US08743659B1

The invention provides devices and methods for using acoustics to communicate between a macro-scale transceiver and a micro-device or between multiple micro-devices. The micro-devices may passively scatter sound from a transceiver or actively generate sound. Acoustic waves can also provide power to a micro-device.
US08743656B2

The invention relates to a method of seismic data processing, wherein the data includes a set of seismic traces, with each trace including a signal that has been recorded by a sensor after having been propagated in a subsurface area, with the signal being defined by an amplitude as a function of time, including the steps of: migration of data according to an initial time-velocity model, picking in the time-migrated data one or more event(s) corresponding to one or more subsurface reflector(s) so as to obtain facets locally approximating the event, kinematic demigration of the facets plotted so as to obtain simplified seismic data in the form of a set of facets and a set of attributes associated with the facets.
US08743645B2

In a semiconductor memory device, static memory cells are arranged in rows and columns, word lines correspond to respective memory cell rows, and word line drivers drive correspond to word lines. Cell power supply lines correspond to respective memory cell columns and are coupled to cell power supply nodes of a memory cell in a corresponding column. Down power supply lines are arranged corresponding to respective memory cell columns, maintained at ground voltage in data reading and rendered electrically floating in data writing. Write assist elements are arranged corresponding to the cell power supply lines, and according to a write column instruction signal for stopping supply of a cell power supply voltage to the cell power supply line in a selected column, and for coupling the cell power supply line arranged corresponding to the selected column at least to the down power supply line on the corresponding column.
US08743641B2

A memory element in which the temperature coefficient of a memory cell substantially matches the temperature coefficient of a reference cell and tuning either the temperature coefficient of a memory cell to substantially match the temperature coefficient of the reference cell provides for improved precision of sensing or reading memory element states, particularly so as to minimize the affect of temperature variations on reading and sensing states.
US08743640B2

Methods and systems for measuring the resistance of multiple memory elements are disclosed. The memory elements may be multi-bit memory and through precise measurement of resistance of the multi-bit memory elements, determination of how many and which memory elements fall into specific memory ranges can be accomplished. Furthermore, storage and/or display of this information may allow for the creation of resistance distribution histograms for modeling of one or more memory arrays.
US08743638B2

A method and circuit for testing a multi-chip package is provided. The multi-chip package includes at least a memory chip, and the memory chip includes a number of memory cells. The method includes performing a normal read operation on the memory cells to check if data read from the memory cells is the same with preset data in the memory cells; and performing a special read operation on the memory cells to check if data read from the memory cells is the same with an expected value, wherein the expected value is independent from data stored in the memory cells.
US08743637B2

A clock signal is supplied to a first repair flag flip-flop, a second repair flag flip-flop, a first repair data flip-flop group, and a second repair data flip-flop group to serially transfer a second repair flag and a first repair flag stored in a non-volatile memory to the second repair flag flip-flop and the first repair flag flip-flop. Subsequently, repair data stored in the non-volatile memory is serially output to the first repair data flip-flop group, and repair data of the first repair data flip-flop group and the second repair data flip-flop group is serially transferred.
US08743635B2

A memory controller for strobe-based memory systems is disclosed. The memory controller includes a circuit to generate a control signal having a predetermined timing relationship with respect to a first clock signal, a circuit to receive the control signal, and a receiver to sample the read data in response to the qualified read strobe signal. The receiving circuit includes an input to receive an external read strobe signal transmitted by a semiconductor memory device, circuitry to synchronize the control signal and the received read strobe signal to have a common timing relationship with respect to each other, and circuitry to gate the read strobe signal based on the synchronized control signal.
US08743632B2

A nonvolatile memory device including a plurality of memory cells arranged at a region where a word line and a bit line cross each other, a voltage generator configured to generate a program voltage to apply to the word line by increasing the program voltage by an increment whenever a program loop is repeated, a current sensing check unit configured to compare a number of failed memory cells among the memory cells to first and second reference values, and a control logic configured to control the voltage generator to change the increment according to the comparison result of the current sensing check unit.
US08743626B2

Controlling a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory includes a plurality of memory cells in an integrated circuit substrate. The non-volatile memory also includes a high-voltage node in power-transmissive communication with the plurality of memory cells. Further, the non-volatile memory includes an intermediate-voltage node in power-transmissive communication with the plurality of memory cells. Moreover, the non-volatile memory includes a counter-doped-gate device, coupled within the integrated circuit substrate, in power-transmissive communication between the high-voltage node and the intermediate-voltage node.
US08743622B2

Memory devices and programming methods are disclosed. In an embodiment of one such method, a memory cell is programmed to at least a first threshold voltage. After programming the memory cell to at least the first threshold voltage, the memory cell is read, using a read voltage that is less than the first threshold voltage. After reading the memory cell, the memory cell is programmed to at least a second threshold voltage that is greater than the first threshold voltage.
US08743619B2

Strings of series-coupled memory cells selectively coupled to the same bit line may facilitate increased memory densities, reduced fabrication steps and faster read operations when compared to traditional memory array architectures. Reading of the memory cells may be accomplished using charge sharing techniques similar to read operations in a DRAM device.
US08743616B1

A system including an interference module and a programming module. The interference module is configured to generate interference values based on (i) a state to which a memory cell is to be programmed and (ii) states of one or more memory cells located near the memory cell, and store the interference values. The interference values indicate effects of the states of the one or more memory cells on the state to which the memory cell is to be programmed. The programming module is configured to determine a programming value to program the memory cell to the state based on one or more of the interference values.
US08743613B2

A solid-state memory device has a memory interface that includes a timing signal port for receiving a timing signal, a data transfer port, a data transfer module for transferring blocks of data signals between the data transfer port and the memory module, and a selectable delay module for providing a selected delay between transitions in the data signals DQ and transitions in the timing signals DQS. The memory interface also has a delay controller for setting the selected delay, for detecting a variation in a delay produced by the selectable delay module relative to a reference delay, for controlling a pause in transfer of a block of the data signals DQ, and for adjusting the selected delay during the pause.
US08743608B2

A nonvolatile memory apparatus includes: a memory cell array including a plurality of unit memory cells; a page buffer unit configured to read data from a selected memory cell of the memory cell array and store the read data; a controller configured to generate a reference current generation signal, a first current control signal, and a second current control signal, which correspond to the number of fail bits to be sensed and a deviation in cell current amounts flowing through the unit memory cells during a read operation, in response to a verification command; and a fail bit sensing unit configured to receive the reference current generation signal, the first current control signal, and the second current control signal from the controller in response to the verification command, and control at least one of a reference current amount and a data read current amount of the page buffer unit.
US08743607B2

Data storage circuits are connected to the bit lines in a one-to-one correspondence. A write circuit writes the data on a first page into a plurality of 5 first memory cells selected simultaneously by a word line. Thereafter, the write circuit writes the data on a second page into the plurality of first memory cell. Then, the write circuit writes the data on the first and second pages into second memory cells adjoining 10 the first memory cells in the bit line direction.
US08743605B2

A method includes storing data in an analog memory cell by writing an analog value into the memory cell. After storing the data, the data stored in the memory cell is read by discharging electrical current to flow through the memory cell, during a predefined time interval, while applying a variable voltage to a gate of the memory cell. A fraction of the predefined time interval, during which the variable voltage allows the electrical current to flow through the memory cell, is estimated. The stored data is estimated based on the estimated fraction.
US08743602B2

Embodiments of present invention relate to a nonvolatile memory device that includes a first page buffer controlling any one of a first even bit line and a first odd bit line; a second page buffer controlling any one of a second even bit line and a second odd bit line; wherein the second page buffer operates the second odd bit line according to program when the first page buffer operates the first even bit line according to program, and the second page buffer operates the second even bit line according to program when the first page buffer operates the first odd bit line according to program.
US08743588B2

Disclosed herein is a resistance-change memory device including a bit line; a voltage supplying layer; a memory element connected between the bit line and the voltage supplying layer, a resistance value of the memory element being changed in accordance with an applied voltage; and a drive controlling circuit causing a first current to flow through the bit line and causing a second current smaller than the first current to flow through the bit line, thereby controlling a resistance decreasing operation in which the memory element is made to transit from a high resistance state to a low resistance state by using the second current.
US08743586B2

A electrometric access head includes a supporting substrate and a plurality of read elements mounted on the supporting substrate. Each read element includes an electrometric sensor for detection of a sign of polarization of domains within a ferroelectric data layer of a ferroelectric storage medium. The ferroelectric data layer serves as a layer for storing information as bits defined by the signs of polarization of domains within the ferroelectric data layer, each polarized domain including a volume dipole polarization within the ferroelectric data layer and including an area of bound charge on and adjacent to a surface of the ferroelectric data layer.
US08743583B1

Disclosed are various embodiments related to stacked memory devices, such as DRAMs, SRAMs, EEPROMs, ReRAMs, and CAMs. For example, stack position identifiers (SPIDs) are assigned or otherwise determined, and are used by each memory device to make a number of adjustments. In one embodiment, a self-refresh rate of a DRAM is adjusted based on the SPID of that device. In another embodiment, a latency of a DRAM or SRAM is adjusted based on the SPID. In another embodiment, internal regulation signals are shared with other devices via TSVs. In another embodiment, adjustments to internally regulated signals are made based on the SPID of a particular device. In another embodiment, serially connected signals can be controlled based on a chip SPID (e.g., an even or odd stack position), and whether the signal is an upstream or a downstream type of signal.
US08743581B2

A representative memory device includes a cell array, at least one break cell that subdivides the cell array into bit cell arrays, and one or more power switches that are electrically coupled to the bit cell. In one embodiment, the break cell separates a connectivity of a first voltage and a second voltage between at least two bit cell arrays so that the bit cell arrays can be selectively coupled to either the first voltage or the second voltage using the power switches. The power switches control the connection of each separated bit cell array of the cell array to either the first voltage or second voltage.
US08743578B2

Hydro-carbon nanorings may be used in storage. Sufficiently cooled, an externally hydrogen doped carbon nanoring may be used to create a radial dipole field to contain streams of electrons. Similarly, an internally hydrogen doped carbon nanoring may be used to create a radial dipole field to contain streams of positrons. When matched streams of positrons and electrons are sufficiently compressed they may form Cooper pairs with magnetic moments aligned to the movement of the stream. Matched adjacent Cooper pairs of electrons and positrons may contain information within their magnetic moments, and as such, may transmit and store information with little or no energy loss.
US08743575B2

A switch mode pulse width modulated DC-DC power converter having at least one first electronic circuit on an input side and a second electronic circuit on an output side. The first electronic circuit has terminals connecting to a source or load and at least one storage inductor, coupled in series with at least one power transformer winding. For each transformer, an arrangement of switches is adapted to switch the current through the first winding between first and second, ON- and OFF-states. At least one energy storage inductor is charged when all switches of the switching arrangements are conducting and the current through the first winding is in an OFF-state. The second electronic circuit has connecting terminals and a single arrangement of switches to switch the current through the second transformer winding, between the first and second ON- and OFF-states.
US08743573B2

A voltage inverter capable of operating in the event of a short-circuit or open-circuit fault. The voltage inverter includes: a load having three phases, each phase having a first terminal and a second terminal; first and second cells each including three branches connected together in parallel, each branch including two switches connected in series and a mid-point positioned between the two switches, each first terminal of each of the phases being connected to one of the mid-points of the first cell and each second terminal of each of the phases being connected to one of the mid-points of the second cell; and a DC voltage source, the first and second cells each being connected to the DC voltage source via two electrical isolators.
US08743570B2

A device for converting direct voltage from an electrochemical store or a fuel cell to alternating voltage, includes a two-stage design having a single DC/DC converter stage for generating an intermediate circuit voltage from the output voltage of the electrochemical store or the fuel cell, which converter stage converts, in particular raises, the direct voltage in a wide input voltage range directly to an intermediate circuit voltage with which a DC/AC converter stage can be operated to generate the alternating voltage. The single DC/AC converter stage generates the alternating voltage from the intermediate circuit voltage. The invention further relates to a method for actuating a device for converting direct voltage from a store or energy generator into alternating voltage for feeding into a supply network.
US08743565B2

The power converter is an integration of three topologies which include a forward converter topology, a flyback converter topology, and a resonant circuit topology. The combination of these three topologies functions to transfer energy using three different modes. A first mode, or forward mode, is a forward energy transfer that forwards energy from the input supply to the output load in a manner similar to a forward converter. A second mode, or flyback mode, stores and releases energy in a manner similar to a flyback converter. A third mode, or resonant mode, stores and releases energy from the resonant tank using a resonant circuit and a secondary side forward-type converter topologies.
US08743562B2

A cam system includes a beam including a plurality of coupling features. A first handle is operable to be coupled to the beam using the coupling features. A plurality of cam elements are each operable to be coupled to the beam at different locations along the beam using the coupling features. A plurality of cam brackets are each operable to be mounted to a first member having a first connector. The coupled-together beam, first handle, and cam elements are operable to be coupled a second member having a second connector such that, with the cam brackets mounted to the first member, the engagement of the cam elements with the cam brackets mate the first connector and the second connector.
US08743558B2

An information handling system device includes a plurality of electronic components; an electric circuit including at least one trace for connecting two or more of the plurality of electronic components and transmitting data between the plurality of electronic components via at least one electric signal; and a substrate including an insulating material for serving as a base for the electric circuit, wherein each of the at least one electric signal transmitted between the plurality of electronic components is transmitted utilizing slope manipulation by manipulating each of the at least one electric signal to provide a slope substantially proportional to a discrete integer data value of n discrete integer data values, n being a positive integer greater than or equal to 3, said discrete integer data value represented by using one of n distinct slopes transmitted utilizing a particular reference voltage of n predetermined reference voltages.
US08743556B2

In at least one embodiment, a vehicle power module comprises a first printed circuit board (PCB) including a first plurality of electrical components for providing a first voltage and a second voltage. The vehicle power module further comprises a second PCB including a second plurality of electrical components, the second PCB being spaced away from the first printed circuit board and a first connector assembly being coupled to the first PCB and to the second PCB for providing the first voltage to the second PCB. The vehicle power module further comprises a second connector assembly being coupled to the first PCB and to the second PCB for providing the second voltage to the second PCB. The first connector assembly provides the first voltage of up to 14V and the second connector assembly provides the second voltage of 200V or greater.
US08743549B2

A system for storing data includes a rack, one or more data storage modules coupled to the rack, and one or more data control modules coupled to the rack. The data storage modules may include a chassis, two or more backplanes coupled to the chassis, and one or more mass storage devices (for example, hard disk drives) coupled to the backplanes. The data control modules may access the mass storage devices in the data storage modules.
US08743546B2

The sheet structure includes a plurality of linear structure bundles 12 each of which comprises a plurality of linear structures of carbon atoms arranged, spaced from each other at a first gap and which are arranged at a second gap which is larger than the first gap; and a filling layer 14 filled in the first gap and the second gap and supporting the plurality of linear structure bundles 12.
US08743543B2

A computer system may include a connecting hub having a plurality of docking regions and be configured to provide to each docking region electrical power, a data network interface, a cooling fluid supply and a cooling fluid return; and a plurality of shipping containers that each enclose a modular computing environment that incrementally adds computing power to the system. Each shipping container may include a) a plurality of processing units coupled to the data network interface, each of which include a microprocessor; b) a heat exchanger configured to remove heat generated by the plurality of processing units by circulating cooling fluid from the supply through the heat exchanger and discharging it into the return; and c) docking members configured to releaseably couple to the connecting hub at one of the docking regions to receive electrical power, connect to the data network interface, and receive and discharge cooling fluid.
US08743540B1

An electronic apparatus has a plurality of basic structures arranged adjacent to each other in a direction perpendicular to a gravitation direction. Each of the basic structures includes a casing, a board placed parallel to the gravitation direction inside the casing, a first space with large ventilation amount and a second space with small ventilation amount formed by the board dividing the inner space of the casing, vents in the upper and lower surfaces of the casing, an electronic component placed on the board in the first space, and an electronic component placed on the board in the second space. The casings of adjacent basic structures are in communication through inner vents in respective side walls of the casings, and external vents in communication with the outside are provided in left and right side walls of the electronic apparatus.
US08743537B2

An airflow adjustment device is disclosed. The airflow adjustment device is used for a blade server provided for plugging in an interface card, and the interface card includes a bracket. The airflow adjustment device is installed in the blade server, and the airflow adjustment device includes a top cover, a plurality of sidewalls, a bracket plate, and at least one deflector. The bracket plate is used for sheltering the bracket, and air enters the blade server through the at least one deflector and at least one gap area formed by the bracket plate and at least one of the plurality of sidewalls whereby the flow resistance of the blade server is not affected by the type of the bracket.
US08743534B2

The present invention provides a resin chassis base that can correspond to for various components and components with various sizes by providing a plurality of sets of mounting holes thereon. The present invention provides a resin chassis base that fixes an electric substrate, and is mounted to a component provided in an electric apparatus, the resin chassis base having formed thereon the plurality of sets of mounting holes in order to be screwed to various components and/or components with various sizes. The resin chassis base is screwed by use of any one of the plurality of sets of the mounting holes formed on the resin chassis base.
US08743531B2

A drawout unit that disconnects both polarities of DC current from a DC source, when all poles are used for one of the polarities leaving no pole available to disconnect the other polarity. The drawout unit includes a disconnect device having a four-pole switch, and all four poles are series-connected to the positive (ungrounded) polarity. A separate drawout module with its own housing is connected to the negative (grounded) polarity, and together, the disconnect device and the drawout module are positioned in a cradle with a racking mechanism for racking both the device and the module in and out of the cradle simultaneously, thereby obtaining total isolation of both polarities. In this configuration, the installer has the option to ground the negative polarity, while leaving the positive polarity ungrounded. The drawout module has a through bar conductor that passes the negative polarity of the DC current through the drawout unit.
US08743521B2

A photovoltaic system having a photovoltaic generator, whose strings with series-connected photovoltaic modules have a positive pole and a negative pole, and with an inverter whose DC input is connected to the two poles. The voltage of the positive pole and/or of the negative pole is measured with respect to ground, and a first switching element located between the positive pole and the DC input of the inverter and/or a second switching element located between the negative pole and the DC input of the inverter is opened, while a third switching element located between the positive pole and the negative pole is closed, when the voltage of the positive pole or of the negative pole exceeds a predefined first or second limit value.
US08743518B1

A protection circuit for electronic circuitry comprising at least three diodes connected in series in such a manner that an anode terminal of a first diode is connected to a cathode terminal of a second diode to form a ring. A first terminal is connected between diodes of a first pair of consecutive diodes of the ring. A second terminal is connected between diodes of a second pair of consecutive diodes of the ring. The position of the first terminal is fixed and position of the second terminal is selectable in such a manner that a pre-determined turn-on voltage of the at least three diodes is obtained.
US08743512B2

A circuit for interfacing to a limit switch configured to be closed when a wire connected to the limit switch is relatively hot and configured to be opened when the wire is relatively cold includes an input, an output, and a control portion. The input is configured to receive a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal having a duty cycle with a high pulse and a low pulse. The output is configured to apply the PWM signal to an external transistor associated with the wire, and a control portion. The high pulse actuates heating of the wire when the high pulse is applied to the external transistor. The control portion is configured to cause voltage across the limit switch to be substantially zero, whereby arcing of the limit switch is relatively minimal, when the limit switch closes while the high pulse is being applied to the external transistor.
US08743498B2

In one embodiment, a data storage system includes a tape channel for reading data from a magnetic tape medium to produce a signal, a noise whitening filter positioned subsequent to the tape channel adapted for receiving the signal, wherein the noise whitening filter is adapted for minimizing variance of its output signal, a soft detector adapted for receiving output from the noise whitening filter, the soft detector adapted for calculating first soft information about each bit of the signal and sending the first soft information to a soft decoder, and the soft decoder positioned subsequent to the soft detector, the soft decoder being adapted for calculating second soft information about each bit of the signal and sending the second soft information to the soft detector. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are described according to more embodiments.
US08743494B2

An extended servo mark word is used when an error is detected from a servo mark. For example, a servo mark associated with a disk drive track may be detected during a data access operation. In response to an error in detecting the servo mark, at least one adjacent bit is evaluated together with the servo address mark to overcome the error.
US08743492B2

In one embodiment, a data storage system includes a head; a drive mechanism for passing a medium over the head; a controller electrically coupled to the head; logic encoded in or available to the controller for: periodically determining a stopwrite threshold based on a standard deviation or a variance at a current position error signal sample, wherein a smoothing factor applied to a subsequent calculation of the standard deviation or variance is altered based at least in part on a current magnitude of the standard deviation or the variance; determining whether the current position error signal sample exceeds the stopwrite threshold; disabling writing when the current position error signal sample exceeds the stopwrite threshold; and enabling writing when the current position error signal sample does not exceed the stopwrite threshold. Other systems, methods, and computer program products are described according to more embodiments.
US08743485B2

The present invention provides a wide-viewing-angle imaging lens assembly comprising, in order from an object side to an image side: a front lens group, a stop, and a rear lens group. The front lens group comprises, in order from the object side to the image side: a first lens element with negative refractive power having a concave image-side surface and a second lens element. The rear lens group comprises, in order from the object side to the image side: a third lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface, a fourth lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a convex image-side surface, and a fifth lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface. Such an arrangement of optical elements can effectively enlarge the field of view of the wide-viewing-angle imaging lens assembly, reduce the sensitivity of the optical system, and obtain good image quality.
US08743454B2

An optical amplifier includes at least one pump source and an optical fiber cable which includes an amplifying optical fiber and a pump optical fiber that are defined by respective lengths. The amplifying optical fiber and the pump optical fiber are coated with a common coating along a portion of their respective lengths, and the fibers are in optical contact with each other along a coating length within the common coating. The common coating has a refractive index which is lower than a refractive index of a cladding material of the pump optical fiber. The fibers are made substantially from glass. The amplifying optical fiber includes a core and a cladding, and is doped with a rare earth dopant. The pump optical fiber is defined by a first end and a second end, the first end of the pump optical fiber being connected to the pump source.
US08743446B2

Provided is a display device, including: a sealing member including an opening and surrounding a space defined by a pair of light transmissive substrates; an end seal for closing the opening of the sealing member to form an encapsulation space; oil filled in the encapsulation space; a spacer for maintaining an interval between the pair of light transmissive substrates; a shutter; a drive portion arranged in the oil, for mechanically driving the shutter; and a wall portion formed on at least one of opposed surfaces of the pair of light transmissive substrates. The wall portion includes apart arranged at a position interrupting a shortest path between the opening of the sealing member and a display region. The wall portion is made of a material forming the spacer, the shutter, and the drive portion.
US08743445B2

An optical deflector including a rotary member supported by a bearing shaft and rotatively driven by a motor for deflecting a plurality of laser beams separated from each other in a rotational axis direction of the rotary member is disclosed. The optical deflector includes a polygon mirror having four sides arranged about the rotational axis direction. Each of the four sides is a continuous plane having a plurality of effective reflection areas separated from each other in the rotational axis direction.
US08743443B2

The invention provides a hologram fabrication process, characterized by comprising steps of fabricating a computer-generated hologram (CGH) having amplitude information and phase information recorded by computer operation on a given recording surface, irradiating the computer-generated hologram (CGH) with the first reconstructing illumination light (2) to generate the first diffracted light (3) from the computer-generated hologram (CGH) thereby reconstructing a first reconstruction image (O′), simultaneously entering the first diffracted light (3) and the first reference light (4) in a first-stage hologram recording material (11) faced away from the first reconstructed image to record a first-stage hologram (11) in it, irradiating the recorded first-stage hologram (11) with the second reconstructing illumination light (5) to generate the second diffracted light (6) from the first-stage hologram (11) thereby reconstructing the second reconstruction image (O″), and simultaneously entering the second diffracted light (6) and the second reference light (7) in a second-stage hologram recording material (21) located near the second reconstructed image (O″) to record the second-stage hologram (21) in it as a reflection or transmission type volume hologram.
US08743442B2

An image display device includes an image forming device, collimating optical system, and optical device, with the optical device including a light guide plate, first diffraction grating member and second diffraction grating member which are made up of a volume hologram diffraction grating, and with central light emitted from the pixel of the center of the image forming device and passed through the center of the collimating optical system being input to the light guide plate from the near side of the second diffraction grating member with a certain angle. Thus, the image display device capable of preventing occurrence of color irregularities, despite the simple configuration, can be provided.
US08743438B2

An image processing apparatus for performing image thinning processing, comprises: a thinning unit configured to be able to execute a plurality of thinning processes which have different output image qualities and processing times; an acquisition unit configured to acquire status information indicating a status of the apparatus; a division unit configured to divide an image into a plurality of divided images; a prediction unit configured to predict a processing time when thinning processing executed by the thinning unit is applied to each divided image divided by the division unit; and a selection unit configured to select, based on the status information acquired by the acquisition unit and the predicted processing time predicted by the prediction unit, thinning processing to be applied to each divided image from the plurality of thinning processes executed by the thinning unit.
US08743436B2

A color information processing apparatus includes a mapping section for mapping a designated color that lies outside of the range of a gamut of a printing apparatus to the range of the gamut according to a plurality of mapping techniques, and a display device for simultaneously displaying the designated color and a plurality of colors mapped by the mapping section. For example, the display device simultaneously displays the designated color and colors mapped by the mapping section adjacent to each other.
US08743431B2

A sheet conveying device includes: a sheet housing unit that houses a sheet; a sheet conveying unit that conveys the sheet; a sheet detection unit that detects presence or absence of the sheet in the sheet housing unit; a sheet nipping unit that nips the sheet housed in the sheet housing unit; and a control unit. The control unit controls the sheet nipping unit to reach a nipping state to nip the sheet in the sheet housing unit upon the sheet detection unit detecting a sheet-present state, executes a power saving mode to stop supplying power to at least a part of the electric mechanisms when no drive command is input for a predetermined time, and controls the sheet nipping unit to cancel the nipping state before execution of the power saving mode.
US08743429B2

The invention relates to a device for reproducing images that can be found on originals, comprising at least one image capturing element that lies in a housing (1) and comprising a translucent panel (4) which lies between the image capturing element and the original and which is retained on the housing (1), said original being transportable on the panel for reproduction on the image capturing element. The essentially rectangular panel is retained on the housing at only two of the opposing edges (3, 5) of said panel. The first support for one of the edges (3) consists of at least one spring clip (2, 2′, 2″, 2′″), and the spring clip preloads the panel against the second support (6) for the opposing edge (5) of the panel. The panel (4) is associated with a handle (7, 7′), by means of which the panel can be manually moved out of the second support against the preload of the spring clip.
US08743426B2

Methods of image enhancement are disclosed. In one aspect, the method of image enhancement is for use with an image capture device, such as a security document reader, for the attenuation, separation or reduction of reflections from objects, such as security documents.
US08743424B2

A method for pre-print enhancement of a raster image is disclosed. The method includes receiving the raster image, categorizing an element in the raster image as a graphical element or an image element; and if the element is categorized as a graphical element applying graphical enhancement to the graphical element. A computer program product for pre-print enhancement of a raster image is also disclosed.
US08743423B2

An image forming apparatus for depicting a gradation image through halftones includes a threshold value generating unit for generating a threshold value matrix, and a comparison unit for converting the gradation image. The threshold value generating unit determines an order of gradations of pixels in halftones. The threshold value generating unit determines an order of standard dots. Further, the threshold value generating unit is configured to determine a priority order of gradations between the halftones. The threshold value generating unit further determines an order of the threshold values of the gradations of all of the pixels according to the order of the gradations of the pixels contained in the halftones and the priority order of the gradations between the halftones, so that the threshold value generating unit generates the threshold value matrix.
US08743422B2

An image processing apparatus includes an area specifying unit for specifying a text area including a text with an achromatic color and a background with an achromatic color, in an image to be output; an inversion processing unit for inverting the brightness of achromatic colors only for the specified text area; and an output unit for outputting an image including the text area where the brightness of achromatic colors is inverted. With respect to a gray-level achromatic color configuring a text in the specified text area, the inversion processing unit changes the color to be brighter than the case where the brightness is inverted.
US08743416B2

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a set of program instructions installed on and executed by a computer. The set of program instructions includes (a) acquiring a layout image size where the layout image is generated based on an original image data, the size of the layout image is specified by base data, and the base data represents graphical image in which the layout image is arranged and includes location data that specifies a location at which the original image data is stored, (b) acquiring an original image size, (c) determining whether the original image size is greater than the layout image size, (d) setting the original image as a print target when the original image size is greater than the layout image size, and (e) generating a print instruction instructing to print the original image set as the print target in a size larger than the layout size.
US08743415B2

An image forming apparatus includes a profile storage section that stores distortion characteristic of a scanning line, a correcting section that corrects image data by lines in the sub scanning direction, and a registration sensor that detects a pattern image for detecting color misregistration amounts in a sub scanning direction of images formed on an intermediate transfer member. When the pattern image is formed, the distortion correcting section shifts image data of the pattern image by lines in the sub scanning direction so that, with reference to a detection position of the registration sensor, a positional displacement amount of the pattern image in the sub scanning direction becomes less than or equal to ½ of a scanning-line distance, in accordance with a positional displacement amount of the scanning line in the sub scanning direction at a detection position of the registration sensor along a main scanning direction.
US08743411B2

Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for manipulating media. In one aspect, a first set of media item images is displayed in a first region of a display screen. The media item images are moved about a predetermined path within the first region in response to a received input. A second set of media item images is displayed in a second region of the display screen where the second set of media item images are associated with an indicated media item image displayed in the first region. At least one of the media item images in the second set of media item images displayed in the second region is different from the indicated media item image.
US08743410B2

Images are laid out appropriately according to the sizes of faces of people pictured therein. A user selects a plurality of images to be laid out on a single background image. A layout determining section selects a template having the same number of image insertion regions as the number of images selected by the user, from among a plurality of templates, each having one or more image insertion regions of various sizes. Whether faces are included in the images is judged. Image layout is determined such that images that include faces are inserted in image insertion regions of the template having greater sizes as the size of a representative face is smaller; and images that do not include faces are inserted into image insertion regions of the template having smaller sizes.
US08743407B2

A computer readable recording medium stored with a color conversion setting program, the program causes a computer to execute a process comprising: (a) generating a plurality of profile sets respectively associated with paper types, each of the profile sets being to be used for applying at least one kind of color conversion profile having conversion data for converting colors to a color conversion process depending on the particular paper type used for printing; (b) generating color setting information containing the plurality of profile sets respectively associated with paper types to be used during the color conversion process for each job; and (c) executing a control process for registering the color setting information generated in the step (b) to a storage unit, from which the color setting information is read out during the color conversion process.
US08743404B2

An image forming apparatus includes first and second interpreters configured to interpret page description language data and generate intermediate data. The apparatus further includes a setting unit configured to set an image quality priority mode for one of the first and second interpreters and a color/monochrome determination priority mode for the other of the first and second interpreters. Either the first interpreter or the second interpreter, for which the color/monochrome determination priority mode is set, skips the generation of the intermediate data for a processing target page in a case where it is determined that the processing target page is a color page.
US08743403B2

A method for archiving is disclosed. The method comprises generating a first image file corresponding to an original print using a first printer placed at a first location. Further, the first image file is transmitted from the first location to a second printer placed at a second location. The method further includes generating a duplicate print corresponding to the first image file at the second location. Further, a quality of the first image file is compared with a quality of the duplicate print, and the duplicate print is archived based on the comparison.
US08743396B2

A method of printing comprising: storing a plurality of sets of linearization data (32) for a printhead (12; 14; 16; 18) with each set corresponding to a different history of usage of the printhead; monitoring (S210) the history of usage of the printhead; selecting (S220), prior to printing, from said plurality of sets of linearization data a set of linearization data that is the set that most closely matches the monitored history of usage of the printhead prior to said printing; and printing (S250) the image using the selected set of linearization data.
US08743395B2

An image forming apparatus includes a communication unit, a prohibition unit, an execution unit, and a control unit. The communication unit communicates with an external apparatus. The prohibition unit prohibits the communication unit from communicating with the external apparatus when a command for executing initialization with respect to the image forming apparatus is specified. The execution unit executes a process for accepting set information of the initialization when the prohibition unit prohibits the communication unit from communication with the external apparatus. The control unit executes a process for informing that the initialization should be executed when an elapsed time of a waiting state where input of the set information is not executed exceeds a given period.
US08743394B2

An image capturing apparatus includes a housing, a processor module, a sheet feeder, an image capturing assembly, a display module and an operation interface. The image capturing assembly captures both of first and second images of a document sheet, past a scan region and transported by the sheet feeder, and produces first and second image data representative of the first and second images in either a single-sided or double-sided scanning mode. The display module displays representation images of the first and second images. The operation interface receives user input and outputs a selection signal comprising information of selecting at least one of the first and second images. The processor module processes at least one of the first and second image data into output image data according to the selection signal.
US08743392B2

An image forming apparatus includes plural input filter sections controlling different types of input-processing performed by corresponding input devices to produce respective input image data sets each having a different input format, plural output filter sections controlling different types of output-processing performed by corresponding output devices that receive respective output image data sets each having a different output format, and an image processing section being made sharable by any given one of the input filter sections and any given one of the output filter sections, and converting an image data set from an input format of the one of the input filter sections to an output format of the one of the output filter sections.
US08743391B2

An image processing apparatus including an input information acquiring unit configured to acquire entry information entered in defined areas of an input sheet as image information. The apparatus also includes a data format information acquiring unit configured to acquire corresponding areas of a format sheet as image information. The apparatus also includes a correlating unit configured to correlate the entry information entered in the defined areas of the input sheet and the corresponding areas of the format sheet.
US08743385B2

A service providing apparatus includes the following elements. A communication unit communicates with an external terminal apparatus. An operation unit is used by a user for performing an operation. A notification unit notifies a user of information. A login controller receives a login request of a user from the operation unit or from an external terminal apparatus via the communication unit, and determines whether to permit the login. Upon receipt of a login request from a second user when a first user has already logged in, the login controller notifies the first user of occurrence of the login request via the communication unit or the notification unit, and permits the login of the second user in accordance with a notification received from the first user via the communication unit or an operation performed by the first user with the operation unit.
US08743375B2

Provided is a parallelism measuring system and a method thereof, wherein the system includes a measured module, which includes a measured unit; a reference unit; and an optical measuring unit including an optical measuring module and a shift module. A lower surface of the measured unit is a measured surface and an upper surface of the reference is a reference surface. The optical measuring module includes a light source unit, a reflecting unit, and a sensing unit. A collimated beam is emitted from the light source unit and sequentially reflected by the measured surface, the reflecting unit and the reference surface to the sensing unit. The sensing unit senses location of the collimated beam and thereby calculates interval distance between the measured surface and the reference surface. By using the shift module to move the optical measuring module, the interval distance between different points may be measured.
US08743373B1

An interferometry method and associated system and computerized media for testing samples under test including those with high aberrations, comprising: situating a sample under test between a tilt mirror and a reference mirror, the tilt mirror tiltable with at least one degree of freedom about at least one tilt mirror axis, and further translatable along an axial line defined by a direction of propagation of a test wavefront from a source thereof; propagating the test wavefront toward the tilt mirror; after the test wavefront has been reflected by the tilt mirror, further propagating the test wavefront toward a reference mirror; and deriving a substantially complete first-tilt-alignment wavefront metrology of the sample under test from a plurality of first-tilt-alignment interferograms taken with the tilt mirror held fixed at a first predetermined tilt mirror angle while discreetly varying a displacement between the sample under test and the reference mirror.
US08743370B2

A delay interferometer includes a half beam splitter and two pentagonal prisms disposed on a substrate. The half beam splitter branches light to be measured which travels substantially in parallel with the substrate into two branched light beams. The pentagonal prisms respectively reflect the respective branched light beams such that the optical axes of the branched light beams are moved in parallel in a direction substantially perpendicular to the substrate by reflection. The half beam splitter combines the branched light beams reflected by the pentagonal prisms to generate interference light beams.
US08743357B2

A surface inspecting apparatus can inspect a smaller defect by using a PSL of a smaller particle size. However, the particle size of the PSL is restricted. In the conventional surface inspecting apparatus, therefore, no consideration has been taken as to how to inspect the defect of such a small particle size as is not set in the PSL which will be needed in the near future in an inspection of a semiconductor manufacturing step. The invention has a light source device for generating light which simulated at least one of a wavelength, a light intensity, a time-dependent change of the light intensity, and a polarization of light which was scattered, diffracted, or reflected by an inspection object, and the light is inputted to a photodetector of the surface inspecting apparatus. The smaller defect can be inspected.
US08743354B2

An optical blood monitoring system for blocking unwanted light from reaching sensors in a sensor clip assembly fastened to a blood chamber connected in an extracorporeal blood treatment system. The sensor clip assembly includes opposing heads with LED emitters and photodetectors. In one embodiment, lenses in the heads are surrounded by shrouds extending from the lenses so that when the sensor clip assembly is fastened to the blood chamber the shrouds block unwanted light from reaching the photodetectors. Either alternatively or as a complement to the shrouds, the blood chamber includes an opaque portion or a portion colored to attenuate particular wavelengths of light to further enhance the overall ability of the blood chamber and sensor clip assembly to block unwanted light from reaching the photodetectors.
US08743351B2

A laser Doppler velocimeter uses self-mixing amplification of backreflections from scatterers below the surface of a flow. A time domain signal is divided into segments that are roughly equal to a transit time of particles through a focus of a laser beam. The segments are connected to a frequency domain through the use of an FFT algorithm to produce frequency domain data segments. Signal-to-noise ratio is enhanced through signal processing techniques using the segments to produce a final enhanced signal spectrum.
US08743349B2

An apparatus and method of correcting an image are provided. The apparatus includes a receiver to receive a depth value and a luminous intensity, the depth value and the luminous intensity being measured by at least one depth sensor, and a correction unit to read a correction depth value of a plurality of correction depth values mapped to different depth values and different luminous intensities from a first storage unit and to correct the measured depth value using the read correction depth value, the correction depth value being mapped to the measured depth value and the measured luminous intensity.
US08743346B2

The present invention provides an inexpensive range image sensor and etc. A range image sensor comprises diffractive optical elements and on which are formed diffractive gratings that change a traveling direction of incident parallel light so that in a coordinate space defined by a xyz-axis, the incident parallel light is split into split beams, and angles formed by the x-axis and line segments determined by projected light spots formed by the split beams on a predetermined projection plane intersecting the z-axis become predetermined angles. Furthermore, the range image sensor is provided with a distance determining unit for determining distances to the projected light spots on the basis of the tilting with respect to the x-axis of the line segments determined by the projected light spots formed on the object by the split beams.
US08743345B2

A three-dimensional imaging and display system is provided in which user input is optically detected in an imaging volume by measuring the path length of an amplitude modulated scanning beam as a function of the phase shift thereof. Visual image user feedback concerning the detected user input is presented.
US08743335B2

An electronic device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the electronic device includes a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (ICs) coupled to the LCD. The driver ICs may be disposed near non-central locations along a side of the LCD, and in some embodiments, one of the driver ICs may be a master driver IC and the other driver IC or driver ICs may be slave driver ICs.
US08743334B2

A display substrate, a display device having the same and a method of manufacturing the display substrate are provided. The display substrate includes a base substrate having a pixels-populated area (PA) and a surrounding area (SA) outside the PA, a first contact pad portion formed in the surrounding area, a second contact pad portion formed in the surrounding area formed to be spaced apart from the first contact pad portion with a spacing region provided therebetween, an insulating layer formed in the spacing region between the first and second contact pad portions and having a thickness smaller than or equal to a thickness of each of the first and second contact pad portions, and a first conductive film formed on the first and second pad portions.
US08743328B2

Provided is a manufacturing method for a liquid crystal display device, in which a semiconductor pattern and a metal pattern are formed so that the semiconductor pattern includes a first portion formed under the metal pattern and a second portion which outwardly extends off the metal pattern from the first portion. An insulating layer for covering the metal pattern and the semiconductor pattern is formed. The insulating layer is subjected to etching in a first region located above the metal pattern and in a second region located above at least the second portion of the semiconductor pattern. In the etching step, the insulating layer in the first region is subjected to etching to form a through hole for electrical connection to the metal pattern, and the insulating layer and the semiconductor pattern in the second region are subjected to etching to remove the second portion of the semiconductor pattern.
US08743325B2

A liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, a common electrode layer disposed on the first substrate and a plurality of pixel structures disposed on the second substrate. Each of the pixel structure includes a first data line, a second data line, a third data line and at least a capacitance adjusting layer. The capacitance adjusting layer is disposed between the common electrode layer and the second data line.
US08743322B2

A liquid crystal display device is provided which prevents variation in display from being caused due to misalignment of positions of exposure heads and/or error in assembly, and which is excellent in display quality. A liquid crystal display device 1 includes: a color filter 2 and a TFT substrate 3 which are bonded so as to oppose each other; and liquid crystal (not shown) sealed in a space formed therebetween. The color filter 2 includes: a substrate 4; black matrixes 5 provided on the substrate 4; and a plurality of colored layers 6 and 7 which partially overlap the black matrixes 5 at each pixel position. Vertices of ridges 18a and 28a formed by the colored layers 6 and 7 overlapping the black matrix 5 are positioned in an area where upper edges 19a and 29a, respectively, which continue in the Y-axis direction, are shielded from light by a light shielding section 10a of the TFT substrate 3.
US08743317B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a functional element substrate to which a pixel is formed in a predetermined cycle; an opposed substrate formed on the functional element substrate; and an optical device arranged on the opposed substrate, which includes a transparent layer and an optical absorption layer arranged in a cycle of 1/n (n is an integer number) of the cycle of arranging the pixel, and restricts spread of transmitted light.
US08743315B2

The present invention relates to a surface light source, including a light source section made up of plural light emitting diodes and lenses that expand light from these light emitting diodes. The lens in the light source section has a light incident surface on which light from the light emitting diode is incident with an optical axis at a center, and a light exit surface that expands and emits the incident light. The light incident surface has a continued depressed surface, while the light exit surface has a continued projected surface. The lens performs such that “sag Y” decreases from a maximum value “sag Y0” with an increment of “θi”, where θi is an angle included between a straight line, connecting an arbitrary point on the light exit surface and a base point on the optical axis which corresponds to a position of the light emitting diode, and the optical axis; sag Y is a distance measured in a light axis direction from the base point on the optical axis to the arbitrary point on the light exit surface; and “sag Y0” is a value of sag Y when angle θi is 0 (zero) degree, and wherein the light exit surface except a vicinity of the optical axis takes a shape satisfying a relation of 10 degrees<θmin<30 degrees, where θi takes a minimum value, i.e. θmin when curvature C of a micro-section on the light exit surface in a sectional view which includes the optical axis takes a minimum value.
US08743311B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) including a display panel having a pixel for displaying an image; a backlight assembly for providing light to the display panel; a mold frame for receiving the backlight assembly; a chassis for supporting the display panel and the mold frame; and a ground tab between the mold frame and the chassis, the ground tab having elasticity and including a bent portion, the bent portion corresponding in shape to a bend in the chassis, and the ground tab overlying an upper surface and a side surface of the mold frame.
US08743306B2

A liquid crystal display device and a method of manufacturing the same. The liquid crystal display device includes a plurality of pixel cells on a substrate and a common voltage line. The common voltage line provides a common voltage to the pixel cells, and includes first to third interconnection patterns which are sequentially stacked over the substrate. Each of the pixel cells includes a storage capacitor which includes a lower electrode, and an upper electrode over the lower electrode. The second interconnection pattern includes the same material as a material of the upper electrode, and is formed in the same process as a process of the upper electrode.
US08743303B2

A liquid crystal display device displaying a three-dimensional image using a left-eye image and a right-eye image includes a liquid crystal panel including first and second substrates that are spaced apart from each other; a patterned retarder disposed over the liquid crystal panel; and an optical member disposed under the liquid crystal panel, wherein the optical member includes at least one inclined plane corresponding to each pixel region of the liquid crystal panel.
US08743300B2

Integrated touch screens are provided including drive lines formed of grouped-together circuit elements of a thin film transistor layer and sense lines formed between a color filter layer and a material layer that modifies or generates light. The common electrodes (Vcom) in the TFT layer can be grouped together during a touch sensing operation to form drive lines. Sense lines can be formed on an underside of a color filter glass, and a liquid crystal region can be disposed between the color filter glass and the TFT layer. Placing the sense lines on the underside of the color filter glass, i.e., within the display pixel cell, can provide a benefit of allowing the color filter glass to be thinned after the pixel cells have been assembled, for example.
US08743292B2

Video/audio production processing control synchronization apparatus and methods are provided. Processing control commands that are provided to a first installation of production processing equipment for controlling production processing of edit units of first production signals are echoed to another installation, or possibly multiple other installations, of production processing equipment. Timing information associated with the edit units is also provided to the other installation(s), to enable production processing of delayed production signals by the other installation(s) to be synchronized with the production processing by the first installation of production processing equipment. Multiple production processing equipment installations can be controlled and synchronized from a single control interface.
US08743291B2

A first video signal is accessed, and represented in a first color space with a first color gamut, related to a first dynamic range. A second video signal is accessed, and represented in a second color space of a second color gamut, related to a second dynamic range. The first accessed video signal is converted to a video signal represented in the second color space. At least two color-related components of the converted video signal are mapped over the second dynamic range. The mapped video signal and the second accessed video signal are processed. Based on the processing, a difference is measured between the processed first and second video signals. A visual quality characteristic relates to a magnitude of the measured difference between the processed first and second video signals. The visual quality characteristic is assessed based, at least in part, on the measurement of the difference.
US08743290B2

An apparatus of processing an image contains a scene-change-detecting unit that detects a scene change of input image based on an image signal relative to the input image, a display-position-controlling unit that determines a display position of an image after the scene change to a display position associated with an image before the scene change based on a detection result in the scene-change-detecting unit, and a display-position-setting unit that sets the display position determined in the display-position-controlling unit as a display position in which the image after the scene change is displayed. The display-position-controlling unit detects a feature value of the images before and after the scene change and determines the display position of the image after the scene change based on the feature value of the images.
US08743288B2

A method and an apparatus are provided for determining whether a-low resolution image is converted to a high-resolution image, and enhancing image quality of a video signal. The image processing method includes steps of receiving a video stream; determining whether the video stream includes a converted image converted from a low-resolution image to a high-resolution image; and enhancing image quality of the video stream when the video stream includes the converted image.
US08743287B2

Current output pictures of video data are generated utilizing a motion compensated (MC) blended picture and a corresponding non-MC blended picture of the video data. Windows of picture data from a first picture and MC windows of picture data from a MC previously output picture may be partitioned. The partitioned widows are compared and the first picture is blended with the MC previously output picture based on the comparison to, for example, reduce noise and prevent motion trail artifacts. Non-MC windows of picture data from a MC or non-MC previously output picture may be partitioned and compared with the windows of picture data from the first picture. The first picture may be blended with the MC or non-MC previously output picture based on the comparison to reduce motion trail artifacts. A blending factor is determined and utilized to blend the blended pictures to reduce noise and prevent motion artifacts.
US08743286B2

A peripheral control system enhances expandability in the operation of peripheral by enabling the customization and display of operation panels for each of the peripherals, regardless of whether any operation panel exists at the display device side. The peripheral control system is configured by connecting a TV and a recorder via an HDMI connection. The TV stores operation panel information that includes array information for arraying, on the screen, image data of the operation buttons that comprise the operation panel of the recorder. The recorder stores image data of the operation buttons, and sends, according to operation panel information obtained from the TV, the aforementioned stored image data of the operation buttons in association with the array information to the TV. The TV disposes and displays image data of the operation buttons sent from the recorder, at a position that is in accordance with the array information.
US08743285B2

A high definition television monitor adapted to display a program guide, for example an electronic program guide demonstration, in low definition mode (1H) and automatically switch to high definition mode (2H) upon completion of the program guide display.
US08743284B2

A multimedia device (100) including a separating entity configured to separate a multimedia stream into audio frames and video frames, a sequencing entity configured to add a sequence number to at least one audio frame, a transceiver configured to transmit audio frames to a remote audio device, a controller coupled to a video player, the controller configured to determine a delay associated with transmitting the audio frames to the remote audio device based upon the sequence number and to control the presentation of the video frames at the video player based on the delay.
US08743282B2

A digital cable broadcast receiver and a method for automatically processing caption data of various standards and types, is disclosed. The digital broadcast receiver includes: a demultiplexer for dividing a received broadcast stream into video data, audio data, supplementary information; a controller for determining whether caption data included in the video data is digital caption data or analog caption data on the basis of caption information included in the supplementary information, and outputting a control signal according to a result of the determining; a digital caption decoder for extracting and decoding digital caption data from the video data according to the control signal; and an analog caption decoder for extracting and decoding analog caption data from the video data according to the control signal.
US08743275B1

A mobile communication device includes a wireless communication interface arranged to transmit and receive data with a wireless data network; a microprocessor in operable connection with memory storing one or more computer applications that include a digital image capture application; a housing at least partially surrounding the wireless communication interface and the microprocessor and defining an outer surface for the mobile communication device; a camera lens in an aperture in the housing and arranged on a first side of the wireless communication device and located at least partially in the housing, and serving as a centerpoint for an intersection of a pair of axes that define four quadrants; and a plurality of flash generating devices on the first side of, and on the outer surface of, the wireless communication device, two of the flash generating devices located in quadrants that are positioned opposite of, and not adjacent to, each other.
US08743274B2

A portable digital image acquisition device includes multiple lenses and/or multiple flashes. A main digital image and first and second reference images are acquired. The first and second reference images are acquired with different flash-lens combinations that have different flash-lens distances. One or more flash eye defects are detected and corrected in the main image based on analysis of the first and second reference images.
US08743267B2

An optical apparatus includes a first driver configured to drive a focus lens unit in autofocusing, a second driver configured to drive the focus lens unit in the autofocusing, a first detector configured to detect a driving amount of the first driver, a second detector configured to detect a driving amount of the second driver, a memory configured to store a relationship between information of detection results of the first and second detectors, and an object distance as a distance from the optical apparatus to an object, and a controller configured to obtain information of the object distance based upon the relationship stored in the memory and the detection results of the first and second detectors.
US08743264B2

A camera module includes a lens barrel and a lens holder. The lens barrel includes a first tubular section and a second tubular section. The first tubular section extends from an end of the second tubular section. The outer diameter of the first tubular section tapers in a direction from the image side to the object side of the lens barrel. The lens holder includes a third tubular section and a fourth tubular section. The third tubular section extends from an end of the fourth tubular section. The outer diameter of the third tubular section tapers in a direction from an image side to an object side of the third tubular section. The lens barrel threadedly inserts into the lens holder and is held by the lens holder.
US08743256B2

The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup element capable of transmitting pixel signals read from a pixel unit as optical signals at high speed, an optical apparatus, a signal processing apparatus, and a signal processing system.The solid-state image pickup element 1A includes a pixel unit 10A which converts light into electric signals, an A/D convertor 11A which converts the signals read from the pixel unit 10A into digital signals, an optical communication unit 12A which converts the signals digitalized by the A/D convertor 11A into optical signals and outputs the optical signals, a timing generator 13A which generates a driving clock used to synchronize processes of inputting/outputting signals performed by the pixel unit 10A, the A/D convertor 11A, and the optical communication unit 12A, and a controller 16A which controls reading of signals.
US08743254B2

In a reference signal comparison AD conversion scheme, a reference signal SLP_ADC and each of P and D phases of a pixel signal voltage VX are compared. A count clock CKcnt1 is counted based on the comparison result. The counting result data is converted into signal data Dsig, i.e., the difference between the P and D phases, which is also subjected to CDS. At this time, the n-bit AD conversion is performed on each of the P and D phases of the pixel signal voltage VX, followed by summation for digital integration. This prevents any possible detrimental effects that may be caused by summation in the analog domain. Although the signal data becomes W times greater, noise will likely become √W times greater. This alleviates the problem of random noise resulting from AD conversion such as quantizing noise and circuit noise that do not exist in the analog domain, thus reducing the noise.
US08743253B2

To reduce random noise caused by address setting in an apparatus that controls a read address of an image sensing device, without causing a significant increase in circuit complexity.A ring shift register sets a low-order address value depending on a value in steps of which an overall address value is incremented, and a Gray code counter sets a high-order address value. In the ring shift register, a carry from the lowest-order bit to the highest-order bit does not occur, and thus use of the ring shift register makes it possible to reduce the maximum number of toggled bits. The Gray code counter does not need to include a complicated circuit for switching the value in steps of which to increment the high-order address value. Thus, an overall address setting unit can be configured in a simple form without needing any complicated circuit such that addressing can be performed while maintaining the number of toggled bits within a small range and thus random noise generated in the addressing operation can be minimized.
US08743250B2

To provide a semiconductor device and a driving method of the same that is capable of enlarging a signal amplitude value as well as increasing a range in which a linear input/output relationship operates while preventing a signal writing-in time from becoming long. The semiconductor device having an amplifying transistor and a biasing transistor and the driving method thereof, wherein an electric discharging transistor is provided and pre-discharge is performed.
US08743239B2

Disclosed are an image processing apparatus which effectively corrects, by a simple method, color crosstalk that is generated in a captured image by light obliquely entering an image sensor, and a control method thereof. A white-detection area used in white balance processing for a captured image signal is set in accordance with an aperture value used in image capturing. The degree of color crosstalk depends on an aperture value used in image capturing, and the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the image sensor changes depending on the degree of color crosstalk. By setting a white-detection range to correct a change of the spectral sensitivity characteristic depending on the aperture value, color crosstalk can be simply, effectively corrected.
US08743234B1

A technique of approximating exponential transformations such as gamma correction is disclosed that achieves high resolution without requiring relatively large RAMs for lookup tables or specialized DSP processors. The technique includes the acts of scaling the pixel values according to their values, wherein smaller pixel values are scaled with larger scale factors and larger pixel values are scaled with smaller scale factors; quantizing the scaled pixel values; looking up the quantized pixel values in a lookup table to provide lookup values; and scaling the lookup values responsive to their scale factors to provide the gamma-corrected pixel values.
US08743233B2

An image capture device includes an image pickup unit including a plurality of pixels and photoelectrically converting an object image by the plurality of pixels; a white balance control unit for performing a white balance correction processing on pixel signals from the image pickup unit; and a sensitivity changing unit for changing the sensitivity of photographing, wherein the white balance control unit performs the white balance correction processing such that, as the sensitivity increases, a response to the light source is suppressed.
US08743225B2

An imaging control system for controlling a direction of an optical axis of an imaging unit is provided. The imaging control system includes a pan change unit configured to change the direction of the optical axis to a pan direction, a tilt change unit configured to change the direction of the optical axis to a tilt direction, and a display control unit configured to display the change direction to which the direction of the optical axis is changed by the pan change unit, corresponding to the change by the tilt change unit, together with an image captured by the imaging unit.
US08743207B2

An infrared camera architecture includes, for an embodiment, an infrared detector, a substrate, a plurality of electrical components coupled to the substrate, and a pedestal made of a thermally conductive material and having a leg coupled to the substrate. The infrared detector is supported by and thermally coupled to the pedestal, with the pedestal thermally isolating the infrared detector from the plurality of electrical components.
US08743204B2

An event within a surveilled area, a physically bounded region, can be detected in real-time. The event can be outside the field of view of a camera associated with the surveilled area. The event can be detected by a fiber optic sensor within the surveilled area which can measure an event metrics. Event information associated with the event can be received which can include a timing information, a sensor measurement, and a location information. An adjustment operation associated with the camera can be determined utilizing a mapping and the event location. The adjustment operation can be associated with a camera functionality and an adjustment value. The mapping can include a camera identification value, a camera location, and a field of view dimension. The field of view of the camera can be adjusted dynamically which can result in the location of the event being within the field of view.
US08743198B2

A method for detecting occupancy status of a plurality of conference rooms in real time is provided. The method enables, firstly, monitoring a first output signal of a first sensor. Secondly, the method enables monitoring a second output signal of a second sensor. The method further enables comparing the first and second output signals with one or more predetermined thresholds within a predetermined time. Furthermore, the method enables correlating the comparison results to identify any uncertainty in detecting the occupancy. Furthermore, the method enables processing output from one or more image and/or video sensors based on the correlation to obtain occupancy status information when there is uncertainty in detecting occupancy. Finally, the method enables displaying the occupancy status information on one or more user devices.
US08743194B2

An imaging system consisting of a cell-phone with camera as the detection part of an optical train which includes other components. Optionally, an illumination system to create controlled contrast in the sample. Uses include but are not limited to disease diagnosis, symptom analysis, and post-procedure monitoring, and other applications to humans, animals, and plants.
US08743189B2

An image processing apparatus includes an image acquiring unit that acquires an in-vivo image being a captured image of an inside of a body cavity; a feature-data calculating unit that calculates feature data corresponding to a pixel or an area in the in-vivo image; a body-tissue extracting unit that extracts, as a body tissue, a pixel or an area whose feature data corresponds to a predetermined threshold; a criterion creating unit that creates a criterion for detecting a detecting object based on the feature data of the body tissue; and a detecting unit that detects a body tissue corresponding to the criterion as the detecting object.
US08743187B2

Techniques and technologies are described herein for motion parallax three-dimensional (3D) imaging. Such techniques and technologies do not require special glasses, virtual reality helmets, or other user-attachable devices. More particularly, some of the described motion parallax 3D imaging techniques and technologies generate sequential images, including motion parallax depictions of various scenes derived from clues in views obtained of or created for the displayed scene.
US08743180B2

Systems and methods for performing multimedia conversion are disclosed. In a multimedia conversion system for converting two-dimensional (2D) multimedia data to stereoscopic multimedia data, an absolute difference between pixel pairs is determined for each scan line in a frame of the 2D multimedia data. The absolute difference values are accumulated, and a depth map is derived based on the accumulated difference values. The depth map is applied to the frame in the 2D multimedia data.
US08743175B2

A photographing apparatus has two binocular stereoscopic modes. In two-take photography mode, a 3D image file is generated from left and right monocular images acquired by performing monocular photographing twice, and the 3D image file thus generated is recorded. In one-take photography mode, a 3D image file is generated from left and right monocular images acquired by performing binocular photographing once, and the 3D image file thus generated is recorded. When the 3D image file is recorded, a homogeneity tag is recorded in 3D metadata, as tag information of the header data portion of the 3D image file. The homogeneity tag is information about the homogeneity of the two monocular images and describes whether the two monocular images have been acquired in the one-take photography mode in which monocular images highly homogeneous are provided, or in the two-take photography mode in which monocular images not so homogeneous are provided.
US08743172B2

A video conference system built in an internet protocol (IP) network is provided. The system has a multimedia capturing unit, a DECT telephone, and a video conference terminal apparatus. The DECT telephone is utilized to perform video conferencing with the video conference terminal apparatus by receiving and transmitting sounds. The DECT telephone is further utilized to control the video conference terminal apparatus to capture a target image in the video signals from other users in the video conference. The video conference terminal apparatus updates the phonebook image in the phonebook database thereof with the target image.
US08743171B2

Systems and methods are disclosed to automatically rescheduling and optionally transferring audio/video conferences when a conference runs longer than its previously allocated time. The disclosed relocation process incorporates one or more of a plurality of input sources such as electronic calendars, face/voice recognition systems, proximity systems, enterprise maps, and/or resource databases to assist in schedule adjustments. For example, if it is determined a meeting is running long then an organizer of a second impacted meeting can be notified of the over-run and prompted for information. If the second meeting organizer is amenable to delay or reschedule, options are presented to the second meeting organizer Once a plan change is determined, changes in schedule or location are automatically propagated to resources and attendees scheduled for the second meeting. Also, when a conference must relocate, actions associated with relocating resources are automated and confidentiality concerns can be taken into account.
US08743168B2

If an open-close lid is opened to perform cleaning for wiping the dirt off reflection surfaces of a polygon mirror, a service staff has difficulty in cleaning the reflection surfaces of the polygon mirror since the polygon mirror is located inside a housing. To respond to such an issue, a positional relationship between an installation position of the polygon mirror and an opening is set such that at least one of the reflection surfaces of the polygon mirror is exposed to the outside of the housing.
US08743164B2

According to one embodiment, a first conveying path to form a conveying path from a sheet supply portion toward an ejector, a reader arranged on the first conveying path to read an image on a surface of the sheet, an erasure to erase the image on the sheet formed with image erasable material, a switching portion arranged on the first conveying path at a downstream side of the reader in a sheet conveying direction to switch the sheet conveying direction to a direction of the ejector or a direction of the erasure, and a second conveying path having the erasure which, at a position where the switching portion is arranged, branches from the first conveying path at the downstream side of the reader and merges with the first conveying path at a meeting point between the sheet supply portion and the reader.
US08743158B2

Embodiments relate generally to computer-based image processing, and more particularly, to systems, apparatuses, integrated circuits, computer-readable media, and methods to facilitate operation of an image display system with a relatively high dynamic range by, for example, generating a rear modulator sub-image with color compensation techniques. The image display system can produce rear modulator drive levels that would enable a front modulator sub-image to be displayed without color errors arising for a certain color or colors when the image display system includes pixel mosaics.
US08743146B2

The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for implementing an augmented reality application. The method includes: searching for AR applications related to set AR application parameter; selecting at least two AR applications from multiple AR applications found through searching and integrating the at least two AR applications into one new AR application; and providing the new AR application after integration for a user.
US08743145B1

Augmented reality may be provided to one or more users in a real-world environment. For instance, information related to a recognized object may be displayed as a visual overlay appearing to be in the vicinity of the object in the real-world environment that the user is currently viewing. The information displayed may be determined based on at least one of captured images and transmissions from other devices. In one example, a portable apparatus receives a transmitted user ID and may submit the user ID to a remote computing device that compares a profile of a user corresponding to the user ID with a profile associated with the portable apparatus for determining, at least in part, information to be displayed as the visual overlay. As another example, the portable apparatus may include a camera to capture images that are analyzed for recognizing objects and identifying other users.
US08743143B2

Discussed is an image display device which detects image characteristic information from an image of a screen provided by a mobile terminal, extracts a characteristic area based on the image characteristic information, and automatically magnifies or reduces the extracted characteristic area and display the same, to thereby allow a user to conveniently and effectively view the image provided from the mobile terminal in a vehicle. The image display device includes: a communication unit configured to receive an image from a mobile terminal; a controller configured to detect image characteristic information of the received image, extract a first area on the basis of the detected image characteristic information, determine an image processing scheme with respect to the extracted first area, and process an image corresponding to the extracted first area according to the determined image processing scheme; and a display unit configured to display the processed image.
US08743136B2

Methods, apparatuses, and computer readable storage mediums for generating an object representation from a bitmap image by selecting a set of regions, including a background region, from the bitmap image. Color and partial transparency parameters of a first graphical object with partial transparency that overlaps a second graphical object are estimated according to colors of the set of regions. The estimated color and partial transparency are consistent with a transparency compositing model. Geometric models of the first and second graphical objects are constructed from the set of regions and the estimated color and transparency parameters of the first graphical object. The object representation is generated dependent upon the geometric models. The object representation may be an electronic document and the bitmap image may be a scanned version of a document.
US08743135B2

A smooth curve is represented in a graphics texture by setting the texels that are inside the curve 1 to a value greater than a predetermined threshold value and the texels that are outside the curve 1 to a value less than the threshold value (or vice-versa).The texture value returned for a sampled position can thus be used to determine whether the sampled position should be treated as being inside the curve 1 or not.The texture is optimised for sampling using bi-linear filtering.
US08743134B2

Interactive analysis of data objects within a display includes displaying icons representing different data objects on a graphic display device at each of a plurality of unique locations within a multi-dimensional relational structure as a function of unique respective values of dimensions of a display data variable that is relevant to the display structure and common to each of the data objects represented by the icons, and wherein the icons each have initial respective graphic display appearances. Selecting an icon specifies a comparison data variable common to the data objects, wherein graphic display appearances of each of the icons are updated at their same, unique locations to revised dimensional graphic display appearances that visually indicate relationships of respective values of the selected common comparison data variable of their represented data objects to a value of the selected common comparison data variable of the data object represented by the selected icon.
US08743132B2

A setting control apparatus includes a setting control part, a special register, and a read-out control part. The setting control part makes stored in a temporary storage part a control value used in a processing circuit, in response to an input of the control value. The special register is electrically connected to the processing circuit and serving as a storage element capable of storing the control value. The read-out control part controls a read-out operation for reading out the control value from the temporary storage part into the special register. The read-out control part performs the read-out operation at a predetermined timing after storing of the control value in the temporary storage part is completed.
US08743130B2

The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A DISTRIBUTED OBJECT RENDERER implement distributed rendering of complex visualizations in rich multimedia objects for sharing in online social networking applications. In one embodiment, a processor-implemented distributed rendering method is disclosed, comprising: obtaining a request to render an image of a visualization included in a client app; analyzing the render request to determine data required for render processing; providing a request for the data required for render processing; obtaining the data required for render processing upon providing the request for the required data; recreating an app state of the client app using the obtained data required for render processing, the recreated app state including data related to the visualization included in the client app; rendering the image of the visualization including in the client app using the recreated app state; generating a publishing element using the rendered image of the visualization included in the client app; and providing the publishing element for publication.
US08743128B2

A mobile wireless communications device may include a display, a graphics processing unit (GPU) being resettable and causing a change in the display when reset, a wireless transceiver, and a processor cooperating with the GPU and the wireless transceiver for wireless communications. The processor may be resettable along with the GPU, and the processor also may be partially resettable without resetting the GPU to avoid a change in the display.
US08743125B2

Natural inter-viseme animation of 3D head model driven by speech recognition is calculated by applying limitations to the velocity and/or acceleration of a normalized parameter vector, each element of which may be mapped to animation node outputs of a 3D model based on mesh blending and weighted by a mix of key frames.
US08743122B2

A graph exploration module is described which displays graph data (or any data set) using any one of an extensible collection of chart types. Some of the chart types may present aggregated results associated with the graph data. One chart type provides bars which represent aggregations of nodes in the graph data and a collection of links which represent relationships among the bars. The graph exploration module may present the chart in the context of an interactive exploration panel within an exploration canvas. A user can make various selections which prompt the graph exploration module to generate a new exploration panel, together with a link which connects to the new panel to the previous panel. This process can be repeated any number of times to produce one or more exploration paths which reveal a history of exploration actions made by the user(s). That history can be saved and later retrieved.
US08743114B2

Methods and systems to determine view cell occlusion, including to project objects of a 3-dimensional graphics environment to a 2-dimensional image plane with respect to the view point, to reduce sizes of corresponding object images, to generate an occluder map from the reduced-size object images, to compare at least a portion of the object images to the occluder map, and to identify an object as occluded with respect to the view cell when pixel depth values of the object image are greater than corresponding pixel depth values of the occluder map. Methods and systems to reduce an object image size include methods and systems to nullify pixel depth values within a radius of an edge pixel, and to determine the radius as a distance from the edge pixel to a second pixel so that a line between the view point and the second pixel is parallel with one or more of a line and a plane that is tangential to a sphere enclosing the view cell and a point on the object that corresponds to the edge pixel.
US08743106B2

By way of enabling a reset signal while turning off a liquid crystal display, a method for decaying residual image of the liquid crystal display is capable of setting the corresponding gate signal of each of a plurality of gate lines of the liquid crystal display based on the reset signal being enabled. Accordingly, enhanced discharging processes on all the storage units of the liquid crystal display for fast decaying residual image can be performed via the data switches of the liquid crystal display turned on by the gate signals being set. The reset operation for performing discharging processes in response to the reset signal can be carried out based on a reset circuit for setting all the gate signals to become high-level signals, or based on a charging/discharging module for furnishing a high-level voltage directly to all the gate lines.
US08743104B2

An organic light emitting display includes a current driving unit, an organic light emitting diode and a memory unit. The current driving unit is employed to provide a driving current according to a driving voltage generated therein. The organic light emitting diode generates a light output based on the driving current. The operation of the memory unit is controlled by a first auxiliary power voltage and a second auxiliary power voltage. When the first auxiliary power voltage is greater than the second auxiliary power voltage, the memory unit is enabled to perform a voltage retaining operation on the driving voltage. When the second auxiliary power voltage is greater than the first auxiliary power voltage, the memory unit is disabled for ceasing the voltage retaining operation.
US08743098B2

The present invention permits a capacitance value of an electro-optical element such as organic EL element to be arbitrarily set without changing the light extraction efficiency of a pixel. That is, the present invention permits a capacitance value Coled of an organic EL element (21) to be arbitrarily set by adjusting the light emission area of the organic EL element (21) without changing the light extraction efficiency of a pixel (20) in an organic EL display device. The organic EL display device has the pixels (20) arranged in a matrix form. A light extraction opening (56) is formed on the surface of the pixel with a light-shielding film (black matrix) (57). The light extraction opening (56) has an opening area smaller than the light emission area of the organic EL element (21).
US08743097B2

A liquid crystal display comprising an array substrate formed with gate lines, data lines and pixel electrodes. Odd rows of pixel electrodes in the same column are connected with one of data lines at two sides of the column, even rows of pixel electrodes are connected with the other one of the data lines; pixel electrodes in the same row are controlled by one of the two gate lines at two sides of the row of pixel electrodes, pixel electrodes controlled by each gate line are located in the same row; there are two gate lines between two adjacent rows of pixel electrodes; two adjacent pixel electrodes in the same row between two adjacent data lines are controlled by one of the two gate lines at two sides of the row of pixel electrodes, and they are connected with one of the two adjacent data lines.
US08743092B2

A display apparatus includes a display panel which include a plurality of areas; a communication unit which receive information about brightness sensed by a pointing device; a backlight unit which includes a plurality of light sources; and a controller which controls the backlight unit to change the brightness of the plural areas by a predetermined unit, and determines a pointing position of the pointing device on the basis of relative variation in the information about the brightness. With this, it is possible to detect a pointing position of a pointing device in a display apparatus having a hold-type display panel.
US08743082B2

A separate control system may be configured for a combined sensor device. Alternatively, at least part of the control system may be included in another device, such as a processor of a mobile device. Software for handwriting, touch and fingerprint detection may be included in the control system. Low, medium and high resolution may be obtained with a single combined sensor device by scanning a subset of the sensels, or by aggregating lines or columns. Power consumption may be reduced by aggregating sensor pixels (or rows or columns) electrically using the controller, so that they perform as a low power small array until higher resolution with a larger array is needed. Power consumption may be reduced by turning off portions or all of the sensor device, turning off parts of the control system, and/or employing first-level screening at a reduced frame rate.
US08743068B2

A touch screen method for recognizing a finger-flick touch gesture for an electronic device including a overlaying a plurality of transparent sensors on top of a visual display associated with the electronic device and where the transparent sensors are configured to be responsive to touch by at least one user finger and the visual display is for rendering visual information provided by the electronic device is disclosed. Control parameters associated with sensor measurements include parameter derived from recognizing a finger-flick touch gesture.
US08743049B2

An electrophoretic includes scanning lines, data lines, power supply lines and enable lines provided in a display section. The electrophoretic display device also includes, in each of pixels, a pixel electrode, a control transistor connected to one of the scanning lines and one of the data lines, a driving transistor having a gate connected to a drain of the control transistor and having a drain connected to one of the power supply lines, a storage capacitor connected to the gate and a source of the driving transistor, and an enable transistor connected between the source of the driving transistor and the pixel electrode. The enable transistor switches electrical connection between the pixel electrode and the driving transistor on the basis of a signal input through one of the enable lines.
US08743044B2

To suppress fluctuation in the threshold voltage of a transistor, to reduce the number of connections of a display panel and a driver IC, to achieve reduction in power consumption of a display device, and to achieve increase in size and high definition of the display device. A gate electrode of a transistor which easily deteriorates is connected to a wiring to which a high potential is supplied through a first switching transistor and a wiring to which a low potential is supplied through a second switching transistor; a clock signal is input to a gate electrode of the first switching transistor; and an inverted clock signal is input to a gate electrode of the second switching transistor. Thus, the high potential and the low potential are alternately applied to the gate electrode of the transistor which easily deteriorates.
US08743043B2

A method for driving a display device is provided herein. The display device includes a plurality of scan lines. The method comprises following steps: dividing the scan lines into a plurality of groups, each of which comprises at least two scan lines, i.e. a first and a second scan line; during a first frame period, sequentially enabling the first and second scan line of each group in accordance with a first driving sequence; and during a second frame period, sequentially enabling the first and second scan line of each group in accordance with a second driving sequence, wherein the first driving sequence is different from the second driving sequence.
US08743041B2

In order to carry out a display reset operation, a segment driver and a common driver are driven to operate as below during a display data reading period in which voltages to be applied to a liquid crystal display panel are nonuniform between lines. First, a shift register and a level shifter which are provided in the segment driver and a shift register and a level shifter which are provided in the common driver are driven to operate as usual, whereas a display control signal supplied from a controller causes output circuits to stop carrying out their respective output operations. In at least one embodiment, during a period in which a writing operation is carried out with respect to the liquid crystal display panel so as to carry out the display reset operation, the display control signal supplied from the controller allows the output circuits to carry out the respective output operations. This allows a memory (e.g., cholesteric) liquid crystal display device to carry out a display reset operation without causing display unevenness by simultaneously selecting a plurality of lines.
US08743039B2

A dynamic polarity control method for driving an LCD is provided. Gray level information is obtained, which indicates gray levels of dots in an image to be displayed. The gray level information is applied to each of a plurality of polarity patterns to obtain a plurality of combined patterns, wherein each of the polarity patterns has an individual polarity distribution. The gray levels of each of the combined patterns are summed up. A final pattern is selected from the plurality of polarity patterns according to the summed results, to drive the LCD for displaying the image.
US08743036B2

A liquid crystal display has a pair of substrates with liquid crystal sealed between them. A polymer layer regulates directions in which the liquid crystal molecules tilt. A plurality of gate bus lines and a plurality of drain bus lines are provided on one of the substrates. Color filters and a pixel electrode are provided on the substrate. The pixel electrode includes a first sub-pixel electrode and a second sub-pixel electrode. A common electrode is provided on the other substrate. A first and a second thin film transistor are connected to the first sub-pixel electrode. The first thin film transistors is connected to a first gate bus line, and the second thin film transistor is connected to a second bus line.
US08743034B2

An array substrate of a liquid crystal display (LCD) device comprising a switching device switching a connection between a short ring connected with a common line and each of a plurality of data lines. The switching device is turned off during a normal state, but is turned on by a control signal when the LCD device is turned off, thereby making an electrical potential of the data lines to be equal to that of the short ring.
US08743029B2

Disclosed herein is a display device including a pixel array unit, a first scanning circuit, a second scanning circuit and a selecting circuit.
US08743028B2

A display system in which the luminance of light-emitting elements in a light-emitting device is adjusted based on information on an environment. A sensor obtains information on an environment as an electrical signal. A CPU converts, based on comparison data set in advance, the information signal into a correction signal for correcting the luminance of EL elements. Upon receiving this correction signal, a voltage changer applies a predetermined corrected potential to the EL elements. Thus, this display system enables control of the luminance of the EL elements.
US08743019B1

Embodiments of the present invention include a host computer system implemented method comprising receiving an indication of total requested display size of a remotely coupled client computer system. The method further includes automatically determining a number of display screens and a predetermined average display screen size. The method further includes an operating system of the host computer system allocating therein a display area to accommodate the total requested display size and dividing the display area into a number of separate portions equal to the number of display screens usable by the client computer system. The method further includes allocating each separate portion of the display area of the host computer system to a respective display screen of the client computer wherein each separate portion so allocated functions as a separate and independent display screen.
US08743013B2

A cylindrical-shaped enclosure having tapered ends. The enclosure includes a module having a radio disposed on a printed circuit board and an antenna connected to the PCB. The enclosure has a main piece coupled to a lower piece and to a top piece, an optionally a fourth piece coupled to the top piece. A mounting subsystem is mounted to the main piece and includes a hole configured to receive therethrough a wires that connect to the printed circuit board. The antenna is configured to rotate about an axis that extends along a longest dimension of the enclosure. The module includes a metal plate to which the antenna is directly mechanically and electrically coupled without any cable such that the wires lack any control signals for controlling the antenna. The top and/or lower pieces can house any combination of a camera, an environmental sensor, security equipment, or a lighting system.
US08743012B2

A broad-band, multi-band antenna. The antenna includes a ground terminal and a feed terminal, an elongated inductor, a first inductive element electrically coupled between the ground terminal and a first extremity of the elongated inductor, a capacitive element in parallel connection with the first inductive element, and a second inductive element electrically coupled between a second extremity of the elongated inductor and the feed terminal.
US08743008B2

The invention relates to a base station antenna, that includes two or more reflector plates, each provided with a radiating element. The base station antenna also includes a reflector plate connecting member connected to each reflector plate for enabling the rotation of the reflector plates. The base station antenna also includes a reflector plate controller providing control signals for controlling the rotation and stoppage of the reflector plates.
US08743007B2

The present invention provides a substrate type antenna capable of realizing high gain enhancement and high band enhancement in a simple configuration. In the substrate type antenna, a loop-like first joint pattern whose one spot is divided, is formed in one substrate surface of a substrate made of a dielectric material. Antennas are respectively connected to both end terminals of the first joint pattern at a position where the first joint pattern is divided. A loop-like second joint pattern formed at a position corresponding to the first joint pattern and whose one spot is divided, is formed in the other substrate surface of the substrate. A loop-like third joint pattern which is substantially concentric with the first joint pattern and which is formed at a position corresponding to the second joint pattern and whose spot is divided, is formed in the one substrate surface of the substrate. Other antennas are respectively connected to both end terminals of the third joint pattern at a position where the third joint pattern is divided.
US08742998B2

An object is to provide a goods storage tool that enables an antenna to be connected to an electronics device without the need to take out the antenna from a storage object in which the antenna is stored. A goods storage tool of the present invention is a goods storage tool for storing goods or contents therein. The goods storage tool includes an antenna that is stored in the goods storage tool; and a connection portion that enables a feeder connector connected to an electronics device to be connected to the antenna in such a way that the antenna remains stored in the goods storage tool.
US08742996B2

A mobile wireless communications device may include a plurality of antennas, a plurality of wireless transceivers, and signal processing circuitry. The device may further include a controller for selectively switching the signal processing circuitry to a desired one of the wireless transceivers, and for selectively switching a desired one of the antennas to the desired one of the wireless transceivers. Moreover, the controller may also be for selectively connecting and disconnecting the at least one other one of the antennas to an unused one of the wireless transceivers.
US08742992B2

In a planar inverted F antenna, a second radiation element is provided parallel to the GND surface and extending partially with respect to a first radiation element in a longitudinal direction, so as to substantially increase a width of the first radiation element in the vicinity of a power supply section.
US08742991B2

Handheld electronic devices and methods involving tunable dielectric materials are provided. In this regard, a representative device includes: a transceiver operative to selectively transmit and receive electrical signals; an antenna assembly electrically connected to the transceiver, the antenna assembly having anisotropic dielectric material operative to exhibit a change in dielectric constant responsive to an applied electrical signal; and a dielectric tuning system operative to automatically and selectively apply a first signal to the antenna assembly to change the dielectric constant of the anisotropic dielectric material to alter a resonant frequency and efficiency tuning of the antenna.
US08742974B1

A weather radar system for an aircraft is provided. The weather radar system includes processing electronics configured to process radar return data to identify a weather cell, to store information related to the identified weather cell in a database, to receive a selection of an identified weather cell from a user interface, to receive the information related to the selected weather cell from the database, and to cause the information to be displayed textually on a display in response to the received selection.
US08742970B2

An apparatus and method for regulating analogue-to-digital converters. First and second input signals are received at controlled oscillator circuitry which generates respective first and second pulse streams with pulse rates based on the relevant input signal. Difference circuitry determines the difference in number of pulses of the first and second pulse streams and outputs a first digital signal. Circuitry also determines a signal independent value based on the number of pulses of the first and/or second pulse streams. In one embodiment this value is the sum or average of the number of pulses of the first and second pulse streams. This value can be used to calibrate for any variation in transfer characteristic of the oscillator circuitry. In one embodiment this value is compared to a reference value and a regulation signal passed to control circuitry to regulate the operation of the oscillation circuitry.
US08742966B2

An output device receives a data signal, outputs an output signal corresponding to the data signal in synchronization with a clock signal, and includes a driving unit configured to drive an output buffer that outputs the output signal. The driving unit includes a signal switching unit and first and second driving circuits that operate with the same power supply. The signal switching unit inputs the clock signal into one of the first and second driving circuits in accordance with the level of the data signal, and the one of the first and second driving circuits outputs a driving signal whose level varies in accordance with a change in the level of the clock signal to the output buffer.
US08742961B2

A switching scheme is used during a calibration mode for determining calibration coefficients of each calibrated stage of a pipeline analog-to-digital converter (ADC). A calibrated stage of the pipeline ADC includes an amplifier for amplifying a residue voltage of the stage and a sampling capacitor comprising a plurality of sub-capacitors. The plurality of sub-capacitors have a first terminal connected to an input of amplifier and a second terminal connected to one or more switches that selectively couple the second terminal to the input terminal of the stage, a first reference voltage or a second reference voltage lower than the first reference voltage. During foreground calibration, a number of measurements are taken at an output of the amplifier to determine the calibration coefficient of the calibrated stage.
US08742951B1

A method for indicating readiness of a predictive windshear system on an aircraft is provided. The method includes determining whether a windshear system is in a ready state and providing a first output that causes an indication of the ready state, the ready state being responsive to the windshear system being ready to detect a windshear event. Determining whether the windshear system is in the ready state includes comparing a first time until a first parameter reaches a first value with a second time for initialization of the windshear system and determining that the windshear system is ready to detect the windshear event in response to the first time being greater than the second time.
US08742948B2

A server device may receive parking information that identifies a first plurality of parking spots, within a parking structure, that are available for parking, and a second plurality of parking spots, within the parking structure, that are unavailable for parking; store the parking information in association with information identifying the parking structure; receive, from a user device, a request for parking information associated with the parking structure; populate, in response to the request, a visual representation of the parking structure with the parking information, where the visual representation of the parking structure identifies the first plurality of parking spots and the second plurality of parking spots; and transmit the visual representation of the parking structure to the user device to assist a user, of the user device, in locating one of the first plurality of parking spots.
US08742941B2

A device (1) for providing information on positioning of at least one moveable coupling (26) of a marine loading system (2), the system comprising at least one fluid transfer line having a line end fixed to a base (21), and a moveable line end provided with a coupling (26) adapted for connection to a target duct, the coupling or a member immediately neighboring the coupling having at least one means for providing information on the positioning of the coupling (33) either adapted to cooperate directly with a means (34) for providing information on positioning of the base disposed on the base or on a member immediately neighboring the base to provide, on the basis of the information on positioning of the base, information on relative positioning of the coupling directly relative to the base, or adapted to provide information on absolute positioning of the coupling (26) in space, and, the base having a fixed position in space, the device has a calculating means making it possible to calculate on the basis of the information on absolute positioning of the coupling and data on positioning of the base fixed in space, information on relative positioning of the coupling directly relative to the base.
US08742940B2

An alarm circuit and method of monitoring a circuit protection device are disclosed. The alarm circuit includes a circuit protection device connected in series at an input voltage of a load. The alarm circuit also includes a programmable circuit connected in parallel to the circuit protection device and including an alarm signal. The programmable circuit is programmed to include a plurality of functional states, and at least one functional state corresponds to activation of the alarm signal. The at least one functional state activating the alarm signal corresponds with an interruption condition in the circuit protection device.
US08742927B2

The invention relates to the automatic detection of the presence of non-authorized persons in the vicinity of an apparatus of the aircraft type. To this end, the invention comprises equipping persons with radio transmitters for identifying them as authorized personnel. The aircraft are also fitted, such as at the existing PODs, with a transceiver device of a radio identification system of the RFID type for recognition of the persons wearing the radio transmitters. Only the persons who are not authorized in the vicinity of the aircraft initiate an alarm procedure.
US08742925B2

A device (1) for preventing and detecting the falling of an object or of a person on a line (2) of a railway station having a platform (3). The device (1) includes at least one detection device (7) having at least one emitter (8) of a beam (10) and a sensor (9) able to detect the beam (10), and a detection calculator (13) for processing the signals obtained from the sensors (9) and able to communicate safely with at least one signaling system (16a, 16b, 16c) of the railway station, barriers (4) able to be arranged on the platform (3) to prevent falls of the object or of the person, the barriers (4) delimiting between door opening areas (5), a detection device (7) being arranged in each of the door opening areas (5) to detect a fall on the line (2) of the railway station.
US08742924B2

A panic device operable in conjunction with a local device is configured to unlock a locking mechanism. The panic device can take the form of an electronic key fob, a key shaft, or a key holder. A first trigger on the panic device triggers a local alarm that is on-board or off-board the panic device. A second trigger on the panic device can activate an alarm circuitry that utilizes a local device to provide position information to a distant dispatch station. The local device uses a GPS-aware circuitry or other non-GPS means such as triangulation to determine the position information. The position information can then be sent to the distant dispatch station with or without the aid of the local device.
US08742923B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a gateway comprising a controller to transmit a first RF signal to a remote control device, wherein the first radio-frequency signal is received by a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag associated with the remote control device, receive at each of a plurality of receivers operably coupled to the gateway a second RF signal from the RFID tag of the remote control device in response to the first RF signal, determine an approximate location of the remote control device based on at least a portion of the second RF signals received by the plurality of receivers, and transmit a signal to a set-top-box, wherein the signal comprises the approximate location of the remote control device, and wherein the set-top-box displays the approximate location of the remote control device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08742918B2

An exemplary alarm management system and method for the management of alarm messages of a technical installation or of a technical process are disclosed. A data processing system receives alarm messages. A plurality of display modules display the alarm messages. The data processing system includes a module for creating alarm channels for different ways of representing the pending alarm messages. Each alarm channel created by the module is associated with one of the display modules, and the display modules present the pending alarm messages as ate least one of lists, alarm clouds, and displays in conjunction with at least one of acoustic signals and alarm records.
US08742917B2

A warning triangle has a simplified structure and is operable in accordance with the requirement of energy saving and manufactured at lower cost. The warning triangle structure includes a first board body, a second board body and a third board body, which are assembled with each other. Each of the board bodies has a first face and a second face, which together define an internal cavity. At least one light source and a light guide strip for guiding light are disposed in the cavity. The second and third board bodies are pivotally connected with movable stands for supporting the warning triangle in use. The second and third board bodies can be selectively collapsed onto the first and second faces of the first board body to minimize the volume of the warning triangle.
US08742911B2

The invention relates to a method for monitoring the load of vehicle tires which are each contacting a pavement with a circumferential section during travel, by means of monitoring devices (4) which are mounted to the tire (1) and contain a transmitter and a generator which is driven by the flexion of the tire (1), said flexion occurring during vehicle operation, wherein the generator generates a first voltage pulse each time it reaches the beginning of the circumferential section of the tire (1), which is contacting the pavement, and generates a second voltage pulse each time it reaches the end of the circumferential section of the tire (1), which is contacting the pavement, the time intervals (t1) between first and second voltage pulses are measured, the time intervals (t1) or a value calculated therefrom are/is compared with a reference value, and a warning signal is generated if a difference detected in this comparison exceeds a predefined value.
US08742907B2

A display apparatus includes a display section which is attached to an electric vehicle EV operable upon supply of electric power thereto and displays information regarding the electric power supplied to the electric vehicle EV; a determination section which determines whether or not the electric power supplied to the electric vehicle EV contains green electric power; and a display control section. In the case where the determination section determines that the electric power supplied to the electric vehicle EV contains green electric power, the display control section controls the display section such that the display color becomes green. In the case where the determination section determines that the electric power supplied to the electric vehicle EV does not contain green electric power, the display control section controls the display section such that the display color becomes red.
US08742904B2

A control device of a machine tool includes a first determination unit determining an amount of rotation, rotational speed, and direction of rotation of a rotary handle based on a pulse signal generated by rotation of the rotary handle at a manual pulse generator, and a second determination unit determining which of position control and rotational speed control is selected by selection of an axis through an axis selector switch, based on a signal generated by an axis selection signal generator at an operation device including the manual pulse generator. When a determination is made that position control is selected, the control device controls the amount and direction of travel of a spindle based on the amount of rotation and direction of rotation of the rotary handle. When a determination is made that rotational speed control is selected, the control device controls the rotational speed and direction of rotation of a table based on the rotational speed and direction of rotation of the rotary handle. Accordingly, the user can readily set the direction of rotation and rotational speed of the table using the manual pulse generator, and cause the table to move at the set direction of rotation and rotational speed.
US08742875B2

A contactor has a frame including a base unit, a coil provided on the base unit and including input terminals, and a module including a circuit board for electrically controlling the coil, the circuit board including input terminals for power supply and output terminals for providing an electrical connection to the coil. The contactor further includes a fastening device arranged for mechanically and electrically connecting one of the output terminals to a corresponding input terminal of the coil, and the module is designed such that the fastening device connects the output terminal of the circuit board to the input terminal of the coil while at the same time the module is connected to the frame.
US08742861B2

It is possible to reduce the size of a surface acoustic wave resonator by enhancing the Q value. In a surface acoustic wave resonator in which an IDT having electrode fingers for exciting surface acoustic waves is formed on a crystal substrate, a line occupying ratio is defined as a value obtained by dividing the width of one electrode finger by the distance between the center lines of the gaps between one electrode finger and the electrode fingers adjacent to both sides thereof, and the IDT includes a region formed by gradually changing the line occupying ratio from the center to both edges so that the frequency gradually becomes lower from the center to both edges than the frequency at the center of the IDT.
US08742860B2

A MEMS resonator includes a beam oscillator that oscillates mechanically when an electrostatic force is applied. A supporter oscillates along with the oscillator and supports the oscillator; and at least one electrode includes an opposing face to the oscillator across a gap, wherein an electric current generated by the oscillation of the oscillator is output through an output terminal connected with the oscillator or electrode. The oscillator oscillates in a torsional resonance mode with a center being a longitudinal axis of the oscillator, and opposing faces of the oscillator and the electrode are made of semiconductors of which the conductive types are different from each other. Additionally, a surface part of the oscillator including the opposing face is doped with an impurity at a higher density than other part of the oscillator.
US08742846B1

The selectable gain differential amplifier includes a differential amplifier, a plurality of cascade leg pairs connected to the differential amplifier, each leg of each cascode pair including a cascode device and a load resistor configured to provide a selectable gain. A variable voltage generator is connected to each leg configured to set gain resistor voltage of any active cascode leg pair to a uniform predetermined common mode voltage and the output node voltage of any inactive cascode leg pair to a voltage different from the predetermined common mode voltage. A selector circuit is configured to select the output of any said cascode leg pair.
US08742837B2

A semiconductor device includes a high voltage generator for generating a high voltage by raising a power source voltage, a transfer circuit for transferring the high voltage to an internal circuit in response to a transfer signal, and a first discharge circuit for discharging the high voltage of an output node of the high voltage generator or the high voltage of an input node or output node of the transfer circuit when the power source voltage drops.
US08742827B2

A functional circuit is coupled to a power supply conductor by at least one power gating transistor. A switching device applies a gate drive voltage to a gate terminal of the power gating transistor via a resistive element. The power gating transistor provides a Miller capacitance between its drain and gate terminals. The Miller capacitance, the resistance of the resistive element, and the drive strength of the switching device are configured such that, in response to the switching device switching the gate drive voltage to allow more current to pass through the power gating transistor, the Miller capacitance provides a feedback mechanism competing against the switching device to reduce the slew rate of the gate drive voltage such that the current passing between the power gate supply conductor and the functional circuit through the power gating transistor is less than the saturation current of the power gating transistor.
US08742820B1

The present invention provides a power circuit, including a current-limiting chip, a current-limiting value setting circuit, and a baseband chip. A current setting port of the current-limiting chip is connected to a general-purpose input/output port of the baseband chip through the current-limiting value setting circuit. The general-purpose input/output port is configured to generate a first signal in a first time sequence period of timeslot transmitting of the baseband chip so that the current-limiting value setting circuit sets a current-limiting value of the current-limiting chip as a first current-limiting value. In the other time sequence periods of timeslot transmitting of the baseband chip, the general-purpose input/output port generates a second signal so that the current-limiting value setting circuit sets the current-limiting value of the current-limiting chip as a second current-limiting value. The first current-limiting value is greater than the second current-limiting value.
US08742818B2

An adaptive clock signal generator with noise immunity capability is disclosed, including a gain amplifier for processing an analog oscillation signal to generate an amplified signal; an adjustable Schmitt trigger, coupled with the gain amplifier, for generating a triggered signal according to the amplified signal; an output buffer, coupled with the adjustable Schmitt trigger, for generating a clock signal according to the triggered signal; and a noise detector coupled with the adjustable Schmitt trigger. The noise detector detects noise components of an input signal and enlarges the hysteresis window of the adjustable Schmitt trigger as the level of detected noise increases.
US08742810B2

One embodiment provides a phase-locked loop (PLL), in which a sequencer controls a loop filter such that, when a signal indicating turning-off of a power supply of the PLL is input thereto, or when a signal indicating turning-on of the power supply of the PLL is input thereto, a resistance value of a first resistance change device in the loop filter is a first resistance value, and that, after the PLL is stabilized, the resistance value of the first resistance change device is a second resistance value which is higher than the first resistance value.
US08742805B2

Disclosed herein are a power on reset device capable of performing a precise brown out detection (BOD) function and a power on reset method using the same. The power on reset device may include a delay signal generating unit, a reference voltage generating unit, and a reset signal generating comparing a delay signal with a reference voltage to generate a reset signal.
US08742793B2

A semiconductor integrated circuit includes: a main-interconnect to which supply voltage or reference voltage is applied; a plurality of sub-interconnects; a plurality of circuit cells configured to be connected to the plurality of sub-interconnects; a power supply switch cell configured to control, in accordance with an input control signal, connection and disconnection between the main-interconnect and the sub-interconnect to which a predetermined one of the circuit cells is connected, of the plurality of sub-interconnects; and an auxiliary interconnect configured to connect the plurality of sub-interconnects to each other.
US08742789B2

An interconnected array of reconfigurable logic cells which carry out at least one logic function, externally connected to peripheral connection network equipped with switch boxes and connected to programmable input/output blocks. The logic cells are distributed in a first dimension in rows i with i=1 to d and a second dimension in columns j with j=1 to w, with d≦2 and w=2 or d=2 and w≦2, each logic cell including a second input, a second input, a first output and a second output, the first input of each logic cell and the first output of each logic cell being connected to the connection network, the second input and the second output of each logic cell being connected to other different column and row logic cells except for the first and last rows or columns for d>2 or w>2 respectively.
US08742782B2

An on-chip technique for noncontact electrical testing of a test structure on a chip is provided. On-chip photodiodes receives pump light from a pump light source, where the on-chip photodiodes are electrically connected to the test structure and are configured to generate power for the test structure. An on-chip coupling unit receives probe light from a probe light source, where the on-chip coupling unit is optically connected to on-chip waveguides through which the probe light is transferred. On-chip switches open in response to receiving voltage output from the test structure, and the on-chip switches remain closed when the voltage output is not received from the test structure. The on-chip switches pass the probe light when opened by the voltage output from the test structure. The on-chip switches block the probe light by remaining closed, when the voltage output is not received from the test structure.
US08742781B2

A display device having repair and detect structure includes a substrate, a pixel array, a first shorting bar and a first repair line. The pixel array disposed on the substrate includes a plurality of data lines and a plurality of gate lines. The first shorting bar disposed on the substrate is connected to the gate lines for testing the gate lines, and the first shorting bar includes a first shorting segment. The first repair line is disposed on the substrate for repairing at least one of the data lines. The first shorting segment of the first shorting bar is electrically connected to the first repair line. Furthermore, another repair and detect structure of a display device is disclosed, wherein the first shorting bar includes a first shorting segment, the first repair line includes a first repair segment, and the first shorting segment overlaps with the first repair segment.
US08742776B2

The embodiments described above provide mechanisms for bump resistivity measurement. By using designated bumps on one or more corners of dies, the resistivity of bumps may be measured without damaging devices and without a customized probing card. In addition, bump resistivity may be collected across the entire wafer. The collected resistivity data may be used to monitor the stability and/or health of processes used to form bumps and their underlying layers.
US08742774B2

An apparatus for measuring a workpiece includes a capacitance probe mounted to a probe housing and a non-conductive spacer. The capacitance probe includes a probe tip with a sensor surface that emits an electric field. The non-conductive spacer extends between a probe contact surface and a workpiece contact surface. The probe contact surface covers the sensor surface, and the workpiece contact surface contacts the workpiece during the measuring of the radius.
US08742760B2

A transmit coil arrangement for a magnetic resonance device includes a plurality of individually actuatable conductor loops following one after another in a peripheral direction and a longitudinal direction on a cylinder surface. At least two groups, at a distance from one another in the peripheral direction, of at least two conductor loops following one after the other in the longitudinal direction are provided in the peripheral direction. To decouple the at least two groups, each of the at least two groups is bounded at least in the peripheral direction by at least one screen surface extending essentially in a radial direction and the longitudinal direction.
US08742757B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are described. In one example, the method includes applying a sample-selective magnetic field gradient sequence along a slice direction to partition responses from a sample under magnetic resonance imaging into a plurality of different regions of slices in the k space, applying spiral readout gradients to the sample to obtain echo data from the sample, and applying a Time Resolved Imaging of Contrast Kinetics imaging technique to sample the different regions of slices in the k space.
US08742756B2

An object is to enhance usability of parameter check when an imaging parameter is changed in multistation imaging, and easily obtain a desired image with high quality. In the multistation imaging, it is determined in a lump before imaging whether an image having desired quality is obtained by using the changed value of the imaging parameter, and the result is presented to an operator. The determination is executed in the order of “possible or impossible” determination of execution of imaging itself and “possible or impossible” determination of combination of obtained images. When it is determined that it is impossible to execute the imaging itself, the determination processing is finished. At this time, a recommended value may be presented.
US08742755B2

In one aspect, an apparatus for performing chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) magnetic resonance imaging on a region of an object being imaged is provided. The method comprises at least one coil capable of being operated to emit radio frequency (RF) signals, at least one detector capable of detecting nuclear magnetic resonance signals, and at least one controller to operate the at least one coil to provide at least one inversion sequence to the region to flip at least some spins in the region by a desired flip-angle, operate the at least one coil to provide at least one first pulse sequence at a first frequency offset from a peak resonant frequency of water by a first amount in a first direction to magnetize at least one exchange group in the region, operate the at least one coil to provide at least one second pulse sequence at a second frequency offset from the peak resonant frequency of water by the first amount in a second direction opposite the first direction, operate the at least one detector to measure a first signal emitted from the region as a result of providing the at least one first pulse sequence after a predetermined time interval after applying the first inversion sequence, and operate the at least one detector to measure a second signal emitted from the region as a result of providing the at least one second sequence at the predetermined time interval after applying the at least one inversion sequence, wherein the predetermined time interval is selected such that positive contrast is achieved with respect to the first signal relative to the second signal.
US08742750B2

A speed pick-up ring includes a main body having a plurality of targets and defining a plurality of notches. Each notch is disposed between adjacent targets. Each notch includes a base wall, a first sidewall and an oppositely disposed second sidewall. The base wall includes a convex portion. A fluid device includes a housing and a variable reluctance speed sensor engaged to the housing. The fluid device further includes a speed pick-up ring disposed within the housing. The speed pick-up ring includes a main body having a plurality of targets and defining a plurality of notches. Each notch is disposed between adjacent targets. Each notch includes a base wall, a first sidewall that is generally concave and an oppositely disposed second sidewall that is generally concave. The base wall includes a convex portion.
US08742741B2

In one general aspect, a power supply circuit can include a power stage configured to be coupled to a power source and configured to deliver an output voltage to a load circuit, and can include a comparator coupled to the power stage and configured to receive a reference voltage. The power supply circuit can also include a hysteresis control circuit configured to receive at least one of a feedback voltage or a reference voltage and configured to change a hysteresis of the comparator in response to the at least one of the feedback voltage or the reference voltage during a soft-start of the power supply circuit.
US08742727B2

Disclosed is an apparatus for estimating a voltage of a secondary battery which includes a cathode comprising a first cathode material and a second cathode material with different operating voltage ranges, an anode comprising an anode material and a separator for separating the cathode from the anode. The apparatus comprises a control unit configured to estimate a voltage of a secondary battery based on a circuit model including a first cathode material circuit, a second cathode material circuit and an anode material circuit, each circuit modeled to change its voltage according to State Of Charge (SOC) of the electrode material corresponding the circuit and a current flowing through the circuit.
US08742723B2

Provided is a battery pack producing method and a battery pack capable of suppressing defects such as overcharging or overdischarging in one or more of the used secondary batteries constituting a battery pack, and sufficiently exhibiting the performance of the used secondary batteries of the battery pack. This method includes an obtaining process for obtaining each full charge capacity of the used secondary batteries, a selecting process for selecting one or more used secondary batteries having similar full charge capacities from the used secondary batteries whose full charge capacities have been obtained, and an assembling process for assembling the selected secondary batteries.
US08742720B2

A lockable charging station for charging rechargeable electric devices comprising a base to encapsulate the electrical charging station and a plurality of locking cover members, wherein each locking cover member is removably mechanically engageable with the base via tab and slot engagement and is individually lockable to the base using a lock. Each locking cover member secures an individual electric device to the base so that the electric device is held in electrical engagement with the charging station until the individual user removes the locking cover. The lockable charging station may include a multi-unit charger with an encapsulating base and plurality of locking cover members or a base with mounting points for individual chargers and a plurality of locking covers.
US08742719B2

A power supply device supplies electric power to a power receiving device including a power receiving unit in a non-contact manner. The power supply device includes a power source device that generates electric power with a predetermined frequency; a power transmitting unit that receives the electric power from the power source device, and that resonates with the power receiving unit through an electromagnetic field, thereby transmitting the electric power to the power receiving unit in the non-contact manner; a detection device that detects reflected electric power to the power source device; a communication device that receives information regarding a power receiving situation in the power receiving device; and a control device that controls electric power transmission from the power transmitting unit based on the information regarding the power receiving situation and the reflected electric power.
US08742713B2

Motor control circuits and associated methods to control an electric motor provide a plurality of drive signal channels at the same phase, resulting in reduced jitter in the rotational speed of the electric motor.
US08742710B2

A rotary electric machine system includes: a stator that has multi-phase stator coils and that generates stator magnetomotive forces based on respective stator currents having different phases supplied to the multi-phase stator coils; a rotor on which rotor coils are wound such that magnetic poles are formed by rotor currents generated in response to the stator magnetomotive forces generated by the stator; a regulating unit that regulates a flow direction of each of the rotor currents to one direction to thereby regulate a polarity of each of the magnetic poles; and a control unit that controls currents supplied to the stator coils on the basis of a target torque. The control unit superimposes a pulse on the stator currents to adjust the ratio of each of the stator currents and each of the rotor currents so as to minimize a copper loss in the stator and the rotor.
US08742709B2

Provided is an integrated-inverter electric compressor with suppressed self-noise interference in an inverter unit, simplified electrical connections between an inverter circuit and a filter circuit, and fewer welded positions. A housing (2) has, on the periphery thereof, an inverter box (5) accommodating the inverter circuit (21) and a junction box (6) communicating with the inverter box (5) and accommodating a plurality of high-voltage components constituting a noise-suppression filter circuit (27). The plurality of high-voltage components accommodated in the junction box (6) are electrically connected via a busbar (33). The busbar (33) includes branched busbars (34) branched off near connections with a high-voltage component installed close to the inverter circuit (21), and the branched busbars (34) are connected to P-N terminals (25) of the inverter circuit (21) in a communicating section (12) between the junction box (6) and the inverter box (5).
US08742699B2

A charged particle beam generator, a charged particle irradiation system, a method for operating the charged particle beam generator and a method for operating the charged particle irradiation system, which allow a charged particle beam to be injected into a circular accelerator at an arbitrary timing and can reduce an irradiation time and a time for a therapy, are provided while maintaining the lower limit of an operation cycle of a linear accelerator. An accelerator control device controls an operation of a synchrotron on the basis of a beam extraction request signal transmitted from a beam utilization system control device. A control device generates a timing signal notifying the linear accelerator of an injection timing of a next operation cycle of the synchrotron after completion of an extraction process performed by the synchrotron, changes an operation timing of the linear accelerator so that the operation timing of the linear accelerator matches the injection timing.
US08742697B2

A light source apparatus includes a discharge lamp including a light-emitting container, and a pair of electrodes disposed such that a respective tip portion thereof opposes each other in the light-emitting container, and a driving unit that supplies a driving current to the pair of electrodes. The driving unit includes an AC supplier that supplies an alternating current of a frequency not lower than 1 kHz and not higher than 10 GHz to the pair of electrodes and a DC supplier that supplies a direct current to the pair of electrodes. The AC supplier is configured so as to alternately repeat an AC supply section in which the alternating current is supplied and an AC stop section in which the supply of the alternating current is stopped, and the DC supplier is configured so as to supply the direct current during a period corresponding to the AC stop section.
US08742695B2

A lighting system provides for independent control of both the brightness of an LED light fixture and the perceived color of the light emitted by the LED light fixture. The LED light fixture has two LED light sources, a control circuit alternately pulses the two LED light sources and changes relative duty cycles of the light sources to alter a perceived color output of the lighting fixture, in response to a change in a control signal from a controller. Duty cycles of the light sources are a function of the control signal and vary inversely. The LED light fixture also receives a control signal for controlling a current level provided to the LED light sources to independently control the brightness of the lighting system.
US08742691B2

A main transformer is arranged such that a load is connected to its secondary winding side. A first error amplifier generates a feedback signal that corresponds to the difference between a detection signal which indicates the electrical state of the load and a predetermined first reference voltage. A current generating resistor is arranged between a current generating transistor and a fixed voltage terminal. A second error amplifier is arranged such that the first input terminal receives the electric potential at a node that connects the current generating transistor and the current generating resistor, a predetermined second reference voltage is input to the second input terminal thereof, and the output terminal thereof is connected to the control terminal of the current generating transistor. An adjustment resistor is arranged between the output terminal of the first error amplifier and a node that connects the current generating transistor and the current generating resistor.
US08742686B2

The present application is generally directed to systems and methods for control and management of lighting components connected in a network. A user specified rule is executed to control lighting effects in a lighting network which comprises an interface module in communication with one or more lighting control modules. The interface module may receive a rule for controlling a lighting network. The rule may comprise a user identified input and a user specified lighting effect to occur responsive to the user identified input. The interface module detects receipt of the user identified input and executes the rule to trigger the user specified lighting effect via the one or more lighting control modules.
US08742683B2

The present invention provides an LED backlight driving circuit and an LED backlight driving method. The circuit includes an isolation MOS transistor, a dimming MOS transistor connected in parallel to the isolation MOS transistor, and first and second resistors. The first resistor and the second resistor are connected to each other in parallel and are connected between the dimming MOS transistor and a ground wire. The isolation MOS transistor and the dimming MOS transistor are arranged for electrical connection with an LED light. The LED backlight driving circuit arranges the isolation MOS transistor and the dimming MOS transistor to connect in parallel to each other so as to make the electrical current flowing through the isolation MOS transistor lessened to reduce the amount of heat emitting therefrom and enhance operation safety and also allow the MOS transistor used to be of a downgraded specification to lower down the manufacture cost.
US08742682B1

Disclosed are methods and lighting system with LEDs. An exemplified system comprises series-coupled light-emitting diodes, an integrated circuit, and an energy storage apparatus. The series-coupled light-emitting diodes are divided into several LED groups coupled in series. The integrated circuit comprises nodes respectively coupled to the LED groups, for providing a driving current to selectively flow through at least one of the LED groups. The energy storage apparatus has two ends coupled to a predetermined LED in a predetermined LED group. When the driving current flows through the predetermined LED group the energy storage apparatus energizes; and when the driving current does not flow through the predetermined LED group the energy storage apparatus de-energizes to illuminate the predetermined LED.
US08742671B2

A lighting apparatus includes a first substrate including a switching circuit, the switching circuit including a first port, a second port and a current control circuit configured to generate a current at the second port of the current control circuit responsive to a varying voltage at the first port. The apparatus further includes a second substrate mounted on the first substrate and including at least two LEDs electrically coupled to the second port of the current control circuit of the first substrate.
US08742667B2

A method and a system for increasing the lifespan of a plasma obtained in the atmosphere. The method includes the following steps: emitting a femtosecond laser pulse, referred to as a first pulse, generating a column of plasma by the filamentation phenomenon, and emitting a second YAG laser pulse, focused by way of an axicon on a line in the plasma column, the energy of the photons of the second laser pulse being greater than the attachment energy of the electrons in the plasma to neutral molecules such as oxygen molecules. The duration of the second pulse is greater than the duration of the first pulse, and the delay between the two pulses is greater than one microsecond.
US08742666B2

A filter for filtering radio frequency (RF) power transmitted from an electrostatic chuck (ESC) in a plasma processing system. The plasma processing system may include a heating element disposed at the ESC. The plasma processing system may further include a power supply. The filter may include a core member and a cable wound around and wound along the core member to form a set of inductors. The cable may include a plurality of wires, including a first wire and a second wire, a portion of the first wire and a portion of the second wire being twisted together, a first end of the first wire and a first end of the second wire being connected to the heating element, each of a second end of the first wire and a second end of the second wire being connected to a capacitor and being connected to the power supply.
US08742664B2

Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for controlling a room lamp of a vehicle. The present invention relates to collecting information associated with the vehicle and information associated with an ambient environment using a global positioning system (GPS) or a controller area network (CAN) and then controlling the room lamp using at least one of turn-off of the room lamp, change of an irradiation angle of the room lamp, and adjustment of illumination of the room lamp based on the collected information.
US08742657B2

Novel devices comprising a layer including compounds that are capable of triplet triplet annihilation up conversion (TTA-UC). In particular, the up-conversion layer absorbs light emitted by the OLED device and emits up-converted light with shorter wavelength in response. These devices may be used to provide improved lifetime for blue emitting devices.
US08742637B2

A waterproof and salt spray-resistant fan motor structure includes a base, a stator assembly, a case, and at least one circuit board. The base has a bearing cup vertically projected from one side thereof. The stator assembly is externally fitted around the bearing cup, and includes a plurality of silicon steel plates having windings mounted thereon. The case is arranged between the base and the stator assembly and internally defines a closed space, and the circuit board is located in the closed space. With these arrangements, the case protects the circuit board against corrosion by water and salt spray, enabling a fan to have largely extended service life.
US08742634B2

Disclosed herein is a linear vibration motor including: a stator part including a magnetic force part and a casing receiving the magnetic force part therein; and a vibrator part including a coil facing the magnetic force part to thereby generate electromagnetic force and a printed circuit board having one end coupled to the stator part and the other end coupled to the coil, wherein the vibrator part moves linearly along a longitudinal outer peripheral surface of the casing receiving the magnetic force part therein.
US08742629B2

A residential electric power storage system includes a lead-in wire, a distribution line, an electric power storage device, a voltage sensor sensing a voltage of the lead-in wire, a current sensor sensing a current charged to the electric power storage device through the distribution line and an electric power adjustment unit adjusting electric power charged to the electric power storage device through the distribution line; and a controller controlling the electric power adjustment unit. If the lead-in wire has voltage smaller than a threshold voltage, the controller controls the electric power adjustment unit to match the current that is charged to the electric power storage device to a command value to provide current control, whereas if the lead-in wire has voltage larger than the threshold voltage, the controller controls the electric power adjustment unit to match the voltage of the lead-in wire to a command value to provide voltage control.
US08742628B2

A solid state circuit breaker includes a first terminal; a second terminal; a first wide-band gap field effect transistor coupled to the first terminal; a second wide-band gap field effect transistor coupled to the second terminal, wherein the first wide-band gap field effect transistor and the second wide-band gap field effect transistor are common-source connected to one another; and a bi-directional snubber device coupled to the first wide-band gap field effect transistor and the second wide-band gap field effect transistor. Such a solid state circuit breaker may also include a gate drive circuit coupled to the first wide-band gap field effect transistor and the second wide-band gap field effect transistor, where the gate drive circuit may comprise a voltage regulation stage and a drive stage.
US08742624B1

A system may include a power module that includes a group of power supplies, particular ones of the group of power supplies being operable at a group of voltages ranging from a first voltage to a second voltage. The system may further include a controller coupled to the particular ones of the group of power supplies, the controller being to ramp up an output voltage, associated with the group of power supplies, from the first voltage to the second voltage in a group of discrete steps; where ramping up the output voltage by a particular one of the group of discrete steps is performed while a load is receiving power from the group of power supplies; and where ramping up the output voltage by a particular one of the group of discrete steps prevents over-current protection on the group of power supplies from being activated.
US08742620B1

An electrical cogeneration system and AC coupling method for efficiently distributing power from multiple AC sources. The system includes a main AC source, an AC generator, a solar panel, and an automatic transfer switch. The main AC source and the AC generator are connected to the transfer switch. The system also includes a DC/AC inverter, which is in communication with the solar panel. The transfer switch and the inverter are both connected to a common AC load panel where the power provided by the solar panel, the AC generator, and the main AC source is used to satisfy a common electrical load. The system further includes a system control device that is in communication with the inverter and the transfer switch and is capable of selectively determining power input to the AC load panel. An AC coupling method for distributing power from multiple AC sources is also provided.
US08742617B2

A battery apparatus includes a row battery group including a plurality of series-connected row batteries including one or more battery cells; a plurality of battery management sections, corresponding to the individual row batteries, for managing the battery statuses of the corresponding row batteries; a central management section for granting unique identification information to the individual battery management sections and acquiring information about the battery statuses of the row batteries from the respective battery management sections for management; second communication lines with which the plurality of battery management sections are daisy-chained; a first communication line with which, of the plurality of battery management sections, the battery management section located at one end is connected to the central management section; and a plurality of connection switching sections, provided in the individual second communication lines between the battery management sections, for switching the connection and disconnection between the battery management sections.
US08742608B2

The present invention includes a drive system for use in a flowing fluid, the drive system preferably having a first turbine connected to a shaft, a first gear connected to the shaft, a second turbine rotatably mounted on a pipe, a second gear rotatably mounted on the pipe and connected to the second turbine, and two or more satellite gears in fixed locations relative to the pipe and rotatably engaged, directly or indirectly, with the first gear and the second gear. The drive system may be used, for example, in a wind generator to generate electrical energy.
US08742605B1

A method of starting an aircraft engine is provided. The method includes providing motive power from a generator for starting an engine during an engine start mode and deriving electrical power by way of the generator from rotation of the engine during a generate mode, transmitting the motive power from the generator to the engine during the engine start mode by way of a constant speed drive (CSD) and regulating a frequency of the electrical power output from the generator during the generate mode by way of the CSD and coupling a generator and CSD controller (GCC) to the generator and the CSD and operating the generator and the CSD by the GCC to execute at least the engine start mode and the generate mode.
US08742598B2

One or more embodiments relate to a semiconductor structure, comprising: a conductive pad, the conductive pad including a plurality of laterally spaced apart gaps diposed at least partially through the conductive pad.
US08742597B2

This disclosure relates generally to package substrates with multiple embedded dice wherein each of the embedded dice can be connected directly to a bus of the package substrate without being routed through another die. The package substrate may be configured as a bumpless build up layer (BBUL) substrate.
US08742591B2

A semiconductor device has a plurality of conductive vias formed into a semiconductor wafer. A portion of the semiconductor wafer is removed so the conductive vias extend above a surface of the semiconductor wafer. A notch is formed in the semiconductor wafer around each of the conductive vias. The notch around the conductive vias can be formed by wet etching, dry etching, or LDA. A first insulating layer is formed over a surface of the semiconductor wafer and conductive vias and into the notch to provide stress relief between the conductive vias and semiconductor wafer. A portion of the first insulating layer is removed to expose the conductive vias. A first conductive layer and second insulating layer can be formed around the conductive vias. A second conductive layer can be formed over the conductive vias. The notch can extend into the second insulating layer.
US08742587B1

A metal interconnection structure includes a substrate and a protective layer. The substrate includes at least a first conductive layer. The protective layer is a single-layered structure disposed on the substrate, and a quantity of oxygen (O) in an upper part of the protective layer is more than a quantity of oxygen (O) in a lower part of the protective layer. A material of the upper part of the protective layer includes silicon oxycarbide (SiCO) or silicon oxycarbonitride (SiCNO), and a material of the lower part of the protective layer includes silicon carbide (SiC) or silicon carbonitride (SiCN).
US08742586B2

A stacked multilayer structure according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a stacked layer part including a plurality of conducting layers and a plurality of insulating layers, said plurality of insulating layers being stacked alternately with each layer of said plurality of conducting layers, one of said plurality of insulating layers being a topmost layer among said plurality of conducting layers and said plurality of insulating layers; and a plurality of contacts, each contact of said plurality of contacts being formed from said topmost layer and each contact of said plurality of contacts being in contact with a respective conducting layer of said plurality of conducting layers, a side surface of each of said plurality of contacts being insulated from said plurality of conducting layers via an insulating film.
US08742576B2

An MCM includes a two-dimensional array of facing chips, including island chips and bridge chips that communicate with each other using overlapping connectors. In order to maintain the relative vertical spacing of these connectors, compressible structures are in cavities in a substrate, which house the bridge chips, provide a compressive force on back surfaces of the bridge chips. These compressible structures include a compliant material with shape and volume compression. In this way, the MCM may ensure that facing surfaces of the island chips and the bridge chips, as well as connectors on these surfaces, are approximately coplanar without bending the bridge chips.
US08742572B2

Microelectronic devices and methods for manufacturing microelectronic devices are disclosed herein. An embodiment of one such method includes forming a plurality of through holes in a substrate with the through holes arranged in arrays, and attaching a plurality of singulated microelectronic dies to the substrate with an active side of the individual dies facing toward the substrate and with a plurality of terminals on the active side of the individual dies aligned with corresponding holes in the substrate. The singulated dies are attached to the substrate after forming the holes in the substrate.
US08742556B2

A semiconductor module comprises: a metal block; a semiconductor device installed via a solder layer in a semiconductor device installation area on a surface of the metal block; and a molded portion formed by molding a resin on the metal block and the semiconductor device; wherein the surface of the metal block includes a plating area and a roughened area, and the semiconductor device installation area is provided in the plating area.
US08742546B2

A semiconductor device includes a first pattern and a plurality of second patterns arranged at equal intervals. When the distance of the space between the first pattern and the second pattern closet to the first pattern is larger than a first distance, a plurality of dummy patterns are arranged in the space with shapes and intervals similar to those of the second patterns. When the distance of the space is equal to or less than the first distance and larger than a second distance, the dummy pattern is spaced from the second pattern closest to the first pattern, and extends toward the first pattern to be brought into contact with the first pattern. When the distance of the space is equal to or less than the second distance, the dummy pattern is spaced from the second pattern closest to the first pattern, and is connected to the first pattern.
US08742539B2

One aspect of the invention relates to a semiconductor component with a semiconductor body with a top side and with a bottom side. A first coil that is monolithically integrated with the semiconductor body is arranged distant from the bottom side and comprises N first windings, wherein N≧1. The first coil has a first coil axis that extends in a direction different from a surface normal of the bottom side.
US08742538B2

A silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is disclosed, which includes: two isolation structures each being formed in a trench; a set of three or more pseudo buried layers formed under each trench with every adjacent two pseudo buried layers of the set being vertically contacted with each other; and a collector region. In this design, the lowermost pseudo buried layers of the two sets are laterally in contact with each other, and the collector region is surrounded by the two isolation structures and the two sets of pseudo buried layers. As the breakdown voltage of a SiGe HBT according to the present invention is determined by the distance between an uppermost pseudo buried layer and the edge of an active region, SiGe HBTs having different breakdown voltages can be achieved. A manufacturing method of the SiGe HBT is also disclosed.
US08742526B2

A photoelectric conversion device including a substrate, a photoelectric conversion element including a first electrode, a second electrode and an organic compound layer and a sealing member that are disposed in this order. When a cross section of the photoelectric conversion device in a thickness direction is observed with the sealing member being placed at an upper side, a bonding member seals the organic compound layer at an outside thereof. An output electrode on the sealing member has a protrusion. A side conductive portion is electrically connected with the protrusion in an up-and-down direction. A substrate conductive member electrically connected with the first electrode and the second electrode extends to an outside of the bonding member. An electrical connecting member electrically connects the side conductive portion to the substrate conductive member at a further outside of the bonding member.
US08742524B2

A semiconductor device, which is configured as a backside illuminated solid-state imaging device, includes a stacked semiconductor chip which is formed by bonding two or more semiconductor chip units to each other and in which, at least, a pixel array and a multi-layer wiring layer are formed in a first semiconductor chip unit and a logic circuit and a multi-layer wiring layer are formed in a second semiconductor chip unit; a semiconductor-removed region in which a semiconductor section of a part of the first semiconductor chip unit is completely removed; and a plurality of connection wirings which is formed in the semiconductor-removed region and connects the first and second semiconductor chip units to each other.
US08742523B2

A semiconductor device contains a photodiode which has a plurality of p-n junctions disposed in a stack. Two contact structures on the semiconductor device are connected across at least one of the junctions to allow electrical connection to an external detection circuit, so that signal current from incident light on the photodiode which generates electron-hole pairs across the connected junction may be sensed by the external detection circuit. At least one of the junctions is electrically shorted at the semiconductor device, so that signal current from the shorted junction may not be sensed by the external detection circuit.
US08742521B2

A semiconductor device in which MRAM is formed in a wiring layer A contained in a multilayered wiring layer, the MRAM having at least two first magnetization pinning layers in contact with a first wiring formed in a wiring layer and insulated from each other, a free magnetization layer overlapping the two first magnetization pinning layers in a plan view, and connected with the first magnetization pinning layers, a non-magnetic layer situated over the free magnetization layer, and a second magnetization pinning layer situated over the non-magnetic layer.
US08742520B2

A method and structure for a three-axis magnetic field sensing device is provided. The device includes a substrate, an IC layer, and preferably three magnetic field sensors coupled to the IC layer. A nickel-iron magnetic field concentrator is also provided.
US08742514B2

A storage node may include a lower electrode, a phase change layer on the lower electrode and an upper electrode on the phase change layer, and the lower electrode and the upper electrode may be composed of thermoelectric materials having a melting point higher than that of the phase change layer, and having different conductivity types. An upper surface of the lower electrode may have a recessed shape, and a lower electrode contact layer may be provided between the lower electrode and the phase change layer.
US08742510B2

Disclosed herein are various methods of forming replacement gate structures and conductive contacts on semiconductor devices and devices incorporating the same. One exemplary device includes a plurality of gate structures positioned above a semiconducting substrate, at least one sidewall spacer positioned proximate respective sidewalls of the gate structures, and a metal silicide region in a source/drain region of the semiconducting substrate, the metal silicide region extending laterally so as to contact the sidewall spacer positioned proximate each of the gate structures. Furthermore, the device also includes, among other things, a conductive contact positioned between the plurality of gate structures, the conductive contact having a lower portion that conductively contacts the metal silicide region and an upper portion positioned above the lower portion, wherein the lower portion is laterally wider than the upper portion and extends laterally so as to contact the sidewall spacers positioned proximate each of the gate structures.
US08742508B2

A three dimensional FET device structure which includes a plurality of three dimensional FET devices. Each of the three dimensional FET devices include an insulating base, a three dimensional fin oriented perpendicular to the insulating base, a gate dielectric wrapped around the three dimensional fin and a gate wrapped around the gate dielectric and extending perpendicularly to the three dimensional fin, the three dimensional fin having a device width being defined as the circumference of the three dimensional fin in contact with the gate dielectric. At least a first of the three dimensional FET devices has a first device width while at least a second of the three dimensional FET devices has a second device width. The first device width is different than the second device width. Also included is a method of making the three dimensional FET device structure.
US08742506B2

With a microwave FET, an incorporated Schottky junction capacitance or PN junction capacitance is small and such a junction is weak against static electricity. However, with a microwave device, the method of connecting a protecting diode cannot be used since this method increases the parasitic capacitance and causes degradation of the high-frequency characteristics. In order to solve the above problems, a protecting element, having a first n+-type region-insulating region-second n+-type region arrangement is connected in parallel between two terminals of a protected element having a PN junction, Schottky junction, or capacitor. Since discharge can be performed between the first and second n+ regions that are adjacent each other, electrostatic energy that would reach the operating region of an FET can be attenuated without increasing the parasitic capacitance.
US08742501B2

A power semiconductor device that realizes high-speed turnoff and soft switching at the same time has an n-type main semiconductor layer that includes lightly doped n-type semiconductor layers and extremely lightly doped n-type semiconductor layers arranged alternately and repeatedly between a p-type channel layer and an n+-type field stop layer, in a direction parallel to the first major surface of the n-type main semiconductor layer. A substrate used for manufacturing the semiconductor device is fabricated by forming trenches in an n-type main semiconductor layer 1 and performing ion implantation and subsequent heat treatment to form an n+-type field stop layer in the bottom of the trenches. The trenches are then filled with a semiconductor doped more lightly than the n-type main semiconductor layer for forming extremely lightly doped n-type semiconductor layers. The manufacturing method is applicable with variations to various power semiconductor devices such as IGBT's, MOSFET's and PIN diodes.
US08742500B2

A semiconductor device is disclosed wherein a peripheral region with a high breakdown voltage and high robustness against induced surface charge is manufactured using a process with high mass productivity. The device has n-type drift region and p-type partition region of layer-shape deposited in a vertical direction to one main surface of n-type semiconductor substrate with high impurity concentration form as drift layer, alternately adjacent parallel pn layers in a direction along one main surface. Active region through which current flows and peripheral region enclosing the active region include parallel pn layers. P-type partition region has impurity concentration distribution where concentration decreases from surface toward substrate side, n-type surface region disposed on parallel pn layers in peripheral region, p-type guard rings disposed separately from each other on n-type surface region, and field plate disposed on inner and outer circumferential sides of p-type guard rings, and electrically connected.
US08742490B2

The present technology is directed generally to a semiconductor device. In one embodiment, the semiconductor device includes a first vertical transistor and a second vertical transistor, and the first vertical transistor is stacked on top of the second vertical transistor. The first vertical transistor is mounted on a lead frame with the source electrode of the first vertical transistor coupled to the lead frame. The second vertical transistor is stacked on the first vertical transistor with the source electrode of the second vertical transistor coupled to the drain electrode of the first vertical transistor.
US08742489B2

According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory including a first gate insulating film formed on a channel region of a semiconductor substrate, a first particle layer formed in the first gate insulating film, a charge storage part formed on the first gate insulating film, a second gate insulating film which is formed on the charge storage part, a second particle layer formed in the second gate insulating film, and a gate electrode formed on the second gate insulating film. The first particle layer includes first conductive particles that satisfy Coulomb blockade conditions. The second particle layer includes second conductive particles that satisfy Coulomb blockade conditions and differs from the first conductive particles in average particle diameter.
US08742478B2

A graphene transistor includes: a gate electrode on a substrate; a gate insulating layer on the gate electrode; a graphene channel on the gate insulating layer; a source electrode and a drain electrode on the graphene channel, the source and drain electrode being separate from each other; and a cover that covers upper surfaces of the source electrode and the drain electrode and forms an air gap above the graphene channel between the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US08742476B1

A semiconductor device including: a first single crystal layer including first transistors, first alignment mark, and at least one metal layer, the at least one metal layer overlying the first single crystal layer and includes copper or aluminum; and a second layer overlying the metal layer; the second layer includes second transistors which include mono-crystal and are aligned to the first alignment mark with less than 40 nm alignment error, the mono-crystal includes a first region and second region which are horizontally oriented with respect to each other, the first region has substantially different dopant concentration than the second region.
US08742459B2

A III-N device is described has a buffer layer, a first III-N material layer on the buffer layer, a second III-N material layer on the first III-N material layer on an opposite side from the buffer layer and a dispersion blocking layer between the buffer layer and the channel layer. The first III-N material layer is a channel layer and a compositional difference between the first III-N material layer and the second III-N material layer induces a 2DEG channel in the first III-N material layer. A sheet or a distribution of negative charge at an interface of the channel layer and the dispersion blocking layer confines electrons away from the buffer layer.
US08742457B2

A device includes a substrate, isolation regions at a surface of the substrate, and a semiconductor region over a top surface of the isolation regions. A conductive feature is disposed over the top surface of the isolation regions, wherein the conductive feature is adjacent to the semiconductor region. A dielectric material is disposed between the conductive feature and the semiconductor region. The dielectric material, the conductive feature, and the semiconductor region form an anti-fuse.
US08742444B2

A semiconductor light-emitting device (A) having a simple configuration whereby it is possible to easily and accurately confirm whether or not ultraviolet light is being emitted, the semiconductor light-emitting device comprising: a semiconductor light-emitting element (1) for emitting ultraviolet light in an ultraviolet or deep ultraviolet region; a cap part (6) having a through-hole (63) in the top part through which ultraviolet light passes and encircling the semiconductor light-emitting element (1); a translucent cover (7) for transmitting ultraviolet light, the translucent cover being disposed so as to hermetically close up the through-hole (63); and a UV-excited phosphor (8) which is excited by ultraviolet light and which emits visible light, the UV-excited phosphor being disposed inside the cap part (6).
US08742426B2

A semiconductor device includes an AlGaN layer that is provided on a SiC substrate and has an acceptor concentration equal to or higher than a donor concentration, a GaN layer provided on the AlGaN layer, and an electron supply layer that is provided on the GaN layer and has a band gap greater than that of GaN.
US08742424B2

The present invention provides a shift register and a display device, each of which operates stably. The present invention relate to a shift register, comprising a thin-film transistor which includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode, the thin-film transistor being a bottom gate thin-film transistor which includes a comb-shaped source/drain structure, the gate electrode being provided with at least one of a cut and an opening in at least one of a region overlapping with the source electrode and a region overlapping with the drain electrode.
US08742423B2

In a thin-film transistor array according to an embodiment of the present invention, thin-film transistors are disposed in a matrix array, the thin-film transistor including a gate electrode that is formed on a substrate, a gate insulating layer that is formed on the gate electrode, a source electrode that is formed on the gate insulating layer, a pixel electrode that is formed on the gate insulating layer, a drain electrode that is connected to the pixel electrode, and a semiconductor layer that is formed between the source electrode and the drain electrode, the gate electrode is connected to a gate line while the source electrode is connected to a source line, the thin-film transistor is formed within a region of the source line and the thin-film transistor array includes a stripe insulating film such that the source line and the semiconductor layer are covered with the stripe insulating film.
US08742417B2

According to this disclosure of a thin film transistor array panel and the manufacturing method thereof, dams have a function of forming a light blocking member by an inkjet printing method and are formed along with color filters. Spacers are formed by the inkjet printing method along with the light blocking member and color filters. Advantages of this panel and its manufacturing method are a reduction in an alignment error of the light blocking member and the color filters, reduced manufacturing cost, and a simplified manufacturing.
US08742405B2

The light-emitting unit has at least a first light-emitting element, a second light-emitting element, and a separation layer. The separation layer has a leg portion and a stage portion which protrudes outside of a bottom surface of the leg portion over the leg portion. An upper electrode of the first light-emitting element is electrically connected to a lower electrode of the second light-emitting element in a region where the upper electrode and the lower electrode overlap with the stage portion of the separation layer. By providing the separation layer, the light-emitting unit can be formed without using a metal mask. The upper electrode can be a composite material including an organic compound and a metal oxide or a stacked layer of the composite material and a metal material or a light-transmitting conductive material.
US08742401B2

A field effect transistor includes a plurality of trenches extending into a semiconductor region of a first conductivity type. The plurality of trenches includes a plurality of gated trenches and a plurality of non-gated trenches. A body region of a second conductivity extends in the semiconductor region between adjacent trenches. A dielectric material fills a bottom portion of each of the gated and non-gated trenches. A gate electrode is disposed in each gated trench. A conductive material of the second conductivity type is disposed in each non-gated trench such that the conductive material and contacts corresponding body regions along sidewalls of the non-gated trench.
US08742391B2

A non-volatile semiconductor memory includes a word line extending in a first direction, a first electrode connected to the word line electrically, an ion diffusion layer with connected to the first electrode electrically, a second electrode connected to the ion diffusion layer electrically and formed of a metal to be diffused into the ion diffusion layer when a positive voltage is supplied thereto, and a bit line extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the bit line connected to the second electrode electrically. The ion diffusion layer has a first region disposed on the first electrode and a second region disposed between the first region and the second electrode, and the metal is more difficult to diffuse into the second region than into the first region.
US08742381B2

A radiation source includes an uncapped Mo/Si multilayer mirror, and a cleaning apparatus configured to remove a deposition comprising Sn on the uncapped Mo/Si multilayer mirror. The cleaning apparatus is configured to provide a gas comprising one or more of H2, D2 and HD and one or more additional compounds selected from hydrocarbon compounds and/or silane compounds in at least part of the radiation source, to produce hydrogen and/or deuterium radicals and radicals of the one or more additional compounds, from the gas, and to supply the hydrogen and/or deuterium radicals and radicals of the one or more additional compounds to the uncapped Mo/Si multilayer mirror to remove at least part of the deposition.
US08742379B2

A window unit may include: a window configured to allow a laser beam to be transmitted therethrough; and a holder for holding the window at a periphery thereof, the holder being provided with a flow channel thereinside configured to allow a fluid to flow.
US08742376B2

A mask drawing method includes: disposing a grounding body provided with a grounding pin at a plurality of different places on a mask substrate to measure resistance values; disposing the grounding body at a position where the resistance value is lowest, among the plural positions where the resistance values are measured; and irradiating an electron beam to the mask substrate to draw a desired pattern.
US08742372B2

Methods are presented for separating the effects of background doping density and effective minority carrier lifetime on photoluminescence (PL) generated from semiconductor materials. In one embodiment the background doping density is measured by another technique, enabling PL measurements to be analyzed in terms of effective minority carrier lifetime. In another embodiment the effective lifetime is measured by another technique, enabling PL measurements to be analyzed in terms of background doping density. In yet another embodiment, the effect of background doping density is removed by calculating intensity ratios of two PL measurements obtained in different spectral regions, or generated by different excitation wavelengths. The methods are particularly useful for bulk samples such as bricks or ingots of silicon, where information can be obtained over a much wider range of bulk lifetime values than is possible with thin, surface-limited samples such as silicon wafers. The methods may find application in solar cell manufacturing for improving the manufacture of silicon ingots and bricks, or for providing a cutting guide for wafering.
US08742359B2

An imaging apparatus has an imaging area formed by arranging a plurality of imaging blocks each including a pixel array, a plurality of vertical signal lines, a horizontal output line commonly provided for the plurality of vertical signal lines to read out signals read out to the plurality of vertical signal lines, a first scanning circuit, and a second scanning circuit, wherein signals of the pixels of a selected row in the pixel array are read out to the plurality of vertical signal lines in accordance with a driving pulse from the first scanning circuit, the signals read out to the plurality of vertical signal lines are sequentially read out to the horizontal output line in accordance with a driving pulse from the second scanning circuit, and a length in a row direction of the pixel array is smaller than a length in a column direction of the pixel array.
US08742358B2

A photonic radiation detection device includes a collimator, a detector, means for localization in the detection plane defining on the one hand the partitioning of the detection plane in physical or virtual pixels of transversal dimensions smaller than those of the collimator channels, and associating on the other hand one of said pixels to each photon interaction. The detection device has at least in one previously selected acquisition configuration, a degree of pixelation in the detection plane greater than 1 and a collimator-detector distance (c) greater than one tenth of the septal height (h) of the collimator. A method for dimensioning such a device includes, for at least one given spatial frequency, calculating and comparing merit indicator values for different acquisition configurations of a structural model of the detection device.
US08742348B2

A muon monitoring system for particle radiation therapy includes: a shield for a selective passing, by eliminating particles and radiation produced due to the high energy particles and radiation pulses, of the delay positrons emitted due to decay of muons stopped at a position corresponding to the Bragg peak position; a positron detector for detecting positrons from a designated direction and detecting the delay positrons passed through the shield opening by each of positron detecting plates for providing information of positron produced positions and time of delay simultaneous signals; and a control/analysis apparatus generating a delay signal at a timing delayed by a predetermined time period from a completion of irradiation of the high energy particle radiation pulses, and performing a process to generate μSR signals segmented for each positron generating position by analyzing detected results obtained by operating the positron detector for a predetermined number of times.
US08742344B2

An inspection apparatus includes: beam generation means for generating any of charged particles and electromagnetic waves as a beam; a primary optical system that guides the beam into an inspection object held in a working chamber and irradiates the inspection object with the beam; a secondary optical system that detects secondary charged particles occurring from the inspection object; and an image processing system that forms an image on the basis of the detected secondary charged particles. The primary optical system includes a photoelectron generator having a photoelectronic surface. The base material of the photoelectronic surface is made of material having a higher thermal conductivity than the thermal conductivity of quartz. A central portion of the inspection object is provided with a central flat portion 390. The periphery of the central flat portion 390 is provided with peripheral flat portion 392 via a step 391. The periphery of the step 391 is provided with an electric field correction plate 400. A surface voltage equivalent to a surface voltage applied to the inspection object is applied to an electrode 401 on the electric field correction plate 400.
US08742343B2

A method of axially aligning a charged particle beam involves an image data acquisition step and a calculation step. The image data acquisition step consists of obtaining first to third sets of image data by scanning a shielding member placed in the path of the beam with the beam while varying conditions of the excitation currents through first and second alignment coils, respectively. The calculation step consists of calculating the values of the excitation currents through the first and second alignment coils, respectively, for axial alignment of the beam, based on the obtained first to third sets of image data.
US08742342B2

A scanning electron microscope suppresses a beam drift by reducing charging on a sample surface while suppressing resolution degradation upon observation of an insulator sample. An electron microscope includes an electron source and an objective lens that focuses an electron beam emitted from the electron source, which provides an image using a secondary signal generated from the sample irradiated with the electron beam. A magnetic body with a continuous structure and an inside diameter larger than an inside diameter of an upper pole piece that forms the objective lens is provided between the objective lens and the sample.
US08742336B2

There are provided a bio-chip for secondary ion mass spectrometry and a method of fabricating the same, the bio-chip, which is a bio-chip for analyzing a biochemical material using the secondary ion mass spectrometry, including: a substrate; and core-shell particles positioned above substrate, wherein the core-shell particles each include a metal nanoparticle as a core and a metal shell surrounding the metal nanoparticle.
US08742334B2

A spinning cell device is described for fast and convenient standardization and analysis of constituents and isotopes in solid samples by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma (LA-ICP) spectrometry. The method and apparatus for performing the method require the sample under test and a standard to be spun during ablation allowing the quasi-simultaneous ablation of both materials. The aerosols resulting from the ablation of sample and standard are mixed in the ablation cell allowing quantification of the ablated metals by the method of standard addition or isotope dilution. The relative proportion of standard verses sample ablated can be changed by altering the trajectory of the laser beam. The ablated aerosol is swept into an inductively coupled plasma by a carrier gas and analyzed by mass spectrometry.
US08742328B2

Logging-while-drilling tools incorporating an electronic radiation generator, such as an electronic X-ray generator, and a method for using the same are provided. One example of such a logging-while-drilling tool may include a circumferential drill collar, a chassis disposed radially interior to the drill collar, and an electronic X-ray generator and an X-ray detector disposed within the chassis. The electronic X-ray generator may emit X-rays out of the logging-while-drilling tool into a subterranean formation. The X-ray detector may detect X-rays that return to the logging-while-drilling tool after scattering in the subterranean formation, which may be used to determine a density and/or a lithology of the subterranean formation.
US08742320B2

The present invention provides a highly reliable spectral module. When light L1 proceeding to a spectroscopic unit (4) passes through a light transmitting hole (50) in the spectral module (1) in accordance with the present invention, only the light having passed through a light entrance side unit (51) formed such as to become narrower toward a substrate (2) and entered a light exit side unit (52) formed such as to oppose a bottom face (51b) of the light entrance side unit (51) is emitted from a light exit opening (52a). Therefore, stray light M incident on a side face (51c) or bottom face (51b) of the light entrance side unit (51) is reflected to the side opposite to the light exit side unit (52) and thus is inhibited from entering the light exit side unit (52). Therefore, the reliability of the spectral module (1) can be improved.
US08742316B2

Provided is a photo detector. The photo detector includes: an avalanche photodiode; a bias circuit supplying a bias voltage to one end of the avalanche photodiode; a detection circuit connected to the other end of the avalanche photodiode and detecting a photoelectric current occurring in the avalanche photodiode; and a coupling capacitor connected to the one end or the other end of the avalanche photodiode and supplying a coupling voltage to drive the avalanche photodiode in a Geiger mode.
US08742314B2

A light amount detecting apparatus includes: a photoelectric converting element converting quantity of light inputted to current; a current/voltage converting device having a positive input terminal connected to a first terminal of the photoelectric converting element, a negative input terminal connected to a second terminal of the photoelectric converting element, a negative output terminal for reversing polarity of a current inputted to the positive input terminal and outputting it as a voltage, a positive output terminal for reversing polarity of a current inputted to the negative input terminal and outputting it as a voltage, a first negative feedback resistor connecting the positive and negative output terminals, and a second negative feedback resistor connected between the negative and positive output terminals, the current/voltage converting device setting the photoelectric converting element in zero bias and converting the converted current to the voltage; and an amplifying device for amplifying the converted voltage.
US08742313B2

A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel array unit that includes a plurality of pixels arranged two dimensionally and a plurality of read-out signal lines used for reading out pixel signals from the plurality of pixels; test voltage applying units that are disposed at the read-out signal lines and apply test voltages of various voltage levels to the read-out signal lines; a reference voltage generating circuit that includes a MOS transistor used for generating a reference voltage and can change an operating point of the MOS transistor; and an operating point control unit that controls a process of adjusting the operating point of the MOS transistor based on the test voltages and the reference voltage.
US08742312B2

A planar detector for use in light curtains, which generates electric signals as a function of absorbed light and is provided with a plurality of tapping points for the generated signals. The magnitude of the signals at the respective tapping points is dependent on their distance to the partial surfaces where the light is absorbed. As a function of the magnitude ratios between the signals at several tapping points, the distance ratios of the respective tapping points to those partial surfaces, where the light is absorbed, can be calculated. The detector is configured as a flexible layered structure made of organic material. The tapping points are disposed at a distance from the edges of the layered structure. Electric connection lines to the tapping points are connected along their longitudinal extension to the layered structure of the detector.
US08742310B2

A high dynamic range imaging device including a first substrate with multiple pixels, each pixel having a photodetector associated with multiple read-out circuits. Each read-out circuit including a device for charging and discharging the photodetector that is associated with the read-out circuit. Each charging and discharging device being controlled by a charge and discharge activation signal imposing an integration time of the photodetector of each pixel associated with the read-out circuit. The device further including a second substrate, distinct from the first, with an electronic control circuit for controlling the charging and discharging devices, designed for generating multiple charge and discharge activation signals to be transmitted to the charging and discharging devices using electrical connections between the first and second substrates. Each pixel or group of pixels is associated to an activation signal imposing an integration time specific and appropriate to the pixel or group of pixels.
US08742308B2

An imaging array comprises a photodetector layer, a readout IC (ROIC) layer, and a charge storage capacitor layer which is distinct from the photodetector and ROIC layers; the layers are electrically interconnected to form the array. The capacitors within the charge storage capacitor layer are preferably micromachined; the charge storage capacitor layer can be an interposer layer or an outer layer.
US08742298B2

The invention relates to a dental firing or press furnace (10) that enables the production of at least one dental restoration part (62). The dental firing or press furnace is provided with a firing space (12) that is heatable with the aid of a heating device (22), preferably, a resistance heating device. A heat-conducting element (50) having a specific thermal conductivity of at least 100 W/mK is arranged on the floor of the firing space (12).
US08742295B2

In a power source of a welding system, an inverter rectifier output circuit and method for reducing the blocking voltages across saturable reactors associated with a rectifier coupled to a transformer winding in the inverter rectifier output circuit during both turn-on and turn-off transitions of the rectifier. At least a portion of a reverse recovery current associated with the rectifier is blocked by allowing blocking voltages to build across associated saturable reactors during a transition phase of the rectifier. During a turn-off portion of the transition phase, the blocking voltages are reduced using a RC circuit, thereby suppressing a peak voltage associated with the rectifier. During a turn-on portion of the transition phase, the blocking voltages are reduced using another saturable reactor in series with a free-wheeling diode.
US08742291B2

A method of controlling arc welding, which method shifting the speed of welding operation continuously and mildly. By so doing, a sharp change in the speed of weld wire supply, which is caused as the result of efforts to try to comply with an abrupt change in operation speed, can be moderated. This helps keeping a welding operation under a stable control.
US08742287B2

Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to apparatuses for sealing the tips of pump-out tubes of vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units, and/or associated methods. In certain example embodiments, a laser source used in sealing the pump-out tube is thermally insulated from the VIG unit and emits a laser beam through one or more windows in an oven towards a mirror located therein. The mirror is located so as to redirect the laser beam onto the pump-out tube to thereby seal it. For instance, a substantially horizontal laser beam emitted from a laser source located outside the oven enters into the oven through one or more windows and is reflected by a mirror towards the pump-out tube to be sealed. The repositioning of the laser source advantageously can change its effective focal length and/or the location of the laser beam, e.g., because of the fixed location of the mirror.
US08742283B2

A device for sustaining a plasma in a torch is provided. In certain examples, the device comprises a first electrode configured to couple to a power source and constructed and arranged to provide a loop current along a radial plane of the torch. In some examples, the radial plane of the torch is substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the torch.
US08742281B2

The invention relates to a spot welding cap changer (1) with a cap puller (2) and two cap magazines (3, 3A), the cap puller (2) having a gripper (20) with spring-loaded, pivotable jaws (21, 22), which in response to a turning and axial pulling-off movement detaches a spot welding cap (K) of a pincer spot welding head introduced into it from a shaft of the pincer welding head in such a way that it is clamped to prevent it twisting, and the cap magazines (3, 3A) holding spot welding caps respectively in a round cap carrier (31) such that they are circularly arranged in a directed and oriented manner and are respectively transported individually one after the other into an access position against a stop (32) by an advancing force (P).
US08742280B2

A welding system including a welding power source including power conversion circuitry adapted to receive primary power and to convert the primary power to a weld power output for use in a welding operation and a controller communicatively coupled to the welding power source are provided. The controller is adapted to determine a statistical signature of at least one parameter of a welding process and to utilize the statistical signature to determine at least one of an electrode type, an electrode diameter, and a shielding gas type during the welding operation.
US08742279B2

A tool for forming a trench and a plurality of cooling holes within the trench includes a body, the body including a ridge portion extending along a first side of the tool. The ridge portion is operable to mate with a workpiece to form a trench on the workpiece. A plurality of electrodes extend from the ridge portion and are oriented to form a plurality of cooling holes within the trench on the workpiece.
US08742278B2

A switchgear device, for breaking a bidirectional direct current in an electric line, having at least two connection terminals, and an even number of pairs of separable contacts, arc chutes associated with pairs of separable contacts, and tripping mechanisms associated with pairs of separable contacts and connected to one another by a mechanical link, each arc chute having an arc extinguishing chamber and permanent magnets for creating a polarity enabling an electric arc to be removed to an arc extinguishing chamber when current is flowing in the electric line in a predefined direction, the predefined direction being different for one half of the arc chutes.
US08742275B1

According to one general aspect of the invention, an input device includes a collapsible structure and a sheet of material. The sheet of material is disposed above the collapsible structure and includes an attached edge that is affixed to a housing of the input device, creating a pivot point. The sheet of material also includes a front edge opposite the attached edge, a left edge, and a right edge. The sheet of material has a width extending from the left edge to the right edge and a height extending from the front edge to the pivot point. A first opening is formed proximate the front edge of the sheet of material. The collapsible structure is disposed below a portion of the sheet of material located between the front edge and a midpoint of the height of the sheet. The collapsible structure is approximately centered between the left and right edges.
US08742271B2

A plug including a shell and a mounting body disposed inside the shell. The mounting body is provided with a first movable contact spring and a second movable contact spring, a phase contact and a zero contact, and a button assembly. A transverse block disposed above the first movable contact spring and the second movable contact spring includes a phase terminal and a zero terminal. The button assembly includes an electric magnet disposed on the mounting body and a sliding part having a cavity. The cavity of the sliding part is provided with a reset spring. A hook is disposed in a lower part of the cavity. The transverse block is connected with a pull block. An upper part of the pull block is connected with the electric magnet. The center of the pull block includes a limiting hole for accommodating the hook.
US08742265B2

Disclosed is a tire mountable apparatus and method that includes a substrate defining a longitudinal direction, a top surface and a bottom surface. The substrate has a plurality of conductor terminals arranged in a substantially linear relationship. A first support element is located below the bottom surface of the substrate and a second support element is located above the top surface of the substrate. The plurality of conductor terminals are positioned between the first and second support elements. The substrate may be a piezoelectric device having a piezoelectric layer arranged between first and second conductive layers. The plurality of conductor terminals may be arranged in a substantially linear relationship along a line about 80° to about 100° to the longitudinal direction of the substrate, and the longitudinal direction of the substrate being substantially perpendicular to the direction of rotation of the tire.
US08742250B2

A low-cost system for increasing the electricity generation of flat panel photovoltaic (PV) farms in which sunlight redirecting elements are positioned in offset spaces provided between adjacent panel assemblies and serve to redirect otherwise unused sunlight onto solar cells disposed on one of the panel assemblies. The redirecting elements are located in a prismatic volume bounded at its upper end by an inclined upper plane that extends across the offset space separating adjacent PV panel assemblies. The redirecting elements are either mounted to at least one of the PV panel assemblies, or placed on the ground between the assemblies. Each redirecting element includes multiple reflecting and/or refracting surfaces that utilize a disclosed microoptical arrangement (e.g., focus and steer or reorient and scatter) to distribute the redirected sunlight in a substantially homogenous (uniform) distribution on the solar cells.
US08742246B2

The invention provides a thermoelectric conversion module, which can implement a high power generation capacity and high reliability of electric connection between thermoelectric conversion elements and meet various diameters and lengths of a tube as a heat source. The thermoelectric conversion module includes a straight-chain module unit. In the module unit, plural P-type elements and plural N-type elements, which are alternately arrayed, are electrically connected in series by a braided wire A and a braided wire B. The braided wire A connects one end surface of the P-type element and one end surface of the N-type element. The braided wire B connects the other end surface of the P-type element and the other end surface of the N-type element. The braided wire B is shorter than the braided wire A. The thermoelectric conversion module including only the module unit is spirally wound around a tube as a heat source.
US08742244B2

An electronic hi-hat cymbal controller is disclosed. The controller includes a hi-hat cymbal stand having a pedal and a shaft. The pedal is configured and arranged to move the shaft. A lower cymbal is mounted to the hi-hat cymbal stand and an upper cymbal is mounted to the shaft. A sensor assembly is mounted to the hi-hat cymbal stand. The sensor assembly is configured and arranged to detect the position of the upper cymbal relative to the lower cymbal.
US08742242B1

A processor of a tuning apparatus receives a desired fundamental frequency or note and determines a frequency or note of at least one drumhead of a drum in response to the received desired fundamental frequency or note. An output at the processor outputs a value corresponding to the determined frequency or note of the drumhead.
US08742241B2

An electronic keyboard instrument capable of suppressing warpage of a keybed having a keyboard placed thereon and improving the appearance of the instrument by shared use of a backboard covering an instrument body and a speaker box. A piano body of an electronic piano has a keybed. A bottom board is disposed below the keybed in a manner spaced therefrom and extends further rearward than a rear end thereof. A front board is erected on a front end of the bottom board and connected to the keybed. The speaker box accommodates a speaker. A screen board is erected rearward of the front board in the speaker box on the bottom board, and connected to the keybed. A backboard is connected to the rear end of the bottom board in a manner covering the rear sides of the piano body and the speaker box.
US08742239B1

The present invention is a flexible container and pick holder for a musical instrument. The flexible container and pick holder has a plurality of thin slots on its face, in which can be placed musical instrument picks. The thin slots have a raised lip or ridge that keeps the pick at a small acute angle with respect to the face of the flexible container and pick holder. The material of the face of the flexible container and pick holder is such that the musician's thumb can easily swipe or move a guitar pick across it. The present invention can be positioned so that the musician can easily reach the face containing the picks using the thumb of the strumming hand.
US08742237B1

A haploid-inducer corn line, designated AX6012, the plants and seeds of the haploid-inducer corn line AX6012, methods for producing a corn plant, either inbred or hybrid, produced through use of the haploid-inducer corn line AX6012 are disclosed. This invention also relates to methods for generating homozygous diploid corn plants from heterozygous diploid corn plants.
US08742234B1

A novel maize variety designated X13C714 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X13C714 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X13C714 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X13C714, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X13C714. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X13C714.
US08742229B1

An inbred corn line, designated XHA21BM, the plants and seeds of the inbred corn line XHA21BM, methods for producing a corn plant, either inbred or hybrid, produced by crossing the inbred corn line XHA21BM with itself or with another corn plant, and hybrid corn seeds and plants produced by crossing the inbred line XHA21BM with another corn line or plant and to methods for producing a corn plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic corn plants produced by that method. This invention also relates to inbred corn lines derived from inbred corn line XHA21BM, to methods for producing other inbred corn lines derived from inbred corn line XHA21BM and to the inbred corn lines derived by the use of those methods.
US08742224B2

The invention relates to the soybean variety designated A1026645. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety A1026645. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety A1026645 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety A1026645 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US08742220B2

A novel soybean variety, designated XB31N12 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XB31N12, cells from soybean variety XB31N12, plants of soybean XB31N12, and plant parts of soybean variety XB31N12. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XB31N12 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XB31N12, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XB31N12, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XB31N12. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XB31N12 are further provided.
US08742219B2

A novel soybean variety, designated XB31Q12 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XB31Q12, cells from soybean variety XB31Q12, plants of soybean XB31Q12, and plant parts of soybean variety XB31Q12. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XB31Q12 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XB31Q12, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XB31Q12, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XB31Q12. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XB31Q12 are further provided.
US08742215B2

A soybean cultivar designated S090082 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S090082, to the plants of soybean cultivar S090082, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar S090082, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar S090082. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S090082. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S090082, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar S090082 with another soybean cultivar.
US08742213B2

A soybean cultivar designated S090160 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S090160, to the plants of soybean cultivar S090160, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar S090160, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar S090160. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S090160. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S090160, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar S090160 with another soybean cultivar.
US08742211B2

A soybean cultivar designated S070140 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S070140, to the plants of soybean S070140, to plant parts of soybean cultivar S070140, and to methods for producing a soybean plant produced by crossing soybean cultivar S070140 with itself or with another soybean variety. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. This invention also relates to soybean cultivars, or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean variety S070140, to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S070140, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing the cultivar S070140 with another soybean cultivar.
US08742208B2

Tetraploid watermelon inbreds are disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds and plants of the tetraploid watermelon inbreds, the methods of propagating the tetraploid inbreds through seeds and tissue culture. The invention also relates to methods of producing the triploid seedless watermelon seeds and plants by crossing the tetraploid inbreds with diploid watermelon inbreds, and to the triploid plants produced therefrom.
US08742205B2

Disclosed are mutant CDK inhibitor (CKI) polypeptides having dominant negative antagonist activity against wild-type CKI proteins, as well as related compositions, including nucleic acids and vectors encoding the mutant CKI polypeptides and transformed host cells and transgenic plants comprising such nucleic acids and vectors. Also disclosed are related methods for using the mutant proteins to modulate cell division in cells, particularly plant cells.
US08742199B2

An absorbent article including features facilitating toilet training of a wearer is provided. The article includes at least a first appearing graphic that changes from an initial, less visible state to a subsequent, more visible state in the absence of wetness, thereby to provide positive encouragement to a child during toilet training. The appearing graphic becomes less visible if subjected to liquid. A wetness sensation member may also be provided to give tactile, negative sensation to the child, thereby giving feedback received by at least two different senses. Additionally or alternatively, a second appearing graphic, different from the first appearing graphic, may be provided to increase a child's interest in the toilet training process. The first and second appearing graphics may become visible at different times, thereby providing a sequential or spaced reveal of the image.
US08742197B2

Methods and apparatuses herein may provide for the application of viscous fluids, such as adhesives, in pre-determined patterns to an advancing substrate. The fluid application apparatus may include a slot die applicator and a substrate carrier. The substrate carrier may include one or more pattern elements and may be adapted to advance the substrate past the slot die applicator as the slot die applicator discharges adhesive onto the substrate. In operation, the substrate is disposed on the substrate carrier; the substrate carrier advances the substrate past the slot opening of the slot die applicator. In turn, the substrate is intermittently compressed between the slot die applicator and the pattern surface of the pattern element. As the substrate is intermittently compressed, adhesive discharged from the slot die applicator is applied onto the substrate in an area having a shape substantially the same as a shape defined by the pattern surface.
US08742188B2

The present invention provides a process for preparing ethylene and/or propylene and an iso-olefin-depleted olefinic product, comprising the steps of: a) providing a C5 hydrocarbon-comprising stream, comprising C5 cyclopentene and C5 iso-olefins; b) subjecting the C5 hydrocarbon-comprising stream to an etherification process with methanol and/or ethanol wherein at least part of the C5 iso-olefins are converted with methanol and/or ethanol to an tert-alkyl ether, and retrieving an etherification product stream; c) separating at least part of the etherification product stream into at least an ether-enriched stream and a first iso-olefin-depleted olefinic product; d) converting at least part of the tert-alkyl ether in the ether-enriched stream to ethylene and/or propylene by contacting at least part of the ether-enriched stream with a molecular sieve-comprising catalyst at a temperature in the range of from 350 to 1000° C. and retrieving a second olefinic product comprising ethylene and/or propylene.
US08742185B2

The use of bio oil from at least one renewable source in a hydrotreatment process, in which process hydrocarbons are formed from said glyceride oil in a catalytic reaction, and the iron content of said bio oil is less than 1 w-ppm calculated as elemental iron. A bio oil intermediate including bio oil from at least one renewable source and the iron content of said bio oil is less than 1 w-ppm calculated as elemental iron.
US08742183B2

A process has been developed for producing aviation fuel from renewable feedstocks such as plant oils and animal fats and oils. The process involves treating a renewable feedstock by hydrogenating and deoxygenating to provide n-paraffins having from about 8 to about 24 carbon atoms. At least some of the n-paraffins are isomerized to improve cold flow properties. At least a portion of the paraffins are selectively cracked to provide paraffins meeting specifications for different aviation fuels such as JP-8.
US08742181B2

A process for isomerizing a (hydrohalo)fluoroalkene, the process comprising contacting the (hydrohalo)fluoroalkene with a catalyst a catalyst which is a chromia-containing catalyst supported on AlF3 or fluorinated alumina.
US08742178B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a technology which can suppress the blockage and abrasion of pipes and devices caused by the production of by-products and stably synthesize acrolein at a high yield, under a condition in which energy efficiency is improved by an elevated concentration of glycerol in a reaction liquid, in a process for synthesis of acrolein by reacting supercritical water and an acid with glycerol. An embodiment of the present invention includes: setting a concentration of glycerol in the reaction liquid at 30% by weight or lower; also cooling the reaction liquid to a temperature between a temperature (300° C. or lower) at which the reaction stops and a temperature (100° C. or higher) at which tar contained in the reaction liquid can keep a state in which its viscosity is sufficiently low; then separating and removing carbon particles from the reaction liquid; subsequently cooling the reaction liquid to a temperature which is a boiling point of water or lower and at which the tar component in the reaction liquid does not adhere to devices; and then decompressing the cooled reaction liquid.
US08742176B2

The invention relates to a method of producing optically active 4-chloro-3-hydroxybutanal compound (2) by reacting chloroacetaldehyde with aldehyde compound (1) in the presence of optically active pyrrolidine compound (5). wherein each symbol is as defined in the specification.
US08742169B2

The present invention relates to a method for producing acrolein, comprising step (1) of subjecting glycerol to dehydration reaction in the presence of a copper compound and a compound containing a heteroatom; step (2) of recovering acrolein generated in the dehydration reaction step (1); step (3) of recovering part or all of the copper compound which remained after the recovery of acrolein; step (4) of treating part or all of the recovered copper compound with at least one member selected from a group consisting of an oxidizing agent and acid; and step (5) of returning part or all of the copper compound treated in the above step to step (1); and a method for producing acrylic acid, comprising reacting acrolein obtained by the above method with molecular oxygen. The production method of the present invention enables efficient production of acrolein and acrylic acid from glycerol contained in plant oil and animal fats derived from carbon dioxide in air without depending on the oxidation of propylene derived from fossil resources.
US08742167B2

A highly pure asiaticoside and a pharmaceutical grade asiatic acid can be prepared, along with salts of asiatic acid, for use in formulating therapeutic compositions that are suitable for treating arthritis, psoriasis and other inflammatory diseases, as well as pulmonary fibrosis, diabetic nephropathy, and other fibrotic diseases.
US08742155B2

When an organoxysilyl or siloxy-containing ethylnorbornene compound is prepared by hydrosilylation of 5-vinyl-2-norbornene with a hydrogen organoxysilane or siloxy compound in the presence of a platinum catalyst, hydrosilylation is conducted in the co-presence of an ammonium salt. The organoxysilyl or siloxy-containing ethylnorbornene compound is effectively prepared at high reactivity and selectivity.
US08742152B2

The disclosure provides for metal catecholate frameworks, and methods of use thereof, including gas separation, gas storage, catalysis, tunable conductors, supercapacitors, and sensors.
US08742149B2

A water-insoluble cutting fluid base oil or grinding fluid base oil for metalworking includes a fatty acid polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether represented by the following formula (I-A), wherein a hydroxyl value of the fatty acid polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether is less than or equal to 2.0 mgKOH/g. R1—CO-(OA)n-OR3  (I-A) (In the formula (I-A), R1 represents a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated monovalent hydrocarbon group having 15 to 21 carbon atoms and R3 represents a linear, branched, or cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms. In addition, A represents an alkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms, OA represents alkylene oxide, and n represents 1 to 6 which is an average mole number of added alkylene oxide (AO)).
US08742136B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide a commercially advantageous method for producing a cyclic disulfonic acid ester with high yield, the present invention discloses a method for producing a cyclic disulfonic acid ester represented by the general formula (3), which comprises reacting a silver alkanedisulfonate represented by the general formula (1) with a dihaloalkane represented by the general formula (2) in a nonpolar solvent. Wherein X1 and X2 are each independently a chlorine atom, a bromine atom or an iodine atom; and Y and Z are each independently a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene chain which may have a heteroatom in the chain.
US08742129B2

New forms of Febuxostat have bean, prepared and characterized. These forms are useful for examples in the chronic management of hyperuricemia in patients with gout.
US08742126B2

The present invention relates to a compound of formula (I): The compound has apoptosis signal-regulating kinase (“ASK1”) inhibitory activity, and is thus useful in the treatment of diseases such as kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy and kidney fibrosis.
US08742113B2

To provide a novel furanone derivative, and a medicine including the same. The furanone derivative is represented by the formula (I): wherein A represents —COOR1 or a hydrogen atom; R1 represents a hydrogen atom, an optionally substituted hydrocarbon group, or an optionally substituted heterocycle; R2 and R3 are the same or different and each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an optionally substituted hydrocarbon group, an optionally substituted phenyl group, an optionally substituted heterocycle, an optionally substituted heterocyclic fused ring, or an optionally substituted amino group; or alternatively, R2 and R3, taken together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached, may form an optionally substituted heterocycle or an optionally substituted heterocyclic fused ring; and R4 represents a hydrogen atom or a halogen atom; with the proviso that when A represents —COOR1, R2 and R3 are not optionally substituted amino groups at the same time, and when A represents a hydrogen atom, R3 represents a hydrogen atom.
US08742112B2

A heterocyclic compound represented by formula (1): wherein A1, A2, R1, R2, R3, R4, n and so on are defined in tha description, has an excellent control effect on arthropod pests and is useful for control of arthropod pests.
US08742111B1

An improved process or method of synthesis of carfentanil and other potent opioid analgesics of the N-alkyl 4-substituted 4-piperidinylamide class which can be used as morphine substitutes.
US08742101B2

This invention is directed to a method for treating a host, especially a human, infected with hepatitis C, flavivirus and/or pestivirus, comprising administering to that host an effective amount of an anti-HCV biologically active pentofuranonucleoside where the pentofuranonucleoside base is an optionally substituted 2-azapurine. The optionally substituted pentofuranonucleoside, or a salt or prodrug thereof, may be administered alone or in combination with one or more optionally substituted pentofuranonucleosides or other anti-viral agents.
US08742099B2

Compounds of formula (I) wherein R1 is 2-indanyl, R2 is 1-methylpropyl, R3 is a group selected from 2,6-dimethyl-3-pyridyl or 4,6-dimethyl-3-pyridyl, R4 represents methyl and R5 represents hydrogen or methyl or, R4 and R5 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached represent morpholino and pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives thereof are described, as are processes for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in medicine, particularly their use as oxytocin antagonists.
US08742091B2

Means for transferring efficiently a desired nucleic acid into a cell is provided.The present invention comprises using a complex comprising a collagen or a collagen derivative, and a desired nucleic acid.
US08742086B2

A mutant hydrolase optionally fused to a protein of interest is provided. The mutant hydrolase is capable of forming a bond with a substrate for the corresponding nonmutant (wild-type) hydrolase which is more stable than the bond formed between the wild-type hydrolase and the substrate and has at least two amino acid substitutions relative to the wild-type hydrolase. Substrates for hydrolases comprising one or more functional groups are also provided, as well as methods of using the mutant hydrolase and the substrates of the invention. Also provided is a fusion protein capable of forming a stable bond with a substrate and cells which express the fusion protein.
US08742082B2

The invention provides (1) genes differentially expressed in animals administered fatty acid amides that affect one or more of food intake, satiety, lipid metabolism, and fat utilization and (2) compositions and methods relating to the use of the genes to identify new compounds that affect one or more of food intake, satiety, lipid metabolism, and fat utilization.
US08742081B2

The present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having a fluorescence emission activity with a maximum emission at 505 to 515 nm, wherein said nucleic acid molecule is selected from the group consisting of (a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (b) a nucleic acid molecule having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (c) a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to the complementary strand of (i.) a nucleic acid molecule of (a), wherein said nucleic acid molecule of (c) encodes a polypeptide having at the position corresponding to position 146 of SEQ NO:2 a phenylalanine and at the position corresponding to position 203 of SEQ NO:2 a threonine; or (ii) a nucleic acid molecule of (b), wherein said nucleic acid molecule of (c) has at the positions corresponding to positions 438 to 440 of SEQ ID NO: 1 a nucleotide triplet selected from the group consisting of TTT and TTC; and at the positions corresponding to positions 609 to 611 of SEQ ID NO: 1 a nucleotide triplet selected from the group consisting of ACT, ACC, ACA, ACG; wherein the polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of (c) has a fluorescence enhanced by at least the factor of 2.5 as compared to the polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 10; or (d) a nucleic acid molecule degenerate with respect to the nucleic acid molecule of (b). The present invention furthermore relates to a polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid molecule of the invention, a vector and a host cell comprising the nucleic acid molecule of the invention, a method of producing said polypeptide, a fusion protein comprising the polypeptide of the invention and methods of detecting the presence and/or localization of a protein of interest and methods of detecting the activity of a promoter.
US08742075B2

Monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind to ANGPTL3 are provided. Monoclonal antibodies that neutralize at least one activity of ANGPTL3 are provided. Methods of treating a disorder of lipid metabolism using neutralizing monoclonal antibodies are provided.
US08742074B2

A variant of a parent polypeptide including an Fc region, which variant exhibits increased binding to FcRn as compared to the parent polypeptide and includes at least one amino acid modification in the Fc region.
US08742073B2

A high temperature-stable and highly purified α-α cross-linked tetrameric hemoglobin suitable for use in mammals without causing renal injury and vasoconstriction is provided. The dimeric form of hemoglobin is degenerated and purification processes are performed on red blood cells obtained from whole blood. Controlled hypotonic lysis in an instant cytolysis apparatus prevents the lysis of white blood cells. Nucleic acids from white blood cells and the phospholipids impurities are not detected. The blocking of reactive sulfhydryl groups in hemoglobin by a sulfhydryl reagent is performed in an oxygenated environment. Flowthrough column chromatography is used to remove different plasma protein impurities. N-acetyl cysteine is added to the α-α cross-linked tetrameric hemoglobin solution to maintain a low level of met-hemoglobin. The stabilized hemoglobin is preserved in an infusion bag with aluminum overwrap to prevent formation of inactive met-hemoglobin from oxygen intrusion. The product finds use in tissue oxygenation and cancer treatment.
US08742064B2

Medical tubing (T), such as a guidewire, a stent, a catheter or a hollow needle, made of a kinked rigid-rod polyarylene exhibiting a outstanding characteristics including high torqueability, high pushability and high flexibility and which can be easily thin-wall extruded under especially harsh conditions.
US08742062B2

A polymer comprising sulfone groups, ketone groups and optionally substituted polyarylene groups, wherein the number of moles of sulfone groups over the number of moles of ketone groups ratio is greater than 1. A process for making such polymer, a composition comprising such polymer, and articles made therefrom.
US08742056B2

Disclosed is a solid resol-type phenolic resin having: methylol groups and dimethylene ether bonds, as functional groups bound to phenolic nuclei; a content of methylol group, per 1 mol of the phenolic nuclei, of 0.8 mol or more and 1.3 mol or less; a content of dimethylene ether bond, per 1 mol of the phenolic nuclei, of 0.1 mol or less; a weight-average molecular weight of a tetrahydrofuran-soluble fraction, measured by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), of 800 or larger and 4,000 or smaller; and a content of mononuclear phenolic compound of 10% by weight or less.
US08742054B2

A hybrid resin composition is described, the composition comprising: A. An A part composition comprising an aliphatic polyfunctional isocyanate compound and a free radical polymerization initiator; and B. A B part composition comprising an ethylenically unsaturated, substantially water-free polyester polyol and a polyurethane catalyst. The A part composition can contain a non-interfering solvent, e.g., styrene, and the B part composition typically has an acid value of 5 or less (based on solids). For outdoor use, the B part composition is preferably free of tertiary hydrogens, ether glycols and terephthalic acid residues.
US08742052B2

A polyurea compound obtainable by reacting one or more polyisocyanates with one or more non-chiral mono-amines (I) and one or more chiral mono-amines (II) and co-precipitating the reaction products to form the polyurea compound, wherein 2-98 mole % of the mono-amines in the polyurea compound are chiral mono-amines. The invention also relates to the use of said polyurea compound as a rheology modification agent, in particular as sag control agent (SCA) in coating compositions. The invention further relates to sag control agent compositions, coating compositions and coatings comprising the polyurea compound as sag control agent.
US08742050B2

Provided are two part hybrid adhesives that comprise an organoborane amine complex, a polyamine, a component polymerizable by free radical polymerization, and a polyisocyanate component. An isocyanate terminated prepolymer can advantageously be used in the practice of the invention. The adhesive is particularly well suited for low surface energy plastic bonding.
US08742047B2

A multifunctional polymerizable ionic liquid is described comprising an anion and a cationic group having at least two ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable groups, each bonded to the cationic group via a divalent non-alkyl linking group. The multifunctional linking groups independently comprise a heteroatom such as oxygen or nitrogen. The linking groups may independently comprise one or more linkages such as an amide, urea, or ether linkage and more typically a urethane or ester linkage. The ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable groups are typically (meth)acrylate groups. Coatings and coated articles are also described.
US08742039B2

A method for making a polyolefin composition according to one embodiment includes altering the concentration of the chain transfer agent present in the reactor to control the HMW and LMW fractions of the polyolefin composition.
US08742035B2

Embodiments of the invention provide a method of controlling a gas-phase polymerization process. The method includes determining a difference between a control variable of the polymerization process, such as the production rate, and the desired value of the control variable; adjusting or maintaining a first manipulated variable to at least partially compensate for the difference between the control variable and the desired value; and adjusting or maintaining a second manipulated variable to at least partially compensate for the effect of adjusting or maintaining the first manipulated variable. The first and second manipulated variables can include process variables such as the fluidized bed weight, the catalyst concentration, the concentration of one or more monomers, the flow of one or more comonomers, the ratio of one comonomer to another comonomer, the activator concentration, the ratio of an activator to selectivity control agent, the concentration of a chain transfer agent, and the retardant concentration.
US08742031B2

Heat-resistant polyimide copolymers having the following four components: pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA), 1,4-diaminodiphenyl ether (DADE), biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA), and 2,4-diaminotoluene (DAT) are provided. In an embodiment the molar ratio of (BPDA):(DADE):(PMDA):(DAT) is 2:2:m:m, in which m is an integer of 3, 4 or 5.
US08742025B2

Disclosed are an adhesive composition and a polarizing plate including the same and, more particularly, an adhesive composition including a vinyl-acrylate copolymer including a hydroxyalkylvinylether monomer as a repeating unit, a cross-linking agent, ionic solid, and a silane coupling agent and, in addition, a polarizing plate including the same. Such adhesive composition may have desired re-workability without decrease in durability caused by surface transfer of an ionic compound, and allow effective gelling of adhesive fraction, to thereby considerably reduce a curing period.
US08742017B2

There is provided an antistatic agent that preserves its antistatic property for a long period of time and has the appearance and the transparency that are not impaired when kneaded into a resin, and a resin composition containing the antistatic agent. An antistatic agent including a block copolymer which is obtained from a reaction product of a polyolefin (a) having one end being acid-modified and a diol and/or a diamine (b) having a polyoxyalkylene chain, and in which a part or all of acid groups remaining in the reaction product is neutralized with an alkaline substance. A thermoplastic resin composition including the antistatic resin. A film or sheet including the thermoplastic resin composition.
US08742015B2

The objective of the present invention is to provide a thermoplastic resin composition having an excellent balance of chemical resistance, heat resistance and impact resistance and a molded article comprising this thermoplastic resin composition. The present thermoplastic resin composition comprises a rubber-reinforced resin, an ethylene•(meth)acrylic acid ester•carbon monoxide copolymer, and polytetrafluoroethylene, and contents of ethylene•(meth)acrylic acid ester•carbon monoxide copolymer and polytetrafluoroethylene are respectively from 0.5 to 20 parts by weight and from 0.01 to 5 parts by weight, with respect to 100 parts by weight of the rubber-reinforced resin. A modified polyolefin resin may be contained.
US08742005B2

The present invention relates to an acrylate-based compound that includes an organic acid having two or more acrylate groups and one or more phenolic acid structures in one molecule, and a photosensitive composition including the same. It is possible to shorten a developing time in a photolithography process without damaging photosensitivity by using the photosensitive composition according to the present invention.
US08742002B2

A composition of a release coating, for furnishing a release liner with a layer of the release coating, has a release agent and 0.01% by weight to 30% by weight (based on the overall composition) of a finely particulate additive in the form of three-dimensional bodies based on polymers prepared from vinyl building blocks.
US08741999B2

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a polymer dispersion comprising polymerising one or more water soluble anionic monomers (m1) and one or more non-ionic vinyl monomers (m2) present in a reaction mixture further comprising a polymeric stabiliser (B) and a polymeric co-stabiliser (C). It further relates to a polymer dispersion, the use of the polymer dispersion and a process for producing paper.
US08741991B2

The present relates to nylon-5,10 molding compositions comprising A) from 40 to 90% by weight of a nylon-5,10, B) from 10 to 60% by weight of fiber-containing or mineral-containing fillers, C) from 0 to 20% by weight of further additives, where the total of the percentages by weight of components A) to C) is 100%. The present invention moreover relates to a process for the preparation of these molding compositions, to the use of these molding compositions for the production of moldings of any type, and to the resultant moldings, preferably motor vehicle bodywork parts or electronics components of any type, foils, and fibers.
US08741990B2

The invention relates to an adhesive composition comprising hydrophilic silicone elastomers and hydrophobic silicone elastomers and optionally water absorbent material, wherein the ratio between the hydrophilic silicone elastomers and the hydrophobic silicone elastomers is from 95:5 to 5:95. The adhesive is suited for medical use due to its skin-friendliness. The invention further relates to a medical device comprising said adhesive composition.
US08741977B2

An odor-absorbing foam composition comprising a cyclodextrin crosslinked with a polyurethane prepolymer. In one embodiment, the foam includes a ratio of the cyclodextrin to the polyurethane prepolymer selected to result in formation of the foam. The odor-absorbing foam may be used in a personal care product or wound care. A process for preparing a foam, including providing a cyclodextrin; providing a polyurethane prepolymer; combining the cyclodextrin with the polyurethane prepolymer; and allowing the polyurethane prepolymer to react with water and crosslink the cyclodextrin to form the foam. A process for preparing an odor-absorbing foam article such as a personal care product, including preparing the foam and applying it or the components thereof to a suitable substrate.
US08741976B2

A process for producing porous aerogels or xerogels includes a reaction of at least one polyfunctional isocyanate with an amine component. The amine component includes at least one polyfunctional substituted aromatic amine. The reaction is in the presence of a solvent and a catalyst. Aerogels and xerogels that can be obtained in this way can be used as insulation material and in vacuum insulation panels.
US08741974B2

A method for forming a filter in a fluid flow path in a microfluidic device is provided. The method includes introducing a photopolymerization reaction solution into the microfluidic device; and performing polymerization of photopolymerization reaction solution to form a filter in the fluid flow path in a microfluidic device.
US08741969B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an anti-adhesion membrane that has no toxicity to a living body, has flexibility allowing itself to fit an affected part as a hydrated gel, is uniformly crosslinked, and is immediately absorbed in a living body after maintaining its shape in the living body for a certain period of time.The present invention provides anti-adhesion material, which comprises a thermally crosslinked gelatin film, and has a water content of 60 to 85% calculated by the following formula (1): water content (%)=[(Ws−Wd)/Ws]×100(%)  (1), in the formula (1), Ws representing a weight (wet weight) of the anti-adhesion material immersed in a phosphate buffered saline solution at a temperature of 25° C. for one hour, and Wd representing a weight (dry weight) of the anti-adhesion material dried completely using a vacuum drying apparatus.
US08741966B2

The present disclosure relates to lipid compounds of formula (I): wherein: R1 is chosen from a C10-C21 alkyl, a C10-C21 alkenyl having 1-6 double bonds, and a C10-C21 alkynyl having 1-6 triple bonds; R2 and R3 are the same or different and are chosen from hydrogen and a C1-C6 alkyl; X is chosen from O, S, SO, SO2, Si, and Se; n=1 or 3; and P1 is chosen from hydrogen; a C10-C21 alkyl, a C10-C21 alkenyl having 1-6 double bonds, a C10-C21 alkynyl having 1-6 triple bonds, optionally substituted; a group of formula (II) or formula (III), wherein P2, P3, and P4 are chosen from hydrogen, an alkyl, an alkenyl, and an alkynyl, optionally substituted; and a group of formula (IV) or formula (V), wherein P5 is chosen from hydrogen and a C1-C6 alkyl; or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, complex, or solvate thereof. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions and lipid compositions comprising such compounds, and methods of use thereof, for example in the treatment of diseases related to cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory conditions.
US08741963B2

The present invention relates to the use of the S1P receptor modulator 2-amino-2-[2-(4-octylphenyl)ethyl]propane-1,3-diol, administered at a daily dosage of 0.5 mg, for inhibiting or treating neo-angiogenesis associated with multiple sclerosis.
US08741962B2

The present invention relates to an improved process for the preparation of Rasagiline or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The present invention also relates to Rasagiline salts, polymorphs thereof and process for preparation thereof.
US08741957B2

The present invention is in the field of pharmacotherapy of cognitive deficits in learning and memory by administering an α-aminoamide, particularly safinamide. Examples of disturbances in cognition that can be treated with compounds of the invention are the ones associated with disorders such as autism, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorders, psychosis, bipolar disorders, depression, Tourette's syndrome, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and disorders of learning in children, adolescents and adults, Age Associated Memory Impairment, Age Associated Cognitive Decline, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Down's Syndrome, traumatic brain injury Huntington's Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), HIV, stroke, vascular diseases, Pick's or Creutzfeldt-Jacob diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS), other white matter disorders and drug-induced cognitive worsening.
US08741955B2

The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising D-serine transporter inhibitors and therapeutic methods using such pharmaceutical compositions in methods for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.
US08741948B2

The present invention relates to oral pharmaceutical compositions with controlled and/or programmed release containing at least one active ingredient having antimicrobial and/or anti-infectious activity for the treatment of infections of the large intestine, in particular the colon.
US08741946B2

Provided are compounds of Formula I: and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and esters thereof. The compounds, compositions, and methods provided are useful for the treatment of Flaviviridae virus infections (e.g. hepatitis C infections), particularly drug resistant Flaviviridae virus infections.
US08741945B2

The present invention pertains generally to certain compounds of the deoxyactagardine A and B type. Such compounds are suitable for use in the treatment of microbial infections, for example Clostridium infection, such as C. perfringens, C. difficile, C. tetani, and/or C. botulinum, in particular C. difficile, especially infection of the colon and/or lower intestines and diarrhea associated with the microbial infection.
US08741936B2

Disclosed are methods of modulating a stress activated protein kinase (SAPK) system with an active compound, wherein the active compound exhibits low potency for inhibition of at least one p38 MAPK; and wherein the contacting is conducted at a SAPK-modulating concentration that is at a low percentage inhibitory concentration for inhibition of the at least one p38 MAPK by the compound. Also disclosed are derivatives of pirfenidone. These derivatives can modulate a stress activated protein kinase (SAPK) system.
US08741933B2

Compounds of the present invention, and pharmaceutically acceptable compositions thereof, are useful as modulators of ATP-Binding Cassette (“ABC”) transporters or fragments thereof, including Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (“CFTR”). The present invention also relates to methods of treating ABC transporter mediated diseases using compounds of the present invention.
US08741929B2

Methods of treating, preventing or managing mantle cell lymphomas are disclosed. The methods encompass the administration of an immunomodulatory compound of the invention known as Revlimid® or lenalidomide. The invention further relates to methods of treatment using this compound with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy or immunotherapy. Pharmaceutical compositions and single unit dosage forms suitable for use in the methods of the invention are also disclosed.
US08741925B2

The present invention relates to modulators of ATP-Binding Cassette (“ABC”) transporters or fragments thereof, including Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator, compositions thereof, and methods therewith. The present invention also relates to methods of treating ABC transporter mediated diseases using such modulators.
US08741920B2

The present invention relates to a composition comprising the compound of formula (1), and the compound of formula (B),
US08741912B2

The present invention relates to compounds useful as inhibitors of protein kinases, particularly of JAK family kinases. The invention also provides pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising said compounds and methods of using the compositions in the treatment of various disease, conditions, or disorders. The compounds are generally represented by structural formula I or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof:
US08741909B2

The present invention relates to compounds of formula (I) and to compositions comprising the same and to the use of the compounds and their compositions in treatment, for example in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, in particular respiratory inflammatory disease. The invention also extends to methods of making the compounds.
US08741904B2

Crystalline polymorphous forms of the rifaximin (INN) antibiotic named rifaximin δ and rifaximin ε useful in the production of medicinal preparations containing rifaximin for oral and topical use and obtained by means of a crystallization process carried out by hot-dissolving the raw rifaximin in ethyl alcohol and by causing the crystallization of the product by addition of water at a determinate temperature and for a determinate period of time, followed by a drying carried out under controlled conditions until reaching a settled water content in the end product, are the object of the invention.
US08741901B2

The compounds of the present invention are represented by the chemical structure found in Formula (I): wherein: the carbon atom designated * is in the R or S configuration; and X is a fused bicyclic carbocycle or heterocycle selected from the group consisting of benzofuranyl, benzo[b]thiophenyl, benzoisothiazolyl, benzoisoxazolyl, indazolyl, indolyl, isoindolyl, indolizinyl, benzoimidazolyl, benzooxazolyl, benzothiazolyl, benzotriazolyl, imidazo[1,2-a]pyridinyl, pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyridinyl, [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyridinyl, thieno[2,3-b]pyridinyl, thieno[3,2-b]pyridinyl, 1H-pyrrolo[2,3-b]pyridinyl, indenyl, indanyl, dihydrobenzocycloheptenyl, tetrahydrobenzocycloheptenyl, dihydrobenzothiophenyl, dihydrobenzofuranyl, indolinyl, naphthyl, tetrahydronaphthyl, quinolinyl, isoquinolinyl, 4H-quinolizinyl, 9aH-quinolizinyl, quinazolinyl, cinnolinyl, phthalazinyl, quinoxalinyl, benzo[1,2,3]triazinyl, benzo[1,2,4]triazinyl, 2H-chromenyl, 4H-chromenyl, and a fused bicyclic carbocycle or fused bicyclic heterocycle optionally substituted with substituents (1 to 4 in number) as defined in R14; with R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, and R14 defined herein.
US08741897B2

Compounds of Formula (IA), (IB), (IC), and (ID) wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, and R6 are as respectively defined herein for Formula (IA), (IB), (IC), and (ID), or a tautomer, prodrug, solvate, or salt thereof; pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds, and methods of modulating the glucocorticoid receptor function and methods of treating disease-states or conditions mediated by the glucocorticoid receptor function or characterized by inflammatory, allergic, or proliferative processes in a patient using these compounds.
US08741887B2

Disclosed are compounds, compositions and methods for treating various diseases, syndromes, conditions and disorders, including pain. Such compounds are represented by Formula (I) as follows: wherein Y, Z, R1, and s are defined herein.
US08741883B2

The invention is in general directed to compounds and methods for diagnosing, preventing or alleviating the symptoms of amyloid-associated diseases, for example, neuronal diseases, such as, for example, Alzheimer's disease, methods of screening for compounds useful in preventing or alleviating the symptoms of amyloid-associated diseases, methods of diagnostic imaging of A-beta fibrils, and compounds and methods useful for studying normal or disease-associated cellular mechanisms relating to amyloid proteins.
US08741882B2

The preset invention relates to a new oral anti-diabetic compound prepared by synthesizing a steroid and a guanide or biguanide, which is eliminated via the hepatic route, instead of the renal route, to avoid adverse effects of administering metformin in diabetic patients with renal dysfunction. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound of the invention and the method for treating diabetes using the compound are also provided.
US08741874B2

Insecticidal compositions having insecticide and disinfectant activity are provided. Preferably, the insecticidal composition contains both an insect control agent and a disinfectant. Particularly low levels (i.e., below 20%) of at least one hydrocarbon are introduced as a solvent. The insecticidal compositions further comprise an emulsifier, buffer and antifoaming agent. These insecticidal compositions are particularly suitable for delivery in a spray for non-industrial environments. In use, the present insecticidal compositions may be applied directly to or in or around any area where it is desired to control pestiferous insects and the fungi, bacteria, viruses and other contaminants associated with them.
US08741873B2

The present invention is in the field of coagulation diagnostics and relates to a kit and method for preparing controls for use in test methods for determining thrombocyte function.
US08741872B2

Kits and compositions for producing an alginate gel are disclosed. The kits and compositions comprise soluble alginate and insoluble alginate/gelling ion particles. Methods for dispensing a self-gelling alginate dispersion are disclosed. The methods comprise forming a dispersion of insoluble alginate/gelling ion particles in a solution containing soluble alginate, and dispensing the dispersion whereby the dispersion forms an alginate gel matrix. The methods may include dispensing the dispersion into the body of an individual. An alginate gel having a thickness of greater than 5 mm and a homogenous alginate matrix network and homogenous alginate gels free of one or more of: sulfates citrates, phosphates, lactates, EDTA or lipids are disclosed. Implantable devices comprising a homogenous alginate gel coating are disclosed. Methods of improving the viability of pancreatic islets, or other cellular aggregates or tissue, following isolation and during storage and transport are disclosed.
US08741871B2

A trehalose compound having high immunopotentiating activity and low toxicity is represented by formula (1). (In the formula, X and X′ each represents a phenyl, a naphthyl, R1—CHR1— (wherein R1 and R2 each represents a C7-C21 alkyl group or the like) or the like; and n and n′ each independently represents an integer of 0-3). The compound exhibits a high activating effect on macrophages and neutrophils.
US08741870B2

The present invention concerns a nucleotide aptamer having the sequence: 5′-AUGAUCAAUCGCCUCAAUUCGACAGGAGGCUCAC-3′(SEQ ID NO: 1) for use in the treatment and/or prevention and/or diagnosis of an Axl receptor tyrosine kinase induced disorder and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same. The invention also relates to a method for the diagnosis of an Axl receptor tyrosine kinase induced disorder in a patient from which a sample is obtained and related diagnostic kit.
US08741860B2

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a diverse and abundant class of ˜22-nucleotide (nt) endogenous regulatory RNAs that play a variety of roles in animal cells by controlling gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Increased miR-181a expression in mature T cells is shown to cause a marked increase in T cell activation and augments T cell sensitivity to peptide antigens. Moreover, T cell blasts with higher miR-181a expression become reactive to antagonists. The effects of miR-181a on antigen discrimination are in part achieved by dampening the expression of multiple negative regulators in the T cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathway, including PTPN22 and the dual specificity phosphatases DUSP5 and DUSP6. This results in a reduction in the TCR signaling threshold, thus quantitatively and qualitatively enhancing T cell sensitivity to antigens.
US08741854B2

Feed supplements for poultry raised using a rapid growth regimen are disclosed herein. The supplements include D-ribose in an amount effective to improve the resistance to cardiomyopathy in the poultry. Methods for feeding poultry are also disclosed herein.
US08741851B2

Disclosed herein is a peptide for inhibiting growth of bacterial pathogens in a biological sample, characterized by an amino acid sequence selected from a group consisting of Pro-His-Trp-Trp-Lys-Trp-Ala-Trp-Trp-His-His-Arg-Arg (SEQ ID NO:1), Lys-His-Trp-Trp-Lys-His-Asp-Trp-Trp-Arg-Trp-Arg-Arg (SEQ ID NO:2), and Ile-Leu-Trp-Trp-Leu-Leu-Ala-Trp-Trp-Arg-Trp-Pro-His (SEQ ID NO:3).
US08741850B2

Compounds of general formula (1): X1Y1X2Y2X3Y3X4Y4Y5X5X6Y6X7Y7X8X9X10 wherein X1-X10 are any natural or unnatural amino acids and Y1 is Gln; Y2 is Met or Leu; Y3 is He; Y4 is Pro or Ser; Y5 is His or Gly; Y6 is Gln or Pro; Y7 is He or Tyr or their homolog or ortolog are described; these compounds are able to bind to the VEGF receptors and to modulate the angiogenesis mediated by the VEG.
US08741846B2

Method for the production of a fibrinogen solution from an aqueous solution that contains functionally intact fibrinogen and is contaminated with profibrin and/or fibrin monomers and/or fibrin monomer complexes and/or fibrin split products, characterized in that the contaminations are precipitated using a non-denaturing precipitating agent at a temperature ranging from −4° to +4° and calcium ion activity not exceeding that of a 1,000 μM CaCl2 solution and are separated from the solution by means of filtering or centrifugation process.
US08741845B1

ClotBlock is a lyophilized fibrin hemostatic designed for use an adjunct or primary treatment in moderate to severe hemorrhage. It can be applied directly to the wound in a laparotomy procedure or as non-invasive sealant. Its crosslinking technology generates a strong and safe adhesive fibrin sealant required for high volume hemostasis. The attachment properties of the cake as well as the rapid formation of and stability of the fibrin clot ensures that a strong stable fibrin clot is formed within 1 to 5 minutes depending on the grade of the wound. The agent is safe, biocompatible, biodegradable and can be stored at room temperature for one year.
US08741834B2

The present application relates to dipeptide-like prodrug derivatives of 2-amino-6-({[2-(4-chlorophenyl)-1,3-oxazol-4-yl]methyl}sulfanyl)-4-(4-{[2,3-dihydroxypropyl]oxy}phenyl)pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitrile, processes for their preparation, their use for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of diseases, and their use for the manufacture of medicaments for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of diseases, especially of cardiovascular disorders.
US08741832B2

The present invention provides PEGylated hemoglobins and PEGylated albumins comprising polyethylene glycol (PEG) conjugated to hemoglobin or to albumin, wherein the PEG is a maleimide PEG, an alkylamide PEG, an iodoacetamide PEG, a p-nitro thio-phenyl PEG, a vinyl sulfone PEG, or a mixed disulfide PEG; and PEGylated albumins and PEGylated hemoglobins comprising polyethylene glycol (PEG) attached to a thiolated amino group of albumin or hemoglobin, wherein the amino group is thiolated using dithio sulfo succinimidyl propionate (DTSSP) or dithiosuccinimidyl propionate (DTSP) or dithiobispropionimidate. The invention also provides methods of preparing PEGylated hemoglobins and PEGylated albumins comprising a) reacting hemoglobin or albumin with a thiolating agent and with a PEGylating agent, and b) capping unPEGylated reactive thiols of hemoglobin or albumin with N-ethyl maleimide.
US08741831B2

The present invention is directed to the use of hydrophilic terpolymers in hard surface cleaners which provide easier cleaning for surface soils such as hard water stains, soap scum, limescale, mud, food, toilet stains, oil, grease, particulates and the like as well as anti-fog effects on hard surfaces such as glass, mirrors, ceramic and plastic by causing water droplets to coalesce into a film.
US08741823B2

There is provided a grease composition, in which a grease film on the surface of the applied part is made thicker compared with conventional grease compositions, this thickness is maintained for a long period of time, and as a result, a longer service life against seizure compared with conventional grease compositions is assured. The grease composition comprises a base oil and a thickener, wherein the thickener is a diurea compound obtained by allowing an amine mixture comprising alkylphenylamine, an alkyl group of which has 8 to 16 carbon atoms, and cyclohexylamine, to react with a diisocyanate compound, and an amount of cyclohexylamine in the total amount of the alkylphenylamine and cyclohexylamine is from 91 to 99% by mole.
US08741821B2

A method for reducing a friction coefficient adjacent a lubricated surface, and a lubricant composition for reducing a friction coefficient between lubricated surfaces. The method includes providing an amount of metal-containing dispersed in a fully formulated lubricant composition containing a base oil of lubricating viscosity, wherein the nanoparticles have an average particles size ranging from about 1 to about 10 nanometers. The lubricant composition containing the metal-containing nanoparticles is applied to a surface to be lubricated.
US08741820B2

[Object] To provide a lubrication kit which is capable of improving wear resistance and durability of a sliding portion mounted in a small electronic device and which is capable of reducing a sound generated during driving.[Solution] A lubrication kit used for a small electronic device having a sliding portion, according to the present invention comprises at least one lubricant selected from a lubricant (1) comprising an anti-wear agent and a base oil which contains a polyol ester oil and/or a paraffinic hydrocarbon oil and a lubricant (2) comprising an anti-wear agent, polytetrafluoroethylene particles, and a base oil which contains a polyol ester oil and/or a paraffinic hydrocarbon oil, and a surface-treating agent obtained from a fluorine type surfactant and a phosphoric ester having a hydrocarbon group in which a part or all of hydrogen atoms have been substituted with a fluorine atom.
US08741794B2

A glass substrate for a display, which is formed of a glass having a light weight and having high refinability with decreasing environmental burdens, the glass comprising, by mass %, 50 to 70% of SiO2, 5 to 18% of B2O3, 10 to 25% of Al2O3, 0 to 10% of MgO, 0 to 20% of CaO, 0 to 20% of SrO, 0 to 10% of BaO, 5 to 20% of RO (in which R is at least one member selected from the group consisting of Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba), and over 0.20% but not more than 2.0% of R′2O (in which R′ is at least one member selected from the group consisting of Li, Na and K), and containing, by mass %, 0.05 to 1.5% of oxide of metal that changes in valence number in a molten glass, and substantially containing none of As2O3, Sb2O3 and PbO.
US08741791B2

A crystallized glass with negative coefficient of thermal expansion includes 38 wt % to 64 wt % of silica (SiO2); 30 wt % to 40 wt % of alumina (Al2O3); and 5 wt % to 12 wt % of lithium oxide (Li2O) as a basic component, and further includes more than one component selected from the group consisting of 0.5 wt % to 15 wt % of zirconia (ZrO2), 0.5 wt % to 6.5 wt % of titanium dioxide (TiO2), 0.5 wt % to 4 wt % of phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), 2 wt % to 5 wt % of magnesium oxide (MgO), and 0 wt % to 5 wt % of magnesium fluoride (MgF2) in addition to the basic components. The crystallized glass may have a high negative coefficient of thermal expansion so that it has an advantage that it can be used as a thermal expansion compensation material according to the temperatures of all kinds of glasses and similar products thereof.
US08741790B2

A PTFE/fiberglass composite for use as a conveyor belt comprises a fiberglass fabric having oppositely facing surfaces. The fabric has a structure defining a substantially uniform pattern of openings extending from one to the other of its major surfaces, with the average area of the individual openings being at least about 0.20258 mm2. PTFE films are laminated to the major surfaces of the fabric. The laminated films are interconnected by fluroropolymer ties extending through the fabric openings and are adhered to the major surfaces with a peel strength of between about 5-13 pli. The composite has a thickness of less than about 20 mils and a fiberglass content of less than about 25%.
US08741784B2

A process for fabricating a semiconductor device is described. A silicon oxide layer is formed. A nitridation process including at least two steps is performed to nitridate the silicon oxide layer into a silicon oxynitride (SiON) layer. The nitridation process comprises a first nitridation step and a second nitridation step in sequence, wherein the first nitridation step and the second nitridation step are different in the setting of at least one parameter.
US08741782B2

An ultra low-k dielectric material layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate. In one embodiment, a grid of wires is placed at a distance above a top surface of the ultra low-k dielectric material layer and is electrically biased such that the total electron emission coefficient becomes 1.0 at the energy of electrons employed in electron beam curing of the ultra low-k dielectric material layer. In another embodiment, a polymeric conductive layer is formed directly on the ultra low-k dielectric material layer and is electrically biased so that the total electron emission coefficient becomes 1.0 at the energy of electrons employed in electron beam curing of the ultra low-k dielectric material layer. By maintaining the total electron emission coefficient at 1.0, charging of the substrate is avoided, thus protecting any device on the substrate from any adverse changes in electrical characteristics.
US08741776B2

A method for patterning a plurality of features in a non-rectangular pattern on an integrated circuit device includes providing a substrate including a surface with a first layer and a second layer. Forming a plurality of elongated protrusions in a third layer above the first and second layers. Forming a first patterned layer over the plurality of elongated protrusions. The plurality of elongated protrusions are etched to form a first pattern of the elongated protrusions, the first pattern including at least one inside corner. Forming a second patterned layer over the first pattern of elongated protrusions and forming a third patterned layer over the first pattern of elongated protrusions. The plurality of elongated protrusions are etched using the second and third patterned layers to form a second pattern of the elongated protrusions, the second pattern including at least one inside corner.
US08741772B2

A resistive memory device having an in-situ nitride initiation layer is disclosed. The nitride initiation layer is formed above the first electrode, and the metal oxide switching layer is formed above the nitride initiation layer to prevent oxidation of the first electrode. The nitride initiation layer may be a metal nitride layer that is formed by atomic layer deposition in the same chamber in which the metal oxide switching layer is formed. The nitride initiation layer and metal oxide switching layer may alternatively be formed in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber or a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber.
US08741764B2

A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die and conductive pillar with a recess or protrusion formed over a surface of the semiconductor die. The conductive pillar is made by forming a patterning layer over the semiconductor die, forming an opening with a recess or protrusion in the patterning layer, depositing conductive material in the opening and recess or protrusion, and removing the patterning layer. A substrate has bump material deposited over a conductive layer formed over a surface of the substrate. The bump material is melted. The semiconductor die is pressed toward the substrate to enable the melted bump material to flow into the recess or over the protrusion if the conductive pillar makes connection to the conductive layer. A presence or absence of the bump material in the recess or protrusion of the conductive pillar is detected by X-ray or visual inspection.
US08741752B2

A method includes depositing a dummy fill material over exposed portions of a substrate and a gate stack disposed on the substrate, removing portions of the dummy fill material to expose portions of the substrate, forming a layer of spacer material over the exposed portions of the substrate, the dummy fill material and the gate stack, removing portions of the layer of spacer material to expose portions of the substrate and the dummy fill material, depositing a dielectric layer over the exposed portions of the spacer material, the substrate, and the gate stack, removing portions of the dielectric layer to expose portions of the spacer material, removing exposed portions of the spacer material to expose portions of the substrate and define at least one cavity in the dielectric layer, and depositing a conductive material in the at least one cavity.
US08741740B2

An SOI substrate is manufactured by forming an embrittled layer in a bond substrate by increasing the dose of hydrogen ions in the formation of the embrittled layer to a value more than the dose of hydrogen ions of the lower limit for separation of the bond substrate, separating the bond substrate attached to the base substrate, forming an SOI substrate in which a single crystal semiconductor film is formed over the base substrate, and irradiating a surface of the single crystal semiconductor film with laser light.
US08741729B2

A resistor and capacitor are provided in respective shallow trench isolation structures. The method includes forming a first and second trench in a substrate and forming a first insulator layer within the first and second trench. The method includes forming a first electrode material within the first and second trench, on the first insulator layer, and forming a second insulator layer within the first and second trench and on the first electrode material. The method includes forming a second electrode material within the first and second trench, on the second insulator layer. The second electrode material pinches off the second trench. The method includes removing a portion of the second electrode material and the second insulator layer at a bottom portion of the first trench, and filling in the first trench with additional second electrode material. The additional second electrode material is in electrical contact with the first electrode material.
US08741727B2

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a flash memory cell in a first region, forming a first electrode of a capacitor in a second region, forming a first silicon oxide film, a silicon nitride film, and a second silicon oxide film in this order as a second insulating film, removing the silicon nitride film and the second silicon oxide film in a partial region of the first electrode, wet-etching a first insulating film and the second insulating film in the third region, forming a second electrode of the capacitor, and etching and removing the first silicon oxide film in the partial region.
US08741720B2

A semiconductor device and method to form a semiconductor device is described. The semiconductor includes a gate stack disposed on a substrate. Tip regions are disposed in the substrate on either side of the gate stack. Halo regions are disposed in the substrate adjacent the tip regions. A threshold voltage implant region is disposed in the substrate directly below the gate stack. The concentration of dopant impurity atoms of a particular conductivity type is approximately the same in both the threshold voltage implant region as in the halo regions. The method includes a dopant impurity implant technique having sufficient strength to penetrate a gate stack.
US08741714B2

Methods for preventing line collapse during the fabrication of NAND flash memory and other microelectronic devices that utilize closely spaced device structures with high aspect ratios are described. In some embodiments, one or more mechanical support structures may be provided to prevent the collapse of closely spaced device structures during fabrication. In one example, during fabrication of a NAND flash memory, one or more mechanical support structures may be set in place prior to performing a high aspect ratio word line etch for forming the NAND strings. The one or more mechanical support structures may comprise one or more fin supports that are arranged in a bit line direction. In another example, the one or more mechanical support structures may be developed during the word line etch for forming the NAND strings.
US08741710B2

Semiconductor devices are fabricated using a plasma process with a non-silane gas that includes deuterium, and which may result in improved device reliability and/or other improved device operational characteristics. One such method can include forming a gate oxide layer on a transistor region, which is defined on a substrate, and forming a gate electrode on the gate oxide layer. An etch stop layer is formed on the gate oxide layer and the gate electrode. A plasma process is performed on the interface between the gate oxide layer and the substrate using a non-silane treatment gas including deuterium. An interlayer dielectric layer is formed on the etch stop layer. A bottom metal line is formed on the interlayer dielectric layer.
US08741705B2

A method of fabricating Group III-V semiconductor metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) and III-V MOS devices are described.
US08741700B1

Methods for making non-volatile switches include depositing gate material in a recess of a substrate; depositing drain metal in a recess of the gate material; planarizing the gate material, drain metal, and substrate; forming sidewalls by depositing material on the substrate around the gate material; forming a flexible conductive element between the sidewalls to establish a gap between the flexible conductive element and the gate material, such that the gap separating the flexible conductive element and the gate material is sized to create a negative threshold voltage at the gate material for opening a circuit; and forming a source terminal in electrical contact with the flexible conductive element.
US08741695B2

A semiconductor device includes a metal substrate including a metal base plate, an insulating sheet located on the metal base plate, and a wiring pattern located on the insulating sheet, and a semiconductor element located on the metal substrate. The semiconductor element is sealed with a molding resin. The molding resin extends to side surfaces of the metal substrate. On the side surfaces of the metal substrate, the insulating sheet and the wiring pattern are not exposed from the molding resin, whereas the metal base plate includes a projecting portion exposed from the molding resin.
US08741662B2

Methods and kits for diagnosis and prognosis using biomarkers comprising albumin-bound protein/peptide complex (ABPPC).
US08741661B2

A method including: a) providing a first well with a first layer of a first flowable material and a second layer of a second flowable material, and a second well with a first layer of a first flowable material different from the first flowable material of the first well, b) locating the flowable material inlet within the first layer, c) sampling a first volume of the first flowable material, d) displacing the flowable material inlet relative to the first well to locate the flowable material inlet within the second layer, e) sampling a second volume of the second flowable material, f) displacing the flowable material inlet relative to the first and second wells to locate the flowable material inlet within the first layer of the second well, and g) sampling or dispensing into the second well a third volume of the first flowable material of the second well.
US08741657B1

The disclosure relates to a plasmon resonance-based method for gas sensing in a gas stream utilizing a gas sensing material. In an embodiment the gas stream has a temperature greater than about 500° C. The gas sensing material is comprised of gold nanoparticles having an average nanoparticle diameter of less than about 100 nanometers dispersed in an inert matrix having a bandgap greater than or equal to 5 eV, and an oxygen ion conductivity less than approximately 10−7 S/cm at a temperature of 700° C. Exemplary inert matrix materials include SiO2, Al2O3, and Si3N4 as well as modifications to modify the effective refractive indices through combinations and/or doping of such materials. Changes in the chemical composition of the gas stream are detected by changes in the plasmon resonance peak. The method disclosed offers significant advantage over active and reducible matrix materials typically utilized, such as yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) or TiO2.
US08741644B2

The present invention relates to a method for producing human mast cells from human pluripotent stem cells. More particularly, the present invention provides a method for producing human mast cells from human pluripotent stem cells, comprising the steps of: (a) culturing human pluripotent stem cells under a condition suitable for promoting differentiation of the human pluripotent stem cells into hematopoietic progenitor cells expressing CD34; and (b) culturing the cells obtained in step (a) in the presence of hematopoietic factors comprising thrombopoietin (TPO) and Flt3 ligand.
US08741642B2

Methods for the ex vivo generation of cells of the innate (NKT cells and NK cells) and adaptive (T cells) immune systems for use in adoptive cell transfer (ACT) are provided. The NKT cells render T cells resistant to immune suppression (e.g. they are resistant to the effects of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs)). The method involves culturing disease-primed immune cells (obtained from a cancer patient or from a patient with an infectious disease) with i) bryostatin and ionomycin (B/I) to activate and differentiate the cells; followed by sequentially culturing the cells with a) a combination of IL-7 and IL-15 and then b) IL-2, to further differentiate the cells and to render them immune resistant. The resistant immune cells are used to treat and prevent cancer and infectious diseases.
US08741641B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for detecting cancer through identification of genes exhibiting characteristic behavior in the cases of cancer such as ovarian cancer, and a cell growth inhibitor. The present invention provides a method for detecting cancer, which comprises detecting canceration including malignancy of a specimen through detection of at least one alteration of a gene existing in a chromosomal region 2q14. 2, 3p24. 1, 3q26. 2, 3q29, 4q34. 2, 6q23, 9p21. 3, 11q13. 3, 13q22.1, 13q33. 1, 13q33. 3, 15q12, 15q15. 1, 17p12, 17p13. 1, 17p13. 3, 18q21. 1, 18q21. 2, 18q21. 31, 18q21. 32, 18q21. 33, 18q23, 20q13. 13, 20q13. 2, 20q13. 31, 20q13. 33, Xp11. 23, Xp13.1, Xp13. 3, Xp26. 2, Xp26. 3, or Xq28 in the specimen.
US08741639B2

An objective of the present invention is to provide methods for producing dendritic cells (DCs), which comprise the step of culturing DC precursor cells in the presence of a plurality of cytokines, produced dendritic cells, and uses thereof.The present inventors discovered that dendritic cells with a high IL-12 productivity can be obtained by culturing DC precursor cells in the presence of a plurality of cytokines, followed by about one week of culture in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4. The present invention enables preparation of a large amount of DCs with a high IL-12 productivity from a small number of DC precursor cells, and therefore makes it easier to increase the number of DCs for administration in DC-based anti-tumor immune therapy, treatment of infections, etc. Thus, the effect of DC vaccines is expected to be enhanced.
US08741638B2

Methods for the maximizing parameter of the in vitro growth and expansion of mammalian cells, specifically postpartum-derived cells in containers such as roller bottles is described. Methods of optimizing growth rate and cell yield in such culture systems are provided. The methods are particularly adapted for human postpartum-derived cells, such as umbilicus-derived cells.
US08741634B2

Five novel plant transcription terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 are isolated from soybean and their functions in the regulation of RNA transcription and processing in plants are described.
US08741632B2

Methods and devices for treatment of biomass comprised of crystalline structures are described that provide a combined mechanical, chemical and thermal effect (i.e., nano-hybrid pretreatment) to synergistically break down the crystalline structures. Such nano-hybrid mixing provides efficient, and cost-effective breakdown which enhances enzymatic accessibility to lignocellulosic materials. Methods and devices shown can be used to produce products such as pulp, chemicals, or biofuels.
US08741629B2

Methods for selective extraction and fractionation of algal proteins from an algal biomass or algal culture are disclosed. A method of selective removal of products from an algal biomass provides for single and multistep extraction processes which allow for efficient separation of algal proteins. These proteins can be used as renewable sources of proteins for animal feedstocks and human food. Further, lipids remaining in the algal biomass after extraction of proteins can be used to generate renewable fuels.
US08741618B2

Disclosed herein are conjugates comprising a biomolecule linked to a label that have biological activity and are useful in a wide variety of biological applications. For example, provided herein are labeled polymerase conjugates including a polymerase linked to one or more labels, wherein the conjugate has polymerase activity. Such conjugates can exhibit enhanced biological activity and/or superior detectability as compared to conventional labeled polymerases. Also disclosed herein are improved methods for preparing such conjugates, and methods and systems for using such conjugates in biological applications such as nucleotide incorporation, primer extension and single molecule sequencing.
US08741616B2

Cytochrome P450 BM-3 from Bacillus megaterium was engineered using a combination of directed evolution and site-directed mutagenesis to hydroxylate linear alkanes regio- and enantioselectively using atmospheric dioxygen as an oxidant. Mutant 9-10A-A328V hydroxylates octane primarily at the 2-positio to form S-2-octanol (40% ee). Another mutant, 1-12G, hydroxylates alkanes larger than hexane primarily at the 2-position, but forms R-2-alcohols (40-55% ee). These biocatalysts are highly active for alkane substrates and support thousands of product turnovers. These regio- and enantio-selectivities are retained in whole-cell biotransformations with E. coli, where the engineered P450s can be expressed at high levels and the expensive cofactor is supplied endogenously.
US08741612B2

The present invention provides a novel biosynthetic pathway for the production of isoprene from 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol or 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol. Further embodiments provide non-naturally occurring microorganism that have been modified to produce isoprene from 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol or 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol and methods of producing isoprene using said microorganism.
US08741609B2

The present compositions and methods relate to a lipase cloned from Geobacillus stearothermophilus, polynucleotides encoding the lipase, and methods of use thereof. The compositions and methods have particular application in detergent cleaning compositions and methods.
US08741605B2

The present invention provides gene sets the expression of which is important in the diagnosis and/or prognosis of breast cancer.
US08741604B2

This invention relates to binding members, especially antibody molecules, specific for interleukin 1 receptor 1 (IL-1R1). For example, isolated binding members specific for IL-1R1 which competes with IL-1 and IL-1Ra for binding to IL-1R1 and binds Il-1R1 with a KD of 10 pM or less when measured by Kinexa™. The binding members are useful for, inter alia, treatment of disorders mediated by IL-1R1 including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
US08741595B2

A process comprises (a) providing (1) at least one sample suspected of comprising at least one coliform strain, (2) at least one culture device comprising at least one culture medium that is hydrated or hydratable, and (3) at least one particulate concentration agent that is substantially optically transparent when in contact with the culture medium in the culture device when the culture medium is hydrated; (b) placing the particulate concentration agent in contact with the sample such that at least a portion of the coliform strain is bound to the particulate concentration agent to form coliform-bound particulate concentration agent; (c) placing the coliform-bound particulate concentration agent in contact with the culture medium; (d) incubating the culture device comprising the coliform-bound particulate concentration agent in contact with the culture medium, the culture medium being hydrated; and (e) optically detecting the presence of the coliform strain without separating the coliform strain from the particulate concentration agent.
US08741592B2

The present invention provides methods of screening an agent for an activity in an isolated organ, e.g., eye, from a teleost, e.g., zebrafish. Methods of isolating eyes from zebrafish are provided. Methods of screening an agent for an ocular activity in the isolated eye are provided. Methods of screening an agent for an ocular activity in a model of ocular disease or disorder are provided. Methods of screening an agent for an ocular activity in the isolated eye and for screening the agent for cell death and/or toxic activity in the eye or other organ or tissue are provided. The invention further provides high throughput methods of screening agents for an activity in isolated eyes of zebrafish in multi-well plates.
US08741590B2

A small diameter flexible electrode designed for subcutaneous in vivo amperometric monitoring of glucose is described. The electrode is designed to allow “one-point” in vivo calibration, i.e., to have zero output current at zero glucose concentration, even in the presence of other electroreactive species of serum or blood. The electrode is preferably three or four-layered, with the layers serially deposited within a recess upon the tip of a polyamide insulated gold wire. A first glucose concentration-to-current transducing layer is overcoated with an electrically insulating and glucose flux limiting layer (second layer) on which, optionally, an immobilized interference-eliminating horseradish peroxidase based film is deposited (third layer). An outer (fourth) layer is biocompatible.
US08741586B2

The present invention relates to a method of diagnosis and therapy of cancers expressing the HER2 receptor.The invention provides antibodies or fragments thereof that recognise an epitope of the HER2 receptor truncated form CTF-611, said epitope being defined by a sequence included in SEQ ID NO: 2, and that are capable of discriminating between CTF-611 and CTF-616 (represented by SEQ ID NO:7), preferably additionally capable of discriminating between CTF-611 and CTF-613 (represented by SEQ ID NO:6).The invention also provides a method of cancer diagnosis using the disclosed antibodies, which comprises the detection of the presence of the HER2 receptor truncated form consisting of the amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO: 1 in a patient sample.
US08741566B2

The invention provides compositions and methods for the detection of targets in a sample; in particular, an immunohistochemistry (IHC) sample. Probes and detectable labels may be provided in multiple layers in order to increase the flexibility of a detection system, and to allow for amplification to enhance the signal from a target. The layers may be created by incorporating probes and detectable labels into larger molecular units that interact through nucleic acids base-pairing, including peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) base-pairing. Optional non-natural bases allow for degenerate base pairing schemes. The compositions and methods are compatible with immunohistochemistry (IHC), but also could be used in immunocytochemistry (ICC), in situ hybrid.
US08741545B2

The present invention relates to a fluorine-free photoacid generator (PAG) and a photoresist composition containing the same. The PAG is characterized by the presence of an onium cationic component and a fluorine-free fused ring heteroaromatic sulfonate anionic component containing one or more electron withdrawing substituents. The onium cationic component of the PAG is preferably a sulfonium or an iodonium cation. The photoresist composition further contains an acid sensitive imaging polymer. The photoresist composition is especially useful for forming material patterns on a semiconductor substrate using 193 nm (ArF) lithography.
US08741540B2

A hard mask composition, a method of forming a pattern, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device, the hard mask composition including a solvent; and an aromatic ring-containing compound, the aromatic ring-containing compound including at least one of a moiety represented by the following Chemical Formula 1 and a moiety represented by the following Chemical Formula 2:
US08741538B2

A polymer compound that, within a chemically amplified positive resist system, exhibits a significant change in alkali solubility from a state prior to exposure to that following exposure, as well as a photoresist composition that includes such a polymer compound and a method for forming a resist pattern, which are capable of forming fine patterns with a high level of resolution. The polymer compound includes, as an alkali-soluble group (i), a substituent group in which a group selected from amongst alcoholic hydroxyl groups, carboxyl groups, and phenolic hydroxyl groups is protected with an acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting group (ii) represented by a general formula (1) shown below: [Formula 1] —CH2—O-AO—CH2—]n  (1) (wherein, A represents an organic group of 1 to 20 carbon atoms with a valency of at least n+1, and n represents an integer from 1 to 4).
US08741534B2

A process and system for making a resin emulsion suitable for use in forming toner particles including a silicone free anti-foam agent to control foam during formation of a polyester dispersion.
US08741527B2

A liquid developer includes: a carrier liquid; and toner particles that are dispersed in the carrier liquid and that includes a styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer, a styrene-based thermoplastic resin, and a quaternary ammonium base-containing polymer having a constituent unit expressed by Chemical Formula I: wherein R1 represents hydrogen or an alkyl group with a carbon number equal to or less than 3, R2 represents an alkylene group with a carbon number equal to or less than 18, R3 to R5 represent an alkyl group or an aralkyl group with a carbon number equal to or less than 18, X represents —COO— or —CONH—, and Y− represents a halogen ion or an anion having a —COO— group or a —SO3— group in the structure thereof.
US08741526B2

There is provided a developer that has excellent positive charging characteristics and charging stability, and which is compatible with high-speed developing. The developer of the invention contains toner particles and an insulating liquid, wherein a fatty acid ester is contained as the insulating liquid, a substance A expressed by the following formula (1) and/or a substance B expressed by the following formula (2) is further contained, and the total percentage in which substance A and substance B are contained is at least 0.1 wt % and no more than 3.0 wt %.
US08741525B2

The resin coated carrier is used with a toner in which an external additive having an average primary particle size of 50 nm or more is added to a toner particle, and has a carrier core and a resin coating layer on the surface of the carrier core. In the resin coated carrier, the following expression (1) is satisfied: 0.5≦−log {(A/C)/(B/C)}≦2.5  (1) wherein A represents a volume resistance value (Ω/cm) of the resin coated carrier in an electric field of 1000 V/cm that is obtained by conducting a stirring test, B represents a volume resistance value (Ω/cm) of the resin coated carrier in an electric field of 1000 V/cm before the stirring test, and C represents a volume resistance value (Ω/cm) of the carrier core in an electric field of 1000 V/cm.
US08741521B2

A toner containing toner particles, each toner particle containing: a releasing agent; a colorant; and a binder resin containing at least a crystalline polyester resin and a non-crystalline polyester resin, wherein in the case where a volume average particle diameter of the toner is defined as Dv, the toner contains a group of the toner particles having 4/5 Dv, and a group of the toner particles having 6/5 Dv, and wherein an endothermic value A of the crystalline polyester resin at a first temperature increase in DSC of the toner, an endothermic value B of the crystalline polyester resin at a first temperature increase in DSC of the group of the toner particle having 4/5 Dv, and an endothermic value C of the crystalline polyester resin at a first temperature increase in DSC of the group of the toner particles having 6/5 Dv satisfy the relation represented by the following formulas: 50<(B/A)×100<90, and 110<(C/A)×100<150.
US08741520B2

The present invention provides an image forming toner including at least a linear polyester resin (b1) as a binder resin, wherein the linear polyester resin (b1) is obtained by reacting a polyester diol (b11) having a polyhydroxycarboxylic acid skeleton, with a polyester diol (b12) other than the polyester diol (b11) in the presence of a chain extending agent.
US08741516B2

An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes toner particles containing a colorant, a binder resin, and a release agent and an external additive, in which the external additive contains inorganic particles which include saturated hydrocarbons having from 9 to 35 carbon atoms on the surfaces thereof.
US08741511B1

A method for forming an integrated circuit (IC) is presented. The method includes providing a wafer having a substrate prepared with a photoresist layer. The photoresist layer is processed by passing a radiation from an exposure source of a lithography tool through a mask having a pattern. The process parameters of the lithography tool are determined by performing a pattern matching process. The photoresist layer is developed to transfer the pattern on the mask to the photoresist layer.
US08741504B2

A solid catalyst having a close-packed structure has basic structural units present in the surface of the solid catalyst, the basic structural units including (i) a triangular lattice constituted of atoms of platinum, ruthenium, and at least one additional element which are disposed at the vertexes in the triangular lattice so that each atom of one of the elements adjoins atoms of the other elements or (ii) a rhombic lattice constituted of atoms of platinum, ruthenium, and at least one additional element which are disposed at the vertexes in the rhombic lattice in an atomic ratio of 1:2:1 so that each ruthenium atom directly adjoins a platinum atom and an atom of the additional element; and a fuel cell includes either of the solid catalyst as an anode-side electrode catalyst.
US08741486B1

In one embodiment, an energy storage device is provided which includes a cathode and an anode with a separator therebetween. At least one of the cathode or the anode has a rigid polymer matrix with an active material and elongated electrically conducting material having ion conducting moieties bonded thereto within the polymer matrix.
US08741482B2

Provided are a mixed cathode active material including layered structure lithium manganese oxide expressed as Chemical Formula 1 and a second cathode active material having a plateau voltage profile in a range of 2.5 V to 3.3 V, and a lithium secondary battery including the mixed cathode active material. The mixed cathode active material and the lithium secondary battery including the same may have improved safety and simultaneously, may be used in an operating device requiring the foregoing battery by widening a state of charge (SOC) range able to maintain power more than a required value by allowing the second cathode active material to complement low power in a low SOC range.
US08741476B2

A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly, a case housing the electrode assembly, an electrode terminal electrically connected to the electrode assembly and a cap plate sealing the case, the cap plate having an electrolyte injection opening. The electrolyte injection opening has a first opening having a first diameter and a second opening having a second diameter both defined by an inner wall of the cap plate, the second diameter being smaller than the first diameter, and a first guide portion between the first opening and the second opening. A sealing cap seals the electrolyte injection opening and includes a sealing member engaging the inner wall of the first opening and a fixing member coupled to the sealing member and engaging the inner wall of the second opening, wherein a portion of the fixing member is spaced from the inner wall of the second opening.
US08741471B2

A battery pack including a core pack including a plurality of unit cells, the plurality of unit cells including a first unit cell including a first electrode tab extending in a first direction, and a second unit cell including a second electrode tab coupled to the first electrode tab at a first coupling region at which the second electrode tab overlaps the first electrode tab; and a lead member coupled to the first electrode tab at a second coupling region at which the lead member overlaps the first electrode tab, the second coupling region being different from the first coupling region.
US08741470B2

An electrochemical device includes a plurality of unit cells, each having a first separator and a cathode and an anode positioned at both sides of the first separator, and a continuous single second separator interposed between adjacent unit cells in correspondence with each other in a laminated pattern and arranged to surround each unit cell. The first separator includes a heat-resisting porous substrate having a melt point of 200° C. or above and a first porous coating layer formed on at least one surface of the heat-resisting porous substrate and made of a mixture of a plurality of inorganic particles and a binder polymer. The second separator includes a polyolefin porous substrate and a second porous coating layer formed on at least one surface of the polyolefin porous substrate and made of a mixture of a plurality of inorganic particles and a binder polymer.
US08741463B2

A fuel cell assembly that includes at least one cell cartridge with two or more cell modules, a pair of electrodes and current collectors, each cell cartridge further having a fixing portion and module connecting portions; and an outer case for storing one or more cell cartridges, the outer case having a plurality of planar cartridge connecting portions.
US08741459B2

A device which judges a change of a capacity balance between a cathode and an anode of a secondary battery in a non-destructive manner is provided. The secondary battery has one of the capacities of the cathode and the anode greater than the other capacity. A battery ECU calculates an internal resistance (DCIR) of the secondary battery based on a current and a voltage of the secondary battery. When the calculated internal resistance (DCIR) is higher than the initial state in a low SOC region or a high SOC region, the battery ECU judges that the capacity balance between the cathode and the anode of the secondary battery has changed.
US08741451B2

A crystal foundation having dislocations is used to obtain a crystal film of low dislocation density, a crystal substrate, and a semiconductor device. One side of a growth substrate (11) is provided with a crystal layer (13) with a buffer layer (12) in between. The crystal layer (13) has spaces (13a), (13b) in an end of each threading dislocation D1 elongating from below. The threading dislocation D1 is separated from the upper layer by the spaces (13a), (13b), so that each threading dislocation D1 is blocked from propagating to the upper layer. When the displacement of the threading dislocation D1 expressed by Burgers vector is preserved to develop another dislocation, the spaces (13a), (13b) vary the direction of its displacement. As a result, the upper layer above the spaces (13a), (13b) turns crystalline with a low dislocation density.
US08741449B2

An anthracene derivative represented by the general formula (G1) is provided. The anthracene derivative represented by the general formula (G1) is a novel anthracene derivative having a wide band gap. Further, the anthracene derivative has a large energy gap and can be very suitably used as a material for a light-emitting element which exhibits blue light emission.
US08741440B2

A series of new non-stick ceramic coating materials prepared from organic-inorganic hybrid materials, including silica sol, MTMS, FAS and PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) using the sol-gel process. The hybrid materials have good mechanical properties and are fashioned into a main ceramic network and good non-stick properties from organic non-stick compounds. The non-stick ceramic coating consists of two layers applied to cookware and for other applications.
US08741438B2

Composite glass laminates having low tendency to creep contain a softening agent-containing polyvinyl acetal film wherein the polyvinyl acetal has a polyvinyl alcohol content of 12 to 16 weight percent, a molecular weight greater than 110,000 g/mol, and a solution viscosity of more than 80 mPas.
US08741415B2

Disclosed herein are composites as well as methods of making these composites. The composite may, for example, be used as light-weight, high-strength structural members and wall panels. In some embodiments, the composites can be prepared from a light-weight assembly using simple procedures. Also disclosed herein are assemblies for preparing the composites.
US08741398B2

The present invention provides a liquid crystal panel and an alignment film thereof, and the alignment film is made of a modified polyimide which has conjugated double bond at side chain. Resistance value of the alignment film is less than the resistance value of a liquid crystal material of the liquid crystal panel by properties of the conjugated double bond that can reduce the resistance value of a prior art polyimide. In addition, improving the imidization ratio of a modified polyimide alignment film is important. The present invention is conducted the charged ion from liquid crystal layer to the alignment film by the conjugated double bond of the modified polyimide at the side chain to prevent the increase in the ion density of the liquid crystal in part of this area, and improve the problem of image sticking.
US08741393B2

A composite sheet is manufactured by depositing a multi-layer coating on the outer surface of a substrate, the coating comprising a metal layer and an outer polymeric layer formed from a precursor comprising a composition capable of being polymerized and/or cross-linked by free-radical processes. After the precursor is applied, the composite sheet is exposed to beam radiation and ozone, which both promote conversion of the precursor. The function of the cured polymeric layer includes protecting the metal layer from corrosion. The use of both beam radiation and ozone promotes substantially full conversion and curing of the precursor, even in portions of the substrate that are geometrically shadowed from incident beam radiation.
US08741392B2

A novel activation/etch method is disclosed for conductive polymer substrates and conductive polymer composite substrates to achieve good adhesion to subsequently applied coatings. The method in a preferred case involves anodically polarizing conductive polymers/polymer composites in aqueous etching solutions.
US08741390B2

A method and composition for enhancing corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and contact resistance of a device comprising a copper or copper alloy substrate and at least one metal-based layer on a surface of the substrate. The composition comprises a phosphorus oxide compound selected from the group consisting of a phosphonic acid, a phosphonate salt, a phosphonate ester, a phosphoric acid, a phosphate salt, a phosphate ester, and mixtures thereof; an organic compound comprising a nitrogen-containing functional group; and a solvent having a surface tension less than about 50 dynes/cm as measured at 25° C.
US08741380B2

A fine metal structure having its surface furnished with microprojections of high strength, high precision and large aspect ratio; and a process for producing the fine metal structure free of defects. There is provided a fine metal structure having its surface furnished with microprojections, characterized in that the microprojections have a minimum thickness or minimum diameter ranging from 10 nanometers to 10 micrometers and that the ratio between minimum thickness or minimum diameter (D) of microprojections and height of microprojections (H), H/D, is greater than 1. There is further provided a process for producing a fine metal structure, characterized by comprising providing a substrate having a fine rugged pattern on its surface, applying a molecular electroless plating catalyst to the surface, thereafter carrying out electroless plating to thereby form a metal layer having the rugged pattern filled, and detaching the metal layer from the substrate to thereby obtain a fine metal structure furnished with a surface having undergone reversal transfer of the above rugged pattern.
US08741368B2

A method for deep-frying foods in which the foods to be deep-fried are delivered to hot oil or fat and transported out of the hot oil after a predetermined residence time, wherein a steam zone with superheated steam is generated above a free surface of the oil, which shields the oil from the ambient air, and from which a flow of steam corresponding to an amount of water evaporating from the deep-fried foods is withdrawn.
US08741365B2

The present disclosure relates in one embodiment to a method of producing a fermented food, wherein a raw food material is combined with a starter culture for fermentation, wherein at least one microorganism of the genus Bacteroides and/or at least one microorganism having at least a cell surface structure which corresponds to a human carbohydrate structure is added. Further disclosed are processing aids and fermented foods containing respective microorganisms.
US08741361B2

The present invention relates to the field of viral disorders, and in particular to viral obesity. Compositions comprising nutraceutical agents are provided for treating viral obesity. Additionally, compositions comprising nutraceutical agents targeting adenoviruses are provided.
US08741357B2

The invention provides a cosmetic or dermopharmaceutic composition containing an Euglena extract, its use to activate the cellular metabolism and in particular to protect and/or improve the state of the skin and to reduce the signs of ageing in particular and/or cutaneous fatigue.
US08741352B2

Described are packaged, sterile medical graft products containing controlled levels of a growth factor such as Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 (FGF-2). Also described are methods of manufacturing medical graft products wherein processing, including sterilization, is controlled and monitored to provide medical graft products having modulated, known levels of a extracellular matrix factor, such as a growth factor, e.g. FGF-2. Preferred graft materials are extracellular matrix materials isolated from human or animal donors, particularly submucosa-containing extracellular matrix materials. Further described are ECM compositions that are or are useful for preparing gels, and related methods for preparation and use.
US08741341B2

The invention provides a method of manufacturing and packaging a room temperature stable cannabinoid dosage in an oil-based carrier, wherein the method employs the use of blister packaging and an inert gas atmosphere during blister packaging. The invention also provides a room temperature stable cannabinoid dosage prepared by the methods of the invention.
US08741338B2

The present invention provides a system presenting site-specific accumulation through a ligand that specifically targets a receptor overexpressed on the surface of specific cells within a target organ, like, for example, tumor cells and/or vascular cells of tumor blood vessels. Moreover, this invention provides a method where, upon internalization of the previous-mentioned system by the target cells, triggered release at a high rate of the associated agent takes place, permitting efficient intracellular delivery and, thus, increased concentration of the transported cargo at the target site. Overall, this invention provides a method for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human diseases and disorders.
US08741325B2

The present invention provides a material for forming an antimicrobial surface coating with multi-level antimicrobial properties, which comprises one or more volatile or gaseous biocides, one or more nonvolatile biocides, and one or more polymers, wherein the volatile or gaseous biocides are encapsulated in the polymers to provide a sustained release of the volatile or gaseous biocides. The present invention further provides a method for preparing the material.
US08741323B2

To provide An external skin agent that prevents onset of atopic skin inflammations and is low irritant to skin, which is characterized by including: 1) clay modified by a compound having a quaternary amino group; and 2) a polymer or copolymer that has a side chain including a structure similar to a biological component.
US08741321B2

A capsule for cosmetic and/or dermatological ingredients and processes for the production thereof. The capsule comprises an envelope which is solid, semisolid and/or dimensionally stable and comprises one or more substances which are selected from waxes, emulsifiers, and natural and synthetic polymers. The capsule may also comprise a filling.
US08741318B2

One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of synthesizing a multicomponent and biocompatible nanocomposite material, which includes: synthesizing a gold/hydroxyapatite (Au/HA) catalyst; distributing the Au/HA catalyst into a thin film; and heating the thin film in a reactor with a carbon source gas to perform radio frequency chemical vapor deposition (RF-CVD) to form the nanocomposite material, where the nanocomposite material includes a graphene structure and Au/HA nanoparticles formed by the Au/HA catalyst and distributed within the graphene structure. In another aspect, a multicomponent and biocompatible nanocomposite material includes: a graphene structure formed with a plurality of graphene layers and Au/HA nanoparticles distributed within the graphene structure. The nanocomposite material is formed by heating an Au/HA catalyst thin film with a carbon source gas to perform radio frequency chemical vapor deposition (RF-CVD).
US08741316B2

The present invention includes compositions, methods, systems of making a composition that includes one or more active agent; a recognitive polymeric matrix; and a porosigen, wherein the composition comprises a porous recognitive, swellable hydrogel that dissociates under conditions of low water or humidity.
US08741305B2

The present invention relates to a protein composition suitable for inducing an immune response in a vertebrate comprising 2 to 10 protein variants of a single antigen, which is the APICAL MEMBRANE ANTIGEN 1 (PfAMA1 OR AMA1) of a Plasmodium species. The antigen comprises a plurality of variable amino acid positions, wherein the amino acid sequences of said protein variants, in combination, represent both the frequency of occurrence of each amino acid at said variable amino acid positions and the linkage between the variable amino acid positions, and wherein said frequency of occurrence is at least between 10% to 20% such as 10%, 11%, 12%, 13%, . . . , 20% in the single antigen, and wherein at least 75% of the linkages between the variable amino acid position is presented by the combination of protein variants.
US08741302B2

A medicament for the treatment or the prevention of a bacterial infection is disclosed which contains a polypeptide having a contiguous sequence of at least six amino acids of SEQ ID NO:1. Said polypeptide can be used for the preparation of a vaccine against an Enterococcus infection.
US08741301B2

The present invention provides a method for generating negative-stranded segmented RNA viruses using linear expression constructs in the presence of helper virus.
US08741297B2

The present invention concerns the preparation of substantially purified agonist anti-EDAR monoclonal antibodies or isolated monoclonal antibody fragments or antigen binding portions or fragments thereof. The invention further relates to isolated agonist anti-EDAR monoclonal antibodies or isolated monoclonal antibody fragments or antigen binding portions or fragments thereof as well as their use in the treatment of X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia and tooth agenesis. The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising said isolated agonist anti-EDAR monoclonal antibodies or isolated monoclonal antibody fragments or antigen binding portions or fragments thereof and to a method of treating X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia and tooth agenesis. Finally, the present invention concerns a pharmaceutical kit comprising said isolated agonist anti-EDAR monoclonal antibodies or isolated monoclonal antibody fragments or antigen binding portions or fragments thereof.
US08741289B2

Novel antibodies and antigen binding fragments that specifically binds to Sιglec-15 are described herein. In some embodiments, the antibodies or antigen binding fragments may block the biological activity of Sιglec-15 and are useful in composition for the treatment of bone loss, more particularly in bone diseases that have increased cell surface expression of Sιglec-15, such as conditions where there is an increase in the bone degradative activity of osteoclasts. The invention also relates to cells expressing the antibodies or antigen binding fragments such as monoclonal, humanized or chimeric antibodies. Additionally, methods of detecting and treating bone loss, bone-related diseases or cancer using the antibodies and fragments are also disclosed.
US08741281B2

The specification discloses compositions and methods for treating a soft tissue defect of an individual.
US08741274B2

The present invention relates to acrylic polymer beads having very low residual monomer content as well as to their use in hair care preparations in particular as styling agent.
US08741273B2

Agents for treating fibers containing keratin containing in a cosmetically acceptable carrier (a) at least one cross-linked, amphiphilic, anionic polymer, comprising at least one structural unit of formula (I) and at least one structural unit of formula (II); and (b) at least one non-cross-linked, amphiphilic, anionic polymer, comprising at least one structural unit of the formula (III) and at least one structural unit of the formula (IV), said agents being suitable for temporarily deforming hair and for conditioning hair, in particular in the form of a hair cream or a hair gel.
US08741272B2

The invention relates to the use, as an agent for treating human perspiration, in a cosmetic composition, of amino acid derivatives of formula (I) below: The invention also relates to a cosmetic process for treating perspiration and possibly the body odour associated with human perspiration, especially underarm odour. The invention also relates to novel amino acid derivatives of formula (II) that will be defined in detail hereinbelow, and to cosmetic or dermatological compositions containing them.
US08741267B1

A periodontal medicament composition comprising povidone iodine, an agar carrier, and optionally a bio-compatible, radio-opaque salt, for treating periodontal disease is disclosed, along with a method for preparing the same. A method is also disclosed for delivering the periodontal medicament composition, while in a liquid state, into the periodontal pocket of a patient afflicted with periodontitis whereupon due to the unique properties of the agar carrier, it solidifies to the contours of the periodontal pocket to form a periodontal medicament implant for releasing the povidone iodine over a period of time. In addition, a prepackaged periodontal medicament delivery system for treating the periodontal disease is disclosed which comprises (i) a tubular dispensing apparatus for retaining and storing one or more treatment units of the periodontal medicament composition in a solid state, and for delivery of the composition after conversion to a liquid state to the periodontal pocket of a patient afflicted with the periodontal disease; and (ii) a funnel-shaped tubular device adapted for coupling with the dispensing apparatus to facilitate the delivery of the periodontal medicament composition into the periodontal pocket. For storage and shipping or transport, the tubular dispensing apparatus and funnel-shaped tubular device are packaged in a light-resistant container.
US08741265B2

The invention relates to an alcohol-free cosmetic or pharmaceutical foam composition comprising water, a hydrophobic solvent, a surface-active agent, a gelling agent, an active component selected from the group of urea, hydroxy acid and a therapeutic enhancer and a propellant. The foam further comprises active agents and excipients with therapeutic properties having enhanced skin penetration.
US08741262B2

The present invention concerns a therapeutically labeled napthodianthrone or phenanthro[1,10,9,8-opqra]perylene-7,14-dione compound, which comprises a chemical element or an isotope that has an unstable nucleus and emits radiation during its decay to a stable form sufficient to destroy neighboring cells or tissues for use in a targeted radiotherapy to enhance curability of a warm-blooded animal that has been subjected to a necrosis-inducing antitumor therapy. A particular advantage of present invention is that viable rim resistant to a necrosis-inducing antitumor therapy such as vascular targeting agent (VTA) can be supplemented by one single or repeated doses of a therapeutically radiolabeled small molecule necrosis-avid chemical compound treatment to enhance the curability. Examples of necrosis inducing therapies are for instance minimally invasive tumor ablations applied chemically by percutaneous injection of ethanol or acetic acid, or physically by cryotherapy, microwave, focused ultrasound, interstitial laser therapy and radio-frequency ablation (RFA); by chemotherapies using cytotoxic agents or vascular targeting agents (VTA); and by external or internal radiotherapies.
US08741261B2

Methods and reagents for transition metal-promoted carbonylation via isocyanate using carbon-isotope labeled carbon monoxide are provided. The resultant carbon-isotope labeled compounds are useful as radiopharmaceuticals, especially for use in Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Associated kits for PET studies are also provided.
US08741247B2

A system and method for removing carbon dioxide from a gas stream. One aspect of the method includes introducing a carbon dioxide containing gas stream to an absorber; contacting the gas stream with an amine-containing solvent; absorbing, with the amine-containing solvent, the carbon dioxide from the gas stream, thereby removing the carbon dioxide from the gas stream; and forming a precipitate with the amine-containing solvent and the carbon dioxide.
US08741245B2

A method of recovering carbon dioxide, includes bringing gas to be processed containing carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen into contact with the CO2-absorbing solution in an absorption column to form a CO2-rich solution; circulating the solution in a regeneration column to thermally release and recover CO2 and recirculating the absorbing solution as a CO2-poor solution inside the absorption column; and performing heat exchange between the solution being delivered from the absorption column to the regeneration column and the solution recirculated from the regeneration column to the absorption column, wherein an alkanolamine aqueous solution containing a silicone oil and/or an organosulfur compound is added to the solution inside the absorption column and/or the solution recirculated from the regeneration column to the absorption column to adjust the composition of the absorbing solution inside the absorption column.
US08741237B1

The invention provides a method for extracting plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, the method comprising supplying plutonium in a first aqueous phase; contacting the plutonium aqueous phase with a mixture of a dielectric and a moiety having a first acidity so as to allow the plutonium to substantially extract into the mixture; and contacting the extracted plutonium with second a aqueous phase, wherein the second aqueous phase has a second acidity higher than the first acidity, so as to allow the extracted plutonium to extract into the second aqueous phase. The invented method facilitates isolation of plutonium polymer without the formation of crud or unwanted emulsions.
US08741234B2

A disposable blood analysis cartridge for analyzing a blood sample including an optical absorbance measurement channel is described. The optical absorbance measurement channel includes a plasma separation region and at least one sub channel including a cuvette that is in fluid communication with the plasma separation region and configured to receive a plasma portion of a blood sample that has been passed through the plasma separation region. A negative pressure may be applied to the cartridge to draw the sample through the plasma separation region and into the sub channel including the cuvette.
US08741229B2

The present invention is to present a sample analyzer, comprising: a reagent holder for holding a first and a second reagents; a display; a display controller for controlling the display so as to display a display screen including a first information displaying region for displaying one of a plurality of reagent information regarding the first reagent and a second information displaying region for displaying one of a plurality of reagent information regarding the second reagent; and a display switch receiver for receiving a display switch instruction of reagent information displayed in each of the first and second information displaying regions, wherein the display controller switches a first reagent information displayed in the first information displaying region to a second reagent information and switches a third reagent information displayed in the second information displaying region to a fourth reagent information, when the display switch receiver has received the display switch instruction.