular the present inventors here disclose that a solution comprising calcium ions (Ca2+) with a concentration of at least 0.1 M is extremely useful in a method of treating a neoplasm, such as cancer with means for causing transient permeabilization of the cell membranes of at least part of the neoplasm before, during and/or after administration of said solution, wherein said solution is administered with a ratio of 0.2 to 0.8 of the volume of said part of the neoplasm.
US09943597B2

Methods and compositions for treating conditions including liver dysfunction, e.g., associated with fatty liver; glucose intolerance; and others, by administering compositions comprising anti-LPS immunoglobulin enriched colostrum preparations.
US09943594B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods of treating and improving the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis using an antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof that specifically binds human interleukin-6 receptor (hIL-6R).
US09943589B2

Disclosed herein are immunogenic compositions for preventing infection with influenza viruses wherein the immunogenic compositions comprises an immunogen such as a hemagglutinin of an influenza virus, and an immunopotentiator such as an Fc fragment of human IgG and optionally a stabilization sequence. The immunogen is linked to the stabilization sequence which in turn is linked to the immunopotentiator.
US09943588B2

The present invention relates to monovalent influenza vaccine formulations and vaccination regimes for immunising against influenza disease, their use in medicine, in particular their use in augmenting immune responses to various antigens, and to methods of preparation. In particular, the invention relates to monovalent influenza immunogenic compositions comprising an influenza antigen or antigenic preparation thereof from an influenza virus strain being associated with a pandemic outbreak or having the potential to be associated with a pandemic outbreak, in combination with an oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant comprising a metabolisable oil, a sterol and/or a tocopherol such as alpha tocopherol, and an emulsifying agent.
US09943584B2

Provided are non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae vaccines useful for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma in a patient. In certain aspects, the vaccine is a monobacterial vaccine. Bacterial strains for use in the vaccines of the present application are also provided.
US09943581B2

The present invention provides compositions including polypeptides having the characteristics of polypeptides expressed by a reference microbe such E. coli or Salmonella. Examples of Salmonella strains that can be used include, for instance, S. enterica serovar Newport, S. enterica serovar Enteritidis, S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, and S. enterica serovar Dublin. Also provided are compositions including polypeptides having a particular molecular weight and a mass fingerprint that includes polypeptide fragments having a particular set of masses, or polypeptides having an amino acid sequence with at least about 95% identity with an amino acid sequence, wherein the polypeptide has seroreactive activity. The present invention also provides methods of making and methods of using such compositions.
US09943580B2

Embodiments are directed to malaria vaccines comprising a bacteriophage VLP displaying a heterologous peptide identified by affinity selection as an anti-malaria mimotope.
US09943577B2

Inflammatory and other cellular response-modulating compositions are provided comprising aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase polypeptides, including active fragments and/or variants thereof. Also provided are methods of using such compositions in the treatment of conditions that benefit from the modulation of inflammation, such as inflammatory diseases or conditions.
US09943563B2

The present technology provides methods of preventing or treating vitiligo. The methods provide administering aromatic-cationic peptides in effective amounts to treat or ameliorate melanocyte degeneration such as that found in a subject suffering from, or predisposed to vitiligo. In some embodiments, the methods comprise administering to a subject suffering from, or at risk for vitiligo, an effective amount of an aromatic-cationic peptide to subjects in need thereof. The present technology relates to the treatment, amelioration or prevention of vitiligo in mammals or mammalian cells, through administration of therapeutically effective amounts of aromatic-cationic peptides, such as D-Arg-2′,6′-Dmt-Lys-Phe-NH2.
US09943558B2

A method is provided for treating an individual for a malarial infection, in particular drug-resistant species of Plasmodium, including administering to the individual in need of such treatment a composition comprising an extract containing an effective amount of one or more anti-malarial di- or tri-terpene compounds. Potent and effective extracts containing the anti-malarial compounds can be derived from Luo Han fruit and Stevia leaves, including combinations of the same, for the purpose of treating and preventing malaria in an inexpensive manner from readily available commodities. In one embodiment, the composition is administered orally in a solid or liquid ingestible form.
US09943546B2

The invention relates to a viral-safe platelet extract, to its preparation and use. The extract comprises a mixture of biologically active platelet derived factors.Advantageously, the extract comprises a balanced proportion of the factors and is non-clottable.
US09943538B1

Compositions comprising first and second oligomers are provided wherein at least a portion of the first oligomer is capable of hybridizing with at least a portion of the second oligomer, at least a portion of the first oligomer is complementary to and capable of hybridizing to a selected target nucleic acid, and at least one of the first or second oligomers includes a modified sugar and/or backbone modification. In some embodiments the modification is a 2′-OCH3 substituent group on a sugar moiety. Oligomer/protein compositions are also provided comprising an oligomer complementary to and capable of hybridizing to a selected target nucleic acid and at least one protein comprising at least a portion of an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), wherein at least one nucleotide of the oligomer has a modified sugar and/or backbone modification.
US09943537B2

Provided is a novel method for treating a cancer using an FTD/TPI combination drug, which shows remarkably excellent antitumor effect and small adverse effects.An antitumor agent, in which a combination drug containing trifluridine and tipiracil hydrochloride at a molar ratio of 1:0.5 and an anti-VEGF antibody or anti-EGFR antibody are administered in combination.
US09943534B2

The present invention relates to a composition for preventing or treating liver cancer containing ginsenoside F2 as an active ingredient. Specifically, the composition according to the present invention kills liver cancer cells, specifically inhibits the formation of liver cancer, and reduces the expression of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST), without affecting normal hepatocytes, and thus can be usefully used as a therapeutic agent for liver cancer.
US09943530B2

Methods and compositions for treating 25-hydroxyvitamin D insufficiency and deficiency in a patient are described herein. The method includes orally administering to the patient a delayed, sustained release formulation including a first ingredient selected from the group consisting of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, or a combination of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, or it includes gradually administering to the patient a sterile intravenous formulation including a first ingredient selected from the group consisting of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, or a combination of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3.
US09943522B2

The present invention relates to the use of cathepsin K and/or cathepsin S inhibitors in a method for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of pulmonary hypertension and/or heart failure.
US09943520B2

Dry powder formulations for inhalation and their use in the treatment diseases and conditions. The formulation contains a uniform blend of a first spray-dried powder and a second spray-dried powder. The first spray-dried powder contains spray-dried particles of a therapeutically active ingredient dispersed in a pharmaceutically acceptable hydrophobic excipient. The second spray-dried powder contains spray-dried particles formed from a pharmaceutically acceptable hydrophobic excipient but are substantially free of any therapeutically active ingredient. The active ingredient in the first spray-dried powder is loaded sufficiently high to compensate for the second spray-dried powder being substantially free of any active ingredient. A process for preparing such formulations is also described.
US09943519B2

Compounds of Formulae Ia, and stereoisomers, geometric isomers, tautomers, solvates, metabolites and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, are useful for inhibiting lipid kinases including PI3K, and for treating disorders such as cancer mediated by lipid kinases. Methods of using compounds of Formula Ia for in vitro, in situ, and in vivo diagnosis, prevention or treatment of such disorders in mammalian cells, or associated pathological conditions, are disclosed.
US09943516B2

The present invention relates to inhibitors of IRAK4 of Formula I and provides compositions comprising such inhibitors, as well as methods therewith for treating IRAK4-mediated or -associated conditions or diseases.
US09943515B2

Provided are compositions and methods for treating or preventing nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery.
US09943513B1

Described herein are oral abuse deterrent pharmaceutical compositions, methods for making the same, and methods for treating pain by administering the pharmaceutical composition to a subject in need thereof. In particular, an oral abuse deterrent pharmaceutical composition comprising a soft capsule and a controlled release matrix comprising oxycodone are described.
US09943505B2

Methods and compositions for treating a subject hosting a non-ACTH-secreting pancreatic tumor are disclosed. The methods include administering to the subject a chemotherapeutic agent and a glucocorticoid receptor modulator (GRM), preferably a selective glucocorticoid receptor modulator (SGRM), to reduce the tumor load in the subject. The GRM may be a nonsteroidal GRM, and may be a nonsteroidal SGRM. The non-ACTH-secreting pancreatic tumor may be an exocrine pancreatic tumor.The nonsteroidal SGRM may be a nonsteroidal compound comprising: a fused azadecalin structure; a heteroaryl ketone fused azadecalin structure; or an octahydro fused azadecalin structure. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising a chemotherapeutic agent and a GRM are disclosed. The GRM in such pharmaceutical compositions may be a nonsteroidal GRM, and may be a SGRM, such as a nonsteroidal SGRM. The nonsteroidal SGRM may comprise: a fused azadecalin structure; a heteroaryl ketone fused azadecalin structure; or an octahydro fused azadecalin structure.
US09943504B2

Described herein are compounds of Formula (I), pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, and pharmaceutical compositions thereof. Compounds of the present invention are useful for inhibiting arginine methyltransferase activity. Methods of using the compounds for treating arginine methyltransferase-mediated disorders are also described.
US09943500B2

The invention is a method and composition for treating a topical microbial infection in a subject. The method includes the step of administering a therapeutically effective amount of a polyether ionophore, or a therapeutically acceptable salt thereof, to the subject.
US09943499B2

The present invention relates to methods for treating pancreatitis and/or organ failure comprising administering, to a subject in need of such treatment, an effective amount of a lipase inhibitor. It is based, at least in part, on the discoveries that lipotoxicity contributes to inflammation, multisystem organ failure, necrotic pancreatic acinar cell death and in acute pancreatitis, and that inhibition of lipolysis was able to reduce indices associated with these conditions. Accordingly, in various embodiments, the present invention provides for methods and compositions for limiting lipotoxicity and thereby reducing the likelihood of poor outcomes associated with acute pancreatitis and other severe systemic conditions, especially in obese individuals.
US09943497B2

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating pulmonary fibrosis comprising an isothiocyanate-based compound and a biguanide agent as active ingredients, a method for preventing or treating pulmonary fibrosis using the composition, and use of the isothiocyanate-based compound and the biguanide agent for the preparation of the prophylactic or therapeutic agent for preventing or treating pulmonary fibrosis. The pharmaceutical composition comprising the isothiocyanate-based compound and the biguanide agent as active ingredients of the present invention can be used to stably prevent or treat pulmonary fibrosis for which specific therapeutic agents have not yet been known, and thus it can be widely used for health and welfare improvement through treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.
US09943496B2

Nutritional supplement, feed formulation and methods to improve the efficiency of meat production of a bovine animal, using ethyl ferulate as a nutritional supplement; where the administration of ethyl ferulate at bovine animal, is premixed with an excipient food grade, feed formulation, balanced food, concentrated food, and the like. The ethyl ferulate administration is daily during the final stage of fattening bovine animal, wherein the final stage of fattening is 20 to 40 last days.
US09943495B2

The present invention provides a composition, such as a food and pharmaceutical agent, which comprises dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, and which has the effect of preventing or treating skin diseases; a composition such as a food and pharmaceutical agent which comprises dihomo-γ-linolenic acid and which has the effect of preventing or treating skin diseases; and a composition which comprises dihomo-γ-linolenic acid and which has the effect of preventing or treating diseases related to increased mast cell count.
US09943494B2

Methods and compositions for treating a complication associated with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), the method comprising administering an effective amount of a nitric oxide precursor to a subject in need thereof. Methods and compositions for treating vasospasm, the method comprising administering an effective amount of a nitric oxide precursor to a subject in need thereof.
US09943471B2

A method for improving skin scar color matching, for example reducing scar hyperpigmentation, the method comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of an agent, which positively modulates β2-adrenergic receptor conformation, or receptor activity, or activation thereof, to a subject in need thereof. The subject typically is in need of improving skin scar color matching, for example reducing scar hyperpigmentation, because the subject has or is at risk of hyperpigmentation. The subject typically is selected as being at risk of hyperpigmentation on the basis of one or more of the following factors: ⋅ the subject has previously developed hyperpigmentation of a scar ⋅ the subject tans readily on exposure to sunshine or ultraviolet (UV) radiation, rather than burning ⋅ the subject has a non-Caucasian racial origin ⋅ the subject's skin color (for example in an area that is not tanned) is considered to be darker than that typical of a naturally fair-haired Caucasian person. The subject may be selected as being at risk of hyperpigmentation because they are at least predominantly of Chinese, black African, Asian or Southern European racial origin, and/or if their skin type can be assessed under the Fitzpatrick Scale as Type III, IV, V or VI.
US09943468B2

A fluid cleaning composition comprising: (a) a surfactant combination comprising: (i) a synthetic surfactant; and (ii) a glycolipid biosurfactant which is present at a level in the range 10-9 wt % of the total surfactant in said surfactant combination, and (b) a benefit agent suspended in said fluid cleaning composition characterized in that the benefit agent comprises an encapsulate.
US09943467B2

Provided are dental articles, and methods of making articles, having an aesthetic inorganic coating based on zirconia at least partially stabilized with yttrium oxide, calcium oxide, cerium oxide, or magnesium oxide. Stabilized zirconia coatings were found to provide a smooth, low friction surface having high abrasion resistance. These coatings are particularly applicable to orthodontic appliances. While virgin stabilized zirconia coatings can often have an undesirable color cast, it was discovered that this color cast can be substantially eliminated by heat treating the coated appliance in an oxygenated environment. The combination of depositing a stabilized zirconia coating and subsequently heat treating to decolorize the coating provides a surprisingly robust, stable, low-friction coating that is also aesthetic.
US09943452B1

An absorbent pad. A first side of the absorbent pad is configured to abut a patient at a fluid discharging area or other location. Discharging fluid passes through a fluid-permeable liner of the absorbent pad into absorbent material. Liquid may be placed in the absorbent material prior to placing it on a patient and heated or cooled. An overwrap may be wrapped around the patient to hold the hot or cold compress in place while absorbing discharging fluid from the patient. A fluid barrier at a second side of the absorbent pad, parallel with the first side, prevents liquid from passing out of the absorbent pad at the second side. A coupler having hooks is disposed on the second side of the absorbent pad and is configured to engage with fibers of the overwrap in order to secure the absorbent pad in place with respect to the patient and overwrap.
US09943446B2

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an unbonded, absorbent, fibrous structure, the method comprising the steps of: a) providing of a first fibrous material in the form of a fibrous sheet (10); b) defiberizing the sheet (10) of first fibrous material to form a roughly graded material (16); c) mixing the roughly graded material (16) with a second material (26) to form a mixture; and d) air-laying the mixture on a foraminous carrier (50) to form the unbonded, absorbent, fibrous structure.
US09943444B2

A pair of goggles includes a flexible body, a lens assembly, and a quick release system configured to removably couple the lens assembly to the flexible body.
US09943443B2

A pair of eye goggles is described. The eye googles include a three axial adjustable nosepiece that can be fit over a wearer's nose including a plurality of unequal length strands on each side of the nosepiece with the strands comprising resilient properties different from the resilient properties included in the other strands in the plurality of strands on that side. The eye goggles also include a strap that can be fit removably around the wearer's head, and a pair of eyepieces. Each eyepiece includes a transparent lens that can be fit over one of the wearer's eyes, and a frame that surrounds the transparent lens to which the nosepiece and the strap are attached. The eye goggles also include a sealing pad formed on an inside-facing edge of the frame.
US09943441B2

A method for generating cut surfaces in the cornea of an eye in order to correct ametropia using an apparatus. The method includes providing the apparatus including a laser unit, which focuses pulsed laser radiation into the cornea and moves the focused radiation in the cornea to generate cut surfaces, and a control unit, which controls the laser unit for generating cut surfaces. The method includes forming at least two mutually spaced apart cut surfaces as opening cuts by application of the pulsed laser radiation from the laser unit, each opening cut extending from an anterior corneal surface into the cornea and forming a further cut surface as a relieving cut by application of the pulsed laser radiation from the laser unit, which relieving cut extends from the anterior corneal surface into the cornea. The position and shape of the relieving cut is selected such that the relieving cut contributes to the correction of the ametropia of the eye.
US09943440B2

An injector (1) for folding and injecting into the eye of a patient a flexible intraocular lens, the injector comprising an assembly of an injection nozzle (202), a lens compartment that holds an unfolded flexible intraocular lens (400) and is in communication with the injection nozzle, an injector body (3) communicating with the lens compartment and a plunger (2) that is inserted in the free end of the injector body, wherein lens compartment and injector body comprise a mechanism whereby the lens is first folded by forces compressing the lens in a non-axial direction in response to an axial movement of the plunger over a first distance and is subsequently expelled from the injector through the injection nozzle in response to an axial movement of the plunger over a second distance.
US09943432B1

A plurality of orthotic systems are provided. One bi-layer system is constructed from a single sheet of fabric that is molded into two layers. One tri-layer system includes a base layer; a mid-layer; and an upper layer. The upper layer is joined to the mid-layer and the mid-layer is joined to the base layer. The coupling of the base layer, the mid-layer and the upper layer create a rear spring section, a mid-spring section and a front spring section in which the upper layer is suspended over the mid-layer and the heel portion is suspended on the proximal heel end of the base layer.
US09943430B2

A handheld tool includes a handle for holding by a user, an attachment arm extending from the handle that is configured to connect to a user-assistive device, a first inertial measurement unit (“IMU”) mounted to the attachment arm to acquire measurements of one or more of a motion or an orientation of the user-assistive device and to generate feedback data indicative of the measurements, an actuator assembly coupled to manipulate the user-assistive device via the attachment arm in at least two orthogonal dimensions, and a motion control system coupled to receive the feedback data from the first IMU and coupled to provide commands to the actuator assembly to provide auto-leveling of the user-assistive device to a frame of reference while the user manipulates the handheld tool.
US09943422B2

A composite stent graft has a balloon expandable stent portion (3), a tubular graft material portion (1) inside or outside of the balloon expandable stent portion and self expanding stents (5) associated with the tubular graft material portion. Part (7) of the balloon expandable stent portion can extend beyond the proximal end (9) of the tubular graft material portion. The tubular graft material can be polytetrafluoroethylene, dacron, polyamide, sub intestinal mucosa or any other suitable biocompatible material. A method of deploying which includes flaring a part (7) of the balloon expandable stent portion is also discussed.
US09943418B2

An implant for therapeutically separating bones of a joint has two endplates each having an opening through the endplate, and at least one ramped surface on a side opposite a bone engaging side. A frame is slideably connected to the endplates to enable the endplates to move relative to each other at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the implant, in sliding connection with the frame. An actuator screw is rotatably connected to the frame. A carriage forms an open area aligned with the openings in the endplates. The openings in the endplates pass through the carriage to form an unimpeded passage from bone to bone of the joint. The carriage has ramps which mate with the ramped surfaces of the endplates, wherein when the carriage is moved by rotation of the actuator screw, the endplates move closer or farther apart.
US09943415B2

This invention relates generally to spine surgery and, in particular, to a surgical implant for separating adjacent spinal vertebrae.
US09943409B2

Devices and methods are disclosed for the treatment or repair of regurgitant cardiac valves, such as a mitral valve. An annuloplasty device can be placed in the coronary sinus to reshape the mitral valve and reduce mitral valve regurgitation. A protective device can be placed between the annuloplasty device and an underlying coronary artery to inhibit compression of the underlying coronary artery by the annuloplasty device in the coronary sinus. In addition, the protective device can inhibit compression of the coronary artery from inside the heart, such as from a prosthetic mitral valve that exerts radially outward pressure toward the coronary artery. The annuloplasty device can also create an artificial inner ridge or retaining feature projecting into the native mitral valve region to help secure a prosthetic mitral valve.
US09943403B2

A fracturable mask for treating presbyopia is disclosed. The fracturable mask can include an aperture for improving depth of focus. The fracturable mask can be embedded in an intraocular lens. The intraocular lens can include a lens body and the fracturable mask. The fracturable mask can be configured to fracture along a plurality of fracture pathways when the intraocular lens is manipulated. For example, fractures can be created in the mask during the process of injecting the intraocular lens through a cartridge tip into a patient's eye. The fractures can allow the resilient lens body to restore the fractured mask to its original, pre-injection optical performance specifications.
US09943402B2

Generally, an intraocular implant having on the external surface a plurality of pattern surface elements disposed in spaced apart relation defining a tortuous pathway adapted to control a flow of fluid, or a flow of particles suspended in a fluid, or inhibits the growth or migration of cells. In particular, an intraocular implant which implanted between an intraocular lens and the surface of the posterior capsule of the eye inhibits growth or migration of residual lens epithelial cells after cataract surgery by providing structural barriers to reduce posterior capsule opacification of the eye.
US09943399B2

A stent is provided with arms for positioning the stent between two passageways. The stent may also be a stent-graft with a transition between a covered portion and an uncovered portion that is positioned relative to the junction between the two passageways. The arms are self-expanding and are biased outward from the tubular wall of the stent structure. The arms engage the wall of the first passageway around the junction to the second passageway to position a portion of the stent in the first passageway and another portion of the stent in the second passageway.
US09943377B2

Various exemplary methods, systems, and devices for causing end effector motion with a robotic surgical system are provided. In general, a surgical tool can be configured to releasably and removably couple to a robotic surgical system. The robotic surgical system can include two motors configured to provide torque to the surgical tool to drive one single function of the surgical tool. In at least some embodiments, at least one of the two motors configured to cooperate with another motor to drive the single function of the surgical tool can be configured to drive a second function of the surgical tool.
US09943375B2

A surgical instrument includes a distal portion. A force sensor is operatively mounted on the distal portion. The force sensor includes a wireless package, which wirelessly provides (1) identification information of the surgical instrument and (2) strain data related to the distal portion. A surgical end effector includes a jaw and the distal portion is on a non-contact portion of the jaw. The wireless package includes a surface acoustic wave strain sensor with identification information. The wireless package also includes a small folded antenna electrically coupled to the surface acoustic wave strain sensor with identification information. The identification information includes an identification of a type of surgical instrument and unique identification of the specific surgical instrument in the type of surgical instrument.
US09943358B2

The present disclosure relates to a surgical instrument including a housing, an elongated member, an end effector assembly, a drive assembly, a solenoid assembly, and a switch assembly. The end effector assembly is coupled to a distal end of the elongated member. The end effector assembly includes a first jaw member and an opposing second jaw member. The drive assembly is disposed within the elongated member and operably coupled to the end effector and configured to move the first jaw member from a first position to a second position. The solenoid assembly is disposed within the housing. The solenoid assembly is operably coupled to the drive assembly and adapted to connect to a power source. The switch assembly is activatable to energize the solenoid assembly such that the solenoid assembly actuates the drive assembly to move the first jaw member from the first position to the second position.
US09943351B2

A kit for implanting a woven retention device into bone includes a woven retention device, a delivery tube, and a push rod. The woven retention device includes a distal end that is tapered to a distal tip, a proximal end for receiving a fastener, and a sleeve body between the distal and proximal ends. The delivery tube includes distal and proximal openings, and a compression portion over at least a distal end of the delivery tube. The push rod can be slideably received within the delivery tube and has a distal end for pushing the woven retention device through the distal opening of the delivery tube.
US09943347B2

An orthopedic implant device and system support the fusion of bones in the medial column of the human foot. An exemplary implant uses an improved lag screw and supplemental components, including a washer plate and transverse screws which penetrate transverse through holes in the shaft of the lag screw. Additionally, a surgical procedure is described which may employ such an implant. The improved lag screw may be inserted at the plantar surface of the first metatarsal and support the fusion of, for example, the transverse tarsal joint, the cuneonavicular joint, and the tarsometatarsal joint.
US09943342B2

A method for implanting a bone screw in a vertebra may first involve inserting the bone screw and a bone screw delivery mechanism through a proximal end of a guide tube along a first trajectory. A proximal end of the bone screw is attached to a distal end of the bone screw delivery mechanism, and a distal end of the guide tube is positioned adjacent the vertebra. The method may next involve advancing the bone screw and the bone screw delivery mechanism through a bend in the guide tube to cause the bone screw to exit the distal end of the guide tube along a second trajectory and contact the vertebra. The method may further involve rotating the delivery mechanism to cause the bone screw to screw into the vertebra and detaching the bone screw delivery mechanism from the bone screw.
US09943336B2

A load control device can be attached to bones on either side of an articulated joint in order to control the forces and loads experienced by the joint. The device comprises an apparatus for controlling the load on articular cartilage of a human or animal joint and includes: a first fixation assembly for attachment to a first bone; a second fixation assembly for attachment to a second bone; a link assembly coupled to the first fixation assembly by a first pivot and coupled to the second fixation assembly by a second pivot, the first and second fixation assembly thereby each being angularly displaceable relative to the link assembly. The apparatus enables a clinician to effectively control the environment of cartilage in a joint during a treatment episode.
US09943330B2

A tissue-removing catheter for removing tissue from a body lumen includes an elongate catheter body configured for insertion into the body lumen and a tissue-removing element. A side opening in the distal portion of the catheter body is defined by opposite first and second side edges, a proximal edge extending between the first and second side edges, and a distal edge opposite the proximal edge and extending between the first and second side edges. The side opening window has a longitudinal axis extending between the distal and proximal edges. The tissue-removing element is configured to move between a tissue-removing position, in which the tissue-removing element is exposed through the side opening window, and a neutral position, in which the tissue-removing element is positioned inside the distal portion of the catheter. The distal edge is asymmetric about the longitudinal axis of the side opening window.
US09943328B2

Unitary endoscopic vessel harvesting devices with an elastic force are disclosed. In some embodiments, such devices comprise an elongated body having a proximal end and a distal end, a tip disposed at the distal end of the elongated body; and cutting unit having an elastic force, a first cutting portion and a second cutting portion, the first cutting portion and the second cutting portion being moveable in a longitudinal direction relative to the elongated body to capture a blood vessel between the first cutting portion and the second cutting portion, and being rotatable relative to one another circumferentially about the tip to cut the captured blood vessel, and a biasing member engaged with the cutting unit to bias at least one cutting portion toward the other cutting portion.
US09943319B2

An instrument for preparing an acetabulum. The instrument includes a handle having a reamer coupling feature and a trial coupling feature. The instrument further includes an acetabular reamer having an outer cutting surface and an inner concave surface having an apex. The acetabular reamer has a first handle coupling feature located at the apex adapted to couple to the reamer coupling feature of the handle. A trial having an outer convex surface having an apex is also included. The outer convex surface adapted to fit inside the inner concave surface of the acetabular reamer. The trial has a second handle coupling feature located at the apex of the outer convex surface adapted to couple to the trial coupling feature of the handle.
US09943315B2

Devices and methods for occluding the left atrial appendage (LAA) to prevent blood from clotting within the LAA and subsequently embolizing, particularly in patients with atrial fibrillation. A foam implant encapsulated with a tough thromboresistant membrane is placed via transvascular means into the LAA and anchored with adhesives and/or mechanical anchors. Tissue over- and in-growth are optimized to anchor the implant in place and provide a permanent occlusion.
US09943308B2

An apparatus and a method for surgical suturing with thread management. An illustrative apparatus for tissue suturing includes a cartridge having a suturing needle having a pointed end and a blunt end, the suturing needle capable of rotating about an axis, a reciprocating needle drive, and an actuator capable of releasably engaging the needle drive to rotate the needle. A method for suturing tissue is provided that includes placing a suturing device having a cartridge containing a suturing needle to span at least one tissue segment, activating an actuator to cause rotational movement of the suturing needle through the at least one tissue segment, and deactivating the actuator to stop an advancing movement of the suturing needle to cause a suturing material to be pulled through the at least one tissue segment forming a stitch.
US09943306B2

A suture retainer is provided for supplying a surgical needle and an associated length of relatively stiff suture material to a surgical suturing apparatus. The suture retainer generally includes a body portion defining a suture tray and a loading unit positioned on the body portion. The loading unit is provided to retain a surgical needle in a position to be grasped by a surgical suturing apparatus. The suture tray retains the length of relatively stiff suture in a manner which prevents the relatively stiff suture from bending or otherwise being deformed.
US09943301B2

Technology disclosed herein relates to retractors and methods of use for surgical procedures, and in particular, spinal surgical procedures. In one embodiment, a surgical retractor includes a pair of pivotable armatures and a translatable armature. A body for supporting the armatures is provided, with a handle connected thereto. The handle includes a first rotary actuator, wherein a rotation of the first rotary actuator moves the pair of pivotable armatures in opposite arcuate directions, and a second rotary actuator, wherein a rotation of the second rotary actuator translates the translatable armature in a linear direction.
US09943297B2

A soft tissue repair system is provided for covering or filling openings in the annulus of an intervertebral disc. The soft tissue repair system uses a single plug or a combination of a first plug and a second plug. The second plug is a flowable plug such as an adhesive material or a material that hardens to a flexible plug material. Each plug is configured to close the opening in the annulus and can be positioned within the opening, over the opening at the exterior surface or over the opening at the interior surface. The plug can also be combined with a clamping mechanism that engages the annulus to secure the plug in the opening.
US09943296B2

A surgical method and apparatus of repairing a tear, cut or defect in the body tissue, specifically the dura or vascular wall, is disclosed. An inner plate is placed on the tissue's inner surface in a position completely overlapping the tissue defect. An outer plate is placed on the tissue's outer surface in a position completely overlapping the defect and aligned with the inner plate. The inner and outer plates have perimeters larger than the perimeter of the defect and include coiled ribs. The inner plate is coupled to the outer plate such that the peripheral edges of the body tissue defect are securely clamped between the inner and outer plates to provide a watertight repair to the tissue defect.
US09943281B2

Noise of a CT image is reduced with good accuracy by using noise information obtained from the CT image. An X-ray CT apparatus comprises a successive approximate reconstruction part that reconstructs a CT image for a reconstruction area of an imaging object from measured projection data obtained by an X-ray detection part of the X-ray CT apparatus, and successively corrects the CT image so that calculated projection data obtained by forward projection of the CT image performed by calculation and the measured projection data detected by the X-ray detection part become equal to each other. The successive approximate reconstruction part comprises a noise measurement part that calculates noise intensity in the CT image at least for a predetermined region of interest, and successively corrects the CT image of the region of interest by using the calculated noise intensity.
US09943278B2

A method for predefining a set of radioactive-emission measurement views, for radioactive-emission imaging after an administration of a radiopharmaceutical, the method being tailored to a specific body structure and optimized with respect to the information gained about the body structure and based on modeling body-structure, based on its geometry and anatomical constraints, which limit accessibility to the body structure.
US09943274B2

Radioimaging methods, devices and radiopharmaceuticals therefor.
US09943267B2

Systems and methods for non-invasive respiratory rate measurement are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system comprises a wearable member including an energy transmitter configured to project energy into tissue of a user. An energy receiver generates a multichannel signal based on a first received portion of the energy, the received portion of energy being received through the tissue of the user. A respiratory rate calculation system includes a pre-processing module for filter noise from the signal. A spectrum module determines a spectrum of the signal. A respiratory rate processing module determines a first respiratory rate from the spectrum of the signal. A noise reference and one or more second respiratory rates are obtained. A third respiratory rate is determined based on the first respiratory rate, the noise reference, and the one or more second respiratory rates. A communication module provides a message based on the third respiratory rate.
US09943265B2

A sensing assemblage for capturing a transit time, phase, or frequency of energy waves propagating through a medium is disclosed to measure a parameter of the muscular-skeletal system. The sensing assemblage comprises a transducer and a waveguide. The transducer is coupled to the waveguide at a first location. A reflective surface can be coupled to the waveguide at a second location. The reflective surface is configured to reflect energy waves away from the reflective surface. An interface material that is transmissive to acoustic energy waves can be placed between the transducer and a waveguide to improve transfer.
US09943264B2

A system and method for profiling electrical activity in smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal tract muscular of a patient are disclosed. The system includes electromyographic-sensing patches adapted for placement on the skin of the abdomen of the patient. Each patch has at least one bipolar electrode pair, or a multitude arranged in an array, and is enabled for communication of a signal indicative of a sensed electromyographic signal. The system further includes networked computing devices. The local patch device is configured for wireless communication between the EMG-sensing patches and a local computing device, to enable wireless transmission from the patch to the networked computing devices. The networked computing device is configured to process large aggregate collections of multi-hour or day signals received from the local computing device to yield diagnostically valuable physiological parameters of gastrointestinal smooth muscle electrical activity.
US09943251B2

The invention relates to a method for determining stretch values and movement of body parts, e.g. a foot, by analyzing stretch data from a stretch sensor. By analyzing data from the stretch sensor it is possible to determine stretch samples which are associated with particular motion phases. Thereby the stretch values determined from the stretch samples have a particular physical meaning since they are associated with particular motion phases.
US09943236B2

An implantable medical device system and associated method for use in guiding an acute decompensated heart failure therapy set an optimal fluid status measurement level. A physiological sensor signal sensed by an implantable medical device is used to compute the fluid status measurement. A target rate of change of the fluid status measurement is computed for guiding the therapy.
US09943233B2

Automated image analysis used in vascular disease characterization. Coronary vasculature in particular is automatically characterized in some embodiments for lesion complexity and related anatomical and/or functional parameters related to disease state. In some embodiments, a “virtual revascularization” model is used as a reference in disease state determinations. In some embodiments, disease parameters are determined for application by a disease characterization tool such as a SYNTAX Score calculator.
US09943230B2

Even if the ratio between blue and green components of illumination light is changed, a plurality of types of blood vessels at different depths are reliably distinguished. A blue signal B, a green signal G, a red signal R is obtained by imaging the subject using a color CCD 44. A B/G image having a B/G ratio is generated. A superficial blood vessel extraction image is obtained by extracting a pixel, in which the B/G ratio is equal to or less than a boundary value Ls between the mucous membrane and the superficial blood vessel, from the B/G image. A medium-deep blood vessel extraction image is obtained by extracting a pixel, in which the B/G ratio is equal to or greater than a boundary value Ld between the mucous membrane and the medium-deep blood vessel. The boundary values Ls and Ld differ depending on the light amount ratio.
US09943227B2

The present invention provides a selective data transmission method and a system based on a central monitoring system. The selective data transmission method includes a wireless sensor, wherein the wireless sensor executes the following steps of: A. collecting data; B. sending the data to a designated receiving end; C. selecting a receiving end according to an instruction, and taking the receiving end as the designated receiving end; and D. establishing a wireless connection with the designated receiving end. The present invention has the advantageous effects that the method and the system realize selective data transmission through transmitting the data to a selected receiving end, which not only can be applied to the field of medical monitoring, but also can be applied to such fields as security prevention, data backup and the like; working nodes can be switched.
US09943222B2

A laryngoscope with automatic image adjustment is revealed. The laryngoscope includes a laryngoscope body, a rotation assembly, a display and a sensor. The laryngoscope body is disposed with a fixing slot and is used for capturing an image. One end of the rotation assembly is fixed in the fixing slot while the other end thereof is arranged with the display. The display is rotated around the rotation assembly. The rotation assembly is set with a limiting slot. The sensor is electrically connected to a rear side of the display and is located inside the limiting slot. While the display being rotated, the sensor is slid on the surface of the rotation assembly. When the sensor is slid in the limiting slot, the display shows the image. Once the sensor is slid outside the limiting slot, the display shows a reflection of the image. Thus the image is adjusted automatically.
US09943220B2

A tubular insertion system includes an insertion unit including a bendable portion, a bending operation mechanism that operates the bendable portion. The tubular insertion system further includes a bending operation amount detection/calculation device that calculates bending operation amount information, a bent shape detection/calculation device that calculates bent shape information, and a first operation support information acquisition unit that acquires first operation support information based on at least one of the bending operation amount information and the bent shape information.
US09943219B2

A multidirectional foot controller includes a base, a first platform, a second platform, and two pedals successively stacked and assembled together. The multidirectional foot controller is activated by having the two pedals depressed simultaneously, and then controls an externally connected endoscope to move forward or backward by a first platform, or controls the endoscope to move leftward or rightward by a second platform. By having only one of the pedals depressed, the multidirectional foot controller can change the field of view of the endoscope.
US09943216B2

An endoscopic mucous membrane lifting instrument includes: a cap mounted at a distal end of an insertion portion of an endoscope device; a first wire disposed at the cap and configured to be capable of protruding from an outer circumferential portion of the distal end of the insertion portion toward a direction more distal than the insertion portion and in a direction approaching an extension line of a central line of the insertion portion; a second wire disposed at the cap and be capable of protruding from the outer circumferential portion of the insertion portion along the central line of the insertion portion in the distal direction than the insertion portion; and a wire-manipulating portion configured to independently operate the first wire and the second wire.
US09943196B2

A sequentially activated multi-diaphragm foam pump for a foam dispenser includes a housing with a liquid pump portion and air pump portion secured. The liquid pump portion has a liquid inlet and valve, a liquid pump diaphragm, a liquid outlet and outlet valve. The air pump portion has a first and second air inlet and air inlet valve, a first and second air pump diaphragm, and a first and second air outlet. The foam pump also includes a mixing chamber that is in fluid communication with the liquid outlet, the first second air outlets. The liquid pump diaphragm, the first and second air pump diaphragms, operate in sequential order and the foamy mixture is dispensed through an outlet that is in fluid communication with the mixing chamber.
US09943194B2

A dispensing system includes a dispensing device for dispensing a material stored within the dispensing device. The dispensing system includes a sensor assembly coupled to the dispensing device and for detecting a size of a user in proximity to the dispensing device. The sensor assembly can activate the dispensing device or provide information to the dispensing device to dispense a quantity of the material that is based on the size of the user detected by the sensor assembly. A method of dispensing a material is also provided.
US09943189B2

A toasting device includes a housing, a plurality of heating spikes extending outwardly from an upper surface of the housing, and a controller electrically coupled to infrared heating sources in the plurality of heating spikes. The controller is configured to control electrical power to the plurality of heating spikes to thereby control temperature.
US09943183B1

A wedding veil support and display for the transport and display of wedding veils and accessories includes a display body adapted to fit under a veil, maintain the shape of the veil when transporting the veil, and, in cases where the display body is suspended from anything allowing a hook to hang, support the veil in an upright position such that the veil and any displayed accessories such as jewelry, may be viewed or photographed in a natural state, e.g., the manner in which the veil is intended to be worn, adjacent a bridal gown.
US09943180B2

A pillow for supporting the head and neck of a user has a tubular body, wherein the tubular body may include a first conical half and a second conical half. A depression is formed between the first conical half and the second conical half, the depression supporting a user's neck.
US09943178B2

A food preparation table includes a food item catchment system including a modular grate and catch pan arrangement positioned atop an upwardly facing surface of the table and including multiple catch pans, multiple frames and multiple grates, each of which is removable for cleaning of the upwardly facing surface and for cleaning of the catch pans, frames and grates.
US09943174B1

Powered recliner chairs, assemblies for use in the chairs, and components for use in the assemblies are provided. Electrical systems for use in the chairs, and components for use in the assemblies are provided. Control systems and methods for operating powered recliner chairs are also provided. Any given chair may be locally and/or remotely controlled.
US09943173B2

A comfort layer for a bedding or seating product has slow-acting pockets characterized by the individual springs of the comfort layer being pocketed with either semi-impermeable or non-permeable fabric. Each seam joining opposed plies of fabric around each of the coil springs of the comfort layer may be segmented, allowing air to flow between the segments, thereby increasing the luxury “feel” of the comfort layer. The method of making the comfort layer includes compressing the springs and creating pockets with a welding horn and an anvil.
US09943171B1

The removable wheelchair weather shield is a shelter. The removable wheelchair weather shield attaches in a removable manner to a wheelchair. The removable wheelchair weather shield protects an occupant of the wheelchair from the weather. The removable wheelchair weather shield includes a canopy and a support structure. The canopy forms a hood over the occupant. The canopy is formed in the shape of an arch. The supporting structure: 1) attaches the canopy to the wheelchair; and 2) raises the canopy above the occupant of the wheelchair.
US09943158B2

Cosmetic formula applicators with angled stem sections are provided for improved ergonomics and to aid in the evenly dispersed coating of a cosmetic material having suspended particles. In general, examples of the applicators described herein generally include a stem including a bore, a bar, and a plurality of application bristles configured to retain an amount of the cosmetic formula for application to a user. The bar may be positioned at an intermediate location within the bore and may include a bend to cause an angle in the stem. In another aspect, the cosmetic formula applicators with angled stem sections are configured for coupling to a cap for use with a container.
US09943155B2

A drawing apparatus includes an object receiver into which an object is inserted, the object being at least one finger or toe having a nail to be drawn, an object holder that is configured to hold the object inserted into the object receiver and processor. The processor is configured to adjust a holding level by the object holder on the basis of a size of the object.
US09943147B2

This invention relates to a type of sunshade that has the distinctive feature of allowing sunlight and heat to pass, but prevents the passage of ultraviolet rays. The device, of conventional configuration, has a film consisting of three layers. Each layer consists of copolymers. Additives are added to these layers to absorb and stabilize ultraviolet rays. The invention allows the user, at the beach for example, to sunbathe and feel its warmth, while being protected from the damaging effects of ultraviolet rays.
US09943140B2

Manufacturing of a shoe or a portion of a shoe is enhanced by executing various shoe-manufacturing processes in an automated manner. A material handling system suitable for use in an automated shoe-manufacturing process has a guide rail and first and second moveable holding elements, each of the holding elements having gripping elements for engaging a part or part stack during the manufacturing process.
US09943132B1

An support insole includes a middle medium sandwiched between flexible upper and lower layers, wherein upper layer has a forefoot region with a metatarse protrusion that projects upward from an upper surface of the upper layer to a certain height, a midfoot region with inner and outer arch sides, wherein the inner arch side has an inner arch protrusion that projects upwardly from the upper surface to a certain height and wherein the outer arch side has a plurality of outer arch protrusions that project upwardly from the upper surface to a certain height, a hindfoot region with a heel support protrusion that projects upwardly from the upper surface to a certain height, wherein the top face is dented inwardly so as to form a concave recess such that the support insole is ergonomically designed to provide comfort for a wearer.
US09943124B2

Flexible LED light arrays particularly suitable for use in clothing and other articles are disclosed. The light arrays are disposed on flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs). The flexible PCBs include substantially sinusoidal metal contact traces, along which the LEDs are attached at an angle preselected to minimize stresses in the expected directions of bending. The flexible PCBs may have control electronics provided on separate, attachable control boards, which may be either flexible or rigid. The flexible LED light arrays may also be arranged in master-slave configurations with a number of arrays, in which one master control array or board is attached to a number of slave arrays and handles external communication for the slave arrays.
US09943123B2

An ornamental swimsuit assembly interchanges ornamental members on a swimsuit through a snap fastening mechanism and extends colorful ribbons on to the swimsuit to enhance the visual appearance of the swimsuit. The ornamental members, such as rhinestones, are interchangeable and enhance the visual appearance of the swimsuit. A connector bracket enables straps on the swimsuit to be detachably attached to the body of the swimsuit. The assembly utilizes a snap fastening and thread mechanism to interchange the ornamental members to the swimsuit. The snap fastening mechanism involves a two-sided connection from the ribbon. The ribbon not only retains decorative caps and the ornamental members, but can also be extended in length through expander connectors to form bracelets, necklaces and other clothing types at a later date. In this manner, multiple ornamental combinations are possible between the swimsuit, the ribbon, decorative caps and the ornamental members.
US09943115B2

An electronic cigarette and an electronic cigarette-based control method are provided. The electronic cigarette includes an electronic cigarette body, which is provided with multiple atomizers, a battery, a smoking switch, an input module and a microprocessor electrically connected to the input module, the smoking switch, the battery and the atomizers. Multiple electromagnetic switches are electrically connected to the microprocessor, which are arranged opposite air intake holes of the atomizers one to one and used for opening or closing corresponding air intake holes. According to a trigger signal, the microprocessor enables the battery to power a target atomizer and a target electromagnetic switch to prevent an airflow from flowing through atomizers not operating, making the airflow only flow into the target atomizer, thereby increasing air into the target atomizer, the amount of vapor to be atomized and the concentration of smoke.
US09943106B2

A package in the form of a pouch comprises a first flexible sheet part 6 and a second flexible sheet part 7. The pouch comprises a first permanent seal 14 between the first sheet part 6 and the second sheet part 7 along a first edge 12 of the pouch. The pouch comprises a second permanent seal 15 between the first sheet part 6 and the second sheet part 7 along a second edge 13 of the pouch opposite to the first edge 12. The pouch comprises a first temporary seal 16 between the first sheet part 6 and the second sheet part 7, the first temporary seal 16 extending across the pouch between the first permanent seal 14 and the second permanent seal 15. The pouch comprises a second temporary seal 17 between the first sheet part 6 and the second sheet part 7, the second temporary seal 17 extending across the pouch between the first permanent seal 14 and the second permanent seal 15. The pouch comprises a first compartment 20 bounded by the first sheet part 6, the second sheet part 7, the first permanent seal 14, the second permanent seal 15 and the first temporary seal 16 and a second compartment 21 bounded by the first sheet part 6, the second sheet part 7, the first permanent seal 14, the second permanent seal 15, the first temporary seal 16 and the second temporary seal 17.
US09943103B1

The present invention provides for a grasping device intended for use by golfers to hold a cigar above the ground. The device is constructed from a length of wire formed as two halves of a golfing tool. The two halves are intertwined into opposing halves, forming an actuator that may be squeezed to open a cigar grasper. An end is suited for use to repair ball marks and divots on a golf course.
US09943100B2

This method for producing stuffed food(s), each stuffed food including an outer envelope in a first food product, and an inner stuffing in a second food product, includes the following steps: providing a sheet of the first food product, and a roller of the second food product, and winding the sheet around the roller.
US09943099B2

An electrically powered juicer has a treatment module arranged to subject the expressed juice to a pasteurization or UHT process in order to prevent the rapid deterioration in quality of the expressed juice that otherwise occurs. The lifetime of the juice expressed by the juicer is considerably extended, allowing juice to be prepared in larger volumes than previously and thus negating the requirement for juicing on demand. The treatment module includes serially arranged heating means and cooling means, operative while the expressed juice is traversing a meandering pathway, and a thermostatically controlled element sited and configured to ensure that the heating operation is automatically repeated in the event that juice exiting the heating operation has not reached a predetermined temperature required for the pasteurization or UHT process.
US09943095B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods of altering/improving Durum wheat phenotypes. Furthermore, methods of breeding Durum wheat and/or other closely related species to produce plants having altered or improved phenotypes are provided.
US09943092B1

An improved liquid processing system including a first catalyst chamber with an inlet and an outlet where the outlet receives liquid to be processed, the liquid passing along the first catalyst chamber and exiting the outlet. Tubes are radially displaced within the first catalyst chamber such that the liquid flows around and over the tubes and where the tubes are filled with at least one magnet. A second catalyst chamber of like configuration is provided. The inlet of the second catalyst chamber is connected with the outlet of the first catalyst chamber A pump is connected with the liquid processing system such that liquid at the inlet of the first catalyst chamber is sucked into the first catalyst chamber at a first PSI and velocity and pushed into the second catalyst chamber at a second PSI and velocity.
US09943081B2

An antibacterial/antiviral coating material is provided, which allows for forming a highly water-resistant antibacterial/antiviral coating film. The antibacterial/antiviral coating material is obtained by blending, into an acrylic-melamine resin coating material, a quaternary ammonium salt (A) represented by Formula (1) below, and a polyhydric carboxylic acid (B) having a C6 or more hydrocarbon group and two or more carboxyl groups. (In Formula (1), R1 represents a C8-22 alkyl group; R2A, R2B and R2C each independently represent a C1-3 alkyl group; and X represents a halogen atom).
US09943078B2

An apparatus for at least one of storage, treatment, assessment and transport of an organ or tissue includes a cooling container configured to cool the organ or tissue, a perfusion circuit configured to perfuse the organ or tissue, and a sample compartment for holding a biological sample. Preferred apparatus has a first internal compartment under a first cover (lid) of the apparatus that includes the coolant container and the sample compartment. The apparatus can include a second internal compartment under a second cover (lid) of the apparatus, the second internal compartment including at least part of the perfusion circuit and a sample compartment.
US09943074B2

A novel and improved flexible and pivoting mounting system and an on/off tail switch for a spinning wing decoy is disclosed to thereby provide a spinning wing decoy capable of imitating the lifelike movement of a bird in takeoff, sustained flight and landing.
US09943072B2

The mussel culture rope is made of interlooped hitches providing hollows, crevices and cavities for sheltering young mussels against predators and for providing extended attachment surface to retain growing mussels. The loopwork is a recyclable type loopworks having a fixed knot at a starting end thereof and a releasable knot and a loopwork release segment at a terminal end thereof. The loopwork is recycled into a plain rope during harvest and braided again for a subsequent culture cycle.
US09943071B2

A retractable leash device (e.g., for pets, children, or the like) having a length control system for limiting the extendable length of a main line is provided. The device includes a cover plate mounted on a wind-up spool and having at least one ridged channel that interacts with a length control switch during line extension to control the extendable length of the main line while simultaneously maintaining the retractability of the main line.
US09943063B1

A multi-stacked-hinge-door pet crate comprises top, bottom, left, right, front, and rear panels attached to one another, multi-function slanted urine-storing bed having built-in gutters and ridges disposed on the bottom panel, a grooming platform, multi-function shock-absorbing gussets covering all the corners of the panels to lock the grooming platform and to absorb shocks and vibrations, and a multi-function door having double hinges thereon to allow door to open and fold, triple locking rods to lock the multi-function door the front panel, a palm knob with palm recesses and palm hills for an arthritic to use without the need for folding his or her fingers, a spring-loaded palm knob to lock the multi-function door against and parallel to the top panel, and double magnets attached to the multi-function door and the front panel, respectively, to stop the multi-function door from swinging.
US09943060B1

A novel maize variety designated X13K450W and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are produced by crossing inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant by crossing hybrid maize variety X13K450W with another maize plant are disclosed. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X13K450W through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X13K450W, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X13K450W. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X13K450W.
US09943056B1

A wheat variety designated 26R59, the plants and seeds of wheat variety 26R59, methods for producing a wheat plant produced by crossing the variety 26R59 with another wheat plant, and hybrid wheat seeds and plants produced by crossing the variety 26R59 with another wheat line or plant, and the creation of variants by mutagenesis or transformation of variety 26R59. This invention also relates to methods for producing other wheat varieties or breeding lines derived from wheat variety 26R59 and to wheat varieties or breeding lines produced by those methods.
US09943054B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH617105. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH617105, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH617105 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH617105.
US09943042B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to fixtures, systems and methods for providing vegetation grow light fixtures with auxiliary power and/or data communication ports or hubs allowing for expansion of their functionality, modularity and adaptability. The addition of power or communication ports integrated with a grow light fixture enables other components to be connected directly to and powered by the grow light fixture. Such components may include but are not limited to supplemental lighting, sensors and actuators.
US09943041B2

In order to support a plant in a bucket that has a top and outside rim, a trellis base having a base surface portion and a rim engagement portion is disclosed. These portions seat on the top and outside rim of the bucket and extend around and beneath the top and outside rim of the bucket. A bottom portion of a further extension wall carries a hold down means which when positioned beneath the top and outside rim of the bucket, anchors the trellis base on the bucket. An inward bias means to inwardly bias and maintain the hold down means in position can also be used. The base surface portion carries at least one removable upright trellis holding means to removably carry the plant trellis.
US09943038B2

A leafy plant trimmer that is operable by a single person has a basket that is rotated in relation to a stationary sling in order to trim plants placed within the basket. The basket and the sling are housed within a trimmer body that is pivotally connected to a pivot stand. The trimmer body can be rotated between a product loading position for filling the basket and an in-use position for trimming the plants within the basket. A motor housed in the trimmer body spins the basket through a drive shaft. The motor is electrically connected to a timer such that the trimmer can be operated at designated time intervals. Trimmings are expelled from the trimmer body through a debris hole and collected below. A first receptacle attachment and a second receptacle attachment are positioned below the trimmer body and allow a receptacle to be positioned for collecting the trimmings.
US09943036B2

A tagger assembly has a tagger for affixing labels onto a lineal object binding a bale of agricultural crop material. The tagger having an input port for receiving the lineal object and an output port for evacuating the lineal object, and at least one retaining element for tensioning the lineal object, more particularly for tensioning the lineal object when it is raised from an initial position close to the bale to a raised position further away from the bale, for affixing a label.
US09943030B2

An agricultural disc opener is operable to be advanced in a forward direction along the ground to plant seed. The disc opener includes a suspension, a disc blade, a seed firming wheel, and a closing wheel. The suspension includes an elongated closer/firmer walking beam pivotally mounted relative to the suspension for pivoting about a lateral beam pivot axis. The wheels are rotatably mounted on the walking beam on opposite forward and aft sides of the beam pivot axis, with the walking beam configured to pivot as the wheels travel over the ground.
US09949416B2

An implantable device includes an exterior gold surface and a thin film disposed on the exterior gold surface and forming a barrier between the exterior gold surface and an implanted environment, in which the thin film includes molecules with a head portion, the head portion attached to the exterior gold surface.
US09949406B2

An electronic equipment enclosure includes a frame structure and a customizable side air dam kit. The frame structure includes a front frame, a rear frame, front-to-back frame members connecting corners of the front and rear frames together, reinforced bracket structures located near ends of the cross members, and extruded horizontal mounting rails parallel to, but inward from, the front-to-back frame members. The ends of the horizontal mounting rails are connected to the reinforced bracket structures. Panels are installed in longitudinal slots in the front-to-back frame members and horizontal mounting rails, each of which is extruded. The customizable side air dam kit includes a framework of horizontal and vertical frame pieces, adapted to connect to the frame structure, and a customizable air dam panel supported by the framework. A plurality of the frame pieces are provided to an installer for use in constructing the framework to fit the specific frame structure.
US09949404B2

An electric device having a printed circuit board fitted with components, and at least one foam component, the foam component surrounding the circuit board at least partially so as to form a housing.
US09949401B2

A vent-free, fan-less pre-configured Information Technology component cluster suitable for in-wall mounting is provided which maintains proper operational temperature of all components within the cluster.
US09949397B2

A touch panel having improved visibility is provided. The touch panel includes a window part, at least one ultraviolet (UV) resin layer attached to a bottom surface of the window part, and a display part including a touch sensor film module attached to a bottom surface of the at least one UV resin layer such that the UV resin layer prevents refractions and reflections of light.
US09949394B2

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a motor vehicle internal combustion engine control apparatus which is constructed as a waterproof structure capable of having a long life while minimizing an increase in surface area of a case and a cover, thereby enabling miniaturization, decrease in cost, and increase in reliability to be satisfied. The motor vehicle internal combustion engine control apparatus is equipped with a substrate, a connector, and a case and cover which enclose the substrate, a waterproofing adhesive being disposed at a junction part between the cover and the case. Recessed portions are disposed at the junction part between the case and the cover. The sidewalls of one of the recessed portions are inserted into the other of the recessed portions to form a gap which is folded a plurality of times between the case and the cover and extends between the inside and the outside of the case and cover, said gap being formed so that the size of the gap on the outer side is formed to be larger than the size of the gap on the inner side. The gap is configured to be fluid-tight by the waterproofing adhesive filled in the gap.
US09949380B2

A manufacturing method of an electronic component including a circuit component provided with plural first electrodes in an end, and a substrate provided with plural second electrodes includes: pressing a part of a second surface of an inside of a second edge of the circuit component in the end to the substrate by a press attaching surface of the press attaching tool with an adhesive arranged between the circuit component and the substrate; making a part of the adhesive reach the second surface to cover at least a part of the second edge by the pressing; and curing the adhesive between the end and the substrate and the part of the adhesive covering the at least the part of the second edge.
US09949375B2

A method for preventing a molded body made of low melting point resin from being thermally damaged when external connection terminals provided on the molded body and external connection terminals provided on a flexible sheet are joined together via soldering. The method includes arranging the connection terminal of the molded body and the connection terminal of the flexible sheet such that the connection terminals face each other, and an electromagnetic induction heating performing electromagnetic induction heating after the arranging.
US09949372B2

A printed wiring board includes a laminate, a wiring layer formed on first main surface of the laminate and including conductor pads, via conductors including first and second via conductors and formed in the laminate such that each via conductor has diameter gradually reducing from the first main surface toward second main surface of the laminate, and conductor post formed on the first via conductors such that each conductor post includes a metal foil and a plating layer formed on the metal foil. The via conductors are formed such that the first via conductors are positioned in an outer edge portion of the laminate and have minimum-diameter-side surfaces positioned to form a same plane with the second main surface of the laminate and that the second via conductors are positioned in a central portion of the laminate and have minimum-diameter-side surfaces recessed from the second main surface of the laminate.
US09949371B2

The problem of the invention is to provide a resin composite electrolytic copper foil having further improved heat resistance and improved plate adhesion strength when plated after desmear treatment in the work process of an additive method. The solution is to form a roughened surface having a plurality of minute projections, a surface roughness (Rz) within a range of 1.0 pm to 3.0 pm and a lightness value of not more than 30 on one surface of an electrolytic copper foil (A), and form a layer of a resin composition (B) containing a block copolymerized polyimide resin (a) having a structure that imide oligomers of a first structural unit and a second structural unit are bonded alternately and repeatedly on the roughened surface.
US09949366B2

A touch panel includes a protective cover with a lower surface herein, and an active region and a periphery region defined on the lower surface. A first sensing structure is disposed on the lower surface and covers the active region. A shelter layer is disposed on the lower surface and in the periphery region, wherein the shelter layer includes a highlight region and a highlight contrast region, a first pattern is disposed in the highlight region, and a non-transparent layer with a second pattern is disposed in the highlight region, wherein the first pattern is overlapped by the second pattern.
US09949364B2

Assembly methods and apparatus for electrically stable connectors are described herein where a conductive wire assembly generally comprises an insulative substrate having a length, one or more conductive elements formed along a first direction upon the substrate, an insulative coverlay formed upon the one or more conductive elements, and at least one opening or window defined through the insulative coverlay exposing a portion of the one or more conductive elements. A conductive coating is formed upon the insulative coverlay such that the conductive coating is in contact with the portion of the one or more conductive elements through the at least one opening or window and the conductive coating may have at least one region removed along a second direction in proximity to the at least one opening or window such that one or more conductive pads are formed and are electrically isolated from a remainder of the conductive coating.
US09949362B2

A voltage protection for printed circuit boards is provided, which is slotted on one end, such that it has printed circuit board strips, a mount, which is configured to at least partially receive the printed circuit board, and a voltage protection cover, which is configured to be connected to the mount and the printed circuit board, such that a chamber system is formed, in which each printed circuit board strip is disposed inside a chamber, which is formed by the connection between the mount and the voltage protection cover.
US09949359B2

A portable electronic device packaged into a System-in-Package assembly is disclosed. The portable electronic device can include a substrate and a plurality of components mounted on the substrate and included in one or more subsystems. Interference between subsystems or from external sources can be reduced or eliminated by disposing an insulating layer over the components, forming narrow trenches between subsystems, and depositing one or more layers of a multi-layer thin film stack on the insulating layer and filling the trenches. In some examples, the multi-layer thin film stack can include an adhesion layer, a shielding layer, a protection layer, and a cosmetic layer. In some examples, the multi-layer thin film stack can include multi-functional layers such as a protection and cosmetic layer.
US09949350B2

A method for selecting a lighting control group monitor does not require special device network configuration steps during manufacturing. The selected lighting control group monitor is determined based on a location of the lighting control group monitor relative to other lighting system elements within the lighting control group. One lighting system element most centrally located within the lighting control group is selected as the lighting control group monitor. A lighting control group network table listing an entry for each of the lighting system elements is modified such that the entry corresponding to the lighting control group monitor is the first entry in the lighting control group network table. The lighting control group network table is sent to the lighting control group monitor and the lighting control group monitor sends the lighting control group network table to the other lighting system elements in the lighting control group.
US09949345B2

A power supply system providing communication from a master module to at least one slave module via transients, to alter operation of a load, is provided. The master module output a supply voltage that is either a normal supply voltage or a reduced supply voltage. The outputted supply voltage depends on input corresponding to a communication to be sent to the slave module to alter operation of the load of the slave module. The slave module receives the supply voltage and interprets the received supply voltage, which may vary between the normal and reduced supply voltages, to determine what the communication from the master module is. The slave module then uses information from the communication to appropriately alter operation of its load.
US09949338B2

A device to allow a two-way switch to be used in an electrical circuit comprising multiple switches. Using the invention device, the two-way switch can operate as either a three-way switch or a four-way switch in a multiple-switch electrical circuit using AC mains voltage.
US09949334B2

A lighting assembly including a circuit is disclosed. The circuit is configured to be disposed in a panel defining a cavity forming an opening. The circuit includes a light source in communication with a controller and an exposed conductive portion conductively connected to an isolation terminal. The exposed conductive portion is oriented proximate the opening and provides a path for an electrical discharge to protect the light source from the electrical discharge.
US09949332B2

An LED circuit includes a series of LED devices, a power supply circuit and a signal control circuit. Each of the LED devices includes an LED unit and an integrated circuit unit having a specific serial number and receiving an electrical parameter. The signal control circuit is coupled to the power supply circuit and the series of LED devices, and has a loaded status. The signal control circuit changes the loaded status in response to a control signal so as to cause the electrical parameter to have a variation, the variation of the electrical parameter generates a signal code having an information, all the integrated circuit units receive the signal code, and a specific LED unit will be driven by a corresponding integrated circuit unit when the signal code corresponds to the specific serial number of the corresponding integrated circuit unit.
US09949318B2

A portable heating arrangement for providing heat to a surface, such as a roof and rain gutter is provided. The portable heating arrangement includes a base configured to rest upon the surface and at least one heating conduit directly or indirectly mounted to at least a portion of the base and configured to provide heat to the surface. The heating arrangement may further include at least one connector configured to directly or indirectly attach at least a portion of the base to the surface. The heating conduit may include a metal wire enclosed within a conductive core and polymer sheath. A method of forming a portable heating arrangement and a method for heating a surface are also provided herein.
US09949313B2

A data card connection management method which is applied to an electronic device on which a plurality of connection managers having connection management matching features are installed, the data card connection management method includes the following steps: when detecting that an access data card is connected to the electronic device, acquiring a connection management matching feature of the access data card; selecting a connection manager matching the connection management matching feature of the data card from the plurality of connection managers having the connection management matching features as a first target connection manager; and starting and only starting the first target connection manager. Correspondingly, a data card connection management apparatus and system, and a data card are further provided. The problem that different types of data card connection managers cannot normally operate on the electronic device is effectively solved.
US09949310B2

A wireless communications device includes a radio frequency (RF) module and a baseband chip. The baseband chip is configured to initiate a mobile originated (MO) call through the RF module with a first subscriber identity card when the RF module is occupied by performing a packet switched (PS) data service with a second subscriber identity card, arbitrate a first protocol stack handler to suspend or terminate the PS data service associated with the second subscriber identity card in response to initiating the MO call associated with the first subscriber identity card, and arbitrate a second protocol stack handler to make the MO call associated with the first subscriber identity card when the PS data service associated with the second subscriber identity card is suspended or terminated.
US09949304B1

A mobile communication device. The device comprises a cellular radio transceiver, a processor, and a memory integral with the device, wherein the memory is apportioned into a plurality of partitions. The device further comprises a first wireless communication identity stored in a first partition of the memory and a second wireless communication identity stored in a second partition of the memory, wherein the second wireless communication identity is different from the first wireless communication identity. The device further comprises an application stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, detects a triggering event and in response to the triggering event selects one of the wireless communication identities to be an active communication identity of the device, wherein a wireless communication identity comprises a network access identity and a list of wireless communication systems to which the device is authorized to attach.
US09949299B2

A communication system and method is provided for handling emergencies wherein public safety radios are used to directly communicate with normally incompatible radios used by organizations such as schools. The system includes a radio communication bridge that is selectively activated by emergency personnel to contact an organization undergoing an emergency. The bridge is activated via a TCP/IP command over an IP network or alternatively sent by a pre-programmed digital radio. Computer software or firmware at communication endpoints, emergency responder locations, and at an emergency call center facilitates functionality of the system to include emergency notifications, dissemination of information associated with a particular emergency, and the status of the system to include activation and deactivation of the radio bridge.
US09949297B2

There are provided a technology associated with a terminal device, a base station apparatus, a communication system, a communication method, and an integrated circuit, in all of which efficient communication control is performed. A terminal device makes a connection to a base station apparatus using a first cell group and second cell group, and, in a case where the second cell group that includes at least one cell is changed based on an information element which is notified with a radio resource control message that is received from the base station apparatus, starts counting of an RRC timer relating to a random access procedure for the cell in the second cell group, and initiates the random access.
US09949289B2

A network element in a first cell in a wireless telecommunication network is provided. The network element comprises a processor configured such that the network element provides uplink and downlink grants in the first cell, wherein the first cell is a low-power cell within the coverage area of a second, high-power cell, and wherein the first cell acts as a secondary cell and the second cell acts as a primary cell in a carrier aggregation mode, and wherein at least one uplink control signal is received by one of only the first cell or both the first cell and the second cell.
US09949284B2

The present invention provides a method for determining HARQ-ACK feedback timing and uplink scheduling timing, and for managing the synchronous uplink HARQ process during uplink and downlink reconfiguration. The method comprises: when uplink and downlink reconfiguration is performed, determining whether at least one HARQ-ACK feedback associated with the last frame of a previous uplink and downlink configuration cannot be transmitted in the first frame of a current uplink and downlink configuration; and when the HARQ-ACK feedback cannot be transmitted in the first frame of the current uplink and downlink configuration, the HARQ-ACK feedback follows a new timing determined by the previous and the current uplink and downlink configuration.
US09949283B2

In an example embodiment, one or more scheduler of base stations may be configured to schedule resource blocks on a frequency band of two adjacent cells to eliminate crossed timeslots interference by selecting different starting points on the frequency band.
US09949279B2

A network node for selecting transmission mode towards a wireless device in a wireless communications network is provided. The wireless communications network comprises a first cell and a second cell. The wireless device is connected to the first cell, which first cell is served by the network node. The network node obtains (301) information about respective downlink signal strength from the first cell to the wireless device, and the second cell to the wireless device. The network node selects (302) transmission mode towards the wireless device based on absolute signal strength and a difference in signal strength between the first cell and the second cell. The difference is calculated based on the obtained information. Publ.
US09949273B2

It is presented a method performed in a first network node. The method comprises the steps of: receiving an uplink transmission from a mobile communication terminal; determining, based on content of the uplink transmission, information to be transmitted over a first communication channel when the content comprises control data intended for a second network node; transmitting the information over the first communication channel to the second network node when the information is to be transmitted over the first communication channel; and transmitting the information via a second communication channel, the second communication channel being physically separate from the first communication channel, when the information is not to be transmitted over the first communication channel. A corresponding network node is also presented.
US09949264B2

An uplink transmission method in a wireless communication system, and a user equipment (UE) therefore, are discussed. The method includes, for example, generating uplink control information (UCI) which includes at least one of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK)/negative-acknowledgement (NACK) signal, a channel quality indicator (CQI) and a scheduling request (SR); generating a reference signal (RS) based on one or more indices selected from among a set {0, 3, 6, 8, 10}; transmitting the UCI on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH); and transmitting the generated RS for the PUCCH based on the selected one or more indices.
US09949263B2

Improved systems, methods, and apparatuses for allocation of frequency resources, or tones, for a Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT) system are described. In various aspects, interference may be reduced for a CIoT system and an adjacent wireless communications system through identifying a first group of narrowband tones for the CIoT system that will have reduced interference with wideband tone transmissions of the adjacent wireless communications system and may thus support higher power transmissions.
US09949262B2

Methods and apparatuses for providing wireless messages according to various tone plans can include a system configured to generate a message according to a 2048-tone plan having 1960 data tones. The 2048-tone plan includes two identical 1024-tone plans each having 980 data tones. The system can further perform segment parsing to divide data into two data portions, each portion for transmission over one of two 80 MHz bandwidths, according to one of the two identical 1024-tone plans. The system can further perform low density parity check (LDPC) tone mapping separately on each of the two data portions. The system can further provide the message for transmission over a 160 MHz bandwidth including the two 80 MHz bandwidths.
US09949260B2

A user equipment (UE) performing transmit power control (TPC) transmission slot assignment includes a receiver, a determining means and a slot allocator. The UE receives one or more TPC commands from two or more radio links, determines a TPC combining period in accordance with a primary slot position, wherein a primary TPC symbol transmission of the primary radio link is present at the primary slot position; a slot allocator that allocates a secondary slot position for a secondary TPC symbol transmission of the secondary radio link in accordance with the TPC combining period. A method and a radio base station are also included herein.
US09949246B2

A method for a network node, a method for a relay wireless device, a method for an out of coverage wireless device, a network node, and a relay wireless device, an out of coverage wireless device are presented. The network node serves a cell in which a relay wireless device is at least partially located, the network node provides at least partial network coverage for the relay wireless device located in the cell, and an out of coverage wireless device is at least partially out of network coverage from the network node. The method includes determining that the network node should control the out of coverage wireless device. The method further includes determining D2D control information to be used for controlling the out of coverage wireless device, and transmitting the D2D control information to the out of coverage wireless device via a relay wireless device.
US09949242B2

According to one embodiment, a method for transmitting, by a user equipment (UE), information in a wireless communication system includes: determining a first information sequence based on a first cyclically shifted base sequence and a first orthogonal sequence by using a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for a first antenna, wherein the first PUCCH resource is obtained based on a channel control element (CCE) index related to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a parameter configured by a higher layer; determining a second information sequence based on a second cyclically shifted base sequence and a second orthogonal sequence by using a second PUCCH resource for a second antenna, wherein the second PUCCH resource is obtained by adding an offset to the first PUCCH resource; transmitting the first information sequence via the first antenna; and transmitting the second information sequence via the second antenna.
US09949241B2

A User Equipment (UE) is described. The UE decodes an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) reconfiguration downlink control information (DCI) with an enhanced interference mitigation with traffic adaptation (eIMTA)-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The UE also determines if one or more valid UL/DL configurations in the UL/DL reconfiguration DCI with eIMTA-RNTI for all configured eIMTA cells are received. The UE further determines if physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format 3 is configured. The UE additionally determines a PUCCH resource for physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) reporting based on whether valid UL/DL configurations in the UL/DL reconfiguration DCI with eIMTA-RNTI for all of the configured eIMTA cells corresponding to a subframe for the PUCCH resource are received. The UE also sends PDSCH HARQ-ACK information on the selected PUCCH resource in an uplink subframe.
US09949238B2

Apparatus for and methods of enabling a gateway node of a first packet-switched data network to select a first channel for transferring a tunnelled data packet to a destination packet data protocol address of a mobile node provided service in the first network are disclosed. The gateway node is configured to select the first channel from a plurality of channels configured to transfer data packets to the destination packet data protocol address of the mobile node, and the selection is performed by matching a packet data protocol address, associated with a data packet received by the gateway node, to one or more data packet filters associated with the plurality of channels.
US09949236B2

A method of communication includes generating a traffic advertisement. The traffic advertisement indicates availability of data to be sent to multiple devices of a set of devices. The data includes first data to be sent to a first device and second data to be sent to a second device. The method also includes sending the traffic advertisement during a paging window. The method further includes receiving a first acknowledgement (ACK) during the paging window from the first device. The method also includes receiving a trigger message from the second device. The method further includes sending the first data to the first device during a data transmission window. The method also includes, in response to detecting receipt of the trigger message from the second device, sending the second data to the second device during the data transmission window without receiving a second ACK during the paging window from the second device.
US09949234B2

A method is disclosed of a wireless communication device adapted to communicate using a radio access transceiver alternatingly in accordance with a first radio access technology and in accordance with a second radio access technology. The method comprises allocating a number of time periods during communication in accordance with the first radio access technology to reception of a paging signal of the second radio access technology, wherein the number is dynamically variable based on a result of a (block) decoding of at least one previous paging signal of the second radio access technology. The number may be set based on at least one respective previous number of time periods required for successful (block) decoding of the at least one previous paging signal. Furthermore, the number may be set to a maximum value if an immediately previous paging signal was not successfully decoded.
US09949224B1

A method includes performing a timing measurement of one or more positioning signals received at a mobile device and searching for available public land mobile networks (PLMNs) by the mobile device. The method also includes controlling the performing the timing measurement and the searching for the available PLMNs based on whether the performing the timing measurement or the searching for the available PLMNs began first and further based on a number of available receive paths on the mobile device. If the number of available receive paths can support it, timing measurements of one or more received positioning signals may be performed concurrently with searching for available public land mobile networks (PLMNs). Otherwise, if the receive paths cannot support concurrent timing measurement and PLMN searching, the PLMN search is put on hold or suspended and the timing measurements are allowed. Upon completion, the PLMN search may then begin or resume.
US09949223B2

Techniques are disclosed using Sync Beacons in neighbor awareness networking (NAN) in wireless networks, wherein the Sync Beacon frames use Public Action frames for the Sync Beacon. Such networks include (but are not limited to) IEEE 802.11 networks.
US09949220B2

An efficient way to perform power control and to communicate data with a base station is desired. According to an aspect, the apparatus generates a downlink grant for a device, the downlink grant indicating to the device subsets of uplink resources allocated for transmitting data segments and subsets of downlink resources for receiving power control commands for respective data segments, the subsets of the uplink resources being non-concurrent with the subsets of the downlink resources. The apparatus transmits the downlink grant to the device. The apparatus receives, from the device, a first uplink transmission in a first subset of the uplink resources based on the transmitted downlink grant. The apparatus generates a first power control command based on the received first uplink transmission. The apparatus transmits, to the device, the first power control command in a first subset of the downlink resources. The apparatus may be a base station.
US09949219B2

Techniques for forming a wireless RF power harvesting and data network are described. An example electronic device includes an antenna array, a processor, and instructions to direct the actions of the processor. The instructions control the processor to perform a registration process for a power harvesting device. The registration process is to obtain information that enables the transmission of a targeted power packet to the power harvesting device through beamforming. The instructions also direct the processor transmit the targeted power packet to the power harvesting device.
US09949218B1

A device for boosting a mobile signal corresponding to a mobile device, the device including a cradle for holding the mobile device, a mirrored phone antenna configured to contact the mobile device when placed in the cradle, and configured to receive the mobile signal from the mobile device, a secondary antenna for receiving the mobile signal from the mirrored phone antenna, a booster electronic card for receiving the mobile signal from the secondary antenna, and for boosting the mobile signal, and a directionalized antenna for receiving the boosted mobile signal from the booster electronic card, and for transmitting the boosted mobile signal.
US09949210B2

A system and method for managing mobile communications device connectivity and communication behavior monitor device location relative to known communication-mode coverage areas and cause or suggest changes in device connectivity or behavior based on a power-drain map to preserve device battery power. The power-drain map provides, in an embodiment, a pairing of locations, available communication modes, and expected power drains when a given device employs each available communication mode. In general, behavioral modifications include preemptive or delayed downloading as well as switching networks or network types among other types of behavior.
US09949209B2

Power management in a distributed communications system, such as a distributed antenna system (DAS), that includes determining user activity at remote units of the DAS. When user activity in one or more remote units falls below or above a specified threshold, power usage by the one or more remote units is reduced or increased accordingly. The power usage may reduced and/or increased by turning select remote units on or off, by increasing or reducing an operating voltage of one or more power amplifiers, and/or by turning select multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) front ends on or off. Power may be reduced such that wireless coverage within a specified area is maintained.
US09949208B2

A method and apparatus is provided for selecting power preference information based on network usage information used for a background process of a terminal. The power preference information selection method of the present disclosure includes measuring background network usage of a terminal, acquiring network usage information of the terminal when the background network usage exceeds a predetermined threshold, selecting the power preference information based on the network usage information, and transmitting the power preference information to the base station.
US09949197B2

A connection right to connect to a base station is appropriately switched. An information processor includes an acquisition unit and a control unit. Here, the acquisition unit obtains a communication quality of wireless communication at a position where a wireless communication apparatus exists. Also, the control unit switches the connection right to connect the wireless communication apparatus to the base station by using the wireless communication based on the communication quality obtained by the acquisition unit (the communication quality of the wireless communication at the position where the wireless communication apparatus exists).
US09949190B2

A method of supporting handover of a terminal by a mobility management entity (MME) of a mobile communication system is provided. The method includes receiving, from a base station, a first message for handover to another network. The first message includes information on a cell to which the terminal is handed over. The method also includes transmitting, to a server, a second message for reporting information related to a location of the terminal and for providing a location continuity based on the first message. A terminal having both a 3GPP communication function and a WiFi function automatically switches on and off a WLAN according to a location, setting, or a pattern of a user, thereby preventing unnecessary battery consumption or performance deterioration and searching for an available WLAN in advance to access the WLAN.
US09949186B2

Computer readable media, methods, and apparatus for resource block identification (RBIDs) for neighbor station resource requests are disclosed. An apparatus of a station is disclosed. The apparatus may include a memory, and processing circuitry coupled to the memory. The processing circuitry may be configured to decode a neighbor report comprising one or more RBIDs from a first access point. Each RBID may indicate a frequency resource allocation to transmit one bit of information to a second access point. The processing circuitry may be further configured to respond to decoding a poll trigger from the second access point, by encoding a response to the poll trigger in accordance with the corresponding frequency resource allocation indicated by one of the one or more RBIDs. The processing circuitry may be further configured to configure the station to transmit the response to the second access point in accordance orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA).
US09949185B2

Mobile service anchor management (MSAM) is facilitated. MSAM is an anchor management function/system for radio frequency (RF) access configuration/reconfiguration over the downlink, and uplink separated novel frequency division duplex systems. One method comprises determining, by a MSAM system comprising a processor, that a mobile device communicatively coupled to a first network device is associated with a region in which the first network device fails to have line of sight communication with the mobile device; and assigning, by the mobile service anchor management system, the mobile device to a second network device determined to have the line of sight communication for the region. Millimeter watt (mmW) BS devices and devices that operate on other RF bands can be utilized.
US09949179B2

A method and device for indicating D2D related information and determining D2D transmission resources, the method comprising: transmitting to a target base station a switching request message after determining cell switching for a device to device user equipment (D2D UE), the switching request message comprising D2D related information of the D2D UE; receiving a switching command transmitted by the target base station, the switching command comprising the resource allocation type and/or D2D transmission resource for the D2D UE in a target cell determined by the target base station based on the D2D related information; and transmitting the determined resource allocation type and/or D2D transmission resource to the D2D UE. The present invention solves the existing problem of how to determine D2D transmission resources during cell switching for a UE in D2N connection state.
US09949172B2

A method includes establishing a first session (e.g., a Wi-Fi call) via a first connection to a first network, where the connection to the first network is provided by a first receiver of the mobile device, and monitoring a characteristic of the first connection to the first network. The method includes determining whether the characteristic satisfies a threshold. When the characteristic does not satisfy the threshold, the method includes activating a second receiver of the mobile device, establishing a second connection to a second network, and initiating a handover procedure to transfer the first session from the first network to the second network. The second connection to the second network is provided by the second receiver of the mobile device. As a result of the handover procedure, the first session may be merged with or transferred to a second session (e.g., a cellular call) provided via the second network.
US09949167B2

Provided in one embodiment of the present invention is a method for measuring interference with user equipment (UE) using a licensed band and an unlicensed band, through carrier aggregation (CA) according to long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A). The method comprises the steps of: receiving, from a base station, configuration on the position of a resource for measuring interference in the unlicensed band; measuring, from the position of the resource on the unlicensed band, interference from a wireless LAN (WLAN), excluding interference from the LTE-A; and reporting the measured interference to the base station.
US09949165B2

Systems, devices, and configurations to implement trusted connections within wireless networks and associated devices and systems are generally disclosed herein. In some examples, a wireless local area network (WLAN) may be attached to a 3GPP evolved packet core (EPC) as a trusted access network, without use of an evolved packet data gateway (ePDG) and overhead from related tunneling and encryption. Information to create the trusted attachment between a mobile device and a WLAN may be exchanged using Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) extensions defined by IEEE standard 802.11u-2011, or using other protocols or standards such as DHCP or EAP. A trusted WLAN container with defined data structure fields may be transferred in the ANQP elements to exchange information used in the establishment and operation of the trusted attachment.
US09949129B1

In one embodiment, a device in a network receives data associated with a particular location. The device determines when the device is at the particular location by monitoring a local position of the device relative to the particular location. The device identifies a node in the network as being co-located with the device at the particular location. The device shares the data with the identified node based on the device and the node being co-located at the particular location.
US09949119B2

A method for assessing a message transmitted between at least: two parties via a previously unknown third party in a decentralized communication network, wherein all parties share a common trust architecture, includes publishing, on-behalf-of indication and public, security information of the third party; publishing, the message of the first party; evaluating the published information to extract published content of the first party by the second party as intended receiver of the message; verifying a real-world-identity of the third party and/or the signature of the third party based on the previously received trust information and/or based on the self-certifying name and the public security information of the third party; checking a trust information chain according to the common trust architecture from the second party to the third party; and assessing the content of the first party based on the checked trust chain.
US09949111B2

Apparatuses, methods, and systems are provided for implementing a trusted subscription management platform. The platform allows the remote creation, distribution and management of virtual subscriber identity module cards stored in a plurality of concurrent embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (eUICCs). The eUICCs may be virtualized through a secure software module integrated within a mobile station or in a distant server. These eUICCs may be deployed in both hardware and software instances within the mobile station (or the distant server). In some embodiments, use of the trusted subscription management platform provides a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server module that facilitates the transmission of voice and data over Internet protocol services integrated within a phone application of the mobile station.
US09949109B2

Method and arrangement for supporting connectivity of a wireless device to a network infrastructure. An infrastructure provider associates a set of device identification numbers to a first radio access provider in a subscription database of the infrastructure provider. The infrastructure provider also sets the first radio access provider as a preferred roaming partner in a SIM that comprises a subscriber identifier with a network identifier of the infrastructure provider. The SIM is provided for use in the device, to enable access to the network infrastructure over a radio access network of the first radio access provider based on the subscriber identifier and the preferred roaming partner in the SIM.
US09949099B1

A method and apparatus of accessing a data service in a wireless communications network is disclosed. An example may include receiving a call identifying an application accessed by a mobile station, and verifying whether the accessed application is installed on the mobile station. The example may further include transferring a notification message to the mobile station based on the accessed application.
US09949095B2

An embodiment floor control method includes receiving, by a mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) server over an Long Term Evolution network, a first message sent by a user equipment (UE), where the first message includes an identifier of a group to which a talker corresponding to the UE belongs and a parameter indicating that an event type is a floor request, generating, by the MCPTT server, a second message according to the floor control policy and the first message, and sending the second message to the UE. The method includes receiving a response message of the second message sent by the UE, generating a first instruction message according to the response message of the second message, where the first instruction message is used to instruct a media resource function entity to perform uplink voice switching on a media plane, and sending the first instruction message to the media resource function entity.
US09949090B2

Provided is a location tracking system and a method of operating the location tracking system. The location tracking system selects either an indoor location tracking mode or an outdoor location tracking mode according to whether a user is currently indoors or outdoors and tracks the location of the user. The location tracking system tracks an indoor location of the user using access point (AP) signal intensity information and a step detection technique when tracking the location of a user in the indoor location tracking mode, and tracks the outdoor location of a user using a global positioning system (GPS) and a step detection technique when tracking the location of the user in the outdoor location tracking mode.
US09949088B1

A method and system for scheduled breaks are described. A network computer system receives provider data corresponding to a position of a computing device of a service provider. The system determines a service state of the provider between an open state, an occupied state, and a pause state, indicating the provider is unavailable for a remaining duration of time. In response to receiving a service request specifying a service location and a determination that the provider is in the pause state, the system estimates a time of arrival at the service location based at least on the remaining duration of time for the pause state and the position of the computing device. Based on the estimated time of arrival, the system selects the provider to fulfill the service request and transmits data corresponding to the service request to the computing device of the service provider.
US09949087B2

A method and mobile device configured to display time zone information of a destination mobile device to which the mobile device connects based on time zone information of the mobile device and the destination mobile device.
US09949080B2

A mobile device can be found and recovered by executing a recovery action indicative of at least one location of the mobile device. An interface displays the location of the mobile device.
US09949079B2

A method of estimating the position of a user device is provided. The user device is initially in electronic communication with a positioning system controller through a communication network. The method comprises determining that a user device meets one or more proximity criteria with respect to an offline region where electronic communication between the user device and the positioning system controller, through the communication network, is expected to meet one or more failure criteria. Responsive thereto and in advance of the user device entering the said offline region, the positioning system controller transmitting local positioning data to the user device, the local positioning data comprising data concerning electromagnetic signal sources in the said offline region. The user device subsequently estimates its position while it is within the offline region by measuring signal data from a plurality of electromagnetic signal sources and processing the measured signal data and the local positioning data. The method may be used by, for example, a smartphone to estimate its position.
US09949075B2

A method of communicating with at least one power tool device using a power distribution box. The power distribution box includes a power-line adapter, a gateway device, and alternating current (AC) power outlets. The method includes receiving alternating current from an external power source and distributing the AC power received from the external power source to the AC power outlets. The method also includes receiving from the gateway device wireless communication from a power tool, transmitting by the power-line adapter the data from the wireless communication to an external network, and receiving information regarding the power tool device.
US09949070B2

A method and a device for positioning a NAN terminal in a wireless LAN system are provided. A first station receives, through a service discovery frame during a preset discovery window, allocation information of an available window for reporting a location estimate value of the first station, location information of a second station located within a distance of one hop from the first station, and location information of a third station located within a distance of at least one hop from the second station. The first station determines the location estimate value of the first station on the basis of the location information of the second station and the location information of the third station. The first station reports the location estimate value of the first station during a section indicated by the allocation information of the available window.
US09949069B2

It is difficult to distinguish facility types. It is difficult to estimate a fluctuating population from the number of communication terminals. A log information obtaining unit which obtains log information in which positional information of a wireless terminal and clock time information at which the positional information is obtained are associated, a population fluctuation pattern determination unit which determines a population fluctuation pattern based on the log information, a type determination unit which determines a type of a facility based on the population fluctuation pattern determined by the population fluctuation pattern determination unit, with reference to basic pattern information indicating a population fluctuation pattern for each facility type, and an estimated value deriving unit which extracts calculation basic information corresponding to the facility type determined by the type determination unit to derive an estimated value of the population movement of the facility are comprised.
US09949062B2

A method, computer-readable storage device and apparatus for generating a predictive message in a communications network are disclosed. For example, the method receives at least one machine-to-machine communication in the communications network, stores the at least one machine-to-machine communication in a database of the communications network, analyzes the at least one machine-to-machine communication, and generates the predictive message based upon the at least one machine-to-machine communication that is analyzed.
US09949058B2

Provided is a communication device within a communication network including a plurality of communication nodes, including: a reception unit that receives a data packet transmitted from a terminal device or transmitted to the terminal device; a communication control unit that selects a forwarding destination node of the data packet from a plurality of forwarding destination node candidates when the terminal device is a machine-type communication (MTC) terminal; and a transmission unit that transmits the data packet to the forwarding destination node selected by the communication control unit.
US09949050B2

The present invention concerns a method for calibrating an array of receivers (rj), each receiver being configured for receiving a signal transmitted by at least one transmitter (si), and echoes of the transmitted signal as reflected by one or more reflective surfaces (w), said method comprising the following steps: sorting said echoes, by assigning each echo to a reflective surface or to a combination of reflective surfaces (w) calibrating said array of receivers (rj) based on said sorting.
US09949049B2

An audio jack detection circuit includes an impedance detecting circuit configured to generate a detection signal corresponding to an impedance between a ground pin and a ground detection pin, which are in contact with a ground terminal of an audio jack socket, and a controller configured to determine a state of the audio jack socket based on the detection signal. A detection range of the impedance detected by the impedance detector may be controlled by varying a resistance of a pull-up resistor connected to the ground detection pin.
US09949046B2

In one embodiment, a healing engine included in an audio system enables the audio system to perform self-repair operations. Upon detecting that an audio device included in the audio system has failed, the healing engine executes repair operations. First, the healing engine identifies any new audio devices added to the audio system after the failed audio device failed. The healing engine then selects one of the new audio devices as a replacement for the failed audio device. Finally, the healing engine configures the selected audio device to implement a system identity that previously identified the failed audio device with respect to the audio system. In this fashion, the healing engine replaces the failed audio device with the selected audio device. By automating the repair process, the healing engine reduces the time and effort required to restore the audio system to a fully operational state compared to conventional, manually-based techniques.
US09949042B2

An audio processing pipeline, for an auditory prosthesis, includes: a common stage, including a common frequency analysis filter bank, configured to generate a common set of processed signals based on an input audio signal; and first and second stimulator-specific stages, responsive to the common set of signals and including first and second frequency-analysis filter banks, configured to generate first and second sets of processed signals adapted for the first and second hearing stimulators, respectively.
US09949040B2

The application relates to: A hearing system comprising first and second hearing aid systems, each being configured to be worn by first and second persons and adapted to exchange audio data between them. The application further relates to a method of operating a hearing system. The object of the present application is to provide improved perception of a (target) sound source for a wearer of a hearing device (e.g. a hearing aid or a headset) in a difficult listening situation. The problem is solved in that each of the first and second hearing aid systems comprising an input unit for providing a multitude of electric input signals representing sound in the environment of the hearing aid system; a beamformer unit for spatially filtering the electric input signals; antenna and transceiver circuitry allowing a wireless communication link between the first and second hearing aid systems to be established to allow the exchange of said audio data between them; and a control unit for controlling the beamformer unit and the antenna and transceiver circuitry; wherein the control unit—at least in a dedicated partner mode of operation of the hearing aid system—is arranged to configure the beamformer unit to retrieve an own voice signal of the person wearing the hearing aid system from the electric input signals, and to transmit the own voice signal to the other hearing aid system via the antenna and transceiver circuitry. This has the advantage of eliminating the need for a partner microphone while still providing a boost in SNR of a target speaker. The invention may e.g. be used for the hearing aids, head sets, active ear protection devices or combinations thereof.
US09949034B2

In a system and method for maintaining the spatial stability of a sound field a balance gain may be calculated for two or more microphone signals. The balance gain may be associated with a spatial image in the sound field. Signal values may be calculated for each of the microphone. The signal values may be signal estimates or signal gains calculated to improve a characteristic of the microphone signals. The differences between the signal values associated with each microphone signal may be limited although some difference between signal values may be allowable. One or more microphone signals are adjusted responsive to the two or more balance gains and the signal gains to maintain the spatial stability of the sound field. The adjustments of one or more microphone signals may include mixing of two or more microphone. The signal gains are applied to the two or more microphone signals.
US09949031B2

A system for processing audio data comprising an amplifier configured to receive an audio signal and to perform nonlinear processing on the audio signal. An encoder coupled to the amplifier, the encoder configured to receive the nonlinearly processed audio signal and to encode the nonlinearly processed audio signal into a data transmission format. A transmitter configured to receive and transmit the encoded nonlinearly processed audio signal. A receiver configured to receive the transmitted encoded nonlinearly processed audio signal and to decode the encoded nonlinearly processed audio signal. A digital voice processor configured to receive the nonlinearly processed audio signal and to use the nonlinearly processed audio signal for echo estimation and to subsequently subtract the estimated echo signal from a microphone signal.
US09949026B2

The present disclosure generally provides an apparatus and method of providing a performer with a desired combined mix of one or more performer's voices, instruments and/or music tracks with minimal or no overall effect on the setup of the sound system in a venue, such as a concert venue, recording studio or other type of musical gathering in which the performer is performing. The disclosure provided herein generally includes the use of an audio signal intercepting device that is inserted within and/or coupled to a portion of a sound system at a venue to provide the performer with a desired custom monitor mix of one or more performer's voices, instruments and/or music tracks.
US09949021B1

An apparatus is configured to rest on a wearer's neck or shoulders, and has a first microphone positioned at a first position located on the right side of the wearer, when the apparatus is worn, and a second microphone positioned at a second position located on the left side of the wearer. A processor receives audio signals output by the first and second microphones, and compares the audio signals from the first microphone to the audio signals from the second microphone. Based on the comparison, the processor determines whether the wearer's head is rotated to the right, left, or center, during an instance of the user speaking. Based on the determination, the processor selects a first one of at least two audio signal destinations, and provides the audio signal from at least one of the microphones to the first selected audio signal destination.
US09949016B2

An earphone device having a concentrating tube includes an annular magnet, a first yoke, a second yoke, a concentrating tube, a speaker assembly, and a passive diaphragm. The first and second yokes are respectively connected to first and second magnetic pole surfaces of the annular magnet. The concentrating tube is received in a central through hole of the annular magnet. The concentrating tube includes first and second open ends. The speaker assembly includes a voice coil and an active diaphragm. The passive and active diaphragms are at two opposite ends of the concentrating tube. The active and passive diaphragms are respectively close to the first and second open ends. A gas flow generated by the active diaphragm is gathered by the concentrating tube and pushes the passive diaphragm. A gas flow generated by the passive diaphragm returns through the concentrating tube to push the active diaphragm and transmits acoustic waves.
US09949004B2

An apparatus capable of transmitting sound and vibrations to a user is described. The apparatus may also generate an electromagnetic field sufficient to stimulate the user's energy system. The apparatus includes a support structure configured to support at least a part of the user's body; a transducer coupled to the frame of the support structure in a manner which allows the transducer to move in relation to the frame; and an audio signal source for transmitting audio signals to the transducer. The transducer is capable of receiving and responding to audio signals having a wide range of audio frequencies when the apparatus is in use.
US09949003B2

Systems and methods for a multi-layer network to achieve network resource isolation among clients using the same server network, such as a VPN in a multi-layered network and interaction within the node, may include interaction between a server layer (e.g. L0 Photonic network) and the client layer (e.g. L1 network) that help the client layer (L1) gather information about the server-layer (L0) connection affinities. For example, the use of server layer (L0) connection affinities to construct Virtual Network Topologies (VNT) and/or network abstractions for customer traffic isolations in client layer (L1), the use of VNT to offer physical and/or logical network resource isolation for L1 customers, and provide L1 VPN services in a multi-layer environment.
US09949001B2

An apparatus and method for apparatus for recognizing information stored in an IC tag. An embodiment includes: an antenna part having a first antenna and a second antenna for receiving electric waves from the IC tag, and configured to form a plurality of areas including an area in a readable range of the first antenna, an area in a readable range of the second antenna, and an area in a readable range of the first antenna and the second antenna; a reader part for reading the information stored in the IC tag via the antenna part; and a determination part for determining whether the information stored in the IC tag should have been read by the reader part, based on a presence or absence of information read via the first antenna and the second antenna in the plurality of areas.
US09948985B2

Methods and apparatus for perform association of stored content downloaded over a network with a unique identification. In one embodiment, the content is stored locally, and the association is performed in a secure manner using network or source-specific information (e.g., the organization identification or “orgID” of the bearer network or MSO). This association is used to ensure that the content stored on the playback device can be accessed for viewing only when the playback device is connected to the same network from which the content was obtained. Use of the orgID allows the content association and protection functionality to be implemented in existing networks with only minor software changes.
US09948972B2

A terminal device acquires a part of an audio-visual content regenerated by a video display apparatus. The terminal device acquires contents information of the audio-visual content based on the part of the audio-visual content. The terminal device acquires the available enhanced service based on the contents information and regenerates the available enhanced service.
US09948969B2

User-generated advertisements are distributed to client devices in a video content distribution network. For example, a client device may receive a user-generated advertisement, which is associated with one or more categories. The user-generated advertisement is associated with a channel based on a category of the advertisement. One or more channels of user-generated advertising, corresponding to the one or more categories, may be provided to a client device. Optionally, user-generated advertisements may be associated with a geographical identifier and distributed to client devices in a geographical region corresponding with the geographical identifier.
US09948961B2

A computer-vision based automatic inserting and playing method for advertisement analyzes a video for obtaining multiple shots of the video, and obtaining semantic information related to targets appearing in each shot and low-level information related to vision of each shot. Next, the method matches the semantic information and the low-level information of each two adjacent shots with other semantic information and other low-level information of candidate advertisements, so as to determine one or more insertion time points of the video, and one or more inserting advertisements respectively related to each of the insertion time points. The matching of the semantic information ensures the inserting advertisement and a front shot and a rear shot of the insertion time point are all related with each other, and the matching of the low-level information enhances visual fluency in playing and switching among the front shot, the inserting advertisement and the rear shot.
US09948958B2

The present disclosure relates to deblocking filtering, which may be advantageously applied for block-wise encoding and decoding of images or video signals. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an improved memory management in an automated decision on whether to apply or skip deblocking filtering for a block and to selection of the deblocking filter. The decision is performed on the basis of a segmentation of blocks in such a manner that memory usage is optimized. Preferably, the selection of appropriate deblocking filters is improved so as to reduce computational expense.
US09948951B2

An image decoding device includes an illumination compensation flag derivation section that derives an illumination compensation flag indicating whether illumination compensation is executed and an illumination compensation section (3093) that generates a predicted image of a target prediction unit using illumination change parameters derived from an image in a neighbor of the target prediction unit on a target image and a reference region image of a reference image corresponding to the target prediction unit in a case where the illumination compensation flag is a value indicating validity. In a case where a prediction unit which is a generation target of the predicted image is in a merge mode, the illumination compensation flag derivation section decodes the illumination compensation flag from coded data.
US09948941B2

A circuit for decoding a video, comprising: at least one entropy transcoder configured to perform at least one entropy transcoding on a received bit stream, to generate transcoded streams, wherein the entropy transcoding includes transcoding syntax for the bit stream; at least one main decoding unit configured to perform at least one transcoded stream decompression and pixel decodings on a frame of the transcoded streams.
US09948939B2

In an example, a method of coding video data includes determining a location of a temporal reference block indicated by a temporal motion vector to a current block of video data, where the current block and the temporal reference block are located in a first layer of video data. The method also includes interpolating, with a first type of interpolation, a location of a disparity reference block indicated by a disparity vector of the current block, where the disparity reference block is located in a second, different layer, and where the first type of interpolation comprises a bi-linear filter. The method also includes determining a temporal-disparity reference block of the disparity reference block indicated by a combination of the temporal motion vector and the disparity vector, and coding the current block based on the temporal reference block, the disparity reference block, and the temporal-disparity reference block.
US09948936B2

An image coding method includes: generating a predicted block; calculating a residual block; calculating quantized coefficients by performing transform and quantization on the residual block; calculating a coded residual block by performing inverse quantization and inverse transform on the quantized coefficients; generating a temporary coded block; determining whether or not an offset process is required, to generate first flag information indicating a result of the determination; executing the offset process on the temporary coded block when it is determined that the offset process is required; and performing variable-length coding on the quantized coefficients and the first flag information.
US09948931B2

In a video processing system, a method and system for generating a transform size syntax element for video decoding are provided. For high profile mode video decoding operations, the transform sizes may be selected based on the prediction macroblock type and the contents of the macroblock. A set of rules may be utilized to select from a 4×4 or an 8×8 transform size during the encoding operation. Dynamic selection of transform size may be performed on intra-predicted macroblocks, inter-predicted macroblocks, and/or direct mode inter-predicted macroblocks. The encoding operation may generate a transform size syntax element to indicate the transform size that may be used in reconstructing the encoded macroblock. The transform size syntax element may be transmitted to a decoder as part of the encoded video information bit stream.
US09948927B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for device testing via an optical interface. In one instance, the apparatus may comprise a test controller to operate a camera to generate an image to capture test data displayed on a screen of a device under test. The test controller may be configured to extract the test data from the image, analyze the test data, and generate feedback information for the device under test, based at least in part on a result of the analysis of the test data. The camera may be included in the apparatus and communicatively coupled with the test controller. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09948925B2

The present invention relates to a modulator for a stereoscopic image device, comprising: two spaced substrates; two electrodes provided between the substrates; and a liquid crystal unit provided between the electrodes, wherein at least one of the two substrates is divided into a plurality of electrodes, each of which is formed to be insulted, such that a plurality of different voltages can be applied.
US09948919B2

Embodiments are disclosed for embedding calibration metadata for a stereoscopic video capturing device. The device captures a sequence of stereoscopic images by a plurality of image sensors and combines the captured sequence of stereoscopic images into a stereoscopic video sequence. The device further embeds calibration information into the stereoscopic video sequence in a real time as the sequence of stereoscopic images is being recorded. The calibration information can be used to correct distortion caused by hardware variances of individual video capturing devices. The corrected stereoscopic videos can be used to provide a virtual reality (VR) experience by immersing a user in a simulated environment.
US09948916B2

Techniques are described for 3D lookup table based color gamut scalability in multi-layer video coding. A lower layer of video data may include color data in a first color gamut and a higher layer of the video data may include color data in a second color gamut. To generate inter-layer reference pictures, a video coder performs color prediction to convert the color data of a reference picture in the first color gamut to the second color gamut. The video coder may perform color prediction using a 3D lookup table. According to the techniques, the video coder generates at least one 3D lookup table having a size that is different for a luma component than for a first chroma component and a second chroma component. In this way, the total size of the table may be reduced while maintaining good coding performance.
US09948907B2

A control method and a control device are provided. The control method includes: detecting first action information of an operator in a first detection mode, determining a first projection object on the projection screen and performing a first control operation on the first projection object according to the first action information in a case that the projection module is in a first projection mode; and detecting second action information of an operator in a second detection mode, determining a second projection object on the projection screen and performing a second control operation on the second projection object according to the second action information in a case that the projection module is in a second projection mode, where the first projection mode is different from the second projection mode.
US09948902B1

Video camera and sensor integration, in which an event is detected at a property based on sensor data and, based on the detected event, multiple cameras are controlled to operate in a tracking mode. One or more moving objects are detected in images captured by the cameras and metadata related to capture of the one or more moving objects is determined. Tracking operations of the cameras is coordinated based on the metadata.
US09948895B1

An eye-mountable device includes an image sensor situated in a polymeric material configured to be mounted to a surface of an eye. The image sensor can be disposed on a substrate at least partially embedded in the polymeric material. The image sensor can include a photo-sensitive area occupied by a plurality of photo-sensitive elements. The photo-sensitive area is illuminated by light entering a non-focusing aperture in an opaque screen. The non-focusing aperture can be smaller than the photo-sensitive area such that each of the photo-sensitive elements receives light entering the non-focusing aperture from a respective direction. The direction-specific measurements of received light obtained by the multiple photo-sensitive elements can thereby be used to form an image.
US09948891B1

An A/V conference device located in each of a plurality of A/V conference call spaces operates to receive, process and transmit audio and video information over a network to a far-end location during a conference call, and an A/V conference service operates in the network to setup, support, and terminate conference calls between the A/V conference devices. The A/V conference call device has conference call control functionality that detects the presence of one or more individuals in the conference call space, and which prompts the individuals for call setup information that is sent to the A/V conference service operating in the network. The individual can move to be present in any one of a plurality of available conference spaces and initiate a conference call without the need to provide scheduling information to the A/V conference service prior to or after entering the space.
US09948888B1

Computer-implemented techniques can include in response to a request, establishing, between a first and second computing devices, a video chat session. The techniques can include receiving, by the first computing device and from a user, an input to operate a casting device in an output mode for the video chat session, the casting device being connected to a display and, in response to receiving the input, transmitting, to the casting device, configuration information that causes the casting device to (i) receive, from the other computing device, first audio/video information for the video chat session and (ii) output, via the display, the first audio/video information during the output mode. The techniques can also include capturing, by the first computing device, second audio/video information for the video chat session and transmitting, to the other computing device, the second audio/video information.
US09948886B2

Methods for providing a video communication with a detention environment are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request from a first user to initiate a video communication with a second user. The video communication uses a shared communications terminal located in a detention environment. The method further includes determining, based on a schedule of the second user, whether the second user is currently available for participating. The method also includes sending a notification to the second user to accept the request when the determination indicates the second user is currently available, and receiving a response to the notification to accept the request. The method further includes initiating the video communication when the response indicates the second user has accepted the request. Either of the users is detained in the detention environment. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.
US09948882B2

The systems and methods disclosed transmit a composite channel to a receiver. The composite channel may be a static channel that contains different original channels of content in different locations on a displayed page, or may be a dynamic channel that is processed by the receiver to display a multiple different video streams on a single display device.
US09948876B2

Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide conservation of charge in a pixel. Charge in the pixel may be alternately stored in a first gate capacitance of the pixel and a second gate capacitance of the pixel. Transferring the charge between the gate capacitances conserves some or all of the charge, and reduces input power used to charge the gate capacitances.
US09948865B2

An image processing apparatus is intended to find, even when shooting a subject having a depth, respective reflection characteristics of portions of the subject with high accuracy, and includes a high-luminance region extraction unit which extracts high-luminance regions having a higher luminance than a predetermined threshold value in a plurality of image signals obtained by irradiating the subject with light emitted from a known light source and shooting reflected light from the subject at a plurality of viewpoints, a local region extraction unit which extracts local regions respectively most focused on in the portions of the subject using the plurality of high-luminance regions, and a reflection characteristic estimation unit which estimates a reflection characteristic of the subject using respective light source characteristics of the high-luminance regions in the local regions.
US09948857B2

Disclosed are devices and methods for generating an image. A device according to an aspect of an example embodiment includes: a first camera configured to acquire a first black-and-white image; a second camera configured to acquire a first color image; a first electronic circuit configured to generate a second black-and-white image using the first color image; a second electronic circuit configured to determine information representing positional relationships between pixels in the first black-and-white image and pixels in the second black-and-white image; and a third electronic circuit configured to generate a third black-and-white image based on the first black-and-white image, the second black-and-white image, and the determined information.
US09948856B2

Disclosure includes a method and apparatus for adjusting a photo-taking direction, including: starting a back camera of a mobile terminal, and entering a photo-taking mode; determining that the mobile terminal is in a horizontal posture, and starting a front camera of the mobile terminal to obtain a human face image of a user; extracting a corresponding first feature point, a corresponding second feature point, and a corresponding third feature point respectively from a first human face organ, a second human face organ, and a third human face organ in the human face image; and determining whether an imaging direction of an image obtained by the back camera agrees with a target photo-taking direction of the back camera, and adjusting the imaging direction of the image obtained by the back camera to the target photo-taking direction of the back camera in the event that they do not agree with each other.
US09948854B2

An imaging device adapted to be detachably disposed on an electronic device is provided. The imaging device includes a shell, an imaging module, a communication module and a touch element. The shell has a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other. The imaging module having a lens is disposed inside of the shell, and the lens is exposed on the first surface of the shell. The communication module is disposed in the shell and an end of the communication module is signally connected to the imaging module. The touch element is connected to the shell and movably contacts a sensing unit of the electronic device. Moreover, an imaging system and a control method thereof are also provided.
US09948845B2

A device for multi-angle photographing in eyeglasses and eyeglasses including the device are disclosed. The device includes a camera mounted on the eyeglasses and configured to capture an image, at least two motors configured to drive the camera to move, and at least two mobile platforms, each of which is provided with a plurality of limiting stoppers. The camera is connected between respective limiting stoppers of the at least two mobile platforms through the at least two motors, and is driven by the motors to move between the limiting stoppers of the mobile platforms to implement multi-angle photographing. Thus the camera can be moved between the limiting stoppers at different levels, to realize multi-angle and multi-gesture photographing and viewfinding in the horizontal and vertical directions.
US09948838B2

Disclosed is a magnifier that is adapted to rest upon a table. The magnifier includes an articulated camera arm that permits an associated camera to be pointed in a number of different directions. This permits the camera to focus upon, and enlarge, both distant and nearby objects. The magnifier also includes pivotal support legs. The legs have a first locked position to support the magnifier upon a table and a second position wherein the legs are locked in position adjacent the housing of the magnifier. This permits the magnifier to be readily transportable and stowable to accommodate the needs of the user.
US09948828B2

A subject is imaged repeatedly and color images of the subject are obtained. A color histogram is generated from the color subject image obtained and a representative color is decided from the color histogram generated. A specific color range that can be considered a color identical with the representative color is decided from the color histogram and representative color. Color outside the specific color range in the color subject image is changed to gray, an image of the subject in which the non-specific colors have been changed to gray is obtained and the image is displayed. Processing such as deciding the specific color range is repeated. When an instruction to fix the specific color is issued, the specific color range is fixed.
US09948821B2

An information processing device may accept an input of a first print instruction. The information processing device may send first print data to a printer in response to accepting the input of the first print instruction. The information processing device may store second print data in the memory in a print stand-by state. The information processing device may receive a push notification from the push notification server. The push notification may include first information that is related to first print processing using the first print data and outputted from the printer. The information processing device may send the second print data to the printer in response to receiving the first information.
US09948813B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide barcode sequences in an active display for information exchange. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for communicating information between electronic devices via a barcode image sequence. In a typical embodiment, a barcode image sequence is displayed on the display screen of a first electronic device. A second electronic device reads and decodes the barcode image sequence. The second electronic device displays an acknowledgement on the display screen of the second electronic device. The acknowledgement is read by the first electronic device.
US09948793B2

In accordance with one embodiment, an abnormality notification apparatus comprises a display device, a first drive circuit, at least one processor, a pulse generating circuit and a second drive circuit. The first drive circuit turns on the display device according to a control signal from a display control section. The processor operates according to separate programs. The pulse generating circuit outputs, during a period when a signal indicating an abnormality of any processor is input, a pulse signal corresponding to a blinking pattern for notifying the abnormality of the processor. The second drive circuit blinks the display device in response to the pulse signal output by the pulse generating circuit.
US09948782B2

A system and method for optimized rendering of contact center services in a hybrid operations environment. A processor in a first operations environment receives a message transmitted by a first contact center resource relating to a contact center service. The message is forwarded to the processor by an edge device coupled to a second operations environment different from the first operations environment. The edge device is configured to hide from the message identification of a location of the contact center resource. Despite such hiding, the processor identifies the location of the first contact center resource based on identification information that the processor retrieves from the message. The processor selects a second contact center resource based on the identified location of the first contact center resource for providing the contact center service.
US09948777B2

Call forking allows for a subscriber to receive an incoming call and have that call ring on a number of endpoints identified by the subscriber. The call may then be answered on any one of the endpoints without the calling party needing to know which device is most likely to be answered. Call forking is not always available, such as due to regulatory prohibition or technical issues. As a result, a call may be designated to be forked to a particular endpoint, but that particular endpoint may fail to receive the call. The called and calling parties are often unaware of the issue. However, by providing the address of the endpoint back to an originating server associated with the calling party, the call may be forked from the originating server via a path different from the one that caused the endpoint to be unreachable. Once the call is answered, on any ringing endpoint, all other forked calls are terminated.
US09948775B2

A call messaging system includes a database comprising a call screening rule for a callee and a call screening engine configured to determine whether a bypass condition exists for an incoming call to the callee, and to bypass the call screening rule for the incoming call, if the bypass condition exists.
US09948769B2

At least one example embodiment discloses a method of determining crosstalk for at least one first line in a communication system having a plurality of second lines. The method includes obtaining at least one pilot matrix representing a sequence of pilot signals and transmitting pilot signals across the plurality of second lines in accordance with the at least one pilot matrix. The method further includes obtaining measurement vectors for the at least one first line on a plurality of subcarriers, in response to the transmitted pilot signals, determining a weighted vector, the weighted vector being a weighted combination of the measurement vectors and determining a crosstalk coupling vector based on the determined weighted vector.
US09948764B2

An artificial intelligence audio apparatus includes a sensing part which is configured to sense a current location and a temperature and/or a humidity thereof and sense whether a human exists in the current location; and a controller which is configured to receive weather information of the current location from an external server using location information of the current location, determine whether a predetermined greeting should be output when the human exists in the current location, and in response to determining that the predetermined greeting should be output, extract at least one of a greeting voice and a greeting text, from greeting data stored in a storage, which corresponds with a current time, at least one of the temperature and the humidity, and the weather information of the current location, and output the extracted at least one of the greeting voice and the greeting text.
US09948763B2

A method for restricting a use of a portable device is provided. The method includes receiving an input for selecting an icon displayed on a screen of the portable device, the icon corresponding to an application for executing a concentration improvement mode that restricts the use of the application, setting a restriction time for the concentration improvement mode, deactivating the selected icon in the concentration improvement mode, and blocking a notification message provided by the application corresponding to the selected icon in the concentration improvement mode.
US09948759B1

A device may receive, from a network device, a resolution query associated with a call. The resolution query may include a device identifier of the network device. The network device may receive, from a user device, the call. The device may determine, based on the device identifier of the network device, whether an authentication condition is satisfied. The device may selectively provide, to the network device, an authentication token in association with the resolution query based on determining whether the authentication condition is satisfied. The authentication token may enable an endpoint device, associated with the call, to perform a particular action based on the call.
US09948754B2

A method for decoding a set of packets asynchronously on same nominal carrier frequency transmitted over a common communication medium, receives a signal including a combination of the set of packets modified with noise of the common communication medium, each packet includes a preamble common to all packets in the set and a payload unique for at least some packets in the set. The method determines, using a sparse recovery, a frequency offset of the transmission of each packet from the carrier frequency, a time offset of the transmission of each packet from a common point in time, and a channel gain corresponding to the transmission of each packet over a channel in the common communication medium and decodes the payloads of the packets in the set using the frequency offsets, the time offsets, and the channel gains.
US09948752B2

A method includes receiving a data packet transmitted by a near field communications (NFC) device at a NFC controller. Whether the data packet includes application identifier routing information is determined, and based thereupon the data packet is routed to a default application identifier routing address based on a look-up table lacking an application identifier routing address associated with the application identifier routing information. Whether the data packet includes protocol routing information is determined based upon the data packet lacking the application identifier routing information, and the data packet is routed to a default protocol routing address based upon the look-up table lacking a protocol routing address associated with the protocol routing information, using the NFC controller. The default application identifier routing address is different than the default protocol routing address.
US09948740B1

Techniques are described caching media content. The caching can provide the same cached media content to multiple requests based on different protocols.
US09948728B2

The described embodiments transfer an activity from a source electronic device to a companion electronic device. The source electronic device receives activity information describing an activity performed in a first application at the source electronic device, determines an activity identifier for the activity information, and broadcasts an activity advertisement comprising the activity identifier. Upon receiving the activity advertisement, the companion electronic device determines whether a second application that is associated with the first application is available at the companion electronic device. Then, the companion electronic device configures the second application and commences performing the activity with the second application at the companion electronic device.
US09948719B2

A mobile electronic device may comprise a wireless transceiver and at least one magnetic connector. The mobile electronic device may further comprise connectedness detection circuitry operable to dynamically detect a connection event at each of the at least one magnetic connector. A processor, coupled to the connectedness detection circuitry, may be operable to: automatically establish a wireless communications link, via the wireless transceiver, with another electronic device upon detection, by the connectedness detection circuitry, of the connection event at a predetermined set of the at least one magnetic connector evidencing a magnetic attachment of the mobile electronic device to the other electronic device; and access, via the wireless communications link, a hardware resource of the other electronic device. The at least one magnetic connector may be a plurality of magnetic connectors. The predetermined set of magnetic connectors may be all of the magnetic connectors or a subset thereof.
US09948709B2

This patent document describes, among other things, methods and systems for determining which if any page resources a server might push to a client (using, e.g., an HTTP 2.0 server push mechanism). The approaches described herein improve web page load times by pushing page resources that a client is likely to need to render the base page, while reducing wasteful server pushes of resources that the client is unlikely to request from the server because, for example, they are already cached at the client.
US09948708B2

The invention provides for a download agent executing on a computing device. The download agent determines the status of each of the source servers, and downloads from source servers that are in the available state. Additionally the download agent tracks characteristics of the source servers. The download agent determines the required bandwidth of portions of the media content stored on the source servers. Based on the characteristics of the source servers and the required bandwidth of the portions of the media content, the download agent determines how much media content should be downloaded from which source servers and at what time.
US09948706B2

A method and an apparatus for global server load balancing are described. Attributes of a set of network addresses may be maintained. Each network address may be assignable to a device capable of accessing a service via a domain name. A set of servers may be provided for hosting the service of the domain name. A mapping relationship between the network addresses and a set of preferences among the servers may be determined based on the attributes. Multiple network addresses may share a common preference. An association data may be generated to represent the mapping relationship. Multiple network addresses may be collectively represented in the association data to be associated with a common preference. A device can reach one of the servers according to the association data in real time asynchronous to when the association data is generated.
US09948705B2

A system comprises control circuitry that is operable to assign a first of a plurality of computing devices to serve file system requests destined for any of a first plurality of network addresses; assign a second of the computing devices to serve file system requests destined for any of a second plurality of network addresses; maintain statistics regarding file system requests sent to each of the first plurality of network addresses and the second plurality of network addresses; and reassign, based on the statistics, the first of the computing devices to serve file system requests destined for a selected one of the second plurality of network addresses.
US09948704B2

A computer-implemented method for determining a coordinator node in a database as a service (DBaaS) infrastructure includes receiving, via a processor on a receiving node, an application connect request having data request information, where the data request information refers to data stored in the DBaaS infrastructure and includes a predefined priority metric, selecting, via the processor, a candidate node in the DBaaS infrastructure, determining, via the processor, whether the candidate node is overloaded, comparing, via the processor, responsive to determining that the candidate node is not overloaded, the predefined priority metric to at least one predefined node priority, writing, to a memory, a comparison record indicative of a comparison of the predefined priority metric with the at least one predefined node priority in the candidate node, where comparison record is stored in a catalog table, and selecting, via the processor, the candidate node as the coordinator node.
US09948699B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage medium, for identifying a set of items of digital content displayed to a user; processing the set of items to identify a set of boost items, items within the set of boost items to be prominently displayed, processing comprising: receiving a close-ties score associated with a respective item, the close-ties score representing a relationship between the user and other users associated with the respective item and an importance of a social circle associated with the item to the user, determining that the close-ties score associated with the respective item exceeds a threshold close-ties score, and in response to determining that the close-ties score exceeds the threshold close-ties score, adding the respective item to the set of boost items; providing instructions for boosting a display of items in the set of boost items in a page displayed to the user.
US09948696B2

Disclosed is a method comprising: transmitting, by a cloud service control gateway (CSCG) positioned in an application stratum, a resource query to a network control gateway (NCG) positioned in a network stratum, wherein the resource query comprises a source address, a destination address list, and a network resource requirement. Also disclosed is a method comprising: receiving, by a network control gateway (NCG) positioned in a network stratum, a resource query from a cloud service control gateway (CSCG) positioned in an application stratum, wherein the resource query comprises source address, a destination address list, and a network resource requirement. Also disclosed is a method comprising: receiving, by a network control gateway (NCG) positioned in a network stratum, a resource reservation request from a cloud service control gateway (CSCG) positioned in an application stratum, wherein the resource reservation request comprises a destination address list and a first network resource requirement.
US09948695B2

Disclosed are an apparatus and method configured to perform media file encryption. One example method may include retrieving a media file stored in a memory during a play time operation, executing the media file and receiving additional portions of the media file during the play time operation. The method may also include processing the media file and the additional portions of the media file to generate an output media and displaying the output media on a display of a user device.
US09948690B2

Aspects of the disclosure relate to a content (e.g., media) transfer or fling platform system and method. In a media fling platform system, media items may be cached at a rendering device prior to any selection of media items to fling. The determination of which media to cache may be based on a variety of factors including a user fling history, a currently viewed media item, and a navigation point in the media files. A fling request may take priority over caching, and the fling request may interrupt any caching processes.
US09948682B2

Disclosed is a method, a device, and/or a system of a data resource control data structure. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving an authorization request from a device to utilize a protected resource within a datastore. A control policy that defines an authorized context in which the device is authorized to utilize the protected resource is extracted from a security node of a non-hierarchical data structure. The control policy includes a control algorithm and optionally a control dataset. Context values specified in the control algorithm are retrieved to form a context dataset. Utilization of the protected resource is authorized when it is determined by the control algorithm that the context dataset conforms to the authorized context. The security node may organize data into a domain structure that includes a unique identifier, an identity element, a content element, and a context element.
US09948670B2

The invention discloses a cloud security-based file processing method and apparatus. The method comprises: generating a signature identifier uniquely corresponding to an unknown program file downloaded locally according to signature related information of the unknown program file; sending a query request to a server end to query whether the unknown program file is a malicious program or not, wherein the query request carries the signature identifier of the unknown program file and a part or all of the file features of the unknown program file; and receiving a feedback message from the server end, and performing subsequent process on the unknown program file according to the feedback message, wherein the server end generates the feedback message according to the signature identifier and the file features. The invention solves the problem of breaking through the cloud killing by utilizing a Trojan in the prior art and at the same time can also reduce the time from discovering a malicious program to killing the malicious program, thereby accelerating the speed of fighting against a new malicious program, reducing the information storage amount of the server as well and in turn guaranteeing the security of a client program.
US09948656B2

As disclosed herein, a computer program product, executed by a computer, includes receiving, from a user, a request for access to a shared system, wherein the request comprises a user identifier and a user password corresponding to the user, and determining privileges corresponding to the shared system using the user identifier. The computer program product further includes requesting, from an identity manager, a shared identifier and a shared password corresponding to the shared system, receiving, from the identity manager, the shared identifier and the shared password, and using the shared identifier and the shared password to enable the user to use the shared system.
US09948652B2

Systems, computer program products, and methods are described herein for identifying threat vectors and implementing controls for securing resources within a network. The present invention is configured to determine one or more threat vectors associated with the resource; determine one or more controls associated with each of the one or more threat vectors associated with the resource; determine whether the one or more controls associated with the at least one of the one or more threat vectors is capable of detecting the access by an external computing device via at least one of the one or more types of access; and dynamically generate a graphical representation of the resource and the one or more threat vectors based on at least the received analysis request.
US09948649B1

A device may receive a request to access a resource. The resource may be associated with resource information. The device may obtain rating information based on receiving the request. The rating information may identify a rating associated with the resource. The device may apply an access rule based on the rating information. The access rule may identify an access indicator to generate based on the rating information. The access indicator may indicate an action to perform related to the resource. The device may generate the access indicator based on applying the access rule to the rating information. The device may store, locally in one or more memories, information that indicates an association between the access indicator and the resource information.
US09948636B2

Various embodiments are disclosed that relate to security of a computer accessory device. For example, one non-limiting embodiment provides a host computing device configured to conduct an initial portion of a mutual authentication session with an accessory device, and send information regarding the host computing device and the accessory device to a remote pairing service via a computer network. The host computing device is further configured to, in response, receive a pairing certificate from the remote pairing service, the pairing certificate being encrypted via a private key of the remote pairing service, and complete the mutual authentication with the accessory device using the pairing certificate from the remote pairing service.
US09948635B2

Within a secure messaging environment, a determination is made that a request to send a message has been generated by a message sender. A message protection policy configured to process the message within the secure messaging environment is identified. The message protection policy specifies that, within the secure messaging environment, a secured digital certificate, other than a digital certificate of the message sender, is configured with an associated private key to digitally sign the message on behalf of the message sender. Based upon the message protection policy, a determination is made to digitally sign the message using the private key of the secured digital certificate. The message is signed on behalf of the message sender using the private key of the secured digital certificate.
US09948625B2

Embodiments herein include, for example, a method, comprising: generating a shared symmetric key to begin a communication session among a group of users by a first user; distributing, by the first user, the generated shared symmetric key to each user in the group of users; communicating within the communication session among a group of users, where each user encrypts a message to the group of users to be distributed through the communication session using the generated shared symmetric key, and each user decrypts a message received from the communication session using the generated shared symmetric key.
US09948610B2

A method, system, and apparatus for providing a client access to third-party resources by utilizing third-party access tokens via a network gateway. The method can prevent the third-party access tokens from being exposed directly to the client environment. The client receives a gateway security credential, which encapsulates the third-party access token in an encrypted form. The client provides the gateway access token to the network gateway where the third-party access token is decrypted and then used to access the third-party resource. Client requests to the network gateway are executed using a custom API. The gateway relays the client requests to the appropriate third-party resources using the third-party-specific API with the decrypted third-party access token. Gateway access tokens are short-lived and can be renewed according to the client-environment life cycle.
US09948606B2

A computer implemented method for providing security on a software defined network (SDN). The method comprises providing a master SDN controller for managing data flow control on the SDN network. Requesting access to a uniform resource locator (URL) from a requesting networked device. Initiating a domain name system (DNS) interaction with the requesting networked device. Relaying by the DNS data associated with the requested URL to a threat management control system (TMCS). Determining by the TMCS if the requested URL has an associated security criteria. Communicating a threat status by the TMCS to the SDN co-controller associated with the requesting networked device.
US09948600B2

Techniques are described for load balancing between DHCP servers at a DHCP client. Embodiments include receiving, at the DHCP client, a respective DHCPOFFER message from each of two or more DHCP servers, wherein each of the DHCPOFFER messages includes an IP address offer and load information describing a current workload of the respective DHCP server. One of DHCP servers is selected, at the DHCP client, to accept an offer for an IP address from, based on the received load information and a subnet on which the selected DHCP server is located. Embodiments transmit a DHCPREQUEST message, from the DHCP client, to the selected DHCP server, to accept the IP address offer from the selected DHCP server.
US09948589B2

While texting, a user is able access, share, and control rich media without leaving the texting application. The rich media are provided directly within the executing texting application. The texting application includes an embedded widget for controlling the rich media. Rich media includes, among other things, video clips, streaming audio, a map application, a movie-time application, a social movie-site application, a dynamically controllable image, or promotional media. Different mobile devices executing the texting applications communicate through a server that allows additional functionality, such as syncing the play of video clips and hosting and pushing the promotional media.
US09948581B2

A method to enable a participant within a plurality of participants in an online group conversation to add at least one additional participant as an observer to the online group conversation is provided. The method may include receiving a request to add the observer to the online group conversation. The method may include adding the observer to the online group conversation. The method may also include detecting a message being sent from the added observer. The method may include redirecting the detected message to the enabled participant. The method may also include displaying the redirected message in a user interface (UI) to the enabled participant. The method may further include detecting a modification or a deletion of the displayed redirected message by the enabled participant. The method may include sending the message to the plurality of participants, whereby the sent message is in an original format or a modified format.
US09948562B2

Disclosed are a method and device for transmitting a pilot signal. The method therefor comprises: conducting OFDM modulation on a pilot signal; and sending the modulated pilot signal on the first and/or the last OFDM symbol of a subframe which transmits the pilot signal. In the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, the pilot signal is transmitted on the first and/or the last OFDM symbol of the subframe, thereby not occupying an OFDM symbol for transmitting a data signal, so as to reduce the resource overhead of the pilot signal.
US09948561B2

Embodiments include detecting an increase in delay of a flow assigned to a first queue of a network device, where the increase is sufficient to cause the flow rate of the flow to decrease if the flow is delay-sensitive. Embodiments further include determining whether an amount of bandwidth consumed by the flow decreases sufficiently after the increase is detected, and assigning the flow to a second queue based, at least in part, on determining the amount of bandwidth consumed by the flow does not decrease sufficiently. Specific embodiments include evaluating a series of two or more bandwidth measurements of the flow according to a bandwidth reduction measure to determine whether the amount of bandwidth consumed by the flow decreases by sufficiently. More specific embodiments include the first queue being configured to receive delay-sensitive flows and the second queue being configured to receive delay-insensitive nice flows.
US09948558B2

Examples may include receiving, at a switch, an Ethernet frame having an Ethernet header that may indicate the Ethernet frame includes a network controller sideband interface (NC-SI) control packet from a management controller at a compute node coupled to the switch. In some examples, a response to a command included in a received NC-SI control packet that was encapsulated in an Ethernet frame may be processed at the switch and sent to the management controller.
US09948553B2

A system for distributed multi-domain routing control includes two or more software-defined network (SDN) controllers and virtual routers. The two or more SDN controllers create virtual topology information by collecting information about switches under the control thereof, exchange network information about a different virtual network, as well as create a routing path from a source terminal to a destination cross switch or a routing path from the destination cross switch to a destination terminal based on location identification information of the destination terminal and/or the virtual topology information. Then, the virtual routers manage communication between the different virtual tenant networks or communication between each virtual tenant network and an external network.
US09948552B2

In general, a cloud-based services exchange (or “cloud exchange”) for interconnecting multiple cloud service providers with multiple cloud service customers is described. The cloud exchange may enable cloud customers to bypass the public Internet to directly connect to cloud services providers so as to improve performance, reduce costs, increase the security and privacy of the connections, and leverage cloud computing for additional applications. In this way, enterprises, network carriers, and SaaS customers, for instance, can integrate cloud services with their internal applications as if such services are part of or otherwise directly coupled to their own data center network.
US09948548B2

An example method is provided and may include steps of configuring a HeNB with plurality of global eNode B identities (global eNB IDs), where each global eNB ID is associated with one of a plurality of HeNB gateways (HeNB-GWs), and broadcasting a first global eNB ID by the HeNB when the HeNB is served by a first HeNB-GW. When/if the HeNB loses connectivity with the first HeNB-GW, the method provides a step of switching the broadcasting from the first global eNB ID to a second global eNB ID and re-parenting the HeNB, now broadcasting or is configured to start/continue broadcasting the second global eNB ID, from being served by the first HeNB-GW to being served by a second HeNB-GW.
US09948542B2

In one embodiment, a lower protocol layer in a network device filters packets based on a class and a particular of a destination address prior to sending information from the received packet to a higher protocol layer. For example, certain constrained networks include network nodes that do not have the ability to maintain a multicast distribution entry for each multicast address used in the network. By only forwarding on a portion of a multicast address, packets are often delivered to nodes in addition to the actual multicast subscribers. By filtering these incorrectly delivered packets at a lower protocol layer (e.g., layer-2 or layer-3), processing cycles at higher protocol layers are avoided. Additionally in one embodiment, class and particulars are deterministically determined (e.g., using a same hashing function) such that services can be discovered and used by subscribing to a corresponding multicast group.
US09948522B2

A data center infrastructure monitoring system and method that includes a plurality of geographically distributed data centers, each data center of the plurality of data centers having a plurality of physical infrastructure assets. A central monitoring center is communicatively coupled to one or more data centers of the plurality of data centers and configured to, in response to receiving, by a computing device, indications of a plurality of user inputs creating one or more graphical relationships between a plurality of icons depicting infrastructure assets in a data center, determine, by the computing device and based on the graphical relationships, hierarchical relationships between the infrastructure assets in the data center depicted by the icons, and store data indicative of the hierarchical relationships between the infrastructure assets.
US09948516B2

In embodiments of mesh network commissioning, a joiner router receives a message from a joining device requesting to join a mesh network, and the joiner router forwards the received message to a commissioning device of the mesh network. The joiner router then receives an authorization for the joining device to join the mesh network from the commissioning device, and the joiner router transmits network information to the joining device, where the network information enables the joining device to join the mesh network.
US09948514B2

A description of computing resource requirements for execution of an application associated with a publicly available service is obtained. Access to computing resources is opportunistically obtained from a computing entity that includes a private computing device that is external to, and separate from, the publicly available service. The computing resource requirements are intelligently matched to available computing resources of the computing entity with private computing resources that are temporarily available from a private computing device source. The intelligent matching is performed using an optimization analysis.
US09948511B2

A network operating system agent can operate to facilitate communications to a network device and a managing server of self-organizing network devices to exchange contexts between an application managed by a user equipment device and the network device. Relationships between self-organizing devices and applications of a user equipment device can be extended so that the network devices are context aware of the application settings. In response to detecting the user equipment device communicating via the network devices, a set of user equipment device parameters and a set of application settings of the application can be communicated to the network devices. The application settings can be modified according to the a set of radio network performance settings of the self-organizing network devices with the user equipment device based on the set of user equipment device parameters and the set of application settings of the application.
US09948508B2

A method for changing an operating mode of a processing unit of a network node is described. The processing unit is connected to a communication and supply line for providing data communication and for providing a supply voltage. The method includes an establishing of a communication connection of the processing unit of the network node via the communication and supply line, a determination of a change of the supply voltage of the communication and supply line by the processing unit, and a setting of an operation mode of the processing unit based on the determined change of the supply voltage.
US09948502B2

A method of self-healing a communication network is described herein. In particular, a plurality of message addresses can be registered with a publisher, and notifications from the publisher for the message addresses can be received. In addition, the notifications received from the publisher for the message addresses can be time-stamped. A notification interval for the message addresses can be monitored in which the interval may be based on a predetermined amount of time. The time-stamps of the received notifications can be compared to the notification intervals to determine whether a disruption in the receipt of the notifications for at least some of the message addresses has occurred. If a disruption has been determined to have occurred, the message addresses that have been affected by the disruption can be deleted. The deleted message addresses can then be re-registered with the publisher to restore the receipt of the notifications from the publisher for the affected message addresses.
US09948498B2

A method and apparatus may be used for exchanging measurements in wireless communications. The apparatus may receive a request. The request may be a measurement request, and may include a request for a measurement of a parameter. The apparatus may transmit a report. The report may be a measurement report, and may include the requested measurement of a parameter. The apparatus may store the requested measurement of the parameter in a management information base (MIB).
US09948490B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for wireless communication. More particularly, aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to techniques for wireless communications by an apparatus comprising a processing system configured to a processing system configured to generate a frame having at least a first header that is phase modulated and to modulate an amplitude of the first header prior to the first header being amplified by a power amplifier, and a first interface configured to output the frame for transmission.
US09948486B2

The apparatus enables pilot signals, whether single tone or multiple tone, that achieve a very low PAPR. After receiving an allocation for multiple tones, the apparatus determines a pilot signal for transmission. The apparatus may select tones from the allocation for transmission of a pilot signal based on a pilot pattern. The pilot pattern may comprise a tone sequence that identifies a sequences of tones, wherein each tone in the tone sequence of identifies one tone of multiple tones for transmission of a pilot signal during a given pilot symbol period. The pilot signal may also comprise a signal sequence. The apparatus may generate a set of multi-tone modulated pilot sequences, select a pilot sequence based on a cross-correlation property, and transmit a pilot signal using multiple tones of the allocation using the selected pilot sequence.
US09948485B2

A high speed serial interface is provided. In one aspect, the high speed serial interface uses three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. Accordingly, the need for de-skewing circuitry at the receiving end of the interface is eliminated, resulting in reduced link start-up time and improved link efficiency and power consumption. In one embodiment, the high speed serial interface uses fewer signal conductors than conventional systems having separate conductors for data and clock information. In another embodiment, the serial interface allows for data to be transmitted at any speed without the receiving end having prior knowledge of the transmission data rate. In another aspect, the high speed serial interface uses polarity encoded three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. This further increases the link capacity of the serial interface by allowing for more than one bit to be transmitted in any single baud interval.
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