US09981540B2

A shielding device has a body, at least one slewing mechanism and two vehicle-top suction attachment assemblies. The body has a housing, a first cover and a second cover. The first cover and the second cover are mounted in the housing. The slewing mechanism has a spindle, a rotor, a rolling pipe, a rotating casing and a covering cloth. The spindle is mounted in the second cover. The rotor is mounted on and around the spindle and has a fastening portion, a torsion spring and a securing ring. The torsion spring is connected to the fastening portion. The securing ring is securely mounted on and around the spindle. The fastening portion is fastened in the rolling pipe. The rotating casing is mounted pivotally in the first cover. The covering cloth is mounted on the rolling pipe. The vehicle-top suction attachment assemblies are mounted on the body.
US09981522B2

Suspension unit, comprising a control unit, for a utility vehicle, wherein the utility vehicle has a body floor, to which a first and a second axle are connected, wherein the utility vehicle comprises at least one vehicle seat and/or a vehicle cab that can be suspended by a suspension device relative to the body floor, wherein the vehicle seat and/or the vehicle cab is arranged substantially above the second axle seen in a vertical direction, wherein, when driving over a bump with the first axle, a value of a deflection of the first axle by the disturbance can be determined by at least one sensor, and wherein the suspension device of the vehicle seat and/or vehicle cab can be varied by the control unit before or upon driving over the disturbance with the second axle.
US09981515B2

The present disclosure relates to a trailer alignment device intended to facilitate the backing up of an automobile to align a hitch of the automobile with a towable trailer. The alignment device further provides for trailer stabilization by providing for a second point of attachment for the trailer to the automobile.
US09981513B2

An anti-rattle device is shown and described. The anti-rattle device may include a frame configured to engage a receiver hitch and to receive a draw bar. The anti-rattle device may also include a cam engaging assembly operatively engaged with the frame, where the cam engaging assembly is selectively positionable between disengaged and engaged positions whereby the cam engaging assembly is adapted to engage the draw bar against the receiver hitch in the engaged position.
US09981508B2

It is a pneumatic tire 1 which is provided with a pair of shoulder land portions 4A defined between shoulder main grooves 3A and tread edges 2t by having the grooves 3A. At least one of the shoulder land portions 4A is provided with a plurality of shoulder lug grooves 5 and a plurality of shoulder sipes 6. The shoulder lug grooves 5 include first shoulder lug grooves 5A extending axially inward from the tread edge 2t and terminating without reaching the shoulder main groove 3A. The shoulder sipes 6 include first shoulder sipes 6A extending axially inward from the axially inner ends 5Ai of the first shoulder lug grooves 5A and connected to the shoulder main groove 3A, and second shoulder sipes 6B intersecting the first shoulder sipes 6A and extending in the tire circumferential direction.
US09981502B2

A wheel ramp is provided for use with a motorcycle stand. The wheel ramp includes a pair of side plates, each of which has a first side end and a second side end distal thereto. At least one of the side plates has a curved end about the first side end to secure onto a portion of the motorcycle stand. The wheel ramp includes a top plate secured between the pair of side plates and an adjustable height mechanism configured to adjust the height of the second end of the side plates and thus adjust the height of the top plate about the second end. The top plate when moved under the wheel of the motorcycle is movable to engage and lift the wheel of the motorcycle into and out of engagement with the motorcycle.
US09981496B2

When a roughened pattern is formed on an image protection layer, a thermal transfer sheet is protected from being damaged or broken. A thermal head 18 is driven and controlled such that an image protection layer 15e of a thermal transfer sheet 15 is thermally transferred to a printing medium 14, and that a roughened pattern 40 is formed on the image protection layer 15e. The roughened pattern 40 is made based on a corrected pattern 40B that is obtained by correcting a basic pattern 40A that is a pattern including an island portion formed of a mass of a plurality of high-energy pixels 40a, such that the high-energy pixel 40a surrounded by the high-energy pixels 40a forming an edge area of the island portion is converted to a low-energy pixel 40b.
US09981493B2

In a conventional current resonance switching power source, the burst period of a burst operation could not be sufficiently prolonged, and the efficiency characteristics were insufficient in a light load. In order to improve this, an embodiment of the present invention generates, upon operating in the burst mode, a control signal in accordance with a comparison result of a first reference voltage and a secondary side voltage of a transformer and a comparison result of a second reference voltage and the secondary side voltage of the transformer. Subsequently, the oscillation operation timing of an oscillator that performs an oscillation operation to the transformer and the oscillation frequency that changes the voltage excited on the secondary side of the transformer are controlled based on the control signal.
US09981488B2

A printer includes a modular vacuum belt assembly for moving print media in a media feed direction along a media path. The modular vacuum belt assembly includes a plurality of moving belt modules interconnected along a width of the media path. Neighboring moving belt modules are interconnected via a connecting fixed vacuum plenum.
US09981485B2

When an image is printed by inkjet printing on a print surface of a target medium, an overcoat layer is formed in a more appropriate manner. A printing method uses color ink heads 202 as exemplified colored ink heads, a clear ink head 204, and ultraviolet irradiators 206. The printing method includes a color printing step of printing a print image using a colored ink in at least a partial region on a print surface of a medium 50, a non-colored region clear printing step of applying a UV clear ink for printing in a region at least including a non-colored region in which ink droplets are not discharged in the color printing step, and an overcoat layer forming step of forming an overcoat layer that covers the print image using the UV clear ink in a region covering at least the print image printed in the color printing step.
US09981477B2

There are provided a liquid ejecting device that can efficiently supply liquid inside a liquid containing unit with a simple structure and the liquid containing unit. The present invention is the liquid ejecting device which includes a liquid container, a head that is provided on a carriage and has a liquid containing unit capable of storing liquid thereinside and a liquid ejecting unit, and a flexible member that connects the liquid container to the liquid containing unit and supplies the liquid stored inside the liquid container to the liquid containing unit. A holding member is arranged inside the liquid containing unit to hold the liquid, and the shortest distance between a supply port opened to an inside of the liquid containing unit and the holding member is 0.1 mm or more and 5.0 mm or less.
US09981473B2

Provided is a driving device of a liquid droplet discharging head including a driving unit that drives a liquid droplet discharging head which includes plural nozzles, which discharge an ultraviolet ray curable liquid, as liquid droplets, the ultraviolet ray curable liquid being cured by being irradiated with ultraviolet rays, and a control unit that controls the driving unit so that, among the plural nozzles, a draw-in driving signal for drawing the liquid in from a discharge surface of non-discharge nozzles of the liquid droplets is supplied to the non-discharge nozzles while ultraviolet rays from an ultraviolet ray light source, which irradiates liquid droplets discharged from the liquid droplet discharging head with ultraviolet rays, are being emitted.
US09981472B2

Film-forming apparatuses, systems, and methods are provided. The apparatus can include a substrate positioning system and a printing array that includes an inkjet printing array and/or a thermal printing array. The positioning system can be a gas-bearing plate system. The positioning system can be configured to move a substrate between a first position, away from the printing array, and a second position, above the printing array. The apparatuses, systems, and methods can be used to manufacture organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), for example, flat panel displays.
US09981463B2

A method for manufacturing a liquid discharging apparatus having a liquid discharging head that is attached to an apparatus main body so as to be capable of being attached or detached and that discharges a liquid from a nozzle includes: identifying an alignment shift of the liquid discharging head attached to the apparatus main body; and identifying correction information that is correlated with the alignment shift identified in the identifying of the alignment shift based on a correction information table in which the correction information related to liquid discharge control and the alignment shift are correlated with each other.
US09981461B1

A vessel for storing pressurized gas. The storage vessel may be manufactured in a variety of predetermined shapes. Plural frame members are interconnected with each other, collectively forming a lattice frame. A network of internal supports is disposed within the interior of the lattice frame, the internal supports being made of a carbon-reinforced composite material. The storage vessel has an outer shell made up of layers of carbon-reinforced composite material sheets enveloping the exterior of the lattice frame.
US09981455B2

A gas barrier film, an apparatus comprising the gas barrier film, and a process for producing the gas barrier film are provided. The gas barrier film comprises a plastic film having an oligomer content of not more than 1% by weight, an organic layer provided on the plastic film, and an inorganic layer provided on the organic layer. The organic layer has a thickness that is larger than a maximum difference in elevation on the surface of the plastic film. The gas barrier film having the above construction has excellent gas barrier properties.
US09981452B2

A photochromic polyurethane laminate that is constructed to solve certain manufacturing difficulties involved in the production of plastic photochromic lenses is disclosed. The photochromic laminate includes at least two layers of a resinous material and a photochromic polyurethane layer that is interspersed between the two resinous layers and which contains photochromic compounds. The polyurethane layer is formed by curing a mixture of a solid thermoplastic polyurethane, at least one isocyanate prepolymer, at least one photochromic compound, and a stabilizing system.
US09981446B2

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a sandwich structure. A cavity is formed in a core of the sandwich structure. A structural insert is placed into the cavity. The structural insert comprises a first number of parts configured to receive a load and a second number of parts assembled with the first number of parts to form the structural insert.
US09981440B2

A rotor for a rotary press comprising a die plate having die bores and upper punches and lower punches assigned in pairs to the die bores, circulating synchronously with the die plate An upper punch receiver is configured to axially guide the upper punches and a lower punch receiver is configured to axially guide the lower punches. An upper control cam is configured to control the axial movement of the upper punches passing through the upper control cam and a lower control cam is configured to control the axial movement of the lower punches passing through the lower control cam.
US09981433B2

The present disclosure is directed methods for modifying molds of rotor blades of a wind turbine. In certain embodiments, the blade mold is constructed, at least in part, of a thermoplastic material optionally reinforced with a fiber material. In one embodiment, the method includes identifying at least one blade mold addition for the mold of the rotor blade and positioning the blade mold addition at a predetermined location of the mold of the rotor blade. Further, the blade mold addition is constructed, at least in part, of a thermoplastic material. Thus, the method includes applying at least one of heat, pressure, or one or more chemicals at an interface of the blade mold addition and the mold so as to join the blade mold addition to the mold. In further embodiments, the methods described herein are also directed repairing thermoplastic blade molds.
US09981429B2

A method of press molding a molding material to form a molded part of fiber-reinforced resin matrix composite material, the method comprising the steps of:i. providing a mold tool having a lower mold part and an upper mold part, the upper mold part having a first molding surface for molding a first molded surface of the molded part and the lower mold part having a second molding surface for molding a second molded surface of the molded part; ii. providing a multilaminar panel of molding material comprising at least one layer of fibers and at least one layer of resin, the multilaminar panel having first and second opposite major surfaces; iii. locating the molding material in the mold tool; iv. progressively closing the mold tool to define a substantially closed mold cavity containing the molding material, the closing step including: a. a preliminary closing phase to achieve mutual engagement between the lower and upper mold parts, b. a secondary closing phase after engagement between the lower and upper mold parts with the mold tool partially closed to define a closed intermediate cavity containing the molding material, the closed intermediate cavity being larger than the molded part and the first molding surface of the upper mold part being spaced from the first major surface by a spacing distance, in the secondary phase air being at least partially evacuated from the closed intermediate cavity while the first molding surface of the upper mold part is spaced from the first major surface to provide a vacuum pressure, and c. a tertiary closing phase after the vacuum pressure has been provided in the closed intermediate cavity, the tertiary phase having: I. a first stage prior to both the first molding surface contacting the first major surface and the second molding surface contacting the second major surface, and II. a second compression stage after both the first molding surface has contacted the first major surface and the second molding surface has contacted the second major surface, the closure speed of relative movement between the lower and upper mold parts being higher in the first stage than in the second compression stage; v. applying pressure to the molding material in the mold cavity to configure the molding material in a fully molded shape; and vi. substantially fully curing the resin to form a molded part from the molding material.
US09981428B2

A plurality of continuous fiber reinforced plastics is placed substantially in parallel on the outer circumferential surface of a mold for rim formation so as to be aligned with the direction of an axis of the mold to cover the surface. In addition, the continuous fiber reinforced plastics is applied and laminated on a continuous fiber reinforced plastic layer including the continuous fiber reinforced plastics placed on the outer circumferential surface of the mold, the continuous fiber reinforced plastics being substantially in parallel and aligned with the direction of the axis of the mold. Furthermore, a restraint material is wound around the continuous fiber reinforced plastic layer disposed at level difference portions of the mold using the axis as a winding center.
US09981420B2

A pressure-sensitive sensor including a substrate supporting a piezoelectric layer of a piezoelectric material. The piezoelectric layer includes surface undulations as wrinkles on which pressure is exerted upon use of the sensor. The piezoelectric layer is sandwiched between two electrodes for collecting charges generated by deformation of the piezoelectric layer.
US09981415B2

A method and apparatus for extrusion of an article is provided. A die assembly can apply flows of thermoplastic material to an array of reinforcing cables to form a composite extrusion. A slider fabric can be bonded to one side of the composite extrusion. After exiting the die assembly, the slider fabric can act to support the extrudate as it passes along an elongate mandrel, which can cause the base of the slider fabric to change shape from a flat profile to the final internal profile of the article. The extruded article can then be cooled to solidify the material. The die can include cooling for the slider fabric and means for promoting penetration of the thermoplastic into reinforcing cables.
US09981409B2

A forming device has a machine frame and a forming apparatus disposed on the machine frame. At least one heating chamber is disposed on the machine frame. A heatable support is received in the at least one heating chamber in a position of use for preheating semi-finished products and can be moved in a movement direction out of the at least one heating chamber into a removal position for removal of preheated semi-finished products from the support. In the removal position, the support is at least partially located adjacent to the machine frame and enables access to preheated semi-finished products. At least one heating device is associated with the at least one heating chamber and has one or more convection heating devices that discharge at least one directable heating air flow.
US09981405B2

A wood chipper comprises a frame, an infeed system, a rotatable cutting system, and at least one feed wheel disposed between the infeed system and the cutting system to feed wood material to the cutting system. The wood chipper also includes a winch comprising a winch line having a first end, and a collar disposed adjacent the first end of the winch line. The wood chipper further includes a detector adapted to detect a first and a second position of the winch line, wherein the detector is adapted to allow operation of the at least one feed wheel and prohibit operation of the winch when the first position of the winch line is detected, and to allow operation of the winch and allow operation of the at least one feed wheel in a predefined manner when the second position is detected. The wood chipper further comprises a bypass for operation of the at least one feed wheel.
US09981398B2

The invention relates to a method for operating a punching/transferring device (1), in particular for producing RFID antennas. The punching/transfer device (1) has a punching tool (2) with a vacuum connection (3), said vacuum connection (3) interacting with a porous elastomer (9) such that by means of the punching tool (2), a desired contour can be punched out of a multilayer composite, held, and then dispensed by modifying the shape of the porous elastomer (9) and/or by modifying the vacuum.
US09981395B2

A knife includes a blade, and a counterweight unit, and a handle having an accommodating space. The counterweight unit includes a counterweight-receiving member removably disposed in the accommodating space, multiple counterweights, and a biasing member. The counterweight-receiving member has a tubular wall, and an abutment wall cooperating with the tubular wall to define a receiving space and defining an exit opening that spatially communicates with the receiving space. The counterweights are removably disposed in the receiving space. The biasing member biases the counterweights toward the abutment wall so as to permit removal of one of the counterweights via the exit opening when the counterweight unit is separated from the handle.
US09981393B2

A remote attaching and detaching device which includes a camera module to substitute a worker's vision in such an environment where the worker's direct access to the in-cell is extremely limited or impossible. In a remote attaching and detaching device including a camera module for monitoring operating environment of a slave arm of a remote robot working in hazardous environment, the remote attaching and detaching device includes a fixing module fixed to a proximity of a gripper provided on the slave arm, and the camera module is attachable to and detachable from the fixing module, and provides visual in-cell information or situation about surroundings of the gripper.
US09981391B2

A modular tooling receiver includes a housing having a wall and a port, and an engaging member movably disposed in the port. A lock actuator is moveable between a first position and a second position. The release lever is connected to the housing and is engageable with the lock actuator for causing movement of the lock actuator from the first position toward the second position. An anti-release mechanism is connected to the release lever and is movable between an engaged position, in which the anti-release mechanism engages the housing to restrain movement of the release lever to prevent movement of the lock actuator from the first position to the second position, and a disengaged position, in which the anti-release mechanism disengages the housing to allow movement of the release lever.
US09981390B1

Examples described here include a device that has a housing defining a cavity, and a force sensor. The device also includes a first hydraulic actuator positioned in the cavity, and a second hydraulic actuator positioned in the cavity. The first and second hydraulic actuators move between respectively relaxing modes and thrusting modes along respective longitudinal axes. The longitudinal axis of the first hydraulic actuator is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the second hydraulic actuator. The device also includes a first actuated member coupled to the first hydraulic actuator, and a second actuated member coupled to the second hydraulic actuator.
US09981389B2

Manipulators in accordance with various embodiments of the invention can be utilized to implement statically stable robots capable of both dexterous manipulation and versatile mobility. Manipulators in accordance with one embodiment of the invention include: an azimuth actuator; three elbow joints that each include two actuators that are offset to allow greater than 360 degree rotation of each joint; a first connecting structure that connects the azimuth actuator and a first of the three elbow joints; a second connecting structure that connects the first elbow joint and a second of the three elbow joints; a third connecting structure that connects the second elbow joint to a third of the three elbow joints; and an end-effector interface connected to the third of the three elbow joints.
US09981386B2

A manipulator-device controlling method including: a step of receiving manipulation signals for manipulators; a step of calculating a target position of a joint on the basis of the manipulation signals; steps of calculating a maximum distance between the manipulators when the joint is assumed to be placed at the target position; a step of comparing the maximum distance with a predetermined threshold; a step of moving the joint to the target position in the case in which the maximum distance is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold; and a step of stopping the movement of the joint in the case in which the maximum distance is greater than the predetermined threshold.
US09981379B1

An example robotic gripping device includes two opposable gripping fingers and at least one actuator configured to move the two opposable gripping fingers towards and away from each other within a plane of motion. The robotic gripping device further includes a gripper base coupled to the two opposable gripping fingers, where the gripper base comprises an attachment interface. The robotic gripping device further includes a detachable elongated support member that mates with the attachment interface of the gripper base, such that when the elongated support member is attached to the attachment interface of the gripper base, the elongated support member extends parallel to the plane of motion of the two opposable gripping fingers.
US09981378B2

A handheld robot operation unit comprises a basic safety control device, a mobile terminal device, and a holder configured to mount the mobile terminal device on the basic safety control device. The holder comprises at least one adapter device configured to mechanically connect the mobile terminal device to the basic safety control device.
US09981370B2

A breaking device includes a frame, an impact device having a pressure chamber with a rear pressure chamber and a front pressure chamber. The breaking device further includes a first low pressure port at the rear pressure chamber, a first low pressure channel and a first low pressure accumulator connected to the first low pressure channel. The breaking device further includes a second low pressure port at the rear pressure chamber substantially opposite to the first low pressure port, second low pressure channel and a second low pressure accumulator connected to the second low pressure channel. The first low pressure accumulator and the second low pressure accumulator are arranged at the outer circumference of the frame of the breaking device at different positions in the axial direction of the breaking device.
US09981367B2

Method and apparatus for aligning fastener holes of two components. An alignment fixture includes two mating fixtures. Each mating fixture includes a reference plate that is aligned to the fastener holes of one of the components. Each mating fixture also includes an alignment device. The alignment devices can be aligned with the respective reference plates such that the alignment between the reference plates and the fastener holes are transferred to the alignment devices. Once aligned, the alignment devices can be temporarily attached to the respective components at locations away from the fastener holes. The reference plates can then be removed. Thereafter, the components can be brought together such that mating features on the alignment devices engage. Engagement of the mating features aligns the two components such that the fastener holes on the components are aligned.
US09981363B2

An open wrench includes a head having a handle and a driving portion which has an opening. A first layer, a second layer, a third layer and a fourth layer are formed on each of the top and the bottom of the driving portion. The first layer and the second layer are located along the U-shaped opening of the head. The top face of the second layer is smaller than that of the first layer. The third layer extends from the middle portion of the first layer, and the fourth layers extends from the middle portion of the second layer. The top face of the fourth layer is smaller than that of the third layer. The open wrench is light in weight and strong in structure, and is able to output significant torque to objects.
US09981360B2

In order to provide a handheld abrading machine which has a simple, efficient and as fatigue-free an abrading action as possible and which includes a holding device for holding the abrading machine, a drive motor and a tool head, wherein the holding device includes a substantially tubular bar that has a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the drive motor is arranged at the proximal end, wherein the tool head is arranged at the distal end, wherein the abrading machine includes a transmission shaft which connects the drive motor to a tool holder of the tool head for transmitting torque thereto and which runs at least in sections thereof within the tubular bar, it is proposed that a motor shaft rotational axis of the drive motor be oriented transversely, and in particular inclined, relative to a longitudinal axis of the tubular bar.
US09981354B2

A guide for cutting paving slabs comprises: a guide member (1) for guiding a cutting tool; a clamping means (5, 6); and a locator (3). The clamping means comprises a spindle (5) which passes through an opening in the guide member and connects to the locator. The clamping means is adjustable to adjust the position of the spindle relative to the guide member thereby to adjust the distance between the locator and the guide member.
US09981353B2

A machine tool facility includes the following: machine tools; a first pallet stocker in which a plurality of pallets are arranged in parallel with a predetermined space therebetween; a second pallet stocker in which a plurality of pallets are arranged in parallel with a predetermined space therebetween, and which is disposed in parallel with the first pallet stocker; a conveyance car that conveys a pallet in a direction parallel to the row of the pallets of the first pallet stocker; a first transfer device for transferring the pallet between the first pallet stocker and the conveyance car; and a second transfer device for transferring, by horizontal movement, the pallet between the first pallet stocker and the second pallet stocker.
US09981349B2

A welding wire formed of a trace boron titanium base alloy is provided, along with welds formed from the wire and articles comprising one or more of such welds. A method may include forming such a weld or welds from such a welding wire, and may also include non-destructively inspecting titanium alloy articles comprising one or more of such welds using ultrasonic waves to detect internal flaws.
US09981348B2

A solder alloy is substantially Ag-free and has desirable neat-resistance fatigue characteristics in a high-temperature environment as high as 150° C., even when used for soldering of electronic components having no leads. The solder alloy contains Sb, In, Cu, and Bi, and Sn accounting for the remainder, and satisfies the following formulae: 0.5≤[Sb]≤1.25 0.66[Sb]+4.16≤[In]≤6.0 0.5≤[Cu]≤1.2 0.1≤[Bi]≤0.5, wherein [Sb], [In], [Cu], and [Bi] represent the contents of Sb, In, Cu, and Bi, respectively, in mass %.
US09981344B2

A method for surface treatment of a roll, in which a laser is emitted on a roll surface to fabricate a pattern, includes a section allocation operation in which the roll surface is divided into multiple sections, and a pattern fabrication operation in which the roll is rotated in a circumferential direction, and a random pattern is fabricated on each of the fabrication sections, and an apparatus includes an apparatus frame, a fixing unit which is installed on the apparatus frame, supports a roll, and rotates in a circumferential direction of the roll, a laser unit which is installed on the apparatus frame, and emits a laser to the roll so that a pattern received may be formed on the roll surface through etching, and a displacement unit which is installed on the apparatus frame, and moves the laser unit along a lengthwise direction of the roll.
US09981332B2

A holding stand for a heating tool such as a soldering or de-soldering device. The holding stand has a rotary member for securing the heating tool and an assembly for moving and positioning the rotary member with the heating tool in any of three axis.
US09981331B2

In order to easily form curved holes and straight holes of desired shapes, an electrochemical machining tool of the present invention comprises a tool body including: an electrode made from an electrically conductive material in a cylindrical shape extending along an axial line and having flexibility, an electrolytic solution flowing through an internal flow channel of the electrode toward a tip side; and an insulating layer coated on an outer circumferential face of the electrode so as to expose the tip of the electrode. A fluid outflow hole is formed in the tool body, passing through the tool body in a radial direction and guiding the electrolytic solution flowing through the flow channel outward in the radial direction, and the electrochemical machining tool further comprises a tube-shaped member selectively opening and closing the fluid outflow hole.
US09981329B2

Provided is a tip saw which is provided with saw blades formed at a predetermined interval on an outer periphery of a disk-shaped base metal and a tip securely attached to a base formed on each saw blade, in which flank faces and rake faces of the tips are set in a staggered manner, and the rake faces are provided at a negative angle of inclination in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of said tip saw, and when a workpiece material is thin-walled, the tips are in substantially fan shapes, and adjacent saw blades have a pitch of less than 3.5 mm or less than 3.0 mm therebetween.
US09981326B2

Table saws and table saws designed to incorporate safety systems are disclosed. The table saws may include vertical slide elevation mechanisms positioned toward the rear of the saw and constructed so that an arbor block and blade can retract when a safety system detects an unsafe condition. Other table saw parts and components are also disclosed.
US09981323B2

A double-sided tangential cutting insert, as well as a tool holder system that carries a plurality of the double-sided tangential cutting inserts, that has a peripheral side shape, as viewed from one of said cutting rake faces, that includes a pair of generally identical opposing main cutting edges wherein each of the main cutting edge comprises a substantially straight main cutting edge portion and an adjoining convex main cutting edge portion. The convex main cutting edge portion is truncated by an adjacent convex minor side face so as to define a generally sharp edge and a point of truncation. The peripheral side shape further includes a pair of opposing full nose cutting edges with a nose cutting radius; and a pair of opposing convex minor cutting edges with a minor cutting edge radius. The minor cutting edge radius is at least about four times greater than the nose cutting radius.
US09981315B2

A concentric ring gas atomization nozzle with isolated gas supply manifolds is provided for manipulating the close-coupled atomization gas structure to improve the yield of atomized powders.
US09981314B2

There are provided techniques for direct printing material into parts made by additive manufacturing, such as parts made by laser sintering. The direct printed material may be a metal, elastomer, ceramic, or any other material. Further, the direct printed material is typically different than the laser sintering material. Other aspects of the invention include using direct printed materials in the laser sintered parts to improve part strength, provide multi-materials, selectively provide electrical conductivity, and/or provide other desirable features to the parts.
US09981313B1

A method including encapsulating or capping metallic nanoparticles by a dendrimer or a polymer with binding sites for metal particless or metal ions dispersed in a fluid; modifying the fluid to disrupt the interaction of the dendrimer or polymer with the particles; and subsequently or concomitantly sintering or partially consolidating the zero valent metal. A method including introducing a first metal salt and a second metal salt into a dendrimer or a polymer with binding sites for metals or metal ions; reducing a metal ion of the first metal salt to a zero valent first metal and a metal ion of the second metal salt to a zero valend second metal; disrupting an interaction between the dendrimer or the polymer and the first metal and the second metal; and sintering or partially consolidating the first metal and the second metal.
US09981308B2

A method of manufacturing a core for molding a blade of a turbomachine, including placing a flexible ceramic sheet in a cavity of a mold in such a way as to shape the ceramic sheet, introducing a ceramic paste into the cavity of the mold, the ceramic paste forming at least one frame in contact with the ceramic sheet, and co-sintering the ceramic sheet and the frame in such a way as to rigidly join together the ceramic sheet and the frame, the frame maintaining the shape of the ceramic sheet given by the mold during the preceding co-sintering phases.
US09981306B2

An apparatus includes an anvil having a first end and second end, and a press head reciprocally mounted relative to the anvil. The apparatus further includes an induction heater having a workpiece discharge end mounted adjacent the first end of the anvil, and a plurality of first station dies secured to the anvil. The first station dies each form at least a portion of a first contour. A plurality of second station dies are also secured to the anvil, the second station dies each defining at least a portion of a second contour.
US09981291B2

Equipment for handling postal articles, in particular for preparing a delivery round, includes a sorting machine (1) with a feed inlet (2) and sorting outlets (3). The articles (4) sorted into the sorting outlets are transported in storage trays (5) by shuttle robot carts (6). A monitoring and control unit (7) causes the shuttle robot carts with full trays of articles to move from the sorting outlets to the feed inlet and causes the shuttle robot carts with empty trays to move past the sorting outlets, where the shuttle robot carts move in convoys and in a target-seeking mode.
US09981289B2

A screening apparatus includes elongate beams and screen panels mounted to the beams to form a broad screening surface. Each of the panels are mounted so that side edges of adjacent panels are in facing relationship. Each panel is mounted to a pair of beams to bridge between two adjacent beams. The panels are mounted to the beams by fixing members. The fixing members have a pair of upstanding rails that are spaced apart to define a longitudinal gap between them. The panels are mounted to the beams by cooperation between the side edges with a rail of a fixing member. Cover strips extend along the beams and include a cover portion and a locking portion. The cover portion bears against an upper surface of a pair of adjacent panels and the locking portion bears against facing surfaces of the rails to resist movement of the rails towards each other.
US09981285B2

Device (1) and method for dosing an aqueous solution (2) of an additive, e.g., a non-caking agent, into an amount of a particulate material, such as a salt. The device comprises a conveyor (4) for transporting the particulate material and a dispenser (5) arranged above the conveyor. The dispenser is connected to a supply for the aqueous solution. The dispenser comprises a pouring outlet (10) extending over at least a part of the width of the conveyor (4). The additive solution is poured with a controlled flow velocity over at least a part of the width of the conveyor (4) transporting the particulate material.
US09981279B2

A dispensing device for dispensing a viscous or liquid product from a fluid reservoir, and having an actuator 1, a controlling member 2, a dispensing member 3, a collar 4 configured to be linked to the reservoir, and an extender 5. The dispensing device configured so that an actuation of the controlling member 2 causes a relative movement of the actuator 1 and the collar 4 thanks to which the dispensing device reversibly switches from a first configuration, in which the dispensing member 3 is unable to be activated, to a second configuration in which the actuator 1 is coupled in translation with the extender 5, so that when the actuator is pushed down 1 it activates the dispensing member 3.
US09981275B2

A separator includes: a centrifugal drum; a drive spindle, where the drive spindle is rotatably mounted in a drive housing by a neck bearing and a foot bearing, and where the drive housing encloses a drive chamber; an electric motor which has a stator and a motor rotor, where the motor rotor is disposed on the drive spindle, where the stator is fixedly connected to the drive housing, where an air gap exists between the stator and the motor rotor, and where the stator and the motor rotor are arranged between the neck bearing and the foot bearing; a lubricating system for lubrication of the neck bearing and the foot bearing; and a coolant system; where the stator has a flange section which is disposed on a collar section of the drive housing.
US09981269B2

An apparatus and a system directed to a towed device powered by a tow vehicle. The apparatus and system include a woodchipper configured to be mounted on a towed vehicle, with the towed vehicle configured to be towed behind the tow vehicle. Additionally, a motor may be coupled to the woodchipper to provide power to the woodchipper. A power converter obtains power from the tow vehicle from a power takeoff coupled to the tow vehicle. Further, one or more power transfer lines connect the power converter with the motor to communicate motor-operating power from the power converter to the motor.
US09981265B2

A microfluidic mixing device comprises a main channel and a number of secondary channels extending from a portion of the main channel and entering another portion of the main channel. A number of actuators are located in the secondary channels to pump fluids through the secondary channels. A microfluidic mixing system comprises a microfluidic mixing device. The microfluidic mixing device comprises a main fluid mixing channel, a number of main channel actuators to pump fluid through the main fluid mixing channel, a number of secondary channels fluidly coupled to the main fluid mixing channel, and a number of secondary channel actuators to pump fluids through the secondary channels. The microfluidic mixing device also comprises a fluid source, and a control device to provide fluids from the fluid source to the microfluidic mixing device and activate the main channel actuators and secondary channel actuators.
US09981264B2

Methods and systems are provided for a lateral flow test device. In one example a lateral flow test device may include a housing comprising an upper first portion and a lower second portion, the lower second portion further including a planar surface, a nitrocellulose matrix strip, the strip disposed on the planar surface, and one or more ligand regions included in the strip, the ligand regions comprising one or more ligands. The strip may be formed from a liquid polymer mixture dispensed onto the planar surface via a dispensing device positioned vertically above the planar surface.
US09981263B2

A flow control apparatus for facilitating treatment of a fluid containing a sample for analysis, includes: a body having spaced ends and defining a fluid flow passage arrangement that extends between the ends. The fluid flow passage arrangement includes two flow paths that are configured in parallel, merge within the body at least once, and respectively contain a one-way check valve and a medium selected to treat or modify sample-containing fluid flowing therethrough.
US09981257B2

As described herein, nickel treated with sulfur provides a surprisingly effective source of nickel atoms for generating nickel-phosphorus-containing ligand complexes useful as hydrocyanation catalysts.
US09981253B2

Disclosed is a catalyst suitable for the catalytic oxidative cracking of a H2S-containing gas stream, particularly in the event that the stream also contains methane and/or ammonia. The catalyst comprises iron and molybdenum supported by a carrier comprising aluminum. The carrier preferably is alumina. The iron and molybdenum preferably are in the form of sulphides. Also disclosed is a method for the production of hydrogen from a H2S-containing gas stream, comprising subjecting the gas stream to catalytic oxidative cracking so as to form H2 and S2, using a catalyst in accordance with any one of the preceding claims.
US09981245B2

Methods and related apparatuses for sorbent recharging are provided. The methods and related apparatuses for recharging can recharge a specific rechargeable layer of a sorbent material such as zirconium oxide and/or zirconium phosphate in a sorbent cartridge. The methods and apparatuses include passing solutions containing aqueous basic solutions through the zirconium oxide. The apparatus allows for recharging the zirconium oxide, and also for recharging zirconium phosphate, wherein the sorbent materials are contained in reusable sorbent modules.
US09981238B2

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an apparatus and methods for making nucleic acid loaded nanosomes. One embodiment of the present invention directed to an apparatus comprises a first containment means for containing a mixture of an aqueous solution of nucleic acid and a phospholipid solution with a supercritical, critical or near critical fluid. The apparatus further comprises injection means in fluid communication with said first containment means for receiving the mixture and releasing the mixture as a stream into a decompression liquid. The apparatus further comprises a decompression vessel in fluid communication with the injection means for holding a decompression liquid and receiving the mixture as a stream. The stream forms one or more nanosomes loaded with a nucleic acid in the decompression liquid.
US09981227B2

A thin film composite polyamide membrane comprising a porous support and a thin film polyamide layer characterized by possessing: i) an azo (—N═N—) content of from 0.40% to 1.00%, as measured by pyrolysis gas chromatography; and ii) a dissociated carboxylate content of at least 0.40 mol/kg as measured by RBS at pH 9.5.
US09981224B2

An exhaust purification device purifies an exhaust gas exhausted from an internal combustion engine. The exhaust purification device has a three-way catalytic agent that is located in an exhaust passage of the internal combustion engine and a particulate filter that is located downstream of the three-way catalytic agent in the exhaust passage and that collects an exhaust particulate. The particulate filter is provided with cells that includes sealed-inlet cells of which upstream ends are sealed and through cells through which an upstream side and a downstream side of the particulate filter communicate with each other. The particulate filter is arranged at a location where a temperature of the exhaust gas reaching an upstream end of the particulate filter is higher than or equal to a combustion temperature of the exhaust particulate, when the three-way catalytic agent is in an active state and when the internal combustion engine is operated.
US09981220B2

A fossil fuel fired power plant exhaust gas clean-up and recovery system is provided to remove detrimental compounds/elements from the exhaust gas emitting from the power plant to protect the environment and to recover useful products from the cleaning solution. This is accomplished by directing the exhaust gas from the fossil fuel fired power plant through a single wet scrubber having a cleaning solution of a predetermined pH. The cleaning solution is composed of calcium carbonate and water. A recovery process is attached thereto to reclaim calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, and carbon dioxide for reuse in the process and/or for commercial use.
US09981217B2

An air filtration equipment, the air filtration equipment is installed in an ventilation area at an interface between indoor and outdoor spaces of a fixed space, the equipment including: a sensor configured to sense information on inhalable particles in outside air; at least one filtering layer configured to filter out inhalable particles in air entering from the ventilation area into the indoor space; and a control device connected with the sensor and the at least one filtering layer and configured to control the at least one filtering layer to expand according to the information sensed by the sensor, such that the expanded at least one filtering layer covers the ventilation area. Also, a screen window and a window are provided.
US09981210B2

A filter (20) configured to separate the solid components and the liquid components from a slurry. The filter (20) includes a plurality of filter plate assemblies (46) that cooperate to define a plurality of filter chambers (70), each defining a perimeter (96) having an open section (98) when the filter plates (68) are in a closed position relative to one another. Each filter plate assembly (46) includes a closure (104) configured to close the open section (98). Preferably, the closures (104) are movable to an open position to permit a particulate cake to be removed from the filter chambers (70) without separating the filter plates (68).
US09981208B2

A cyclone reservoir for separation of an aerated portion of a hydraulic fluid and a related method of making the cyclone reservoir. The cyclone reservoir includes a lower chamber having a generally cylindrical side wall, a return port, and a suction port. An upper chamber is connected to the lower chamber by a neck section that places the interior volumes of the lower and upper chambers in fluid communication with one another. The neck section has a cross-sectional area taken perpendicular to a central axis of the reservoir that is smaller than a cross-sectional area of the lower chamber and the upper chamber at a different position along the central axis. The chambers and neck section may be made as a single-piece part by molding the reservoir by, for example, rotomolding. A reinforcement band may also go around the neck section to connect and support the upper and lower chambers.
US09981205B2

Provided is a purification device for purifying a useful substance (i.e., target substance) without using an acidic eluent. The purification device purifying the target substance comprises a column and a filler packed in the column. The filler contains a carrier, a temperature responsive polyamino acid bonded to the carrier, and a binding substance bonded to the temperature responsive polyamino acid and specifically bonding to the target substance.
US09981200B2

Disclosed herein is an external mixing pressurized two-fluid nozzle for atomising a liquid by means of liquid pressure and gas, comprising an inner feed liquid pipe (1) extending axially between an upstream end and a downstream end, having a feed liquid conduit (2), a feed liquid inlet (3) positioned at the upstream end and a feed orifice (4) positioned at the downstream end, and a co-axial first gas pipe (5) extending radially outside the inner feed liquid pipe (1) and forming a first gas conduit (6) between the first gas pipe (5) and the inner feed liquid pipe (1), the first gas pipe (5) having a gas outlet slit (7) positioned at the downstream end. Said external mixing two-fluid nozzle provides a swirling motion of the gas, which combined with a pressurized feed liquid enables the production of spray dried powder at industrially applicable capacities with low energy consumption and a small particle size.
US09981199B2

There is disclosed a water purification apparatus and method, related to desalinization. In an embodiment, a water purification apparatus and method includes at least one port for receiving airflow therethrough, at least one port for receiving salt water therethrough, at least one output for providing outflow of pure water vapor, and at least one output for proving outflow of a mixture of water, salt and air; and a plurality of chambers for evaporating the salt water into the airflow, at least one of the chambers forming a plurality of ports arranged in a plurality of rows. In an embodiment, a method includes providing airflow to a water purification apparatus; providing salt water to the water purification apparatus and method; forming a vortex in the airflow to evaporate water vapor from the salt water; and providing the water vapor in the airflow to a condenser so as to obtain pure water.
US09981198B2

A distance detecting device is mounted on a user's vehicle to detect a distance between the user's vehicle and a leading vehicle moving in front of the user's vehicle. The distance detecting device communicates with a processing device, which applies race based distance rules to determine whether the user's vehicle is close to or incurring a penalty based at least on the distance between the user's vehicle and the leading vehicle. An indication can be given to the user regarding an impending penalty and/or when a penalty is incurred. Similarly, the device can be read to apply a penalty. Various modifications can be made to allow for recording, display, and transmission of racing and penalty statistics, enabling and disabling recordation of penalty occurrences, tailoring the penalty determinations to a given race, and mounting the distance detecting device to a vehicle.
US09981190B2

Techniques are described for performing telemetry based interactive content generation for online services. For example, telemetry data can be obtained from individual users of the online service and/or from multiple users of the online service (e.g., and processed to generate aggregate telemetry data). Other types of data can also be obtained, including service management data. Service management data can be generated from the users of the online service and can comprise user density information for virtual areas of the online service. Using telemetry data (e.g., user-specific telemetry data and/or aggregate telemetry data), service management data, and/or other types of data related to the online service, new interactive experiences can by dynamically created for the users of the online service.
US09981178B1

A snowboard assembly includes a snowboard and a suspension system operable to absorb shock and vibration that are generated during use of the assembly. The snowboard is a typical snowboard and the suspension system comprises a suspension platform and two or more struts. Each strut is coupled with the snowboard and the suspension platform via two couplings. In a preferred embodiment, a single strut with two couplings are used to couple the suspension platform with the snowboard.
US09981172B2

An athletic coaching method and jersey system are provided. The method utilizes jerseys with securing elements attached thereto. Number panels having specific player numbers are secured to the jerseys for use during practice. Scout team players wear the jerseys during practice. Each scout team player has a different number to represent the jersey number of a player on an opposing team in an upcoming game. The method allows coaches to more realistically simulate a game against an opposing team in practice. When the opposing team changes for the next game, each scout team player can continue to wear the same jersey but change the jersey number by switching number panels to represent a different player on the team of the next opponent. Thus, jersey numbers can be changed so that a game can be simulated for any opponent.
US09981170B2

A putter comprising an adjustable hosel structure is disclosed herein. In particular, the putter comprises a hosel assembly comprising a shaft receiver and two interlocked bars that connect the shaft receiver to the putter head. A plurality of bolts connect the bars to the shaft receiver and the putter head, and these points of connection are joints about which the bars move, and which can be restrained to immobilize the hosel assembly or otherwise reversibly fix it in place so that a longitudinal shaft axis is aligned with a desired portion of the putter head. The hosel assembly preferably is adjustable along a horizontal, heel-to-toe axis, and is partially disposed, and secured, within a pocket on the heel side of the putter head.
US09981169B2

A ball striking device, such as a golf club, includes a head with a face having a striking surface configured for striking a ball and being defined by a plurality of peripheral edges, a body connected to the face and extending rearwardly from the peripheral edges of the face, and a sole member connected to the sole of the body. The sole member may be removably connected to the sole, which can permit removal and replacement with another sole member having a different property. The sole member may additionally or alternately be movably connected to the sole, which can permit adjustment of the sole member, such as to change the lie angle of the head. The sole member may be at least partially received in a receiver in the sole and may form at least a portion of the lowermost surface of the head.
US09981166B2

A wood-type golf club head includes a main body and a striking wall associated with the main body. The striking wall has a striking face including a face center, a first imaginary plane tangent to the face center, and a rear surface opposite the striking face. In a second imaginary plane perpendicular to the first imaginary plane and passing through the face center, the striking face includes a first point associated with a maximum thickness, tmax, of the striking wall, and a second point associated with a minimum thickness, tmin, of the striking wall, such that a ratio, tmax/tmin, is no less than 1.70. Also, in the second imaginary plane, the striking wall gradually tapers in thickness entirely from the first point to the second point.
US09981165B2

A golf club head comprising a conformal weight sized to fit within a recess or channel disposed in a crown or sole is disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the crown or sole itself is a conformal weight, and is removably affixed to a base structure comprising a striking face and a skeletal support structure. In other embodiments, the golf club head comprises a conformal weight in the form of a sole cap that is removably affixed to the golf club head and covers small weight ports disposed in the sole.
US09981161B2

A resilient face insert for a golf club head, preferably a putter head, is disclosed herein. In particular, the face insert comprises a plurality of hinge features spaced from a striking surface to ensure consistent ball speed across the striking surface. At least a portion of each hinge feature extends parallel to the striking surface without making contact with the striking surface. In the preferred embodiment, each hinge feature comprises a tab portion that is spaced from the striking surface by a stem portion and that extends parallel to the striking surface. The hinge features may be co-molded with a polymeric backing material in order to further improve performance of the face insert.
US09981154B2

An exercise apparatus has a base, a first vertical support and a second vertical support. The base has at least one horizontal support. The at least one horizontal support has a first end and a second end. First vertical support and second vertical support each have two vertical members spaced from each other and connected to a bottom support. The bottom support of the first vertical support is attached to the first end of the at least one horizontal support of the base and the bottom support of the second vertical support is attached to the second end of the at least one horizontal support of the base. The first vertical support and the second vertical support are opposite each other. At least one anchor is positioned on each of the vertical supports for removably connecting a resistance band to each of the vertical supports.
US09981151B2

This invention is embodied in a power/data interface for connecting two modules at the leading edge (i.e., the “tip of the spear”) of a fire suppression operation. The power/data interface serves as an operational link between a housing device (for protecting a battery and other electronic equipment) and an accessory like a thermal imaging camera (“tic” camera), video camera or other sensory perceiving device. The power/data interface not only provides power to an accessory by connecting it to a power source, but the power/data interface can exchange data between the accessory and the housing device. Such exchange of data enables electronics stored within the housing device to record and protect data captured by accessory on a flash drive or other recordable media. In addition to providing power and exchanging data with an accessory, the power/data interface can also accept battery pack that can be used to recharge a battery or other power source located inside the housing device.
US09981148B2

Disclosed are thermal treatment methods that involve monitoring and/or actively adjusting the temperature of targeted and/or non-targeted tissues.
US09981144B2

Interference of dose application in scanned ion beam therapy and organ motion, also called interplay effect, may lead to dose deviations at target volumes. Current repainting methods are susceptible to artifacts due to a predominant scanning direction, ranging from fringed field edges to under and overdosed regions (hot and cold spots). To overcome the difficulties inherent in the repainting techniques of conventional proton therapy systems, new random repainting techniques are described herein for mitigating the under-dose and/or over-dose pattern inherent in existing repainting techniques using a random repainting approach that randomly selects spot locations within the target area.
US09981136B2

The present disclosure relates to cardiac evoked response detection and, more particularly, reducing polarization effects in order to detect an evoked response following delivery of a stimulation pulse. An implantable medical device (IMD) is configured to deliver a ventricular pacing pulse. A signal is sensed in response to the ventricular pacing stimulus. A window is placed over the sensed signal to obtain a set of data from the signal after a paced event. The set of data extracted from the sensed signal comprises a maximum amplitude, a maximum time associated with the maximum amplitude, a minimum amplitude, and a minimum time associated with the minimum amplitude. Responsive to processing the extracted data, the window is delayed to avoid polarization effects. A determination is then made as to whether the ventricular pacing stimulus is capturing the paced ventricle in response to determining whether the maximum time is greater than the minimum time.
US09981134B2

A neuromodulation system comprises a plurality of electrical terminals configured for being respectively coupled to electrodes, modulation output circuitry configured for respectively outputting a plurality of individual electrical pulse trains in a plurality of timing channels to the electrical terminals, wherein each of the timing channels prevents the respective pulse train from having a specific characteristic, and control circuitry configured for controlling the modulation output circuitry in a manner that outputs the pulse trains to a common set of the electrical terminals, thereby creating a combined electrical pulse train at the common set of electrical terminals that has the specific characteristic. A method of providing therapy to a patient comprises delivering a plurality of electrical pulse trains respectively in a plurality of timing channels to a common set of electrodes implanted within the patient, thereby creating a combined electrical pulse train at the common set of electrical terminals.
US09981132B2

One system includes a stimulation device such as a vagus nerve stimulation lead, and a controller for controlling the stimulation device according to a set of stimulation parameters. A memory of the stimulation device contains a state transition model, and for each state defines a set of stimulation parameters and at least one expected response during the application of stimulation with the parameters. A matrix determines the transition rules between states based on physiological levels measured versus target levels. A state transition control unit determines, in an organized timely method, possible transitions between states according to the rules on physiological levels obtained in response to the implementation of the stimulation parameters of the current state, and a transition from a current state to a new state causes a corresponding change in the parameter set used for stimulation.
US09981127B2

A system for providing non-invasive neuromodulation to a patient includes a mouthpiece and a controller. The mouthpiece includes an elongated housing, a printed circuit board, control circuitry mounted within the elongated housing, and a cable for connecting to a controller. The controller includes an elongated u-shaped element, an electronic receptacle, and a microcontroller. A method for providing non-invasive neurorehabilitation of a patient including connecting a mouthpiece to a controller, transmitting a numeric sequence to the mouthpiece, generating a first hash code, transmitting the first hash code to the controller, generating a second hash code, comparing the second hash code with the first hash code, enabling electrical communication between the mouthpiece and the controller only if the first hash code matches the second hash code, contacting the mouthpiece with the patient's intraoral cavity, and delivering neurostimulation to the patient's intraoral cavity.
US09981122B2

A system of implanting electrode leads for restoring muscle function to the lumbar spine to treat low back pain is provided. The system provides efficient implantation of the leads, including the ability to verify deployment of anchoring mechanisms on the lead using an impedance assessment, such that the implanted lead may be secured within the patient and used to restore muscle function of local segmental muscles associated with the lumbar spine stabilization system.
US09981121B2

An implantable medical therapy delivery device includes a non-conductive filament extending along a length of an outer surface of an insulative body of the device, wherein the filament includes a plurality of fixation projections and is secured to the outer surface of the insulative body such that the projections protrude outward from the outer surface and are spaced apart from one another along the length of the outer surface. The filament may be wound about the length with an open pitch. In some cases, the insulative body includes an open-work member forming at least a portion of the outer surface thereof, and the filament may be interlaced with the open-work member. In these cases, the filament may be bioabsorbable, for example, to provide only acute fixation via the projections thereof, while the open-work member provides a structure for tissue ingrowth and, thus, more permanent or chronic fixation.
US09981120B2

The electrode set for a stimulation device, such as a TENS or EMS stimulation device comprises at least a plurality of neighboring electrically active zones close to each other said active zones forming a succession of poles of alternating polarity or being grouped to form groups of poles of alternating polarity, wherein at least one of said active zone or group of zones has a lateral size (D2) of approximately 1 mm to 40 mm, wherein at least one of spacing (D1) between neighboring active zones or groups of zones is approximately of 1 mm to 40 mm, and said set further comprises contacting means connected to said active zones or groups of active zones.
US09981112B2

A camera system (1) for monitoring the inside of a body (1), includes: a camera support tube (13) of which one end part (13a) is inserted into the body; a camera unit (11) which joins with the support tube inside the body; a camera side cable (12) which is connected to the camera unit, and is drawn out toward the outside of the body through the camera support tube; a control system (3) which includes at least a display (18); and a string-like member (38) which directly or indirectly fixes the camera support tube to the body surface.
US09981109B2

An elongated medical device with a modified drive surface for use with the driving mechanism of a robotic system. The elongated medical device has a distal portion configured to navigate the lumen of a human body channel and a proximate portion with a surface different from that of the distal portion and adapted to better interact with the driving mechanism than the surface of the distal portion.
US09981097B2

Described are systems and methods for compensating long term sensitivity drift of catalytic type electrochemical gas sensors used in systems for delivering therapeutic nitric oxide (NO) gas to a patient by compensating for drift that may be specific to the sensors atypical use in systems for delivering therapeutic nitric oxide gas to a patient. The long term sensitivity drift of catalytic type electrochemical gas sensors may be addressed using calibration schedules, which can factor in the absolute change in set dose of NO being delivered to the patient that can drive one or more baseline calibrations. The calibration schedules can be used to reduce the amount of times the sensor goes offline.
US09981096B2

This disclosure describes systems and methods for providing novel back-up ventilation that allows the patient to trigger or initiate the delivery of breath. Further, this disclosure describes systems and methods for triggering ventilation when base flow and/or inspiratory flow is unknown or indeterminable by the ventilator.
US09981088B2

A medication cartridge plunger including a sealing member, which is formed of a resilient material, and a force distributing member, which is attached to sealing member and formed of a material more rigid than the resilient material. The force distributing member is shaped complementary with the sealing member to distribute to the sealing member a medication expelling force that may be applied to the force distributing member by an external drive element to drive the plunger forward. The force distributing member includes a radial periphery fit within a hollow of the sealing member. The radial periphery has a plurality of apex regions connected by spanning regions, which apex regions are disposed along a common circle centered on an axial center of the medication cartridge plunger. The spanning regions are disposed within the common circle, and each apex region, relative to the common circle, is not in diametric alignment with any of the other apex regions.
US09981086B2

An automatic injection device for delivering a dose from a medicine containing syringe includes a housing for containing the syringe, a force applicator for applying a force to eject medicine from the syringe, a trigger coupled to the force applicator for releasing the force applicator to cause an injection, a boot covering a needle attached to the syringe to protect and maintain sterility of the needle, and a mechanical interlock. The mechanical interlock prevents actuation of the trigger prior to removal of the boot. When the boot is removed, the mechanical interlock allows for actuation of the trigger.
US09981083B2

Fluid delivery and measurement systems and methods are disclosed.
US09981080B2

A wound irrigation device, comprising: a cap structure configured to engage a bottle containing an irrigation solution at a first end; a protective rim disposed about a periphery of the cap structure at a second end, wherein the protective rim is selectively disposed about or in proximity to a wound to be irrigated when in use; one or more conduits for selectively communicating a compressed gas through the cap structure and into an interior of the bottle to form a compressed irrigation solution; and a longitudinal wall structure disposed within the cap structure and defining one or more channels for selectively communicating the compressed irrigation solution through the cap structure and to the wound. The wound irrigation device further comprising a vent conduit in fluid communication with the one or more conduits for selectively venting the compressed gas through the cap structure and into the environment.
US09981079B2

A medical treatment system, such as peritoneal dialysis system, may include control and other features to enhance patient comfort and ease of use. For example, a peritoneal dialysis system may include a control system that can adjust the volume of fluid infused into the peritoneal cavity to prevent the intraperitoneal fluid volume from exceeding a pre-determined amount. The control system can adjust by adding one or more therapy cycles, allowing for fill volumes during each cycle to be reduced. The control system may continue to allow the fluid to drain from the peritoneal cavity as completely as possible before starting the next therapy cycle. The control system may also adjust the dwell time of fluid within the peritoneal cavity during therapy cycles in order to complete a therapy within a scheduled time period. The cycler may also be configured to have a heater control system that monitors both the temperature of a heating tray and the temperature of a bag of dialysis fluid in order to bring the temperature of the dialysis fluid rapidly to a specified temperature, with minimal temperature overshoot.
US09981078B2

A left ventricular assist device includes an outer tube, which includes a ventricle section located in the left ventricle and an artery section located in the aorta, the ventricle section is provided with first suction meshes, and the artery section is provided with first discharge meshes, and the outer tube is in communication with an external drive device; a ventricular-side suction component provided in the ventricle section; and a discharge-section balloon catheter, is provided with second discharge meshes, and the second discharge meshes and the first discharge meshes are arranged to be staggered and not overlapped. With the suction and inflating of the external drive device, blood is sucked into the outer tube from the left ventricle by the ventricular-side suction component, and forced out of the outer tube into the aorta by the discharge-section balloon catheter, to pump blood in the left ventricle into the aorta.
US09981072B2

Provided herein is a coated coronary stent, comprising: a. stent; b. a plurality of layers deposited on said stent to form said coronary stent; wherein at least one of said layers comprises a bioabsorbable polymer and at least one of said layers comprises one or more active agents; wherein at least part of the active agent is in crystalline form.
US09981070B2

A coating composition capable of forming a drug coating layer insusceptible to peeling in the process of delivery of a water-insoluble drug to a target tissue is provided. The coating composition contains the water-insoluble drug and a basic compound which is positively charged at physiological pH. A medical device coated with the coating composition is further provided.
US09981054B2

Discussed herein are systems, apparatuses, and methods for reversing a flow through a conduit loop. A system may include a flow reversing loop having an inlet, an outlet in communication with a drain, a first port on a first side of the flow reversing loop, and a second port on a second side of the flow reversing loop, the first and second sides separated by the inlet and outlet, a conduit loop including one or more flow paths, wherein the flow reversing loop includes a first flow path from the inlet to the first port so that the treatment fluid can flow through the conduit loop in a first direction to the outlet of the flow reversing loop, and a second flow path from the inlet to the second port so that the treatment fluid can flow to the drain in a second direction, opposite of the first direction.
US09981052B2

A lighting system includes a light source configured to generate light toward one or more surfaces or materials to inactivate one or more pathogens on the one or more surfaces or materials. The light includes an inactivating portion having wavelengths in a range of 280 to 380 nanometers.
US09981043B2

The invention provides analgesic conjugates having a mu opioid receptor agonist linked to a mGluR5 antagonist, and to methods for producing analgesia using such compounds.
US09981042B2

The present invention provides an anticancer agent comprising a multi-walled carbon nanotube and an anticancer drug covalently attached to the surface of the multi-walled carbon nanotube, in order to anticancer agent capable of solving drug resistance problem.
US09981041B2

An ophthalmic composition for administration as a spray to the eye is provided. The ophthalmic composition comprises a lubricant comprising hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), mineral oil, and sterile water. The ophthalmic composition is also configured as a delivery vehicle for administration of ophthalmic pharmaceuticals to the eye. A method of treating keratoconjunctivitis sicca by administering the ophthalmic composition is also provided.
US09981039B2

This invention pertains to a zafirlukast-containing composition, a method of preparing the composition, and a method for treating certain skin disorders using the zafirlukast-containing composition.
US09981038B2

This invention relates to photoswitchable inhibitors of histone deacetylases and methods of using the same. Provided herein are inhibitors of HDAC having photoswitchable modulators of protein function with short thermal relaxation kinetics. The compounds are diazo compounds including a substituted or unsubstituted aryl or heteroaryl ring, wherein at least one of the rings is substituted with one or more HDAC targeting elements.
US09981032B2

Provided are compositions and methods for use in prophylaxis of puerperal metritis and improving reproductive function of ruminants. The methods and compositions are for subcutaneous administration and are provided as veterinary compositions and as articles of manufacture. The veterinary composition can contain whole cells selected from whole cells of Escherichia coli (E. coli), Trueperella pyogenes (T. pyogenes), Fusobacterium necrophorum (F. necrophorum) and combinations thereof; and/or proteins selected from F. necrophorum leukotoxin (LKT), E. coli type 1 fimbrial adhesin (FimH), T. pyogenes pyolysin (PLO), and all combinations of the whole cells and the proteins.
US09981022B2

A thermo-reversible thermoplastic pharmaceutical composition, comprising a botulinum toxin and a biocompatible poloxamer which provides thermoreversibility to the composition and additionally stabilizes the botulinum toxin, is described. The pharmaceutical composition can be administered to a patient as a liquid, and gels after administration into a sustained release drug delivery system from which the biologically active botulinum toxin is released over a multi-day period thereby localizing the drug as a depot and controlling release to enhance the therapeutic effect per dose.
US09981014B2

Intestinal absorption is enhanced in short bowel syndrome patients presenting with colon-in-continuity by treatment with a GLP-2 receptor agonist, such as teduglutide.
US09981005B2

The invention relates to the finding that turnover of DISC1 (Disrupted in schizophrenia 1) is mediated by the F-box-containing protein FBXW7 (F-box/WD repeat-containing protein 7). The sequence within DISC1 that binds to FBXW7 and targets DISC1 for turnover by the ubiquitin-proteasome system is identified. The invention provides antagonists that inhibit this interaction and methods of using these antagonists to decrease DISC1 turnover, for example in treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as methods of identifying new antagonists.
US09980993B2

Compositions and uses thereof include an admixture of a probiotic and natural phytochemicals that can affect an individual's stem cells and the inflammatory process to reduce underlying symptoms of various health issues, including arthritis, aging, and physical or athletic injuries, thereby facilitating healing and repair of tissues.
US09980981B2

The invention provides compositions and methods for delivering carbon monoxide (CO) to subjects suffering from inflammatory, cardiovascular, Sickle Cell, and other disease. The compositions are liquids, including Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids, such as pastes, gels, foams, emulsions, and other non-gaseous compositions, in which CO is dissolved at an amount that, when administered to a patient, provides a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of CO to the patient. The compositions can be provided in many forms, including in bottles or cans.
US09980972B2

The invention relates to a new use of a known Rho kinase inhibitor, fasudil or a fasudil derivative selected from hydroy-fasudil or dimethylfasudil, in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
US09980970B2

The present invention relates to the use of PAR1 antagonists, in particular of vorapaxar, of atopaxar and of 3-(2-chlorophenyl)-1-[4-(4-fluorobenzyl)piperazin-1-yl]propenone, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, for preventing and/or treating pelvi-perineal functional pathological conditions, and more particularly painful bladder syndrome.
US09980961B2

Described herein are methods for using compounds that activate pyruvate kinase.
US09980958B2

This invention relates to the discovery of novel polymorphic forms of naltrexone, including solvates, hydrates, anhydrous and other crystalline forms and combinations thereof. These novel forms of naltrexone impart advantages in pharmaceutical formulations incorporating them, including sustained release, or long acting, formulations.
US09980956B2

Methods and therapeutic combinations useful for increasing cell-mediated anti-tumor responses are described. The methods include administering to a subject a therapeutically effective amount of an Immune Response Modifier Compound and a therapeutically effective amount of one or more immune checkpoint inhibitor compounds.
US09980952B2

Agents for modulating methyl modifying enzymes, compositions and uses thereof are provided herein.
US09980941B2

A method administers quaternary ammonium anti-cholinergic muscarinic receptor antagonists in combination with acetyl-cholinesterase inhibitors to treat either cognitive impairment or acute delirium. This therapy results in a modification of a cognitive disorder or disease, namely a slow down in the disease progression. In one preferred embodiment, the disease is dementia with Lewy Bodies. New formulations for quaternary ammonium anti-cholinergic muscarinic receptor antagonists are also disclosed.
US09980934B2

In an embodiment, compositions comprising monoacylglycerols (MAG), such as sn-1(3) MAG, are administered with a lipase inhibitor, such as tetrahydrolipstatin, and/or with a diet low in fat and/or calories. In another embodiment, compositions comprising MAG, such as sn-1(3) MAG, are administered concurrently with a lipase inhibitor, such as tetrahydrolipstatin, and/or with fat-soluble nutrients. The compositions and the methods of using the compositions enhance absorption of fatty acids and fat-soluble nutrients such as fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids to address nutritional deficiencies due to a weight loss diet used in association with a lipase inhibitor.
US09980933B2

Disclosed are methods of treating subjects having conditions related to angiogenesis including administering an effective amount of a polymeric form of thyroid hormone, or an antagonist thereof, to promote or inhibit angiogenesis in the subject. Compositions of the polymeric forms of thyroid hormone, or thyroid hormone analogs, are also disclosed.
US09980932B2

The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising a combination of a therapeutically-effective amount of the antiviral compound valaciclovir and a therapeutically-effective amount of the COX-2 inhibitor meloxicam. The invention is further related to methods of treating functional somatic syndromes by administering a therapeutically-effective combination of valaciclovir and meloxicam.
US09980928B2

Hydroxy aliphatic substituted phenyl aminoalkyl ether compounds of formula (I), and compositions thereof, are useful as a medicament in the treatment of nervous system diseases and/or the treatment of developmental, behavioral and/or mental disorders associated with cognitive deficits.
US09980927B2

The use of tapentadol (i) in the treatment of pain in a subject suffering from depression and/or from anxiety, and/or (ii) in the treatment or the inhibition of depression or anxiety.
US09980921B2

Disclosed herein is a transdermal delivery system comprising methylphenidate or its salt as an active ingredient. Also provided are methods of delivering a therapeutically effective amount of methylphenidate to a subject for the treatment of a disease condition. The disease condition includes a neurological condition such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and/or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Kits including the transdermal delivery system and methods of making and using the transdermal delivery system are also provided.
US09980920B2

The present invention provides a composition for a non-aqueous patch preparation having an excellent adhesibility which can sustainedly release a drug. The patch preparation of the present invention can improve the adhesibility thereof as well as the release property of a drug by the addition of powder ingredient (e.g. a filler). As a result, the long-time sustention of the adhesibility of patch preparations can achieve the improvement of the transdermal absorbability and the sustained release of a drug. By the use of a composition for a patch preparation comprising this powder ingredient, a drug, regardless of the type of a drug is dissolved in an organic solvent or an ionic liquid to prepare a drug solution comprising the organic solvent, the drug solution is incorporated into the non-aqueous patch preparation of the present invention, and thereby a preparation with the improved transdermal-absorbability and sustained release can prepared.
US09980915B2

An oral disintegrating tablet containing (1) D-mannitol, (2) an active ingredient, (3) one or more disintegrating agents selected from the group consisting of crospovidone and carmellose, and (4) one or more lubricants selected from the group consisting of sodium stearyl fumarate and sucrose esters of fatty acids. The oral disintegrating tablet of the present invention has some excellent properties of (1) allowing easy production in a common facility without necessitating a specialized pharmaceutical technique, (2) having an appropriate strength that does not breakdown in the process of distribution, (3) having a fast disintegrating ability in the oral cavity, and (4) also having excellent ingestion feel such as greatly reduced bitterness or gritty feel; therefore, the tablet can be suitably used as a dosage form that is suitable for aged individuals, children, and seriously ill patients.
US09980912B2

Biochars and methods for treating biochars are provided that are useful in various applications, including, but not limited to, applications related to the raising, care, maintenance, disease prevention, disease treatment and odor control of animals.
US09980906B2

The present invention provides a slow and controlled released liposomal gel composition for subcutaneous administration comprises insulin or exenatide as active ingredient for reduction of blood sugar level and method of preparation thereof. Said controlled released composition has high bioavailability and is demonstrated to be able to sustain release therapeutically effective concentration of drug over a period of time and without rapid release of drug after initial administration. Method of preparing the controlled released composition of the present invention comprises the following steps: mixing insulin or exenatide, lipid and aqueous dispersion medium together; then mixing with poloxamer (e.g. F127 or P123) and/or gelatin and hyaluronic acid (HA) or the like gel solution so as to form a protective layer on surface of every lipid micro vesicles or nano-vesicles for use in intramuscular, abdominal and subcutaneous administration. A single administration of the present composition lasts 2 to 7 days to reduce side-effects, such as pain and irritation.
US09980903B2

Controlled release oral dosage forms are provided for the continuous, sustained administration of a pharmacologically active agent to the upper gastrointestinal tract of a patient in whom the fed mode as been induced. The majority of the agent is delivered, on an extended release basis, to the stomach, duodenum and upper regions of the small intestine, with drug delivery in the lower gastrointestinal tract and colon substantially restricted. The dosage form comprises a matrix of a biocompatible, hydrophilic, erodible polymer with an active agent incorporated therein, wherein the polymer is one that both swells in the presence of water and gradually erodes over a time period of hours, with swelling and erosion commencing upon contact with gastric fluid, and drug release rate primarily controlled by erosion rate.
US09980902B2

A method for treating intestinal fibrosis in a subject, comprising enterally administering a steroid to the subject. The steroid may be in a multiple minibead formulation.
US09980900B2

A method of treating pain, e.g., acute post-operative pain, by administering to a human patient(s) a therapeutically effective dose of tramadol intravenously in a dosing regimen which includes one or more loading doses administered at shortened intervals as compared to dosing at steady-state is disclosed. In preferred embodiments, the intravenous dosing regimen provides a Cmax and AUC of tramadol is similar to the Cmax and AUC of an oral dose of 100 mg tramadol HCl given every 6 hours. In certain preferred embodiments, the dosing regimen comprises 50 mg IV tramadol at Hour 0, followed by 50 mg at Hour 2, 50 mg at hour 4, and 50 mg every 4 hours thereafter (e.g., until the patient no longer requires treatment with tramadol).
US09980899B2

The invention provides a pigment composition comprising anthocyanic vacuolar inclusions or “AVIs” from a plant, and an acceptable carrier. The invention also provides methods for coloring products with the pigment composition, and products comprising the pigment composition or AVIs.
US09980898B2

The invention relates to a polymer composition suitable for high-heat application comprising: a. At least one polymer 1 having a solubility parameter δP1; b. A thermo-releasable substance being a liquid at 200° C. and having a solubility parameter δsub in an amount of at least 0.1 wt % with respect to the total amount of composition; and wherein the amount of thermo-releasable substance is in the range from 0.5 wt % to 70 wt % with respect to the polymer 1; wherein Δ=(δsub−δP1)2 is in the range from 0.5 to 24.0 and wherein the solubility parameter is calculated by the software package Synthia, Materials Studio v.6.0.0 ©2011, based on the method by J. Bicerano, Prediction of Polymer Properties, Marcel Dekker, 3rd Ed, 2002, ISBN 0-8247-0821-0; Chapter 5, and in which the E-modulus of the composition as measured according to method ISO 527-1 at 200° C. is at least 50 MPa. The invention also relates to personal care devices and hair-straighteners comprising this polymer composition.
US09980897B2

The present invention provides a novel organopolysiloxane in which a rich hydrophilic property is exhibited, not only superior miscibility with a hydrophilic component and but also a hydrophobic property are exhibited, and superior miscibility with both a silicone oil and a non-silicone oil such as a hydrocarbon oil, an ester oil or the like, and provide various usages of the aforementioned novel organopolysiloxane by developing the superior characteristics thereof such as good surface activity power, a distinctive sensation during use, increased stability and the like. A co-modified organopolysiloxane having a specified chemical structure in which a sugar alcohol-modified group and a long-chain hydrocarbon group are present in one molecule is produced. The co-modified organopolysiloxane is blended, as a surfactant, a powder treatment agent, a gelling agent or the like, or as a cosmetic raw material appropriately together with powder(s), oil agent(s) or the like, in a preparation for external use, and in particular, a cosmetic.
US09980895B2

The present invention relates to an emulsion-type cosmetic composition for coating keratin fibers, comprising: —an aqueous phase, —particles comprising at least one hard wax, preferentially in the form of an aqueous dispersion, having a melting point greater than or equal to 60° C., the hard wax(es) being present at a total content greater than or equal to 10% by weight relative to the total weight of the composition, —at least one emulsifying system capable of dispersing at least the hard wax(es), comprising a non-ionic surfactant with an HLB value at 25° C. greater than or equal to 8, preferably greater than or equal to 10, and —at least one particular anionic associative polymer. The present invention also relates to a method for coating keratin fibers, to a method for preparing a cosmetic composition for coating keratin fibers, to a cosmetic composition for coating keratin fibers which is obtained by means of said production method, and also to a particular use.
US09980889B2

The present invention relates to the use of p-hydroxybenzylamine or a salt thereof as antimicrobial agent as well as to composition comprising said agent.
US09980888B2

A personal care composition including at least one dry emollient and one oily emollient, where the personal care composition is free of silicone or silicone containing materials.
US09980885B2

A silicone-based copolymer resin powder is prepared by reacting a siloxane oligomer obtained from ring-opening of (a1) a cyclic organosiloxane in the presence of (a3) an acid catalyst and (a4) an anionic surfactant with (a2) a silane coupling agent having an alkoxy group and a polymerizable double bond to obtain (A) a linear or branched organopolysiloxane containing at least 2 silicon-bonded hydroxyl groups per molecule, copolymerizing (A) the linear or branched organopolysiloxane with (B) an ethylenically unsaturated monomer to form a copolymer as a core, and further polymerizing to the copolymer another ethylenically unsaturated monomer as a shell, the powder containing up to 0.3% by weight of the cyclic organosiloxane and up to 1% by weight of the anionic surfactant.
US09980874B2

A carrying device is provided to carry at least one article for an end user of a walker while the end user is utilizing the walker. The carrying device includes a base having a first end, a second end, and a carrying surface extending between the first and second ends. The carrying surface is adapted to removably retain the at least one article for the end user. The carrying device further includes a support arm coupled to and extending outwardly from the second end of the base. The support arm is configured to support the at least one article when the at least one article is retained on the carrying surface at a position proximate to the second end of the base.
US09980867B2

The invention features a kit comprising components for a device for positioning and supporting a limb (e.g., an arm or leg) of a patient. The invention also features methods of assembling and adjusting a limb positioning device.
US09980866B2

Equipment for raising of a lying person. The equipment comprises: a seat (1), a backrest (2), which from a first position can be passed to a second position behind the back of the person, and a chassis (3) with an upper end to which the seat is connected and a lowermost end adapted to rest on a surface such as a floor. The equipment is to be placed on the surface positioned to the person such that the seat is placed under the behind of the person and from this first position the equipment with the person can be passed to a second position in which the chassis with its lower end rests on the surface such that the seat and backrest is raised relative to the surface e.g. to take a chair-like posture or a catapult position i.e. an upright position in which the person will be assisted to a standing position.
US09980864B2

A calf bumper that covers an exposed metal bracket used to hold a leg rest on a wheelchair. The protective device is made of a flexible elastomeric material and is separable on one side with a cavity for the leg rest bracket plate and a central hole to encompass the leg post and the bracket pin. When deployed the bumper provides protective buffer surrounding the exposed bracket reducing the risk of injuries such as scrapes and skin tears caused by exposed wheelchair leg rest brackets.
US09980861B2

A washable, reusable garment for retention of body fluids when worn on a person's lower body part. The garment has a crotch portion and a body portion. The crotch portion has an absorbent composite, and a pocket adapted for receiving a removable absorbent pad. The body portion has a waist opening and is seamless except where attached to the crotch portion. The body portion and the crotch portion together form first and second leg openings.
US09980860B2

A pull-on wearing article includes first and second waist regions, and tape fasteners. The first waist region includes elasticity in the lateral direction. The tape fasteners include a fixed section fixed in the vicinity of a lateral region and a free section that includes a fastening section in which the tape fastener is removable with respect to the outer surface of the second waist region. The free section includes a holding end and a holding section extended from the fastening section to an outer side in the lateral direction, and the holding end is releasably fixed on a non-skin facing surface in the vicinity of the lateral edge of the first waist region, and a region between the fastening section of the first waist region and the holding end contracts, whereby the holding section assumes a convexly curved shape.
US09980857B2

Disclosed is an absorbent article including a water permeable topsheet, a water impermeable backsheet, an absorbent core, an outer cover layer, and a pair of outer cuffs for providing leg gasketing function, wherein the pair of outer cuffs includes a cuff sealing disposed in a longitudinally extending manner, the cuff sealing located transversely between the absorbent core and the longitudinal side edge of the backsheet.
US09980851B2

The invention relates to an instrument for stimulating or irritating and/or abrasively treating and/or polishing a membrane or surface or inner surface in the human or animal eye, comprising a handle (1), which comprises an actuating element (2), and a probe (3), which adjoins the handle (1) and which is open at the free distal end, for introducing into the eye. The invention is characterized in that the probe (3) comprises a loop (4) in the interior, and the loop can be at least slightly pushed out of the probe (3) and pushed or pulled back into the probe (3) by means of the actuating element (2).
US09980846B2

An orthosis for stabilizing a joint has a joint rail having a first and a second rail portion which can be pivoted relative to each other about a joint axle. The orthosis has a pressure member which can be adjusted by a relative pivoting of the two rail portions about the joint axle in the direction towards and counter to the joint to be stabilized. One of the two rail portions has a cam disc, and the other of the two rail portions has a rotor which is guided on the cam disc, wherein the cam disc or the rotor is axially fixed in position on the correction pad.
US09980844B2

A flexible joint wrap includes a heat exchange bladder, which provides fluid circulation and compression to a joint. The joint wrap includes upper and lower sections for attachment above and below a joint. The bladder has an opening at a center section which provides flexibility of the bladder. The heat exchange bladder may be enclosed in a removable cover designed to conform to the shape of the bladder. The cover and bladder are formed with an opening in alignment with the joint to provide flexibility to the wrap. The cover may be formed of a fluid repellant inner lining to prevent fluid from the joint from soiling the bladder. The cover may further comprise a nylon loop outer surface to allow the upper and lower sections to be easily attached and adjusted.
US09980843B2

A joint support adjustable device is provided, including a base, two connecting members and a positioning mechanism. The base has a center and two side walls distanced from and corresponding to each other, and at least one said side wall is formed with a plurality of toothed recesses. Each said connecting member is for being connected with a human limb. The positioning mechanism has a fixation member disposed between the two side walls and at least one adjusting mechanism connected with the base, each said adjusting mechanism has a positioning assembly for being operated from outside and movable about the center, at least one of the positioning assembly and the fixation member is magnetic to attract the other so that the positioning assembly has a tendency to move toward the center.
US09980835B2

Expandable scaffolds or stents include circumferential elements having a corrugated pattern, which can include a plurality of linear or nonlinear segments. The corrugated pattern distributes stress more uniformly along the circumferential elements, improves radial strength of the scaffolds, reduces acute recoil after deployment, and reduces creep. The scaffolds can be made from a bioabsorbable material.
US09980834B2

Various stents and stent-graft systems for treatment of medical conditions are disclosed. In one embodiment, an exemplary stent-graft system may be used for endovascular treatment of a thoracic aortic aneurysm. The stent-graft system may comprise proximal and distal components, each comprising a graft having proximal and distal ends, where upon deployment the proximal and distal components at least partially overlap with one another to provide a fluid passageway therebetween. The proximal component may comprise a proximal stent having a plurality of proximal and distal apices connected by a plurality of generally straight portions, where a radius of curvature of at least one of the proximal apices may be greater than the radius of curvature of at least one of the distal apices. The distal component may comprise a proximal z-stent coupled to the graft, where the proximal end of the graft comprises at least scallop formed therein that generally follows the shape of the proximal z-stent. Further, the distal component may comprise at least one z-stent stent coupled to the distal end of the graft and extending distally therefrom that reduces proximal migration of the distal component.
US09980830B2

Provided is a walking assist device independent of a deviation of a bending/stretching state between user's legs and applying a force to a user in a direction intended by the user. The walking assist device performs control so that the larger the deviation of a value of a bending/stretching state variable representing the bending/stretching state of each of a pair of right and left legs of a user P is, the larger the deviation between the assist forces Fr and Fl acting on the user P from each of the leg links 2 is.
US09980826B2

Stand-alone interbody fusion devices for engagement between adjacent vertebrae. The stand-alone interbody fusion devices may include frames and one or more endplates coupled to the frame. The frame may be configured and designed to provide the apertures which are designed to retain bone fasteners, such as screws or anchors, and secure the implant to the adjacent vertebrae.
US09980823B2

An expandable intervertebral implant includes a front wall, a back wall spaced apart from the front wall, and two side walls connecting the front wall and the back wall at their respective ends. The walls define a space. The implant further includes a bottom face, a top face, at least one engagement member with an engagement surface for engagement with the end plate of a vertebral body, a first adjusting element and a second adjusting element which are supported by a first support member and a second support member, respectively, and which cooperate with the respective support member such that the engagement member is reciprocally movable between a first end position and a second end position. In the first end position, the engagement surface does not project beyond the bottom face or the top face and in the second end position, the engagement surface at least partially projects outwardly beyond the bottom face or the top face. The first and the second support members are coupled by a coupling mechanism.
US09980804B2

A vena cava filter is described, having one or more frame members or an elongated member arranged in helical fashion. A plurality of filaments connect frame members or portions of the elongated member. The filaments may be made of suture material. Hooks may be placed on a free end of the filaments, along the length thereof, or on one or more frame members to engage the blood vessel wall and anchor the filter. A retrieval member may be positioned on the filter to facilitate withdrawal of the filter from the blood vessel.
US09980803B2

A retrieval system for a medical device includes an access sheath, a clot catch with an attached mesh, and a filter catch having an attached retrieval member. The filter catch is translatable within clot catch, and the clot catch is translatable within the access sheath. The mesh is expandable into engagement with a body vessel during retrieval of the medical device. The mesh captures emboli that are dislodged during retrieval of the device. The device is captured by the clot catch during retrieval, and the clot catch is subsequently captured by the access sheath. The system can further include an inner sheath translatable within the clot catch, with the inner sheath capturing the medical device and the clot catch capturing the inner sheath.
US09980802B2

The present disclosure relates to a prosthesis comprising: one mesh delimited by a peripheral exterior edge, a frame fastened to said mesh and adopting the shape of said peripheral exterior edge of the mesh, said frame being set back from said peripheral exterior edge and being provided with two hinge points, the line passing through said two hinge points also passing through the center of the mesh and thus forming a line for folding the mesh in two, characterized in that said prosthesis further comprises at least two anchor pieces made of suturable material and located on a single face of the mesh on either side of said folding line, each piece having a fixed part linked to said mesh and a free part, said free part being linked to at least one thread-shaped element.
US09980794B2

An irrigating device including a reservoir for storing fluid, a tip fluidly connected to the reservoir, and a pump operative to draw fluid from the reservoir and propel the fluid to the tip. The irrigating device further includes at least one reed valve positioned to regulate fluid between at least one of an inlet port or an exhaust port of the pump.
US09980780B2

Devices and methods for performing a surgical step or surgical procedure with visual guidance using an optical head mounted display are disclosed.
US09980774B2

The invention comprises novel microwave antennas wherein the microwave field profile generated by an antenna is tailored and optimized for a particular clinical application. The antennas disclosed herein incorporate one or more additional elements called shaping elements that use unique properties of microwaves such as interaction of a microwave field with one or more conductive or non-conductive elements to shape or redistribute the microwave field. Such shaping elements may be used to reduce the undesired backward coupling of the emitted microwave field to the transmission line. Such shaping elements may be used to increase the power efficiency of the antenna. The invention also discloses devices and methods for treating tissue with microwave energy emitted from the antennas for use in applications such as destroying a soil tissue by microwave ablation.
US09980764B2

A handle for a surgical instrument, in particular a cryosurgical instrument, comprising a grip element and at least one sheathing tube that is inserted into the grip element and connected with said grip element in a fluid-tight manner in a connecting region. At least one support element is coaxially configured and arranged in the cavity of the sheathing tube such that the sheathing tube is clamped in place between the grip element and the support element in the connecting region.
US09980761B2

A tissue fixation system is provided for dynamic and rigid fixation of tissue. A fastener connected with an elongate fastening member, such as a cable, wire, suture, rod, or tube, is moved through a passage between opposite sides of tissue. The fastener is provided with a groove that accommodates at least a portion of the fastening member to reduce the profile during the movement through the passage. The fastener is then pivoted to change its orientation. A second fastener can then be connected with the fastening member. While tension is maintained in the fastening member, the fasteners are secured against relative movement. This may be done by deforming the fastening member, either the first or second fasteners, or a bushing placed against the second fastener.
US09980759B2

The present bone implant is a cannulated screw/nail or combination having end, middle and head threads as well as unthreaded portions along the length of the shaft. The pitch of the head threads is always less than the middle threads. Variations include a two-part construction with a narrow protrusion having narrow-protrusion threads of opposite hand, or the inclusion of at least first middle threads and second middle threads of different pitch. The implant provides bone compression engineering heretofore unavailable with prior known compression screws.
US09980758B2

A minimally invasive counter-torque system may comprise a bone screw system, a counter-torque wrench, a set screw driver, a counter-torque wrench handle, and a removable set screw driver handle. A body of the counter-torque wrench may be positioned entirely within a space as defined by or between removable arms of a tulip head of the bone screw system, such that only the wings of the counter-torque wrench extend beyond a width of the bone screw system. In operation, the counter-torque wrench handle may be received on a proximal end of the counter-torque wrench and may be used to stabilize and prevent rotation of the counter-torque wrench and the bone screw system. Then, the removable set screw drive handle may be engaged to a proximal end of the set screw driver and may be used to fasten a set screw into the saddle of the bone screw system.
US09980756B2

The disclosure provides a device to facilitate the insertion and attachment of an implant that includes a barrel assembly and a plate assembly in an interspinous space. The device comprises a main body, a first arm that is configured to hold the barrel assembly, and a second arm that is configured to hold a locking plate of the plate assembly, wherein the first and second arms are movably attached to the main body.
US09980755B2

Connector assemblies, systems, and methods thereof. An articulating connector has a first end that clamps to a first rod in an existing construct and a second end, rotatably connected to the first end, that clamps to a second rod in a new construct such that the clamping of the second end to the second rod prevents rotation of the second end with respect to the first end.
US09980753B2

A polyaxial bone screw assembly includes a threaded shank body having an integral upper portion receivable in an integral receiver, the receiver having an upper channel for receiving a longitudinal connecting member and a lower cavity cooperating with a lower opening. A friction fit compression insert (some with lock and release feature), a planar split retaining ring and a shank upper portion cooperate to provide for pop- or snap-on assembly of the shank with the receiver either prior to or after implantation of the shank into a vertebra. The shank and receiver once assembled cannot be disassembled and the receiver and insert may include aligned tool receiving apertures for lock and release of the polyaxial mechanism.
US09980746B2

A medical assembly and method for the delivery of an implant inside a patient's body. The medical assembly includes an implant, a tubular member, and a delivery device. The tubular member includes a proximal portion defining a first locking feature. The delivery device includes a needle having a proximal portion and a handle having a proximal portion and a distal portion coupled to the proximal portion of the needle. The distal portion of the handle also includes a locking member that defines an opening, the opening being configured to allow at least a portion of the tubular member to pass through the locking member when the locking member is in an unlocked configuration and the locking member configured to engage the first locking feature of the tubular member to prevent the tubular member from being removed from the locking member when the locking member is in a locked configuration.
US09980744B2

An access system is provided for establishing an access path to a surgical site within a patient. The access system comprises an access portal defining a working channel with a central axis, and an adaptor with a mating section mountable to the access portal. The adaptor is selectively rotatable about the central axis. The access portal includes a plurality of openings and the adaptor includes a plurality of projections, each of the projections and openings being arranged so that, in a first orientation, the openings and projections align to allow mounting of the adaptor to the access portal and, in a second orientation, the openings and projections do not align to prevent disassociation between the adaptor and the access portal. The adaptor also includes a holder for a viewing device, the viewing device being movable with the adaptor about the access portal and vertically translatable relative to the access portal.
US09980739B2

Apparatus for locating an attachment position for a reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament on an attachment surface of a bone comprises locating means 51, 61 arranged to locate at least one reference surface 4 of the bone and guide means 53, 54 arranged to define the attachment position in two dimensions on the attachment surface relative to the reference surface.
US09980727B2

The present invention relates to a surgical anchor device (1) suitable for being anchored on the mucous membrane of the inner wall of the intestine (10), the device comprising a temporary anchor element (2) presenting anchoring that can be modified in controlled manner and comprising a first substantially cylindrical multiply-perforated wall presenting properties of radial elasticity whereby said first wall presents an outer diameter that can be varied in controlled manner, the device being characterized in that at least a portion of the inner surface of said first wall (2a) is lined with an independent leakproof inner sheath having only its longitudinal ends (3a, 3b) fastened to said anchor element (2) in such a manner as to define a suction chamber (5) between said inner sheath (3) and said first wall, said temporary anchor element (2) being coupled to a flexible or semi-rigid tube referred to as an “injection-suction” tube (6), extending outside said anchor element (2), an open end (6a) of said injection-suction tube opening out into said suction chamber (5) enabling air to be injected into or sucked out from said suction chamber.
US09980719B2

A suture cutting device including a housing, a cutting member, a suture recess, and an actuator. The cutting member is positioned in the housing. The suture recess is formed in the housing and configured to releasably connect the housing to the suture. The actuator is accessible outside of the housing and operable to move the cutting member laterally relative to the suture within the housing from a first position out of contact with the suture to a second position cutting the suture.
US09980712B2

An assembly allowing retraction of soft tissue away from a reference plane; the assembly including at least one retracting element each having a distal end with a formation allowing anchorage of the at least one retracting element. The assembly also includes a proximal end of the at least one retracting element capable of movement through at least one degree of freedom relative to the anchorage.
US09980704B2

Techniques for assessing a tissue condition and diagnosing, assessing the prognosis of, or the risk for pathological conditions are disclosed. The technique may include an image acquiring module adapted to receive an image comprising at least a portion of animal or human tissue, a delineation module adapted to indicate an analysis zone in said acquired image, a feature extraction module adapted to extract quantitative information from said analysis zone and a machine learning module adapted to receive said extracted information and apply at least one detection algorithm to assess a condition of said tissue. The feature extractor module may have at least a rotation compensation module to compensate for the rotation of the analysis zone.
US09980686B2

An imaging system (100) includes a detector array (110) that detects radiation traversing an examination region. The detector array includes at least a set of non-spectral detectors (112) that detects a first sub-portion of the radiation traversing the examination region and generates first signals indicative thereof. The detector array further includes at least a set of spectral detectors (114) that detects a second sub-portion of the radiation traversing the examination region and generates second signals indicative thereof. The imaging system further includes a reconstructor (120) that processes the first and second signals, generating volumetric image data.
US09980685B2

A radiation imaging apparatus comprising a plurality of sensors arrayed to form a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns on a substrate and a driving unit configured to drive the plurality of sensors row by row, wherein the driving unit performs a first operation of driving the plurality of sensors while selecting the plurality of rows in a first order, and a second operation of driving the plurality of sensors while selecting the plurality of rows in a second order different from the first order after the first operation, such that a time difference is produced between a sensor in each row and a sensor in a neighboring row from the selection in the first order to the selection in the second order.
US09980680B2

A respiratory detection device detects a behavior of breathing of an occupant on a seat of a vehicle. A seatbelt is equipped by the occupant to retain the occupant at the seat. A detection belt is mounted to the vehicle or the seat at one-end side. The detection belt is further connected to the seatbelt at the other-end side. The detection belt is equipped by the occupant together with the seatbelt when the occupant equips the seatbelt. A sensor is connected to the detection belt to detect the behavior of breathing. The detection belt retains the sensor at a position of an abdomen of the occupant when the occupant equips the seatbelt.
US09980675B2

The invention features an apparatus for producing a fluid stream having plurality of nanoparticles in the fluid stream. The apparatus includes a source configured to provide a fluid stream having a first randomly sized distribution of a plurality of nanoparticles; a flow control zone configured to receive the fluid stream from the source and to control the fluid stream to produce a controlled fluid stream having a selected flow rate; a separation zone configured to receive and to separate the selectively controlled fluid stream into at least one separated fluid stream having a non-randomly sized distribution of nanoparticles; and a collection zone capable of receiving the separated fluid stream according to at least one non-random sized distribution of nanoparticles to produce at least one collected stream. The apparatus is configured for a continuous flow of the fluid stream. A size of a nanoparticle can be related to an intrinsic core diameter, a hydrodynamic diameter, and a combination of intrinsic core diameter and hydrodynamic diameter measurements. The nanoparticles can include non-magnetic nanoparticles, partially magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, superparamagnetic nanoparticles, and a combination of at least two different nanoparticle types. The invention also features methods for producing said fluid streams. The invention further features apparatus and methods for cancer confirmation and targeted therapeutic drug development.
US09980674B2

A computer-implemented method for providing summary information for lifesaving activities is disclosed. The method involves sensing one or more activities that are repeatedly and cyclically performed on a victim by a rescuer; identifying a cyclical timing interval over which performance is to be analyzed for a integer number of cycles of the one or more activities, and gathering data from the sensing of the one or more activities during the time interval; generating, from analysis of the one or more activities, summary data that condenses data sensed for the one or more activities into a summary of the one or more activities; and providing, for display to a user, a visual summary of the performance of the one or more activities over the identified time interval.
US09980669B2

Methods and devices for providing application specific integrated circuit architecture for a two electrode analyte sensor or a three electrode analyte sensor are provided. Systems and kits employing the same are also provided.
US09980667B2

A sensor cover according to embodiments of the disclosure is capable of being used with a non-invasive physiological sensor, such as a pulse oximetry sensor. Certain embodiments of the sensor cover reduce or eliminate false readings from the sensor when the sensor is not in use, for example, by blocking a light detecting component of a pulse oximeter sensor when the pulse oximeter sensor is active but not in use. Further, embodiments of the sensor cover can prevent damage to the sensor. Additionally, embodiments of the sensor cover prevent contamination of the sensor.
US09980664B2

A biological information measurement system includes: a plurality of electrodes; a current source connected to the plurality of electrodes to supply a current thereto; a measurement unit for measuring impedance from a potential difference between the plurality of electrodes; a detector for detecting values of specific peaks from chronological data of the impedance; an envelope generator for generating an envelope of values of the specific peaks; and an output unit for outputting information of the envelope as biological information.
US09980660B2

A non-transitory computer readable medium stores instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method that includes computing a transfer matrix representing a relative influence that each respective electrode location for measuring electrical potentials on a patient's body has on an estimation of electrical potentials for locations on a surface of interest prior to the measuring of electrical potentials at the respective electrode locations and receiving electrical potential measurements measured via a plurality of electrodes at respective electrode locations on the patient's body. The method also includes computing the estimation of electrical potentials for the locations on the surface of interest based at least in part on the received electrical potential measurements and the computed transfer matrix and generating image data representing the estimation of electrical potentials.
US09980656B2

A hybrid model and diagnostic process for atrial fibrillation is provided. The present invention includes performing a combination of tests including an electrocardiogram signal analysis and a systolic pressure test. The results of the tests produce biomarkers for early detection of atrial fibrillation as well as for evaluating the severity of the disease.
US09980645B1

A method and an electrode for monitoring electrical activity in a nerve are provided along with a method of fabricating such an electrode. The electrode includes a cuff formed from a chronically-implantable material that, when implanted, extends at least partially around an external periphery of the nerve. A plurality of contacts are supported by the cuff to be arranged adjacent to different regions of the nerve distributed along a transverse direction of the nerve when the cuff is implanted. A multiplexer is coupled to the cuff to be implanted for receiving electrical signals introduced to the contacts by the nerve and multiplexing, in vivo, the electrical signals to be transmitted to an external receiver over a shared communication channel.
US09980643B2

An ophthalmologic apparatus which is capable of preferably executing position matching between an eye and optical system is provided. An ophthalmologic apparatus of an embodiment includes an examination optical system, supporting part, driver, two or more imaging parts, analyzer and controller. The examination optical system is used for an examination of the eye. The supporting part supports a face of a subject. The driver moves the examination optical system and the supporting part relatively and three-dimensionally. The two or more imaging parts substantially simultaneously photograph an anterior eye part of the eye from different directions. The analyzer obtains a three-dimensional position of the eye by analyzing two or more photograph images acquired by the two or more imaging parts substantially simultaneously. The controller controls the driver based on the three-dimensional position to relatively move the examination optical system and the supporting part.
US09980642B2

The present disclosure is related to a method and apparatus for determining a physiologic perturbation of a patient including acquiring a video sequence, including a plurality of video frames, of an eye of a patient, selecting at least one parameter of a plurality of parameters including a baseline pupil size, a maximum change in size of a pupil, an average velocity of constriction of the pupil, a maximum velocity of constriction of the pupil, latency of constriction of the pupil, and a velocity of re-dilation of the pupil, determining, using processing circuitry and based on the plurality of video frames, the selected at least one parameter of the plurality of parameters, and determining the physiologic perturbation of the patient based on the determined at least one parameter, where the least one parameter of the plurality of parameters is selected based on which physiologic perturbation of the patient is to be determined.
US09980641B2

The innovation provides for a system and method available to image and visualize the palisades of Vogt via a non-contact process, analyze the image volumes acquired, evaluate the status of the palisades of Vogt from the data represented therein, and display the data in real-time or as a part of a medical record for ongoing consideration and evaluation.
US09980635B2

A system for preliminary diagnosis of ocular diseases is proposed, in which from capturing a plurality of images of the eyes of a person, a final image, corrected by processing the images by a computer application, is obtained. The already mentioned application calculates the percentage of the colors composing the pupillary reflex of each eye, and compares the results with previous reference pictures obtained from normal cases and clinical cases of ocular diseases.
US09980624B2

A variable position diverter that provides wash fluid to selected combinations of outlet ports and spray assemblies. The diverter includes a housing having a plurality of outlet ports and a valve disk having a plurality of apertures. The valve disk is rotated relative to the housing to align one or more of the plurality of apertures with one or more of the plurality of outlet ports to selectively control the flow of wash fluid through a plurality of spray assemblies. Selectively diverting wash fluid in this manner can improve wash performance and reduce cycle time while meeting government regulations regarding water usage.
US09980619B2

In a cyclone dust collector and a vacuum cleaning device having the same, foreign substances can be prevented from being attached on an outer circumferential surface of a grill located at an outlet part, so that an inhalation force of the vacuum cleaning device can be prevented from being lowered. Also, foreign substances collected in the cyclone dust collector can be easily removed. The vacuum cleaning device includes: a cyclone dust collector, wherein the cyclone dust collector includes: a cyclone chamber in which air introduced through an inlet part is whirled and dust is separated from the air; an outlet part disposed so that the air from which the dust is separated is discharged from the cyclone chamber; and a grill that is rotatably disposed in the outlet part.
US09980608B2

A portable device which integrates the functionalities of a fire pit and a barbecuing grill. The fire pit and grill are coupled to a transport cart to facilitate movement of the fire pit and grill to a desired location. In this respect, the transport cart may be configured to allow a user to transport the device across sand (e.g., when using the device at a beach) or across a parking lot (e.g., when using the device while tailgating in a stadium parking lot). Thus, the device easily allows for enjoyment of both a fire pit and a grill in remote locations.
US09980606B2

A cooking appliance includes at least one multisided element that has more than one cooking surface, the multisided element being mounted on a base so that it can be oriented to present one of the surfaces for cooking. The element can be rotated to present another cooking surface whereby a user can choose a surface to grill food, bake food, smoke food all with the one appliance. As well, the sources of heat can be gas, wood, charcoal, or other sources.
US09980605B2

The present invention relates to food preparation. In order to provide an apparatus for preparing food with hot air with an improved flow characteristic, an apparatus (10) for preparing food is provided, comprising a food preparation chamber (12), an air movement device (14), a heating device (16), and air guiding means (18). The food preparation chamber is provided by a container structure (22) at least partly enclosing a receiving volume (24) for receiving food to be prepared by a through-streaming of hot air; wherein the container structure comprises sidewalls (26) and a bottom wall (28), wherein the bottom wall and/or one of the side walls is air-permeable providing an air entry opening (30) for entering of hot air into the receiving volume, and wherein the container structure comprises an air discharge opening (32). The heating device is configured to heat air of an air flow provided by the air movement device. The air guiding means provide an air duct arrangement (34) from the discharge opening via the heating device and the air movement device to the air entry opening. The air movement device is a fan (36) with an air inlet (38) and an air outlet (40), and the fan is provided sidewards of the food preparation chamber.
US09980603B2

A field-ready oven has reinforced telescoped side walls that extend and hold a base, shelf, tray support and cover spaced apart. A low air intake and a semipermeable membrane deliver air and vapor fuel to catalyst pads on the shelf. Radiant heat from exothermic reaction is diffused over a bottom of a tray. Hot gas circulates around the diffuser and tray with a chimney effect before exhausting. A lid on the cover lifts for access to the tray. A fuel container in the oven forces fuel through a capillary restriction to limit fuel flow. A spring in the container is released to start fuel flow.
US09980601B2

A device for frothing a liquid includes a tube-shaped housing with an inner surface having a curved periphery. At least one inlet is arranged in a lateral area of the housing for letting in the liquid and a frothing gas, and may have a tangential orientation with respect to the curved periphery of the inner surface of the housing. End faces of the housing are open and function as outlets of the device, where a longitudinal axis of the housing may extend in a horizontal direction. Rings may be provided inside the housing for keeping a rotating flow inside the housing during a period of time which is sufficiently long for a frothing process to take place in an effective manner.
US09980583B2

Mobile folding restaurant booth style benches are provided, which may be arranged in opposed pairs to form restaurant style booths. An individual bench incorporates a mechanism for shifting the weight of the bench between a mobile base, which may be supported by swivel casters, and a stationary base, which may be supported by non-slip feet, actuated by pivoting a bench seat down from a folded storage position to an unfolded seating position. The weight shifting mechanism may include an engagement member, which is initially spaced apart from an actuator at a folded angle of the seat, and which contacts and begins transmitting force and movement to the actuator at a partially unfolded angle of the seat. Preferably, the bench further includes a biasing component that biases the stationary base upward relative to the mobile base, a locking mechanism that resists a force provided by the biasing component to retain the bench seat in the unfolded seating position, contoured shells or other covers for the seat and a seat back, and a back panel extending vertically above the seat back.
US09980582B1

A bin is slidably mounted on an attachment piece for mounting of the bin on a pegboard. The bin includes rod portions inter-engaging with two U-shaped arms located on the attachment piece. The bin is slidable at least three quarters of an inch from side to side with the rod frictionally engaging the U-shaped arms of the attachment piece.
US09980573B2

The present invention relates to a head support for supporting a patient's head while the patient is in a prone position. The head support comprises a body of compliant material whose shape provides a forehead support region, at least one further support region for supporting a lower portion of the patient's face, and a void which accommodates the patient's eyes, nose and mouth in use. According to one aspect of the invention, a viewing opening is provided which faces laterally and provides in use a line of sight from the exterior of the head support into the void, the viewing opening having a periphery which is an unbroken loop.
US09980571B2

A lounge having a matrix mat and a plurality of modules capable of being inserted into the matrix mat. The lounge may include a frame configured as a rigid frame, a modular frame, and combinations thereof. The modular frame may further include a tri-cable suspension. The tri-cable suspension may be attached to a dilator retractor mechanism. The modules may be a mushroom cap module, a spider spring module, a web module, a lighting module, an electronics module, and combinations thereof.
US09980551B2

A cosmetic eyelid-reshaping tape including a tape-like member, which is formed of a long narrow extensible base material piece having elastic contractility even after being extended, an adhesive applied to both surfaces of the tape-like member, and release sheet pieces, which are attached to the adhesive on both surfaces of the tape-like member, where the release sheet pieces are formed in the same shape as the tape-like member and have easy-to-tear portions in the middle thereof. The cosmetic eyelid-reshaping tape includes wave-shaped protruding portions formed, so as to protrude, over the entire side edges of the tape-like member in the longitudinal direction.
US09980549B2

A hair dryer includes a fan motor, a heater unit, and a body case arranged to cover the fan motor and the heater unit, and arranged to extend in a front-rear direction around a central axis. The fan motor includes an impeller arranged to rotate about the central axis, and a motor arranged to rotate the impeller. The body case includes an intake case portion including an air inlet, a discharge case portion including an air outlet, and an admission case portion arranged between the air inlet and the air outlet, and including an admission inlet. The intake case portion includes a suction tube portion arranged to extend toward the admission inlet. The intake case portion and the admission case portion are arranged to together define an expansion chamber arranged between the admission inlet and the air inlet and radially outside of the suction tube portion and the admission inlet.
US09980546B2

A card holder for holding bank cards and presenting them in a staggered fashion, said card holder comprising a housing, said housing comprising main walls and side walls so as to define a space for housing bank cards. It further comprises an element having a plurality of steps. With the present card holder, the element being resilient. One end of the card holder comprises a cut out for bringing the bank cards to a position where the element is pushed below the bank cards and from where gravity move the cards to the staggered position, the bank cards resting on the steps.
US09980537B2

A seat belt restraint system locking tongue (10) having a locking member (30) which moves to a locked position to clamp a webbing (3) inserted in a shoulder-side webbing insertion slot (12) to restrict movement of the webbing (3). A tongue body (11) includes a restricting portion (25) near the shoulder-side webbing insertion slot (12) to clamp the webbing (3) with the locking member (30) when the locking member (3) moves to the locked position. The length in the longitudinal direction of the webbing insertion slot (12), of a portion of the restricting portion (25) that contacts the webbing (3) to clamp the webbing (3) is smaller than the width of the webbing (3). The locking tongue prevents fraying of the webbing (3) and improves the clamping performance in the event of a vehicle crash.
US09980533B2

The invention relates to a sole component for a shoe suitable for use with different heels. The sole component comprises a front, a middle and a rear sole portion and comprises a mechanism for adjusting the sole curvature in a transition region between the front and the middle sole portion. The mechanism comprises a rotatable supporting element which is provided in such a way that it may have a first angular position which causes a first sole curvature in the transition region and a second angular position which causes a second sole curvature in the transition region, wherein the first sole curvature is different from the second sole curvature.
US09980512B2

The present disclosure relates to an electronic smoking article that provides for improved aerosol delivery. Particularly, the article comprises one or more microheaters. In various embodiments, the microheaters provide for improved control of vaporization of an aerosol precursor composition and provide for reduced power requirements to achieve consistent aerosolization. The present disclosure further relates to methods of forming an aerosol in a smoking article.
US09980480B2

Biocidal roofing granules are prepared by providing a mineral core and at least one biocidal photocatalytic metal oxide. A gel-forming inorganic coating medium is prepared and used to coat the mineral core to form a coating layer having a porous network on the mineral core, and the at least one biocidal photocatalytic metal oxide is disposed in the porous network.
US09980479B2

A method of reducing damage to plant propagation material and plant organs which grow at a later time by a representative of the class Nematode, which method comprises (I) treating the propagation material with (A) a chelating agent, and optionally (B) a macrocyclic lactone compound or another pesticide, before the material is sown or planted, or (II) applying (A) a chelating agent, and optionally (B) a macrocyclic lactone compound or another pesticide, to the locus of the material or the treated material defined in (I) before its planting, and/or at its planting and/or during its growth.
US09980472B2

A bowfishing arrow and method of bowfishing. The bowfishing arrow includes a shaft having a main stem. A locking pin is slidably movable within a bore of the main stem. A fish point with a pair of pivoting barbs is secured to the distal end of the main stem. An outer sleeve is longitudinally movable with respect to the main stem and the locking pin is engaged with the outer sleeve to move with the outer sleeve. The barbs pivot between a shooting position, a locked position, and an unlocked position. When in the locked position, an end of the locking pin is clamped between cams preventing the barbs from pivoting to toward the unlocked position and the shooting position until the fish is landed. A one-handed maneuver is all that is required to release the arrow from the fish after it is landed.
US09980470B2

A transgenic non-human mammal containing a heterologous lambda light chain gene locus, and/or a heterologous kappa light chain gene locus, and/or a heterologous heavy chain gene locus, each of which can re-arrange so that immunoglobulin heavy and light chain genes are formed and expressed in B-cells following antigen challenge.
US09980468B2

A bird feeder system includes a tray, a packaging system, and a housing. The tray defines a receptacle configured to hold a consumable, such as bird seed. The packaging system is configured to retain the consumable in the receptacle of the tray. At least part of the packaging system is configured to open to allow access to the consumable in the receptacle. The housing has a tray engagement structure configured to secure the tray to the housing.
US09980467B2

The invention relates to a data network for automatically monitoring voluntary behaviors of individual animals of an animal herd. The individual animals of the animal herd each have a node of the data network. A further node is attached at a location which an animal preferably approaches in the course of a behavior to be monitored. In the event that the animal approaches the node, communication occurs between the nodes, in which communication one node is identified by the other node and a central data-processing system is informed that the two nodes have come into contact. The communication between the two nodes occurs by means of the transfer of electrical signals in a closed electrical alternating-current circuit, which also passes, among other things, through the body of the animal as an electrical conductor.
US09980465B2

An exercise equipment exercise equipment that can readily switch arrangement of a person exercise apparatus and a dog exercise apparatus between the state where a person and a dog run facing each other and/or the state where the person and the dog run side by side. The person exercise apparatus includes a frame, a crank mechanism having a crank shaft rotatably supported by the frame, a crank coupled to the crank shaft, and a pedal rotatably supported by the crank, and a joint rotatingly driven by the crank mechanism. An annular travelling belt travels with a dog, a roller drives the travelling belt, and a transmission mechanism transmits rotational motion of the joint to the roller An input shaft is aligned with a rotary shaft of the joint with respect to a mounting face of the exercise equipment. A coupling mechanisms is detachably engageable with the joint at each end.
US09980458B2

A system includes a linear carriage track positioned adjacent to a rotary milking platform, a robot carriage positioned on the carriage track such that the robot carriage may move along the carriage track from a first linear position to a second linear position, and a controller. The controller determines a movement of a milking stall of the rotary milking platform from a first rotational position to a second rotational position. The controller further determines the second linear position of the robot carriage on the carriage track corresponding to the movement of the milking stall of the rotary milking platform. The controller also communicates a position signal to a carriage actuator coupled to the robot carriage and the carriage track. The position signal causes the carriage actuator to move the robot carriage along the carriage track from the first linear position to the second linear position in conjunction with the movement of the rotary milking platform.
US09980455B1

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH785771. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH785771, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH785771 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 CH785771.
US09980451B2

The invention provides seed and plants of the sweet corn line designated SHY-6RLAL196. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of sweet corn line SHY-6RLAL196, and to methods for producing a sweet corn plant produced by crossing a plant of sweet corn line SHY-6RLAL196 with itself or with another sweet corn plant, such as a plant of another line. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of a plant of sweet corn line SHY-6RLAL196, including the seed, pod, and gametes of such plants.
US09980449B2

The invention provides a new and distinct hybrid variety of melon, NUN 22521 MEM.
US09980445B2

The invention provides seed and plants of tomato line FIRXM13-4146. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of tomato line FIRXM13-4146 and to methods for producing a tomato plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another tomato plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US09980443B2

An emitter (120) includes a flow path from a water intake path (221), which is for taking in irrigation liquid within a tube, to a recessed part (251). This flow path includes a recessed surface part (242) closed, without contact, by a film (300). A channel (243) that forms a reduced pressure flow path included in the above flow path is formed on the surface of the recessed surface part (242). If the film (300) is pressed by the pressure of the irrigation liquid in the tube (110) and adheres to the recessed surface part (242), the flow rate of the irrigation liquid inside the emitter (120) is controlled to an amount that can pass through the channel (243).
US09980436B2

A system for controlling a braking mechanism for a supply roll with wrapping material for a round baler that passes through a first phase wherein, after detection of sufficient crop material in the baling chamber, wrapping material is brought up to the baling chamber and introduced into the baling chamber. The braking mechanism provides a higher braking force during the wrapping operation than the first phase. The wrapping operation is started on detection of movement in the wrapping material. This prevents the braking mechanism from being activated prematurely and leaves sufficient time to deactivate the braking mechanism after the wrapping operation.
US09980427B2

A germination facility includes a seedling growing system configured to grow a plurality of seedlings; and a seedling sorting device configured to receive spatially variable planting data regarding a planting area for planting the seedlings; receive seedling data regarding the plurality of seedlings; and arrange the plurality of seedlings in a planting container based on the seedling data and on the planting data.
US09980422B2

A system includes an agricultural implement, a sensor, and a control system. The agricultural implement is configured to be coupled to an agricultural vehicle. The sensor is coupled to the agricultural implement and configured to output a signal indicative of a pitch angle of the agricultural implement. The control system is configured to receive the signal indicative of the pitch angle from the sensor, determine whether the pitch angle is within a pitch angle range, generate a hitch height control signal indicative of instructions to adjust a hitch actuator if the pitch angle is not within the pitch angle range, and communicate the hitch height control signal.
US09980421B1

A coulter assembly (10) includes a rotatable coulter blade (12) and a supporting assembly (14) having a parallel linkage arm assembly (34) and an active piston and cylinder assembly (58). The assembly (14) serves to maintain the blade (12) at a depth of at least about four inches, in order to prevent clogging of the assembly (10) during use.
US09986664B1

A datacenter room can be associated with multiple computer room air handling units (CRAHUS) capable of transitioning between cooling modes. A management component of the datacenter can separate transitions of different CRAHUS by time intervals. Durations of the time intervals may be determined based on ambient air temperature.
US09986656B2

A multi-receptacle housing assembly that includes a clamping assembly and a cover. The clamping assembly defines a first clamping section, a second clamping section and a cover support section. The first clamping section is located along a first side of the clamping assembly and is configured to clamp to a projection of an electronic device housing. The second clamping section is located along a second side of the clamping assembly opposite the first side and is configured to receive and support a plurality of electric receptacles. The cover removably is connected to the cover support section of the clamping assembly at least partially covering the first clamping section and the cover support section. The cover defines an opening dimensioned to expose at least a portion of the second clamping section and the plurality of electric receptacles.
US09986650B2

A conductive polymer thick film composition suitable for lead-free soldering comprising metallic particles and an organic vehicle comprising at least one phenolic resin and a solvent is provided. A method of soldering to the conductive polymer thick film composition of the invention is also provided. An article comprising a substrate and a cured polymer film on a surface of the substrate formed of the conductive polymer thick film composition of the invention is provided.
US09986646B2

An embodiment of an electronic device includes a circuit component (e.g., a transistor or other component) coupled to the top surface of a substrate. Encapsulation is formed over the substrate and the component. An opening in the encapsulation extends from the encapsulation top surface to a conductive feature on the top surface of the component. A conductive termination structure within the encapsulation opening extends from the conductive feature to the encapsulation top surface. The device also may include a second circuit physically coupled to the encapsulation top surface and electrically coupled to the component through the conductive termination structure. In an alternate embodiment, the conductive termination structure may be located in a trench in the encapsulation that extends between two circuits that are embedded within the encapsulation, where the conductive termination structure is configured to reduce electromagnetic coupling between the two circuits during device operation.
US09986627B2

A method of x-ray and gamma-ray generation via laser Compton scattering uses the interaction of a specially-formatted, highly modulated, long duration, laser pulse with a high-frequency train of high-brightness electron bunches to both create narrow bandwidth x-ray and gamma-ray sources and significantly increase the laser to Compton photon conversion efficiency.
US09986624B2

Lighting units, systems, and methods are described herein for determining whether occupancy detections are legitimate or not. Methods and systems are further described herein for powering down a network of power over ethernet (PoE) components.
US09986623B1

Disclosed herein is a lighting system configured to obtain an indicator data of a RF signal generated at a number of times in an area. When each such time is a current time, the indicator data generated at the current time is compared with the indicator data generated at a preceding time to determine a rate of change, and the indicator data generated at the current time is compared with a baseline indicator data at an earlier time to generate a difference value. The lighting system is configured to determine an indicator data metric based on the rate of change and the difference value and compare the indicator data metric with one of a rising transition threshold or a falling transition threshold to detect one of an occupancy condition or a non-occupancy condition in the area.
US09986614B2

The present invention relates to a controller (30) for controlling the light-output of two light-emitting devices (10, 20). The two light-emitting devices are adapted to provide a McCandless effect on an illuminated object (40). The controller (30) comprises a first user interface for a user to set a first color (11) to be output by a first light-emitting device (10) and second user interface for a user to set a desired mixed color (81) of a common area (80) being illuminated by both light-emitting devices (10, 20). The controller (30) further comprises a processing circuitry for determining first lighting parameters resulting in said first color (11) when provided to the first light-emitting device (10), and for determining second lighting parameters resulting in a second color (21) when provided to a second light-emitting device (20). A mix of the first color (11) and the second color (21) provides the mixed color (81). The first color (11) and the mixed color (81) are represented in a color space chromaticity diagram such that they define a line and the second color (21) is determined such that it is located on said line in the color space chromaticity diagram on an opposite side of the desired mixed color (81) relative to the first color (11). Further, the second color (21) is determined by the processing circuitry such that the desired mixed color (81) is achieved when the first (11) and the second (21) colors are mixed.
US09986599B2

A heating apparatus, which can stably fix a heater and be easily produced, includes a heat insulating material and an electric heater embedded in the surface or near the surface of the heat insulating material. At least one hook extends from the electric heater into the heat insulating material. The heat insulating material is formed of ceramic fibers and a binder binding the ceramic fibers, and is integrally molded with the electric heater having the hook.
US09986596B2

A vehicle system including a V2X unit for operating a vehicle-to-X communication, having a communications module for wireless data transfer, and a control device for controlling a user application, having a communications module for wireless data transfer which can be coupled with the communications module of the V2X unit, wherein the V2X unit and the control unit can be activated into a data transfer mode in order to couple the communications modules of the V2X unit and of the control device with each other for a data exchange.
US09986594B2

Systems and methods for connecting a proxy device to a mobile device are disclosed. In an aspect, the proxy device continuously scans for the mobile device, wherein the mobile device broadcasts advertising messages to connect to the proxy device, connects to the mobile device in response to the mobile device coming into communication range of the proxy device, and sends information to the mobile device, the information configured to enable the mobile device to connect to a low energy device.
US09986591B2

There is provided a function execution apparatus which, when a wireless connection request is received from a specific device in a specific state where wireless connections are established between the function execution apparatus and N devices which are an upper limit number of devices, transmits an inquiry signal to each of K devices among the N devices to inquire whether each device which is a final transmission destination of the inquiry signal activates a specific application program for causing the function execution apparatus to execute a specific function; select a target device, for which the wireless connection is to be disconnected, among the K devices based on a result of the inquiry; disconnect a wireless connection with the target device; and establish a wireless connection with the specific device after the wireless connection with the target device is disconnected.
US09986586B2

Spectrum reservation circuitry for use in a source electronic device (e.g. eNB or UE) of a wireless communication system is provided. The availability of an unlicensed carrier for use is checked by control circuitry of the source device and a License Assisted Access (LAA) Request to Send signal is transmitted on an unlicensed carrier if it is determined to be available for use. Receive circuitry is configured to receive on an unlicensed carrier, from a destination electronic device an LAA Clear to Send signal in response, depending upon availability of the unlicensed channel at the destination. Corresponding spectrum reservation circuitry is provided for use in a destination device, comprising transmit circuitry to transmit the LAA Clear to Send signal. A corresponding computer program product is provided on a non-transitory medium.
US09986585B2

In one embodiment, a method is performed by a wireless station. The method includes determining that a wireless network provides relay service. The wireless network includes an access point and one or more relay nodes. The method further includes transmitting a relay-service desirability indication to the access point. The method also includes receiving a relay-service confirmation from the access point. The wireless station is operable to transmit at a first station-transmission power level during a first time period and a second station-transmission power level during a second time period. The second station-transmission power level is a reduced station-transmission power level as compared to the first station-transmission power level. In addition, the method includes transmitting an uplink transmission at the second station-transmission power level responsive to the relay-service confirmation from the access point.
US09986583B2

System and method embodiments are provided for channel sounding in a frequency division duplex (FDD) system. The embodiments enable a transmission point (TP) to determine channel information about a downlink channel from an uplink channel sounding signal received on the downlink channel frequency band during a time window reserved for uplink channel sounding on the downlink channel frequency band. In an embodiment, a method in a controller includes determining with the controller a schedule for an uplink sounding window in a downlink frequency band, wherein the uplink sounding window comprises a transmission window in at least a partial downlink frequency band that is reserved for uplink channel sounding, instructing a TP to signal the schedule to at least one wireless device in a coverage area of the TP, receiving a channel sounding signal in the downlink frequency band, and obtaining downlink channel state information from the channel sounding signal.
US09986582B2

A communication control parameter for communicating via one technology is determined based on a communication schedule used in another technology. In some aspects, interference between a wireless local area network and a wireless wide area network is mitigated by appropriate selection of the communication control parameter. In some aspects, enhanced media access control features of IEEE 802.11ah are employed to facilitate co-existence between radio technologies. For example, interference may be mitigated through the use of a restricted access window, a target wake time, sectorized antennas, scheduled control information transmissions, and rate selection for control information.
US09986581B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described for wireless communication. In one aspect, a method of wireless communication includes determining a transmit time metric associated with each transmission group of a number of transmission groups based at least in part on an amount of data in a transmit queue and a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) data rate for at least one wireless communication device in the transmission group. The method also includes scheduling a transmission to a first transmission group of the number of transmission groups based at least in part on the transmit time metric for the first transmission group.
US09986575B2

A method and controlling node (500) to control a signal combining operation performed on uplink radio signals transmitted from a User Equipment, UE, in a combined cell served by multiple radio nodes (502). Signal quality information (SQ) is received from the UE indicating a signal quality measured by the UE on a node-specific probing pilot signal (PS1-PS4) transmitted from each of the multiple radio nodes, and a subset (RN2-RN3) of the multiple radio nodes is selected based on the received channel quality information. The signal combining operation is then performing (204) on the uplink radio signals received by the selected subset of the multiple radio nodes. Thereby, the performance of the signal combining operation can be improved.
US09986572B2

A method for reporting channel state information by a UE having an interference removal ability in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention may comprise the steps of: receiving, from a serving cell, information for removal of interference by an adjacent cell; removing the interference or calculating the channel state information and transmitting the calculated channel state to the serving cell, wherein the information for removal of interference may comprise information indicating whether interference by a transmission signal of the adjacent cell exists in a CSI-interference measurement (IM) resource of the serving cell.
US09986570B2

Disclosed are an access point apparatus for configuring a next generation wireless communication and a method of operating the access point apparatus. The access point apparatus for configuring the next generation wireless communication may include a verification unit to verify a first available band associated with at least one of a first band and a second band; and a configuration unit to configure a backbone network with another access point apparatus positioned within a predetermined distance, through the verified first available band.
US09986568B2

A mobile communications network includes one or more network elements providing a wireless access interface for communications devices. The wireless access interface provides plural communications resource elements across a host frequency range of a host carrier. First and second sections of communications resources within respective first and second frequency ranges for preferable allocation to reduced capability devices form respective first and second virtual carriers. Each of the first and second frequency ranges is within the host frequency range, wherein the communications device is configured with a reduced capability to receive the signals only within a frequency bandwidth less than the host frequency range and equal to at least one of the first or second frequency range. The communications device is configured to receive the first signalling data from the control channel and the common system information from the one or more communications resources identified by the first signalling data.
US09986566B2

Methods, apparatuses, and computer readable media for MU-RTS and CTS are disclosed. An apparatus of a high-efficiency wireless local-area network (HEW) master station is disclosed. The HEW master station including processing circuitry configured to generate a packet to indicate a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) and to indicate channels on which one or more HEW stations are to transmit a clear-to-send (CTS). The HEW master station further including a transceiver configured to transmit the packet to the one or more HEW stations, and receive clear-to-send responses to the packet on the one or more channels. An apparatus of a HEW station is also disclosed. The HEW station including circuitry configured to receive a packet that indicates a MU-RTS that indicates channels on which the HEW station is to transmit a CTS, and to determine whether to send the CTS.
US09986557B2

Disclosed is a communication method in a wireless communication system on the basis of a carrier aggregation. The communication method on the basis of a carrier aggregation comprises the steps of: receiving a PDSCH from a base station via a subframe n of a TDD cell; and transmitting, to the base station, a PUCCH including a response to the PDSCH via a subframe n+4 of an FDD cell. Accordingly, an HARQ process may be performed efficiently.
US09986556B1

A base station and a user equipment (UE) device may communicate over an air interface in a particular time division duplexing (TDD) configuration. The TDD configuration specifies a certain number of consecutive subframes for uplink communications and a certain number of consecutive subframes for downlink communications. A transmitter (either the UE device or the base station) may transmit data using transmission time interval (TTI) bundling with a bundle size of N. To select a set of N subframes to use to transmit the data, the transmitter may compare N to C, the number of consecutive subframes available to transmit the data. If N≤C, the N subframes in the set are consecutive subframes. If N>C, the set of N subframes includes C consecutive subframes and at least one additional subframe that is separated from the consecutive subframes by one or more subframes not in the set.
US09986555B2

Disclosed is a system information transmitting method, including: in one modification period, determining a frequency domain location for transmitting a coverage enhancement system message and time domain locations for periodically transmitting a coverage enhancement system message; a base station periodically transmitting the coverage enhancement system message; and the determined frequency domain location and the time domain locations for periodically transmitting are different from the re-transmission locations of main information block (MIB) information. Also disclosed are a receiving method corresponding to the transmitting method, as well as devices corresponding to the transmitting and receiving methods. The method and device of the embodiment of the present document is used to determine the time domain and frequency domain locations of the system message, thus avoiding the problem that an LTE network can't be accessed due to an address conflict caused by periodically transmitting system information for a plurality of times.
US09986550B2

The invention relates to a method, apparatus and system for configuring control channels in a mobile communication network and a mobile station. In order to suggest another improved scheme for configuring control channels, in particular control channels related to the transmission of user data the invention suggests aligning the size of the control channel information of different formats to an equal number of coded control channel information bits and/or modulation symbols for each control channel. The control channels may comprise scheduling related control information. According to another aspect of the invention, the size of the control channel information is aligned by means of modulation and/or coding, however the control channel information is aligned to one out of a set of numbers of coded control channel information bits and/or modulation symbols for each control channel.
US09986543B2

The disclosure relates to the allocation of resources for wireless communications. An index for an uplink control resource is determined in accordance with a predefined rule. The determining takes into account an index associated with a physical downlink resource and the amount of downlink resources to be mapped on the uplink control resource.
US09986538B2

Methods and apparatuses are provided for transmitting uplink control information by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The uplink control information is transmitted in a sub-frame comprising a first slot and a second slot by applying a first orthogonal sequence in the first slot and a second orthogonal sequence in the second slot. A reference signal is transmitted in the first slot. A length of the first orthogonal sequence is shorter than a length of the second orthogonal sequence.
US09986530B2

A radio wave management method executed by a processor included in a radio wave management apparatus, the radio wave management method includes counting the number of first mobile terminals which exist in a first area corresponding to a measurement target of a radio wave situation; requesting second mobile terminals, which exist in a second area that is different from the first area, to move to the first area when the number of first mobile terminals is smaller than the predetermined number; requesting the first mobile terminals and the second mobile terminals to measure the radio wave situation when the second mobile terminals move to the first area; receiving the radio wave situation from the first mobile terminals and the second mobile terminals; and transmitting the received radio wave situation to a computer in response to a request from the computer which is coupled to the radio wave management apparatus.
US09986523B2

The method and apparatus for synchronization are provided. The method thereof comprises receiving signal for synchronization from a source cell, performing synchronization to the source cell based on system information and/or a reference signal for synchronization and receiving and/or transmitting data at a timing based on the synchronization, wherein the reference signal is received via air interface.
US09986520B2

Provided is a synchronization cell used in a wireless communication system. Also provided is an SCI, synchronization cell indicator. A mobile network includes a processor that identifies one or more suitable synchronization cells for a user equipment (UE) and sends the SCI to the UE so that the UE can at least partially synchronize with a synchronization cell. The SCI advantageously includes a cell-id and other synchronization parameters and characteristics in various embodiments. The SCI may include a cell-directed UE action for the UE to carry out with a target cell. The UE carries out cell-directed UE actions with the target cell either after having obtained synchronization with the synchronization cell or to continue the synchronization process.
US09986519B2

A circuit includes a processor to store a beacon timestamp generated from a wireless network. An output port controlled by the processor causes an interrupt that initiates a capture of a link layer timestamp relative to the beacon timestamp. An input port on the processor receives the link layer time stamp. A synchronizer captures a processor timestamp relative to the beacon timestamp and determines a time offset value relative to the received link layer time stamp by computing a difference between the processor timestamp and the link layer timestamp. The time offset value is combined with the processor timestamp to synchronize the processor with respect to the beacon timestamp.
US09986518B2

Techniques are described for wireless communication. A first method includes receiving a primary synchronization signal (PSS) from a base station over an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band. The PSS may be received on adjacent orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols of a first subframe of a downlink transmission. A user equipment (UE) may be synchronized with the base station based at least in part on the received PSS. A second method includes receiving a channel usage indicator over an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, and determining at least one OFDM symbol to monitor based on a time associated with the received channel usage indicator. A PSS may then be received from a base station over the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band during the determined at least one OFDM symbol, and a UE may be synchronized with the base station based at least in part on the received PSS.
US09986514B2

Method and apparatus are disclosed for determining a physical uplink power level for transmissions on a physical uplink channel. In one embodiment, a random access channel (RACH) uplink message is transmitted. The RACH uplink message includes a RACH message power level and/or a downlink pathloss figure. A downlink message including a power offset value is received. The physical uplink power level is set for transmissions on the physical uplink channel based on the power offset value. In another embodiment, a RACH uplink message is transmitted and a downlink message including a relative power offset value is received. The physical uplink power level for transmissions on the physical uplink channel is then set based on the relative power off set value.
US09986510B2

The embodiment of the present document discloses a method for improving downlink transmission power. The method includes: when a network side network element determines that a downlink subframe in a radio frame is an almost blank subframe, assigning a maximum value among numerical values corresponding to a user level parameter to the user level parameter, and assigning a maximum value among numerical values corresponding to a cell level parameter to the cell level parameter; and determining downlink transmission power according to the user level parameter value and the cell level parameter value. The embodiment of the present document further discloses a network side network element for improving downlink transmission power and a storage medium.
US09986509B1

In one embodiment, circuitry on a device is configured to detect a power failure of the device, inform a cellular modem of the device of the power failure, and supply capacitive reserve power to the cellular modem in response to the power failure. The cellular modem of the device may then send, using the capacitive reserve power, a cellular detach message into a cellular network, where the detach message has an indication that causes a receiving device to send a notification of the power failure to a configured endpoint device.
US09986507B2

Methods and systems for filter data packets using an advertising data packet content filter are disclosed. An example method involves maintaining, by a Bluetooth device, an advertising data content filter. The advertising data content filter includes at least one content filter having at least one respective delivery mode that specifies when to deliver data packets matching the at least one content filter to a host Bluetooth stack. The method also involves receiving, by the Bluetooth device, a data packet from an advertising Bluetooth device. The method further involves determining, by the Bluetooth device, that content of the data packet matches a particular content filter of the advertising data content filter. And the method involves providing a portion of the data packet to the host Bluetooth stack in accordance with a particular delivery mode corresponding to the particular content filter.
US09986496B2

A method and network node for selecting a most suitable gateway for a User Equipment (UE) located in a wireless communications network. The network includes the network node and at least two gateways configured to provide packet data network connectivity to the UE located within a served cell. The network node detects a presence of a local gateway among the gateways and obtains UE information including a type of the UE. The UE type is either a stationary/fixed type or a mobile type, and the UE type is determined based on UE mobility behavior in relation to a local gateway service area. The network node selects the detected local gateway or another gateway among the at least two gateways for providing packet data network connectivity to the UE based on the determined UE type.
US09986438B2

Examples disclosed herein relate to efficient hierarchical radio frequency (RF) spectrum assigning across both licensed and unlicensed frequencies in a given area. Wireless devices in the area are detected by a spectrum manager, which also detects all available RF frequencies that are available. Conditional, relative, or absolute RF assignment rules received by an administrator or from an administrative device dictate the allocation conditions for assigning wireless devices to different frequencies, channels, channel widths, bands, durations, or other specifics of the available RF frequencies. Alternatively, RF spectra may be assigned reactively based on the current, historical, or future network usage on the available network frequencies.
US09986428B2

The disclosure is related to a machine to machine (M2M) device and a security management method thereof. The M2M device includes an identification circuit. The identification circuit may be configured to encrypt data collected from a sensor with a device identification (ID) of the M2M device and at least one subscriber ID of the identification circuit and to generate a data packet in a predetermined communication standard format by including the encrypted data in a payload of the data packet.
US09986423B2

The present disclosure pertains to a D2D enabled node (10) for a wireless communication network, the D2D enabled node (10) being adapted for a combination of carriers or bands comprising at least two carriers or bands (f1, f2), wherein the D2D enabled node is adapted to use at least one of the two carriers or bands (f1, f2) for D2D operation and at least one of the others of the at least two carriers or bands (f1, f2) for cellular operation.The disclosure also pertains to related devices and methods.
US09986414B1

Ways for performing servicing a service request from a communications device that is normally associated with a first domain are disclosed. An illustrative method includes dynamically assigning a CSCF (Call Session Control Function) associated with a second domain to receive service requests from the device in an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) networking environment, receiving the requests by way of the dynamically assigned CSCF.
US09986407B2

The present disclosure is related in general to performance assessment and a method and a system for determining performance of an application installed on mobile stations. An application performance detection system configures each of the mobile stations upon receiving a performance assessment request to ensure deactivation of hardware and software modules that cause additional network traffic and resource utilization. Further, the application performance detection system receives application data from the mobile stations thus configured and determine Key Performance. Indices (KPIs) based on the application data. Rating of the application is determined based on the KPIs that can efficiently detect low rated application design that requires re-engineering. Finally, performance of the application is verified that helps in achieving significant reduction in operational data costs, improved device battery life, improved user experience and efficient network resource usage. Further, the present disclosure suggests an optimized application to users based on their geographic location.
US09986405B1

A method for context-dependent emergency reporting includes receiving at a processor of a cellular phone a signal indicative of detecting a contextual cue. The exemplary method also includes receiving at the processor of the cellular phone a signal indicative of detecting a confirmatory cue. The exemplary method further includes the processor of the cellular phone identifying an emergency in response to detecting both the confirmatory cue and the contextual cue; and, in response to identifying the emergency, the processor of the cellular phone alerting a pre-registered recipient of the emergency via a wireless communication module of the cellular phone.
US09986400B2

A wearable computing device identifies a gesture made by the user of the wearable computing device. The wearable computing device sends an offer to a second wearable computing device, where the offer is to follow the user. The wearable computing device receives an indication of acceptance of the offer from the second wearable computing device, where the acceptance of the offer comprises an identified gesture made by the user of the second wearable computing device. The wearable computing device sends information related to at least the current location of the wearable computing device to the second wearable computing device.
US09986396B2

A method and apparatus are to provide status information about a call recipient and information about other users located in a same area as the call recipient. A method for providing information about the call recipient by a user device includes initiating a call transmission to the call recipient; receiving forwarding information corresponding to the call transmission; and outputting information about the call recipient and information about users located in a same area as the call recipient, based on the forwarding information.
US09986395B2

A telecommunications service provider agrees to a pre-paid plan including phone, text and data services, which it provides to a user through her mobile device. The provider's computer system then sends a notification to the user's mobile device that refers to benefits and contains a launch prompt. When the launch prompt is selected by the user, an application program is automatically launched in the mobile device, or a browser in the mobile device is automatically navigated to a website, which prompts the user to identify herself using minimum personal information (e.g., first and last name, date of birth and postal code.) In response, the mobile device is then signaled by the computer system of the telecommunications service provider to display to the user an offer of i) a pre-bundled group of, or ii) an individually selectable variety of, products or services (the benefits.) Other embodiments are also described.
US09986394B1

Techniques for enabling a system to create a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message or a short message service (SMS) message from a spoken message are described. A system may receive audio data corresponding to a spoken message. The system may determine a recipient of the spoken message as well as a device associated with the recipient. The system may determine the type of messaging supported by the device. Based on the messaging capabilities, the system generates either a MMS message or a SMS message. The MMS message may include a message payload including a portion of text corresponding to content of the message as well as audio data embedded in the message payload. The SMS message may include a message payload including a portion of text corresponding to content of the message as well as a link to message content audio data stored by the system.
US09986389B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for transmitting information. During operation, the system receives, by a server from an initial mobile device, a request for transmitting information. The request does not specify a recipient for the information. The system obtains location and/or orientation information associated with the initial mobile device and location and/or orientation information associated with a plurality of mobile devices. The system selects from the plurality of mobile devices a subset of mobile devices based on the location and/or orientation information associated with the initial mobile device and the location and/or orientation information associated with the plurality of mobile devices, and transmits the information to the selected subset of mobile devices.
US09986384B1

A system, method, and computer readable medium for providing information to a mobile device based on an event comprising detecting an occurrence of the event, determining if the event is a specific event and if the event occurred at or near a geographical location and sending an alert of the event to at least one mobile device if the event is the specific event, if the event occurs at or near the geographical location, and if the at least one mobile device is located at or near the geographical location.
US09986375B2

A location management system identifies points of interest that may be of interest to one or more users. The location management system defines a geofence boundary encompassing a particular point of interest. When the location management system determines that the user device is inside the geofence boundary—but not, for example, when the location management system determines that the user determines that the user device is outside the geofence boundary—the location management system instructs the user device to determine wireless signals available to the user device. The location management system then receives wireless signal data from the user device for available wireless signals. By matching the received wireless signal data to known wireless signals available at the identified points of interest, the location management system determines that the user device (and hence the user) is at the point of interest.
US09986368B2

A first machine-to-machine, M2M, node registering with a second M2M node avoids registration loops using a method that begins with obtaining (710) identifiers for each M2M node with which the second M2M node is registered. The first M2M node refrains (735) from registering with the second M2M node if an identifier for the first M2M node is among the identifiers, registers (725) with the second M2M if the second M2M node is not registered with other M2M nodes, and otherwise: (a) retrieves (740) identifiers for each M2M node with which any M2M on the obtained list is registered, (b) registers (755) with the second M2M node in the event that no identifiers are retrieved, and, (c) if the identifier for the first M2M node is retrieved, refrains (765) from registering with the second M2M node. Steps (a), (b), and (c) may be repeated for identifiers retrieved in step (a).
US09986359B1

Embodiments of systems and methods are described for estimating a position of a loudspeaker and notifying a listener if an abnormal condition is detected, such as an incorrect loudspeaker orientation or an obstruction in a path between the loudspeaker and a microphone array. For example, a front component of a multi-channel surround sound system may include the microphone array and a position estimation engine. The position estimation engine may estimate the distance between the loudspeaker and the microphone array. In addition, the position estimation engine may estimate an angle of the loudspeaker using a first technique. The position estimation engine may also estimate an angle of the loudspeaker using a second technique. The two angles can be processed to determine whether the abnormal condition exists. If the abnormal condition exists, a listener can be notified and be provided with suggestions for resolving the issue in a graphical user interface.
US09986342B2

A transducer includes at least one element including a plurality of cells. Each of the cells includes a pair of electrodes disposed with a gap therebetween and a vibrating membrane including one of the electrodes, and the vibrating membrane is vibratably supported. First and second cells of the plurality of cells in the element have the gaps that communicate with each other, and the first cell and a third cell in the element have the gaps that do not communicate with each other.
US09986336B2

A headphone driver, a sound processor that incorporates the headphone driver and a computing system that incorporates the headphone driver, wherein the headphone driver includes an amplifier having an input terminal and an output terminal, an R-2R ladder network provided with an input signal and connected to the input terminal of the amplifier, and a feedback resistor group connected to the input terminal and to the output terminal of the amplifier. The R-2R ladder network includes a plurality of resistor branches and a first attenuator that is connected between the plurality of resistor branches.
US09986335B2

A sound-modulating device used in a confined space is provided. The sound-modulating device includes an event detector and an audio module in communication with each other. The event detector detects an event and generates a trigger signal in response to the detected event. The audio module plays a music segment in response to the trigger signal. The frequencies of the music segment range from 20 Hz to 20000 Hz. The intensities of the music segment are smaller than or equal to 75 dB.
US09986332B2

To improve, when area sound pick-up is performed to collect sounds from a sound source in a target area, the sound quality of the collected sounds. The present invention relates to a sound pick-up apparatus that performs area sound pick-up. The sound pick-up apparatus calculates a sound volume level of a mixing signal to mix with a target area sound on the basis of power of estimated noise obtained by estimating background noise included in an input signal input from a microphone array, and power of a non-target area sound, adjusts a sound volume level of the input signal, and a sound volume level of the estimated noise to mix with the mixing signal on the basis of the sound volume level of the calculated mixing signal, and generates and outputs a mixed target area sound with which the input signal that is adjusted to have the calculated sound volume level and the estimated noise that is adjusted to have the calculated sound volume level are mixed.
US09986328B2

Apparatus including: an acoustic transducer, and a sound channel coupled to the acoustic transducer, the sound channel including an element having a shape that is electrically controllable, wherein the shape of the element is electrically controllable to change the acoustic properties of the sound channel.
US09986325B2

Apparatus comprises adapter and speaker system. Adapter is configured to plug into port of personal digital audio player. Speaker system is in communication with adapter, and comprises multiple acoustic transducers, programmable processor circuit, and wireless communication circuit. In first operational mode, processor circuit receives, via adapter, and processes digital audio content from personal digital audio player into which adapter is plugged, and the multiple acoustic transducers output the received audio content from the personal digital audio player. In second operational mode, wireless communication circuit receives digital audio content from a remote digital audio source over a wireless network, processor circuit processes the digital audio content received from remote digital audio source, and the multiple acoustic transducers output the audio content received from the remote digital audio source.
US09986317B1

Systems and methods for modeling non-visible optical sources in a spectrum controller for control thereof include receiving channel routing information and signal characteristics for the non-visible channels separately from visible channels, wherein the visible channels are formed by optical transceivers communicatively coupled to the spectrum controller and the non-visible channels are formed by optical transceivers without communication to the spectrum controller; utilizing a combination of the channel routing information and signal characteristics for both the visible channels and the non-visible channels as input to the spectrum controller; performing control of optical spectrum based on the input; and providing output adjustments based on the control.
US09986314B1

A patient monitor includes a data connector configured to connect to a corresponding data connector of an approved physiological data acquisition device to provide data transmission to and from the approved physiological data acquisition device, and a power connector configured to connect to a corresponding power connector of the approved physiological data acquisition device to provide power to the approved physiological data acquisition device. The patient monitor further includes a control module configured to detect connection of a corresponding power connector of an unidentified device at the power connection port and/or a corresponding data connector of the unidentified device to the data connector, and provide a limited power amount to the unidentified device through the power connector. The control module performs an authentication process to determine that the unidentified device is the approved physiological data acquisition device, and then provides a full power amount through the power connector to the approved physiological data acquisition device.
US09986313B2

A monitoring and response system is provided for monitoring and responding to environmental conditions at one or more sites. The monitoring system includes a plurality of base units, each base unit including at least a processor and a plurality of sensors configured to monitor environmental conditions at the site(s). A central controller is in communication with the base processors at the plurality of base units and is configured to receive and process sensor information from the base units. Base units are configured to be modular and contain customizable, swappable combinations of sensors, sensor arrays, and/or other connected peripherals, and are further configured to be mountable and/or attachable to a wide variety of surfaces and objects disposed around a site such as a construction site. The system further comprises a backend, analytic system for making predictions, taking action, and generating reports responsive to the information received from the base units.
US09986304B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a media content processor having a controller adapted to transmit to a web server one or more configurations of said media content processor. The web server can record said one or more configurations to perform one among re-provisioning of the media content processor after it experiences a loss of configuration information and provisioning of another media content processor. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09986303B2

A transmission rate acquisition unit acquires the transmission rate of a network. A predictive transmission structure setting unit sets a transmission structure including a basic hierarchy and a supplementary hierarchy. A first transmission unit transmits basic video image coding data of the basic hierarchy. A memory unit stores supplementary video image coding data of the supplementary hierarchy. A second transmission unit transmits the supplementary video image coding data stored in the memory unit. A transmission control unit controls the second transmission unit according to the transmission rate.
US09986293B2

Access to an electronic media device may be controlled based on media settings of users experiencing content using the electronic media device. Users or attributes of the users experiencing content using the electronic media device may be automatically identified and access to the electronic media device may be automatically controlled based on media settings associated with the identified users and/or attributes.
US09986285B2

Embodiments are directed towards analyzing content, such as Timed Text data that separately accompanies program content, to detect a future program. When a future program is detected in the content, a tag or other data structure is generated with identifying information for the future program. The tag is stored and later used to schedule a recording for the future program. An electronic program guide may be analyzed based on the identifying information in the tag to determine if the future program has been added to the electronic program guide.
US09986280B2

A reference verification module identifies content items stored in a content repository that include at least a portion of the content included in a reference content item provided by an entity. The reference verification module classifies the reference content item based on the uneven distribution of the percentages of the identified content items that include each of the claimed portions. Specifically, if the average difference between the percentage of content items that include a given portion and the percentages of the remaining content items is above a threshold, then the reference verification module classifies the reference content item as having a higher than threshold likelihood of including third party content.
US09986278B2

There is provided a server for providing an interactive broadcast. The server includes a memory configured to store a story manager including an event controller, a story controller and an action processor, and a hardware processor configured to execute the story manager. The story manager is configured to provide, using the event controller, an event based on a control script, story elements metadata, one or more user performance analyses, and one or more user preferences. The story manager is also configured to generate, using the story controller, an action command based on the event received from the event controller and a story state. The story manager is further configured to determine, using the action processor, an action corresponding to the action command for initiating one or more control processes for distributing the interactive broadcast.
US09986270B2

Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus for receiving AV content, including: a receiver configured to trigger information for controlling processing associated with an application program to be executed in conjugation with a progress of the AV content; a holder configured to hold the application program; and a controller configured to control a state of a first application program depending on whether first trigger information for specifying processing associated with the first application program held in the holder as a subject of control has been received in synchronization with a predetermined reception timing.
US09986269B1

Disclosed are systems, methods, and apparatus for maintaining a packet count in stateless multiplexing systems. Multimedia streaming formats employ roll-over packet counters, such as the continuity counter (CC) for stream data associated with a particular packet identifier (e.g., a packetized elementary stream) in an MPEG transport stream. In one embodiment, an input stream is broken into segments of a given duration. Output segments are generated based on input segments (e.g., as in distributed transcoding systems). For a given output segment, additional packets are generated and inserted into the stream to force the packet counter for each packet identifier (PID) to end on a predetermined value. The ending predetermined value is preferably contiguous to the starting predetermined value at which the counter began that output segment. The first packet for a given PID in output segments can thus start the packet counter on a known value—i.e., the starting predetermined value.
US09986264B2

A frame coding unit generates individual picture signal information from a moving picture signal, and outputs a frame code value which is a numeric value to be obtained as a result of coding picture signal information of each frame. A variable length coding unit decomposes the frame code value into unit frame code values which are basic units of coding, converts the unit frame code values into frame code words using only a single code table, and constructs a frame stream by combining the converted frame code words. A multiplexing unit multiplexes a header stream which is constructed through a method equivalent to a conventional method and the frame stream, and constructs a picture coded signal.
US09986259B2

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing a video signal, the method comprising: receiving a multiview video signal; identifying whether a current picture including a first layer and a second layer is decoded by using alpha data within the multiview video signal; obtaining the alpha data corresponding to the first layer and the second layer when the current picture is identified to be decoded by using the alpha data; and decoding a current block included in the current picture by using the alpha data, wherein the alpha data may include information concerning transparency information of the current picture.
US09986251B2

A process for determining the selection of filters and input samples is provided for scalable video coding. The process provides for re-sampling using video data obtained from an encoder or decoder process of a base layer (BL) in a multi-layer system to improve quality in Scalable High Efficiency Video Coding (SHVC). It is proposed that a single scaled reference layer offset be derived from two scaled reference layer offset parameters, and vice-versa. It is also proposed that a single scaled reference layer offset or a single reference layer offset be derived from a combination of a scaled reference layer offset parameter and a reference layer offset parameter.
US09986242B2

A method is provided to perform enhanced image encoding in a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment that includes a client device having a first graphical user interface (GUI) and a server device having a second GUI associated with the first GUI. One example method may include receiving, from the client device, user interface (UI) events based on which the first GUI is to be updated, and obtaining, by an agent on the server device, UI information relating to a UI element on the second GUI. The method may further include determining, by the agent on the server device, an encoding configuration for an encoder based at least in part on the UI information, encoding image data of the second GUI based on the encoding configuration, and sending encoded image data to the client device to update the first GUI on a screen of the client device.
US09986241B2

An image processing device including an acquiring section configured to acquire quantization matrix parameters from an encoded stream in which the quantization matrix parameters defining a quantization matrix are set within a parameter set which is different from a sequence parameter set and a picture parameter set, a setting section configured to set, based on the quantization matrix parameters acquired by the acquiring section, a quantization matrix which is used when inversely quantizing data decoded from the encoded stream, and an inverse quantization section configured to inversely quantize the data decoded from the encoded stream using the quantization matrix set by the setting section.
US09986238B2

The present invention relates to an intra prediction mode mapping method and a device using the method. The intra prediction mode includes: decoding flag information providing information regarding whether an intra prediction mode of a plurality of candidate intra prediction modes for the current block is the same as the intra prediction mode for the current block, and decoding a syntax component including information regarding the intra prediction mode for the current block in order to induce the intra prediction mode for the current block if the intra prediction mode from among the plurality of candidate intra prediction modes for the current block is not the same as the intra prediction mode for the current block. Thus, it is possible to increase the efficiency with which are images are decoded.
US09986214B2

An immersive display system is disclosed that includes screens configured to mitigate reduction in contrast ratio due at least in part to peripheral light incident on the screens. The immersive display system includes at least two screens and at least two projector systems. The screens have a multi-layered structure configured to selectively reflect light for controlled periods of time. Adjacent screens can be configured to selectively reflect light during different periods of time. The projector systems can be configured to project video onto their respective screens while the associated screen is configured to selectively reflect light rather than absorb light.
US09986212B2

A visual inspection device includes a body having a support portion and a grip portion extending from the support portion. The device also includes a flexible cable having a first end portion coupled to the body and a second end portion, and a camera assembly coupled to the second end portion of the flexible cable. The camera assembly includes an image sensor operable to transmit image data through the flexible cable. The device further includes a display supported by the support portion of the body. The display is electrically connected to the flexible cable to display image date from the image sensor. The device is powered by a rechargeable battery pack removably coupled to the body.
US09986209B2

A computer implemented method of establishing and managing an arbitrarily large, geographically distributed video surveillance network is provided. The method comprises a plurality of independent video processing components operatively coupled by a data network, each independent video processing component configured to implement one or more tasks, the one or more tasks comprising video capture, relaying, recording, processing, storage, analysis and event-monitoring of video and audio files and information.
US09986199B2

Systems and methods to position and play content. The system renders a first content segment to an output device at an accelerated speed for the first content segment. Next, the system receives a request to play the first content segment from the beginning of the first content segment at a normal speed for the first content segment. Next, the system automatically positions to the beginning of the first content segment based on position information that is associated with the first content segment. Finally, the system renders the first content segment to the output device from the beginning of the first content segment at a normal speed for the first content segment.
US09986196B2

An image processing apparatus includes an image processing unit that calculates two types of image data from one image data and outputs the calculated image data, a data combination unit that combines the two type of data supplied from the image processing unit and outputs the combined data to one terminal, an output buffer that adjusts an output timing of the combined data according to an instruction supplied from bus arbitration means for arbitrating a bus, and a data distribution unit that outputs the combined data output from the output buffer to the bus in a form of the combined data, or distributes the combined data and outputs the distributed data to the bus according to an external combination distribution instruction.
US09986189B2

A pixel array includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns; and a group control line connected to each pixel of a first group of pixels from among the plurality of pixels, the first group of pixels including pixels from at least two different rows from among the plurality of rows, the first group of pixels each being configured to begin an exposure period based on a first signal received from the group control line, the exposure period being a period during which a pixel accumulates charges in response to light incident on the pixels.
US09986182B2

An imaging device includes: unit pixel cells each including first and second electrodes, a photoelectric conversion layer therebetween, a charge accumulation region, and a signal detection circuit; and a voltage supply circuit, the voltage supply circuit supplying a first voltage to the second electrode in an exposure period. The start and end of the exposure period is common to the unit pixel cells. The photoelectric conversion layer has a photocurrent characteristic including first to third voltage ranges. In the third voltage range between the first and second voltage ranges, an absolute value of a rate of change of a current density relative to a bias voltage is less than in the first and second voltage ranges. The voltage supply circuit supplies a second voltage to the second electrode in a non-exposure period such that the bias voltage applied to the photoelectric conversion layer falls within the third voltage range.
US09986179B2

A hybrid camera sensor offers efficient image sensing by periodically evaluating pixels at a certain frame rate and disregarding values of pixels that have changed less than a threshold amount. Because only a fraction of pixels in the camera sensor may change values from frame to frame, this can result in faster readout times, which can optionally enable increased frame rates.
US09986176B2

A system for generating a three-dimensional model of an object, the system including a portable hand-held imaging device including a housing, a plurality of sensors attached to the housing and at least one electronic processing device coupled to the plurality of sensors. The electronic processing device determines from the plurality of sensors, while the imaging device is in at least two different poses relative to the object, range data indicative of a range of the object and thermal infrared data indicative of a thermal infrared image of the object, generates a three-dimensional model based at least partially upon the range data from the at least two different poses and associates model data derived from the thermal infrared data from the at least two different poses with the three dimensional model to thereby provide a three dimensional thermal infrared model of the object.
US09986159B2

Raw video data is captured, processed, and then stored within a set of buffers. An encoder engine is configured to encode the video data for storage. A feedback controller dynamically adjusts the clock frequency of the encoder engine based on the number of buffers currently occupied by the video data. The feedback controller is tuned so that the clock frequency of the encoder engine will be increased when the number of buffers occupied by video data increases, and the clock frequency of the encoder engine will be decreased when the number of buffers occupied by the video data decreases.
US09986157B2

A single focal imaging optical system includes, in order from an object side, a first lens group with a positive power, an aperture stop, and a second lens group with a positive power. The first lens group includes a first front lens group and a first rear lens group. The first front lens group includes a negative lens having a concave surface on an image side and a positive meniscus lens having a concave surface on the object side. The first rear lens group includes a biconvex lens. The second lens group includes a second front lens group with a negative power and a second rear lens group with a positive power. The system satisfies a following condition: 3.2
US09986152B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products to perform an operation comprising receiving image data provided by an image sensor, identifying, based on a facial recognition algorithm applied to the image data, a first face in the image data, identifying a plurality of rules applicable to capturing images based on the image data, and upon determining that a first rule of the plurality of rules restricts depiction of the first face in an image: performing a predefined operation to restrict depiction of the first face in the image data provided by the image sensor, and subsequent to performing the predefined operation to the image data, generating an image for output based on the image data, wherein the generated image does not depict the first face.
US09986146B2

Herein disclosed is an imaging device having an imaging optical system, the device including: an imaging element configured to include a plurality of first pixels and a plurality of second pixels arranged along a predetermined direction; a first processor configured to execute focal detection processing by a phase difference detection system based on charge signals obtained from the plurality of second pixels; and a second processor configured to execute specific processing based on charge signals obtained from the plurality of first pixels, the specific processing being different from the focal detection processing by a phase difference detection system and being necessary for a function of the imaging device.
US09986143B2

The present invention relates to a camera module, the module including: a PCB; an image sensor mounted on the PCB and formed with an image pickup device; a base mounted on the PCB and including a plated portion formed at a lower center with an opening mounted with an IR filter; a lower spring plate formed with a conductive material; a spacer arranged on an upper surface of the lower spring plate and forming a staircase structure by a rib wrapping a periphery of the lower spring plate to supportively apply a pressure to the lower spring plate; a lens actuator including a bobbin, and a yoke; an upper spring plate coupled to an upper surface of the lens actuator; and a cover attached to an upper surface of the upper spring plate.
US09986142B2

A integrated rechargeable evidence collecting and recording device built into a firearm that automatically collects and records evidence of the users point of view when a firearm is in use, and pointing at the intended target. The integrated rechargeable evidence collecting and recording device consists of a rechargeable battery, microphone, camera, and digitally encrypted memory for the preservation of said evidence in accordance with agency guidelines.
US09986141B2

An extension photoflash light and a camera system using the same are provided. The extension photoflash light to be externally mounted on a mobile device with a photographing function comprises a HID lamp, a mounting mechanism, a light sensing circuit and a control circuit. The mounting mechanism is for mounting the extension photoflash light. The light sensing circuit is disposed on the mounting mechanism. The control circuit is coupled to the HID lamp and the light sensing circuit. When a camera program is executed, a specific block on a flat panel display of the mobile device emits a light signal. The control circuit controls the light sensing circuit to detect the light signal of the specific block, and decodes a decoding message according to luminance of the detected light signal, and controls the HID lamp to perform flashing at a specific timing according to the decoding message.
US09986135B2

In a method of image compression, a processor computes a palette for a block of pixels, the palette having palette values; and the processor computes index values, where some index values map a pixel to a palette value and some index values map a pixel to a value that is between two palette values.
US09986133B2

In certain aspects, the present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and devices for expanding a printing color gamut such as CMYK for printing or in preparation for printing on printing devices. In certain aspects, the disclosure relates to systems, methods and devices for optimizing or improving multicolor process print manufacturing, in particular, through automated and adaptive selection of additional colorants using color-perception based analysis of embedded visual content.
US09986130B2

An image reading apparatus includes a light source, a light-source control unit, a line sensor, an image data generating unit, and an image analysis unit. The line sensor includes a plurality of light receiving elements, a plurality of charge coupled devices, and a shift register. The image data generating unit generates image data according to electric charges output from the shift register. The image analysis unit determines whether transfer of the electric charges is normal, based on a contour reproduction status, being the status of reproduction of contours in test image data generated by reading of a test image having contours oriented intersecting an orientation whereby the plurality of light receiving elements are arranged. The light-source control unit adjusts the amount of light from the light source based on the determination by the image analysis unit.
US09986114B2

An image forming system includes multiple image forming apparatuses and a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal establishes communication connection in a remote operation mode with a parent apparatus (one of the image forming apparatuses), the remote operation mode being a mode in which the mobile terminal operates as a remote operation apparatus of the parent apparatus. The mobile terminal displays an operation screen received from the parent apparatus, accepts a user operation provided through the operation screen, and transmits first setting information based on the user operation to the parent apparatus. The parent apparatus receives the first setting information from the mobile terminal and determines a setting target child apparatus. The parent apparatus transmits second setting information based on the first setting information to the setting target child apparatus, and the setting target child apparatus sets setting content based on the second setting information received from the parent apparatus.
US09986110B2

A system and method for document processing includes a controller configured for digital control of multifunction peripheral operations. The controller detects a portable data device and receives configuration data through a near field communication interface. The controller selectively enables of document processing operations of the MFP as specified by received configuration data. The controller generates an active display on a touch screen control panel in accordance with the received configuration data and receives user selection data via the active display on the touch screen control panel. The controller commences a document processing operation in accordance with received user selection data.
US09986106B2

A color patch generation apparatus includes a printing unit that prints color patches for first color space acquisition in a certain region of a plurality of sheets of paper by a certain number of patches and in a certain patch size, and prints color patches for second color space acquisition in a region different from the certain region of at least one of the plurality of sheets of paper by a certain number of patches and in a patch size smaller than the certain patch size.
US09986105B2

A color reproduction analyzing apparatus includes: a specific area extractor that extracts a specific area on which an error is supposed to occur as an error factor area when image data for image forming for forming an image on paper and read image data generated by reading the image on the paper are received and compared; and a color reproduction analyzer that obtains pixel values of a desired color in a position corresponding to the image data for image forming and the read image data, excludes the error factor area, and compares pixel values of the image data for image forming and the read image data to analyze a color reproduction.
US09986096B2

A system includes a router to route a call to agent stations, processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to identify the call as a callback, identify an available agent station at a same site as the router if the call is a callback, and establish the callback with the available agent station at the same site as the router where the callback is initiated.
US09986094B2

Systems and methods of managing customer journeys are implemented using one or more processors in a computing system. Each journey may comprise a succession of interactions at interaction points such as telephone conversations, responses to an interactive voice response “IVR” system and viewing a web page. Customer journey scores are determined for customers at one or more interaction points along the customer journey and the customer journey score is used to determine whether and when an intervention should take place. Models for determining customer journey scores may be created for a set of customers based on one or both of subjective and objective data relating to a subset of the set of customers that have made some or part of the journey, e.g. customers that have responded to polls. An intervention may take place during the journey or after completion of the journey.
US09986089B2

A customer contact system receives a customer inquiry from a customer. Availability of different types of resources for handling the customer inquiry is used to calculate a ranking for the different types of resources for handling the customer inquiry. A type of resource with the highest rank is offered to the customer in order to resolve the customer inquiry.
US09986086B2

A mobile terminal and a method of operating the mobile terminal are provided. The mobile terminal includes a sensor configured to sense a motion of the mobile terminal, and a communication interface configured to receive, from a wearable device corresponding to the mobile terminal, information of a motion of the wearable device, the motion of the wearable device being sensed during a time period from a start time requested by the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal further includes a controller configured to determine whether the motion of the mobile terminal and the motion of the wearable device have a correlation of a level or greater, and unlock the mobile terminal, in response to the controller determining that the motion of the mobile terminal and the motion of the wearable device have the correlation of the level or greater.
US09986085B2

Provided is a mobile terminal that executes an application in a predetermined area, and a method performed by the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal that executes the application in the predetermined area may include a memory; a location finder configured to obtain location information of the mobile terminal; a communicator configured to communicate with a server; and a controller configured to receive, via the communicator, the application that is executable in a predetermined area corresponding to the obtained location information and an operating system (OS) for executing the application from a server that corresponds to the obtained location information, and to install the application and the OS in the memory.
US09986081B2

Systems and techniques to display app content are disclosed. In various embodiments, an indication is received to save an application page. An image of the application page and associated application state information are stored. The image and state information may be used to provide a user-navigable interface that enables a user to navigate back to the saved page.
US09986080B2

A mobile device with a unified media-centric user interface is provided. In one embodiment, the user interface contains one or more of the following features: a unified view of the home screen, navigating between various storage locations, dragging items to collection/folder, pinch and zoom feature, stats shown for each file type, storage usage view from the app, manual and automatic backup, and magic move (keeping a low-resolution version of the original files while moving). Other embodiments are possible, and each of the embodiments can be used alone or together in combination.
US09986071B2

A virtual communication protocol built in a physical communication protocol for solving the problem of conventional IoT devices of different physical communication protocols that fail to communicate with each other by building a virtual communication protocol in present existing physical communication protocols and at a position equivalent to the seventh layer (application layer) of the OSI model. With this virtual communication protocol, any one of the IoT devices is capable of transmitting an IoT command to an IoT console, and then the IoT console transfers the IoT command to a target IoT device, so that the two IoT devices of different physical communication protocols can communicate with each other and achieve the effect of transmitting control commands with each other.
US09986070B2

A transmitting apparatus is provided. The transmitting apparatus includes: a baseband packet (BBP) generator configured to generate a BBP including a header and payload data; a frame generator configured to generate a frame including the BBP; a signal processor configured to signal-process the generated frame; and a transmitter configured to transmit the signal-processed frame. The header includes information about a type of the payload data, whether an additional header exists, a length of the payload data, and a Least Significant Bit (LSB) of the length of the payload data. Therefore, various types of data are mapped on a physical layer based on information included in the header, and data processing efficiency is improved.
US09986069B2

Devices and methods to compress sensor data are generally described herein. An exemplary wearable device to compress sensor data may include a sensor including circuitry to sense sensor data, and a communication circuit to receive, from a remote device, a detected link quality of a low-power communication channel used to communicate with the remote device. The communication circuit further to transmit compressed data to a remote device over the low power communication channel. The wearable device may further include a compressible sensor data module to apply a compression algorithm to compress received sensor data based on the detected link quality to provide the compressed sensor data.
US09986062B2

A gateway device configured to receive IP video content may select and use transmission methods that maintain a certain quality of service for delivering the content. A transmission method may be selected based on a network to which the client device is connected. The gateway device may select a network through which the content is to be delivered depending on a variety of factors including bandwidth availability, client compatibility, quality of service provided and the like. A gateway device may further be configured to convert multicast transmissions to unicast, to provide dynamic storage of content for pre-positioning and other purposes and/or to provide other functions.
US09986055B2

A method for reminding a page update is provided. The method includes: receiving by a proxy server a request from a user for visiting a page of a third-party website via a mobile terminal; obtaining by the proxy server the page of the third-party website according to the request and providing by the proxy server the page to the mobile terminal; entering by the mobile terminal an update reminding markup state after receiving an instruction of the user; receiving and marking by the mobile terminal a region selected by the user in the page and feeding back the selected region to the proxy server; and notifying by the proxy server the user in a predetermined manner when content in the selected region of the page is updated.
US09986054B2

Embodiments are directed towards enhanced push notifications for mobile computers. Message data and notification information may be obtained from an application server. A target client computer may be determined based on the notification information. If, the target client computer may be available on the network, a push notification message may be generated based on the notification information and the message data and communicated to the target client computer. Also, the message data may be communicated to the target client computer rather than waiting until a user to access the push notification message on the target client computer. Alternatively, if the target may unavailable on the network, the message data may be archived at the network computer enabling the message data to be communicated to the target client computer if the target client computer becomes available on the network.
US09986051B2

The electronic content generation and distribution method and system includes designating a written content for audio translation by a narrator and determining the narrator. The method and system provides written content to the narrator to generate an audio narration, receiving the audio narration back from the narrator. The method and system therein assigns a plurality of content identifiers to the audio narration based at least one the written content, accesses a subscriber database including subscriber information and subscriber preference data and electronically compares the plurality of content identifiers to the subscriber preference data to determine a distribution list. The method and system distributes the audio narration to subscribers designated in the distribution list so that the subscriber can engage the audio narration via a content interface, where the content interface is operative to monitor the subscriber engaging the audio narration.
US09986044B2

A multi-screen interaction method, devices, and system are provided. The method includes acquiring a first message from a first terminal device. The first message includes a first operation instruction and first state information. A second message is acquired from a second terminal device. The second message includes a second operation instruction. The method further includes searching, according to the second operation instruction, for an operation instruction that is matched with the second operation instruction, among stored operation instructions. A first control instruction is sent to the first terminal device and a second control instruction is sent to the second terminal device, if it is found that the second operation instruction is matched with the first operation instruction.
US09986036B2

An apparatus and method of operating a system includes receiving, at a network interface configured for specialized network protocol networks, a set of data frames and storing the received set of data frames for later retrieval, and retrieving a subset of the data frames from the network interface by a retrieval module.
US09986033B2

The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for facilitating access to a remote cloud service via a cloud controller for a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in the cloud storage systems; the cloud controllers ensure data consistency for the stored data, and each cloud controller caches portions of the distributed filesystem. During operation, a cloud controller detects a request from a co-located client to access a network address that is in the same subnet of their local network. The cloud controller determines that the network address is associated with the remote cloud service (which executes in a cloud storage environment) and forwards the request to the remote cloud service.
US09986028B2

Examples are disclosed for replicating data between storage servers. In some examples, a network input/output (I/O) device coupled to either a client device or to a storage server may exchange remote direct memory access (RDMA) commands or RDMA completion commands associated with replicating data received from the client device. The data may be replicated to a plurality of storage servers interconnect to each other and/or the client device via respective network communication links. Other examples are described and claimed.
US09986026B2

A network communication system and a virtualization method are provided that make it easy to increase/decrease traffic and to develop a network service. A communication system provided on a network boundary includes an edge network (100) including a plurality of nodes, a network control server (110) that can control the nodes in the edge network, and a service server pool (120) in which a plurality of service servers (SM1 to SM n) for respectively providing a plurality of network services are set, wherein the network control server sets a route between a predetermined node in the edge network and each service server, corresponding to each of the plurality of network services.
US09986025B2

An example method is provided for a host to perform load balancing for multiple network interface controllers (NICs) configured as a team. The method may comprise the host detecting egress packets from a virtualized computing instance supported by the host for transmission to a destination via the team. The method may also comprise the host selecting one of the multiple NICs from the team based on load balancing weights associated with the respective multiple NICs. Each load balancing weight may be assigned based on a network speed supported by the associated NIC, and different load balancing weights are indicative of different network speeds among the multiple NICs in the team. The method may further comprise the host sending, via the selected one of the multiple NICs, the egress packets to the destination.
US09986020B2

This invention introduces a structured software engineering methodology for developing interactive network application systems that use a web browser as a user-dialog engine. The methodology uses two server types: an Application Server for instantiating and executing an application instance in binary code, and an HTTP Server for delivering to the user's browser the textual HTML+Javascript user-dialog documents used by this application instance during its execution. An application is accessed by executing at the user's browser an Application Instantiation Page (AIP) which is a part of this invention. The methodology is built into a notational programming language.
US09986009B2

A method and apparatus for an adaptive Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) streaming service using metadata of media content are provided. The media content may include a sequence of one or more periods. The metadata may include a start time attribute and/or a duration attribute of each of the periods. The metadata may determine a start time of each of the periods, and a start time of each of segments included in each of the periods. A terminal may access segments included in each of the periods, may decode and render data of media content included in the segments, and may play back the media content.
US09986007B2

A content server comprising a processor coupled to the receiver configured to obtain a media content component, identify an ownership of the media content component, and generate a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH) Media Presentation Description (MPD) indicating storage locations of segments of the media content component, indicating instructions for displaying the segments of the media content component, and indicating ownership of the media content component, a receiver coupled to the processor and configured to receive a request from a client for the media content component, and a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the DASH MPD indicating the ownership of the media content component to the client in response to receiving the request.
US09986003B2

A device for receiving streaming data includes a broadcast or multicast middleware unit configured to receive the streaming data via a second service and a proxy unit configured to be disposed between the middleware unit and a client application, the proxy unit further configured to receive an indication of whether the streaming data is to be received via a first service or the second service, when the indication indicates that the streaming data is to be received via the first service: disable the middleware unit; and receive the streaming data via the first service, and when the indication indicates that the streaming data is to be received via the second service: activate the middleware unit to receive the streaming data via the second service, wherein the second service comprises at least one of a broadcast service or a multicast service; and receive the streaming data from the middleware unit.
US09985998B1

A system for collaboratively generating and/or managing a media channel is provided. The system includes an identification component, a generation component and a permissions component. The identification component identifies a first set of media content associated with a first social group and a second set of media content associated with a second social group. The generation component generates a media channel based on the first and second sets of media content identified as being respectively associated with the first and second social groups. The permissions component grants access to the media channel based at least on permissions generated for the first and second sets of media content in connection with the respective first and second social groups.
US09985996B2

A device for decoupling audio-video (AV) traffic processing from non-AV traffic processing may include a first processor and a second processor. The first processor may be configured to establish a network connection with a client device, determine whether the network connection is associated with AV traffic, transfer the network connection to a second processor when the network connection is associated with AV traffic, and process non-AV traffic associated with the network connection when the network connection is not associated with AV traffic. The second processor may be configured to receive the network connection from the first processor and process the AV traffic associated with the network connection.
US09985995B2

Methods are discussed of managing security reconfiguration and cell update procedures in a user equipment and in a node in a cellular communication system and a user equipment and a node in the cellular communication system. Methods in the user equipment may include detecting a cell update trigger event, and aborting any ongoing security reconfiguration procedure in the user equipment in response to the detected cell update trigger event. Subsequently, a security status indication in response to the aborted security reconfiguration may be provided, and a cell update message and the provided security status indication may be jointly transmitted to a node.
US09985994B2

A method and system for enforcing compliance with a policy on a client computer in communication with a network is disclosed. The method involves receiving a data transmission from the client computer on the network. The data transmission includes status information associated with the client computer. The data transmission is permitted to continue when the status information meets a criterion.
US09985990B2

The invention proposes a security information interaction system, apparatus and method based on security carrier's active command. The method comprises: an information interaction terminal, based on a user's command, establishes a security dialog channel between the information interaction terminal and a security carrier so as to perform a security information interaction process, wherein the user's command indicates a target application associated with the security information interaction process; and the security carrier activates the target application during the establishment of the security dialog channel and then executes the security information interaction process based on the security dialog channel. In the security information interaction system, apparatus and method based on security carrier active command disclosed in the invention, the security carrier can initiate an active command to the information interaction terminal.
US09985985B2

A method of DDoS and hacking protection for internet-based servers using a private network of internet servers utilizes multiple data streams sent over a network of proxy servers to mitigate malicious attacks and ensure fast connections from a user to a destination server. The destination server is hidden from the user and the redundancy of the proxy network serves to maintain security and connection quality between the user and the destination server.
US09985982B1

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving at a security analysis device a plurality of indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with an entity, sorting at the security analysis device, the IOCs based on a time of occurrence of each of the IOCs, creating a representation of transitions between the IOCs at the security analysis device, and generating at the security analysis device, a feature vector based on the representation of transitions. The feature vector is configured for use by a classifier in identifying malicious entities. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.
US09985976B1

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and device that identifies network traffic characteristics to correlate and manage one or more subsequent flows includes transmitting a monitoring request comprising one or more attributes extracted from an HTTP request received from a client computing device and a timestamp to a monitoring server to correlate one or more subsequent flows associated with the HTTP request. The HTTP request is transmitted to an application server after receiving an acknowledgement response to the monitoring request from the monitoring server. An HTTP response to the HTTP request is received from the application server. An operation with respect to the HTTP response is performed.
US09985966B2

Technologies are generally described for providing an anonymous signature scheme. In some examples, a method performed under control of an end device ma 320 include receiving public parameters from a central system; generating an enciphering function based at least in part on the received public parameters; calculating parameters for a signature based at least in part on the generated enciphering function; and transmitting, to a verifying device, the signature that includes a message, a key of the end device and the calculated parameters for the signature.
US09985946B2

In one embodiment, a device includes: at least one processor; at least one sensor to sense an environmental condition; and a storage to store instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, enable the device to: receive an encrypted nonce from a safety controller; decrypt the encrypted nonce using a value obtained from an entropy multiplexing seed tree generated by the device based at least in part on an initialization seed value received from the safety controller; responsive to decryption of the nonce, update a portion of a shared memory associated with the device to identify a safety state of the device; and encrypt a second nonce using the value obtained from the entropy multiplexing seed tree and send the encrypted second nonce to the safety controller. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09985944B2

A method and apparatus for authenticating a user is provided, the method includes: receiving an authentication request sent from a user device by a user; providing basic information in response to the authentication request, wherein the basic information comprises information related to a social networking service used by the user; generating authentication information based on the basic information, wherein the authentication information comprises a question and a corresponding answer; sending the question to the user device and receiving feedback information from the user device; and generating an authentication result by verifying whether the feedback information is consistent with the answer, and sending the authentication result to the user device. The method and apparatus address the issue of forgotten answers to security questions used in user authentication.
US09985942B2

Portable visitor stations that are easy to set up are disclosed. Portable visitor stations, including a visitor application stored on a portable computer may be set up for a facility by sending a location at which the portable computer is to be located at to a visitor processing service and sending a list of contacts associated with the facility to the visitor processing service. In some embodiments, the portable visitor station may be set up exclusively by sending only the received location and the received list to the visitor processing service.
US09985938B2

A wireless communication device controls access to a geographically-distributed Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) network. The wireless communication device graphically presents WiFi network data to receive user selections of multiple WiFi access systems, a network name, and a user password. The wireless communication device receives configuration data that associates broadcast identification signals for the WiFi access systems with the network name. The wireless communication device detects a broadcast identification signal for one of the WiFi access systems and responsively presents the network name and a password prompt to receive the user password. The wireless communication device transfers the network name and the user password to the WiFi access system, and in response, the wireless communication device exchanges user data over the WiFi access system.
US09985937B1

In electronic document storage control, a document controller receives a document storage request to store an electronic document from an access device. The document controller retrieves the electronic document and a storage location attribute associated with the electronic document. The document controller obtains a current location of the document controller, and compares the current location of the document controller and the storage location attribute associated with the electronic document. In response to a match between the current location and the storage location attribute, the document controller stores the electronic document at the document controller. In response to no match between the current location and the storage location attribute, the document controller does not stores the electronic document.
US09985918B2

For preventing messages from being sent to an unintended recipient, an apparatus for indicating a message recipient is disclosed. The apparatus may include a processor and a memory that stores code executable by the processor, including code that identifies an active messaging interface from among a plurality of messaging interfaces, identifies a correspondent associated with the active messaging interface, and temporarily provides a message recipient cue based on the identified correspondent in response to a user writing to the active messaging interface. The apparatus may remove the message recipient cue in response to expiration of a predetermined interval. The apparatus may further retrieve the visual indicator from a local database, a server, and/or the identified recipient. Additionally, the apparatus may identify the active messaging interface based on a viewing location and/or on a cursor location. A method and computer program product also perform the functions of the apparatus.
US09985909B2

A method and apparatus may include adapting transmission opportunities of the first network node. A radio-technology of the apparatus coexists with at least one other radio-access technology of a network node. The adapting may include adapting when the apparatus is able to perform transmissions. The method may also include transmitting in accordance with a transmitting period. The transmitting period corresponds to a time over which the apparatus is configured to perform transmitting and to be muted. The transmitting may include transmitting on an unlicensed carrier.
US09985906B2

In one embodiment, a device in an access network receives network condition data regarding the access network and requested flow characteristic data. The requested flow characteristic data is indicative of one or more flow characteristics requested by one or more subscribers for different periods of time. The device trains a machine learning-based classifier using the network condition data and the request flow characteristic data and receives a particular flow characteristic request from a particular subscriber node. The particular request indicates one or more requested flow characteristics for a specified time period. The device determines a probability of the access network being able to accommodate the particular flow characteristic request by classifying the particular flow characteristic request using the trained classifier. The device sends a flow characteristic response to the node of the particular subscriber node based on the determined probability.
US09985899B2

A method and apparatus for changing a packet tag status value from a first value to a different value upon said packet arriving at a buffer if there already is a packet in the buffer queue having the same first status value. A sequence of tag status values (112) in packets received at an end node is used to determine the queue length of the buffer in the packet network. An end node can thereafter adapt its sending rate to the rate of the buffer.
US09985889B2

At an application executing in conjunction with a vSwitch in a host system, using a processor assigned to the vSwitch in the host system, a CWND value corresponding to a flow from a VM is computed using a period measured by a timer and a number of packets of the flow received and acknowledged in response packets, the number being counted by a counter, the timer being associated with a packet of the flow. A set of flow parameters is extracted, at the application, from the flow. At the application, a normalized value corresponding to the flow is computed. At the application, the CWND value is reduced according to the normalized value of the flow to form a reduced CWND value. The reduced CWND value is applied to the flow at the vSwitch such that the vSwitch transmits, from the flow to a network, only a number of packets up to the reduced CWND value.
US09985884B2

The present invention provides a data transmission method, apparatus and device, and a base station, and relates to the field of communications technologies. The method of the present invention includes: receiving data sent by a radio unit; acquiring a standard identity of the data, where the standard identity is used to identify a standard type of the data; routing the data according to the standard identity of the data; and sending the routed data to a digital unit corresponding to the standard identity of the routed data.
US09985879B2

The disclosed apparatus may include (1) a database that maintains a pruned multicast distribution tree and (2) a processing unit having access to the database, wherein the processing unit (A) receives at least one type 3 Ethernet Segment Identifier (ESI) message from at least one other bridge domain on at least one other computing device, (B) determines, based at least in part on the type 3 ESI message, whether the other bridge domain on the other computing device has a root access concentrator, and then (C) populates, in response to determining whether the other bridge domain has a root access concentrator, the pruned multicast distribution tree to account for the other bridge domain such that the bridge domain on the computing device is able to determine whether to send multicast traffic to the other bridge domain. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.
US09985878B2

Various embodiments provide a method including receiving, by a forwarder, rule modification information sent by a controller. The rule modification information includes rule description match information and action instruction modification information. The rule description match information is used to determine a to-be-modified processing rule. Rule description information of the to-be-modified processing rule accords with the rule description match information, and the action instruction modification information is used to instruct to modify an action instruction specified in an instruction set of the to-be-modified processing rule. The method also includes modifying, by the forwarder, when the forwarder determines that rule description information of a first processing rule meets the rule description match information, an action instruction specified in an instruction set of the first processing rule according to the action instruction modification information.
US09985875B1

A system and method for handling critical events in service delivery gateways. Events are defined that cause a transition from a master redundancy state to a standby redundancy state in service delivery gateways and a plurality of signal-routes are stored. Each signal-route is associated with one or more of the defined events. A first defined event is detected in the first service delivery gateway and causes a transition from the first master redundancy state to the first standby redundancy state in the first service delivery gateway and a change in a first signal-route from the plurality of signal-routes in the first service delivery gateway. The change in the first signal-route is advertised and a second service delivery gateway transitions from the first standby redundancy state to the first master redundancy state.
US09985874B2

A transmitter includes a buffer programmed to queue packets and a computing device having a processor and a data storage medium. The computing device is programmed to generate at least two sub-packets from each of the plurality of packets stored in the queue. For each sub-packet, the computing device is programmed to identify a plurality of transmission opportunities. Each transmission opportunity is associated with one of a plurality of networks. The computing device is further programmed to select among the plurality of transmission opportunities and transmit the sub-packet over the network associated with the selected transmission opportunity.
US09985866B1

A Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Software Defined Network (SDN) performs a network task. An NFV management system processes Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to identify the network task and to direct an NFV orchestration system to install a virtual Probe (vProbe) with filter criteria to collect additional KPIs for the network task. The NFV orchestration system directs an NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) to install the vProbe. The vProbe sends the filter criteria to a virtual Switch (vSW) in the NFVI, and the vSW applies the filter criteria to Virtual Network Function (VNF) traffic and transfers the filtered data to the vProbe. The vProbe processes the filtered data to generate the additional KPIs for the NFV management system. The NFV management system processes the additional KPIs to perform the network task.
US09985864B2

There is disclosed a system and method for high precision packet generation in software using a hardware time stamp counter. The method may include receiving user selection to create a network test and receiving test information from the user, the test information including a packet transmission rate. A packet transmission interval may be calculated based on the packet transmission rate. The network test is executed. Packets are transmitted at the packet transmission rate, including checking a hardware counter to learn if the packet transmission interval has elapsed and, when the packet transmission interval has elapsed, sending the packet over a network. The method may be performed by a network testing system or computing device.
US09985861B2

Tracing of networking feature data may be provided for networking features running on network devices such as routers and switches. Examples of this feature tracing include “SGT tracing”, “Access Control Entry (‘ACE’) tracing”, and “Equal Cost Multipath (‘ECMP’) tracing.” In ACE tracing, a network administrator may desire to trace all the ACEs of Access Control Lists (“ACLs”) a particular packet is subject to. In ECMP, tracing information may be collected as to the ECMP links a particular packet is sent through at each of a plurality of network devices.
US09985852B2

Embodiments may implement a new hierarchical data structure for traffic indication mapping to facilitate transmissions for wireless communications devices. Many embodiments comprise MAC sublayer logic to generate and transmit management frames such as beacon frames with a partial virtual bitmap based upon the hierarchical data structure for traffic indication mapping. In some embodiments, the MAC sublayer logic may store the traffic indication map and/or the traffic indication map structure in memory, in logic, or in another manner that facilitates transmission of the frames. Some embodiments may receive, detect, and decode communications with frames comprising the partial virtual bitmap based upon the hierarchical data structure. In some embodiments, indications of buffered data for pages, super-blocks, blocks, sub-blocks, and/or stations may be inverted. In several embodiments, a new association identifier (AID) structure is defined for the new hierarchical data structure for traffic indication mapping.
US09985848B1

Methods and apparatus for notification-based pricing of excess cloud capacity are disclosed. A system includes a resource manager and a plurality of resource instances, each of which has an interruptibility setting. In response to a first acquisition request, the resource manager allocates a first instance with a first interruptibility setting to a first client, allowing the resource manager to revoke the first client's access to the first instance without a notification. In response to an approval of a second acquisition request, the resource manager allocates a second instance with a second interruptibility setting to a second client, allowing the client to retain access to the instance for a delay interval after the second client receives an access revocation notification. Respective billing amounts for the clients' use of the instances are determined based on the interruptibility settings used.
US09985841B2

The present disclosure recites a network address allocation method which including steps: calculating a preset number Npre of the addresses of the network according to a number L of layers of the network; comparing Npre with a maximum number N of the addresses of the network; calculating a maximum available number Cmax of the sub-nodes of each node and a maximum number NA of the network address to be allocated in the network according to the compare result of the Npre and the N; calculating the addresses Cskip(i) of the nodes of the layer i to be allocated according to Cmax and NA, wherein i is in the range of 1˜L; allocating Cskip(i) to each node of the layer i of the network. The present disclosure also provides a Network device for Network address allocation.
US09985838B2

The techniques described are directed to providing mass withdrawal of media access control (MAC) routes for network devices in an Ethernet virtual private network data center interconnect (EVPN DCI). MAC routes to reach the learned MAC addresses are stored in routing tables with corresponding top-of-rack Ethernet segment identifier (TOR-ESI) values that represent the Ethernet segments from where the MAC addresses were learned. A provider edge (PE) network device may configure and advertise a virtual Ethernet segment identifier (vESI) that includes a plurality of TOR-ESI values. As Ethernet segments of the data center become unavailable, the corresponding TOR-ESI values may be withdrawn from the vESI to form an updated vESI. In this way, MAC routes having a TOR-ESI value that was withdrawn from the vESI may be removed from the routing tables in each of the network devices.
US09985833B2

An information processing apparatus detects the presence of specific software on the information processing apparatus utilizing a first detection condition, in which the specific software was judged to be installed on the information processing apparatus in prior detection utilizing the first detection condition, and the first detection condition is generated by any one of a plurality of generating rules on detection conditions for software. If this detection utilizing the first detection condition fails, the information processing apparatus detects the specific software utilizing a second detection condition that is one of a plurality of detection conditions generated by the plurality of generating rules and is different from the first detection condition.
US09985815B2

A signal processing device including a first signal processing chain having a first output signal; a second signal processing chain comprising a second output signal with a higher accuracy than the first output signal; a controller configured to switch, based on a desired accuracy, whether to switch between the first and second signal processing chains as a path for an original input signal; and a modifier configured to modify the original input signal, the first output signal, or the second output signal to generate a modified input, a modified first output, or a modified second output signal when the controller switches between the first and second signal processing chains.
US09985808B2

Aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus and techniques for managing interference across operators. A base station identifies a first region of a first frequency spectrum assigned to a first operator, wherein uplink and downlink subframe configurations for Time Division Duplex (TDD) communications using the first region and a first region of a second frequency spectrum assigned to a second operator are synchronized between the first and second operator. The base station further identifies a second region of the first frequency spectrum, wherein uplink and downlink subframe configurations for TDD communications using the second region and a second region of the second frequency spectrum are not synchronized between the first and second operator. The base station communicates with one or more user equipments using the first and second region of the first frequency spectrum.
US09985797B2

Embodiments herein relate to recognition of an appliance state based on sensor data and determination of a response based at least in part on the appliance state. In various embodiments, an apparatus to recognize an appliance state may include a sensor data module to identify sensor data in one or more signals relating to data from one or more sensors associated with an appliance, an appliance state recognition module to determine an appliance state of the appliance based at least in part on the sensor data, a response module to determine a response based at least in part on the appliance state, and a transmission module to send the response to at least one of an appliance controller for the appliance or a presentation device. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09985793B2

A system for detecting and charging for internet connection provided to a computer device, the computer device configured to detect any internet connection available comprising an internet access adjustment facilitator arranged to receive requests for prepaid internet connection access from the computer device; and capable of facilitating the linking of the computer device to a designated prepaid internet account for purposes of charging; wherein upon detection by the software that the internet connection is a prepaid internet connection, access and caching of any Internet content will be chargeable to a designated prepaid internet account from the at least one prepaid internet account; and upon detecting that the internet connection is any other type of internet connection, the computer device caches any Internet content accessed by the user for synchronization with other computer devices in the system linked to the designated prepaid account.
US09985792B1

The various technologies presented herein relate to binding data (e.g., software) to hardware, wherein the hardware is to utilize the data. The generated binding can be utilized to detect whether at least one of the hardware or the data has been modified between an initial moment (enrollment) and a later moment (authentication). During enrollment, an enrollment value is generated that includes a signature of the data, a first response from a PUF located on the hardware, and a code word. During authentication, a second response from the PUF is utilized to authenticate any of the content in the enrollment value, and based upon the authentication, a determination can be made regarding whether the hardware and/or the data have been modified. If modification is detected then a mitigating operation can be performed, e.g., the hardware is prevented from utilizing the data. If no modification is detected, the data can be utilized.
US09985789B2

A set of redundant industrial control system communications/control modules includes at least a first communications/control module and a second communications/control module. The first and second communications/control modules are configured to perform an authentication sequence including: transmitting a request datagram from the first communications/control module to the second communications/control module, the request datagram including a first nonce, a first device authentication key certificate, and a first identity attribute certificate; transmitting a response datagram from the second communications/control module to the first communications/control module, the response datagram including a second nonce, a first signature associated with the first and second nonces, a second device authentication key certificate, and a second identity attribute certificate; and transmitting an authentication datagram from the first communications/control module to the second communications/control module when the response datagram is valid, the authentication datagram including a second signature associated with the first and second nonces.
US09985777B2

A radio frequency (RF) receiver may comprise a first sampling module that is operable to sample in a first level at a particular main sampling rate; a plurality of second-level sampling modules, wherein each of the plurality of second-level sampling modules is operable to sample in a second level, an output of the first level, at a second sampling rate that is reduced compared to the main sampling rate; and a plurality of third-level modules, each comprising a plurality of third-stage sampling sub-modules that are operable to sample at a third sampling rate that is reduced compared to the second sampling rate, and a plurality of corresponding analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) sub-modules.
US09985772B1

In a simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) communication system, an RF signal splitter couples an antenna to an RF transmitter and to an RF receiver, without using a circulator. An adaptive cancellation RF waveform generator generates an adaptive cancellation RF signal to cancel cross-talk from the RF transmitter to the RF receiver. Training signals are used to characterize signal paths within the STAR system and calculate filter coefficients for generating the adaptive cancellation signal.
US09985771B2

A method of wireless communication includes communicating using a first radio based on a first radio technology; configuring a second radio based on a second radio technology different from the first radio technology to assist the first radio with a first-radio operation; and performing at least a portion of the first-radio operation at the second radio. The first-radio operation includes at least one of multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) page monitoring and page/data processing, higher order diversity data acquisition and processing, interference measurement and management, E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) determination and reporting, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, beacon detection for small cell identification, a minimization of drive test (MDT) measurement, and a speed estimation measurement. The first radio technology is a wireless wide area network (WWAN) technology and the second radio technology is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.
US09985766B2

A virtual gateway software application may comprise a graphical user interface, and be configured to receive immediate command instructions for local connected devices from each of: a user, via the graphical user interface; a remote server on the Internet; and a physical network bridge of at least one of the connected devices via a wireless LAN or a short-range communication protocol. The application may relay the immediate command instructions to one or more of the connected devices via the wireless LAN or the short-range communication protocol while the device on which the application resides is within the particular building environment. It may store delayed command instructions for the local connected devices from each of: the user, via the graphical user interface; and the remote server on the Internet; and relay one or more of the delayed command instructions from the mobile communication device to one or more of the connected devices via the wireless LAN or the short-range protocol.
US09985763B2

The present invention discloses a method for configuring a channel state information reference signal, and a base station. The method includes: obtaining location information of a user equipment; determining, according to the location information, that the user equipment is located in a cross coverage area in which at least two nodes provide service, or in a centralized coverage area in which one node provides service; when it is determined that the user equipment is located in the cross coverage area, determining, according to transmitting capabilities of the at least two nodes and a receiving capability of the user equipment, the number of ports for sending downlink signals to the user equipment; and sending CSI-RS configuration information to the user equipment, where the CSI-RS configuration information includes the number of ports.
US09985762B2

Base stations (such as small cells) may support active and dormant states. To facilitate state transitions, these cells may transmit discovery signals. The transmission design of both discovery signals and network synchronization signals from small cells should provide for regular periodicity, while supporting the benefit of transitioning between active and dormant states. Disclosed is a method, a computer program product, and an apparatus that determine a first reference signal for at least one of discovery or measurement, and a second reference signal for synchronization, where both the first reference signal and the second reference signal are based on a same type of reference signal.
US09985753B2

Provided is a terminal device with which deterioration in hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission performance can be inhibited by continuing a downlink (DL) HARQ process for DL data before and after changing the uplink link-DL configuration. In this device, a decoder stores, in a retransmission buffer, DL data transmitted from a base station, and decodes the DL data, and a wireless transmitter transmits a response signal generated using a DL-data-error detection result. A soft buffer is partitioned into a plurality of regions for each retransmission process on the basis of the highest values among retransmission process numbers respectively stated in a plurality of configuration patterns which can be set in the terminal.
US09985748B2

Disclosed herein is a broadcast signal transmitter. A broadcast signal transmitter according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first BICM unit configured to FEC-encode the data of a core layer, a second BICM unit configured to FEC-encode the enhanced layer data, an LDM injection unit configured to combine the core layer data and the enhanced layer data and to output Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM) data, a time interleaver configured to time-interleave the LDM data, a framing unit configured to generate a signal frame including a preamble for carrying signaling information and the LDM data, and a waveform generation unit configured to generate a broadcast signal by performing OFDM modulation on the signal frame.
US09985747B2

Disclosed is a broadcast signal receiver. The broadcast signal receiver includes a synchronization and demodulation unit configured to perform signal detection and OFDM demodulation on a reception signal comprising layer division multiplexing (LDM) data, a frame parsing/deinterleaving unit configured to parse the signal frame of the reception signal and to deinterleave the LDM data, a first demapping/decoding unit configured to obtain the data of a first layer by demapping and forward error correction (FEC)-encoding the LDM data, an interference removal unit configured to remove the data of the first layer from the LDM data and to output the data of a second layer, and a second demapping/decoding unit configured to demap and FEC-decode the data of the second layer.
US09985738B2

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for interference mitigation of an open-access node. The method includes determining, at the open-access node, whether uplink interference from a mobile entity is above a threshold. The method includes adjusting a transmission power to trigger a hand-in of the mobile entity in response to determining the uplink interference is above the threshold. The method includes handing-in the mobile entity from a first cell in response to adjusting the transmission power. The method includes redirecting the mobile entity to a second cell different from the first cell.
US09985737B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a WAN interface based 1588V2 packet transmission method and apparatus, which relate to the field of communications technologies and can reduce complexity of 1588V2 packet transmission. The method includes: first, inserting, by a sending end, a 1588V2 packet into a payload area of a data frame, and sending, to a receiving end, the data frame carrying the 1588V2 packet; then, receiving, by the receiving end, the data frame that is sent by the sending end and carries the 1588V2 packet, and acquiring a receiving time at which the data frame is received; and finally, performing, by the receiving end, time synchronization adjustment on the receiving time. The embodiments of the present invention are applicable to 1588V2 packet transmission between networks.
US09985735B1

A broadcasting system having a transmitter that broadcasts a one-way signal is provided. The one-way signal is embedded with data that is transmitted to a device that is enabled with near field communication (NFC) technology. The NFC-enabled device may then transfer at least a portion of the transmitted embedded data to another NFC-enabled device by bringing the NFC-enabled devices into close proximity to each other.
US09985723B2

A fiber optic network (10) includes a mobile switching center (MSC) (12) which distributes fiber optic signals to one or more remote cabinets (40, 42, 44). The remote cabinets (40, 42, 44) distribute signals to one or more customers. The cabinets (40, 42, 44) receive service from the MSC (12) or from a temporary service provider, such as a vehicle (500), in the event of a catastrophic failure of the MSC (12). The cabinets (40, 42, 44) include equipment which allows patching to a temporary service provider through a patch panel (200), and sub-racks (154, 156, 158) and supporting cabling (134, 136) to provide service to each of the cabinets in the network.
US09985714B1

In systems and methods for establishing communication between a wireless device and a communication network, one or more sounding signals are received from one or more relay nodes. One or more parameters of beam formation are determined based on the received one or more sounding signals. Formation of one or more beams is initiated from two or more antennas to the one or more relay nodes based on the determined one or more beam formation parameters. The total number of the formed beams and the formation of the beams are adjusted dynamically based on the received sounding signals from the relay nodes.
US09985698B2

A communication device includes an antenna, at least one magnetic field sensor, a communication component, and a controller. The antenna generates a magnetic field and communicates with an external device that generates a magnetic field during communication. The at least one magnetic field sensor includes a pair of sensor elements. The at least one magnetic field sensor detects magnetic field strength by receiving the magnetic field of the antenna and the magnetic field of the external device. The communication component communicates with the external device via the antenna. The controller processes output signal indicative of the magnetic field strength detected by the at least one magnetic field sensor. A component of the magnetic field of the antenna in the output signal is suppressed.
US09985688B2

A method is for processing a channel analog signal coming from a transmission channel. The method may include converting the channel analog signal into a channel digital signal, and detecting a state of the transmission channel based on the channel digital signal to detect whether the transmission channel is, over an interval of time, one or more of linear and time invariant and linear and cyclostationary.
US09985686B2

The method includes organizing a plurality of subscriber lines into a first group of subscriber lines and a second group of subscriber lines, the first group of subscriber lines at least including all the subscriber lines of the plurality of subscriber lines that do not support non-linear precoding operation and the second group of subscriber lines including the remaining subscriber lines of the plurality of subscriber lines; scaling first signals to be transmitted over respective ones of the first group of subscriber lines to confine respective intermediate transmit power levels at the input of a modulo unit and further to bypass or make ineffective the operation of the modulo unit; and processing the so scaled first signals and second signals to be transmitted over respective ones of the second group of subscriber lines through the first and second precoding stages.
US09985679B2

A mobile terminal includes a metal frame including a base portion and an edge portion formed along the outer edge of the base portion, first and second cases bonded to the front and back sides of the metal frame so as to expose the edge portion to the outside, first and second waterproof layers formed between the cases and the metal frame, conductive members that operate a radiator for antennas, together with the edge portion, and are formed on one side of the second case, and feeding portions for feeding the conductive members, the feeding portions being disposed in an enclosed space formed by the waterproof layers.
US09985678B1

The smartphone case has a compartment for a smartphone and also includes a hook which can be moved between a collapsed orientation adjacent to a rear surface of the smartphone case and a deployed orientation. In the deployed orientation, the hook can be placed over a wall or other elevated structure and the smartphone within the case can be suspended below. Alternatively, the smartphone can rest up from an edge thereof placed upon an underlying surface, and the hook positioned to also rest upon the underlying surface. The hook can both pivot and swivel in preferred embodiments, so that it can be positioned optimally to support the smartphone in a desired orientation. An optional second hook can also be provided. The rear surface preferably includes a recess therein to allow at least portions of the hook to be nested within the recess when in the collapsed orientation.
US09985673B2

An amplitude phase parameter calculator in a control unit or circuit in a transmission-reception apparatus calculates an amplitude difference voltage and a phase difference voltage between a transmission detection signal and a reflected detection signal. Adjustment factors including a combination of an amplitude control voltage and a phase control voltage corresponding to a combination of the amplitude difference voltage and the phase difference voltage are discretely stored in an adjustment factor determination table in the control unit. An adjustment factor determiner in the control unit determines the adjustment factors using the combination of the amplitude difference voltage and the phase difference voltage and the adjustment factor determination table. If the adjustment factors do not exist in the adjustment factor determination table, the adjustment factor determiner calculates target adjustment factors using the relationship among the adjustment factors stored in the table, the amplitude difference voltage, and the phase difference voltage.
US09985671B2

A device includes circuitry configured to detect one or more properties of an image signal based on outputs from one or more (analog-to-digital converter) ADC configurations of a transceiver, determine a VCO frequency corresponding to an ADC sampling frequency independently from a carrier frequency, and control the VCO frequency of at least one of a transmitter or receiver based on the one or more properties of the image signal.
US09985666B2

A transmission device includes a first converter, a second converter, a generation component, and a transmitter. The first converter converts a first analog signal, which is a broadcast signal of a specific polarity, into a first digital signal. The second converter converts a second analog signal, which is a broadcast signal whose polarity is different from the specific polarity, into a second digital signal. The generation component generates a third digital signal that includes information of the first and second digital signals. The transmitter transmits the third digital signal generated by the generation component.
US09985665B1

A method, control apparatus, and system for re-establishing a common mode in a transmitter involve switching a driver circuit of the transmitter to a quick charge or quick discharge mode based on an output value of the transmitter. When the output later exceeds a programmable common mode voltage, the driver circuit is switched to a classical margining mode to bring the output back towards the targeted common mode voltage. The modes are switched by adjusting the number of activated pull-up and pull-down segments. More pull-up segments and less pull-down segments are activated in the quick charge mode than the classical margining mode. More pull-down segments and less pull-up segments are activated in the quick discharge mode than the classical margining mode.
US09985663B2

Methods and systems for a multi-band transceiver front-end architecture with reduced insertion loss may comprise, in a transceiver comprising a first plurality of switches (each with a common terminal coupled to a transmit signal path), a second plurality of switches (each with a common terminal coupled to a receive signal path), and a plurality of communications links: operatively coupling the transmit signal path to one of the communications links using one of the first switches when the transceiver is in a transmit mode, and operatively coupling the receive signal path to one of the communications links using one of the second switches when the transceiver is in a receive mode. An off capacitance of at least one of the switches may be reduced utilizing an operatively coupled inductive element. The inductive element may comprise an inductor operatively coupled in series with the transmit signal path.
US09985662B2

Various embodiments disclose systems and methods for employing a Sub1G signal (e.g. a signal in the range of approximately 500 Mhz or 800 mHz) for use with internal and/or external components of various user devices. The Sub1G region may provide a path loss advantage over traditional 2.4 and 5 Ghz systems because of the lower frequency in free-space path loss model. Sub 1G may also present less interference compared to 2.4 GHz (e.g., better QoS for applications such as VOIP, Gaming, etc.). In some of the disclosed embodiments, Sub1G may be employed using current 2.4G or 5G Wireless LAN chipset with RF Up/Down Converters. In some embodiments, the Sub1G approach may be used to create a Long Range Bridge, Long Range Extender, Long Range Client, Long Range Hotspot, etc.
US09985661B1

Techniques for decoding potentially corrupted Reed-Solomon encoded messages are provided. To decode a message, an incoming message is classified into a group based on which symbols of the message have survived (a “survival pattern”). The same inversion matrix may be used for each survival pattern associated with a single group. This reduces the amount of work required and data that is to be stored in order to perform the matrix multiplication that decodes the message.
US09985656B2

Embodiments described herein include a computing system that permits partial writes into a memory element—e.g., a register on a processor. For example, the data to be written into the memory element may be spread across multiple sources. The register may receive data from two different sources at different times and perform two separate partial write commands to store the data. Embodiments herein generate an ECC value for each of the partial writes. That is, when storing the data of the first partial write, the computing system generates a first ECC value for the data in the first partial write and stores this value in the memory element. Later, when performing the second partial write, the computing system generates a second ECC value for this data which is also stored in the memory element.
US09985653B2

At least one example embodiment discloses a method of soft-decision Wu decoding a code. The code is one of a generalized Reed-Solomon type and an alternant type. The method includes obtaining a module of the code. The module is a sub-module of at least a first extension module and a second extension module. The first extension module is defined by a set of first type constraints and the second extension module is defined by a set of second type constraints. The first type constraints are applicable to a first interpolation algorithm and a second interpolation algorithm and the second type constraints are applicable to the first interpolation algorithm. The method further includes determining a basis for the first extension module and converting the basis for the first extension module to a basis for the module.
US09985648B1

The invention introduces a method for accelerating compression, performed in a compression accelerator, including: repeatedly executing a loop for determining the longest matched-length between a first string and a second string. Each iteration of the loop includes: obtaining n successive characters from the first string as a source string, wherein n is greater than 1; comparing each character of the source string with all characters of the second string, so as to generate n first-match-results corresponding to the n successive characters of the source string respectively; generating a second-match-result according to the n first-match-results; and determining whether a continuous match of the n successive characters is presented according to the second-match-result. If so, n is added to the matched length and the next iteration of the loop is continued to execute. Otherwise, a matched length is updated and output and the loop is exited.
US09985646B1

Disclosed are systems and methods for identifying and reporting failures of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Specifically, the systems and methods described herein evaluate quantization noise properties of ADCs, including delta-sigma ADCs and successive approximation register (SAR) ADCs, to verify functionality and/or identify failures. Quantization noise properties can be evaluated in the frequency domain by, for example, comparing RMS values, magnitudes, frequency spectrums, and the like, in various frequency bands to threshold values and/or to verify an expected noise shape. Quantization noise properties can additionally or alternatively be evaluated in the time domain by, for example, comparing counts of pulse widths, average pulse widths, and/or number of transitions within a sequence of pulses to threshold values and/or to similar identifiable characteristics in other pulse width bands.
US09985640B1

The disclosure includes an analog to digital converter (ADC) comprising a successive approximation register (SAR) unit including a capacitive network to take a sample of an analog signal and a comparator to approximate a digital value based on the analog signal sample via successive comparison. The disclosure also includes a programmable sequencer. The sequencer includes a control memory containing control signal states indicating control signals to operate the SAR unit. The sequencer also includes a program memory including sequence instructions defining a duty cycle for the SAR unit by referencing the control signal states in the control memory. The sequencer also includes a processing circuit to apply control signals according to the control signal states in an order defined by the sequence instructions to manage a sequence of operations at the SAR unit according to the duty cycle to control the ADC.
US09985638B2

A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) modulation apparatus and method provides a wideband phase-modulated signal output. An exemplary modulator circuit uses an oscillator in a phase-locked loop. The circuit receives a wrapped-phase input signal, unwraps the wrapped-phase input signal to generate an unwrapped-phase signal, and differentiates the unwrapped-phase signal. The wrapped-phase input signal and the differentiated unwrapped-phase signal are both injected into a feedback loop of the modulator circuit. The feedback loop may include a multi-modulus frequency divider with a frequency divisor that is temporarily incremented or decremented to cancel out abrupt phase jumps associated with the wrapped-phase to unwrapped-phase conversion.
US09985637B2

Described is an apparatus comprising: a first phase frequency detector (PFD) to determine a coarse phase difference between a first clock signal and a second clock signal, the first PFD to generate a first output indicating the coarse phase difference; and a second PFD, coupled to the first PFD, to determine a fine phase difference between the first clock signal and the second clock signal, the second PFD to generate a second output indicating the fine phase difference.
US09985635B2

Systems and methods for configuring circuitry for use with a field programmable gate array (FPGA) are disclosed. The circuitry includes an array of signal processing accelerators (SPAs) and an array of network nodes. The array of SPAs is separate from a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and the array of SPAs is configured to receive input signals from the FPGA. The array of network nodes controllably route the input signals to the array of SPAs.
US09985629B2

A method for locking out a portion of a touch screen interface in response to an inadvertent touch comprises steps to detect multiple touches on the portion of the touch screen interface; determine that the multiple touches are incompatible; initiate a lockout time period in response to the determination and reinitiate the lockout time period in response to a subsequent touch during the lockout time period.
US09985628B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an organic EL module that achieves a reduction in size and thickness, that has a high touch-sensing accuracy, and that is applicable to smart devices, and a smart device equipped with the same. The organic EL module of the present invention includes: an organic EL panel having a connecting electrode; and an electrical connecting unit laminated on the organic EL panel, wherein the electrical connecting unit has a flexible substrate and a capacitive sensing circuit provided on the flexible substrate and having a land, the electrical connecting unit is provided on a light-emitting surface side of the organic EL panel, the electrical connecting unit has a light-permeable part and a bent part formed by making two or more cuts in at least one side of the light-permeable part, and the land constituting the sensing circuit and the connecting electrode of the organic EL panel are electrically connected to each other at the bent part.
US09985623B2

Provided is a pulse area modulation apparatus including: a register configured to receive and store PCM data having n+m bits per a sample; an amplitude shaping unit configured to shape an amplitude of an output pulse to correspond to the n bits; a duration forming unit configured to form duration of the output pulse to correspond to the m bits; and a charge accumulation means providing an output pulse, wherein a pulse area of the output pulse defined by the amplitude and the duration is modulated according to the sample.
US09985616B2

Embodiments relate to programmable delay circuit. An aspect includes a first stage comprising a first hybrid fin field effect transistor (finFET) comprising a first gate corresponding to a first control FET, and a second gate corresponding to a first default FET, and a first plurality of fins, wherein the first gate and the second gate of the first stage each partially control a first shared fin of the first plurality of fins. Another aspect includes a second stage connected in series with the first stage, the second stage comprising a second hybrid finFET comprising a first gate corresponding to a second control FET, and a second gate corresponding to a second default FET, and a second plurality of fins, wherein the first gate and the second gate of the second stage each partially control a second shared fin of the second plurality of fins.
US09985606B2

An acoustic wave filter includes: series resonators connected in series between input and output terminals; and lines connected in parallel to the series resonators, wherein at least one of the lines includes: a first resonator including a piezoelectric substance, and first lower and upper electrodes sandwiching the piezoelectric substance in a c-axis orientation direction of the piezoelectric substance; a second resonator that is connected in series to the first resonator, and includes another piezoelectric substance, and second lower and upper electrodes sandwiching the another piezoelectric substance so that one of the second lower and upper electrodes in the c-axis orientation direction have an electric potential equal to that of one of the first lower and upper electrodes in the c-axis orientation direction; and a capacitor connected in parallel to one of the first and second resonators and not connected in parallel to another one of the first and second resonators.
US09985593B2

A switch-mode RFPA driver includes first and second field-effect transistors (FETs) arranged in a totem-pole-like configuration. The switch-mode RFPA driver operates to generate a switch-mode RFPA drive signal having a generally square-wave-like waveform from an input RF signal having a generally sinusoidal-like waveform. According to one embodiment of the invention, to maximize high-frequency operation and avoid distorting the switch-mode RFPA drive signal, the switch-mode RFPA driver is designed so that its output can be connected directly to the input of the switch-mode RFPA to be driven, i.e., without using or requiring the use of an AC coupling capacitor. The first and second FETs of the switch-mode RFPA driver are designed and configured to limit and control the upper and lower magnitude levels of the switch-mode RFPA drive signal to levels suitable for switching the switch-mode RFPA directly, obviating any need for DC biasing at the input of the switch-mode RFPA.
US09985591B2

A power amplification device includes a power amplifier core stage and a power amplifier driver stage. The power amplifier driver stage receives a radio frequency signal to be amplified by the power amplification device. The power amplifier driver stage includes a first source follower input transistor and a first current source transistor. A source of the first source follower input transistor is coupled to a drain of the first current source transistor. The source of the first source follower input transistor is directly coupled to the power amplifier core stage to drive the power amplifier core stage. An input match and passive voltage gain device is coupled to the power amplifier driver stage to generate a voltage gain at an input of the power amplifier driver stage. A first bias source is configured to generate a first bias signal to bias the power amplifier driver stage.
US09985583B2

The performance of photosensitive devices over time may be tested by configuring a photosensitive device test system that includes a light source plate that exposes photosensitive devices within a container to a specified light intensity. The light intensity may be adjusted by a programmable power source according to one or more thresholds. A test may last for a set duration with performance measurements being taken at predetermined intervals throughout the duration. Feedback from the photosensitive device test system may be recorded to determine whether to increase light intensity, to stop testing, to continue testing, and whether one or more environmental conditions should be altered. Measurements may be sent to a client for analysis and display to a user.
US09985579B2

A mounting assembly for mounting a solar panel to a surface includes a mounting base. The mounting base supports a fastener. A module mount has a module mount sidewall supporting the fastener. The module mount is movable with respect to the fastener when the fastener is received through the module mount opening. A first distance between a bottom surface of the module mount and a top surface of the mounting base is adjustable. A mounting clamp has a mounting clamp sidewall defining a mounting clamp opening through which the fastener is received. The mounting clamp is movable with respect to the fastener when the fastener is received through the mounting clamp opening such that a second distance between a bottom surface of the mounting clamp and a top surface of the module mount is adjustable. The solar panel is mounted between the mounting clamp and the module mount.
US09985578B2

A system for connecting a photovoltaic mounting rail onto a mounting post using a connection system with a pair of interlocking grasps having interdigitated fingers that can be locked into the mounting rail when moved by a fastening system.
US09985577B2

In various representative aspects, an assembly for securing array skirts and solar panel modules in an array on a roof by utilizing semi-rigid and resilient spring tabs as locking mechanisms that both secure the solar panel modules to mounting plates and splices as well as provide a grounding path between the solar panel modules and the entire array. A method of installation of the assembly is also provided.
US09985575B2

A roof mount system supports a solar panel above a roof and includes a base positioned on the roof and a first fastener connected to the base and extending away from the roof and moveable along the base in a direction generally parallel to the roof. A first clamp supports a bottom surface of a solar panel frame and adjusts the height of the solar panel above the roof by moving the first clamp along a first fastener in a direction perpendicular to the roof. A second clamp is connected to a second fastener and moves with respect to the first clamp perpendicular to the roof. The solar panel is clamped between the first clamp and the second clamp portion. A protrusion extends from the first or second clamp to form an electrical bond between the solar panel frame and the respective first or second clamp.
US09985574B2

A method and apparatus for mounting a solar collector panel by itself or supported within a frame, to a surface comprising: a strap assembly, a first attachment device attached to and between the panel or frame and the strap assembly; and a second attachment means for attaching the strap assembly to the surface. The strap assembly comprises a plurality of straps attached end to end. The first attachment device could be a bolt, a screw, adhesive, etc. Alternatively, there could be a support between the panel or frame and the strap assembly. The second attachment means may be: a nail, a spike, adhesive, bolting to a stud attached to the surface, welding, ballast, adhesive tape or combinations of these.
US09985569B2

A three-phase rotating machine controller includes electric power converters that output, to the winding sets of a three-phase rotating machine, alternating currents having a same amplitude and a phase difference of (30 ±60*n) degrees from each other, n being an integer, and a control unit that reduces a peak of a phase current 1st order component applied to the rotating machine by superimposing therewith a phase current 5th order component and a phase current 7th order component, which have 5 times and 7 times the frequency of the phase current 1st order component, respectively. The control unit superimposes the phase current 5th and 7th order components having an optimum combination of amplitudes such that a peak reduction amount of the phase current 1st order component exceeds 5%, the amplitudes of the phase current 5th and 7th order components being with respect to the amplitude of the phase current 1st order component.
US09985563B2

Angular speed of a rotor of an induction motor without an encoder for rotor position and speed sensing is controlled by first sensing stator currents and voltages of the induction motor. A dynamic gain estimator is designed by applying a state transformation to a model of the induction motor. A states of the induction motor is estimated by applying the dynamic gain estimator to the currents and the voltages, and then the state is used to control the angular speed of the rotor of the induction motor.
US09985562B1

A synchronous generator may comprise a rotor and a stator. The stator may comprise a first armature winding configured to output a first three-phase voltage, a second armature winding configured to output a second three-phase voltage, and a first variable inductor, wherein the first variable inductor is tunable in response to a rotational frequency of the rotor.
US09985558B2

An electrical serially-connected control system for driving motors in series includes a control device, at least one processing device, and a transmission medium connected between the two devices for mutual communication. The control device includes a power rectifier transforming an external power, a signal converter converting each external command signal, and an integration unit connected to the rectifier and the converter for integrating the transformed power with each converted command signal to create commands. The processing device includes a voltage regulator connected to the transmission medium for stabilizing the power come from the command, a power storage module connected to the voltage regulator and each motor, a signal filter connected to the transmission medium for processing the command signal come from the command, a controller connected with the voltage regulator, the power storage module and the signal filter, and a signal generator connected to the controller.
US09985549B2

A DC-DC converter includes a first switch connected between an input node and a switching node, a second switch connected between a reference node and the switching node, a capacitor having a first terminal connected to one of the input node and the reference node, a transformer including a primary coil connected between the switching node and a second terminal of the capacitor, and a secondary coil, a rectification smoothing circuit that rectifies and smooths a voltage of the secondary coil, and a drive circuit. The drive circuit alternately turns on the first and second switches, such that a dead time during which both the first and second switches are turned off has a length corresponding to a time period during which a voltage of the switching node is transitioning from a low state to a high state or the high state to the low state.
US09985545B2

A DC-to-DC converter includes a first switching circuit, a second switching circuit, a transformer positioned between an AC side of the first switching circuit and an AC side of the second switching circuit, an inductance element positioned between the transformer and at least one of the AC side of the first switching circuit and the AC side of the second switching circuit, and control circuitry that operates the first switching circuit and the second switching circuit. The control circuitry sets a predetermined operation ratio of the first switching circuit and the second switching circuit to each other, and adjusts, based on the predetermined operation ratio, a first operation period of the first switching circuit and a second operation period of the second switching circuit.
US09985541B2

A feed forward controlling circuit is used to perform a feed forward controlling method to restrain ripple of the output voltage in a power converter. The power converter is controlled by a control signal outputted from an output terminal of a controller. The method includes steps of: receiving an output voltage from an output terminal of a voltage converter; attenuating the output voltage to generate an electrical signal; acquiring a DC signal from the electrical signal; and obtaining a ripple compensation signal in accordance with the electrical signal and the DC signal to output to an output terminal of a controller. The output terminal of the controller outputs a control signal to control the power converter.
US09985538B2

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a switch mode power supply may include a transformer, a controller configured to generate a periodic switching signal, a switching transistor coupled between a sense node and the transformer, primarily configured to prevent or permit current flow in the transformer primary winding in accordance with the switching signal, a sense resistor coupled to the switching transistor at a sense node, and a limit circuit configured to obtain a voltage of the sense node at a particular point of the switching period as an indicator of the primary winding current, detect a duration of a demagnetizing interval, and generate a limit signal, based on the sense node voltage and the demagnetizing interval, indicating a power supply output current exceeding a limit threshold.
US09985536B2

A first switch and a second switch connected in series to both terminals of a DC power source. A signal generation circuit generates a feedback signal based on the DC voltage detected by the voltage detection circuit, and outputs the feedback signal, the feedback signal for turning the first and second switches on and off. A burst oscillation circuit that generates a burst oscillation signal based on a feedback signal and turns the first switch element and the second switch element on and off based on the burst oscillation signal when the standby state is detected. The burst oscillation circuit comprises a capacitor and a rapid charge circuit. When this device returns from standby state to normal state, the rapid charging circuit charges the capacitor after the feedback signal exceeds the cancellation threshold voltage.
US09985528B2

In one form, an apparatus comprises a buck-boost converter circuit, a ripple emulator circuit, a ripple based controller circuit, and a switch control circuit. The buck-boost converter circuit includes a plurality of switches to be coupled to an inductor, and is configured to generate a regulated output voltage responsive to an input voltage. The ripple emulator circuit is configured to emulate inductor current ripple for a buck phase and a boost phase of the buck-boost converter to provide an emulated inductor current ripple. The ripple based controller circuit is configured to generate a hysteretic control signal responsive to the emulated inductor current ripple and the output voltage. The switch control circuit is configured to generate control signals for driving the plurality of switches responsive to the hysteretic control signal and a clock signal.
US09985523B2

A DC-DC converter includes first and second converters. The first converter generates a first power voltage based on a power voltage from an input terminal, and outputs the first power voltage to a first output terminal. The second converter generates a second power voltage based on the input power voltage, and outputs the second power voltage to a second output terminal. The second converter includes a plurality of inverting converters and a controller. The inverting converters generate a check current to check a connection state of an inductor when the inductor is connected. The second power voltage is generated by converting the input power voltage in response to a PWM signal. The controller generates a driving control signal based on the check current to operate a predetermined number of the inverting converters connected to the inductor, and to control the inverting converters based on the driving control signal.
US09985522B1

A method and system are provided for digitally controlling a switch mode power supply without using analog-to-digital converters by providing an SMPS output in feedback to first and second comparators along with upper and lower reference voltage thresholds to detect excursion counts at dedicated counters which identify how many times an SMPS output voltage exceeds the upper and lower reference voltage thresholds during each cycle of a fixed frequency PWM signal, where the excursion counts are evaluated with a non-linear multi-step digital control loop detection sequence to generate duty cycle adjustment instructions for controlling each duty cycle of the fixed frequency PWM signal.
US09985520B2

A conventional single-ended, primary-inductance converter (SEPIC) has its switching frequency determined by a controller, which determines the duty cycle at which the switch operates by measuring differences between the SEPIC output voltage and a reference voltage. A controller is coupled to a switch of the SEPIC and provides a pulse train which determines the duty cycle and frequency at which the switch operates. The duty cycle is selectable between first and second percentages, the frequency is selectable between first and second frequencies, and the duty cycle and frequency are selected by the controller responsive to a voltage at an input voltage terminal of the SEPIC. Output voltage overshoot and undershoot are reduced.
US09985514B2

A damper includes a resonant circuit, a damping capacitor unit and a switching circuit. A damping inductor unit of the resonant circuit receives alternating current (AC) electrical energy. A resonant capacitor of the resonant circuit is connected to the damping inductor unit. The switching circuit is connected to the resonant capacitor, the damping inductor unit, and the damping capacitor unit. The switching circuit establishes, when operating in a first phase, a connection between the damping inductor unit and resonant capacitor to store the AC electrical energy in the resonant circuit, and allows, when operating in a second phase, the AC electrical energy to be transferred to and stored in the clamping capacitor unit.
US09985513B2

A magnetic transmission apparatus is disclosed, wherein the magnetic transmission apparatus includes a still part (4), a first rotating shaft (81), a second rotating shaft (82), a first rotating part (1), a second rotating part (2), and a third rotating part (3); the first rotating part (1) is rigidly connected with the first rotating shaft (81); the second rotating part (2), the third rotating part (3) are fixed on the second rotating shaft (82); the first rotating part (1), the second rotating part (2), and the third rotating part (3) are successively distributed along an axial direction; the still part (4) includes a magnetic regulation seat (41) and a magnetic regulation ring (42); the second rotating part (2) is located inside the magnetic regulation ring (42); the first rotating part (1) includes a first iron core (11), a first permanent magnet (12), and a first support part (811); the second rotating part (2) includes a second iron core (21), and a second permanent magnet (22); the third rotating part (3) includes a third iron core (31), a third permanent magnet (32), and a second support part (821); the first iron core (11), the first permanent magnet (12), the magnetic regulation ring (42), the third permanent magnet (32) and the third iron core (31) are successively distributed along the axial direction. The first permanent magnet (12) and the third permanent magnet (32) are magnetized alternately and axially; the second permanent magnet (22) is magnetized alternately radially. The magnetic transmission apparatus has an axially and radially mixed magnetic circuit and can take full advantage of the magnetic modulation space and improve the torque density.
US09985511B2

A linear actuator for linearly positioning a recording head in a data storage mechanism. The disclosed linear actuator includes an electrically conductive coil having first and second parts that are both wound in the same rotary direction about an axis, and a magnet spaced from the electrically conductive coil by an air gap. Transmission of an electric current through the first part of the electrically conductive coil in a first current flow direction about the axis and through the second part of the electrically conductive coil in an opposite second current flow direction about the axis induces linear movement of one of the electrically conductive coil and magnet relative to the other of the electrically conductive coil and magnet.
US09985506B2

In a method for manufacturing an interior permanent magnet rotor unit, a radial magnetizing part including high magnetic permeability portions and low magnetic permeability portions face a core, and a magnetic field of axial magnetizing parts is applied to the radial magnetizing part in an axial direction of the radial magnetizing part. This causes the magnetic field to enter the core via the radial magnetizing part and cross magnet materials filling insertion holes of the core.
US09985504B2

A primary strut, which extends integrally from a heat sink main body, supports a circuit board at a location between a connector terminal and one of a switching device or a drive wiring. A secondary strut, which extends integrally from the heat sink main body, supports the circuit board at a location that is on an opposite side of the switching device and the drive wiring, which is opposite from the connector terminal. A temperature sensor is installed to the circuit board at a location, which is spaced from the primary strut, the switching device and the drive wiring, and at which the temperature sensor senses a temperature of the secondary strut. A control device limits an electric current supplied to the switching device upon estimating a temperature of the switching device while using the temperature, which is sensed with the temperature sensor, as a reference temperature.
US09985503B2

A motor unit is provided which shortens an information transmission path between a detector and an arithmetic board. The motor unit includes a motor and a motor controller controlling a rotating operation of the motor based on a rotating angle of the motor such that the motor and the motor controller form a unit. The motor controller includes a resolver detecting a voltage signal corresponding to the rotating operation of the motor. The resolver outputs the voltage signal corresponding to the rotating operation of the motor, to a control board. The resolver is interposed between the motor and the control board and detects a rotating angle of a shaft end of a motor shaft extending beyond an operation performing apparatus that performs an operation of supplying driving power to the motor, to a position closer to the control board.
US09985499B2

A generator unit is provided for attachment to an agricultural work vehicle with a gear module and a generator module. The gear for the driving of the generator module is connected in a drive system with the generator module, and the gear module and the generator module are hydraulically connected with one another via an integrated cooling and lubricating agent circuit.
US09985494B2

A fluid circulating assembly includes an electrical machine having a rotor assembly, a stator assembly, and a housing. The housing includes an annular center section and at least two extension portions extending radially outward from the annular center section of the housing. The fluid circulating assembly also includes a controller assembly coupled to the housing. The said controller assembly is positioned radially outward from the stator assembly and located in at least one of the at least two extension portions.
US09985492B2

A stator for an electrodynamic machine, in particular an electric motor, contains a stator packet with a first stator end and a second stator end. Furthermore, the stator assembly contains at least one web insulation with at least one winding support element to accommodate a stator coil. A heat conductive support device with at least one support element is provided, whereby the support element is at least partially disposed in the winding support element.
US09985488B2

An electromagnet comprises a plurality of nested freestanding electrically insulating former layers, and electrically conductive wire wrapped around the outsides of the freestanding electrically insulating former layers to define a multilayer electrical coil in which adjacent layers of the multilayer electrical coil are spaced apart by intervening freestanding electrically insulating former layers. Electrically energizing the multilayer electrical coil generates a magnetic field inside the multilayer electrical coil. In some embodiments the electrically conductive wire is bare wire not having electrical insulation. In some embodiments the former layers comprise a ceramic material. In some such embodiments the electromagnet further comprises a ferromagnetic core disposed inside the multilayer electrical coil. An electric motor employing such an electromagnet as a stator pole is also disclosed. Control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) and coolant pump embodiments are also disclosed employing such a motor, for use in a nuclear reactor.
US09985485B2

A number of variations may include a product comprising a magnet holder for a rotor lamination comprising: a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion, wherein the first and second portions are linear and constructed and arranged to hold a magnet and wherein the third portion extends outward from approximately a center location between the first and the second portions, and wherein the third portion is constructed and arranged to carry a load from a centrifugal force of the magnet.
US09985474B2

Disclosed are a display apparatus and a power supplying method thereof. The display apparatus includes: a backlight driver configured to drive a backlight to emit light; a main power supply configured to detect connection of the backlight to the backlight driver and supply a voltage to the backlight driver in response to a control voltage; and a standby power supply configured to supply the control voltage to the main power supply, in response to determining the connection of the backlight to the backlight driver.
US09985469B2

A display apparatus and a controlling method thereof are provided. The display apparatus includes a power supply configured to supply power to the display apparatus using one of a battery or AC power and a controller configured to, in response to a mode of the display apparatus being a standby mode, control the power supply to supply power to standby power to the display apparatus using the battery. The display apparatus may reduce power consumption in a standby mode by half.
US09985466B2

Disclosed is an optimized battery charging method based on thermodynamic information of a battery. Thermodynamic information on a material structure of a battery, for instance, entropy of the battery is extracted. Boundary points at which state transitions of the battery material are determined using the thermodynamic information extracted. Phases of the battery are identified based on the boundary points determined. The most appropriate charging patterns adapted to each of the phases identified are determined. A charging algorithm for charging the battery can be constructed by combining the most appropriate charging patterns determined. This charging algorithm is applied to the charging of the battery.
US09985465B1

Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a system, which comprises a multi point power charger. The multi point power charger is coupleable to an electrical energy source. The multi point power charger constructed to emit a plurality of directional beams. Each of the plurality of directional beams is directable toward a determined direction of an electronic device that is chargeable via the multi point power charger.
US09985464B2

An object is to provide a power storage device provided with a battery that is a power storage means, for safe and accurate supply of electric power in a short period of time for drive power supply voltage without checking remaining capacity of the battery or changing batteries with deterioration over time of the battery for drive power supply voltage. The power storage device is provided with a battery that is a power storage means as a power supply for supplying electric power and a counter circuit for counting charging time of the power storage means. An electromagnetic wave with electric field intensity, magnetic field intensity, and power flux density per unit time which are transmitted from a power feeder are controlled, and the power storage means is efficiently charged using the electromagnetic wave in a short period of time.
US09985456B2

A controller is to control a discharger to provide power from an energy storage to an electrical device during a period when the electrical device is to require a power maximum. The controller is to control the charger to provide power from a power supply to the energy storage during a period when the electrical device is to require a power minimum. The electrical device is to be powered by a power supply.
US09985446B2

To restrain deterioration of fuel cells while preventing a battery from being overcharged, a fuel cell vehicle includes a motor for providing torque to wheels, a battery for storing electric power to provide the stored electric power to the motor, and a FC stack for generating electric power to provide the generated electric power to the motor and the battery. A battery charge level determining module determines a battery charge level of the battery, and a FET is configured to connect or disconnect the FC stack to the motor and the battery. A controller is configured to cause the FET to disconnect the FC stack from the motor and the battery and allow power generation by the FC stack when the determined battery charge level by the battery charge level determining module is greater than or equal to a first predetermined threshold.
US09985445B2

To suppress an increase in the number of components in a charging/discharging control device and a battery apparatus which perform charging/discharging of a plurality of secondary batteries connected in series. A first charging/discharging control circuit receives an overdischarge signal generated based on the turning OFF of a discharging control switch therein and generates a power-down signal, based on the overdischarge signal to power-down a first battery voltage monitoring circuit. A second charging/discharging control circuit receives the power-down signal therein and power-down a second battery voltage monitoring circuit, based on the power-down signal.
US09985442B2

An apparatus for wirelessly receiving power via a wireless field generated by a transmitter includes a resonator configured to generate electrical current to power or charge a load based on a voltage induced in the resonator in response to the wireless field, a first variable capacitor electrically coupled to the resonator and configured to adjust a first capacitance of the first variable capacitor responsive to a first control signal, a second variable capacitor electrically coupled to the resonator and configured to adjust a second capacitance of the second variable capacitor responsive to a second control signal, and a control circuit configured to adjust and apply the first control signal and the second control signal to the first variable capacitor and the second variable capacitor, respectively, to adjust a resonant frequency of the resonator and a voltage output to the load based on an electrical characteristic indicative of a level of power output to the load.
US09985431B2

Embodiments are directed to a current limiter having an inrush limiting stage and a discharge limiting stage. The inrush limiting stage is communicatively coupled in series with the discharge limiting stage. The inrush limiting stage is configured to receive a first input current in a first direction, perform an inrush limiting operation on the first input current and pass an inrush limited output current in the first direction to the discharge limiting stage. The discharge limiting stage is configured to pass the inrush limited output current substantially unchanged in the first direction. The discharge limiting stage is further configured to receive a second input current in a second direction, perform a discharge limiting operation on the second input current and pass a discharge limited output current in the second direction to the inrush limiting stage. The inrush limiting stage is further configured to pass the discharge limited output current substantially unchanged in the second direction.
US09985426B2

An apparatus includes an electrically conductive coil which produces a magnetic field when an electrical current passes therethrough; a selectively activated persistent current switch connected across the electrically conductive coil; a cryostat having the electrically conductive coil and the persistent current switch disposed therein; an energy dump; at least one sensor which detects an operating parameter of the apparatus and outputs at least one sensor signal in response thereto; and a magnet controller. The magnet controller receives the sensor signal(s) and in response thereto detects whether an operating fault (e.g. a power loss to the compressor of a cryocooler) exists in the apparatus, and when an operating fault is detected, connects the energy dump unit across the electrically conductive coil to transfer energy from the electrically conductive coil to the energy dump unit. The energy dump unit disperses the energy outside of the cryostat.
US09985425B2

A multilayered heat-recoverable article according to the present invention includes a cylindrical base material layer and an adhesive layer disposed on an inner peripheral surface of the base material layer, in which the base material layer contains a polyethylene and an oxidation inhibitor, the adhesive layer contains an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer and an oxidation inhibitor, the oxidation induction temperature of the base material layer is 255° C. to 270° C., and the oxidation induction temperature of the adhesive layer is 255° C. or higher.
US09985423B2

An objective is to achieve a configuration for mounting a wire harness in a vehicle to protect the wire harness and regulate a path in a simpler manner with fewer components. A wire harness has a wire harness main body including at least one wire, and a protection member protecting the wire harness main body. The protection member includes an inner peripheral protection portion formed by hot-pressing a nonwoven member in a state of covering at least a portion of the wire harness main body and an outer peripheral protection portion formed by hot-pressing a nonwoven member in a state of covering at least a portion of the inner peripheral protection portion in an extending direction.
US09985417B1

Gallium and nitrogen containing optical devices operable as laser diodes are disclosed. The devices include a gallium and nitrogen containing substrate member, which may be semipolar or non-polar. The devices include a chip formed from the gallium and nitrogen substrate member. The chip has a width and a length. The devices have a cavity oriented substantially parallel to the length of the chip, a dimension of less than 120 microns characterizing the width of the chip, and a pair of etched facets configured on the cavity of the chip. The pair of etched facets includes a first facet configured at a first end of the cavity and a second facet configured at a second end of the cavity.
US09985416B2

A semiconductor light emitter device, comprising a substrate, an active layer made of Germanium, which is configured to emit light under application of an operating voltage to the semiconductor light emitter device, wherein a gap is arranged on the substrate, which extends between two bridgeposts laterally spaced from each other, the active layer is arranged on the bridgeposts and bridges the gap, and wherein the semiconductor light emitter device comprises a stressor layer, which induces a tensile strain in the active layer above the gap.
US09985409B2

A calculation part calculates a maximum temperature reached which is reached by the coolant or component of each part, in the case of machining in accordance with laser machining conditions that were inputted or set, based on the cooling capacity of a chiller, tank volume of the chiller, heat generation amount from the laser oscillator, heat capacity of a cooled part of the laser device, etc. which are recorded in a recording part, and the temperature of each part measured by temperature detection parts, etc. In the case that the maximum temperature reached would exceed the allowed maximum temperature, a warning is made prior to starting laser machining.
US09985400B2

An electrical junction box includes an electrical junction box main body having a mount portion and a separate attachment body removably attached to the mount portion, a pair of connectors are respectively provided on opposing surfaces of the mount portion and the attachment body are connected to each other, and a vibration suppressing member is between the opposing surfaces, the vibration suppressing member suppressing vibration of the attachment body by exerting a frictional force on the opposing surfaces.
US09985392B2

An electrical connector has an insulating body which comprises a housing and a tongue; a plurality of conductive terminals, each conductive terminal has a mating portion and a soldering portion; a metal inner shell which surrounds to form a first frame, the first frame is fixed on the insulating body and surrounds a rear portion of the tongue to form a mating cavity; a metal outer shell which surrounds to form a second frame, the second frame encircles an outside of the first frame, a plurality of soldering legs extend out from two sides of the metal outer shell; and an insulating outer shell which is engaged with the metal outer shell integrally, a rear portion of the insulating outer shell is formed with a receiving cavity; the metal inner shell is correspondingly inserted in the receiving cavity, the insulating outer shell surrounds a front portion of the tongue and forms an insertion opening, the insertion opening is integrally communicated with the mating cavity along a front-rear direction. The present disclosure can increase the overall structure strength and facilitate the smooth insertion of another mating connector.
US09985372B2

A terminal pin for electrically connecting a conductor support, wherein the terminal pin is provided for the bonded connection to a conducting surface of the conductor support, is formed from a biocompatible non-noble metal, has a section at or near one end that is thickened relative to a section located further from the end, and at least one part of the surface of the thickened section has a soft-solderable coating of a noble metal.
US09985369B1

A mechanism to mitigate assembly torsion on an electronics assembly is provided. The mechanism including an electronics assembly and a first connector, mounted to the electronics assembly with a lower portion of the first connector proximal to the electronics assembly and an upper portion of the first connector distal to the electronics assembly. The mechanism includes a spring, mounted so as to press the upper portion of the first connector and preload the first connector against assembly force imparted by assembly of the first connector to a second connector. A method to mitigate assembly torsion on an electronics assembly is also provided.
US09985367B2

A cable bypass assembly is disclosed for use in providing a high frequency transmission line that connect a chip package on a circuit board to connector spaced apart from the chip package. The bypass cable assembly has a structure that allows for low loss between the chip package and the connector. Multiple cables can be used to provide a number of differentially coupled channels.
US09985366B2

A connector is provided which includes a main body, terminals mounted in the body, and a reinforcing metal fitting mounted in the body. The fitting includes a body secured to the mating guide portion, a pair of left and right connecting arm portions connected to the base end of the body, and a pair of left and right contact arm portions connected to the base end of the connecting arm portions. The fitting further includes a first connecting leg portion connected to a connecting pad on a board being connected at the upper end of the first connecting leg portion to the lower end or base end of each contact arm portion so as to have a substantially L-shaped profile when viewed from a side of the connector.
US09985365B2

A connector is disclosed. The connector comprises a case having a top case and a bottom case and a partition plate disposed between the top case and the bottom case separating an inside space of the case into a plurality of receiving chambers. The bottom case has a first slot. The partition plate has a first side edge facing the bottom case and a first elastic hook formed on the first side edge. The first elastic hook is inserted into and elastically engages the first slot to connect the partition plate to the bottom case.
US09985361B2

Bonding clamps used to assembly photovoltaic (PV) arrays and provide an electrical bond between PV module frames forming part of the PV arrays is provided. The bonding clamp includes an electrically conductive body, at least one electrical bonding member extending from the body, and at least one pressure member extending from the body. The bonding clamp may also include one or more spacers to provide a uniform spacing between PV module frames.
US09985354B2

An array apparatus includes a plurality of spaced apart dielectric resonators, and a plurality of spaced apart signal lines disposed in one-to-one relationship with respective ones of the plurality of resonators. Each one of the respective ones of the plurality of signal lines is disposed in off-axis electrical signal communication with a first portion of the respective ones of the plurality of resonators.
US09985340B2

A body sensor, a system including the body sensor and a method of transmitting a biosignal are provided. A wearable body sensor includes a conductive electrode configured to conduct a biosignal from a body, a main board comprising a radio frequency (RF) communication circuit to generate an RF signal based on the biosignal, and an antenna disposed on the RF communication circuit to radiate the RF signal.
US09985330B2

A radio frequency filter with a cavity structure is provided. The radio frequency filter includes a housing having an inner hollow portion to have a cavity and open from one side of the housing, a cover sealing the open side of the housing, and a resonant element disposed inside the hollow housing. A through hole is formed at a part of the cover, corresponding to the resonant element, and a tuning element is installed covering the through hole, for frequency tuning. The tuning element is formed of a material having a different thermal expansion coefficient from a thermal expansion coefficient of a material of the cover.
US09985327B2

An air secondary battery has a positive electrode to which an oxygen-containing gas is supplied, a negative electrode containing a metal active material, and an electrolytic solution through which a metal ion generated from the metal active material is transported. The positive electrode contains a composite containing a matrix and a zeolite disposed in the matrix. The matrix is in the form of a porous body which the electrolytic solution permeates. In the matrix, the zeolite has an oxygen-containing gas passage through which only the oxygen-containing gas can flow.
US09985322B2

A battery clamping device includes: interposition member configured to be interposed between rectangular parallelepiped batteries such that interposition member is stacked with a plurality of the batteries alternately; clamping portion configured to clamp by pressing the stacked batteries and interposition member in a stacking direction of the batteries and the interposition member from outside in the stacking direction.
US09985314B2

A method is provided for preparing an all-solid battery that at least includes a negative electrode layer containing a negative electrode active material and a sulfide solid electrolyte, and a negative electrode current collector containing a metal that is in contact with the negative electrode layer and can react with the sulfide solid electrolyte, in which a sulfur compound generated by a reaction of the metal contained in the negative electrode current collector and the sulfide solid electrolyte contained in the negative electrode layer is not present in a contact portion of the negative electrode layer and the negative electrode current collector.
US09985313B2

A lithium ion battery having an anode, a solid electrolyte, and a cathode. The cathode includes an electrode active material, a first lithium salt, and a polymer material. The solid electrolyte can include a second lithium salt. The solid electrolyte can include a ceramic material, a lithium salt, and a polymer material.
US09985309B2

The present invention aims to provide a hydrocarbon-based polymer electrolyte which is excellent in processability and proton conductivity, especially proton conductivity at low water content, and a membrane thereof. The polymer electrolyte contains, in its main chain, a repeating unit represented by the following formula (1): wherein Ar represents a benzene or naphthalene ring, or a derivative thereof in which one or more of the ring-forming carbon atoms is replaced by a hetero atom; X represents a proton or a cation; a and b are each an integer of 0 to 4, and the sum of a's and b's is 1 or greater; m represents an integer of 1 or greater; and n represents an integer of 0 or greater.
US09985307B2

A fuel treatment device (2) converts a hydrocarbon-containing fuel into a fuel for a fuel cell (3). The fuel treatment device (2) has for this purpose a mixture formation space (7) for forming and processing a mixture of fuel and another component, a reformer (8) for converting the mixture into a synthesis gas and a desulfurization stage (9) for removing sulfur from the synthesis gas or from the mixture. The reformer (8) and desulfurization stage (9) are arranged adjacent to each other in a housing (10) along an axis of the housing (10).
US09985304B2

The invention relates to a method for stopping a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel-cell stack and to a system containing a fuel-cell stack implementing such a method. The system comprises a gas circuit and a stack of electrochemical cells forming a fuel-cell stack comprising a polymer ion exchange membrane, said circuit comprising: a fuel-gas supply circuit (11) connecting a fuel-gas tank to the anode of the fuel-cell stack; and an oxidant-gas supply circuit (12b) connecting an oxidant-gas tank, or atmospheric air, to the cathode of the fuel-cell stack; characterized in that the system furthermore comprises means able to completely eliminate hydrogen present at the anode of the fuel-cell stack.
US09985302B2

A fuel cell system includes a hydro-desulfurizer that removes sulfur compounds in power generation material, a fuel cell unit that generates electric power using the power generation material, a recycle channel that supplies a part of hydrogen-containing gas from the fuel cell unit to the power generation material before the power generation material enters the hydro-desulfurizer, and an ejector which is provided in a power generation material channel upstream of the hydro-desulfurizer and into which hydrogen-containing gas from the recycle channel flows, in which the ejector is heated by exhaust gas discharged from the fuel cell unit.
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