US09403370B2

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including a liquid jet head, and a liquid supply unit configured to supply the first liquid to the liquid jet head. The liquid supply unit includes an atmosphere connection portion having a containment portion, an atmosphere communication membrane, and a second liquid contained in the containment portion. The atmosphere connection portion is configured to let the second liquid depart from at least a part of the atmosphere communication membrane under a condition that nozzles of the liquid jet head are positioned above a liquid connection portion of the cartridge installation portion, and is also configured to let the second liquid cover the entire area of the atmosphere communication membrane under a condition that the nozzles of the liquid jet head are positioned below the liquid connection portion of the cartridge installation portion.
US09403366B2

A method of manufacturing a piezoelectric film using a piezoelectric film-forming composition. The piezoelectric film-forming composition contains Bi, Fe, Mn, Ba, and Ti and the mole ratio of Bi to the total amount of Fe and Mn is 1.02 or more 1.08 or less.
US09403357B1

An ultraviolet (UV) radiation resistance enhanced printing process uses a thermally migratable ultraviolet radiation absorber applied to a substrate to form a surface protection layer for images within the substrate. A hydrophobic thermally migratable ultraviolet radiation absorber may be applied to a transfer media prior to image transfer or as part of imaging the substrate. The application of the radiation absorber to the transfer media may be delivered digitally, either by inks comprising both sublimable colorants and the radiation absorber, or by inks comprising the radiation absorber.
US09403355B2

A variable printing machine for printing images different in top-bottom length with a plate and a blanket cylinder changed in diameter, is provided in which the plate and blanket cylinders and an impression cylinder can be brought into a proper state of contact with one another. Each of a plate cylinder shaft 20 and a blanket cylinder shaft 30 has its one axial end portion supported in a cantilever structure from a main frame 1 of the machine. When the plate cylinder sleeve 21 and the blanket cylinder sleeve 31 are each exchanged with one of different diameter, the blanket cylinder shaft 30 and the impression cylinder 4 are moved relative to each other so that the plate cylinder 2 and the blanket cylinder 3 may be brought into a proper state of contact with each other and so are the blanket cylinder 3 and the impression cylinder 4.
US09403353B2

There is described an intaglio printing press comprising (i) a stationary machine frame (01) supporting an intaglio printing cylinder (07) and an impression cylinder (06) contacting the intaglio printing cylinder (07), (ii) an inking system (12, 13, 16) for inking the intaglio printing cylinder (07), which inking system (12, 13, 16) comprises an ink-collecting cylinder (12) de-signed to contact the intaglio printing cylinder (07) and at least one inking device (13, 16) for supplying ink to said ink-collecting cylinder (12), and (iii) at least a first mobile carriage (11) supporting the ink-collecting cylinder (12), which first mobile carriage (11) is adapted to be moved with respect to the stationary machine frame (01) between a working position where the ink-collecting cylinder (12) contacts the intaglio printing cylinder (07) and a retracted position where the ink-collecting cylinder (12) is retracted away from the intaglio printing cylinder (07). The intaglio printing press further comprises a correcting and adjusting system (80) for correcting and adjusting a rotational position of the ink-collecting cylinder (12) with respect to a rotational position of the intaglio printing cylinder (07) following maintenance operations to ensure proper circumferential register between the ink-collecting cylinder (12) and the intaglio printing cylinder (07) in the working position of the first mobile carriage (11).
US09403352B2

Provided is a manufacturing method of a label, including configuring a member for a label so as to dispose a magnetic member between a base material and a covering material, cutting the magnetic member along with the base material so as to cut a label from the member for a label, removing an unnecessary portion of the base material from the member for a label, and detecting whether or not the label is present in the unnecessary portion of the base material or whether or not the label is present in the member for a label in which the unnecessary portion of the base material has been removed.
US09403343B2

The present invention relates to aluminum plated steel sheet which does not require coating after plating and is high in production flexibility enabling application of conventional production processes as they are or exhibits excellent corrosion resistance to flex fuels and further is excellent in appearance and to fuel tanks characterized by being produced using the steel sheet. The Si, Mg, Ca, and Ti ingredients in the aluminum plating layer are defined and the cooling method after hot dip aluminum coating is controlled to make Mg2Si particles with a long axis of 10 μm or less and an aspect ratio of 1 to 3 finely disperse in the plating layer. Due to the Mg2Si particles, it is possible to give an excellent corrosion resistance to flex fuels and suppress the deterioration in appearance due to MgO.
US09403342B2

A cermet coating includes a hard phase and a binder phase that binds the hard phase, wherein the hard phase includes a carbide phase composed of at least one type of WC and CrC; and the binder phase includes at least one type of metal phase selected from Co, Ni, NiCr, and CoCr, has a structure of a metal polycrystalline body, and is bonded directly to a metal substrate.
US09403338B2

A three dimensional folded structure, for use in lightweight design and lightweight construction, is folded at regular intervals and cannot be folded flat. The folded structure substantially extends in two directions and includes a small number of folded ply sheets. Each of the ply sheets is formed by an originally planar blank of an initially flat material lying in a zero plane and includes fold lines and polygonal holes disposed at regular distances. Each of the ply sheets is subdivided into a plurality of segments, each in the form of a polygonal planar entity that is, except at a border of the ply sheet, delimited by the fold lines and the border-edge-sections of a respective polygonal hole. Each ply sheet is folded up in two directions. During folding, the holes close into slits. Each slit of one ply-sheet is completely bridged by the other ply-sheet.
US09403337B2

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a thermoplastic bag with a substantially flat and rectangular bottom. The bag may also include a carrying handle and/or a tab with a mounting hole.
US09403334B1

Methods and tools for forming composite structures with predetermined, non-planar patterns of contours, as well as apparatuses including such composite structures, are disclosed herein. Example methods include defining a pattern of contours in a flexible sheet of composite material, conforming the flexible sheet of composite material to a layup mandrel, and curing the flexible sheet of composite material. Example tools include a body with an engagement surface for engaging a flexible sheet of composite material, the body having regions of relative stiffness and regions of relative compliance, and a vacuum distribution manifold configured to selectively apply a vacuum to the regions of relative compliance to deform the engagement surface to define a predetermined, non-planar pattern of contours.
US09403333B2

An automatic zipper device having a pair of bevel gears for biting and joining joint end portions of a sheet member wound around a periphery of the molding drum and having a plurality of magnet attractive metallic cords, and the device is provided with an inclined portion following cylinder which is attached to a lateral movement device laterally moving on the molding drum so as to be laterally movable and which adjusts a height of the bevel gear in accordance with an inclined surface of the sheet member to be joined, a clamping cylinder for adjusting a bitten amount of the bevel gears, and introduction magnet rollers for taking in the sheet member, and a member contact position stabilizing magnet for maintaining a constant position of the sheet member so that the sheet member to be joined can be brought into contact with the bevel gear at a constant angle.
US09403325B2

A winding machine for winding a fiber texture onto an impregnation mandrel, includes: a take-up mandrel for storing and unwinding a fiber texture, the take-up mandrel having a substantially horizontal axis of rotation; an impregnation mandrel for receiving superposed layers of the fiber texture unwound from the take-up mandrel, the impregnation mandrel having an axis of rotation that is substantially horizontal and parallel to the axis of rotation of the take-up mandrel; a camera directed towards the fiber texture and the impregnation mandrel to examine the passage of warp tracer yarns and weft tracer yarns present in the fiber texture; an image-analysis module for determining the positions of the intersections of warp tracer yarns with the successive weft tracer yarns and comparing these determined positions with corresponding positions for the intersections of reference warp and weft tracer yarns, and determining an offset value for the fiber texture for each of these intersections; electric motors for driving the mandrels in rotation about their respective axes of rotation; and a control unit for controlling the electric motors for driving rotation of the mandrels.
US09403319B2

A structural joint assembly for a vehicle is provided with a first thermoplastic composite member having a protrusion containing fibrous material. A reinforcement member is provided with a receptacle for mating engagement with the protrusion. A second thermoplastic member is mounted to the first thermoplastic member over the protrusion such that the reinforcement member is provided between the first thermoplastic member and the second thermoplastic member but not adhesively bonded or overmolded therebetween. A method of manufacturing a structural joint assembly and a structural joint assembly manufactured by a method are disclosed. The methods include molding a first thermoplastic member with a protrusion with fibrous material and a second thermoplastic member. A reinforcement member has a receptacle and is mounted to the first thermoplastic member. The receptacle is retained by the protrusion without adhesive bonding or overmolding. The second thermoplastic member is joined to the first thermoplastic member.
US09403311B2

Provided are a system and method for producing plastics material containers at a plant. A first processing unit outputs preforms having a temperature above an ambient temperature. A forming arrangement is arranged after the first processing unit in a direction of transport of the preforms, and forms the preforms into the plastics material containers. A heating device heats the preforms. A blow molding machine is in the direction of transport of the plastics material preforms, and expands the heated plastics material preforms to form the plastics material containers by applying a free-flowing medium. A discharge device is between the first processing unit and the forming arrangement, and discharges the plastics material preforms. A storage apparatus stores the plastics material preforms discharged by the discharge device.
US09403308B2

A molding tool for producing a component in a gas-assisted injection molding process includes a mold cavity, and an injection device with a pressurized gas source. The pressurized gas is fed into the plastic melt introduced into the mold cavity. The plastic melt is pressed against the inner walls of the mold cavity. The injection device has a piston with an injector head and moveably guided in a passage of a molding tool connected with the mold cavity. The injector head forms a part of the inner walls of the mold cavity in an idle position of the piston, and is pressed into the plastic melt as the piston moves to its operating position, so that the pressurized gas flows through the passage into the plastic melt in the mold cavity. The piston is moveable by the gas fed through the passage into the plastic melt.
US09403305B2

A device for applying a coating on a component where the component includes an inner surface, an outer surface, and end surfaces. The coating device includes a supporting pedestal, a UV light-transparent cover plate, a first pumping device, and an injecting device. The supporting pedestal is configured for holding the inner surface of the component, the end surfaces and the outer surface are exposed in the forming cavity. A through hole is defined in the center of the pedestal and a forming cavity is defined between the cover plate and the component when the cover plate is placed and secured on the pedestal. The first pumping device applies suction to the through hole to hold the component on the pedestal and the injecting device injects UV light-curable coating material in liquid form into the forming cavity.
US09403266B2

A power tool comprising a housing; an electric motor mounted within the housing; an insulated electric wire electrically connected to the motor and which is capable of providing an electric current to the motor; an electric switch connected in series with the wire, the electrical switch comprising a body and at least one electrical terminal plate extending from the body, wherein an exposed end of the insulated electric wire is electrically connected to the end of the terminal plate, and the exposed end of the wire and the end of the terminal plate are enclosed within an insulating sleeve; and a resilient insulating tube mounted on and surrounding the terminal plate, the resilient insulating tube being positioned on the terminal plate between the insulating sleeve and the body of the switch to enclose the part of the terminal plate located between the body and the insulating sleeve.
US09403255B2

A polishing apparatus polishes a substrate by bringing the substrate into sliding contact with a polishing surface. The polishing apparatus includes: a substrate holder having a substrate holding surface configured to press the substrate against the polishing surface, a retaining ring coupled to the substrate holding surface and configured to surround the substrate, wherein the retaining ring is brought into contact with the polishing surface during operation of the polishing apparatus, the retaining ring being configured to be tiltable independently of the substrate holding surface; a rotating mechanism configured to rotate the substrate holder about its own axis; and at least one local load exerting mechanism configured to exert a local load on a part of the retaining ring in a direction perpendicular to the polishing surface, the at least one local load exerting mechanism being arranged so as not to move in accordance with the substrate holder.
US09403249B2

A turnover apparatus is configured for flipping a workpiece. The turnover apparatus includes an rotatable frame, a cam assembly, two racks located at the two opposite sides of the cam assembly, a first clamping module and a second clamping module located at the two opposite sides of the workpiece. The rotatable frame includes a power input shaft. The cam assembly is coiled around the power input shaft, and includes an eccentric cam. Each clamping module includes a plurality of transmission assemblies and clamping assemblies. The rotatable frame can rotate around the cam assembly. At the same time, the clamping assemblies can clamp or loosen the workpiece by the driving force of the racks and the transmission assemblies.
US09403244B2

The present invention relates to a method for repairing an abradable coating of a compressor of a gas turbine, where a worn abradable coating is repaired, where an analysis and/or selection of areas of the abradable coating to be repaired is conducted by means of a boroscope in the non-removed state of the gas turbine, where a tool is passed through at least one boroscope aperture of the gas turbine to the area to be repaired and the worn abradable coating is at least partially removed, where the removed material is extracted, where the area of the abradable coating to be repaired is cleaned and/or prepared for application of a repair medium, where a hardenable aluminum oxide-based repair medium is applied to the area to be repaired by means of a type of airbrush and then hardened, and where the area provided with the repair medium is subsequently mechanically treated.
US09403241B2

A weld deposit produced from a coated welding electrode for use in welding cast irons is provided by the present invention. Preferably, in one form of the present invention, the weld deposit composition comprises between approximately 54% and approximately 60% Nickel, between approximately 3.5% and approximately 5.5% Manganese, and between approximately 0.9% and approximately 1.4% Carbon. The weld deposit is preferably formed by using a coated welding electrode having a coating composition between approximately 0.3% and approximately 4.0% Magnesium and rare earth metals and oxides. The resulting weld deposit exhibits improved ductility, fracture toughness, and resistance to cracking.
US09403240B2

A method of assembling together by brazing first and second parts made of composite material, each of the first and second parts having an assembly face for brazing with the assembly face of the other part, the method including making at least one perforation in the assembly face of the first part; interposing capillary elements between the assembly faces of the first and second parts made of composite material; placing the first and second parts facing each other while inserting a peg in each perforation of the first part; placing a brazing composition in contact with a portion of the capillary elements; and applying heat treatment to liquefy the brazing composition so as to cause the molten brazing composition to spread by capillarity between the assembly faces of the composite material parts.
US09403236B2

A method for selectively removing portions of a protective coating from a substrate, such as an electronic device, includes removing portions of the protective coating from the substrate. The removal process may include cutting the protective coating at specific locations, then removing desired portions of the protective coating from the substrate, or it may include ablating the portions of the protective coating that are to be removed. Coating and removal systems are also disclosed.
US09403234B2

Provided herein are systems including a wire spool having a core with a core diameter and wire wound around the core and having a wire diameter. An outer diameter of the wire spool is defined by a sum of the core diameter and the wire diameter. The systems may also include a sensing system having a sensor component disposed on the wire spool and/or a wire spool hub. The sensing system is adapted to acquire data corresponding to a parameter indicative of the outer diameter of the wire spool.
US09403233B2

A welding operation is performed by moving or rotating an arc in a welding torch, and feeding a metal cored wire through the torch in a direct current, electrode negative welding process. The electrode may include one or more arc stabilizers. The welding process may be pulsed or non-pulsed. Moreover, the process may be used with a number of different base metals intended to be welded, such as thin plate, galvanized metals, painted metals, coated metals, and so forth.
US09403230B2

A method of controlling a spot welding system used for attaching an inserted element in a hollow member is provided. A position of the inserted element in the hollow member is determined, the position of an attachment point is determined from the position of the inserted element in the hollow member, and a spot welding operation is performed at the attachment point. Further, a spot welding system for carrying out the method is provided.
US09403228B2

A method and apparatus for electromechanical grinding is provided. An pulsed alternating waveform is applied between an anodic workpiece and cathodic grinding wheel to physically remove and electrochemically remove material from the anodic workpiece.
US09403222B2

A method of removing an end-surface burr of a formed groove cut into a workpiece by rotationally driving around an axial center and moving a formed rotary cutting tool relative to the workpiece in a direction orthogonal to the axial center, by using a formed rotary cutting tool for chamfering acquired by deforming a radial shape of the formed rotary cutting tool used in cutting of the formed groove according to a predefined chamfer angle, and by rotationally driving around an axial center and moving the formed rotary cutting tool for chamfering relative to an end surface of the formed groove in a direction perpendicular to the axial center along an axial center movement locus forming the chamfer angle relative to an axial center movement locus of the formed rotary cutting tool in the cutting of the formed groove, chamfering for removing a burr on the end surface is performed.
US09403220B2

There is disclosed a camber-lock apparatus that provides for both joining and separating a two part hole saw. Said camber-lock apparatus consist of a circuited plate that installs within the boundaries of clasping devises at the top of a cylindrical saw blade. The cylindrical saw blade, with the cutting or teeth edge at the bottom, has a large opening at the top. Within the interior circumference of said opening is attached a series of clasping devices. Said circuited plate, with its attached arbor and pilot bit, comprises the top elements of the saw; which can be rotated into and out of place within the boundaries of said clasping devises. The purpose for removal of said circuited plate is to exposes the interior of the saw and any material jammed therein; thereby allowing for easy removal of said material.
US09403212B2

Process for producing a shaped metallic body from a thermoplastic composition by injection molding or extrusion to form a shaped part, removal of the binder and sintering, wherein a thermoplastic composition composed of a metal powder and a polymer mixture B1) and B2) based on a polyoxymethylene homopolymer or copolymer B1) is used as binder and to remove the binder a) the shaped part is treated with a solvent which extracts the binder component B2) from the shaped part and in which the binder component B1) is insoluble, b) the solvent is then removed from the shaped part by drying and c) the shaped part is treated thermally at from 140 to 200° C. in an oxygen-comprising atmosphere, as a result of which the binder component B1) is removed from the shaped part; and also a shaped metallic body which can be obtained in this way.
US09403189B2

The present invention relates to color matching and repair delivery systems and more particularly to the delivery of a gradient variety of shades of color of a gel coat, resin, and or paint in its liquid form, for the matching and repairing of and to existing colored surface and body structures and in the repair to gel coat and fiberglass surfaces and bodies typically found in and on boats, aircraft, tubs, showers, dock boxes and the like. The general purpose of the present invention relates to a method and delivery system for color matching gel coat to gel coat and fiberglass surfaces. The present invention and system allows users to color match their fiberglass gel coat surface repair by using a kit that eliminates the need for messy mixing of multiple components needed to perform the typical fiberglass gel coat repair. The system dispenser includes multiple chambers or component reservoirs that hold and contain the fiberglass gel coat resin color solution. Chamber number one (the main chamber) contains the “base” color while the remaining chambers contain the tint and shade colors. The multiple chambers form a unit with the attached pumping head. The variable extraction ratio of the base coat color and the tint or shade colors are controlled in the pump action head as it draws or pushes out the specified and chosen color mixing ratio as matched to the accompanied color match card.
US09403187B2

A substrate processing method includes an SPM supplying step of supplying SPM having high temperature to an upper surface of a substrate, a DIW supplying step of supplying, after the SPM supplying step, DIW having room temperature to the upper surface of the substrate to rinse off the liquid remaining on the substrate, a hydrogen peroxide water supplying step of supplying, after the SPM supplying step and before the DIW supplying step, hydrogen peroxide water of a liquid temperature lower than the temperature of the SPM and not less than room temperature, to the upper surface of the substrate in a state where the SPM remains on the substrate, and a temperature decrease suppressing step of supplying, in parallel to the hydrogen peroxide water supplying step, pure water having high temperature to a lower surface of the substrate.
US09403175B2

In some embodiments the present disclosure provides a sprinkler comprising: a nozzle for projecting a stream of liquid in a first direction; and a spinner having a liquid deflecting surface, which is pivotally mounted in-line with the nozzle such that a stream of liquid from the nozzle impinges on the liquid deflecting surface; where the liquid deflecting surface is shaped such that the stream of liquid causes the spinner to spin and furthermore, where the liquid deflecting surface is shaped such that the stream of liquid is deflected in a second direction that is substantially transverse to the first direction. Additional embodiments of this disclosure pertain to the sprinkler that includes a frame, where the spinner is pivotally mounted on the frame.
US09403172B2

A microfluidic optoelectronic tweezers (OET) device can comprise dielectrophoresis (DEP) electrodes that can be activated and deactivated by controlling a beam of light directed onto photosensitive elements that are disposed in locations that are spaced apart from the DEP electrodes. The photosensitive elements can be photodiodes, which can switch the switch mechanisms that connect the DEP electrodes to a power electrode between an off state and an on state.
US09403170B2

A coupling mechanism for an abrasive roll assembly placed inside an apparatus to couple the abrasive roll assembly along its axial center with the axial center of the apparatus, the coupling mechanism comprising a locking disk placed along the abrasive roll assembly.
US09403168B2

A device for comminuting feedstock having a rotor, rotating within a housing around an axis, with rotor tools lying within the outer circumferential region on a circumferential ring and a stator, associated with the rotor, with stator tools arranged concentrically in the outer circumferential region and forming a comminuting surface, whereby the rotor tools and the stator tools lie opposite at a distance with the formation of a working gap and the stator tools are formed by segments, which to form the comminuting surface rest on the stator with their rear side and lie with their long sides against one another. The segments are attached to the stator in each case with their first short side and second short side by a positive fit, whereby the stator has a clamping element, which works together with the first short side and/or second short side to clamp the segments against the stator.
US09403157B2

A three-way catalyst including a mixture of nickel and copper is provided for reducing carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon emissions, and nitrogen oxides from vehicle engine exhausts. The catalyst is impregnated onto a carrier substrate which is non-reactive with nickel and copper. When used in a vehicle exhaust gas treatment system, the nickel-copper catalyst provides improved efficiency in reducing CO, HC, and NOx emissions over the use of conventional three-way-catalysts and provides enhanced oxygen storage capacity (OSC) and water-gas-shift (WGS) functions.
US09403155B2

The present invention concerns a novel additive composition for reducing sulfur content of a catalytically cracked gasoline fraction. This additive composition comprises a support consisting of porous clay into which a first metal from group IVB is incorporated and a second metal from group IIB is impregnated. Preferably, the first incorporated metal is zirconium and the second impregnated metal is zinc. The sulfur reduction additive is used in the form of a separate particle in combination with a conventional cracking catalyst in a fluidized catalytic cracking process to convert hydrocarbon feed stocks into gasoline having comparatively lower sulfur content and other liquid products.
US09403154B2

The present invention relates to a catalyst comprising (i) a semiconductor preferably comprising one or more metal-(Group VIb) semiconductors, and (ii) a semiconductor material having elevated phosphorous content preferably comprising one or more metal-(Group VIb))-phosphorous species.
US09403153B2

Hydrocarbon-soluble molybdenum catalyst precursors include a plurality of molybdenum cations and a plurality of carboxylate anions having at least 8 carbon atoms. The carboxylate anions are alicyclic, aromatic, or branched, unsaturated and aliphatic, and can derived from carboxylic acids selected from 3-cyclopentylpropionic acid, cyclohexanebutyric acid, biphenyl-2-carboxylic acid, 4-heptylbenzoic acid, 5-phenylvaleric acid, geranic acid, 10-undecenoic acid, dodecanoic acid, and combinations thereof. The molybdenum salts have decomposition temperatures higher than 210° C. The catalyst precursors can form a hydroprocessing molybdenum sulfide catalyst in heavy oil feedstocks. Also disclosed are methods for making catalyst precursors and hydrocracking heavy oil using active catalysts.
US09403144B2

Disclosed are an apparatus for mass polymerization of a vinyl chloride resin which may suppress generation of abnormal products (fine-particle products, oversize-particle products, lumpy products due to coagulation, etc.) and a vinyl chloride resin, which causes formation of a poor sphere, and may enhance quality and processability of a vinyl chloride resin, by addressing the problem that an average distance between resin particles is decreased as polymerization proceeds, and thus, microparticles are generated due to excessive coagulation or friction between particles, and a method of mass-polymerizing the vinyl chloride resin. The method comprises additionally inputting a monomer to a reactor in which a monomer and an initiator are contained when a ratio of the monomer converted to a polymer is 30% to 70%.
US09403138B2

A wire standoff suitable for use in a tubular reactor, such as a reformer, is described. The wire standoff includes a portion or segment positioned between an outer reactor tube and one or more reactor components located within the tube. The reactor components and the outer tube are prevented from coming into directed contact with one another by the positioning of the wire standoff. The wire standoff can be secured to a reactor component at one of its ends or to a washer located between stacked reactor components. Prevention of the reactor components from contact with the outer tube promotes fluid flow through the reactor and can enhance heat transfer and reactor efficiency for carrying out catalytic reactions.
US09403137B2

A sintered polycrystalline diamond material (PCD) of extremely fine grain size is manufactured by sintering under high pressure/high temperature (HP/HT) processing, a diamond powder which is blended with a pre-milled source catalyst metal compound. The PCD material has an average sintered diamond grain structure of less than about 1.0 μm.
US09403136B2

A dual vessel reactor and a method of carrying out a reaction using a dual vessel reactor are provided using a non-condensable gas to substantially isolate the inner vessel from the outer vessel during the reaction and limit the heating of the outer vessel when steam from the inner vessel condenses on the interior surface of the outer vessel. By limiting the heating of the outer vessel through the condensation of the steam or other vapor from the inner vessel, the operating temperature of the outer vessel is kept below an upper threshold of the operating temperature of a seal used to seal the door in the outer vessel.
US09403131B2

A method and apparatus for dispensing a solution of a solid product in a fluid. A freestanding apparatus comprises an inlet portion through which fluid enters, a reaction portion in which the fluid encounters and dissolves the product to form a solution, and an outlet portion from which the solution exits the apparatus. Fluid may encounter product from a single direction or multiple directions. The apparatus may be configured to receive a particularly shaped solid product, and may comprise a lid or gate to prevent fluid from contacting the product undesirably.
US09403126B2

The present invention relates to ultrafiltration. In particular, the present invention provides nanoporous membranes having pores for generating in vitro and in vivo ultrafiltrate, devices and bioartificial organs utilizing such nanoporous membranes, and related methods (e.g., diagnostic methods, research methods, drug screening). The present invention further provides nanoporous membranes configured to avoid protein fouling with, for example, a polyethylene glycol surface coating.
US09403112B2

A system and device for filtering fluids using graphene oxide (GO) is provided. GO-based filters may be used for the efficient removal of microorganisms from organic and aqueous liquids and may be used to prevent fuel biodeterioration. Functionalization of graphene oxide with reactive oxygen functional groups provides physical properties to the GO including high solubility in polar solvents, good colloidal properties, low production costs, low toxicity, and a large surface area which can be decorated with antimicrobial agents including nanosilver. GO may be used as a filtration media for efficient removal of bacteria and to remove small amounts of water from hydrocarbon fuels. The GO filter media may be made of a plurality of GO particles, a structural core coated with GO, a non-porous structural membrane coated with GO, or a filtering membrane coated with GO. A method for sampling impurities found in an environmental sample is also provided.
US09403110B2

A filter assembly has a qualified filter element that filters fuel, a filter housing for the qualified filter element and a water-in-fuel sensor that senses presence of water in the filter housing. An electrical resistance of the water-in-fuel sensor changes based upon whether the qualified filter element is installed in the housing. A filter assembly can also have a plurality of magnetic elements disposed on at least one of the filter housing and the qualified filter element. A plurality of wires are disposed on at least the other of the filter housing and the qualified filter element. The control circuit determines that the qualified filter element is installed in the filter housing based on a change in the electrical current in the plurality of wires.
US09403108B2

A filtration operator for filtering raw water, comprising a plurality of filtration units, a raw water reservoir, a conduit for conveying raw water from the raw water reservoir to individual ones of the filtration units, filter medium provided in each of the filtration units for filtering raw water, a respective raw water chamber configured to be in water communication with the raw water reservoir, the filtration units, and a pump chamber, a sludge filtering and recycling chamber for receiving sludge from the filtration units during a backwash cycle, and at least one positively charged bar disposed in each of the raw water chambers, as well as in a sludge receiving chamber associated with the sludge filtering and recycling chamber.
US09403100B2

A baseplate assembly, used with releasably coupleable playing pieces, includes a baseplate operably coupled to an image generating device. The baseplate includes a display region, having playing pieces coupling elements, and means for transmitting images generated by the image generating device to the display region. An image generating and playing-piece-interacting assembly includes a receptor operably coupled to an image generating device, having a display screen for generated images, including integrated visual and optically encoded message images, a playing piece at a location relative to the display screen having an optical display message sensor, and a messaging transponder. The optical display message sensor receives the generated images and generates a first signal at least partially based upon the optically encoded message image. The messaging transponder receives the first signal and generates and sends the receptor a second signal at least partially based thereon.
US09403094B2

An example game system includes a game apparatus and an operating device. The game apparatus acquires operation data from the operating device. Moreover, the game apparatus executes an application and outputs an image generated by the execution of the application to either the operating device or a predetermined display device different from the operating device, or both. When a predetermined operation is performed on the operating device during the execution of the application, a predetermined operation image is displayed on a display unit of the operating device. In a state where the operation image is displayed on the display unit, the game apparatus determines whether or not a control instruction has been provided to control the predetermined display device, on the basis of the operation data. When the control instruction is determined to have been provided, the predetermined display device is controlled in accordance with the control instruction.
US09403085B2

A multi-user video game with communications capabilities allows players to communicate with one another via simulated mail, leaflets and conversations. Different installations of the game on different discrete video game playing platforms may be unique or different depending upon random or other data available at the platform. For example, different installations may have different subsets of characters, different landscapes, or the like. Player characters from one virtual environment or village may visit another virtual environment or village and return home to his or her resident environment or village. Non-player characters may move from one virtual environment or village to another—thereby providing an ever-changing variety of characters. Communications between different game playing platforms can be provided via portable memory devices, portable game playing devices, or conventional communications means such as networks.
US09403084B2

A puzzle includes a puzzle board having a plurality of cutouts, each cutout having a different geometric shape; a plurality of puzzle pieces adapted to fit within the cutouts, at least some of the puzzle pieces comprising a first segment and a second segment that mate with one another, wherein the first segment and the second segment have a mathematical correlation to the cutout into which the puzzle piece fits. A method of assembling a puzzle is also described.
US09403079B2

Improvements in cushioned custom dental guard to be constructed with EVA instead of Polyshok. The molding process ensures that the mouth guard provides even fit on all of the teeth. The custom fit is performed by taking an impression of the upper teeth and gums of the user. The dental guard can then be constructed to ensure a proper custom fit. Each layer provides a different function to provide an ideal cushion, as well as integration of artwork that is visible through the front of the dental guard. The dental guard may include air cells or chambers. The air cells provide a cushion by compressing the air cells to absorb an impact and spread the force of the impact over a greater area. A reinforcing wire maintains the shape and distribute impact forces. The reinforcing wire is completely embedded and encapsulated within the dental guard.
US09403074B2

A ball for use in teaching proper throwing or pitching techniques in baseball or softball is disclosed. The ball provides an internal mechanism by way of a snap device or a channel having a shiftable weighted material to provide both an audible and visible indication of when a proper wrist snap release of the ball has occurred. The internal mechanisms disclosed can be incorporated into newly manufactured baseballs or softballs or placed into preexisting balls.
US09403067B2

A golf club incorporating an interchangeable shaft system includes a shaft, a shaft sleeve, a club head. The shaft sleeve is coupled to an end of the shaft and is received in a hosel included in the club head. The shaft sleeve is removably coupled to the club head. Hosel and shaft sleeve alignment features provide discrete orientations between the shaft and club head.
US09403063B2

The present invention relates to golf balls, specifically to a golf ball comprising an aerodynamic pattern having novel shaped dimple structures which reduce the variation in airflow turning angle thereby improving the golf ball's flight performance. The dimple structures have a conical shaped base with a dimple in the center and reduced or no flat land areas between the dimples.
US09403057B2

A swing analyzing device includes at least a motion sensor, a data acquiring unit, a motion detecting unit, and a swing data determining unit. The data acquiring unit acquires detection data of the motion sensor. The motion detecting unit uses the acquired detection data to detect a motion of a swing and extracts, as swing candidate data, data from which the motion of the swing is detected. The swing data determining unit selects true swing data from the swing candidate data based on determination conditions associated with the swing.
US09403054B1

An oblong orbital exercising machine includes a main frame, an upright mounted on the main frame, a seat support mounted on the main frame, a cycle movement mechanism mounted between the seat support and the main frame, a seat mounted on the seat support, two guiding tracks mounted on the main frame, two swinging handles pivotally connected with the upright, two drive bars each having a first end pivotally connected with the cycle movement mechanism, two pedal units mounted on a second end of the respective drive bar, two driven bars each having a first end pivotally connected with the respective swinging handle and a second end pivotally connected with the respective drive bar, and two rollers each pivotally connected with the respective driven bar and each movably mounted in the respective guiding track.
US09403050B2

An apparatus for exercising muscles of a user. At least one member has a dynamic mass distribution that changes according to an orientation of the apparatus. The orientation of the apparatus may be altered by the user so as to exercise the user's muscles.
US09403047B2

A cable exercise machine includes a first pull cable and a second pull cable incorporated into a frame. Each of the first pull cable and the second pull cable are linked to at least one resistance mechanism. The at least one resistance mechanism includes a flywheel and a magnetic unit arranged to resist movement of the flywheel.
US09403044B2

A system for providing any plurality of exchangeable (typically thin-walled and lightweight) outer skins in combination with a wearable base garment, the base garment selected from as at least one of a one-piece suit, pants or a jacket and exhibiting a plurality of fasteners. A first selected outer skin is configured for positioning in overlaying fashion relative to any of the pants or jacket of the base garment. The outer skin exhibits a further plurality of fasteners which inter-engage with the first plurality of fasteners. The first skin exhibits a first decorative pattern and, upon being detached from the base garment, can be substituted by a second identically constructed skin exhibiting a second decorative pattern.
US09403038B2

The present invention comprises methods and devices for modulating the activity or activities of living cells, such as cells found in or derived from humans, animals, plants, insects, microorganisms and other organisms. Methods of the present invention comprise use of the application of ultrasound, such as low intensity, low frequency ultrasound, to living cells to affect the cells and modulate the cells' activities. Devices of the present invention comprise one or more components for generating ultrasound waves, such as ultrasonic emitters, transducers or piezoelectric transducers, composite transducers, CMUTs, and which may be provided as single or multiple transducers or in an array configurations. The ultrasound waves may be of any shape, and may be focused or unfocused.
US09403012B2

A device includes a pulse generator coupled to a neurostimulation lead placed around the nerve and a set of electrodes individually connected to the generator by a splitter circuit controlled to preferentially stimulate certain regions of the nerve relative to other regions. The device performing an iterative search of an optimal configuration operating by selection of a plurality of different stimulation configurations, storing of a cardiac physiological parameter measured for each selected stimulation configuration, and designation as optimal stimulation configuration of the one of said selected different stimulation configurations, depending on at least the stored values of the physiological parameter measured for different electrode configurations.
US09403011B2

The present disclosure describes a medical device to provide neurostimulation therapy to a patient's brain. The device can be surgically implanted and can remain in the patient until end of life. The present disclosure also describes accessories which guide the implantation of the device, and the components that form a leadless stimulator implantation kit.
US09403008B2

This invention provides a new technology for management of back pain by stimulating the spinal cord in a manner that renders it refractory to transmission of deleterious or undesirable sensory input. The electrical stimulus comprises high frequency pulses in a regular or complex pattern or that are stochastically produced under microprocessor control. The stimulus is applied directly to the surface of the spinal cord from within the spinal canal, which provides important benefits over previous technology. The stimulus alleviates symptoms and signs of back pain, while minimizing the risk of side effects such as paresthesia, and potentially minimizing the effects on motor neuron transmission and proprioception.
US09403007B2

Some embodiments, by way of example, provide a system, comprising a posture change detector configured to detect a posture transition indicative of an increased risk of syncope, and a neural stimulator configured to deliver a neural stimulation therapy. The neural stimulator may include a syncope avoidance module configured to respond to a detected posture transition by temporarily overriding the neural stimulation therapy to ameliorate the risk of increased syncope.
US09403003B2

An exemplary method of fitting a sound processor to a cochlear implant patient includes pre-loading program data representative of a plurality of sound processing programs onto a sound processor during a data transfer session and selectively using, after completion of the data transfer session, one or more of the pre-loaded sound processing programs to fit the sound processor to the patient. Corresponding methods and systems are also described.
US09403002B2

Embodiments of the invention provide apparatus and methods for stimulating L cells in the intestinal tract to produce incretins for the treatment of conditions including diabetes and obesity. Many embodiments provide a method and apparatus for the treatment of diabetes by electrically stimulating L-cells to secrete incretins to stimulate or otherwise modulate the production of insulin. Particular embodiments provide a swallowable capsule for stimulating L-cells in the intestinal tract as the capsule moves through the tract. The capsule can include two or more electrodes for providing electrical stimulation to L-cells, a power source for powering one or more components of the capsule, a sensor for sensing the location of the capsule in the intestinal tract; a controller and a waveform generator for generating the electrical signals emitted by the electrodes to stimulate the L-cells to secrete incretins such as GLP-1 to stimulate insulin production for glucose regulation of diabetic conditions.
US09402996B2

Various embodiments concern shielding an implantable lead from RF energy associated with MRI scans. The lead can include a distal region, a proximal region, an intermediate region between the distal region and the proximal region, at least one electrode disposed on the distal region, and at least one conductor extending from the proximal region to the at least one electrode. Implanting of the lead can include coiling a portion of the intermediate region to define one or more loops and selectively shielding the one or more loops of the lead with a RF shield. The RF shield can comprise metallic material and can be configured to reduce RF signal coupling to the at least one conductor along the one or more loops.
US09402994B2

A particular implantable device may include one or more antennas configured to receive a first far field radiative signal and a second far field radiative signal. The one or more antennas may be configured to receive the first far field radiative signal in a first frequency band and to receive the second far field radiative signal in a second frequency band. The implantable device may include a voltage rectifier configured to rectify the received first far field radiative signal and the received second far field radiative signal to provide a rectified voltage signal. The implantable device may further include a charge storage element operative to receive the rectified voltage signal and to store charge responsive to the rectified voltage signal. The implantable device may also include a therapy delivery unit powered by the charge storage element. The therapy delivery unit may be operative to deliver a therapy to a patient.
US09402990B2

An apparatus and method for implanting and securing an implanted medical device in a recipient. The implantable medical device of the generally includes an electrode assembly that comprises an elongate carrier member having at least one stimulating electrode positioned thereon. The carrier member further has a fixation structure positioned thereon configured to interact with a portion of the rigid structure to longitudinally secure the carrier member in the recipient.
US09402982B2

The present invention relates to an implantable catheter (100) provided for insertion through a wall (50) of a dural venous sinus (70) in a subject, having a proximal (20) and distal end (30), comprising: —a tubular shaft (10) for insertion through the wall (50) of the venous sinus (70) into the sinus (52), provided with a shaft lumen (12) in fluid connection with a proximal port (14) at the proximal end and a distal port (16) at the distal end of the shaft (10), and —a stop element (40) disposed on an outer surface of the tubular shaft (10), configured to limit the depth of insertion of the tubular shaft (10) into the sinus.
US09402978B2

A guidewire includes a wire body having a first wire arranged on a distal end side and a second wire arranged on a proximal end side of the first wire. A proximal end surface of the first wire and a distal end surface of the second wire are joined to each other to form a joint portion. An outer member is arranged on an outer peripheral side of the wire body and forms a tubular shape which covers the wire body at least from a distal end portion of the first wire to the joint portion. An inner member is arranged between an outer peripheral portion of the wire body and an inner peripheral portion of the outer member and covers the joint portion. The inner member is an inner coil formed by winding a wire for the inner member into a coil shape.
US09402972B2

An apparatus comprising: (a) a main body adapted to engage and retain a catheter therein at a fixed point relative to the catheter length; and (b) a cutting mechanism adapted to sever said catheter in response to a pre-defined threshold force applied along the length of the catheter.
US09402963B2

A medicated module for an injection system to co-deliver at least two medicaments is disclosed, where a drug delivery device containing a primary medicament accepts a medicated module containing a single dose of a second medicament and where both medicaments are delivered through a single hollow needle. The medicated module comprises two housings removably connected to each other, where each housing contains a sterile needle and needle guard assembly that locks out after the needle is inserted in an injection site.
US09402962B2

The present invention relates to an assembly for a drug delivery device comprising a proximal end, a distal end and a moveable member, a dose member, a fixed member and coupling means, wherein in a first state, the moveable member is moveable in an axial direction with respect to the fixed member and the dose member and the coupling means retains the dose member to the fixed member, and wherein in a second state of the assembly, the moveable member is permanently connected with the dose member by means of the coupling means and the dose member is released from the fixed member and the assembly is configured to set and dispense a dose of a fluid medicinal product out of an assembled cartridge by movement of the dose member. Furthermore it relates to a method for setting-up a drug delivery device.
US09402960B2

A plunger and a lever are arranged in a body and provided with engaging elements engaging the lever with the plunger. The lever is disengageable from the plunger by a shift of the lever, thus enabling a movement of the plunger relatively to the body in the proximal direction.
US09402956B2

A handheld diabetes manager has a graphical user interface for displaying status of an external medical device and includes a port configured to receive a test strip and a blood glucose measurement module. The diabetes manager includes a communications module that selectively communicates via a wireless data link with an external medical device to receive status data pertaining to the operation of the external medical device, and a user interface module in data communication with the blood glucose measurement module and the communications module. The graphical user interface includes a status screen that presents data pertaining to a glucose measure determined by the blood glucose measurement module concurrently with the status data received from the external medical device, such that the status data of the external medical device is presented on the status screen only when the communication module is in data communication with the external medical device.
US09402952B2

The invention relates to a device for treating an individual suffering from cardiac or circulatory arrest or from a stroke, comprising a blood withdrawal device (BE) that is applied to the individual (P), an analysis unit (BA) which is directly or indirectly connected to the blood withdrawal device for detecting a blood analysis result (BAE) providing at least one characteristic of the blood, directly or indirectly connected to a blood return device (BR) that is applied to the individual (P) and is designed to deliver a substance to the individual via the return device (BR).
US09402951B2

An infusion pump device comprising a primary liquid medicament reservoir, a pump with a secondary reservoir to retrieve medicament from the primary reservoir and to subsequently dose the medicament from the secondary reservoir in adjustable volumes (Vdose,i) to a downstream conduit and a control unit to control the operation of the infusion pump device is presented. For metering the volumes (Vdose,i), the control unit causes the infusion pump device to: (a) determine a maximum refill level (VC,max) for the secondary reservoir, based on external parameters, wherein the maximum refill level does not exceed the maximum capacity of the secondary reservoir; (b) fill the secondary reservoir with medicament from the primary reservoir to the maximum refill level (VC,max); (c) meter and convey the medicament volumes to the downstream conduit; (d) if the secondary reservoir becomes empty, refill the secondary reservoir as in step (b) and continue with step (c).
US09402944B2

The present invention relates to the field of extracorporeal liver perfusion and, more particularly, to the design of a chamber in which a biological component can be housed to form e.g. a bio-artificial liver (BAL). It also relates to a bio-artificial liver per se, it's components and methodological steps associated with its development and use. The chamber (10) for the biological component (100) of a bio-artificial liver (200) is configured to allow: • Proliferation of the biological component, in situ; • Cryopreservation of the biological component, in situ, and • Perfusion of the biological component, in situ.
US09402932B2

An in situ film-forming sprayable methyl acetate-based solution of at least one absorbable, low-crystallinity, segmented copolymer contains at least one bioactive agent, which exhibits antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anesthetic, hemostatic, and/or antineoplastic activity. The absorbable polymers can be a polyaxial copolyester, polyether-ester and polyether-ester urethane and the bioactive solution thereof can be applied onto animal and human skin or accessible body cavities to prevent or treat one or more disorder susceptible to the bioactive agent therein.
US09402930B2

The present invention relates to a solid pressed air freshener and odor neutralizer composition which can include greater than 10% fragrance. The air freshener comprises a fragrance; preferably the fragrance is impregnated within a water soluble substrate made from a foamed vegetable starch, a surfactant and a solidifier. The solid formulations break down easily in the presence of water and may be sprayed, within the area to be freshened.
US09402927B2

In a known device for sterilization by ultraviolet radiation, a UV radiator (4) is arranged in a housing (2) made of metal or plastic, which has a radiation outlet window (3) for the emission of UV radiation. The radiation outlet window is covered by a polymer film (7) transparent to ultraviolet radiation. Proceeding from this background, in order to provide a reliable and operationally safe device for sterilization, it is proposed that the housing (2) have a gas inlet (22) for introduction of a cooling gas stream as well as a gas outlet (23) for discharging the cooling gas stream, and that the gas outlet (23) be connected to a measuring sensor (17; 18, 20, 21) for measuring the pressure, mass flow rate, and/or volumetric flow rate of the discharged cooling gas stream.
US09402925B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide for labeled probes such as labeled maltose probes and labeled acarbose probes, methods of making labeled probes, pharmaceutical compositions including labeled probes, methods of using labeled probes, methods of diagnosing, localizing, monitoring, and/or assessing bacterial infections, using labeled probes, kits for diagnosing, localizing, monitoring, and/or assessing bacterial infections, using labeled probes, and the like.
US09402924B2

The present invention relates to a compound comprising, firstly a component for targeting at least one chemokine receptor and, secondly, a detection component capable of being identified by a medical imaging method.
US09402918B2

A core-shell particle formulation for delivering multiple therapeutic agents is disclosed. More particularly, core-shell particle formulation configured to independently release therapeutic agents from the core and the shell. Moreover, the core-shell particle bearing therapeutic agents enables treatment against the diseases such as cancer, inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.
US09402909B2

A pharmaceutical dosage form comprises a solid dispersion product of at least one active ingredient dispersed in a polymeric binder composition, the polymeric carrier composition comprising a) a vinylpyrrolidone homopolymer, wherein at least 95% by weight of the vinylpyrrolidone homopolymer has a molecular weight distribution within the range of from 1000 to 13 000; and b) a vinylpyrrolidone copolymer having a weight-average molecular weight of from 5000 to 1 500 000. The dosage form is preferably prepared by a melt extrusion process. The polymeric carrier composition exhibits a high drug dissolution power and allows a reduction of the viscosity of the melt without deteriorating the mechanical properties and storage stability of the dosage form.
US09402906B2

A preparation and a method for inducing, enhancing or accelerating skin pigmentation for the therapy and/or prophylaxis of dichromic pathologies of the skin, the method comprising the application of a topical skin preparation containing NGF (Nerve Growth Factor), so as to obtain an intensification of the skin color of the re-pigmentation of de-pigmented epidermal areas following vitiligo or other hypopigmentary skin diseases. The preparation and related methods may also used in combination with other therapies known for the treatment of skin discoloration, such as the application of topical corticosteroids, activated vitamin D and/or activated D3, or phototherapy alone or in combination with photosensitizing agents, in particular psoralens.
US09402902B2

The present invention provides a method of treatment or prophylaxis of enteric disease caused by Gram negative bacteria. The method includes the step of administering a vaccine or a hyperimmune material raised against said vaccine to an individual. The vaccine comprises one or more cell wall antigens reactive in a manner characteristic of O group serotypes, or reactive in a manner characteristic of lipopolysaccharide associated antigens, and at least some of said antigens are separated from bacterial cell walls or wall fragments. The invention also provides composition containing hyperimmune material as well as uses of the composition and vaccine.
US09402900B2

Patients having a chronic or acute disease or acute condition may be in need for stabilizing the circulation. Subject matter of the present invention is an anti-Adrenomedullin (ADM) antibody or an anti-adrenomedullin antibody fragment or an anti-ADM non-Ig scaffold for use in therapy of acute disease or condition of a patient for stabilizing the circulation.In a preferred embodiment anti-ADM antibody or an anti-adrenomedullin antibody fragment or an anti-ADM non-Ig scaffold according to the present invention reduces the vasopressor requirement, e.g. catecholamine requirement of said patient. The catecholamine requirement of a patient is an indicator for the condition of the circulation and hemodynamic function of said patient.
US09402897B2

The invention provides a long range ordered, layered double hydroxide compound for use in modulating an immune response to an antigen, and an immune modulator composition comprising the layered double hydroxide and an interlayer anion A. The compound is [MII(1-x)MIIIx(OH)2]x+[An-x/n], in which MII is a divalent metal cation or a mixture of two or more divalent metal cations, MIII is a trivalent metal cation or a mixture of two or more trivalent meta cations, or a mixture of one or more trivalent metal cation with one or more quadravalent metal cation, x is from 2:1 to 1:4, and A is an interlayer anion having a charge n, wherein optionally some or all of the interlayer anion A may be replaced by one or biologically active agent and/or one or more antigen, and wherein A is selected from conjugate bases of acids having a pKa of −4 or higher.
US09402895B2

An immunogenically-enhanced Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus latency-associated nuclear antigen 1 (“KSHV LANA1”) polypeptide and related methods of eliciting an immune response to KSHV LANA1 are provided. Also described herein is a novel polypeptide capable of inhibiting degradation of a protein or retarding synthesis of a protein when attached to or incorporated within that protein.
US09402870B2

Administration of human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCBC) or HUCBC-derived plasma is used to treat amyloid-based diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, cerebral amyloid antigopathy, and type-II diabetes. Modulating inflammatory reactions by infusing HUCBC resulted in a marked reduction of amyloid plaques and immune-associated cellular damage. HUCBC infusion also significantly reduced cerebral amyloid angiopathy in mice models. These effects were associated with suppression of the CD40-CD40L interaction and a reduction in surface expressed CD-40 was observed on immune cells. Further, Aβ phagocytic activity was increased and soluble and insoluble Aβ protein levels were modulated by treatment. HUCBC-infused sera also significantly increased phagocytosis of Aβ1-42 peptide and inhibited immune cell CD40 expression and reduced cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
US09402859B1

Various polymeric materials and delivery systems are described, along with systems and methods for using them for bone and tissue augmentation, such as for the stabilization and/or correction of spinal compression fractures.
US09402855B2

The method of treating elevated blood levels of iPTH by increasing or maintaining blood concentrations of both 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in a patient by administering, as necessary, both Vitamin D repletion and Vitamin D hormone replacement therapies, is disclosed. The blood concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D are increased to and maintained at or above 30 ng/mL, and blood concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D are increased to or maintained within a patient's normal historical physiological range for 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D without causing substantially increased risk of hypercalcemia, hyperphosphatemia or over suppression of plasma iPTH in the patient. The blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D are maintained at or above 30 ng/mL between doses of Vitamin D repletion therapies, and the blood levels of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D are maintained in the patient's normal historical physiological range between doses of Vitamin D hormone replacement therapies. In one aspect, the disclosure includes methods wherein the blood concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D during treatment comprises predominantly 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, and/or wherein the method includes administering predominantly or solely 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 for 25-hydroxyvitamin D repletion and/or maintenance.
US09402844B2

This disclosure relates to methods administering erythrohydroxybupropion or a prodrug thereof in conjunction with dextromethorphan to a human being. Dosage forms, drug delivery systems, and methods related to dextromethorphan or dextrorphan and erythrohydroxybupropion or a prodrug of erythrohydroxybupropion are also disclosed
US09402842B2

The invention described herein pertains to the synthesis and use of certain N-substituted indenoisoquinoline compounds which inhibit the activity Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase I (Tdp1) or Topoisomerase I (Top1) or both, or otherwise demonstrate anticancer activity. Also disclosed are novel N-substituted indenoisoquinoline compounds and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the novel N-substituted indenoisoquinoline compounds.
US09402838B2

The present invention provides a compound of the Formula II: wherein X is: R1 is H, —CN, or F; R2 is H or methyl; R3 is H; and R4 is H, methyl, or ethyl; or R3 and R4 joined together form a cyclopropyl ring; or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.
US09402835B2

Compositions and methods for the treatment and control of various conditions in an animal which comprises administering to said animal an effective amount of a immediate release composition of about 0.5% to 50% wt/wt of active ingredient together with excipients to a total of about 100%, wherein said composition dissolves in a relatively short period of time, e.g., 75 seconds or less, 5 seconds or less, or 3 seconds or less, upon administration to said animal.
US09402834B2

Human therapeutic treatment compositions comprise at least two of a curcumin component, a harmine component, and an isovanillin component, and preferably all three in combination. The agents are effective for the treatment of human conditions, especially human cancers.
US09402826B2

The present invention relates to compounds that may be used to inhibit activation of protein kinase G (“PKG”). It is based, at least in part, on the discovery of the tertiary structure of PKG and the identification of molecules that either bind to the active site of PKG and/or are analogs of balanol.
US09402825B2

Dry powder formulations for inhalation comprising a combination of an anticholinergic, a long-acting beta2-adrenoceptor agonist, and a corticosteroid are useful for the prevention and/or treatment of inflammatory and/or obstructive airways diseases.
US09402818B2

A therapy for renal diseases, in particular renal diseases, which develop in diabetic patients or patients who have been subjected to a treatment with an antitumor chemotherapy such as a platinum derivative and more generally cytotoxic drugs at renal level for treating of neoplastic diseases. More particularly, palmitoylethanolamide and diethanolamide of fumaric acid are used in the treatment of renal diseases, in particular those caused by dysmetabolic diseases or by toxic or chemotherapy agents, such as platinum derivatives. Palmitoylethanolamide is used preferably in micronized or ultra-micronized form. Diethanolamide of fumaric acid is used preferably in aqueous solution.
US09402815B2

The present invention is directed to a high drug formulation having desirable properties in terms of ease of manufacture and visual appearance as well as a sachet for the formulation.
US09402814B2

A method is described including passing a solution having a biodegradable polymer, a solvent and a treatment agent through an electrocharged nozzle to form particles encapsulating the treatment agent. The particles emitted from the electrocharged nozzle may be exposed to a charge opposite that of the nozzle. The particles may be deposited in a collection assembly comprising a liquid phase. A further method including combining a biodegradable polymer, a solvent and a treatment agent to form a solution, electrodepositing the solution in a particle form wherein the particles encapsulate the treatment agent in a collection assembly comprising a liquid phase and mixing the particles with a bioerodible material capable of forming a gel is described. An apparatus having an electrocharged nozzle, a grounded electrode having an opposite charge to that of the nozzle and a collection assembly comprising a liquid phase is further disclosed.
US09402809B2

Use of a nicotine-cellulose combination for the preparation of a snuff composition for achievement of a fast onset of action of nicotine after application of the snuff composition to the oral cavity of a subject, wherein the composition has a high release rate so that when subjected to an in vitro dissolution test about 45% or more of the total content of nicotine is released within 30 minutes. Moreover, the invention relates to an improved snuff composition for application to the oral cavity.
US09402800B2

Disclosed are cosmetic compositions comprising latex film formers chosen from at least one random styrene acrylate copolymer or derivatives thereof, and at least one acrylate copolymer or derivatives thereof, in combination with at least one coalescent and/or plasticizer. Also disclosed are cosmetic compositions comprising at least one latex film forming blend comprising (1) at least one random styrene acrylate copolymer and at least one acrylate copolymer or derivative thereof, or (2) at least two random styrene acrylate copolymers. Polyurethane latex dispersions may be incorporated into the compositions. Optionally, the cosmetic compositions may additionally comprise at least one coalescent and/or plasticizer in combination with the at least one latex film forming blend.
US09402795B2

A cosmetic agent (A) is applied to the fibers and allowed to act for a time period from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Then a cosmetic agent (B) is applied to the keratinic fibers still being acted upon by agent (A), and both agents (A) and (B) are allowed to act for a time period from 5 to 45 minutes, whereupon agents (A) and (B) are rinsed out. Agent (A) (a1) contains one or more oxidation dye precursors of the developer type, (a2) does not contain an oxidation dye precursor of the coupler type, (a3) has a pH from 8.0 to 12.0, and agent (B) (b1) contains one or more oxidation dye precursors, (b2) contains one or more oxidizing agents, and (b3) has a pH from 8.0 to 12.0.
US09402775B2

A surgical table for supporting a patient over a floor and including a base assembly, a support column assembly and a patient support structure. The base assembly supported on the floor and including a first end, a second end opposite the first end, and a member extending along a base longitudinal axis between the first and second ends. The support column assembly moveably coupled with the base assembly and configured to translate between the first and second ends of the base assembly along the member extending therebetween, the support column assembly being the only support column assembly coupled with the base assembly. The patient support structure including a first end, a second end opposite the first end, and a longitudinal axis extending between the first and second ends, the second end of the patient support structure supported off of the support column assembly in a cantilevered fashion.
US09402769B1

An infant headgear assembly includes elastic, nonslip anterior and posterior head straps on either side of an elastic, nonslip middle head strap that connect left and right earguard pads to provide noise suppression and ear protection. The left and right earguard pads and the anterior, posterior, and middle head straps cooperate to define a head-receiving volume to receive the head of an infant to position the left and right earguard pads over the left and right ears of the infant for noise suppression and ear protection purposes. The anterior, posterior, and middle head straps are to elastically stretch and extend across and nonslip contact frontal, occipital, and parietal regions, respectively, of the head of the infant to hold the left and right earguard pads in place, which are connecting points for operatively anchoring ventilation therapy devices relative to a face of the infant.
US09402768B2

An ophthalmic laser treatment apparatus includes an irradiation position obtaining unit arranged to obtain analysis result data based on a tomographic image of a patient's eye captured by an optical coherence tomography device before a treatment laser beam is irradiated, and obtain information of an irradiation position of the treatment laser beam with respect to the eye set by use of the obtained analysis result data, and a laser control unit arranged to irradiate the laser beam to the eye based on the irradiation position information obtained by the irradiation position obtaining unit.
US09402761B2

A device (10) for use with an ostomy appliance, the device (10) having an opening (12), surrounded by a peripheral wall (13), to receive a stoma, and a flange part (14) connected to the peripheral wall (13), which flange part (14) extends substantially perpendicularly away from the opening (12).
US09402759B2

Embodiments may include a traction system, for example a cervical traction system for a neck of a user. Systems may include a housing assembly, plate assembly, handle assembly, and cable assembly. The housing assembly may include a drive assembly. The plate assembly may be operatively connected to the drive assembly. The handle assembly may be operatively connected to the drive assembly. The handle assembly may be configured to actuate movement of the plate assembly relative to the housing assembly. Embodiments may be configured to apply traction to the neck thereby providing a distraction distance or force to a portion of the cervical spine.
US09402755B2

The present disclosure describes systems for endoluminal devices utilizing a sleeve for constraining an expandable device toward a constrained configuration suitable for endoluminal delivery to a treatment site along vasculature; and a mechanism for retracting at least a portion of the sleeve.
US09402754B2

An endoprosthesis for treating a bifurcated lumen. The distal end of the endoprosthesis can include at least two wings and at least two troughs so the endoprosthesis can adequately scaffold the ostium of a bifurcated lumen by at least partially straddling the carina of the lumen bifurcation. The distal end of the endoprosthesis can also be configured to have increased expandability to help allow conformity to the anatomy of a bifurcated lumen.
US09402753B2

A woven prosthesis, such as a woven vascular graft, woven from warp and weft yarns. Velour warp yarns forming the prosthesis are selectively incorporated into a base layer of the prosthesis so as to provide a bulbous section without compromising the porosity of the prosthesis.
US09402752B2

A stent design reduces the likelihood of contact among structural members when the stent diameter is reduced before insertion into the body. In one approach, an undulating link has a J-shaped profile or has an angled portion on one side at the peak of the link, in order to reduce contact during crimping. The stent may also include structural features that improve such aspects as flexibility, the coatability of a drug coating onto the stent, flare reduction, stent retention within the body and/or reduction of the minimum diameter of the stent during crimping.
US09402750B2

A testing apparatus is provided for exposing an associated specimen to movement along multiple axes. A test chamber is dimensioned to receive the associated specimen. A first device is operatively connected to the test chamber to impose a first, rotational movement on the associated specimen, a second device is operatively connected to the test chamber to impose a second, rotational movement different than the first movement on the associated specimen, a third device is operatively connected to the test chamber to impose a generally planar movement or linear translation on the associated specimen, and a fourth device is operatively connected to the test chamber to impose a load force on the associated specimen. A drive mechanism is operatively connected to the first, second, third, and fourth devices so that the movements and forces imposed by respective ones of the devices are commonly driven by the drive mechanism.
US09402747B2

An orthopaedic surgical instrument including a femoral trial component configured to be coupled to a surgically-prepared distal end of a patient's femur. The femoral trial component has a fixation side configured to engage a posterior aspect of the surgically-prepared distal femur.
US09402744B2

Corpectomy device comprising outer component, inner component and riser. The outer component includes a first endplate and first structure. The first structure includes a window and seat in communication with the window. The seat defines an opening to be pre-packed substantially with first grafting material. The inner component includes a second endplate and second structure at least partially disposed in the first structure in a first configuration. The second structure is to be pre-packed substantially with second grafting material. The riser has a third tubular structure to be received through the window into the seat to engage at least a portion of the second structure that extends the second structure into a second configuration with respect to the first structure. The third structure is to be pre-packed substantially with third grafting material such that first, second and third grafting material remain pre-packed substantially and in communication in the second configuration.
US09402743B2

Devices, systems, and methods for driving an implant into bone to a predetermined depth are described herein. In one embodiment, a medical driver tool is provided that includes a housing having a proximal end configured to receive an impacting force, an elongate shaft extending distally from the housing and having a distal tip configured to drive an implant into bone, and a release mechanism coupled between the housing and the elongate shaft. The release mechanism can have an engaged position in which the elongate shaft is axially immovable relative to the housing and a disengaged position in which the elongate shaft is axially movable relative to the housing. The release mechanism can be configured to move from the engaged position to the disengaged position in response to a force applied to move at least a portion of the release mechanism proximally relative to the housing.
US09402742B2

A device for attaching to an object including a portion attached to an object, and a vacuum generating means for generating a vacuum between the object and the portion to thereby attach the object to the device.
US09402726B2

Disclosed herein are methods, compositions and tools for repairing an articular joint having a failed implant. The articular repair systems are customizable or highly selectable by or adaptable to individual patients and geared toward providing optimal fit and function. The surgical tools are designed to be customizable or highly selectable by or adaptable to individual patients to increase the speed, accuracy and simplicity of performing total or partial arthroplasty including revision surgeries.
US09402715B2

A method of treating a lens of a patient's eye includes generating a light beam, deflecting the light beam using a scanner to form a treatment pattern of the light beam, delivering the treatment pattern to the lens of a patient's eye to create a plurality of cuts in the lens in the form of the treatment pattern to break the lens up into a plurality of pieces, and removing the lens pieces from the patient's eye. The lens pieces can then be mechanically removed. The light beam can be used to create larger segmenting cuts into the lens, as well as smaller softening cuts that soften the lens for easier removal.
US09402713B2

A tapered sleeve is provided that includes a lubricating coating on an inner surface. An implant (e.g., a pre-filled silicon breast implant) is introduced into a large end of the sleeve and extruded into a surgical pocket of minimal access incision size through a small-sized end of the apparatus.
US09402712B2

Described herein are flexible implantable devices or stents that can conform to the shape of vessels of the neurovasculature. In some embodiments, the devices can direct blood flow within a vessel away from an aneurysm or limit blood flow to the aneurysm. In some embodiments, a vascular remodeling device includes a first section and a protruding section. During deployment, the device expands from a compressed configuration to an expanded configuration. The first section anchors the device in an afferent vessel and/or in an efferent vessel of a bifurcation and the protruding section is positioned in the junction of the bifurcation having an aneurysm and across the neck of the aneurysm or at least partially within the aneurysm.
US09402701B2

A cartridge for delivery of a material therefrom which has a corrugated portion to allow for bending/extending to be applied to the device from which a material to be deposited can be dispensed. The bendability and extendibility allow for greater efficiency in use and application of the material into cavities, pockets, and/or crevices where one needs to deposit the material.
US09402698B2

The system of a preferred embodiment uses a process whereby a true replication of the patient's jaw structure is created in a digital three dimensional model. This true replication is then used to precisely locate and/or copy the anatomical landmarks of the patient for use in fabricating a denture base for use in a denture for the individual patient. This system is able to to create a denture with precisely located features corresponding to the anatomical landmarks of the patient with little manual intervention.
US09402693B2

An ablation procedure. The ablation procedure may be applied to tooth buds 120 and result in tooth agenesis. The ablation procedure may be applied to lesions or tumors. A tooth bud ablation system for use in a tooth bud ablation procedure that results in tooth agenesis. A method for volume scanning both hard tissues and soft tissues of a patient. A method for manufacturing or fabricating a custom surgical stent 110. A custom surgical stent 110 for use in a tooth bud ablation procedure that results in tooth agenesis, the custom surgical stent 110 for use with an ablation probe tip 108 having a center of ablation 130a.
US09402691B2

An image guidance system for tracking a surgical instrument during a surgical procedure. The image guidance system includes a plurality of cameras adapted to be located external to a surgical area for capturing images of optically visible patterns. A processing system receives and processes the images to recognize the patterns and triangulate the locations and orientations of each pattern relative to a camera. The processing system uses a reference dataset which defines a reference coordinate system based on alignment to a portion of the oral anatomy. The processing system determines the location and orientation of the tracked instrument based on the reference dataset.
US09402689B2

A robotic control system is placed in clutch mode so that a slave manipulator holding a surgical instrument is temporarily disengaged from control by a master manipulator in order to allow manual positioning of the surgical instrument at a surgical site within a patient. Control systems implemented in a processor compensate for internally generated frictional and inertial resistance experienced during the positioning, thereby making movement more comfortable to the mover, and stabler from a control standpoint. Each control system drives a joint motor in the slave manipulator with a saturated torque command signal which has been generated to compensate for non-linear viscous forces, coulomb friction, cogging effects, and inertia forces subjected to the joint, using estimated joint angular velocities, accelerations and externally applied torques generated by an observer in the control system from sampled displacement measurements received from a sensor associated with the joint.
US09402686B2

A method for sinus surgery includes piercing first and second access openings into the anatomy of a human subject to access an inaccessible sinus site for cooperatively manipulating respective first and second surgical instruments inserted through the openings. One instrument, for example an endoscope, can permit viewing of the sinus site while the other instrument is manipulated to effect a treatment at the sinus site. The maxillary and other sinuses can be accessed and anti-inflammatory and other treatments can be applied. Systems and instruments for performing such sinus surgery methods are also disclosed.
US09402682B2

An electrosurgical device comprises a body, an end effector, a cutting member, and a shaft. The end effector includes a pair of jaws that are operable to deliver RF energy to tissue that is clamped between the jaws. The cutting member is operable to sever tissue that is clamped between the jaws. The shaft extends between the body and the end effector. The shaft includes an articulation section that is operable to selectively position the end effector at non-parallel positions relative to the longitudinal axis of the shaft. Some versions include a rotation section that is distal to the articulation section. The rotation section is operable to rotate the end effector relative to the articulation section.
US09402676B2

Cryoablation balloon catheters and methods are described herein. The cryoablation balloon catheter comprises a distal end section and an inflatable balloon member disposed along the distal end section for contacting a target tissue. The balloon member may be inflated with a thermally conductive liquid. One or more cooling microtubes are positioned within the balloon and a single phase liquid coolant is transported from a liquid source, through the microtubes to the distal section, and returned to a reservoir. Cryogenic energy is transferred from the microtubes, through the conductive liquid filling the balloon, through the wall of the balloon, and to the tissue. In a cryoablation balloon catheter, a plurality of flexible microtubes are adhered to a surface of the expandable balloon. Cryoenergy from the microtubes is directly transferred to the tissue.
US09402670B2

Methods for altering the natural history of degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis of the spine are proposed. The methods focus on the prevention, or delayed onset or progression of, subchondral defects such as bone marrow edema or bone marrow lesion, and subchondral treatment to prevent the progression of osteoarthritis or degenerative disc disease in the spine and thereby treat pain.
US09402669B2

A method for producing a medical implant, such as a bone screw, a bone nail, a bone pin, a plate, a suture anchor, etc. for fastening soft parts, such as tendons, muscles, and ligaments, to a bone, or in the form of an endoprosthesis or at least a part thereof, from a magnesium alloy having a magnesium fraction of at least 80 wt %, in particular of at least 90 wt %, including the following steps: a) melting the magnesium alloy to obtain an alloy melt, b) atomizing the alloy melt under a protective-gas atmosphere and cooling the atomized alloy melt to below the solidification point thereof in order to obtain an alloy powder, c) shaping the alloy powder by pressing to obtain an alloy green body, d) extruding the alloy green body to obtain a magnesium alloy molded part, and e) producing the medical implant from the magnesium alloy molded part.
US09402668B2

A tissue fixation system is provided for dynamic and rigid fixation of tissue. A fastener connected with an elongate fastening member, such as a cable, wire, suture, rod, or tube, is moved through a passage between opposite sides of tissue. A medical device is used to secure the fastener to the elongate fastening member. The medical device includes a tensioning mechanism for tensioning the elongate fastening member. As crimping mechanism is used to secure the fastener to the elongated member, where a cutting mechanism cut the excess portion of the elongated member.
US09402661B2

A method of percutaneous implantation of a pedicle screw system comprising the steps of implanting a first pedicle screw assembly in a first vertebra, the first pedicle screw assembly including a first coupling element connected with a first extension defining a first space and implanting a second pedicle screw assembly in a second vertebra, the second pedicle screw assembly including a second coupling element connected with a second extension and intersecting at least one a portion of the second extension with the first space.
US09402659B2

A surgical instrument comprises a first member including a first body connected to at least one second body. The first body is configured for disposal of an implant support having an outer surface. The at least one second body includes a capture element configured to dispose an implant support having an outer surface with the at least one second body such that the outer surfaces are spaced apart and each of the implant supports are engageable with a first implant. A second member is connected with the first member and is engageable with a second implant. The members are relatively movable to dispose the second implant with the implant supports and to align the second implant with at least one of the first implants. Systems and methods are disclosed.
US09402654B2

An interspinous process implant for insertion between adjacent spinous processes, the implant having a flexible body having i) an upper posterior portion having an upper surface adapted to bear upon an upper spinous process, ii) a lower posterior portion having a lower surface adapted to bear upon a lower spinous process, and iii) an arcuate, flexible anterior wall connecting the upper and lower portions, wherein the anterior wall has a narrowed portion.
US09402649B2

The present invention provides methods and apparatuses for crossing or bypassing total or near total occlusions of vessels through the use of elongate members and specialized catheters that include a piercing catheter, a reentry catheter, a multi-lumen, reentry catheter, and combinations thereof. A piercing catheter comprises a distal tip used to pierce an occlusion in a crossing procedure and can be configured to microdissect the occlusion or provide support for an elongate member. A reentry catheter comprises a distal side port and ramp to facilitate the reentry or perforation of a vessel wall. A multi-lumen, reentry catheter comprises a tearable lumen divider and a distal side port and ramp.
US09402644B2

A surgical instrument includes an elongate body defining a longitudinal axis, an actuation rod extending through the elongate body and a tool assembly coupled to the elongate body. The tool assembly includes a coupling member coupling the tool assembly to the elongate body and a tool portion pivotally associated with the coupling member. The tool portion includes a projection member including a blunt end portion and a cutting member extending distally outward from the projection member. The tool portion is operatively coupled to the actuation rod. Translation of the actuation rod causes pivotal movement of the tool assembly.
US09402643B2

An illuminated surgical instrument has a working area located near an end of the instrument. An array of optical fibers terminates near the end of the instrument. The array of optical fibers is located adjacent to the instrument such that the array of optical fibers provides targeted illumination to the working area only on one side of the instrument.
US09402640B2

A surgical device having an assembly used to position a patient-specific surgical instrument with a bone of a patient, the assembly having radio-opaque and radiolucent portions that provide an indication of the instrument, and corresponding implant's alignment with respect to the bone, as well as an indication that the angle of the projection (or orientation of the view) of the alignment guide to assess the placement of the alignment guide relative to the underlying bony anatomy. The radio-opaque portion may include a plurality of Kirschner wires, fiducial markers, and may include a void allowing for alignment down a first length of the radio-opaque portion. Embodiments may be used with intra-operative fluoroscopy.
US09402637B2

Implementations described and claimed herein provide an arthroplasty system for making resections in a patient knee. In one implementation, the system includes a femoral cutting guide having a patient specific mating region, and a distal planar surface distally spaced from a distal resection surface based on thicknesses of femoral and tibial implants. The distal planar surface may be used to check ligament balance. The system further includes a tibial cutting guide having a patient specific mating region and a an anchor pin hole intersecting with a proximal resection slot near a medial or lateral edge of the proximal resection slot. The anchor pin hole being configured to receive an anchor pin that may serve as a sawing stop during a proximal resection.
US09402623B2

Surgical fasteners, including tacks are disclosed for fastening a surgical mesh to underlying tissue during surgical procedures to repair body tissue, such as in hernia repair. Such tacks can include a head, a elongated body portion having a distal end and a proximal end, and an anchoring element on an outer surface of the body portion for inhibiting the removal of the tack from the mesh and body tissue.
US09402620B2

In one embodiment, the present invention include a method of securing tissue using a filamentary construct, the method including the steps of passing a length of filament through or around tissue; implanting a filamentary sleeve, formed of filament, into tissue; and passing at least a portion of the length of filament at least partially through the filamentary sleeve to form a one-way cleat. The present invention also provides for various devices, systems, assemblies, kits and methods of use, assembly and manufacture thereof.
US09402603B2

The present invention concerns a method of treating an advanced lung disease in a patient in need thereof by lung transplantation.
US09402597B1

In an embodiment, a data processing method comprises receiving, from a portable physiological measuring device configured for temporary attachment to a human body, data representing one or more physiological metrics or parameters of the body; receiving, from one or more Doppler vascular sensors configured for temporary attachment to peripheral artery locations of the body and a portable Doppler vascular signal measuring device coupled to the Doppler vascular sensors, vascular function information for the body; determining medical condition data indicating one or more medical conditions of the patient based on analysis and correlations of the vascular function information and the patient physiological metrics; generating and providing output records specifying one or more of: recommendations for actions that an individual or healthcare provider should take in response to the recommendations or parameters; or one or more reports, animations or figures; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.
US09402593B2

Images of blood vessels of a body are obtained by injecting a refraction enhancement contrast agent into the blood vessels to increase a difference in refractive indices of the blood vessels and surrounding material. The blood vessels are irradiated with a penetrating radiation, and an image of the blood vessels is generated based on detected radiation. The image has visible edge enhancement features indicating boundaries of the blood vessels.
US09402590B2

Data of a plurality of projected images, which is photographed from different directions, regarding an object of interest is stored in an image data storage section. A feature point coordinates acquisition section acquires the three-dimensional coordinates regarding the axis of the object of interest on the basis of the feature information and photographing directions regarding the axis of the object of interest on at least two of the plurality of projected images stored in the image data storage section. A coordinates transformation section sets the three-dimensional coordinates system, which has the axis of the object of interest as one axis, on the basis of the three-dimensional coordinates information. A reconstruction processing section reconstructs three-dimensional image data based on the set three-dimensional coordinates system from the plurality of projected images stored in the image data storage section.
US09402588B2

A rotating unit of a medical imaging device has a hydrostatic slide bearing and an integrated coolant conduit. The rotating unit includes at least one stator, at least one rotor that is borne such that it can rotate relative to the stator, and at least one portion of a circulation system for the circulation of a bearing medium, so the rotor is borne hydrostatically floating by the bearing medium. The at least one portion of the circulation system for the circulation of the bearing medium also has at least one stator-side opening and one rotor-side opening to the hydrostatic slide bearing. The rotating unit additionally has at least one at least single-channel rotary joint mounted between the rotor and the stator. The rotating unit is designed such that the bearing medium can be supplied through the stator-side opening into the hydrostatic slide bearing and the bearing medium can be supplied again through the rotor-side opening and the rotary joint into the circulation system again.
US09402586B2

Provided is a stereo imaging apparatus that generates X-rays from a plurality of different focal positions and that acquires a plurality of X-ray images from an X-ray detector, the stereo imaging apparatus including X-ray generation controlling means for controlling irradiated areas of X-rays so that an irradiated area in a detection area of the X-ray detector based on X-rays applied from a first focal position is included in an irradiated area in the detection area based on X-rays applied from a second focal position.
US09402585B2

A biological information monitor includes: a displaying section on which a biological information display screen is displayed, the biological information display screen including a first display region on which a trend graph of first biological information is displayed and a second display region on which a histogram of second biological information is displayed; and a display controlling section which is configured to control contents displayed on the biological information display screen, and which is configured to cause the trend graph for a plurality of days and the histogram for the plurality of days to be simultaneously displayed in the first display region and the second display region, respectively.
US09402580B2

A feedback device for measuring balance related information, and for producing a stimulation of the skin that encodes that information in a way that is useful to the wearer of the device. At least one sensor detects balance information and transmits at least one balance information signal to a signal processing subsystem. The signal processing subsystem converts the received balance information signal into at least one stimulation control signal. The signal processing subsystem then transmits the stimulation control signal to at least one stimulator, which provides stimulation to a wearer of the device reflecting the stimulation control signal received from the signal processing subsystem.
US09402579B2

Methods and apparatus based on vibromyography technology are provided that overcome the substantial limitations of current VMG muscle assessment approaches. Specifically, embodiments of the invention provide a means by which clinicians and trainers can perform real-time muscle assessment during typical functional activities (activities involving substantial human movements). In some embodiments, the invention allows the artisan to simultaneously measure muscle forces being generated by complementary, supplementary, and/or antagonistic muscle pairs such that real-time muscle effort ratios can be calculated. In some embodiments, the measurements provide a means by which clinicians and trainers can diagnose musculo-skeletal injuries and pains associated with muscle imbalances.
US09402578B2

A crank angle indicating system is provided for a pedaling device. The crank angle indicating system may include a crank angle detector configured to detect a crank angle of a crankshaft of a pedaling device, and an indication device configured to output at least one of an aural and a haptic indicator when a predetermined crank angle is reached, allowing a cyclist to time the application or release of force to the pedals accordingly.
US09402576B2

Techniques for electronic communication warning and modification. A method includes automatically detecting an emotional state of a sender of an electronic communication, encoding the detected emotional state of the sender, using input from at least one additional source, as metadata, embedding the metadata in the electronic communication to create an annotated version of the electronic communication, and transmitting the annotated version of the electronic communication to a recipient.
US09402573B2

A system is configured to determine a fluid responsiveness index of a patient from a physiological signal. The system may include a sensor configured to be secured to an anatomical portion of the patient, and a monitor operatively connected to the sensor. The sensor is configured to sense a physiological characteristic of the patient. The monitor is configured to receive a physiological signal from the sensor. The monitor may include an index-determining module configured to determine the fluid responsiveness index through formation of a ratio of one or both of amplitude or frequency modulation of the physiological signal to baseline modulation of the physiological signal.
US09402572B2

The present invention relates to a digital portable pulse oximeter and battery-powered control method thereof. The automatic switching of the power supply is achieved by adding a Hall circuit, and the data displayed is allowed to always face the users by adding an acceleration sensor to the circuit. The advantageous effects of the present invention compared with the prior art are: Users can always read the data from the front side no matter which way they move. The digital portable pulse oximeter of the present invention can be automatically turned on just by inserting a finger, without having to press the switch button, and cut off the power supply by pulling out the finger, as well as judge intelligently whether to continue the measurement after the finger has been pulled out. If yes, the power supply will stay on, which reduces the energy waste and low efficiency caused by the restarting program initialization, improves the use efficiency of the battery and prolongs the battery life.
US09402567B2

An apparatus for measuring the dimensions of human feet is comprised of a base and a cover, which fits over it to define the borders of two essentially rectangular wells into which the feet to be measured are placed. A pressure pad assembly comprising a matrix of sensors is placed at the bottom of base. The walls of the wells are defined by PCBS comprising arrays comprised of a multitude of emitter/detector pairs, which are used to make length and width measurements of said feet. MCUs on the pressure pad assembly and computation means comprise software algorithms that automatically make length, width, and pressure measurements and correct errors in the length and width measurements caused by misalignment of the feet in the wells. Methods of using the apparatus are also presented.
US09402544B2

An apparatus for insertion of a medical device in the skin of a subject is provided.
US09402541B2

An optical device for corneal measuring includes a light source module, a first optical module, a second optical module including a reference mirror, a light splitter and an image analysis unit. The light of the light source module is transmitted to the first and second optical modules through the light splitter. The light is transmitted to a cornea through the light splitter and the first optical module and reflected by the cornea to form a first light, the light is transmitted to the reference mirror through the light splitter and reflected by the reference mirror to form a second light. The first and second lights are transmitted to the light splitter and the image analysis unit. The reference mirror moves along a first direction, and when the first light and the second light interfere with each other, a relative optical path length is obtained.
US09402538B2

A photorefraction ocular screening device for assessing vision and corresponding disorders associated with the human ocular system is provided. More specifically, the present invention provides for a photorefraction ocular screening device employing advanced methods of pupil detection and refractive error analysis. The photorefraction ocular screening device is comprised of an LED arrangement configured with a plurality of irradiation sources serving as visual stimuli, wherein the visual stimuli may be presented in varying illumination patterns to the pupils of an examinee for expanding the range of ocular responses that can be used to determine refractive error.
US09402536B2

A surgical assembly includes a cannula and an obturator. The cannula has open proximal and distal ends defining a lumen therebetween. The lumen defines an inner surface of the cannula having a mating structure. The obturator is generally tubular and has an outer surface including a corresponding mating structure. The respective mating structures of the obturator and the cannula engage each other so as prevent relative rotation of the obturator and cannula, and to prevent inadvertent disconnection of an upper valve housing attached to the cannula.
US09402531B2

Endoscopic cannulas and methods of their use are disclosed. In some embodiments, an endoscopic cannula may include an elongated body having a proximal end and a distal end. A viewing channel and a working channel may extend through the elongated body. The viewing channel can be configured for passing therethrough an endoscope to the distal end of the elongated body for viewing outside the elongated body, while the working channel can be configured for passing therethrough an injection needle distally of the elongated body. The cannula may also include a suction pod disposed on a bottom surface of the elongated member, the suction pod being in communication with a suction channel extending through the elongated body to create suction between the suction pod and a tissue surface to temporary attach the elongated body to the tissue surface.
US09402528B2

A dish washer is provided that includes a tub that defines a space for washing dishes, a water supply unit that has a water chamber where water supplied from the outside collects, to wash the dishes, a sump that is supplied with water from the water chamber and supplies wash water into the tub, and a heat exchange passage through which the wash water in the sump flows and exchanges heat with the water in the water chamber while flowing.
US09402523B2

A rotary surface cleaning machine for cleaning floors, including both carpeted floors and uncarpeted hard floor surfaces including but not limited to wood, tile, linoleum and natural stone flooring. The rotary surface cleaning machine has a rotary surface cleaning tool mounted on a frame and coupled for high speed rotary motion relative to the frame. The rotary surface cleaning tool has a substantially circular operational surface that performs the cleaning operation. The rotary surface cleaning tool is driven by an on-board power plant to rotate at high speed. The rotary surface cleaning tool is coupled to a supply of pressurized hot liquid solution of cleaning fluid and a powerful vacuum suction source.
US09402517B2

The present invention relates to an exhaust grille (10, 20, 30, 40). The exhaust grille comprises an array comprising an array of spaced vanes (15) which define a plurality of separate non-linear air flow passages (14) through the grille. The grill is configured so as to deflect sound waves incident upon the grille to prevent them from passing through the passages. Various configurations of exhaust grille are disclosed, and the exhaust grille configuration reduces the noise levels permitted to pass through the grille, for example when placed over an exhaust (2), such as over the exhaust outlet of a vacuum cleaner.
US09402513B1

An apparatus for use with an existing Western-style toilet having a toilet bowl facilitates use of a squatting posture thereon. The apparatus includes a platform assembly including: a mounting flange that is connectable to the toilet bowl, and a support platform that is pivotally connected to the mounting flange. The support platform defines first and second spaced-apart foot support surfaces to support a person's feet and a gap through which the person's waste products can pass.
US09402512B2

An appliance comprises a housing, a cover hinged to the housing, and a flap hinged to the housing walls, the flap and the cover having a central cut-out in their lower portion thereof. The flap and the cover having a plurality of opposite pairs of complementary shapes able to fit into each other after the cover is closed, a material strip able to be unwound between the flap and the inner wall of the cover. The complementary shapes are undulated shapes on the flap and the inner portion of the cover respectively, and form successive alternating convex and hollow shapes. One of the undulated shapes, transversely has a hollow cavity with a curvilinear profile near its end. The cavity is bordered by an undulated end shape having the same curvature as the undulations formed. The end shape is adjacent to the cavity forming in its inner side a stop zone.
US09402507B1

An apparatus having a skewer preparation tray with individual cube sections for placing food items and an easy process of securing the food items to a skewer enabling a user to simultaneously safely prepare several skewers for grilling with minimal waste through dropping food-items and eliminating the dripping of marinade. The cube sections are created via coupling a plurality of horizontal-dividers with a plurality of vertical-dividers.
US09402502B2

A hot-beverage-making apparatus, in particular for milk beverages such as cappuccino, chocolate and the like, comprising a container extending along an axis, a lid closing the container, a rotary mechanical stirrer fitted with an impeller, and a steam wand connectable to a steam source and having an end steam outlet. The stirrer and the wand extend, sloping with respect to each other, inside the container, and the end steam outlet of the wand is located above and radially eccentric with respect to the impeller of the stirrer.
US09402501B1

A coffee brewer that includes a brewing chamber, and a brewing cup filled with coffee that is removably received in the brewing chamber. The cup includes a bottom that acts as a tamping member, and this bottom is movable to vary the size of the cup reservoir. Once the cup is positioned in the brewer, the closing of the cup forces engagement of the tamping member and an engagement member positioner in the brewing chamber, resulting in the tamping member being moved to compress the coffee.
US09402496B2

Connectors for joining adjacent modular floor covering units. The connectors include a film and an adhesive layer coated on one side of the film. To install tiles using the connectors, a first tile is placed on the floor and a connector is positioned so that the adhesive layer faces upward and does not contact the floor. The connector is typically positioned so that only a portion of the adhesive layer adheres to the underside of the tile, leaving the remainder of the connector extending from the underside of the tile. Tiles are then positioned adjacent the first tile so that a portion of the connector adheres to the adjacent tiles. In this way, the connectors span adjacent tile edges. The tiles are assembled on a underlying flooring surface without the need to attach them to the floor surface. Rather, the tiles are linked to each other with the connectors, so that the tiles create a floor covering that “floats” on the underlying floor surface.
US09402495B2

An adjustable hanger includes a hook member, a coupler, and two arms. Said coupler serves as the main frame of the adjustable hanger, wherein the two arms are releasably connected. The releasable connection allows for the arms to be adjusted. The arms may be extended and retracted such as to fit garments of varying sizes. The arms may be secured in place by a variety of mechanisms, including male/female connections between said arms and said coupler, as well as arm holders. Said arms also include shoulder portions of a wide nature such that garments may be placed upon said adjustable hanger such that said garments do not form creases or other aberrations.
US09402482B2

A posture support system that includes a base portion, a vertical arm portion extending from the base portion, a horizontal arm portion extending from the vertical arm portion, and a support portion extending from the horizontal arm portion. The base portion includes a rectangular board that rests on a flat surface. The vertical arm and horizontal arm portions are fully adjustable to accommodate different users when a user rests against the support portion to perform work, such as typing, on the flat surface. The posture support system induces proper seated posture.
US09402474B2

An article of furniture wherein two or more components of the article of furniture are connected by a barbed fastener that extends through bores formed in the components. Barbs project from the fasteners and engage an outer surface of the bores to prevent the fastener from backing out of the bores.
US09402469B2

Described is a device that can be used to hold a plurality of items such as plates, bowls and glasses on a patio table. The device is attached to the pole of the table umbrella and can be attached or detached in seconds without the use of any tools.
US09402459B2

A belt loop array for mounting a pouch or holster to waist belts of three or more different widths. The belt loop array consists of a plurality (five shown) of belt loop straps: a single intermediate strap, a pair of short straps and a pair of long straps, which are sewn or otherwise affixed to the back of a pouch or holster to form belt loops of three different widths. The loop straps are affixed to the pouch in a side by side arrangement with the intermediate strap interposed between the short loop straps and long loop straps.
US09402455B2

A cosmetic product applicator includes a brush. The brush includes a core having a longitudinal axis (X), and one or more protrusions projecting from the core. The protrusions in turn include at least one straight first protrusion having a longitudinal axis oriented in a first radial direction of the core, and at least one bent second protrusion. The bent second protrusion includes a base portion extending from the core and has a longitudinal axis oriented in a second radial direction of the core, and an end portion extending from the base portion and has a longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the straight first protrusion.
US09402452B2

A case for a smartphone electronic device protects and extends the battery life of the smartphone. The case has a first case portion and a second case portion, which assemble together to protect the top, side, and bottom edges of the smartphone. The lower case portion includes a battery to extend the battery life of the electronic device.
US09402446B2

A belt buckle (10) for a seat belt includes a buckle housing (16), a locking mechanism for locking a plug-in tongue inserted in the buckle housing (16), a release button (22) which is movable in a first direction relative to the buckle housing (16) for unlocking the plug-in tongue, and a safety mechanism for preventing automatic displacement of the release button (22) in the first direction. The safety mechanism includes a mass body (36) movable in the first direction relative to the buckle housing (16) and a movably supported coupling lever (24) including an axis of rotation which is stationary relative to the buckle housing (16). The coupling lever (24) is coupled to the mass body (36) and to the release button (22) so that, upon acceleration of the belt buckle (10) in a second direction opposed to the first direction, it transmits an inertia force acting on the mass body (36) in the first direction to the release button (22) in the opposite second direction.
US09402443B2

A heel stabilizer for use with human footwear that reduces or eliminates upward movement of the heel within footwear is disclosed herein. The heel stabilizer preferably includes two gripping portions or parts that grip the heel on the medial and lateral surfaces of the foot, preferably above the widest part of the heel. The heel stabilizer may be integrated directly into footwear. Alternatively, the heel stabilizer may be a separate insert that can be inserted into footwear.
US09402439B2

A material that includes at least one layer made of an auxetic structure and articles of footwear having soles comprising the materials. When the material is under tension, it expands in both the direction under tension and in the directional orthogonal to the direction under tension. The articles of footwear have soles that have at least one layer made of a material that has a pattern of geometrical patterns with polygonal apertures. The geometrical patterns have hinged polygons that rotate with respect to each other when the sole is under lateral or longitudinal tension, thus increasing the lateral and longitudinal dimensions of the sole.
US09402434B2

This invention provides a helmet shield attaching mechanism capable of relatively easily and relatively accurately performing an adjustment operation for satisfactorily bringing the inner surface of a shield in a substantially fully-closed state into close contact with the window opening rim portion of a head protecting body. The holding position of stopped means of a movable base member, whose position is held by stopper means of a stationary base member in an at least substantially fully-closed state of the shield, can be selected from one of a plurality of portions of the movable base member substantially in the back-and-forth direction.
US09402429B2

A telemetrically enhanced article of clothing comprises a fabric layer having an inside surface and an outside surface. A sensor is attached to the inside surface of the fabric layer such that when the article of clothing is worn by the user, the sensor is in contact with the user's skin. An electrically conductive trace may extend along the fabric layer and may be electrically connected at a first end to the sensor. A retaining ring may be adhered to the fabric layer near a second end of the electrically conductive trace. The retaining ring is capable of receiving a telemetry device and forming a compression connection between the perimeter of the telemetry device and the retaining ring such that when the telemetry device is received in the retaining ring, the second end of the electrically conductive trace is in electrical contact with the telemetry device. The telemetry device may store, process, or transmit physiological and/or other data collected by a sensor.
US09402427B2

A thermal distribution and regulation system for a garment that includes a self-contained heat source, such as a catalytic heat source. A heat manifold extends about a surface of the heat source and is mechanically adjusted relative to the surface of the heat source to control the contact surface area between the heat source and heat manifold to regulate heat conducted from the heat source. The heat manifold is configured to engage the surface of the heat source at more than one predetermined location to prevent inadvertent movement between the heat source and heat manifold. The system also includes a plurality of heat conductors coupled to the heat manifold and affixed to the garment. An end of each heat conductor is coupled to the heat manifold for conducting heat from the heat manifold to the garment to warm the garment.
US09402418B2

An apparatus and method for making a coiled cigarette filter is described. The apparatus includes a winding pin having a pinhead and a pin body, the pin body having a slot therein, separating the pin body into a first leg and a second leg. The winding pin is secured to a pin holder for synchronized rotation therewith, such that the pin body extends beyond one end of the pin holder to expose a length of the pin body. One end of a sheet of cigarette filter paper is inserted into the slot in the pin body and the pin holder is rotated in one direction causing the cigarette filter paper to wind around the pin body forming the coiled cigarette filter. Included as well is a pin cover, which is removeably attached to the pin holder for protecting the pin body when not in use.
US09402416B2

A method for assessing the acceptability of product filter rods, filters or filter elements which include a longitudinally extending core of filtering material including a longitudinal channel extending from an end of the core.
US09402415B2

A tobacco composition for use in a smoking article or a smokeless tobacco composition is provided, the composition including a component derived from a seed of the Nicotiana species. The component can be a seed of the Nicotiana species or a portion thereof in particulate form or in the form of seed isolate derived from a seed of the Nicotiana species. In certain embodiments, the seed isolate is in the form of a chemically transformed seed isolate, the chemical transformation being selected from hydrogenation, acid/base reaction, hydrolysis, thermal treatment, and enzymatic treatment. The invention also provides smoking articles and smokeless tobacco compositions that include the seed components described herein, and methods for preparing a component derived from a seed of the Nicotiana species for addition to a tobacco composition.
US09402413B2

The invention provides methods and systems for molding three-dimensional products from a mass of foodstuff. The systems include a rotatable drum provided with mold holders that accept removable molds that are filled with the mass of foodstuff to form the three-dimensional products. The method includes use of the system to fill removable molds in filling operations to form the three-dimensional products.
US09402412B2

The present invention generally relates to the field of nutrition. In particular the present invention relates to infant nutrition in the post natal period and in early life, more particular during the age period of 6-36 months or during a part thereof. One embodiment of the present invention is a kit of diet compositions for children during the age period of 6-36 months or during a part thereof, wherein the macronutrient content of the compositions is gradually changing in the form of a straight line from a composition that comprises about 40-50% energy from fat and about 40-49% energy from carbohydrates for children at the age of 6 months to a composition that comprises about 30-35% energy from fat and about 50-55% energy from carbohydrates for children at the age of 36 months, and its use to prevent obesity later in life.
US09402408B2

A machine for making and dispensing semiliquid and/or semisolid food products includes a working unit equipped with a cylinder for processing a mixture of a basic product and air, a heat exchange fluid flow chamber located around the cylinder, a dispensing tap and a mechanism for treating and feeding the heat exchange fluid to the flow chamber, and a flexible container for containing the basic product. A peristaltic pump transfers the basic product from the container to the processing cylinder through a supply duct along which there is a first pressure sensor for the pressure of the mixture fed into the cylinder. The sensor sends a signal indicating the pressure of the mixture to a control and drive unit which adjusts the operation of the peristaltic pump and thus the output pressure of the pump.
US09402398B2

The present invention relates to compounds of Formula (I); or an agronomically acceptable salt of said compounds wherein A1a, A1b, A2, A3, A4, X, R1 and R2 are as defined herein. The invention further relates to herbicidal compositions which comprise a compound of Formula (I), and to their use for controlling weeds, in particular in crops of useful plants.
US09402391B2

The present invention relates to stable, agricultural oil-in-water emulsion compositions.
US09402388B2

The invention is directed to a method of freezing stem cells comprising introducing the HSCs into a cell culture medium that has been conditioned with Wharton's Jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJSCs), thereby producing a stem cell culture, and slowly freezing the stem cell culture. In other aspects, the invention is directed to compositions comprising stem cells produced by the methods provided herein. In yet other aspects, the invention is directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising the stem cells produced by the methods provided herein.
US09402387B2

A waterfowl decoy motion system comprises a self-propelled floating decoy tethered to a submerged line supported below the surface of a body of water by stakes driven into the water bottom. A thruster is attached to the bottom of the decoy such that the direction of propulsion is offset from a longitudinal axis extending along the length of the decoy by an angle of at least one degree. The tether is slidably attached to the submerged line, and a swivel located on the tether allows the decoy to rotate freely. The decoy is guided by the line as it moves across the surface of the water. When the tether reaches a stopper near each end of the line, the offset propulsion angle causes the decoy to turn in an arcing path, turn around, and travel in the opposite direction. The decoy repeats this process in a continuous loop.
US09402385B2

A waterfowl decoy deployment apparatus comprises a drive wheel 82 having a vertical drive shaft 86 depending from a horizontal support plate 84, the drive shaft 86 rotatably locked in the drive shaft bore 80 of a reinforcement bearing 76 affixed to a housing 14, the motor shaft 58 from a motor 48 affixed to the housing 14 extending upwardly and rotatably secured in a motor shaft bore 90 in the lower end of the drive shaft 86, an array of waterfowl decoy deployment arms 18 radiating symmetrically and outwardly from the support plate 84, each waterfowl decoy deploying arm for supporting a waterfowl decoy, such that activation of the motor shaft 58 causes the drive wheel 82, bearing 76, and array of decoy deployment arms 18 to rotate in unison thereby deploying a plurality of decoys in a lifelike presentation.
US09402376B2

A transgenic, non-human animal model for accelerated aging and/or age-related symptom, recombinant nucleic acid molecules, cells and methods that can be used to make such animal model and cells, methods of using the animal model and cells, to descendants of the transgenic non-human animal, obtained by breeding with the same or with another phenotype, and to a cell line or primary cell culture or to an organotypic brain slice culture, derived from the transgenic non-human animal or its descendants are disclosed.
US09402375B2

A recirculating pet fountain that includes a basin, pump and discharge where water pumped out the discharge is either received by an overflow tube and/or conveyed by a bridge toward water in the basin including into the tube. The bridge can include a channel and be configured so at least some discharged water clings to its underside via surface tension as water flows toward the basin. The tube has a mouth which can receive water from the bridge that can be free falling water that overflows from the tube into the basin. The tube can include one or more discharge ports that can include flow directors that help direct flow of water received in the tube that overflows out the ports. The tube can be length extensible and can include a flow adjuster that can increase effective tube length and can block one or more ports.
US09402372B2

A feeding trough which is accessible to livestock animals is disclosed, and is defined at the bottom and laterally by a bottom wall and side walls, respectively, wherein one of the side walls demarcates the trough interior for an access side from which the animals take up feed from the trough interior. The side wall on the access side has an upper side wall edge over which an animal's head must reach at least partly so that the animal can take up feed from the trough interior and a trough frame to which the feeding trough is fixed. An adjustment mechanism is provided for adjusting the height of the side wall edge on the access side relative to the trough frame.
US09402367B2

A pet sheet for pet excrement has a fluid-permeable surface sheet and a fluid-impermeable rear sheet. The pet sheet has a first folded section and a second folded section that are formed by the folding of the surface sheet and the rear sheet so as to protrude on the surface sheet side. The surface sheet and the rear sheet positioned on both sides of the first folded section and the second folded section, respectively, are configured so as to fold out and be used as the pet sheet. Ridge lines formed in the surface sheet in the first folded section and the second folded section extend continuously along a first direction parallel to the surface sheet, from one end of the surface sheet in the first direction to the other end thereof.
US09402357B1

The present invention provides novel watermelon line 4XDKFD55G and plant parts, seed, and tissue culture therefrom. The invention also provides methods for producing a watermelon plant by crossing the watermelon plants of the invention with themselves or another watermelon plant. The invention also provides watermelon plants produced from such a crossing as well as plant parts, seed, and tissue culture therefrom. Further provided are methods of producing triploid watermelon seed and plants and seedless watermelon fruit produced therefrom as well as the triploid watermelon seed and plants and the seedless fruits produced by such methods.
US09402353B2

An irrigation system comprises one or more waterlines coupled to one or more watering mechanisms for watering one or more areas. The watering mechanisms are fixed in place at the desired area by an adapter which removably couples the one or more watering systems in place. Water is supplied to each of the one or more watering mechanisms by traveling from the one or more waterlines and through one or more pressure compensators. The one or more pressure compensators regulate the water flow through the one or more watering mechanisms enabling the irrigation system to uniformly distribute water at a set and constant pressure value. The water is distributed by one or more valves which are used to control one or more zones of the irrigation system. In some embodiments, a controller controls the system based upon a signal received from one or more sensors of the system.
US09402347B2

A gate assembly for use with a baler that includes a belt guide mechanism coupled to a side of the baler frame and guide one or more belts used to form the bale. The gate assembly also includes a shield pivotably coupled to the side of the baler frame and configured to limit contact with one or more components of the baler. The gate assembly further includes a linkage assembly coupled between the belt guide mechanism and the shield. The belt guide mechanism is configured to pivot between a lower belt guide mechanism position and a raised belt guide mechanism position to allow the bale to be ejected from the bale chamber. The linkage assembly is configured to pivot the shield between a lower shield position and a raised shield position responsive to the pivoting of the belt guide mechanism.
US09402342B2

A seed meter drive system includes a clutch having a toolless fastener configured to selectively couple the clutch to a downstream component. The clutch is configured to receive a rotational input via a flexible drive shaft, and to drive the downstream component in rotation while the clutch is engaged.
US09402338B2

An earth working apparatus includes a working implement having a first end and a second end. The earth working apparatus also includes a first support supporting the working implement, where the first support also has a first end and a second end. The earth working apparatus further includes a first arm connecting the first end of the working implement to the first end of the first support, and a second arm connecting the second end of the working implement to the second end of the first support. A second support is pivotally coupled with the first support by a torsion coupler. The first arm and the second arm can be pivotally coupled with the first support by a torsion coupler. The second support can be connected to a third support and configured to articulate with respect to the third support between a generally horizontal working orientation and a transport orientation.
US09408336B1

An electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielded device which includes an object to be shielded and an EMI shielding material encompassing the object. The EMI shielding material is made up of, but not limited to a broadband biopolymer or polymer dissolved in organic solvents, and metal and carbon-based nano-powders or nanoparticles. The specific makeup of the shielding material and fabrication procedure of the shielding material is also included herein.
US09408331B2

A rack system may include a first plurality of line cards, where a particular one of the first plurality of line cards receives or sends packets via ports; a plurality of fabric cards, where a particular one of the plurality of fabric cards includes a switching fabric; a second plurality of line cards, where a particular one of the second plurality of line cards receives or sends packets via ports; a first backplane that connects the first plurality of line cards to the plurality of fabric cards; and a second backplane that connects the second plurality of line cards to the plurality of fabric cards.
US09408325B2

Embodiments of the invention provide a swing-out wall rack for mounting electrical equipment. The swing-out wall rack can include a frame configured to couple to a wall and a rack. The frame can include a vertical member and a horizontal arm. The rack can extend a width and a height. The rack can include a first side and a second side, the second side being opposite from the first side. The rack can further include a mid-point, the mid-point being approximately equidistant from the first side and the second side. The rack can be rotatably coupled to the horizontal arm of the frame substantially about the mid-point of the rack.
US09408323B2

A method and system for providing a customized storage container includes a generally rectangular housing and at least one printed circuit board contained within the rectangular housing. The customized storage container encloses a first row of interconnector modules that are positioned adjacent to a first, open end of the rectangular housing. The customized storage container also encloses a second row of interconnector modules positioned adjacent to the first, open end of the rectangular housing. At least one air vent is positioned along a side of the rectangular housing and adjacent to a second, closed end of the rectangular housing. According to one exemplary embodiment, the storage container can comprise a single printed circuit board for supporting the first and second row of interconnector modules. In another exemplary embodiment, the storage container can comprise two printed circuit boards for supporting the first and second rows interconnector modules.
US09408315B2

An electronic apparatus includes: a first cover forming a first external surface of the electronic apparatus; a second cover forming the first external surface in conjunction with the first cover, the second cover being capable of being separated from an edge of the first cover in a first direction along the first external surface; an elastically deformable first engaging portion formed at the edge of the first cover; and a second engaging portion formed at an edge of the second cover, the second engaging portion being engageable with the first engaging portion. The first engaging portion is elastically deformable in a second direction intersecting the first direction and being along the first external surface.
US09408312B2

A method and apparatus is provided for self-assembly of micro-components such as microchips onto a carrier substrate, provided with assembly locations for the components. The components are supplied to the carrier by a liquid flow, while a template substrate is arranged facing the carrier. The template is a substrate provided with openings aligned to the assembly locations. The carrier and template are submerged into a tank filled with the liquid, while the liquid flow is supplied to the template side together with the components, so that the components are guided towards the openings by the flow of liquid. Once a component is trapped into an opening of the template, substantially no further liquid flow through the opening is possible, so that following components are guided towards the remaining openings, thereby establishing a fast and reliable self-assembly process.
US09408311B2

A method of manufacturing an electronic component module includes sealing a surface of an aggregate substrate on which a plurality of electronic components are mounted with a sealing resin and cutting boundary portions between electronic component modules from an outer surface of the sealing resin to a position at least partially through the aggregate substrate to form first grooves. A shield layer is formed by coating the outer surface of the sealing resin with a conductive resin and filling the first grooves with the conductive resin, and recesses are formed at positions on the shield layer where the first grooves are formed. The boundary portions between electronic component modules are cut along the corresponding recesses so that second grooves each having a width smaller than the width of a corresponding one of the recesses are formed, and the aggregate substrate is singulated into the individual electronic component modules.
US09408310B2

A substrate includes a built-in component that suppresses resin flow occurring in the case of thermocompression bonding in a region where vias and wiring conductors are provided and that reduces the occurrence of via defects and wiring-conductor defects. The resin flow occurring in an outer side portion of a frame-shaped electrode is suppressed in the case of thermocompression bonding by encircling the periphery of a built-in component with the frame-shaped electrode. Because of this structure, the occurrence of defects in vias and wiring conductors arranged in an outer side portion of the frame-shaped electrode may be reduced.
US09408305B2

Buffer structures are provided that can be used to reduce a strain in a conformable electronic system that includes compliant components in electrical communication with more rigid device components. The buffer structures are disposed on, or at least partially embedded in, the conformable electronic system such that the buffer structures overlap with at least a portion of a junction region between a compliant component and a more rigid device component. The buffer structure can have a higher value of Young's modulus than an encapsulant of the conformable electronic system.
US09408300B2

According to embodiments of the disclosure, a flexible device and a fabrication method thereof are provided. The flexible device has a first area and a second area, and the stiffness of a portion of the first area is greater than the stiffness of the second area. The flexible device may include a flexible substrate and a rigid element. The flexible substrate includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other. The second surface has a coarse structure. The surface roughness of the second surface is greater in the first area than in the second area. The rigid element is disposed on the first surface of the flexible substrate and located in the first area. The stiffness of the rigid element is greater than the stiffness of the flexible substrate. A projection area of the coarse structure on the flexible substrate overlaps an area of the rigid element.
US09408296B2

A resin composition which is capable of forming a film that has excellent heat resistance and slidability/bendability; a protective film for circuits, which uses the resin composition; and a dry film or the like which comprises the protective film are provided. Other aspects are a circuit board and a multilayer circuit board, each of which has excellent heat resistance and slidability/bendability. Furthermore, a protective film for circuit boards is provided, which is arranged in contact with a circuit of a printed wiring board, and contains a polyoxazolidone resin that has a weight average molecular weight of 3×104 or more.
US09408295B2

A substrate for a light-emitting diode comprising a metal base with a thickness of a predetermined value or more is constituted so that the thickness of a top conductor for an electrical connection with a light-emitting diode (LED) in a predetermined range falls within a predetermined range and the thickness of an insulation layer which electrically insulates the metal base and the top conductor and the thickness of the top conductor meet a predetermined relation. Thereby, a substrate for a light-emitting diode which can show a high heat dissipation capacity by achieving a low thermal resistance as the total thermal resistance of the whole substrate without reducing insulation reliability and high-humidity reliability of the substrate is provided.
US09408291B2

A control module includes a circuit board having conductor paths arranged on at least one plane and having at least one rigid, inflexible conductor path section. The control module also includes an electronic control circuit which electrically contacts the conductor paths and has electrical components. The control module also includes a pan-shaped cover part protecting the control circuit. The cover part is arranged over a part of the electronic control circuit and contacts a side of the circuit board in a sealing manner with a flat contact region aligned parallel to the side. At least part of the electronic control circuit is protectively arranged in a housing inner chamber between the cover part and the circuit board, and electrical contacts of the circuit board are provided outside of the housing inner chamber, which is covered by the cover part, to contact electrical components of the control module.
US09408286B1

Short pulse neutron generators are described herein. In a general embodiment, the short pulse neutron generator includes a Blumlein structure. The Blumlein structure includes a first conductive plate, a second conductive plate, a third conductive plate, at least one of an inductor or a resistor, a switch, and a dielectric material. The first conductive plate is positioned relative to the second conductive plate such that a gap separates these plates. A vacuum chamber is positioned in the gap, and an ion source is positioned to emit ions in the vacuum chamber. The third conductive plate is electrically grounded, and the switch is operable to electrically connect and disconnect the second conductive plate and the third conductive plate. The at least one of the resistor or the inductor is coupled to the first conductive plate and the second conductive plate.
US09408285B2

Disclosed herein is an electrostatic discharge protection device including: a lower cover; electrodes disposed on the lower cover, being spaced apart from each other; a conductor disposed on the lower cover; and a semiconducting material layer covering the lower cover and the electrodes and formed of a semiconducting material.
US09408281B2

Provided is a wind turbine that includes a tower, a nacelle, a plurality of light sources mounted within the tower and the nacelle, and a wireless lighting control system. The wireless lighting control system includes a first locally controllable switch for controlling power to the plurality of light sources and a second locally controllable switch for controlling power to the plurality of light sources. The first and second locally controllable light switches are located remotely from each other. The wireless lighting control system further includes a remotely controllable light switch located at each of one or more of the light sources. The remotely controllable switch is configured to wirelessly receive a switch-on signal generated in response to manipulation of at least one of the first and second locally controllable switches, and switch on power to the corresponding light source in response to receiving the switch-on signal.
US09408280B2

A lighting system is disclosed having a plurality of luminaires in which the energy usage of each luminaire can individually be metered using a luminaire controller having a metering circuit.
US09408279B2

An intelligent system for controlling an exterior landscape lighting system by self calibration and self adjustments in real-time includes a plurality of lighting units, each lighting unit comprising a light sensor, a clocking device is electrically connected to each lighting unit, a power supply means operable to provide electrical power for operation of the clocking device, and a controller unit comprising a memory for storing a pre-recorded historical data and executing a set of instructions to control on and off times of each lighting unit.
US09408275B2

A lighting system with adjustable wavelength output that may include a plurality of light sources, a controller positioned in electrical communication with the plurality of light sources, and an optical sensor system positioned in electrical communication with the controller. The controller may be configured to selectively operate each light source of the plurality of light sources to emit one or more source lights. The optical sensor system may be configured to sense a reflected light that is reflected by an object upon which the source lights are incident. The optical sensor system may be configured to sense a wavelength range of the reflected light defined as a measured wavelength range and may further be configured to transmit a signal to the controller responsive to the measured wavelength range. The controller may be configured to operate the plurality of light sources responsive to the signal received from the optical sensor system.
US09408271B2

A lighting system includes an external sensor that is configured to measure a characteristic value of light received from the lighting system in a location of an environment that is illuminated by the lighting system, and a lighting device. The lighting device includes a plurality of LEDs that include a first group of LEDs that exhibit a first color temperature and a second group of LEDs that exhibit a second color temperature, a housing, and a device controller containing control circuitry that is configured to receive data from the external sensor and automatically alter a characteristic of light emitted by one or more of the LEDs in response to the received data. The housing may include an opening that receives and secures the plurality of LEDs, a body portion that provides a heat sink for the plurality of LEDs, and a power supply.
US09408266B2

A circuit can be used for controlling a plurality of LEDs coupled in series. A switching converter operates as a current source coupled to the plurality of LEDs to provide a constant load current thereto. The switching converter includes an inductor coupled in series with the plurality of LEDs such that the same load current flows through the inductor and the plurality of LEDs. No substantial capacitance is coupled between the inductor and the plurality of LEDs. A floating driver circuit is coupled in parallel with each individual LED of the plurality of LEDs. The floating driver circuit is configured to fully or partially take over the load current thereby bypassing the respective LED in accordance with a respective modulated input signal to control the intensity of the light emitted by the LED.
US09408255B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for migrating a user plane from an Iur-g interface to an A interface and an apparatus. The method includes: receiving, by a BSC, a migration commit notification that is sent by an RNC through an Iur-g interface, where the migration commit notification is sent by the RNC according to a notification message of finishing preparing resources by the BSC, and the notification message of finishing preparing resources by the BSC is sent by a core network; and migrating, by the BSC, a user plane from the Iur-g interface to an A interface according to the migration commit notification. In this way, the interruption duration in a process of migrating the user plane from the Iur-g interface to the A interface may be shortened.
US09408241B2

A network may include a method that includes, for example, receiving a communication request responsive to a telephone number mapping query failure, where the communication request is initiated by an originating communication device requesting a communication session with a terminating communication device, foregoing initiating the communication session as a circuit-switched communication session responsive to determining that the originating communication device and the terminating communication device are enabled to use packet-switched communications, and instructing a second network node to initiate the communication session as a packet-switched communication session between the originating communication device and the terminating communication device responsive to the determination. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09408240B2

There is disclosed a system and method for choosing between different Communication Initiation Request (CIR) channels in a mobile communications system when there are multiple CIR channels amongst which to choose. Additionally, there is disclosed a system and method for exploiting a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection usage pattern that is characterized by periods of inactivity.
US09408239B2

A device receives an emergency call via a session initiation protocol (SIP) invite that includes a cell identification (ID) and a service or device type associated with a user equipment (UE). The device determines, based on the service or device type, whether the UE is a fixed device or a wireless device, and uses a static approach to route the emergency call to a public safety answering point (PSAP) when the UE is a fixed device. The device uses a cell database to route the emergency call to the PSAP, based on the cell ID, when the UE is a wireless device.
US09408236B2

Disclosed are a method for distributing a random access and a method for distributing and performing the random access. According to the present invention, a method for performing a random access of a terminal comprises the step of receiving a paging message indicative of a network reentry from a base station, wherein said paging message can contain at least either the identifier information of terminal groups, in which terminals are grouped, or the random access configuration information which corresponds to said terminal groups. Said random access configuration information can contain random access standby time information of said terminal groups and back-off window size information. Said method further comprises the steps of: selecting a random access opportunity on the basis of said random access configuration information; and transmitting a random access code to said base station in said selected random access opportunity.
US09408232B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a technique for managing contention-based uplink data transmissions. According to certain aspects, a base station may allocate a common contention-based resource to a plurality of user equipment (UEs). The plurality of UEs may utilize the contention-based resource to transmit uplink data without prior scheduling, which may result in transmission collisions. Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a mechanism for determining which UE sent an uplink transmissions based on one or more transmission parameter signaled to the UEs.
US09408229B2

In a wireless mobile communications system, a method for controlling a radio resource allocation is provided. A network transmits access control information to a terminal such that a request for the radio resource allocation which will be transmitted from the terminal can be controlled. The terminal selectively transmits the request for the radio resource allocation based on the received information, thus a transmission of an unnecessary request for the radio resource can be minimized, thereby preventing a waste of the radio resource.
US09408228B2

Embodiments of the present application provide a method and apparatus for uplink interference avoidance in case of timing advance group reconfiguration. Wherein, the method includes: reconfiguring a TAG belonging to a secondary serving cell by terminal; and terminating, by the terminal, transmission of a periodic channel sounding reference signal Type-0 SRS in the secondary serving cell, and/or terminating, by the terminal, uplink non-adaptive retransmission in the secondary serving cell, after the terminal completes the reconfiguration of the TAG of the secondary serving cell and if a current TAG is a new one. With the embodiments of the present application, a problem of mutual interference with other terminal resulted from transmission of an uplink signal by the terminal in the secondary serving cell according to a wrong TA value may be avoided.
US09408227B2

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for performing wireless communication, and includes: transmitting a channel scheduling request frame for querying scheduling information to a database device, the scheduling information being on one or more channels the enabling station wants to query, receiving a channel scheduling response frame including a channel number field and a channel availability duration field from the database device, the channel scheduling response frame not including information on from when a channel identified by the channel number field is available for operation, the channel availability duration field indicating a duration of time during which the channel identified by the channel number field is available for operation, and taking the specific time receiving the channel scheduling response frame as a starting time of channel availability of the channel identified by the channel number field of the channel scheduling response frame.
US09408214B2

Systems, methods, and devices for protecting frequency division multiple access communications are provided. A method for wireless communications in a communication system over a primary frequency channel and a secondary frequency channel is provided. The method includes transmitting by an access point a first reservation frame utilizing the primary frequency channel, the first reservation frame indicating a first single time interval reserved for uplink and downlink communications over the primary frequency channel with a plurality of wireless devices. The method includes transmitting by the access point a second reservation frame utilizing the secondary frequency channel, the second reservation frame indicating a second single time interval reserved for uplink and downlink communications over the secondary frequency channel. The method includes communicating between the access point and the plurality of wireless devices over the primary frequency channel during the first single time interval.
US09408213B2

When a frequency channel is shared between adjacent cells in a wireless communication system of time-division duplex operation utilizing a white space, more efficient communications can be achieved. In a wireless communication system of time-division duplex operation utilizing a white space, which is a temporally and spatially unused frequency, to perform wireless communications and having frames in which downstream and upstream subframes are alternately arranged on the time axis, a network controller calculates a common split position, which is to be used in synchronization between base stations sharing a frequency, from collected information in response to a frequency sharing trigger and synchronizes the determined split position between the base stations, thereby allowing the frequency channel to be shared.
US09408201B2

A method for CSI report transmission includes detecting a collision in a subframe, between a first PUCCH CSI report of one serving cell with which a UE is configured in one of transmission modes 1 to 9, and a second PUCCH CSI report of another serving cell with which the UE is configured in transmission mode 10. Upon the reporting types of the collided PUCCH CSI reports having a same priority, the method transmits the first PUCCH CSI report if the CSI process index of the second PUCCH CSI report has a positive value other than 1. A method for CSI report transmission includes configuring, via a higher layer, a UE configured in transmission mode 10 whether to create a respective CSI report(s) for each aperiodic CSI process or not, using an information element including at least three one-bit variables.
US09408200B2

A predetermined number of cyclic shift values are defined for a demodulation of uplink data. An available portion of the cyclic shift values from among the cyclic shift values is transmitted to user equipment. Control information for uplink data is transmitted to the user equipment via a physical control channel. The control information includes information indicating one cyclic shift value for generating a reference signal from among the portion of the cyclic shift values. The user equipment transmits the uplink data based on the control information and a reference signal for a demodulation of the uplink data.
US09408199B1

One embodiment takes the form of a method carried out by a base station. The method includes the base station serving a wireless communication device (WCD) on a given air-interface resource. While serving the WCD, the base station may receive a data packet from the WCD. In response, the base station may update the data packet to include an indication of the given air-interface resource on which the base station is serving the WCD. The base station may then transmit the updated data packet for receipt by one or more gateways.
US09408198B2

Methods and apparatus are described for User Equipment (UE) to concurrently transmit Uplink Control Information (UCI) and data information to a Node B. The Node B can configure the UE to transmit UCI together with data information in a Physical Uplink Shared CHannel (PUSCH) or separate from data information in a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH). The UE may also determine whether to transmit UCI together with data information in the PUSCH or separate from data information in the PUCCH based on criteria involving a ratio of PUSCH resources for UCI transmission over the total PUSCH resources, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) for the data information, an absolute power difference between PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions, whether the PUSCH transmission uses frequency hopping, and/or whether spatial multiplexing is used for the data transmission.
US09408197B2

Disclosed is a method and a apparatus for transmitting control information in a wireless communication system. The present invention includes detecting In Device Coexistence (IDC) interference, and transmitting an IDC indication message to an eNB if there is at least one frequency influenced by the IDC interference, wherein the IDC indication message is configured to include a frequency list containing frequencies influenced by the IDC interference, and the frequency list is configured to include an IDC interference direction indicating a direction of an influence of the detected IDC interference.
US09408196B2

The disclosure provides a method and terminal for feeding back channel state information. The method comprises: a UE determining channel state information comprising a first type of PMI and a second type of PMI, wherein the first type of PMI is used for indicating an index of a first precoding matrix in a first precoding codebook, the first precoding matrix is used for mapping channel information of a wideband and/or long-term channel, the second PMI is used for indicating an index of a second precoding matrix in a second precoding codebook, the second precoding matrix is used for mapping channel information of a subband and/or short-term channel; the UE feeding back the channel state information on a PUSCH. The disclosure enables a base station to dynamically select SU-MIMO or MU-MIMO transmission according to the practical channel condition so as to effectively improve the system performance.
US09408183B2

Methods and devices for resolving paging collisions in a communication device (105-1) are described. The method includes detecting a probable paging collision between two subscriber identity modules (SIMs) (115) of the communication device (105-1) and determining whether at least one SIM of the communication device (105-1) has a non-serving cell in a corresponding broadcast control channel (BCCH) allocation list (BA-list). Further, the method includes ascertaining, based on one or more selection parameters, whether the at least one SIM can be selected for forced cell reselection and indicating, based on the ascertaining, exclusion of a currently serving cell of a SIM selected for the forced cell reselection from normal cell reselection procedure. Further, the forced cell reselection is initiated for the selected SIM. Further in some embodiments, if none of the SIMs can be selected for a forced cell reselection, then a Paging Message Position (PMP) recomputation Request is sent to a network controller to change the paging block position computation from IMSI-based computation to TMSI-based computation.
US09408182B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, for providing notifications based on third party data. In an aspect, a method includes receiving data responsive to a selection of an action trigger prompt at a user device, wherein: the action trigger prompt is rendered at the user device with a resource and displayed with the resource in an initial state, and upon selection of the action trigger prompt the user device displays an action trigger menu that facilitates the input of a plurality of parameter values for an event; and the received data specifies a user defined event and an action associated with the user defined event and to be taken in response to the occurrence of the user defined event; and storing the data specifying the user defined event and the action to be take in response to the occurrence of the user defined event in an action trigger data store.
US09408174B2

Downlink signal strength measurements from base stations (BSs) are reported by mobile devices to facilitate mobile device locating. A system receives the signal strength information and determines whether the mobile device is within a selected distance from any of the BSs in response to detecting that signal strength information for one of the BSs is greater than a predefined value. The system determines an area over which to search for the mobile device if the system fails to detect that the signal strength information for any of the BSs is greater than the predefined value. The area over which the search is performed is an intersection of all regions determined by the signal strengths of the BSs.
US09408170B2

Methods, devices, and computer program products for synchronization of wireless devices in a peer-to-peer network are described herein. In one aspect, a method for synchronizing a wireless communication apparatus is provided. The method includes determining, at a wireless communication apparatus, a first time interval since transmitting a message including a time value of a clock signal of the wireless communication apparatus; and determining, at the wireless communication apparatus, a second time interval since updating the time value of the wireless communication apparatus; and transmitting a message comprising content that is based on comparing the first time interval to a first threshold and comparing the second time interval to a second threshold.
US09408167B2

A first wireless access network node sets a synchronization indication based on whether the first wireless access network node is synchronized with a synchronization source. The first wireless access network node transmits the synchronization indication.
US09408164B2

Disclosed is a millimeter-wave communication spatial multiplexing transmission method, and the method includes: a millimeter-wave communication device initiating high-speed data communication with a target device, sending a beamforming request to the target device via a low frequency band communication module, if the millimeter-wave communication device has received an acknowledgement response sent by the target device via the low-frequency band communication module and learns that a non-target device is performing the high-speed data communication in a same frequency band with the high-speed data communication initiated by the millimeter-wave communication device, the millimeter-wave communication device configuring transmitting power which is less than default power to perform beam scanning.
US09408163B2

An embodiment of the present invention discloses a power control method, including: obtaining, by a UE, configuration information, where the configuration information includes a configuration parameter of at least one Scell configured by a base station for the UE; setting, by the UE, an initial power adjustment value of the Scell according to the configuration parameter of the Scell in the configuration information; and controlling, by the UE, transmit power on the Scell according to the set initial power adjustment value of the Scell. Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present invention further discloses an activation management method, a UE, and a base station. By using the present invention, transmit power of a UE on an Scell can be accurately controlled, thereby ensuring accuracy of data transmission.
US09408158B2

A User Equipment (UE) is described. The UE decodes an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) reconfiguration downlink control information (DCI) with an enhanced interference mitigation with traffic adaptation (eIMTA)-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The UE also determines if one or more valid UL/DL configurations in the UL/DL reconfiguration DCI with eIMTA-RNTI for all configured eIMTA cells are received. The UE further determines if physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format 3 is configured. The UE additionally determines a PUCCH resource for physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) reporting based on whether valid UL/DL configurations in the UL/DL reconfiguration DCI with eIMTA-RNTI for all of the configured eIMTA cells corresponding to a subframe for the PUCCH resource are received. The UE also sends PDSCH HARQ-ACK information on the selected PUCCH resource in an uplink subframe.
US09408151B2

The present invention provides techniques related to a terminal apparatus, base station apparatus, communication system, control method, and integrated circuit for performing efficient transmission and reception control between a mobile station apparatus and a base station apparatus to thereby reduce power consumption and improve radio resource utilization. The terminal apparatus sends capability information indicating whether notification of a state relating to power consumption of the terminal apparatus is possible or not to the base station apparatus, and upon receiving a parameter indicating start of determination on the state relating to the power consumption of the terminal apparatus from the base station apparatus, determines the state relating to power consumption based on the current communication state configurations of the terminal apparatus and sends state information representing the result of the determination on the state relating to power consumption to the base station apparatus.
US09408150B2

A wake-up system includes an instigator for transmitting a wake-up message from a primary node to a receiver at a secondary node. The instigator sends a wake-up on either first RF channel or a second RF channel having respective frequencies such that the second RF channel is an image of the first RF channel at a local oscillator frequency of the receiver. The receiver includes an RF filter that passes both the image and non-image channels, a frequency generator for generating a local oscillator signal at the local oscillator frequency, and a mixer for mixing the filtered modulated RF signal with said local oscillator signal to generate a modulated intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The receiver monitors both the image and non-image channels simultaneously for a valid wake-up message. A wake-up message detector indicates a wake-up condition in response to the reception of a valid wake-up message.
US09408149B2

A method and a communication device for managing communication traffic for multiple communication technologies are provide. The method, performed by a communication device to manage communications with a first and a second network having a first and a second communication technology, respectively, includes: determining, by a second communication module, whether a first transmission of the first communication technology is in progress before proceeding with a second transmission having the second communication technology; when the first transmission is in progress, initiating, by a second communication module, an unavailable period of the first communication technology; initiating, by a second communication module, notification of the unavailability of the first communication technology to the first network; and proceeding, by the second communication module, with the second transmission.
US09408148B2

A terminal device (1) frame-length-modulates an identifier of the radio apparatus (3) to generate a plurality of frames having a plurality of frame lengths, and transmits the generated plurality of frames to an access point (2) over wire or wireless communication. The access point (2) transfers the plurality of frames transmitted by the terminal device (1) to the radio apparatus (3) in the IP or MAC layer. The radio apparatus (3) detects the plurality of frame lengths of the plurality of frames received from the access point (2) and decodes the detected plurality of frame lengths to obtain an identifier. If the obtained identifier matches the identifier of the radio apparatus (3), the radio apparatus (3) transitions to active mode.
US09408146B2

A wireless field device that performs a wireless communication with other field devices in a wireless network through a gateway. The device includes: a battery incorporated in the field device to activate the field device; and a wireless communication module configured to exchange radio signals with the gateway to perform the wireless communication with said other field devices. When the field device starts procedure for joining in the wireless network, firstly, the wireless communication module continuously accesses the gateway in a first period to receive an advertisement signal from the gateway, and when the wireless communication module fails to receive the advertisement signal in the first period, the wireless communication module intermittently accesses the gateway until receiving the advertisement signal from the gateway.
US09408144B2

Apparatus and methods for performing reduced hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operations for a user equipment (UE) during a data communications session, e.g., for voice over LTE (VoLTE) communications. The UE can initially inform the network, via an enhanced NodeB (eNodeB), that the UE is capable of performing advanced HARQ functions. The eNodeB can further evaluate various network conditions to determine when reduced HARQ operations should be employed. When network conditions allow, the eNodeB can transmit an RRC message to the UE, including reduced HARQ timeline configuration information. Thereafter, the UE and the eNodeB can collaborate to institute the reduced HARQ timeline to schedule an application data retransmission during the data communications session. The reduced HARQ operations can be performed in conjunction with various semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) and connected mode discontinuous reception (C-DRX) operations, to further conserve UE device resources.
US09408140B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a portable device, which is configured to join a known Wi-Fi network. While the device is not associated with a known access point, the device scans for access points at a scanning frequency wherein information about known access points has been stored in a database in the device. During this scanning process, the device determines whether the device is proximate to a known access point and the device sets the device's scanning frequency based on whether the device is proximate to a known access point.
US09408139B1

A mobile communication device supporting a plurality of Radio Access Technologies (RATs) and a plurality of radio frequencies is provided. In the mobile communication device, a Baseband processor is configured to schedule the plurality of RATs and the plurality of radio frequencies in pairs in an order for a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) selection procedure, and determine one of the pairs and repeat the determined pair in the order of the pairs during the PLMN selection procedure.
US09408137B2

A discovery signal that a first device joining in direct communication broadcasts through a radio channel is provided. The discovery signal includes a first field representing whether the discovery signal is a signal for discovering a device or a signal for discovering a service, and a second field including one of device identifier information of the first device and service information of a service that the first device provides according to a value of the first field.
US09408134B2

The disclosure relates to determining priority access with dual access barring classes. An aspect receives, at a client device, at least one high priority access barring class and at least one low priority access barring class, switches to the low priority access barring class, receives an access barring message, and switches to the high priority access barring class in response to receiving the access barring message. An aspect receives a call request for a high priority call among a group of client devices, transmits a notification to a network instructing it to transmit an access barring message in response to receiving the call request, wherein one or more members of the group of client devices switch to a high priority access class in response to receiving the access barring message, and suppresses call announcements for non-priority call requests after transmitting the notification.
US09408132B2

The concepts relate to radio white space utilization and more specifically to discovery of radio white space databases that cover a specific location. One example can communicate a location to a radio white space database. The example can obtain, from the radio white space database, information about another radio white space database that covers the location. The example can supply the location to the another radio white space database. The example can also receive a set of radio white space frequencies and associated constraints for the location from the another radio white space database. The example can further communicate data over individual radio white space frequencies of the set in accordance with the constraints at the location.
US09408130B1

A method for cell reselection for a mobile communication device includes: selecting a best neighbor cell of a currently serving cell for a first subscription; starting a reselection timer; performing a plurality of signal measurements on the best neighbor cell; determining if a time period indicated by the reselection timer is expired; in response to a determination that the time period is expired, determining if a second subscription is engaged in an activity having higher priority than cell reselection; and in response to a determination that the second subscription is engaged in the activity having higher priority than cell reselection, inhibiting cell reselection on the first subscription.
US09408129B2

A system, method, and device to enable communication between a first and second satellite station and a controller of a mobile platform. The controller includes a processor, a first modem facilitating communication with the first satellite station via a first frequency over a first communication link, and a map of the one or more networks of satellite stations including the second satellite station. The controller utilizes the map of the one or more networks of satellite stations to determine the second satellite station for communicating with the controller. A second modem is coupled to the controller and facilitates communication with the second satellite station via a second frequency over a second communication link, wherein the controller is configured to calculate a time to handoff communication with the mobile communicator from the first communication link to the second communication link.
US09408112B2

Performing detection of a synchronization beacon. The UE may include a first radio which supports, e.g., simultaneously, a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT. The UE may perform transmission according to the first RAT on the first radio with a base station. The UE may receive a request to perform a tune-away to detect a synchronization beacon on the second RAT. The synchronization beacon may repetitively occur in successive first time periods. The UE may repeatedly perform a search for the synchronization beacon in different sub-portions over successive first time periods. The search may be repeatedly performed until the synchronization beacon is located in a respective sub-portion of one of the successive time periods.
US09408108B2

A method and control nodes for controlling load-based handover in a mobile telecommunications network is proposed and at least one logical control node for controlling resources in said cell and at least one logical service node for controlling quality of service, wherein said logical service node comprises terminal instruction means for instructing a mobile terminal communicating with said at least first base station to perform a handover, comprising the steps of—determining, in the CRNC, if the load in the cell exceeds a first threshold,—selecting, in the CRNC, a mobile terminal that should be moved to another carrier if the load in the cell exceeds the first threshold, and—instructing, from the CRNC, the SRNC to instruct the at least one mobile terminal to perform a handover.
US09408105B2

Systems and methods for optimization of mobile traffic directed to private networks and operator configurability thereof are disclosed. One embodiment includes a method, which may be implemented on a system, for identifying a network accessed by mobile traffic at a mobile device, identifying an operator of the network, and/or determining whether the mobile traffic is directed towards a private or public network. In response to determining that the mobile traffic is directed towards a private network, determining whether the private network is owned by or operated by the operator. Optimization of the mobile traffic is performed based on policies set by the operator. In general, the system maintains and/or enforces different sets of policies regarding mobile traffic optimization set by different and multiple operators.
US09408103B2

The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software related product (e.g., a computer readable memory) for implementing enhanced and flexible radio aperiodic measurements, e.g., on an unlicensed band in LTE wireless systems and providing effective and timely reporting. A UE may receive from a wireless network an aperiodic measurement request to measure a special measurement object (e.g., a neighbor cell) specified in the aperiodic measurement request, e.g., in an unlicensed band. In response to the aperiodic measurement request, the UE may perform the measurement of the special management object until a further instruction from the wireless network or for a determined period of time. Inter-frequency measurements may be performed during the measurement gap determined from the aperiodic measurement request.
US09408095B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for autonomously determining overlapping coverage in a cellular communications network. In one embodiment, the cellular communications network is a heterogeneous cellular communications network. In one embodiment, a network node of a cellular communication system obtains information (e.g., pilot reports) indicative of a perceived coverage of one or more covering cells at wireless devices within a measuring cell over a measurement interval. The network node determines overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells based on the information indicative of the perceived coverage of the one or more covering cells at the wireless devices.
US09408081B1

Data identifying a plurality of wireless coverage areas in a region may be obtained. The data may identify geographic locations of the wireless coverage areas. Possibly based on the data, the wireless coverage areas may be arranged into a plurality of mutually exclusive tracking area groups. Each of the tracking area groups may include multiple wireless coverage areas and may be identified by respective unique tracking area identifiers. The tracking area groups may form a geographically-defined sequence across the region. A numerical sequence of wireless coverage area identifiers may be assigned to the wireless coverage areas in the region, one wireless coverage area identifier per wireless coverage area. The wireless coverage areas of the tracking area groups may be provisioned to use the assigned wireless coverage area identifiers.
US09408059B2

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for communicating between mobile devices. In one embodiment, the method comprises launching an application on a first mobile device, joining a wireless mesh network with the first mobile device being a node in the wireless mesh network in response to launching the application, discovering one or more other mobile devices that are active in the wireless mesh network using a discovery protocol, receiving profile information from each of the one or more other mobile devices, and displaying a visual directory of participants associated with the one or more other mobile devices active in the wireless mesh network.
US09408058B2

A device discovery method and apparatus of a Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) device for improving connection compatibility with legacy devices are provided. The method includes receiving a command for executing a modified P2P device discovery mode, configuring the Wi-Fi P2P device as a group owner autonomously, entering a group owner receive mode in which a probe request can be received, and discovering an external device which transmits the probe request.
US09408051B2

Social media websites contain posts which may benefit persons affected by an emergency situation or natural disaster. Discovering trustworthy posters of useful information is disclosed such that messages indicating relevant information, and an associated trust value, may be provided to interested parties.
US09408050B2

Systems and methods of reducing bandwidth usage of a mobile client are disclosed. An example method may include caching a first version of network content in a mobile client. The method may also include comparing the cached content with a second version of the network content. The method may also include generating a recipe to construct the second version of the network content from the cached network content based on a result of the comparing. The method may also include sending the recipe to the mobile client.
US09408040B2

A method of identifying a location of a mobile device in a building includes identifying non-overlapping regions in a building. A server collects base station signal strength measurements at a plurality of distinct points in the building, with at least one point in each region. The server trains region classifiers for each region. Each region classifier is configured to compute a probability estimate that the test point is inside the region, using inputs that are signal strength differences. The server receives signal strength measurements from the base stations, taken by a mobile device at an unknown point. The server computes differences in signal strengths between pairs of base stations, and applies the region classifiers to the signal strength differences, thereby estimating the region where the mobile device is located. The server then transmits the estimated region to a user.
US09408035B2

A method and associated device is provided for providing context based information to a user. The device is a mobile device and information is provided on a display to a user. The mobile device enabled to receive input and in processing communication with one or more computers and comprising the steps of storing a user profile having at least information about a plurality of stores; creating a plurality of icons such that each icon at least includes one store; determining if more than one store should be represented under same icons; dynamically updating information about each store represented by said icons to see if a special condition can be associated with any of the stores represented by the icons; and displaying said plurality of icons on a display of the mobile device and adding a special effect to any icon that includes a store identified as having a special condition.
US09408033B2

Hybrid location determination for wireless communication device. Various services that may be used by a wireless communication device within a particular location may be referred to as location based services (LBS). As such, means by which the location of a wireless communication device that may use such available services, within such a locale, is made by using more than one type of location determination approach. For example, a wireless communication device includes communication capability (e.g., RX and TX) in accordance with a first communication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth) and also includes a communication capability (e.g., RX only) in accordance with a second communication protocol (e.g., WiFi/WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)). The RX capability is operative to assist in location determination for the wireless communication device based on knowledge of at least one wireless communication device that communicates with the wireless communication device.
US09408027B2

A mobile device comprising at least one processor configured to perform acts of obtaining position information for at least first and second positions of the mobile device along a route; obtaining communication quality information for at least a third position of the mobile device, the communication quality information calculated based on the route and the obtained position information; and causing the mobile device to display the obtained communication quality information.
US09408022B1

A communication system that includes a base unit and one or more end units that communicate over a primary communication link using a first communication protocol and a secondary communication link using a second protocol. The secondary communication link may be a shorter range communication link than the primary communication link. The secondary communication link may be used to transmit and receive registration information, configuration settings, and status information between the end units and the base unit.
US09408013B2

A process of configuring an electronic device and an electronic device configured to operate under a plurality of different brands. The brand to be utilized are designated at the point-of-sale, during activation, by the seller, and/or by the user. The electronic device including a processor configured to execute instructions and a display device configured to generate an interface based in part in response to the processor. The electronic device further including a memory configured to store the instructions to operate the electronic device. The processor further configured to execute a component to designate a brand to be utilized at the point-of-sale, during activation, by the seller, and/or by the user.
US09408004B2

The present disclosure relates to improved receiver connectors for hearing assistance devices. One aspect of the present subject matter relates to a hearing assistance system including a flex connector. A hearing assistance device housing includes hearing assistance electronics for a hearing assistance device. The system also includes a receiver configured to convert an electrical signal from the hearing assistance electronics to an acoustic signal. The receiver is configured to enable a quick connect and disconnect at various degrees on and off vertical axial alignment with repeatable reliability, according to various embodiments.
US09407997B2

A packaged microphone has a base, a lid coupled to the base forming an interior, a MEMS microphone secured to the base within the interior, and an integrated circuit embedded in the base. Apertures in the base and integrated circuit are aligned to form an aperture from the exterior of the package to the interior.
US09407996B2

A microphone system has an output and at least a first transducer with a first dynamic range, a second transducer with a second dynamic range different than the first dynamic range, and coupling system to selectively couple the output of one of the first transducer or the second transducer to the system output, depending on the magnitude of the input sound signal, to produce a system with a dynamic range greater than the dynamic range of either individual transducer. A method of operating a microphone system includes detecting whether a transducer output crosses a threshold, and if so then selectively coupling another transducer's output to the system output. The threshold may change as a function of which transducer is coupled to the system output. The system and methods may also combine the outputs of more than one transducer in a weighted sum during transition from one transducer output to another, as a function of time or as a function of the amplitude of the incident audio signal. Methods of operating the system may include equalizing the outputs of two or more transducers prior to coupling one or more outputs to the system output.
US09407990B2

An apparatus and method for calibrating gain difference between microphones included in a microphone array are provided. In the gain calibrating apparatus, weights for each frequency component of the acoustic signals, which have been converted into the signals in the frequency domain are calculated. The weights are used to calibrate the acoustic signals such that the plurality of acoustic signals each have the same amplitude while the acoustic signals maintain their individual phase. The amplitudes of the acoustic signals are calibrated by use of the calculated weights. The gain calibrating apparatus calibrates gain in real time while calculating weights for frequency components of the frame of acoustic signals in real time.
US09407988B2

A method and apparatus for introducing a time-varying time delay or phase shift randomly into the individual reproduction channels of a sound recording, two in the case of binaural presentation. This emulates the temporal aspect of microphone and/or listener motion. The present invention may be applied as a unidirectional process. No preparation of the source material is required. It can be applied to any multichannel audio signal set. It can process analog or digital signals. The process may be used with headphones, loudspeakers, hearing aids or similar assistive hearing devices.
US09407987B2

An audio interface self-adaption device includes an audio interface, a first level comparison module, a second level comparison module, a PNP triode Tc, a power output terminal VBAT, a switching module, a resistor R2a, and a resistor R2b. The audio interface includes a pin 1, a pin 2, a pin 3, and a pin 4. One of the pin 3 and the pin 4 is a microphone pin of the audio interface, and the other one of the pin 3 and the pin 4 is a ground pin. The switching module is configured to connect one of a first input pin B0L and a second input pin B1H of the switching module to an output pin of the switching module according to a level of a signal received by a signal input pin Sel of the switching module.
US09407986B2

A demonstration system includes a demonstration processor including a wired audio output, a data interface, and an anchor point. A portable audio device includes a wireless interface for receiving first audio signals, a wired audio input for receiving second audio signals, a mixing circuit outputting third audio signals including audio content from both the first and second audio signals, an output audio transducer for receiving the third audio signals from the mixing circuit and outputting them as audible signals, a user interface, a data interface, and a programmable processor in communication with the user interface and the data interface. A cable bundle includes a security cable for connection between the anchor point and the portable audio device thereby preventing theft of the portable audio device, and electrical conductors connecting the wired audio output of the demonstration processor to the wired audio input of the portable audio device.
US09407985B2

The present invention relates to a microphone actuator for fitting a microphone through the upper surface of a table such as that used in a boardroom. The microphone actuator comprises a stepper motor (2), coupled to a gear (4, 6, 8, 14) which is arranged to cause extension and/or retraction of a microphone (11) from or into a housing (20) respectively. The invention also relates to a method of initializing a microphone actuator comprising the steps of initially moving the actuator to a retracted position until a retracted limit stop is reached, receiving user input indicating that a setup mode has been entered, receiving user input indicating that the actuator should be extended or retracted, receiving user input indicating that a desired actuator position has been reached, and storing the desired actuator position in memory.
US09407981B2

A headphone is disclosed herein. The headphone includes a wireless transceiver, a wired communication module, a power storage device, a speaker, and control circuitry. The wireless transceiver and the wired communication module and the wireless transceiver are connected to the speaker via the control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to determine whether to control the speaker according to data received via the wired communication module and the wireless transceiver and to seamlessly transition control of the speaker from data received from one of the wired communication module and the wireless transceiver to the other of the wired communication module and the wireless transceiver.
US09407980B1

A clip-on transceiver microphone includes a first body, a second body, and a pivot shaft assembly. The first body has a circuit board therein. The second body has a battery therein. The battery supplies power to the circuit board inside the first body through a power wire. The first body further has a microphone jack for connecting with an external microphone to receive voice. The first body is pivotally connected with the second body by the pivot shaft assembly. After being assembled, two clipping ends of the first body and the second body are tied to each other. Two squeezing ends of the first body and the second body are pushed to open the two clipping ends and then clip on clothes of a user, thereby attaching the clip-on transceiver microphone on the object of the user.
US09407970B2

A method of splicing a first data stream and a second data stream is disclosed. The method comprising detecting a splice in-point and a splice out-point within the first data stream, wherein the splice in-point is a frame in the first data stream and the splice out-point is another frame in the first data stream. The method further identifies splice-in opportunity point and a splice-out opportunity point from a plurality of splice opportunity points (SOPs) in the first data stream, wherein the splice-in opportunity point corresponds to the splice in-point and the splice-out opportunity point corresponds to the splice out-point, wherein the splice-in opportunity point and the splice-out opportunity point are frames of the first data stream. The method replaces at least one frame of the first data stream with at least one frame of the second data stream, wherein the replacement of the frames of the first data stream starts onwards the splice-in opportunity point and ends at the splice-out opportunity point; and wherein the first data stream includes a plurality of frames and the second data stream includes a plurality of frames. The method performs the splicing operation without de-packetization of the first data stream. In addition, the replacement of the frames does not require re-ordering of the frames of the first data stream.
US09407962B2

A device is configured to perform a method that detects a trigger marker for an action corresponding to a segment of a multimedia signal. A fingerprint is generated based on the segment of the multimedia signal at a trigger time point. The generated fingerprint is stored in a database and communicated to the device. During playback of the multimedia signal, fingerprints of segments of the multimedia signal are generated and matched against fingerprints in the database. When a match is found, one or more associated actions for the segment are retrieved by the device. The trigger time point may be determined as a time point near or at the segment of the multimedia signal with the matched fingerprint. In this way, trigger markers for actions may be enabled without modifying the multimedia signal.
US09407958B2

Methods and apparatus to determine engagement levels of audience members are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing image data corresponding to an environment in which an audience is exposed to media presented by a first media presentation device to determine whether the environment includes a glow emanating from a second media presentation device; and when the environment includes the glow, calculating an engagement for a person in the environment with respect to the first media presentation device based on a presence of the glow.
US09407939B2

An apparatus, method, and medium are provided for modifying a program. A selection of a category of program for which modification is to be performed is received, and a model object is stored in association with the category of program. An original signal is received, and it is determined whether the original signal includes a source signal of the category of program. When the original signal includes the source signal of the category of program, at least one portion of the source signal to be extracted is identified. The model object stored in association with the category of program is retrieved, and at least one portion of the model object is inserted into the original signal in correspondence with the portion of the source signal to be extracted. The original signal including the inserted portion of the model object is configured to be displayed at a user site.
US09407938B2

A side-channel encoding method for an electronic device is provided. The side-channel encoding method includes converting an original image into a down image by downscaling the original image, converting the down image into an up image by upscaling the down image, calculating a pixel-specific luminance variation between the original image and the up image by using a local average luminance for each pixel included in the original image, converting the pixel-specific luminance variation into a first variation binary signal by binarizing the luminance variation, converting the first variation binary signal into a second variation binary signal by simplifying the first variation binary signal, and outputting the second variation binary signal by including the second variation binary signal in the down image.
US09407929B2

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing a video signal, which can increase the accuracy of the motion vector prediction through motion vector scaling which takes a difference in the temporal distance between reference pictures into consideration. To this end, the present invention provides a video signal processing method and a video signal processing apparatus using the same, and the method comprises the steps of: scaling at least one neighboring partition motion vector for a motion vector prediction of the current partition; scaling the neighboring partition motion vector, which has been selected, when the reference picture of the neighboring partition motion vector is different from the reference picture of the current partition; acquiring a motion vector prediction value of the current partition using the scaled motion vector; and acquiring a motion vector of the current partition using the motion vector prediction value.
US09407924B2

A video encoding device includes a re-encoding picture type judgment unit which judges whether a picture is to be taken as a reference picture or not in a subsequent re-encoding process. A prediction error generation unit generates a prediction error signal so that only a picture to be a reference picture is formed when an encoded picture is formed. The video encoding device includes a quantization control unit for, when the re-encoding picture type judgment unit judges that the picture is to be taken as a reference picture in the subsequent re-encoding process, controlling so that a quantization step for quantization by a quantization unit is smaller than a case where the picture is judged to be taken as a non-reference picture.
US09407916B2

Provided are a method and a device for encoding a video by using a data unit of a hierarchical structure, and a method and a device for decoding the same. A video encoding device includes: a hierarchical encoder configured to encode a picture of a video based on a data unit of a hierarchical structure; and an entropy coder configured to determine a context model used for entropy coding of a symbol based on hierarchical information of a data unit to which the symbol of the encoded picture belongs, and to entropy encode the symbol using the determined context model.
US09407913B2

Adjacent regions are identified in an image. Coding parameters for the adjacent regions are identified. Selective filtering is performed at the region between the identified adjacent regions.
US09407910B1

Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to frequency domain transforms, including fast integer transforms and directional integer transforms. Further disclosed is a video codec that utilizes a novel class of fast integer and directional transforms.
US09407904B2

A method that enables creation of a 3D virtual reality environment from a series of 2D images of a scene. Embodiments map 2D images onto a sphere to create a composite spherical image, divide the composite image into regions, and add depth information to the regions. Depth information may be generated by mapping regions onto flat or curved surfaces, and positioning these surfaces in 3D space. Some embodiments enable inserting, removing, or extending objects in the scene, adding or modifying depth information as needed. The final composite image and depth information are projected back onto one or more spheres, and then projected onto left and right eye image planes to form a 3D stereoscopic image for a viewer of the virtual reality environment. Embodiments enable 3D images to be generated dynamically for the viewer in response to changes in the viewer's position and orientation in the virtual reality environment.
US09407902B1

Methods and apparatus relating to encoding and decoding stereoscopic (3D) image data, e.g., left and right eye images, are described. Various pre-encoding and post-decoding operations are described in conjunction with difference based encoding and decoding techniques. In some embodiments left and right eye image data is subject to scaling, transform operation(s) and cropping prior to encoding. In addition, in some embodiments decoded left and right eye image data is subject to scaling, transform operations(s) and cropping prior to being output to a display device. Transform information, scaling information and/or cropping information may be included in a bitstream communicating encoded left and right eye images. The amount of scaling can be the same for an entire scene and/or program.
US09407901B2

A method and a 3D display apparatus for displaying a content list by setting a depth value of each content to be displayed on the content list according to content information, according to the plurality of content, and displaying 3D content list GUI including a left-eye GUI and a right-eye GUI to which a set depth value for each of the content is applied. Accordingly, the 3D display apparatus can display the content list using the stereo 3D GUI.
US09407900B2

An image encoding method for an encoding system includes receiving a first image captured by a main camera and a second image captured by a sub camera provided in the same plane; comparing pixel values of pixels at first coordinates of each of the first and second images to obtain a first difference value; determining the first coordinates are in surface or back region in case of the first difference value is not more than or more than a first threshold value; pixel-shifting the second image by a first shift amount; and comparing the pixel value at the first coordinates of the first image with that of the second image after the pixel shift to obtain a second difference value, determining whether the first coordinates are in the surface or back region based on the second difference value, and recording into a second frame different from the first frame.
US09407896B2

Multi view images are generated with reduced flickering. A first depth map is generated from stereo images by stereo-matching. When stereo-matching is poor or varies too much from frame to frame, disparity fallback selects a second depth map that is generated from a single view without stereo-matching, preventing stereo-matching errors from producing visible artifacts or flickering. Flat or textureless regions can use the second depth map, while regions with good stereo-matching use the first depth map. Depth maps are generated with a one-frame delay and buffered. Low-cost temporal coherence reduces costs used for stereo-matching when the pixel location selected as the lowest-cost disparity is within a distance threshold of the same pixel in a last frame. Hybrid view synthesis uses forward mapping for smaller numbers of views, and backward mapping from the forward-mapping results for larger numbers of views. Rotated masks are generated on-the-fly for backward mapping.
US09407894B2

Portable information recording/play-back arrangements, wherein a controller judges whether a mode, controlling a first recording/play-back module and second recording/play-back module, is an imaging mode or a dubbing mode, and wherein when the controller judges that the mode is the imaging mode, the controller controls so that the imaging module and the first or second recording/play-back module operate on battery or a power supply from an external power source; and when the controller judges that the mode is the dubbing mode and the first and second recording/play-back module operate on the power supply from the external power source, the controller controls so that the dubbing operation is permitted.
US09407893B1

A method and system for recording a media file, include a recorder and a player. The recorder receives in real time a first content of the media file; stores the first content in a recorded media file; and determines that the recorded media file includes a hole. The player plays in real time the recorded media file including the hole. The recorder then receives a second file data packet which includes a second content of the media file to fill the hole, and stores the second content in the recorded media file. The recorded media file can be replayed with the filled hole. During the replay, more content of the media file is played than during the first play.
US09407892B2

In one example embodiment, a program navigation system involves a television (TV) set (or other audio/visual presentation device) and a mobile device. While the TV set is playing an audio/visual program, a keyword recognition module may extract keywords from textual data associated with the program. The textual data may include textual words that match words spoken in the program. Time markers for the keywords may also be saved. A time marker may indicate a play time within the program for the corresponding keyword. The TV set may automatically transmit the keywords to the mobile device, and the mobile device may automatically display the keywords in a user interface. A user may then select one of the keywords. In response, the mobile device may automatically cause the TV set to jump to a portion of the program containing the selected keyword. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09407874B2

Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for investigating an insurance claim. A system may be configured to perform operations including establishing a video conferencing session with a mobile device associated with an insurance product and providing a user interface configured to provide a claims adjuster with remote control of a set of functions on the mobile device associated with the insurance product during the video conferencing session. The operations further include receiving, via the user interface, instructions for requesting the mobile device to perform at least one function in the set of functions on the mobile device and transmitting, to the mobile device, a request to perform the at least one function on the mobile device.
US09407867B2

A videoconference may be initiated between a plurality of endpoints. At least one of the endpoints may be coupled to a recording server, which may be configured to record the videoconference. A configuration may be selected (e.g., automatically or manually) for performing the recording. The endpoint (e.g., acting as an MCU) may transmit information to endpoints and may transmit recording information to the recording server. The recording information may be different from the videoconference information. For example, it may be in a “streaming friendly” format, at a different bit rate, encoded differently, have different inputs, etc. The manner in which the videoconference is stored and/or recorded may be based on the selected configuration. Clients may be configured to receive and display the videoconference from the recording server and may be configured to change the provided layout to different layouts, e.g., based on user input.
US09407839B2

A solid-state imaging device including an AD converter and a pixel array is provided. The AD converter performs a ramp comparison and a successive-approximation. The AD converter determines a digital value by performing one of the ramp comparison and the successive-approximation as a former comparison operation and then performing the other as a latter comparison operation in the range narrowed down by the former comparison operation. The pixel array supplies, to the AD converter, a reference signal corresponding to a reset level of the pixel, and an image signal having image information. The AD converter performs the latter comparison operation without performing the former comparison operation, when the reference signal is supplied.
US09407834B2

A method and an apparatus for processing an image in a portable terminal equipped with a dual camera are provided. The method includes selecting an image synthesis mode, performing a simultaneous or a sequential photographing of a front camera and a rear camera, obtaining a first image and a second image through the front camera and the rear camera, detecting an object image from one of the first image and the second image, and generating a synthesized image by synthesizing the object image to the other of the first image and the second image in which the object image was not detected.
US09407830B2

A method for controlling illumination of an object being photographed includes generating and sending an invitation signal to a number of secondary electronic devices to join a group for photographing the object, generating and sending a photosensing signal to each of the secondary electronic devices in the group to detect an illumination value of the object, focusing an image of the object and detecting an illumination value of the object, detecting a distance value between the object and the primary electronic device, detecting a distance value between the object and each of the secondary electronic devices, and calculating a required flash driving current and a required flash duration of the primary electronic device and each of the secondary electronic devices and a required exposure time for photographing the object. The object is photographed by the first electronic device.
US09407820B2

According to one aspect, embodiments herein provide a sensing device comprising an accelerometer configured to monitor acceleration of the sensing device and provide acceleration information including a value of the acceleration of the sensing device, and an Integrated Circuit (IC) coupled to the accelerometer, the IC configured to receive the acceleration information from the accelerometer and render the sensing device permanently inoperable in response to the value of the acceleration of the sensing device exceeding a threshold indicative of a military application of the sensing device.
US09407816B1

A server includes a photo filter module with instructions executed by a processor to identify when a client device captures a photograph. Photograph filters are selected based upon attributes of the client device and attributes of the photograph. The photograph filters are supplied to the client device.
US09407815B2

Aspects provide for location and time aware photographic scene matching and recommendations by identifying a location of a target scene displayed within a field of view of an electronic display screen of a camera device. A repository is searched for picture(s) related to the identified location and indicated in a social network as attractive. Recommendation information is generated from picture(s) retrieved from the repository search as related to the identified location and indicated in the social network as attractive. Thus, the camera device electronic display screen is driven to present the recommendation information within the field of view of the target scene.
US09407814B2

An approach is provided for performing back-end operations for camera control. In one example, a method includes the following: receiving a user edit via a user interface device that displays an interpretation of a scene at which a camera lens of the camera is pointing, wherein the user edit is based on user input that is associated with a selection region on the user interface device; generating an edits mask based on one or more matching image patches, which are based on the user edit and a high dynamic range (HDR) image generated by the camera; performing one or more tone mapping operations based on the edits mask and the HDR image in order to generate a tone mapped HDR image; and performing one or more metering operations based on the edits mask and the tone mapped HDR image in order to generate metering parameters for frame capturing operations.
US09407808B2

An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit configured to capture an object image, a rotation unit configured to rotate the imaging unit in a predetermined direction, and a first transmission unit configured to transmit, to an external apparatus, acceleration information indicating whether an acceleration at which the rotation unit rotates the imaging unit is able to be designated.
US09407804B2

An image processing apparatus includes: a specific sound detecting section detecting a specific sound generated during motion in a specific motion of a target object included in an image group including a plurality of images which continues in a time-series manner; a valid sound range setting section setting, as a valid sound range, a range in the time axis for determination of whether the specific sound is valid on the basis of a user manipulation; and a selecting section selecting a predetermined number of motion transition images representing transitions of the specific motion from a selection range of the image group in the time axis, with reference to a detection position of the specific sound in the time axis, in a case where the specific sound is detected in the set valid sound range.
US09407798B2

An electronic device may have electrical components such as input-output devices. An electrical component may be mounted on a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may have a bend that forms a flexible printed circuit spring to bias the electrical component in a desired direction. The electronic device may have a display with a display cover layer. In an inactive display area, opaque masking material may be formed on the display cover layer. A light window may be formed in the opaque masking layer. The flexible printed circuit spring may bias the electrical component against the display cover layer in alignment with the light window. An air gap under the electrical component may separate the component from a planar portion of the flexible printed circuit that is overlapped by the electrical component. The electrical component may be a camera, a light sensor, or other device.
US09407794B2

An image processing apparatus includes a parameter estimation unit that estimates a first parameter for aligning first output image data with original image data and a second parameter for aligning second output image data with the original image data, a pixel value mapping unit that generates first pixel value mapping data associating color components of a pixel of the first output image data with color components of a corresponding pixel of the original image data and second pixel value mapping data associating color components of a pixel of the second output image data with color components of a corresponding pixel of the original image data, a map estimation unit that obtains a first map and a second map based on the first and second pixel value mapping data, and a conversion unit that converts a pixel value of the original image data based on the first and second maps.
US09407793B2

For enabling unified color processing to be performed even in the case of performing different color processing on a specific color, an image processing apparatus having a color conversion unit configured to perform color conversion using a LUT for defining conversion from an input color to an output color, comprises: an input unit configured to input an image that is to be a target of color conversion; an accepting unit configured to accept designation of a specific color; and a generation unit configured to register an output value corresponding to the specific color at an unused grid point in the LUT, and generate a specific color-associated LUT, wherein, if the specific color is used in an image input by the input unit, the color conversion unit performs color conversion using the generated specific color-associated LUT.
US09407788B2

Disclosed are a threshold value data setting device, method, and program and an image forming system capable of, even if the number of types of printing devices and printing materials is enormous, simply and easily determining threshold value data suitable for any combination thereof. A change in dot shape occurring in an image forming process from the creation of a binary image signal 46 to the formation of an image is acquired as response characteristics data 112 in a spatial frequency domain. The response characteristics data 112 is applied to create a simulated image signal in which the change in dot shape is reproduced in a simulated manner. Threshold value data 44 to be set is determined from among threshold value candidates by a comparison and/or evaluation based on quantitative values calculated by executing predetermined evaluation processing for the simulated image signal.
US09407786B2

A cooperative system comprises an image processing apparatus and a portable terminal; the image processing apparatus comprises: a display; an obtaining portion obtaining screen data from the portable terminal; a display controller displaying a first and second screen on the display; and a transmitter transmitting screen data and operation information to the portable terminal; the portable terminal comprises: a display; an obtaining portion obtaining screen data from the image processing apparatus; a display controller displaying the first and second screen on the display; a transmitter transmitting screen data and operation information to the image processing apparatus; a memory storing a cooperation table; an identification portion that, when user operates the first screen on the display of the portable terminal or image processor, identifies a potential next operation as corresponding to the user's operation; and a notification transmitter transmitting a notification of the potential next operation to the image processing apparatus.
US09407784B2

An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a storage unit configured to store in advance configuration data, for each plurality of the functional blocks, for configuring the functional blocks in the reconfigurable circuit. Upon accepting a user operation indicating a job to be executed via an operation unit, the image processing apparatus reconfigures the reconfigurable circuit by reading required configuration data from the storage unit before a start instruction to start the job is accepted.
US09407770B2

A method and system for managing calls in an IMS network, comprising a server and a device client communicated through an IP interface used for notifying, from the device client to the server, a decision selected by a user for managing an incoming call in a destination device where the device client runs. The server is where the network logic resides, interfacing with the IMS network via an ISC interface and with the device client via a Web Service or HTTP interface. The device client is where the user's decision logic resides as it comprises a user interface that provides the user with a set of available decisions for managing the incoming calls. The server, once notified on the decision selected by the user, releases the destination device from the call and takes an action based on said decision.
US09407767B2

Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media are provided to track call information pertinent to calls responsive to advertisements. A message may be received via a data network from a communication device running an application. The application may be associated with a communication reference. Responsive to selection of a user-selectable option that may correspond to an advertisement presented via the communication device, the message may be sent, via the data network, to a call information handling system. The message may indicate call information. Unique identification of the communication device and/or a user may be determined. The call information may be stored in a tracking information repository in association with the unique identification.
US09407766B1

One embodiment provides a device comprising at least one processor, and a storage device storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor causes the at least one processor to perform operations. The operations include receiving one or more user preferences for a first user, and, in response to the first user of the device initiating a communication, determining a current context of the first user. The current context identifies at least one of the following: a current location of the first user, whether the first user is stationary or driving, and a type of communication channel utilized for the communication. The operations further include selecting a communication format to facilitate the communication based on the current context, a recipient of the communication, and the one or more user preferences for the first user.
US09407765B2

The preferred embodiments of the present invention include providing automated passcode recovery in an interactive voice response system by providing to a caller an automated passcode recovery question and processing a caller answer to the automated passcode recovery question to authenticate the caller.
US09407764B2

Systems and methods that analyze and monitor the performance of a call center including performance of the interactive voice response systems, call center agents, and other components. The systems and methods record characteristics of the call such as the audio data, and analyze that record to identify the events that take place during the call. These events may be defined as customer/call center interactions, such as dropped calls, logic errors or other event. A call center administrator may also identify a set of metrics, such as the number of dropped calls that occur during a day, that may be monitored by the systems described herein. The data collected about these events and metrics may be stored in a database and provided to the administrator through a user interface that allows the administrator to browse through the collected metric and recorded call data and directly review relevant portions of a call.
US09407763B2

Systems and methods for providing context to a forwarded call include a private branch exchange (PBX) that has an interface for receiving a call from a calling device. The call includes a caller ID of the calling device. The PBX stores a company ID for identifying the company and includes a signal handler for forwarding the received call as a forwarded call to a receiving device, and a caller ID enhancer for adding context to the forwarded call. The context includes the company ID and a selection made by a user of the calling device. The receiving device displays the context prior to answering the forwarded call.
US09407761B2

A method and apparatus for managing communications in a communication network. A telephony device determines that a software application is attempting to contact an E.164 number. It then determines that the E.164 number matches at least one predetermined criterion, such as the E.164 number being a premium rate number or having a different country code to that of the device. The device then sends a query to a reputation server. The query includes information identifying the software application. The device receives a response from the reputation server, the response including a reputation relating to the software application. On the basis of the received reputation relating to the software application, the device can take further action such as preventing contact from being established.
US09407753B2

Embodiments provide integrated reply functionality within the context of a contact card or panel. Contact information is provided for display in the contact card (e.g., a portion of a user interface of a computing device). The contact information is associated with a contact. The contact information identifies one or more transport modes for communication with the contact. In some embodiments, the computing device receives a request from a user to communicate with the contact via at least one selected transport mode. Based on the received request, the computing device provides an input field within the contact card. In other embodiments, the transport mode is automatically selected and the input field is displayed. Data from the user is received into the input field for communication to the contact. The computing device sends the data received into the input field to the contact via the selected transport mode. The integrated reply functionality is accessible from a conversation history displayed in the contact card.
US09407749B2

An object is to provide a technique capable of displaying appropriate information on a passenger display unit used for a passenger other than a driver. An in-vehicle information terminal includes an in-vehicle device I/F and a controller. The in-vehicle device I/F is capable of communicating with an in-vehicle device having RSE monitors, and is capable of obtaining terminal position information indicating positions of communication terminals in a vehicle. The controller associates the RSE monitors and the communication terminals with each other, based on pre-registered display unit position information indicating the positions of the RSE monitors in the vehicle, and the terminal position information obtained by the in-vehicle device I/F.
US09407739B2

Disclosed is a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal comprises an antenna body and a metal ring. The metal ring is provided on the mobile terminal without contacting the antenna body, and the vertical projection of the metal ring on a plane where the antenna body is located intersects the antenna body. By means of the disclosure, signal receiving performance of the mobile terminal is improved, and the loss caused by head and hand is reduced to a certain extent.
US09407732B2

Embodiments may comprise logic such as hardware and/or code to reduce power consumption by, e.g., a device such as a station or relay by implementing prediction logic to decode and determine whether a communication affects the operation of the device. Some embodiments may comprise logic to receive at least a portion of a header of a frame from a physical layer and begin to decode the portion of the header of the frame without first checking the correctness of the value in the frame check sequence field. In many embodiments, prediction logic may determine whether the frame could have an impact on the operation of the device. For circumstances in which the prediction logic determines that the frame will not have an impact, the MAC logic may terminate processing, receipt, and decoding of the frame and enter the device into a low power consumption state.
US09407731B2

An extremely high frequency (EHF) protocol converter may include a transducer, an EHF communication circuit, a protocol conversion circuit, and a circuit port. The transducer may be configured to convert between an electromagnetic EHF data signal and an electrical EHF signal. The EHF communication circuit may be configured to convert between a baseband data signal and the electrical EHF signal. The protocol conversion circuit may be adapted to convert between the baseband data signal having data formatted according to a first data protocol associated with a first external device and a second baseband data signal having data formatted according to a second data protocol associated with a second external device. The second data protocol may be different from the first data protocol. The circuit port may conduct the second baseband data signal to the second external device.
US09407728B2

In one aspect, a content item presentation server sends, to a first client of the server, browser-executable instructions implementing a presentation application. The instructions are configured to present, at the first client, at least a portion of a content item in the presentation application with at least one user control of the presentation application for navigating the content item in a particular manner disabled. After sending the instructions, the server receives, from a second client of the server, a first command to navigate the content item in the particular manner. In response to receiving the first command, the server sends, to the first client, a second command to navigate the content item in the particular manner thereby causing the presentation application to automatically navigate, at the first client, the content item in the particular manner.
US09407726B1

A first server may receive, from a client device, an indication of a request for a content file via a network address; identify that the network address is a dynamic network address; establish a communication session with a second; receive a portion of the content file from the second server; determine an index parameter based on receiving the portion of the content file; determine whether the content file is being stored by the first server based on a cache index and based on the index parameter or based on information associated with the request for the content file; receive a remaining portion of the content file based on determining that the content file is not being stored by the first server; and provide the content file to the client device.
US09407721B2

A system and method of server selection using competitive evaluation includes receiving a service request at an arbiter running on a computing device, determining whether the service request is associated with a preferred server, and forwarding the service request to the preferred server when the service request is associated with the preferred server. When the service request is not associated with the preferred server, the method further includes using the arbiter to coordinate a competitive evaluation among a plurality of active servers, selecting as the preferred server a first one of the active servers that completes processing of the service request first, and associating the preferred server with the service request. The method further includes receiving a response to the service request from the preferred server and returning the response to a client. The service request is received from the client.
US09407716B1

A first device may receive a content request from a second device. The content request may include a dynamic network address and a request for a content file. The first device may determine that the dynamic network address is not included in a first index; determine one or more response values associated with the content file; determine that the one or more response values are included in a second index when the one or more response values match one or more response values included in the second index; generate an association between the dynamic network address and the second index to map the dynamic network address to the second index and to the content file based on determining that the one or more response values are included in the second index; and provide the content file to the second device.
US09407715B2

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method and technique for facilitating the exchange of information between interconnected computing entities is disclosed. The method includes: receiving from a client, by a workload manager, a workload unit of data in need of processing by the client; initiating by the workload manager a persistent storage of the workload unit of data received from the client; without waiting for the initiated storage of the workload unit of data to complete, sending by the workload manager the workload unit of data to a plurality of compute nodes; and responsive to receiving a result of a processing of the workload unit of data by one of the plurality compute nodes, canceling processing by the workload manager of the workload unit of data by a remainder of the plurality of compute nodes.
US09407713B2

Systems and methods for mobile application traffic optimization are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a distributed proxy and cache system, including, a local proxy on a mobile device for intercepting a data request made via a mobile device, and a proxy server coupled to the mobile device and a content server to which the data request is directed. In one embodiment, the local proxy can forward the data request to the proxy server for transmission to the content server for a response to the data request. In addition, the proxy server sends the data request to the content server independent of activities on the local proxy and notifies the local proxy when changed or different content on the content server is detected for the data request.
US09407703B2

An exemplary object of the present invention is to suppress the load on each server and network traffic. To achieve this, a plurality of connection management servers are installed so that any of the connection management servers executes acceptance of a connection request from a thin client terminal. Further, the connection management servers manage the states of clients in order to hold the states of the respective clients, and each of the connection management servers searches a client that can be connected by the thin client terminal according to a connection request from this thin client terminal, and replies with the search result to the thin client terminal, and a range of the connection management servers for executing the search of the client is limited for each connection request from the thin client terminal to the thin client server.
US09407700B2

A system, method and computer program product for intelligent discovery of network information from multiple information gathering agents adapted to discover information concerning the network. The discovery agents each have an associated discovery capability. Based on consideration of the agent discovery capabilities, discovery assignments are computed and network discovery is performed according to the assignments so as to reduce discovery poll overhead.
US09407697B2

Methods, non-transitory computer-readable media, and apparatuses that automate identification and download of one or more web assets residing in a cloud based infrastructure are disclosed. The method may include a training phase and an actual run time phase. In the training phase, the apparatus is trained to identify and download the one or more web assets by generating URLs on its own. The one or more web assets may be an image, document, file containing source code. In the actual run time phase, when the one or more web assets has migrated from one machine to another machine in the cloud, the one or more web assets are again referenced. The apparatus is intelligent enough to detect this re referencing and retrieving the one or web assets.
US09407693B2

Using location-independent names to identify content, a service for mapping endpoint requests to requested content. Content requested by an endpoint of the network is mapped to a dynamic “swarm” of server, peer, or other endpoints capable of supporting the content download. Content names are mapped to a dynamically generated content swarm, presenting a current set of hosts, which can provide the requested content. Optionally, varying degrees of explicit visibility into routing paths and the performance tradeoffs between those routing paths is supported. Based on a set of class of service parameters for a given request for content, a host can initiate route selection based on class of service parameters, predicated on routing metrics maintained by the network by cooperating endpoints and/or network routers.
US09407691B2

Methods and systems directed to a call-termination triggered social interface that leverages information associated with an incoming phone number for display to a user of a mobile device post-call and permits the user to conveniently issue commands to the mobile device or social networking system to take specific actions for the number or entity associated with the number on the social network.
US09407690B2

A membership social network system includes a processor configured to select a picture type among a plurality of picture types, and to, according to parameters, change a tone of original image data, which is uploaded from a member terminal to a server, to a tone of a selected picture type, a browse controller configured to make a tone-changed image data, which is created by the processor, browsable on the member terminal, and a grouping module configured to group a member who uploads the original image data and a member who creates the tone-changed image data.
US09407681B1

Systems and method for the management and processing of resource requests by a service provider, such as a content delivery network (“CDN”) service provider, on behalf of a content provider are provided. The CDN service provider can measure the performance associated with the delivery of resources to a requesting client computing devices from various computing devices associated with the CDN service provider. In one embodiment, a client computing device can execute code, such as scripts, that cause the client computing device to transmit requests to different computing devices associated with the CDN service provider's domain. Information associated with the processing of the responses can be used to measure CDN service provider latencies.
US09407675B1

A room conferencing system includes a hub with a plurality of sensor nodes, each sensor node including a sensor node camera and a sensor node processor. A master controller is operable to establish a plurality of named queues, each of the named queues associated with a proximate physical object in an area comprising the hub and detectable by the sensor node camera. Each sensor node operable to cause the sensor node processor to identify a viewed physical object in a feed from the sensor node camera, and associate the viewed physical object with one of the named queues.
US09407670B2

A system for synchronized broadcast of media content across large networks, comprising a media source stored and operating on a network-connected electronic device that broadcast media content, a first media receiver stored and operating on a network-connected electronic device that receives the media content and re-broadcasts it, and a plurality of further media receivers stored and operating on network-connected electronic devices that receive the media content from the first media receiver, and a method for synchronized broadcast of media content across large networks.
US09407664B1

A computer-implemented method for enforcing enterprise data access control policies in cloud computing environments may include (1) intercepting, at a proxy, an attempt to configure a computing instance on a cloud computing platform with a permission that would provide the computing instance with access to secured data on the cloud computing platform, (2) identifying a user within an enterprise that initiated the attempt to configure the computing instance with the permission, (3) determining, based on a data access control policy for the enterprise, that the user is not entitled to access the secured data, and (4) blocking the attempt to configure the computing instance with the permission based on determining that the user is not entitled to access the secured data. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09407654B2

Embodiments described herein are directed to preventing development of insecure web pages, preventing deployment of insecure web pages and to preventing access to insecure web pages. In one embodiment, a computer system accesses a web page that includes one or more web elements. The computer system then determines that the web page includes at least one element that requests user authentication and determines whether various specified secure protocols have been implemented on the web page. Then, if the specified secure protocols have not been implemented on the web page, the computer system displays a warning or error indicating that the web page is insecure.
US09407649B2

A log analysis device that classifies, based on a log collected from a network device, a plurality of attack target communication devices receiving attacks from an attack source communication device includes a correlation coefficient calculation unit that calculates, based on the log, a correlation coefficient relating to the number of the attacks in a time period during which the attacks were carried out for a combination of the plurality of attack target communication devices, the time period including a detection time at which and the detection period of time during which the network device detected the attack, and an extraction unit that extracts, as a high-correlation communication device group, a combination of the plurality of attack target communication devices, for which the correlation coefficient is equal to or greater than a prescribed threshold and of which the attack source communication device is identical in the time period.
US09407641B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a service access control system having a service object for providing services, a messaging service facility and one or more spoke entities for accessing services provided by the service object, wherein the messaging service facility comprises one or more cells each having an input address and an output address, wherein at least one of the input address and the output address is linked to the other via a cryptographic key, the cell providing a message communication link between the spoke entity and a set of functions on the service object associated with the cell.
US09407639B2

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method, a system, and a computer program product for validating a location resource, e.g., a hyperlink, embedded in a message for one or more recipients. The method includes receiving, by a computing node in a distributed computing environment and from a messaging application on a remote client computer, an identifier of a user profile and a location resource. The location resource is embedded in a message and that indicates a path to a computing resource outside of the remote client computer. The method also includes querying a repository in the distributed computing environment to obtain access permission information about the location resource. The method also includes determining, based upon the access permission information about the location resource, whether the user profile has access permission for the location resource.
US09407638B2

Systems and methods for trusted mobile communications are described. A network system provisions a mobile client system with a collection of security parameters on a per application basis and a per device basis. The airplane system provides access to the mobile client system based on the established chain of trust without previously having information about the mobile client system even when the mobile client system and the airplane system are offline with respect to the network system.
US09407633B2

A system includes a memory and processor. The memory stores a user account identifier associated with a user account. The processor receives at least one user credential and authenticates the user account based at least in part on the at least one user credential. The processor further receives a first request, from a device associated with the user account, to generate a one-time password and generates the one-time password in response to receiving the first request. The processor associates the one-time password to the user account and communicates the one-time password to the device associated with the user account. The processor further receives a second request, from a transaction device, the second request comprising an attempted one-time password, determines whether the attempted one-time password is valid, and communicates, to the transaction device, an indication that the attempted one-time password is valid in response to determining that the attempted one-time password is valid.
US09407616B2

There is disclosed a system for authentication of a device in a network by establishing a second security context between the device and a serving network node when a first security context has previously been established, assisted by an authentication server, based on a random value and a secret shared between an identity module associated with the device and the authentication server. First re-use information from the establishment of the first security context is stored at the authentication server and at the device, the first re-use information enabling secure generation of the second security context from the random value and the secret. Second re-use information may be generated or stored at the device. A context regeneration request is generated at the device, the context regeneration request authenticated at least partly based on the secret. The context regeneration request is sent to the serving network node. The context regeneration request is sent from the serving network node to the authentication server. The context regeneration request is verified at the authentication server. The second security context is generated at the authentication server based on at least the secret, the random value, and the first and second re-use information. The second security context is communicated from the authentication server to the serving network node.
US09407606B2

Context-based application firewall functionality. A user session is initiated with a client device. The user session allows access a remote resource on a server device coupled with the client device over a network. The connection between the client device and the remote resource is through an application firewall. An application firewall context setup is performed with the application firewall in response to the user session. The application firewall context comprises firewall context information to be used during the user session to perform network and application security operations with the application firewall. A response is created to provide information from the remote resource to the client device. The response includes metadata to be used to update the firewall context information. The firewall context information is updated with the application firewall based on the metadata. The response is transmitted to the client device.
US09407592B2

A method and system for populating identities in a message service involves registering a user of a first messaging service with a second messaging service. User identities for users other than the registered user may be identified. These user identities may be associated with the first messaging service and may be stored in a list associated with the registered user. It is determined if each identified user identity has a matching user identity associated with the second messaging service. If so, a database associated with the second messaging service is populated with the matching user identities. Determining whether a matching user identity exists may be performed, for example, by making character strings comparisons between user identities or using a database that stores a mapping of first messaging service user identities to second messaging service user identities. The mapping database may be generated as corresponding user identities are discovered.
US09407591B2

A computing system is described that receives notification data associated with a user, and responsive to determining that the user is interacting with a first computing device at a first particular time, outputs, for transmission to the first computing device, the notification data. The computing system determines that the user is interacting with a second computing device at a second particular time, and responsive to determining, based on the second particular time being less than a threshold amount of time after the first particular time, that the user did not view the notification data at the first computing device, outputs, for transmission to the second computing device, the notification data.
US09407589B2

A method for following a topic in an electronic textual conversation, the method includes selecting, by a computing device, one or more primary terms related to a topic, sending, by the computing device, to at least one communication service, a first query containing the at least one primary term, receiving, by the computing device, from the at least one communication service, at least one first set of messages responsive to the first query, for each first set, extracting, by the computing device, from the first set of messages, a first plurality of additional terms, and for each term of the first plurality of additional terms, enumerating, by the computing device, the messages of the first set in which the term appears and adding the term to a list of secondary terms if the enumeration exceeds a threshold amount.
US09407579B1

A software defined networking (SDN) computer network includes an SDN controller and an SDN switch. The SDN controller inserts flow rules in a flow table of the SDN switch to create an SDN pipe between a sender component and a security component. A broadcast function of the SDN switch to the ports that form the SDN pipe may be disabled. The SDN pipe allows outgoing packets sent by the sender component to be received by the security component. The security component inspects the outgoing packets for compliance with security policies and allows the outgoing packets to be forwarded to their destination when the outgoing packets pass inspection. The SDN controller may also insert a flow rule in the flow table of the SDN switch to bypass inspection of specified packets.
US09407578B2

Aspects relate to arbitrating access to an interconnect among multiple ports. For example, input ports receive requests for access to identified destination ports and buffer these in one or more FIFOs. A picker associated with respective FIFO(s) begins an empty arbitration packet that includes a location for each output port and fills one or more locations in the packet, such as based on a prioritization scheme. Each packet is passed in a ring to another picker, which performs a fill that does not conflict with previously filled locations in that packet. Each picker has an opportunity to place requests in each of the packets. Results of the arbitration are dispatched to reorder buffers associated with respective output ports and used to schedule the interconnect. Each arbitration cycle thus produces a set of control information for an interconnect to be used in subsequent data transfer steps.
US09407570B2

Various embodiments provide methods, apparatus, and systems for allocating content delivery network (CDN) volume. In an exemplary method, a business visit request can be received. Based on at least one of a time allocation strategy, a request number allocation strategy, and a regional allocation strategy, the business visit request can be dispatched to CDN servers for handling the business visit request.
US09407563B2

Various apparatuses and methods for transmitting uplink data of an application at a user equipment are provided. In one aspect of the disclosure, uplink data of an application at a user equipment (UE) is transmitted to a network. A first amount of the uplink data expected to be buffered at a radio link control (RLC) layer is determined based on a latency of the application. A second amount of the uplink data available for transmission at the RLC layer is determined based on information provided by a modem of the UE. A data rate of the application is dynamically adjusted based on a difference between the first amount and second amount of the uplink data. In another aspect of the disclosure, an amount of the application data buffered at the RLC layer is maintained to be greater than a predetermined threshold that sets a Happy bit at an unhappy setting. The unhappy setting is communicated to the network, a data rate of the application is increased in response to an increased grant from the network due to the unhappy setting. In another aspect of the disclosure, a maximum modem supported data rate at which the user equipment (UE) transmits uplink data of an application is determined based on an uplink channel capacity estimate, a modem queue length estimate, a codec rate change frequency of the application, and a delay threshold of the modem queue.
US09407561B2

Traffic engineering vector operations that are capable of being independently solved can provide near-linear scalability through the exploitation of massively parallel processing. Optimization can be performed simultaneously on different paths in a data plane, as well as on different links within the same path (or within the same set of paths). In some embodiments, the traffic engineering vector operations include an adjustable alpha-fairness variable that allows managers to achieve different levels of fairness/throughput. Hence, embodiment alpha fairness techniques provide flexible policy execution, while maintaining excellent scalability for large network implementations.
US09407560B2

A method of monitoring transmission of data in a network is provided. The method includes: receiving data packets for one or more data flows by at least one of a plurality of network switches; sampling queue data in each of the plurality of network switches, the sampled queue data taken from at least one queue attached to a switch port to which the one or more data packets have been forwarded; and transmitting the sampled queue data to a logically centralized network controller connected to the plurality of switches, the network controller configured to control the plurality of network switches, the network controller configured to determine whether a congestion, unfairness or Service Level Agreement (SLA) infringement condition exists in one or more switches based on the sampled queue data and send a control message to one or more data flow sources based on the congestion, unfairness or SLA infringement condition.
US09407554B2

The present solution is related to a method for distributing flows of network traffic across a plurality of packet processing engines executing on a corresponding core of a multi-core device. The method includes receiving, by a multi-core device intermediary to clients and servers, a packet of a first flow of network traffic between a client and server. The method also includes assigning, by a flow distributor of the multi-core device, the first flow of network traffic to a first core executing a packet processing engine and distributing the packet to this core. The flow distributor may distribute packets of another or second flow of traffic between another client and server to a second core executing a second packet processing engine. When a packet for the flow of traffic assigned to the first core is received, such as a third packet, the flow distributor distributes this packet to the first core.
US09407552B2

A communication device includes: a packet receiving unit that receives, via a wireless ad hoc network, a packet transmitted from a node device; a congestion detection unit that detects, based on the packet received by the packet receiving unit, that congestion occurs in a communication path along which the packet reaches the packet receiving unit; a congestion control message generating unit that generates, when the congestion detection unit detects that the congestion occurs in the communication path, a congestion control message that instructs to take an action to avoid the congestion in the communication path; and a message transmitting unit that transmits the congestion control message generated by the congestion control message generating unit to the node device.
US09407547B2

In one embodiment, a method includes instantiating a virtual Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Forwarder (FCF) at a primary FCF, the virtual FCF associated with a virtual domain identifier and a virtual FCF-MAC (Media Access Control) address, wherein the primary FCF and a secondary FCF form a virtual Port Channel (vPC) for communication with a host, and allocating node port identifiers to virtual node ports on vPC ports at the host from the virtual domain identifier. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.
US09407543B2

Using structured communications in an observation platform with cloud computing. A signal is received from a first communication device at a second communication device associated with a first computer system. The signal is forwarded from the first computer system to a second computer system, wherein the second computer system is physically remote from the first computer system and connected via a network. Context information is derived for the signal and at least one destination for the signal based on the context information at the second computer system. The context information and the at least one destination for the signal are received at the first computer system.
US09407538B2

A ring network failure switching method, includes: receiving first data traffic, where the first data traffic includes a destination MAC address; querying a forwarding entry stored in a local node according to the destination MAC address, to obtain a ring network identifier corresponding to the destination MAC address, where the ring network identifier is uniquely corresponding to the first node connected to the destination MAC address; and obtain path state information of a link corresponding to the ring network identifier; and transmitting the first data traffic to the first node in a direction that is opposite to that of the link when the path state information indicates that the link is in a failure state.
US09407534B2

A method and implementing system calculates a loop free alternative (LFA) next hop as a backup for a primary path next hop for an interior gateway protocol (IGP). The method enables consideration of the LFA next hop where a link to the next hop has a reverse cost that has a maximum value. The method includes selecting a next candidate next hop from a set of candidate next hops in the network, checking whether a link to the next candidate next hop is an administratively allowable link, and checking whether the link has a maximum forward cost. The method further checks whether the link is bi-directional and computes the LFA using the next candidate next hop where the link is administratively allowable link, where the link does not have a maximum forward cost and where the link is bi-directional without consideration of reverse cost of the link.
US09407532B2

The present invention relates to a method for generating a tunnel forwarding entry and a network device. An active master node in a virtual cluster network element VNE generates, according to a preconfigured tunnel service, tunnel service information with the VNE being a single network element; the active master node determines multiple nodes through which a tunnel that corresponds to the tunnel service information passes in the VNE, and node statuses of the multiple nodes through which the tunnel passes in the VNE; and local tunnel forwarding entries are generated, according to the tunnel service information and the node statuses of the multiple nodes through which the tunnel passes in the VNE, for the multiple nodes through which the tunnel passes in the VNE.
US09407529B2

A relay server includes a VPN group information storage unit, an address filter information storage unit, and a communication control unit. The VPN group information storage unit stores routing session information indicating identification information of routing apparatuses that define a VPN group and the routing apparatuses that are connected to one another. The address filter information storage unit stores address filter information, which indicates a partner that the routing apparatus is able to designate as a packet destination, in association with identification information of the routing apparatus. The communication control unit is programmed to perform a control to, when a VPN is started in the VPN group, update a content stored in the address filter information storage unit based on the address filter information received from the routing apparatus, and establish a routing session based on the routing session information.
US09407526B1

In general, techniques are described to dynamically refresh a timer for a communication session provided by a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) protocol. The techniques potentially mitigate network load by reducing the number of BFD packets required to maintain a BFD communication session. An example network device includes a memory, programmable processor(s), a network interface, and a control unit configured to establish a BFD communication session between the network device and a peer network device that is communicatively coupled to the network device via the network interface, determine whether a packet associated with a communication session other than the BFD communication session is a relevant packet to the BFD communication session, and in response to determining that the packet is the relevant packet, refresh a timer that executes on the network device and is associated with the BFD communication session.
US09407525B1

Systems, methods, and computer storage media for measuring traffic utilization are provided. The method includes timing predetermined time intervals that are relatively small to provide for real-time monitoring of a system. A count of the bytes received is identified in order to monitor a number of bytes received within the predetermined time interval. When the number of bytes received exceeds a predetermined threshold, a larger time interval is captured such that the system can identify how many times the number of bytes received exceeded the predetermined threshold within the larger time interval. When the number of bytes received exceeds the predetermined threshold a number of times greater than a violation threshold, an alarm is generated. This allows a system to monitor high frequency violations. Also, the counts for each time interval are continuously zeroed out after the time interval expires, thus, eliminating a need for calculations.
US09407519B2

Embodiments perform end-to-end virtual network flow monitoring in a virtual datacenter and provide differentiated views to users based on user role. A target flow pattern describing data packets of interest is distributed to a plurality of applications managing VMs in the virtual datacenter, such as hosts, virtual gateways, and other virtual network applications. Each of the applications monitors data packets routed by the application by comparing the data packets to the flow pattern and selectively collecting context data describing the data packets. The context data collected by the applications is aggregated at a remote server for analysis and reporting.
US09407512B2

The present invention sets forth a method and apparatus for controlling terminal's access to a wireless network. When PCC rules in PCRF or account expense information in OCS have been updated, the PCRF or OCS will notify a MDM server; the server determines access status of application(s) based on information in the notification and notifies the terminal; the terminal will update locally stored access status of the application based on access status of the application contained in the received notification message; when an application on the terminal initiates a request to access the wireless network, the terminal determines whether it is rejected or allowed to access the wireless network based on the locally stored access status of the application. With the present method, when an end user is not allowed to use some network applications due to expense issue or other policy constraint, although the terminal will automatically attempt to send a request to retry connection, that request to retry connection can not access wireless network, nor can it reach core network, so as to avoid consuming RF resource and core network resource.
US09407511B2

A method provides for controlling home devices via a home network, by a first home device connected to the home network. The method includes detecting presently connected home devices on the home network automatically. A user interface is displayed and includes at least one or more areas. One of the one or more areas corresponds to a placement in a home and includes at least one representation of at least one detected home device in the placement. A user input made on a representation of a second home device from the at least one detected home device is accepted for controlling the second home device. Control information is sent to the second home device based on the user input.
US09407501B2

An administrator can define or modify one or more service graphs. Next, the administrator can register service appliances along with their device package files with a controller. Then, the controller can establish the capabilities of the service devices, and classify the service devices as legacy or service tag switching (STS) capable devices. Then, the controller can create one or more instances of the service graph, by populating the service nodes into the service graph. Then, the application owner can attach their endpoint groups (EPGs) to the service graphs created by the administrator. Then, a service in the network can be automatically provisioned using the service graph to configure one or more nodes in an associated service chain of the service according to information in the service graph.
US09407497B2

A transmission terminal communicates with a reception terminal using a first communication path (a 60 GHz band) or a second communication path (a 2.4 GHz band or 5 GHz band). A first communication path connection detector 17 detects the connection or disconnection of the first communication path to or from the reception terminal. A throughput measurement section measures the throughputs of the first communication path and the second communication path. On the basis of the result of the detection of the connection or disconnection and the throughputs of the first communication path and the second communication path, a terminal controller judges whether or not to switch a communication path for data transfer. A communication path switch switches the communication path for data transfer to the first communication path or the second communication path.
US09407489B2

A method for generating a synchronization signal is provided. The method comprises using a number other than 63 as an NZC value in a Zadoff-Chu sequence used in generating a primary synchronization signal for a wireless communication system, which may be a 3GPP LTE system or a 3GPP LTE-A system.
US09407486B2

A method and apparatus for generating a signal in a wireless communication system by allocating a sequence to a plurality of subcarriers for sending the signal and generating the signal based on the sequence and a phase rotation sequence are provided.
US09407463B2

Systems and methods are provided for identifying unsolicited or unwanted electronic communications, such as spam. The disclosed embodiments also encompass systems and methods for selecting content items from a content item database. Consistent with certain embodiments, computer-implemented systems and methods may use a clustering based statistical content matching anti-spam algorithm to identify and filter spam. Such a anti-spam algorithm may be implemented to determine a degree of similarity between an incoming e-mail with a collection of one or more spam e-mails stored in a database. If the degree of similarity exceeds a predetermined threshold, the incoming e-mail may be classified as spam. Further, in accordance with other embodiments, systems and methods may be provided to determine a degree of similarity between a query or search string from a user and content items stored in a database. If the degree of similarity exceeds a predetermined threshold, the content item from the database may be identified as a content item that matches the query or search string provided by the user.
US09407462B2

A system and method to facilitate real-time communications and content sharing among users over a network are described. In one preferred embodiment, multiple links to content information are dynamically generated for a sender user. Responsive to selection of a link by the sender user, the link and associated metadata information are communicated to at least one recipient user engaged in the real-time communications session with the sender user.
US09407460B2

In a method for processing network packets, a network packet is received at an ingress port. After at least a first portion of the network packet has been received, but before the network packet has been completely received, a first data structure representing the network packet is generated based on the first portion, the first data structure is processed, and the network packet begins to be selectively forwarded to a first one or more egress ports, or selectively not forwarded to any egress port, responsively to processing the first data structure. A second data structure representing the network packet is generated and, after the network packet has been completely received, the second data structure is processed, and the network packet is selectively forwarded to a second one or more egress ports, different from the first one or more egress ports, responsively to processing the second data structure.
US09407458B2

An exemplary method and apparatus are provided for transmitting an asynchronous transport signal over an optical fiber section of an Optical Transport Network. Higher order Optical Data Units of an asynchronous transport signal to be transmitted may be encapsulated into outer transport frames that offer a payload rate higher than a nominal bit rate of the asynchronous transport signal. An output optical signal, which contains the outer transport frames with the encapsulated asynchronous transport signal, is generated at a locally generated clock rate and transmitted over an optical fiber section. To encapsulate the asynchronous transport signal, its bit rate is adapted to the payload rate of the outer transport frames, which is derived from the locally generated clock through a justification and stuffing process. The rate adapted transport signal is then synchronously mapped into the outer transport frames at the rate of the locally generated clock.
US09407453B2

A method of medium access control (MAC) type detection for a communication device compatible of a plurality of media each conformed to a communication standard in a network system is disclosed. The method comprises generating a library, wherein the library includes at least a character for each medium, configuring a MAC layer of the communication device according to the library, and determining the existence of a medium according to the configuration result.
US09407449B2

Methods and systems for hardware-accelerated packet multicasting are provided. According to one embodiment, a first packet to be multicast to a first destination and a second packet to be multicast to a second destination are received. The first and second packets are classified in accordance with different virtual routers (VRs) of multiple VRs instantiated by a virtual routing engine (VRE) of a virtual routing system by determining a first selected VR to multicast the first packet and a second selected VR to multicast the second packet. For each of the first and second packets: a routing context of the VRE is switched to a routing context associated with the selected VR; at least a portion of the packet is read from one of multiple multicast address spaces associated with the selected VR; and the packet is forwarded to the destination.
US09407448B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving at a server in communication with a plurality of user devices, a notification of a mute state change at a first of the user devices, and generating an indication of mute state change for display at a second of the user devices. The server is used in a web session and one of the first and second user devices is used in an audio session of a conference. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.
US09407446B2

A control unit of a communication device decrypts, when receiving via an antenna from a reader/writer a cipher key encrypted with a key same as a common key recorded in a recording unit by the reader/writer, the encrypted cipher key with the common key recorded in the recording unit, and when receiving via the antenna from the reader/writer a readout target address specifying a region of a data readout source in the recording unit encrypted with a cipher key same as the cipher key by the reader/writer, decrypting the encrypted readout target address with the cipher key, and transmitting the data recorded in the region specified by the readout target address obtained through decryption of the regions of the recording unit to the reader/writer via the antenna.
US09407444B2

There is provided a method for secure communications. The method includes a computing device receiving a notification comprising a message, a counter value, a signature signed by a signer and based on the message and the counter value, and an indication of the signer. The device obtains a current counter value based on an identity of the signer, checks the signature and compares the counter value with the current counter value; and, if the counter comparison and the signature checking is successful, accepting the message.
US09407438B2

The present invention aims to allow for addition of an attribute category without reissuing a public parameter. A cryptographic system 10 uses an indexing technique in dual system encryption in dual pairing vector spaces. Specifically, for a transmission-side vector tj for index j, the cryptographic system 10 sets information J assigned to the index j in advance as a coefficient of a predetermined basis vector. For a reception-side vector for index j′ corresponding to the index j, the cryptographic system 10 sets information J′ having an inner-product of 0 with the information J as a coefficient of a basis vector corresponding to the predetermined basis vector.
US09407437B1

A plaintext and cryptographic key are used to generate an initialization vector to be used in a cryptographic algorithm, such as an encryption algorithm. In some examples, the plaintext and cryptographic key are input into an effectively one-way function, such as a cryptographic hash function, the output of which is usable as an initialization vector. Cryptographic keys may be rotated probabilistically based at least in part on probabilities of output collisions of the effectively one-way function to ensure a low probability of two different plaintexts resulting in calculation of the same initialization vector for use with the same cryptographic key.
US09407433B1

A method for providing key-based security for adding a new node to an existing networked virtualization environment for storage management includes discovering the new node, establishing communication with the new node using a factory public key, requesting the new node to generate a new private key and new public key pair, receiving the new public key by the existing virtualization environment, wherein subsequent communication with the new node by the existing virtualization environment is performed using the new public key, and configuring the new node to become part of the existing virtualization environment using the new public key.
US09407430B1

An exemplary method is implemented by a radio frequency receiver for synchronizing the recovery of data carried by frames. An indication is generated from error correction of whether the error control coding in the receiver is capable of correcting all the errors induced by the channel within the frame. If the indication declares that all the errors are corrected, then the carrier frequency estimate associated with the error free frame is saved in memory and will be used to initialize the carrier recovery loop at the beginning of the following frames until such frequency estimate is declared unreliable. A new carrier frequency estimate is available at the end of each frame, and if such estimate is proven to be reliable for future use, the current estimate in memory will be overwritten by the new estimate and the freshness of the frequency estimate is extended.
US09407427B2

A first transceiver is configured to transmit a first data signal to a second transceiver across a communication link. The second transceiver maintains clock data recovery (CDR) lock with the first signal by adjusting a sampling clock configured to sample the first data signal. When the communication link reverses directions, the second transceiver is configured to transmit a second data signal to the first transceiver with the phase of that second data signal adjusted based on the adjustments made to the sampling clock.
US09407422B2

The method for activating or deactivating a carrier in the embodiments of the present invention includes the following: A base station determines to activate or deactivate at least one secondary carrier used to communication with a user equipment and transmits a High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) order to the user equipment, where the HS-SCCH order carries indication information used to indicate activation or deactivation of the at least one secondary carrier. In the embodiments of the present invention, a user equipment is capable of correctly activating or deactivating a carrier.
US09407416B2

A method for a base station (BS) to perform a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). The BS transmits an uplink (UL) grant for a first subframe of a second serving cell through a first serving cell. The BS receives UL data based on the UL grant in the first subframe, transmits an acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) for the UL data through a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) in subframe i of the first serving cell and receives non-adaptively retransmitted UL data in a second subframe of the second serving cell if a NACK for the UL data has been transmitted through the PHICH in the subframe i of the first serving cell. The first serving cell and the second serving cell use different UL-DL configurations.
US09407406B2

In a method for generating an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol to be included in a PHY data unit for transmission via a communication channel, wherein the OFDM symbol includes a plurality of OFDM tones, information bits to be included in the OFDM symbol are encoded to generate encoded information bits. The encoded information bits are parsed into a plurality of spatial streams. The spatial streams, or space-time streams generated from the spatial streams, are mapped to transmit chains using a plurality of spatial mapping matrices corresponding to the plurality of OFDM tones. Additionally, one of i) reordering OFDM tones before spatial mapping is applied, or ii) reordering OFDM tones after spatial stream mapping is applied and reordering spatial mapping matrices to match the reordered OFDM tones is performed. The OFDM symbol to be included in the PHY data unit is generated.
US09407404B2

Systems and methods for managing control signaling overhead for a multi-carrier HSDPA (MC-HSDPA) may be disclosed. In particular, a plurality of downlink carriers may be received and bundled or paired. Configuration information indicative of the bundling may then be generated and transmitted. Additionally, one or more components such as antennas, user equipment (UE), and the like may receive an indication of a configuration or state via a high speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH) order where the indication includes order bits and order types and the configuration may be applied to activate and/or deactivate the components or operations such as uplink closed-loop transmit diversity (CLTD), uplink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). The order bits and/or order types may also be extended to support the activation/deactivation of additional carriers of MC-HSDPA.
US09407398B2

A system and method including a parity bit encoder for encoding each n−3 bits of data to be transmitted with three parity check bits to produce blocks of n bits (n−3 information bits plus three parity bits associated with the n information bits). Each of the blocks of n bits are Gray mapped to three QAM symbols that are modulated onto an optical wavelength and transmitted to a receiver. A maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoder is used at the receiver to correct for cycle slip.
US09407391B2

Embodiments of user equipment (UE) and base stations (eNodeB) and method for reducing power consumption in UE in a wireless network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, characteristics of UE including mobility, communication data load, and communication type are used by base stations, MME or other controlling entities to configure power saving features of the UE. Power saving features can include a new Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer state where circuitry is powered off for extended periods of time, extended Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycles, reduced workloads in existing RRC, EPC Connection Management (ECM) and/or EPS Mobility Management (EMM) states or combinations thereof.
US09407381B2

Apparatus comprises a radio channel emulator of a radio system and a combiner. The combiner receives antenna data defining a characteristic radiation pattern of each predetermined antenna element of a predetermined antenna array; forms modified antenna data associated with a predetermined number of modified antenna elements by weighting the antenna data with a predetermined coefficient data; forms modified radio channel data by combining a predetermined radio channel data and the modified antenna data; and feed the modified radio channel data to the radio channel emulator; and the emulator receives at least one signal each of which being associated with a modified antenna element and perform emulation with the at least one signal and the modified radio channel data.
US09407380B2

A network node communicates with a radio access node that communicates application traffic on behalf of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices via a satellite link. The network node comprises a database and a control unit. The database stores a plurality of recovery modes. Each recovery mode indicates one or more types of application traffic that M2M devices are or are not allowed to transmit when operating according to that recovery mode. The control unit detects a loss of communication across, or congestion on, the satellite link, selects one of the recovery modes, and requests the radio access node to broadcast the selected recovery mode over a 3GPP-based broadcast channel in order to instruct the M2M devices to transmit only application traffic allowed in accordance with the selected recovery mode.
US09407376B2

An example embodiment includes optical receiver that includes a polarization beam splitter (PBS), a polarization controller, and a forward error correction (FEC). The PBS is configured to split a received optical signal having an unknown polarization state into two orthogonal polarizations (x′-polarization and y′-polarization). The polarization controller includes no more than two couplers and no more than two phase shifters per wavelength channel of the x′-polarization and the y′-polarization. The polarization controller is configured to demultiplex the x′-polarization and the y′-polarization into a first demultiplexed signal having an first polarization on which a data signal is modulated and a second demultiplexed signal having a second, orthogonal polarization on which a pilot carrier oscillator signal is encoded. The FEC decoder module is configured to correct a burst of errors resulting from resetting one of the phase shifters based on error correction code (ECC) data encoded in the data signal.
US09407375B2

An optical system may have an optical transmitter including a digital signal processor to receive a signal channel, determine a digital signal associated with the signal channel based on information in a look-up table and based on a test tone, and output the digital signal. The optical system may further have a digital-to-analog converter to convert the digital signal to an analog signal, a laser to provide an optical signal, and a modulator to receive the optical signal and the analog signal, and modulate the optical signal based on the analog signal to form a modulated optical signal. The optical system may also have a photodiode to convert the modulated optical signal to a digital signal, a tone detector to detect the test tone based on the digital signal, and a controller to modify the information in the look-up table based on the test tone.
US09407367B2

The present invention discloses methods and devices for transmitting/obtaining information by visible light signals. The method for transmitting information by visible light signals of two or more wavelengths from light sources comprises: modulating, on the basis of the information to be transmitted, two or more driving signals of the light sources to obtain two or more modulated driving signals for driving the light sources to emit the visible light signals of two or more wavelengths having their levels changed between peak levels and bottom levels with different frequencies and/or different phases and/or different amplitudes; and emitting the visible light signals of two or more wavelengths having their levels changed between peak levels and bottom levels with different frequencies and/or different phases and/or different amplitudes on the basis of the two or more modulated driving signals, so as to transmit information corresponding to a pattern of color stripes shown in an image obtained from the visible light signals.
US09407364B2

The invention relates to a laser system comprising a laser receiver collaborating with a laser emitter. The laser emitter is designed to provide a laser light plane and includes a control unit connected to a communication signal receiver in order to work and compute incoming communication signals from the laser receiver. The laser receiver comprising a communication signal transmitter for communicating with the laser emitter, a linear laser light photo sensor and an acceleration sensor both connected to a circuitry, which is designed to derive a movement of the laser receiver with respect to the detected laser beam of the laser emitter from computing and correlating the signals of the acceleration sensor and the laser light photo sensor. The control unit includes an adjustment unit and adjustment is carried out by the adjustment unit in dependence of the worked and computed incoming communication signals of the laser receiver.
US09407363B2

There have been problems that a capturing device requires an optical source having a large power output, and a scanning operation and a capturing operation must be alternately performed by the respective devices.A capturing device is provided with an optical receiver which receives a beam from outside as a reception beam, a reception beam capturing unit which performs a capturing operation by which the reception beam is introduced to the optical receiver, an optical transmitter which generates a transmission beam transmitted to the outside, a transmission beam scanning unit which performs a scanning operation of the transmission beams, and an optical circulator wherein the incidence of the reception beam and the exit of the transmission beam are performed at the same terminal.
US09407361B1

A system is configured to determine a first power level of a first signal output from a first modulator, and determine a second power level of a second signal output from a second modulator. The first signal may include a first optical signal associated with a particular polarization orientation, and the second signal may include a second optical signal associated with the particular polarization orientation. The system is configured to determine a relationship between the first power level and the second power level, and to set, based on the relationship between the first power level and the second power level, a reverse bias voltage associated with the first modulator, where the reverse bias voltage may be used to control the first power level of the first signal.
US09407351B2

The invention relates to wireless repeater systems and methods. In embodiments, such systems and methods involve receiving a wireless transmission signal; and processing the wireless transmission signal using a digital signal processing facility (DSP); wherein the DSP is adapted to filter at least one sub-band of the wireless transmission signal using a digital bandpass filter.
US09407347B2

As part of a beamforming training procedure, a first communication device transmits a beamforming training packet. The first device then receives a plurality of respective beamforming feedback packets from a plurality of second communication devices. The first device then uses the plurality of beamforming feedback packets to select a group of multiple communication devices from among the plurality of second communication devices, wherein the group is selected for simultaneous transmissions to the first communication device. The first device then transmits a synchronization signal to the group to prompt second communication devices in the group to simultaneously transmit to the first communication device at a particular time. The first device then receives simultaneous transmissions from the group responsive to the synchronization signal.
US09407342B2

Various embodiments of the invention may modify the techniques used in conventional networks, to achieve techniques that are better suited for networks that use highly directional communications. A novel method is described for determining whether a channel in such a network is idle. In addition, various protocols and formats are disclosed that are intended for such a network.
US09407340B2

Provided is a method and apparatus for lattice reduction with reduced computational complexity. The apparatus and method include calculating an R matrix using sorted QR decomposition, and conducting an R-value test using an R-value based on diagonal elements of the R matrix and a threshold value. The R matrix is an upper triangular matrix. The apparatus and method further execute a loop comprising a size reduction and a conditional update of a basis vector corresponding to a column element of the R matrix in response to the R-value being greater than or equal to the threshold value. The apparatus and method conduct another R-value test based on the R matrix comprising the updated basis vector in response to the basis vector being updated.
US09407320B2

In one embodiment, the presence of double talk (DT) is detected in a telecommunications network having a near-end user and a far-end user. The energies of both (1) a signal received from the far-end user by the near-end user and (2) a signal to be communicated from the near-end user to the far-end user are computed. An echo return loss (ERL) estimate is calculated based on the energy calculations, and a preliminary decision is made as to whether DT is present based on the ERL estimate and the energy calculations. If DT is detected, then a counter is set to a hangover value. If DT is not detected, then the counter is reduced. This process is repeated, and, for each iteration, a final decision as to whether DT is present is made based on the counter value.
US09407315B2

A transmission filter allows a signal in the frequency band of a transmission signal to pass through the transmission filter and blocks signals in other frequency bands. The transmission signal output from the transmission filter is supplied to an antenna via an antenna sharing device and transmitted to the outside. A reflected-signal detector senses the amplitude and the phase of a reflected signal from the antenna and outputs detection signals (DA and DP). A control circuit adjusts control signals (CA and CP) on the basis of the detection signals (DA and DP). A cancellation-signal-output circuit adjusts a cancellation signal in such a manner that the cancellation signal has a phase opposite to that of the reflected signal and an amplitude the same as that of the reflected signal by using the control signals (CA and CP). A multiplexer combines the cancellation signal with a received signal including a noise signal.
US09407311B2

A first electronic device may include a first electronic circuit and a second electronic circuit. The first electronic device may include an internal communication link providing a signal path for conducting communication signals between the first electronic circuit and the second electronic circuit. An interface circuit may be operatively coupled to the internal communication link. The interface circuit may include an extremely high frequency (EHF) communications circuit configured to receive an EHF electromagnetic signal from another EHF communications circuit of a second electronic device. This EHF electromagnetic signal may enable the second electronic device to control or monitor the first electronic device.
US09407305B2

A remote control device includes a light source for irradiating an instruction beam in a non-visible wave length range, and an operation unit for controlling the light source to irradiate the instruction beam when the operation unit is operated. An instruction beam detection apparatus includes an image capturing unit for capturing an image of the instruction beam irradiated from the light source of the remote control device within a detection range thereof; a storage unit for storing a first image captured with the image capturing unit; and a detection unit for detecting a position of the instruction beam on a second image according to a differential image between the first image stored in the storage unit and the second image newly captured with the image capturing unit.
US09407301B2

An angle diversity receiving device performs angle diversity reception by configuring branches of angle diversity in accordance with received signals of an array antenna, the angle diversity receiving device being provided with: a plurality of phased array synthesizing unit that generates a received signal of a branch by performing phased array synthesis for the received signals of a plurality of antenna elements included in the array antenna; and a correlation control unit that outputs a correlation value for the received signals of two branches; wherein the phased array synthesizing unit controls the angular difference in the orientations of the branches for which the correlation value was computed so that the correlation value decreases.
US09407298B1

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to interference cancellation. A method of performing interference cancellation in a wireless communications device having one or more transmit antennas, one or more transmitters, one or more receive antennas, one or more receivers, one or more coefficient controllers and one or more analog interference cancellation (AIC) circuits includes using the one or more coefficient controllers for determining coefficients for one or more adaptive filters within the one or more AIC circuits.
US09407280B1

A harmonic time interleave (HTI) system, including a reference signal, a first summing component to produce a summed reference signal, a de-interleave block to receive an input signal and output a plurality of de-interleaved input signals, a plurality of digital-to-analog converters, each digital-to-analog converter configured to receive a corresponding one of a plurality of de-interleaved input signals and to output a corresponding analog signal, a plurality of mixing components, each mixing component configured to receive the summed reference signal and an analog signal from a corresponding of the plurality of digital-to-analog converters, and to output a corresponding mixed signal, and a second summing component configured to receive the mixed signal from each of the corresponding mixing components and to produce a substantially full-bandwidth analog signal representation of the input signal.
US09407274B2

Systems and methods for mitigating interference in a Local Oscillator (LO) signal generated by a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes a PLL and an error compensation subsystem. The PLL includes a Controlled Oscillator (CO) that provides a LO output signal based on a control signal, a phase detector that generates a phase detector output signal that is indicative of a phase error between a feedback signal that is a function of the LO output signal and a reference signal, and a loop filter that filters the phase detector output signal to provide the control signal for the CO. The error compensation subsystem applies, based on the phase detector output signal, a phase rotation to a signal derived from the LO output signal to thereby compensate for a phase error in the signal resulting from a phase error in the local oscillator output signal.
US09407273B1

A DLL may include a DLL training circuit that provides a feedback signal to the DLL and receives a first delay code value from the DLL that corresponds to the delay added to the feedback signal to align a leading edge transition in the feedback signal with a leading edge transition in the reference clock signal. The DLL training circuit further provides an inverted feedback signal to the DLL and receives a second delay code value from the DLL that corresponds to the delay added to the inverted feedback signal to align a leading edge transition in the inverted feedback signal with a leading edge transition in the reference clock signal. The DLL selectively adds the delay code corresponding to the temporally smaller of the first delay code value or the second delay code value to the feedback signal to align the feedback signal with the reference clock signal.
US09407261B2

An apparatus includes a medicine cabinet door. The medicine cabinet door has an outer glass layer, the outer glass layer has a front side and a back side, an information display is mounted on the back side of the outer glass layer, such that a user can view an image displayed on the information display while looking at the front side of the outer glass layer. A method includes placing an information display behind an outer glass layer of a medicine cabinet door and within a volume of the medicine cabinet door.
US09407259B2

A circuit may include first and second input nodes, first and second output nodes, first and second intermediate nodes, first and second resistances, a first amplification transistor coupled to the first input node, the first resistance, and the first intermediate node and a second amplification transistor coupled to the second input node, the second resistance, and the second intermediate node. The circuit may also include a first active device coupled to the first output node and the first intermediate node, a second active device coupled to the second output node and the second intermediate node, a first output transistor coupled to the first output node and configured to conduct based on a second intermediate signal on the second intermediate node, and a second output transistor coupled to the second output node and configured to conduct based on a first intermediate signal on the first intermediate node.
US09407258B1

A driver circuit for driving a resonance circuit is disclosed. The driver circuit includes an input to receive an input signal, an amplifier to amplify the input signal, a pulse generator to generate a pulse train based on a modulation signal, a switch coupled to the pulse generator, a capacitor coupled to the switch in parallel such that when the switch is on, the capacitor is bypassed and a Resistor-Inductor-Capacitor (RLC) tank circuit coupled to the switch and the capacitor such that the capacitor is connected in series to capacitance of the RLC tank circuit.
US09407255B2

In accordance with various embodiments, a circuit is provided, including an output node, a first potential varying stage, which is designed to couple the output node to a supply potential in reaction to an input signal, and a second potential varying stage, which is designed to couple the output node to the supply potential if the difference between the potential of the output node and the supply potential lies below a predefined threshold value.
US09407254B1

A device for controlling a power-on reset signal can include a constant current source, for controlling a reference current that is independent of a supply voltage, and a trip point detector circuit driven by the reference current. The trip point detector circuit detects when the supply voltage of the device exceeds a first trip point voltage, and de-asserts the power-on reset signal when the supply voltage exceeds the first trip point voltage. The first trip point voltage can be controlled by a sum of a threshold voltage of a first n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor, a voltage drop across a first resistor, and a threshold voltage of a first p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor. The device may further include a hysteresis circuit, for detecting when the supply voltage falls below a second trip point voltage and causing the trip point detector circuit to reassert the power-on reset signal.
US09407243B1

A receiver circuit including an external terminal, a level shifter, a reset circuit, and an inverting circuit is provided. The external terminal receives the external signal. The level shifter shifts a voltage swing range of the external signal to generate a level shifting signal. The level shifter includes a pull-up unit and a pull-down unit coupled in series. The pull-up unit and the pull-down unit are alternatively switched respectively according to the external signal and the internal signal, and thus a leakage path of the level shifter is cut off for different states of the external signal. The reset circuit couples the external terminal and the level shifter and provides a reset path according to the external signal for assisting the switching of the pull-up unit and the pull-down unit. The inverting circuit couples the level shifter and inverts the level shifting signal to generate the internal signal.
US09407242B2

A voltage level shifter for high voltage applications has a low voltage domain current mirror having first and second branches. A high voltage switch and a resistor are connected in series with the second branch. An output stage provides an output signal that is a function of a voltage difference across the resistor, and the output stage and the resistor are in the high voltage domain. Assertion of an input signal in the low voltage domain develops a first current in the first branch, and causes the high voltage switch to pass in the resistor a second current from the second branch that is a function of the first current and develops the voltage difference across the resistor. Only the high voltage switch needs to have high breakdown voltage characteristics.
US09407234B2

The present invention discloses a current balancing device and method capable of balancing an output current and an input current of a current loop. Said device comprises: a transmission circuit for outputting an output current and receiving an input current; at least one adjustable resistor set in the current loop for providing resistance according to at least one adjustment signal; and a current balancing circuit, coupled to the transmission circuit and the adjustable resistor, for determining whether the difference between the output and input currents satisfies a predetermined requirement in light of a predetermined duration and thereby generating the adjustment signal, wherein if the difference between the output and input currents fails to satisfy the predetermined requirement, the current balancing circuit will adjust the resistance of the adjustable resistor through the adjustment signal, so as to reduce the difference between the output and input currents.
US09407228B2

A receiver stage for receiving a receive signal comprises M receiving paths, each receiving path comprises a signal processor and K comparators. The signal processors of the M receiving paths are configured to generate, for each of the M receiving paths, an amplified version of the receive signal, such that an amplification gain of the respective receiving path increases from a first of the M receiving paths to a last of the M receiving paths. For each of the M receiving paths the K comparators of the respective receiving paths are configured to compare the amplified receive signal of the respective receiving path with a respective threshold value. For each of the M receiving paths the threshold value increases from a first of the K comparators to the last of the K comparators.
US09407227B2

An amplifier module comprises an amplifier having an output, a coupler coupled to the output to receive a first signal provided at the output and a power detector to provide a power signal from the first signal. It further comprises an input to receive a second signal. A switch is provided that is disposed to provide the power signal or the second signal to a signal output in dependence of a control signal.
US09407221B2

In one embodiment, a differential amplifier circuit includes a first input terminal, a second input terminal, a first transistor, a second transistor, a third transistor, a current source, a first output terminal, a second output terminal, a first passive element, and a second passive element. The first (second) transistor has a control terminal connected to the first (second) input terminal. The third transistor has a control terminal. The control terminal is applied predetermined bias voltage. The current source is connected to a first terminal in each of the first transistor, second transistor, and third transistor. The first (second) output terminal is connected to a second terminal of the first (second) transistor. The first (second) passive element is connected between the first (second) input terminal and the first (second) output terminal.
US09407217B2

When a switch is set to off, and a switch is set to on, the voltage of a SigOut terminal is stabilized with a reference voltage, and a bias voltage is applied to a capacitor. Changing the switch from on to off, with the bias voltage retained in the capacitor, a detection signal which is input via a SigIn terminal is amplified with the reference voltage as a reference, and an amplified signal is output from the SigOut terminal.
US09407202B2

The present invention provides a spin-transfer torque type injection locking oscillator which improves both power and noise performance by using pair of spin-transfer torque devices. One is optimized for high power and the other is optimized for low noise characteristics. The output signal of the low noise spin-transfer torque device is injected into the high output power spin-transfer torque for phase locking. The present invention has several advantages such as the miniaturization, the high quality and low cost, and the mass production of integrated chips by the nanoscale.
US09407199B2

An integrated circuit comprises a frequency dependent circuit comprising an input node, an output node and a main bank of selectable first capacitive elements that affect a frequency characteristic of the frequency dependent circuit. The frequency dependent circuit further comprises at least one shunt bank of selectable second capacitive elements located between ground and one of the input node or the output node, wherein at least one selectable second capacitive element switched out of the frequency dependent circuit is based on a number of the selectable first capacitive elements that are switched into the frequency dependent circuit.
US09407191B2

In a driving switching system, an H-bridge circuit includes a first P-type MOSFET, a first N-type MOSFET, a second P-type MOSFET and a second N-type MOSFET. The first N-type MOSFET connects to the first P-type MOSFET so as to have a first connection terminal. The second N-type MOSFET connects to the second P-type MOSFET so as to have a second connection terminal, wherein the first connection terminal and the second connection terminal are connected to a coil. A first and a second kickback voltage detection module respectively detect a first kickback voltage at the first connection terminal and a second kickback voltage at the second connection terminal. In the accompanying method, a first and a second driving module are selectively used to switch the first and second P-type MOSFET and the first and second N-type MOSFET once the first and second kickback voltages reach a first or a second threshold voltage.
US09407185B2

A power converter for an engine generator includes an insulative support that receives and supports circuit components for converting incoming AC power to desired power, such as power suitable for a welding application. One or more rectifier modules are provided that are received and supported by the support. Three such modules may be provided for receiving three phase power from a generator. DC power from the rectifier module is applied to DC bus plates. The plates may be coupled to capacitors. A power conversion circuit, such as a buck converter, is coupled to the DC bus plates to convert the DC power to output power.
US09407176B2

An integrated system of circuits for serial fan structure includes a first and a second fan connected back to back. A first driving unit and a first control unit for the first fan and a second driving unit and a second control unit for the second fan are sequentially electrically connected to a circuit board in the second fan. Further, a first coil assembly of the first fan and a second coil assemble of the second fan are also electrically connected to the circuit board in the second fan; and some low-use-rate electronic circuits are included in a common circuit unit of the first and the second fan. Therefore, the serial fan structure can save one circuit board and some low-use-rate electronic circuits from the first fan to achieve the purpose of reducing the manufacturing cost of the serial fan structure.
US09407173B2

The present invention relates to a piezo actuator having an electrode structure for a torsional vibration mode, and to a rotation-type ultrasonic motor containing the same. In the piezo actuator having the electrode structure, electrodes may have different lengths from the center point of the piezo actuator in order to form an electrode structure having a pinwheel shape for enabling a torsional vibration mode. Thus, since the electrodes of the piezo actuator for generating torsional vibrations has a simple pinwheel wing structure, a rotor coupled along a groove formed in the side surface of the piezo actuator may be rotated using the torsional directional vibrations due to the electrode structure.
US09407170B2

Disclosed is a power inverter which converts voltage from a DC source into high frequency rectangular alternating voltage pulses which are transferred to a load via a transformer with a ferromagnetic core having no air gap. An additional indicator winding on the transformer, which is connected to a differential circuit which in turn is connected to a control circuit, makes it possible to control the process of the reversal of the magnetization of the core. Switching on the primary winding takes place when the permeability of the transformer's core achieves its maximum. This special feature makes it possible to minimize the size of the transformer, while allowing transferring maximum energy to the load with minimum of the magnetization frequency and losses.
US09407169B2

A method and apparatus for generating AC power. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a DC/AC inversion stage capable of generating at least two of a single-phase output power, a two-phase output power, and a three-phase output power; and a conversion control module, coupled to the DC/AC inversion stage, for driving the DC/AC inversion stage to (i) generate the single-phase output power while an input power is less than a first threshold, and (ii) operate in burst mode while the input power satisfies a burst mode threshold.
US09407165B2

A cascade bridge-type DC-AC power converter device includes a low-frequency bridge-type power converter including an AC terminal and a DC bus and a high-frequency bridge-type power converter including an AC terminal. A power conversion method includes: serially connecting the AC terminal of the high-frequency bridge-type power converter and the AC terminal of the low-frequency bridge-type power converter; operating frequency of the low-frequency bridge-type power converter synchronized with frequency of an AC source; and operating the high-frequency bridge-type power converter with high-frequency PWM to generate a multilevel AC voltage. A DC power source connects to the DC bus of the low-frequency bridge-type power converter. No additional power supply circuit will be required for power supply to a DC bus of the high-frequency bridge-type power converter. Accordingly, the power circuit is simplified, and the manufacturing cost is reduced.
US09407164B2

Described is a method and apparatus for per-panel photovoltaic energy extraction with integrated converters. Also described are switched-capacitor (SC) converters have been evaluated for many applications because of the possibility for on-chip integration; applications to solar arrays are no exception. Also described is a comprehensive system-level look at solar installations, finding possibilities for optimization at and between all levels of operation in an array. Specifically, novel concepts include new arrangements and options for applying switched-capacitor circuits at 3 levels: for the panel and sub-panel level, as part of the overall control strategy, and for ensuring stable and robust interface to the grid with the possibility of eliminating or reducing the use of electrolytic capacitors.
US09407162B2

A method including: setting a weighting function based on an amount of change in impedance of a control target; and determining, for a power controller, a transfer function composed of a transfer function of an internal model obtainable by performing Laplace transform on the voltage reference value and a transfer function of a partial controller, the transfer function of the partial controller being for outputting the control output after receiving, as an input, an output of the transfer function of the internal model, wherein the determining includes determining the transfer function of the partial controller using an H∞control theory so as to reduce (i) a first amount of control obtainable by multiplying the control output and the weighting function and (ii) a second amount of control that is an output of the transfer function of the internal model.
US09407161B2

A distributed power system wherein a plurality of power converters are connected in parallel and share the power conversion load according to a prescribed function, but each power converter autonomously determines its share of power conversion. Each power converter operates according to its own power conversion formula/function, such that overall the parallel-connected converters share the power conversion load in a predetermined manner.
US09407155B2

A controller of an isolated switching converter includes an error amplifying circuit, a modulation signal generator, a first comparison circuit, a primary off detection circuit, a secondary logic circuit, an isolation circuit and a primary logic circuit. The error amplifying circuit generates a compensation signal based on the difference between a reference signal and a feedback signal. The first comparison circuit compares the compensation signal with a modulation signal generated by the modulation signal generator and generates a first comparison signal. The primary off detection circuit detects whether the primary switch is off and generates a primary off detection signal. The secondary logic circuit generates a secondary control signal to control the secondary switch based on the first comparison signal and the primary off detection signal. The isolation circuit receives the first comparison signal and generates a synchronous signal electrically isolated from the first comparison signal. The primary logic circuit generates a primary control signal to control the primary switch based on the synchronous signal.
US09407154B2

An electrical circuit for providing electrical power for use in powering electronic devices is described herein. The electrical circuit includes a power converter circuit that is electrically coupled to an electrical power source for receiving alternating current (AC) input power from the electrical source and delivering direct current (DC) output power to an electronic device. The power converter circuit includes a transformer and a switching device coupled to a primary side of the transformer for delivering power from the electrical power source to a primary side of the transformer. A controller is coupled to a voltage sensor and the switching device for receiving the sensed voltage level from the voltage sensor and transmitting a control signal to the switching device to adjust the voltage level of power being delivered to the electronic device.
US09407135B2

A power conversion apparatus includes a power converter, an LC filter, and a controller. The power converter is disposed between an AC power source and a load. The LC filter is disposed between the AC power source and the power converter. The controller controls the power converter to perform power conversion control between the AC power source and the load. The controller includes a command generator, an oscillation component acquirer, a regulator, and an actuator. The command generator generates an input current command including a command of an input current of the power converter. The oscillation component acquirer acquires an oscillation component of a current flowing through a capacitor of the LC filter. The regulator regulates the input current command based on the oscillation component acquired by the oscillation component acquirer. The actuator controls the power converter based on the input current command regulated by the regulator.
US09407131B2

A cam is immersed in water at an elevated temperature and/or pressure. A reciprocating cam follower also immersed in the water contacts a surface of the cam. The cam follower includes a permanent magnet. An electrically conductive coil is magnetically coupled with the permanent magnet such that movement of the cam follower induces an electrical signal in the electrically conductive coil. A sealed housing also immersed in the water contains the electrically conductive coil and seals it from contact with the water. Leads of the coil are electrically accessible from outside the sealed housing and from outside the water. Alternatively, the cam includes magnetic inserts, the cam follower is replaced by a sensor arm of magnetic material, and the sensor arm and/or the inserts are magnetized whereby rotation of the rotary element causes time modulation of the magnetic coupling and induces coil voltage.
US09407129B2

A brushless DC motor comprises a plurality of magnets positioned at a distance from one another on a circular structure, and a plurality of solenoids provided each around a static solenoid housing, wherein said solenoid housing is structured with a void portion through which said plurality of magnets can pass when the circular structure comprising said plurality of magnets rotates around its axis.
US09407127B2

Provided is a brushless motor insulator capable of improving workability relating to the winding of electric wires by a simple configuration. An insulator 10 includes a main body portion 11 and a mooring portion 12. The main body portion 11 includes plural wiring portions 11b radially provided so that electric wires 30 are held while being wound on the wiring portions 11b. The mooring portion 12 is disposed in the inner periphery or the outer periphery of the main body portion 11 and moors ends of winding start portions or winding end portions of the electric wires 30 of the wiring portions 11b.
US09407123B2

A generator, particularly for a wind turbine, having a rotor and a stator is provided. The rotor includes at least one disc-like shaped rotor end plate supporting the rotor and the stator includes at least one disc-like shaped stator end plate supporting the stator, wherein the at least one rotor end plate and/or the at least one stator end plate at least partially extends tilted relative to the center axis of the generator.
US09407119B2

A water-guiding household device, in particular, a dishwasher, equipped with an improved drive shaft which is arranged in the wet running pump. A coating made of a chrome-nitrogen compound is applied to the drive shaft according to a PVD method.
US09407111B2

A battery charging station is equipped with radio frequency power transmitters, induction power transmitters, and ultrasound power transmitters so as to concurrently charge electronic devices. The battery charging station is operable to network the electronic devices through wireless communication. In this regard, the battery charging station may coordinate or arrange the radio frequency power transmitters, the induction power transmitters and/or the ultrasound power transmitters so that the resulting power transmission from the battery charging station to one or more intended networked electronic devices may be maximized. The battery charging station may wirelessly communicate with the electronic devices for device networking. The networked electronic devices may be connected to a computer network for various network services such as, for example, network advertising and software downloading or uploading. Both direct and in-direct device-to-device communication may be supported among the networked electronic devices. The battery charging station maintains data communication during battery charging.
US09407104B2

A charger for recharging the batteries of a portable electronic device even when no external power source is available. A battery or cell is installed within the charger, and when no access is available to a fixed power source into which the charger can be plugged, the internal battery or cell can be used to recharge the electronic device. The internal battery can be a primary battery or a secondary battery. In the latter case, the internal battery can be maintained in a charged state by means of circuitry which, when the charger is plugged into the external power source, charges the internal battery as well as the battery of the electronic device. The external power source can be either an AC power wall socket, in which case the charger includes AC/DC voltage conversion circuits, or a car lighter socket, or the DC output of a conventional wall charger.
US09407098B2

Some embodiments provide a system that determines a battery chemistry for a battery in a peripheral device. During operation, the system determines a first voltage of the battery at a first time and a second voltage of the battery at a second time. The first voltage and the second voltage are then compared to one or more predetermined battery usage profiles to determine the battery chemistry.
US09407096B2

A power control apparatus and a power control method for efficiently securing reserve power as a precaution against power failure are disclosed. The power control device includes a first communication unit configured to receive power information including power failure information through a power information network, a second communication unit configured to receive reserve power information including remaining power information from a power storage unit for storing reserve power, and a control unit configured to generate charging control information for storing reserve power in the power storage unit based on the power information and the reserve power information and to control storage of the power in the power storage unit.
US09407095B2

Various power processing systems are described that employ a multiply-connected velocity inhibiting circuit. At least one active circuit can be employed to synthesize at least one passive lumped element in the multiply-connected velocity inhibiting circuit.
US09407092B2

A method for managing a number of power supply units (PSUs) of a power supply device is provided. A total operation time of each PSU is counted. A number of the PSUs to be assigned to work is determined according to a load value of a load connected to the power supply device. Which of the PSUs will be assigned to work and which of the PSUs will be assigned to idle are determined according to the total operation time of each PSU and the determined number of the PSUs to be assigned to work. The PSUs to be assigned to work are controlled to enter a work state, and the PSUs to be assigned to idle are controlled to enter a standby mode.
US09407085B2

A controller for a brushless motor that is configured to operate in normal mode or under-voltage mode. When operating in normal mode, the controller generates control signals for exciting a winding of the motor, monitors the magnitude of an input voltage, and switches to under-voltage mode in the event that the input voltage drops below an under-voltage threshold. When operating in under-voltage mode, the controller suspends excitation of the winding, monitors the magnitude of the input voltage, monitors the magnitude of a supply voltage used to power the controller, switches to normal mode in the event that the input voltage exceeds a restart threshold, and resets itself in the event that the supply voltage drops below a brown-out threshold.
US09407084B2

An over-voltage protection circuit suitable for use at a front-end of an on-chip analog module such as an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes an input potential divider that can be disconnected from the module when the module is idle (or working on any other input such as the ADC sampling another channel causing the current channel to be idle) while still providing protection for front-end devices. A first NMOS transistor pair connects or disconnects the potential divider to or from ground in response to a control signal, and a second transistor pair including a NMOS transistor and a PMOS transistor ensures that the output does not rise above the supply voltage.
US09407080B2

A hanger assembly for mounting an enclosure on an elongate support includes a body, first and second arms, and first and second attachment devices. The body is configured to be secured to the enclosure. The first and second arms each have opposed upper and lower ends. The lower ends are each pivotally secured to the body. The first and second attachment devices are located on the upper ends of the first and second arms, respectively, and are configured to secure the first and second arms, respectively, to the elongate support. The first and second arms can be pivoted about their lower ends to selectively adjust a spacing between the body and the elongate support to thereby selectively adjust a distance between the enclosure and the elongate support.
US09407068B2

A broadband, integrated quantum cascade laser is disclosed, comprising ridge waveguide quantum cascade lasers formed by applying standard semiconductor process techniques to a monolithic structure of alternating layers of claddings and active region layers. The resulting ridge waveguide quantum cascade lasers may be individually controlled by independent voltage potentials, resulting in control of the overall spectrum of the integrated quantum cascade laser source. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09407065B2

A semiconductor laser includes: a stacked body having an active layer including a quantum well layer, the active layer having a cascade structure including a first region capable of emitting infrared laser light with a wavelength of not less than 12 μm and not more than 18 μm by an intersubband optical transition of the quantum well layer and a second region capable of relaxing energy of a carrier alternately stacked, the stacked body having a ridge waveguide and being capable of emitting the infrared laser light; and a dielectric layer provided so as to sandwich both sides of at least part of side surfaces of the stacked body, a wavelength at which a transmittance of the dielectric layer decreases to 50% being 16 μm or more, the dielectric layer having a refractive index lower than refractive indices of all layers constituting the active layer.
US09407060B2

Embodiments herein provide for an optical frequency reference including a fine optical frequency comb and a coarse optical frequency comb. The fine comb has a first tooth and a frequency spacing (FCS) between teeth that is locked to a fractional or integer multiple of a radio frequency reference. The coarse comb has a second tooth that is locked to the first tooth and a frequency spacing (CCS) between teeth that is locked to an integer multiple of the FCS. An absolute optical frequency of at least one tooth of the coarse optical frequency comb is set.
US09407050B2

A coaxial connector has a selectively engageable radio frequency interference shield.
US09407037B2

Disclosed herein is a connector for vehicles, which allows easy disconnection between a male housing and a female housing. The connector includes a male housing, a female housing detachably connected to the male housing, a connection lever rotatably mounted on the female housing so as to be latched to the male housing, the connection lever connecting or disconnecting the male housing to or from the female housing through rotation, and a connector location assurance unit provided to the female housing so as to selectively interrupt rotation of the connection lever.
US09407017B2

[Problem] To achieve compatibility between push-type and screw-type terminals of mounted printed circuit substrates. [Solution] A speaker terminal attachment base (1) allows both push- and screw-type connectors (2, 3) to be attached thereto. A connector anchoring boss part (111), whereby a terminal part (121) with a through hole (1211) is anchored, is formed upon an attachment base (1), and a through hole (1112), which connects to the through hole (1211) of the terminal part (121), is formed upon the connector anchoring boss part (111). The through hole (1112) comprises a large diameter part (11121), and a small diameter part (11122). When the screw-type connector (3) is attached, a nut (5) which sends a male screw part (312) of the connector (3) in the axial direction is non-rotatably housed in the large diameter part (11121) before a terminal plate (12) is attached. When the push-type connector (2) is attached, a flat face (11123) which is formed in the inner circumference of the small diameter part (11122) makes planar contact with a flat face (2115) of the connector (2), preventing the rotation of the connector (2).
US09407014B2

In an antenna device, power is fed from a first port to a first radiation element, and power is fed from a second port to a second radiation element. A decoupling circuit connects the first radiation element and the second radiation element, and includes a bridge element connecting a first point between the first port and the first radiation element and a second point between the second port and the second radiation element to each other. A first reactance element is provided in series with the first radiation element between the first point and the first radiation element, and a second reactance element is provided in series with the second radiation element between the second point and the second radiation element. At least one of the first reactance element and the second reactance element is configured so as to be capable of changing the value of reactance.
US09407003B1

Antenna structures and methods of operating the same of an electronic device are described. One apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) including a surface-current dispersing circuit and an antenna structure coupled to the RF feed at a feeding point and coupled to a ground plane at a grounding point. The antenna structure comprises an even multiple of quarter-wavelength elements with a first element coupled to the feeding point and a second element coupled to the grounding point and the grounding point is located at a specified distance from the feeding point. Surface currents, generated as a result of the RF signals being applied to the RF feed at the feeding point, create a first hot spot of an even multiple of hot spots of magnetic field at the feeding point. The surface-current dispersing circuit and the ground point disperse a portion of the surface currents at the feeding point towards the grounding point to create other hot spots of the even multiple of hot spots. The even multiple of hot spots are areas of the antenna structure on which surface-current density is higher than other areas surrounding the areas of the even multiple of hot spots.
US09406997B2

The present invention is disclosed to provide an NFC antenna using dual resonance, wherein a closed circuit is formed by a capacitor and a loop antenna, and a relay unit is attached to a portable wireless terminal that forms a resonance to a predetermined frequency signal mutually transmitted between a portable wireless terminal reader and an NFC chip, and in the course of communicating between the NFC chip and the reader, the relay unit relays a signal transmitted by the reader to an NFC antenna unit, and the NFC chip relays a signal transmitted through the NFC antenna unit to the reader to thereby increase a recognition distance capable of obtaining predetermined information.
US09406990B2

A waveguide assembly system includes a fixed port, a sliding port, and a transmission path from the fixed port to the sliding port. The transmission path includes a waveguide assembly that includes a first minor face corresponding to the fixed port, a first major face that includes a recess extending from the first minor surface towards the fixed port. The waveguide assembly system also includes a port assembly with a first major surface disposed opposite to the first major surface of the waveguide assembly. The port assembly includes at least one port having a first opening on the first major surface of the port assembly and a second opening on a second major surface of the port assembly. The port assembly includes one or more stubs positioned to impede electromagnetic energy propagation beyond a specified distance within the port tab assembly.
US09406983B2

A battery module (10) for the purely electric driving of a motor vehicle has a trough-shaped battery box (12) that runs around a circumferential direction, an inlet for feeding a coolant into a cooling space (30) partially bounded by the battery box (12), an outlet for conducting the coolant away from the cooling space (30), battery cells (14) in the battery box (12) and arranged in the cooling space (30), and an insulating layer (16) for fluid-tight sealing of the cooling space (30). At least one electrical pole (18) of the battery cell (14) projects out of the cooling space (30) through the insulating layer (16). The insulating layer (16) is formed from a previously liquid cured sealing compound. The insulating layer (16) can simultaneously make available a high sealing effect and a statically stabilizing effect for the battery box (12) together with a low intrinsic weight.
US09406973B2

A nonaqueous electrolyte battery includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a nonaqueous electrolyte. The positive electrode contains active material particles and a coating material. The active material particles are represented by any one of the following formulae (1) to (3): LixM1yO2  (1) LizM22wO4  (2) LisM3tPO4  (3) and have an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 10 μm. The coating material comprises at least particles having an average particle diameter of 60 nm or less or layers having an average thickness of 60 nm or less. The particles or the layers contain at least one element selected from the group consisting of Mg, Ti, Zr, Ba, B and C.
US09406954B2

A method for depolluting and regenerating a catalytic fuel-cell electrode, the reaction of the fuel of the cell and capture of at least one polluting species occurring on the catalytic electrode, comprises: a decrease, at a constant first reference current density, in fuel flow, relative to a nominal fuel flow, for a first length of time, leading to a value for the stoichiometric coefficient of fuel lower than 1, to increase oxidation potential on the catalytic electrode and reach oxidation potential of the polluting species, to eliminate it; a cut-off of current for a cut-off time; an increase in flow above nominal flow, leading to a value of stoichiometric coefficient higher than or equal to 1; and an increase in current density until a second current density chosen by operator and possibly identical to or different from the initial reference current density, is reached.
US09406950B2

A fuel cell module includes a first area where an exhaust gas combustor and a start-up combustor are provided, an annular second area around the first area and where a reformer and an evaporator are provided, and an annular third area around the second area and where a heat exchanger is provided. A circumscribed non-uniform flow suppression plate is provided along the minimum circumscribed circle which is tangent to outer surfaces of heat exchange pipes of the heat exchanger.
US09406946B2

Disclosed herein is a direct carbon fuel cell in which a coal fuel is oxidized electrochemically so as to create electrons to cause the electrons to generate electricity by a voltage difference between two electrodes. Specifically, a membrane-electrode assembly for operating a low rank coal fuel, a direct carbon fuel cell including the same, and a method of preparing the same are provided.
US09406936B2

A carbon material containing boron atom in an amount of 0.001 to 0.5 mass %, in which the average interplanar spacing (d002) of plane (002) is 0.337 nm or less. By observing optical structures in cross-section of formed bodies made of the carbon material, when areas are accumulated from a smallest structure in an ascending order, SOP represents an area of an optical structure whose accumulated area corresponds to 60% of the total area of all optical structures; when the structures are counted from a structure of a smallest aspect ratio in an ascending order, AROP represents the aspect ratio of the structure which ranks at the position of 60% in total number of all the structures; and when D50 represents an average particle diameter; SOP, AROP and D50 satisfy the following relationship: 1.5≦AROP≦6 and 0.2×D50≦(SOP×AROP)1/2<2×D50. Also disclosed is a secondary battery using the carbon material as an electrode material.
US09406933B2

A negative active material, a negative electrode and a lithium battery including the same, and a method of manufacturing the negative active material are disclosed. The negative active material includes a silicon-based alloy including Si, Al, and Cu. Since the silicon-based alloy includes AlCu and Al2Cu as inactive phases, the lifespan of a lithium battery may be increased.
US09406931B2

A positive active material and a lithium battery including the positive active material. The positive active material includes a large diameter active material and a small diameter active material, wherein the small diameter active material includes a Ni-based lithium-transition metal composite oxide and a coating layer including a Mn-containing compound on at least a portion of the surface thereof.
US09406929B2

A high-input and high-output battery having a large capacity while guaranteeing safety is provided. In a lithium ion battery having an electrode wound group in which a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator are wound and an electrolytic solution provided in a battery container, a discharge capacity of the battery being 30 Ah or more, the positive electrode has a current collector and a positive electrode composite applied to both surfaces of the current collector, and the positive electrode composite has following configuration. The positive electrode composite contains a mixed active material of layered lithium nickel manganese cobalt composite oxide (NMC) and spinel lithium manganese oxide (sp-Mn), a density of the positive electrode composite is 2.4 g/cm3 or more and 2.7 g/cm3 or less, and a porosity of the active electrode composite is 29.5% or more and 40.0% or less. Furthermore, a weight ratio (NMC/sp-Mn) of the mixed active materials is set to 10/90 or more and 60/40 or less.
US09406924B2

A nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes: an electrode assembly including positive and negative electrode plates; a nonaqueous electrolyte; an outer body; and a current interruption mechanism being provided on at least one of a conductive pathway between the positive electrode plate and a positive electrode external terminal and a conductive pathway between the negative electrode plate and a negative electrode external terminal. The nonaqueous electrolyte contains an overcharge inhibitor. The positive electrode active material layer has a specific surface area of 1.3 m2/g or less. The positive electrode active material layer has a total surface area of 41 m2/g or less with respect to the total mass of the overcharge inhibitor in the nonaqueous electrolyte. Thus the battery can increase a battery internal pressure inside the outer body in a short period of time to activate the current interruption mechanism to interrupt the conductive pathway if the battery is overcharged.
US09406922B2

Provided is a secondary battery including integrated anode and cathode leads and a method of manufacturing the same. An anode lead and a cathode lead of a secondary battery aligned to be parallel with respect to each other are encompassed by a single lead film. Thus, sealing may be easily implemented, lead film components may be managed as one component, and vibrations of an electrode lead may be prevented.
US09406920B2

A connector includes a housing for holding connector terminals and a side fitting slot located at a side of the housing. The side fitting slot is defined by an arm provided on the housing and receives a mating part to which the connector terminals are connected when the mating part is inserted in the side fitting slot.
US09406917B2

An apparatus may store at least one object including at least one top end and at least one bottom end. The apparatus may include a container configured to store the at least one object and a pouch containing a liquid. The pouch may be configured to substantially cover the at least one top end of the at least one object when stored inside the container. The pouch may be configured to contact the at least one top end of the at least one object and to open when contacted by contents expelled from the at least one object due to thermal runaway.
US09406905B2

An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a flexible substrate. The organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a first plastic layer. A first barrier layer is formed on the first plastic layer. A second plastic layer is formed on the first barrier layer. An organic light-emitting device layer is formed on the second plastic layer. A thin film encapsulating layer encapsulates the organic light-emitting device layer. The first barrier layer is patterned to correspond to an area where the organic light-emitting device layer is formed.
US09406860B2

A wafer level package structure for temperature sensing elements, which includes a wafer cover and a substrate. The wafer cover is formed of infrared penetrable material. The wafer cover has a plurality of package walls, and the plurality of package walls form a plurality of first grooves and a plurality of second grooves in the wafer cover. The substrate includes a plurality of chip areas, a plurality of soldering areas, and a plurality of pin areas. The plurality of chip areas are disposed a temperature sensing chip respectively and correspond to the plurality of first grooves respectively and the plurality of soldering areas solder with respect to the plurality of package walls, such that the plurality of chip areas and the plurality of first grooves form a plurality of vacuum sealed spaces respectively.