US08273703B2
The present invention is directed to novel polypeptides having sequence identity with IL-17, IL-17 receptors and to nucleic acid molecules encoding those polypeptides. Also provided herein are vectors and host cells comprising those nucleic acid sequences, chimeric polypeptide molecules comprising the polypeptides of the present invention fused to heterologous polypeptide sequences, antibodies which bind to the polypeptides of the present invention and to methods for producing the polypeptides of the present invention. Further provided herein are methods for treating degenerative cartilaginous disorders and other inflammatory diseases.
US08273699B2
A process for preparing a perfume composition, the process having the steps of; (a) contacting a perfume ingredient with a molten material to form a pre-mix; (b) contacting the pre-mix with a first solid material to form a soft-solid intermediate high active perfume material; (c) solidifying the molten material to form a hardened-solid intermediate high active perfume material; (d) contacting the hardened-solid intermediate high active perfume intermediate material with a second solid material to form a perfume composition, wherein the ratio of the wt % amount of perfume ingredient present in the hardened-solid intermediate high active perfume material to the wt % amount of perfume ingredient present in the perfume composition is greater than 1.5:1.
US08273692B2
Methods of reducing the permeability of a subterranean formation to aqueous-based fluids using a water-soluble relative permeability modifier that comprises a hydrophobically modified polymer, wherein the hydrophobically modified polymer is a reaction product of: a hydrophilic polymer that comprises a polymer selected from the group consisting of a polyvinylamine, a poly(vinylamine/vinyl alcohol), and an alkyl acrylate polymer; and, a hydrophobic compound comprising at least one alkyl chain having a carbon chain length between about 4 and about 22 carbons. The water-soluble relative permeability modifier may be placed within a subterranean drilling operation such that the water-soluble relative permeability modifier attaches onto surfaces within the subterranean formation to effect permeability of aqueous fluids.
US08273690B2
Crosslinkable-polymer compositions that comprise a chitosan-based compound and a phenol source, and associated methods, are provided. Various methods of use are also provided. In one embodiment, the methods comprise providing a crosslinkable-polymer composition comprising an aqueous fluid, a chitosan-based compound, a chitosan-reacting polymer, and a phenol source; introducing the crosslinkable-polymer composition into the portion of the subterranean formation; and allowing the crosslinkable-polymer composition to form a crosslinked gel in the portion of the subterranean formation.
US08273687B2
Provided are methods, kits and compositions for killing, controlling or suppressing a plant by administering to surfaces of the plant a herbicide composition comprising a herbicidally effective limonene component and an emulsifying agent in an aqueous emulsion, wherein the composition has a pH greater than 5. Also provided are methods, kits and compositions for killing, controlling or suppressing a plant, comprising administering to surfaces of the plant a herbicide composition comprising a herbicidally effective limonene component and an emulsifying agent in an aqueous emulsion, wherein the composition includes a wetting agent. Also provided are methods, kits and compositions for killing, controlling or suppressing a plant, comprising administering to surfaces of the plant a herbicide composition comprising a herbicidally effective limonene component and an emulsifying agent in an aqueous emulsion, wherein the composition has a pH greater than 5 and includes a wetting agent.
US08273677B2
A production process of a pre-polymerized catalyst component, comprising steps of (i) contacting a transition metal compound defined by formula [1], an activation agent, an organometallic compound defined by formula [2], and an optional organoaluminum compound with one another, thereby forming a primary polymerization catalyst, and (ii) pre-polymerizing an olefin in the presence of the primary polymerization catalyst; and a process for producing an addition polymer, comprising a step of polymerizing an addition polymerizable monomer in the presence of a pre-polymerized catalyst component produced by the above production process, or in the presence of the pre-polymerized catalyst component and an organoaluminum compound.
US08273675B2
Provided is a ferroelectric ceramic material containing BaTiO3 as a main component which can control a Curie temperature in a wide range, has no phase transition in the vicinity of a room temperature, and exhibits excellent ferroelectric characteristics. The ferroelectric ceramic material includes an oxide represented by the formula: (100−a−b)BaTiO3.aBi2O3.bM2O3, where M represents a trivalent metal other than Bi, and a and b satisfy 1≦a≦15, 0≦b≦5, and 5≦a+3b≦15 and M is preferably a trivalent metal selected from fifth period transition metals or rare earth metals having an atomic number of 59 or higher to 69 or lower.
US08273669B2
A method for forming a passivated densified nanoparticle thin film on a substrate in a chamber is disclosed. The method includes depositing a nanoparticle ink on a first region on the substrate, the nanoparticle ink including a set of Group IV semiconductor particles and a solvent. The method also includes heating the nanoparticle ink to a first temperature between about 30° C. and about 400° C., and for a first time period between about 1 minute and about 60 minutes, wherein the solvent is substantially removed, and a porous compact is formed. The method further includes flowing an oxidizer gas into the chamber; and heating the porous compact to a second temperature between about 600° C. and about 1000° C., and for a second time period of between about 5 seconds and about 1 hour; wherein the passivated densified nanoparticle thin film is formed.
US08273666B2
Formation of a bottom electrode for an MTJ device on a silicon nitride substrate is facilitated by including a protective coating that is partly consumed during etching of the alpha tantalum portion of said bottom electrode. Adhesion to SiN is enhanced by using a TaN/NiCr bilayer as “glue”.
US08273665B2
A method of making a nanoparticle array that includes replicating a dimension of a self-assembled film into a dielectric film, to form a porous dielectric film, conformally depositing a material over said porous dielectric film, and anisotropically and selectively etching said deposited material.
US08273661B2
Provided is a pattern forming method for forming a pattern serving as a mask, which includes: a process for forming a first pattern 105 made of a photoresist; a process for forming a boundary layer 106 at sidewall portions and top portions of the first pattern 105; a process for forming a second mask material layer 107 to cover a surface of the boundary layer 106; a process for removing a part of the second mask material layer 107 to expose top portions of the boundary layer 106; a process for forming a second pattern made of the second mask material layer 107 by etching and removing the boundary layer 106; and a trimming process for reducing a width of the first pattern 105 and a width of the second pattern to predetermined widths.
US08273659B2
Surface processing in which the area to be processed is restricted to a predetermined pattern, can be achieved by: (a) providing a layer of a first reagent over a region of the surface to be processed which at least covers an area of the predetermined pattern; (b) providing one or more further reagents which are further reagents required for the processing of the surface; and (c) applying at least one of the further reagents over the region to be processed according to the predetermined pattern; such that the first reagent acts with the one or more of the further reagents to process the surface only in the area of the predetermined pattern. The process is particularly applicable to etching where an etchant having two or more components is used. In that case at least a first etchant component is applied over the surface and at least one further etchant component is applied in the predetermined pattern.
US08273652B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate having junction regions and contact plugs formed thereon. A second insulating layer is formed over a first insulating layer and includes first and second pad holes extending in different directions and exposing the contact plugs. First and second conductive pads are formed in the first and second pad holes, respectively. A third insulating layer is formed and includes dual damascene patterns and pad contact holes. The dual damascene pattern exposes the first conductive pad, and each pad contact hole exposes a second conductive pad. First pad contact plugs and a first bit line are formed in the dual damascene pattern and a second pad contact plug is formed in each pad contact hole. A fourth insulating layer including trenches is formed. Each trench exposes a second pad contact plug. A second bit line is formed in each trench.
US08273643B2
Some embodiments include methods of forming diodes in which a first electrode is formed to have a pedestal extending upwardly from a base. At least one layer is deposited along an undulating topography that extends across the pedestal and base, and a second electrode is formed over the least one layer. The first electrode, at least one layer, and second electrode together form a structure that conducts current between the first and second electrodes when voltage of one polarity is applied to the structure, and that inhibits current flow between the first and second electrodes when voltage having a polarity opposite to said one polarity is applied to the structure. Some embodiments include diodes having a first electrode that contains two or more projections extending upwardly from a base, having at least one layer over the first electrode, and having a second electrode over the at least one layer.
US08273640B2
A method of making a semiconductor nanowire device includes providing a plurality of spaced semiconductor nanowires on a growth substrate; applying a dielectric material so that it is disposed between the semiconductor nanowires producing a layer of embedded semiconductor nanowires having a top surface opposed to a bottom surface, wherein the bottom surface is defined by the interface with the growth substrate; depositing a first electrode over the top surface of the layer of embedded semiconductor nanowires so that it is in electrical contact with the semiconductor nanowires; joining the first electrode to a device substrate; removing the growth substrate and exposing the bottom surface of the layer of embedded semiconductor nanowires; and depositing a second electrode on the bottom surface of the layer of embedded semiconductor nanowires so that it is in electrical contact with the semiconductor nanowires.
US08273636B2
Methods for forming semiconductor structures comprising a layer transferred from a donor substrate are provided in which the resulting structure has improved quality with respect to defects and resulting structures therefrom. For example, a semiconductor-on-insulator (SeOI) structure can be formed by a method comprising:—providing a donor substrate having a first density of vacancy clusters;—providing an insulating layer; —transferring a thin layer from the donor substrate to a support substrate with the insulating layer thereon;—curing the transferred thin layer to reduce the first density of vacancy clusters to a second density; and being characterized in that the step of providing an insulating layer comprises providing an oxygen barrier layer to be in contact with the transferred thin layer, the oxygen barrier layer limiting diffusion of oxygen toward the thin layer during the curing.
US08273627B2
A semiconductor device which includes two trenches formed in a semiconductor substrate, a charge storage layer as an insulator formed on each side surface of the trenches, and separated on a bottom surface thereof, and a bit line formed below the bottom surface of the trenches in the semiconductor substrate. A channel region is formed in the semiconductor substrate from a side surface of one of the two trenches to that of the other trench via an upper surface of a protruding portion between those two trenches. A method for manufacturing the semiconductor device is also provided.
US08273625B2
A semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a first floating gate on the semiconductor substrate, the floating gate having a concave side surface; a first control gate on the first floating gate; a first spacer adjacent to the first control gate; a first word line adjacent a first side of the first floating gate with a first distance; and an erase gate adjacent a second side of the first floating gate with a second distance less than the first distance, the second side being opposite the first side.
US08273624B2
Methods for implanting ions into a substrate by a plasma immersion ion implanting process are provided. In one embodiment, a method for implanting ions into a substrate includes providing a substrate into a processing chamber, generating a plasma from a gas mixture including a reacting gas and a etching gas in the chamber, adjusting the ratio between the reacting gas and the etching gas in the supplied gas mixture and implanting ions from the plasma into the substrate. In another embodiment, the method includes providing a substrate into a processing chamber, supplying a gas mixture including reacting gas and a halogen containing reducing gas into the chamber, forming a plasma from the gas mixture, gradually increasing the ratio of the etching gas in the gas mixture, and implanting ions from the gas mixture into the substrate.
US08273623B2
The present invention provides an integrated high voltage capacitor, a method of manufacture therefore, and an integrated circuit chip including the same. The integrated high voltage capacitor, among other features, includes a first capacitor plate (120) located over or in a semiconductor substrate (105), and an insulator (130) located over the first capacitor plate (120), at least a portion of the insulator (130) comprising an interlevel dielectric layer (135, 138, 143, or 148). The integrated high voltage capacitor further includes capacitance uniformity structures (910) located at least partially within the insulator (130) and a second capacitor plate (160) located over the insulator (130).
US08273616B2
Various embodiments of the invention provide a varactor structure that, depends on configurations, can provide a C-V characteristic based on one or a combination of a reverse bias junction capacitor, a channel capacitor, and an oxide capacitor. The junction capacitor is formed by reverse biasing the P+ source region and the N-well. The channel capacitance is formed between the P+ source region and the N+ drain region, and the oxide capacitor is formed in the gate oxide area. Depending on biasing one or a combination of the gate voltage VG, the source voltage VS, and the drain voltage VD, embodiments can utilize one or a combination of the above capacitors. Other embodiments using the varactors in a Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) are also disclosed.
US08273615B2
A thin film transistor includes a substrate; a semiconductor layer disposed on the substrate, the semiconductor layer having a source region, a drain region, and a channel region between the source region and the drain region; a gate insulating layer disposed on the semiconductor layer and on the substrate; and a gate electrode disposed on the insulating layer over the channel region, wherein the semiconductor layer includes tapered edge portions with a taper angle defined between the tapered edge portions and a surface of the substrate is less than about 30 degrees.
US08273609B2
The present invention relates to a method for fabricating thin film transistors (TFTs), which includes the following steps: forming a semi-conductive layer on a substrate; forming a patterned photoresist layer with a first thickness and a second thickness on the semi-conductive layer; pattering the semi-conductive layer by using the patterned photoresist layer as a mask to form a patterned semi-conductive layer; removing the second thickness of the patterned photoresist layer; performing a first ion doping process on the patterned semi-conductive layer by using the first thickness of the patterned photoresist layer as a mask; removing the first thickness of the patterned photoresist layer; and forming a dielectric layer and a gate on the patterned semi-conductive layer. The present invention also discloses a method for fabricating an array substrate including aforementioned TFTs.
US08273603B2
In accordance with a method for forming an interposer, a fill hole is formed in a first side of a substrate and a cavity is formed in a second side. The cavity is in fluidic communication with the fill hole. A plurality of posts is formed in the cavity, and an encapsulant is injected through the fill hole into the cavity to encapsulate the plurality of posts. In accordance with a method of thermal management, an electronic component and a heat sink are disposed on opposing sides of an interposer that includes a plurality of encapsulated posts.
US08273601B2
A method of fabricating a multi-chip package structure is provided. In the method, a number of cavities are formed on a predetermined cutting line of a first wafer by partly removing the first wafer and a first metal layer. Conductive walls of a first circuit layer are electrically connected to a cut cross-section of the first metal layer exposed by the cavities. In addition, conductive bumps of a second wafer or a chip are pressed into a cover layer and electrically connected to the first circuit layer. The first metal layer is then patterned to form a second circuit layer having a number of second pads. Next, the first wafer and the second wafer are cut along the predetermined cutting line to form a number of separated multi-chip package structures.
US08273597B2
The present invention provides a process for making solar panels. The process of the present invention avoids the use of laser scribing so it is particularly useful in making flexible solar panels. In addition, the present invention provides an alternative scheme for connecting the first electrodes and second electrodes in a solar panel.
US08273596B2
Process for producing strip-shaped and/or point-shaped electrically conducting contacts on a semiconductor component like a solar cell, includes the steps of applying a moist material forming the contacts in a desired striplike and/or point-like arrangement on at least one exterior surface of the semiconductor component; drying the moist material by heating the semiconductor component to a temperature T1 and keeping the semiconductor element at temperature T1 over a time t1; sintering the dried material by heating the semiconductor component to a temperature T2 and keeping the semiconductor component at temperature T2 over a time t2; cooling the semiconductor component to a temperature T3 that is equal or roughly equal to room temperature, and keeping the semiconductor component at temperature T3 over a time T3; cooling the semiconductor component to a temperature T4 with T4≦−35° C. and keeping the semiconductor component at temperature T4 over a time T4; and heating the semiconductor component to room temperature.
US08273593B2
A method for micropatterning a radiation-emitting surface of a semiconductor layer sequence for a thin-film light-emitting diode chip, wherein the semiconductor layer sequence is grown on a substrate, a mirror layer is formed or applied on the semiconductor layer sequence, which reflects back into the semiconductor layer sequence at least part of a radiation that is generated in the semiconductor layer sequence during the operation thereof and is directed toward the mirror layer, the semiconductor layer sequence is separated from the substrate, and a separation surface of the semiconductor layer sequence, from which the substrate is separated, is etched by an etchant which predominantly etches at crystal defects and selectively etches different crystal facets at the separation surface.
US08273589B2
Light emitting diodes and methods for manufacturing light emitting diodes are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method for manufacturing a light emitting diode (LED) comprises applying a first light conversion material to a first region on the LED and applying a second light conversion material to a second, different region on the LED. A portion of the LED is exposed after applying the first and second light conversion materials.
US08273586B2
A light emitting device comprises a substrate having a plurality of light emitting elements mounted thereon; a side wall structure having a partition wall portion separating a plurality of light emitting areas that each include at least one of the light emitting elements; and encapsulating resin filled in the light emitting areas to bury the light emitting elements therein. The side wall structure is separated by a space from the substrate at, at least, the partition wall portion so as to be in noncontact with the substrate, and the encapsulating resin is formed so as to integrally, continuously fill the light emitting areas and the space without producing any interface therein.
US08273577B2
The present invention provides a phenothiazine-derivative color-measuring method that can detect a phenothiazine-derivative color even at a wavelength longer than the wavelength that exhibits maximum absorption. A phenothiazine-derivative color is detected, by adding a 5-hydroxy-1-(4-sulfophenyl)-4-(4-sulfophenylazo)pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid salt, 6-hydroxy-5-(4-sulfophenylazo)-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid salt, 3-hydroxy-4-(4-sulfonaphthylazo)-2,7-naphthalenedisulfonic acid salt, 7-hydroxy-8-(4-sulfonaphthylazo)-1,3-naphthalenedisulfonic acid salt, 3′,6′-dihydroxy-2′,4′,5′,7′-tetraiodospiro[isobenzofuran-1(3H),9′-(9H)xanthene]-3-one salt, 3′,6′-dihydroxy-2′,4′,5′,7′-tetrabromo-4,5,6,7,-tetrachlorospiro[isobenzofuran-1(3H),9′-[9H]xanthene]-3-one salt, 4,5,6,7-tetrachloro-3′,6′-dihydroxy-2′,4′,5′,7′-tetraiodospiro[isobenzofuran-1(3H),9′-[9H]xanthene]-3-one salt or flavonoid-based color to the reaction system containing a phenothiazine-derivative color, and then measuring the light absorbance at a wavelength of 610 to 730 nm.
US08273576B2
The present invention relates to a molecular-based system for the optical detection, quantification and detoxification of hexavalent chromium (Cr6+) by reversible metal-substrate electron transfer. More particularly, the invention provides a Cr6+ sensor device comprising a divalent osmium (Os2+)-, iron (Fe2+)- or ruthenium (R2+)-based pyridyl complex capable of changing its oxidation state in response to a reduction of Cr6+ at the presence of H+, thereby causing a reversible and optically readable change in optical properties of said complex. The Os2+-, Fe2+- or R2+-based pyridyl complex used according to the invention can be used for selective detection and quantification of Cr6+, as well as for catalytic detoxification of Cr6+.
US08273573B2
The present invention provides microfabricated substrates and methods of conducting reactions within these substrates. The reactions occur in plugs transported in the flow of a carrier-fluid.
US08273563B2
A process is provided for producing peroxycarboxylic acids from carboxylic acid esters. More specifically, carboxylic acid esters are reacted with an inorganic peroxide, such as hydrogen peroxide, in the presence of an enzyme catalyst having perhydrolysis activity. The present perhydrolase catalysts are classified as members of the carbohydrate esterase family 7 (CE-7) based on the conserved structural features. Further, disinfectant formulations comprising the peracids produced by the processes described herein are provided.
US08273557B2
The present invention relates to cell wall degradative systems, in particular to systems containing enzymes that bind to and/or depolymerize cellulose. These systems have a number of applications. Some embodiments relate to a method of producing ethanol using the cell wall degradative systems of the present invention.
US08273555B2
Provided is a process for esterifying or transesterifying side chains in polymers, which involves esterifying or transesterifying the carboxyl group having the R4 radical of a copolymer obtained by polymerizing a (meth)acrylate of formula (I), and a monomer of formula (II): wherein R1 and R3 are independently H or CH3, R2 and R4 are independently H or an alkyl radical which is optionally substituted by functional groups such as acryloyl, ether, amino, epoxy, halogen or sulfonic acid groups, and n is from 1 to 40, with an alcohol in the presence of an enzyme which catalyzes the esterifying or transesterifying. Further provided is the esterified or transesterified polymer product and its use.
US08273553B2
The invention relates to a process for the manufacturing of a protein, such as growth hormone, in mammalian cells cultured in a serum-free medium (medium free of components derived from animal serum). The medium contains cobalt and, optionally, cadmium or cyclodextrin.
US08273549B2
Recombinant nucleic acid constructs for the efficient expression of eukaryotic selenoproteins and related methods for production of recombinant selenoproteins are provided. The nucleic acid constructs comprise novel selenocysteine insertion sequence (SECIS) elements. Certain novel SECIS elements of the invention contain non-canonical quartet sequences. Other novel SECIS elements provided by the invention are chimeric SECIS elements comprising a canonical SECIS element that contains a non-canonical quartet sequence and chimeric SECIS elements comprising a non-canonical SECIS element that contains a canonical quartet sequence. The novel SECIS elements of the invention facilitate the insertion of selenocysteine residues into recombinant polypeptides.
US08273548B2
The present invention relates to novel compounds and their uses, in particular their pharmaceutical or diagnostic uses or their use as pharmacological targets. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel protein, referred to as PAP1, as well as to novel peptides and compounds which are capable of modulating, at least partially, the activity of parkin.
US08273547B2
The present disclosure provides ketoreductase enzymes having improved properties as compared to a naturally occurring wild-type ketoreductase enzyme. Also provided are polynucleotides encoding the engineered ketoreductase enzymes, host cells capable of expressing the engineered ketoreductase enzymes, method of using the engineered ketoreductase enzymes to synthesize a variety of chirally pure compounds, and the chirally pure compounds prepared therewith.
US08273540B2
Compositions are provided according to embodiments of the present invention which include an isolated fusion protein including an E3 protein RING motif bonded to an UCE E2 protein. In preferred embodiments, the C-terminus of the E3 protein RING motif is bonded to the N-terminus of the UCE E2 protein by an intervening peptide linker. Optionally, the peptide linker is 5-50 amino acids. Preferred is a peptide linker of 15-20 amino acids. Methods of identifying ubiquitylation modulators are provided according to embodiments of the present invention which include contacting an isolated fusion protein including an E3 protein RING motif bonded to an UCE E2 protein with a ubiquitylation substrate in the presence of a test substance. Ubiquitylation of the ubiquitylation substrate is then detected to determine the effect of the test substance on ubiquitylation of the ubiquitylation substrate.
US08273539B2
This document relates to methods and materials involved in identifying, assessing, and monitoring prostate cancer in male mammals. For example, this document provides arrays for detecting polypeptides or nucleic acids that can be used to identify prostate cancer in male mammals. In addition, methods and materials for assessing and monitoring prostate cancer in mammals are provided herein.
US08273538B2
The invention provides a method for detecting CD163+/CD16+ cell population in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in a biological sample from a subject infected with HIV-1 which comprises contacting the biological sample with an anti-CD163 antibody, so that levels of CD163+/CD16+ peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the biological sample can be quantified. The method of the present invention is particularly useful for monitoring the course of HIV-1 infection and/or HIV Encephalopathy
US08273535B2
The invention provides assays for detecting the presence of the maize DAS-59132 event based on the DNA sequence of the recombinant construct inserted into the maize genome and the DNA sequences flanking the insertion site. Kits and conditions useful in conducting the assays are provided.
US08273526B2
The present invention provides methods of cryopreserving stem and progenitor cells in a mammalian placenta; and methods of obtaining fetal stem and progenitor cells from a cryopreserved mammalian placenta. Cells obtained by carrying out the methods can be used in a variety of therapeutic applications.
US08273523B2
In accordance with the invention, there are semiconductor devices and methods of making semiconductor devices and holes. The method of making a semiconductor device can comprise forming a photoresist layer over a surface of a wafer, wherein the wafer comprises an edge that has a substantially rounded profile, an array of dies, and at least one edge die. The method can also comprise dividing a shot area into a plurality of shot portions and assigning a blind ID to each of the plurality of shot portions. The method can further comprise identifying one or more edge shot portions on the edge of the wafer for additional exposure; and exposing one or more times identified one or more edge shot portions on the edge of the wafer and blocking non-identified one or more non-edge shot portions.
US08273521B2
A radiation-sensitive resin composition includes a compound shown by a formula (1) in which R1 represents a divalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and R2 represents a hydrogen atom or a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, or R1 and R2 form a heterocyclic structure having 4 to 20 carbon atoms, R3 represents a monovalent acid-dissociable group, n is an integer from 1 to 6, each of R4A, R4B, and R4C represents one of an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and a monovalent alicyclic hydrocarbon group having 4 to 20 carbon atoms, or R4A represents one of an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and a monovalent alicyclic hydrocarbon group having 4 to 20 carbon atoms and R4B and R4C form a divalent alicyclic hydrocarbon group having 4 to 20 carbon atoms.
US08273517B2
An aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor. The method includes forming at least one layer selected from the group consisting of an undercoat layer, a photosensitive layer, and a protective layer, by jetting by an inkjet method a first coating liquid and a second coating liquid from liquid drop discharging heads which are different from each other, and mixing the first coating liquid and the second coating liquid on a conductive substrate. The first coating liquid and the second coating liquid react with each other when they are mixed.
US08273506B2
A manufacturing method of an optical element is provided, the optical element comprising: a shield part formed by a light shielding film formed and patterned on a substrate; a light transmission part formed by partially exposing a surface of the substrate; and a phase shifter part formed by partially etching the surface of the substrate, the method comprising the steps of: preparing an optical element blank with the light shielding film and a first resist film laminated on the substrate in this order; and forming a first resist pattern by applying drawing and development to the first resist film, covering a formation scheduled area of the shield part, and demarcating the formation scheduled area of the phase shifter part.
US08273503B2
A high-temperature fuel cell system includes individual SOFC fuel cells which are in contact with each other for electrically connecting the same in parallel or in series. In at least one embodiment, contacting elements that are suitable for the fuel cell system with a certain flexibility in addition to the required electrical conductivity for continuous operation. The contacting elements between two fuel cells are formed by a metal wire mesh that is advantageously made of nickel. Such nickel wires can be mechanically transformed into a continuous mesh, especially a tube, from which sections having a suitable length can be cut and be provided with the proper shape.
US08273499B2
A membrane-electrode assembly for a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell is provided that uses a proton conductive membrane having high proton conductivity and also superior heat resistance and chemical durability. A membrane-electrode assembly for a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell is provided with an anode on one side of a proton conductive membrane and a cathode on another side thereof, and the proton conductive membrane is a sulfonated polyarylene containing a structure expressed by the general formula (1) below: —Rs—Z—Rh (1) In the formula (1), Z represents at least one structure selected from the group consisting of —CO—, —SO2—, and —SO—; Rs represents a direct bond or any divalent organic group; and Rh represents a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group.
US08273492B2
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a fluid unit, and a load applying mechanism. The fluid unit includes a heat exchanger and a reformer provided on one side of the fuel cell stack, and the load applying mechanism is provided on the other side of the fuel cell stack. The load applying mechanism includes first and second tightening units for applying different loads to desired regions of the fuel cell stack in the stacking direction.
US08273490B2
Provided is a fuel cell system that can change the number of active phases in a DC/DC converter in order to prevent overcurrent from flowing through one point (e.g., a reactor of the DC/DC converter) in the system. In step S1, whether or not the system is in a state that causes a rapid change in a voltage command value is checked. If the system is in a state that causes a rapid change in the voltage command value, the processing goes to step S2, and if not, the processing goes to step S3. In step S2, a DC/DC converter is prohibited from being driven in a single phase and the processing ends. In step S3, the DC/DC converter is permitted to be driven in a single phase and the processing ends.
US08273487B2
A fuel purification system includes a fuel cell stack and a fuel purification unit, such as a distillation unit. The fuel cell stack is adapted to provide heat to the fuel purification unit, and the fuel purification unit is adapted to provide a purified fuel to the fuel cell stack.
US08273481B2
A process for preparing an at least partially lithiated transition metal oxyanion-based lithium-ion reversible electrode material, which includes providing a precursor of said lithium-ion reversible electrode material, heating said precursor, melting same at a temperature sufficient to produce a melt including an oxyanion containing liquid phase, cooling said melt under conditions to induce solidification thereof and obtain a solid electrode that is capable of reversible lithium ion deinsertion/insertion cycles for use in a lithium battery. Also, lithiated or partially lithiated oxyanion-based-lithium-ion reversible electrode materials obtained by the aforesaid process.
US08273478B2
A rechargeable lithium battery includes an electrolyte including an additive such as an ethylene carbonate-based compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 and a silicon-included compound, and a negative electrode including a negative active material including an active element selected from the group consisting of Si, Sn, Ga, Cd, Al, Pb, Zn, Bi, In, Mg, and Ge. In Chemical formula 1, X and Y are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, a halogen, and a C1 through C5 fluoroalkyl, provided that at least one of X and Y is selected from the group consisting of a halogen and a C1 through C5 fluoroalkyl.The rechargeable lithium battery has a suppressed volume expansion characteristic due to a high-capacity negative active material, and has excellent reliability and cycle-life characteristics.
US08273477B2
Fuel cell designs and techniques for converting chemical energy into electrical energy uses a fuel cell are disclosed. The designs and techniques include an anode to receive fuel, a cathode to receive oxygen, and an electrolyte chamber in the fuel cell, including an electrolyte medium, where the electrolyte medium includes an inorganic salt mixture in the fuel cell. The salt mixture includes pre-determined quantities of at least two salts chosen from a group consisting of ammonium trifluoromethanesulfonate, ammonium trifluoroacetate, and ammonium nitrate, to conduct charge from the anode to the cathode. The fuel cell includes an electrical circuit operatively coupled to the fuel cell to transport electrons from the cathode.
US08273476B2
A secondary battery with a protection circuit module integrated with a structural reinforcing support. The secondary battery includes a bare cell, a protection circuit module. The protection circuit module includes a circuit board, and a structural reinforcing support coupling the bare cell and the circuit board of the protection circuit module. The structural reinforcing support is integrated with the protection circuit module in order to prevent separation of the protection circuit module from the bare cell.
US08273473B2
A secondary battery has a safety vent, and the safety vent has an asymmetric structure and provides a substantial opening for the battery, instead of having a local crack, to rapidly vent to atmosphere in order to prevent the secondary battery from bursting when the internal pressure of a battery increases excessively or external impact is applied thereto. The secondary battery includes an electrode assembly charging/discharging functions, a can housing the electrode assembly, a cap assembly that includes a cap plate closing up an open part of the can, and a safety vent having an asymmetric track shape that is provided in the cap plate of the cap assembly.
US08273468B2
There is provided a green luminescent material having Formula I or Formula II R1 and R2 can be the same or different and can be hydrogen, alkoxy, tertiary alkyl, or cycloalkyl. R3 and R4 are the same or different and can be fluorine, aryl, or alkyl. There is also provided an organic electronic device containing the green luminescent material.
US08273461B2
The method of producing a metal film in accordance with the present invention includes: the organic film forming step of applying, onto a substrate or a film, an underlayer composition containing an addition polymerizable compound having three or more reactive groups, an addition polymerizable compound having acid groups, and an addition polymerizable compound having hydrophilic functional groups and polymerizing the composition, to form an organic film; the metal salt producing step of processing the organic film with an aqueous solution containing metal (M1) ions, to convert the acid groups to a metal (M1) salt; the metal fixing step of processing the organic film processed with the aqueous solution containing metal (M1) ions with an aqueous metal (M2) ion solution containing metal (M2) ions having lower ionicity than the metal (M1) ions, to convert the metal (M1) salt of the acid groups to a metal (M2) salt; and the reduction step of reducing the metal (M2) ions, to form a metal film on a surface of the organic film. The method therefore efficiently produces a film of metal, especially gold.
US08273453B2
Polysaccharides and/or hydroxyl polymers, more particularly, structures, especially fibers, comprising a polysaccharide and/or hydroxyl polymer and an association agent, fibrous structures comprising such structures and processes for making such structures and/or fibrous structures are provided.
US08273446B2
A method of communicating qualities to a consumer of a paper towel product where the method involves: providing a paper towel product having one or more qualities, identifying one or more communicative elements having one or more of the same qualities of the paper towel product, selecting a first communicative element by applying one or more selective criteria to the one or more communicative elements, providing a visual representation of the paper towel product and a visual representation of the first communicative element, and using the visual representations of the paper towel product and first communicative element to provide a quality communicative indicium.
US08273442B2
A welding arrangement for plastic components includes a base member, a primary member abutting onto the base member and provided with a first positioning feature that engages a corresponding first positioning feature provided on the base member. A secondary member is vibration welded to the base member so as to at least partly interpose the primary member between the secondary member and base member. Because the welding is performed while the primary member is properly positioned relative to the base member on account of the first positioning feature cooperating with the corresponding first positioning feature, the positional precision of the primary member is ensured. The primary member may be additionally provided with a second positioning feature that engages a corresponding second positioning feature provided on the secondary member, so as to permit positional adjustment between them in a prescribed direction corresponding to a direction of movement of the vibration welding.
US08273439B2
A release layer material of cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) applied in flexible electrical devices represented by Formula (I) or (II) is provided. The invention also provides a substrate structure including the release layer. The substrate structure includes a carrier, a release layer overlying the carrier with one or more blocks with a first area, wherein the release layer includes cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) represented by the disclosed Formula (I) or (II), and a flexible substrate overlying the release layer and the carrier with a second area, wherein the second area is larger than the first area and the flexible substrate has a greater adhesion force than that of the release layer to the carrier. The invention further provides a method for fabricating the substrate structure. In Formula (I) or (II), X is 30-70, X+Y is 100 and R is —H, —CH3 or —C2H5.
US08273437B2
A sheet material for a multilayer optical recording medium (10-a) which comprises an optical recording layer comprising a multiple-photon absorbing material (1), an adhesive layer (4) and a transfer layer of the energy beam curable type (3). The transfer layer of the energy beam curable type (3) is a layer for transferring the shape of a stamper having a shape having protrusions and depressions on the surface as recording pits and/or grooves. The transfer layer of the energy beam curable type (3) and the adhesive layer (4) are each disposed as outermost layers. A multilayer optical recording medium which has a repetitive structure comprising a plurality of laminated optical recording layers and exhibits excellent accuracy of thickness of each layer and the whole laminate can be produced with excellent productivity. Positional information can be contained at the inside of the optical recording medium.
US08273435B2
Disclosed herein is an environmentally safe, grease and/or adhesion resistant article comprising an absorbent substrate, a cross-linking agent, and a polymer; wherein the substrate is first coated with the cross-linking agent and is then coated with the polymer.
US08273432B2
An automotive fuel hose is disclosed including an inner layer, an intermediate layer and an outer layer provided in this order on an outer peripheral surface of an innermost layer of a fluororesin. The inner layer and the outer layer each include of an amine-modified polyamide resin, where the intermediate layer is a resin composition including the following components: (A) a polyphenylenesulfide resin as a major component; (B) an acid-modified polyolefin resin; (C) an unmodified polyolefin resin; and (D) an epoxy resin. The proportion of the component (B) in the resin composition is 4 to 12 wt % and the proportion of the component (C) in the resin composition is 4 to 12 wt %, wherein the proportion of the component (D) in the resin composition is 1.5 to 5 wt %.
US08273431B2
A polyamide resin composition contains a resin component containing at least a polyamide (X) and a fatty acid metallic salt having from 10 to 50 carbon atoms, and contains arbitrarily an additive (A) and/or an additive (B). The polyamide (X) is obtained through melt polycondensation of a diamine component containing 70% by mol or more of m-xylylenediamine and a dicarboxylic acid component containing 70% by mol or more of an α,ω-linear aliphatic dicarboxylic acid. The additive (A) is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a diamide compound obtained from a fatty acid having from 8 to 30 carbon atoms and a diamine having from 2 to 10 carbon atoms, a diester compound obtained from a fatty acid having from 8 to 30 carbon atoms and a diol having from 2 to 10 carbon atoms, and a surfactant, and the additive (B) is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a metallic hydroxide, a metallic acetate salt, a metallic alkoxide, a metallic carbonate salt and a fatty acid.
US08273430B2
A laminated duct structure for gas turbine engines, and a method for manufacturing laminated duct structures for gas turbine engines. The duct structure incorporates a metallic inner layer and a polymeric outer layer. Preferably, the thin metallic layer is a corrosion resistant material such as corrosion resistant stainless steel or titanium. The supporting outer polymeric layer is, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, a polyimide material, such as polyimide resin-impregnated fiberglass cloth.
US08273429B2
An elongated protective textile sleeve for protecting elongate members and methods of constructing a fabric substrate therefore. The fabric substrate has a plurality of filamentary members either woven, knitted or braided with one another. At least some of the filamentary members of the substrate extend to cut edges and are fabricated of a multi-component material that includes a core of a first polymeric material and an outer sheath of a second polymeric material. The outer sheath is heat-fusible and the inner core is heat-settable. The outer sheaths of the filamentary members are heat fused at least in the regions near the cut edges to keep the cut edges from fraying or the filamentary members from pulling out of the substrate. The core is heat set to form the desired shape of the protective sleeve.
US08273425B2
A self-cleaning material is generally described that may include a substrate having a first surface. A self-cleaning layer of aligned nanotube structures may be formed on the first surface of the substrate, where absorption of light by the nanotube structures may cause a change in state of the self-cleaning material based on an angle of incidence of the light and an orientation vector corresponding to the layer of aligned nanotube structures.
US08273424B2
An artificial grass fiber is formed, which fiber has an elongated cross-section that remains substantially constant along its longitudinal axis. An artificial lawn comprising these artificial grass fibers is provided, as well as to the use of the aforesaid artificial grass fibers. The fibers collectively provide a special type of artificial grass which imitates the advantageous characteristics of natural grass, in particular in the field of ball roll and sliding characteristics.
US08273414B2
A method of improving the wet tensile strength of a cellulose-containing web includes applying to the web an aqueous binder emulsion and subsequently drying and curing the binder emulsion. The aqueous binder emulsion is prepared by emulsion-polymerizing a monomer mixture comprising vinyl acetate, ethylene, and an olefinically unsaturated crosslinking monomer in the presence of a phosphate ester surfactant wherein the at least one crosslinking monomer comprises a (meth)acrylamide moiety and a cellulose-reactive moiety. The binder emulsion may be applied to a cellulose-containing web to increase wet strength, aid in creping, or both.
US08273410B2
A process for manufacturing a hydrophobized microporous film includes: forming an organic silica insulating film 2 on a substrate 1; supplying a gaseous mixture 3 composed of a silylation gas and an inert gas in an apparatus having the substrate 1 disposed therein at a temperature of the substrate 1, the substrate 1 having the organic silica insulating film 2 formed thereon, and the temperature being equal to or higher than a dew point temperature of the silylation gas and equal to or lower than a vaporizing temperature of the silylation gas; stopping the supply of the gaseous mixture 3 into the apparatus; and heating the substrate having the organic silica insulating film 2 formed thereon, so that a hydrophobizing organic silica insulating film, in which the surface of the organic silica insulating film 2 and the surfaces of the pores are hydrophobized, can be obtained with reduced increase in the specific dielectric constant.
US08273409B2
Disclosed is a method for film formation, characterized by comprising allowing a treatment gas stream containing a metal carbonyl-containing treatment gas and a carbon monoxide-containing carrier gas to flow into a region on the upper outside of the outer periphery of a substrate to be treated in a diameter direction of the substrate while avoiding the surface of the substrate and diffusing the metal carbonyl from the treatment gas stream into the surface of the substrate to form a metal film on the surface of the substrate.
US08273408B2
Cyclical methods of depositing a ruthenium layer on a substrate are provided. In one process, initial or incubation cycles include supplying alternately and/or simultaneously a ruthenium precursor and an oxygen-source gas to deposit ruthenium oxide on the substrate. The ruthenium oxide deposited on the substrate is reduced to ruthenium, thereby forming a ruthenium layer. The oxygen-source gas may be oxygen gas (O2). The ruthenium oxide may be reduced by supplying a reducing agent, such as ammonia (NH3) gas. The methods provide a ruthenium layer having good adherence to an underlying high dielectric layer while providing good step coverage over structures on the substrate. After nucleation, subsequent deposition cycles can be altered to optimize speed and/or conformality rather than adherence.
US08273395B2
Shown is a process having the steps of: providing fresh tea material rich in stem; and expressing juice from the fresh tea material thereby to produce stem residue and tea juice having a mixture of tea compounds.
US08273392B2
The present invention relates to frozen desserts which can be free of additives. It also pertains to a process for the manufacture of such frozen dessert which process includes the step of fermenting milk proteins with micro-organisms yielding hetero-exopolysaccharides, and thus avoiding the use of additives such as thickeners or stabilizers.
US08273391B2
The present disclosure relates to a method for producing cheese in which the method includes the steps of: providing dairy milk, which could be a skimmed milk and cream mixture; producing a gel-type curd/whey mixture by coagulation; and cutting the curd/whey mixture in a cheese processor such that the whey flows out of the curd.
US08273372B2
The invention relates to a process for preparing an extracellular matrix composition comprising cross-linked fibrinogen or a derivative thereof, to an extracellular matrix composition obtained by the process and to the use of the composition in wound healing, tissue regeneration or as a tissue engineering scaffold.
US08273363B2
The present invention generally relates to polymers and macromolecules, in particular, to polymers useful in particles such as nanoparticles. One aspect of the invention is directed to a method of developing nanoparticles with desired properties. In one set of embodiments, the method includes producing libraries of nanoparticles having highly controlled properties, which can be formed by mixing together two or more macromolecules in different ratios. One or more of the macromolecules may be a polymeric conjugate of a moiety to a biocompatible polymer. In some cases, the nanoparticle may contain a drug. Other aspects of the invention are directed to methods using nanoparticle libraries.
US08273360B2
A composition comprising (a) Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), and (b) an immunogenic component selected from other Neisseria proteins, or immunogenic fragments thereof. Component (b) preferably includes a protein from a different NmB strain from that from which the OMV of component (a) is derived. The OMVs are preferably obtained by deoxycholate extraction. Optionally, the composition may also comprise a protective antigen against other pathogens.
US08273357B2
The present invention generally relates to compositions comprising antigen-carbohydrate conjugates and methods of immune modulation featuring these reagents.
US08273344B2
A recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) expressing antisense human CYP2J2 gene produced by a method of co-transfection into 293 cell by calcium phosphate precipitation, the rAAV having the following three plasmids: a) pXX2: a packing plasmid having a nucleotide sequence encoding AAV Rep and Cap protein, wherein the nucleotide sequence is operably linked upstream and downstream to a p5 promoter respectively to increase expression 15-fold; b) pXXUF1-anti2J2: an eukaryotic expression vector having a CMV promoter, a NotI site for insertion of target genes, the CYP2J2 gene oriented in the 3′ to 5′ direction, and inverted terminal repeats (ITRs); and c) pXX6: a helper plasmid deleted of the pathogenic gene sequences of adenovirus and having an E1A, an E2A, and a VA1 RNA gene of adenovirus. Also provided is a method of preparing the rAAV.
US08273337B2
Peptides have been identified that bind with high affinity to hair. Peptide-based hair reagents formed by coupling a hair-binding peptide to a benefit agent are described. The peptide-based hair reagents include peptide-based hair conditioners and hair colorants. The peptide-based hair conditioners and hair colorants are comprised of at least one hair-binding peptide coupled to a hair conditioning agent or a coloring agent, respectively.
US08273336B2
Disclosed is a pretreatment agent which can achieve a chemical treatment such as the formation of permanent waves or hair-dye uniformly only by pre-treating hair with the pretreatment agent, and which can impart smooth and soft touch to hair as if a hair treatment is applied to the hair after the chemical treatment. Specifically disclosed is a hair treatment composition which is characterized by comprising (A) a tertiary amine, (B) a quaternary ammonium salt and (C) a higher alcohol, wherein the ratio of the content of the higher alcohol to the total content of the tertiary amine and the quaternary ammonium salt is 0.1 to 1.0 by weight and the pH value of the whole composition is 7.0 or higher.
US08273331B2
The invention provides a dry powder inhalation composition comprising medicament particles and a mixture of lactose particles with a VMD of between about 70 and about 120 microns and a diameter of less than 250 microns, the mixture being characterized in that up to 96% by weight of the lactose particles are less than 150 microns in diameter and wherein up to 25% by weight of the lactose particles are less than 5 microns in diameter. The compositions provide for a more accurate, uniform and consistent dispersion when used with, for example, a multidose dry powder inhaler. Also disclosed are methods for use of the compositions of the invention.
US08273323B2
In a process for producing hydrocarbonaceous educts, the starting material is autothermally gasified by non-catalytic partial oxidation by adding oxygen-containing gas and hydrogen at temperatures of 1200 to 1500° C. and pressures of 15 to 100 barabs to obtain a raw gas containing H2 and CO as main components as well as the components CO2, H2O, CH4 and traces of H2S, COS, CnHm, N2 and Ar, and subsequently the CO contained in the raw gas is converted to CO2 and further H2 by adding steam. An improvement of the process consists in that in a pressure-swing absorption process the converted raw synthesis gas is separated directly, i.e. without passing through a wash for removing CO2 and H2S, into high-purity H2 and into a gas mixture containing H2S, CO2, H2, CO, CH4, Ar and N2, the gas mixture is supplied to the tail gas wash of a Claus process, the H2S separated is introduced into the feed gas of the Claus process, and the waste gas of the tail gas wash, mixed with the tail gas of the Claus process, is burnt.
US08273318B2
A carbon nanotube material is exposed to ultraviolet rays, and a silicon-containing compound capable of modifying the surface of the carbon nanotube material in combination with the ultraviolet rays is supplied to thereby modify the surface of the carbon nanotube material.
US08273309B2
The present invention relates to a wicking inhibitor for fluidic and microfluidic devices that reduces wicking by providing a structure that interrupts the flow of a working fluid through a fluidic channel interface having corner angles greater than ninety degrees.
US08273308B2
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and devices for processing samples on a microfluidic device. One system includes a microfluidic device having an upstream channel, a DNA manipulation zone located downstream from the upstream channel and configured to perform PCR amplification of a sample, a first valve disposed upstream of the DNA manipulation zone, and a second valve disposed downstream of the DNA manipulation zone. The system also includes a controller programmed to close the first and second valves to prevent gas and liquid from flowing into or out of the DNA manipulation zone, and a computer-controlled heat source in thermal contact with the DNA manipulation zone.
US08273302B2
A component separating device includes a flow channel, an acoustic wave generator for generating an acoustic wave in the flow channel, a first inlet channel for introducing a fist solution containing solid particles into the flow channel, a second inlet channel for introducing a second solution, and outlet channels for discharging a solution from the flow channel. A density grade generator is provided at the first inlet channel for forming a density grade of the solid particles. This component separating device extracts the solid particles into a high-purity solution at a high collecting rate.
US08273301B2
A device for exhaust-gas treatment includes at least one housing with an inner surface and at least one sensor foil disposed in the housing. The sensor foil is formed at least with a sensor element and a conductor element. The sensor foil is also provided with an edge up to which the conductor element extends and which bears against the inner surface of the housing. The housing also has an opening for contacting of the conductor element. The opening is surrounded on the inner surface by an electrical insulating layer.
US08273300B2
Modular system for radiosynthesis with multi-run capabilities and reduced risk of radiation exposure
Macro- and microfluidic devices and related technologies, and chemical processes using such devices. More specifically, the devices may be used for a fully automated synthesis of radioactive compounds for imaging, such as by positron emission tomography (PET), in an efficient, compact and safe to the operator manner. In particular, embodiments of the present invention relate to an automated, multi-run, microfluidic instrument for the multi-step synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals, such as PET probes, comprising a remote shielded mini-cell containing radiation-handing components.
US08273296B2
A measurement module for glucose testing includes a glucose testing measurement module housing, a test strip receptacle formed in the housing, and a connector portion formed in the housing and shaped to permit mechanical removable attachment of the housing to a hand-held computer. Electronics determine the amount of glucose present in a sample of body fluid, when the test strip is positioned in the receptacle and the body fluid is placed on a test strip, and communicate the glucose amount to the hand-held computer via the connector portion.
US08273294B2
A microfluidic circuit cartridge having 3-D hydrodynamic focusing. The cartridge may be fabricated with injection-molded or other molded layers providing a 3-D structure. A flow channel on the card may have a sample core flowing in a fluid of a flow channel for analysis. The sample core may be adjustable in position within the channel with one or more jets or channels of fluid being injected into the flow channel. The jets may also adjust the size of the sample core. There may be a hemoglobin measurement mechanism or card with a cuvette.
US08273291B2
A controlled combustion synthesis apparatus comprises an ignition system, a pressure sensor for detecting internal pressure, a nitrogen supply, a gas pressure control valve for feeding nitrogen and exhausting reaction gas, means for detecting the internal temperature of the reaction container, a water cooled jacket, and a cooling plate. A temperature control system controls the temperature of the reaction container by controlling the flow of cooling water supplied to the jacket and the cooling plate in response to the detected temperature. By combustion synthesizing, while controlling the internal pressure and temperature, the apparatus can synthesize a silicon alloy including 30-70 wt. % silicon, 10-45 wt. % nitrogen, 1-40 wt. % aluminum, and 1-40 wt % oxygen.
US08273288B2
Regulation of the throughflow of metal melt is provided through a bottom nozzle of a metallurgical vessel having an upper nozzle arranged in the floor of the metallurgical vessel and a lower nozzle arranged below the upper nozzle. At least one inert gas inlet aperture is provided to the melt throughflow aperture, and a sensor is arranged on or in the lower nozzle for determining the layer thickness of metal clogging in the nozzle. The inert gas supply into the bottom nozzle is regulated using measurement signals of the sensor. A bottom nozzle for the metallurgical vessel is provided with a wall of the melt throughflow aperture through the nozzles being formed at least sealed against metal melt and the nozzles being at least partially surrounded by a gas-tight housing. The housing at its lower end encloses the lower nozzle at its periphery in a gas-tight manner and is arranged with a portion of its inner side abutting on the outer side of the nozzle. A thermally insulating solid is arranged between the wall of the melt throughflow aperture and the housing.
US08273285B2
The present invention is a method of manufacturing a flexible tubular body for catheter, sheath or similar medical device. The method comprises pre-extruding an inner layer of the body from a thermoplastic polymer and then pulling the inner layer over a mandrel and tightening the layer down. If wire lumens were not integrally formed in the inner layer when pre-extruded, then two polymer spaghetti tubes, each with wire lumens, are laid 180 degrees apart axially along the outer surface of the inner layer. Deflection wires are then fed into the wire lumens. A cylindrical wire braid is woven or pulled over the inner layer (and the spaghetti tubes, as the case may be) and tightened down. The aforementioned components are then encased in an outer polymer layer. A heat-shrinkable tube is then placed over the outer layer. A pressurized fluid is injected into each wire lumen to maintain the internal diameter of each wire lumen at a diameter that is greater than the diameter of the deflection wire received in each wire lumen. Heat is then applied to the body and heat-shrinkable tube to cause the layers to laminate together. Once the newly laminated body has sufficiently cooled, the heat-shrinkable tube is removed from the body.
US08273282B2
Provided are a bisected mold for tire molding that enables manufacturing of high-performance tires and that at a mold clamping, avoids a tire from being pinched to thereby attain a yield enhancement; and a process for manufacturing a tire. Inside a container bisected into upper and lower parts in the state of mold opening, there are disposed a mold for tire molding and, along upper and lower side plates, an unvulcanized tire. After performing vulcanization molding of the unvulcanized tire while changing from this state to a state of mold clamping of sectors and segments split into a plurality of pieces in a circumferential direction of the unvulcanized tire through a driving device and a slide unit means, only the sectors are subjected to mold opening by use of a driving means while maintaining the state of mold clamping of the mold for tire molding and the segments by the driving device and the slide unit means, and subsequently taking the vulcanization-molded tire.
US08273280B2
A thin-walled plastic tube having an axial direction and a radial direction is manufactured by injection moulding and includes a tube body with a tube shoulder with an emptying opening at a first end and an end closure at a second end, the tube body having a wall thickness of 0.3-1.2 mm. The plastic tube includes a label applied simultaneously with the injection moulding, the label having a plastic film with a tensile strength in the axial direction of the tube which is at least 100 N/mm2, preferably at least 150 N/mm2, and most preferably at least 210 N/mm2 measured according to DIN ISO 527-1/-3, an elongation at break which is at most 70%, preferably at most 50%, and most preferably at most 25% measured according to DIN ISO 527-1/-3, and a thickness of at most 90 μm and preferably of at most 75 μm.
US08273263B2
An ionic compound is provided that has an anion represented by a: formula (1) and a cation represented by a formula (2): where X is an element selected from the group consisting of B, C, N, O, Al, Si, P, S, As, and Se, M1 and M2 are identical or different, and represent linking groups, and, when multiple M1s or multiple M2s are present, they may be identical or different, Q represents a monovalent element or organic group, a represents an integer of 1 or more, and b, c, d, and a each represent an integer of 0 or more; and RS-LH⊕(2) where L is an element selected from the group consisting of C, Si, N, P, S, and 0, R represents a monovalent element, functional group, or organic group, and s represents an integer of 2 to 4.
US08273261B2
The invention includes methods in which silicon is removed from titanium-containing container structures with an etching composition having a phosphorus-and-oxygen-containing compound therein. The etching composition can, for example, include one or both of ammonium hydroxide and tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide. The invention also includes methods in which titanium-containing whiskers are removed from between titanium-containing capacitor electrodes. Such removal can be, for example, accomplished with an etch utilizing one or more of hydrofluoric acid, ammonium fluoride, nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide.
US08273255B2
An economical fat, oil and grease removal assembly and method includes a container having a bottom, a top, a sidewall, an inlet and an outlet. The outlet is spaced above the bottom and below the top to define a static water level for liquid in the container. The container includes at least one baffle extending downwardly to a level below the static water level. The container further includes a port at an elevation such that F.O.G. floating on water in the container can flow from the container out through the port when the liquid level in the container is raised above the static water level. The assembly further includes an inlet bridge, an outlet bridge and a storage tank arranged to accept F.O.G. that is flowed out of the container. A hub on the storage tank interfaces the container with the storage tank.
US08273243B2
The invention describes an improved process for deep desulfurization of a gas-oil-type hydrocarbon fraction that comprises a catalytic hydrodesulfurization unit that is preceded by a unit for adsorption of the nitrogen compounds that inhibit the hydrodesulfurization reaction.
US08273240B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for treating wastewater that contains emulsified oil is provided. The method comprises feeding the wastewater that contains the emulsified oil to an electrolytic tank, and oxidatively electrolyzing the wastewater that contains the emulsified oil using indissoluble electrodes. The negatively charged emulsified oil particles in the wastewater are neutralized on a surface of an anode during the oxidative electrolysis. The anode comprises an indissoluble electrode with oxygen radical-generating characteristics. The method further comprises particle group electrolyzing the wastewater using particle groups, and discharging the treated wastewater.
US08273238B2
The invention relates to a tool for the electrochemical machining of a fuel injection device, the tool having an electrode holder and an electrode element which forms a cathode during the machining operation in order to be able to electrochemically remove material from the fuel injection device in a machining region. The electrode element is arranged in such a way that it can be displaced in relation to the electrode holder.
US08273234B2
The present invention relates to a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), and, more particularly, to a printed circuit board in which a special-purpose dot circuit and an external circuit are simultaneously formed in order to improve electrical efficiency, for example by decreasing impedance and electromagnetic waves, and a method of manufacturing the same. The method of manufacturing a printed circuit board, including a copper clad laminate that includes an insulated substrate and a piece of copper foil applied on one side of the insulated substrate, includes the steps of (a) adhering a dry film including a photosensitizing agent on the copper foil, and then exposing and developing the dry film, thereby forming a dry film opening for forming a dot circuit, (b) forming a copper plating layer by performing electroless or electrolytic plating, and then stripping the dry film other than the copper plating layer, thereby forming a dot circuit, which is a first metal layer, (c) further adhering a dry film including a photosensitizing agent on the dot circuit, and exposing and developing the dry film, thereby forming an external circuit, and (d) forming a second metal layer by performing electroless or electrolytic plating in order to improve the conductivity of the dot circuit and external circuit.
US08273230B2
A cathode electrophoretic deposition (EPD) suspension is provided by mixing an ionomer solution with an electrolyte. An anode EPD suspension is provided via mixing carbon nanomaterial (CNM)-supported catalyst with a solution of the same composition as that of the cathode EPD suspension. Ultrasonication and high-speed stirring are executed on the cathode and anode EPD suspensions, thus turning them into homogenous suspensions. There is provided a low-voltage EPD apparatus incorporated with a porous material to separate it into anode and cathode compartments. The anode and cathode EPD suspensions are filled in the anode and cathode compartments, respectively. An inert gas is introduced into the anode compartment for stirring the anode EPD suspension. An electrode base substrate is used as the anode of the EPD apparatus. A low-voltage direct current (DC) power supply is used to supply DC low voltage to the EPD apparatus, thus evenly coating a catalyst layer on the substrate. The catalyst layer coated on the substrate is washed with de-ionized water and dried, thus forming a membrane fuel cell (MFC) electrode.
US08273228B2
Portable device for the measurement and control of analytes in biological fluids, provided with biosensor for measurement and control of biological fluids such as glucose and other analytes characterized by the possibility of using electrolytic cells with two, three or more electrodes, with polarization voltage between a few millivolts and 100 millivolts; the possibility of measuring the fluid temperature at the outlet of the electrolytic cell in high resolution mode for diagnostic purposes, hence it can also be used for performing very accurate thermal compensation of the electrochemical measurement; the possibility of performing optimised correction of both the systematic and random errors in the measurement performed; the possibility of calibrating the sensors used more accurately and efficiently and, lastly, the possibility of performing the measurement with much lower polarization voltages at the electrodes than the equipment in the state of the art with consequent benefits in terms of reduced wear of the electrodes used and reduced susceptibility to electrochemical interferences in the measuring phase.
US08273221B2
An apparatus and method are provided for improved utilization of a sputter target in the longitudinal end regions. The focus of erosion in the end regions is widened, thereby extending the useful life of the target. This provides improved efficiency and reduces waste because a greater proportion of the target material in the more expansive central region can be harvested, because the target is utilized for a longer period of time.
US08273217B2
To present a paper manufacturing apparatus for used paper recycling apparatus small enough to be installed in a room of small shop or the like, friendly to the environment, low in running cost, and high in confidentiality. The paper manufacturing apparatus includes a paper making process unit for manufacturing wet paper from pulp suspension sent from a pulp making section in preceding process, the paper making process unit includes a paper making conveyor for manufacturing and conveying the pulp suspension, the paper making conveyor is composed of a mesh belt of paper making mesh structure of numerous mesh cells for filtering and dewatering the pulp suspension disposed so as to run straightly toward its running direction, and the paper making process length in the mesh belt is set in a range of straight running direction length of the mesh belt in the apparatus case of furniture size. As a result, a used paper recycling apparatus of small size and simple structure is realized.
US08273215B2
The present invention provides a method for producing a coated paper, including steps of coating a base paper coated with an aqueous solution of a water-soluble polymer with a coating liquid containing at least a pigment and an adhesive to produce a coated paper, and calendering the coated paper having a moisture content of not more than 5.5% by weight. The present invention also provides a method for producing a coated paper, including steps of coating a base paper having a moisture content of not more than 4% by weight with a coating liquid containing at least a pigment and an adhesive to produce a coated paper, and calendering the coated paper having a moisture content of not more than 5.5% by weight.
US08273191B2
Provided is a high-strength stainless steel material having less deterioration in mechanical strength and improved workability, particularly bending workability compared with conventional steel materials. The high-strength stainless steel material of the present invention has a specific composition, has a metal microstructure composed of two phases, that is a ferrite phase and a martensite phase, has a γmax of from 50 to 85, the γmax being represented by the following equation (1): γmax=420Wc+470WN+23WNi+7WMn−11.5WCr−11.5WSi+189 (1) wherein, Wc, WN, WNi, WMn, WCr, and WSi; represent contents (unit: mass %) of C, N, Ni, Mn, Cr, and Si relative to the total mass of the stainless steel material, respectively; and has a difference of 300 HV or less in hardness between the ferrite phase and the martensite phase.
US08273190B2
A method of preparing an aqueous composition of a chromium III compound, comprising adding hydrogen peroxide to a mixture comprising water and a chromium VI compound in the presence of at least one acid according to the formula H2GF6, in which G is a Group IV-B element. The composition may contain less than 500 ppm of alkali metal ions and less than 200 ppm of halide ions, relative to chromium and may test negative for chromium VI using s-diphenylcarbazide. The composition may be used for treating a metal surface, among other applications.
US08273186B2
Mat washing device, method of using the mat washing device, and method of washing mats. The mat washing device includes a system that may be transported on a flat bed trailer from one location to another. The mat washing device includes conveying systems, brush systems, rails systems and control mechanisms. The mat washing device may be used by placing mat, on edge, on a conveying system and conveying the mat to a first brushing system and a second brushing system. In one aspect the first brushing system includes a cable brush having a bolt secured at the end of a cable in order to beat or brush material from the mat when the cable brush is spun.
US08273179B2
A deposition mask for depositing a thin film and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The deposition mask is configured to ensure a positioning accuracy and a pattern size accuracy and is suitable for use in manufacturing a high definition display device. The deposition mask includes at least one pattern mask having the same patterns as the patterns that are to be formed on a substrate and a frame mask which has at least one opening. The pattern mask is individually and non-detachably fixed to the frame mask at a region of the frame mask corresponding to the opening.
US08273174B2
A cement product incorporating nanocrystalline cellulose and cellulose fiber throughout the product and a method of making the product.
US08273167B2
The present invention provides: a pigment dispersion composition including (A) an organic pigment, (B) a pigment derivative represented by Formula (I) below and (C) a polymer compound having a pigment-adsorptive functional group; a curable color composition including the pigment dispersion composition, a polymerizable compound and a polymerization initiator; and a color filter having a color region formed using the curable color composition and a method for producing the same. Q represents an organic colorant residue; A represents an ethylene group or the like; and R represents a hydroxyl group or a group represented by —NH-A-Z; Z represents —SO3H, —COOH or a salt thereof; and n represents an integer of from 1 to 4. When R represents —NH-A-Z, the structures represented by the two —NH-A-Zs bonded to the triazine ring contained in each of the n partial structures bonded to Q may be the same as each other or different from each other.
US08273166B2
A phase change ink compositions, comprising a novel colorant wax to prevent and/or reduce printhead and nozzle contamination in ink jet printers caused by drooling and faceplate staining. In particular, there is provided novel colorants containing acid groups for use in phase change ink compositions and which are compatible with phase change ink components.
US08273163B2
A flame-retardant hydrocarbon adsorption trap is adapted for mounting within an air intake tract. The traps includes a hydrocarbon vapor adsorbent media adapted to adsorb hydrocarbon vapors from an intake tract when an engine is not operating then later releasing the vapors when the engine runs. The trap includes at least two air permeable HCA media retention layers positioned in a spaced parallel relationship and forming a gap there-between into which hydrocarbon vapor adsorbent media is received. The retention layers are formed of a synthetic fiber media adapted to provide flame-resistant properties.
US08273160B2
A method and apparatus for extracting CO2 from air comprising an anion exchange material formed in a matrix exposed to a flow of the air, and for delivering that extracted CO2 to controlled environments. The present invention contemplates the extraction of CO2 from air using conventional extraction methods or by using one of the extraction methods disclosed; e.g., humidity swing or electro dialysis. The present invention also provides delivery of the CO2 to greenhouses where increased levels of CO2 will improve conditions for growth. Alternatively, the CO2 is fed to an algae culture.
US08273152B2
A separation method and apparatus that separates a component from a feed stream by use of a membrane in which separation is driven, at least in part, by a sweep stream. The sweep stream may be pumped to a supercritical pressure and then heated to at least near supercritical temperature, at least in part, through heat exchange with a component laden sweep stream being discharged from the membrane. A multi-component mixture can also be used that will produce the sweep stream as a vapor as a result of the heat exchange. The component laden sweep stream, due to cooling through the indirect heat exchange, will form a two-phase fluid that can be phase separated into a vapor phase enriched in the component that can be taken as a product and a residual liquid that can be recirculated in the formation of the sweep stream in the liquid state.
US08273146B1
Provided is a silicon wafer which is stabilized in quality exerting no adverse influence on device characteristics and manufactured by restricting a boron contamination from the environment, and a manufacturing process therefor. Concretely, the silicon wafer is characterized by an attached boron amount thereon being 1×1010 atoms/cm2 or less. In order to manufacture such a wafer as contains a small amount of boron attached on the wafer surface, the wafer is treated in an atmosphere of boron concentration of 15 ng/m3 or less. Boron-less filters and boron adsorbing filters are used as filters in a clean room and the like so as to lower the boron concentration in the atmosphere.
US08273135B2
Provided is a method of manufacturing a solid electrolytic capacitor including a capacitor element, the capacitor element having an anode body with a dielectric coating film formed on a surface thereof and a solid electrolyte made of a conductive polymer. The method includes the steps of: forming the capacitor element having the anode body with the dielectric coating film formed on the surface thereof; preparing a polymerization liquid A containing one of a monomer as a precursor of the conductive polymer and an oxidant, and a silane compound; preparing a polymerization liquid B by adding the other of the monomer and the oxidant that is not contained in polymerization liquid A, to polymerization liquid A; and performing polymerization after impregnating the capacitor element with polymerization liquid B.
US08273133B2
Systems and methods for providing deeper knee flexion capabilities, more physiologic load bearing and improved patellar tracking for knee prosthesis patients. Such systems and methods include (i) adding more articular surface to the antero-proximal posterior condyles of a femoral component, including methods to achieve that result, (ii) modifications to the internal geometry of the femoral component and the associated femoral bone cuts with methods of implantation, (iii) asymmetrical tibial components that have an unique articular surface that allows for deeper knee flexion than has previously been available and (iv) asymmetrical femoral condyles that result in more physiologic loading of the joint and improved patellar tracking.
US08273121B2
The invention is a surgical instrument (1) used in ophthalmology, which allows a penetrating or lamellar cornea transplant without the use of suture. It comprises a set of arc segments interconnected by a small diameter polypropylene wire (2), which goes through the internal body structure of each segment. The first arc segment (3), also called the segment guide, is an arc of 160-330 degrees with a circular cross-section and a rounded edge. The second arc segment (4), also called the main segment, is an arc of 270-360 degrees, and has a horizontal or oblique cross-section tangential to the surface of the cornea, or a circular cross-section. The third arc segment (5), also called the secondary segment, has a thickness or cross-section greater than that of the main segment.
US08273118B2
A valve holder assembly for delivering a prosthetic heart valve having a stent base an multiple extending commissure posts. The valve holder assembly includes a holder and a rotor that is rotatable relative to the holder.
US08273103B2
A surgical needle having an elongate needle body and a needle point formed on a distal end of the needle body, the needle body manufactured from an elongate cylindrical blank. The needle body has at least one textured-profile lateral face, which has at least one textured-profile lateral-face region provided with a textured profile, wherein the textured profile has a plurality of indentations and wherein the at least one textured-profile lateral-face region extends as far as the needle point.
US08273102B2
Compliant inserts for surgical instruments having improved traction are provided. The clamping surface of the inserts includes a plurality of short and densely arranged traction elements. The tractive force supplied by the traction elements approaches that of steel jawed clamps.
US08273086B2
Methods and devices for treating spinal deformities are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, a low-profile spinal anchoring device is provided for receiving a spinal fixation element, such as a tether, therethrough. The device generally includes a staple body that is adapted to seat a spinal fixation element, a fastening element for fixing the staple body to bone, and a locking assembly for coupling a spinal fixation element to the staple body. In one embodiment, the locking assembly includes a washer that is adapted to couple to the staple body such that the spinal fixation is disposed therebetween, and a locking nut that is adapted to engage the staple body to mate the washer to the staple body.
US08273081B2
A method is disclosed for planning the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias by RF ablation with a remote navigation system, including the identification of ablation lines around the pulmonary veins ostia—atrial junctions based on impedance measurements. When used by itself or in conjunction with electro-anatomical approaches, the impedance method therein disclosed enables safe and effective arrhythmia treatment.
US08273071B2
Embodiments of a system including a remotely controlled substance delivery device and associated controller are described. Methods of use and control of the device are also disclosed. According to some embodiments, a delivery device or related device may be placed in an environment in order to pump a material into the environment or into an additional fluid handling structure within the device. Exemplary environments include a body of an organism, a body of water, or an enclosed volume of a fluid. The concentration of a substance in the fluid to be delivered may be modified by a remote control signal. In selected embodiments, a magnetic field, an electric field, or electromagnetic control signal may be used.
US08273066B2
A mass produced absorbent article having an image of a quality that is commercially acceptable. The image is produced by ink jet printheads applying ink to a web moving at high speed under the jets in the course of manufacturing the article. The image is printed at low resolution but is characterized in part by a higher coverage area ratio and brightness.
US08273063B2
An implantable pump (10) is provided for pumping a drug in a patient's body (100). The pump includes a drug delivery chamber (22) configured to be filled with the drug and a drug delivery catheter (50) having a catheter lumen (58) and a distal end (56), the drug delivery catheter in fluid communication with the drug delivery chamber and configured to deliver the drug to a delivery site (102). It also includes a pushing element (44) coupled to the distal end of the catheter, and configured to push away from the catheter lumen fibrotic matter that has developed in response to the drug delivery catheter. Other embodiments are also described.
US08273048B2
A method and various devices are disclosed that facilitates the measurement of hemodynamic parameters by injection of an indicator in an indicator dilution technique using an extracorporeal circuit connected to a patient. Specifically, the invention deals with problems caused by the spike in pressure in an extracorporeal line that result from the injection of a bolus. The method and various devices provide for diversion of blood during an indictor injection process and then return of the diverted blood back into the system after the injection is completed. The variations of the invention use diversion lines, accommodating cases and other devices that are designed to accumulate blood displaced during injection and then returning the blood to the extracorporeal circuit after injection.
US08273047B1
A shoulder lift includes a hollow bent shaft that has a first end and a second end and that defines an interior of the bent shaft. First and second openings leading to the interior of the bent shaft are formed at the first and second ends, respectively. The shoulder lift also includes a cable having a first end and a second end. The cable runs through the first opening formed at the first end of the bent shaft and the second opening formed at the second end of the bent shaft such that the cable is threaded through the interior of the bent shaft. The first end of the cable is configured to be coupled to an arm sleeve for holding a patient's arm, and the second end of the cable is configured to be coupled to a support structure that locks into a to fixed position.
US08273041B2
An arm cradle for holding and stabilizing an arm of a post-operative shoulder surgery patient is provided. The arm cradle has a cradle body having a first concave section adapted to accept at least a portion of an upper arm of a patient and a second concave section adapted to accept at least a portion of a lower arm of the patient. The first concave section and the second concave section may be arranged at an obtuse angle with respect to one another. A fabric cover may be provided for the cradle body. One or more straps may be affixed to one of the cradle body or the fabric cover and used to secure the arm cradle to the patient and/or to secure the arm of the patient in the arm cradle.
US08273038B1
In combination, vertically percussive vibration and non-symmetrical forces are applied to a patient. The non-symmetrical forces may be generated by a variety of unevenly applied weights that are supported at appropriate body locations in a manner that upsets normal body load symmetry. The non-symmetrical forces in combination with vertically percussive vibrations induce neuromusculoskeletal proprioceptive re-education and development within a living body to correct musculo-skeletal disorders including but not limited to scoliosis. A special posture modifying chair and head-orienting glasses may be used instead of or in addition to unevenly applied weights. An additional force concentrating treatment apparatus is also presented.
US08273037B2
A method and system for adipose tissue treatment. The system of the invention includes an applicator configured to apply negative pressure pulses to a skin surface when activated by a controller, where the negative pressure is created during a time interval in which the flow of water through the cell membrane is not significant. An intensity of the negative pressure is used that causes selective damage to fat cells.
US08273032B2
An implanted system includes at least two optical sensors implanted proximate to an artery of a patient such that one optical sensor is upstream of another optical sensor. Arterial pulses of the patient may be detected based on electrical signals from at least one of the optical sensors. In addition, electrical signals from the optical sensors may be used to minimize the effects of motion artifacts on the detection of arterial pulses. For example, a detected pulse may be determined to be a spurious pulse if the optical sensors indicate the occurrence of the pulse within a predetermined range of time. As another example, a first optical sensor signal may be shifted in time relative to a second optical sensor signal, and the signals may be correlated. An arterial pulse may be detected at a time at which a peak or trough amplitude value of the correlated signal is observed.
US08273028B2
An electrical connector is described. In one implementation, the connector includes a female portion including one or more electrical contacts and a male portion including one or more electrical contacts. The female portion and the male portion each have a self-orientating geometry that allows the male portion to be mated with the female portion in any rotational position along 360 degrees of rotation. When mated, the electrical contacts of the female portion mate with corresponding one or more electrical contacts of the male portion to form one or more electrical connections between two electronic components.
US08273025B2
An ultrasound probe having a forced cooling system for circulating a liquid through a probe cable. The ultrasound probe comprised of a handle unit including a plurality of ultrasound transducers, a flexible cable connected to the handle unit and a connector unit coupled to the cable. The cable includes a plurality of electric signal lines and a cooling liquid circulation flow channel. The circulation flow channel is comprised of an outward path for transmitting the cooling liquid from the connector unit to the handle unit, and a return path for transmitting the cooling liquid from the handle unit to the connector unit. At least either one of the outward path or the return path is comprised of a plurality of thin tubes.
US08273022B2
An analyte monitor includes a sensor, a sensor control unit, and a display unit. The sensor has, for example, a substrate, a recessed channel formed in the substrate, and conductive material disposed in the recessed channel to form a working electrode. The sensor control unit typically has a housing adapted for placement on skin and is adapted to receive a portion of an electrochemical sensor. The sensor control unit also includes two or more conductive contacts disposed on the housing and configured for coupling to two or more contact pads on the sensor. A transmitter is disposed in the housing and coupled to the plurality of conductive contacts for transmitting data obtained using the sensor. The display unit has a receiver for receiving data transmitted by the transmitter of the sensor control unit and a display coupled to the receiver for displaying an indication of a level of an analyte. The analyte monitor may also be part of a drug delivery system to alter the level of the analyte based on the data obtained using the sensor.
US08273021B2
An apparatus for measuring skin moisture content in a user's skin is provided. The apparatus may include a signal supplier to generate an out-of-phase signal from a voltage signal obtained from the user's skin and an in-phase signal from the voltage signal, a susceptance measurement unit to measure the susceptance of the voltage signal by synchronizing the voltage signal and the out-of-phase signal received from the signal supplier, a conductance measurement unit to measure the conductance of the voltage signal by synchronizing the voltage signal and the in-phase signal, and an output unit to output sweat gland activity information of the user based on the measured conductance and skin moisture content information of the user based on the measured susceptance.
US08273011B2
A method of treating urinary incontinence, the method including introducing a surgical implant through an incision made on an upper wall of a patient's vagina. The surgical implant includes a suburethral support, first and second suspending members, and first and second polymer tissue anchors. Each tissue anchor is coupled with a respective one of the first and second suspending members, wherein a distance between the suburethral support and the second anchor is adjustable. The first tissue anchor is inserted into tissue on a first side of a urethra of the patient without penetrating an abdominal wall. A position of the suburethral support is adjusted relative to the patient's urethra by pulling the second suspending member through the patient's vagina to adjust the distance between the suburethral support and the second anchor. And the distance between the suburethral support and the second anchor is fixed.
US08273004B2
A paper folding mechanism includes: first and second folding rollers (51, 52); first and second conveyance rollers (61, 62); a protrusion member (71); and a control part. Both the rollers (51, 52) are provided so that a paper is sandwiched therebetween with its fold line located in front, and is allowed to pass therethrough in a first direction. The first folding roller (51) and the first conveyance roller (61) are provided so that the paper is sandwiched therebetween and conveyed in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The second folding roller (52) and the second conveyance roller (62) are provided so that the paper is sandwiched therebetween and conveyed in any one of the second direction and the direction opposite thereto. The protrusion member (71) is provided so that the fold line of the paper conveyed by both the rollers (61, 62) is protruded in the first direction and fed between both the rollers (51, 52).
US08272997B2
In an elliptical step exercise apparatus a dynamic link mechanism can be used to vary the stride length of the machine. A control system can also be used to vary stride length as a function of various exercise and operating parameters such as speed and direction as well as varying stride length as a part of a preprogrammed exercise routine such as a hill or interval training program. In addition the control system can use measurements of stride length to optimize operation of the apparatus.
US08272991B2
In a hybrid vehicle, in order to stop an engine while a clutch is kept engaged and to transmit power from a motor to a drive shaft by changing a change speed state of a transmission when the power from a second motor is being transmitted to the drive shaft by the transmission, for example, a rotation speed of the first motor is adjusted so that the first motor can be connected to the drive shaft with the clutch disengaged while torque commands for both motors are set so that the power based on torque demand is outputted to the drive shaft, the power is transferred from the second motor to the first motor while both motors are connected to the drive shaft by the transmission, and the connection between the second motor and the drive shaft by the transmission is disconnected.
US08272987B2
A hybrid powertrain has an engine, an input member, an output member, and a stationary member, and includes a single planetary gear set having a first, a second, and a third member. The input member is connected for common rotation with the engine and the output member is connected for common rotation with the second member. A single motor/generator is continuously connected for common rotation with the third member. A starter motor is operatively connected to the engine for starting the engine. A first torque-transmitting mechanism is selectively engagable to connect the input member for rotation with the first member. A second torque-transmitting mechanism is selectively engagable to ground the first member to the stationary member. A third torque-transmitting mechanism is selectively engagable to ground the third member to the stationary member. The powertrain is operable in an electric-only operating mode, an engine-only operating mode, and an electrically-variable operating mode.
US08272981B2
Pulley assembly for a continuously-variable vehicle transmission, comprising a support element having an axis, a first half-pulley rotationally connected to the support element, a second half-pulley facing the first half-pulley to define a seating adapted to house a drive belt, the second half-pulley being axially and circumferentially mobile in relation to the support element, and cam means functionally inserted between the second half-pulley and the support element to control the position of the second half-pulley. The cam means define a plurality of circumferential cavities carried by a peripheral portion of the second half-pulley, said cavities being defined by the first and second sides which are transverse to axis, and comprise a plurality of cam-followers which are connected to the support element and housed in the corresponding circumferential cavities to cooperate selectively with the first and second sides.
US08272980B1
A jacket for an inflatable bladder such as an exercise ball. The jacket has a durable cover with an access section having an inner panel defining an access opening. Outer panels overlie the inner panel and have edges which extend across the opening and are provided with closures. In use, the outer panels may be separated at fasteners so a bladder may be removed or inserted through the access opening. The inner panel and the outer panels may be a woven material with their weave oriented to resist distortion when the bladder is inflated and to assist in securing the closure. The cover may be any suitable material such as a coated nylon providing durability.
US08272968B2
A pool game system includes a pool table having a playing surface, rails and pockets, pool balls and at least one cue stick. A plurality of illuminating components are within the rails of the pool table. A plurality of contact sensors are each within the rails and pockets of the pool table. A computer within the pool table causes one illuminating component to flash when one contact sensor detects one pool ball propelled by the at least one cue stick, when in a first instance the pool ball bounces off a rail and when in a second instance the pool ball enters a pocket of the pool table.
US08272967B2
A demountable stage includes a substantially cylindrical central hub, which has a vertically extending central axis and is adapted to support a vertically extending pole, a plurality of radially outwardly extending support members mounted to the hub and a stage platform. The stage platform comprises a plurality of segments that are adapted to be supported on the support members.
US08272959B2
A remotely accessed lottery system in accordance with the present invention, includes at least one gaming location including a plurality of terminals, each terminal including a display and an input device, the terminals being connected on a local area network. A dedicated transmission link is coupled to the local area network. A central station is remotely disposed relative to the at least one gaming location, the central station coupled to the local area network by the dedicated transmission link. The central station further includes at least one computer for generating tickets to be sent to the terminals pursuant to requests by players to participate, wherein the tickets are digitally rendered on a display of the terminals and have outcomes predetermined at the central station prior to the request for purchase and also includes a device for updating player accounts responsive to requests for participation and winning results as determined at the central station. A method for playing virtual scratch off games is also included.
US08272951B2
Systems and method provided herein involve a mechanism that allows users to have more input and influence in customizing their virtual characters' profile by developing their attributes. By developing and improving attributes of their characters, the social value of their characters can be increased within the virtual environment. Additional attributes that can be developed include, but are not limited to, strength, speed, agility, intelligence, creativity, style, streets-smart, safety-awareness, grooming, cooking, and manners. Jobs, tasks, classes, sessions, and the like, as well as competitions can be created that emphasize one or more attributes to facilitate encouraging users to have their characters learn, master, and test such new skills.
US08272936B2
In accordance with some exemplary and non-limiting embodiments, a method, an apparatus and a computer readable medium are provided for receiving a request from at least one lottery player to purchase at least one lottery ticket comprising a plurality of symbols, issuing the at least one lottery ticket to the lottery player, associating the at least one lottery ticket with a lottery team formed of at least one other lottery player associated with at least one other lottery ticket associated with the lottery team, determining an occurrence of a qualifying winning event based on the plurality of symbols of all of the lottery tickets associated with the lottery team, and determining a payout for the lottery team based upon the occurrence of the qualifying event.
US08272926B2
System and method for controlled atmosphere stunning of chickens in a batch mode is provided. The disclosed method includes the steps of: loading one or more batches of chickens in a stunning chamber and sealably enclosing the stunning chamber to isolate the atmosphere therein. Carbon dioxide is then introduced to the isolated atmosphere in a series of three, four or five phases to humanely stun the chickens. The carbon dioxide containing atmosphere is subsequently forcibly exhausted from the stunning chamber and the ranks of cages or modules containing the stunned chickens are advanced to the tipper or dumping station.
US08272921B2
A frame and comb foundation and method for controlling Varroa mites in a honeybee hive. In a first embodiment the invention is comprised of half portions of the frame and comb foundation in combination with a power supply, heating element, electronic control unit (ECU), temperature sensor and an optional diagnostic system. The ECU which may be mounted on the frame and comb foundation or, in a separate enclosure is comprised of a micro-controller and other circuitry. The temperature sensor is mounted adjacent to the heating unit. The power supply may mobile or stationary, such as a battery or line current.In a second embodiment, the frame and comb foundation is interconnected with similar frame and comb foundations in multiple hives that include individual ECU's and temperature sensors and individual wireless electronic communication systems, a single power source and individual heating elements. The multiple temperature sensors are mounted adjacent to the heating elements. The ECU's are mounted on the frame and comb foundations or in separate enclosures. The ECU's are comprised of logic circuits or micro-controllers and other circuitry. The power source may be a mobile or stationary source such as a battery.
US08272916B2
A bubble generating assembly has a housing having a motor, an air generator coupled to the motor, and a bubble generator associated therewith. The assembly also includes a source of bubble solution, and a pump system provided inside the housing that draws bubble solution from the source to the bubble generator. The bubble generator includes a plurality of openings, with bubble solution delivered to the bubble generator flowing through the openings. The air from the air generator is delivered upwardly through the openings.
US08272904B2
An electrical connector assembly includes a main conductive member and a tap conductive member separately fabricated from one another. Each of the main and tap conductive members including at least one conductor receiving channel, wherein the main and tap conductive members together include at least three channels configured to receive conductors therein and extending along three different channel axes. The channel(s) of the main conductive member is configured to receive a main power line conductor, and the channel(s) of the tap conductive member is configured to receive a tap power line conductor. The main and tap conductive members are joined to one another such that the main conductive member and the tap conductive member cooperate to capture the main power line conductor therebetween when the main and tap conductive members are joined, and the tap conductive member and the main conductive member cooperate to capture the tap power line conductor therebetween when the main and tap conductive members are joined.
US08272901B2
A crimp contact including a first component that has opposite leading and trailing ends and a central axis that extends therebetween. The first component has a component wall that includes an interior surface and a wall edge. The interior surface defines a contact passage that extends along the central axis. The wall edge defines a passage opening at the trailing end. The crimp contact also includes a second component coupled to the first component. The second component includes a sheet wall that has body and sleeve portions joined together along a wall joint. The body portion is located within the contact passage and extends about the central axis to define a crimping cavity. The sleeve portion is folded over the body portion at the wall joint so that the sleeve and body portions define a radial gap therebetween. The component wall is located within the radial gap.
US08272898B2
An electrical connector system includes a substrate (1) connected to PHY side and an electrical connector (3) mounted on the substrate (1), a transformer (5) and a common mode filter (7). The electrical connector (3) is used to mate with a cable assembly and so forms a Cable side. The transformer (5) further includes a first wire (51) having two opposite ends electrically connected to the PHY side and a second wire (53) having two opposite ends. The common mode filter (7) has a third wire (73) and a fourth wire (75) that are physically separated from and electrically connected to opposite ends of the second wire (53).
US08272893B2
The coaxial cable connector has a coupler, a post, and a ring that prevent interfaces from gapping and provide a robust alternative ground path that also RF shields the connector from both ingress and egress. The ring is disposed in between and engages at least a portion of a groove in the body and at least a portion of the channel in the coupler, radial movement of the coupler causes the axial movement of the body relative to the terminal.
US08272890B2
The invention refers to a modular adapter for a connector insert, characterized in that it comprises a hollow body provided with a through cavity for receiving a connector insert, an external wall of said hollow body being provided with reversible retention means able to cooperate with the internal wall of a through hole in a connector box in which said adapter is intended to be mounted. The invention also refers to a connection unit comprising two modular adapters, respectively male and female adapters.
US08272888B2
An electrical connector for transmitting data signals between the insulated conductors of a first data cable and corresponding insulated conductors of a second data cable, including a first part having a socket shaped to at least partially receive a plug of said first data cable; a second part having a plurality of insulation displacement contact slots shaped to receive end sections of the conductors of the second data cable; and a plurality of electrically conductive contacts including resiliently compressible spring finger contacts extending into the socket for electrical connection with corresponding conductors of the first cable; insulation displacement contacts seated in corresponding insulation displacement contact slots for effecting electrical connection with corresponding conductors of the second data cable; and mid sections extending therebetween, wherein mid sections of the contacts are seated in corresponding channels.
US08272875B1
An addiction simulator for use in an educational program, operable for (i) periodically requesting simulated addictive behavior, (ii) receiving a satisfaction signal from an assigned individual in response to a generated request, representing consumption of an amount of addictant in limited supply, and (iii) refusing acceptance of a satisfaction signal when the supply of addictant has been exhausted. The duration of the interval between requests can based upon a physiological characteristic of the assigned individual.
US08272869B2
A dental matrix includes a band with an edge for placement toward the gingival margin of a tooth to be restored, and a strip of material such as dental floss, attached to and extending along an edge of the band. In the preferred embodiment, buccal and lingual extensions are located beyond a central portion of the band along the edge. The extensions are folded over the strip of material so as to secure the strip of dental floss to the edge. The strip of material facilitates the insertion of the band in the interproximal space between two teeth.
US08272864B2
An injection mold having pre-heating device, the pre-heating device, and method for pre-heating injection mold are provided. The pre-heating device includes a high frequency coil member and a transportation device having a Z axle servo motor, a Z axle linear sliding rail, an annular transportation belt and a lifting rack. The annular transportation belt is driven by the Z axle servo motor. The high frequency coil member is hung on the lifting rack. The lifting rack is moveably connected to the Z axle linear sliding rail, coupled to the annular transportation belt and is driven by the annular transportation belt to perform an ascent or descent movement along the Z axle linear sliding rail.
US08272858B2
The invention relates to a piston pump for conveying fluids. The piston pump includes a piston, and a pressure chamber located between an intake valve and a discharge valve. The intake valve is arranged between the pressure chamber and a low-pressure zone of the piston pump. The intake valve has a valve body, a closing element, a device for preloading the closing element, and a device for fastening the intake valve to the piston. The fastening device encompasses at least two fastening elements which protrude from the valve body toward the piston. The fastening elements are positioned at a distance from one another, and are fitted with inlets therebetween for supplying fluid. The invention further relates to a piston pump having an intake valve without a spring-biased element.
US08272854B2
This impeller-free vacuum cleaner is based on a rotary piston. Vacuum suction of 300 inches of water or better can be delivered. Quietness of below 70 db can be delivered. Tongued rotary piston assemblies may be strategically placed, such as stacked, to eliminate vacuum suction dead zones. Sealing problems that otherwise were encountered with previous reciprocating and rotary piston structures for vacuum cleaners are solved by using a tongued rotary piston with a double-notched rotary valve operating by a Geneva mechanism, and a novel pancake-shaped cylindrical structure to house the rotary piston. An inventive rotary combustion engine also is disclosed.
US08272845B1
Systems and methods for asymmetrical pumping in low speed, low volume fluid recovery. According to the system and method, fluid is recovered from a well using an asymmetrical recovery motion. A walking beam is actuated about a first pivot point between an upstroke motion and a downstroke motion in response to rotation of a crank wheel. The crank wheel rotates more than 180 degrees during the upstroke and rotates less than 180 degrees during the downstroke. Further, the walking beam and the crank wheel are in communication with one another by an arm extending there between, wherein the arm is positioned on an opposite side of the first pivot point from the well.
US08272843B1
A substrate exposed to high temperatures, the substrate having a TBC layer that includes fibers of reinforcing material to add strength to the layer of TBC. The fibers are made from carbon nanotubes to withstand the high temperatures, and have a diameter of about 0.1 mm or less in order that a thin layer of TBC can completely cover and embed the fibers within the layer. A bond coat is applied to the substrate and the fibers are attached to the bond coat to limit the fibers from being pulled away from the substrate. The carbon nanotubes also provide for improved heat transfer through the TBC to improve the cooling capability of the TBC.
US08272841B2
A propeller blade assembly having mounting arrangements for composite aircraft propeller blades.
US08272840B2
A blade support limb structure of a vertical axis wind power generator includes a fixed support limb (1) and a rotatable support limb (2), one end (21) of the rotatable support limb is connected with one end (22) of the fixed support limb and the rotatable support limb may rotate around it. The structure keeps a wind wheel at stable rotation speed in the case the environmental wind speed exceeds the rated wind speed, thereby to ensure that vertical axis wind power generator outputs constant power. The structure solves a problem of constant power output of the vertical axis wind power generator from hundreds watts to thousands watts, so its applications are wide.
US08272838B2
An impeller includes an impeller body which rotates about a rotation axis, and a vane which is provided at the impeller body. The impeller body receives force asymmetric with respect to the rotation axis in driving and rotation in a fluid in a manner that radially inward fluid force, which is generated due to arrangement of the vane, acts on a predetermined point in a peripheral direction. In the impeller body, a filled space filled, in a fluid, with the fluid is formed.
US08272836B1
A pump suction assembly comprising a suction sheet having a receiving hole, a flat central section, a first outer section and a second outer section extending away from the central section at an angle; a pipe having a bend, an inlet portion having at least one vortex flat and directed toward and at least partially disposed in the receiving hole and flush with a bottom of the suction sheet; a tank having a base; at least one standoff arranged to support the first outer section at a perimeter of the first outer section; at least one standoff arranged to support the second outer section at a perimeter of the second outer section; and at least one standoff arranged to support the central section, wherein the inlet portion is directed toward and proximate to the base.
US08272831B2
A power generating apparatus suitable for use in extracting energy from the movement of water, in particular tidal movement, is disclosed. The apparatus includes an elongate, generally circular in cross section, buoyancy vessel (1), having depending from its underside on a mounting means, rotatable rotor blades (2). The rotor blades are connected to a power generating means whereby in use of the apparatus movement of water across the rotor blasé, drives them so as to generate power in the power generating means.
US08272817B2
The invention relates to a tool for machining a workpiece, which tool is rotatable about a tool axis, having a tool shank and a tool head, which tool head comprises at least one land, at least one spiral point assigned to the land and at least one flute assigned to the land, wherein the flute has a left-hand helix and the spiral point is skewed to the left, or wherein the flute has a right-hand helix and the spiral point is skewed to the right.
US08272816B2
Composite articles, including composite rotary cutting tools and composite rotary cutting tool blanks, and methods of making the articles are disclosed. The composite article includes an elongate portion. The elongate portion includes a first region composed of a first cemented carbide, and a second region autogenously bonded to the first region and composed of a second cemented carbide. At least one of the first cemented carbide and the second cemented carbide is a hybrid cemented carbide that includes a cemented carbide dispersed phase and a cemented carbide continuous phase. At least one of the cemented carbide dispersed phase and the cemented carbide continuous phase includes at least 0.5 percent by weight of cubic carbide based on the weight of the phase including the cubic carbide.
US08272813B1
A combination power tool and object sensor includes a power tool body having a handle with a free end. An object sensor, such as a stud finder is located at the free end. The object sensor is oriented with respect to the free end of the handle such that a user may use both the object sensor, and the power tool without repositioning his or her hand with respect to the power tool handle. The object sensor is nonremovable.
US08272812B2
Retaining wall building blocks for receiving fill material during construction of a retaining wall, retaining walls constructed with the building blocks and methods of manufacture of the building block wherein the block comprises a cast cement body having a base, a generally upright face wall extending upward from the base, two generally upright side walls extending upward from the base and generally rearward of the face wall, the base, upright face wall, and side walls each having an inner and an outer surface, the side walls each having a top and a rearward most end, and a fill receiving cavity defined by base inner surface, side wall inner surfaces and face wall inner surface for receiving fill material, the fill receiving cavity having a volume wherein a ratio of the volume of the fill receiving cavity to the volume of the retaining wall building block is at least 0.75:1, respectively.
US08272808B1
A plug for a tubular service entrance of a conduit, wherein the plug includes a core body having a central hollow channel extending from a first end to second end of the core body; at least one flexible fin extending radially outwardly from the core body and having an outer diameter greater than the inner diameter of the tubular service entrance so that the plug is adapted to fit tightly into the tubular service entrance, and wherein the at least one flexible fin is deformable to adapt to the shape of the service entrance and apply a lateral force against the inner diameter of the service entrance. A plug dispensing magazine for storing and dispensing service entrance plugs to be service entrances of a conduit prior to installation of a liner in the conduit and a method of sealing the service entrances.
US08272807B2
A surface drainage structure formed above a subgrade may include an elongate drain conduit disposed partially within the subgrade. The elongate drain conduit may define at least one drain slot extending through a wall thereof. The structure may include a pavement layer with an exposed top surface and a drainage channel extending therefrom. The drainage channel may be in fluid communication with the drain slot of the elongate drain conduit. A method of forming the surface drainage structure includes placing the elongate drain conduit in the subgrade, forming the pavement layer, cutting an upper channel along the elongate drain conduit, and cutting a lower channel and the drain slot in the elongate conduit.
US08272802B2
The present invention relates to a slotted joint comprising a central pin and an outer tube. In one embodiment, the slotted joint comprises a first and second elastomer arm, which are bonded to an outer surface of the central pin diametrically opposite each other and spaced apart from each other to form a first and second space. The slotted joint further comprises a first abutment positioned in the first space and a second abutment positioned in the second space. The first and second abutments include an abutment part made of a rigid material and a cylindrical sector made of an elastomer. The cylindrical sector may be bonded to an outer surface the central pin and to an inner surface of the abutment part. An outside face of the cylindrical sector is spaced apart from the inner surface of the outer tube when the joint is at rest.
US08272795B2
A cartridge detachable from a printer has a roll paper unit including roll paper, a roller, and flanges, and a separation member used to pull out the roll paper from the roll paper unit. Upon rotating the roll paper unit in a direction to feed out the roll paper, the roll paper is brought into contact with the separation member, thereby pulling out the roll paper from the roll paper unit and feeding out the roll paper to outside the cartridge.
US08272784B2
An exemplary sleeve bearing system includes a bearing housing, a sleeve bearing and a resilient washer. The bearing housing defines a receiving hole therein. The receiving hole has a first diameter. The sleeve bearing has a second diameter which is slightly less than the first diameter, and the sleeve bearing is received in the receiving hole of the bearing housing. The resilient washer is received in the receiving hole of the bearing housing and is fitted around the sleeve bearing. The resilient washer is sandwiched between the bearing housing and the sleeve bearing and resiliently abuts an outer circumferential surface of the sleeve bearing to thereby mount the sleeve bearing in the receiving hole of the bearing housing.
US08272783B2
Provided is a motion guide device capable of guiding a moving body smoothly without rattle and facilitating separation of the moving body from a main body. The motion guide device includes: a raceway rail having a rolling-element rolling part; a moving block having a rolling-element circulation path including a loaded rolling-element rolling part facing the rolling-element rolling part of the raceway rail and being mounted on the raceway rail movable relative to the raceway rail; a plurality of rolling elements arranged in the rolling-element circulation path of the moving block; and the raceway rail having a mounting member which does not have the rolling-element rolling part and is configured to be mounted onto a counterpart device, and a raceway rail main body which has the rolling-element rolling part and is configured to be mounted on the mounting member detachably.
US08272782B2
A plastic bag includes a plastic bag body with 4-layer gussets on two sides and 2-layer film in the middle. The plastic bag body is provided with a curved hot-seal line near a bottom edge of the bag body. The curved hot seal line turns upward on two sides and is recessed in the middle. Since plastic bags with the structure referred to herein eliminate a stress concentration at a bottom hot-seal location, such plastic bags have increased load-bearing capacity.
US08272775B2
A mixing drier in the form of a spherical mixer comprises an upper vessel shell and a lower vessel shell which can be closed together in a separation plane. A stirrer having a stirrer shaft and stirring elements is affixed to the upper vessel shell. The stirrer axis is inclined to the vertical. The separation plane is perpendicular to the stirrer axis. The stirring elements are located below the separation plane. A hinge is located in the separation plane and allows the vessel of the spherical mixer to be opened for cleaning.
US08272768B2
The light emitting device comprises: a bowl-shaped reflector; a point light source; and a combined lens provided on the light axis of the point light source. And the combined lens has: a convex lens part having a focal point coinciding with the point light source, refracting center light around the light axis into parallel light; and a concave lens part provided around the convex lens part, and refracting and diffusing light having an angle with the light axis larger than an angle between the center light and the light axis so as to increase the angle with the light axis. A virtual focal point of the light refracted and diffused with the concave lens part coincides with the focal point of the paraboloid of revolution.
US08272763B1
The light fixture includes a ceiling mounted, hollow support body generally comprised of pre-existing fluorescent lighting troffer, a base plate hingedbly mounted to the support body preferably via a hook/slot assembly and comprised of a heat dissipating aluminum material, a power supply unit mounted along a top of the base plate, a plurality of lighting units, each being electrically connected to the power supply unit, and each being mounted to the base plate, the plurality of lighting units each including at least one light emitting element. The lighting units are comprised of a plurality of individual strips dispersed along the bottom of the base plate for optimal heat dispersion. The base plate may have flat or angled mounting surfaces for the lighting units depending on a direction of emitted light and heat dissipation. A diffuser panel may be spaced below the lighting units and hingedbly mounted to the support body.
US08272760B2
A LED display includes at least two standard LED units connected side by side, having a peripheral hole and wire passing hole, a wire passing hole stopper, comprising a first annular seat, fixed around the wire passing hole via a first double sided adhesive, a first silicon rubber sealing ring, and a first screw, provided on one side of the wire passing hole; a second annular seat, fixed around the wire passing hole via a second double sided adhesive, a second silicon rubber sealing ring, and a second screw, provided on the other side of the wire passing hole, and a peripheral hole stopper comprising a third annular seat, fixed around the peripheral hole via a third double sided adhesive, a peripheral hole cap, and an O-shaped sealing ring provided between the third annular seats and the peripheral hole cap.
US08272754B2
An outdoor Christmas tree assembly includes a cone-shaped frame (10) formed of frustum-shaped frame segments (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24) detachably stacked one on top of the other. Each frame segment includes annular frames (30) and slanted lateral frames (40). One or more frame segments are formed of end-to-end detachably connected arc-shaped frame sections. Tree branches (50) are detachably mounted on the annular frames. Each tree branch may include at least one set of lights, an electric socket, and an electric plug. A harness cord system (78) runs from top to bottom along a lateral side of the frame, and has socket outlets for electrically coupling to the electric plugs of the tree branches. Harness cords are secured to the frame by clamps (71). The frame may be supported on a base structure (200) having therein a working platform (250). The outdoor Christmas tree assembly is also applicable for indoor use.
US08272753B2
An indicator-integrated rearview mirror for a vehicle in which the number of components are reduced to simplify and lighten the structure thereof. A housing of a rearview mirror is divided into two of a front housing and a rear housing which are made of resin, an indicator system is supported by the front housing, and a mirror part is supported by the rear housing. Both housings are attached to each other by engagement of locking pawls with locking holes. A spherical-shaped engaging part supports the mirror part while the angle thereof can be adjusted. The rear housing is configured by integrally forming an accommodation part for the mirror part and an attachment stay part attached to the vehicle body-side, and the front housing is configured by integrally forming an accommodation part for the indicator system and a cover for covering the attachment stay part.
US08272749B2
A high resolution 3D projection system having a light source (302) for generating and emitting light, a translucent rotatable drum (308) having differently polarized sections for receiving the light therethrough, a plurality of digital micromirror device imagers (324, 326, 328 and 330) configured to receive and reflect the light transmitted through the drum (308), where a light beam is capable of being passed generally orthogonally through a wall of the drum is disclosed.
US08272748B2
A projection-type display apparatus that projects an image toward a projection surface and displays the image thereon, the apparatus includes: a projecting section that includes a focal length adjusting mechanism and projects an image; an adjustment image controlling section that uses the projecting section to project a guide display image suggesting how to adjust the position where the projection-type display apparatus is installed and uses the projecting section to project a calibration image having a predetermined shape when the guide display image is projected; a projection distance measuring section that measures a projection distance that is the distance to the projection surface based on a captured image obtained by capturing the calibration image; and a focus adjusting section that operates the focal length adjusting mechanism based on the projection distance to perform focus adjustment so that the displayed guide display image is brought into focus.
US08272738B2
An apparatus and a method for recognizing a person's gaze are disclosed, where the apparatus includes a main body, an eye-movement detector, a data generator and a transmitter, where the main body has the specific area. The eye-movement detector can detect whether a gaze is fixed on the specific area. The data generator can generate gaze data when the gaze is fixed on the specific area. The transmitter can transmit the gaze data to terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can receive information that the gaze is fixed on the specific area based on the gaze data, so that the terminal equipment can provide a prompt based on the gaze data.
US08272734B2
A non-progressive ophthalmic lens used in eye frames is provided with at least two distinct viewing areas. A very large lower area (lower relative to the face and eyes of the wearer) is provided with near to intermediate range vision correction prescription. A smaller, top portion of the lens is provided with distance range viewing correction prescription or zero power. In order to reduce image jump, the lenses are positioned such that the major axis of the base lens intersects and ends on the major axis of the supplementary lens, and both major axes lie in the same vertical plane. The two lens segments meet at a lined or blended intersection to minimize consumption of non-optically viewable space.
US08272727B2
A method is implemented to control movement of a solid ink stick from an insertion port to a corresponding feed channel to help ensure that each feed channel in a plurality of feed channels contains only ink sticks corresponding to the feed channel. The method includes receiving solid ink sticks in an insertion port located at one end of a feed channel in the solid ink printer, identifying each ink stick received in the insertion port, and removing a passage barrier from the feed channel in response to the ink stick being identified as corresponding to ink configured for passage through the feed channel.
US08272725B2
A liquid container including a container body to store a liquid, a pressure release mechanism to open and close a pressure release path in the container body, and a fixing member to fix a holder of the pressure release mechanism to a cylindrical holder mounting part of the container body by being inserted into each of a mounting portion of the holder and a mounting portion of the cylindrical holder mounting part from a horizontal direction perpendicular to positions of multiple hooks provided to the container body while the holder including a valve mechanism is inserted into the cylindrical holder mounting part.
US08272724B2
A liquid container includes an air introduction portion configured to introduce air into a liquid chamber. The air introduction portion includes an air communication passage, and a blocking member positioned in the air communication passage and configured to block the air communication passage. The air introduction portion also includes a movable member positioned in the air communication passage and configured to move toward the blocking member, such that blockage of the air communication passage by the blocking member is released. The movable member includes an air passage formed therethrough, and the air passage is in fluid communication with the air communication passage. The air introduction portion further includes a gas-permeable film positioned on the movable member and closing the air passage.
US08272717B2
A printing device for jetting a liquid includes a flow path body having a plurality of jetting flow paths, a liquid in the plurality of jetting flow paths, a piezoelectric actuator associated with each jetting flow path, a feed substrate having a plurality of fluid inlets, and a driver configured to apply a voltage pulse to the piezoelectric actuator. The first jetting flow path is adjacent to the second jetting flow path and a fluidic travel distance from the piezoelectric actuator of the first jetting flow path to a nozzle of the second jetting flow path is greater than a speed of sound in the liquid times the break off time of a droplet of the fluid from the nozzle.
US08272716B2
A liquid jet is ejected out of a nozzle, the liquid comprising one or more components, the flow of one or more of said components, the active components, being separated such that the liquid that flows within a boundary layer thickness δ, of the nozzle wall is substantially comprised of a liquid without the active components, the continuous phase, and the said active components flow substantially outside said boundary layer where δ is defined by formula (I): where μ is the continuous phase viscosity in Pa·s, U is the jet velocity in m/s ρ is the continuous phase density in kg/m3 and x is the length of the nozzle in m in the direction of flow. δ = μ x ρ U ( I )
US08272712B2
In multipass printing, a mask pattern which increases the degree of dot dispersion in each pass is used for a combination of inks for increasing glossiness when printing an image. Contrary, a mask pattern which decreases the degree of dot dispersion in each pass is used for a combination of inks for decreasing glossiness. Thus, an entire image can be made uniformly glossy by suppressing gloss unevenness within the image.
US08272706B2
A driving signal includes an ejection driving pulse having an expansion element and a constriction element, and a non-ejection driving pulse having an expansion element and a holding element and a constriction element. The length of time from the end of the constriction element in the ejection driving pulse to the beginning of the expansion element in the non-ejection driving pulse is taken as t; the lengths of time of the expansion element, holding element, and constriction element in the non-ejection driving pulse are taken as a, b, and c, respectively; and the inherent vibration cycle of the liquid within the pressurizing chamber is taken as Tc. t, a, b, and c are within the ranges defined by the following equations: Tc/4≦t≦Tc/2 (1) (5Tc/8)−t≦a≦(3 Tc/4)−t (2) b+c=Tc−t−a (3).
US08272699B2
A brake apparatus is provided that can make a ratio between a front wheel braking force and a rear wheel braking force that is actually generated into an arbitrary ratio. This brake apparatus includes a pedal operation detection section that detects a pedal stroke or a brake pedal force produced by a brake pedal operation; a brake caliper that is provided in each wheel of a vehicle and that generates a caliper force that is in accordance with a detection value of the pedal operation detection section; a load estimation section that estimates a load of each of the wheels; and a force generation section that, after judging that braking is performed in a state in which a load difference exists between left and right wheels of the vehicle based on a value that is estimated by the load estimation section, even if the pedal operation detection section detects a pedal stroke or a brake pedal force that is the same as for the braking at a time of judging or for braking prior to the judging, generates a caliper force that is different to the caliper force before the judgment.
US08272685B2
An automotive vehicle seat back adapted for movement between an upright position and a lowered position has an air duct with an intake located adjacent an upper portion of the seat back and an outlet located adjacent a lower portion of the seat back. The air duct takes in ambient cabin air at its upper end and that air is directed to an electronics compartment located behind the seat in order to cool the electronics regardless of whether the seat back is in the raised or the lowered position.
US08272678B2
The invention relates to a sliding door system, comprising at least one sliding door, wherein a guide rail is provided in the vehicle body in the vicinity of the door opening. A guiding element can be displaced along the guide rail, the element being connected to the sliding door via a retaining arm. The sliding door system has a power conducting unit, which is formed by members connected to each other in an articulated manner for receiving and guiding at least one line, which extends from a stationary connection on a vehicle body to a connecting element. The power conducting unit can be displaced in the longitudinal direction of the guide rail. The guide rail overlaps the power conducting unit at least in some regions.
US08272676B2
A tarp deploying apparatus of the type that has radial arms pivotally attached at the front and rear of a trailer. A housing for supporting a tarp roll and a motor is pivotally attached at the free end of a radial arm such that the tarp roll and housing will tuck under a side lip at an upper portion of the side of the trailer. The rear radial arm is formed with a bend between the pivotal attachment point to the rear of the trailer and the free end of the radial arm, such that the free end of the radial arm is closer to the front of the trailer. A roller with enhanced traction characteristics helps to move the apparatus out of a storage position. A spring used to bias the radial arms can be adjusted to adjust the amount of biasing force.
US08272664B2
The airbag assembly features an airbag cushion, a deployment flap, an extension flap attached to the deployment flap, and a lateral flap. The deployment flap is configured to protect the airbag cushion as it deploys from the module housing. The extension flap is configured to position the airbag cushion during deployment. The lateral flap is configured to allow for proper airbag deployment.
US08272662B2
The present application describes a gooseneck coupler assembly that may include a gooseneck trailer pivot, an extension arm, and a pivot retention mechanism having a ball socket. The ball socket may engage with a hitch ball located on a towing vehicle. The gooseneck trailer pivot may be mounted on a towed vehicle or trailer and be capable of pivoting about a vertical axis relative to the trailer. During engagement, the ball socket and the extension arm may provide tilt capability but thereby prevent any rotational movement relative to the hitch ball. However, the gooseneck coupler assembly may still be able to tilt fore-and-aft or side-to-side relative to the hitch ball. Therefore, the only pivotal movement relative to a vertical axis would be permitted at the gooseneck trailer pivot.
US08272660B2
A stand device for a motorcycle includes an interlocking mechanism having a coil-formed stand spring connected to a stand at one end thereof. A spring support member has a spring support portion connected with the other end of the stand spring and is interlocked and connected to an operating element so that the position of the spring support portion can be changed according to a manual operation of an operating element. The position of the spring support portion determined according to the operation of the operating element toward the erect position side is so set that the stand spring is put in the state of urging the stand toward the erect position side.
US08272659B2
A bicycle frame for employment in a bicycle for riding by a user in a substantially vertical as-used position. The frame has a shape which defines an aperture within the interior surface of a surrounding frame. The frame is preferably formed of planar material which has ends which do not block the view into the aperture when the bicycle is ridden. Whereby space for indicia on an inserted vertically disposed planar member is maximized. The planar member has a perimeter defining a shape that is complimentary to the shape of the aperture and when engaged therein provides support to the frame to prevent deformation thereof when in the as-used position under a load. The indicia positioned on the planar member may be advertising which can easily be changed using removable planar members with different indicia.
US08272651B2
A torsion beam type suspension has no risk that a beam body will directly contact with a fuel tank, or that a frontward projecting portion of a stabilizer will contact with the fuel tank. In a torsion beam type suspension in which a pair of trailing arms are connected to the beam body to form an H-shaped torsion beam, and both ends of the stabilizer separate from the torsion beam are connected to the trailing arms, both-side parts of the stabilizer 7 extending along the beam body 2a are attached to a vehicle body 4, a portion between vehicle body attachment parts 9 of the stabilizer 7 is curved downward, and the curved part 10 is disposed at the rear of the fuel tank 11 and in front of the beam body 2a.
US08272650B2
A low-end adjusting mechanism for vehicle suspensions useful for compensating rolling and pitching motions and for leveling purposes, in which a vehicle spring (1) having a longitudinal axis is mounted between two spring seats or receptacles (2, 3), and at least one spring seat can be adjusted in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the spring by rod shaped coupling elements which are mounted at both ends in an articulated or pivotable manner.
US08272642B2
A warpage leveling unit includes a surface roughening member that is provided to oppose to a side end portion of an image carrier which has an endless-belt-shape, is entrained around a plurality of rollers, and carries an image on a surface of the image carrier, wherein the surface roughening member comes into contact with a surface of the side end portion which is warped.
US08272641B2
A laser printer is equipped with first to fourth motors, and controls independently first to fourth driving portions, respectively. The laser printer does a continuous double-side printing for a preceding paper and a following paper. When the preceding paper on a first surface of which the printing is applied is conveyed to a predetermined position, the laser printer feeds the following paper. When the preceding paper exceeds a sensing range of a paper sensor, the laser printer conveys the preceding paper at a high-speed re-conveyance velocity in a switchback mode. When the feeding of the following paper is done normally, the laser printer conveys the preceding paper to a re-conveyance path while lowering the conveyance velocity to a normal re-conveyance velocity. When an error occurs in the feeding of the following paper, the laser printer stops the conveyance of the preceding paper in the switchback mode.
US08272639B2
A document processing device capable of detecting a multifeed condition is configured to determine criteria of the multifeed or condition. If a detected multifeed meets the criteria, a detection of the multifeed or condition may be ignored.
US08272633B2
An image forming apparatus includes a main housing, a post-processing unit including a pivotable processing tray, and a recording medium discharging outlet. The processing tray includes a lock member, urging member and lock releasing member. The lock member is supported movably between first and second positions. The lock member engages with an engaging hole at the first position and disengages from the engaging hole at the second position. The urging member urges the lock member towards the first position. The lock releasing member resists a force applied by the urging member so as to allow the lock member to travel to the second position. A recording medium depressing member is disposed within a pivotal range of the lock member. A first slope is provided on at least one of a contact portion of the lock member and a contact portion of the recording medium depressing member.
US08272626B2
A bubbler (2) for delivering liquid or solid metalorganic compounds to a reactor site. The bubbler has an inner and outer chamber and has a member (14) positioned between its inlet (6) and outlet (8) that is provided with a plurality of apertures therein. The member (14) is preferably in the form of a perforated disc having a predefined density of apertures therein to provide optimum pick up and flow of carrier gas through the bubbler.
US08272623B2
A lifting device for lifting a shipping container off a flat bed of a truck is described. The device comprises a cross member and a pair of arms connected thereto. The upper ends of the arms engage in the connector castings at the upper end of an end of the container. The cross member carries near its ends a pair of guides through which a pair of legs are slidably mounted. The upper end of each leg has an outwardly directed lug. A block and tackle unit is connected between the lug and the cross member. There is a lifting device at each end of the container. When the unit is actuated the container is lifted off the flat bed so that the truck can move away and the container thereafter lowered on to the ground.
US08272619B2
An object-mounting aid such as a wire guide, comprising a first leg at a proximal end and a second leg at a distal end, with a hinge therebetween, wherein the second leg is longer than the first leg. The hinge may allow the second leg to pivot relative to the first leg so as to increase or decrease a gap between the second leg and the mounting surface, which may make it easier to position a wire on the second leg and may allow the second leg to serve as a ramp surface for the wire. The first leg includes a channel configured to receive and couple to a portion of a mounting device, e.g., by frictional engagement, which may be assisted through the use of detents on the guide. In addition, the guide may include a notch on the rear face of the first leg, the notch shaped so as to mirror or otherwise interface with at least a portion of the holder.
US08272613B2
The present invention relates to a mounting device having a metallic base plate, from which multiple fastening projections project, as well as a method for producing this mounting device. The mounting device is obtainable by incising multiple tab blanks into the surface of the base plate while leaving at least one connection section per tab blank. The fastening projections are produced by bending the tab blanks out of the base plate, multiple fastening projections forming a group and the fastening projections within the group being bent in such a way that sections lying distal from the base plate are inclined toward the interior of the group and a section lying between the connection section and inwardly inclined section projects toward the exterior of the group.
US08272611B2
An embodiment of a locking bottle holder includes a bottle support having a base portion, a body portion, and a top portion; and a collar plate having a collar portion with at least one dispenser opening, and a support portion with a first limit pin hole. The locking bottle holder further includes a first limit pin having a limit pin notch and a first limit pin shaft passing through the first limit pin hole, a first ring affixed to the support portion, and a floating lock pin passing through the first ring. The floating lock pin includes a lock pin shaft having a lock pin notch and rotatable between unlocked and locked positions. In the locked position, the support portion of the collar plate is positioned proximate to the body portion and the lock pin shaft is substantially engaged with the limit pin notch.
US08272603B2
A stand, in particular a floor stand, having an arm for holding an object, in particular an imaging device in the form of an ultrasound transducer, said arm being mounted on a vertical column and movable vertically via a vertical guide, wherein a counterweight balancing the weight of the arm is provided on or in the vertical column, a device (24) being provided for moving the counterweight (21) counter to the weight force (FG) for at least partially overriding the counterbalance.
US08272592B2
A method/system for controlling helicopter vibrations is provided that includes a vibration canceling force generator for actively generating a vibration canceling force. The system includes a resonant actuator having a natural resonant frequency and a resonant actuator electronic control system. The resonant actuator electronic control system provides an electrical drive current to the resonant actuator to drive the resonant actuator about the resonant frequency when commanded by a received command signal. The resonant actuator has a feedback output with the feedback output fed back into the resonant actuator electronic control system wherein the resonant actuator electronic control system adjusts the electrical drive current based on the resonant actuator feedback output to generate the vibration canceling force.
US08272589B2
A blade assembly 1 has a body 2 having a top, closed end 3, a bottom end 4 formed with an opening 5 at its end, and an interior chamber 6. A blade 7 having two cutting edges 8, 9 is fixed to the body 2, and it may be insert molded. A motor shaft engagement sleeve 10 has an opening 11 adapted to engage a driven shaft (not shown) of a conventional food processor motor (not shown) in order to transmit torque therefrom in order to rotationally drive the blade 7.
US08272585B2
A shredder having a safety feature(s) that reduces potential safety hazards. The shredder may include a timer mechanism adapted to automatically prevent the shredder blades from being activated if the selectable control has been in the activated state for a predetermined amount of time without any material being detected for shredding.
US08272581B2
A container for a substance to be sprayed includes a reservoir for the substance and operable spraying means connected to the reservoir for spraying the substance. The spraying means are provided with at least two spaced apart outflow openings that are in fluid communication with the reservoir for spraying the substance in at least two spray beams to surroundings.
US08272574B2
A document for personal identification, having a chip module including the following components: a chip and a leadframe, wherein the chip is connected to the leadframe, an outer cover, wherein the outer cover is connected to a transponder substrate. A first component of the chip module is connected to the outer cover and a second component of the chip module is connected to the transponder substrate in such a way that, in the case of separation of outer cover and transponder substrate, the first component of the chip module is separated from the second component of the chip module.
US08272570B2
Techniques for decoding a multi-modal barcode are provided. The techniques include scanning a multi-modal barcode into a grayscale image, applying a threshold to quantize the grayscale image into a monochrome image, passing the monochrome image to 1D barcode recovery to reconstruct a primary barcode, applying a horizontally-oriented edge detector to the grayscale image to quantize grayscale into monochrome, passing the monochrome image to a 1D barcode recovery process to reconstruct a secondary barcode to decode the multi-modal barcode.
US08272569B2
An apparatus for communicating with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag with a feeding device configured to feed a tag medium; an antenna for label production and an antenna for information acquisition that can respectively transmit or receive information to a RFID circuit element for label production or for information acquisition; an antenna switching control portion configured to switch so as to selectively transmit an inquiry signal to the RFID circuit element for label production or for information acquisition; and a mode processing portion configured to carry out processing corresponding to a communication processing mode or an information acquisition processing mode.
US08272550B2
The present invention provides an apparatus for shooting a nail comprising a barrel, a barrel support, a centering sleeve, a link frame, a cylinder, a piston rod and an outer housing, wherein the barrel is mounted removably in the barrel support. As desired, the barrel may be removed conveniently to facilitate the replacement of the barrel for different application or removal of the nail blocked in the apparatus for shooting a nail. Furthermore, at least two longitudinally elongated slots may be formed in the centering sleeve and penetrate through the wall of the centering sleeve, the steel balls received in the slots are held in the slots via a snap ring so as to embrace the rod body of the piston rod. Therefore, it is ensured that the piston rod is concentric with the barrel when hitting the nail and the hit force of the piston rod will not lose.
US08272549B1
An offset, double-sided tape dispenser. The dispenser mounts two independent rolls of single surface adhesive tape on a common spindle. One of the rolls is inverted resulting in one roll wound clockwise and the other roll wound counter clockwise. The tapes are simultaneously drawn from the two rolls through a guide, across a roller and then a cutter. The clockwise wound roll tape has its adhesive surface facing upward as the tape crosses the roller. The counter clockwise wound roll tape has its adhesive surface facing downward as the tape crosses the roller. The clockwise wound roll tape is positioned beneath the counter clockwise wound tape as the tape passes through the guide. This results in the counter clockwise tape being joined to the clockwise tape as both tapes pass over the roller. The resulting double sided adhesive tape is then formed into desired lengths by the cutter. The degree of single tape overlap, resulting offset and resulting width of the resulting double sided adhesive tape is determined by the width of the guide.
US08272541B2
A dispenser for measuring and dispensing powder materials includes a slide housing having a powder inlet slot, a slide having a measure slot, and an elastic element. The slide is pressed against the slide housing by the elastic element to make the slide move relative to the slide housing. The slide moves between the first position and the second position. On the first position, the measure slot is in alignment with the powder inlet slot and the powder is filled into the measure slot; on the second position, the measure slot moves away from the powder inlet slot and the powder is discharged from the measure slot. The elastic element makes the slide press against the slide housing during moving to reduce the clearance between the slide and the slide housing, makes the slide move smoothly, and reduces the precision demand of manufacture and assembly.
US08272531B2
A set of handles is provided for gripping a first cooking culinary article that includes a first container, and a second cooking culinary article that includes a second container. These containers can be stacked in a stationary stacked position. Each handle includes a stud and/or a housing defined at least partly by a hollow zone of the handle, and a locking protrusion adapted to engage a reception zone and/or a reception zone adapted to engage a locking protrusion. The housing and/or stud of the first handle can engage with the housing and/or stud of the second handle for holding the containers superimposed in the stationary stacked position in which the first container does not contact the second container. The locking protrusion and/or reception zone of the first handle can engage with the locking protrusion and/or reception zone of the second handle, with the locking protrusion located along a vertical wall of the stud, and the reception zone located along a vertical wall of the housing.
US08272526B1
A container has a lid (20) that can be opened only by lifting and pulling a pull tab (30), with lifting of the pull-tab resulting in an evident change. The pull tab (30) is held down by attachment (interference fit, weld, glue) to a lid surface (38) by a hold-down (40) that is joined to the pull tab by a pair of bridges (52, 54). When the pull tab is lifted, the bridges are broken. Thereafter, the pull-tab springs up slightly from the lid plane, under the force of one or more spring walls (80, 81) and a hinge (34), which makes it evident that the container has been opened.
US08272523B1
A holder for circular containers of polish, waxes, pastes and liquids comprising a generally circular base having an underside surface cupped downward and a hollowed circular aperture having an aperture bottom and at least one vertical aperture wall adapted to frictionally accept a container. The holder includes an adapter ring having an outer diameter corresponding to the at least one vertical aperture wall and an inside diameter adapted to frictionally support the container. The downward cupped underside surface is adapted to create a vacuum adhesion to a support surface upon which it is placed when a downward pressure is applied to the holder.
US08272514B2
A packing apparatus includes a case for receiving a plurality of electronic devices and a plurality of mounting members placed in the case. Each mounting member defines a receiving space. A shock-absorbing member is located in the receiving space and divides the receiving space into two mounting spaces. A shock-absorbing block is located in each mounting space. A slot is defined between the shock-absorbing block and the shock-absorbing member. A side of the shock-absorbing block towards the shock-absorbing member defines an oblique plane as a cushioning surface, and the oblique plane abuts the shock-absorbing member when the shock-absorbing member is bent.
US08272511B2
An article of commerce includes a disposable cleaning article and a package. The package exhibits soft visual and sound characteristics. The package is formed as a multilayer packaging film including at least a co-extruded vapor barrier film layer and a polymeric film layer having a melting point at least about 20° C. less than the co-extruded film layer. The polymeric film layer is sealable to form the package so as to enclose the disposable cleaning article, thereby to substantially retain the water content of the disposable cleaning article. The polymeric film layer further exhibits a corrected sound level of less than approximately 50 decibels at readily audible frequencies, such as 3-5 kHz. The reduced sound level may be achieved by providing a film with a high loss tangent. In addition, the multilayer packaging film may have an outer surface with a soft or “matte” appearance.
US08272505B2
The jewelry organizer includes a case with a top portion and a base portion hingedly connected to one another and structured and disposed to be controllably and completely attached to one another to enclose a plurality of storage compartments. Each of the compartments is attached to an inside of one of the top and bottom portions in a manner that allows the compartments to fold over one another in a nesting fashion. Each compartment is at least partially made of an at least partially transparent material that allows the contents of the compartment to be visible without opening the compartment. Accordingly, the jewelry organizer allows jewelry to be visualized and accessed without removing other jewelry items or opening more than one compartment.
US08272504B2
The present invention relates to a fastener assembly (1) for attaching a carrier (2) to a conveyor chain (3). The fastener assembly (1) comprises a first and a second link plate (4, 5), connected by means of link pins (9) such that they define between them an interspace (6). The first link plate (4) has an outer side (8). The fastener assembly (1) further comprises a fastener (10) for a carrier (2), which fastener (10) is attached to the first link plate (4) at the outer side (8) thereof by means of a retainer (11), which retainer (11) at least partially encompasses the first link plate (4) and extends into the interspace (6). The present invention also relates to a carrier (2) for use with the fastener assembly (1), a conveyor chain (3) comprising at least one fastener assembly (1) and a method for modifying a conveyor chain (3).
US08272501B1
A pneumatically driven powder feeder system which is partly disposed within a municipal sewer for the purpose of providing periodic dispersal of wastewater treatment powder. A pneumatic source apparatus is disposed outside the sewer and provides a pneumatic source regulated by a solenoid valve control system. A pneumatically driven powder feeder apparatus is disposed in the sewer and is connected to the pneumatic source by a feed line. In response to periodic delivery of the pneumatic source to the pneumatically driven powder feeder apparatus, the powder is delivered to the wastewater of the sewer.
US08272500B2
A screw driven conveyance device has a conveyance carriage driven continuously and smoothly irrespective of the presence of an air space between adjacent screw shafts. Shorter auxiliary screw shafts have a pitch equal to a pitch of the screw shaft and are placed in juxtaposition with the screw shafts. The conveyance carriage has a follower roller engaged with the screw shaft and an auxiliary follower roller engaged with the auxiliary screw shaft by deviating a position in an axial direction of the screw shaft. While the follower roller moves through the air space, the auxiliary follower roller is engaged with the auxiliary screw shaft.
US08272498B2
In a conveyor for transporting and overturning flat objects, such as sheaves of paper or printed materials, a first ring-bound belt (10) is positioned above a second belt (20), which is also ring-wound, in such a way that an active branch (13) of the first belt (10) faces and is in contact with a corresponding active branch (23) of the second belt (20). The first belt (10) and the second belt (20) are subject to an axial torsion of 180°, thus exchanging their positions in such a way that the sheaves (2) which are inserted into an input section (30) exit overturned from an output section (40). Further, the first belt (10) is longitudinally staggered in relation to the second belt (20), in such a way that an upstream roller (11) of the first belt (10) is staggered in relation to a corresponding upstream roller (21) of the second belt (20), and that the downstream roller (22) of the second belt (20) is staggered in relation to a downstream roller (12) of the first belt (10).
US08272494B2
A conveyor assembly includes a main conveyor and a swing auger assembly pivotally coupled to an inlet end of the main conveyor for loading particulate material into the main conveyor. The swing auger assembly includes two first and second augers which are slidable relative to one another to vary a length of the swing auger assembly between a loading hopper at an inlet end of the swing auger assembly and the main conveyor connected at an outlet end of the swing auger. The swing auger assembly is suspended from an overhead support member extending upwardly from the inlet end of the main conveyor such that the swing auger assembly is pivotal through an intermediate position overtop of the main conveyor between first and second laterally offset positions on opposing sides of the main conveyor.
US08272488B2
Overrunning coupling and control assemblies, each of which includes control apparatus having a latching mechanism are provided. Each latching mechanism prevents an actuator arm of an overrunning coupling assembly from moving in a first direction substantially parallel to a shift direction of a control plate of the coupling assembly within a housing slot in a locked condition of the mechanism in a first position of the control plate. A control pressure signal within a bore of the housing changes the condition of the latching mechanism from locked to unlocked to unlock the actuator arm and causes the unlocked actuator arm to move along the first direction within the slot and the control element to move along the shift direction to a second position. The control pressure signal also causes a piston which has a groove formed in its outer surface to receive and retain a free end portion of the actuator arm to slide within the bore in the housing against the biasing force of the at least one biasing member. In the absence of a control pressure signal, the at least one biasing member moves the piston and thereby the unlocked actuator arm in a second direction opposite the first direction within the slot and the control element along the shift direction from the second position back to the first position and changes the condition of the latching mechanism from unlocked to locked to lock the actuator arm.
US08272481B2
An elevator door guide (16) includes at least one elevator door guide member (30, 32) having a first channel (18) and a second channel (64) each for at least partially establishing a direction of door movement. The first channel (18) is open in a first direction (24) and the second channel (64) is open in a second direction (66). In one example, the channel (18) at least partially establishes a direction of door movement and a passage (26) extends through the elevator door guide (16) in a direction (28) that is transverse to the direction of door movement.
US08272477B1
Novel stowed staircases for attics and the like that exhibit highly effective fireproof properties are provided. The combination of sheet metal well sides with ceramic paper covering, a combination thermal board and cement-like construction door, coupled with a sealed gasket at the interface of the stair bottom with the ceiling provide the necessary long-term fireproof capabilities as well as facilitation in installation as a sufficiently lightweight article. In such a manner, the inventive stairway construction may be easily incorporated within a residential or other type unit to aid in the simultaneous accessibility to an attic (or like location) and ability to prevent fire from easily spreading into or out of said attic via the stair assembly itself.
US08272476B2
A magnetic descent control device is disclosed. The device comprises an input shaft affixed to a rotating driven sheave acting as a drive assembly, which grips a cable guiding the descent path of a body carrying cage. The input shaft has a shoulder upon which rests a rotor. The rotor is encased within a front and back enclosure of conductive material. Disposed along at least one surface of the rotor and/or at least one of the conductors, is a series of magnets such that rotation of the rotor relative to the conductors creates relative motion between the magnets' magnetic field and the conductor inducing eddy currents in the conductor that oppose the magnetic field creating a rotational braking force. As a result, very precise and/or controllable descent may be obtained over a broad range of descent angles and/or distances with little or no mechanical wear or risk of overheating. Preferably, the sheave gripping the cable may have a circumferential groove to better improve traction and grip of the cable. A plurality of such devices may be applied to drive assemblies contacting a common cable, and a plurality of cables may support the cage, each affixed with at least one descent control device.
US08272474B2
In an electric power steering system, when a motor rotation angular speed ω and a motor rotation angular acceleration α of a steering assisting motor both exceed corresponding predetermined values ωs and αs, respectively, an abnormal external force application-determining section determines that an external force equal to or greater than a predetermined value is applied to a steering mechanism, and sets an abnormal external force application determination flag (FLG) to 1. When the abnormal external force application determination flag (FLG) is 1, a d-axis electric current command value-calculating section activates a motor rotation angular speed-reducing section and performs field-strengthening control based on a motor rotation speed/d-axis electric current command value map.
US08272472B2
In a steering operation device, a hydraulic actuator is driven by hydraulic pressure and vary the steering angle of the vehicle. A steering valve adjusts the flow rate of oil supplied to the actuator according to a pilot pressure. A pilot valve adjusts the pilot pressure input to the steering valve according to a difference between a displacement of an operation input shaft and a displacement of a feedback input shaft. A joystick lever is linked to the operation input shaft and moves the operation input shaft according to a tilt angle. A drive device displaces the feedback input shaft. A steering angle sensor detects the steering angle and outputs the angle as a detected signal. A controller sends a command signal to the drive device so as to displace the feedback input shaft according to the detected steering angle.
US08272471B2
A steering system includes a fluid actuator, a first steering circuit in selective fluid communication with the fluid actuator, and a second steering circuit in selective fluid communication with the fluid actuator and disposed in parallel to the first steering circuit. The second steering circuit includes a load-reaction feature and an isolation valve with the isolation valve being adapted to enable and disable the load-reaction feature.
US08272466B2
A robot capable of traveling while constantly directing a predetermined part of a main body to a detection target. In the robot, a main body is jointed to a traveling unit so that relative rotation is possible between the main body and the traveling unit. Based on position information of a detection target detected by a position detection sensor, a control device controls, while the traveling unit is traveling, a body drive motor so that a front surface of the main body constantly faces the detection target and rotates the main body relative to the traveling unit. Accordingly, a CCD camera, a microphone, a speaker, display or the like provided on the front surface of the main body constantly face the detection target. Thus, the robot can reliably communicate with the detection target even during traveling, through mutual transmission of information between the robot and the detection target.
US08272457B2
A latch head assembly for a core receiving apparatus including a core tube assembly and a retrieving head is provided. The latch head assembly includes a support, a first coupling for releasably engaging the retrieving device coupled to a first end of the support, and a second coupling for releasably engaging the core tube assembly coupled to a second end of the support. A core receiving apparatus including the latch head assembly is also provided. A method for inserting and retrieving the core receiving apparatus into and from a drill string is also provided.
US08272453B2
The invention relates to a handheld machine tool, in particular a hammer drill and/or chipping hammer. The tool has an impacting unit which has at least one impacting pin and a guide unit which is provided for guiding the impacting pin. It is proposed that the guide unit is formed from at least two different materials.
US08272449B2
According to a method of recovering petroleum from dormant oil wells or increasing the production of oil wells, an alkali or alkali earth carbonate is introduced into a water layer associated with a subterranean petroleum reservoir and/or an explosive composition is introduced into an oil layer associated with a subterranean petroleum reservoir. CO2 gas is produced by reacting the alkali or alkali earth carbonate with an acid and/or by detonating the explosive composition. An explosive composition can be introduced and detonated to achieve sufficient CO2 gas production to increase pressure within the subterranean petroleum reservoir. Petroleum recovery can be further enhanced through the use of recycling.
US08272434B2
An apparatus for supporting a rotatable tubing string in a well and for tensioning the tubing string includes a tubing head (12) and inner mandrel (34) positioned at least partially within the tubing head and supporting the tubing string. A bushing (32) is supported on the tubing head and engages the inner mandrel, such that the bushing and the inner mandrel rotate together. A tubing rotator (16) is provided for rotating the bushing, with a tubing rotator having a rotator mandrel connected to the bushing. A plurality of circumferentially spaced J-lock mechanisms (56) between the bushing and the inner mandrel are provided for tensioning the tubing string.
US08272423B2
A laminated assembly (10) is mountable on a wall and comprises a back support (20) and opposed side supports (40,50) for holding the laminating roller (60) and nip roller (70). The assembly includes hanging supports (120) for hanging the assembly (10) on a wall oriented so that the nip is substantially parallel to the wall and items to be laminated can be fed from above, passed through the machine and released below the machine.
US08272421B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display device manufacturing system having high productivity per space for installation of manufacturing equipment and making it possible to increase safety by separation of a feed path and a working path and to reduce equipment cost. The system includes a pair of manufacturing apparatuses 100 including panel feeding lines L2 arranged in the same direction, continuous roll R1 and R2 introduction parts 101 and 102, and a pair of film feeding lines L1, wherein the continuous roll R1 and R2 introduction parts 101 and 102 of one and the other of the manufacturing apparatuses 100 are placed on one same side located inside or outside the pair of film feeding lines L1, so that there is no need to provide a continuous roll R1 and R2 feed path P100 and a working path P200 in the same aisle, which can provide high productivity per space for installation of manufacturing equipment 100 and increase safety by separation of a feed path P100 and a working path P200.
US08272419B2
An apparatus for supplying one or more strands of a relatively wide tape to a high-speed graphite tape laminating machine may include a tape supply reel and a backing paper take-up reel rotatably mounted on the machine, a dancer roller mounted on the machine for lateral movement thereon, and a mechanism for actively controlling the rotation of the tape supply and backing paper take-up reels and the lateral movement of the dancer roller relative to the support frame such that the respective tensions in the tapes are maintained substantially constant during both an on-the-fly tape add operation and an on-the-fly tape cut operation of the laminating machine.
US08272417B2
A rotary radial expand collapse tire building drum comprises segments defining an outer circumference of said drum, said segments being divided into two sets, one set being located to each opposite side of a transverse central plane of the drum, said central plane being disposed normal to a rotational axis of the drum, said two sets being adapted to be driven by a rotatable hub assembly between a collapsed position in which a formed tire carcass may be removed from the drum and an expanded position in which a tire carcass may be formed on said drum wherein each set of segments are mounted for selective relative axial using positioning means, and adjustment means is located outside of the rotational axis of the drum, which is arranged to adjust an overall working width of said drum. The invention allows for an axial positioning mechanism of a REC building drum.
US08272413B2
The present invention aims to provide a pneumatic tire for a motorcycle capable of improving turning performance on a wet road surface as compared to that of conventional tires. The pneumatic tire for a motorcycle comprises a tread 28 consisting of a tread central portion having a width of 60% of a tread developed width and tread side portions located outside of the tread central portion in the width direction of the tire and a plurality of wide inclined grooves 42 and narrow inclined grooves 44 inclined at an angle of less than 90 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction of the tire formed in the tread side portion such that the grooves continuously extend over a region of 50% or more of a width of the tread side portion. A groove width of the narrow inclined grooves 44 is set within a range between 0.3 mm and 2.5 mm. A total area of the wide inclined grooves 42 is set to not more than 20% of an area of the tread side portion. Such configuration can satisfy both of drainage performance and block stiffness of the tread contact portion in turning at a high level to obtain a higher grip force in turning on a wet road surface than that of conventional tires.
US08272405B2
The present invention comprises a fitting that is inserted into an exposed pipe in a deep sea by a submersible robot. The robot rotates a bolt which in turn rotates a gear wheel. When said gear wheel is rotated, it will rotate two diametrically opposite drill bits. A spring is placed between the drill bits so that said spring pushes the drill bits toward the inside bore of said exposed pipe. The two diametrically opposite drill bits drill and attach themselves to the inside bore of said exposed pipe.After the drill bits have been attached to the inside bore of said exposed pipe, said robot shall turn two bolts (hereinafter called A and B) which will in turn push a plug towards the exposed pipe. The plug is made of soft but durable material. When the robot tightens said two bolts A and B, the plug will stop any leakage of oil from the exposed pipe.In the preferred embodiment, said plug is made of an elastomer, such as rubber or neoprene.
US08272398B2
A valve assembly for a fuel tank includes a housing. A membrane supported by the housing such that the membrane covers a vapor passage defined by the housing. The membrane allows the passage of vapor through the membrane and prevents the passage of liquid through the membrane. A flow control feature is supported by the housing to assist in controlling flow of a vapor through the membrane and the vapor passage. The flow control feature assists in controlling flow by one of shielding liquid from the membrane and providing variable flow through the vapor passage.
US08272397B2
A device has an annulus having a first end and a second end. A valve plate is coupled to the first end of the annulus by a fastener, wherein the valve plate is adapted to contact a valve seat on a hydrogen producing fuel cover. A diaphragm is coupled to the second end of the annulus by a fastener, wherein the annulus extends through a container for holding the hydrogen producing fuel and wherein the diaphragm moves the valve plate relative to the valve seat responsive to a different in pressure across the diaphragm.
US08272393B2
A valve provides automatic switchover from a plurality of fluid pressure sources to a common outlet. The valve includes first and second spools respectively in first and second spool chambers, and each spool includes at least one sealing member carried thereon for selective sealing engagement with said first and second spool chambers. Fluid passageways transfer spool controlled fluid pressures between the first and second spool chambers. Each of said first and second spools are resiliently biased towards an open position, and fluid-biased towards a closed position. In an open position, the first and second spools are adapted to deliver pressurized fluid from an associated inlet port to an end chamber of the opposite spool chamber. In a closed position, the first and second spools are adapted via the at least one sealing member to inhibit delivery of pressurized fluid. A manifold assembly provides fluid communication to the common outlet.
US08272388B2
The present invention provides a nontobacco or herbal moist snuff composition comprising an herbal component comprising, or consisting essentially of, corn silk. The present invention also provides a method of producing a nontobacco moist snuff composition having an herbal component comprising, or consisting essentially of, corn silk. Corn silk has a light texture, smooth mouth feel, uniform appearance, and a smell and taste that is nonexistent or easily disguisable. When corn silk is combined with a suitable casing component, the resulting nontobacco moist snuff composition has a light, elastic, and moist texture, a soft and smooth mouth feel, a uniform color and particle size, and a long lasting and tobacco-like smell and taste with a characteristic tobacco-like “bite.”
US08272386B2
A surgical wound closure device comprising multiple layers joined at only one edge of each layer in a book-like arrangement and having opposite unjoined edges, including a substrate having a proximal surface and a distal surface; a drape having a proximal surface and a distal surface, and being disposed proximally to said substrate; and an adhesive layer having a proximal surface and a distal surface; said drape being disposed releasably adherently to said distal surface of said adhesive layer. Also provided is a surgical procedure employing a surgical wound closure device.
US08272383B2
An energy delivery probe is provided that may include any of a number of features. One feature of the energy delivery probe is that it can apply energy to tissue, such as a duct, to shrink, damage, or occlude the duct. In some embodiments, the energy can be applied with a vapor media. In some embodiments, the duct can be a ductus deferens or an ejaculatory duct of the male reproductive system. Another feature of the energy delivery probe is that it can utilize an inflatable member to form a seal to contain the vapor media. Methods associated with use of the energy delivery probe are also covered.
US08272377B2
An extendable hood and mounting bracket for mounting on the underside of a microwave oven which is positioned above a cook top, the extendable hood being frictionally engaged in the bracket and selectively removable or slidably retracted when not in use, the extendable hood extending over the front burners of the cook top and capturing and directing any fumes, smoke, or odors generated from cooking on the front burners to the fan and filter unit mounted on the underside of the microwave oven.
US08272356B2
A variable displacement engine comprises two engine modules fed from a common fuel source, each engine module having an individual crankshaft. The first engine module has a high compression ratio (e.g., greater than 13:1), while the second module has a typical compression ratio for a gasoline engine (e.g., between 9:1 and 11:1). In one embodiment, the first engine module operates through high efficiency optimized alcohol fuel combustion when the fuel content exceeds a minimum alcohol content. In an alternative embodiment, the first engine module operates at high efficiency through gasoline HCCI combustion when conditions permit. When operating conditions do not permit the first engine module to operate at high efficiency, the second engine module operates as the primary engine module, with the first engine module available to provide supplemental power (at less than optimal efficiency) if needed to meet driver demand.
US08272355B2
A variable compression ratio apparatus, and an engine using the same, is configured to change the compression ratio of an air-fuel mixture in a combustion chamber according to a driving condition of an engine. The variable compression ratio apparatus may be mounted at an engine receiving a combustion force of an air-fuel mixture from a piston so as to rotate a crankshaft disposed between cylinder blocks, wherein the variable compression ratio apparatus changes the compression ratio of the air-fuel mixture by changing the mounting height of the crankshaft according to a driving condition of the engine.
US08272343B1
An apparatus and method for developing latent fingerprints having a heat source and sublimation system wherein the sublimation system is in communication with the heat source. Upon activating the heat source, the heat transforms a cyanoacrylate and a sublimation dye of the sublimation system into vapor. The vapor contacts an object to reveal any latent fingerprints on the object. A light source excites the sublimation dye causing photoluminescent emissions which are viewed through filter goggles.
US08272340B2
A method of enhancing the soil structure of land having a topsoil layer and a subsoil layer beneath the topsoil layer includes providing at least one subsoil tiller blade having a tilling surface and a bottom end, and a channel positioned behind the tilling surface of the subsoil tiller blade for injecting nutrients toward the bottom end of the subsoil tiller blade. The subsoil tiller blade is inserted into the land such that the bottom end extends into the subsoil layer. The subsoil tiller blade is driven through the land such that the tilling surface loosens the subsoil layer while the channel deposits nutrients into the subsoil layer.
US08272331B2
A single main steel wheel rides on a single main steel rail of a guideway to support and drive a carrier and to facilitate steering and provide a simplified, more compact and less costly construction. The carrier can support a car through a platform having elements and chocks for locking contact with a front bumper and front wheels of the car Auxiliary wheels and rails cooperate to cause nearly all weight to be carried through the single main wheel. Traction is increased when necessary through application of increased upward forces to undersides of auxiliary rails and/or through developing magnetic forces between the steel wheel and steel rail. An AC induction motor is a main source of drive power. Acceleration and braking are assisted through epicyclic gearing, braking means and a DC motor/generator that is connected to a battery and that drives the carrier if supply of AC fails.
US08272330B1
A fragmentation warhead includes a cylindrical body, a pair of concentric cylindrical liners made of plastic, and an explosive charge disposed within the innermost liner. The innermost liner includes patterns formed thereon of recessed areas and solid liner elements. The outermost liner's interior surface includes patterns formed thereon of raised areas and solid liner elements. The outermost cylindrical liner is arranged to be adjustable relative to the innermost liner through rotation or translation. The explosive charge is disposed adjacent to the interior of the innermost cylindrical liner. Upon detonation of the explosive charge and because of the random dampening and temporal delay in transmitting the detonation energy through various locations of the randomly aligned cylindrical liners, the warhead body is caused to shear and break into fragments with different sizes. It can be understood that adjustment of the outermost cylindrical liner can be used to influence the size of fragments ultimately generated when the warhead breaks apart through detonation.
US08272324B2
A system is provided for tempering, or controlling the temperature of a printing machine to maintain a desired temperature by the use of a cooling device. The cooling device prepares, on a first output, a tempering medium having at least one first desired temperature level, for a first supply current of the tempering medium for the components whose temperatures are to be controlled. The cooling device provides a first cooling process which can be carried out by a first fluid circuit. Tempering medium, which is to be cooled to a tempering temperature that is below the ambient, or an external temperature, are provided. A second cooling process is carried out by a device for cooling a second fluid circuit which is different from the first fluid circuit, by the use of outside air. The supply circuit, that is used to convey the tempering medium of the desired temperature, to the component whose temperature is to be controlled, can be coupled, in a thermal manner, to both of the cooling processes by the use of at least one heat exchanger.
US08272317B2
A beverage system includes a pump that draws a set amount of a flavored concentrate into a mixing chamber (28) for mixing with water to form a beverage. A pump head (46) includes a piston opening that receives a piston (48) and a water port that defines a water flow path. A housing (62) includes an integral water port (40). Water from a water source flows along a water line and into the integral water port (40) of the housing (62). The water flows through the water port (40) of the pump head (46) and into the mixing chamber (28) to form the beverage.
US08272316B2
A piston-chamber combination comprising an elongate chamber which is bounded by an inner chamber wall, and comprising a piston means in said chamber to be sealingly movable relative to said chamber wall at least between a first and a second longitudinal position of the chamber, said chamber having cross-sections of different cross-sectional areas at the first and second longitudinal positions, and at least substantially continuously differing cross-sectional areas at intermediate longitudinal positions between the first and second longitudinal positions, the cross-sectional area at said second longitudinal position being smaller than the cross-sectional area at said first longitudinal position, said piston means can change dimensions thereby providing for different cross-sectional areas of the piston means adapting the same to said different cross-sectional areas of the chamber during the relative movements of the piston means between the first and second longitudinal positions through said intermediate longitudinal positions of the chamber, said combination engaging a rigid surface. Said combination is movable relative to said surface.
US08272315B1
A dual pump apparatus having two pumps mounted in a housing, where the housing comprises two elements mounted on opposite sides of a hydraulic mounting member or center section. The pumps are mounted on one side of the hydraulic mounting member in a pump cavity, and the hydraulic mounting member and second housing element form a drive cavity in which gears or an endless coupling member such as a chain or belt to connect the two pump input shafts are located.
US08272306B1
The herein proposed device relieves an autoloading handguns' barrel from the weight of the silencer allowing it to cycle properly. This improved booster housing for a silencer affords the user ten positions of orientation. A more robust orientation mechanism which minimizes rotational movement of the associated piston when it is fully seated within the booster housing is provided for. Increased accuracy of the host firearm is achieved through the minimization of rotational play. My improved booster housing design is lighter in weight than other similar designs and utilizes a coaxial expansion chamber between the housing and the interior of the silencer tube to increase sound reduction.
US08272305B2
Present invention teaches to build a woodworking table saw where, a splitter/riving knife move with the saw blade in a synchronized manner, with an idle gear engaging in planetary circular action around a fixed quadrant gear and the outer gear teeth portion of a support arm, so that any height adjustment or angle tilting done to the saw blade will result in the same movement of the splitter/riving knife, maintaining the constant linear difference (usually 5 mm) between the saw blade and the splitter/riving knife. In addition, to facilitate the installation, changeover, and/or removal of the splitter/riving knife, a spring pressure plate mechanism is used, along with lug bolts and a spring loaded secure pin device to easily set the splitter/riving knife in a pre-set position without using tools and in shorter time duration.
US08272304B2
An improved dust collection system for a miter saw comprising a hollow dust chute attached to a bevel post of a miter saw. The bevel post includes a top portion and a bottom portion and is pivotably attached to a miter saw table. The dust chute comprises an input port positioned to receive saw dust resulting from a cutting operation, an exit port and a funnel body extending from the input port to the exit port. At least a portion of the funnel body extends toward an opening located in a guard of a cutting arm assembly. The cutting arm assembly is pivotably connected to the top portion of the bevel post; wherein, the dust chute remains substantially stationary, as the cutting arm assembly is moved during the cutting operation.
US08272299B2
A tool may loosen seized bolts by sending shock waves into the bolt shank and thread areas via axial blows from a pneumatic hammer on the center of the bolt head prior to removal. The tool may allow impacts to be centered on the bolt head without damaging the bolt head or without worry of the bit jumping off the bolt.
US08272295B2
Displacement members for use in forming a bit body of an earth-boring rotary drill bit include a body having an exterior surface, at least a portion of which is configured to define at least one surface of the bit body as the bit body is formed around the displacement member. In some embodiments, the body may be hollow and/or porous. Methods for forming earth-boring rotary drill bits include positioning such a displacement member in a mold and forming a bit body around the displacement member in the mold. Additional methods include pressing a plurality of particles to form a body, forming at least one recess in the body, positioning such a displacement member in the recess, and sintering the body to form a bit body.
US08272294B2
A control-holding device to be mounted so as to selectively engage the end of a twist-grip control and hold it still at the discretion of the user, the device including an interchangeable mounting means that may be specific to the machine to which it is attached, a stationary element connected to the machine through the mounting means, a moving element which is manipulated to allow or disallow engagement with the twist-grip, an elastic or propulsive element that presses the moving element to engage the twist-grip when the moving element is manipulated in the prescribed way, and a standard means to mount accessories onto the outboard side of the mechanism.
US08272278B2
Tactile sensors are disclosed that mimic the human fingertip and its touch receptors. The mechanical components are similar to a fingertip, with a rigid core surrounded by a weakly conductive fluid contained within an elastomeric skin. The deformable properties of the finger pad can be used as part of a transduction process. Multiple electrodes can be mounted on the surface of the rigid core and connected to impedance measuring circuitry within the core. External forces deform the fluid path around the electrodes, resulting in a distributed pattern of impedance changes containing information about those forces and the objects that applied them. Strategies are described for extracting features related to the mechanical inputs and using this information for reflexive grip control. Controlling grip force in a prosthetic having sensory feedback information is described. Techniques are described for enhancing the useful force range for impedance sensors by internally texturing the elastomeric skin.
US08272277B2
A sensor for measuring stresses induced by a force applied to a load-carrying member, including a layer of a magnetoelastic material formed on the load-carrying member is provided. The layer comprises a first phase with an average grain size below 100 nm and a first chemical composition, and a second phase of a distinctly different chemical composition, the first phase being divided by the second phase into regions having an average size in the range of 100-10,000 nm. A method for producing such a layer, including accelerating particles of a soft magnetic and magnetoelastic material having an average size in the range of 10-50 μm towards the surface of the load-carrying member at a velocity of at least 300 m/s such that the average temperature of the accelerated particles is not higher than 500° C. above the melting temperature of the magnetoelastic material, but not lower than 500° C. below the melting temperature.
US08272276B2
A capacitance pressure mapping system includes a plurality of sensor cells created by the intersection of electrode columns and rows, and a solid elastomer dielectric separating the electrode columns and rows. The elastomer is at least one planar sheet having a surface comprising a pattern of projections. There may be two sheets having opposing patterns of projections. The opposing patterns may be interlocking or corresponding.
US08272270B2
An ultrasonic measurement waveguide rod which is easy to manufacture and is capable of preventing a noise echo. An ultrasonic flaw detection waveguide rod 2 is arranged with a probe on one axial end thereof and a contact surface to be brought into contact with a test piece on the other end thereof. The cross-sectional shape of the rod 2 perpendicular to the axial direction is a polygon having sides any one (41A) of which is not parallel to any of the other sides 41B, 41C, 41D. Since at least a pair of the sides 41A, 41C opposed to each other are not parallel to each other, an ultrasonic wave P is allowed to reflect off outer surfaces making up the nonparallel sides 41A, 41C, enabling the ultrasonic wave P to be prevented from returning to the probe 3 as a noise echo. For example, the ultrasonic wave component reflected perpendicularly by one outer surface is reflected by the opposite outer surface and travels toward the outer surface having the side 41D. Hence, an echo or a noise hardly returns to the probe.
US08272266B2
Gyroscopes using surface electrodes are provided. In this regard, a representative microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscope, among others, includes a top substrate and a bottom substrate. The top substrate includes an outermost structure that is open and enclosed and a first driving structure that is disposed within the outermost structure and includes first driving electrodes disposed on a bottom surface. The bottom substrate is disposed below the top substrate and includes second driving electrodes disposed on a top surface of the bottom substrate. The second driving electrodes are substantially aligned below the first driving electrodes such that a force can be applied to the first driving structure by an electrostatic force generated between the first and second driving electrodes. The first and second driving electrodes are also configured to provide a capacitance signal based on the movement of the first driving structure.
US08272263B2
An apparatus for ascertaining and/or monitoring fill level of a medium, having piezoelectric sensors for producing and receiving ultrasonic signals, relates to a scanning circuit, which provides, for each piezoelectric sensor to be driven, at least one exciter switching circuit for selective driving of the selected piezoelectric sensor.
US08272261B2
A static port apparatus for an aircraft having a static plate having inner and outer surfaces for fixture on the aircraft. The static plate including a first set of a plurality of port apertures and at least a second set of a plurality of port apertures. Each port aperture of the second set of port apertures is coaxially positioned with respect to each port aperture of the first set of port apertures.
US08272258B2
An aerodynamic test stand (1) is provided for determining forces acting on a vehicle. The test stand has a stationary floor (2), at least two supporting devices (4) for supporting the motor vehicle, and at least one band unit moving in relation to the floor, for influencing air flow behavior in the floor region. The band unit is composed, segment-like, of runway sections (9, 10, 11, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28) to accurately detect forces acting on the vehicle.
US08272254B2
Described herein are a device and method for measuring the wetting characteristics of a liquid on a surface of a material by depositing a volume of liquid on the surface of the material, imparting kinetic energy to the liquid, and obtaining information about the geometry of the volume of the liquid on the surface. The device includes a liquid dispensing component, a kinetic energy imparting component, a position determining component, and a data generating component.
US08272253B2
A method and apparatus for measuring particle concentration and size distribution of particles in liquids. The method involve separating dissolved and particulate residues in liquids for determination of the size and concentration of the particulate species. The method includes the steps of forming an aerosol from the liquid sample to be analyzed, evaporating the droplets in the aerosol to dryness, and detecting the particles. An apparatus for separating dissolved and particulate residues in liquids for determination of the size and concentration of the particulate species is also disclosed. The apparatus includes a droplet former, a dryer communicatively connected to the droplet former, and a detector communicatively connected to the evaporator for detecting particles.
US08272248B2
An emission test system may include at least one controller configured to determine, directly or indirectly, a quantity of diluted exhaust sample in a container at the completion of an emissions test, and to cause additional diluent gas to be added to the container based on the determined quantity.
US08272246B2
Self-calibration of a multiple channel clearance sensor system, which in one embodiment includes at least one sensor for measuring at least one clearance parameter signal between a stationary object and a rotating object of a rotating machine. The sensor output is processed as a clearance parameter by an offset correction section configured to determine an offset error in the clearance parameter signal which is used by a level shifter. The level shifter is also switchably coupled to the clearance parameter signal wherein the output of the level shifter, which may be amplified and digitally converted, is processed by a signal level analyzer to determine a channel gain signal.
US08272227B2
A method of adding refrigerant to an air conditioning system. The method includes measuring a first pressure inside of the air conditioning system and a second pressure inside of a container that holds refrigerant being added to the air conditioning system. The method also includes comparing the difference between the two measured pressures to empirical data in order to determine how long to pulse additional refrigerant into the air conditioning system. In addition, an apparatus configured to add refrigerant to an air conditioning system.
US08272219B1
A gas turbine engine combuslor has a trapped dual vortex cavity defined between aft, forward, and bottom walls. Air injection first holes are positioned in the forward wall. Air injection second holes are positioned in the aft walls. Fuel injection holes in the forward wall are located between the bottom wall and a cavity opening located at a top of the cavity. First angled film cooling apertures are disposed through the bottom wall. Second angled film cooling apertures are located in the forward wall between the fuel injection holes and the bottom wall. Third angled film cooling apertures are located in the forward wall between the fuel injection holes and the cavity opening.
US08272204B2
An example core nacelle for a gas turbine engine includes a core cowl positioned adjacent an inner duct boundary of a fan bypass passage and having a pocket and an airfoil received within the pocket. The airfoil is moveable between a first position and a second position to adjust a discharge airflow cross-sectional area of the gas turbine engine.
US08272203B2
Twin-flow turbo-jet engine, comprising a cylindrical casing externally defining an annular flow space for a secondary flow, wherein the cylindrical casing is formed from a lattice framework and from removable cowling panels fixed to the framework, said framework comprising an upstream annular flange for fixing to an intermediate housing, a downstream annular flange for connecting to an exhaust housing and rigid beams parallel or inclined relative to the axis of the turbo-jet engine, connecting the two flanges to one another.
US08272195B2
A system for providing dunnage to a container for packaging an object in the container includes a void volume probe and a supply of dunnage. The void volume probe measures the void volume of the container and outputs information representative of the measured void volume. And the supply of dunnage is controllable to dispense an amount of dunnage to fill the void volume based on the information output from the void volume probe.
US08272189B2
A PV module frame, includes a module recess, a sidewall vertical to the module recess and a bottom portion vertical to the sidewall. The bottom portion extends from the bottom of the sidewall along the opposite direction of the recess of the module recess. A PV module having the PV module frame and a PV module installation system for installing the PV module onto a support, wherein the bottom portions of the adjacent solar cell assemblies are socket jointed and fixed to at least one installation beam which is fixed to the support. The beneficial effect of the present invention is that: fast installation of a PV module could be realized only by using the improved frame and one installation beam, Which reduces the quantity of the members in an installation system module and makes the installation more efficient, easier and more economical.
US08272188B2
A composite laminate structure includes a first skin; a second skin; and a plurality of distinct groupings of Z-axis fibers that extend from the first skin to the second skin, wherein the Z-axis fibers include opposite ends respectively terminating at and integrated into the first skin and the second skin.
US08272187B2
Floor panel, more particularly a laminate floor panel, wherein this floor panel comprises a decor, a top layer on the basis of synthetic material, and an underlying substrate (13), whether or not composed of several layers or parts, wherein the floor panel (1), in the surface over which the decor (10) extends, is provided with embossed portions.
US08272185B2
The invention is a structural element including an elongate member having a first end and second end and defining a cross-section. The structural element further includes a sensor, secured to the elongate member, for detecting at least one pre-selected indicator. Advantageously, the elongate member is responsive to the pre-selected indicator.
US08272183B2
A corrosion-resistant, metal building construction connective hardware for installing the starter row of wall sheathing, roof sheathing/decking, or board siding to a structure comprising a flat, bendable, support tab (25) containing a nail or fastener hole (28) that extends at the bend line into a 1″ wide by 1.5″ to 3.5″ tall, vertical, upper arm (20) that tilts forward 3° to 6° (32) to form a 1″ wide by 1″ tall, lower arm (22) that reclines the material being hung against the structure and holds the material in a horizontal, L-shaped resting mount (24), of sufficient depth, to fit the material being hung, whereby a narrow, holding lip (26) forms a front edge that boxes the material into the resting mount (24) and is imprinted for identification and verification purpoes. The lip is easily painted or stained to match the exterior finish. The invention is versatile and multiple pieces can be connected to the mudsill to install the starter row of wall sheathing or siding; to the bottom edge of wall sheathing to install the starter row of siding; or to the top of each roof rafter tail-end to install the starter row of roof sheathing/decking.
US08272182B1
An insulated frame unit for enclosing a wall to provide a highly insulated and airtight wall is provided. The frame unit includes a panel that is formed from a rigid insulated composition such as an expanded foam composition. The panels can be mounted to a wall frame in rows and columns to enclose the wall, and may include outwardly extending flanges that can cooperate with a flange of an adjacent frame unit to provide a stud-receiving opening into which a stud is inserted when mounting the frame units to the frame of the building. The frame unit is mountable to the frame with the interior side of the stud extending from the inner side of the frame unit so that adequate space is provided between the inner side of the frame unit and an interior finish member mounted to the interior side of the studs.
US08272181B2
A foundation for a tall vertical structure, such as a wind turbine installation, features anchor bolts having a grout cap slid over the anchor bolt, where the grout cap has a flared skirt which seals against the open annulus formed by the anchor bolt and its accompanying PVC sleeve, where the top of the PVC sleeve is generally flush with the bottom of the grout trough. The grout cap extends from its bottom which abuts the bottom of the grout trough, up and extending at least partially into a bolt hole in the tower flange. A method of protecting anchor bolts utilizing the grout cap is also described.
US08272178B2
Described are a new type of storm windows, along with an easy way (and less expensive) of installing the press-fit storm window, on existing frames or windows, without the hassle and expense of replacing the whole window (to save time, cost, and inconvenience), to increase R-value (insulation efficiency) for the windows (i.e. reduce energy waste). This relates to the construction and installation and use of easily installed low cost interior or exterior storm windows, which are attractive and effective in reducing heat and noise transmission. Different approaches and variations to implement this are shown here.
US08272163B2
A modular unit, system and method include a base layer having a plurality of reservoirs configured to prevent water flow through a lower portion, the lower portion for contacting a support surface, and having interlocking portions configured to interlock adjacent base layers when installed. A water permeable layer is disposed over the base layer. A detachable wall is mountable on the base layer to contain planting media. The water permeable layer may include a water-holding capillary fabric mat layer with entangled filaments.
US08272156B2
Retractable banner stands each comprises a base including a housing containing an extendable and retractable banner, the housing having a slot through which the banner is extended and retracted. The base includes sockets for receiving vertical poles for attachment of accessories. Such accessories can include banner support structure for an additional banner to be positioned intermediate two of said retractable banner stands whereby a three banner interconnected display may be provided with each of the banners visually separated. Such a display is highly suitable for a backwall for a tradeshow display area. Further accessories include shelves, literature holders, lighting, and electronic display screens. The base may include a housing with a pair of floor engaging saddles, each saddle with a pair of feet portions extending forwardly and rearwardly from the housing on two ends of the housing, the feet having the sockets for receiving said vertical poles.
US08272154B2
A flip book greeting card having an outside cover containing text and artwork and an inside panel containing a flip book. The flip book is made up of one piece of material that is folded accordion-style to create several smaller folds, each fold containing a series of still frame pictures or drawings, each successive fold containing the same picture or drawing with incremental movements. The flip book is connected to the greeting card in such away that when a user pulls the free edge of the flip book, the flip book is set in motion, creating the illusion of a picture in motion. The user may then push the free edge back to its original location, while the flip book is set in reverse motion, creating the illusion of rewinding the movement of the picture. The picture or drawing used in the flip book may be coordinated with the occasion, theme and/or décor of the greeting card.
US08272152B2
The invention is a steamer head, which includes a steamer body having a front face having at least one steam hole, the steam hole being in fluid communication with a steam chamber; and a crease panel assembly movably connected to the steamer body, the crease panel having a crease panel face, wherein the crease panel face has at least a portion in substantially parallel orientation to the front face.
US08272150B2
The present invention is embodied in a mounting standard for mounting a cleat assembly to a shoe sole having a curved underside portion and a plurality of mounting holes. The mounting standard is configured so that the cleat assembly can be moved forward or rearward with respect to the curved underside portion of the shoe sole without significantly affecting the distance between the cleat assembly and a user's foot. The present invention is also embodied in a shoe configured to receive a user's foot, the shoe comprising a shoe sole and a mounting standard.
US08272145B2
A drying machine in which a rotary drum is stably supported is disclosed. The drying machine includes a cabinet; a drum rotatably installed in the cabinet for containing laundry to be dried; a first housing connected to the drum; a second housing connected to the first housing; first and second bearings respectively provided in the first and second housings; and a shaft supported by the first and second bearings, and rotatably connected to the drum.
US08272140B2
A bottle assembly has a bottle for storing a fluid, such as a cosmetic fluid. An applicator for applying the fluid is configured to be insertable and removable from the bottle along a path. A sealing body, or assembly, which may include one or more seals, is configured to continue to seal the bottle when the cap is removed.
US08272139B2
A curvature examining jig for examining the curvature of a circuit board quickly and accurately includes a platform and a carrier. An examining region is defined on the platform so as for the circuit board to be disposed flatly within the examining region. A recess is disposed in the examining region and configured to receive a protrusion of the circuit board. The carrier is slidably coupled to the platform, configured to move along the margin of the circuit board, and provided with a plurality of plug gauges facing the platform closely and configured to move to the examining region along with the carrier. Accordingly, the curvature examining jig is convenient in holding a circuit board having a protrusion, quick and accurate in examining the curvature of the circuit board, and effective in enhancing the efficiency of production lines.
US08272132B2
The present invention is directed to a serving utensil for selectively engaging a serving pan for removal from a steam table. The utensil is of the type used in buffet-style service settings. The utensil includes a serving element on one end and a handle on the other end. The serving element may comprise a bowl, tines, prongs, tongs and the like. The handle includes a flange extending from a face thereof for selectively engaging the serving pan of the steam table such that the flange is selectively insertable between the pan and the steam table such that the user may lift the serving pan from the steam table for removal of the serving pan for cleaning or replacement.
US08272129B2
The air cycle machine insert and method of repair provides an economical repair of the turbine housing section of an air cycle machine, rather than scrapping the component and replacing with a new section. The toroid shaped insert or liner has a U-shaped cross section, configured to fit closely within the turbine air passage of the air cycle machine. A throat insert is also provided. The existing throat flange extending outwardly over the turbine air passage is removed for installation of the insert. High temperature silicone sealant is preferably placed between the wall of the turbine air passage and the liner, after machining the air passage wall to remove irregularities. The liner is then installed and mechanically secured with one or more rivets, the throat insert is installed to replace the previously removed throat flange, and the repaired turbine housing reassembled with the air cycle machine to complete the repair.
US08272128B2
A tool for changing first and second parts of a connector from a pre-assembly relationship into an assembled relationship. The tool is portable and has a frame with an operating mechanism thereon. The operating mechanism has a plunger that is movable to thereby change the relationship of the connector parts. The operating mechanism is operable by a pressurized fluid within a container that is connected to the frame.
US08272122B2
A tube mill apparatus and process for continuously forming and coating a tube with a braze alloy. The apparatus and process produce a continuously moving welded tube by continuously forming and welding a tubing material, after which the welded tube is passed through a sizing station to establish a desired outer shape and desired outer dimensions for the welded tube. The braze alloy is then deposited on a roughened surface of the welded tube that is clean and free of oils and coolants. The braze alloy is deposited with a wire arc spray gun that heats a wire of a metallic material and causes the heated metallic material to travel in a direction transverse to the direction of tube travel and deposit on the roughened surface of the tube to form an adherent layer of the braze alloy. Finally, any bow in the welded tube is removed as the tube travels away from the spray gun.
US08272107B2
A pouch comprises a first sidewall and a second sidewall forming an interior space therebetween, a resealable closure mechanism including a first and a second elongate closure profile, and a resilient profile extending from one of the first or second closure profiles and having at least one notch extending therethrough to allow the evacuation of air from the interior space.
US08272103B2
The present invention relates to a step hinge for a portable communication terminal, and more particularly to a step hinge mounted to a portable communication terminal, which can rotate at various angles thereto. A step hinge for a portable communication terminal according to the present invention, comprises: a housing; a rotating member mounted in the housing; a friction member mounted in the housing and contacting the rotating member; a belleville spring disposed in the housing so as to press the friction member and the rotating member for a tight contact therebetween.
US08272102B2
A fixing structure is provided. The fixing structure comprises a first housing, a rotating shaft, a second housing and a third housing. The first housing has an accommodating portion, and the rotating shaft is disposed in the accommodating portion. The second housing is disposed on one side of the rotating shaft. The third housing is disposed on the other side of the rotating shaft and covers the rotating shaft and the second housing. The shaft body is wedged into a shaft bore, and the shaft shoulder is wedged into the second housing. The third housing is against one side of the shaft body, and covers the rotating shaft and the second housing. The shaft shoulder is firmly against the second housing. Thus, it does not need any tool to assemble and disassemble.
US08272081B2
A lift device replaces the toilet seat and seat cover of a conventional toilet. The lift device provides a portion that overlays the toilet bowl area and a portion that supports the forward elements of the assembly. The lift device further provides a toilet seat and a horizontally-disposed seat pivot shaft located to the front of the device. A reversible electric motor with a worm gear drive engages a worm wheel segment attached to the seat pivot shaft for raising and lowering the toilet seat as desired or required. This action assists the user in positioning himself or herself onto the toilet and in lifting the user from the toilet. The raising and lowering movement can also be alternatively actuated by the user or by an assistant-actuated override device, such as when the user is assisted by a care giver.
US08272076B2
A cover for an eyewear strap is provided. The cover may include a first member, a second member associated with the first member and movable toward and away from the first member, and a fastener connected to the first member and the second member for removably connecting the first member to the second member. The cover may be adapted to receive an eyewear strap between the first and second members when the first and second members are disconnected, and the cover may be securable to the eyewear strap when the first and second members are connected together.
US08272075B2
A method for fabricating a frameless diving includes the following steps. First, providing a lens; next, coating an adhesive on an edge of the lens; then, forming a first flexible layer made of a silica gel on the edge of the lens; thereafter, forming a second flexible layer made of another silica gel on the first flexible layer. The first flexible layer has a plurality of protrusions and may enables the lens covered with the first flexible layer to be spaced apart from a high-temperature mold for a proper distance, so as to prevent the first flexible layer from falling off from the lens due to the high temperature when molding the silica gel. The protrusions are exposed out of the second flexible layer, so as to vary the design and shape of the frameless diving mask abundantly.
US08272073B2
An athletic protective pad having first and second layers of breathable fabric and a foam body having a layer of perforated foam. The layer of foam is preferably closed cell foam with spaced apart perforations therethrough. The foam body is sandwiched in a secure or permanent position between the first and second layers of fabric, thereby wicking moisture away from a wearer.
US08272069B2
An apparatus is configured with one or more sensors arranged to detect a first shape-related parameter, one or more control elements arranged to provide a force, and circuitry operably connected to the one or more sensors and the one or more control elements to determine the force provided to the one or more control elements.
US08276211B1
The invention provides methods of using positionally controlled molecular tools in an inert environment (such as ultra high vacuum) to fabricate complex atomically precise structures, including diamond, graphite, nanotubes, fullerenes, additional sets of the selfsame molecular tools, and others. Molecular tools have atomically precise tooltips which interact directly with a workpiece to add, remove, and modify specific atoms and groups of atoms, and have handles by which they can be held and positioned; tools can be recharged after use. Specific tooltips are brought into contact with and bond to specific feedstock molecules distributed on a presentation surface, and then transfer said feedstock molecules to specific atomic sites on a workpiece using mechanosynthetic chemical reactions. Specific sites on a workpiece can be made chemically reactive, facilitating the transfer of specific groups to them. Repeated applications of molecular tools at different locations on a workpiece can build a desired atomically precise structure.
US08276205B2
A method of updating a content detection module includes obtaining content detection data, and transmitting the content detection data to a content detection module, wherein the transmitting is performed not in response to a request from the content detection module. A method of sending content detection data includes obtaining content detection data, selecting an update station from a plurality of update stations, and sending the, content detection data to the selected update station. A method of building a content detection system includes establishing a first communication link between a central station and an update station, the central station configured to transmit content detection data to the update station, and establishing a second communication link between the update station and a content detection module.
US08276199B2
A device includes a first test port coupled to a first test device, a second test port coupled to a second test device, a resource, and a security controller coupled to the first and second test ports. The security controller is operable to authenticate the first test device prior to authenticating the second test device, and, in response to authenticating the first test device, permit the first and second test devices to access the first resource.
US08276191B2
A method and system for generating authorization settings that indicate whether host administrators using a host-based storage-management application are authorized to perform provisioning operations on data storage entities residing on a data storage system are disclosed. Accordingly, a storage-management application receives from an administrator an authorization setting indicating on a per-user basis a set of provisioning operations which can be performed with a data storage entity via the storage-management application. The authorization settings are then communicated from the host-based storage-management application to the storage system where the data storage entity resides, and the authorization settings are stored. A storage-management application executing on any host can then utilize the authorization settings to control which users are allowed to interact with certain data storage entities, and what specific interactions (e.g., provisioning operations) are allowed.
US08276184B2
Some embodiments include a computer-implemented method for controlling access to resources of a platform in a computer system. The method can comprise detecting a request to access a resource, wherein the resource resides in the computer system, and wherein the resource is associated with an owner; requesting a first resource access decision from a first policy decision unit associated with the owner; receiving, from the first policy decision unit, the first resource access decision and first trust information, wherein the first trust information indicates trust of a second policy decision unit; requesting a second resource access decision from the second policy decision unit associated with the virtual universe platform; receiving, from the second policy decision unit, a second resource access decision; and returning the second resource access decision.
US08276178B2
A digital broadcast receiver and a control method thereof are disclosed. The digital broadcast receiver includes a reception unit for receiving a broadcast signal which mobile service data and main service data are multiplexed, an extractor for extracting transmission parameter channel signaling information and fast information channel signaling information from a data group in the received mobile service data, an acquirer for acquiring a program table describing virtual channel information and a service of an ensemble by using the extracted fast information channel signaling information, the ensemble being a virtual channel group of the received mobile service data, a detector for detecting a descriptor defining a telephone number system corresponding to the mobile service data by using the acquired program table, and a controller for controlling such that a telephone number of the telephone number system of the detected descriptor and the mobile service data are displayed.
US08276177B2
A data transmission system for minimizing the number of errors during Tx/Rx times of digital data under mobile environments, and a data processing method for the same are disclosed. The system additionally codes digital data, and transmits the resultant coded data. As a result, the program information has a strong resistance to noise and channel variation, and can quickly cope with the rapid channel variation.
US08276176B2
A method and system for electronically providing a television listing guide. The listing guide includes a number of channels intersecting with a number of time-slots to display an array of cells which can be selected to view a program corresponding with the cell. The guide allows a viewer to easily associate a selected cell with its program information.
US08276171B2
In an optical pickup device 3, a supporting base 18 that has a main-shaft bearing 6a with two concentric round holes to pass a main shaft 7 through is formed out of a synthetic resin. On the other hand, an optical base 19, which has a sub-shaft bearing 6b to pass a sub-shaft 8 through and which supports a light emitter 11, a beam splitter 12, a collimator lens 13 and a photodetector 17, is formed by metal die casting process. And a pickup frame 6 is formed by bonding the supporting base 18 and the optical base 19 together with an adhesive.
US08276169B2
A medium processing device is provided. A processor processes a plate-shaped medium. A tray has a storage for storing the medium and is movable between a first position where the medium is processed by the processor and a second position where the medium is mounted and removed from the storage. A moving mechanism moves the tray between the first position and the second position. A transporting mechanism mounts the medium in the storage and removing the medium from the storage. A restraining member restrains an upward movement of a front end of the tray that is moved to the second position by the moving mechanism.
US08276159B2
A service may be provided that reads sensors, and that communicates information based on the sensor readings to applications. In one example, an operating system provides a sensor interface that allows programs that run on a machine to read the values of sensors (such as an accelerometer, light meter, etc.). A service may use the interface to read the value of sensors, and may receive subscriptions to sensor values from other programs. The service may then generate messages that contain the sensor value, and may provide these messages to programs that have subscribed to the messages. The messages may contain raw sensor data. Or, the messages may contain information that is derived from the sensor data and/or from other data.
US08276151B2
A method is provided for a first logical processor to determine a running status of a target logical processor of an information processing system. In such method, an instruction is issued by the first logical processor running on the information processing system for determining whether the target logical processor is running. In response to issuing the instruction, a state descriptor belonging to the target logical processor is queried to determine whether the target logical processor is currently running. A result is then returned to the first logical processor, the result indicating whether or not the target logical processor is currently running.
US08276145B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for protected mode scheduling of operations. Protected mode (e.g., user mode) scheduling can facilitate the development of programming frameworks that better reflect the requirements of the workloads through the use of workload-specific execution abstractions. In addition, the ability to define scheduling policies tuned to the characteristics of the hardware resources available and the workload requirements has the potential of better system scaling characteristics. Further, protected mode scheduling decentralizes the scheduling responsibility by moving significant portions of scheduling functionality from supervisor mode (e.g., kernel mode) to an application.
US08276140B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, relating to managing resources. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving configuration information, the configuration information specifying a plurality of parameter values including values for a size and input/output performance parameters, where the size and performance parameters are independently specified by a user; determining one or more physical resources that satisfy the received configuration information; and generating one or more virtual disk instances having the specified size and performance parameters.
US08276132B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for representing and managing a multi-architecture co-processor application program. Source code for co-processor functions is compiled in two stages. The first stage incorporates a majority of the computationally intensive processing steps associated with co-processor code compilation. The first stage generates virtual assembly code from the source code. The second stage generates co-processor machine code from the virtual assembly. Both the virtual assembly and co-processor machine code may be included within the co-processor enabled application program. A co-processor driver uses a description of the currently available co-processor to select between virtual assembly and co-processor machine code. If the virtual assembly code is selected, then the co-processor driver compiles the virtual assembly into machine code for the current co-processor.
US08276124B2
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for using Petri Nets for diagnostics of concurrent programs. One or more initial traces are obtained from a concurrent program that executed properly. The initial trace is used to create a Petri Net. To generate the Petri Net, unique task identifiers and places of interest are generated, and transitions are added. The resulting Petri Net is stored for later use in differential debugging. A trace is obtained from a later execution of the concurrent program that did not execute properly. The later trace is run against the Petri Net to identify at least one difference. A Petri Net can also be used for model checking of concurrent programs. A model checking process is performed to analyze possible executions in the Petri Net to look for one or more problems. A result of the model checking process is output.
US08276122B2
A system and method for quickly and efficiently developing JUnit test cases by enabling automated creation of test environment objects that are needed by the JUnit test cases. The system and method maps and captures program code execution paths or “blueprints” such that the blueprints can be utilized to automatically “drive” the program along an execution path to any point in the program. These points can then be used to “harvest” the environment objects needed for JUnit test cases.
US08276117B2
Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for displaying and refactoring of programs, including database statements. In one embodiment, database statements embedded in the program source are evaluated to identify statements of the source code affected by, or affecting, the changed element of the database. An indication of the statements of source code affected by or affecting the changed element of the database may be presented to a user.
US08276114B2
There are provided systems and methods for integrating requirements driven security code into an application system. The security code is integrated into an application system in such a way as to make the integrated security code maintainable and traceable as the application system evolves over time.
US08276112B2
A performance analysis model may be determined based on a development model associated with development of a software process, the development model defining an execution of the software process, and the performance analysis model being annotated with performance data characterizing the execution. At least one user-specified performance profile characterizing performance parameters associated with an improved execution of the software process according to the development model may be determined. An assessment computation model may be determined, using the performance analysis model and the at least one user-specified performance profile. At least one performance-based characteristic associated with the improved execution of the software process according to the development model may be determined. A performance assessment model may be determined using the assessment computation model and the performance-based characteristic, for use in modifying the development model based on the performance assessment model to obtain the improved execution of the software process.
US08276110B2
A method of designing an integrated circuit includes providing an integrated circuit design including a power network. A voltage drop mitigation system is provided, which includes a power strap enhancer configured to automatically find a source node and a terminal node in the power network. A redundant strap for the power network using the voltage drop mitigation system is added, wherein the redundant strap interconnects the source node and the terminal node. After the step of adding the redundant strap, dummy patterns may be added.
US08276105B2
An automated method and apparatus for positioning gate array circuits in an integrated circuit design. An initial integrated circuit design includes logic cells and gate array fill circuits positioned thereon. The gate array fill circuits are positioned in available space between the adjacent logic cells so as to fill the available space with the maximum gate array fill circuits. A gate array logic element to be positioned in the integrated circuit design, such as may be required by an engineering change to the circuit design, is automatically positioned between adjacent logic cells so as to allow for full utilization of any space remaining between the adjacent logic cells by gate array fill circuits.
US08276093B2
An icon line is displayed on a screen. A display order for the icon line can be changed by using a switch input unit enabling a direction input. When an input in a first direction is made, objects are scrolled so as to sequentially display each object at a specific position or the objects are scrolled across the specific position. When an input in the second direction is made, an object positioned at the specific position is saved at a saving position or an object positioned at the saving position is positioned at the specific position. Thus, a user is allowed to easily change the display order in which a plurality of objects are displayed on a screen.
US08276091B2
An apparatus and method for assessing a hazard associated with an object are disclosed. The apparatus includes a haptic input/output device coupled to a computer with haptic modeling software and a display device. A virtual object and a virtual passageway are displayed on the display device. The virtual passageway includes a haptic layer along a surface thereof. Force applied by a user to the haptic input/output device causes a cursor on the display device to move the virtual object into the virtual passageway. An interaction of the virtual object with the haptic layer generates a virtual contact force which may be determined by the user sensing a corresponding tactile feedback force generated by the haptic input/output device and/or by the computer processor. The magnitude of the virtual contact force may be used to assess a hazard associated with the virtual object.
US08276089B1
A system and method creates an output document file that describes the appearance of a source document from a print stream of commands received from an application, and allows the output document file to be printed or displayed via a lightweight application, such as a plug-in to a browser. User interface controls are merged into the document at the time of creation, allowing those controls to be customized to viewer's needs.
US08276086B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products provide a utility to an administrator computer used by an administrator for visually configuring an optimization experiment on a landing page. The landing page selected by the administrator is read. The landing page is processed to allow the administrator to configure the optimization experiment without writing code.
US08276079B2
An apparatus and method of providing a user with a web-browser supplement is disclosed. One method includes providing access to a focal group, wherein the focal group includes at least one member having at least one association with the user. Access is provided to information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group. Web browsing by the user is supplemented by the information of the members of the focal group.
US08276078B2
An image display apparatus includes an image input unit which inputs an image from an image capturing device, a display control unit which displays an identification for identifying the input image or its input destination, and keeps the identification without canceling even when an operation is performed for another image after inputting the image, and a canceling unit which cancels the identification when a predetermined operation other than the operation for another image is performed.
US08276073B2
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program that enable easy information acquisition.A television receiver accesses an application server to acquire an application list. The television receiver accesses the application server again to acquire an application selected from the application list. While a processing based on the acquired application is being executed, the television receiver accesses a contents server to acquire contents data as needed. The acquired application or contents data is deleted from a storage section when an instruction to end the processing based on the application is made. The invention can be applied to a television receiver that acquires data through a network.
US08276072B2
An information processing apparatus having an input configured to receive a first operation and a second operation input by a user, a playback unit configured to obtain predetermined data and play back the data based on the operation input by the user from the input; and a display control unit configured to control, in correspondence with a virtual hierarchical structure for classifying the predetermined data, a display of a display screen indicating each hierarchy level, and for controlling a display of a predetermined mark in the display screen. The display control unit also controls the display of the predetermined mark corresponding to the predetermined data which is played back by the playback unit in a manner different from other non-selected marks while the predetermined mark is being selected.
US08276060B2
Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture therefor, are disclosed for annotating documents in a viewer. In one embodiment, the method includes: associating the document with a user; identifying one or more sub-document elements in the document; augmenting the document by making words within the document selectable; displaying the augmented document in the viewer; and responsive to each user input selecting a word in the document displayed in the viewer, further augmenting the document displayed in the viewer by inserting the selected word following the sub-document element from which the word was selected.
US08276054B2
A wireless communication system includes a first communication station configured to operate according to a first communication protocol, and a second communication station capable of operating according to both the first communication protocol and a second communication protocol. When the second communication station transmits a packet according to the second communication protocol, at least a first signal field compliant with the first communication protocol and a second signal field compliant with the second communication protocol are attached to a header of the packet, and the first signal field includes a parity bit. When the second communication station receives a packet from another communication station, the second communication station performs a parity check on the first signal field of the packet, and when no parity error is detected, the second communication station further checks whether content of the first signal field is compliant with the first communication protocol.
US08276051B2
Chien search apparatus operative to evaluate an error locator polynomial having a known rank and including a sequence of terms for each element in a finite field whose elements correspond respectively to bits in each of a stream of data blocks to be decoded, the apparatus comprising a sequence of functional units each operative to compute a corresponding term in the sequence of terms included in the error locator polynomial, each term having a degree; and a power saving unit operative to de-activate at least one individual functional unit from among the sequence of functional units, the individual functional unit being operative, when active, to compute a term whose degree exceeds the rank.
US08276048B2
A system allocates shared memory by transmitting/receiving a message specifying a maximum number of bytes of memory that are available to be allocated to an interleaver. The system determines an amount of memory required by the interleaver to interleave a first plurality of RS coded data bytes within a shared memory and allocates a first number of bytes of the shared memory to the interleaver to interleave the first plurality of RS coded data bytes for transmission at a first data rate. The system also allocates a second number of bytes of the shared memory to a deinterleaver to deinterleave a second plurality of RS coded data bytes received at a second data rate and interleaves the first plurality of RS coded data bytes within the shared memory allocated to the interleaver and deinterleaves the second plurality of RS coded data bytes within the shared memory allocated to the deinterleaver.
US08276046B2
Example embodiments relate to an apparatus which may determine a length of data to be stored in a memory cell, and may store the data in a memory based on the determined length. A memory data storage apparatus according to example embodiments may, include: a determination unit that may determine a number of bits of data and a number of bits of data detection information to be stored in a memory cell; a data receiving unit that may receive data corresponding to the determined number of bits; an error correction coding unit that may perform an error correction coding with respect to the received data and generate data detection information corresponding to the number of bits of the data detection information; and a data storage unit that may store the received data and generated data detection information in the memory cell.
US08276035B1
There is a class of applications that favor expediency of the communications over reliability. Counter-intuitively, the reliability aspect of a protocol may cause sub-optimal performance when considering this special class of applications in some environments. To resolve this performance issue, the exemplary illustrative non-limiting protocol implementation favors timeliness over reliability by allowing for loss of data, thus providing a non-guaranteed, order sensitive level of service. Such features can be combined in the same system and data stream/channel with a guaranteed-reliable protocol to provide a roamable VPN simultaneously providing both guaranteed-reliable and real-time, dynamically adaptable performance.
US08276032B2
A microprocessor includes a first plurality of fuses, a predetermined number of which are selectively blown. Control values are provided from the first plurality of fuses to circuits of the microprocessor to control operation of the microprocessor. The microprocessor also includes a second plurality of fuses, blown with the predetermined number of the first plurality of fuses that are blown. In response to being reset, the microprocessor is configured to: read the first plurality of fuses and count a number of them that are blown; read the predetermined number from the second plurality of fuses; compare the counted number with the predetermined number read from the second plurality of fuses; and prevent itself from fetching and executing user program instructions if the number counted from reading the first plurality of fuses does not equal the predetermined number read from the second plurality of fuses.
US08276031B1
A non-fighting fully clocked scan latch is described that is dynamically configurable to support both logic data latching and scan data latching. The described scan latch circuit design reduces a load placed on a logic data latch portion of the described circuit by a scan latch portion of the described circuit, and thereby increases the speed of the described scan latch to that of an output latch without scan capability. Power required to drive the described scan latch is reduced by clocking the circuit to avoid fighting and by reducing the number of transistors included in transistor stacks internal to the scan latch. By reducing drive power requirements, eliminating internal latch fighting, and increasing latch response, a versatile scan latch is achieved that may be successfully implemented in a wide range of circuits despite the use of different supply drive voltage, threshold voltage, source-to-drain voltage, and transistor technology combinations.
US08276022B2
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for error handling within jobs that utilize a plurality of tasks for data transfer of individual data records to a storage destination. For each task, one or more failed records may be logged to a file for later insertion. If a high percentage of a task's output (e.g., writes to another data storage system) is determined to be failing, the task short-circuits itself. Each task is also configured to perform checkpoint logging as the task completes work. If the entire job later short-circuits and is to be restarted, the restarted job only repeats a minimal amount of previously completed work for the tasks which have not already completed their data insertions. Together, these techniques can ensure that in the face of periodic failures, the job completes long-running job in a minimal time with minimal effects.
US08276021B2
One embodiment described herein is directed to a method practiced in a computing environment. The method includes acts for determining test suite effectiveness for testing for concurrency problems and/or product faults. The method includes identifying a plurality of synchronization primitives in a section of implementation source code. One or more of the synchronization primitives are iteratively modified and a same test suite is run for each iteration. For each iteration, a determination is made whether or not the test suite returns an error as a result of modifying one or more synchronization primitives. When the test suite does not return an error, the method includes providing to a user an indication which indicates at least one of a test adequacy hole for the test suite; an implementation source code fault; or an equivalent mutant of the implementation source code.
US08276019B2
A computer for the stream data processing system includes a query recovery point management table. A recovery point management section determines a recovery point for the stream data processing system by identifying an oldest one of input tuples used for generating output tuples, which are managed, or an earlier tuple through the use of a query recovery point stored in the query recovery point management table, and transmits the determined recovery point for the stream data processing system to an additional computer. The additional computer stores the last-received recovery point for the stream data processing system in a checkpoint file. When the computer for the stream data processing system recovers from a fault, the additional computer transmits the data succeeding the stored recovery point to the computer for the stream data processing system.
US08276004B2
Methods and systems to balance the load among a set of processing units, such as servers, in a manner that allows the servers periods of low power consumption. This allows energy efficient operation of the set of processing units. Moreover, the process is adaptable to variations in systemic response times, so that systemic response times may be improved when operational conditions so dictate.
US08275996B1
A method and apparatus are utilized to incrementally encrypt stored information, and can be applied to an existing medium storing unencrypted information. Information can be conditionally encrypted and/or decrypted as necessary and a separate storage area can be used to record whether a given block of information is stored encrypted or unencrypted. An embodiment of the present invention can be used as a retrofit device in a mechanism to encrypt information without causing undue interruption of normal operations. A variety of mechanisms and policies can also be used to manage, set and eliminate encryption keys.
US08275995B2
Security tokens contain data that is each uniquely encrypted based on a unique biometric identifier of an authorized user of that token. Decoders receive the token and the user's biometric identifier, convert the biometric identifier to a biometric key, and apply the biometric key to decrypt the token. In this way, the decoders authenticate the users without performing a biometric identifier comparison. In some embodiments pieces or sets of the data are stored in designated data compartments, which are individually encrypted based on authority keys, and all of the encrypted data compartments are collectively encrypted based on the biometric key to create the token. The decoders store only the authority keys corresponding to the data compartments which they have authorization to open. In addition, in some embodiments the token and the biometric identifier are encrypted and sent to a remote authentication server for decryption of the token.
US08275992B2
An information processing apparatus not having an input device for receiving biometric information can access another information processing apparatus requiring the specific biometric information. A control method for controlling the information processing apparatus includes authenticating a user using biometric information, receiving an access request from an external apparatus, and requesting the external apparatus to send the biometric information in response to reception of the access request from the information processing apparatus. When the information processing apparatus does not have an inputting unit for inputting the requested biometric information, the requesting step includes requesting a predetermined substitute apparatus having the inputting unit to send the biometric information. The authenticating step includes authenticating the user based on the biometric information sent from the predetermined substitute apparatus in response to the request made at the requesting step.
US08275991B2
A system and method of providing on-line verification of various credentials without requiring second site authentication utilizes protocols and cryptography to assure customers (generally referred to hereinafter as “users”) that they are dealing with a person (or organization) that can present multiple, non-repudiable proof of their identification. The system is launched directly from the user's browser such that certificate verification is performed “locally”, without needing to go out and obtain information from a second web site. The system is based upon the creation of a new MIME (i.e. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type that is employed by the user's browser and utilizes public keys associated with the credentialing organizations in combination with a public key of the verification organization.
US08275988B2
The present invention relates to a method for communicating between a network and a mobile terminal. The method comprises possessing at least one configuration parameter, and transmitting a message to the network, wherein the message includes information for verifying the authenticity of the at least one configuration parameter to the network, and wherein the information for verifying the authenticity of the at least one configuration parameter is calculated using an integrity key.
US08275983B2
A method for storing files in a storage device includes the following steps. The storage device is divided into an original partition and a system partition. A plurality of original files is installed in the original partition. A shortcut is established in the system partition pointing to a first original file of the original files. The first original file can be executed by activating the shortcut.
US08275980B2
A server computer which determines the configuration of a file for configuring a plurality of virtual computers respectively is configured to comprise: an OS/AP file evaluation criteria table which stores evaluation criteria for judging whether to split and manage a file required for the configuration of the virtual computers; a user data evaluation criteria TBL; and a verification and splitting unit which judges whether the file conforms to the evaluation criteria, and determines a part of a file judged to conform to the evaluation criteria as a first file stored as an entity and determines the remaining part of the file as a second file for referencing an entity of a predetermined destination storage.
US08275970B2
The write optimizer described in this disclosure optimizes write traffic to a disk. The write optimization technique writes small data sets to be written to a disk drive to a log file in write optimized order and rewrites the small data sets to disk drive in read optimized order when the disk drive is idle. The write optimizer reserves a portion of a disk to be used for write performance improvement, and then takes all small writes to the disk and writes them to the reserved area rather than to their intended destination. When the disk becomes idle (or the reserved area full), the write optimizer takes the data that has been written to the reserved area and that has not been subsequently overwritten and copies it to its final location.
US08275955B2
A system and method are disclosed for providing efficient data storage. A plurality of data segments is received in a data stream. The system determines whether a data segment has been stored previously in a low latency memory. In the event that the data segment is determined to have been stored previously, an identifier for the previously stored data segment is returned.
US08275952B2
In a data recording device which records a plurality of data items of different kinds, one or plurality of nodes set the plurality of data items to data frames with frame IDs uniquely assigned for respective kinds of the data items, and transmit the data frames to a multiplex communication line. A recording unit assorts the data items contained in the data frames sent from the multiplex communication line, in accordance with the frame IDs of the data frames, and stores the assorted data items in a storage unit.
US08275949B2
A Common System Storage Repository replaces all the different system support storages distributed across a server system topology transparent to various subsystems by providing a central non-volatile repository for all the different system data. Each of the various subsystems communicate with the Common System Storage Repository via the individual system support storage interfaces.
US08275948B2
A memory-use-information memory area stores therein a program ID, a request-source memory address, a request memory size which configure information for uniquely identifying a program file loaded into a storage area for virtual machine-A or storage area for virtual machine-B in association with a physical memory address. A memory reservation section uses, as the retrieval key, the program ID, request-source memory address, and request memory size of a program file corresponding to a memory reservation request to retrieval the memory-use-information memory area. When a entry that matches said retrieval key exists, the memory reservation section allows sharing of the memory area between a plurality of virtual machines.
US08275943B2
To provide a cache system that can dynamically change a cache capacity by memory areas divided into plural. The cache system includes a line counter that counts the number of effective lines for each memory area. The effective line is a cache line in which effective cache data is stored. Cache data to be invalidated at the time of changing the cache capacity is selected based on the number of effective lines counted by the line counter.
US08275942B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method is disclosed for selecting a first subset of a plurality of cache ways in a cache for storing hardware threads identified as high priority hardware threads for processing by a multi-threaded processor in communication with the cache; assigning high priority hardware threads to the selected first subset; monitoring a cache usage of a high priority hardware thread assigned to the selected first subset of plurality of cache ways; and reassigning the assigned high priority hardware thread to any cache way of the plurality of cache ways if the cache usage of the high priority hardware thread exceeds a predetermined inactive cache usage threshold value based on the monitoring.
US08275938B2
The computer system of the present invention has a plurality of SAS target devices, an SAS initiator device, and a service delivery subsystem that is connected to each SAS target device by means of a physical link that is physical wiring and connected to the SAS initiator device by means of a wide link constituted by a plurality of physical links. The SAS initiator device controls how many physical links in the wide link are allocated to a particular SAS target device, whereby access from the SAS initiator device to the SAS target device is made via a physical link that is allocated to the SAS target device and is not made via a physical link that is not allocated to the SAS target device.
US08275927B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for a solid state non-volatile storage sub-system of a computer. The storage sub-system includes a write-once storage sub-system memory device and a write-many storage sub-system memory device. The write-once storage sub-system memory device includes a recoverable system configuration. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US08275926B2
In various embodiments, apparatus and systems, as well as methods, may include an enhanced register to provide actuator signals to a memory array, the enhanced register including a first memory device including an first enable input, a first data input coupled to a register data input, and first memory device output, the first memory device output to couple to the memory array, and the enhances register to include a second memory device including a second enable input, a second data input coupled to the register data input, and a second memory device output, wherein the second memory device output provides a first output signal indicating when one or more of the actuator signals from the first memory device output are to be coupled to the register data input.
US08275921B2
A method of accessing data in a device comprising: a first integrated circuit having a processor, a memory connected to the processor and a direct memory access engine operatively coupled to the memory and to the microprocessor; a second integrated circuit comprising storage means for holding data values in respective locations, the second integrated circuit being connected to the first integrated circuit via a serial link, the method comprising: the processor generating a plurality of memory access requests independent from one another and supplying a bundle of said independent memory access requests to the direct memory access engine, each memory access request comprising an address of a storage location in the storage means; the direct memory access engine sequentially supplying the memory access requests via the serial link to the second integrated circuit; the second integrated circuit returning a data value responsive to each memory access request and appending to the data value said address of the location where the data value was stored in the storage means; and storing in the memory of the first integrated circuit the returned data value and its appended address.
US08275913B2
Methods and systems for detecting a state of a field asset using a packet capture agent is disclosed. A method may include capturing one or more packets transmitted on a shared bus in a field asset and determining the occurrence of a door event based at least one the one or more captured packets.
US08275909B1
A method, system, and apparatus are directed towards compression of content. A portion of content may be compressed using a compression mode. One or more criteria may be evaluated. Based on the evaluated criteria, a decision is made as to whether to select a different compression mode. If selected, the different compression mode may be used to compress another portion of the content. Additional compression modes may be selected and used to compress the content.
US08275904B2
When an object file is to be transferred, a wireless communication device which supports a plurality of different protocols shortens a transfer time. The wireless communication device according to this invention includes a unit which receives object data, a unit which stores the received object data, and a unit which, when a predetermined amount of object data is stored, divides the object data into blocks, and transmits the object data to a wireless controller. The wireless communication device is characterized in that upon reception of the object data, the wireless controller monitors a reply interval of ACK to be replied, and changes, based on the reply interval, the amount of the object data to be stored.
US08275898B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a content receiver, a concurrent streamer coupled to the content receiver, and a protocol engine coupled to the concurrent streamer. The content receiver receives an ingest stream of media content from a media source in response to a request for the media content from a local host. The concurrent streamer sends at least a portion of a local stream of the media content to the local host concurrent with the reception of the ingest stream of the media content by the content receiver. The protocol engine sends a protocol element from the network media server to the local host. The protocol element indicates an ingest status of the ingest stream at the content receiver.
US08275895B1
A method for establishing trusted communication between a client and a server is described. The method is implemented by a computer system. A response is received from a first server. An internet protocol address of the first server is compared with at least one internet protocol address within a list. The response is validated if the internet protocol address of the first server is included within the list. Trusted communication is established between the client and the first server. The trusted communication includes assigning an internet protocol address provided by the response to the client.
US08275889B2
A clone managed session affinity system, method and apparatus. A clone-managed session affinity method includes receiving a request from a client. The request includes a reference to a selected clone with which the client has a session affinity relationship. The clone determines whether a session affinity cancellation condition has arisen. If the clone determines that a session affinity termination condition has arisen, the session affinity relationship is cancelled.
US08275888B2
Resources are typically stored in homogenous data structures by shredding resource data into database tables destroying a native format of the resources. Typical approaches to indexing the resources rely on users indicating properties that should be indexed, using full text searches to create resource index documents, and other such labor and computation intensive processes. Functionality can be implemented to dynamically generate the resource index documents based on resource properties with minimal user input. The resource index documents can be in a common format to facilitate access to resources stored in heterogeneous native resource formats.
US08275878B2
A device may receive a first message that indicates whether an application layer gateway is hosted on the router, send a second message to test whether a firewall on the router incorrectly blocks the second message from reaching a client, send a set of messages to detect a pinhole in the firewall, and generate a report that provides results of receiving the first message, sending the second message, and sending the set of messages.
US08275877B2
A method for making statistics of media flow information may include: sending a request for making statistics of media flow information to a BGF; and receiving statistic information of the media flow from the BGF, wherein the statistic information of the media flow is metered by the BGF after receiving the request for making statistics of media flow information A system and a BGF are also disclosed in embodiments of the present invention. In the present invention, the accurate metering ability of the BGF is employed to acquire accurate statistic information of the media flow, thereby accurate service charging may be implemented and service charging based on used network resources amount and QoS may be supported. Furthermore, the statistic information of the media flow, such as start time, end time, flow count information and statistic information of actual QoS, may help operation and maintenance of the network.
US08275876B2
An apparatus for collecting attribute information of an information processing apparatus to be monitored in a system for monitoring the information processing apparatus via a network includes an attribute-information obtaining unit that regularly obtains first attribute information from the information processing apparatus to be monitored, and when obtaining the first attribute-information, collectively obtains second attribute information that was obtained subsequent to the first attribute information in past times.
US08275864B1
A first node in the network may broadcast a recovery request via one or more links to one or more other nodes. The recovery request may specify a first address, where the first address is associated with one or more nodes in the network. Nodes may receive and forward the recovery request until every node with which the first address is associated receives the recovery request and returns a recovery response. The recovery responses may be used to create route information for routing a message to each node with which the first address is associated.
US08275863B2
The present invention comprises a method of and apparatus for simplifying the process of access to a network for a roaming computer user, divides the responsibility of servicing a given user wanting to access the network between multiple parties and minimizes the possibility of improper dissemination of email header data as well as improper use of network resources (including server systems) by non-clients.
US08275851B1
Some embodiments provide different frameworks for seamlessly issuing and executing commands across servers of different federation participants. Each framework facilitates issuance and execution of a command that originates from a first federation participant and that is intended for execution at servers of a second federation participant. In some embodiments, a framework implements a method for enabling command interoperability between distributed platforms that each operate a set of servers on behalf of content providers. The method involves receiving a command targeting a particular configuration that a first distributed platform deploys to a server that is operated by a second distributed platform. The method identifies the server of the second distributed platform that is deployed with the particular configuration. The method communicably couples to a command invocation system of the second distributed platform and issues the command to the command invocation system for issuance of the command to the identified server.
US08275844B2
A system and method for an extendable software interface includes a software architecture for use in a mobile device having a processor and a memory device. The software architecture includes a set of first-order controller software instructions configured to interface the application program with a first-order data model, and a first-order data object stored in the memory device in the form of the first-order data model. The first-order data object includes a second-order data object. A second-order set of controller software instructions configured to interact with the second-order data object is also included in the software architecture.
US08275830B2
Device assisted CDR creation, aggregation, mediation and billing is provided. In some embodiments, device assisted CDR creation, aggregation, mediation and billing for a wireless network includes collecting device generated service usage information for one or more devices in wireless communication on the wireless network; and providing the device generated service usage information in a syntax (e.g., a device assisted charging data record (CDR)) and a communication protocol (e.g., 3GPP, 3GPP2, or other communication protocols) that can be used by other network devices to augment or replace network generated service usage information for the one or more devices in wireless communication on the wireless network.
US08275816B1
Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for indexing data events from a stream of data for seeking through recorded data streams. Techniques disclosed herein can enable a faster and more efficient process by which a processor can seek from one point of time in a data stream to another point of time in that data stream to bring a played-back application to a desired point in time. A playback manager analyzes data events within a series of data events, which are recorded in a linear data structure. The playback manager creates a hierarchical data structure for storing the data events to provide logically grouped storage of data events in addition to the linear data structure. The playback manager stores the data events in the hierarchical data structure based on type of data event and based on timestamps associated with each respective data event. The playback manager then traverses the linear data structure and consolidates data events to produce a hierarchical state representation of the recorded data stream at the given seek point for rendering in a playback application.
US08275815B2
Systems and methods for transactional processing within a clustered file system wherein user defined transactions operate on data segments of the file system data. The users are provided within an interface for using a transactional mechanism, namely services for opening, writing and rolling-back transactions. A distributed shared memory technology is utilized to facilitate efficient and coherent cache management within the clustered file system based on the granularity of data segments (rather than files).
US08275808B2
An attribute is received for storage. Whether the attribute is searchable or non-searchable in storage is determined. Storing the attribute as a searchable attribute comprises storing the attribute in a database table corresponding to a hierarchical class-based object. Storing the attribute as a non-searchable attribute comprises storing the attribute together with one or more other non-searchable attributes as a set of attributes. The set of attributes is stored in a database location outside the database table corresponding to the hierarchical class-based object, and the database location is accessed before the database table. A unique attribute identifier is associated with the attribute to distinguish between a name of the attribute and a name of one of the one or more other non-searchable attributes in the event that the name of the attribute and the name of the one of the one or more other non-searchable attributes are assigned the same name.
US08275802B2
A method, computer program product, and a data processing system for maintaining objects in a lookup cache is provided. A primary list is populated with a first plurality of objects. The primary list is an unordered list of the first plurality of objects. A secondary list is populated with a second plurality of objects. The secondary list is an ordered list of the second plurality of objects. Periodically, at least one object of the first plurality of objects is demoted to the secondary list, and at least one object of the second plurality of objects is promoted to the primary list.
US08275800B1
A spatial feature is considered for storage in a database system running on a computer. The spatial feature includes a polygon, P. The polygon includes an outer ring, OR, and the area within the outer ring. The polygon includes an interior ring contained within the polygon. The computer removes the interior ring from the polygon. The computer determines a line along which to split the polygon without regard for the location of the inner ring within the polygon. The computer splits the polygon into two polygons, SP1 and SP2, along the line. The computer applies the interior ring to the two split polygons by invoking a point set difference between the interior ring and the two split polygons. The computer stores the split polygons in the database system on the computer.
US08275797B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system, computer program product, or a combination of the foregoing for creating a knowledge management system including an academy system for training and tracking training results of employees in a standardized and centralized location across the channels and sub-channels in an organization. The academy system stores a plurality of training modules, associated with one or more certification programs. The academy system further provides a user training selection interface configured to provide for user selection of one or more of the plurality of training modules. The academy system further provides the user access to the selected training module through an interactive display module interface. The academy system further provides for a user training results interface configured to provide a display of the user training results and stores the user training results of the selected training module in a user training database.
US08275788B2
A system for accessing a webpage through natural language communication with a computer comprises a registry database configured to store at least one table the table configured to store associations between a concept in a text string and all natural language variations of the text string and associated concept identifiers, the concept in the text string an variations thereof relating to an object; and a parser interfaced with the database and configured to receive the text string or a variation thereof, the parser further configured to identify the concept represented by the text string or variation thereof and associate the identified concept with the object.
US08275784B2
A computer-implemented system and method for translating a SPARQL query. The system includes: a parser/lexer for parsing the SPARQL query; a hidden negative pattern detector for detecting a hidden negative pattern in the parsed SPARQL query; a hidden negative pattern translator for translating the detected hidden negative pattern into an explicit negative pattern; a separator for separating the explicit negative pattern from a positive pattern in the parsed SPARQL query; a negative pattern translator for translating the explicit negative pattern into a negative portion of an SQL statement; a positive pattern translator for translating the positive pattern into a positive portion of the SQL statement; and an SQL statement combiner for combining the negative portion of the SQL statement with the positive portion of the SQL statement.
US08275779B2
Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and a target application that process structured data in different formats. For example, structured data may have a set of associated rules which transform the structured data based on a set of variables. The source application may register variable definitions for each of the variables in a registry. The target application may read the registry and register values for each of the rule variables. Once values are registered for the variables, the source application may transfer the structured data to a transformation engine that applies the rules, using the registered values for the variables, to transform the structured data into a format compatible with the target application. In doing so, the transformation engine can generate a document in any format compatible with the target application and subsequently transfer the generated document to the target application.
US08275773B2
A method of locating relevant documents wherein documents are given a fingerprint comprising weights associated with particular topic categories of a classification system, each weight representing a degree to which the document relates to the particular topic category. Documents whose fingerprints have a predetermined degree of mathematical overlap with the fingerprint may be considered relevant. A user is alerted to new relevant documents. Advertisers can offer advertisements near search results that achieve a predefined amount of relevance to text submitted by the advertiser rather than bidding on keywords. Unwanted content may be blocked from the search and filters to further refine the search may be used. E-mail spam may be blocked using textual relevance rather than keywords. Visual cues linked to a hierarchy of relevance help display the relevant documents. The methods may be used in combination with keyword searching.
US08275763B2
More efficient querying of a multi-tenant database using dynamic tuning of database indices. A layer of meta-data associates data items with tenants, e.g., via tags, and the meta-data is used to optimize searches by channeling processing resources during a query to only those pieces of data bearing the relevant tenant's unique tag.
US08275752B2
Distributed network-based data backup, recovery and deletion methods and a distributed network system thereof are provided. The methods include respectively establishing peer-to-peer connections between a host storage server and a plurality of peer storage servers, dividing original data into a plurality of data segments, generating a plurality of data segment copies corresponding to the data segments according to a minimum survival rate and the number of peer storage servers. The methods also include transmitting the data segment copies to the peer storage servers, wherein the number of data segment copies for each of the data segments is equal to a redundancy, and the redundancy is smaller than the number of the peer storage servers, and the data segment copies distributed to any one of the peer storage servers correspond to a portion of all the data segments. Accordingly, the methods can effectively and safely backup the original data.
US08275751B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for database table aggregation are provided. A method includes encoding first and second components via a waveform definition, the first and second components specifying first and second criteria, respectively, for aggregating data. The method includes generating a complex periodic aggregation waveform (CPAW) having variable-sized square waves representing the components in a repeating pattern corresponding to the definition and the criteria, and which spans a first axis. The method includes providing a maximum byte count for aggregated data stored in a table defined by the first and/or second criteria, aggregating the data in accordance with the criteria, and creating a new table for overflow of data determined for the table when the maximum byte count is exceeded. The method includes updating the CPAW with results of the aggregation and generating a waveform representing the new table along a second axis.
US08275746B2
Digital media content-on-demand hosting/delivery system for using an n-tier, multi dimension dynamic data technology to distribute digital content and manage information and comprising separate delivery and end-user systems with separate but compatible software, the hosting/delivery system being sub-divided into distributed hosting clusters serving small groups of users, ensuring local balance and overcoming diversity of connection/streaming speeds of end users.
US08275742B2
A system is disclosed that allows users of computing devices to control the copying of business information between computing systems and various computing environments. The system includes a method for accessing at least one data element from a source database of a source system. The at least one data element may represent a delta change in data existing in a first collection of data stored in the source database. The method includes copying the at least one data element to an export data file and transporting the export data file to a target system. Once transported, the method further includes displaying a user interface on the target system that identifies ones of the at least one data elements that exist in a second collection of data stored in the target database, prompting user selection of desired ones of the at least one data element to be copied in the target database, and copying selected one of the at least one data element to the target database in response to the prompt.
US08275732B2
According to one embodiment, a system including a decoder and a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) whose copy protection protocol has been modified to allow the received uncompressed digital audio-video content from the decoder to be re-encoded and recorded.
US08275720B2
When creating exhaustive, affected lists within a request scope, any legal risk due to failure to identify or leverage existing knowledge of a company about custody of evidence related to a legal matter is minimized. Accurate affected lists are constructed for an ongoing or impending litigation. Affected people, systems, or record types are included at first, and the list is modified over time once their exact association to the litigation context is clarified (new ones are added, not required are removed). Automation of data capture eliminates the risk of human error during data entry. Conflict resolution is applied when the same person, system, or record type is identified in the request scope, as part of multiple affiliations and associations. Overlapping lists are automatically merged to enable simple and efficient processing, without having to cull different lists. Affected elements in the request scope that could otherwise be missed are tracked and added. A relevant list of all affected elements based on multiple likely inconsistent sources of knowledge dispersed throughout a company is created, with a high degree of confidence in the context of an ongoing litigation or an impending litigation.
US08275719B1
In one embodiment, a system can include a centralized storage module, for example a database, that stores data relating to petroleum, natural gas and other related products taken from several different sources and entities. The entity storing and maintaining this data can be an entity independent from the operators, producers and/or other working interests. This system can use automated techniques to reconcile distributions to all entities associated with a well due to the removal of a mineral, for example, petroleum, natural gas and/or other related products, from that well, on a periodic basis. These automated techniques include, for example, reconciling all agreements associated with the well, reconciling the amount of mineral removed at the well, reconciling the spot market price associated with the well at the time of removal, automating approval by the removing entity, automating payment and the like.
US08275716B2
A system and method for managing use of items having usage rights associated therewith. The system includes an activation device adapted to issue a software package having a public and private key pair, the public key being associated with a user, a license device adapted to issue a license, a usage device adapted to receive the software package, receive the license and allow the user to access the item in accordance with the license, and a subscription managing device adapted to maintain a subscription list including the public key associated with the user. License's is issued by the license device upon verifying presence of the public key in the subscription list corresponding to requested content.
US08275713B2
Reloadable or non-reloadable prepaid transaction card activation systems are disclosed. More specifically, the system provides a platform for activation of prepaid or stored value transaction cards and capture of customer demographic information, and verification of that information, after the customer has obtained or has been issued a prepaid transaction card. The data capture is performed at activation rather than at point of sale.
US08275698B2
An automated system and method for budgeting technology expenses for an individual based on an objective standard, wherein the system comprises a database comprising a list of technologies used by the individual; a controller connected to the database, the controller being adapted to establish a monetary budget allotment for the individual corresponding to use of the technologies by the individual; at least one data component connected to the controller, the data component comprising specifications attributed to the individual, wherein the specifications comprise rules for defining the monetary budget allotment for the individual; and at least one monitor connected to the controller, the monitor being adapted to track dynamic parameters affecting the monetary budget allotment for the individual, wherein the individual comprises a mobile employee performing work-related duties for an organization.
US08275692B2
A method for automatic trading of foreign exchange currencies including the steps of: receiving first signals at an order receiver based on one or more orders for foreign exchange currency trades; sending second signals from an order configuration tool that provides for selection of a preferred execution method for each of the foreign exchange trades using an algorithm; and executing each of the foreign exchange trades based on received third signals relating to a respective determined preferred execution method.
US08275686B2
Systems and methods for measuring value-at-risk and profitability of hedging in relation to BMA debt obligations are provided using rigorous statistical solutions that address problems associated with municipalities involved in swap hedging face. Various embodiments permit users to quantify POL hedging basis risk through a VAR-style loss measurement and statistics measuring the profitability of a hedge, those statistics including gain durability and gain/loss ratio. Various aspects introduce significant innovation to risk management practices, particularly for tax-exempt issuers of debt. Certain embodiments of this disclosure facilitate better management of hedging risk, analysis of hedges using POL vs. BMA and provide guidance for analyzing the risk existing in an existing portfolio of POL swap hedges to better inform decision-making regarding use of hedging risk for profit or to lay off risk.
US08275680B2
The claimed subject matter provides a controller that facilitates implementing a transaction between a controller and a business system within an industrial automation environment. An interface component can facilitate receipt of data associated with a business system at the programmable logic controller. The controller can incorporate a transaction component that executes a transaction related to the business system.
US08275673B1
A method and an apparatus for communicating a recommended item to a user of a network-based transaction facility are described. The method comprises determining that the user has been unsuccessful in concluding a transaction pertaining to an item offered for sale via the network-based transaction facility, and, in response to this determination, communicating information concerning a recommended item to the user over a network. The recommended item is available for purchase via the network-based transaction facility.
US08275667B1
A method of dynamically formulating value options that maximize customer satisfaction and company profitability includes identifying a set of demand segments for a company, each demand segment having a satisfaction value. The method further includes identifying a set of demand options falling under each of the demand segments for each product offered by the company, each demand option having a preference value. Whenever a customer demands a product, the method further includes interacting with the customer in a structured manner to determine advanced and ongoing preferences of the customer for the product. The method further includes setting the preference value of each demand option based on the advanced and ongoing preferences of the customer for the product demanded by the customer. The method further includes formulating a set of value options that satisfy the customer demand. Each value option has a set of demand options and a customer satisfaction value based on an aggregate of individual satisfaction values for the demand segments and the company profitability in satisfying the demand options in the value option. The satisfaction value of each demand segment is based on the preference values of the demand options satisfied within the demand segment.
US08275664B2
The present invention generally relates to cashless transactions. In particular, the present invention relates to methods (100) for conducting cashless transactions and systems (400, 500) for implementing said methods. In a first aspect there is provided a method (100) of processing a cashless transaction. The method includes, determining (102) a first identification from a first identification device (426); pre-authorising (104) the cashless transaction on the basis of first identification; determining (106) a second identification from a second identification device (420A); and in the event that the first identification and the second identification are associated, authorising (110) the cashless transaction.
US08275658B2
A method for distribution of advertising that includes combining an audio data file that produces an advertising message when processed with a data file that produces a performance of a musical composition when processed. Alternatively the invention may be viewed as a method for distribution of music which includes providing a server connected to a computer network, permitting message data files to be provided for a fee paid by the party providing the message, purchasing rights to multimedia data files from owners of such rights and making available to end users data files comprising a message and a licensed multimedia file by a connection to the network server. Preferably the method provides a multimedia file that comprises a musical composition. An especially preferred embodiment provides a multimedia data file that is an MP3 file comprising a musical composition.
US08275654B2
A method for scoring changes of components of a concept by a group of evaluators in a collective decision process is presented. First, the level of disagreement with the components is collected together with comments indicating desired changes. The expected incremental decrease of the overall disagreement level achievable by a component change is computed for a given probability that a formulation can be found that is acceptable by both agreeing and disagreeing evaluators. Performing this computation for different values of the compromise probability yields a score indicating the expected incremental decrease in overall disagreement achievable by a component change. Additionally, the minimum compromise probability where an improvement is possible and the expected relative improvements are provided. Next, alternative formulations for the selected components are drafted and subjected to a second round of voting. For each component the alternative yielding the maximum incremental improvement of overall consent is selected, where the sequence in which the components are scrutinized is determined by the score computed in the first step. In this way, an optimal new version of the concept is produced.
US08275650B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for determining when installation of additional self-service financial transaction devices (SSFTDs) may be desired at a site to improve end-to-end user experience. The system may collect and store transaction-level data, session-level data, user wait time data, and/or other data, and use an enhanced SSFTD user wait time model to identify recommendations and other statistical outputs. The SSFTD may include hardware and software to assist in measuring and collecting various useful readings.
US08275647B2
A system for assembling a business process or a portion thereof includes a rules base containing executable rules and defined business process elements, a workflow orchestration engine, and at least one interface available to a process beneficiary. Information known about and or provided by a process beneficiary interacting with the at least one interface is used to execute one or more of the rules causing assembly of a new business process or a portion thereof according to workflow orchestration rules the new or modified process directing servicing of the process beneficiary accordingly.
US08275632B2
An information management system for restricting access to personal data in compliance with law or regulation includes a database having restricted records stored therein, at least one of the records including an identification of a client or group of clients about whom said record concerns. A computer system under the control of a trusted information broker is configured to receive via a communication medium a request initiated by a requester for access to at least one of the restricted records in the database, the request including an identification of the requester. The computer system is further configured to transmit a request for consent to the client and receive an indication from the client that the client consents or does not consent to access to the restricted record by the requestor. The computer system grants or denies access to the restricted records based upon the indication from the client.
US08275631B2
A clinical practice guideline can be implemented using a guideline execution engine. The engine can interpret the clinical practice guideline, obtain medical data stored in a clinical information system (CIS), and implement an action in response to execution of the clinical practice guideline based on medical data for a patient obtained from the CIS. The use of the CIS medical data in guideline execution beneficially allows the guideline to be tightly integrated into the real-time workflow of a clinician in a clinical setting and to provide patient-specific guideline recommendations. A VMR/actions interface facilitates communications between a guideline execution system and a CIS by processing a request for medical data from the guideline execution engine and implementing actions on the CIS requested by the guideline execution engine.
US08275630B2
A method includes obtaining performance information from sources, where the performance information relates to products and/or services, enabling the performance information to be reviewed to thereby produce vetted and categorized performance information, receiving the vetted and categorized performance information, where the vetted and categorized performance information includes the performance information that has been vetted for reliability and that has been categorized according to reliability, and using the vetted and categorized performance information to generate reports, where the reports indicate a performance impact of the products and/or services.
US08275629B2
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: providing a plurality of relevant reported aspects associated with a plurality of source users that are relevant to achieving one or more target outcomes, the providing of the plurality of relevant reported aspects being based, at least in part, on relevancy of the plurality of relevant reported aspects with respect to the one or more target outcomes; and developing a template designed to facilitate one or more end users to achieve the one or more target outcomes when one or more emulatable aspects included in the template are emulated, the development of the template being based, at least in part, on the providing of the plurality of relevant reported aspects associated with the plurality of source users In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08275618B2
A method of speech recognition is described for use with mobile devices. A portion of an initial speech recognition result is presented on the mobile device including a set of general alternate recognition hypotheses associated with the portion of the speech recognition result. A key input representative of one or more associated letters is received from the user. The user is provided with a set of restricted alternate recognition hypotheses starting with the one or more letters associated with the key input. Then a user selection is accepted of one of the restricted alternate recognition hypotheses to represent a corrected speech recognition result.
US08275603B2
A speech translating apparatus includes a input unit, a speech recognizing unit, a translating unit, a first dividing unit, a second dividing unit, an associating unit, and an outputting unit. The input unit inputs a speech in a first language. The speech recognizing unit generates a first text from the speech. The translating unit translates the first text into a second language and generates a second text. The first dividing unit divides the first text and generates first phrases. The second dividing unit divides the second text and generates second phrases. The associating unit associates semantically equivalent phrases within each group of phrases. The outputting unit sequentially outputs the associated phrases in a phrase order within the second text.
US08275592B2
To perform inversion based on electromagnetic (EM) data acquired in a subterranean survey, time domain controlled source EM (TD-CSEM) data is acquired by at least one EM receiver in response to EM signals from a controlled EM source. Further data is received, where the further data is selected from among magnetotelluric (MT) data and DC data acquired by the at least one receiver. A probabilistic joint inversion is applied on the TD-CSEM data and the further data to produce a model representing a subterranean structure that is a target of the subterranean survey.
US08275590B2
A user may simulate wearing real-wearable items, such as virtual garments and accessories. A virtual-outfitting interface may be provided for presentation to the user. An item-search/selection portion within the virtual-outfitting interface may be provided. The item-search/selection portion may depict one or more virtual-wearable items corresponding to one or more real-wearable items. The user may be allowed to select at least one virtual-wearable item from the item-search/selection portion. A main display portion within the virtual-outfitting interface may be provided. The main display portion may include a composite video feed that incorporates a video feed of the user and the selected at least one virtual-wearable item such that the user appears to be wearing the selected at least one virtual-wearable item in the main display portion.
US08275580B2
A method for an output of maintenance information of an automation component in an automation arrangement is provided. The automation arrangement includes the automation component, an automation controller and a local control unit which is functionally associated with the automation component. In a first step status information relating to the automation component is formed in the automation controller, in a second step the status information is used by the automation controller to generate or change the maintenance information, and in a third step the maintenance information is transmitted from the automation controller to the control unit and is output there.
US08275576B2
Certain exemplary embodiments can include obtaining and analyzing data from at least one discrete machine, automatically determining relationships related to the data, taking corrective action to improve machine operation and/or maintenance, automatically and heuristically predicting a failure associated with the machine and/or recommending preventative maintenance in advance of the failure, and/or automating and analyzing mining shovels, etc.
US08275571B2
An exemplary embodiment, the present invention sets forth a method for correlating at least one weapon firing event to at least one scoring event. The method comprising: receiving information relating to a first scoring event; receiving information relating to a first weapon firing event; calculating an angle between a reference line, extending from location of the first weapon event to the location of the first scoring event, and the reference direction at the first computing device; comparing the time of the first scoring event to the time of the weapon firing event at the first computing device; comparing the angle of incidence for the projectile to the calculated angle at the first computing device; and identifying whether the weapon firing event and the scoring event are an unambiguous, one-to-one pairings at the first computing device.
US08275567B2
A method of correcting a measure of radioactive material within a body of material includes measuring a characteristic of the radioactive material to provide a measure, such as gamma emissions; detecting muons and/or electrons generated by muons which have not passed through the body of material to give a first value; detecting muons and/or electrons generated by muons which have passed through the body of material to give a second value; processing the first value and second value to give a factor, for instance indicative of the density of the body of material; and correcting the measure using the factor to obtain a corrected measure of the radioactive material with the body of material, for instance to correct for the density of the body of material and attendant issues such as attenuation and shielding.
US08275555B2
A method and system for representing a similarity between at least two genomes that includes detecting gene clusters which are common to the at least two genomes and representing the common gene clusters in a PQ tree. The PQ tree includes a first internal node (P node), that allows permutation of the children thereof, and a second internal node (Q node), that maintains unidirectional order of the children thereof.
US08275549B2
The online measurement system of radioactive tracers in oil wells head, object of this invention, is characterized by the use of new technology to measure concentrations of tracer activity in real time, using a radiation detector NaI (TI), with features that make it possible to detect up to three different tracers and be able to operate in temperature conditions up to 150° C., which allows to be immersed in a container with fluid coming from the flow stream, achieving with this to increase the sensitivity of the measurements. This system of measurement in the head of production wells will allow having much more data of the tracer activity, avoiding having to transport the operational staff to production wells to carry out sampling test, with all the advantages that this represents.
US08275548B2
Described are methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for detecting lightning activity. Waveform data indicative of lightning activity is received by a waveform sensor from one or more signal converters. The waveform data comprises a group of electromagnetic waveforms. The waveform data is filtered by a processor to remove noise frequencies. One or more uncompressed portions of the waveform data are transmitted to a processing server. Digital filter data based on the one or more uncompressed portions of waveform data are received from the processing server. One or more frequencies are removed from the waveform data based on the digital filter data. The waveform data is compressed. The compressing includes selecting one or more points on a waveform, wherein the one or more points are above a predetermined threshold. The compressing includes determining an inflection of the selected points based on a predefined algorithm.
US08275540B2
Techniques are described for generating predictions of future traffic conditions at multiple future times, such as by using probabilistic techniques to assess various input data while repeatedly producing future time series predictions for each of numerous road segments (e.g., in a real-time manner based on changing current conditions for a network of roads in a given geographic area). In some situations, one or more predictive Bayesian models and corresponding decision trees are automatically created for use in generating the future traffic condition predictions for each geographic area of interest, such as based on observed historical traffic conditions for those geographic areas. Predicted future traffic condition information may then be used in a variety of ways to assist in travel and for other purposes, such as to plan optimal routes through a network of roads based on predictions about traffic conditions for the roads at multiple future times.
US08275539B2
A control system for an internal combustion engine, which is capable of preventing a variable valve-operating mechanism from suffering problems due to insufficiency of lubrication oil immediately after starting the engine. The ECU of the engine determines an amount of lubrication oil lubricating the variable valve-operating mechanism which is capable of continuously changing an intake lift, holds the intake lift at a predetermined lift if it is determined that the oil amount is less than a predetermined amount, and controls the amount of intake air by changing the opening of a throttle valve capable of adjusting the amount of intake air, when the operation of the variable valve-operating mechanism is inhibited.
US08275538B2
Various example approaches are described, one of which includes a method for controlling injection of gaseous and liquid fuel to a cylinder during engine starting. Specifically, gaseous fuel is injected during or before an intake stroke of the cycle to form a well-mixed overall lean air-fuel mixture, and then liquid fuel is directly injected to the cylinder at least during one of a compression and expansion stroke of the engine cycle to form a rich air-fuel cloud near the spark plug, where a spark initiates combustion of the injected fuels. In one example, the rich cloud enables additional spark retard, and thus faster catalyst light-off, while maintain acceptable combustion stability of the gaseous fuel.
US08275534B2
A method makes it possible to measure and evaluate the efficiency of a start-stop system of a vehicle having an internal combustion engine, and on the basis of the measurement, to optimize the efficiency in a vehicle-specific fashion or with regard to the driving behavior of the driver.
US08275533B2
A gas turbine engine is provided and includes a combustor having a first interior in which a first fuel is combustible, a turbine into which products of at least the combustion of the first fuel are receivable, a transition zone, including a second interior in which a second fuel and the products of the combustion of the first fuel are combustible, a plurality of fuel injectors which are configured to supply the second fuel to the second interior in any one of a single axial stage, multiple axial stages, a single axial circumferential stage and multiple axial circumferential stages, a compressor, by which air is supplied to the first and second interiors for the combustion therein, and a control system configured to control relative amounts of the air to the first and second interiors and relative amounts of the first and second fuels supplied to the first and second interiors.
US08275532B2
An anti-skid device for the driving wheels (10) of a vehicle, in particular an automotive vehicle, includes an active braking device (16) of the torque to be transmitted to the driving wheels; a torque regulator (12) providing a control signal (Cb) to the active braking device (16) according to information on the regulation deviations (Δv) relative to a set predetermined regulation; a control unit (20) providing the regulator (12) with regulation initialization information (In). The control unit (20) obtains the regulation initialization information (In) from evolution parameters of the vehicle on all terrains, such as the adhesion and the speed of the driving wheels, the slope and/or slant of the terrain. Application: anti-skid device for the wheels of an automotive vehicle.
US08275531B2
A target turn vehicle speed setting device for setting a target turn vehicle speed according to the corner radii obtained from external information. A reference radius used for setting the target turn vehicle speed is set to a minimum value of the corner radii of points included in a corner successively obtained from the external information. When the values of the corner radii of the points decrease, the update of the reference radii is started. When the values of the corner radii increase, the update of the reference radii is ended. The target turn vehicle speed can be more appropriately determined.
US08275530B2
A transmission system that includes a transmission, a pressure sensor, a pressure booster, and a controller. The pressure booster being capable of raising the pressure of transmission fluid inside a closed-loop transmission by lowering the sensed pressure coming from the pressures sensor and being sent to the controller, thereby initiating a response from the controller that results in higher fluid pressures. The pressure booster does not lower the sensed pressure when the vehicle, and therefore, the transmission, is not in operation. Additionally, the pressure booster also does not increase the electric current through the electrical components of the fluid control system. The result is a transmission with a “firmer” feel between shifts and the correction of weak shifting problems such as gear slip.
US08275527B2
A transmission modeling system includes an in-gear module that determines an in-gear acceleration when a vehicle is in gear. A shift module determines a shift acceleration based on a clutch torque when the vehicle is shifting between gears. A shaft acceleration determination module determines a shaft acceleration based on at least one of the in-gear acceleration and the shift acceleration.
US08275513B2
A vehicle communication interface (VCI) that allows for a single communications protocol to be used between a software application and a plurality of software drivers that are connected to physical interfaces of the VCI. Also, a method of communicating with a vehicle using a host system such as a personal computer. The method also makes use of a single communications protocol between a software application that processes information received from a vehicle and a plurality of software drivers.
US08275492B2
The present disclosure relates to a method and a set of means for piloting an aircraft used, first of all, for detecting emergency situations and for removing the consequences thereof, which make it possible perform all possible control modes for piloting the same aircraft in the form of an aircraft hand-flown by a pilot with the aid of flight control means, an aircraft remotely flown by instructions of a control station technical means and an independent automated aircraft flown by instructions of the aircraft equipment. In order to carry out the remote, automatic and independent control of the aircraft, the power drive units of control equipment, a system for the switch-on and off thereof and technical supporting means are provided on the aircraft board and on the control station.
US08275485B2
A system for controlling and automating an electric power delivery system by executing time coordinated instruction sets to achieve a desired result. A communication master may implement the execution of time coordinated instruction sets in a variety of circumstances. The communication may be embodied as an automation controller in communication with intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). The communication master may also be embodied as an IED that is configured to coordinate the actions of other IEDs. The time coordinated instruction sets may include steps for checking status of power system equipment before executing. The time coordinated instruction sets may include reactionary steps to execute if one of the steps fails. The time coordinated instruction sets may also be implemented based on a condition detected in the electric power delivery system, or may be implemented through high level systems, such as a SCADA system or a wide area control and situational awareness system.
US08275482B2
A robot obstacle detection system including a robot housing which navigates with respect to a surface and a sensor subsystem aimed at the surface for detecting the surface. The sensor subsystem includes an emitter which emits a signal having a field of emission and a photon detector having a field of view which intersects the field of emission at a region. The subsystem detects the presence of an object proximate the mobile robot and determines a value of a signal corresponding to the object. It compares the value to a predetermined value, moves the mobile robot in response to the comparison, and updates the predetermined value upon the occurrence of an event.
US08275481B2
Computer assisted systems, methods and mediums for filling one or more orders. One embodiment of the present invention is a system that includes an order consolidation station configured to receive at least one bottle containing pills individually counted and/or at least one package containing pharmaceutical products without having been designated for any of the orders when the package was created and/or at least one literature pack optionally including patient specific information. The order consolidation station is further configured to combine automatically the received bottle and/or package and/or literature pack into a container to be sent to a recipient including, for example, mail order pharmacies, wholesalers and/or central fill dealers for subsequent distribution or sale including retailer distribution or sale. The bottle is specifically designated for the order, and the order generally includes at least one prescription for the package.
US08275479B1
A method and apparatus for performing an operation on a workpiece. Image information may be received from a camera system at a controller in which the camera system and the controller may be associated with a housing. The workpiece with a number of inconsistencies and a tool system may be moved relative to each other under a control of the controller in which the tool system may be associated with the housing. A number of operations may be performed on the number of inconsistencies on the workpiece holes using the image information under the control of the controller.
US08275478B2
A method includes designating a plurality of wafers as members of a group. A first subset of the wafers is housed in a first wafer pod and a second subset of the wafers is housed in a second wafer pod. The first wafer pod is routed to a first tool, and at least a first operation is performed on the wafers in the first subset using the first tool. The second wafer pod is routed to a second tool, and the first operation is performed on the wafers in the second subset using the second tool. The wafers in the first and second subsets are consolidated following the performing of the first operation.
US08275473B2
A data recording and reproducing apparatus is adapted to receive audio data created by encoding an original sound signal and to decode the audio data into the original sound signal to thereby reproduce the original sound signal. The data recording and reproducing apparatus includes a data storage unit operable to store the audio data; a feature point information creation unit operable to create information about feature points by extracting information about characteristics of sound indicated by the original sound signal from the stored audio data and to create feature point information based on the extracted information; and an altered-speed reproduction unit operable to reproduce the original sound signal at an altered speed by decoding the audio data and thinning out the decoded audio data based on the feature point information.
US08275461B2
A system and method for treating pain are disclosed. A voltage source provides an electric current, and a switching waveform controller receives the electric current and provides a first signal having a first waveform of a first frequency. A switching high frequency generator receives the electric current and provides a second signal having a waveform of a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency. A microprocessor controls the switching waveform controller and the switching high frequency generator. The second signal is superimposed on the first signal, providing a modified first signal. Alternatively, the switching waveform controller and the switching high frequency generator use one or more passive components and the second signal is superimposed on the first signal. At least one electrode receives the modified first signal, and the at least one electrode transmits a third signal associated with the modified first signal to a patient's skin.
US08275454B2
An iontophoresis device activated in use, which is capable of supplying a dissolution liquid in an amount that depends on the amount of a drug when it is used, is provided.This iontophoresis device activated in use comprises: an absorber 11 formed of a material containing a dry drug 10 and capable of absorbing a liquid; a wall material 13 disposed around the absorber 11, having an adhesive layer 12 on the undersurface thereof; a support 15 disposed on the absorber 11 and the wall material 13, having an opening 14 in the central portion thereof; an electrode 25 disposed on the undersurface of the support 15; a diaphragm 20 disposed on the support 15; and a dissolution liquid reservoir 18 disposed on the diaphragm 20, retaining a dissolution liquid for dissolving the drug between the diaphragm 20 and itself, and having a protruding portion 17 for destroying the diaphragm 20 by pressing force. The protruding portion 17 has a linear apical portion, for example, and it is disposed so that it is allowed to come into contact with or is close to the diaphragm 20. A liner 19 is removably attached on the undersurface of both the absorber 11 and the adhesive layer 12.
US08275452B2
An electrophysiology (EP) system includes an interface for operator-interaction with the results of code executing therein. A template model can have channels positioned or repositioned thereupon by the user to define a set-up useful in rapid catheter positioning. Mapping operations can be performed without the requirement for precise catheter location determinations. A map module coordinates EP data associated with each selected channel and its associated position on the template model to provide this result, and can update the resulting map in the event that the channel or location is changed. Messaging and other dynamic features enable synchronized presentation of a myriad of EP data. Additional systems and methods are disclosed herein.
US08275440B2
The invention is directed to a mapping catheter useful for mapping tubular regions in and around the heart. The catheter comprises an elongated tubular catheter body. A mapping assembly is provided at the distal end of the catheter body. The mapping assembly comprises a tubular structure comprising a pre-formed generally circular main region generally transverse and distal to the catheter body and having an outer circumference. The tubular structure comprises a non-conductive cover over at least the main region of the mapping assembly. A plurality of electrodes are carried by the generally circular main region of the mapping assembly. A control handle is mounted at the proximal end of the catheter body. A contraction wire extends through the catheter body and non-conductive cover of the mapping assembly for contracting the generally circular main region of the mapping assembly. The contraction wire has a distal end anchored in the non-conductive cover and a proximal end anchored to a mechanism in the control handle that facilitates longitudinal movement of the contraction wire relative to the catheter body. The portion of the contraction wire extending through the non-conductive cover is positioned on the side of the generally circular main region closer to the center of the generally circular region.
US08275432B2
An implantable optical sensor and associated manufacturing method include a sensor housing having an inner surface and an outer surface and a window formed in the housing extending between the housing inner surface and the housing outer surface. An opto-electronic device enclosed within the housing and having a photonic surface is operatively positioned proximate the window for emitting light through the window or detecting light through the window. An optical coupling member is positioned between the opto-electronic device and the window for reducing light reflection at a surface within the implantable optical sensor.
US08275430B2
An arrangement for an electrically conducting connection of a superconductive electric cable with a cable having normal conductivity at room temperature is provided, which includes a passage with an electric conductor surrounded by a thermal insulation. The conductor of the superconductive cable is connected to an end of the conductor of the passage, at whose other end a cable having normal conductivity can be connected. On the end of the superconductive cable intended to connect to the conductor of the passage an electrode is mounted serving the electric field control. At least in the area of the electrode a cryostat is present which surrounds it, which is constructed as a circumferentially closed sheath of electrically insulating material with a vacuum free, thermal insulation. The end of the sheath facing the passage is placed during the state of operation of the arrangement at high voltage potential, while the other end is connected to ground potential.
US08275422B2
The invention provides a system and method for controlling use of handset communication device for communication by driver. A system in accordance with an embodiment includes: an obtaining component for obtaining driving state information of the vehicle; a directional antenna for capturing a wireless communication signal of the handset communication device around the driver; a judging component for judging whether a driving state of the vehicle is in an unstable state based on predefined criteria and the driving state information of the vehicle; and a control component for transmitting a remote control signal, based on a judging result of the judging component, to intervene in a communication of the handset communication device during a call.
US08275421B2
With respect to a mobile wireless device in which a first housing 101 and a second housing 102 are foldably connected via a hinge 104, and in which a third housing 103 comprising a substantially rectangular display portion 106 is connected to the second housing 102 with a rotation mechanism portion 105 that rotates in a plane that is parallel with respect to a surface of the second housing 102, an antenna 107 is placed at an end portion of the first housing 101 on the side of the hinge, and a passive element 108 is placed at an end portion of the third housing 103. As a user rotates the third housing 103 by 90° to view visual data in horizontally long display, the antenna 107 and the passive element 108 are electro-magnetically coupled with each other, and the antenna characteristics of the antenna 107 improve. Thus, it becomes possible to provide an antenna that is more efficient when viewing visual data with a mobile wireless device, which is capable of receiving terrestrial digital TV and other visual data, on a screen that displays in a horizontally long manner.
US08275410B2
A radio communication terminal 100 includes: a first storage unit, 1171 configured to store a PRL list L1 used for connection to a communication provider—provided WLAN provided by a communication provider, a content of the first storage unit 1171 being rewritable by the communication provider; and a second storage unit 1172 configured to store a user registration list L2 used for connection to a user-registered WLAN registered by a user of the radio communication terminal, the second storage unit 1172 being rewritable by the user. The radio communication terminal 100 selects any one of the communication provider-provided WLAN and the user-registered WLAN, based on the PRL list L1 and the user registration list L2.
US08275404B2
A system for monitoring and managing emergency services sector resources includes a wireless communications device configured to establish a wireless network, a plurality of wireless nodes wirelessly connected to the wireless network, a user application, a message management and routing system configured to facilitate communications between the wireless communication device and the user application, and a user device configured to display information from the user application. Each wireless node of the plurality of wireless nodes is associated with an emergency services sector resource, and is configured to communicate information regarding the emergency services sector resource to the user application via the wireless communications device. The user device is configured to display information regarding the emergency services sector resource from the user application.
US08275403B2
When a mobile terminal (10), having a basic identity module (12) operative according to a first security standard, initiates a service access, the home network (30) determines whether the mobile terminal has an executable program (14) configured to interact with the basic identity module for emulating an identity module according to the second security standard. If it is concluded that the mobile terminal has such an executable program, a security algorithm is executed at the home network (30) to provide security data according to the second security standard. At least part of these security data are then transferred, transparently to a visited network (20), to the mobile terminal (10). On the mobile terminal side, the executable program (14) is executed for emulating an identity module according to the second security standard using at least part of the transferred security data as input. Preferably, the first security standard corresponds to a 2G standard, basically the GSM standard and the second security standard at least in part corresponds to a 3G standard such as the UMTS standard, and/or the IP Multimedia Sub-system (IMS) standard.
US08275390B1
The present invention provides systems and methods are provided to allow a network device to simultaneously monitor multiple adjacent wireless physical layer channels. If network communications are discovered on an adjacent channel, the network device may move to this adjacent channel. Accordingly, the network device is able to discover other devices or services existing on the adjacent channel, and is able to avoid interference caused by adjacent channels coexisting on the same frequency bands. After moving to the adjacent channel, a standard MAC protocol is able to regulate channel excess amongst all the network devices coexisting on the new channel.
US08275373B2
An apparatus and method for wireless communications supports a periodic scan for wireless devices. The periodic scan includes a plurality of scans spaced apart in time. The phase of the periodic scan is changed in response to one of the wireless devices being detected in one of the scans.
US08275358B1
A system for receiving user consent to obtaining location information of a mobile device includes a communications interface configured for communication with a mobile device, a validation logic configured to identify the mobile device at least in part by obtaining an identifier associated with the mobile device, and a notification logic configured to communicate a signal including data representing an automated voice message. The automated voice message provides a notice or the location of a notice including information indicating to the user of the mobile device that consenting to the obtaining of the location information of the mobile device would result in the location information of the mobile device being disclosed. The communications interface is configured to transmit the automated voice message to the mobile device, and to receive from the mobile device data indicating the user consent for obtaining the location information of the mobile device.
US08275356B2
A system and method are provided for managing mobile user access to enterprise network resources from a wireless mobile device, such as a smart phone or mobile computer, with improved security and access control. Access rules determining accessible resources and associated permitted operations are determined based on membership of an authenticated user to each of one or more groups, each group being associated with a set of permitted accessible resources and operations. For each user, based on membership of a group, or a Boolean evaluation of memberships of two or more groups, a list of accessible resources and permitted operations is generated, and the list is made available for subsequent processes, e.g. presentation to the user on an interface of the mobile device. Access rules may also be defined dependent on other information received from the system, or from the mobile device, such as time or location. Requests for an operation such as read access or write access to a network resource, such as a file, lists, shared calendars et al., may thus be readily controlled by an IT manager for multiple users of an enterprise network. Since the application resides in an application layer between the mobile device and existing security infrastructure, mobile access may be set without overriding internal access policies.
US08275354B2
A rollover management system (RMS) receives and stores rollover data that includes subscriber identification and a balance of the rollover usage units that may be “rolled-over” to offset overage units used by a subscriber in excess of package plan usage units in a subsequent billing cycle. In response to receiving requests, the RMS presents rollover data elements to the requesting entities. The balance of the rollover usage units may be rolled over and measured in at least one of a plurality of billable units and may be shared by the subscriber's multiple communication services. The rollover usage units expire after a predetermined number of billing cycles where the predetermined number may vary between package plans. The RMS receives post-billing data elements to update the rollover data elements. The RMS is further operative to account for and present for review unbilled communication service usage to subscribers.
US08275348B2
A method for managing an ongoing telephone call in a vehicle includes the steps of monitoring signals provided by vehicle systems and monitoring conversational cognitive load indicators for a driver during the telephone call. A current driving situation is assessed by evaluating the signals provided by the vehicle systems and by evaluating the conversational cognitive load indicators. A semantic cue is provided during the telephone call, wherein the semantic cue is indicative of the current driving situation and wherein the semantic cue is audible at least for a caller calling the driver. Methods for managing incoming telephone calls and assisting the driver with outgoing telephone calls are also provided.
US08275336B2
An oscillator circuit having a source of an oscillating signal, a tank circuit including an inductor and a capacitor, and a discretely switchable capacitance module configured to control an amount of capacitance in the oscillator circuit. The discretely switchable capacitance module includes, in one embodiment, a capacitor coupled between a first node and a second node, a switch, having a control node, coupled between the second node and a third node; and a DC feed circuit, having a first end coupled to the second node and a second end configured to receive a first or second control signal. The control node of the switch is tied to a predetermined bias voltage. When the first control signal is applied, the capacitor is coupled between the first node and the third node via the switch such that the capacitor is coupled in parallel with the capacitor of the tank circuit, and when the second control signal is applied the capacitor is decoupled from the tank circuit.
US08275333B2
An apparatus and a method for switching to a channel including good receiving sensitivity among a plurality of channels for the same broadcast service are provided. The apparatus includes a radio broadcast receiving unit for receiving a radio broadcast, a display unit for indicating an existence of another frequency channel, through which it is possible to listen to a current broadcast, and a control unit for notifying a user of the existence of the other frequency channel if the other frequency channel exists for listening to the current broadcast service, and for switching a current channel to the other frequency channel to listen to the broadcast service through the other frequency channel if the other frequency channel is selected.
US08275327B2
The present invention relates to a wrist watch type mobile terminal, and may include a conductive metal housing connected with a band or strap to be worn on a human body, and formed to be operable as an antenna at a specific bandwidth, a wireless communication module configured to process a signal transmitted and/or received by the housing, and a feeding portion configured to electrically connect the metal housing with the wireless communication module. The metal housing thereof may function as an antenna transmitting and/or receiving a specific bandwidth, and thus has an advantage of facilitating the implementation of the wireless performance and improving the appearance thereof, compared to a case in which an antenna is disposed within the housing having a small and limited size.
US08275324B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product for predicting received signal strength in a wireless mobile receiver. The invention bounds the range of allowed values for a next predicted signal. The bounded prediction compensates for erroneous values from multipath fading. The predicted signal strength is used to set the mobile receiver amplifier gain to the desired level.
US08275315B2
The present invention relates to a system and method that allows a user to transfer digital data to and from a mobile device between two or more communication devices, in cases where the communication between the devices is restricted or otherwise limited to audio or audio tone transmissions. Transmitting digital data over such an audio communication link may include establishing a wireless, short-range communication link, converting a digital data set to an audio tone sequence, converting the audio tone sequence to a digitized audio signal, transmitting the digitized audio signal from a first device to a second device over the communication link, converting the digitized audio signal back to the audio tone sequence, and converting the audio tone sequence back to the digital data set.
US08275314B1
Different scan modes are provided for Bluetooth devices. In at least some embodiments, a narrowband scanning mode looks for signal energy on individual transmission frequencies at a time. By looking for signal energy rather than decoding transmitted packets, at least some of the components in a Bluetooth device can remain in an idle or rest state. A midband scanning mode looks for signal energy across multiple different frequencies at a time. Again, by looking for signal energy across multiple different frequencies rather than decoding transmitted packets, at least some of the components in a Bluetooth device can remain in an idle or rest state. A wideband scanning mode looks for signal energies across all relevant frequencies at a time. At least some embodiments enable a Bluetooth device to switch between scanning modes.
US08275305B2
A computer-implemented method of overseeing and adjusting the instruction and evaluation of a student with respect to one or more topics of study within a classroom. The subject matter of an academic course is studied and broken down into a plurality of discretely defined behavioral performances designed to be readily and objectively recognized as being mastered or not by a student. One or more of the discretely defined behavioral performances are then selected, with the aid of a first computerized database system, as learning objectives for the week. At the end of the week, a student is subsequently evaluated on these objectives. Results of the evaluation are then transferred to a second computerized database system, which organizes the collected data into an interactive learning management report that can be configured by a reviewer in real time to display a variety of levels of detail.
US08275302B2
A blade for an electro-photographic device includes an elastic rubber member constituted by an edge portion and a base portion which are in contact with each other and are constituted by different materials, wherein the edge portion includes an edge subject to frictional wear in use and is made of ester polyurethane, and the base portion is adapted to be bonded to a support and is made of ether polyurethane. The blade undergoes minimal permanent deformation and offers excellent mechanical strength, wear resistance and compliance to the use environment.
US08275300B2
A method of forming a variable finish on a receiver by fusing toner to a receiver in an electrophotographic printer includes providing a rotatable member, a fusing system disposed with respect to the rotatable member to form a fusing nip, and a glossing system having a glossing belt and disposed with respect to the rotatable member to form a glossing nip. The fusing system and glossing system are adapted to fuse toner to a receiver to produce respective ranges of finish of the fused toner. A finish within one of the respective ranges, and is selected, as is one of the nips, so the finish range of the system corresponding to the selected nip includes the selected finish. The rotatable member is rotated to feed the receiver through the selected nip to fuse the toner to the receiver and form the selected finish on the receiver.
US08275298B2
A developer supply device, comprising: a developer holding body having a circumferential surface and a rotation axis extending in a main scanning direction and being placed to face a supply target at a developer supply position; a carrying substrate that has a plurality of electrodes arranged along a direction intersecting with the main scanning direction and that carries a developer in a developer transport direction through a traveling electric field generated by application of a multiphase alternating voltage to the plurality of electrodes, the carrying substrate being located such that an end of the carrying substrate in the developer transport direction is positioned to face the developer holding body; and a voltage application unit configured to apply, to the plurality of electrodes and the developer holding body, the multiphase alternating voltage having alternating components synchronizing with each other.
US08275291B2
A driving-force transmitter and a process cartridge. The process cartridge has a photosensitive drum and the driving-force transmitter mounted on the end of the photosensitive drum. The driving-force transmitter having a fitting part and multiple protrusions protruding from an end surface of the fitting part. The multiple protrusions are distributed equiangularly on a circle which is in the end surface of the fitting part. The center of the circle is on the axis of the fitting part. There is an engaging-part on the farthest end of each protrusion from the axis of the fitting part. An anti-separating groove is provided on the engaging-part.
