US09384588B2

Disclosed is a video playing method based on augmented reality technology. In combination with augmented reality technology, a rectangular plane 3D model which completely covers a target picture in a current scene image is drawn, and at the same time, after a video file related to the target picture is separated into an audio stream and a video stream, a video image frame in the video stream is taken as a texture and is mapped to the 3D model frame by frame, and graphic rendering is performed; and finally, a scene image captured by a video camera and the rendered 3D model are fused and output, and the audio stream data is output synchronously. Correspondingly, also disclosed are a video playing system based on augmented reality technology and mobile terminal. The picture information in newspapers and periodicals, magazines and other print media can be easily converted into video information, and the video completely fits the picture in the spatial position, so that a user obtains a new audio-visual experience of combining emotion with scenery; and newspapers and periodicals, magazines and other paper media can also realize diversified propagation of information by virtue of the technology of the present invention, and provide a precise fast video push service.
US09384577B2

The invention regards an external vision and/or weapon aiming system for a military land vehicle and/or a military naval unit. The system comprises: two sensors configured to capture video streams of a same external scene, each in a respective spectral band; an electronic processing unit configured to insert a respective aiming reticle in the images of each captured video stream, thereby generating a corresponding pre-processed video stream, and to process the two pre-processed video streams; and a user interface configured to display a video stream received from the electronic processing unit. The system is characterized in that the electronic processing unit is configured to process the two pre-processed video streams by means of image enhancement and picture-in-picture functionalities, thereby generating first and second enhanced video streams.
US09384574B2

Provided is an image processing method. The image processing method includes obtaining at least one stencil mask region for a current frame, obtaining a first velocity field corresponding to a radial spreading from a central point of the at least one stencil mask region, obtaining a final velocity field for the at least one stencil mask region based on the first velocity field, determining a pixel value included in the at least one stencil mask region based on the obtained final velocity field, and displaying the current frame according to the determined pixel value.
US09384573B2

A computer-implemented system and method for placing groups of document clusters into a display is provided. One or more spines of document clusters are placed into a display and at least one of the document clusters for each placed spine is designated as an anchor cluster. At least one of the unplaced spines is compared with each of the placed spines in the display and one of the placed spines most similar to the unplaced spine is identified. The document clusters of the unplaced spine are compared with the anchor cluster of the most similar placed spine and the cluster on the unplaced spine that is most similar to the anchor cluster on the most similar placed spine is identified. The most similar cluster of the unplaced spine is grafted to the anchor cluster of the most similar placed spine.
US09384571B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a method for updating graphs. Labels associated with nodes of a graph are identified, including designators describing an attribute associated with a given node. The graph is provided, wherein labels have been assigned to each node in the graph. An initial set of weights for the labels are assigned reflecting a magnitude of a contribution of an associated label to a characterization of a respective node. A portion of the labels are assigned based on a propagation from other nodes. A change is identified in the graph that, when propagated, will affect other nodes. Sparse matrices, generated to describe the change, contain nonzero entries only in rows wherein connection weights and/or labels have changed. A new graph is generated using the sparse matrices without having to recalculate weights for other nodes not affected by the change.
US09384564B2

A data set may be represented by samples of multiple resolutions, such as an image represented by pixels of various resolutions. When such multiple-resolution samples are potentially overlapping, it may be inefficient to render both a lower-resolution sample and also the plurality of higher-resolution samples that overlap the lower-resolution sample. Conversely, it may be more efficient to determine, before rendering a sample representing a particular data unit, whether the sample is overlapped by available higher-resolution samples that represent the same data unit. Techniques are disclosed for making this determination in an efficient manner, and for acting upon the determination to achieve improved efficiency in the rendering of the data set.
US09384555B2

An apparatus for providing a motion-corrected time series of image data sets, comprises an image selection unit for obtaining a series of sets of image data, each set of image data representative of a region at a different time, and for automatically determining a sub-region of interest, and a registration unit that is configured to, for each of a plurality of sets of image data in the series, perform a registration, for the sub-region of interest, to register one of a reference data set of the series and the set of image data to the other of that reference data set and the set of image data.
US09384549B2

A device and a method (100) for the processing of data (501), which were obtained by an imaging method, make possible an improvement in a location-specific visualization of the perfusion of the lung. With a reference to a comparison variable, a location-specific variable (503), characteristic of a period of observation, regarding the perfusion of the lung and heart region, is determined and provided as an output signal.
US09384545B2

An X-ray image diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes: an image processing unit configured to create a synthesized image by synthesizing an X-ray image of a region of interest inside a given region and an X-ray image of a peripheral region excluding the region of interest in the given region, wherein when the region of interest is changed, the image processing unit acquires an X-ray image of a changed region which is in the region of interest before the change and is changed to the peripheral region, from the X-ray image of the region of interest before the change, and then superimposes the X-ray image of the changed region on the X-ray image of the peripheral region to create the synthesized image.
US09384537B2

A method and non-transitory computer readable medium for processing an oversampled image is disclosed. Filters are applied to an oversampled image to obtain a filtered image. The image filters are Gabor filter, cosine filter, laplacian of Gaussian filter, and radial filter. The filtered image can be turned into a displayed image that is displayed. The displayed image can be a 3D image. The displayed image can be refreshed at a rate of about one frame per second.
US09384536B2

An image file generation device comprises a first image data acquisition device that acquires N-bit first image data, a second image data generation device that generates M (M
US09384532B2

An apparatus for improving fogged image using user-controllable root operator comprises an atmosphere brightness value calculation unit for receiving a fogged input image and calculating the value of the brightest pixel of the atmosphere, a transmission calculation unit for calculating the lower bound of transmission rate by using the pixel value calculated by the atmosphere brightness value calculation unit and the fogged input image, and calculating the transmission rate for each pixel by computation processing of power operation with the lower bound of transmission rate according to the user control value, a restoration image computation unit for outputting restored image in which the fog is removed by using the transmission rate calculated by the transmission rate computation unit and the fogged input image, and a post-processing unit for outputting a fog-eliminated image by performing brightness stretching or color processing.
US09384527B2

In a computerized method for displaying images of an electronic device having a display, operations to an image displayed on the display are detected. Data of the operations to the first image is acquired and recorded in a storage of the electronic device. When the first image is operated to display again, the first image is processed according to the recorded data of the operations to the first image, and the processed first image is then displayed via the display.
US09384523B1

The subject technology discloses configurations for receiving, by a first process, a set of input events from an application in which the set of input events includes a set of input update commands. The first process writes the set of input update commands into a low-latency graphics pipeline. The subject technology dispatches, by the first process, the set of input update commands from the low-latency graphics pipeline to a second process. The second process receives the set of input update commands from the low-latency graphics pipeline. The subject technology then writes, by the second process, a set of input data into a shared graphics processing unit (GPU) texture.
US09384521B2

The invention relates to a method for assessing the presence of a watermark in a video wherein the video comprises at least a sequence of frames. The method comprises for at least one frame among one of the sequences of frames the steps of computing a set of axial cross-correlation values, wherein each axial cross-correlation value corresponds to a correlation between the frame and a reference watermark shifted along a spatial horizontal axis; obtaining a detection score by computing a weighted sum of values output by a function applied to said axial cross-correlation values; assessing the presence of a watermark according to the detection score. Such method is particularly well adapted to the detection of disparity coherent watermark but is compliant with any watermarking technique. A device implementing the method is further disclosed.
US09384517B2

This document describes methods, systems and computer program products related to cloud-based rendering. The subject matter of this document is embodied in a method that includes receiving, at a server, information associated with a job of rendering one or more frames at the server, and using, at the server, an application to perform at least a portion of the rendering. The use of the application to perform the rendering bears a charge according to a usage license associated with the application. The method also includes measuring, at the server, an amount of use of the application in performing the rendering for use in determining the charge.
US09384516B2

A method, system, and computer-readable storage media for providing licensing for services are provided herein. The method includes determining, via a service partner, whether a user exists in a user provisioning cache and whether the user is provisioned to use a service provided by the service partner. The method also includes querying a licensing service to determine updates to the user provisioning cache if the user does not exist in the user provisioning cache or is not provisioned to use the service, or both. Further, the method includes determining whether the user is provisioned to use the service based on the updates to the user provisioning cache and, if the user is provisioned to use the service, allowing the user access to the service.
US09384514B2

Embodiments of the invention comprise systems, computer program products, and methods for a financial and social management system that provides improved tracking and management related to how, where, when, and with whom a user enters into activities. The financial and social management system captures activity information and images from various sources of information, including but not limited to social networking accounts, e-receipts, contact lists, calendars, and the like, and associates the activity information and images with the activities. The financial and social management system may determine locations, social relationships, entities, categories, or the like from the various sources of information and tag the activities with location tags, social relationship tags, entity tags, category tags, or the like. The tags allow the user to easily filter the activities based on the location, social relationship, entity, category, or other activity information and display the activities and activity information in customized interfaces.
US09384513B2

Disclosed is an apparatus for collecting contents using social relation characters, which includes: an input unit for receiving search information from a main user; a database for storing SNS subscriber list of the main user and related users in relation to the main user and group information in relation to friendship in an SNS; and a content managing unit for searching contents in relation to the received search information by using the group information from contents possessed by the main user and the related users in an SNS server, defining the searched contents as a first content group, calculating a first interest index for each content included in the first content group based on additional information input by the related users, and determining a predetermined content, on which interest of the related users is focused, from the searched contents based on the calculated first interest index.
US09384511B1

Embodiments are directed towards managing data models using version control for resource allocation modelling. A main data model that includes change records, resource values, model objects, or the like, may be provided. Also, user workspaces associated with the main data model may be provided. The user workspaces may include a workspace data model that is based on the main data model and its change records. Model objects that may be part of the user workspace may be modified by a user where each modification made by the user may be employed to provide workspace change records. If a user finishes modifying the workspace data model, the one or more workspace change records may be used to execute the merge of the modified model objects with the main data model.
US09384507B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for browsing items in a network page. A plurality of images of a corresponding plurality of items are displayed in a network page rendered on a display device of a client device. A first level of information detail about each of the items is presented in the network page. A window is generated that is anchored to a currently designated one of the images. The window presents a second level of information detail about a respective one of the items depicted in the designated one of the images presented in the window. The currently designated one of the images is specified by navigating from image to image.
US09384504B2

A system and method for searching for and/or purchasing multiple items on the Internet is provided. The system identifies a plurality of purchasing alternatives based on predetermined criteria and allows the consumer to select from among the purchasing alternatives to purchase the desired items.
US09384500B2

A system for targeting advertising content includes the steps of: (a) receiving respective requests for advertising content corresponding to a plurality of mobile communication facilities operated by a group of users, wherein the plurality includes first and second types of mobile communication facilities with different rendering capabilities; (b) receiving a datum corresponding to the group; (c) selecting from a first and second sponsor respective content based on a relevancy to the datum, wherein each content includes a first and second item requiring respective rendering capabilities; (d) receiving bids from the first and second sponsors; (e) attributing a priority to the content of the first sponsor based upon a determination that a yield associated with the first sponsor is greater than a yield associated with the second sponsor; and (f) transmitting the first and second items of the first sponsor to the first and second types of mobile communication facilities respectively.
US09384499B2

A method for indirectly controlling a website using a user communication device is disclosed. A unique machine-readable code is displayed on a display device, the unique machine-readable code being specific to the display device displaying contents from a website through a server. The unique machine-readable code is readable by a user communication device, the user communication device in turn being able to communicate with the server through a communication path not involving an input device associated with the display device. Commands to control content displayed through the server are received from the user communication device. The commands include the identity of the specific display device by the displayed unique machine readable code. The content displayed on the specific display device is then changed accordingly.
US09384489B2

Tools providing a flexible selection framework for automated processes. The framework can allow end-users to define their own selection criteria to select a data population to be processed (for example, by a business application). Hence, the tools provide enhanced control over what data is provided to which process. Some such tools employ metadata to define what information the client process needs, how the results will be returned to the client process, and/or what selection tools should be available to select data for the client process, as well as the available data selection tools, which can include both tools provided with a business application as well as third-party and/or user supplied selection tools. The framework might also provide an application programming interface that ensures consistent communication between the population selection engine and the selection tools themselves.
US09384478B2

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods and computer program products for providing an offline mobile banking system. An exemplary apparatus is configured to: provide, at a mobile device, a transaction request, determine a connection is not established between the mobile device and a device associated with the financial institution, store the transaction request in response to determining a connection has not been established, establish a connection between the mobile device and a server associated with the financial institution, and communicate the stored transaction request from the mobile device to a device associated with the financial institution.
US09384475B2

An out of office auto-response system that generates a calendaring user interface through which multiple out of office periods can be managed. The calendaring user interface enables a user to define, simultaneously view, and/or modify, multiple out of office periods during which auto-response messages will be generated. The out of office periods of the disclosed system are manageable as a specific type of calendar entries, and/or as a settable attribute of various types of calendar entries (e.g. vacation type calendar entries, meeting type calendar entries, etc.). The system generates user interface objects that allow a user to define an out of office period as repeated. The repeated office action may be defined as repeated a user-specified number of times, and over a user-specified interval, e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.
US09384471B2

Systems and methods for spam detection within electronic messages transported over a communication network. One embodiment is a spam center that connects to multiple entities of a communication network that handle electronic messages, such as text messages. The spam center receives spam reports from the entities that detect spam in prior electronic messages, analyzes the spam reports to generate spam filtering rules based on the spam detected in the prior electronic messages. The spam center then distributes the spam filtering rules to one or more of the entities. The entities may then use to spam filtering rules to filter spam out of electronic messages that subsequently received.
US09384460B1

A shelf code in a machine readable format, such as on a QR code on a printed card, is provided where bulk merchandise displayed in a bin. When the bin is stocked from a case bearing a case code, the case code is associated with the shelf code. Lot-specific and lot-independent information previously associated with the case code is then linked to the shelf code. Consumers scan the shelf code with a mobile device to establish a communication channel to access the linked information. Retailers and producers use the channel to reach the consumer, and to solicit feedback from the consumer at a known time and location. A mobile device can also be used to associate quality assessments of merchandise to the shelf code. Analysis of consumer ratings and quality inspection assessments that are tied to time and location can provide valuable insights to both producers and retailers.
US09384459B2

A methods and systems are provided that relate to providing location data so that a retailer can know whether an item is produced at a factory it is purported to be produced at. A website may be provided to the retailer and/or exposed to the consumer. The consumer may be able to view information about the location of the factory, pictures of the factory, data about the factory (e.g., wage information, carbon footprint, size of the factory, inspection data, social compliance data, regulatory violations if any, etc.). A first geolocation may be received from a microchip associated with an item. A second geolocation may be obtained from a label associated with the item. The first geolocation and the second geolocation may be compared to determine whether the item was manufactured at the same place from or in which it is being packaged, shipped, and/or invoiced.
US09384457B2

A physical distribution management system includes an information write unit that writes, on an information recording medium attached to a conveyance container input to a conveyance unit, a size of the conveyance container; a size detection unit that detects the size of the conveyance container input to the conveyance unit; and an error detection unit that determines that an input error for the conveyance container input to the conveyance unit occurs when the size written on the information recording medium attached to the conveyance container input to the conveyance unit does not coincide with the size of the conveyance container input to the conveyance unit detected by the size detection unit.
US09384450B1

A method for training a machine learning model for open domain question answering includes receiving trained classifiers for question answering. The received trained classifiers are used to generate a set of candidate answers to a question. Second trained classifiers are used for scoring each of the candidate answers. The scoring indicates a measure of how well each candidate answer answers the question. Using the second trained classifiers for scoring each of the candidate answers includes comparing each candidate answer to a first ground truth corresponding to the question. A set of top-scoring candidate answers is presented to a human operator who marks each as correct or incorrect. The correct candidate answers are treated as additional ground truths for further training the first trained classifiers.
US09384448B2

Systems provided herein include a learning environment and an agent. The learning environment includes an avatar and an object. A state signal corresponding to a state of the learning environment includes a location and orientation of the avatar and the object. The agent is adapted to receive the state signal, to issue an action capable of generating at least one change in the state of the learning environment, to produce a set of observations relevant to a task, to hypothesize a set of action models configured to explain the observations, and to vet the set of action models to identify a learned model for the task.
US09384445B2

Business processes are implemented using a collection component for storing system knowledge comprising usage history and user input relative to activities within community of users, where the system knowledge comprises at least a folksonomy. At least one of a user client component interacts with the data collection component to enable a corresponding user to contribute user-derived information to the folksonomy and a monitoring component monitors activities associated with the community of users and interacts with the data collection component to contribute usage information to the system knowledge. Still further, a composition design application interacts with a user to build and/or modify processes built using services, wherein the composition design application recommends candidate services that can implement aspects of the business processes based upon information derived from the system knowledge.
US09384438B2

A card is provided, such as a credit card or security card, that may transmit information to a magnetic stripe reader via a magnetic emulator. The emulator may transmit the information serially in order to reduce the amount of circuitry needed to emulate a particular block of information. Additionally, for example, a serial encoder may send any amount of information through a single emulation segment. Such a magnetic emulator may be provided on a credit card. A dynamic credit card number may be provided by, for example, coding a number with a different coding scheme for different periods of time. The magnetic emulator may be utilized to transmit a particular coded number for a particular period of time. In this manner, a dynamic credit card number may be provided such that to help secure, and progress, a payment transaction.
US09384436B2

Provided is a card with a built-in electronic component, which has a superior button click sensation. A card of the present invention into which is built-in a module substrate upon which an electronic component has been disposed is provided with: a front cover sheet stacked upon a side above the module substrate; an adhesion layer adhering between the module substrate and the front cover sheet; and a dome switch which is disposed upon the module substrate, and by way of the card upper surface being pressed, the switch's movable portion deforms to the module substrate side so that the electrical contact comes into tactile contact with the module substrate in order to operate the card; wherein the switch's movable portion is such that the upper surface does not adhere to the adhesion layer and the deformation to the module substrate side is unrestrained with respect to the adhesion layer.
US09384428B1

Systems and methods for bypassing a print dialog box that indicates a print confirmation, a prompt message, or a page preview, by employing a background print applet. The systems and methods may include detecting a print content to be printed by a printer, identifying one or more features of the print content, and determining one or more print settings based on the identified one or more features. The systems and methods may further include initiating the print content to be printed by the printer based on the determined print settings, whereby initiating the print content includes bypassing the print dialog box.
US09384424B2

Methods and systems are described for providing customized user experiences with media assets created using plenoptic content capture technology. The ability to increase the focus on different objects while the media asset is progressing may allow a user to more easily track the object. Conversely, the ability to decrease the focus on different objects while the media asset is progressing may block, or cloud the display of, the object from being seen by a user.
US09384419B2

An image matching method performed by an image matching device, includes acquiring a model image, generating a plurality of variation images by applying to the model image variations that are different from each other, extracting features from each of the plurality of variation images, generating a model template based on the features, and performing template matching using an image to be matched and the model template.
US09384410B2

A method for encoding at least one extra bit in an image compression and decompression system. The method includes accessing an input image, and compressing the input image into a compressed image using an encoder system, wherein said encoding system implements an algorithm for encoding at least one extra bit. The method further includes communicatively transferring the compressed image to a decoding system, and decompressing the compressed image into a resulting uncompressed image that is unaltered from said input image, wherein the algorithm for encoding enables the recovery of the at least one extra bit.
US09384408B2

Provided herein are systems and method for obtaining contextual information of an image published on a digital medium. The methods and systems disclosed herein generally identify and analyze the image to obtain image descriptors corresponding to the image. The methods also identify and analyze text published proximate to the image to obtain textual descriptors, which function to describe, identify, index, or name the image or content within the image. The textual descriptors are then matched to the image descriptors to provide contextual information of the published image.
US09384406B2

A technical solution for accurately positioning a computer position, that is to say, the solution can identify the specific rack position where the computer is. And the solution has low cost and does not need manual intervention. The core idea of the solution lies in using a camera installed on the computer to read the contents of a tag on the rack, so as to identify the position information of the computer. Specifically, the solution provides a computer with a self-positioning function, wherein: a camera is installed on the computer, and the camera is configured to read the contents of a tag attached on a side of a rack to house the computer to identify the rack position where the computer is.
US09384394B2

A method for generating accurate lane level maps based on course map information and Lidar data captured during the pass of a sensor carrying vehicle along a road. The method generates accurate lane estimates including the center of each lane, the number of lanes, and the presence of any bicycle paths and entrance and exit ramps using a computer-implemented method where the course map data and the Lidar data are subjected to particle filtering.
US09384393B2

Embodiments for identifying errors based on data extracted from financial record images includes systems that receive one or more financial record images from a user, apply an optical character recognition process to at least a portion of the one or more financial record images, and identify record data based on the applied optical character recognition process comprising at least a name of a party to the financial record. The systems further identify errors associated with the one or more financial record images based on the record data.
US09384387B2

Encoder for encoding data defining coded positions representing a trajectory of an object based on spatio-temporal data representing a time series of positions of the object. The encoder comprises a deriver, a selector, and a coder. The deriver is configured for deriving a plurality of components of a motion vector difference between a last coded motion coded vector pointing from a second last coded position to a last coded position and a current motion vector pointing from the last coded position to a current position of the object. The selector is configured for selecting a component of the plurality of components of the motion vector difference. The coder is configured for coding the current motion vector based on the selected component of the motion vector difference to obtain a current coded motion vector, thereby defining a current coded position.
US09384385B2

Computer-readable storage media, computing devices and methods are discussed herein. In embodiments, a computing device may be configured to perform facial recognition based on gradient based feature extractions of images of faces. In embodiments, the computing device may be configured to determine directional matching patterns of the images from the gradient based feature extraction and may utilize these directional matching patterns in performing a facial recognition analysis of the images of faces. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09384383B2

For surreptitiously stymieing a recognition of facial characteristics by a facial recognition system using a camera, a user wears an object in front of at least one eye, where the object includes a light displacer. The light displacer optically displaces light radially relative to the original light direction, but still parallel to the original light direction so that a view by the eye through the light displacer is not distorted. With the light displacer, there is an apparent position of the eye perceived by the camera which is shifted relative to other features of the face and relative to the actual position of the eye. Consequently, an image of the face obtained by the camera locates the eye at the apparent position which is substantially different from an image which would have been obtained with the actual position of the eye, so that the facial recognition system is stymied.
US09384382B1

Techniques are described for controlling communication devices using image analysis. For instance, when a communication is received by a communication device, the communication device outputs an alert to notify users of the received communication and accesses one or more images of an area proximate to the communication device. The one or more images cover an area proximate to the communication device at a time during which the communication device is outputting the alert. The communication device analyzes the one or more images to determine whether a user is present in the one or more images and in a position to perceive the received communication. The communication device handles at least one aspect of the received communication based on the determination of whether a user is in a position to perceive the received communication.
US09384376B2

We describe an RFID tag reading system comprising a plurality of transmit/receive antennas to provide spatial transmit/receive signal diversity, and a tag signal decoder. The system combines received RF signals from the antennas, and the antennas are spaced apart from one another sufficiently for one said antenna not to be within the near field of another. The system performs a tag inventory cycle comprising a plurality of tag read rounds, each having a set of time slots during which a said tag is able to transmit tag data including a tag ID. The system is configured to perform, during a tag inventory cycle, one or both of: a change in a frequency of the tag interrogation signals transmitted simultaneously from the plurality of antennas, and a change in a relative phase of a the RF tag interrogation signal transmitted from one of the antennas with respect to another.
US09384375B2

A radio tag communication apparatus that communicates with radio tags including storing units capable of storing identification information and state information of articles includes a search-condition setting unit for reading the state information, which is a search target, a radio tag communication unit configured to perform communication with the radio tag under a set search condition using a first reading function for reading the radio tag without designating the radio tag and a second reading function for designating the radio tag, setting a transmission output, and repeatedly reading the radio tag, a comparison determination unit configured to perform comparison determination of information read by the first reading function and the search condition, and communication control unit configured to control the radio tag communication unit according to result of the comparison determination to switch the reading operation by the first reading function to the reading operation by the second reading function.
US09384370B1

A signal combination circuit includes a first decoding block configured to decode a first signal group of an input signal and generate a first decoding signal group according to a first random number signal, a second decoding block configured to decode a second signal group of the input signal and generate a second decoding signal group according to the first random number signal, a first network block configured to randomly mix the first decoding signal group and generate a first preliminary mixed signal group according to a second random number signal, a second network block configured to randomly mix the second decoding signal group and generate a second preliminary mixed signal group according to the second random number signal, and a selection block configured to selectively combine the first preliminary mixed signal group and the second preliminary mixed signal group and generate a mixed signal group according to the first random number signal.
US09384362B2

Secrets data representing one or more secrets required to access associated resources is provided along with secrets distribution policy data representing one or more secrets distribution factors used to control the distribution of the secrets. When a requesting virtual asset submits secrets request data, virtual asset profile data associated with the requesting virtual asset is obtained. The requesting virtual asset profile data is then analyzed using at least one of the secrets distribution factors to authenticate the requesting virtual asset. The requesting virtual asset profile data is then analyzed using one or more of secrets distribution factors to determine what secrets the requesting virtual asset legitimately needs. Authorized secrets data for the requesting virtual asset representing one or more authorized secrets is then generated. The requesting virtual asset is then provided access to the authorized secrets data.
US09384360B2

A policy language for an information management system allows specifying or more policies using policy abstractions. The policies and policy abstractions are decoupled from one another, so policies and policy abstractions may be specified and altered separately from each other. A policy may refer to any number of policy abstractions. Multiple policies may reference a single policy abstraction, and a change to that policy abstraction will result in multiple policies being changed. Further, policy abstractions may be nested, so one policy abstraction may reference another policy abstraction, and so forth.
US09384353B2

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for encryption of disk based on pre-boot compatibility testing. An example method includes upon determining, by a processor, no test booting of the computer, performing one or more pre-boot compatibility tests to boot an operating system of the computer; upon detecting a successful test booting, performing booting the operating system of the computer or performing the one or more pre-boot compatibility tests again; upon detecting an unsuccessful test booting, restoring a process of ordinary booting of the operating system and performing an ordinary booting of the operating system; determining one or more encryption policies applicable to a pre-boot execution stage of the computer; and comparing results of the one or more pre-boot compatibility tests with the encryption policies to determine whether to apply a full disk encryption to the boot disk.
US09384352B2

An embodiment includes an apparatus comprising: an out-of-band cryptoprocessor including secure non-volatile storage that couples to a root index, having a fixed address, and comprises first and second variables referenced by the root index; and semiconductor integrated code (SIC) including embedded processor logic to initialize a processor and embedded memory logic to initialize a memory coupled to the processor; wherein (a) the SIC is to be executed responsive to resetting the processor and prior to providing control to boot code, and (b) the SIC is to perform pre-boot operations in response to accessing at least one of the first and second variables. Other embodiments are described herein.
US09384349B2

A method for securing an electronic device includes, at a level below all of the operating systems of an electronic device, trapping a first attempt and second attempt to access sensitive system resources of the electronic device. The method also includes identifying the first attempt and second attempt as representing a potential malware attack, comparing the sequence of the first attempt and second attempt against a first anti-malware rule, and, based on the comparison of the sequence of the first attempt and second attempt against the first anti-malware rule, allowing the second attempt. The first attempt and second attempt originate from code of the same operating entity. The first anti-malware rule includes a requirement of a sequence of attempts including the first attempt followed by the second attempt.
US09384343B2

During log-on of a user to an entity protected by a password, the password is verified by iteratively receiving a password character; and verifying that the received character complies with a predefined property (α) that sets at least one requirement for allowable passwords. If this is not the case, then this can indicate a brute force attack and appropriate action may be taken. The property α may be dependent on the user. Also provided are a corresponding device and a computer program product.
US09384332B2

Watermarking method and apparatus for tracking hacking and method and apparatus for blocking hacking of content are provided. The watermarking method includes: obtaining device information from a reception device, with which content is shared, through a determined network channel; generating watermark data based on the obtained device information; and generating watermarked multimedia content by inserting the generated watermark data into content. The method of blocking hacking of content includes: if hacked content is found, detecting watermark data from the hacked content; detecting transmission and reception device information from the detected watermark data; and extracting a progress route of the content based on the detected transmission and reception device information and performing revocation on a hacked device.
US09384324B2

An apparatus for indicating a health-related condition of a subject has an input interface for receiving a sequence of samples of a first biological quantity derived by a first measurement method, the first measurement method being an invasive measurement and having a first impact on the subject, and for receiving a sequence of samples of a second biological quantity derived by a second measurement method, the second measurement method being a non-invasive measurement and having a second impact on the subject, wherein the first biological quantity gives a more accurate indication of the health-related condition of the subject than the second biological quantity, wherein the first biological quantity and the second biological quantity have a correlation to the health-related condition of the subject, and wherein the second impact is smaller than the first impact; a predictor for providing, for a certain time, for which no sample for the first biological quantity exists, an estimated value of the first biological quantity using samples for the first biological quantity and, as far as available, samples for the second quantity; and an output interface for outputting the estimated value or data derived from the estimated value so that an indication for the health-related condition of the subject is obtained.
US09384321B2

Described herein are methods, devices and systems for simple organization, visualization and use of genome data (e.g. human genome data) on electronic devices (e.g. portable devices). In some embodiments, the data are organized and/or visualized according to phenotype traits, genes, and/or markers in a similar manner to the organization and/or visualization of digital music contents. This concept allows a new procedure for genomic data organization and facilitates the development of genomic data visualization tools. The methods described herein can be implemented with consumer-oriented software on electronic devices, computers, and portable devices, for the use of genomic related data in the field of personalized medicine for predictive, preventive and participative wireless healthcare.
US09384320B2

The present invention relates to methods of storing data using one or more nucleic acids including converting a format of information into a plurality of bit sequences of a bit stream with each having a corresponding bit barcode, converting the plurality of bit sequences to a plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences using one bit per base encoding, synthesizing the plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences, and storing the synthesized plurality of corresponding oligonucleotide sequences.
US09384307B2

A method for creating double patterning compliant integrated circuit layouts is disclosed. The method allows patterns to be assigned to different masks and stitched together during lithography. The method also allows portions of the pattern to be removed after the process.
US09384303B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for evaluating substitute terms. One of the methods includes receiving a query and identifying an original term occurring in the query. One or more substitution contexts are determined for the original term, wherein a substitution context includes one or more context terms and an indication of a position in the query of the original term and the one or more context terms. A score is determined for each substitution context of the one or more substitution contexts. One or more substitution contexts are selected based on the score of each substitution context. One or more substitute terms for the original term in the context of the one or more selected substitution contexts are determined.
US09384300B2

According to some embodiments, a method and apparatus are provided to receive a first application archive, create a generic view model based on the first application archive, and create a second application archive based on the generic view model.
US09384299B2

A media sharing system is able to deliver media content, including video, audio, photographs and graphics, to a wide variety of devices, using a file format appropriate to the delivery device and using a delivery method appropriate to the delivery device.
US09384294B2

A multimedia sharing apparatus uses a copy of a metadata database of a portable terminal for copying the metadata database stored in a server. The multimedia sharing apparatus stores the copied metadata database in the portable terminal, and reduces an overhead using the stored metadata database when a user searches data. A multimedia sharing method includes requesting a server to transmit a metadata database at a portable terminal, receiving access information capable of accessing the metadata database of the server at the portable terminal from the server, and reading the metadata database of the server at the portable terminal using the access information.
US09384292B2

Map service techniques are described. In an implementation, text is received from an application for processing by one or more linguistic services. Based on service properties of respective linguistic services that are relevant to the application, particular linguistic services are designated to be available for use by the application and one or more other linguistic services are obscured from the application. A communication is formed to communication the text to a designated linguistic service.
US09384291B2

A computer-based method for use in geotargeting online ads to users of search engines by allowing comparison of user's search terms with a set of geo-keywords. The method includes providing a geographic keyword generator on a server that is linked to the Internet. The method includes providing a spatial database storing classes of geographic keywords. The method continues with receiving a keyword request including a business address from a client node. The keyword generator determines a service area based on this location, and a set of geographic keywords is retrieved from the spatial database that are associated (e.g., within) the determined service area. This set of keywords is transmitted or reported to the client node (e.g., displayed in a web browser or user interface) for use in geotargeting of their online advertisements. The keyword request includes a business type, and the service area is sized based on the business type.
US09384286B2

Systems and methods of providing composite search results are disclosed. A search query may be received by a general purpose search engine of a first website from a user. At least one general purpose search result may be determined based on the search query using the general purpose search engine. The at least one general purpose search result may be based on a search of multiple websites. Item listing information of an item listed for sale on a second website may be determined based on the search query. The at least one general purpose search result and the item listing information may be caused to be displayed concurrently on the first website to the user. The user may be enabled to interact with the second website regarding the item by interacting with the item listing information displayed on the first website.
US09384284B2

A method for value-added usage of process-oriented extension fields in business mashups may include generating, using at least one processor, a mashup component with an unbound parameter; receiving input identifying the creation of an extension field, the extension field tied to data stored in a database; binding the unbound parameter of the mashup component to the extension field; presenting an application interface, the application interface including the extension field; receiving a request to load the mashup component; and in response to receiving the request, passing the data tied to the extension field as an input parameter to the mashup component.
US09384279B2

A method for providing a search sample without a search being triggered is disclosed. The method includes receiving at least one partial search term in a search box. Probable search terms are determined by comparing the at least one partial search term to a database of common search terms. The probable search terms are displayed in a format that include a link to a sample search of each probable search term and a backslide button. When the link to a sample search of a probable search term is selected in the probable search terms, the sample search is displayed in a format that includes a close link. When the close link is selected in the sample search, the probable search terms are displayed again. When the backslide button is selected, the right most word from the search term is deleted.
US09384274B2

Media data playback positioning method, such as audio data positioning, comprising a processor retrieving audio data from a memory, using a timer to time an extendable digit receiving period, receiving digits, generating a time value upon expiration of the extendable digit receiving period, and performing a playback operation on the media data based on the time value.
US09384273B1

Systems and methods are provided herein relating to audio matching. In addition to interest points, localized patches surrounding interest points can be used as additional discriminative information. The patches can be compressed to increase scalability while retaining discriminative information related to the localized region within the patch. Compressed patches related to interest points of an audio sample can be compared to compressed patches related to interest points of a reference sample to determine whether the two samples are a match.
US09384272B2

Methods, systems, and media for identifying similar songs using jumpcodes are provided. In some embodiments, methods for a cover song from a query song are provided, the methods comprising: identifying a query song jumpcode for the query song, wherein the query song jumpcode is indicative of changes in prominent pitch over a portion of the query song; identifying a plurality of reference song jumpcodes for a reference song, wherein each of the reference song jumpcodes is indicative of changes in prominent pitch over a portion of the reference song; determining if the query song jumpcode matches any of the plurality of reference song jumpcodes; and upon determining that the query song jumpcode matches at least one of the plurality of reference song jumpcodes, generating an indication that the reference song is a cover song of the query song.
US09384269B2

Architecture that enables an optional display of a longer version of each subsnippet in response to user interactions such as clicking, hovering, or other suitable form of interaction. More specifically, options are provided to display additional text from a search result at the point where a subsnippet (a subsegment in a snippet that is delimited by ellipses) ends. Selecting suitable boundaries for both initial subsnippets and expanded subsnippets enables relevant information to be presented and increased readability.
US09384267B2

Systems and methods for providing suggestion and translation thereof in accordance with a partial user entry are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method includes: at a computer system with one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, obtaining a partial search query; predicting from the partial search query a set of predicted complete queries relevant to the partial search query, wherein the partial search query and the set of predicted complete queries are in a first language; subsequent to the predicting, obtaining translations of at least a subset of the set of predicted complete queries, the translations are in a second language different from the first language, and the second language is predicted based, at least in part, on the partial search query; and formatting both the set of predicted complete queries and the corresponding translations for display.
US09384253B1

The system and method described herein may support multiple-layer data replication using a block input/output (“BIO”) structure that an operating system kernel employs to provide an intermediate mechanism between file systems and block devices. For example, the system and method described herein may capture events that occur when the kernel uses the BIO structure to encapsulate input/output requests that will change data on a master block device. As such, a replication mechanism may send the changes encapsulated within the BIO structure to a replay mechanism, which may then replicate the changes on a standby block device to ensure that the master block device and the standby block device have an identical state. Alternatively, a filter may be used to only replicate changes to certain partitions or file system objects on the master block device.
US09384243B2

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for tracking trends at an online presence are described. In some embodiments, an interactivity data structure and a tenured interactivity data structure are utilized in determining trends quickly.
US09384240B2

A method and apparatus for identifying relationships among entity instances of a plurality of entities in a database. A plurality of entity reference relationship structures is accessed. Each entity reference relationship structure includes at least a pair of entity instance identifiers that identifies a relationship between entity instances of a pair of entity structures of a plurality of entity structures. All complete graphs among all subsets of the plurality of entity structures are identified. Each complete graph includes at least one edge corresponding to an entity reference relationship structure, and two vertices connected by the at least one edge that correspond to entity structures between which the entity reference relationship structure establishes a relationship. For each complete graph, all matched sets of pairs of entity instance identifiers are determined. The entity instance identifiers in each matched set are stored in association with each other in an entity relationship structure.
US09384234B2

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods and computer program products for converting MLOAD and TPUMP operations. In some embodiments, a system is configured to: receive a first information, wherein the first information comprises at least one piece of data; count the number of pieces of data; compare the counted number of pieces of data to a predetermined threshold value; and identify a load utility based on the comparison between the counted number of pieces of data and the predetermined threshold value.
US09384232B2

A method for confirming replicated data at a data site, including utilizing a hash function, computing a first hash value based on first data at a first data site and utilizing the same hash function, computing a second hash value based on second data at a second data site, wherein the first data had previously been replicated from the first data site to the second data site as the second data. The method also includes comparing the first and second hash values to determine whether the second data is a valid replication of the first data. In additional embodiments, the first data may be modified based on seed data prior to computing the first hash value and the second data may be modified based on the same seed data prior to computing the second hash value. The process can be repeated to increase reliability of the results.
US09384224B2

An information retrieval system uses phrases to index, retrieve, organize and describe documents. Phrases are identified that predict the presence of other phrases in documents. Documents ate the indexed according to their included phrases. Index data for multiple versions or instances of documents is also maintained. Each document instance is associated with a date range and relevance data derived from the document for the date range.
US09384213B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for searching within images. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a query from a user device; receiving a query image from the user device; identifying a result image responsive to the query; determining that an object depicted in a sub-portion of the query image is similar to the result image; and in response to determining that the object depicted in the sub-portion of the query image is similar to the result image: providing annotation data to the user device that causes the user device to display an annotation with the query image, the annotation specifying the sub-portion of the query image that includes the object that is similar to the result image.
US09384206B1

A method is used in managing data deduplication in storage systems. Characteristics of first and second data objects are evaluated based on a set of deduplication policies. The first and second data objects are selected for deduplication. Based on the evaluation, deduplication performed on the first and second data objects is affected.
US09384205B1

A computer-implemented method for managing an inline deduplication module is described. Congestion information is collected about a level of congestion on a network that communicates with an inline deduplication module. An instruction is sent to the inline deduplication module to adjust a deduplication rate based at least in part on the congestion information.
US09384195B2

A mobile communication device may operate with a number of different applications, each having different file types associated therewith. A file analyzer receives data files and analyzes the files to identify a content type and thereafter associates the identified file with the appropriate application or applications. The received data files may be delivered through a wired connection, a wireless connection, or through the introduction of a memory device, such as a removable storage device, to the mobile communication device. The file analyzer may provide the appropriate notification or indication of association or association to the application associated with the identified content type and may further provide user notification of a newly delivered file. The files may be data files, such as text or multimedia files such as audio and/or video files. Files that are incompatible with the wireless communication device may be rejected by the file analyzer or left to the user to make a manual determination of content type and association with the appropriate application.
US09384194B2

Content that is significant to a user may be determined. An indication that a user finds content within a document significant may be received. In response to the received indication, the document may be analyzed to identify a set of topics associated with the content of the document. From the set of topics, a subset of topics responsible for the user finding the document significant may be identified. A user profile associated with the user may be updated based on the subset of topics.
US09384191B2

A computer processor operating an input method editor (IME) receives an input of a phonetic word. The processor identifies one or more word characters corresponding to the phonetic word, wherein each of the one or more word characters represents one or more words of a first language. The processor translates each of the one or more word characters that correspond to the phonetic word into a second language, and the processor displays each of the one or more word characters of the first language and a translation into the second language of each of the one or more word characters of the first language.
US09384185B2

A text prediction engine, a system comprising a text prediction engine, and a method for generating sequence predictions. The text prediction engine, system and method generate a final set of sequence predictions, each with an associated probability value.
US09384171B2

Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, content of a file such as text content may be reflowed in response to a resizing of an object also included in the file.
US09384167B2

Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for performing formal verification. For example, certain embodiments can be used to formally verify a Booth multiplier. For instance, in one example embodiment, a specification of a Booth multiplier circuit is received; an initial model checking operation is performed for a smaller version of the Booth multiplier circuit; a series of subsequent model checking operations are performed for versions of the Booth multiplier circuit that are incrementally larger than the smaller version of the Booth multiplier circuit, wherein, for each incrementally larger Booth multiplier circuit, two or more model checking operations are performed, the two or more model checking operations representing decomposed proof obligations for showing; and a verification result of the Booth multiplier circuit is output.
US09384162B2

A mobile device includes a baseband module, an electronic card slot and a control module. A control unit of the control module is configured to control a switching unit to operate in a first transmission mode, such that the baseband module is able to communicate with an electronic card that is connected to the electronic card slot, based on a baseband signal received from the baseband module. The control unit is further configured to control the switching unit to operate in a second transmission mode, such that the control unit that executes an executable program is able to communicate with the electronic card that is connected to the electronic card slot.
US09384150B2

The present invention relates to providing security functionality over computer system mass storage data, and more particularly relates to a system and method of transparent data backup on either local or remote storage devices such as SATA storage devices. According to aspects of the invention, the system is transparent to operating system and application software layers. That makes it unnecessary to make any software modifications to the file system, device drivers, operating system, or applications, or installing specialized applications or hardware. In embodiments, the snapshot functionality of the invention is implemented entirely in hardware, and is not designed to slow down performance of the rest of the system.
US09384145B2

Hardware circuitry may evaluate minimal perfect hash functions mapping keys to addresses in lookup tables. The circuitry may include primary hash function sub-circuits that apply linear hash functions to input key values (using carry-free arithmetic) to produce primary hash values. Each sub-circuit may multiply bit vectors representing key values by a bit matrix and add a constant bit vector to the result. The circuitry may include a secondary hash function sub-circuit that generates secondary hash values by aggregating values associated with multiple primary hash values using signed, unsigned, or modular integer addition, or bit-wise XOR operations. Secondary hash values may be usable to access data values in the lookup table that are associated with particular input key values. The circuitry may determine the validity of input keys and may alter the configuration or contents of the lookup tables. The hash function sub-circuits may include programmable hash tables.
US09384139B2

Methods, apparatuses and computer software products implement embodiments of the present invention that include storing, to a module memory in each of a plurality of modules having multiple sub-modules, a record containing record entries corresponding respectively to the sub-modules. Upon detecting changes in respective states of the sub-modules of a given module, the corresponding record entries are set in response to the detected changes in the states of the sub-modules of the given module. A cache containing cache entries corresponding respectively to the sub-modules in the plurality of the modules is stored to a controller memory, and the record in each of the modules is polled. Upon detecting that a given record entry of the given module has been set, from the current state information with respect to the given sub-module is requested and received, and a corresponding cache entry is updated in the cache with the current state information.
US09384133B2

A synchronization capability to synchronize updates to page tables by forcing updates in cached entries to be made visible in memory (i.e., in in-memory page table entries). A synchronization instruction is used that ensures after the instruction has completed that updates to the cached entries that occurred prior to the synchronization instruction are made visible in memory. Synchronization may be used to facilitate memory management operations, such as bulk operations used to change a large section of memory to read-only, operations to manage a free list of memory pages, and/or operations associated with terminating processes.
US09384126B1

The various implementations described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to avoid false negative results in Bloom filters implemented in non-volatile data storage systems. In one aspect, if an element is added to a Bloom filter using k hash functions, instead of requiring all k bits to be set before returning a positive result (e.g., indicating that the element is most likely present in the Bloom filter), the embodiments described herein return a positive result when at least k minus x (k−x) bit positions are set in the Bloom filter, where x is an integer greater than zero and less than k. In some embodiments, additional measures to avoid false negatives include performing a read check immediately after setting the k bits in the Bloom filter and/or using a conservative reading threshold voltage.
US09384121B2

A method for cloud-based functional testing of a mobile application includes running a functional test program on a server. The functional test program provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows a user to select a mobile application and a mobile computing device having a touch-sensitive display screen for receiving user input. The mobile computing device is located remote to the server. The functional test program launches the mobile application on the mobile computing device via a wireless network connection. The server receives precision elements of each gesture-based input on the touch-sensitive display screen, the precision elements being captured and transmitted from the mobile computing device to the server during execution of the mobile application. The precision elements of each gesture-based input are then recorded in a test clip.
US09384120B2

In a method for generating test transactions across computing systems, a first test function of a first program on a first computing system of a plurality of computing systems receives a plurality of instructions, wherein a first instruction of the plurality of instructions is to invoke a first transaction between a second function of the first program and a second program on a second computing system of the plurality of computing systems. The first test function of the first program causes the transaction between the second function of the first program on the first computing system and the second program on the second computing system. The first test function of the first program sends the plurality of instructions to a second test function on a third computing system of the plurality of computing systems, based on a second instruction of the plurality of instructions.
US09384111B2

Three dimensional GPS or vehicle position data is used to determine a slope the vehicle is traveling over at a specific point in time. The slope data can then be combined with other metrics to provide an accurate, slope corrected vehicle mass. The vehicle mass can then be used along with other vehicle data to determine an amount of work performed by a vehicle, enabling s detailed efficiency analysis of the vehicle to be performed. To calculate slope, horizontal ground speed (VHGS) can be calculated using the Pythagorean Theorem. One can take the Z/Up magnitude and divide it by the horizontal ground speed. Replacing Z, x and y with directional vectors enables one to calculate slope. The slope data is then used to determine the mass of the vehicle at that time. Pervious techniques to calculate mass did not factor in slope, and thus are not accurate.
US09384108B2

According to one embodiment, a self-test system integrated on a chip is provided, the chip including a functional logic module for performing a selected application. The self-test system includes a primary interface a primary interface to the functional logic module, the primary interface configured to interface with a primary device, an input interface protocol generator for generating a pattern to be inserted into the primary interface and a secondary interface to the functional logic module, the secondary interface configured to interface with a secondary device. The system also includes an emulator engine coupled to the secondary interface, the emulator engine for testing a function of the functional logic module based on the inserted patterns, the function being configured to communicate with a secondary device coupled to the secondary interface, wherein the emulator engine tests the function when no secondary device is coupled to the chip.
US09384105B2

In a method of detecting faults of operation algorithms in a wire bonding machine, individual bond parameters with respect to each of the operation algorithms of the wire bonding machine can be set based on design data including information with respect to conductive wires connected between semiconductor chips of a semiconductor package. Actual conductive wires of an actual semiconductor package can be formed using the wire bonding machine into which the design data can be inputted. Actual data with respect to actual operation algorithms of the wire bonding machine, which can form the actual conductive wires, can be obtained. The actual data can be compared with the individual bond parameters to detect the faults of the operation algorithms of the wire bonding machine. Thus, forming an abnormal conductive wire by the wire bonding machine can be prevented beforehand.
US09384102B2

Redundant, fault-tolerant management fabric for multipartition servers are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, a method comprises connecting a plurality of rack system components to a first network segment, the connection including at least two physical links sharing a single network address. The method also comprises monitoring communications paths in the first network segment. The method also comprises switching communications from the first network segment to a failover network segment if there is a failure in any of the communications paths in the first network segment.
US09384094B2

Techniques are disclosed for restoring a system volume on a computing system without requiring the system volume to be fully restored prior to being used or requiring the use of a dedicated recovery environment (e.g., the WinPE or BartPE environments). Instead, the computing system is booted directly from the restore image or by redirecting I/O interrupts to the restore image. That is, when user initiates a restore process, the system boots from the backup itself. Once booted, a background process can complete the restore process.
US09384090B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of detecting code generators configured to generate a plurality of detecting codes to detect errors in a plurality of data items, respectively, a plurality of first correcting code generators configured to generate a plurality of first correcting codes to correct errors in a plurality of first data blocks, respectively, each of the first data blocks containing one of the data items and a corresponding detecting code, a second correcting code generators configured to generate a second correcting code to correct errors in a second data block, the second data block containing the first data blocks, and a semiconductor memory configured to nonvolatilely store the second data block, the first correcting codes, and the second correcting code.
US09384089B2

System and methods for proactively refreshing portions of a nonvolatile memory including a memory system that proactively refreshes a portion of nonvolatile memory based on data associated with the portion. The data may include the time elapsed since the portion was last refreshed, the number of times the portion has been cycled, and the average operating temperature of the nonvolatile memory. A portion of nonvolatile memory, when meeting certain criteria determined from the data, may be proactively refreshed during a downtime when the nonvolatile memory is not otherwise being accessed.
US09384087B2

Example embodiments disclose methods and apparatuses for encoding and decoding data in a memory system. In an encoding method according to an example embodiment of inventive concepts, a codeword is generated based on a combination of data to be stored and auxiliary data according to stuck cells and an encoding matrix based on information regarding coordinates of the stuck cells and values of the stuck cells. The generated codeword includes data corresponding to the values of the stuck cells at addresses corresponding to the coordinates of the stuck cells. In a decoding method according to an example embodiment of inventive concepts, data may be generated by multiplying an inverse matrix of the encoding matrix used for encoding by the codeword.
US09384084B2

An arrangement for verifying the completeness and compatibility of software components in an electronic control unit includes a bootloader and a CompleteCompatible verification component. The bootloader is arranged to, upon start-up of the electronic control unit, verify the completeness and compatibility of the CompleteCompatible verification component, and upon such verification being positive initiate the CompleteCompatible verification component. The CompleteCompatible verification component is arranged to, upon performance thereof, verify the completeness and compatibility of further software components in the electronic control unit.
US09384077B2

A storage control apparatus for controlling a storage apparatus including inside a casing thereof one or more storage units and two or more fans for cooling the storage units includes a processor. The processor is configured to obtain abnormality information regarding abnormalities in access in each of the storage units. The processor is configured to switch a control state between a first control state and a second control state. The first control state corresponds to a first combination of operation modes of the fans. The second control state corresponds to a second combination of operation modes of the fans. The second combination is different from the first combination. The processor is configured to detect, among the fans, a first fan that is related to an abnormality in the storage units on basis of first abnormality information for the first control state and second abnormality information for the second control state.
US09384075B2

Techniques for coordinated and device-distributed detection of abnormal network device operation are provided. In some embodiments, a method may include identifying a suspicious activity condition associated with a suspect network device. The suspicious activity condition may also be associated with the device itself. Activity of the network device may be detected and analyzed, including additional data corresponding to the activity from one or more other network devices in the same network. In response to determining that the suspicious activity condition is satisfied, an alert communication can be transmitted that identifies the suspect network device. When the activity is associated with the device itself, a local operation at the network device may be changed.
US09384073B2

A method for mediating messages between at least two browser extensions using a web browser of a computing device includes receiving a request from a first browser extension via a messaging application programming interface provided by the web browser, wherein a receiver of the request is a second browser extension determined by the messaging application programming interface based on a requested functionality included in the request from the first browser extension. The method includes sending, using the messaging application programming interface, the request to the second browser extension when the requested functionality is available in the second browser extension, and sending an error message to the first browser extension using the messaging application programming interface when the requested functionality is not available.
US09384068B2

A method comprising creating and publishing (H, K) an application program interface (API) enabling access to a dataset from a source data file; determining, by an application, a type of change (E) that has occurred to the source data file; and in dependence at least on a result of said determining, taking at least one action (H, K) relating to permitting subscriber access to the dataset of the changed source data file. The action may comprise permitting subscriber access to the dataset from the changed source data file either: in place of the dataset from the source data file (H), using the API; or by creating and publishing a new API (K). The permitting access to the dataset may also depend on subscriber access controls and/or publication controls under the control of a publishing entity. Changes to datasets may be provided to the application by a file synchronization system.
US09384061B1

Multiple workloads from multiple users requesting access to at least one virtualized application are received, wherein each of the workloads is specified with one or more separate globalization characteristics from among multiple globalization characteristics. To dynamically manage workload placement, each of the workloads is dynamically categorized separately for placement in one or more particular virtualized environments from among multiple virtualized environments based on the one or more separate globalization characteristics of each of the workloads, wherein each virtualized environment comprises the at least one virtualized application configured for a separate selection of globalization services from among multiple globalization services for handling a separate selection of the one or more separate globalization characteristics.
US09384059B2

An apparatus predicts time-series variations in resource usage for logical structures for a future time period (a schedule period) on the basis of a history representing the history of resource usage by the logical structures. The apparatus attempts to select a plurality of arrangement candidates for which resource usage in each of a plurality of physical machines is equal to or less than a criterion for each of a plurality of time segments comprising the schedule period. The apparatus computes a migration cost of migrating the logical structures between physical machines for an arrangement according to a holistic arrangement plan for each of a plurality of holistic arrangement plans. Each of the plurality of holistic arrangement plans is a combination of a plurality of selected arrangement candidates corresponding to each of the plurality of time segments.
US09384057B2

One or more measurements of processor utilization are taken. A utilization ceiling is calculated. One or more processing units (PUs) are added automatically if it is determined that the utilization ceiling is greater than an available PU capacity. One or more PUs are removed automatically responsive to determining that the utilization ceiling is at least one PU less than the available PU capacity.
US09384055B2

One or more measurements of processor utilization are taken. A utilization ceiling is calculated. One or more processing units (PUs) are added automatically if it is determined that the utilization ceiling is greater than an available PU capacity. One or more PUs are removed automatically responsive to determining that the utilization ceiling is at least one PU less than the available PU capacity.
US09384054B2

An approach is provided for managing processes for enabling execution of applications within a user device. One or more characteristics of an application are determined by a process monitor module. A process management module then determines a process of the device for execution the application based, at least in part, on the one or more characteristics. A process allocation policy is executed for enabling process allocation decisions.
US09384051B1

This disclosure relates to a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus of adaptive policy generating for storage system performance optimization. In some embodiments, this includes inspecting a storage system to obtain resources information, wherein the resources information includes attributes associated with a workload of the storage system and corresponding values, wherein the storage system includes an application configured to run a plurality of processes concurrently in an operating system producing a portion of the workload, obtaining one or more percentages, wherein the one or more percentages specifies an optimum proportion of the resources allocated to the application, obtaining amounts of the resources allocated to a process within the plurality of processes, and generating policies as a function of the resources information, the one or more percentages, and the amounts of the resources allocated to the process.
US09384046B2

An information processing apparatus includes a computer configured to set respectively a storage location for each value of a common variable among threads of a thread group having write requests to write the values of the common variable of the threads in a given process, from a specific storage location defined in the write requests, to the storage locations respectively set for the threads; store, for each thread of the thread group, a value of the common variable to the storage location set for the thread; and read out in order of execution of the threads of the thread group defined in the given process and when all the threads in the thread group have ended, each value of the common variable stored at the first storing, and in the order of execution, overwrite a value in the specific storage location with each read value of the common variable.
US09384045B2

Methods, computer systems, and computer program products for automating tasks in a computing environment, are provided. In one such embodiment, by way of example only, if an instant task is not found in one of list of included tasks and a list of excluded tasks, at least one of the following is performed: the instant task is compared the with previous instances of the task, if any; the instant task is analyzed, including an input/output (I/O) sequence for the instant task, to determine if the instant task is similar to an existing task; and the instant task is considered as a possible candidate for automation. If the instant task is determined to be an automation candidate, the instant task is added to the list of included tasks, otherwise the instant task is added to the list of excluded tasks.
US09384044B2

Computer systems and computer program products for automating tasks in a computing environment are provided. In one such embodiment, by way of example only, if an instant task is not found in one of list of included tasks and a list of excluded tasks, at least one of the following is performed: the instant task is compared the with previous instances of the task, if any; the instant task is analyzed, including an input/output (I/O) sequence for the instant task, to determine if the instant task is similar to an existing task; and the instant task is considered as a possible candidate for automation. If the instant task is determined to be an automation candidate, the instant task is added to the list of included tasks, otherwise the instant task is added to the list of excluded tasks.
US09384038B2

In response to determining that an activity has been postponed (e.g., interrupted or deferred), a computer system stores a record indicating that the activity is postponed. In response to determining that another activity has become active, the computer system stores a record indicating that the other activity is active. The computer system reminds a user to return to the postponed in response to determining that a reminder condition associated with the postponed activity has been satisfied. For example, the computer system may remind the user to return to the postponed activity in response to determining that the other activity has been completed.
US09384037B2

Generally, this disclosure provides systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for memory object reference count management with improved scalability based on transactional reference count elision. The device may include a hardware transactional memory processor configured to maintain a read-set associated with a transaction and to abort the transaction in response to a modification of contents of the read-set by an entity external to the transaction; and a code module configured to: enter the transaction; locate the memory object; read the reference count associated with the memory object, such that the reference count is added to the read-set associated with the transaction; access the memory object; and commit the transaction.
US09384020B2

Systems and methods are disclosed herein to a computer-implemented method of executing an enterprise application comprising: receiving, by a computer, an external request for a service provided by a runtime engine of the enterprise application; selecting, by a computer, a script from a plurality of scripts saved on a database based on the external request; referencing, by the computer, one or more tags stored in a tag library saved on the database that are called by the script, wherein the tags in the tag library define commands of the plurality of scripts and call one or more granular services of the enterprise application; loading, by a computer, the selected script and the tags referenced by the selected script; and executing, by a computer, instructions of the script to provide the service requested by the external request, wherein the selected script is updated in the database after executing instructions of the script.
US09384014B2

A mobile terminal including a communication unit configured to communicate with at least one external terminal; a memory configured to store at least first and second operating systems including at least first and second modes, respectively; and a controller configured to activate the first mode using the first operating system, to display, in a first display region of a display unit of the mobile terminal, the activated first mode, and to display in a second display region of the display unit, at least one second indicator that when selected, activates a second corresponding application in the second mode.
US09384011B2

A method for managing a user interface desktop workspace is provided. The method includes selecting applications in a desktop environment rendered in memory of a computer. The method also includes querying each of the selection applications, capturing through the querying, attributes for each of the selected applications and writing references to the selected applications and corresponding ones of the captured attributes to a workspace profile. The method further includes generating a workspace object from the workspace profile. Finally, the method includes configuring the workspace object in the desktop environment to respond to activation by loading each of the applications in the workspace profile using the corresponding ones of the captured attributes in the workspace profile.
US09384010B2

An embodiment of the present invention is a technique to dynamically swap processor cores. A first core has a first instruction set. The first core executes a program at a first performance level. The first core stops executing the program when a triggering event occurs. A second core has a second instruction set compatible with the first instruction set and has a second performance level different than the first performance level. The second core is in a power down state when the first core is executing the program. A circuit powers up the second core after the first core stops executing the program such that the second core continues executing the program at the second performance level.
US09384009B2

An embodiment of the present invention is a technique to dynamically swap processor cores. A first core has a first instruction set. The first core executes a program at a first performance level. The first core stops executing the program when a triggering event occurs. A second core has a second instruction set compatible with the first instruction set and has a second performance level different than the first performance level. The second core is in a power down state when the first core is executing the program. A circuit powers up the second core after the first core stops executing the program such that the second core continues executing the program at the second performance level.
US09384003B2

An electronic processor is provided for use with a memory (2530) having selectable memory areas. The processor includes a memory area selection circuit (MMU) operable to select one of the selectable memory areas at a time, and an instruction fetch circuit (2520, 2550) operable to fetch a target instruction at an address from the selected one of the selectable memory areas. The processor includes an execution circuit (Pipeline) coupled to execute instructions from the instruction fetch circuit (2520, 2550) and operable to execute a first instruction for changing the selection by the memory area selection circuit (MMU) from a first one of the selectable memory areas to a second one of the selectable memory areas, the execution circuit (Pipeline) further operable to execute a branch instruction that points to a target instruction, access to the target instruction depending on actual change of selection to the second one of the memory areas; and the processor includes a logic circuit (3108, 3120, 3125, 3130, 3140) operable to ensure fetch of the target instruction in response to the branch instruction after actual change of selection. Other circuits, devices, systems, apparatus, and processes are also disclosed.
US09384002B2

In a processor core, high latency operations are tracked in entries of a data structure associated with an execution unit of the processor core. In the execution unit, execution of an instruction dependent on a high latency operation tracked by an entry of the data structure is speculatively finished prior to completion of the high latency operation. Speculatively finishing the instruction includes reporting an identifier of the entry to completion logic of the processor core and removing the instruction from an execution pipeline of the execution unit. The completion logic records dependence of the instruction on the high latency operation and commits execution results of the instruction to an architected state of the processor only after successful completion of the high latency operation.
US09384001B2

A processing system includes a microprocessor, a hardware decoder arranged within the microprocessor, and a translator operatively coupled to the microprocessor. The hardware decoder is configured to decode instruction code non-native to the microprocessor for execution in the microprocessor. The translator is configured to form a translation of the instruction code in an instruction set native to the microprocessor and to connect a branch instruction in the translation to a chaining stub. The chaining stub is configured to selectively cause additional instruction code at a target address of the branch instruction to be received in the hardware decoder without causing the processing system to search for a translation of additional instruction code at the target address.
US09383996B2

A Load to Block Boundary instruction is provided that loads a variable number of bytes of data into a register while ensuring that a specified memory boundary is not crossed. The boundary may be specified a number of ways, including, but not limited to, a variable value in the instruction text, a fixed instruction text value encoded in the opcode, or a register based boundary.
US09383987B1

The present invention comprises systems and methods, and computer readable media comprising the methods, for updating software applications. The systems and methods of the present invention provide automation and flexibility to the updating process. Processor usage and network usage are monitored and software updates are initiated and/or continued during periods where processor and/or network usage are low. The update process may be halted when the processor and/or network connection are called upon for other uses. Processor and/or network usage may also be throttled, for example limiting the bandwidth available for the download to maintain sufficient processor share and/or bandwidth for other tasks. Adverse impact on a computer user is minimized.
US09383985B2

Deployment packages for applications may be created automatically to deploy unique instances of an application for execution on a computer system. The deployment packages may be created by copying an original deployment package to a new deployment package and modifying properties, attributes, and/or values within the new deployment package. The modified parameters may include a globally-unique identifier (GUID). The modifications to the new deployment package may be performed automatically without access to source code for the application in the original deployment package. The new deployment package may be deployed on a computer system to install a unique instance of the application. Automatic creation of deployment packages may be useful for testing multiple copies of an application in parallel on a computer system.
US09383972B2

Embodiments may implement processing and presentation of information with, e.g., standalone and/or application integration, object-oriented, hierarchical architecture, in the form of, e.g., an add-in application or a computing platform for creating, modifying, interpreting, compiling, and/or executing an application. Embodiments may be implemented as a discrete computing platform or as an overlay, allowing interoperability with capabilities of the overlaid platform. Many embodiments correspond to computing platforms that support a new computing paradigm, a definition-centered paradigm. The definition-centered paradigm is an object-oriented hierarchy referred to as a Model hierarchy with one or more data structures referred to as Entities and, in many embodiments, interface types referred to as Relations. Each Entity has a defined type that specifies the data structure layout and supported functions. Each data structure type may implement a set of Relations, forming part of a type hierarchy that affects the resolution of the Model.
US09383961B2

There can be provided a display duplication apparatus for a vehicle. The apparatus can comprise an input connected to receive a display signal from a portable device and a first display configured to display an invitation for input to define a selected interface region from a display output of the portable device. The first display is further configured to display an invitation for to input define a target display location of the vehicle and the apparatus can further comprise a plurality of displays configured to display a selected interface region at a defined target display location of the vehicle.
US09383960B2

According to one embodiment, a video display device includes a display panel and a light source modules, for example. The display panel includes a video display area capable of displaying video and is arranged adjacent to another display panel. The light source module includes a light source that irradiates the video display area with light. The light source module is configured to control an amount of light irradiated against the video display area such that a first area located on a side of a border with the other display panel is brighter than a second area other than the first area in the video display area.
US09383953B2

A print control apparatus capable of communicating with a printing apparatus has a first power mode and a second power mode, and power consumption of the second power mode is lower than power consumption of the first power mode.
US09383952B1

Systems and methods are disclosed for overriding a print ticket. An electronic document for printing on a target image output device is identified on a portable computing device. Printing and finishing instructions are selected, based on capabilities of the target device. A request to convert the electronic document to a printable format is transmitted to a separate document conversion service. The electronic document in the form of a printable document having a generic print ticket is received from the document conversion service. The generic print ticket is evaluated, based on the printing and finishing instructions selected for the target device. The generic print ticket is removed from the printable document and a corrected print ticket is produced based on the printing and finishing instructions selected for the target device. The corrected print ticket is injected into the printable document and transmitted from the portable computing device to the target device.
US09383942B2

There is provided a storage system comprising a control layer operable to manage a snapshot family (SF) constituted by SF members having hierarchical relations represented by a SF relationship data structure and a method of operating thereof. Upon receiving a command for restoring a writable SF member from a read-only snapshot thereof, the control layer provides a foreground atomic operation. The atomic operation comprises generating a new writable snapshot of the read-only snapshot (a destination SF member), modifying the SF relationship data structure, and re-assigning all logical unit numbers (LUNs) from the writable SF member to be restored to the destination SF member. Upon successful completion of the atomic operation, the control layer sends acknowledgement indicative of successful restoring the writable SF member. The control layer further provides a background process comprising modifying, in correspondence with the provided atomic operation, a SF mapping data structure comprising mappings between logical and physical addresses corresponding to SF members.
US09383940B1

Described are techniques for performing data migration for a source logical volume and a target. The target is configured as storage for another mirror of the source logical volume prior to copying data from the source logical volume to the target, and if the target is configured storage of another logical volume of the data storage system, the configured storage is remapped as storage for another mirror of the source logical volume prior to copying data from the source logical volume to the target. One or more invalid bits are set indicating that the target does not contain a valid copy of data from the source logical volume. Data is copied from the first mirror of the source logical volume to the target. Invalid bits are cleared as data portions of the first mirror of the source logical volume are copied to the target.
US09383937B1

In one aspect, a method includes checking periodically, using a processor, for a value associated with data in a data block in a higher tier journal stored on a first storage array having deduplication-based functionality and copying the data in the data block from the higher tier journal to a lower tier journal in a second storage array if the data in the data block exists only in an UNDO stream in the higher tier journal. The first storage array and the second storage array are used in a continuous data protection system to replicate a volume. The method also includes replacing the data in the data block in the journal with a zero block if the data in the data block exists only in the UNDO stream.
US09383934B1

Described systems and methods allow conducting computer security operations, such as detecting malware and spyware, in a bare-metal computer system. In some embodiments, a first processor of a computer system executes the code samples under assessment, whereas a second, distinct processor is used to carry out the assessment and to control various hardware components involved in the assessment. Such hardware components include, among others, a memory shadower configured to detect changes to a memory connected to the first processor, and a storage shadower configured to detect an attempt to write to a non-volatile storage device of the computer system.
US09383926B2

In an array of solid-state drives (SSDs), SSDs in the array are each configured to initiate generation of additional erased memory blocks when an initiation command is received from a host or when the number of erased memory blocks in the SSD falls below a minimum threshold of erased memory blocks for the SSD. The minimum threshold value may be adjusted by the host.
US09383925B2

A page compression strategy classifies uncompressed pages selected for compression. Similarly classified pages are compressed and bound into a single logical page. For logical pages having pages with more than one classification, a weighting factor is determined for the logical page.
US09383920B2

A method for controlling a figure based on a touch includes recognizing a figure which is input by handwriting on a touch screen, displaying one or more variable points to which a controlling function of a figure is mapped on a trajectory of the recognized figure, detecting a touch input that selects one of the variable points, determining whether a controlling function execution request of the recognized figure is detected based on at least one of a pressure information and a touch gesture information corresponding to the detected touch input, and executing the controlling function of the figure corresponding to the selected variable points when the controlling function execution request is detected.
US09383906B2

An object processing device includes a selection accepting unit that accepts selection of one or more objects among a plurality of displayed objects, a detection unit that detects instruction input for processing on objects, and an execution unit that executes processing on non-selected objects. It is thereby possible to easily set many objects as objects to be processed. Further, because processing on objects is executed by instruction input different from selection of objects, such as selection of objects displayed on a display unit, it is possible to reduce work for specified processing on objects to be processed.
US09383905B1

Summary information is used to navigate a tree structure of hierarchically arranged levels of nodes. A user interface displays detailed information concerning the nodes of one or more levels, including the current focus. The interface also displays summary information concerning each level of the navigation path from the root level to the focus level. The user can navigate through the tree structure using the summary information. As the user navigates down into the tree structure, new summary information is displayed summarizing the nodes of each successively deeper level. As the user navigates from the current focus towards the root, the user interface is updated to remove displayed summary and detailed information for levels that are no longer part of the navigation path. The summary information can also be used to filter the detailed information displayed concerning nodes of a specific level, responsive to user specified filtering criteria.
US09383899B2

A integrated content guide for multiple sources is provided with hyper-text type links to allow for the selection of various programs. The hyper-text links are provided for a transmitted and then stored digital bit stream. This allows for the embedding within the content guide what could be additional commercial information. The embedding may also be as to additional information for other related television or radio shows or the like. Information can be additional television shows, related information or activities on on-line services or automatic telephone ordering of products or services being displayed.
US09383898B2

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a display section which displays, as a first layout state, an object group including a plurality of objects arranged in a first direction, a detection section which detects an operation input that is input to the display section, and a control section which, when the detection section detects an operation input in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction, changes the first layout state into a second layout state in which the respective objects constituting the object group which has been selected are spread and pieces of information associated with the plurality of objects, respectively, are displayed.
US09383893B1

A presentation system and method is disclosed for presenting a presentation via a communications network. The presentation system includes one or more client nodes structured to receive presentation data. One or more leader stations of the presentation is structured to control content of the presentation data at the one or more client nodes, and one or more content server sites is structured to provide the presentation data to the one or more client nodes. The presentation system further includes one or more content managers structured to manage the delivery of the presentation data to the one or more content server sites and verify that the presentation data is operable to being presented at the one or more client nodes.
US09383890B2

A system includes a processor configured to cause a display to display a graphical visualization of an industrial system, detect a user input corresponding to an area of the display, perform a semantic zoom of the area of the display, and to display a first level of information based on a first level of the semantic zoom. The first level of information includes a data that was not previously displayed on the area of the display. The processor is configured to perform a semantic zoom of a graphical visualization of a graphical device during the first level of the semantic zoom. The processor is configured to cause the display to transition to a concurrent display of the graphical device and a second level of information during a second level of the semantic zoom.
US09383889B2

In one embodiment, a selection of a process component associated with a process flow is received. Further, a check is made to determine whether a graphical editor includes process components associated with the process flow. If the graphical editor does not include process components, the selected process component is placed on the graphical editor. If the graphical editor includes the process components, then compatibility of the selected process component with at least one of the one or more process components is determined by identifying cardinality and type of the process component. Further, the selected process component is connected to the process flow on the graphical editor based on the determined compatibility.
US09383880B2

According to one embodiment, a lateral-electric-field liquid crystal display device includes a light-emitting display layer including OLEDs and a driving circuit controlling light emission of the OLEDs, a moisture impermeable film provided to be laminated on the light-emitting display layer to prevent infiltration of moisture into the light-emitting display layer, an optical substrate provided separately from the moisture impermeable film and subjecting light from the light-emitting display region to optical processing, a first touch electrode group serving as one electrode group of touch electrodes and provided on a back surface of the optical substrate, and an extraction electrode group formed to be laminated on the moisture impermeable film, the extraction electrode group and the optical substrate have an overlapping part in plan view, and electrodes of the first touch electrode group being electrically connected to electrodes of the extraction electrode group in the overlapping part.
US09383868B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an input device that can achieve a hover operation and a touch operation that are differentiated and detected without inviting degradation in detection responsiveness to the touch operation. The input device includes a selecting section for selecting a pair from among a plurality of X electrodes and Y electrodes disposed as being spaced apart from each other, a detecting section for detecting a touch operation or a hover operation from a change of an electric characteristic of the pair, and a setting section for setting part of at least either of the X electrodes and the Y electrodes as hover electrodes for hover operation detection and setting at least part of the other electrodes as touch electrodes for touch operation detection.
US09383864B2

An illumination structure for an interactive input system having a display surface and a light source for backlighting the display surface is provided. The illumination structure includes at least one redirection structure positioned with respect to the display surface to receive excess light produced by the light source and to redirect the excess light generally across the display surface for backlighting one or more pointers. A method is provided for determining the location of at least one pointer in an interactive input system. The method includes capturing images generally across a display surface of a region of interest and a reflection of the region of interest; examining the images to determine at least one first potential target location for at least one pointer that is within the region of interest; analyzing the at least one first potential target location to resolve at least one first true target location associated with the at least one pointer; and calculating a first location for the at least one pointer corresponding to the at least one first true target location.
US09383858B2

The disclosure provides a method and device a method for detecting and receiving an induction signal induced by a contact of a pointing object with the touch screen, identifying information corresponding to the induction signal in response to receipt of the induction signal, determining a control operation based on the information, and executing the control operation in response to the determination. The control operation comprises at least one of closing a present application interface and displaying a new application interface.
US09383850B2

A touch screen comprises a first substrate, a second substrate and a third substrate sequentially stacked. A first sensing layer is provided on a first surface of the second substrate opposing to the third substrate, and a second sensing layer is provided on a surface of the third substrate opposing to the second substrate. The second substrate provided with the first sensing layer and the third substrate provided with the second sensing layer constitute a touch unit for sensing a touch signal, and the second substrate and the first substrate constitute a display unit for displaying.
US09383845B2

Disclosed herein is an electrooptic device having an input function including: an electrooptic panel; a touch panel having an input position detecting electrode in an input area aligned to an image display area of the electrooptic panel; and a wiring board connected to any one of the electrooptic panel and the touch panel, the wiring board having a touch sensor located outside the input area of the touch panel as viewed from an input surface of the touch panel.
US09383832B1

A haptic arm comprising: a user connection element; a reference; a first linkage connecting the user connection element to the reference, where the first linkage provides at least six independent degrees of freedom, and contains an intermediate link, three force sensors, three angle sensors; a second linkage connecting the intermediate link to the reference; a third linkage connecting the intermediate link to the reference a fourth linkage connecting the intermediate link to the reference; the second, third, and fourth linkages each containing an independent actuator and position sensor.
US09383828B2

There is provided an input device that needs not to change processing of means (a key processor or a key processing microcomputer as a software module) for performing processing based on an on or off state of a key switch in a matrix system and an A/D system. A key-in microcomputer detects the on or off states of plural key switches K based on voltages at A/D input terminals. The key-in microcomputer converts the detected on or off states of the plural key switches K into a bit array. A key processing microcomputer performs the processing based on the bit array converted by the key-in microcomputer.
US09383824B2

A wearable apparatus includes a user interface, a motion sensor, a microprocessor and a central processing unit (CPU). In an operation mode, the motion sensor senses a current hand movement trajectory (HMT). The microprocessor generates a velocity curve along a coordinate axis according to the current HMT, and samples the velocity curve according to a first predetermined velocity and a second predetermined velocity to output velocity sampling points. The microprocessor further determines whether a matching number between the velocity sampling points and velocity feature points is greater than a threshold. The current HMT matches a predetermined HMT when the matching number is greater than the threshold. The CPU performs a system operation corresponding to the default HMT when the current HMT matches the predetermined HMT.
US09383822B2

A tactile sense presentation method includes arranging a plurality of first electrodes covered with an insulating film on a plane; arranging a plurality of second electrodes on a plane with tops exposed to outside; and performing a first operation in parallel with a second operation. The first operation is for applying temporally changing first voltages to a part of the plurality of first electrodes to generate electric fields which are changed by the part of the plurality of first electrodes. The second operation is for applying temporally changing first electric currents to a part of the plurality of second electrodes to cause the electric currents to flow from the part of the plurality of second electrodes to second electrodes which are different from the part of the plurality of second electrodes via electric conductors.
US09383811B2

A bridge logic device for a heterogeneous computer system that has at least one performance processor, a processor supporting logic supporting the at least one performance processor to execute tasks of the software, and a hypervisor processor consuming less power than the at least one performance processor is disclosed. The bridge logic device comprises a hypervisor operation logic that maintains status of the system under the at least one performance processor; a processor language translator logic that translates between processor languages of the at least one performance and the hypervisor processors; and a high-speed bus switch that has first, second and third ports for relaying data across any two of the three ports bidirectionally. The switch is connected to the at least one performance processor, the hypervisor processor via the processor language translator logic, and to the processor supporting logic respectively at the first, second, and third port.
US09383804B2

A system and method for reducing heat in a portable computing device includes clocking a processor such that it is provided with a full frequency over time t0 to t1. A timer is set to trigger a forced power collapse (“FPC”) that removes all power to the processor from time t1 to time t2. At time t2, the processor may be awakened such that it can resume processing at the full frequency. Advantageously, during the FPC, no leakage power (“PL”) is consumed by the processor between t1 and t2. The result is that the processor averages the same processing efficiency over time t0 to t2 as it otherwise would have if a reduced frequency had been provided to it. However, because no PL was consumed during the FPC, the generation of heat between time t1 and t2 that is related to PL is avoided.
US09383802B1

A method of operating an integrated circuit that includes a plurality of registers may include receiving a sleep mode request for the integrated circuit. The sleep mode request may be a control signal received with control circuitry on the integrated circuit. The plurality of registers may be configured to operate as a scan chain when the sleep mode request is received. Integrated circuit state information that are stored in the plurality of registers may be retrieved by operating the scan chain and stored in a memory module. The integrated circuit may be placed in a sleep mode. Placing the integrated circuit in the sleep mode may reduce power consumption of the integrated circuit.
US09383795B2

A power fail protection system wherein pluralities of individual energy storage components are electrically connected to one or more SSD drives during a power failure though a power switch matrix. Typically an individual high-energy supply will be connected to one SSD drive during a power failure. The power fail protection system may also test the transient energy response of individual energy storage components, or include an imminent power fail warning connected directly to an SSD drive interface. Some embodiments further provide for identifying, reporting, and replacing weak energy storage components. High-energy supplies may be modular, or hot swappable.
US09383782B2

A mobile terminal, including detection section 30 that detects an orientation and moving direction of mobile terminal 1; vibration section 40 that generate vibrations corresponding to the orientation and moving direction detected by detection section 30; and control section 50 that executes an operation of mobile terminal 1 corresponding to the orientation and moving direction detected by detection section 30.
US09383774B2

A protective case for a handheld electronic device is provided. The protective case can include a removable mounting system comprised of an interlocking member and a plurality of mounting bases. The protective case may further include a non-slip member to prevent the device from slipping on a surface and a magnet for attaching the device to a magnetic surface.
US09383772B2

A dock for connecting a smartphone to a display and peripherals is disclosed. The dock transfers audio/video data to a display, establishes a wireless link with peripherals and possesses a KVM function. The dock has a controller with a switch, a wireless communication module, a USB hub, a relay, two USB connectors, a, USB switch, an AV converter, an AV switch, and two AV connectors. The relay normally connects AV data from the smartphone to the AV converter. The controller switches the relay while the switch is being operated, the wireless communication module establishes the wireless link with the smartphone. And the USB switch and AV switch can switch one of an external computer and a smartphone to be connected with the display and peripherals.
US09383764B1

An apparatus and method for a voltage reference circuit with improved precision. The voltage reference circuit utilizes threshold voltage difference between a pair of MOSFETs. A voltage reference circuit between a power supply node and a ground node and configured for generating a reference voltage, includes a first current mirror with a first NMOS transistor and a second NMOS transistor wherein said first NMOS transistor threshold voltage is not equal to said second NMOS transistor threshold voltage, a second current mirror with a first PMOS transistor, a second and third PMOS transistor configured to be coupled to said power supply node, a current source configured to be provide current to said second current mirror, an amplifier configured with a first and second input configured to be connected to the drains of said first NMOS transistor and said second NMOS transistor and, a feedback loop configured to be the output of said amplifier.
US09383757B2

An aircraft control device determines, on the basis of relative positional relations between an individual aircraft and a target aircraft, a role of the individual aircraft with respect to the target aircraft, and a trajectory of the individual aircraft based on control operations determined according to the role of the individual aircraft. As an example, the aircraft control device represents the role of the individual aircraft with respect to the target aircraft as a numerical value and changes the role of the individual aircraft a plurality of times by changing the numerical value. Every time the role of the individual aircraft is changed, a minimum distance to target is calculated for the individual aircraft, and the role of the individual aircraft having the largest minimum distance to target is determined as the role of the individual aircraft.
US09383756B2

A method of enabling an autopilot (9) to cause a rotorcraft (1) to follow a path. At least one guide mode (G) relative to at least one progression axis (P, R, V, Y) of the rotorcraft (1) is selected by the rotorcraft pilot. Said selection causes the selected guide mode (G) to be inhibited (19) and causes a path setpoint (C) to be acquired (20) from the pilot of the rotorcraft (1) operating a manual control member (4) for controlling the progression of the rotorcraft (1). The path setpoints (C) relating to other guide modes (G) of the rotorcraft (1) that continue to be engaged are conserved in their initial states and the autopilot (9) adapts the commands relating to the progression axes (P, R, V, Y) relating to these other guide modes (G).
US09383747B2

A production installation for the automated manufacture of parts, particularly a pallet circulating installation for the manufacture of reinforced concrete elements and/or an installation for manufacturing reinforcement elements, includes an electronic control computer which is connected to sensors and control elements in the production installation and controls the production sequence. At least one display device is provided for the schematic graphical representation of the production installation and the current state data therefor. A mass memory is provided which can be used to store the state data for the production installation in time-indexed fashion over a period which goes beyond the production time for a part. Also, an electronic computer unit and a display device are provided which can be used to retrieve and graphically display the historical state data stored in the mass memory, together with a schematic graphical representation of the production installation.
US09383745B2

A method for controlling furnace temperature of a fired heating furnace is disclosed, comprising: measuring furnace temperatures to obtain furnace temperature feedback values; calculating the differences between furnace temperature setting values and the furnace temperature feedback values as discrepancy values DV1, in accordance with the furnace temperature feedback values and the furnace temperature setting value; calculating the differences between the furnace temperature setting values and the furnace temperature feedback values in a unit time, i.e., the gradient of furnace temperature change values, as discrepancy values DV2; obtaining a speed V of a fired heater machine set from a speed adjuster of the fired heater machine set, and obtaining a first multiple feed forward output components FFV in accordance with the speed V of the machine set (V); obtaining a second multiple feed forward output components FFT in accordance with the differences between the furnace temperature setting values and the furnace temperature feedback values, i.e., the discrepancy values DV1; looking up a PID control parameter in accordance with the discrepancy values DV1 and DV2, based on fuzzy control rule, and creating an adjusting control parameter OP1 in accordance with the PID control parameter; controlling a valve for regulating coal gas flow and a valve for regulating air flow by combining the adjusting control parameter OP1 with the first multiple feed forward components FFV and the second multiple feed forward components FFT as a final control output value.
US09383743B2

A method, a system and a processing device for simultaneous manual retooling of at least two units or for simultaneous exchange of at least two format parts within a processing device. The processing device includes at least two working areas, each including a retooling area, a working opening and an activation device. The working openings exist in an open retooling state or in a closed processing state. For retooling at least two of the working openings are opened. The actual state of the working openings of at least two working areas is determined. Furthermore the activation of at least one activation device is recognized. If the activation devices of open working openings are activated simultaneously, a repositioning of convertible units or format parts is triggered.
US09383738B2

A method of high fidelity modeling an electrical power system of an aircraft, includes among other things, identifying electrical, mechanical, thermal, and EMI characteristics of the electrical power system; applying at least one circuit-based solver to model to at least one of the electrical characteristics; and applying, simultaneously with the circuit-based solver and in real-time, a field-based solver to model the remaining electrical, mechanical, thermal, and EMI characteristics.
US09383736B2

An air-conditioning controlling device includes an indicator calculating portion that calculates one or more indicators for evaluating, for each individual Pareto solution, similarity of the detail of air-conditioning control based on the operating volumes and/or the state distributions for the Pareto solution, a similarity calculating portion that calculates, for each Pareto solution, similarity of the Pareto solution to a reference Pareto solution, based on the indicators for the Pareto solution and the indicators for the reference Pareto solution, which is selected as a reference from the Pareto solutions, and an air-conditioning instructing portion that sends, to the air-conditioning system, the operating volumes of the Pareto solution with the least similarity to the reference Pareto solution from among the Pareto solutions belonging to the new air-conditioning controlling mode when there is a change, to a new air-conditioning controlling mode, of the air-conditioning controlling mode that is applied to the air-conditioned space.
US09383735B2

Distributed controllers in an electric power delivery system obtain measurements and equipment status, calculate derived values, and determine Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) state, and share such with other distributed controllers and coordination controllers. Distributed controllers and coordination controllers further refine measurements, equipment status, derived values, and IED state. Control of the electric power delivery system is coordinated among the distributed controllers and the coordination controllers.
US09383729B2

The present invention relates to a method of obtaining value from providing fabrication equipment comprising the following steps. Fabrication equipment is provided to an article producer, which equipment includes an on-line analyzer for detecting the presence of a tracer element. Raw material which contains the proprietary tracer element is then provided to the article producer. The article producer is then allowed to begin to convert the raw material to a finished article using the fabrication equipment. The raw material is analyzed for the presence of the tracer element while the fabrication equipment is operated. Appropriate action, such as charging a royalty or shutting down the fabrication equipment, is then taken in the event the tracer element is not detected.
US09383726B2

A physical quantity measuring method includes: (a) generating a synchronized input signal from an input signal, wherein the synchronized input signal is synchronized with a reference clock; (b) measuring a total number (Nsum) that is the sum of pulses of the reference clock included in each of n units of the synchronized input signal; (c) generating 2n deviation signals based on a delay of the synchronized input signal with respect to the input signal; (d) generating a deviation integration signal by subtracting the total values of n rear-half deviation signals from the total values of n front-half deviation signals; (e) converting the deviation integration signal into a number of pulses of the reference clock; and (f) calculating the average number (Nrave) of pulses of the reference clock included in one unit of the input signal, based on the total number (Nsum), the number (dNsum), and the number n.
US09383720B1

A process cartridge includes a drum cartridge and a developing cartridge attachable to and detachable from the drum cartridge. The developing cartridge includes a developing roller, a pressing protrusion and an engagement protrusion. The drum cartridge includes a photosensitive drum, a locking member engageable with the engagement protrusion of the developing cartridge attached to the drum cartridge, and a pressing member disposed between the locking member and the photosensitive drum. The locking member is pivotable between a restricting position engaged with the engagement protrusion to restrict detachment of the developing cartridge from the drum cartridge and a non-restricting position disengaged from the engagement protrusion to allow detachment of the developing cartridge from the drum cartridge. The pressing member is configured to contact the pressing protrusion of the developing cartridge attached to the drum cartridge for pressing the developing cartridge toward the photosensitive drum.
US09383705B2

In the present wet-type image formation apparatus, when setting a standard image formation condition, a control unit adjusts both a conveyance amount of toner and a charge amount of the toner in order to obtain a predetermined developing characteristic. During normal image formation, the control unit obtains the image density of a patch image formed at a high contrast potential and the image density of a patch image formed at a low contrast potential, adjusts the conveyance amount of the toner when the image density of the patch image formed at the high contrast potential is varied from the developing characteristic for the standard image formation condition, and adjusts the charge amount of the toner when the image density of the patch image formed at the low contrast potential is varied from the developing characteristic for the standard image formation condition.
US09383699B2

The present invention provides a fixing pressure roller exhibiting excellent compression set and having low hardness and low heat capacity, as well as a fixing device including the fixing pressure roller. A pressure roller employed in a fixing unit of a fixing device includes a core, and an elastic layer provided around the core, wherein the elastic layer is formed of a silicone rubber product produced by mixing a silicone rubber raw material with resin microballoons and water, and then curing the silicone rubber raw material; and the silicone rubber product includes therein voids provided by breakage of the resin microballoons through application of pressure, and voids provided through evaporation of the water.
US09383698B2

A fixing belt substrate for an image forming apparatus is prepared by an electroforming process. The fixing belt substrate contains nickel of prescribed weight percent, phosphorus of from about 0.4 weight percent or more to about 0.7 weight percent or less, sulfur of from about 0.003 weight percent or more to about 0.02 weight percent or less, and carbon of from about 0.012 weight percent or more to about 0.03 weight percent or less.
US09383695B2

Provided is an image forming apparatus including a first image portion that uses toner including a flat pigment, a second image portion that uses toner that does not include the flat pigment, a fixing portion that fixes an image formed on a recording medium to the recording medium by heat, and a controller that performs a control that switches the fixing portion to a first state in which an amount of heat similar to an amount of heat applied to the image when an image formed by the toner that does not include the flat pigment is fixed to the recording medium is applied to the image, and a second state in which, compared to when the image formed by the toner that does not include the flat pigment is fixed to the recording medium, the amount of heat applied to the image by the fixing portion is large.
US09383691B2

An image forming apparatus includes a transfer device to transfer a toner image onto a recording medium with a transfer bias applied thereto, a recording medium conveyor to deliver the recording medium to a transfer region while controlling an alignment of the recording medium having entered the transfer region in alignment control, and a transfer bias controller to obtain a toner adhesion amount information on a post-alignment-control toner image that passes through the transfer region after the recording medium is free from the alignment control, and to reduce, when the toner adhesion amount per unit area is less than a predetermined amount, the transfer bias after the alignment control is released to a level less than that of a transfer bias that is applied when the toner image having a same toner adhesion amount passes through the transfer region before the recording medium is free from the alignment control.
US09383690B1

A transfer device includes an endless rotating member that rotates; a first transfer section that transfers a toner image, which is formed by a first forming unit by using a flat toner containing a flat metallic pigment, onto an outer periphery of the rotating member; a second transfer section that transfers a toner image, which is formed by a second forming unit by using a non-flat toner, onto the outer periphery; a ground-connected section that is disposed downstream of the first transfer section in a rotating direction of the rotating member and that is connected to ground by being in contact with an inner periphery of the rotating member; and a power supply that applies an electric current to the first transfer section, which is lower than an electric current applied to the second transfer section, when the first transfer section transfers the toner image onto the outer periphery.
US09383681B2

A developing cartridge includes: a developing roller that is rotatable about a developing roller axis line, which extends in a predetermined direction; a supply roller, which is rotatable about a supply roller axis line, which extends in the predetermined direction, and which supplies developer to the developing roller; a developing roller driving gear that is connected to the developing roller; a supply roller driving gear that is connected to the supply roller; and a driving force transmission gear, which is rotatable about a gear axis line extending in the predetermined direction, and which includes: a first gear part meshed with the developing roller driving gear; and a second gear part meshed with the supply roller driving gear. The driving force transmission gear transmits driving force to the developing roller driving gear and the supply roller driving gear.
US09383679B2

A developer container (30) includes a container body (31), a movable wall (34), and a backward movement preventing mechanism (55). The container body (31) includes an inner surface (31K) defining a cylindrical internal space (31H) extending in a longitudinal direction, and a developer discharge port (319). The movable wall (34) includes an outer surface (34K) disposed slidably in close contact with the inner surface (31K) of the container body (31), and a conveying surface (340S). The conveying surface (340S) defines a storage space (31S) for developer. The movable wall (34) moves in the longitudinal direction from an initial position at one end side to the developer discharge port (319) while conveying the developer in the storage space (31S) to the developer discharge port (319). The backward movement preventing mechanism (55) prevents the movable wall (34) at the developer discharge port (319) from moving back toward the initial position.
US09383650B2

The present invention provides an exposure apparatus and an exposure method. The method comprises: utilizing an exposure light source to provide light rays to the photo-resist layer; and utilizing a reflective plate to reflect the light rays passing through the photo-resist layer and the transparent substrate back to the photo-resist layer. The present invention can reduce a line space of a pattern of the photo-resist layer.
US09383649B2

A method of processing a substrate is described herein. The method includes positioning a substrate on a stage associated with a maskless direct writing pattern generator. The substrate has an undeveloped, unexposed photoresist layer formed thereon. The photoresist layer has a plurality of writing pixel locations. The method includes delivering predetermined doses of electromagnetic energy from the pattern generator to each writing pixel location. A first predetermined dose is a full tone dose, and the first predetermined dose is delivered to at least one writing pixel location. A second predetermined is a fractional tone dose, and the second predetermined dose is delivered to at least one writing pixel location. A third predetermined dose is either a fractional dose or a zero tone dose. The third predetermined dose is delivered to at least one writing pixel location, and the third predetermined dose is different from the second predetermined dose.
US09383646B2

The present disclosure relates to novel two-step photoresist compositions and processes. The processes involve removing acid-labile groups in step one and crosslinking the remaining material with themselves or added crosslinking systems in step two. The incorporation of a multistep pathway in the resist catalytic chain increases the chemical gradient in areas receiving a low dose of irradiation, effectively acting as a built in dose depend quencher-analog and thus enhancing chemical gradient and thus resolution. The photoresist compositions and the methods are ideal for fine pattern processing using, for example, ultraviolet radiation, beyond extreme ultraviolet radiation, extreme ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and charged particle rays. Dual functionality photosensitive compositions and methods are also disclosed.
US09383641B2

According to one embodiment, in a method of repairing a defect on a template substrate for imprint lithography using a charged particle beam, a drift correction mark to correct drift of the charged particle beam is formed on the template substrate. The defect on the template substrate is repaired while correcting the drift of the charged particle beam with reference to the drift correction mark. The drift correction mark is removed.
US09383640B2

Embodiments of the invention disclose a mask plate and a method for detecting an exposure defect using the mask plate. The mask includes a mask pattern, and the mask further includes a plurality of detection-mark mask patterns arranged along a scan direction of an exposure machine, the detection-mark mask patterns are arranged at an edge of the mask pattern. The detection-mark mask patterns are adapted for forming detection marks on a substrate. The detection marks are adapted for reflecting exposure defects of the exposure machine. With the mask plate of the invention, the reason for the exposure defect may be precisely decided, thereby improving the exposure effect and improving the parameter index of the substrate.
US09383636B2

A pico projector system and an additional thermal dissipating method for the pico projector system are provided. The pico projector system includes a pico projector main body and a thermal dissipating module. The additional thermal dissipating method includes the steps of thermally dissipating the pico projector main body; externally connecting the thermal dissipating module to the pico projector main body; and thermally dissipating the pico projector main body by the thermal dissipating module.
US09383632B2

A stand (20) for video-photographic apparatuses comprises a support member (2), a support plate (3) which is fixed to the member (2) and which is intended to receive a video-photographic apparatus and which is provided with hooking means (4) for hooking the video-photographic apparatus to the support plate (3), a level indicator (5) which is suitable for indicating the positioning of the apparatus with respect to a horizontal plane and which is provided with fixing means (6) which are arranged for cooperating with corresponding fixing counter-means (7), the fixing counter-means (7) provided on the plate (3) in order to fix the level indicator (5) to the plate (3), wherein the fixing means (6) and the fixing counter-means (7) are configured in such a manner that the level indicator (5) can be fixed in at least two different positions on the plate (3), the positions being suitably spaced apart from each other.
US09383629B2

A camera stand is disclosed, that can be fastened and secured onto a post or the like via an attachment means. The camera stand is further comprised of a base plate and a reversible nut on which one can attach a camera or other recording device. A telescopic arm links the attachment means to the base plate, such that once the camera stand is secured onto a post or the like, the telescopic arm is either retracted or extended depending on the desired position of the camera. The camera stand is generally designed to be secured onto a boat in order for one to film or take pictures while boating and fishing; however, it is clear that the camera stand can be applied in a plethora of situations where pictures or film need to be taken from a particular vantage point.
US09383628B1

A camera housing includes a humidity prevention system comprising various seals between internal components of the housing such as an external shell of the housing, a lens barrel within the external shell, a front cover of the housing, an outer front cover of the housing, and a viewing component connected to the outer front cover. A plurality of seals creates an airtight seal between the lens barrel and the front cover and between the front cover and the outer front cover. The seals create an airtight cavity within the outer front cover, the viewing component, the front cover, and the lens barrel. Additional seals can also be used to create an airtight seal between the outer front cover and the viewing component and between the external shell and the front cover, further preventing humidity from accumulating within the closed airtight space.
US09383623B2

The present invention provides a color display device in which each pixel or sub-pixel can display four high quality color states. More specifically, an electrophoretic fluid is provided which comprises four types of particles, dispersed in a solvent or solvent mixture. The fluid may further comprise substantially uncharged neutral buoyancy particles.
US09383622B2

A color reflective display includes a substrate, an electrode pattern layer formed on the substrate, a reflective display-material layer formed on the electrode pattern layer, a light-transmissive electrode layer formed on the reflective display-material layer, a transparent layer formed on the transmissive electrode layer, and a color filter layer formed on the transparent layer and including an array of colored pixels. The color reflective display satisfies a following first formula when (0.54×C)−15 μm is zero or a positive value: (0.54×C)−15 μm≦D≦(0.54×C), and the color reflective display satisfies a following second formula when (0.54×C)−15 μm is a negative value: 0
US09383621B2

This invention relates to electrophoretic fluids, the use of these fluids for the preparation of an electrophoretic display device, and electrophoretic displays comprising such fluids.
US09383616B2

The invention provides a display module and a display device. The display module comprises a display panel, a backlight module and a glue frame, wherein the display panel comprises a color filter substrate, a light-outputting surface of which is provided with a transparent conductive layer thereon; the backlight module comprises a back plate, which is formed of conductive material; and the glue frame is provided between the display panel and the back plate, and wherein the glue frame is provided with a first opening therein; and the display module comprises a conductive member with a first bent part, a first end of which is attached to the conductive layer by passing through the first opening, a second end of which opposite to the first end is attached to the back plate through the first bent part. The invention can improve the display quality of the display device.
US09383606B2

A liquid crystal display panel is provided and includes a pair of substrates arranged face to face so as to sandwich a liquid crystal layer, a lower electrode formed on a lower substrate, an upper electrode formed on the lower substrate through an insulating layer, in which plural slits are formed in each sub-pixel, wherein each of the plural slits is formed as an aperture in which both ends thereof in the longitudinal direction are closed, and an alignment film formed so as to cover a surface of the upper electrode and the insulating layer. The plural slits have different widths at both ends of slits in a longitudinal direction, and a rubbing direction of the alignment film is a direction crossing longitudinal edges of each of the slits.
US09383589B2

A display device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a liquid crystal lens panel positioned on a display panel; and a reflective polarizer positioned between the display panel and the liquid crystal lens panel, wherein the liquid crystal lens panel includes a lower substrate and an upper substrate facing each other, a lower lens electrode formed on the lower substrate, where the lower lens electrode includes a plurality of separate lower lens electrodes formed into lower lens electrode groups, where a width of each separate lower lens electrode becomes wider closer to a center of the lower lens electrode group; an upper lens electrode formed on the upper substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate. The liquid crystal lens panel is configured to be operated in a 2D mode, a 3D mode, or a mirror mode.
US09383585B2

A three-dimensional (3D) liquid crystal display (LCD) device is disclosed herein and the 3D LCD device includes an LCD layer, an LC electrode layer and a transparent electrode layer. The LC electrode layer is disposed on the LCD layer and a voltage is applied to the LC electrode layer to switch between 2D mode and 3D mode. The transparent electrode layer is disposed on the LC electrode layer and a voltage or current is applied to the transparent electrode layer to generate a certain heat in the 3D mode. The heat generated by the transparent electrode layer increases the temperature of the LC electrode layer so as to increase the response time of the 3D LCD device and improve the naked eye type 3D display effect of the 3D LCD device.
US09383581B2

An information processing apparatus includes: an operation unit which receives an operation; a first detection unit which detects a direction of the operation unit; an input and output conversion unit which converts an input of the operation received by the operation unit into an output based on a first regulation, when the direction of the operation unit is in a first state, and converts the input into an output based on a second regulation which is different from the first regulation, when the direction of the operation unit is in a second state; a second detection unit which detects an apparatus state which is at least one of a position and a direction of the information processing apparatus; and a control processing unit which performs a control process of the information processing apparatus, based on the output from the input and output conversion unit and the apparatus state.
US09383574B2

This invention relates to a beam steering mechanism with ultrahigh frequency response and high sensitivity, which is based on the translation of two mirrors. Beam steering is achieved by the translations of two mirrors in the X axial mirror group and Y axial mirror group. The two translation mirrors are located at the output ends of two PZT actuators, and are directly actuated by the two PZT actuators. The dynamic characteristics of the two translation mirrors are always exactly the same as the output characteristics of the PZT actuators. There is no mechanical translation loss in this beam steering mechanism, and so, the beam steering mechanism has an ultrahigh frequency response and high angular deflection sensitivity.
US09383572B2

An electrowetting display device includes a wall layer having a first part located on a first area of a surface of a hydrophobic layer and a second part located on a second area of the surface. The second area has a lower hydrophobicity than the first area.
US09383569B2

Provided is a magnification observation device in which a focus of the imaging unit can be focused on the observation surface of the object in observation object region in a short period of time. An unit region of an observation object is imaged at a plurality of Z-positions by moving a object lens in the light-axis direction, the plurality of pieces of image data corresponding to the unit region are captured. An image of the observation object is displayed in the display unit as a navigation image. Shape data which indicates the position of the surface of the observation object in the unit region is generated. An observation object region on observation object is designated based on the navigation image. Based on the generated shape data, a focus of the object lens is on the surface of the observation object on the observation object region designated.
US09383563B2

A confocal image generation apparatus includes a laser, an objective, an optical path branch element which branches an optical path of an excitation light and an optical path of fluorescence, a scanning optics which shifts alight collecting position of the excitation light on a focal plane of the objective in an orthogonal direction to an optical axis of the objective, an optical detector in which a plurality of light-receiving elements are two-dimensionally arrayed with a shorter pitch than a diameter of a fluorescence Airy disk formed on an imaging plane that is optically conjugated with the focal plane, and an image operation unit which generates a confocal image of the sample in which a super-resolution component is emphasized on the basis of a signal that is output from the plurality of light-receiving elements, the super-resolution component being a frequency component that exceeds a cut-off frequency of the objective.
US09383553B2

An imaging lens substantially includes seven lenses, constituted by: a first lens having a positive refractive power and a convex surface toward an image side; a second lens having a negative refractive power; a third lens having a positive refractive power; a fourth lens; a fifth lens having a positive refractive power; a sixth lens; and a seventh lens having a negative refractive power, a concave surface toward an image side, and at least one inflection point in the surface toward the image side; provided in this order from an object side. All of the first lens through the seventh lens are single lenses.
US09383552B2

An optical imaging lens set includes a first lens element to a sixth lens element from an object side toward an image side along an optical axis. The first lens element has negative refractive power. The second lens element has an object-side surface with a convex portion in a vicinity of periphery. The third lens element has an object-side surface with a convex portion in a vicinity of periphery. The fifth lens element has an image-side surface with a convex portion in a vicinity of the optical axis. The sixth lens element has an object-side surface with a concave portion in a vicinity of its periphery.
US09383542B2

With a lens barrel, the depth of a first cam groove is substantially the same as the depth of a second cam groove. The length of a first cam protrusion in a first direction is greater than the length of the second straight portion in the first direction. The length of a second cam protrusion in a second direction is greater than the length of a first straight portion in the second direction.
US09383540B1

In one aspect, a system for controlling the focus of a lens is disclosed. The system may generally include a sensor configured to detect changes in a focal distance of the lens and a thermal device configured to adjust a lens temperature of the lens. In addition, the system may include one or more computing devices communicatively coupled to the sensor and the thermal device. The computing device(s) may be configured to control the thermal device such that the lens temperature is adjusted in a manner that reduces variations in the focal distance.
US09383528B2

A light-receiving module of the present invention includes: a lens collimating signal light entering from an optical fiber; a PLC (Planar Lightwave Circuit) where the signal light emitted by the lens enters; a mirror having a function of reflecting and transmitting the signal light emitted by the PLC; and a light-receiving element receiving the signal light reflected by the mirror. The mirror also has a function of transmitting light from the opposite direction to a direction to transmit the signal light emitted by the PLC. The module further includes a dummy mirror which reflects external light entering from outside in a direction toward the PLC, passes the reflected external light through the mirror from the opposite direction to the signal light transmission direction, causes the light to enter the PLC, and guides the light to the optical fiber via the PLC.
US09383526B2

An optical connector for terminating an optical fiber comprises a housing configured to mate with a receptacle and a collar body disposed in the housing. The collar body includes a ferrule securely disposed in an opening of the collar body, the ferrule including a housing portion to receive a gripping device to grip an optical fiber. A backbone retains the collar body within the housing and includes a fiber jacket clamping portion to clamp a jacket portion of the optical fiber. A boot is attachable to a portion of the backbone, wherein the boot actuates the fiber jacket clamping portion of the backbone upon attachment of the boot to the backbone.
US09383517B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward techniques and configurations for alternate connection of two devices via multiple branches of a waveguide. In one embodiment, the apparatus may include a first device (e.g., a peripheral device), a second device (e.g., a computing device) mountable on the first device in a first or second position, and a waveguide substantially disposed in the first device to communicatively couple the first device with the second device. The waveguide may comprise a movable connector and first and second branches corresponding to the first and second positions. The movable connector may alternately communicatively couple the first device with the second device via the first or second branch and disconnect the second or first branch respectively in response to corresponding placement of the second device in the first or second position. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09383514B2

To provide a tapered optical fiber having a good outer diameter accuracy and a high reproducibility, a manufacturing method of the tapered optical fiber, and a manufacturing system of the tapered optical fiber. The above-mentioned problem is solved by manufacturing system 1 of a tapered optical fiber comprising: shifter 11, 12 which reciprocates optical fiber 10 mounted at positions having a prescribed distance therebetween in the longer direction X of optical fiber 10 (the direction of the optical axis); and heating device 13 which heats the reciprocating optical fiber 10 at fixed position O, wherein shifter 13 includes a broadening unit which can increase the mounting distance (L1+L2) of the optical fiber while reciprocating the optical fiber. Shifter 11, 12 has at least two mounting unit which fix the optical fiber 10, and serves as a broadening unit controlling the two mounting unit independently or interlockingly. The control is performed to in order to change at least one of the ranges of reciprocal movement, the reciprocal movement speed, and the broadening width of the optical fiber fixed on the mounting unit.
US09383512B2

A photonic integrated circuit is provided that may include a substrate; one or more optical sources, on the substrate, to output light associated with a corresponding one or more optical signals; one or more waveguides connected to the one or more optical sources; a multiplexer connected to the one or more waveguides; and one or more light absorptive structures, located on the substrate adjacent to one of the one or more optical sources, one of the one or more waveguides, and/or the multiplexer, to absorb a portion of the light associated with at least one of the corresponding one or more optical signals.
US09383510B2

The backlight unit whose luminance life can be extended without increasing the cost and the power consumption includes: a light source unit to which a light source is mounted; a light guide plate which converts light from the light source to a surface light beam and emits the beam; and supporting members provided between the light source unit and the light guide plate, wherein each of the supporting members is a member having a function of shortening the distance between the light source unit and the light guide plate by the changes generated over time.
US09383509B2

Disclosed is a display device. The display device includes a display panel, a plurality of fixers arranged at certain intervals and adhered to a bottom edge of the display panel, a guide panel configured to support the plurality of fixers, a rear cover configured to support the guide panel, a side cover configured to surround a side of the rear cover and constrain positions of the plurality of fixers, a plurality of panel supporting parts configured to support a bottom of the display panel to which the plurality of fixers are not adhered and which is disposed between the plurality of fixers, and a plurality of ribs provided at the guide panel or the side cover configured to support the plurality of panel supporting parts.
US09383507B1

A BLU includes a plastic frame, a heat-dissipating plate, an LED light bar, a light guide, and an optical film. The plastic frame includes a first horizontal part and a first vertical part connected with the first horizontal part. The heat-dissipating plate includes a second horizontal part and a second vertical part. A first through hole penetrating the first horizontal part and the first vertical part is set on the plastic frame. A hook is set on the end of the second vertical part. The second vertical part is close to the first vertical part and the hook clasps the first horizontal part.
US09383506B2

A backlight unit 12 includes a chassis 14, an LED 17, a light guide plate 19, a duct member 22, and dissipative LED attachment portion 30. The chassis 14 includes a light exit portion 14c through which light exits. The LED 17 is arranged close to an end portion of the chassis 14. The light guide plate 19 is arranged closer to a middle area of the chassis 14 than the LED 17 and light from the LED 17 is guided toward the light exit portion 14c thereby. The duct member 22 is arranged on the side opposite to the light exit portion 14c side of the chassis 14 and has an air passage 23 therein. The duct member 22 is formed of a composite plate 37 including a resin core 38 having a plate-like shape and a pair of metal plates 39 and 40 arranged so as to sandwich the resin core 38 from a front side and a rear side. The dissipative LED attachment portion 30 is provided to the duct member 22 and includes one part facing the air passage 23 and another part protruding to inside of the chassis 14 and to which the LED 17 is attached.
US09383499B2

This surface light source device has; a case; multiple light-emitting devices arranged on the inner surfaces of a pair of side walls within the case; a reflecting member that protrudes from the base surface of the case, and that reflects light emitted from the light-emitting devices toward an aperture part of the case; and a light-emitting surface member that has a light-diffusing property and a light-transmitting property, and that covers the aperture part. The light-emitting devices are arranged on the side walls such that the light axis of the light-emitting elements is parallel to the base surface of the case. The light-reflecting member has a ridge line that is parallel to the side surfaces and the ceiling surface of the case, and the light-reflecting member is formed with a curved surface, with the ridge line being contained in the apex thereof.
US09383492B2

To provide an elliptical polarization plate excellent in suppression of coloration and light leakage in display. An elliptical polarization plate having a transparent protective film pasted to one surface of a polarizer and an optically anisotropic film pasted to the other surface thereof, wherein, when measured under condition of incident polarization in the film normal direction from the side of the transparent protective film, the visibility corrected single body transmittance is 43.0% or more, the visibility corrected polarization degree is 95.0% or more, the single body hue value a* is −2.0 to 1.0 and the single body hue value b* is −1.0 to 5.0, and the optically anisotropic film satisfies the formulae (1), (2) and (3): Re(450)/Re(550)≦1.00  (1) 1.00≦Re(650)/Re(550)  (2) 100
US09383484B2

Provided is a light-shielding material for use in optical instrument and having a light-shielding sheet with broad low-gloss region while maintaining the physical properties necessary for a light-shielding sheet. The light-shielding material 1 comprises a light-shielding sheet 4 on a substrate 2, and the surface properties of the light-shielding sheet 4 are adjusted so as to fulfill at least one of A1 and A2, and at least one of B1 and B2. A1 is the condition that the arithmetic average roughness Sa in a three-dimensional surface roughness measurement is 0.4 or larger and 2.0 or smaller, A2 is that the ten-point average roughness Sz in a three-dimensional surface roughness measurement is 1 or larger and 20 or smaller. Defining a central plane of projections and recesses in a three-dimensional surface roughness measurement as a reference plane, Pn (n is any positive integer) as the number of projections which protrude to a plane located at a height of n times Sa from the reference plane, Pn+1 as the number of projections which protrude to a plane located at a height of (n+1) times Sa, and Rn as the ratio (Pn+1/Pn) of Pn and Pn+1, B1 is the condition that R1 is 55% or greater and R4 is 7% or greater, and B2 is the condition that at least R1 is 55% or greater, R2 is 15% or greater and R3 is 8% or greater.
US09383475B2

A method of analyzing controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) survey data to determine probability density functions (PDFs) for values of an electromagnetic parameter at locations in a subterranean region of interest is provided. Structural features in the subterranean strata are identified, e.g. from seismic survey data. An initial PDF for values of the electromagnetic parameter is then assigned to each feature. Models specifying values for the parameter in each structural feature are generated by sampling the PDFs. A subset of the models are deemed acceptable based on an acceptance criterion. The PDF for each feature is modified based on values for the parameter in the subset of accepted models to generate replacement PDFs for each feature. The process may be iterated a number of times to generate final PDFs for values of the electromagnetic parameter in the structural features identified in the subterranean region of interest.
US09383467B2

A seismic cable including sensors, data transmission lines extending the length of the seismic cable for conveying data signals issued from the sensors. Controllers distributed along the seismic cable operate as an interface between the sensors and the data transmission lines. Power supplying lines supply power to the controllers and the sensors. X power supplying lines are alternately connected to one out of X successive controllers. Each controller is adapted for applying on a power supplying line detected as defective the electrical tension provided by another power supplying line. Y data transmission lines are alternately connected to one out of Y successive controllers. Each controller is adapted to redirect towards at least one adjacent controller the data associated with a data transmission line which is determined to be defective.
US09383464B2

A seismic imaging technology for imaging a subsurface structure is provided. The seismic imaging technology is applied to modeling parameters of a wave equation redefined in a new coordinate system resulting from converting space axes into a logarithmic scale. The redefined wave equation is applied to wave inversion or reverse-time migration.
US09383462B2

A seismic generation system may include an electrical source, a conductor coupled to the electrical source and to be positioned in a wellbore in a subterranean formation with a casing therein, and a seismic generation source assembly to be positioned in the wellbore and coupled to the conductor. The seismic generation source assembly may include a source element having a sealed housing, an armature within the sealed housing, source electromagnets coupled to the armature, and electromagnetic clamps coupled to the armature, each electromagnetic clamp having opposite magnetic poles. The sealed housing may include respective ferromagnetic portions adjacent the opposite magnetic poles of each electromagnetic clamp, and non-ferromagnetic portions between the opposite magnetic poles of each electromagnetic clamp.
US09383455B2

A radiation measurement apparatus includes a radiation sensor that generates a detection signal, a first counter unit that counts the number of the detection signal, an oscillator that generates periodic signal with predetermined period, an AND circuit that outputs logical product obtained by performing AND operation between the detection signal and the periodic signal, a second counter unit that counts the number of a signal output from the AND circuit, and a display unit that displays a value counted by the first counter unit when a value counted by the second counter unit is less than predetermined value and a value being different from the value counted by the first counter unit when the value counted by the second counter unit is not less than predetermined value.
US09383449B2

Provided is a method and apparatus for removing a spoofing signal. The apparatus may convert a global positioning system (GPS) signal from an RF signal to an IF signal, and remove a spoofing signal based on whether the spoofing signal is present in the RF signal. The apparatus may obtain and track the spoofing signal using the IF signal, and generate a characteristic of the spoofing signal. The apparatus may generate an anti-spoofing signal by shifting a phase of the spoofing signal 180 degrees based on the characteristic of the spoofing signal.
US09383443B2

An ultrasonic sensor includes a housing having a peripheral side wall and a base surface, i.e., it is configured as essentially pot-shaped. The base surface is configured as a diaphragm. A transducer element, which is configured as a piezoelectric element, for example, and is used for generating and detecting ultrasonic oscillations, is situated on the base surface. At least one mass element is situated on the base surface so that the resistance of the mass element against an oscillation of the diaphragm increases with rising oscillation frequency.
US09383441B2

A mobile device determines its location accurately by measuring the range to a position reflector as well as azimuth and elevation angles of arrival (AOA) at the reflector. The mobile can transmit a coded radar signal and process reflections to determine its location. The reflectors may include internal delays that can identify the reflector and provide transmit/receive separation for the mobile. The reflection can include a primary and further delayed secondary reflection. The mobile can determine the internal delay of the reflector based on the delay between primary and secondary reflections. The range and AOA information can be combined with information about the position, orientation, and characteristics of the reflectors to determine location. In some systems, the mobile device can determine its location in a three-dimensional space using reflections from only one reflector. The reflectors, which can be economically produced, can be unpowered and low profile for easy installation.
US09383440B2

There is provided a radar apparatus. An extracting unit extracts a peak signal obtained from a difference frequency between a transmitting signal and a receiving signal during a first period in which the frequency of the transmitting signal ascends and a second period in which the frequency descends. A pairing unit pairs the peak signals of the first and second periods based on a predetermined condition. A deriving unit derives target information including a position of a target based on paired data obtained by pairing the peak signals. The pairing unit selects normal-paired data which is paired in a correct combination, from among the plurality of paired data, based on a plurality of parameter values of the peak signals of the first and second periods which are to be paired, and a discrimination function for discriminating true or false of the pairing.
US09383436B2

Determination of distance and/or position relative to one or more points by transmission of a wideband signal by a first antenna, reception of the transmitted wideband signal by a second antenna and comparison of the time delay between the transmitted and received signals. The first and second antennas are connected to a timer/processor unit. One or more of the first or second antennas is movable to an unknown position to be measured, but maintains connection to the timer/processor through a fixed or known delay communication link. The timer/processor contains a time base for generating the transmitted signal and an offset timer for measuring the time delay of the received signal. The received signal may be processed to determine a start time or leading edge that may resolve RF cycle and modulation bandwidth ambiguities and may allow positive determination of distance much shorter than a wavelength at the operation center frequency.
US09383431B2

A system for estimating apparatus position based on different types of positioning information. In at least one example implementation, an apparatus may sense wireless signals (802), and if the wireless signals are determined to comprise angular data meeting a certain criteria (804), the position of the apparatus may be estimated based on the angular data (806). Otherwise, if the apparatus determines that the wireless signals comprise at least one of angular data not meeting the certain criteria (814) or proximity data (816), the position of the apparatus may be estimated based on proximity data derived from the sensed wireless signals (822).
US09383427B2

The present inventive concept includes a duct system and method for using same to map and locate ducts. A preferred embodiment of the duct system includes a duct, a plurality of electronic information modules and an oversheath at least partially covering the plurality of information modules and fixing the information modules to the duct. The plurality of information modules are configured to emit a positional signal to enable location of the information modules and associated duct(s) and/or mapping of the duct system.
US09383423B2

The present disclosure provides a method and system for quantifying and making images of tissue anisotropy property based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The systems and methods provided herein utilize orientation distribution of magnetic susceptibility to characterize magnetic susceptibility anisotropy (MSA) inside biological tissues. This MSA may be intrinsic property of the tissue or may be induced by the presence of external agents. In certain embodiments, the MSA is displayed as an orientation distribution function of susceptibility and/or may be described by mathematical quantities such as tensors (e.g., symmetric or asymmetric second order or higher order tensors) and spherical harmonics. In other embodiments, the MSA is characterized using a second order tensor named apparent susceptibility tensor (AST).
US09383422B2

According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a mode switching part and an imaging system. The mode switching part is configured to put a circuit system consuming a power into a shutdown state when a first trigger has been detected and put the circuit system being the shutdown state into a startup state when a second trigger has been detected. The first trigger shows that an imaging does not start for a certain period. The second trigger shows that the imaging starts. The imaging system is configured to perform the imaging by using the circuit system being the startup state.
US09383417B2

A method for measuring a time-variant magnetic field using a magnetoelectric sensor having mechanical resonant frequency fR, wherein the magnetic field has at least one component having harmonic time dependence with the measuring signal amplitude to be determined Hmess0 and the measuring signal frequency to be determined fmess in a known frequency interval fmin
US09383416B2

A traction battery connection simulator is disclosed comprising a plurality of power supplies connected to simulate a traction battery and a plurality of switching devices that selectively connect the power supplies to a controller under test. The simulator further comprises a controller programmed to selectively connect at least one of power supplies to the controller under test for a predetermined period of time before connecting remaining power supplies. The controller may also be programmed to disconnect at least one power supplies from the controller under test for a predetermined period of time before disconnecting remaining power supplies. Voltages associated with each power supply and currents through each switching device may be compared to corresponding predetermined ranges. An indicator may be set in response to at least one of the voltages and currents being outside of a corresponding predetermined range.
US09383405B2

A lightning protection circuit includes a first lightning protection branch including at least one transient voltage suppression (TVS) protection element, and a testing element integral to the lightning protection circuit. The testing element is operable to test a functionality of the lightning protection circuit while he lightning protection circuit is installed in an electronic control system. A controller is connected to the testing element, such that the controller receives sensed signals from the testing element.
US09383398B2

Disclosed is a motor power simulating apparatus for fuel cell power module evaluation that accurately reflects real world characteristics of a fuel cell vehicle. More particularly, the power simulating apparatus disclosed herein includes a fuel cell power module, a ripple current generator, and an electronic load device, the ripple current generator connected to the fuel cell power module and the electronic load device to accurately simulate power output from a fuel cell of a fuel cell vehicle under real world conditions.
US09383387B2

An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a system and method for image analysis and processing. The present invention provides a software package for processing AFM data. More particularly it can be used for characterizing carbon nanotubes found within AFM images, though it does offer editing features that are general in nature. Its features are split amongst five menus, one button, and four data panels. The software package can be used to determine physical characteristics related to the imaged subject, such as, for instance length data for imaged carbon nanotubes.
US09383382B2

A microelectromechanical sensor that in one embodiment includes a supporting structure, having a substrate and electrode structures anchored to the substrate; and a sensing mass, movable with respect to the supporting structure so that a distance between the sensing mass and the substrate is variable. The sensing mass is provided with movable electrodes capacitively coupled to the electrode structures. Each electrode structure comprises a first fixed electrode and a second fixed electrode mutually insulated by a dielectric region and arranged in succession in a direction substantially perpendicular to a face of the substrate.
US09383381B2

An airspeed calculation system for determining the airspeed of an aircraft includes a static pressure device, a global positioning system device, an inertial measurement unit device, an angle of attack device, a total pressure sensor, a total air temperature sensor, at least one processor, and a memory. The at least one processor is in electronic communication with the memory, the static pressure device, the global positioning system device, the inertial measurement unit device, the angle of attack device, the total pressure sensor, and the total air temperature sensor. The memory includes programming code for execution by the at least one processor. The programming code is configured to determine the airspeed of the aircraft using data obtained from each of the static pressure device, the global positioning system device, the inertial measurement unit device, the angle of attack device, the total pressure sensor, and the total air temperature sensor.
US09383380B2

A method and system of determining motion parameters for a rotating machine. A detector is configured to receive a rotary motion input signal and a counter signal and to send a plurality of time values based on the input signal and the counter signal. A memory stores the plurality of time values in an ordered sequence and is coupled to the detector. A logic component selects time values stored in the memory by skipping a predefined number of time values in the ordered sequence, reads the selected time values to determine a coherent set of data values, and sends the coherent set of data values.
US09383357B2

The present invention provides biomarkers for replicative senescence. In particular, Lamin B1 is provided as a biomarker for replicative senescence.
US09383351B2

A test strip to assist in determining the concentration of an analyte in a fluid sample comprises a base, at least one tab and a break line. The base includes a capillary channel and a test element. The capillary channel is in fluid communication with the test element. The test element is adapted to receive the fluid sample. The at least one tab is removably attached to the base. The capillary channel extends from the base into a portion of the tab. The break line intersects the capillary channel in which an inlet to the capillary channel is exposed along the break line when the tab is separated from the base.
US09383347B2

The pathological diagnosis results assessment system includes: a diagnosis unit to carry out pathological diagnosis of tissue specimen images, and generates diagnosis record information; a report storage unit to store reports in which pathological diagnosis results for the tissue specimen images are described; a report analysis unit to analyze the diagnosis results described in the reports stored in the report storage unit; and a report verification unit to compare the diagnosis result analyzed by the report analysis unit to the diagnosis record information, and determine a degree of matching on the diagnosis degree of the comparison result.
US09383346B2

During triaxial compression test, a soil specimen experiences reduction of its height with increase in its diameter. New cross-sectional area is calculated assuming uniform increase in diameter. This condition is seldom met in actual soil specimens, because specimen undergoes non-uniform increase in diameter and very often with localized bulging in specimen affecting the accuracy of calculation of deviator stress, shears strength and volume change characteristics. The expandable jacket included in this invention consists of circular segmental metal plates wrapped around the soil specimen and elastomeric rubber bands or rings around the segmental plates to permit uniform radial expansion and maintain uniform diameter of the specimen during the test and thereby providing accurate values of deviator stress, volume change characteristics and shear strength of soil specimen. The calibration device for calibration of expandable jacket shall provide the magnitude of correction to be made in deviator stress.
US09383343B2

There is provided an aluminum die cast part strength evaluating method is provided for correctly evaluating strength of an actual aluminum die cast part. Strength of the actual aluminum die cast part will be correctly evaluated by conducting ultrasonic inspection of a predetermined range of a high stress region of an aluminum die cast part, which is found out through stress analysis beforehand, for an internal defect, and evaluating that the aluminum die cast part has a predetermined strength if the maximum internal defect area within the predetermined range is equal to or less than a predetermined value. Moreover, an actual aluminum die cast part with a predetermined strength will be evaluated correctly by: evaluating strength using the aluminum die cast part strength evaluating method and setting the maximum-possible internal defect area within the predetermined range of the high stress region to 0.8 mm2 or less.
US09383342B1

A method and apparatus for inspecting a test object with a non-planar feature. A pattern of light is transmitted from a first array of optical fibers associated with a sensor structure onto a surface of the test object at a location of the non-planar feature. The pattern of light is configured to cause sound waves in the test object when the pattern of light encounters the test object. A response to the sound waves is detected using a second array of optical fibers associated with the sensor structure. A determination is made as to whether an inconsistency is present in the test object at the location of the non-planar feature from the response to the sound waves detected using the second array of optical fibers.
US09383338B2

A method of mass spectrometry is disclosed comprising pulsing ions into a time of flight region and detecting the ions using an ion detector. The signal output from the ion detector is digitized to produce a digitized signal. The peak area A1 and arrival time T1 of the ion peak are determined and a degree to which the ion peak suffers from saturation is also determined. A corrected area A′1 of the ion peak is then determined based upon the degree to which the ion peak was determined to suffer from saturation.
US09383334B2

In a method for manufacturing an ion-sensitive structure for an ion-sensitive sensor, first a semiconductor substrate bearing an oxide layer is provided, whereupon a metal oxide layer and a metal layer are deposited and tempered, in order to obtain a layer sequence having a crystallized metal oxide layer and an oxidized and crystallized metal layer on the semiconductor substrate bearing the oxide layer. In such case, the metal oxide layer and the metal layer have a compatible metal element, and the coating thickness dMOX of the metal oxide layer is greater than the coating thickness dMET of the metal layer.
US09383327B2

Methods and systems for tracing circuitry on integrated circuits using focused ion beam based imaging techniques. A first component or node on an integrated circuit is coupled to a second component or node on the same integrated circuit. After an external bias is applied to the first component or node, a focused ion beam is applied to the integrated circuit and an image is taken using an electron detector. The features or components on the integrated circuit which are coupled to the second component or node will show up in high contrast on the resulting image. The method may also involve applying a bias to a node or component and then using focused ion beam imaging techniques (through an electron detector) to arrive at an image of the integrated circuit. Components coupled to the node will appear in high contrast in the resulting image.
US09383326B2

A technique, including associated method and system, for on-line measurement of a trace element in a crude or heavy fuel stream for a refinery, including in one embodiment: providing at least one x-ray fluorescence (“XRF”) analyzer at a point for the refinery; analyzing the petroleum stream for chlorine using the analyzer; and providing results from the analyzer to refinery operators, to improve refinery operations. The analyzer may be a monochromatic wavelength XRF analyzer, wherein the analyzer focuses energy to/from the stream using an x-ray engine having at least one focusing, monochromating x-ray optic. The analyzer may be an MWDXRF or ME-EDXRF analyzer; and the trace element may be one or more of the following elements: S, Cl, P, K, Ca, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Hg, As, Pb, and Se; and in one embodiment the stream is crude, and the trace element is chlorine.
US09383325B2

A method for determining geometric relationships of crystal reciprocal vectors on the two-dimensional planes obtained from an EBSD pattern includes steps of: geometrically correcting Kikuchi bands for obtaining the reciprocal vectors corresponding to the Kikuchi bands; selecting a set of reciprocal vectors which define a parallelogram with minimum area on the reciprocal plane as a two-dimensional basis for forming a grid, marking the basis; determining integer coordinates of other reciprocal vectors on the reciprocal plane relative to the basis, obtaining the deviations of the integer coordinates from the nearest grid nodes, marking the reciprocal vector with minimum deviation; fitting the length and the angel of the basis, redefining a new two-dimensional grid by the fitting result; repeating till all reciprocal vectors on the reciprocal plane are marked, wherein integer coordinates of the reciprocal vectors relative to the last two-dimensional basis now disclose the geometric relationships.
US09383314B2

The invention provides an apparatus and a method that reduces fluid loss from a cask during a maturation process by sealably enclosing the cask in a vessel that provides an expansion volume to receive fluid vapor from the cask, a monitoring system and a method that monitors fluid loss from a cask during a maturation process using a light source and a detector to determine the presence of fluid vapor in the vicinity of the cask, a corresponding system for controlling a maturation process in which environmental conditions are controlled, and a cask leak testing system and method making use of the above.
US09383310B2

A method of determining the orientation of a grain structure of a turbine blade or vane using an optical technique, illuminates a surface with a beam from a light source and then manipulates the relative orientation of the surface, a light beam and detector to determine the relative orientation which provides the peak reflectance of the beam from the surface to the detector. Further surfaces of the component are similarly manipulated and illuminated and the orientation of the grain structure calculated from the determined relative peak reflectance orientations of the surface, first further surface and second further surface. Determination of the grain orientation allows the value of high angle boundaries to be determined. Also disclosed is apparatus suitable for performing the method.
US09383304B2

A system and a method of testing a superabrasive cutter are disclosed. The system of testing a superabrasive cutter may comprise a spinning wheel holding the superabrasive cutter; a rock feeding into a rotation of the superabrasive cutter on the spinning wheel; and a plurality of sensors operably attaching to the spinning wheel and the rock to detect properties of the superabrasive cutter. The method of testing a superabrasive cutter may comprise steps of attaching a superabrasive cutter to a spinning wheel; moving a rock into a rotation of the superabrasive cutter on the spinning wheel; and communicably coupling a first sensor to the superabrasive cutter.
US09383299B2

Capture particles for harvesting analytes from solution and methods for using them are described. The capture particles are made up of a polymeric matrix having pore size that allows for the analytes to enter the capture particles. The pore size of the capture particles are changeable upon application of a stimulus to the particles, allowing the pore size of the particles to be changed so that analytes of interest remain sequestered inside the particles. The polymeric matrix of the capture particles are made of co-polymeric materials having a structural monomer and an affinity monomer, the affinity monomer having properties that attract the analyte to the capture particle. The capture particles may be used to isolate and identify analytes present in a mixture. They may also be used to protect analytes which are typically subject to degradation upon harvesting and to concentrate low an analyte in low abundance in a fluid.
US09383293B2

The invention relates to a device for sample separation, particularly for blood separation, in which the sample liquid is introduced into a feed device. The sample flows vertically through a separating device such as a filter or a membrane, so that sample particles are retained and separated off.The sample liquid thus separated, particularly blood plasma, is received by an inlet chamber underneath the separating device and conveyed by means of a channel in the lateral direction out of the inlet chamber.Particularly advantageously, the channel extends into the inlet chamber, the channel being formed by a recess in the base of the inlet chamber.
US09383291B2

An automated seed sampler system includes an imaging device for obtaining images of seeds, an orienting device for orienting the seeds based on the images, and a sampling station for removing tissue from the oriented seeds. In some aspects, the system also includes a transport subsystem for supporting the oriented seeds and conveying the oriented seeds to the sampling station. A method for removing tissue from seeds includes imaging the seeds, orienting the seeds based on image information obtained from the seeds, and removing tissue from the oriented seeds. In some aspects, the method also includes transporting the oriented seeds in a transport subsystem to a sampling station for removing the tissue from the oriented seeds, and/or collecting the tissue removed from the oriented seeds so that a one-to-one correspondence exists between the tissue and the sampled seeds, and/or analyzing the tissue for characteristics indicative of genetic and/or chemical traits.
US09383281B2

A fuel storage system includes a storage vessel including a dielectric liner, a voltage sensor formed by a pair of plates disposed on opposing surfaces of the liner, and a controller configured to determine a gas pressure in the storage vessel based on voltages measured by the sensor.
US09383277B2

A cylindrical annular detector is disposed at the periphery of the columnar body fixed at a central part of the upper surface of a supporting substrate. A space between the columnar body and the annular detector is connected by a thin flexible connection member (diaphragm). A washer-shaped insulation substrate is disposed on the upper surface of the supporting substrate, individual fixed electrodes are formed on the upper surface thereof, and they constitute capacitive elements together with a displacement electrode which is composed of the lower surface of the annular detector. Upon exertion of an external force on the annular detector, the flexible connection member deflects to cause displacement, which is detected as change in capacitance value of the capacitive element.
US09383275B2

A collision sensor assembly is attachable to a stationary structure such as a pallet rack, a door frame, the corner of a wall, or the like. The collision sensor is configured to sense when a collision occurs with the stationary structure such as when a piece of movable machinery contacts the stationary structure. The collision sensor assembly includes a sensor operatively connected to a processor which determines when a collision occurs, and produces a signal to an output signal generator to provide an external indication of the collision.
US09383274B2

The torque detection apparatus detects torque using torsion of a torsion bar. The torque detection apparatus includes a first rotating shaft and a second rotating shaft connected with a torsion bar in which torsion is produced when torque is applied, at least one optical scale that moves with rotations of the first rotating shaft and the second rotating shaft, at least one optical sensor that is paired with the optical scale, and detects the polarization of transmissive light or reflected light, the polarization varying depending on a position where light source light is passed through or reflected on the optical scale, and a computing unit that computes a relative rotational angle of the optical scale with respect to the optical sensor, and computes rotational displacements of the first rotating shaft and the second rotating shaft.
US09383273B2

Designs to package a magneto-elastic torque sensor in an automotive transmission, such as front wheel drive (FWD) automatic transmissions, for volume production applications are provided.
US09383268B2

According to one embodiment, a strain sensor includes: a base; a strain sensing element; a magnetic field sensing element; and a processing unit. The strain sensing element includes a first magnetic layer having a first magnetization; a second magnetic layer having a second magnetization; and a first intermediate layer. In the strain sensing element an angle between a direction of the first magnetization and a direction of the second magnetization changes in accordance with a strain. The magnetic field sensing element includes a third magnetic layer having a third magnetization; a fourth magnetic layer having a fourth magnetization; and a second intermediate layer. In the magnetic field sensing an angle between a direction of the third magnetization and a direction of the fourth magnetization changes in accordance with a magnetic field.
US09383266B1

A field effect transistor (FET) having a source, a drain and a gate includes a first connection electrically connected to the gate near a first end of the gate, a second connection electrically connected to the gate near the first end of the gate, a third connection electrically connected to the gate near a second end of the gate, and a fourth connection electrically connected to the gate near the second end of the gate. By performing gate resistance measurements at different ambient temperatures, a thermal coefficient of gate resistance can be derived and then used to monitor the gate temperature, which is representative of the channel temperature.
US09383263B2

The present invention generally relates to methods and systems for narrowing a wavelength emission of light. In certain aspects, methods of the invention involve transmitting light through a filter and passing a portion of the filtered light through a gain chip assembly at least two times before that portion of light passes again through the filter.
US09383249B2

A method for detecting angle sensor performance degradation in a flow angle measurement device in moving platform, such as aircraft and watercraft, as well as stationary platforms. Sensor dither in a flow angle measurement device is used to detect operational performance degradation of the sensor as a result of dynamic response changes caused by damaged or degraded mechanical components.
US09383242B2

A method for determining fluid characteristics of a multicomponent fluid is provided. The method includes a step of measuring a first density, ρ1, of a multicomponent fluid comprising one or more incompressible components and one or more compressible components at a first density state. The method further includes a step of adjusting the multicomponent fluid from the first density state to a second density state. A second density, ρ2, of the multicomponent fluid is then measured at the second density state and one or more fluid characteristics of at least one of the compressible components or the incompressible components are determined.
US09383234B2

A sensor for acquiring measured values and for outputting data samples having at least one first register for storing a sensor time, which includes time information on phase position and/or period of the data samples, the first register being readable out externally. The sensor includes at least one second register, which is writable on externally, and by which the phase position and/or the period of the data samples is able to be set in the sensor. Also described is a sensor system having at least one sensor and an external control unit by which at least the first register is readable and at least the second register is writable. Also described is a sensor-fused system having at least one sensor system having at least two sensors. Also described is a method for setting the phase position and/or the period of data samples in a sensor system or a sensor-fused system.
US09383231B2

A photoelectric encoder includes an absolute scale provided with an absolute pattern based on pseudo-random data, and a detection head including a light source that emits light to the absolute pattern of the absolute scale, and a light receiving unit that receives light from the absolute pattern, and it detects an absolute position of the detection head with respect to the absolute scale. In the photoelectric encoder, the absolute pattern is composed of a grating part and a dark part arranged in a repetitive manner. The photoelectric encoder further includes an interference pattern generation means that generates an interference pattern in combination with the grating part, and an interference pattern signal processing unit that detects the pseudo-random data of the absolute pattern based on the interference pattern received by the light receiving unit.
US09383215B2

A route guidance system to guide an emergency vehicle to an emergency site includes a first navigation apparatus mounted in a first emergency vehicle and a second navigation apparatus mounted in a second emergency vehicle. The first navigation apparatus performs an approach route record process which records an approach route of the first emergency vehicle from a predetermined reference position to an emergency site, and an approach route transmission process which transmits the recorded approach route upon detecting a predetermined manipulation by an occupant when the first emergency vehicle reaches the emergency site. The second navigation apparatus receives the approach route transmitted from the first navigation apparatus and performs an approach route guidance process to guide the second emergency vehicle to the emergency site based on the received approach route.
US09383213B2

A control system for a vehicle which has a first controller for storing navigation map data and a separate second controller for storing update data. The navigation map data are updated outside of the first controller. The first controller or at least the navigation system is designed to perform map matching and to ascertain a possible location area for the vehicle on the basis of an evaluation of a travel history for a travel angle, or other measurement data which characterize the movement or the location of the vehicle.
US09383211B2

A method for displaying a map performed by a navigation system, the method comprising: defining a matching area of a numerical map to which a photomap is matched; extracting the photomap corresponding to the matching area from a map data storage; matching a reference point of the photomap and a reference point of the numerical map; matching a scale of the photomap in line with a scale of the numerical map; and performing a boundary treatment at an overlap area of the numerical map and the photomap that are matched.
US09383209B2

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the relative attitude between an inertial measurement unit (IMU), present on a mobile device, and the frame of reference of the vehicle carrying mobile device is estimated. The estimated relative attitude is used to translate the IMU measurement to the vehicle frame of reference to determine the velocity and position of the vehicle. As a result, the vehicle position and velocity are determined accurately in the event of undocking and re-docking of the mobile device from a docking system in the vehicle. The relative attitude is estimated in terms of pitch, roll, and yaw angles.
US09383206B2

Provided is a single repository for capturing, connecting, sharing, and visualizing information based on a geographic location, for example. Provided is a schema, repository, index, and APIs for any information, place, entity, attribute, service or person that can be referenced geographically. A system to provide real time image data includes an input component that receives image data associated with a specific geographic area, a splitter component that splits the image data into at least two quadrants, and a storage component that stores at least a portion of the at least two quadrants. Also provides is on-line or real-time advertising based on a user's mapped location and/or a user preference.
US09383205B2

A vibrator includes first and second circular or substantially circular arc-shaped beam portions, a base end-side weight portion, and a base end-side weight portion joining portion. The end portions of the first and second circular or substantially circular arc-shaped beam portions in an X-axis positive direction face each other across a distance in a Y-axis direction, and the end portions thereof in an X-axis negative direction are joined to each other. The base end-side weight portion is disposed between the first and second circular or substantially circular arc-shaped beam portions. The base end-side weight portion joining portion extends from a joining portion between the first circular or substantially circular arc-shaped beam portion and the second circular or substantially circular arc-shaped beam portion in the X-axis positive direction, and joined to the base end-side weight portion.
US09383187B2

Real-time depth measurements in sensing in spectral domain interferometry and for en-face and cross section image production in optical coherence tomography can operate without any need to linearize the data to maximize the output signal and achieve the theoretical depth resolution. Novel interferometry is disclosed, where parameters of a master interferometer dictate the results in a slave interferometer. The master interferometer can be the same measuring interferometer used in two stages. The master interferometer parameters are at least optical path difference (OPD) or the speed of variation of the OPD in the master interferometer. Coherence gated data are produced from selected axial positions which can be from positive or negative optical path differences, in parallel, enabling generation of en-face (C-scan) OCT images simultaneously from several depths, free from mirror terms, and production of A-scans and B-scan OCT images using plural reflectivity values measured in parallel from different depths within A-scans.
US09383186B2

Method and device for contactless sensing rotation and angular position using orientation tracking. 2.1 To improve the accuracy and possible resolution of a magnetic positioning system, a method and a device using a special tracking technique is proposed. 2.2 The method and the device are using multiple magnetic field sensing elements at different positions below a magnetic target. The sensed signals are used to select or combine the sensing elements for a best approach to the actual orientation of the magnet. This allows putting out the related orientation of the approach as a coarse value and the remaining displacement as a fine value. 2.3 A device using this method allows highly accurate measurement of angular positions controlling or tolerating the placement of a magnet as the input source.
US09383185B2

A sensor apparatus for detecting a position of an axially movable camshaft is provided. The sensor apparatus includes a coil block including a detection coil wound along an axial direction of the camshaft to define a bore into which the camshaft is inserted, and a control unit electrically connected to the detection coil and designed to output a signal based on a change in inductance of the detection coil.
US09383183B2

A pressure indicator for a high-pressure accumulator system, and which includes a pressure indicating element having a channel. The pressure indicating element moves between a starting position and a pressure-indicating position in response to pressure on a side facing a pressure-monitoring region and which is counter to a force of at least one compression spring on the pressure indicating element.
US09383178B2

Hollow point bullets and methods of manufacturing such bullets are herein disclosed. The disclosed bullets include a monolithic core encased by a metal jacket. The jacket includes a plurality of v-shaped channels formed on the inner surface of the sidewall of the jacket. The core includes a conical recess formed therein and a cavity in communication with the conical recess. The cavity formed in the core may have a cross-section shape defined by a plurality of points spaced equidistantly about the circumference of an imaginary circle. A plurality of stress risers may be formed in the core, each stress riser extending from the cavity to a v-shaped channel in coincidence with a point of the cross-section shape of the cavity.
US09383164B2

A modular rail system for an upper receiver of a firearm is provided, the modular rail system having: a bottom portion configured to be removably secured to the upper receiver, wherein the bottom portion has an integrally formed bottom rail and a forward portion located forward of a top rail of the upper receiver; an upper rail extension configured to be removably secured to the forward portion of the bottom portion; and a release mechanism for releasably securing the upper portion to the forward portion of the bottom portion.
US09383157B2

A firearm support apparatus for supporting a firearm in a generally horizontal orientation. The firearm support apparatus includes a support plate configured to horizontally support the firearm on both a top face and a bottom face 200 of the support plate. The support plate additionally includes a plurality of projections for providing horizontal restraint to the firearm, and a plurality of cutouts configured to provide clearance and access to portions of the firearm. The firearm support apparatus includes two moveable bosses for frictionally securing the firearm to the firearm support apparatus. The firearm support apparatus includes a striker holder for supporting a striker of the firearm in a generally vertical orientation, and a trigger holder for supporting a trigger of the firearm in a generally horizontal orientation.
US09383153B2

A striker-fired firearm in one embodiment includes a trigger assembly including a trigger and trigger bar supported by a frame, a rotatable sear operable to hold a spring-biased striker in a cocked ready-to-fire position, and a rotatable sear blocker operable to prevent rotation of the sear. The trigger bar is operably linked to the sear and blocker such that pulling the trigger rotates the sear and blocker. When the blocker is in a blocking position, the blocker engages and prevents movement of the sear and release of the striker in the absence of a trigger pull. When the blocker is in a non-blocking position effectuated by pulling the trigger, the blocker disengages the sear which rotates and releases the striker to fire the firearm.
US09383144B2

A heat exchanger unit that includes a plurality of first heat exchanger ducts formed by a plurality of plates configured for a first flow of a coolant, a plurality of second heat exchanger ducts formed by the plurality of plates configured for a second flow to be cooled by the first flow, a first inlet for the first flow, a first outlet for the first flow, a first inlet for the second flow, and a second outlet for the second flow. The heat exchanger unit further includes an inlet chamber for the first flow from which a partial flow of the first flow is branched off, conducted through the plurality of first heat exchanger ducts and circulated within the heat exchanger unit to the first outlet.
US09383137B2

A dryer for drying product includes a housing and a drying chamber formed in the housing. A series of doors are moveably mounted on the dryer for providing access to the drying chamber. A latch assembly is associated with each door for latching the door to the dryer. The latch assembly includes a bracket mounted to the door and a shaft rotatively mounted adjacent a portion of the bracket. The shaft includes a latch for engaging a latching catch and securing the door in the closed position. A locking member is pivotally mounted to the bracket and moveable between a locked and an unlocked position. In the locked position, the locking member extends into a locking cavity formed in the shaft.
US09383134B2

An apparatus, method and system for sensing parameters related to water and/or ice being dispensed from a dispensing station of a refrigerated appliance is disclosed. The dispensing system includes a sensing system positionable at the dispensing station at the point of dispension for liquid and/or ice to sense a parameter related to dispensed water and/or ice and produce a sensing signal.
US09383130B2

A method for reducing a temperature of a product in a freezer includes providing a product to a chamber of the freezer; dividing a portion of the chamber disposed between a pair of baffle assemblies in the freezer into an intake zone and an outflow zone; moving each baffle assembly of the pair of baffle assemblies in the chamber 90° degrees out of phase with each other for directing a gas flow in the chamber; oscillating the gas flow within the chamber between the intake zone and the outflow zone during the moving the pair of baffle assemblies; injecting a cryogen substance into the chamber for cooling the gas flow; and contacting the product with the cooling gas flow.
US09383127B2

This invention is characterized by an air conditioning system that jets actively a refrigerant into an evaporator in an active jetting manner so as to enhance the diffusibility and uniformity thereof.
US09383126B2

Heat pumps that heat or cool a space and that also heat water, refrigerant management systems for such heat pumps, and methods of managing refrigerant charge. Various embodiments remove idle refrigerant from a heat exchanger that is not needed for transferring heat by opening a refrigerant recovery valve and delivering the idle refrigerant from the heat exchanger to an inlet port on the compressor. The heat exchanger can be isolated by closing an electronic expansion valve, actuating a refrigerant management valve, or both. Refrigerant charge can be controlled by controlling how much refrigerant is drawn from the heat exchanger, by letting some refrigerant back into the heat exchanger, or both. Heat pumps can be operated in different modes of operation, and various components can be interconnected with refrigerant conduit. Some embodiments deliver refrigerant gas to the heat exchanger and drive liquid refrigerant out prior to isolating the heat exchanger.
US09383125B2

Magnetic materials, having: a composition represented by a general formula: (R1−yXy)x(Fe1−aMa)100−x where, R is at least one of element selected from the group consisting of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Y, X is at least one of element selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr and Hf, M is at least one of element selected from the group consisting of V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Nb, Mo, Ta, W, Al, Si, Ga and Ge, x is a value satisfying 4≦x≦20 atomic %, y is a value satisfying 0.01≦y≦0.9, and a is a value satisfying 0≦a≦0.2, wherein the magnetic material includes a Th2Ni17 crystal phase or a TbCu7 crystal phase as a main phase, that are useful for magnetic refrigeration.
US09383123B2

The present invention provides a capacity-control refrigeration cycle device capable of efficiently vary capacity, and in any of a full operation mode in which capacity of the refrigeration cycle device is not controlled and an operation mode in which the capacity is controlled, all of refrigerants are discharged into a hermetic container 1 and then, the refrigerants pass through a discharge path 11 and are guided to outside of the hermetic container 1. After a refrigerant and oil are sufficiently separated in the hermetic container 1, the refrigerant is discharged to outside of the hermetic container 1. Therefore, efficiencies of a condenser 300 and an evaporator 600 are not deteriorated. Since it is possible to reduce an amount of oil taken outside of the hermetic container, it is possible to stably secure oil in an oil reservoir 22, and to prevent bite of parts of a compressing mechanism and to prevent abnormal wearing.
US09383119B2

The heater includes a heater main body, a housing storing the heater main body therein, and a coating material arranged in at least a part between the heater main body and the housing and covering at least a part of the heater main body. The coating material is a material containing at least one of ceramic and glass, the heater main body has a cylindrical honeycomb structural portion having partition walls separating and forming a plurality of cells and a pair of electrode portions disposed on a side face of the honeycomb structural portion, the housing contains the heater main body so as to cover the side face side of the heater main body, and the partition walls of the honeycomb structural portion is of a material containing ceramic as the main component and produces heat by energization.
US09383115B2

The invention relates to fresh air ventilation devices adapted for use with air conditioners (ACs) and/or heaters. In operation, the device supplements the recirculating air of the AC/heater with fresh air drawn from outside of the building.
US09383111B2

The present invention relates to a propane swivel burner which is comprised of a pair swivel legs and a leg that is stationary making the burner portable, a hinge that offer durability and stability to the legs of the burner, a grill/grid that provides safety a slot that will allow cooking pot the ability to set atop of the burner more safely, a foot stand on the bottom of each leg to make the burner more stable, a cylinder pipe to house the gas line and directs the flame, and a level that will allow a variety in sizes of cooking pans and/or pots to set atop the propane swivel propane burner.
US09383107B2

A fuel nozzle for a combustor includes a burner tube and a center nozzle assembly disposed within the burner tube. The center nozzle assembly includes a center body that at least partially defines a cooling air flow passage through the center nozzle assembly. A premix flow passage is defined between the burner tube and the center nozzle assembly. A tip assembly is disposed at a downstream end of the center body. The tip assembly includes an impingement plate, and a cap that is disposed downstream from the impingement plate. The impingement plate and the cap at least partially define a cooling plenum therebetween. An insert passage extends through the impingement plate and a cooling flow outlet extends through the cap. A plurality of cooling ports extends through the impingement plate to provide for fluid communication between the cooling air flow passage and the cooling plenum.
US09383102B2

A method for removing contaminants from the combustion gases generated by the incineration of waste. Air is injected into an incineration device along with a fuel and is supplemented by a oxygen feed. The resulting combustion waste gas stream contains contaminants such as nitrogen oxides and is quenched, then fed to a reaction zone where it will contact ozone for a predetermined period of time. The thus treated combustion waste gas stream can be fed to a scrubber assembly where the reaction products formed by the reaction of ozone and the contaminants are removed.
US09383101B2

A CO2 recovery unit includes an absorber that reduces CO2 in flue gas (101) discharged from a combustion facility (50) by absorbing CO2 by an absorbent, a regenerator that heats the absorbent having absorbed CO2 to emit CO2, and regenerates and supplies the absorbent to the absorber, and a regenerating heater that uses steam (106) supplied from the combustion facility (50) for heating the absorbent in the regenerator and returns heated condensed water (106a) to the combustion facility (50). The CO2 recovery unit further includes a condensed water/flue gas heat exchanger (57) that heats the condensed water (106a) to be returned from the regenerating heater to the combustion facility (50) by heat-exchanging the condensed water (106a) with the flue gas (101) in a flue gas duct (51) in the combustion facility (50).
US09383097B2

The present invention is directed to a staged fuel injector that includes, inter alia, a main fuel circuit for delivering fuel to a main fuel atomizer and a pilot fuel circuit for delivering fuel to a pilot fuel atomizer which is located radially inward of the main fuel atomizer. The main fuel atomizer includes a radially outer prefilmer and a radially inner fuel swirler. Portions of the main fuel circuit are formed in the prefilmer and portions of the pilot fuel circuit are formed in the prefilmer and the fuel swirler and are positioned proximate to and in thermal contact with fuel exit ports associated with the main fuel circuit and formed in the prefilmer. As a result, the pilot fuel circuit cools the stagnant fuel located in main fuel circuit, including the exit ports, even when performing at engine power levels of up to 60% of the maximum take-off thrust.
US09383094B2

A fracturing apparatus in a wellbore, having a housing with at least one injection port; an injection fluid supply interface to provide injection fluid for the fracturing apparatus; and at least one high pressure combustor received within the housing. The housing further includes a combustible medium interface that is in fluid communication with the at least one high pressure combustor, which is configured and arranged to provide repeated ignition cycles that include a combustion cycle that ignites the combustible medium and a fuel delivery cycle that delivers the combustible medium to the combustor, wherein pressure resulting from the combustion cycle forces the injection fluid out an injection port to cause fracturing in a portion of the earth around the wellbore.
US09383093B2

A direct contact heat exchanger assembly is provided. The direct contact heat exchanger assembly includes an evaporator jacket and an inner member. The inner member is received within the evaporator jacket. A sleeve passage is formed between the evaporator jacket and the inner member. The sleeve passage is configured and arranged to pass a flow of liquid. The inner member has an inner exhaust chamber that is configured to pass hot gas. The inner member further has a plurality of exhaust passages that allow some of the hot gas passing through the inner exhaust chamber to enter the flow of liquid in the sleeve passage.
US09383085B2

A light bar is disclosed which includes a substrate, plural LEDs disposed on the substrate, a first connector and a second connector disposed on opposite sides of the substrate, a first wire, a second wire, a third wire, and a fourth wire. The first connector sequentially includes a first pin, a second pin, a third pin, and a fourth pin. The second connector sequential includes a fifth pin, a sixth pin, a seventh pin, and an eighth pin. The first wire connects the first pin to the second pin. The second wire connects the third pin to the fifth pin. The third wire connects the sixth pin to the seventh pin. The fourth wire connects the fourth pin to the eighth pin. A light emitting module using the light bar is also disclosed.
US09383082B2

An illuminating device (210) according to an embodiment of the invention included in an image reading apparatus (100) and an image forming apparatus (D) includes light source portions (211a1), (211b1), (211a2) and (211b2), light-guiding members (213a) and (213b) for illuminating an illumination target (G) from an elongated light emitting face (M) that extends in a longitudinal direction (Y), by guiding light from the light source portions, and holding members (216a) and (216b) for holding the light-guiding members. The holding members include holding portions (2161a) and (2161b) for removably holding the light-guiding members, and tilted portions (2162a) and (2162b) that reflect light emitted from the light emitting face (M), the tilted portions extending from a front end on the light emitting face (M) side of the holding portions, obliquely widening with increasing distance from the light-guiding members.
US09383078B2

Light sources include light-emitting surfaces only on a condenser lens side to emit illumination light. The condenser lens and the refraction optical member are formed integrally.
US09383075B2

The invention provides a collimator comprising a first collimator face, a second collimator face, and a stack region. The stack region comprises a first layer having a first prismatically shaped top face with a plurality of 1D arranged first prisms having first prism axes, and a second layer having a second prismatically shaped top face with a plurality of 1D arranged second prisms having second prism axes. The first and second prism axes are in a crossed configuration. In a direction from the first collimator face to the second collimator face, the index of refraction of material upstream of the first prismatically shaped top face is larger than that of material downstream of the first prismatically shaped top face, and the index of refraction of material upstream of the second prismatically shaped top face is larger than that of material downstream of the second prismatically shaped top face.
US09383074B2

A synthetic resin globe for a light-emitting device is produced by molding an intermediate product with an injection molding die, softening the intermediate product in a heating apparatus, expanding it with compressed air in a die to form a globe shape, transferring a concavo-convex shape formed in a core of the injection molding die to form a concavo-convex shape on an inner wall of the intermediate product, so that the concavo-convex shape can be easily formed into a desired shape in a lower part of an inner wall of the globe.
US09383073B2

A power supply module may include an at least partially flexible support; a supply unit arranged on the support; and at least one outlet connection for a lighting module which can be fed by the supply unit.
US09383071B2

An LED lighting apparatus having adjustable light distribution comprises: a support panel on which a plurality of heat dissipation fins are disposed on a back surface thereof, the support panel providing a parallel front part which is not parallel to the ground; a board on which a plurality of LEDs are mounted, and being coupled to said front part of the support panel; and a reflection part fixed to the support panel so as to be disposed on the front surface of said substrate, and reflecting light emitted from said plurality of LEDs to provide a curved reflection surface which forms light distribution patterns on the ground. The light emission surface of the LED is not disposed parallel to the ground. The light emitted from the LED is distributed through the reflection part having a curved surface reflecting the light emitted from the LED toward the ground.
US09383068B2

An LED based light assembly and lighting system is disclosed. The lighting system includes at least one light assembly comprising a plurality of LED chips, a controller and a power supply module. The controller is configured to receive an input signal and to provide an output control signal for controlling power to the at least one light assembly. The power supply module is configured to receive a standard voltage and current signal and to provide a power signal to the at least one light assembly to power the at least one light assembly in response to the control signal.
US09383067B2

Light-emitting means, in particular LED module (2), having a printed circuit board (7) comprising at least one LED, wherein the light-emitting means has at least one housing (3), wherein the housing (3) is in the form of an injection-molded part and covers the printed circuit board (7), wherein the housing (3) has an opening (6), and the LEDs are arranged within this opening (6), with the result that the LEDs can emit light out of the housing (6), wherein the printed circuit board (7) has at least two plug-type connections (8), wherein the plug-type connections (8) are each configured so as to make contact with a conductor, wherein in each case one pushbutton (9) is arranged above the plug-type connections (8), which pushbutton is configured for releasing the conductor from the plug-type connection (8), wherein the pushbuttons (9) are formed as part of the housing (3).
US09383054B2

The closure element includes a tensioning pin which can be tensioned and a head part of which forms a closure disc that can be spread apart by the tensioning pin. The closure disc is pressed, in the installed state, against an inner wall of the bore to be closed. When a specific tensile stress is reached, the tensioning pin is separated from the closure disc at a predetermined breaking point of the tensioning pin. The easy-to-handle tensioning pin facilitates the installation of the closure in the bore in the component. Since the closure disc is pressed against an outer counterholder during the installation process, it can be inserted into a continuously smooth bore. The limitation of the tensile stress effected by way of the predetermined breaking point also ensures that the bore is closed with a defined closing force.
US09383039B2

A pipework brace comprising a first pipework engaging member and a second engaging member. A first tubular strut and a second tubular strut are provided and the first tubular strut is attached to the first and second engaging members by connectors located at each end of the first tubular strut. The second tubular strut is connected to the first and second engaging members by connectors located at each end of the second tubular strut. The connectors each comprise two clamp members that are arranged to allow multi-axis rotation so that each end of the strut may be moved in at least two planes relative to the pipe work engaging members.
US09383033B2

An automatic balancing valve is described provided with a valve body having at least one inlet channel and an outlet channel for a heat transfer fluid, wherein the flow regulation is carried out by a ball shutter having an axial through channel with axis perpendicular to the rotation axis of the ball. The ball valve has at least one radial channel aligned with the rotation axis of the ball and is connected to the axial through channel. The radial channel has an outlet port having a circular cross-section which hydraulically connects the axial through channel of the ball with the outlet channel of the valve.
US09383029B2

Disclosed are subsurface safety valves having multiple pistons used to increase the opening force. One safety valve includes a housing having a piston bore defined therein and configured to receive hydraulic fluid pressure, the piston bore providing an upper bore having a first diameter and a lower bore having a second diameter smaller than the first diameter, a piston assembly movably arranged within the piston bore and comprising an upper piston arranged in and configured to sealingly engage the upper bore and a lower piston arranged in and configured to sealingly engage the lower bore, and a connecting rod coupling the upper and lower pistons, wherein a cavity is defined between the upper and lower pistons within the piston bore and the piston rod extends within the cavity.
US09383028B2

A valve includes a spring with a spring force, an actuator with an actuator force which can act against the spring force, a pin which can be actuated by the actuator, a sealing element which can be coupled with the pin, and a seal seat such that the valve is closed when the sealing element rests against the seal seat. The pin can be moved in the direction of the sealing element by means of the actuator, and the pin can be moved in the direction away from the sealing element by means of the spring. The sealing element can be moved into an open position independently of the pin, wherein a fluid flow through the valve is released in the open position.
US09383024B2

A valve, for example for controlling a clearance at a tip of turbine blades, includes a piston and a supply mechanism supplying fluid under pressure to cause the piston to move inside a hollow body, and a mechanism detecting a position of the piston, including a shut-off element that moves as one with the piston and is mounted such that it can move in a fluid passage between two positions, open and closed respectively, the fluid passage connecting the supply mechanism to a pressure sensor that generates an output signal representative of the position of the piston of the valve.
US09383021B2

A switching valve having a valve seat with a longitudinal axis (L) and having a valve plate with a valve plate surface which can be placed into a pass-through position, in which the switching valve is open, and into a closed position, in which the switching valve is closed and the valve plate bears with the valve plate surface, in a contact region, against the valve seat, wherein the valve plate has a modulus of elasticity of at least 1000 N/mm2, which switching valve is characterized in that the valve plate, in the closed position, is deformed by a closing force acting thereon, in such a way that the contact region of the valve plate surface in the closed position forms an angle α, which differs from 0°, with the contact region of the valve plate surface in the pass-through position.
US09383016B2

The present disclosure relates to a sealing element for hollow sections, including a seal carrier that extends along a longitudinal axis and has two arms each of which has an outer face and an inner face and which are connected together, as one piece, at longitudinal edges that face each other such that they form a corner angle between them seals mounted on or near a free longitudinal edge of each arm and running parallel to the free longitudinal edge, on the outer face of the associated arm, and a securing device, on at least one inner face of an arm, for detachably securing the sealing element onto a corner of a hollow section. A cover cap serves to complete the sealing elements, the cap being provided, on its outer face, with one or more sealing sections designed to connect to ends of the seals of the sealing element.
US09383011B2

A shift position detecting device that determines a shift position based on a detection logic formed of a combination of turning on or off of a plurality of switches that are fixedly arranged at least one by one at positions corresponding to a plurality of detecting object portion rows mounted on a shift drum. An accurate shift position can be detected even if there is an irregularity in switching timings of switching modes of the plurality of switches. A shift position detecting member establishes the shift position as a new shift position and outputs shift position information, while when the detection logic after the transition is a detection logic other than the detection logic corresponding to the changeable shift position, sets the new shift position not yet established and outputs information corresponding to non-establishment of the shift position.
US09383007B2

A vehicle includes an engine, a transmission with a shift valve, an alternator, an auxiliary battery, a voltage sensor operable to measure an auxiliary voltage, and an electronic transmission range selection (ETRS) system. The ETRS system includes a controller, and also an electronic range selector device that transmits an electronic range request signal to the controller to request the shift of the transmission to a requested operating range. The controller executes a method to predict a loss of auxiliary power aboard the vehicle, and to control an action of the vehicle in response to the predicted loss of auxiliary power. The electronic range request signal is received from the range selector device and auxiliary voltage. The controller calculates a slope of a decrease in the measured auxiliary voltage. A control action is executed with the alternator is in the charging state and the calculated slope exceeds a calibrated slope threshold.
US09382998B1

An assembly for use in a transmission of a motor vehicle includes a planetary gear set that defines an axis of rotation and includes a planetary carrier member, the planetary carrier member having at least one window. A piston is disposed on a first side of the planetary gear set and a clutch pack is disposed on a second side of the planetary gear set opposite the first side. An interplanetary actuator is in contact with the piston and the clutch pack and is slidably disposed in the window of the planetary carrier member. Actuation of the piston in turn translates the interplanetary actuator to engage the clutch pack.
US09382986B2

A dual clutch transmission includes a first and second concentric input shafts, a dual clutch assembly, a mainshaft coaxial with the first input shaft, a first countershaft, a second countershaft, and planetary range gearing with high and low ratios. The dual clutch transmission has six forward gear meshes and the high and low range ratios of the range gearing to provide ten forward gear ratios for the transmission. The transmission is powershiftable between consecutive gear ratios of the ten forward gear ratios such that no torque interrupt occurs during sequential shifts.
US09382977B2

A multi-stage transmission having eight forward and one reverse gear includes planetary gearsets, shafts and shift elements. The sun gear of gearset (P1) couples shaft (3), which can couple, via brake (03), the housing and couples the ring gear of gearset (P3). The input shaft couples the carrier of gearset (P1) and can couple, via clutch (15), shaft (5), which couples the ring and sun gears of respective gearsets (P2, P3). The ring gear of gearset (P1) couples shaft (6) and the sun gear of gearset (P2). Shaft (8) couples the carrier and sun gear of respective gearsets (P3, P4). Shaft (4) couples the carrier of gearset (P4) and can couple, via brake (04), the housing. The input shaft couples the ring gear of gearset (P4) and, via clutch (27), couples shaft (7), which couples the carrier of gearset (P2). Clutch (56, 67, 57) engages to block gearset (P2).
US09382970B1

An actuator assembly for a subsea remotely operated lifting shackle for use in a subsea field operation is described herein. The actuator assembly can include an actuator body and an actuator coupled to the actuator body. The actuator assembly can also include at least one docking receptacle coupling feature operatively controlled by the actuator, where the at least one docking receptacle coupling feature removably couples, using the actuator, to at least one first actuator assembly coupling feature of a mounting adapter of the lifting shackle. The actuator assembly can further include at least one pin coupling feature operatively controlled by the actuator, where the at least one pin coupling feature removably couples, using the actuator, to at least one second actuator assembly coupling feature of the mounting adapter of the lifting shackle.
US09382966B2

A vehicle body reinforcement unit includes a reinforcement member disposed between a pair of frame portions of a vehicle body and including a pair of displacement members that is displaced relative to each other in association with a relative displacement of the pair of frame portions, the reinforcement member including a damping mechanism that applies a damping force to a relative operation of the pair of displacement members.
US09382963B2

An air spring having an airsleeve, wherein at least one layer of said airsleeve includes the vulcanization product of an elastomer and syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadiene.
US09382961B2

A vibration damping device including: an inner member; an outer cylindrical member into which an end portion of the inner member is inserted; a main rubber elastic body elastically connecting the end portion of the inner member and the outer cylindrical member in an axis-perpendicular direction; a support piece integrally provided with one axial end portion of the outer cylindrical member so as to protrude peripherally inward therefrom and be opposed to one axial end face of the inner member; and a connecting rubber provided between opposed faces of the end face of the inner member and the support piece of the outer cylindrical member so as to elastically connect them in an axial direction.
US09382950B2

A driveshaft assembly including a driveshaft having a first recess proximate a first end, and a second recess proximate a second end. The assembly also includes a first key within the first recess, a second key within the second recess, a first end housing, and a second end housing. The assembly further includes a first thrust bearing seat coaxially disposed within a first receptacle of the first end housing and including a first end, a second end, and a first length L1 measured axially between the second end and the first end, and a second thrust bearing seat coaxially disposed within a second receptacle of the second end housing and including a first end, a second end, and a second length L2 measured axially between the second end and the first end. L1 and L2 are both fixed and L2 is greater than L1.
US09382941B2

A bearing arrangement includes a housing, a rotating member traversing the housing, a bearing assembly located between the housing and the rotating member and supporting the bearing member, and a retainer in contact with the housing and the bearing assembly. The retainer has positioning means adapted to engage with the housing so that the retainer is moveable to a predetermined position to retain the bearing assembly.
US09382931B2

A fastener for a vehicle lamp assembly has an adjustable stud and grommet. Positioning grooves on the stud interact with positioning fingers on the grommet in a ratcheting fashion to allow more accurate alignment of the lamp assembly prior to securing the lamp assembly to a vehicle.
US09382923B2

A hydraulic circuit for lifting and lowering a load is disclosed. The hydraulic circuit may include a hydraulic pump, a fluid reservoir, a load-sense valve, and a hydraulic actuator having a first chamber and a second chamber. The hydraulic circuit may also include a first control valve assembly having first and second lowering positions, the valve being disposed between the hydraulic pump and the hydraulic actuator. A second control valve assembly may also be provided that is disposed between the first control valve assembly and the first chamber of the hydraulic actuator. In one embodiment, the second control valve assembly has a first position and a second position. In one embodiment, the load can be selectively lowered by the hydraulic circuit without use of the hydraulic pump when the first control valve assembly is in the first lowering position and the second control valve assembly is in the second position.
US09382916B2

A method for machining an integrally bladed rotor of a fluid-flow machine is disclosed. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the method includes the steps of: a) providing an integrally bladed rotor having a main rotor body and several rotor blades integrally attached to the main rotor body; b) determining the natural frequency of each rotor blade of the integrally bladed rotor; and c) machining at least one rotor blade of the integrally bladed rotor by removing material to adjust the natural frequency of the particular rotor blade to a specified value.
US09382910B2

Auxiliary power units and methods and systems for activation and deactivation of a load compressor therein are provided. Auxiliary power unit includes the load compressor having an impeller, APU engine, coupling member, pre-spinning means, and APU controller. APU engine is adapted to be mechanically engaged to load compressor to drive load compressor to provide pneumatic power and to be disengaged when the need for pneumatic power ceases. Coupling member couples load compressor and APU engine and is configured to be controllably moved between an engaged position in which the APU engine is mechanically engaged with the load compressor, and a disengaged position, in which the APU engine is disengaged from the load compressor. APU controller is operably coupled to load compressor, APU engine, coupling member, and pre-spinning means and adapted to receive and be responsive to rotational speed signals for controlling movement of coupling member between engaged and disengaged positions.
US09382906B2

A multi-stage reciprocating compressor includes a cylinder block and a cylinder head. The cylinder block defines a low stage cylinder and a high stage cylinder. The cylinder head is secured to the cylinder block overlying the low and high stage cylinders. The cylinder head defines a mid-stage plenum which is in fluid communication with the low stage cylinder and the high stage cylinder for communicating a working fluid discharged from the low stage cylinder to the high stage cylinder.
US09382896B1

An electrical generating device for creating supplemental electrical power includes a turbine attic ventilator that drives a generator. The generator is electrically connected to a rechargeable battery and a main power grid. The battery powers an optical smoke detector that activates an audible and/or visual alarm whenever particulate smoke is detected. Accordingly, as the ventilator is rotated by wind, the battery is recharged and the main power grid is supplemented.
US09382895B2

A water generator assembly includes a water generator having two forwarding wings on the front end thereof and the forwarding wings are applied by current and generate a resistance force and a lifting force. The resistance force and the lifting force are combined as a composition force which has a forwarding component force in the X-axis to offset the drag force cause by the current applying to the water generator. A component force in Y-axis is offset by the forwarding wings. A balance wing is connected to the water generator to prevent the water generator from spinning about the X-axis. The water generator has a lifting wing to generate a lifting force to lift the water generator. A buoyant floats and indexes the water generator. A tail wing and two side wings keep the water generator facing the current and prevent the water generator from spinning about the Y-axis.
US09382883B2

An intake noise reduction device includes an air cleaner, an intake funnel and a resonator, and is connected to an engine via a throttle body. The resonator is provided inside of the air cleaner. The resonator includes a chamber portion and a pipe portion. The pipe portion is formed to extend downward from the chamber portion, and has an opening end at a lower end. The intake funnel is provided at a lower end of the air cleaner. An opening end of the resonator is inserted into the intake funnel. A cross sectional area of an intake passage between the intake funnel and the pipe portion is set to not less than an opening area of an intake passage of the throttle body opened to a maximum throttle opening.
US09382880B2

Various systems and methods are described for an engine system with an exhaust gas recirculation system. In one example method, a correction for a gas constituent sensor is determined based on output from the gas constituent sensor and output from a pressure sensor over a range of boost pressure. The gas constituent sensor output is adjusted based on the correction, and an amount of exhaust gas recirculation is adjusted based on the adjusted gas constituent sensor output.
US09382878B2

In a method for operating a fuel system of an internal combustion engine, the fuel system has a fuel tank and a ventilation device having at least one ventilation valve for ventilating the fuel tank in the direction of a device that generates a negative pressure, at least intermittently. A magnitude of deformation caused by an internal pressure of the fuel tank of the fuel tank is measured and, if the magnitude of deformation exceeds a threshold, the ventilation valve is closed and/or a bypass is opened.
US09382872B2

According to one embodiment of the invention, a gerotor apparatus includes an outer gerotor having an outer gerotor chamber, an inner gerotor, at least a portion of which is disposed within the outer gerotor chamber, and a synchronizing apparatus operable to control the rotation of the inner gerotor relative to the outer gerotor. The inner gerotor includes one or more entrance passages operable to communicate a lubricant into the outer gerotor chamber.
US09382869B2

A piston for an internal combustion engine comprises at least one cooling channel located only in the areas of at least one inflow and at least one outflow at a low level comparatively removed from the base of the piston and at a constant higher level closer to the piston base, said cooling channel comprising steep inclines between the areas located at the low and at the high level.
US09382862B2

An air-fuel parameter control system includes an injector, an air-fuel parameter sensor, a fuel film parameter calculation module, an air-fuel parameter prediction module and a fuel injection calibration module. The injector injects fuel into an intake manifold. The air-fuel parameter sensor detects a detected air-fuel parameter in an exhaust pipe. The fuel film parameter calculation module calculates a fuel film parameter relating to a fuel film accumulated the intake manifold based on the detected air-fuel parameter, an amount of the injected fuel and an amount of air flowing into the engine. The air-fuel parameter prediction module predicts a predicted air-fuel parameter based on the detected air-fuel parameter and the fuel film parameter. The fuel injection calibration module calibrates the amount of the injected fuel based on a difference between a reference air-fuel parameter and the predicted air-fuel parameter.
US09382855B2

The invention relates to a method for operating a stationary power plant, wherein a fuel/air mixture is burned in an internal combustion engine and wherein the internal combustion engine drives an alternating current generator, which is connected to an energy supply network and provides energy to the energy supply network, wherein if the actual rotational speed of the alternating current generator or of the internal combustion engine exceeds a predefinable maximum value due to a failure of the energy supply network, the combustion in the internal combustion engine is stopped at least partially, while the connection to the energy supply network is maintained.
US09382849B2

Systems, devices, and methods for controlling a fuel supply for a turbine or other engine using direct and/or indirect indications of power output and optionally one or more secondary control parameters.
US09382846B2

A sealing element for sealing a gap between two components is provided. The sealing arrangement may be a seal arrangement of a gas turbine system, wherein the sealing element is elongate along a main line and has a contoured cross section in a corrugated center region. In cross section, the sealing element is directed along the main line and may be deformed in a direction substantially orthogonally with respect to the main line. In order to provide a wear-resistant, long-lasting sealing element with a particularly efficient blocking action, it is proposed that the seal teeth of the corrugation have a virtually rectangular cross-sectional contour, the tooth height of which seal teeth is between 10% and 40% of the sealing-element thickness which may be measured parallel to the tooth height.
US09382843B2

A flow balancing ventilation system includes a ventilation inlet for receiving an airflow, the ventilation inlet having a cavity defined by an outer wall. Also included is a plurality of ventilation ducts each having a first end and a second end, the first end of each of the plurality of ventilation ducts disposed in operable communication with the ventilation inlet for receiving the airflow, the second end of each of the plurality of ventilation ducts disposed at least partially within an enclosure. Further included is at least one vane disposed within the cavity of the ventilation inlet for manipulating the airflow proximate the first end of each of the plurality of ventilation ducts.
US09382838B2

Methods and systems are provided for reducing turbo lag in a boosted engine. A boost reservoir coupled to the engine may be charged with compressed intake air and/or combusted exhaust gas. The pressurized charge may then be discharged during a tip-in to either the intake or the exhaust manifold.
US09382833B2

A thermal management valve module having at least one flow chamber is provided, with one or more inlet and outlet ports connected to the at least one flow chamber. A first valve body is rotatably positioned in the at least one flow chamber, and includes a fluid pathway that connects a first port to the flow chamber, which allows separate or mixed flows, or blocks the flow, based on the valve body position. A second valve body is rotatably positioned in the at least one flow chamber, and includes a fluid pathway that connects a second port, which allows separate or mixed flows, or blocks the flow, based on the second valve body position. One or more actuators can be used to independently position the first and second valve bodies. An indirect connection, which can be an epicyclic gear arrangement, allows a single actuator to independently position both valve bodies.
US09382830B2

An exhaust gas purification apparatus including a filter, an NOx selective reduction catalyst at the downstream side of the filter, a supply device for supplying a reducing agent to the NOx selective reduction catalyst, and a PM sensor for detecting an amount of particulate matter in an exhaust gas at the downstream side of the NOx selective reduction catalyst. A supply decrease part makes an amount of supply of the reducing agent smaller in cases where at least one of several conditions is satisfied.
US09382828B2

A method includes determining whether a urea refill event is detected, and clearing a quality accumulator value and clearing a latching abort command. The method includes determining whether urea fluid quality check abort conditions are met, and clearing the urea quality accumulator, latching the abort command, and exiting the reductant fluid quality check. In response to the abort conditions not being met, incrementing the urea quality accumulator according to an amount of urea being injected, and comparing the accumulated urea quantity to a low test threshold. The method includes, in response to the accumulated urea quantity being greater than the low test threshold, comparing the accumulated urea quantity to a high test threshold, and in response to the urea quantity being greater than the high test threshold, determining whether the a NOx exceedance is observed and clearing a urea quality error in response to the NOx exceedance not being observed.
US09382820B2

A method for producing a hollow valve of an internal combustion engine may include providing a hollow valve stem, a valve cone, and a valve bottom; pushing the valve cone over the valve stem via a press fit, wherein the valve cone includes an outer surface transitioning to the valve stem to define a testing surface; and welding the valve cone to the valve stem via at least one of a laser beam and an electron beam, wherein the welding occurs such that no melting of the outer surface in the region of the testing surface of the valve cone occurs.
US09382817B2

Techniques for providing power to a data center includes transferring heat from a computer data center to warm a fluid stored within an energy regeneration system; circulating the warmed fluid to a flow of compressed gas stored within the energy regeneration system during a discharging process that expands the compressed gas; generating energy with the energy generation system from the discharging process; and providing at least a portion of the generated energy to the computer data center as electrical power.
US09382810B2

A system for removing heat from a gas turbine generally includes a plurality of stationary nozzles arranged in an annular array within the gas turbine. Each of the plurality of stationary nozzles may include a radially outer platform and a radially extending cooling passage. The radially extending cooling passage may have an inlet that extends generally axially and circumferentially across a portion of the radially outer platform. A closed loop cooling coil may extend continuously circumferentially around the radially outer platform of two or more of the plurality of stationary nozzles. The closed loop cooling coil may be disposed circumferentially across and outside of the inlet of the radially extending cooling passage of each of the two or more stationary nozzles, and a cooling medium may flow through the cooling coil and out of the gas turbine so as to remove heat from the gas turbine.
US09382807B2

Turbomachinery, such as a gas turbine engine, has parts with opposed first and second surfaces and with a cavity between the surfaces and with the first surface moving relative to the second surface. The turbomachinery further has at least one feature for creating pressure variations incorporated into the first and second surfaces.
US09382790B2

An apparatus includes a string that extends into a well and a tool that is disposed in the string. The tool is adapted to form a seat to catch an object communicated to the tool via a passageway of the string in response to the tool being perforated.
US09382785B2

In one aspect an apparatus for use in a wellbore is disclosed that in one embodiment includes a device or tool conveyable in the wellbore, wherein the device or tool further includes a shape memory member formed into a compressed state, the shape memory device having a glass transition temperature and a heating device associated with the shape memory member configured to heat in the wellbore the shape memory member to or above the glass transition temperature to expand the shape memory member to a second expanded state.
US09382784B1

A perforating gun comprising an elongated shaped scallop that is cut circumferentially in an outside surface of the perforating gun such that said scallop has a constant thickness portion and a variable thickness portion. The variable thickness portion is cut on either end of the constant thickness portion and an arcuate length of the constant thickness portion subtends an angle at a center of said perforating gun. The elongated shaped scallop aligns to shaped charges that are oriented along a desired perforating orientation in the perforating gun. During perforating, the shaped charges perforate through the elongated shaped scallop such that a burr created by the plural shaped charges does not substantially protrude past an outside diameter of the perforating gun.
US09382778B2

A down hole pressure isolation tool is placed in a pipe string and includes a pair of pressure discs having one side that is highly resistant to applied pressure and one side that ruptures when much lower pressures are applied to it. The weak sides of the pressure discs face each other. In some embodiments, an upper disc is mounted for movement and restrained by a shearable connection. Upon the application of pressure to the tool, the connection shears allowing the upper disc to move into and collide with the lower disc thereby fracturing both discs and allowing pressure communication across the tool. In another embodiment, spurs carried by a sleeve fracture an upper disc in response to pressure delivered to an upper end of the tool.
US09382776B2

A method of producing at least a portion of a wellbore isolation device comprising: providing a fusible alloy matrix in a powdered form; placing at least the particles of the fusible alloy matrix powder into a mold; compacting the particles located inside the mold via an application of pressure; and fusing the particles together to form a solid material, wherein the solid material forms the at least a portion of the wellbore isolation device.
US09382774B2

A low-profile wellhead system having a nested hanger configuration, annular communication, elastomeric seals, and seal verification is provided.
US09382770B2

A gas well methanol storage and delivery apparatus, includes a housing forming an enclosed interior having a lower portion with a containment container therein and an upper portion, and having at least one door to allow access to the interior. A storage tank mounting structure in the upper portion of the interior above the containment container is adapted to mount a storage tank for storing a supply of methanol. A pump mounting structure also in the interior of the housing above the containment container is adapted to mount a pump for pumping methanol from the storage tank to a gas well for injection into the gas well. Vent means may be provided for allowing natural air flow through a portion of the containment container. The apparatus, with or without a tank and with or without a pump, may be supplied as a prefabricated unit to the well head site.
US09382767B2

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for attaching, detaching and conveying tubular on a drill cantilever. The method and apparatus include a tubular standbuilding conveyor assembly and a stand delivery conveyor assembly. The method and apparatus provide for improved movement, assembly and disassembly in order to eliminate inefficient movements and to improve consistent, repeatable performance.
US09382763B2

A method of making a superhard construction includes providing a polycrystalline superhard (PCS) structure comprising bonded grains of a superhard material, providing an aggregated mass comprising grains of the superhard material, and providing a substrate having a recess configured for accommodating the PCS structure. The PCS structure is placed into the recess with the aggregated mass of superhard grains positioned adjacent the PCS structure to form an unjoined assembly. Pressure and heat are then applied to the unjoined assembly to join the aggregated mass to the PCS structure and form the superhard construction.
US09382758B2

A mobile oilfield storage tank includes a wall and a stair system securely coupled to the wall. The stair system a platform suitable for use as a walkway and a platform extension pivotally engaged with the platform. The platform extension pivots from a folded position to an extended position and creates a continuous walkway between the platform and a platform of an adjacent mobile oilfield storage tank.
US09382756B2

A cable guided shade system can include a head rail at least one guide cable anchor spaced from the head rail, and at least on guide cable that is fixed to the head rail and extends to the guide cable anchor. The guide cable anchor is configured such that the guide cable can be tensioned at the guide cabled anchor. The system further includes a covering material that is fixed to the head rail and is configured to move along the guide cable between an open position and a closed position.
US09382751B2

Methods of installing door systems in an opening. The methods involve racking the door system using a bottom spacer located between a bottom of a door panel and the sill such that the door system is not square with respect to the opening when the bottom ends of latch side and hinge side vertical jambs of the door system are resting on the sill of the opening.
US09382746B2

A door control device is disclosed. In the door control device, after operation of “Full Close” in one status has been detected, obstruction occurs in a door close detection switch ON/OFF detection portion so that one event “Dcsm=OFF”, e.g. a signal (Dcsm=OFF) indicating OFF detected by the door close detection switch ON/OFF detection portion is obtained. On this occasion, operation of “ReClose” in another status is executed so that drive toward a close direction is continued by a door close control portion through a reclose command portion until another event “Dcsm=ON”, e.g. a signal (Dcsm=ON) indicating ON detected by the door close detection switch ON/OFF detection portion is obtained.
US09382743B2

Device for moving operating or closing members of a window or door frame movable swing, the device being activated by rotation of a handle pin and comprising a body containing a mechanism transforming the rotation of an element coupled with the pin in translation of a slider coupled with an operating or closing rod, said body being housed in a seat of movable swing side profile, an auxiliary body movably mounted on the body along a direction parallel to the movable swing side and orthogonal to the slider translation direction, the auxiliary body having an abutment with a profile plane serving as reference for positioning the body in the seat, one threaded stem, extending parallel to said auxiliary body movement direction, being inserted in an auxiliary body through-hole and engaging in a body threaded hole, and a spring mounted on the stem between the auxiliary body and the body.
US09382738B2

A swing closure element (1), comprising: —a fixed structure (10) rigidly constrainable to an opening (11) of a door or window or the like, —a first movable wing (20) constrained to said fixed structure (10) by a first hinge constraint (21) so as to be pivotable about a first rotation axis (Z1), according to a predetermined opening rotation direction (W1), —a second movable wing (30) constrained to said first wing by said second hinge constraint (31) so as to be pivotable with respect to the first wing (20) about a second rotation axis (Z2), the first and the second wing (20, 30) being movable between a first closed configuration wherein they are coplanarly arranged to close the opening (11) and a second open configuration, —an articulated, quadrilateral mechanism (50, 50′) connected to the fixed structure (10) and to the second wing (30) comprising at least one stiffening member (61, 61′, 62, 62′) pivotably constrained to said first wing (20) and to a movable member (53, 53′) of said mechanism (50, 50′) connected to the fixed structure (10) and to said second movable wing (30).
US09382737B2

An easy cleaning guiding assembly is provided comprising a clamping base provided with an opening and a clamping position, a guiding block being rotatably connected with the clamping base and provided with a clamping element. When the guiding assembly is in use, the guiding block is fixed on the clamping base by engagement of the clamping element in the clamping position, and a guiding channel is formed by the guiding block and the clamping base. The cleaning of the shower door would be very easy, and the operation and mounting is very convenient.
US09382729B2

A release mechanism is actuated by the heat of a fire to electrically and mechanically disconnect electrical wiring from an electronic lock having a plastic housing. The electronic lock is mounted on a fire door and as it is heated by a fire on the opposite side of the fire door, mounts that hold the lock melt, releasing the electronic lock to drop away from the fire door and prevent ignition of the plastic housing. The release mechanism may use shape memory alloy wire to contract and disconnect a ribbon cable. Solder connectors may also be used to disconnect wires. Intumescent material that expands when heated is used to drive the lock mechanism away from the fire door and insulation is used to control the timing of melting.
US09382720B2

A centrifugal self-priming mixed and inverted-umbrella shaped aerator is disclosed. A plurality of three-phase mixing tube sets is distributed on a surface of a wheel body (1), each of the three-phase mixing tube sets comprises a plurality of three-phase mixing tubes distributed dispersedly on the surface of the wheel body (1), multiple layers of guide cylinders arranged concentrically extend downward from a bottom of the wheel body (1) with a plurality of vertical siphons distributed on an inner wall of each of the layers of guide cylinders, the number of the siphons distributed in each of the layers of guide cylinders is the same as the number of the three-phase mixing tubes of the corresponding three-phase mixing tube set, each of the three-phase mixing tubes has one end attached to an edge of the wheel body (1) and has the other end communicating with the corresponding siphon, and each of the siphons is provided with a negative-pressure suction tube at a joint with the corresponding three-phase mixing tube.
US09382711B2

A connection system for joining rectangular wall frames fabricated from pairs of rectangular cross section tubular side frame members and rectangular cross section tubular top and bottom frame members utilizes identical connectors, such as a single size machine screw and identical threaded inserts to provide upper and lower interconnections. Three different interconnections can be made using the single size machine screw and insert, the latter inserted into the open upper ends of the rectangular cross section tubular side frame members. Frame closure panels can be attached in a simple and secure manner.
US09382707B2

An acoustic shell system includes a frame comprising a first column, a second column, and a base. The first and second columns each comprise a circular portion with a channel along the length of the column where the circular portion is configured to attach to one or more panels. The circular portion is coupled to a noncircular portion opposite the channel having at least one channel along the length of the column and configured to attach to one or more components. The base comprises first and second arms coupled to opposing ends of a cross-support. Each of the arms is also coupled to one of the columns at about a ninety degree angle. The length of the cross-support is less than the distance between the first and second columns.
US09382704B2

A protective air barrier air barrier sealant and methods of applying the same, including a high density polyurethane chemistry provided in an amount, volume, and density effective for providing a protective air barrier for an enclosure, wherein the polyurethane material is combined with at least one UV, fire and antimicrobial protectant for providing UV protection to UV-exposed surfaces.
US09382702B2

A sink fastener for fastening a sink unit with an outer flange within an opening in a countertop is provided. The sink fastener includes a frame for attachment to a bowl wall of the sink unit, a threaded vertical bolt rotatably mounted within the frame, a claw member having a lateral portion threadably mounted on the vertical bolt and an upstanding retainer portion, and a guide member for constraining the movement of the claw member. In use, rotation of the vertical bolt causes the claw member to rise up the bolt to engage an underside of the countertop, and in a lower disengaged position the claw member is free to turn about a vertical axis into a retracted position wherein the claw member lies constrained under the flange to permit insertion of the sink unit into the countertop opening. The guide member ensures that as the claw member rises up the bolt the claw member turns about the vertical axis into a constrained outwardly extended position for engagement with the underside of the countertop.
US09382701B2

A linear drain assembly includes a drain body with a drain channel extending along the drain body and an outlet structure intercepting the drain channel. The drain body has a constant outer profile along a longitudinal length of the drain body between at least one end of the drain channel and the outlet structure and the drain channel has a sloped bottom surface.
US09382699B2

A handshower slide comprising a bar with a passageway and a slide mechanism positioned along a length of the bar. The slide mechanism comprises a handle, a cam, and a shower holder. The cam is positioned within the passageway and is rotatable between a first orientation and a second orientation relative to the bar. The slide mechanism is secured along the length of the bar while the cam is in the first orientation and movable along the length of the bar while the cam is in the second orientation. An orientation of the cam is controlled by a spring and is biased toward the first orientation. The handle is coupled the slide mechanism through the spring and an orientation of the cam is correlated to a position of the handle. The cam is movable from the first orientation to the second orientation by an external force on the handle.
US09382698B2

An adapter sleeve includes a main body having a through opening formed therethrough, so as to be assembled to a water pipe, the main body having an outer threaded portion formed on an outer surface thereof, the through opening having a first portion and a second portion, a diameter of the first portion of the through opening larger than that of the second portion, a step portion defined by the connecting site between the first portion and the second portion, the first portion having an inner threaded portion formed on an inner surface thereof, the second portion having a ring groove formed around an inner surface thereof, a ring member positioned on the ring groove.
US09382694B2

The present disclosure relates to a system and method of controlling a vehicle of construction equipment, which calculate a target engine torque from compensation torque information using torque information generated in a hydraulic pump and an engine speed error and transmit the calculated target engine torque, thereby more stably performing engine control while responding to a rapid load variation of the hydraulic pump.
US09382693B2

A hydraulic excavator is provided with an arm cylinder, an arm switching valve, a sixth pilot pressure control valve, a sixth electromagnetic proportional valve, a sixth upstream pilot flow path, a sixth hydraulic pressure sensor, and a control section. The control section selects at least one item of current value information from a plurality of items of current value information on the basis of a hydraulic pressure that is detected by the sixth hydraulic pressure sensor. The control section is configured to set a current value of a current that is output to the sixth electromagnetic proportional valve on the basis of the current value information that is selected.
US09382687B2

A shovel that performs excavation in accordance with an arm excavation operation including an arm closing operation includes an excavation operation detection part, a position detection part, a maximum allowable pressure calculation part, and an arm cylinder pressure control part. The excavation operation detection part detects that the arm excavation operation has been performed. The position detection part detects the position of the shovel. The maximum allowable pressure calculation part calculates the pressure of the expansion-side oil chamber of an arm cylinder corresponding to an excavation reaction force at a time when the shovel is dragged by the excavation reaction force as a maximum allowable pressure, based on the position of the shovel. The arm cylinder pressure control part controls the pressure of the expansion-side oil chamber not to exceed the maximum allowable pressure when the arm excavation operation is performed.
US09382681B2

A modular wave-break includes a wall, a tapered base attached to the wall, and an anchor attached to the base. The wall includes a set of dissipating holes integrally formed in the wall and a set of passage holes integrally formed in the wall. A set of eyebolts are connected to the wall. Reinforcing structural rods are embedded in the wall, the tapered base, and the anchor to provide strength. Mounting holes in the tapered base enable the modular wave-break to be secured to a water bottom surface. Multiple modular wave-breaks may be interconnected to form a single wave-break.
US09382680B2

An auger snow-removing machine includes a forward rotation shaft and a reverse rotation shaft disposed on the same axis and aligned in a width direction of an auger housing within the auger housing, and a transmission disposed inside the auger housing such that the forward rotation shaft and the reverse rotation shaft are rotated concurrently in opposite directions by a driving force transmitted from the transmission. A case of the transmission is divided into a front case member and a rear case member at a position behind a reverse rotation drive shaft extending in the width direction of the auger housing. The front case member has a first gear unit assembled therein, and the rear case member has a second gear unit assembled therein. The first and second gear units are assembled together when the front and rear case members are assembled together.
US09382675B2

A paving machine having electric powered systems in lieu of hydraulic systems for performing work at a work site may include an integrated generator operatively connected to a power source of the paving machine, such as an engine, to produce AC power. A power converter may receive the AC power and output DC power to electric motors, with each electric motor being operatively connected to a corresponding one of a plurality of mechanical components. The power converter may distribute power from the generator to the plurality of electric motors in response to commands to actuate the plurality of mechanical components input at an operator station. The electric powered systems may include propulsion devices, material conveyors, augers and the like.
US09382674B1

A concrete finishing machine includes a mobile frame supported above the slab on front and rear wheels with at least one screed roller and a plurality of vibrators are suspended from the frame between the front and rear wheels. The front and rear wheels are rotatable at least ninety degrees between a longitudinally directed traveling orientation and a laterally directed concrete finishing orientation. The front and rear wheels are driven and steerable so that the mobile frame may travel longitudinally down a lane of a road, and then upon pivoting of the wheels, move laterally over a hole in an adjacent lane having uncured concrete to be finished by the finishing machine.
US09382671B2

A method of slowing an aircraft overrunning a runway, including paving an area immediately beyond the end of a runway with foamed glass bodies to define a bed, covering the bed with a layer of cementitious material to define a composite bed, and crushing at least a portion of the composite bed with an oncoming aircraft, wherein crushing the at least a portion of the composite bed removes kinetic energy from the oncoming aircraft to slow the oncoming aircraft. The composite bed is generally resistant to fire.
US09382668B2

The invention refers to a machine and a method used to level, align and stabilise the track and compact the ballast bed, producing controlled lifting, so that the load used in the settlement of the rail in its theoretical position falls within the established range, working in an uninterrupted manner. The machine is constituted by two bogies with traction capacity, and front, back and centre control cabins and a rear and frontal measuring tensioner trolleys. The machine has an additional lifting unit whose relative movement with the rest of the machine in controlled by total longitudinal cylinder. The alignment cylinders generate a transversal movement to cause track alignment. Behind this unit according to the direction of work a stabilising unit is situated which consists of two stabilising trolleys. The ground-penetrating radar is situated at the machine front.
US09382662B2

The invention comprises a method for improving efficiency of uhle boxes in the process of paper manufacturing. The essence of the invention is the use of a homogeneous mixture of superheated humid air in the press section of a paper machine. A very intense mixing of air and steam takes place in venturi injector which creates a mixture, with appropriate composition and temperature, directed to a blowing nozzle. The mixture is then used in the forced flow through felt to a suction slot installed under the felt. The time ratio of the flow of homogeneous mixture of superheated humid air versus longitudinal movement of felt equals the actual working surface area of the suction slot. Extended working area directly influences the quality of felts conditioning and paper dewatering in the press section.
US09382654B2

Method of determining a laundry load size in a laundry treating appliance comprising a rotatable drum at least partially defining a treating chamber for receiving laundry for treatment in accordance with a treating cycle of operation, an imaging device, and a controller having a processor, the method includes generating an images, detecting, marking in the generated image, and determining, by the controller, a load size based on the image.
US09382651B2

A washing machine is provided. The washing machine may include a cabinet and a tub. The cabinet may define an exterior of the washing machine. The tub may be disposed inside the cabinet to hold wash water. The tub may have a cross-section on which a first length passing through a central longitudinal axis of the tub and extending from a first side to a second side along a first direction, which is substantially horizontal, may be shorter than a second length passing through the central longitudinal axis of the tub and extending from a third side to a fourth side along a second direction, which is perpendicular to the first direction.
US09382640B2

The present invention provides a single-crystal silicon pulling silica container including an outer layer made of opaque silica glass containing gaseous bubbles and an inner layer made of transparent silica glass that does not substantially contain the gaseous bubbles; the container also including: a bottom portion, a curved portion, and a straight body portion, wherein continuous grooves are formed on a surface of the inner layer from at least part of the bottom portion to at least part of the straight body portion through the curved portion. As a result, there are provided the single-crystal silicon pulling silica container that can reduce defects called voids or pinholes in the pulled single-crystal silicon and a method for manufacturing such a silica container.
US09382635B2

A metal surface treatment agent and a metal surface treatment which impart excellent electrodeposition coatability (smoothness and throwing power) to a metallic base while heightening corrosion resistance. The metal surface treatment agent that is used in a pretreatment of an electrodeposition coating of a metallic base and includes one or more zirconium, titanium, or hafnium metallic elements, one or more silane coupling agents, hydrolysates thereof, or polymers thereof, and an electrophilic reactive group-containing compound (C) containing a homocycle and a heterocycle in one molecule and has a water solubility at 20° C. of 0.2 to 30 g/L, and the contents of the metallic elements, the coupling agents, and the electrophilic reactive group-containing compound satisfy a given relationship.
US09382631B1

This invention is a device that provides a multi use cathodic protection system for steel and reinforced concrete and method of use that will permit a user to more easily and accurately place an impressed current cathodic protection system, a sacrificial or galvanic anode cathodic protection system, or combination thereof around a reinforced structure to be protected and thereafter fill with concrete by use of a uniquely engineered fiberglass reinforced plastic form. This invention once put in place around the structure being protected can more easily be filled with concrete without having the attached titanium mesh or zinc anode mesh bend or move outside of the effective proximity from the protected structure. The fiberglass reinforced plastic form has a corrugated or roughed surface that provides an increased surface area to bind or grip the fiberglass reinforced plastic form to the poured concrete once cured.
US09382628B2

The subject matter of the present invention is a multi-step method for the anti-corrosive coating of metal components, in which a reaction rinse is used after a conversion treatment but before electrodeposition is carried out on the component. The conversion treatment includes first the deposition of a thin inorganic layer containing the elements Zr and/or Ti. The metal component is then treated with a reaction rinse containing a surface-active substance and is subsequently subjected to electrodeposition.
US09382624B2

A film formation method controls with accuracy the thickness of a thin film formed on a film formation object. The film formation method includes a film formation step of heating a film formation source and forming a film on a film formation object while moving the film formation source and monitoring an amount of released vapors of the film forming material using a quartz oscillator for measurement, a control step of adjusting a heating temperature of the film formation source based on the monitored value of the quartz oscillator for measurement, and a calibration step of calibrating the monitored value of the quartz oscillator for measurement, using a quartz oscillator for calibration and the quartz oscillator for measurement. The calibration step is performed in a middle of the film formation step, after movement of the film formation source is started from a waiting position.
US09382617B2

Rod-type, polycrystalline silicon having a rod diameter of >100 mm are obtained by deposition of silicon-containing gas according to the Siemens method, wherein the Si rods are brought into contact with hydrogen at the end of the deposition process during cooling in the reactor, and the cooled Si rods obtained have in perpendicular cross section cracks and/or radial stresses having a defined size.
US09382604B2

An apparatus for forming an amorphous coating film by jetting flame containing particles of a flame spray material from a flame spray gun toward a base material, causing the particles to be melted by the flame, and cooling both the particles and the flame with the means of a cooling gas before they reach the base material. The apparatus includes a tubular member provided among the path along which the flame is jetted that it surrounds the flame passing through a melting zone in which the particles are melted. The tubular member has a flow channel for the cooling gas, formed along and integrally to the tubular member.
US09382581B2

The present invention includes a method of allele-specific amplification, utilizing an allele-specific oligonucleotide, at least partially complementary to more than one variant of the target sequence, but having at least one selective nucleotide complementary to only one variant of the target sequence and incorporating both a nucleotide with a base covalently modified at the exocyclic amino group and a modified phosphate.
US09382564B2

A method of diversification of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) or precursors thereof, compounds obtainable by the method, and uses and compositions involving such compounds. The method comprises a) providing at least one compound or a mixture of the compounds selected from the group consisting of: optionally sialylated and/or fucosylated lactose derivatives of general formula 2 and salts thereof; b) adding at least one enzyme comprising a transglycosidase activity to the at least one compound or a mixture of compounds provided according to step a); and c) incubating the mixture obtained according to step b).
US09382562B2

The present invention relates to a strain of Serratia plymuthica capable of producing turanose and mutants of said strain. Methods of producing turanose utilizing the disclosed strains of Serraitia plymuthica are also provided.
US09382553B2

The present invention provides for a genetically modified host cell capable of producing 1-deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate or 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP) (12), and optionally one or more DXP derived compounds, comprising: (a) a mutant RibB, or functional variant thereof, capable of catalyzing xylulose 5-phosphate and/or ribulose 5-phosphate to DXP, or (b) a YajO, or functional variant thereof, and a XylB, or functional variant thereof.
US09382549B2

The present disclosure relates to certain polypeptides derived from prokaryotic DGT enzymes, and nucleic acids useful in encoding the same, for example, novel polypeptides involved in metabolism of N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, and nucleic acids encoding such polypeptides. In some examples, such a polypeptide confers (or increases) tolerance to glyphosate in a plant cell wherein the polypeptide is heterologously expressed, for example, without adversely affecting the binding of EPSP synthase with its natural substrate, phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP).
US09382548B2

The present invention provides a novel method for the transduction and/or transfection of plant cells. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been successfully employed as nanocarriers to deliver proteins and oligonucleotides to single plant cell microspores as well as multi-cellular zygotic embryos. The efficiency of CPP internalization and further delivery of a macromolecular cargo comprising a protein and/or an oligonucleotide can be enhanced by permeabilization of the zygotic embryos.
US09382540B2

Provided herein are methods, compounds, and compositions for reducing expression of an ANGPTL3 mRNA and protein in an animal. Also provided herein are methods, compounds, and compositions for reducing lipids and/or glucose in an animal. Such methods, compounds, and compositions are useful to treat, prevent, delay, or ameliorate any one or more of cardiovascular disease and/or metabolic disease, or a symptom thereof, in an individual in need thereof.
US09382529B2

The present invention relates to polynucleotides from Ostreococcus lucimarinus which code for desaturases and elongases and which can be employed for the recombinant production of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The invention furthermore relates to vectors, host cells and transgenic nonhuman organisms which comprise the polynucleotides, and to the polypeptides encoded by the polynucleotides. Finally, the invention also relates to production processes for the polyunsaturated fatty acids and for oil, lipid and fatty acid compositions.
US09382523B2

The present invention provides a transformed or transfected Trichoderma reesei cell comprising one or more of: (i) at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence encoding a lipolytic enzyme comprising an amino acid sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 1 or SEQ ID NO: 2, (ii) at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence encoding a lipolytic enzyme wherein the nucleotide sequence comprises the nucleotide sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 3 or SEQ ID NO: 4, or (iii) at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence encoding a lipolytic enzyme wherein the nucleotide sequence comprises the nucleotide sequence which hybridizes to SEQ ID NO: 3 or SEQ ID NO: 4 or a nucleotide sequence which is at least 40% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 3 or SEQ ID NO: 4; and culturing the cell under conditions to allow for expression of the heterologous nucleotide sequence(s) encoding the lipolytic enzyme.
US09382518B2

Provided are newly identified pneumoviruses that can infect mammals, including dogs cats and potentially humans. Isolated polynucleotides and proteins of the viruses, as well as the isolated viruses themselves are provided. The invention includes compositions and methods for detecting the viruses, methods and compositions for prophylaxis and/or therapy of disease signs that are positively correlated with the presence of the viruses, and isolated cells comprising the viruses. Intact virions, viral proteins, and fragments thereof are also provided.
US09382513B2

The present invention relates to a method for producing avian cell lines, comprising gradual or complete withdrawal of growth factors, serum and/or feeder layer so that the established lines are adherent or nonadherent cells capable of proliferating indefinitely in a basic culture medium. The invention also relates to the cells derived from such lines which are particularly useful for the production of substances of interest.
US09382512B2

The invention describes specific sialylated structures present on human stem cells and cell populations derived thereof. The invention is especially directed to methods to control the status of stem cells by observing changes in sialylation of the cells; and control of potential contaminations of biological materials; and reagents and methods used in connection with the cells in order to avoid alterations of the cell glycosylation by contaminating materials. The invention is further directed to novel stem cells, the glycosylation of which has been specifically altered.
US09382504B2

The present invention provides a composition for treatment, the composition comprising a fluorinated compound and a phosphate ester having at least one hydrocarbon residue having at least 6 carbon atoms. There is further provided a method of treatment applying the composition to a substrate.
US09382503B2

A carpet cleaning detergent comprises: a) 0.001% to 40% w/v of a bactericidally active water-insoluble cationic compound in its salt form; b) 0.001 to 40% w/v of an anionic surfactant; c) 0.1 to 10 wt % bleach; d) a resoil prevention polymer; and e) up to 98% w/v of water.
US09382501B2

The present invention relates to a composition of matter comprising 1) at least 70% of at least a compound of formula (I) in the form of any one of its stereoisomers or a mixture thereof, and wherein R represents —a hydrogen atom and the dotted line represents a carbon-carbon single or double bond; or —a CH2 group bonded with C4 and C5 and the dotted line represents a carbon-carbon single bond; 2) at most 30% of at least a compound of formula (II) in the form of any one of its stereoisomers or a mixture thereof, and wherein R represents —a hydrogen atom and the dotted line represents a carbon-carbon single or double bond; or —a CH2 group bonded with C4 and C5 and the dotted line represents a carbon-carbon single bond; and wherein the percentages are w/w percentages relative to the total weight of the composition. Said compositions are useful perfuming ingredients of the floral, lily of the valley type.
US09382498B2

Provided is an antioxidant composition, including: a compound (A) represented by the following general formula (1); and an amine-based antioxidant (B) and/or a phenol-based antioxidant (C) other than the compound (A): (wherein R represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and n represents a number from 1 to 3.).
US09382491B2

Embodiments of the invention include apparatus and systems for hydrocarbon synthesis and methods regarding the same. In an embodiment, the invention includes a method for creating a hydrocarbon product stream comprising reacting a reaction mixture in the presence of a catalyst inside of a reaction vessel to form a product mixture, the reaction mixture comprising a carbon source and water. The temperature inside the reaction vessel can be between 450 degrees Celsius and 600 degrees Celsius and the pressure inside the reaction vessel can be above supercritical pressure for water. In an embodiment, the invention includes an extrusion reactor system for creating a hydrocarbon product stream. The temperature inside the extrusion reactor housing between 450 degrees Celsius and 600 degrees Celsius. Pressure inside the reaction vessel can be above supercritical pressure for water. Other embodiments are also included herein.
US09382489B2

More stable and valuable bio-oil produced from biomasses are provided. More specifically, more stable and valuable bio-oil useful as heating oil, alone or in combination with an oxygenated acyclic component, is provided. Particularly, various embodiments of the present invention provide for a bio-oil having sufficient heating value and stability to be useful as heating oil, alone or in combination with an oxygenated acyclic component, without the need to hydrotreat the bio-oil or use a similar deoxygenating process.
US09382486B2

A process is provided that is directed to a steam pyrolysis zone integrated with a hydrotreating zone and a solvent deasphalting zone to permit direct processing of crude oil feedstocks to produce petrochemicals including olefins and aromatics. The integrated hydrotreating, solvent deasphalting and steam pyrolysis process comprises charging the crude oil to a hydroprocessing zone to produce a hydroprocessed effluent; charging the hydroprocessed effluent to a solvent deasphalting zone to produce a deasphalted and demetalized oil stream and a bottom asphalt phase; thermally cracking the deasphalted and demetalized oil stream in the presence of steam to produce a mixed product stream; separating the mixed product stream; purifying hydrogen recovered from the mixed product stream and recycling it to the hydroprocessing zone; recovering olefins and aromatics from the separated mixed product stream; and recovering pyrolysis fuel oil from the separated mixed product stream.
US09382484B2

In the production method of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, oil feedstock having a 10 volume % distillation temperature of 140° C. or higher and a 90 volume % distillation temperature of 380° C. or lower is brought into contact with a catalyst for producing monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that includes a mixture containing a first catalyst which contains crystalline aluminosilicate containing gallium and/or zinc and phosphorus and a second catalyst which contains crystalline aluminosilicate containing phosphorus.
US09382483B2

The invention relates to a process for producing hydrocarbon components, comprising: providing a feedstock comprising tall oil and terpene-based compounds; subjecting the feedstock and a hydrogen gas feed to a hydroprocessing treatment in the presence of a hydroprocessing catalyst to produce hydrocarbon components including n-paraffins, and subjecting the hydrocarbon components including n-paraffins to isomerisation in the presence of a dewaxing catalyst to form a mixture of hydrocarbon components. The invention also relates to an apparatus for implementing the process. The invention further relates to a use of the hydrocarbon components produced by the process as a fuel or as an additive in fuel compositions. The invention also relates to a use of a NiW catalyst on a support selected from Al2O3, zeolite, zeolite-Al2O3, and Al2O3—SiO2 for producing fuel or an additive for fuel compositions from a feedstock comprising tall oil and terpene-based compounds.
US09382481B2

A polarizing film comprising a substrate, and a photo alignment film and a light absorption anisotropic film laminated on the substrate in this order, wherein the light absorption anisotropic film has a content ratio of 30% by mass or less of a liquid crystalline non-colorable low molecular weight compound and is obtained by fixing the alignment of a dichroic dye composition comprising at least one nematic liquid crystalline azo dichroic dye; in X-ray diffraction measurement thereof, diffraction peaks derived from periodic structure along a vertical direction to the alignment axis are present, the period indicated by at least one of the diffraction peaks is 3.0 to 15.0 Å and an intensity of the diffraction peak does not show a maximum value in the range of ±70° of the film normal line direction in a plane vertical to the alignment axis.
US09382477B2

An oxynitride phosphor power has a fluorescence peak wavelength of 580 to 605 nm, the oxynitride phosphor having a higher external quantum efficiency than ever before. The oxynitride phosphor powder is an oxynitride phosphor powder containing α-SiAlON and aluminum nitride, represented by composition formula: Cax1Eux2Si12−(y+z)Al(y+z)OzN16−z wherein x1, x2, y and z are 0
US09382467B2

A corrosion inhibitor composition and method of inhibiting corrosion on a surface in an oil or gas application is disclosed and claimed. The corrosion inhibitor includes at least one fatty acid; at least one alkanolamine; at least one alkylamine; and at least one organic sulfonic acid. The method of inhibiting corrosion includes on a surface in an oil or gas application comprises contacting an effective dosage of the corrosion inhibitor with the surface.
US09382463B2

An abrasive particle having an irregular surface, wherein the surface roughness of the particle is less than about 0.95. A method for producing modified abrasive particles, including providing a plurality of abrasive particles, providing a reactive coating on said particles, heating said coated particles; and recovering modified abrasive particles.
US09382460B2

A solid dry to the touch at ambient temperature structural adhesive which can be cured at elevated temperature and which can be molded at an intermediate temperature is provided as well as the use of the adhesive for bonding metals.
US09382448B2

Thiol-terminated polythioether compositions and sealants prepared using the thiol-terminated polythioether compositions that exhibit enhanced retention of elongation following exposure to high temperature are disclosed. The enhanced retention of elongation is realized by incorporating certain phenolic antioxidants into the composition.
US09382444B2

Disclosed herein is a block copolymer comprising a first segment and a second segment that are covalently bonded to each other and that are chemically different from each other; where the first segment has a first surface free energy and where the second segment has a second surface free energy; and an additive copolymer; where the additive copolymer comprises a surface free energy reducing moiety where the surface free energy reducing moiety has a lower surface free energy than that of the first segment and the second segment; the additive copolymer further comprising one or more moieties having an affinity to the block copolymer; where the surface free energy reducing moiety is chemically different from the first segment and from the second segment; where the additive copolymer is not water miscible; and where the additive copolymer is not covalently bonded with the block copolymer.
US09382442B2

The present invention relates to aqueous binder compositions which are based on aqueous multistage polymer dispersions, to the uses of such binder compositions, and to coating compositions comprising them. The aqueous binder composition comprises: a) a polymer P in the form of an aqueous multistage polymer dispersion of dispersed polymer particles, where the polymer particles comprise a first polymer having a glass transition temperature of at least 30° C. and being made of ethylenically unsaturated monomers M-A, and a second polymer having a glass transition temperature of not more than 20° C. and being made of ethylenically unsaturated monomers M-B, where the ethylenically unsaturated monomers M-A and M-B together comprise: i. 85% to 99.45% by weight, preferably 87.5% to 97% by weight and in particular 90% to 95.5% by weight, based in each case on the total amount of monomers M-A+M-B, of at least one neutral, monoethylenically unsaturated monomer M1 having a solubility in water of at most 50 g/l at 25° C. and 1 bar; ii. 0.5% to 10% by weight, preferably 1% to 7.5% by weight and in particular 1.5% to 6.5% by weight, based in each case on the total amount of monomers M-A+M-B, of at least one neutral, monoethylenically unsaturated monomer M2 having a solubility in water of at least 100 g/l at 25° C. and 1 bar; iii. 0.05 to 0.5% by weight, preferably 0.15% to 0.5% by weight and in particular 0.3% to 0.5% by weight, based in each case on the total amount of monomers M-A+M-B, of one or more monoethylenically unsaturated monomers M3 having an acidic group; and iv. optionally from 0 to 5% by weight and in particular from 0 to 4.5% by weight, based in each case on the total amount of monomers M-A+M-B, of one or more monomers M4 having at least two non-conjugated ethylenically unsaturated double bonds; and b) at least one carbodiimide having at least two carbodiimide moieties, which are bound to an aliphatic carbon atom.
US09382434B2

Provided is an actinic radiation-curable inkjet ink that undergoes sol-gel phase transfer and contains a dye, a gelling agent, a photopolymerization compound and a photopolymerization initiator. The actinic radiation-curable inkjet ink includes a photopolymerizable compound A, which is a (meth)acrylate having hydroxyl groups; a photopolymerizable compound B, which is a (meth)acrylate compound having a molecular weight within a range of 300 to 1,500 and an intramolecular structure (—CH2—CH2—O—)m (where m is an integer between 3 and 14); and a (meth)acrylate compound C, which has a molecular weight within a range of 280 to 1,500 and a C log P value within a range of 4 to 7. The ink contains, in terms of the mass of the entire ink, 1 to 15 mass % of photopolymerizable compound A, 30 to 70 mass % of photopolymerizable compound B, 10 to 40 mass % of photopolymerizable compound C, and 2 to 10 mass % of gelling agent.
US09382428B2

Provided are tinted or tintable and clear films formed from liquid tint material, and methods of making and using the same. Such films are useful to application to substrates such as glass, specifically windows on vehicles, to reduce glare from the sun, reject heat, provide protection from UV rays, and create a unique or decorative look to the vehicle. The films dry into a smooth and clear thin film. The film-forming liquid tint materials comprise: an aqueous polymeric dispersion; a tinting agent dispersed in the aqueous polymeric dispersion; wherein upon contact with a substrate, the film-forming liquid tint material dries to a film that is clear and tintable. The tinting agents, in particular, photoactive components, can be encapsulated in a plurality of ORMOSIL nanoparticles.
US09382396B2

Cavity blocks contain a rigid polyurethane foam having a density in the range of 30-70 g/L in at least one chamber, the rigid polyurethane foam being obtained by reacting at least one polyisocyanate a) with at least one compound having at least two isocyanate-reactive hydrogen atoms b) in the presence of at least one catalyst d) and using at least one blowing agent c), comprising at least one blowing agent ci), which only develops its blowing effect at the time of the reaction of a) with b), and at least one blowing agent cii), which has a boiling point which is below the temperature at which said components a) and b) are mixed, wherein the pressure buildup during the foaming reaction of the polyurethane remains below 20 kPa, and the invention also relates to the corresponding process for producing the cavity blocks.
US09382391B2

A cross-linkable nitrile rubber composition obtained by mixing a master batch (B) which contains a nitrile copolymer rubber (b1) having an iodine value of 120 or less and an aromatic polyvalent amine cross-linking agent (b2) into a carboxyl group-containing nitrile copolymer rubber (A) having an iodine value of 120 or less and a cross-linked product obtained by cross-linking the same are provided.
US09382389B2

The method is for controlling a sodium and sulphur balance of a pulp mill while separating lignin from black liquor. Lignin is precipitated by using an acid followed by filtration. The lignin filter cake thus obtained is re-suspended in acidic liquid and dewatered to form a second cake. The filtrate obtained after dewatering of the second cake is returned for washing and suspension of the first cake. Sodium sulphate-rich ESP (electrostatic precipitator) dust produced in the recovery boiler is used in the washing of the precipitated lignin cake.
US09382385B2

The present invention relates to a lactide copolymer exhibiting excellent flexibility and having more improved processability and productivity at the time of performing an extrusion and molding process, and a resin composition and film including the same, wherein the lactide copolymer includes a predetermined number of block copolymer repeating units in which hard segments of polylactide repeating units are bound to both ends of soft segments of polyether polyol repeating units, and has a weight-average molecular weight of 150,000 to 300,000, and a melt index y (MI; g/10 min) satisfying a specific relationship, the MI being measured under a load of 2.16 kg and at a temperature of x□ between 170□ and 210□.
US09382379B2

A reactor system for producing polycarbonate includes a surface area in contact with a reaction mixture. The reaction mixture comprises a melt transesterification catalyst, a dihydroxy compound, a diaryl carbonate, and an phenolic byproduct. The surface area in contact with the reaction mixture contains one or more welds joining reactor system parts. All welds in contact with the reaction mixture join reactor system parts made from the same type of metal. If a filler metal is contained in the weld, the filler metal is made from the same type of metal as the metal parts joined by the weld.
US09382378B2

The invention is to provide polycarbonate resins having excellent light resistance, transparency, hue, heat resistance, thermal stability, and mechanical strength and to provide processes for efficiently and stably producing a polycarbonate resin which stably shows those performances. The invention includes: polycarbonate resins which at least contain structural units derived from a dihydroxy compound having the portion represented by formula (1) as part of the structure thereof and which have specific properties; and processes for producing the polycarbonate resins, CH2—O  (1) where the case where the portion represented by formula (1) is part of —CH2—O—H is excluded.
US09382377B2

A polymer mixture in solid or aqueous form includes a content of from 5 to 95% by weight of a first polymer and a content of from 5 to 95% by weight of a second polymer. The first polymer is a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having a weight-average molecular weight of 1000 to 20 000 g/mol. The second polymer is a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having a weight-average molecular weight of 1000 to 50 000 g/mol. The polymer mixture can inhibit precipitation and sedimentation of calcium salts and magnesium salts in water-bearing systems.
US09382369B2

The present invention relates to a rubber-modified vinyl-based graft copolymer to which acrylic monomers containing a phenyl or phenoxy group are grafted in order to increase compatibility with a polycarbonate resin, and also relates to a thermoplastic resin composition including the rubber-modified vinyl-based graft copolymer. The thermoplastic resin composition according to the present invention can significantly improve appearance and high fluidity and can have high flowability and chemical resistance.
US09382367B2

Provision of, and a method for production of, a polymer electrolyte membrane, which is characterized by introducing a vinyl monomer into an aromatic polymer membrane substrate, typified by polyether ether ketone, polyether imide, or polysulfone, as graft chains by graft polymerization, and then chemically converting some of the graft chains or/and part of the aromatic polymer chain into sulfonic groups.
US09382364B2

A process for preparation of a polymer product comprising the steps of i) feeding an aqueous mixture comprising a monoethylenically unsaturated monomer or a mixture of monoethylenically unsaturated monomers into a first reactor device (2) through at least one inlet; ii) partially polymerising the monomer or monomers and transferring the polymerising monomer or mixture of monomers from the inlet to an outlet (3) of the first reactor device (2) to provide a partially polymerised product; iii) flowing the partially polymerised product out of the outlet (3), in which no more than 60% of the monomer or mixture of monomers has been polymerised in the partially polymerised product as it exits the outlet (3) of first reactor device (2), and transferring it to a further reactor device (5), in which the further reactor device (5) has an inlet and an outlet (6); iv) continuing the polymerisation in the further reactor device (5) and removing the polymer product from the outlet (6) of the further reactor device (5), characterised in that the first reactor device (2) comprises a positive displacement pump.
US09382362B2

A process for manufacturing a fluoropolymer hybrid organic/inorganic composite comprising: (i) mixing at least one fluoropolymer comprising recurring units derived from at least one (meth)acrylic monomer [monomer (MA)] of formula: at least one metal compound [compound (M)] of formula: X4-mAYm, wherein each of R1, R2, R3, equal or different from each other, is independently a hydrogen atom or a C1-C3 hydrocarbon group, and ROH is a hydrogen atom or a C1-C5 hydrocarbon moiety comprising at least one hydroxyl group [polymer (F)]; wherein m is an integer from 1 to 4, A is a metal selected from the group consisting of Si, Ti and Zr, Y is a hydrolysable group, X is a hydrocarbon group comprising one or more functional groups; (ii) reacting at least a fraction of hydroxyl groups of the ROH groups of said monomer (MA) of said polymer (F) with at least a fraction of said compound (M), to obtain a grafted polymer comprising pendant —Ym-1AX4-m groups, with m, Y, A and X having same meaning as above; and (iii) hydrolyzing and/or polycondensing compound (M) and/or pendant —Ym-1AX4-m groups as above. The invention also disclose the fluoropolymer hybrid organic/inorganic composites obtained therefrom and the method of the use of the same.
US09382357B2

The invention relates to a polymer composition that includes a branched alkene which is cationically polymerizable as well as a glass-forming comonomer and/or a vinyl comonomer containing benzocyclobutene as the pendant group. The structure of the polymer composition can take various forms: linear random copolymer, linear block copolymer, star random copolymer, star block copolymer, and other hyperbranched polymers. The copolymer composition can undergoes crosslinking at elevated temperatures (preferably above 180° C.).
US09382351B2

Amorphous propylene-ethylene copolymers are described herein that can include high amounts of ethylene and exhibit desirable softening points and needle penetrations. The desirable combinations of softening points and needle penetrations in these propylene-ethylene copolymers allow them to have a broad operating window. Due their broad operating window, the propylene-ethylene copolymers can be utilized in a wide array of applications and products, including hot melt adhesives.
US09382347B2

Ziegler-Natta catalysts, processes of forming the same and using the same are described herein. The process generally includes contacting a metal component with a magnesium dihalide support material to form a Ziegler-Natta catalyst precursor; contacting the support material with a dopant including a non-Group IV metal halide to form a doped catalyst precursor; and activating the doped catalyst precursor by contact with an organoaluminum compound to form a Ziegler-Natta catalyst.
US09382333B2

The present invention relates to amino acid sequences that are directed against proteins from the group of the Angiopoietin/Tie family such as Tie1, Tie2, Ang1, Ang2, Ang3, Ang4, Angptl1, Angptl2, Angptl3, Angptl4, Angptl5, Angptl6, as well as to compounds or constructs, and in particular proteins and polypeptides, that comprise or essentially consist of one or more of such amino acid sequences.
US09382329B2

The present invention concerns compositions and methods of use of bispecific antibodies comprising at least one binding site for Trop-2 (EGP-1) and at least one binding site for CD3. The bispecific antibodies are of use for inducing an immune response against a Trop-2 expressing tumor, such as carcinoma of the esophagus, pancreas, lung, stomach, colon, rectum, urinary bladder, breast, ovary, uterus, kidney or prostate. The methods may comprising administering the bispecific antibody alone, or with one or more therapeutic agents such as antibody-drug conjugates, interferons (preferably interferon-α), and/or checkpoint inhibitor antibodies. The bispecific antibody is capable of targeting effector T cells, NK cells, monocytes or neutrophils to induce leukocyte-mediated cytotoxicity of Trop-2+ cancer cells. The cytotoxic immune response is enhanced by co-administration of interferon, checkpoint inhibitor antibody and/or ADC.
US09382328B2

Fully human antibodies and antigen-binding portions thereof that bind to human 4-1BB and that allow binding of human 4-1BB to a human 4-1BB ligand. In one aspect, the antibody is an IgG4 antibody. Also provided is a method for treating a disease in a subject comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of the antibody to said subject.
US09382322B2

The present invention methods and novel compounds for facilitating tissue repair and regeneration when the extracellular matrix is damaged. Specifically, binding of the beta 1 integrin is shown to provide a modulation of its functional activity resulting in up regulation of extracellular matrix anabolism. The invention therefore provides a method and novel compounds which can facilitate tissue regeneration in many systems such as the lung, skin, liver and bone. In particular, the binding of the JB1a antibody to a site of amino acid residues 82 to 87 of the mature beta 1 integrin is shown to be particularly effective in mediating the described tissue repair effect.
US09382317B2

The invention provides aqueous pharmaceutical adalimumab compositions suitable for long-term storage of adalimumab, methods of manufacture of these compositions, methods of administration, and kits containing same.
US09382315B2

The present invention relates to discovery of the ectopic expression of EDEM2 in a production cell to improve the yield of a useful multi-subunit protein. Thus, the present invention provides for production cell lines, such as the canonical mammalian biopharmaceutical production cell—the CHO cell, containing recombinant polynucleotides encoding EDEM2. Also disclosed is a production cell containing both an EDEM2-encoding polynucleotide as well an XBP1-encoding polynucleotide. Improved titers of antibodies produced by these cell lines are disclosed, as well as the improved cell densities attained by these cells in culture.
US09382310B2

Recombinant bacterial triple-helical collagen-like proteins comprising two or more repetitive sequences of Gly-Xaa-Yaa yielding high-stability polymeric constructs without the need for post-translational modifications and which may incorporate one or more functional domains of biological or structural importance. The polymers are capable of high-yield production for a variety of applications.
US09382304B2

Compounds are provided having inter alia good duration of action, high potency and/or convenient dosing regimens including oral administration, and reduced immunogenicity. The compounds are engineered polypeptides which incorporate an albumin binding domain in combination with one or more biologically active polypeptides. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment for diseases and disorders including obesity and overweight, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hyperlipidemia, Alzheimer's disease, fatty liver disease, Short Bowel Syndrome, Parkinson's disease, and cardiovascular disease.
US09382301B2

A novel isolated protein, referred to herein as “caltubin”, is provided. Caltubin promotes axonal regeneration, and prevents or at least reduces axonal retraction in neurons.
US09382290B2

The present invention provides aptamer-modified polymers and materials thereof, which may be used for the binding of factors in a wound bed. For example, the aptamer-modified materials can be polypeptides conjugated to polymer foam materials. Such materials may be used, for example, for dressings, wound inserts, or pads.
US09382289B2

Tubulysin compounds of the formula (I) where R1, R2, R3a, R3b, R4, R5, W, and n are as defined herein, are anti-mitotic agents that can be used in the treatment of cancer, especially when conjugated to a targeting moiety.
US09382286B2

A method and composition for the treatment, prevention and/or prophylaxis of a host, and in particular, a human, infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), is provided that includes administering an effective amount of a 5-substituted uracil nucleoside or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt or prodrug, optionally in a pharmaceutically acceptable diluent or excipient.
US09382275B2

A process is provided for preparing a salt of a hydroxy-substituted di-ester of phosphoric acid, comprising: (a) reacting a phosphating agent with a monohydric alcohol and with an alkylene polyol, wherein the mole ratio of monohydric alcohol:alkylene polyol is about 0.2:0.8 to about 0.8:0.2 and wherein an excess of the phosphating agent is employed such that the product mixture formed thereby contains phosphorus acid functionality; and (b) reacting the product mixture of step (a) with an amine. The product is useful as an antiwear agent.
US09382273B2

Synthesis of four coordinated palladium complexes and their applications in light emitting devices thereof.
US09382270B2

Provided are silacyclopropane-based compounds and methods of making the same. Also provided are methods of using said compounds in film deposition processes to deposit films comprising silicon. Certain methods comprise exposing a substrate surface to a silacyclopropane-based precursor and a co-reagent in various combinations.
US09382268B1

Disclosed are sulfur containing organosilane precursors, methods of synthesizing the same, and methods of using the same to deposit silicon-containing films using vapor deposition processes for manufacturing semiconductors, photovoltaics, LCD-TFT, flat panel-type devices, refractory materials, or aeronautics. The disclosed precursors have the following formula: wherein L1 is a sulfur atom and L2 may be chosen from a sulfur atom, an oxygen atom, or a nitrogen atom; L1 and L2 are joined together via a carbon bridge having one to three carbon atoms; and L1, L2 and the carbon bridge form a monoanionic ligand bonded to silicon.
US09382265B2

The present invention relates to the field of a pharmaceutical compound, and more specifically, relates to a new oxazolidone compound, an enantiomer, a diastereoisomer and a raceme thereof, and a mixture thereof, and a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, a preparation method thereof, an application thereof as a bioactive substance in a drug. The compound in the present invention has strong anticoagulant activity, does not affect the activity of thrombin, and can reduce the risk of hemorrhage. A pharmacokinetics experiment shows that the compound in the present invention further has good metabolic characteristics, and has a far better oral bioavailability than a positive contrastive agent rivaroxaban.
US09382237B2

Provided herein are 3,5-diaminopyrazoles, for example, compounds of Formula IA, that are useful for modulating regulated-in-COPD kinase activity, and pharmaceutical compositions thereof. Also provided herein are methods of their use for treating, preventing, or ameliorating one or more symptoms of a RC kinase-mediated disorder, disease, or condition.
US09382236B2

The present invention relates to a diazepine derivative represented by the following general formula (I) (in the formula, R1 and R2 represent hydrogen atom and the like, or R1 and R2 bind together to form a naphthalene ring and the like together with the benzene ring to which they bind, R3 and R4 represent hydrogen atom and the like, R5 represents hydrogen atom and the like, R6 and R7 represent hydrogen atom and the like, X represents C, CH or N, Y represents N, NH or C(═O), provided that when X is N, Y is not N or NH, and when X is C or CH, Y is not C(═O), Z represents oxygen atom or sulfur atom, A represents benzene ring and the like, B represents NHC(═O) and the like, D represents an atomic bond and the like, E represents an atomic bond and the like, G represents benzene which may be substituted and the like, and m represents an integer of 0 to 5) or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof, and a P2X4 receptor antagonist.
US09382226B2

The invention involves compounds of structural Formula (I) and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The compounds of the invention are effective at selectively inhibiting CYP11B2, and are therefore useful for the treatment or prophylaxis of disorders that are associated with elevated aldosterone levels, including, but not limited to, hypertension and heart failure.
US09382219B2

Novel cyclic compounds and salts thereof, pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds, and methods of using such compounds in the treatment of protein tyrosine kinase-associated disorders such as immunologic and oncologic disorders.
US09382211B2

Disclosed are novel stable compounds having anti-oxidant properties and methods of using the compounds for the treatment of diseases or injuries associated with oxidative stress.
US09382209B2

Stable crystalline Form II and stable crystalline Form III of ivabradine hydrochloride and processes for their preparation are disclosed.
US09382208B1

Described are negative allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGlu2), pharmaceutical compositions including the compounds, and methods of using the compounds and compositions for treating depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cognitive disorders, Alzheimer's disease, or autism spectrum disorders in a subject.
US09382196B2

The present invention includes methods/processes and intermediates for preparing compounds having structural Formula (I): wherein X is alkyl, substituted alkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, heteroalkyl, substituted heteroalkyl, heteroalkenyl, or substituted heteroalkenyl.
US09382191B2

A composition and method for treatment of cancer. The composition for treating a skin disorder, comprising: a Nitrogen Mustard or an HX salt of the Nitrogen Mustard, wherein the Nitrogen Mustard or the HX salt of the Nitrogen Mustard is in a non-aqueous vehicle or carrier that does not include petrolatum or ethanol, wherein the non-aqueous vehicle or carrier that does not include petrolatum or ethanol does not include petrolatum or ethanol. The method comprises topically applying the composition of a Nitrogen Mustard or a HX salt of the Nitrogen Mustard to the affected skin, wherein the Nitrogen Mustard or the HX salt of the Nitrogen Mustard is in a non-aqueous vehicle or carrier that does not include petrolatum or ethanol, wherein the non-aqueous vehicle or carrier does not include petrolatum or ethanol.
US09382190B2

A continuous process for the production of an alkyl ester product is described. The process includes the steps of carbonylating ethylene with carbon monoxide in the presence of C1-6 alkanol co-reactant to form the alkyl ester product. The carbonylation takes place in the presence of a catalyst system that includes (a) a bidentate ligand, (b) a catalytic metal selected from a group 8, 9 or 10 metal or a compound thereof, and (c) a sulphonic acid capable of forming an acid alkyl ester with the C1-6 alkanol. The process includes the step of separating the alkyl ester product from a carbonylated crude product stream by treatment effective to vaporizing the alkyl ester product in a single stage flash distillation column and providing a purified alkyl ester product stream separated from the bidentate ligand and catalytic metal.
US09382187B2

Provided herein are tri-salt compounds comprising a compound having two acidic functional groups and one basic functional groups (e.g., aspartate or glutamate), metformin, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoate or docosahexaenoate. The salts can be used in the treatment of diabetes, diabetes with concomitant dyslipidemia (e.g., high triglycerides) and diabetes exacerbated cardiovascular complications, such as cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac ischemia, myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, and stroke. The compounds of this invention are also useful in treating obesity.
US09382186B1

A process for producing acetic acid is disclosed in which the water concentration is controlled in the side stream between two columns. Controlling the water concentration by the liquid light phase recycle controls the hydrogen iodide concentration in the side stream to be less than or equal to 50 wppm.
US09382179B2

Catalyst compositions of alumina supports containing palladium and nickel are selective in a vapor phase hydrogenolyzis reaction to convert cyclic acetal compounds and/or cyclic ketal compounds in the presence of hydrogen to their corresponding hydroxy ether hydrocarbon reaction products.
US09382175B2

A method for removing tightly bound sodium from a zeolitic support comprising contacting the support with a sodium specific removal agent to produce a treated support. A method comprising providing an aromatization catalyst comprising a treated support, and contacting the aromatization catalyst with a hydrocarbon feed in a reaction zone under conditions suitable for the production of an aromatic product. A catalyst support comprising an L-zeolite having less than 0.35 wt. % sodium.
US09382171B2

A process is described for producing a catalyst composition comprising an iridium component dispersed on a support. In the process, silica- o group to form an organic iridium complex on the support. The treated support is then heated in an oxidizing atmosphere at a temperature of about 325° C. to about 475° C. to partially decompose the organic metal complex on the support. The treated support is then heated in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature of about 350° C. to about 500° C. to convert the partially decomposed organic iridium complex into the desired iridium component.
US09382170B1

The present invention provides an improved process for producing an alkylated aromatic compound from an at least partially untreated alkylatable aromatic compound having catalyst poisons and an alkylating agent, wherein said alkylatable aromatic compound stream is treated to reduce catalyst poisons with a treatment composition having a surface area/surface volume ratio of greater than or equal to 30 in−1 (12 cm−1) in a treatment zone separate from an alkylation reaction zone under treatment conditions including a temperature of from about 30° C. to about 300° C. to form an effluent comprising said treated alkylatable aromatic compound.
US09382167B2

An energetic composite having a plurality of reactive particles each having a reactive multilayer construction formed by successively depositing reactive layers on a rod-shaped substrate having a longitudinal axis, dividing the reactive-layer-deposited rod-shaped substrate into a plurality of substantially uniform longitudinal segments, and removing the rod-shaped substrate from the longitudinal segments, so that the reactive particles have a controlled, substantially uniform, cylindrically curved or otherwise rod-contoured geometry which facilitates handling and improves its packing fraction, while the reactant multilayer construction controls the stability, reactivity and energy density of the energetic composite.
US09382161B2

There is a process for creating graphite free non-fired refractory products, which are molded using presses and which includes using a plurality of different binders. The binders comprise a first binder for binding grains of granulation between room temperature and 400° C., a second binder binding the grains of granulation between 300 and 900° C.; and a third binder binding granulations of the refractory materials that enter into ceramic binding at temperatures above 900° C. This process is for producing at least one of magnesia chromite bricks, magnesia spinel and spinel bricks, magnesia zirconia and magnesia zircon bricks, magnesia hercynite and magnesia galaxite bricks, dolomite, dolomite-magnesia, and lime bricks, forsterite and olivine bricks, magnesia forsterite bricks, magnesia pleonast bricks, magnesia bricks. These products are configured to operate as a fire-side, refractory lining of large-volume industrial furnaces operated with an essentially oxidizing atmosphere, for the production of cement, lime, magnesia, and doloma.
US09382160B2

This invention relates to the development of Crumb Rubber augmented masonry blocks. Crumb rubber is extracted from scrape tires after being processed and then mixed in specified percentages with concrete, cement and water. In the present disclosure sand, which is used in the formation of conventional blocks, is replaced with crumb rubber to produce a sand-free masonry block containing crumb rubber. The developed crumb rubber masonry blocks satisfied the ASTM non-load bearing requirements in addition to satisfying the water absorption test.
US09382154B2

A method is disclosed. The method includes providing a cementitious material, the cementitious material including an absorbing material. The method also includes absorbing a fluid into the absorbing material during hydration of the cementitious material. The method further includes retaining the fluid in the absorbing material after hydration of the cementitious material.
US09382145B2

A precious metal structure which has an internal gas permeable membrane is described herein for a glass manufacturing vessel configured to have molten glass flow therein. The internal gas permeable membrane can be supplied with an atmosphere of gas (or gases) to control the flux of hydrogen into our out of the molten glass or otherwise improve the production of the molten glass. In this manner, the undesirable detrimental reactions that can occur at the interface of the molten glass and precious metal interface which can cause defects in the molten glass such as bubbles or solid inclusions can be stopped or at least substantially reduced.
US09382141B2

An apparatus for the continuous treating of a water well with chlorine or hydrogen peroxide includes an inlet pipe, which is mounted in the cover on a water well and an elongated tube extending downwardly from the bottom end of the pipe into the well, preferably beyond any pitless adaptor, for depositing chlorine pellets or chlorine or hydrogen peroxide solution in the well. The pellets or solution are added roughly on a weekly basis which prevents a chlorine or hydrogen peroxide smell in the water.
US09382138B2

An advanced on-site water sanitization system is taught having integrated chlorine generation and copper/silver ionization in the same unit. The system includes a manifold loop connectable to a water supply line for supplying water to be sanitized from a body of water, and connectable to a water return line for returning sanitized water to the body of water. It also includes a copper/silver ionizer, capable of receiving a flow of water to be sanitized, adding copper and silver ions to the flow of water so as to provide a copper/silver ionized flow of water. A chlorinator is also included, capable of receiving a flow of ionized water, and a flow of chlorine, and allowing the flow of chlorine to mix with the flow of ionized water so as to provide a chlorinated flow of ionized water to the manifold loop to return as sanitized water to the body of water.
US09382135B2

In a desalination system, water is treated, for example by reverse osmosis, to produce desalinated product water and a reject stream. Salt from the reject stream is transferred to a flow of low salinity wastewater, such as effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. For example, the reject stream may be fed to the high salinity cell in an electrodialysis (ED) unit. The adjacent low salinity cell receives the low salinity wastewater. The high salinity and low salinity cells are separated by ion exchange membranes. The salty wastewater is discharged, for example to the ocean. The salt-reduced reject stream is treated to extract more product water from it, for example by recycling it to the feed water. Less feed water is needed to produce a given volume of product water. If a thermal desalination unit is combined with divalent ion selective ion exchange membranes, then scaling is reduced.
US09382134B2

A ballast water treatment apparatus includes a discharge path for discharging ballast water from a ballast tank that stores the ballast water, an ultraviolet irradiation device that includes an ultraviolet lamp and that irradiates the ballast water passing through the discharge path with ultraviolet light, a circulation path formed so that the ballast water circulates therethrough and is irradiated with ultraviolet light emitted from the ultraviolet lamp, a switching portion for switching a path through which the ballast water flows between the circulation path and the discharge path, and a control device that controls the switching portion so that the ballast water flows through the circulation path during a switching-on process of the ultraviolet lamp and controls the switching portion so that the ballast water flows through the discharge path when the switching on of the ultraviolet lamp is completed.
US09382133B2

An adsorbent composition for removing heavy metals from contaminated water is described. The composition comprises of a mixture of kaolin clay, cellulose powder, silica powder, magnesite powder, bentonite powder and water. The adsorbent is mixed with contaminated water and allowed to react. Once the reaction is finished a reduced contaminant containing water is gathered and reused.
US09382128B2

The present invention provides a process for producing a concentrated aqueous nano titania sol in the mild pH range (4.0 to 10.0) comprising contacting an acidic nano titania sol with a dispersant and with an alkalizing agent, and subjecting the nano titania sol to membrane filtration until the nano titania sol contains more than 300 g TiO2 nanoparticles/dm3. The nano titania sol may further be subjected to a coating treatment within any of the steps of the above described process. The concentrated aqueous nano titania sol of this disclosure is suitable for use in a variety of applications, including providing UV protection and photochemically degrading or inactivating contaminants.
US09382126B2

There are provided methods for preparing lithium carbonate. For example, such methods can comprise reacting an aqueous composition comprising lithium hydroxide with CO2 by sparging the CO2 the said composition, thereby obtaining a precipitate comprising the lithium carbonate. The methods can also comprise inserting at least a portion of the precipitate into a clarifier and obtaining a supernatant comprising lithium bicarbonate and a solid comprising the lithium carbonate, separating the solid from the supernatant; and heating the supernatant at a desired temperature so as to at least partially convert the lithium bicarbonate into lithium carbonate.
US09382121B2

A high-purity silicon carbide powder and its production method enable mass production of the high-purity silicon carbide powder at low cost in a safe manner. The content of impurities in the silicon carbide powder is 500 ppm or less. The silicon carbide powder can be obtained by heating a raw material for silicon carbide production in an Acheson furnace using a heat generator. The raw material for silicon carbide production is prepared by mixing a siliceous raw material and a carbonaceous raw material. The raw material for silicon carbide production contains the siliceous raw material and the carbonaceous raw material at a mixture mole ratio (C/SiO2) of 2.5 to 4.0 and has a content of impurities of 120 ppm or less.
US09382120B2

A system for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. The CO2 sequestration system may include one or more sub-systems for generating electricity, a heat exchange system which may regulate temperature, and a conversion tank. The conversion tank may contain water with dissolved compounds and a catalyst. Carbon dioxide may be converted into carbonate minerals and drawn off to be used in any of a variety of applications.
US09382112B2

A method for manufacturing a MEMS device includes the following operations. An SOI wafer including a device layer, an insulating layer and a handle layer is provided. The device layer is etched to form a recess and an annular protrusion surrounding the recess. A moving part and a spring of the MEMS device are formed on the recess by etching the device layer, the insulating layer and the handle layer. An anchor of the MEMS device is formed at the annular protrusion by etching the device layer, the insulating layer and the handle layer. The moving part and the anchor are connected to each other by the spring. The insulating layer is disposed between a first conductive portion and a second conductive portion of the moving part. The insulating layer is disposed between a first conductive portion and a second conductive portion of the anchor.
US09382107B2

An activity and volume sensing beverage container cap system for a beverage container including a cap that couples with the beverage container, a processor, a timer and at least one activity level sensor, such as an inclinometer, coupled with the processor. The activity level sensor detects container orientation. When the container is tilted, the timer measures an amount of time in an orientation. Based on the current and previous orientation and the amount of time the container is in different orientations, the processor determines an amount of time of activity of the user, and a level of activity of the user, such as number of steps or moves per time. The inclinometer is also used to determine the amount of volume dispensed from the container when tilted over a threshold indicative of drinking. Thus one inclinometer may be utilized as both to determine activity level and volume of fluid dispensed.