US07771417B2

A laser system that includes a diode pump source. A frequency doubled solid state visible laser is pumped by the diode pump source and produces a pulsed laser output with a train of pulses. Resources provide instructions for the creation of the pulsed output, with on and off times that provide for substantial confinement of thermal effects at a target site. This laser system results in tissue specific photoactivation (or TSP) without photocoagulation damage to any of the adjacent tissues and without causing full thickness retinal damage and the associated vision loss.
US07771413B2

A fluid delivery device for transdermal delivery of a fluid to a patient. The device comprises an envelope that may be applied to a patient's skin. The envelope comprises at least one diffusion layer coupled to at least one impermeable layer such that at least a chamber is defined therebetween. Other embodiments include internal diffusion layers, and thus possess additional chambers, as well. In one arrangement, an adhesive boundary layer permits the device to be removably secured to a patient and inhibits radial migration of fluid beyond the periphery of the device. In another arrangement, preferably, an anti-microbial layer is provided to inhibit the growth of microorganisms.
US07771412B2

An environmental seal for a fluid delivery device may include a 2-shot molded cap including a carrier and a low durometer silicone plug. The seal also may include a cap receptacle that applies compressive force to the plug displacing the plug material and forming a seal between the cap, the plug and the cap receptacle. A cannula may be slidably received in the plug and may move freely through the plug without compromising the seal.
US07771411B2

A method for delivering RF energy to living tissue includes the steps of extending a guidewire to a tissue treatment site in a body. A controllable stiffness catheter is provided with a stiffness device and a temperature-changing device. The stiffness device is in a stiff state below a given temperature and in a soft state above the given temperature. While supplying power to the temperature-changing device, the catheter is threaded along the guidewire up to the treatment site in the flexible state of the catheter. Power is removed from the temperature-changing device to change stiffness of the stiffness device to the stiff state without straightening the catheter. The RF energy supply device is physically contacted with the treatment site and RF energy is delivered to the treatment site from the RF energy supply device.
US07771410B2

Tube, in particular for the use in medical devices in the form of catheters for endoluminal operations, wherein in at least one portion of its wall there are obtained notches (either slits or grooves) such as to locally increase the flexibility of the tube. The notches are provided in at least one distal zone of said tube.
US07771409B2

Sinusitis and other disorders of the ear, nose and throat are diagnosed and/or treated using minimally invasive approaches with flexible or rigid instruments. Various methods and devices are used for remodeling or changing the shape, size or configuration of a sinus ostium or duct or other anatomical structure in the ear, nose or throat; implanting a device, cells or tissues; removing matter from the ear, nose or throat; delivering diagnostic or therapeutic substances or performing other diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Introducing devices (e.g., guide catheters, tubes, guidewires, elongate probes, other elongate members) may be used to facilitate insertion of working devices (e.g. catheters e.g. balloon catheters, guidewires, tissue cutting or remodeling devices, devices for implanting elements like stents, electrosurgical devices, energy emitting devices, devices for delivering diagnostic or therapeutic agents, substance delivery implants, scopes etc.) into the paranasal sinuses or other structures in the ear, nose or throat. Specific devices (e.g., tubular guides, guidewires, balloon catheters, tubular sheaths) are provided as are methods for manufacturing and using such devices to treat disorders of the ear, nose or throat.
US07771405B2

An absorbent article including an inner cover sheet, an outer cover sheet, and an absorbent core disposed between the inner coversheet and the outer coversheet, said article further including at least one disposal fastener, the disposal fastener having a fastening element adapted to fasten to at least a portion of the outer coversheet which allows the article to be secured in a configuration that provides a convenient disposal after the article has been used, the disposal fastener further including a pull-tab, the article further including a pocket formed by at least one of the inner cover sheet and the outer cover sheet, one end of said disposal fastener being attached to the one of the inner cover sheet and the outer cover sheet at a location within the pocket and the pull-tab protrudes from the pocket so that the disposal fastener can be pulled out from the pocket.
US07771404B2

An absorbent article including a cover layer, a barrier layer and an absorbent system arranged between the cover layer and the barrier layer, the absorbent article being drapeable and possessing the absorbency attributes required of a sanitary napkin.
US07771398B2

The present invention provides a delivery device comprising a fluid cartridge holder, housing and a piston drive mechanism that comprises a hollow piston rod and a drive-shaft. The hollow piston rod has an internal thread that mates with the external thread of the drive-shaft, forming a thread connection and being axially restrained in the proximal direction relative to the housing. The drive mechanism is in turn connected to the housing via a one way ratchet such that the piston rod is prevented from moving in the proximal direction.
US07771392B2

A drug delivery device drive that includes a single shape memory alloy wire actuator to advance a lead screw via a ratcheting mechanism and method thereof are disclosed. In one embodiment, a shape memory alloy wire is operably connected to one of a pair of ratchet wheels and configured to drive incrementally the rotation of the connected ratchet wheel via a contraction, which in turn drives the rotation of the other ratchet wheel about a rotational axis which moves a lead screw and advances a plunger to dispense a liquid drug from a drug container. A drug delivery device using the shape memory alloy wire actuator in combination with the ratcheting mechanism to incrementally rotate a shaft, a lead screw or a sleeve provides for a more compact an less complicated design.
US07771390B2

Administration by injection or infusion to patients of an injectable liquid for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes is provided by a syringe adapter connectable with an automatic syringe pump and a syringe containing contents to be dispensed. The syringe adapter includes an adapter body receivable by the syringe pump, a syringe retainer for retaining the syringe, and a syringe driver for agitating the contents of the syringe. More particularly the invention relates to an adapter connectable with a syringe pump and methods for delivery of an injectable liquid using such adapter. By connecting an adapter according to the invention to a syringe and a syringe pump, rotation of the syringe is achieved and homogeneity of the injectable is preserved. Particularly, the injectable liquid is an ultrasound contrast agent comprising an aqueous dispersion of gas-filled microbubbles or of particulate matter.
US07771386B2

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing care to a patient, comprising a patient care device having a number of configuration databases stored in a memory in the device. Each configuration database preferably includes protocols, operating limits, rule sets and/or operating features that collectively define an operating environment, or personality, of the device. Selection of a specific configuration database preferably is based at least in part upon patient-specific information obtained from any location in a distributed hospital network. Examples of such patient-specific information include patient age or size, patient medical characteristics, a location of the patient or a location of the care device. In a preferred embodiment, programming a patient care device to deliver a drug to a patient entails activating a configuration database and scanning a machine-readable drug label identifying a particular protocol stored in the activated database. The selected protocol includes default parameters for delivering the drug, and the label optionally includes instructions for deviating from the default protocol.
US07771374B2

A method and apparatus are disclosed for enhancing the absorption of light in targeted skin structures and for the inhibition of pain transmission during light based treatments of the skin. After applying a vacuum to a vacuum chamber placed on a skin target and modulating the applied vacuum, the concentration of blood and/or blood vessels is increased within a predetermined depth below the skin surface of the skin target. Optical energy associated with light directed in a direction substantially normal to a skin surface adjoining the skin target is absorbed within the predetermined depth. The apparatus is suitable for treating vascular lesions with a reduced treatment energy density level than that of the prior art and for evacuating condensed vapors produced during the cooling of skin. The vacuum chamber may also have a skin flattening transmitting element which inhibits pain transmission upon applying a sufficiently high vacuum.
US07771363B2

The present invention provides a new mechanical sensor approach to maneuvering catheters and other cardiac devices into blood outlets, with particular application to maneuvering cardiac devices into the coronary sinus and beyond. Additionally, the inventive sensing device provides assessment of the viability of branching veins and other potential device sites, such as within the coronary venous system.
US07771360B2

A breast scanning system scans a breast of a patient with transducer arrays that transmit and receive ultrasound signals in a bath containing a medium, such as a liquid. A table is disposable over the bath to receive the patient thereon, and has an aperture formed in the table and positionable over the bath to receive the breast of the patient pendent therethrough and into the bath. The table is linearly vertically displaceable with respect to the bath. The system includes a preconditioning tank to precondition the liquid prior to being introduced into the bath. The bath includes means for securing the breast within the bath.
US07771352B2

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for measuring an analyte in a host. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for transcutaneous and subcutaneous measurement of glucose in a host.
US07771336B2

In a variable cut-off length type rotary printing machine, to perform processes such as a process of folding a cut-off sheet with a high degree of accuracy, a folding machine includes a cut-off unit capable of varying and cutting a cut-off length of a web fed from a printing machine of the rotary printing machine, and a processor (such as a folder, etc.) for processing a sheet 10a cut off by the cut-off unit. Between the cut-off unit 50 and the processor, the folding machine further includes a first belt conveyor for conveying the sheet at a speed equal to the web, and a second belt conveyor for receiving the sheet from the first belt conveyor at a speed approximately equal to the sheet conveying speed of the first belt conveyor, then varying the conveying speed to a speed approximately equal to the sheet conveying speed of the processor, and delivering the sheet to processor.
US07771335B2

An apparatus for cutting and folding printed products is provided. The apparatus includes a perforator, a first cutting device creating first slits in the web, a second cutting device creating second slits in the web longitudinally offset from the first slits so as to form a signature with a staggered edge, and a folder delta-folding the signature so that the staggered edge engages slots in the signature, the slots created by the perforator. A method of folding a printed product and a signature are also provided. Lead edges can be more easily prevented from dislodging and dog-earing and skewing can be minimized.
US07771334B2

A method and apparatus for assembling a plurality of independently formed solid components is provided thereby forming a single delivery vehicle for a pharmaceutical or pharmaceutical-like product. The solid components can be held and fed to the apparatus via a plurality of magazines. Pusher rods and the like can be used for positioning each of the solid components. Where the components are connected via a bonding liquid, a sprayer is provided and compression pins or the like press the components with the bonding liquid together to form the final product. A rivet or other connection structure can also be used and driven through holes in each of the solid components to form the final product.
US07771323B1

An exercise apparatus includes a leg exercise arm assembly pivotally attached to a frame or user support assembly. A user can perform leg extension exercises and leg curl exercises with the leg exercise arm assembly. The exercise apparatus also includes a wrist roller assembly that is also pivotally attached to the user support assembly, frame, or leg exercise arm assembly. The wrist roller assembly can be locked into at least one storage position that allows a user to perform leg extension and leg curl exercises without interference from the wrist roller assembly and locked into at least one use position that allows a user to perform wrist rolling exercises. The wrist roller assembly includes a flexible line that can be connected to a high station free flexible line end, a mid section free flexible line end, or a low section free flexible line end based on the ratio of resistance desired.
US07771321B2

A system for managing exercise of an animal such as a human being so that the motion of the animal is induced with an appropriate scale and rhythm in accordance with the physiological conditions of the animal is provided. According to the exercise management system (1) of the present invention, during the process where the user's walking motion is induced by an operation of a walking motion induction device (20), a walking ratio (k) and a physiological variable such as consumed energy are measured. Then, the walking ratio (k) in the state where the physiological variable attains an appropriate value in consideration of activation of physical functions or reduction of body load of the user is set as a recommended walking ratio (k0). This ensures that the recommended walking ratio (k0) is set as appropriate in consideration of activation of the physical functions of the user or the like. As the walking motion is induced based on this recommended walking ratio (k0) by the walking motion induction device (20), the induction scale and rhythm can be controlled appropriately so that the step width (q) and the walking rate (p) are appropriate in consideration of activation of the physical functions of the user or the like.
US07771315B2

A method for the control of an automatic transmission during a change of ratio procedure, wherein the synchronous speed of rotation (SD) for the new transmission gear-stage lies under the no-load speed of rotation (LD) of a drive motor which can be connected to the transmission and wherein a gear-stage engagement actuator for the engagement of a new transmission gear-stage is then activated, when the transmission input speed of rotation (GED) has reached a predetermined speed of rotation window (F), which window also encompasses the synchronous speed of rotation (SD). In order to make such a shifting method more comfortable than previously, the invented method deviates from that procedure based on downshifting, which has been customary up to this time and rather proceeds in a upshifting mode.
US07771305B1

The transmission has a plurality of members that can be utilized in powertrains to provide at least ten forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio. The transmission includes four planetary gear sets, six torque-transmitting devices, and two fixed interconnections. The powertrain includes an engine and torque converter that is continuously connected to one of the planetary gear members and an output member that is continuously connected with another one of the planetary gear members. The six torque-transmitting devices provide interconnections between various gear members, the transmission housing and each other, and are operated in combinations of three to establish at least ten forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio.
US07771302B2

An apparatus for indicating an automotive power transmission belt dynamic is provided. The apparatus includes a belt tensioner including a support housing and an arm rotatably connected to the support housing. A pulley is carried by the arm, the pulley having a belt-engaging surface. A spring is connected to the arm and support housing to bias the arm to pivot relative to the support housing. A sensor is responsive to an input associated with a position of the arm relative to the sensor, the sensor providing an indication in response to receipt of the input. A signaling device is configured to provide a signal to a user in response to the indication provided by the sensor.
US07771299B2

A V-belt continuously variable transmission (CVT) for a straddle-type vehicle includes a measurement plate for a rotational speed sensor for detecting a rotational speed of a primary sheave shaft to control a speed change ratio. The measurement plate is disposed on an opposite end of the primary sheave shaft, to one end of which a driving force of an engine is input, with respect to a primary sheave.
US07771298B2

An improved expandable broadhead with rear deploying blades. The rear deploying blades deploy reliably upon impact of the blades with a target. The expandable broadhead resists deflection by the target regardless of the angle of entry. Consequently, the present expandable broadhead maximizes kinetic energy on impact and increases the probability of substantial penetration into the target.
US07771293B1

The present invention provides a shooting aid for basketball players including a device worn by a basketball player to aid the player's shooting forearm to be kept parallel to the centerline of the body during the shooting motion without any apparatus restraints. The centerline of the body is an imaginary line dividing the player vertically down the middle of his or her body. The shooting aid comprises a sleeve adapted to fit around the forearm or wrist of the shooting arm of the basketball player. The sleeve carries a light that brightly illuminates in response to the forearm of the shooter being in a vertical position.
US07771288B2

A golf club head is disclosed. The golf club head has a body member and a face insert formed of different materials. The body material is relatively soft and ductile to allow the club to be customized, and the face insert member is relatively hard and wear resistant to ensure that the face groove geometry remains substantially unaltered through use.
US07771287B2

A support and alignment implement for supporting an article such as a golf club in an upright or elevated position comprises of a unibody one piece triangular shaped structure, each end of the “u” shaped portion of the unibody having a round saucer shaped foot to contacts the ground. A pair of arms extend from the center portion that form a tripod and acts as leaf springs to create spring pressure. The legs get crossed over each other to create an opposing force on two heads located at the top of the unibody structure. These two heads are held closed and in contact with one another. One head contains a multi-side locking chamber, which in this design is a square slot that traps the shaft of the club without clamping it. The other head has a flat surface which with the leaf spring pressure of the opposing arms acts like a door that closes the opening of the square slot. In operation the operator squeezes the leaf spring arms towards each other and inserts the golf shaft into the slot, then releases the arms to allow the door to trap the club shaft into the square slot. The round feet are placed on the ground with the golf club in an upright position on the green for support or any where on the course for alignment.
US07771285B2

A golf club head having a body and a strike face for striking a golf ball. The strike face is arranged at the front of the body, and a projection projecting forwardly of the body at one side of the strike face. In use, the projection extends in the same direction as a strike direction of the strike face. The golf club head further comprises an alignment marking which extends along an upper surface of the projection.
US07771283B2

A propeller shaft assembly includes a substantially cylindrical hollow propeller shaft, a stub shaft and a constant velocity joint having inner race and an outer race drivingly interconnected by a plurality of balls. The stub shaft has a first end fixed to the propeller shaft and a second end drivingly coupled to the inner race. The second end includes a portion positioned adjacent to the inner race that defines an outer diameter greater than an outer diameter defined by the interface between the inner race and the plurality of balls.
US07771277B2

An apparatus, system and method for electronically transferring funds at a gaming device. The gaming device has a ticketing system that includes a ticket reader. The system also includes an electronic fund transfer (“EFT”) kiosk that enables a patron, using a credit, debit, smart, casino or combination type card to enter a request for funds. The kiosk has a controller that sends a request out over a banking network for approval or denial. If approved, the kiosk includes a ticket printer that prints a ticket having a bar coded fund transfer. The player can use the ticket at one of a variety of gaming devices to receive game credits or redeem the ticket for cash.
US07771276B2

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to wagering games and, more particularly, to a gaming network linked to a plurality of gaming machines. The gaming network has a plurality of servers dedicated to providing a shared game to a plurality of gaming terminals. The shared game may be either competitive or collaborative between players and may be a combination of both competitive and collaborative game play. The dedicated game servers are connected to a core support network that has commonly used computer resources. The communication link between the gaming terminals and servers are supported by a communication server with message directing software that allows events that occur at individual gaming terminals to be broadcast to all other gaming terminals and servers associated with that shared gaming events.
US07771275B2

A method according to some embodiments of the present invention provides for a game server to receive policy requirements of a user for a gambling loss insurance policy from a terminal. The game server determines a premium amount based on the policy requirements of the user and transmits information concerning the premium amount to the user.
US07771271B2

In accordance with one or more embodiments, an information deriving device is associated with at least one gaming device. The information deriving device is operable to derive information about occurrences (e.g., payouts obtained, wagers placed, reactions of player, balance of credit meter, etc.) at the gaming device, without cooperation of the gaming device.
US07771259B2

A frame apparatus capable of being flush mounted relative to a wall, ceiling or floor surface, is made up by joining linear frame sections each providing interconnected elements formed by an extrusion process. A first planar element is spaced apart from a second planar element and positioned for abutting a common surface. A first channel element is formed between the first and second planar elements. A third planar element is positioned normal to the first and second planar elements and terminates with a rib directed toward the first planar element. When mounted onto studs in a building structure, wall putty or mud may be placed into a space between the wall panels and the third planar element and with rib elements protruding from the third planar element, the mud is captured in place forming a smooth interface between the frame assembly and the surrounding wall surfaces.
US07771254B2

An apparatus (10) for the production of meat products includes a support structure (12). A container (14) is mounted on the support structure (12). A conveyor (20) has a first, upstream end (20.1) in communication with the container (14) and a second, downstream end (20.2) arranged downstream of the first end (20.2) and outside the container (14). A comb (34) is arranged downstream of the second end (20.2) of the conveyor (20) for working meat pieces conveyed to the comb (34) by the conveyor (20). The comb (34) is operable independently of the conveyor (20). A processing station (40) is arranged downstream of the comb (34), the processing station (40), together with the comb (34), processing the meat to obtain a desired finished product.
US07771252B2

The invention relates to a device (2) for grinding and/or finishing a workpiece (8) mounted on and/or in a workpiece mounting (22, 28). The workpiece (8) and the workpiece mounting (22, 28) may be set in an oscillating movement (86) by means of a drive device (60, 108) and form an oscillating unit (96) or part of an oscillating unit (96), at least one balancer unit (94) being provided which is driven to run counter to the oscillating movement (86) of the oscillating unit (96).
US07771251B2

The polishing pad (104) is useful for polishing at least one of magnetic, optical and semiconductor substrates (112) in the presence of a polishing medium (120). The polishing pad (104) includes a three-dimensional network of interconnected unit cells (225). The interconnected unit cells (225) are reticulated for allowing fluid flow and removal of polishing debris. A plurality of polishing elements (208, 308 and 408) form the three-dimensional network of interconnected unit cells (225). The polishing elements (208, 308 and 408) have a first end connected to a first adjacent polishing element at a first junction (209, 309 and 409) and a second end connected to a second adjacent polishing element at a second junction (209, 309 and 409) and having a cross-sectional area (222, 322 and 422) that remains within 30% between the first and the second junctions (209, 309 and 409). The polishing surface (200, 300 and 400) formed from the plurality of polishing elements (208, 308 and 408) remains consistent for multiple polishing operations.
US07771242B2

An electrical connector (100) includes an insulative housing and a plurality of contacts (3) retained in the insulative housing. The insulative housing includes a number of receiving slots (110) and a number of retaining slots (22) communicating with each other along a front-to-back direction. Each contact (3) has a securing portion (30) engaging with the retaining slot (22), a contact portion (33) extending forwardly into the receiving slot (110) from the securing portion (30), and a tail portion (34) extending out of the insulative housing from the securing portion (30). The retaining slot (22) defines a first inclined face (220) at an inner wall thereof. The securing portion (30) has a second inclined face (300) corresponding to the first inclined face (220) and abutting against the first inclined face (220).
US07771241B2

Terminal block for connecting electric wires comprising an insulating body and a conducting part housed inside it and associated with means for retaining the free end of the electric wire, said conducting part having a U-shaped form.
US07771239B1

A power receptacle device has a stationary base and at least one rotating base. The at least one rotating base is mounted rotatably in the stationary base and has at least one socket. The at least one socket is covered when the rotating base is rotated to a position to prevent users from touching the at least one socket and getting electric shock. Further, because the at least one rotating base is rotatable, the at least one socket on the at least one rotating base is exposed and accessible when the at least one rotating base is turned out from the at least one rotating base.
US07771229B2

An electrical card connector assembly (100) comprising: a first electrical card connector (1); a second electrical card connector (2) disposed below the first electrical card connector; a third electrical card connector (3); a fourth electrical card connector (4) arranged abreast with the third electrical card connector; a PCB (5) defining an upper surface (50) and a lower surface (51), the upper and lower surface having a plurality of traces, respectively; wherein the combined first and second card connector are disposed on the upper surface (50) of the PCB and electrically connected with the corresponding traces of the upper surface, and the third and fourth electrical card connector are arranged abreast on the lower surface of the PCB (5) and electrically connecting with the corresponding traces of the lower surface (51).
US07771226B2

A structure for leading out a power code extended from a wiring board on which electronic components of an electronic apparatus are mounted, the structure includes: a first housing, accommodating the wiring board, and comprised of resin; a second housing, accommodating the first housing, and formed with an opening communicating an external space of the electronic apparatus; a regulating member, hanging up the power cord above the wiring board and guiding the power cord to the opening, and being monolithic with the first cover.
US07771225B1

An electronic module (100) includes a housing having a body portion and a mounting portion extending rearward from the body portion, a printed circuit board (3) accommodated in the housing, a cable (4) terminated to a rear portion of the printed circuit board and an ejector. The ejector includes a slider (61) slidably mounted to a channel defined in the mounting portion; an actuator (62) including a transversal beam across the mounting portion and two legs connected to opposite ends of the transversal beam and disposed outward of lateral sides of the mounting portion, said legs pivotally engaged with the mounting portion of the housing and linked to the slider; a pulling member (64) connected to the transversal beam of the actuator, with a tie (644) attached to the pulling member and wrapping the cable.
US07771224B2

An electrical connector (1) comprises a base (10) with a plurality of contacts (19) received therein, a cover (12) slidably mounted on the base (10), a protecting mechanism (14) comprises a cover plate (141) retained in the cover (12) and a bottom plate (142) retained in the base (10), a cam actuator (16) rotatably assembled to the base (10), the cover (12) and the protecting mechanism (14) for actuating the cover (12) to slid on the base (10), the base (10) comprises one or more block members (1011) extending upwardly, the bottom plate (142) defines a second through hole (1421), when assembled, the block member (1011) is positioned in the second through hole (1421) and the cam actuator (16) goes through the second through hole (1421).
US07771212B2

Bus bars to be contained in an electrical junction box are secured to insulation plates without caulking. An electrical junction box contains bus bars in a casing. The bus bars are disposed on an inner surface of the casing. Attaching pieces provided on the bus bars are inserted into and secured to receiving apertures provided in the casing. The attaching piece of each bus bar has a rectangular shape in cross section. Each receiving aperture in the casing is a circular aperture or a rectangular aperture. At least a part of an outer peripheral wall of each attaching piece contacts with an inner peripheral surface of each receiving aperture to restrain the attaching piece from moving in the aperture.
US07771198B2

A dental power instrument, in particular, an endodontic instrument, has an operative part (2) at one end and a handle (3) at the opposite end. The handle (3) of the dental instrument is provided with a rotary drive (4) which, when mounted in the head (5) of a handpiece, can directly engage with a rotary drive (4′) upstream of the head. The rotary drive (4) can be inserted and withdrawn independently of the rotary drive (4′) associated with the head of the handpiece, and rotates in the same direction as the rotary drive (4′) associated with the handpiece. Also provided is a handpiece head (5) and a dispenser (30) for such dental power instruments.
US07771196B2

An orthodontic appliance for distalizing opposed molars (2, 3) of the upper jaw of a patient, in which the device (4) has a bracing plate (5), which in its intended use rests on the palate of the patient, and which can be secured, via wire elements (6-9) disposed on the bracing plate (5), to opposed teeth (10-13) that are located anteriorly of the molars (2, 3) to be distalized. The appliance (4), with which the molars (2, 3) to be distalized can be moved individually backward as needed, includes a one-piece bracing plate (5), on the posterior end (14) of which two force modules (15, 16), spaced laterally apart from one another and adjustable independently of one another, are connected to the bracing plate, each being connectable via a respective elastic spring arm (17, 18) to one of the molars (2, 3) to be distalized.
US07771192B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a combustion apparatus equipped with a pilot burner and a main burner capable of establishing a stable combustion state without involving generation of CO and unburned substances at the main burner even when the supply of a gas fuel to the pilot burner is stopped. A combustion apparatus equipped with a pilot burner and a main burner according to the present invention is characterized in that, when the main burner is in a combustion state, the amount of air supplied to the pilot burner can be adjusted. Here, the amount of air supplied to the pilot burner is an amount allowing the pilot burner to be cooled.
US07771187B2

An embossed carrier tape manufacturing apparatus includes features for integrating with other processing equipment so that other processes such as forming, filling, and sealing the tape can be performed sequentially in one integrated process. The apparatus includes retractable contact spot heaters for heating the tape prior to embossing, along with a unique heat shield arrangement that is interposable between the heaters and the tape so that the process may be paused. Also, a synchronizing apparatus is integrated so that the carrier tape embossing process may be automatically paused for adjusting to the input rate of other carrier tape processing apparatus.
US07771185B2

A straightening apparatus for straightening carpet prior to laying the carpet on a floor surface. The apparatus includes an entry conveyor from which carpet is unrolled and fed into a heating section. In the heating section, the carpet is heated sufficient to soften backing material on the carpet. The heated carpet is then fed into a heated straightening section where longitudinal forces are applied while the backing is still soft so that a pattern in the carpet is straightened and held in the straightened position until the carpet has cooled somewhat. The apparatus further includes a cooling section for cooling of the carpet, after which the carpet is rolled back up on an exit conveyor.
US07771184B2

The present invention relates to a press for encapsulating electronic components, comprising: two displaceable mold parts (5,6), feed means for encapsulating material, and a drive mechanism connecting onto the mold parts. In a first embodiment the drive mechanism is provided with a fluid bed (14) and a first fluid feed (15) whereby their connection can be interrupted by a displacer (16). In a further embodiment a displacer (28) is provided in the feed channel (26) to place the encapsulating material (25) under pressure. Furthermore, the present invention relates to methods for encapsulating electronic components with encapsulating material in such presses.
US07771175B2

A link mechanism provided between a lug plate and a cam plate in a variable displacement compressor includes a first transmitting portion for transmitting rotation of a lug plate to a cam plate and a second transmitting portion for transmitting compression reactive force from the cam plate to the lug plate, which are arranged along a rotational direction of the drive shaft. The first transmitting portion includes a first transmitting surface and a first receiving surface. The link mechanism also includes a movement restrictor arranged between the first and second transmitting portions. The movement restrictor includes a restricting surface formed in the lug plate and a restricted surface formed in the cam plate and restricts the first receiving surface to move away from the first transmitting surface in the rotational direction of the drive shaft in such a manner that the restricted surface comes into contact with the restricting surface.
US07771173B2

A main rotor blade assembly includes a tip cap removably mountable to an outboard end section of a forward tip spar section and an aft tip spar section.
US07771172B2

A quick assembly blade for a ceiling fan includes a blade frame, one stop member, a blade and a press board. The blade frame has a pan-shaped body fixed with three projecting bases protruding upward. The blade and the press board are respectively and correspondingly bored with insert holes and engage holes to be respectively fitted on the projecting bases. The stop member is secured on one of the projecting bases and inserted through a through hole of said blade, having its free end formed with a stop portion received in a receiving hole of said press board and stuck on the inner wall of the receiving hole. When the press board is moved backward horizontally, the blade can be quickly and stably assembled on the blade frame, and the stop member is concealed in the receiving hole not exposed to outside, able to elevate the integral beauty of the ceiling fan.
US07771163B2

Disk wheel (10) of a rotor of a turbomachine of the type equipped with a series of blades (12) integral with a central annular portion (14) which is fitted on a shaft (20) of the turbomachine, the disk wheel comprises at least a first insertable portion (18) of the female or male type situated close to a base end of the central annular portion (14), which is suitable for being coupled with at least a corresponding second insertable portion (38) of the male or female type integral with the shaft (20) so as to increase the reliability of the disk wheel (10) itself.
US07771162B2

Various cambered vanes are constructed for use within a vaned turbocharger and include an inner airfoil surface oriented adjacent a turbine wheel, and an outer airfoil surface oriented opposite the inner airfoil surface. The inner and outer airfoil surfaces define a vane airfoil thickness. A cambered vane leading edge or nose is positioned along a first inner and outer airfoil surface junction, and a vane trailing edge positioned along a second inner and outer surface junction. The vane inner and outer airfoil surfaces are specially configured to provide a vane camberline having a curved section, which can. provide for improved gas flow distribution, thereby increasing the effective operating range of the turbocharger.
US07771158B2

An airfoil shaped tower the size of a skyscraper for the production of electrical power using turbines. The turbines are located at the base of the tower and are fed by ambient air. Power to turn the turbines comes from the pressure drop generated by the wind moving over a changing surface of the airfoil. (Bernoulli's Equation). The areas of negative pressure on the exterior surface are covered by a plurality of bleeder vents that conduct air from the high-pressure (ambient air) interior to the low-pressure exterior. The invention is further improved by the construction of several towers in close proximity. Adjacent towers augment the air velocity thus increasing the pressure differential. The power of the turbines is greatly increased because power is proportional to the effective wind velocity cubed.
US07771145B2

There is provided a method for machining a deep hole, which enables prevention of scattering of a coolant and efficient discharge of shavings.The deep hole machining method includes: feeding a spindle to a deep hole machining start position while jetting a coolant toward a workpiece from an external normal pressure coolant supply line; closing the external normal pressure coolant supply line and opening a spindle normal pressure coolant supply line at the start of machining of a deep hole, and machining the deep hole to a predetermined intermediate depth while supplying a coolant to a machining point; and closing the spindle normal pressure coolant supply line and opening a high-pressure coolant supply line when the depth of the hole machined has reached the intermediate depth, and machining the deep hole to the final depth while supplying a high-pressure coolant to a machining point.
US07771137B2

A connecting structure includes a hollow member or a half hollow member including two side portions opposed apart to each other; a collar; and a bolt. The collar includes two contact surfaces at both ends of the collar. The two contact surfaces are adapted to respectively abut on the two side portions between the two side portions. At least one of the two contact surfaces is formed with a receiving portion for caulking. Moreover, the collar is formed with a bolt-hole passing through the two contact surfaces. The collar is disposed between the two side portions, and is caulked with the hollow member or half hollow member at a caulked portion formed from at least one of the two side portions toward the receiving portion. The bolt is adapted to pass through the two side portions and the bolt-hole to connect the hollow member or half hollow member with another member.
US07771133B2

An apparatus being connectable to a printing apparatus and an information processing apparatus, comprising, a reception unit adapted to receive identification information used to identify the printing apparatus and used to specify a printer driver in the information processing apparatus, from the printing apparatus after connection to the printing apparatus, a storage unit adapted to store the identification information received by said reception unit, a transmission unit adapted to transmit the identification information stored in said storage unit to the information processing apparatus after connection to the information processing apparatus, a second reception unit adapted to receive print data generated in the information processing apparatus using a printer driver specified based on the identification information, from that information processing apparatus, and a second transmission unit adapted to transmit the print data received by said reception unit to the printing apparatus.
US07771127B2

Bearing assembly (1) for supporting a transmission shaft (2) in a housing (3), comprising an axially non-locating bearing (5) and a pair of angular contact bearings (7,8) which locate the shaft (2) against movement in axial direction (AA′), whereby the shaft (2) is subjected to radial and/or axial load forces (Frad,Fax), characterized in that the housing (2) is adapted in order to obtain the desired stiffness for each of the two angular contact bearings (7,8), whereby a load sharing between said two bearings (7,8) is induced.
US07771126B2

A bearing hanger assembly for supporting a shaft is disclosed which includes a support plate having front and rear surfaces and a shaft aperture, a damper plate having front and rear surfaces and a shaft aperture, and a damper element disposed between the front surface of the support plate and the rear surface of the damper plate. The damper element has a bearing aperture axially aligned with the shaft apertures of the support plate and damper plate, and is adapted to translate relative to the damper plate and support plate to accommodate radial movement of a shaft supported in the bearing aperture.
US07771123B2

Connection device (100) for connecting a contact rolling bearing (1) to an external body (7), the connection device (100) presenting a peripheral connecting outline (5), which is obtained around a race (3) of the contact rolling bearing, and a complementary connecting outline (6), which is obtained inside the external body (7), and which presents a shape such as to complement the connecting peripheral outline (5) in order to render angularly integral in relation to each other the external body (7) and the first race (3), the connecting peripheral outline (5) and the complementary connecting outline (6) both presenting a radius (R) which is of variable angular dimensions with continuity on a plane which is transverse to the rotation axis (A), and are both provided, in relation to the rotation axis A, with at least one respective convex portion (51).
US07771113B2

A sensor diagnostic method, such as to determine rationality of one of three temperature sensors used in an exhaust aftertreatment system, includes determining the temperature difference between the first and second sensor, determining the temperature difference between the second and third sensor, determining whether the temperature differences are within an acceptable threshold range and comparing the two temperature differences to determine which sensor is in error, if any.
US07771109B2

A lamp for a light string has a socket, multiple electric cords, an insulating partition, a leaf spring and a bulb assembly. The electric cords are mounted in the socket and have electrodes. The insulating partition is mounted in the socket and has a cavity and at least one stopper formed in the cavity. The leaf spring is mounted in the insulating partition, is V shaped, is held in place by the stopper and protrudes through a top of the insulating partition to selectively and respectively contact the electrodes. The bulb assembly is removably plugged into the socket and has a separator. The separator pushes the leaf spring into the insulating partition to stop the leaf spring from contacting the electrodes. When the bulb assembly is removed from the socket, the leaf spring returns to an original shape by resilience to contact the electrodes.
US07771108B2

The planar lighting device includes a light guide plate including two symmetrical, inclined planes increasingly distanced from the light exit plane with the increasing distance from the light entrance planes toward the center, a curved portion joining the inclined planes, and scattering particles dispersed therein; light sources; a housing; a securing unit securing the light sources and light guide plate to keep their distance constant, and a sliding mechanism allowing the securing unit to slide. Distance between the light entrance planes, thicknesses at the light entrance planes and at the central curved portion, its radius of curvature and taper of the inclined planes are all held within respective given ranges as well as scattering particle diameter and density, light use efficiency and middle-high ratio of the brightness distribution.
US07771107B2

A backlight module structure and a backlight module incorporating the structure are provided. The backlight module includes a back plate and at least one light source device. The back plate includes a base and a plurality of projections which are substantially parallel to each other. The projections are disposed on the base and spaced apart from each other to define at least one slot and be placed at a specific height (the first height) relative to the base. The light source device is adapted to fit into the slot. The light source device includes a substrate and a plurality of light sources which are disposed on the substrate and are placed at another specific height (the second height) relative to the base. The first height is substantially equal to or higher than the second height.
US07771098B2

A multi-primary color display has a backlight source and pixels. Each pixel has at least four sub pixels, which display red primary color, green primary color, blue primary color and a fourth primary color, respectively. At the peak position of the fourth primary color located in the wavelength range between 550 nm˜600 nm, the relative luminance ratio of the fourth primary color to the green primary color is greater than or equal to 0.5. When the ratio of the relative luminance meets the requirement and the relative luminance of a newly added primary color is greater than a certain value, the colors beyond the three-primary color gamut, which includes natural colors and other colors outside the natural color gamut, can be reproduced.
US07771084B2

A light emitting system is disclosed, including a light generator, a complex lens and an activating unit. The light generator provides a light beam emitted in a first direction in parallel to an optic axis. The complex lens, disposed on a path of the light beam, includes a plurality of micro structures for refracting the light beam. The activating unit includes an activating member coupled to the complex lens. The activating member activates the complex lens with an activation frequency to reciprocally move in a second direction alternate to the first direction. By the disposition of the complex lens, the energy of the light beam is uniformly distributed. Additionally, speckle produced by the light beam is reciprocally moved within an area by the activating unit, creating a photogene reaction, to successfully eliminate existence of the speckle.
US07771083B2

Retrofitting lighting fixtures (e.g., HID based lighting fixtures) using a pin mounted PL style fluorescent based energy efficient light assembly and methods of installing retrofitting lighting fixtures are disclosed.
US07771078B2

There is provided a lamp fixing holder. A lamp fixing holder for fixes a lamp to a receiving container. The lamp provides a liquid crystal display panel with light. The lamp includes a first portion of a face and a second portion of the face. The light emitted from the first portion of the face advances toward the liquid crystal display panel. The lamp fixing holder comprises a lamp fixing body and a fixing member. The lamp fixing body holds a third portion of the face of the lamp. The second portion includes the third portion. The fixing member fixes the lamp fixing body to the receiving container. The lamp fixing holder according to the present invention fixes the lamp so that the lamp does not sway, while minimizing an amount of light that is shielded by the lamp fixing holder.
US07771071B2

Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a thermally controlled optical filter comprises a frame coupled to an etalon where the frame includes a resistive thermal device disposed on the frame to obtain thermal measurements of the etalon during operation. The frame may be generally L-shaped or generally square-shaped. The frame may include a fillet that is generally planar, generally beveled or trapezoidal, or generally circular in shape. A heater may be additionally disposed on the frame. The etalon and frame subassembly may be bonded to a micro hot plate that is capable of heating the etalon to an operational temperature.
US07771067B2

An ultracompact, lightweight, reflective telescope is described which has no loss due to central obscuration for a beam being projected from its focus. The optical surfaces are composed of matched conics of rotation.
US07771065B2

An optical unit including a plate, an optical element, a fixing device for partially fixing the optical element against the plate, and a deforming device, located between the plate and the optical element, for applying a deforming force to the optical element to change a surface shape of the optical element. The deforming device includes poles for contacting a back face of the optical element, and actuators for driving the poles against the plate.
US07771060B2

A mirror element for a school bus is mounted to the front to provide wide angle viewing of the ground in front of and to the side of the bus. An upper portion of the mirror element which is generally dome shaped is treated to reduce glare.
US07771056B2

First and second reflectors are provided. The first reflector has a function of reflecting a light ray emitted from a light source and directing it toward an image display element and the second reflector has a function of changing the direction of a light ray so as to be reflected by the first reflector which light ray is emitted from the light source and not reflected by the first reflector. An outer periphery shape of the second reflector is changed correspondingly to an effective area of a first array lens 10.
US07771048B2

Devices, systems, and methods measure, diagnose, and/or treat one or both eyes of a patient. Adaptive optics systems (such as those having a deformable mirror) may be configured to an aspherical or multi-spherical presbyopia-mitigating prescriptive shape to allow objective and/or subjective measurements of a candidate prescription. A plurality of viewing distances allow subjective and/or objective evaluations of performance using a light spot or a test viewing image. Measurements of aberrations at selected viewing conditions (including distances and/or brightness) with correlating pupil sizes may also be provided. Wavefront measurement systems and methods may help position and isolate the eye from ambient light.
US07771041B2

A medium support member has a first surface for supporting a print medium and a second surface opposite to said first surface. The medium support member includes a plurality of recesses formed in the first surface and a plurality of protrusions formed in the second surface such that each recess has an associated protrusion opposite thereto. Each recess has an air passage connecting the recess with an interprotrusional space formed between the protrusions. A printing system includes a device for image-wise application of marking material to a print medium, base member and the medium support member. A method of forming the medium support member includes supporting a sheet of base material, pressing a first punch to form the recess and the protrusion in the sheet of base material, and pressing a second punch such that a perforation is applied into the sheet of base material.
US07771040B2

A transfer belt has a two-layer structure consisting of two inner belts formed of metal, such as stainless steel, and an outer belt formed of an elastic material, such as silicone rubber, being spread across the inner belts. The inner belts are endless and wound around transfer rollers, while the outer belt has its ends which are not joined with each other and form an opening therebetween. Distortion of the outer belt due to stress is designed to be suppressed by using a reinforcing member around the opening.
US07771038B2

A printing apparatus is provided. The printing apparatus forms a dot in a desired position of a printing sheet by ejecting an ink droplet from a nozzle. A static electricity eliminating mechanism eliminates static electricity generated on the printing sheet by a conductive portion that is arranged in a position to which the ink droplet is ejected from the nozzle or an upstream side of such position on a path through which the printing sheet passes. The conductive portion is formed in at least one of a sheet feed roller and an idle roller that carry the printing sheet. The sheet feed roller or the idle roller is formed by coating a predetermined insulating coating on a surface of a conductive rod-shaped member. The conductive portion is formed by stripping off a part of the coating on the sheet feed roller or the idle roller.
US07771037B2

An ink containing a hydrophobic colloid charged with a positive zeta potential when the pH of the ink is within a range of over 4 and under 6. Silicon or silicon compound can be limited from being eluted into the ink from a circuit board formed from a silicon wafer or the like. Additionally, silicon or silicon compound, if eluted into the ink can be prevented from being deposited on a resistance heater and causing “cogation”, or to prevent the silicon or silicon compound from being deposited in an ink channel and nozzle to clog the nozzle.
US07771035B2

The invention relates to a reservoir assembly for a pagewidth printhead cartridge. The cartridge has a fluid distribution molding with priming inlets in fluid communication with fluid channels for supplying printing fluid to a plurality of printhead integrated circuits. The reservoir assembly includes a reservoir compartment arranged in fluid communication with the fluid channels via a fluid outlet. The reservoir includes a porous absorbent material located inside the compartment to absorb printing fluid delivered via the priming inlets. The reservoir assembly also includes a bypass fluid path arranging the fluid outlet and a well region of the compartment in fluid communication, said bypass fluid path having a bypass valve to facilitate priming the reservoir compartment with printing fluid.
US07771034B2

The invention relates to a fluidic arrangement for a printer. The arrangement includes an ink tank for storing ink, and an ink distribution assembly in fluid communication with the ink tank for supplying printhead integrated circuits (ICs) positioned thereon with ink from the ink tank. The arrangement also includes a valve arranged in an ink line between the ink distribution assembly and the ink tank, said valve configured to isolate ink in the ink tank from the printhead ICs whenever the printer is powered down. Further included is a pump located downstream from the ink distribution assembly, and a sump arranged in fluid communication with the pump for receiving excess ink from the ink distribution assembly.
US07771028B2

An ink supply system for an inkjet printhead is provided. The system comprises: (a) an ink reservoir for storing ink; (b) an ink conduit providing fluid communication between the ink reservoir and the printhead; (c) a pressure device for positively pressurizing the ink reservoir; and (d) a valve in the ink conduit for controlling a supply of ink to the printhead.
US07771025B2

An inkjet printhead has a plurality of nozzle arrangements. Each nozzle arrangement comprises an ink chamber having an ink supply channel and an ink ejection port; an ink spreading prevention rim provided around and spaced apart from the ink ejection port to define a pit between the ink ejection port and the ink spreading prevention rim; and a thermal actuator mechanism configured to operatively eject ink from the chamber via the ejection port. The plurality of nozzle arrangement are grouped into pods, each pod having two rows of nozzle arrangements spatially staggered with respect to each other.
US07771020B2

An ink jet recording head includes a recording element substrate having an array of discharge ports and a side surface extending along an array direction of the discharge ports, and an opposite surface facing the side surface. A minimum distance is provided between the opposite surface and the side surface at least at a center portion of the side surface. Also, a distance greater than the minimum distance is provided between the opposite surface and the side surface at an end portion of the side surface in the array direction.
US07771019B2

A printer module includes a housing surrounding a frame. The housing defines footing holes. A print engine is housed within the housing. The print engine includes a pair of opposed print head assemblies for enabling double-sided printing on print media to be effected. Feet extend from the housing and are spaced apart to engage in respective footing holes defined in the housing of another printer module so that the printer modules can be stacked together.
US07771015B2

This invention provides for a nozzle arrangement for a printhead. The nozzle arrangement includes a substrate that defines an ink inlet passage. A nozzle plate is arranged on the substrate and defines an ink chamber in fluid communication with the ink inlet passage and a nozzle aperture in fluid communication with the ink chamber. A nozzle enclosure is arranged on the nozzle plate about the aperture and is configured to isolate the aperture from at least one adjacent aperture. The arrangement also includes a heater element suspended within the chamber and configured to produce ink cavitation when heated to eject a drop of ink via the nozzle aperture. The heater element is configured as a looped element so that no solid surface thereof is in the vicinity of a point of collapse of the produced cavitation.
US07771013B2

A pagewidth printhead assembly has an elongate support beam, an elongate shell at least partially enclosing and restraining the support beam and printhead integrated circuits mounted to the support beam so as to be substantially aligned with one another along the pagewidth. The shell has a laminated structure.
US07771010B2

An apparatus has a plurality of printing cartridges to reproduce an image, wherein each printing cartridge prints a portion of the image onto a substrate. The apparatus further includes a media transport for moving the substrate parallel to a first dimension. The printing cartridges are disposed on a carrier in a two dimensional pattern such that the plurality of printing cartridges are able to print on the substrate a line that is perpendicular to the first dimension. Fewer than half of the plurality printing cartridges that print segments of the line that abut each other are adjacent to each other along the first dimension.
US07771008B2

A printhead maintenance assembly for an inkjet printer includes a housing. A movable chassis is arranged in the housing. A belt is mounted on the chassis with a contact surface for sealing engagement with a printhead of the printer. The chassis and thus the belt are reciprocally movable between a first position in which the contact surface is engaged with the printhead and a second position in which the printhead is disengaged from the printhead. A pair of spools are mounted on the chassis. The belt is mounted about the spools, with one of the spools being a toothed drive spool and the other being an idler spool. A drive motor is mounted on the chassis. A drive gear driven by the motor is engaged with the drive spool so that the motor can drive the belt. The drive spool, drive gear and drive motor form part of a conveyor mechanism for conveying the belt in a direction substantially parallel with a longitudinal axis of the printhead. A cleaning station is mounted on the chassis and positioned so that the belt moves past the cleaning station to be cleaned.
US07771007B2

A printhead maintenance facility for an inkjet printer having a pagewidth printhead and a media path for feeding sheets of media substrate in a media feed direction wherein the pagewidth printhead has a nozzle face defining an elongate array of nozzles extending the printing width of the media substrate. The printhead maintenance facility has a wiper member extending the length of the nozzle array, a chassis for supporting the wiper member and a maintenance drive. The maintenance drive has a first actuator for moving the wiper member towards or away from the nozzle face, and a second actuator for rotating wiper member about an axis extending transverse to the media feed direction, wherein the first actuator and the second actuator are independently operable.
US07770967B2

A head rest device that improves reliability of detecting a head on the basis of a change in capacitance without complicating a wiring structure. A head rest device is provided with a head rest rear portion configured to be supported to a seat back, and a head rest front portion freely moving forward and backward between a fully-closed position coming close to the head rest rear portion and a fully-open position separated from the head rest rear portion. The head rest front portion is moved by an actuator. The head rest front portion has a sensor electrode structured such that its capacitance is changed as a head of an occupant approaches, and an ECU controlling the actuator so as to move the head rest front portion and detecting the approach of the head of the occupant on the basis of a change of the capacitance of the sensor electrode thereon.
US07770965B2

A chair having a base with a seating surface and a back support attached to the base for supporting a person seated on the seating surface. At least one attachment point is located on the chair for attaching an accessory for use in securing a person to the chair. The chair has a concealment means moveable between a concealment position for covering at least one attachment point and an uncovered position wherein the attachment point is accessible.
US07770962B1

Apparatus and method for an airfoil being disposed on the rear of an automobile or like vehicle. The angle of the airfoil is controlled by a bob weight connected to the airfoil through a series of linkages so that when the vehicle accelerates or de-accelerates, the angle of the airfoil is adjusted. The linkage between the airfoil and the bob weight controls the angle of attack of the airfoil so as to optimize vehicle down force on the tires so as to optimize performance.
US07770958B2

Disclosed is a soft top for a motor vehicle, comprising longitudinal struts that span a roof opening and a flexible roof skin which spans the width of the vehicle and is fastened to a windshield frame in the front and a bow spanning the width of the vehicle in the rear in the mounted state. One respective longitudinal strut that delimits the roof skin in the transversal direction of the vehicle is embodied as a lateral rail which can be connected at least to one lateral vehicle element. In order to put the soft top down, it can be folded in the transversal direction of the vehicle, the roof skin and the longitudinal struts being joined so as to form a pre-assembled unit.
US07770954B2

A vehicle interior assembly includes: a center console having front and rear terminal ends defining a longitudinal axis; and a sliding portion slidingly engaging the rear terminal end of the console such that the sliding portion is operable to slide in frontward and rearward directions substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the console to cover and uncover at least one storage bin, wherein the sliding portion includes a first portion extending under the rear terminal end of the console and a second portion extending over the rear terminal end of the console to cover and uncover the at least one storage bin.
US07770953B2

A vehicle console with an adjustable armrest has a single operation knob at a fore-end of an armrest to open and close a storage well and to adjust position of an armrest for individual vehicle drivers. The armrest includes a pair of latch members driven by the operation knob. When the operation knob is at the end of the downward rotation, the latch members are inserted into catch holes in the console box, and the armrest is fixed to the console box in a “lock mode”. When the operation knob is halfway from the “lock mode”, the latch members are drawn out of the catch holes but remain in grooves in the console box in a “semi-lock mode”, wherein the armrest can slide along the grooves but cannot open the storage well. When the operation knob is drawn up to the end of the upward direction, the latch members are drawn out of the grooves and the armrest is in a “unlock mode” and the storage well can open and close.
US07770952B2

A trash management apparatus in a vehicle includes a recessed portion, a moveable upper drawer, and a stationary lower bin. The drawer moves in one direction within the recessed portion to direct trash into the stationary lower bin. The drawer has a through-opening allowing trash to pass into the lower bin when the drawer is moved in the one direction, with the bin being removable via an access door in an exposed lateral surface of the center console. A sensor detects a presence or level of trash within the bin or the drawer, and an indicator illuminates when a predetermined amount or level of trash is detected. An actuator is alternately connected to the upper drawer to move the drawer in the one direction when a sensor determines that trash in the drawer exceeds a threshold level.
US07770949B2

An aircraft door mechanism includes a solenoid connected to a support assembly. The solenoid displaces the latch pin between a solenoid energized and a solenoid de-energized position. A catch assembly rotatably connected to the support assembly is positioned to engage a 3½ degree or less taper portion of the latch pin in the solenoid energized position. When the latch pin moves to the solenoid de-energized position, a latch bolt supported by the door rotates the catch assembly. The latch bolt includes a distal bulbous end which multiplies the force applied to the door to rotate the catch assembly. If the latch pin is extended, a substantially greater force is required to force the latch pin to the solenoid de-energized position owing to the reduced taper of the latch pin. Authorized door entry is therefore easier and unauthorized door entry is made more difficult.
US07770946B2

A door lock device for a vehicle includes a latch mechanism having a latch rotatable to pass a half-latch state to a full-latch state, a closer mechanism capable of forcedly turning the latch from the half-latch state to the full-latch state, and an actuator for driving the closer mechanism. A casing forming a part of the latch mechanism is secured to the door so as to turnably support the latch. An extending support part extending in a direction orthogonal to a turning axis of the latch is connectedly provided in the casing. The closer mechanism is adapted to be operated on a plane orthogonal to the turning axis of the latch, and is disposed between the actuator and the extending support part so as to be aligned with the latch mechanism. Thus, it is possible to construct the door lock device to be thin so as to be easily disposed in a door.
US07770935B2

A threaded joint for steel pipes comprises a pin (1) and a box (2) each having a threaded portion (3a or 3b) and an unthreaded metal-to-metal contact portion (4a or 4b) as contact surfaces which contact each other when the joint is fastened. The contact surfaces (3a and 4a and/or 3b and 4b) of at least one of the pin (1) and the box (2) are coated with a lower layer of a solid lubricating coating containing a solid lubricating powder (e.g., molybdenum disulfide, tungsten disulfide, or graphite) and a binder (e.g., an epoxy or other organic resin) and an upper layer of a solid corrosion protective coating formed by an organic resin which does not contain solid particles.
US07770931B2

A description is given of a handle (1) for in particular (cross-country) ski sticks and Nordic walking sticks, having a hand-retaining device (17), such as a hand loop or glove, which can be fastened in a releasable manner to the stick handle (1) via a coupling element (12) secured on the hand-retaining device (17), the stick handle (1) having a top end (22) and a bottom end (23), on or in which a stick tube can be, and/or is, fastened. A particularly straightforward releasable fastening arrangement which is stable, of reliable design and can also be utilized at low temperatures and in the presence of snow is made available by a retaining element (4) being provided on and/or in the stick handle (1), this retaining element having at least two lateral grooves (19) which are open essentially in opposite directions and, at least in certain regions, run essentially from top to bottom in respect of the stick handle (1), and by the coupling element (12) having, for the purpose of fastening on the retaining element (4), two corresponding protrusions which engage laterally in these grooves (19).
US07770927B2

A system for absorbing energy in a vehicle includes a pair of laterally spaced upper and lower side rails which extend along a longitudinal axis. The lower side rails are disposed below the upper side rails. An upper member extends transverse to the longitudinal axis and interconnects the upper side rails. A lower member extends transverse to the longitudinal axis and interconnects the lower side rails. The upper and lower members are each disposed to transmit energy from the upper and lower members through the respective upper and lower side rails. The upper and lower members are configured to simultaneously deform upon impact of the vehicle with an object and transfer a force generated from impacting the object to the upper and lower side rails, respectively.
US07770920B2

System for measuring the weight of an occupant in a vehicle seat having a bottom portion and a back portion at an angle to the bottom portion and for controlling a safety restraint system responsive thereto which includes a fluid-containing bladder mounted within or beneath an upper surface of the bottom portion of the seat and supported by a base of the seat, a pressure sensor operatively coupled to the bladder for generating a signal responsive to pressure of the fluid within the bladder caused by pressure applied to the upper surface of the seat, and a processor coupled to the pressure sensor for determining the weight of the occupant from the signal and generating a control signal for controlling the safety restraint system responsive to the weight determination. The weight of the occupant can be used to control components in the vehicle or the seat itself.
US07770917B2

Disclosed are embodiments of apparatus, methods, and systems for inflatable curtain venting. In one embodiment, an inflatable curtain airbag is tested using a 50th-percentile dummy. The inflatable curtain airbag comprises a vent opening positioned such that during the crash test, the head of the 50th-percentile dummy strikes the airbag at the location of the vent such that the exit of inflation gas through the vent is at least partially blocked. The same inflatable curtain airbag may then be used in a test involving a 5th-percentile dummy, in which case the head of the 5th-percentile dummy would not strike the airbag so as to block the vent, thereby allowing for venting of the airbag.
US07770912B2

A front wheel foldable device for a golf cart includes a main body, a wheel frame, a positioning member, a sleeve, a stop member, and an elastic member. Thus, the wheel frame is pulled outwardly relative to the main body so that the locking portions of the positioning member are moved to detach from the locking grooves of the main body respectively. Then, the wheel frame is rotated through ninety (90) degrees and is released, so that the post of the wheel frame is retracted into the main body by a restoring force of the elastic member, the locking portions are locked in the locking grooves respectively, the front wheel is turned from an upright state to a horizontal state, and the front wheel is parallel with and rested on the cart frame when the cart frame is folded.
US07770909B2

An articulated vehicle is provided including a stabilization system configured to resist roll-over of a trailer portion of the vehicle.
US07770904B2

A materials handling vehicle may include a vehicle frame, a drive wheel, a first caster assembly located on the right side of the drive wheel, and a second caster assembly located on the left side of the drive wheel. A weight distribution assembly connects the first or second caster assembly to the vehicle frame and may include an adjustable preload mechanism to provide a preload force to the first or second caster assembly.
US07770903B2

The present inventions provide self-supporting drawer type storage carts for the storage of pallets or other loads, including heavy and relatively fragile loads, that may be smoothly moved between an open or forward position and a closed or rearward position.
US07770891B2

A method for varying the symbols used on a mechanical reel strip are disclosed. A reel strip comprises a plurality of symbols, each of the symbols associated with a symbol group. Each of the symbol groups is associated with a symbol group designation position on the reel strip. By varying the designation position on the reel strip, the symbols used with each reel strip can be modified. When multiple mechanical reels are used in a gaming machine, the symbol designating position for each reel strip can be the same as any other reel strip or can vary from any of the other reel strips. As such, an endless number of games and game variations may be created and deployed.
US07770886B2

A sheet feed tray has a bottom plate on which a sheet is to be placed; two side fences for positioning opposite widthwise sides of a sheet placed on the bottom plate; and an interlocking mechanism for interlocking movements of the side fences toward and away from each other. The interlocking mechanism includes two racks integrally attached to the respective side fences with toothed surfaces thereof opposed to each other and movable along the bottom plate, and a pinion provided on the bottom plate. The pinion is rotatable about its central axis and is engageable with the pair of racks. Locking projections are disposed at the respective rack sides and project toward the bottom plate side. Contact portions are disposed at the bottom plate side and engage the locking projections with the pair of side fences maximally or minimally spaced apart from each other.
US07770885B2

A media buckler comprises a media engagement surface, a support structure having at least one dimension drafted from a first thickness to a second thickness, the engagement surface having varying stiffness.
US07770879B2

A recording medium transport apparatus includes: plural storage units each storing a recording medium; a transport unit that transports the recording medium from one of the storage units to a recording position where an image is recorded on the recording medium; a memory that stores a reference position of a recording medium prescribed for each storage unit; a measuring unit that measures a position of the transported recording medium; and a movement unit that reads the reference position corresponding to the storage unit that stored the transported recording medium, from the memory, and moves the recording medium according to the difference between the reference position and the measured position such that the position of the recording medium approaches the reference position when the recording medium is located upstream of the recording position in the transport direction thereof.
US07770877B2

A sheet supply tray and a sheet discharge tray are provided. Long sheets can be supplied from the sheet supply tray loaded with the long sheets. The sheet discharge tray is used also as the sheet supply tray, and receives the long sheets with a sheet discharge surface thereof in an area facing the sheet loading surface of the sheet supply tray. A discharge guide unit for guiding the discharge direction of the long sheets is detachably provided in such a dual-purpose type sheet discharge unit. A discharge/reception unit supporting the long sheets is detachably provided as a whole or a part of the sheet discharge unit. An extension sheet tray extensible with respect to a standard sheet tray is provided while the extension state of the extension sheet tray can be detected by an extension detection unit.
US07770872B2

A flow device intended for a two-phase flow processing enclosure of the natural counter-flow type, in which an ascending gaseous flow and a descending liquid flow circulate. The device is formed by an appreciably horizontal tray having openings for the passage of the ascending gaseous flow, and a channel for recovering the descending liquid flow, the channel discharging into a flow orifice. The flow device includes a single guide device extending beneath the tray and connected to the flow orifice in such a way that the liquid flows on its outer wall. Also, a processing enclosure, particularly for processing a hydrocarbonated or aqueous type liquid flow, containing the flow device.
US07770868B2

A telescopic lifting assembly designed particularly for the hydraulic height adjustment of a medical treatment table includes two antiparallel juxtaposed linear drives (2, 3) connected functionally one behind the other in the direction of actuation (1) whereby the inner components (6) are connected to a coupling piece (7) which is provided with guide surfaces (14) cooperating with the outer components (5) in the direction of actuation (1). A secure and stable guiding mechanism is made possible thereby along the entire lifting range.
US07770862B2

A rotatable support mechanism is attached to a body of an electronic device for upholding the body on a plane and adjusting relative positions between the body and the plane. The rotatable support mechanism includes a base, a rotatable disk, and an elastic stopper. The base attached to the body of the electronic device has an axle. The rotatable disk has a holder and a groove. The axle passes a sidewall of the groove. The rotatable disk rotates around the axle as an axis. The sidewall of the groove has at least an opening. The elastic stopper mounted to the axle has an elastic shell fragment and does not rotate with the disk. As the disk is rotated, the elastic shell fragment enters and passes through the opening to exert a resistance force to the disk. Therefore, the electronic device is upheld vertically or horizontally by the rotatable support mechanism.
US07770860B1

A modular ceiling-mounted medical services system including a vertical column supported by an articulating arm assembly. Rotational joints connect the column to the lower arm, the lower arm to the upper arm, and the upper arm to the ceiling mount. Rotational movement at each of the joints is controlled by an electrically-released electromagnetic brake, and all of the brakes may be controlled by a switch panel on the column. Thus, the entire assembly is held in place until the switch is activated. Slight hand pressure is sufficient to operate the switch while simultaneously pushing or pulling the column into the desired position. The service lines that supply the outlets in the column all pass through large central openings in the brakes. In this way, the brake mechanism is stronger and more reliable, and the profile and footprint of the entire assembly can be minimized.
US07770858B2

A mounting bracket is adapted for mounting a field device, as well as to a field device that for the purpose of attachment to a mounting surface comprises such a mounting bracket. The mounting bracket comprises (a) a first bracket strap which includes a first rotary bearing, (b) a second bracket strap, spaced apart from the first bracket strap by a space, including a second rotary bearing and (c) at least one movable lock on one of the two bracket straps. The rotary bearings are designed to articulate on two opposing sides of a field device that may be arranged in the space so that the field device may be rotated, on an imaginary axis that extends through the space, from a first angle position to a second angle position. The lock is designed to engage the field device in order to in this way resist a torque of the field device in that the lock converts the torque to a pair of forces which is removable by way of one of the rotary bearings and by way of the lock itself.
US07770847B1

A model train and layout control system based on on-board sound and locomotive modules, new signaling methods, bi-directional communication, environmental sound, turnout control, train location methods, computer interaction and accessory control, by adding components to existing technology. AC power signal waveforms are variously altered to convey digital command words.
US07770846B2

Fixing system for a modular leading edge (2) to the structure of an aircraft lift plane (1), in which the leading edge (2) has a covering (4) formed from a first lamina (5) and a second lamina (6) between which there is an interior airtight chamber, and the fixing system comprises a main attachment element (3) whose cross-section has a central element (13), a first arm (14) which is fixed to the first lamina (5) of the covering (4) of the leading edge (2), and a second arm (15) which is fixed to the second lamina (6) of the covering (4), and the central element (13) is in turn fixed to a covering (10) of the torsion box (8) of the structure of the lift plane (1).
US07770840B2

An engine assembly for aircraft including a turboshaft engine, an attachment strut, and a plurality of engine mounts interposed between the attachment strut and the turboshaft engine. The plurality of engine mounts include two forward mounts arranged in a staggered manner in relation to each other in a vertical direction of the turboshaft engine, the first forward mount configured to assure uniquely taking up of stresses brought to bear along the transversal direction of the turboshaft engine, and the second forward mount configured to assure uniquely taking up of stresses brought to bear along the transversal and vertical directions.
US07770838B2

The invention relates to a method of releasing a reel awe, which is hydraulically restrained by a self-locking effect by means of inwardly located wedge surfaces of expansion elements. Removal of a coil from a reel awe is achieved, without problems, by lifting off the self-locking effect of the expansion elements at least partially or completely by applying longitudinal vibrations acting in an axial direction. The invention also relates to a correspondingly formed device.
US07770823B2

A fuel injector comprises a movable element, a seat contact surface formed at one end of the movable element, a nozzle member having a valve seat. The seat contact surface of the movable element is in contact with and seated on at the time of valve closing. A nozzle holder portion holds a periphery of the nozzle member. A plastic deformation portion is formed by engaging one of a part of the nozzle member and a part of the nozzle holder portion in the other one of the part of the nozzle member. The nozzle member and the nozzle holder portion are joined by welding.
US07770818B2

A fuel injection valve includes a housing having a wall surface on an opposite side of the nozzle hole. A fuel passage opens in the wall surface, and communicates with a nozzle hole through a nozzle cavity. The nozzle cavity accommodates a valve element. A cylinder is substantially in contact with the wall surface at one end, and slidably accommodating one end of the valve element. The cylinder partitions the nozzle cavity substantially into a fuel accumulator chamber and a pressure control chamber. The fuel accumulator chamber accumulates fuel supplied from the fuel passage. The pressure control chamber accumulates fuel for manipulating the valve element. The cylinder has an outer wall defining a deflecting surface for radially outwardly deflecting fuel flowing from the fuel passage.
US07770814B2

An irrigation system for supplying aerated water to plants includes a diffuser. Oxygen is diffused into water by the diffuser to generate aerated water. The aerated water is supplied to an irrigation device which supplies the aerated water to the plants.
US07770811B2

A toy vehicle is provided which allows the track to be bent without creasing. The track is provided with a plurality of rails and side ribs which strengthen the track against deformation even when the track is provided with loops for play or coiled for transport. Stiffener bars are releasably secured to the track to form and support loops. A connector pad and suction cup are provided to allow releasable securement of the track or window or similar flat surface.
US07770810B2

The track system of the present invention provides dolly track whose joints are substantially seamless, providing a substantially smooth riding surface over the entire length of joined sections of track. The ferrule design of the invention provides ridged piece to piece joining, eliminating pinching and hinging points. This allows multiple assembled track pieces to be moved without damage. The system uses self locking track buckles. A folding cross member system may be folded for ease of movement and placement. In one embodiment, the track is comprised of a carbon fiber hybrid composite with lighter weight and greater strength than prior art steel or aluminum tracks. In addition the track of the present invention does not bend, eliminating the need to reshape or repair the track each time before use.
US07770809B2

Disclosed herein are devices comprising at least one flexible seal, at least one flexible complex seal having at least one closed cavity containing a fluid, or a combination thereof. The devices may comprise at least one immobile and inflexible substrate and at least one mobile and inflexible substrate capable of movement due to the flexible seal, the flexible complex seal, or both. The flexible complex seals comprise at least one closed cavity comprising a fluid, such as a gas or a liquid. As disclosed, the presence or absence of heat will cause the mobile and inflexible substrate to move. The movement will increase or decrease the fluid amount or fluid flow rate in the primary fluid layer. Also disclosed are methods for enhancing the insulating properties of insulating assemblies.
US07770798B2

An automatic digital video-imaging based code symbol reading system for use in point of sale (POS) environments, employing automatic illumination control, multi-tier modular software architecture and digital video-imaging based code symbol reading techniques, which ensures the reliable reading of code symbols graphically represented in digital images, in high-throughput point-of-sale and other environments, while providing the versatility required to accommodate the different ways in which operators present objects for code symbol reading at POS environments.
US07770794B2

Methods and systems for transferring information between a movable system and another system. The movable subsystem includes an electrical component providing electrical signal including information. Electromagnetic radiation is modulated according to the information. The other subsystem includes a receiving component that receives the modulated electromagnetic radiation and converts the received electromagnetic radiation into other electrical signals.
US07770783B2

Methods and systems for authenticating products are provided. A client system receives a request for a set of unique security codes and also receives product data associated with a product on which the security codes are to be printed. The client sends at least some of the product data to a host system and receives a batch identifier from the host. The host stores received product data with the batch identifier. The client generates the set of security codes and then provides the codes to be printed on the product. After the products enter the stream of commerce, the host can receive an authentication request including a security code, and in response the host will verify that the security code is valid and return to the requestor the authentication result and at least part of the product data associated with the batch identifier.
US07770780B2

Motor-vehicle bodies or sub-assemblies thereof are assembled in a welding-assembly station with the aid of frames arranged at the two sides of the conveying line that traverses the station, said frames being provided with fixtures for locating and clamping the various parts of the body. The side frames are moved between their operative position in the station and an inoperative position at a distance from the station with the aid of multi-axis manipulating robots. Said robots, however, do not carry the frames up to their final operative position for assembling the body, but rather unload them on two rigid structures, which are prearranged at the two sides of the line and are movable in a transverse direction with respect thereto between an open condition and a closed condition. The movable structures, once they have received the frames from the robots in their open condition, displace into their closed condition, thus carrying the frames into their final operative position.
US07770777B2

A portable friction forge welder that applies a direct rotational load to workpieces via a rotational actuator and a direct axial load to workpieces via an axial actuator, where the rotational actuator and the axial actuator have separate and independent power sources. The portable friction forge welder relies on a stored energy linear axial actuator or a center-hole hydraulic axial actuator to achieve high axial forces and a high torque, low rotational velocity to achieve rotational forces, enabling the welder to achieve higher quality welds using larger diameter workpieces than conventional portable friction welders. By applying a high axial force between workpieces prior to high torque rotation of the workpieces results in improved quality welds. A unique clamping device maintains a fixed positional relationship between the workpieces and includes a unique shroud that enables friction welds under a positive pressure inert atmosphere.
US07770775B2

A surgical cutting and fastening instrument is disclosed. According to various embodiments, the instrument includes an end effector, a main drive shaft assembly, and a handle. The end effector comprising a cutting instrument for cutting an object positioned therein. The handle comprises a motor for actuating the shaft via a gear drive train, a firing trigger, and a run motor sensor for sensing retracting of the firing trigger. When retraction of the firing trigger is sensed by the run motor sensor, the motor is signaled to forward rotate to cause cutting of the object positioned in the end effector by the cutting instrument. The instrument may also include a reverse motor sensor for sensing a condition indicative of an end of a cutting stroke by the cutting instrument and a stop motor sensor for sensing a condition indicative of retraction of the cutting instrument.
US07770766B2

A rucksack comprising a bag having a back panel and, among other things, a belt assembly and a rigid frame secured to the back panel and the belt assembly. According to the invention, the bottom portion of the rigid frame has a V-shaped configuration with an angle α at the apex, and in its middle and rear portion, the belt assembly includes an upwardly open pocket having a V-shaped configuration with an angle β at the apex, where β is greater than α, such that said pocket is suitable for serving as a housing for receiving the V-shaped bottom portion of the frame while allowing the belt assembly to pivot angularly to some extent relative to the remainder of the rucksack.
US07770765B2

The present invention is directed to a multi-modal wearable baby and small child carrier that is readily adjustable and which, when worn in use, leaves the wearer's arms and hands free. The carrier comprises an elongated strap attached to a flexible sheet-like body wherein the elongated strap can be worn as a neck strap or can be converted to form at least two shoulder straps, and the flexible sheet body is folded to form a positioning portion, so that the user may position the baby or small child directly in front of, or to the left or right side of the torso of an adult who is using and wearing the carrier, such that the baby can be positioned facing toward the adult or facing away from the adult.
US07770763B2

The invention relates to a precision cover (1) with a spout (5) for closing a container of liquid or particulate product of the type in which the top of the cover forms a spout (5) with a sliding seal (2) that is acted upon by a spring (4) and whose motion is controlled by a pivoting opening lever (3). This cover (1) is characterized in that the pivoting opening lever (3) controls at least two different modes of operation of the sliding seal (2), one in which, for a given angular shift of the control lever (3), the seal (2) is moved by a low value relative to the opening of the spout (5), and the other in which, for the same angular shift of the control lever (3), the sliding seal (2) is moved by a higher value relative to the opening of the spout (5) so as to allow the operator to meter the flow rate of the container's contents with very high precision in the first mode and with a high value of opening in the second mode.
US07770753B2

In combination, a vending machine for newspapers which includes a storage area for newspapers, a dispensing device, and an output device through and from which the newspapers fall downwards and an output chute including a lower newspaper-receiving support slot having a rearwardly angled lower wall, an upper wall extending generally parallel with the lower wall and spaced thereabove, a base wall and side walls which together form the generally rectangular box shape of said lower newspaper-receiving support slot. The lower and upper walls extend at an angle between 10° and 40° from vertical, and the lower wall has a height of between one-half inch and three inches less then the height of the newspaper such that upon the newspaper being dropped therein, a graspable portion of the newspaper protrudes whereby the newspaper is easily removable from said lower newspaper-receiving support slot.
US07770744B2

The present invention relates to a rope winding system (1) for winding and unwinding a steel rope (4) of a crane (7). A rope winding system (1) according to the present invention has a rope drum (6), onto which the steel rope (4) can be wound in a plurality of layers, and a magnetic system (7) which is configured to generate a magnetic field over a section of the steel rope (4) with its magnetic flux being deflected by a movement of the steel rope (4) in such a way that the steel rope (4) is braked. A crane (7) is also discloses which is equipped with such a rope winding system (1) for winding and unwinding a steel rope (4).
US07770742B1

A shower caddy that securely supports itself along the water supply line of the shower head. The shower caddy support mounting assembly includes a rubber gasket, a shower head support, and a set screw. The shower caddy requires the temporary removal of the shower head in order to install the shower caddy. The shower caddy frame is made from a durable plastic or lightweight material that resists oxidation.
US07770740B2

A support for the lower ends of elongated articles stored in an upright position, such as the lower ends of firearms contained within a storage cabinet. The support includes a base, and one or more support members are releasably engageable with the base. Each support member receives and secures the lower end of a firearm relative to the base. Each support member is releasably engaged with the base via one or more releasable fasteners that extend through openings in the base and the support member. The base may include a series of slots, within which the fasteners are movable to adjust the position of the support members on the base. The one or more support members may be a single support member that supports the lower end of each firearm, and a series of support members are mounted along the length of the base to support the lower end of a series of articles. Alternatively, the one or more support members may be a pair of support members that cooperate to define the upwardly facing recess within which the lower end of the firearm is received, and which may be moved together and apart in the slots to accommodate differently dimensioned firearms.
US07770738B2

A classifying device for classifying particles using a centrifugal force contains a microchannel includes a curved portion including a first tubular channel and a second tubular channel; and a diaphragm that is provided within the curved portion, and that is located at a position between the first tubular channel and the second tubular channel; and wherein the diaphragm has at least a first apertured group formed in a central region of the diaphragm and a second apertured group formed in a first end region and a second end region of the diaphragm, the first apertured group and the second apertured group communicate the first tubular channel with the second tubular channel along a direction of the centrifugal force, the first apertured group has a mesh, and the second apertured group has a mesh that is different in size from the mesh of the first apertured group.
US07770737B2

A screening machine for screening bulk material and the like comprising a housing and two sidewalls at which a screen deck is disposed, the screen deck comprising cross-members mounted on the sidewalls and longitudinal members which are mounted on the cross-members and receive an exchangeable screen lining. Said longitudinal members are clamped to the cross-members by means of removable mounting ties from two different directions.
US07770732B2

A packaging includes a tray and a sheet. The tray has a series of spaced apart sections. Each spaced apart section is generally rectangular in shape and has a recessed compartment and an upper surface. The sheet is fixed in part to the upper surface of the tray and has a plurality of tab portions that are not fixed to the tray thereby creating a tab. Each tab portion corresponds to one of the spaced apart sections and has first and second ends. Each tab portion can be graduated in width from the first end to the second end. The first end can be positioned in a corner of the corresponding spaced apart section. The tab portion has a length measured parallel to the length of the corresponding spaced apart section and the second end is adjacent to the sealed portion of the sheet.
US07770730B2

A device for support and protection of a tubular element has a single-piece construction, and respective open and closed configurations. The device includes a base portion, at least one side-portion, and a living hinge interconnecting the side-portion and the base portion. The base portion includes a plurality of recesses on a surface, each recess being delimited by a plurality of pins, each pin having an indentation. The plurality of indentations form a pocket by which the tubular element is held. The living hinge opens such that the side-portion is substantially parallel to the base portion in the open configuration, and closes such that the side-portion fauns a protective shell about the base portion in the closed configuration.
US07770729B2

An array of multi-stage configured cleansing wipe products may include first stage cleansing wipes and second stage cleansing wipes. The first stage cleansing wipes may have a first structure and a first composition selected in view of a first child developmental stage. The second stage cleansing wipes may have a second structure and a second composition selected in view of a second child developmental stage. The first structure and the first composition are different and potentially progressive from first stage to second stage. First stage product packaging may include at least one first stage-specific indicia and second stage product packaging may include at least one second stage-specific indicia. Stages of the array may be communicated and tailored based upon the foods eaten and the manner of eating (such as being fed or self-feeding) of the babies or children in each stage.
US07770714B2

A transfer apparatus includes a first magnetic member placed in a carrier, and a second magnetic member placed in a carrier supporting unit to oppose the first magnetic member from a position below the first magnetic member in the vertical direction, and having the same polarity as that of the first magnetic member. The repulsive force generated between the first and second magnetic members vertically pushes up the carrier, thereby reducing the weight of the carrier supported by the carrier supporting unit.
US07770697B2

An energy recovering system in a hydraulic lift device of a battery operated industrial truck. With the system, working oil can be supplied to other hydraulic actuators while energy recovering operation is performed by the hydraulic lift device, occurrence of pressure pulsation in the working oil can be prevented, and energy recovering efficiency is increased. The hydraulic lift device comprises a lift cylinder (1) for lifting a fork F, an electric motor (4) rotated by power supply from a battery (5), a hydraulic pump (3) for supplying pressurized oil to the lift cylinder (1), a control valve (14) disposed in a pressurized oil supply path (23), and a controller (17). The controller (17) controls the opening of the control valve (14) and rotation speed of the electric motor (4) which functions as an electric generator driven by the hydraulic pump (3) rotated by the action of the pressurized oil returning from the lift cylinder (1) when a load is lowered so that the generated electricity charges the battery (5) to recover the potential energy of the load.
US07770694B2

Resonator arrangement in an acoustic muffler for a refrigeration compressor having a shell (1), inside which is mounted an acoustic muffler comprising a hollow body (10) defining at least one dampening chamber (13), which carries a gas inlet duct (20) and a gas outlet duct (30), each presenting a respective length and having a respective wall thickness, at least one of the gas inlet and gas outlet ducts (20, 30) carrying, extending along at least part of its length, a respective plurality of tube type resonant ducts (40), each resonant duct (40) presenting a first end (41), open to the interior of the respective gas duct (20, 30) and a second end (42), opposed to and spaced from the first end (41), each said resonant duct (40) being dimensioned to present a determined length and a determined diameter, which are calculated to define a certain reactive impedance and a certain dissipative impedance for the acoustic muffler, in a determined frequency band.
US07770688B2

A rotational speed superimposing device for a vehicle steering system has an input shaft with an output shaft, which is oriented toward the input shaft in the axial direction thereof, and has a supporting arrangement, which positions the input shaft and the output shaft so that they are at least, in part, rotationally mounted. An auxiliary drive provided with a rotor, which is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to a wave generator, such as an oval disk on whose periphery an external toothed flexible ring is directly or indirectly mounted, this external toothing engaging in an internal gear at least at two opposite peripheral points. The supporting arrangement is fixed to the vehicle body. The output shaft is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the internal gear, and the input shaft is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the external toothed flexible ring. The input shaft and the output shaft are mounted so they freely rotate independently of one another.
US07770683B2

A three-wheeled vehicle includes a main frame assembly having a steering head disposed on a front portion of the main frame assembly, a front fork assembly pivotably coupled to the steering head, a front wheel rotatably supported by the front fork assembly, a rear frame coupled to a rear portion of the main frame assembly, a rear axle assembly coupled to at least one of the main frame assembly and the rear frame, a pair of rear wheels rotatably supported by the rear axle assembly, an engine-transmission assembly supported by the main frame assembly and positioned between the front wheel and the pair of rear wheels, and a body including a first mounting portion directly mounted to the main frame assembly, and a second mounting portion directly mounted to the rear frame.
US07770677B2

An in-wheel suspension including a wheel; a carrier that rotatably supports the wheel; an arm (90) that is coupled with a vehicle body, and that extends into the wheel; at least one link that is coupled with the carrier so as to be pivotable about a first shaft substantially parallel to a wheel rotation axis and coupled with the arm so as to be pivotable about a second shaft substantially parallel to the wheel rotation axis, the at least one link extending in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle; and at least one of an elastic element and an attenuation element that is arranged between the carrier and the link.
US07770674B2

A system for providing an automated axial force to a continuously variable transmission (CVT) in a wheelchair. An electronic transmission control receives one or more input signals generated by throttle position or other variables. The microprocessor generates an output signal that adjusts the axial force applied to a CVT thereby automatically adjusting the input to output ratio. The invention also provides a manually-controlled variator is designed for use on a wheelchair. The manual shifter hydraulically adjusts an axial force imparted on a variator in communication with a wheelchair wheel and a hand rim. Application of the axial force causes the hand rim input and wheelchair wheel output ratio to change, permitting a wheelchair operator to manually adjust the input to output ratio to more easily operate the wheelchair.
US07770669B1

An auger and hole stabilization combination system includes an auger bit that has a bottom end, a top end, and at least one boring blade positioned between the top and bottom ends. A cylinder has an upper end and a lower end. The cylinder has an inner diameter greater than an outer diameter of the auger bit. A coupler releasably couples the auger bit to the cylinder. The auger is extended into a ground surface and the cylinder retained within a hole dug by the auger while a post is placed in the hole.
US07770668B2

A modular base assembly for a rotary drill head includes a drive flange assembly having a tubular drive shaft configured to engage at least a lower drive interface. The modular base assembly also includes a gear housing supporting the drive flange assembly. Furthermore, the modular base assembly can also include a plurality of interchangeable gear pinions selectively coupled to the drive flange assembly.
US07770667B2

An electrically powered and controlled tractor system includes one or more electric gripper assemblies and one or more electric power train assemblies. Power and control signals for the gripper assemblies and power train assemblies can be delivered from a ground surface via a wireline. The gripper assembly employs a motor-activated lead screw and nut combination to expand passage-gripping elements, preferably by pushing the gripping elements radially outward from locations between opposing ends of the gripping elements. A failsafe mechanism can retract the gripping elements during a power interruption. The power train assembly employs a motor-activated lead screw and nut combination to expand and contract two ore more telescoping members. The tractor system can include multiple tractor units that each includes one gripper assembly and one power train assembly. A tractor can include one power train assembly and two gripper assemblies.
US07770664B2

An expandable underreamer apparatus disposed on a distal end of a drillstring and configured to drill a formation includes a substantially tubular main body adjacent a cutting head, the main body providing at least one axial recess configured to receive an arm assembly, and the arm assembly configured to translate between a retracted position and an extended position. The apparatus further includes a plurality of cutting elements disposed on the arm assembly, and a plurality of wear indicators imbedded in at least one arm assembly and positioned behind the cutting elements with respect to a direction of rotation of the arm assembly, wherein the wear indicators are configured to provide an increased torque to the drillstring upon contacting the formation.
US07770660B2

A power tool can include a gear case, a motor having first and second sets of lead wires, a housing assembly, and a field case. The field case may include a front portion configured for engaging the gear case and a rear portion. The housing assembly may include first and second generally symmetrical housing segments configured for engaging the field case and forming a mid-handle grip. The first set of lead wires may be routed through the front portion of the field case directly to a trigger switch assembly. A method for assembling a mid-handle power tool is also provided and may include routing lead wires through a ventilation path between the field case and trigger assembly.
US07770659B2

The invention relates to a rotary drive assembly for a drill rod having an outer tube and an inner rod extending at least in sections inside the outer tube, comprising a first gear unit having at least a first drive unit for driving the inner rod in a rotating manner and a second gear unit, which is offset to the said first gear unit in the longitudinal direction of the drill rod and has at least a second drive unit for driving the outer tube in a rotating manner. In accordance with the invention provision is made for the second drive unit to be spaced from the second gear unit and for the second drive unit to be arranged adjacent to the first drive unit on the first gear unit.
US07770657B2

An agricultural tillage sweep providing good soil action without ridges in the soil surface at both high and low speed operation in different soil conditions. Wings extending outwardly and rearwardly from a leading nose portion include non-flat soil contacting surfaces defining opposed outwardly and upwardly directed surfaces converging in the forward direction. The surfaces, which can be concave upwardly and outwardly, define soil throwing action that progressively increase in the rearward direction. A shallow sweep leading area provides greater upward soil lift and lesser outward soil throw compared to trailing areas. At high speeds, the leading area provides vertical lift and substantial outward throw of soil, and at lower speeds the progressive action surfaces provide additional outward throw of soil to facilitate necessary soil mixing action.
US07770647B2

Methods of hydraulically fracturing subterranean coal seams and formations resulting in improved permeability to stimulate Coalbed Methane. In one method, the coal seam is fractured using a proppant-containing fracturing fluid in alternating stages with an aqueous base solution that etches the fracture faces of the coal thereby creating channels for fluid flow. In another method, the coal seam is fractured using a fracturing fluid without propping agents in alternating stages with an aqueous base solution that is pumped at a pressure sufficient to maintain the fractures in an open position thereby etching the fracture faces to create channels for fluid flow. In yet another embodiment, a base solution is injected into the formation at a pressure sufficient to create fractures therein and simultaneously etch the faces of the open fractures to thereby form channels in the faces for increased fluid flow.
US07770642B2

There is a method for enhancing the recovery of oil from a reservoir. The method has the step of a) introducing a flooding fluid into the reservoir and b) extracting the oil through a wellbore at a location different than the point of introduction of the flooding fluid into the reservoir. The flooding fluid has water and an amount of one or more non-polymeric viscoelastic surfactants sufficient to provide an interfacial surface tension of about 1 mNm or less and a viscosity of about 10 cps or more. The one or more surfactants is selected from the group of one or more cationic surfactants, one or more zwitterionic surfactants, one or more amphoteric surfactants, one or more anionic surfactants, and combinations thereof.
US07770636B2

A groundwater collecting apparatus which can continuously collect groundwater, and can selectively collect groundwater at a specific depth by directly generating vertical movement is provided. The groundwater collecting apparatus includes: a vibration unit selectively admitting groundwater which exists in the monitoring well according to vibration in a vertical direction; a driving unit being supplied a power to vibrate the vibration unit in a vertical direction; and a hollow guide pipe being connected to the vibration unit to guide the groundwater to a ground, the groundwater having flowed into the vibration unit through a channel inlet of the vibration unit.
US07770632B2

The invention provides for an orientation insensitive heat exchanger assembly for cooling an electronic device comprising a hermetically sealed housing defining a boiling chamber and two condensing chambers. A partition is disposed in the boiling chamber and defines two sets of alternating channels extending in overlapping relationship to one another and with one set of alternating channels open to one of the condensing chambers and the other set of alternating channels open to the other condensing chamber for sealing the condensing chambers from one another. Coolant is maintained in each of the condensing chambers. In operation, if the thermosiphon is tilted with one side lower than the other, the channels open to the lower side are empty of coolant into the lower condensing chamber while the channels open to the opposite upper side hold the coolant over the entire boiling chamber aligning with an electronic device to continue cooling.
US07770624B2

An overhead garage door has an apparatus for pinch resistant operation. The garage door may include horizontal sections and the door may be formed from a plurality of these sections, arranged in a stack, and pivotally connected to adjacent sections. The apparatus, such as meeting rails, may be attached to adjacent horizontal sections to mask the appearance of a seam created as adjacent sections are joined or provide pinch resistant operation.
US07770606B2

An upper side for a multiple-layer sheet-forming fabric has a multiplicity of longitudinal threads woven with a multiplicity of transverse threads and thereby form repeats in the longitudinal and transverse directions. The transverse-thread repeat contains three times as many threads as the longitudinal-thread repeat. The longitudinal-thread repeat has at least three threads. The transverse-thread repeat has at least nine threads. All longitudinal threads run alternately over three transverse threads and under three transverse threads, and subsequently under the remaining transverse threads of a transverse thread repeat. Two directly adjacent longitudinal threads are displaced with respect to one another in the longitudinal direction by at least three transverse threads.
US07770605B2

Fabric support and a weaving machine using the support, in which the fabric support (1) includes several supporting elements (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) which can be arranged next to one another and a profiled section (20, 30, 40, 50, 60) which is supported by the supporting elements (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 18, 19) and includes a guide surface (22) for a fabric (3).
US07770593B2

A bleed valve which is intended for the fuel tank of a vehicle has a housing, a floating body disposed in such a manner as to be able to move in the longitudinal direction. A rim of an outlet orifice forms a valve seat for a sealing element which is supported by a support disc, wherein the support disc is articulated in a cardanic manner on the floating body. The sealing element is disposed in such a manner as to be able to move according to the movement of the floating body between a position which closes the outlet orifice and a position which opens same, wherein as a result of the said articulation of the support disc on the floating body positional changes, e.g. inclined positions, which are caused by the drive operation of the vehicle do not impair the sealing function.
US07770591B2

A tent frame includes two main supporting units, a connecting rod unit interconnecting the main supporting units, and two oblique supporting units. Each main supporting unit includes two foot rods, first and second corner connectors mounted respectively on the foot rods, an intermediate connector, a first supporting rod interconnecting the first corner connector and a first rod connecting portion of the intermediate connector, and a second supporting rod interconnecting the second corner connector and a second rod connecting portion of the intermediate connector. Each oblique supporting unit is mounted on a respective one of the main supporting units, and includes a first strut interconnecting the first corner connector and the second rod connecting portion, and a second strut interconnecting the second corner connector and the first rod connecting portion.
US07770590B2

A housing has an expansion tent connectable thereto. A bag-shaped cover is present, and has an opening permanently connected to the housing. The cover forms the interior surface of the erected expansion tent, and is suitable for hermetically sealing off the interior of the housing and the expansion tent with respect to the environment. Sealing can be provided during all operating conditions, while erecting the tent, and while dismantling the tent.
US07770589B2

A water-powered eductor cleaner for removing accumulated matter from within a chamber of an eductor. The water-powered eductor cleaner includes an eductor cleaning system for separating accumulated matter from the inside walls of the eductor chamber. The eductor cleaning system utilizes a high-pressured water stream from within the eductor chamber to provide the energy to move the eductor cleaning system between the inside walls of the eductor chamber, thereby engaging and dislodging the accumulated matter.
US07770588B2

The automated motorcycle wash of the present invention is designed to wash motorcycles ranging in length from 7 feet up to an 11 foot chopper. It will hold a motorcycle positioned within the wash bay securely in place while running a complete 2-step pre-soak cleaner application, a high pressure rinse, a low pressure clear coat protectant application, a spot free rinse, and a double dryer pass. The rear wheel cleaners of the present invention will wash the rear wheel and tires of a motorcycle positioned within the wash bay. The front wheel stop of the present invention will also wash the front wheel and tire of a motorcycle positioned within the wash bay with built in high pressure sprayers.
US07770586B2

A hair inserter for inserting a hair bundle into a flat tubular hair holder made of a sheet in such a design that the hair bundle can be inserted therein from an upper opening at one end thereof toward a lower opening at the other end thereof. The hair inserter has a long main body having, at one end portion thereof, a hair catching part capable of catching a hair bundle and is configured to be smoothly inserted with a hair bundle caught on the hair catching part through the inside of the tubular hair holder from the opening toward the opening.
US07770581B2

A breathing mask shall has an inspiration valve (4) that can be replaced in a simple manner. The breathing valve (4) is designed for this purpose as a modular assembly unit that can be inserted into the breathing gas channel (3) from the outer side (10) of the mask.
US07770578B2

Improved methodology and apparatus for the clinical study and treatment of sleep apnea which incorporates one or more of the following features: (1) application of mono-level, alternating high and low level, or variable positive airway pressure generally within the airway of the patient with the mono-level, high and low level, or variable airway pressure generally being coordinated with and/or responsive to the spontaneous respiration of the patient, (2) usage of adjustably programmable pressure ramp circuitry capable of producing multiple pressure ramp cycles of predetermined duration and pattern whereby the ramp cycles may be customized to accommodate the specific needs of an individual sleep apnea patient so as to ease the patient's transition from wakefulness to sleep, (3) remote control or patient-sensed operation of the apparatus, (4) employment of safety circuitry, reset circuitry and minimum system leak assurance circuitry, controls and methods, and (5) utilization of clinical control circuitry whereby sleep disorder data may be compiled and appropriate therapy implemented during a one-night sleep study.
US07770577B2

Methods and devices useful for treatment of lung conditions resulting from dysfunction of normal pulmonary physiology.
US07770576B2

A hinge mechanism for the lids of barbeque grills and smokers, especially for use with ceramic grills and smokers that have very heavy lids. A barbeque grill/smoker includes a base tub and a lid. The invention pivotally couples the base tub to the lid using a four pivot axis linkage. The pivotal coupling allows reciprocal movement from a lid closed position to a lid open position. The hinge mechanism may include a spring assist feature.
US07770571B2

An anti-jam firing mechanism comprises a front bolt movable between a first position and a second position, in which a crossover point is positioned between the first position and the second position. The front bolt is operative to engage a frangible projectile, such as a paintball, as the front bolt moves from the first position to the second position. A drive mechanism drives the front bolt with either a first force or a second force. The drive mechanism drives the front bolt with the first force when the front bolt travels between the first position and the crossover point. When the front bolt travels between the crossover point and the second position, the drive mechanism drives the front bolt with the second force. Typically, the first force is less than a projectile rupturing force.
US07770570B2

A paint ball gun includes a ball receiving member rotatably received in the top tube of the paint ball gun and the ball receiving member includes a space defined therein which communicates with a receiving hole so that paint balls drop into the space via the receiving hole. The ball receiving member is connected with a rotary unit which is controlled by operation of the trigger powered by a power unit which introduces pressurized air to activate the rotary unit which rotates the ball receiving member. The receiving hole communicates with a hopper to receive a paint ball and pressurized air cannot enter into the ball receiving member when the ball receiving member is in the first position. The receiving hole is sealed and pressurized air enters into the ball receiving member to shoot the paint ball when the ball receiving member is in the second position.
US07770566B2

A method for controlling an internal combustion engine that is to be operated either by petrol or alcohol or by a variable proportion of the two fuels and that includes an electronic control unit that can drive the engine, an admission line, and an exhaust line that includes a richness probe. The method determines the richness of the carbide mixture entering into the combustion cylinders, and increases the duration of the injection by intervals according to the richness of the carbide mixture.
US07770550B2

The invention provides a variable valve train for an internal combustion engine, in which attachment and detachment of a rotation drive source can be performed without an affect on a transmission mechanism and environment. The variable train system comprises a variable valve system that is fixed to a cylinder head and implements variable control on valve drive outputs according to displacement that is inputted to a control input member; a rotation drive source that outputs control rotation for setting valve properties from an output shaft; and a transmission mechanism that is located on the side of the variable valve system, receives the control rotation outputted from the output shaft with an input shaft, and transmits the control rotation to the control input member, wherein the rotation drive source is detachably fixed to an engine body; the output shaft of the rotation drive source is coupled to the input shaft by using a coupling that moves the output shaft toward the input shaft and disengageably couples the output shaft to the input shaft; and the coupling transmits the rotation of the output shaft to the input shaft while allowing misalignment between the output shaft and the input shaft.
US07770549B2

A compression reduction device for internal combustion, spark ignition, piston engines with removable cylinders. The device is installed under each cylinder of an engine to reduce the engine's compression ratio, thereby allowing the safe use of lower octane unleaded fuel. The device is a metal or composite part shaped to match the cylinder-to-crankcase mount. The engine cylinders are unbolted and raised slightly to allow placement of the invention between the cylinder and it's mounting on the engine crankcase. After reattaching, the top of the cylinder has effectively been raised, relative to the top of the piston, thereby reducing the cylinder's compression ratio.
US07770541B2

Described is an animal training device for delivering a response signal in response to receiving an audible signal. The animal training device is adapted to be carried by an animal and delivers the response signal, which includes a stimulus to the animal and an animal location indicator, in response to receiving the audible signal, which includes a voice command and other distinguishable sounds. The animal training device allows an animal handler to deliver a stimulus to the animal and generate a location indicator without using an additional device, such as a handheld transmitter.
US07770529B2

A method and device for filling a container with a fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide, herbicide, insecticide, chemical, or the like material by gravity, includes a housing with an inlet and an outlet, a valve for opening or restricting a flow between the inlet and outlet and having open and closed positions, and an actuator disposed downstream of the inlet for actuating the valve between the open and closed positions, wherein the actuator is operated by a container to be filled with a material.
US07770520B2

An ignition device, which is simple and inexpensive to produce, for a pyrotechnic protection device, in particular an airbag or seatbelt tensioner is provided. The ignition device includes a base with a deformed metal carrier part having a current leadthrough for an electrical ignition and a cap connected to the base, a propellant charge being enclosed between the base and cap, and the metal carrier part of the base having a base body and a welding rim of reduced thickness compared to the base body, the cap being welded to the welding rim by way of an encircling weld seam.
US07770512B2

An apparatus for use in a beverage brewing machine includes a filter pack containing an amount of grinds to brew approximately only a single serving of brewed beverage, a single serving disposable brew basket including a body defining a brewing reservoir. The body is formed with a disposable rigid construction. The body has an opening therethrough to permit a brewed beverage to flow from the brewing reservoir of the disposable brew basket into a beverage container. The body extends upwardly from a bottom of the brewing reservoir to an open top that is configured to receive heated water from the brewing machine. The heated water flows through the open top during a brewing operation. The brewing reservoir has a size dimensioned appropriate to make approximately only a single serving of beverage during a single brewing operation. The brewing area is sufficiently large to hold the filter pack and the heated water while brewing without a level of the heated water rising above and overflowing the open top.
US07770511B2

The invention relates to a device and method for preparing liquid from solid materials such as medicinal materials. It includes liquid and materials for preparing the liquid at the beginning and the end of the process. The device uses a steam generator, an intermediate switch valve and a material chamber, which are connected sequentially with pipes, and further includes an outlet pipe, which is at the bottom of the material chamber. The method involves the steps of: distillation and absorption; immersion; and repetition. The device and method for preparing liquid alternates the distillation and immersion steps, which reduces harmful substance in the prepared liquid that would otherwise occur by conventional methods. The method not only extracts soluble effective matter, but also reduces loss of volatile effective matter. Ultimately, the method makes the steps for preparing liquid simple and clear, and it can prepare liquid quantitatively, effectively and without pasty and shrinkable characteristics. The device may be automatically controlled by an electric control circuit, thereby avoiding operational errors that are common with manually operated, conventional devices.
US07770501B2

A miter saw having a cutting portion movable toward and away from a base and laterally tiltable for bevel cutting. A gear case is provided at the cutting portion and is positioned at one lateral side of the cutting portion. A bearing holder is provided in the gear case for holding a bearing which rotatably supports a spindle for a circular saw blade. The bearing holder has a thickness smaller than an axial length of the bearing. A first bearing nip member in contact with one axial end of the bearing is fixed to one side of the bearing holder, and a second bearing nip member in contact with another axial end of the bearing is fixed to another side of the bearing holder. These nip members are made from a material having a mechanical strength higher than that of the bearing holder.
US07770500B2

A substrate cutting system which requires a small footprint area so as to be compact, and also which is capable of efficiently cutting a substrate is disclosed. A pair of substrate cutting devices are provided in a cutting device guide body 30 so as to be movable along a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the clamp devices 50, the pair of substrate cutting devices cutting the mother substrate from each of the top surface and the bottom surface of the mother substrate which is clamped by the clamp devices 50.
US07770495B1

A ratchet connector includes a driving element, a control ring, and a working element. A tooth block is disposed in an open groove of the driving element. Both sides of the tooth block have several teeth. The control ring is mounted on the driving element to control the tooth block to move along the bottom of the open groove. The working element is mounted on the driving element. The teeth of the tooth block engage with the ratchet teeth on an inner surface of the working element.
US07770493B2

An assembly of punched and formed material that has an ergonomically designed hood which covers a torsion spring that connects the hood to the formed and punched hook and a sliding base. The base and hood thereof is inserted and secured to the hook which allows the base to slide as the hood assembly is being pinched which opens the hook and allows the tool to be placed onto the threads of bolts, screws, or small pipe.
US07770486B2

In an automatic transmission, a shift lever is operable to move to one of a plurality of shift positions corresponding to ranges established as selectable options. The plurality of shift positions are each configured as one of a momentary position allowing the shift lever to automatically return to a home position and a retention position allowing the shift lever to be held therein. A return mechanism for causing the shift lever held in the retention position to return to the home position is provided. The return mechanism is enabled on one of conditions that the parking switch be turned on and that an ignition switch be turned off. In a manual transmission, a return mechanism for causing the shift lever held in a gear stage to return to a home position is provided, and the return mechanism is enabled on condition that an ignition switch be turned off.
US07770485B2

A control lever system permits setting of an appropriate traveling mode with a single control lever by changing over between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, changing over a front differential gear between locked and free statuses, and changing over a rear differential gear between locked and free statuses. The single control lever is capable of setting the change-overs in prescribed combinations.
US07770483B2

A power train for an amphibious vehicle includes an engine and transaxle arranged North-South, driving front, rear, or all four road wheels. A power take off with optional decoupler and constant velocity joint drives marine drive means. The power take off may be taken from the input shaft of the transmission, and may use a synchronizer. The transaxle includes a differential. The rear wheels may be set back from the differential outputs, with intermediate drive by chains or belts. A sandwich type power take off may also be used. In the four wheel drive embodiment, a power take off is required from the rear differential. Decouplers may be provided in at least one wheel drive shaft on each driven axles.
US07770479B2

A vest for a human body has an air core coupled to a pulsator operable to subject the vest to pulses of air which applies and releases high frequency pressure forces to the body. The pulsator has two diaphragms connected to a brushless electric dc motor with rotary to reciprocating linear motion transmitting mechanisms comprising scotch yokes having anti-lash assemblies operable to generate air pulses in an air pulsing chamber. The diaphragms also increase the pressure in a manifold chamber. A check valve connects the manifold chamber with a pulsing chamber to allow pressurized air to flow from the manifold chamber into the pulsing chamber. An air flow control valve in communication with the manifold chamber is used to adjust the pressure of the air in the manifold and pulsing chambers. A programmable motor controller adjusts the duration of operation and speed of the motor to vary the operational time and frequency of the air pulses.
US07770465B2

A force sensor assembly particularly suited for use in an electronic stylus that senses the contact force on its nib for recording pen strokes and handwriting recognition. The sensor assembly has a housing in which force sensing circuitry is mounted. The force sensing circuitry is configured for receiving an input force to be sensed and converting the input force into an output signal indicative of the input force. A coupling transmits the input force to the force sensing circuitry. The coupling has an inner section that applies the input force to the load bearing member, an outer section that receives the contact force on the nib and a collapsible section that allows the outer section to move relative to the inner section when the contact force exceeds a threshold. The relative movement of the outer section is limited by an abutment on the housing so that the input force on the force sensing circuitry never exceeds the threshold. This protects the force sensing circuitry from damage by sharp impact loads such as dropping the stylus on its nib.
US07770452B2

A semiconductor sensor is disclosed that includes a semiconductor substrate, a sensing portion provided on the semiconductor substrate, and a pad in electrical communication with the sensing portion and provided on the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor sensor also includes a bonding wire in electrical communication with the pad. Furthermore, the semiconductor sensor includes a cover member with a covering portion disposed over the semiconductor substrate for covering the sensing portion such that the covering portion is separated at a distance from the sensing portion. The cover member further includes a coupling portion provided on the semiconductor substrate at an area including the pad and for enabling electrical connection of the pad with the bonding wire therethrough.
US07770448B2

A chemical storage device and a method for monitoring chemical usage are described herein. The device and disclosed method utilize a chemical storage canister and a load cell integrated into one transportable unit. The load cell is capable of compensating for the added weight of attached dispensing devices used in the semiconductor industry. Additionally, the load cell continuously displays the weight of the chemicals as they are withdrawn from the chemical storage device. These functionalities are included in the control logic of the load cell which is incorporated into the load cell itself.
US07770447B2

A fluid detector for determining a presence of a fluid within a container includes a piezoelectric element that outputs a first ultrasonic signal in response to an input electrical signal and a lens with an upper portion and a lower portion. The piezoelectric element is coupled to the upper portion of the lens so that, when the lens is disposed adjacent the outer surface of the wall such that the lens is intermediate the piezoelectric element and the wall, the lens focuses the first ultrasonic signal toward the wall so that the first ultrasonic signal enters the wall.
US07770444B2

A patch configured to fix an electronic system, which includes a sensor, to a tire. The patch has a foot with a surface configured to be fixed to the tire. The foot has at least two portions connected to one another by at least one bridging element. The bridging element has, in a section which is parallel to the surface of the foot that is configured to be fixed to the tire, a surface area which is smaller than the overall surface area in the same section between the connected portions of the foot. In the same section, the bridging element continuously connects the connected portions of the foot.
US07770438B2

The head slider has a plurality of heaters each heating a corresponding region of the ABS, and a sensor detecting collision of the ABS with a projection on a surface of the magnetic disk. Currents supplied to the respective heaters are controlled and produce heats independently of one another. The heats produce projections on the corresponding regions of the ABS, respectively. The ABS with asperity can be planarized through appropriately controlling magnitude of the currents supplied to the heaters. Thus, the variation of a sensor output depending on asperity of the ABS is effectively reduced. Another head slider has a heater locally heating a corresponding region of the ABS. The heater has a structure where a central portion is away from the ABS compared with end portions, or a structure where calorific power of a central portion is smaller than that of each of end portions. Thus, overall projection shape becomes flat.
US07770432B2

A sensor element for gas sensors for determining the concentration of particles in gas mixtures, especially soot sensors, having at least one measuring device exposed to the gas to be determined, at least one heating element integrated into the sensor element and at least one temperature measurement element integrated into the sensor element, the heating element being situated within the sensor element spatially between the measuring device and the temperature measurement element.
US07770429B2

In a method for producing a coupling on a pipe, preferably consisting of copper or steel or Cu—, Ni—, Fe— alloys, by way of a preferably graduated or one-stage expansion of the pipe end to create a much larger difference in diameter, an expansion tool is introduced axially into the end of the pipe. Once the expansion tool has been introduced into the pipe end, the region of the pipe end that is to be or has been expanded is completely or partially compressed, by a force acting axially on the pipe end, so that the external diameter of the pipe end that is to be processed is delimited by one or more shaping jaws that completely or partially surround the pipe end. The invention also relates to a device for producing a coupling on a pipe end according to the method.
US07770418B2

A dispensing device for liquid and/or powdered treating agents includes a compartment for holding a first treating agent. A first nozzle is disposed above a lateral region of the compartment and configured to convey water therethrough onto the first treating agent. A second nozzle is disposed above a central region of the compartment and configured to convey water therethrough onto the first treating agent. A receptacle configured to hold a second liquid treating agent can be inserted into the compartment so as to form a gap between a wall of the receptacle and a wall of the compartment. Introduction of water through the first nozzle and the second nozzle is selectively controllable.
US07770415B2

The invention relates to a knitting device for making a double-sided textile comprising two outer laps (1,2) that are knitted and joined to one another by means of a ground yarn (4). This device comprises two groups of needles (6) that move in translation on a respective needle bed (5) following a continuous rectilinear trajectory in a respective plane (P1, P2). The positions of the hook (7) of a needle (6) of at least one group respectively between its knitting station and its bonding station are situation on both sides of the intersecting straight line (D) between said two planes (P1, P2). In addition, the lift of the needle (6) between its knitting removal station is less than the lift of the needle (6) between its removal station and its bonding station.
US07770412B2

An integrated unit for a refrigerant cycle device includes an ejector having a nozzle part for decompressing refrigerant, and an evaporator located to evaporate the refrigerant to be drawn into a refrigerant suction port of the ejector or the refrigerant discharged from an outlet of the ejector. The evaporator includes a plurality of tubes defining refrigerant passages through which refrigerant flows, a tank that is disposed at one end side of the tubes for distributing refrigerant into the tubes and for collecting the refrigerant from the tubes. The tank extends in a tank longitudinal direction that is parallel to an arrangement direction of the tubes, and is provided with an end portion in the tank longitudinal direction. Furthermore, the end portion has a hole portion for inserting the ejector, and the ejector is inserted into an inner space of the tank from the hole portion.
US07770407B1

A thermal transfer system, a heat sink, and a method for transferring heat are provided. The thermal transfer system includes a fuel cell that can produce a fluid. A wick is provided to transfer the fluid to a destination at which a heat source is present. An enclosure having a porous fluid-permeable external wall can surround the fluid at the destination. When the fluid permeates or condenses on the external wall exterior surface, air exposure of that external wall will cause evaporative cooling of the fluid, and thereby enhance the cooling effect at the heat source. The fluid is a natural byproduct of the fuel cell. Accordingly, the thermal transfer system not only cools a heat source, but produces electric current. The heat sink can be thermally coupled to the heat source, and can have a plurality of fins extending from a base. One or more fins can have a fluid-permeable external wall for evaporative cooling. Fluid can be transferred more efficiently using a wick placed somewhere within the internal radial dimension of a pipe that extends from the fuel cell to the heat source. The external wall of the pipe can also be porous to maximize the fluid entrapment on the inner surface and the evaporative cooling on the external surface.
US07770399B2

A gas turbine engine has the convergent flaps and seals of an adjustable cross-sectional area nozzle connected to associated liners with a thermally compliant bracket. The bracket includes spaced feet with an intermediate notch spaced away from the liner. In this manner, a temperature gradient along the liner can be easily compensated at the connection of the bracket to the liner by adjustment within the notch. In other features, the bracket is riveted to the liner, providing further resistance to thermal expansion due to temperature gradiations.
US07770394B2

A remote power supply system associated with offshore hydrocarbon production and transportation operations includes an expansion turbine that generates power for the system. The remote power supply system also has a support structure that supports the expansion turbine. A cooling section is supported by the support structure, and is in fluid communication with the expansion turbine to receive the vapor therefrom and to condense it to liquid. A downcomer and boiler section is in fluid communication with the cooling section to receive the liquid condensed from the vapor. An ignition assembly is positioned toward a lower end portion of the downcomer and boiler section. The ignition assembly ignites a fuel and air mixture and causes the liquid received by the downcomer and boiler section from the cooling section to boil into vapor. A return passage conveys vapor from the downcomer and boiler section to the inlet of the expansion turbine.
US07770380B2

An apparatus and method to control ignition, combustion burn rate, extinguishment, and reignition of solid propellant is provided.
US07770375B2

A material having a plurality of impurity collection spaces has an outer face facing into a cooling air flow stream for a gas turbine engine component. Impurities such as sand or dirt will collect in the plurality of spaces. In a disclosed embodiment, a honeycombed material is utilized. The material may have a surface that will sit with at least a component parallel to an axial centerline of a gas turbine engine that is to receive the collection material. The material surface may also have a component which is generally perpendicular to the axial centerline. The material may be placed in a gas turbine engine upstream of the turbine section, and downstream of the combustion section. Moreover, the collection material may be placed such that there is cleaner air flow radially inwardly of the collection material, and heavier dirt-laden air passing along the collection material such that impurities can be collected.
US07770372B2

A blended yarn is provided having at least one component fiber type being made of stretch broken fibers, preferably of a stretch broken high performance fiber, along with multi-end yarns containing the blended yarn, composite yarns having at least one component being the blended yarn, and articles made from the blended, multi-end or composite yarn.
US07770368B2

An enveloping device (1), capable of repeatedly performing a process for producing an envelope and inserting a content into the envelope at high speed, comprises: a film feeder (2) for feeding a film (7) wound on a roll and supplied in the form of two overlapping folds that extend in a width direction (W); an envelope making device (3) for repeatedly forming an envelope by cutting and fusing, in a longitudinal direction of the film (7), the two overlapping folds while conveying the film; an envelope conveying conveyor (5) which conveys a plurality of envelopes (8) while arranging these envelopes in a line; and an inserting device (6) for inserting a content (9) into each envelope (8) conveyed by the envelope conveyor (5).
US07770367B2

An apparatus for sealing a bag of encased material is described. A plurality of nozzles radiate from a central vacuum system, each nozzle associated with a clamping means. A framework rotates about the central vacuum system. A holding tray and an elevating device are removably attachable to the framework. The holding tray is attachable below a one of the plurality of nozzles and comprises an upright section and a projecting section. The upright section is supported by the framework at an acute angle from vertical, a top end of the upright section being adjacent to the framework and a bottom end of the upright section being remote from the framework. The projecting section is removably attachable to the bottom end of the upright section and projects approximately normal to the upright section. The elevating device is removably attachable to the framework below a one of the plurality of nozzles.
US07770364B1

Systems and methods for branding medication are provided, including, a first capper system that caps a first medication container with a first cap of a first branding including first identification of a third party supplier of one of the prescription and medication order; a second capper system that caps a second medication container with a second cap of a second branding including second identification of another third party supplier of the one of the prescription and medication order; a transport system that transports the first and second medication containers; and a control system that controls the transport system to transport the first and second medication containers based on customer information, and controls the one of the first capper system and the second capper system to cap the first and second medication containers with one of the first and second caps.
US07770363B2

A method for filling cells of a heat-formed strip with corresponding articles, the strip being continuously advanced at a predetermined operating speed, comprising: collecting a plurality of articles which are in contact with each other and arranged in parallel rows; adjusting the position occupied by the collected articles in such a way that the articles are arranged in a same spatial arrangement as a same number of empty cells in a longitudinal region of the blister strip to be filled; transferring the articles to a position above the blister strip, the speed of advancement of the articles being gradually synchronized with the speed of advancement of the strip, in a centered position relative to corresponding underlying empty cells of the longitudinal region; releasing the articles into the empty cells of the longitudinal region; repeating these operating stages in order to fill at least a further longitudinal region, which is identical and adjacent to the longitudinal region, in such a way as to complete the filling operation for a longitudinal tract of the blister strip.
US07770362B2

A method and a device for producing and filling sacks with at least four longitudinal seams provide a more cost-effective approach to producing and filling sacks. The material that forms the sacks is supplied from an unwinding device in the form of a tubular material to a sack forming device. The tubular material is provided with longitudinal seams in the sack forming device, with the seams extending over a major part of the sacks.
US07770354B2

A lightweight cementitious panel/tile is provided with increased bending stiffness and less weight than conventional construction panels. The cementitious panel is constructed of a cementitious surface (which may be reinforced with wood fiber or other materials) supported by an integrated stiffener grid on the underside to absorb stresses and loads.
US07770350B2

Floor covering, including hard floor panels which, at least at the edges of two opposite sides, are provided with coupling parts, cooperating which each other, substantially in the form of a tongue and a groove, wherein the coupling parts are provided with integrated mechanical locking elements which prevent the drifting apart of two coupled floor panels in a direction (R) perpendicular to the related edges and parallel to the underside of the coupled floor panels, and provide a snap-action coupling.
US07770348B2

A method and apparatus for installing steel studs to make a wall includes a first and second track each having a center portion, an inner lip extending from the center portion and an outer lip extending from the center portion. A first flange goes on each side of the inner lip of the first track. A second flange goes on each side of the inner lip of the second track. A U-shaped stud is provided having at least a portion of an inner lip of the stud being disposed between the first tab and the inner lip of the first track and at least a portion of the inner lip of the stud being disposed between the second tab and the inner lip of the second track.
US07770345B2

A floor tile for a raised floor. The floor tile is defined by a shallow upwardly-opening metal pan defining a shallow compartment in which a main preformed one-piece concrete block is secured. The main concrete block is preferably formed from a plurality of one-piece preformed concrete sub-blocks which are adhesively adhered in sideward abutting relationship to define a plan profile corresponding to the main concrete block. The main concrete block is then adhesively secured within the compartment of the metal pan.
US07770341B2

An electrical conduit encasement including a top section and bottom section secured together by mortar and adjacent encasements by mortar. A pair of vertically extending threaded rods suspend the concrete encasements with the rods extending through members attached to plates embededly attached to the encasements.
US07770340B2

A modular egress window well structure which is constructed of structurally identical walls that interlock and attach to the foundation of a building via a termination strip. The identical wall members allow for ease of manufacturing and installation of the egress window well. The method of installation comprises removing soil away from the foundation of a building, securing the termination of strips to the foundation, assembling the egress window well and then backfilling the soil around the structure.
US07770333B2

An adapter for a tank, having a bottom with one or more adhesive-receiving channels formed therein, an inner wall, structure for supporting a riser component on the adapter, and wall reinforcement structure. The adapter is particularly suited to providing pre-cast concrete tank lids with structural, interengaging support for a column of stackable riser components to form a passageway to facilitate access to the tank from a higher elevation.
US07770328B2

A cable (11) is provided comprising a steel cord (12) and a polymer material (15). The steel cord (12) has a diameter less than 2.5 mm, and is coated with the polymer material (15). The cable (11) has a permanent elongation of less than 0.05% at a permanent force of 50 N, after being subjected to a force of 450 N. Further, a window elevator system (300) comprising such a cable (11) is provided.
US07770322B2

A process for cultivating photosynthetic microbes comprising Closed Systems for continuous cultivation and Open Systems for batch cultivation, in which (a) the Closed System Area occupies no more than 20% of the Total Land Area of the cultivation facility; (b) batch cultures in the Open Systems are initiated with an inoculum from the Closed Systems containing a cell biomass of no less than 5% of the carrying capacity of said Open System; (c) the doubling rate of said photosynthetic microbe is no less than once every 16 hours; and (d) the residence time of the batch culture in said Open System is no more than a period of 5 days.
US07770301B1

A portable system for documenting the height of one or more children during their growth. The system comprises an elongated frame that can be disassembled into segments for travel.
US07770294B2

A razor including a replaceable shaving cartridge. The replaceable shaving cartridge includes a pivotal frame, a blade unit moveably secured to the pivotal frame and an interconnect member. The blade unit includes one or more blades and has a camming surface. The interconnect member has a pivotal support structure that pivotally supports the pivotal frame for pivoting about a pivot axis. A biasing member that has a cam follower surface extends from the interconnect member to act on the camming surface to bias the blade unit. A handle is releasably secured to the interconnect member.
US07770271B2

The invention concerns a creel (2) comprising a plurality of winding heads (7) from which several yarns of the same type or of different types are drawn simultaneously by means of a winding machine (3). Said creel comprises at least one dynamic yarn tension device (6) which is associated with each winding head and at which a variable braking force is applied to the yarn to produce a predetermined yarn tension. Each yarn tension device (6) can be activated by means of an associated drive motor (20). Said creel (2) comprises a control device for controlling the yarn tension based on the angular speed or the yarn speed during a start-up and/or an interruption of the winding machine (3), as well as a regulator (25) for regulating the yarn tension during the normal stationary phase of the winding machine (3). The control device and the regulator (25) are designed such that the yarn tension or the output tension of each yarn can be maintained at a substantially constant level relative to a setpoint value. In order to determine a quantity of regulation (32) of the braking force required to control the yarn tension device (6), a precompensation of the disturbing quantity is implemented. Said precompensation calculates from the yarn speed (v) as input quantity a compensated correction quantity (34) of at least the inertia of the motor and a friction coefficient of the drive motor (20).
US07770265B2

An anchor having an internal passage defined by a revolved wall profile. The anchor is conceptually divided into four regions: a neck region, a transition region, a mid region, and a distal region. Each of these regions has its own design considerations. A portion of a parabola is used to define at least part of the revolved wall profile. The parabolic portion is preferably used in at least the neck and mid regions. In order to create a tangency condition proximate the neck anchor boundary, the parabola used to create the wall profile is angularly offset from the wall profile's axis of rotation.
US07770264B2

A substantially flat clip element is provided for clamping onto the side edge of an object, such as a stack of papers or documents. Application of the clip element can be effected individually and manually, or a stack of the clip elements can be included within an application device, e.g., in the form of a hand-held and/or desktop device. In another alternative, the clip stack can be provided in a paper processing device, e.g., a finishing station, such that successive groups of papers/documents are clipped together in automatic fashion.
US07770262B2

Handle portions of hand tools are disclosed that enhance gripping properties while simultaneously imparting flexibility and cushioning properties to the tool handle portion to promote a softer, more ergonomic tool handle portion. The handle portion of a hand tool housing is ergonomically configured for normal gripping by a user's hand and wherein the pressure points of contact by at least one predetermined portion of the hand principally contact a relatively soft tactile cushion surface. The handle portion has at least one support structure configured to provide a volume around which the user's hand can grip with the user's thumb, palm and fingers in contact with said volume, wherein the support structure has at least one window located adjacent the predetermined portion, and a cushion structure bonded to the support structure and spanning each window to provide the relatively soft tactile cushion surface.
US07770255B2

A base has wheels, including a drive wheel, for wheeling the base over a floor. A nozzle is fixed to the base for a fan in the base to draw air from the floor through the nozzle. A handle is connected to the base for propelling the base by manually applying a force to the handle. A drive assist motor, which is not configured to drive the fan, has an output shaft coupled to the drive wheel. The controller is operative in a driving mode to power the motor to rotate the drive wheel in a direction corresponding to a direction of the force applied to the handle. The controller is operative in a non-driving mode to refrain from powering the motor to rotate the drive wheel.
US07770250B2

A concrete building system includes a set of parallel spaced apart strip footers and one or more precast concrete sections supported by the footers in a predetermined alignment. Each precast concrete section has a top slab integrally connected to a pair of equally flared legs. Each leg depends from an end of the top slab at an effective flare angle to form a corner. The precast section includes haunch sections formed between the top slab and each leg resulting in a corner thickness greater than the uniform thickness of the angled leg to which it is integrally formed and the top member. The length of the effective span of each section varies between 60 and 90 percent of the distance between the bottom-of-leg span. The sections can be used to construct bridges, culverts, underground storage units, fluid detention units and dam structures.
US07770249B2

A tooling device configured to manipulate an electrical connector is disclosed. The tooling device has a body and a first pair of prongs pivotally mounted to the body. Each of the prongs of the first pair of prongs is spaced apart. The prongs pivot independent of each other and have an identical configuration.
US07770248B2

A cushion unit includes shell having a first cushion retaining portion and a second cushion retaining portion that are demarcated by a hinge-seam including a fastener portion. The fastener portion is secured to an inboard surface of the shell. According to an embodiment, the cushion unit includes a cushion member affixed to an inboard surface of the shell. According to an embodiment, the fastener portion is secured directly to an outboard surface of the cushion member and secured indirectly to an inboard an inboard surface of the shell. According to an embodiment, the fastener portion is secured directly to an inboard an inboard surface of the shell. A method for manufacturing a cushion unit is disclosed. A method for providing a cushion unit is also disclosed.
US07770239B1

A suspension system and chin strap assembly for a helmet including two downwardly extending top straps; strap adjusters coupled proximate the end portions of each top strap; a helmet attachment means coupled to each of the top straps; a headband coupled to each of the top straps; a front strap that is adjustably coupled to a first front strap adjuster and a second front strap adjuster; a nape pillow pad is coupled to the front strap, and a portion of a quick release buckle and a strap ring are slideably coupled to the front strap; a chin strap coupled to the quick release buckle and a strap ring; and a back strap that is adjustably coupled to a first back strap adjuster and a second back strap adjuster and attached to a nape pillow pad.
US07770238B2

A necktie is disclosed having a knot, the knot having a channel. The necktie has a unitary band, the band being a separate material from the knot. The band has two circumferential segments, each segment being threaded through the channel. Each segment of the band is capable of sliding within the channel. The band is without a clasp on the back outer surface of the knot. The necktie has an elastic textile fabric, within the knot, that is capable of restraining the motion of the band.
US07774853B2

A document processing device comprises, an authentication unit adapted to authenticate the user, a history information storage unit adapted to store history information indicating that document data was processed after the document data was stored in a document management server, the history information including identification information for identifying the document data was processed after the document data was stored in a document management server, a user access right judgment unit adapted to judge whether or not the authenticated user has an access right to each document data corresponding to the identification information included in the history information, a display unit adapted to display information for enable a user to select the document data to which the authenticated user has the access right from among the document data corresponding to the identification information included in the history information, and a processing unit adapted to process to the document data selected by the user.
US07774846B2

A filter driver or other control logic automatically monitors user input events and outbound network packets in a processing system. According to one embodiment, in response to detecting an outbound network packet, the filter driver automatically determines whether the outbound network packet corresponds to a recent user input event. If the outbound network packet does not correspond to at least one recent user input event, the filter driver automatically prevents the processing system from transmitting the outbound network packet. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07774843B1

A system, method and computer program product are provided for preventing the execution of unwanted code. An indicator is initially received which is representative of an amount of data to be read from a stack. An amount of data is then read from the stack based on the indicator, such that execution of unwanted code is avoided.
US07774825B2

Methods and apparatuses for controlling access to a secured server based on at least one access criterion are provided. A method involves receiving a request from a submitter, for a requestor to access the secured server. The request includes data to verify access criteria. The method also involves verifying whether the access criterion has been met and authorizing access. Authorizing access to the server may include preparing an access authorization form and forwarding the access authorization form to an authorized access provider for access implementation. Verifying whether the access criterion has been met includes verifying whether access to the secured server is essential to responsibilities of the requester, the submitter is authorized to request access for the requestor, and the approver is authorized to request access to the secured server. The method also involves auditing authorized requestors and removing access authorization for each requester for whom the access criterion is no longer met.
US07774823B2

A method and system are provided for allowing a user to efficiently manage communications. A system for allowing a user having a unique identity is provided, wherein the unique identity is associated with a plurality of electronic devices. The system includes a service for assigning a reference to a user's unique identity, wherein other identities can access the user's unique identity only by using the reference. The system additionally includes permission controls for allowing the user to control access to the unique identity by restricting authorization to a selected set of other identities. Groups of individuals may receive different levels of authorization such that some individuals may be authorized to make live contact and others may be required to leave a message. Preference controls allow the system user to select at least one associated, device from a plurality of associated devices for receiving communication upon an access attempt by an authorized user. The preference controls also allow a system user to select a preferred mode of receiving communication such as audio, video or text modes.
US07774815B1

An in-context interactive television ticker is provided. The ticker is rendered on a display screen that also shows a television program, and presents ticker content that is in-context with subject matter of the television program. The ticker remains rendered and context-sensitive to the subject matter of the currently shown television program, whenever there is a change in the television program, such as when the subject matter of the current television program changes, when a commercial interruption occurs during the television program, or when the television channel is changed. The ticker is interactive in that the viewer can perform various interactive operations with the ticker, including interacting with the ticker to obtain additional information related to an in-context item presented by the ticker.
US07774814B2

A system and method for receiving services is presented. The system comprises a first splitter having an input, a first output and a slaved output receiving a first signal at the input having a single polarization including a first service and a slaved service, wherein the first signal is directed to the first output and the slaved output and selected by a first control signal applied at the input, a first tuner receiving the first output and tuning the first service and a slaved tuner receiving the slaved output and tuning the slaved service. The method comprises generating a first control signal to select a first signal, receiving a first signal including a first service and a slaved service, wherein the first service and the slaved service are at the same polarization, splitting the first signal with a first splitter to a first output and a first slaved output, tuning the first service from the first output with a first tuner and tuning the slaved service from the slaved output with a slaved tuner.
US07774808B2

A method for distributing geographical restriction data in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system is disclosed. The method includes accepting at an IPTV server, a request from an IPTV client for the geographical restriction data related to geographically restricted video data, determining at the server, a plurality of geographic restriction zones for the geographically restricted video data and sending from the server to the client a message containing the restriction data related to at least one of the restriction zones.
US07774804B2

An optical disc apparatus, comprising: a tray 20 being provided to be movable between a first position where an optical disc can be loaded therein and a second position where information is readout from said optical disc loaded; and a housing 10 supporting said tray to be slidable, and including an electronic circuit board in a part thereof, wherein the tray mounts thereon various kinds of parts including a pickup 30, a disc motor 31, and a control portion for controlling them, and is electrically connected between the electronic circuit board of the housing through a flexible cable, which is provided under condition of being bent within the housing, wherein a reinforcing sheet shaped 50 into waveform at the end portion thereof for dispersing the stresses is adhered in a part of a bent region of the flexible cable, which moves accompanying with movement of the tray when the tray moves between the first position and the second position.
US07774802B2

A disk holder, disk alignment mechanism and disk drive employing same that for permitting accurate alignment of a disk are provided.The disk drive comprises a disk holder 10 that comprises a plurality of holder plates 11 that individually hold disks D, a drive unit 62 that plays back disks D, disk selectors 41A and 41B that form a space above and below a desired disk D by raising and lowering the holder plates 11, and a drive base 60 that moves the drive unit 62 into the space that is formed as a result of raising and lowering the holder plates 11. Disk hold links 17 and 18 comprising catches 17a and 18a respectively that engage with and disengage from the center hole of disk D are provided on the holder plates 11 such that the disk hold links 17 and 18 are able to turn, and a disk hold arm 16 that allows the disk hold links 17 and 18 to turn is provided so as to be able to perform a sliding movement.
US07774797B2

In accordance with certain aspects of the present invention, enhancements have been developed to further extend the performance of a generic DVD navigator. The methods and arrangements herein provide a mechanism that allows a player application to precisely ‘bookmark’ locations during playback, and later resume playback at the selected bookmarked locations.
US07774788B2

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for enabling the selective updating of web pages provided to a mobile client using, for example, AJAX technology. The system, method, and computer program product are optionally further extended to harmonize synchronization of data retrieved by other methods with data updated using AJAX. The use of AJAX technology is disclosed within the context of additional technology suites which may be substituted to achieve the same function. Additionally, the use of queuing AJAX updates is discussed.
US07774783B2

A procedure identifies multiple threads associated with a process and pauses execution of a first thread associated with the process. A determination is made regarding whether the first thread is attempting to access a first resource. If the first thread is attempting to access a first resource, the procedure identifies a second thread that has locked the first resource and determines whether the second thread is attempting to access a second resource that is locked by the first thread. A deadlock is identified if the second thread is attempting to access a second resource that is locked by the first thread.
US07774782B1

A host load server balances a web host's load capacity among multiple competing web crawlers of a search engine. The host load server establishes a lease for each pair of requesting web crawler and requested web host. The lease expires at a scheduled time. If the web crawler completes its mission of retrieving documents from the web host prior to the expiration of the lease, the host load server releases the load capacity allocated to the web crawler and makes it available for other competing web crawlers. If the web crawler submits a request for renewing its lease with the web host at the scheduled time, the host load server allocates another share of load capacity to the web crawler. If the web crawler does not submit any request at the scheduled time, the host load server terminates the lease and releases the load capacity for other web crawlers.
US07774771B2

A method and system for managing and organizing software package installations are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a software package from a computer source. One or more properties of the received software package are identified. The identified one or more properties of the received software package are stored in a first storage module. And the received software package is stored in a second storage module.
US07774768B2

An improved method of optimizing the instruction set of a digital processor using code compression. In one embodiment, the method comprises obtaining an assembly language program to be used for the optimization process; calculating the static frequency of each instruction type from the base instruction set; sorting the instruction types by frequency; determining the number and type of instructions necessary for correct program execution; creating a compressed instruction set encoding; re-evaluating the compressed instruction according to the foregoing steps; and generating an instruction set encoding for the compressed instruction set. Improved compressed instruction formats and register structures useful in a processor are also disclosed. A computer program and apparatus for synthesizing logic implementing the aforementioned data cache architecture and pipeline performance enhancements are further disclosed.
US07774756B1

A method for debugging an application on a source node, that includes creating a first Remote Method Invocation (RMI) by the application at a source node, associating a first debug object with the first RMI, sending the first RMI with the first debug object to a first target node, and receiving debugging information from the first target node, wherein the debugging information is obtained by executing the first RMI on the first target node.
US07774754B2

A development-oriented split-source directory structure, that can be used with an application server and which solves a number of the problems associated with traditional Enterprise Archive (EAR) files. In particular, the split-source directory structure presents a clean separation between human-readable source files stored in a source control system and generated java class files. The two directories (source and output) appear like a single application. In addition, the split-source directory structure supports an abstraction layer and mappings that allow a physical file location to be mapped to a virtual location. In this manner, the system provides flexibility in how the build structure can be laid out for a particular application development.
US07774745B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for generating runtime entities in a visual modeling environment. A method includes providing designtime graphical modeling language entities for use in a visual modeling program, receiving input defining an application definition at designtime as including at least a first and second designtime entities as components of a designtime version of the application, and generating runtime entities of the application. The designtime graphical modeling language entities include the first and second designtime entities, and the first designtime entity has an associated first runtime entity precompiled for a first platform. The input includes a configuration of properties of the first and second designtime entities, and generating the runtime entities includes setting properties of the first runtime entity in accordance with the configuration of properties of the first designtime entity.
US07774740B2

The present invention is an applet server which accepts requests for applets from client computers. A request specifies the format in which an applet is to be delivered to the requesting client computer. The applet server has a cache which it uses to store applets for distribution to client computers. If the specified form of the requested applet is available in the cache, the applet server transmits the applet to the requesting client. If the applet is not available in the cache, the server will attempt to build the applet from local resources (program code modules and compilers) and transformer programs (verifiers and optimizers). If the applet server is able to build the requested applet, it will then transmit the applet to the requesting client computer. If the applet server is unable to build the requested applet, it will pass the request to another applet server on the network for fulfillment of the request.
US07774737B2

Methods, and a program storage device for executing such methods, for performing model-based optical proximity correction by providing a mask matrix having a region of interest (ROI) and locating a plurality of points of interest within the mask matrix. A first polygon having a number of vertices representative of the located points of interest is computed, followed by determining a spatial relation between its vertices and the ROI. The vertices of the first polygon are then pinned to boundaries of and within the ROI such that a second polygon is formed on the ROI. The process is repeated for all vertices of the first polygon such that the second polygon is collapsed onto the ROI. This collapsed second polygon is then used to correct for optical proximity.
US07774735B1

A method for migrating a netlist from one set of library cells to a new set of library cells with minimal time and effort and without loss of information within an ASCI environment. This methodology ensures that during translation logic equivalence and scan configurations are maintained in the new technology libraries. Additionally, a complete migration of the constraints from the original netlist to the new netlist is also performed. Designer engineers no longer have to start from RTL and execute a complete resynthesis to translate an original design from one technology library to a new technology library.
US07774730B2

A method of designing a semiconductor integrated circuit by a computer, comprises: (A) reading an RTL data indicating RTL description of the semiconductor integrated circuit; and (B) providing a gating cell for clock gating during logic synthesis of the RTL description. The gating cell includes a latch circuit that latches an enable signal, which activates a target of the clock gating, in synchronization with a clock signal. The gating cell is provided separately from a timing exception path.
US07774726B2

Methods and systems for correcting inter-level variations are disclosed. One approach addresses thickness and/or topological variations based upon layers in an IC design that do not allow the placement of dummy fill, in which dummy fill is added to certain layers of the IC to reduce process variations caused by other layers in the semiconductor devices. To accomplish this, layers in the design that cannot accommodate dummy fill are modeled to determine their topological variations. Other layers that are capable of receiving dummy fill are then analyzed to receive the correct quantity and distribution of dummy fill to correct for the topological variations from the non-dummy fill layers.
US07774722B2

A canvas in an inking application is created and manipulated based on ink strokes. An ink stroke outside a presented canvas, even outside a user interface of the inking application, is recorded and the presented canvas enlarged to cover the recorded ink stroke. If the ink stroke begins on a command area such as a canvas size control icon, the command associated with the area is executed. If the ink stroke begins in a typed text area, lines are frozen and separated responsive to the first stroke. A new canvas is presented between the separated lines. A size of the new canvas is adjusted based on ink entry or a size of the first ink stroke.
US07774709B2

Methods and systems described herein may comprise determining, for each of a plurality of potential related companies, a correlation factor of a related company metric of the potential related company relative to a focal company metric and selecting at least one related company having a correlation factor relative to the focal company within a first range. The methods may also comprise displaying a focal company field listing an identifier of the focal company and displaying a correlation field listing identifiers for the at least one related company, where certain of the identifiers comprise a hyperlink. When one of the hyperlinks is activated, the company corresponding to the activated hyperlink may become the new focal company. The correlation field may list identifiers for at least one new related company having a related company metric with a correlation factor relative to the focal company metric of the new focal company within the first range.
US07774706B2

A visual display interface is provided that comprises an associated display icon. The display icon is dragged across the visual display interface in a movement so as to cause the mixing of a plurality of media streams. The output is a new mix of the various media streams.
US07774699B2

A method for transforming a starting data structure into a resultant data structure is provided. The data structures may be embodied in any language or format, including the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The starting data structure is separated into segments. The transformation may be analyzed to determine which loops are top level and separable. The starting data structure may be analyzed to estimate the most costly loop, then separated along the most costly loop. Segments are transformed independently, and transformed segments are recombined to create the resultant data structure.
US07774698B2

In a system and method for generating a frameless display, a processor may select one of a plurality of page configurations based on session data in response to a page request, and may display, in accordance with the selected page configuration, a unitary page including data of a plurality of applications, such that the data of each of the applications is displayed in a corresponding one of a plurality of data regions defined by the selected page configuration.
US07774696B2

Disclosed are methods, systems and computer program products for generating a change approval plan for a computing system. The computing system has at least one component and at least two user groups, and each user group has an approver. A request to change at least one said component is received. It is determined which components are affected by the change request. An initial set of approvals to be obtained from at least one of said approvers is determined based on dependencies of the affected components with other components, and based on the approvers required for each affected and dependent component. The initial set of approvals is rearranged into sub-groups such that components falling within each sub-group are dependent only upon components within a respective same group.
US07774693B2

Differential dynamic content delivery including providing a session document for a presentation, wherein the session document includes a session grammar and a session structured document; selecting from the session structured document a classified structural element in dependence upon user classifications of a user participant in the presentation; presenting the selected structural element to the user; identifying a device controlling action; and executing the device controlling action to control a device for the user. In many embodiments, identifying a device controlling action includes identifying a device controlling action in dependence upon a presentation control instruction. In some embodiments, identifying a device controlling action further includes identifying a device controlling action in dependence upon a spoken key word. In some embodiments, identifying a device controlling action further includes identifying a device controlling action in dependence upon a classified structural element.
US07774690B2

A semiconductor circuit includes a parity bit adding circuit configured to add a parity bit to a data to be read by a CPU; a register configured to hold the data with the parity bit; and a parity check circuit configured to execute a parity check of said data with said parity bit held in said register, and to issue a parity error interrupt when a parity error is detected. A parity bit inverting circuit inverts said parity bit held in said register in response to completion of said parity check.
US07774689B2

An encoder for use in information processing applications includes an input configured to provide information bits to be encoded and a feedforward convolutional outer code encoder configured to encode the information bits to generate encoded information bits including the information bits and parity bits. The encoder may also include at least one interleaver configured to interleave the encoded information bits to generate an outer codeword. Further, the encoder may include a rate-1 1/(1+D) accumulate code based inner code encoder configured to encode the outer codeword to generate one or more codewords corresponding to the information bits.
US07774681B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for logically organizing data for storage and recovery on a data storage medium using a multi-level format. The present invention also provides systems and methods for protecting data stored on data storage medium so that the data may be recovered without errors.
US07774680B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for logically organizing data for storage and recovery on a data storage medium using a multi-level format. The present invention also provides systems and methods for protecting data stored on data storage medium so that the data may be recovered without errors.
US07774675B1

A MIMO transmitter comprises a scrambler; an encoder parser responsive to the scrambler; a forward error correction encoder responsive to the encoder parser, wherein the encoder applies a parity check matrix derived from a base matrix; an interleaver responsive to the forward error correction encoder; a QAM mapping module responsive to the interleaver; an inverse fast Fourier transform module responsive to the QAM mapping module; and an output module responsive to the inverse fast Fourier transform module.
US07774674B2

The LDPC decoder includes a processor for updating messages exchanged iteratively between variable nodes and check nodes of a bipartite graph of the LDPC code. The decoder architecture is a partly parallel architecture clocked by a clock signal. The processor includes P processing units. First variable nodes and check nodes are mapped on the P processing units according to two orthogonal directions. The decoder includes P main memory banks assigned to the P processing units for storing all the messages iteratively exchanged between the first variable nodes and the check nodes. Each main memory bank includes at least two single port memory partitions and one buffer the decoder also includes a shuffling network and a shift memory.
US07774669B2

The present invention provides systems, devices and methods for generating user-defined test patterns within serial controller to facilitate signal testing and verification. These user-defined test patterns may be generated to more accurately reflect the actual traffic of a device-under-test or system, as well as allow a test engineer to more accurately test the boundaries of the device or system. In various embodiments of the invention, a programmable patterns generator is provided for generating user-defined test patterns that may be used during a testing procedure. This programmable pattern generator allows a user to define a particular test pattern by providing bit-by-bit test values, by defining a combination of canned sequences, or by supplementing one or more canned sequences with additional test bits.
US07774666B2

The analyzer according to the present invention is an analyzer having a scan test function, and including scan paths each having flip-flops which function as a shift register when a scan test is performed, and a switching unit operable to switch between a first connection state, and a second connection state where the scan paths are connected in series to each other and further an output from the last stage of the scan path is connected to the input of the first stage of the scan path.
US07774660B2

A row redundancy system is provided for replacing faulty wordlines of a memory array having a plurality of banks. The row redundancy system includes a remote fuse bay storing at least one faulty address corresponding to a faulty wordline of the memory array; a row fuse array for storing row fuse information corresponding to at least one bank of the memory array; and a copy logic module for copying at least one faulty address stored in the remote fuse bay into the row fuse array; wherein the copy logic module is programmed to copy the at least one faulty address into the row fuse information stored in the row fuse array corresponding to a predetermined number of banks in accordance with a selectable repair field size.
US07774657B1

Automated estimation that a hardware or software change is correlated with one or more problem events. In addition to identifying that a change has occurred, one or more problem events are identified that have occurred after the change. Problem events are then correlated with the change using a distance measure between the change and the at least one correlated problem event. For most, if not all, of the distance measure, the greater the distance measure, the less the change is correlated with each correlated problem event. The distance measure may be a time interval, an activity-weighted interval, or any other type of distance measure.
US07774653B2

The invention concerns an automatic method to secure an electronic calculation assembly against attacks by error introduction or by radiation. The following are used: 1) Static information generated by the automatic process; 2) A dynamic part of the memory of the electronic system allocated by the automatic process; 3) Beacons and check points to mark out the code, introduced by the automatic process; 4) Beacon functions storing information in the dynamic memory; 5) History verification functions using the static information and the dynamic memory to check that no errors have been introduced.
US07774652B2

A system may comprise a condition detection system that includes change circuitry configured to detect a change for at least one predetermined bit of an N-bit bus, where N is a positive integer, and to provide a corresponding change signal indicative of the detected condition. Match circuitry is configured to detect a match condition for up to a selected subset of predetermined bits of the N-bit bus and to provide a corresponding match signal indicative of the detected condition. Selection circuitry is programmable to provide a selected one of the change signal and the match signal as a corresponding output signal.
US07774650B2

A method of providing a power failure warning in a storage system includes partitioning early power off warning (EPOW) control logic of a storage enclosure to be symmetric with a power distribution network power domain. A power failure warning system for a storage system having a plurality of storage enclosures includes a power system control module coupled to a power supply for control and management of input power to the storage system. An output stage of the power supply is dedicated to a first virtual storage enclosure within one of the plurality of storage enclosures.
US07774649B2

A self-service terminal comprises a pc core and at least one module, which can be powered down independently of the pc core, the terminal has a control application and an agent arranged to monitor the fault state of the at least one module and cause a fault signal to be sent from the self-service terminal when the fault state of the at least one module is characteristic of a problem with the at least one module. The agent is arranged to determine if the module has been powered down; whereupon the fault signal is buffered until the module is powered up and a determination as to the fault state of the module is again made. The fault signal is only sent if the fault state still indicates there to be a problem with the at least one module.
US07774646B2

An apparatus and method for rapidly resuming the processing of client requests after a system failure event are disclosed. Accordingly, a surviving storage system, upon detecting a system failure event at a partner storage system, executes a takeover routine and conditions its system memory to reflect the state of the system memory of the failed storage system by processing client requests or commands stored in an operations log mirror. Then, the storage system converts the unused portion of the log mirror for use as an operations log, and resumes processing client requests prior to flushing any data to storage devices.
US07774641B2

Provided is a storage subsystem capable of inhibiting the deterioration in system performance to a minimum while improving reliability and availability. This storage subsystem includes a first controller for controlling multiple drive units connected via multiple first switch devices, and a second controller for controlling the multiple drive units connected via multiple second switch devices associated with the multiple first switch devices. This storage subsystem also includes a connection path that mutually connects the multiple first switch devices and the corresponding multiple second switch devices. When the storage [sub]system detects the occurrence of a failure, it identifies the fault site in the connection path, and changes the connection configuration of the switch device so as to circumvent the fault site.
US07774637B1

A system and method for analyzing and/or testing member devices in a multi-device system. The multi-device system includes a device-under-analysis (DUA) and a device-under-observation (DUO). An analyzer that is external to the multi-device system generates and sends test messages to the DUA. The analyzer monitors the health of the multi-device system through the DUO and detects a system-wide impact of the DUA caused by the test messages. The analyzer analyzes the DUA based on the test messages and the system-wide impact.
US07774630B2

In a computing system where multiple servers are connected through a network and one or more jobs are run, a power reduction facility of a supervisory server relocates jobs according to predetermined conditions, thereby reducing the amount of power consumed by the computing system. For relocating the jobs, the power reduction facility obtains server-related information such as the power properties of the servers constituting the computing system and job-related information such as performance requirements for the jobs which are run in the computing system, and searches for one or more jobs to be relocated and destination servers, based on these server-related information and job-related information, to the extent that the performance requirements for each job are fulfilled. Based on the search results, the jobs are relocated to the destination servers, and servers on which no job is running, in consequence of the relocation, are powered off.
US07774623B2

A state store having state information therein is stored on a computing device. Information at least nearly unique to the computing device is obtained, and a number of locations at which at least a portion of the state store is to be stored at is determined. Pseudo-random file names and corresponding paths are generated based at least in part on the obtained information, whereby the generated file names and corresponding paths are likewise at least nearly unique to the computing device, and the generated file names and path are paired to form the locations. Thereafter, the state store is stored according to the generated locations.
US07774617B2

A mechanism is provided for masking a boot sequence by providing a dummy processor. With the mechanism, one of the processors of a multiprocessor system is chosen to be a boot processor. The other processors of the multiprocessor system execute masking code that generates electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures that mask the electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures of the actual boot processor. The execution of the masking code on the non-boot processors preferably generates electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures that approximate the signatures of the actual boot code execution on the boot processor. One of the non-boot processors is selected to execute masking code that is different from the other masking code sequence to thereby generate a electromagnetic and/or thermal signature that appears to be unique from an external monitoring perspective.
US07774613B2

The present invention relates to a method for protecting the security of a computer network which is accessed through the use of wireless devices, among other means. Specifically, the present invention pertains to a method of using user-specific biometric data to identify users of wireless devices such as PDAs and yet prevent use by unauthorized persons and prevent changing of the biometric data by unauthorized persons. The method also prevents unauthorized access, and facilitates authorized access, to computer networks. Control of access to the biometric data and control of access to the network can be maintained in the network administrator or other responsible body and thereby also offers security against theft.
US07774612B1

A system and method links first and second computers of a network to implement a single signon feature. The use has a first username for accessing the first computer and a second username for accessing the second computer. The first computer generates a link request having a plaintext component including the first username and the second username and an encrypted component formed by encrypting the plaintext component using an encryption process and a secret. The link request is sent to the second computer, which validates the unencrypted information then generates an encryption result by encrypting the unencrypted information using the encryption process and a second secret known to the second computer and associated with the first network computer. The second computer compares the encryption result with the encrypted component of the incoming link request to determine whether the link request is valid.
US07774609B2

A method and apparatus for the digital signing of a message to be signed, the message to be signed is transmitted via a communication network to a mobile radio telephone to be used as a signing unit. A message to be signed is transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver and then from the receiver to the mobile radio telephone via a telephone network. The mobile radio telephone user indicates that the message to be signed should be signed, and the mobile radio telephone generates a signed message. The signed message is then transmitted from the mobile radio telephone to the receiver and from the receiver to an addressee.
US07774608B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for establishing trust in an electronic document. An electronic document is received. State dependent content in the electronic document is identified. The state dependent content is content that is renderable to have a several appearances. The electronic document is presented to a user, which includes disclosing the presence of any identified state dependent content in the electronic document.
US07774607B2

An RSA message signature can be verified by verifying that se mod n=F(m, n). If a value K, defined as K=se div n is computed in advance and provided as an input to the computing device verifying the signature, the signature verification can be significantly faster. To avoid transmission of, and mathematical operations on, large values of K, which can themselves be inefficient, the RSA public exponent e can be selected to be relatively small, such as e=2 or e=3. K is based on publicly available information and can be calculated by the computing device signing the message, or by an intermediate computing device, and transmitted to the device verifying the signature without impacting security.
US07774606B2

A system and method to control the writing on electronic paper (e-paper). An e-paper device may incorporate authentication indicia as part of informational data written on e-paper material. The informational data is protected by a security methodology that is accessible to authorized entities. A reader device may be used to help make a verification determination of whether encrypted or encoded data has been altered. In some instances an output alert operably coupled to the reader device serves as a verification status indicator.
US07774599B2

A system securing inter-process communication (IPC) based on trust includes a user quota mechanism to provide resource management of IPC's. A single user is allowed to allocate a fixed amount of objects less than a system maximum. A trusted IPC mechanism mediates access to IPC objects by employing signed executables signed by a key and containing a list of trusted keys. A trust relationship is used among a set of subjects connected to an IPC to determine whether communication can be carried out between processes. In order for the processes to communicate via an IPC, either they have to trust each other, or a kernel must trust one process and that process must also trust the other process.
US07774593B2

An encrypted packet processing device capable of realizing a predetermined classification process according to a data type while reducing the burden on a processing device in a communication environment in which encrypted packets of different data types exist. A block specifying section specifies a location, in which information necessary for a priority level determination process by a priority level determination section is stored, in an encrypted packet. A specified block decryption section decrypts only a block specified by the block specifying section, and extracts the information necessary for the priority level determination process. The priority level determination section searches a priority level information database using the information extracted by the specified block decryption section as a key, and determines a priority level of the packet.
US07774589B2

Selectively rebooting components of a computer system. One or more tables which list respective costs to reboot the components and respective likelihoods that reboots of the respective components will correct respective problems with the computer system are generated. Each of the costs is based on a time to reboot or delays caused by the reboot of the respective component. In response to a subsequent problem with the computer system, an order to reboot components of the computer system is determined from the table based on the costs and likelihoods that the reboot will correct the problem, such that a component of the computer system characterized by a relatively low cost and high likelihood to correct the problem will be rebooted before another component characterized by a relatively high cost and low likelihood to correct the problem. The tables are updated through actual experience.
US07774588B2

Methods of building a host computer system. The methods may comprise the steps of discovering hardware components present at the host and determining whether the hardware components are certified. The methods may also comprise the step of determining whether a build of the host is requested. According to various embodiments, a profile may also be downloaded to the host. The profile may comprise an indication of an operating system, an indication of an application, and an indication of a configuration parameter. The methods may also comprise the steps of installing the operating system to the host; installing the application to the host; and configuring the host according to the configuration parameter.
US07774585B2

A real-time, multi-threaded embedded system includes rules for handling traps and interrupts to avoid problems such as priority inversion and re-entrancy. By defining a global interrupt priority value for all active threads and only accepting interrupts having a priority higher than the interrupt priority value, priority inversion can be avoided. Switching to the same thread before any interrupt servicing, and disabling interrupts and thread switching during interrupt servicing can simplify the interrupt handling logic. By storing trap background data for traps and servicing traps only in their originating threads, trap traceability can be preserved. By disabling interrupts and thread switching during trap servicing, unintended trap re-entrancy and servicing disruption can be prevented.
US07774581B2

An apparatus and a method are provided for a parallel processing very long instruction word (VLIW) computer. The apparatus includes: an index code generation unit sequentially generating an index code, which is associated with a number of no operation (NOP) instruction word between effective instruction words, with respect to each of instruction word groups to be executed in a VLIW computer; an instruction compression unit sequentially deleting the NOP instruction word which corresponds to the index code with respect to each of instruction word groups; and an instruction word conversion unit converting the effective instruction words to include the index code, the effective instruction words corresponding to the NOP instruction words.
US07774579B1

An integrated circuit comprises a plurality of tiles. Each tile comprises a processor, and a switch including switching circuitry to forward data received over data paths from other tiles to the processor and to switches of other tiles, and to forward data received from the processor to switches of other tiles. The tile is configured to control access to a resource of the tile based on access information associated with the resource.
US07774578B2

A device and method is illustrated to prefetch information based on a location of an instruction that resulted in a cache miss during its execution. The prefetch information to be accessed is determined based on previous and current cache miss information. For example, information based on previous cache misses is stored at data records as prefetch information. This prefetch information includes location information based on an instruction that caused a previous cache miss, and is accessed to generate prefetch requests for a current cache miss. The prefetch information is updated based on current cache miss information.
US07774577B2

An image memory, image memory system, and memory controller that are capable of efficiently accessing a rectangular area of two-dimensionally arrayed data are provided. The memory device has: a memory cell array that has a plurality of memory unit areas, each of which is selected by addresses; a plurality of input/output terminals; and an input/output unit provided between the memory cell array and the plurality of input/output terminals. Each of the memory unit areas stores therein data of a plurality of bytes or bits corresponding to the plurality of input/output terminals respectively, and the memory cell array and the input/output unit access a plurality of bytes or bits stored in a first memory unit area corresponding to the input address and in a second memory unit area adjacent to the first memory unit on the basis of the input address and combination information of the bytes or bits in response to a first operation code, and then, from the plurality of bytes or bits within the accessed first and second memory unit areas, associate a combination of the plurality of bytes or bits based on the combination information, with the plurality of input/output terminals.
US07774566B2

A virtual tape server for executing a method involving a partitioning of a virtual tape volume into a plurality of virtual tape blocks. The virtual tape volume includes a virtual tape volume header having recovery information, each virtual tape block includes a virtual tape block header identifying the virtual tape volume and a block sequence number, and one or more of the virtual tape blocks includes the virtual tape volume header. The method further involves a formatting of a physical tape volume including each virtual tape block.
US07774564B2

Disclosed is a multiprocessor system using a plurality of multi-chip packages mounted with at least one processor and at least one memory, wherein: the number of memory access to the memory by the processor is recorded, and if the number of memory access across different multi-chip packages exceeds the number of memory access within the same multi-chip package, the memory contents are swapped. A memory access load distributing method in a multiprocessor system is also disclosed.
US07774560B2

A storage emulator and method thereof are disclosed. The storage emulator allows a host system to access a storage unit connected to a storage system as if the storage unit is directly coupled to the host system. The storage emulator includes a virtual storage emulating module, a storage-managing unit, and a communicating module. The virtual storage emulating module emulates at least one virtual storage unit corresponding to the storage unit on the host system and receives a storage accessing command from the host system. The storage-managing unit identifies the storage accessing command as either a self-sustaining type command or a non-self-sustaining type command. The communicating module communicates with the storage unit of the storage system via the network. If the storage accessing generates a self-sustaining command response in accordance with the storage accessing command and returns the self-sustaining command response to the host system directly. If the storage accessing command is identified as the non-self-sustaining type command, the storage-managing unit forwards the storage accessing command to the storage system via the network, receives a command response in accordance with the storage accessing command from the storage system, and returns the command response to the host system.
US07774550B2

A storage system of the present invention improves the response performance of sequential access to data, the data arrangement of which is expected to be sequential. Data to be transmitted via streaming delivery is stored in a storage section. A host sends data read out from the storage section to respective user machines. A prefetch section reads out from the storage section ahead of time the data to be read out by the host, and stores it in a cache memory. A fragmentation detector detects the extent of fragmentation of the data arrangement in accordance with the cache hit rate. The greater the extent of the fragmentation, the smaller the prefetch quantity calculated by a prefetch quantity calculator. A prefetch operation controller halts a prefetch operation when the extent of data arrangement fragmentation is great, and restarts a prefetch operation when the extent of fragmentation decreases.
US07774545B2

A method and a system for volume group creation based on an automatic drive selection scheme are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a redundant array of independent drives (RAID) includes processing at least one attribute data describing a volume group of the RAID. The method also includes automatically selecting a plurality of drives of the volume group based on at least one of an optimum tray distribution of the volume group, a spindle speed of each drive in the volume group, and an alignment of the plurality of drives in the volume group. In another embodiment, a system of a RAID includes a user device to communicate an attribute data describing a volume group of the RAID, and a drive selection module to automatically select a plurality of drives of the volume group based on the attribute data using a baseline selection algorithm.
US07774543B2

The present invention provides a storage system, a method for managing the same, and a storage controller, to obtain a storage apparatus that uses iSCSI protocol, which makes it possible for each user to configure the necessary settings within the scope of their provided right.A storage system includes one or more host computers; and a storage controller that provides each of the one or more host computers with a plurality of logical volumes, each including a storage area for reading/writing data from/to, and also being either allocated or not allocated to one or more of the host computers, the storage controller including: a management unit that manages information relating to the plurality of logical volumes as volume information; an identification unit that identifies necessary volume information from the volume information based on a command from a host computer from among the one or more host computers; and an execution unit that executes, based on the necessary volume information identified by the identification unit, predetermined processing, on a logical volume from among the plurality of logical volumes, according to function information relating to the logical volume included in the necessary volume information.
US07774542B2

Apparatus and methods for efficiently operating on RAID systems. A fast access buffer comprising an off-disk fast access memory module supports RAID operations such as recovery or reconfiguration operations, thereby minimizing or reducing the need for on-disk destructive zones and/or reducing disk drive I/O activities. In some cases the fast access memory module to serves as a read/write cache, reducing the need for frequent disk accesses of a small number of data blocks. Fast off-disk memory such as RAM enables rapid operation on in-buffer data blocks. Access to the material stored in the RAID devices may be enabled, partially enabled or disabled during RAID operations involving the fast access memory module and some data access operations may be synchronized with RAID operations. In some cases, data may be served from the fast access memory module, thereby providing rapid access to material stored in a RAID device during RAID operations.
US07774536B2

A memory device is described that enhances initialization of the memory device. In the prior art, initialization of synchronous Flash memory requires the release of hardware signal line, RP#, or an initialization command, LCR, and a following initialization time wait period of 50 μS to 100 μS. The improved memory device of the detailed invention begins initialization of internal values upon acquiring stable power. The initialization cycle of the detailed memory loops and continues until a command is received from the host controller and is immediately available for access. This allows the utilization of the detailed memory in systems wherein the host controller cannot supply an initializing signal (RP# or LCR). The detailed memory also allows for immediate availability of the memory upon issuance of the command allowing for a fast first access.
US07774534B2

A method of recording, and an apparatus to record, data on a write-once disc, and the write-once disc used with the method and apparatus. The write-once disc includes a plurality of update areas in which to record a predetermined type of updated information, at least one main access information area (AIA) in which to record main access information (AI), the main AI indicating a final update area in which finally updated information is recorded, among the plurality of update areas, and at least one sub AIA in which to record sub AI, the sub AI indicating a location of the finally updated information recorded in the final update area.
US07774528B2

Consistent with one example embodiment, communications systems, using a serial data transfer bus having a serial data line and a clock line used to implement a communications protocol, incorporate identification of inter-integrated circuit slave devices using device identification coding. The communications system includes a slave device having a device identification code identifying one or more parameters. Communications circuitry in the slave device is configured to communicate with a master device on the I2C serial data transfer bus using the communications protocol. In response to a transmission of a device identification address from the master device, the slave device is configured to transmit an ACKNOWLEDGE, and in response to a transmission of a slave device address and the device identification address from the master device, the slave device is configured to transmit the device identification code from the slave device to the master.
US07774527B2

A device for controlling in an integrated manner multiple slave devices includes a key input unit that receives a key input by a user, a state determination unit that checks state information of the slave devices, and a control unit that interprets the input key based on the state information of the slave devices and controls a concerned slave device of the slave devices. A method for controlling multiple slave devices includes receiving a key input by the user, checking state information of the slave devices existing on the network, and controlling the concerned slave device by interpreting the input key based on the state information of the slave devices.
US07774518B2

A method for switching KVM switch ports comprising a plurality of computer ports and a related device are provided. A behavior of a mouse coupled to the KVM switch is detected. The behavior comprises multiple click on a specific button of the mouse. In response to the behavior, the computer ports are switched accordingly.
US07774513B2

A DMA circuit operates a plurality of DMA channels in parallel, enabling reduction of the circuit scale and fewer development processes. A channel manager circuit reads in sequence the control information for each DMA channel from control memory, performs analysis, and according to the divided DMA control sequence, performs state processing (DMA control). Further, the channel manager circuit updates the control information, writes back the control information to the control memory, and executes time-division control of the plurality of DMA channels. Hence the circuit scale can be reduced, contributing to decreased costs, and the number of development processes can be reduced.
US07774510B2

A method for handling input/output (I/O) commands in a storage system includes establishing first and second counters for counting unfinished I/O commands, and establishing a reference which is initially set to the first counter. The reference is periodically switched between the first counter and the second counter, and the switching interval is less than the I/O timeout value. Upon placing an I/O command into an I/O command queue, a copy of the current reference is made into an I/O specific control block and the current referenced counter is incremented. Upon finishing of an I/O command, the counter referenced by the I/O specific control block is decremented and the I/O command is removed from the I/O command queue. When switching the reference, a problem is detected in the event that the counter being switched to is above a predetermined threshold. Upon detection of a problem, a more explicit I/O check is conducted.
US07774505B2

Disclosed is a method for transmitting image data in real-time between mobile communication terminals in a mobile communication system, the mobile communication system including a host mobile communication terminal, at least one client mobile communication terminal, an SMS server, and a PDSN assigning IP addresses. The method includes when an IP address is received from the PDSN, transmitting by the host mobile communication terminal an invite message to the client mobile communication terminal via the SMS server; receiving by the client mobile communication terminal an IP address from the PDSN, and transmitting a register message to the host mobile communication terminal via the PDSN; updating by the host mobile communication terminal a buddy list, and transmitting the updated buddy list to the client mobile communication terminal via the PDSN; and exchanging by the host and the client mobile communication terminals the image data in real-time based on the updated buddy list.
US07774503B2

A valid destination address is determined. An availability request is sent to each destination address from a set of destination addresses. The destination addresses are correlated with a destination party. At least one response to the sent availability requests is received. Each received response is uniquely associated with its own destination address from the destination addresses. Each received response indicates either a valid destination address or an invalid destination address. For each received response, a value associated with the destination address that is associated with that received response is recorded. The value indicates either a valid destination address or an invalid destination address based on the received response associated with that destination address.
US07774497B2

A method for classifying an incoming packet. The method includes maintaining a database associated with patterns of fields, where the fields can be network addresses. The database can be developed by mapping each pattern to a unique numeric identifier. The number of unique numeric identifiers is equal to the number of patterns, and the size of each unique numeric identifier is substantially smaller than the field of each pattern. The database can be further developed by determining a range of one or more of the unique numeric identifiers to be associated with each pattern. The range for each pattern can be bounded by a minimum unique numeric identifier and a maximum unique numeric identifier. The method also includes using a field of the incoming packet to determine an associated identifier for that field, where the associated identifier is equal to one of the unique numeric identifiers. The associated identifier can then be matched with one or more of the ranges for the patterns, and the method can then determine how to process the incoming packet.
US07774491B2

A system for utilizing informed throttling to guarantee quality of service to a plurality of clients includes a server core having a performance analyzer that compares a performance level received by a client to a corresponding contracted service level and determines if the client qualifies as a victim whose received performance level is less than the corresponding contracted service level. The performance analyzer is further configured to identify one or more candidates for throttling in response to an I/O stream receiving insufficient resources by determining if the client qualifies as a candidate whose received performance level is better than the corresponding contracted service level. The server core further includes a scheduler that selectively and dynamically issues a throttling command to the candidate client, and provides a quality of service enforcement point by concurrently monitoring a plurality of I/O streams to candidate clients and concurrently throttling commands to the candidate clients.
US07774483B1

A service policy manager may be used to enable a first subscriber in a community to administer rules on another subscriber in the same community. A service selection gateway (SSG) may then be configured according to the rules to provides services according to the rules. As a result, the services provided to a subscriber depend not just on the individual profile of the subscriber, but also potentially on the rules administered by other members of the communities the subscriber is a part of.
US07774469B2

A method and system for increasing server cluster availability by requiring at a minimum only one node and a quorum replica set of replica members to form and operate a cluster. Replica members maintain cluster operational data. A cluster operates when one node possesses a majority of replica members, which ensures that any new or surviving cluster includes consistent cluster operational data via at least one replica member from the immediately prior cluster. Arbitration provides exclusive ownership by one node of the replica members, including at cluster formation, and when the owning node fails. Arbitration uses a fast mutual exclusion algorithm and a reservation mechanism to challenge for and defend the exclusive reservation of each member. A quorum replica set algorithm brings members online and offline with data consistency, including updating unreconciled replica members, and ensures consistent read and update operations.
US07774468B1

Methods and apparatus are provided for performing traffic admission control in a Differentiated Services (DiffServ) network environment. According to one embodiment, a predetermined portion of available bandwidth between a first network device and a second network device is reserved as a real-time bandwidth pool for real-time communication sessions among users of a first group of terminals associated with the first network device and a second group of terminals associated with the second network device, the real-time bandwidth pool corresponding to estimated bandwidth remaining available on a path through a Differentiated Services (DiffServ) network interposed between the first group of terminals and the second group of terminals. Thereafter, the real-time bandwidth pool is shared among multiple real-time communication sessions involving terminals of the first and second groups of terminals by selectively admitting application sessions based upon currently available resources in the real-time bandwidth pool.
US07774461B2

A mechanism is disclosed for determining a congestion metric for a path in a network. In one implementation, a congestion metric for a path includes one or more latency values and one or more latency variation values. A latency value for a path may be determined by exchanging latency packets with another component. For example, to determine the latency for a particular path, a first component may send a latency request packet to a second component via the particular path. In response, the second component may send a latency response packet back to the first component. Based upon timestamp information in the latency response packet, the latency on the particular path may be determined. From a plurality of such latencies, a latency variation may be determined. Taken individually or together, the latency value(s) and the latency variation value(s) provide an indication of how congested the particular path currently is.
US07774447B2

A method and apparatus for implementing troubleshooting of a network connectivity problem between a client computer coupled to a local switch and an end point on the network utilizes a client_proxy module instantiated on the local switch. The module automatically runs a series of tests utilizing the IP and MAC addresses of the client computer source addresses and reports the results of the tests.
US07774445B1

In a storage area network (SAN), first and second zone sets are compared to identify differences, including zones appearing in one zone set but not the other, and zones in both zone sets but having different contents in each. A zone comparison user interface (UI) window is displayed on a SAN management computer system via user selection from a pop-up menu appearing when a SAN object is selected from a hierarchical object display. The UI window includes a differences display area to display zone set differences and includes fields for identifying a type of zone difference, a zone identifier, and identifiers of host computers and storage devices of a zone. Based on differences identified between the first and second zone sets, identifiers of those zones of the first and second zone sets having a predetermined difference type are displayed. Also displayed, for each such zone, are (i) identifiers of the host computers and storage devices of the zone, and (ii) a difference type indicator indicating which of the difference types applies to the zone.
US07774444B1

Embodiments of a SAN simulator that may be used with SAN management systems to create a virtual SAN with a configurable number of various types of virtual SAN objects. The virtual SAN may be accessed in performing various SAN management tasks in a virtual environment. In one embodiment, the virtual SAN objects may be generated in accordance with SAN simulator configuration information describing the types and numbers of virtual SAN objects to be generated. In one embodiment, to enter a virtual SAN object in the virtual SAN data representation, each virtual SAN object's object type and attributes may be checked in an object schema table to verify that the specified type of virtual SAN object is supported by the SAN simulator. One embodiment may include a SAN simulator explorer that serves as an interface between a SAN management server and the virtual SAN when performing SAN management tasks.
US07774433B2

A method and apparatus for managing a nested XOR role in a directory server is described. In one embodiment, a plurality of entries is defined in the directory server. At least one of the plurality of entries possesses a role. An entry is queried to determine its possessed role. A nested XOR role possesses at least two roles. An entry possesses the nested XOR role by possessing only one of the roles within the nested XOR role.
US07774430B2

The present invention is a system that receives data in different formats from different devices/applications in the format native to the devices/applications and fuses the data into a common shared audio/video collaborative environment including a composite display showing the data from the different sources in different areas of the display and composite audio. The common environment is presented to users who can be at remote locations. The users are allowed to supply a control input for the different device data sources and the control input is mapped back to the source, thereby controlling the source. The location of the control input on the remote display is mapped to the storage area for that portion of the display and the control data is transmitted to the corresponding device/application. The fusion system converts the data from the different sources/applications into a common format and stores the converted data from the different sources in a shared memory with each source allocated a different area in the memory. A combined window like composite representation of the data is produced and also stored in the memory. The combined representation is transmitted to and can be controlled by the users.
US07774428B2

A mechanism is provided for automatic response time measurement of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server operations are provided. The mechanism makes use of an LDAP server plug-in interface and LDAP server plug-in modules to automatically inject response time measurement code before and after each LDAP server operation during real time operation of the LDAP server in a runtime environment. In addition, the mechanism makes use of correlation tokens in the LDAP environment so that LDAP client and server operations may be correlated with one another in an end-to-end transaction. Mechanisms for passing correlation tokens between plug-in modules for the same LDAP server operation and passing correlation tokens between the LDAP client and LDAP server, and among LDAP client calls within a single session, are also provided.
US07774421B2

A computer-implemented method for mitigating address book weaknesses that permit sending of e-mail to wrong addresses includes determining prior to sending an e-mail message whether one of a plurality of recipients of an e-mail message should receive the e-mail message, the determining prior to sending the e-mail message including analyzing history information of a sender of the e-mail message to determine whether the one of the plurality of recipients is ordinarily connected with the plurality of recipients and whether the one of the plurality of recipients is ordinarily connected with a subject of the e-mail message, the analyzing history information including comparing the plurality of recipients to a database indicative of recipients that received e-mail from the sender, and, responsive to the history information, determining whether the one of the plurality of recipients is one of a new recipient and an ordinary recipient, and presenting the determining to the sender.
US07774416B2

A method, system and computer-readable medium for enhanced instant messaging in a data processing system are disclosed. The instant messaging application detects a number of instant messaging sessions of a first messaging participant with a number of other messaging participants and detects a hierarchy class of each of the other messaging participants. The application calculates an average response time for each of hierarchy classes. The application determines whether the average response time for each hierarchy class exceeds a predefined threshold. If the average response time does not exceed the threshold the application displays an indication of the average response time for the hierarchy class to each of the other messaging participants of the hierarchy class. If the average response time does exceed the threshold, the application displays an indication to each of the other messaging participants of the hierarchy class that the first messaging participant is unable to respond.
US07774415B2

A mail sending and receiving unit provided to a terminal for person in charge receives inquiry mails to which uniquely identifiable receipt numbers are added, and reply mails sent in response to the inquiry mails. An e-mail storage unit stores the incoming e-mails received by the mail sending and receiving unit, and the receipt numbers added to the incoming e-mails. The mail sending and receiving unit sends reply e-mails which are created in response to the incoming e-mails stored in the e-mail storage unit, and to which the receipt numbers of the corresponding incoming e-mails are added. A management screen generation unit displays the inquiry mails stored in the e-mail storage unit, and the reply mails, as being associated with each other by use of the receipt numbers of the respective inquiry mails.
US07774408B2

Methods, systems, and electronic mail messages (emails) are provided for automatically linking emails to matters or organizations. An email is received or constructed and linked to matters or organizations. The matters and the organizations are associated with matter areas and organization areas. Each of the areas includes matter data, organization data, personnel data, assignment data, and contact data. In one embodiment, the email is also interfaced to a billing system, a document management system, and a docketing system.
US07774402B2

Application level switching of transactions at a gateway is provided. The gateway is configured to switch the transaction based on the application level content, a current state of a transport environment, and/or dynamic rules for switching transactions. For example, several possible service providers can be selected for the type of transaction, and the gateway can monitor not only the round-trip time through the network(s) to different possible service providers, but also the time required to complete the transaction at the application level and return a response. The application is chosen on the sending side of the network, and application level formatting is done on the sending side as well. The gateway uses modular code and data, and separate instances of processing code to allow dynamic updating. Rules for application service selection can be selectively uploaded to the gateway from a client. The rules for different available application services can be distributed across different gateways.
US07774394B2

The structure of a digital filter is provided through exponentiation of a polyphase digital filter. This exponentiation may be accomplished by determining an expression for the polyphase digital filter in terms of its polyphase components, and raising the expression for the polyphase digital filter to a power. The polyphase components are then arranged in a structure based on this exponentiated expression.
US07774393B1

An apparatus and method for integer to floating-point format conversion. A processor may include an adder configured to perform addition of respective mantissas of two floating-point operands to produce a sum, where a smaller-exponent one of the floating-point operands has a respective exponent less than or equal to a respective exponent of a larger-exponent one of the floating-point operands. The processor may further include an alignment shifter coupled to the adder and configured, in a first mode of operation, to align the floating-point operands prior to the addition by shifting the respective mantissa of the smaller-exponent operand towards a least-significant bit position. The alignment shifter may be further configured, in a second mode of operation, to normalize an integer operand by shifting the integer operand towards a most-significant bit position. The second mode of operation may be active during execution of an instruction to convert the integer operand to floating-point format.
US07774390B2

Provided are an apparatus for collecting garbage blocks of a nonvolatile memory according to a power state and a method of collecting the same, and more particularly, an apparatus for collecting garbage blocks of a nonvolatile memory according to a power state and a method of collecting the same, in which an amount of power consumed by a portable device can be reduced by adjusting a garbage block collection operation on the basis of the power state of the portable device. The apparatus includes a power managing unit which collects physical blocks allocated to the nonvolatile memory on the basis of the power state of a portable device.
US07774389B2

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for providing optimized garbage collection. A garbage collector is provided for managing a garbage collection process. An optimized garbage collection feature is provided that allows the garbage collection process to be suggested. When the optimized garbage collection feature is invoked at a particular moment, the system determines if collection is appropriate at the particular moment. If collection is determined to be appropriate at the particular moment, then the system performs the garbage collection process. If collection is determined to not be appropriate at the particular moment, then the system delays garbage collection until an appropriate time. A low latency mode can be used to automatically ensure that the garbage collection process starts sooner than it would in a normal mode. The latency mode in use can be changed at different points in time during the garbage collection process.
US07774386B2

Techniques for enabling a validating parser to interpret a schema, where that schema may have been extended to multiple levels, and to perform the validation of a structured document according to the extended schema while still allowing a consumer application to request objects or events that are cast at some different level of the schema (including the base schema). Validating the source document according to an extended (i.e., more specific) schema enables improved detection of syntax errors. At the same time, casting objects and events from the parsed document to a level requested by the consumer application allows the consumer to receive only those objects or events for which it is adapted, without requiring the consumer application to include extra code to deal with objects or events it does not recognize in the parser's output. Preferably, the parser simply discards those objects or events which this consumer is not interested in receiving.
US07774377B2

A range-conversion method and system includes receiving data records. Each data record includes one or more data fields and a field value associated with each data field. One or more data fields are identified as a range-based data field. A plurality of text-based range descriptors are defined, such that each text-based range descriptor is associated with a range of field values for one of the range-based data fields.
US07774370B2

A method for managing a message communication system comprising providing a token log as a data structure that contains a user-extensible set of tokens and implied conditions under which specific tokens are considered valid. The method also includes creating a new token as a set of symbols and storing the new token in the token log together with information that implies one or more conditions under which the token is considered valid, which validity information implies one or more specific actions to be performed when a message accompanied by the new token experiences an event. The method further includes providing for distributing the new token to one or more external entities and providing a system operator with the ability to change a validity status of the token.
US07774369B2

A configuration server includes a configuration repository that stores a wide range of configuration information for possible use by application programs. The configuration repository may include configuration parameters, settings for the parameters, and meta-data of definitions and descriptions of the parameters. Configuration information is selected from the configuration repository and stored in a configuration directory for later use by application programs at runtime. The configuration information is accessed from the configuration directory when needed by an application program or a component thereof.
US07774364B2

Improved techniques are disclosed for accessing content in file systems, allowing file system clients to realize advantages of file system referrals even though a file access protocol used by the client is not specifically adapted for referral objects. (For example, the client may have a legacy file system protocol or a proprietary file system protocol which does not support referrals.) These advantages include a uniform name space view of content in a network file system, and an ability to locate content in a (nearly) seamless and transparent manner, even though the content may be dynamically moved from one location to another or replicated in different locations. A file system server returns a symbolic link in place of a referral, and an automated file mounting process on the client is leveraged to access the content using the link. Built-in crash recovery techniques of the file system client are leveraged to access moved content.
US07774360B2

Described is a technology by which an intermediate taxonomy is processed (e.g., offline) with respect to a target taxonomy to determine relationship values between categories represented in the intermediate taxonomy and the target taxonomy. The relationship values are used to construct a bridging classifier for use in online query processing to relate queries to categories in the target taxonomy. The relation is based on each target category's relationship to one or more categories that were represented in the intermediate taxonomy. Further, only a relevant subset of the categories represented in the intermediate taxonomy may be chosen for use in the bridging classifier, e.g., based on relative probability scores and/or mutual information scores computed between the categories represented in the intermediate taxonomy and categories in the target taxonomy.
US07774356B2

A method and an apparatus that synchronize an application state in a client with a data source in a backend system in an asynchronous manner are described. A response is sent to the client based on a priority determined according to a history of received update requests. When a notification message from a data source in a backend system is received, an update request is selected from a plurality of update requests currently pending to be served according to the priority associated with each update request. A response is sent to the client over a network corresponding to the selected update request. The response includes state updates according to the changes in the data source and the current application state in the corresponding client.
US07774353B2

Searching a data store for parameter patterns specified in a query. A method includes receiving a query from a user including N parameter patterns. One or more alternatives are associated to one or more of the N parameter patterns. One or more templates are created. Each of the templates describes a number of microsearches. Each of the microsearches includes one or more of the N parameter patterns or the alternatives. Microsearches described by at least one of the one or more templates are enumerated. One or more sub-microsearches are performed by searching for parameter patterns and/or alternatives. Each sub-microsearch may have less than all terms needed for a full microsearch. Based on the results of the one or more sub-microsearches, one or more microsearches are eliminated from searching. The data store is searched using one or more of the remaining microsearches.
US07774350B2

The present invention is a system for and method to collect, calculate, and display user feedback ratings in an online transaction processing (OLTP) environment. The invention utilizes a client, a network, a Web site host system, and rule-based decision making, to 1) enable users and other systems to submit transaction performance information for a buyer or seller; 2) enable users to view transaction performance information; and 3) enable users to view detailed transaction performance measures for buyers or sellers within specific performance categories. Rating the transaction performance of users of an OLTP environment can serve to improve users' trust in the OLTP environment, improve the reputation of online trading venues, and increase the value of these venues.
US07774347B2

Determining intersection points of parameter patterns. Parameter patterns are specified in a query. A method includes identifying a first parameter pattern from the query as occurring less often in the index than one other parameter pattern in the query. The data store is searched until a present location of the data store has been identified as including the first parameter pattern. Then the data store is searched for a location of another parameter pattern. If the present location is identified as including the another parameter pattern, then an indication is provided identifying an intersection. Otherwise, the method includes continuing searching remaining portions of the data store to find a location of the another parameter pattern at a new present location. At least one of the acts of searching above includes eliminating at least a portion of records of the data store from searching without being searched prior to being eliminated.
US07774342B1

Resolving a query term includes receiving at least one query term from a requestor and determining a geographic location of the requestor. The geographic location of the requestor may be determined by accessing an electronic information store containing a requestor profile including geographic information about the requestor, where the requestor profile is used by more than one program. The query term is resolved against electronic information within at least one electronic information store to determine whether one or more matches exist and a result is generated that accounts for the geographic location of the requestor.
US07774330B2

A method for enabling users to share information across websites. A user may add some information to augment a posting on a first website to annotate its content. The information may be displayed on the first website as a related file and stored in a user augmented content system (UACS) database as an individual document. Another user may add some information to a posting on a second website to enrich its content, and the information may be displayed on the second website as a related file and stored in the UACS database as another individual document. The documents may be stored together with some keywords, and may be tagged, indexed and searchable. Users may easily find out who contributed what to the websites, and configure their websites to automatically receive content newly uploaded to the UACS database. If the augmenting content from the first website is relevant to the content on the second website, it may be automatically distributed to the second website.
US07774321B2

Modifying a portion of an XML document stored in a relational database includes converting operations on the document into an operator tree. The operator tree includes a first operator corresponding to a first portion of the schema for the modified data and a second operator corresponding to a parent portion of the schema for the modified data. A first and a second portion of the schema are extracted from the overall document schema. A first validation of the modified data using the first operator with the first portion of the schema is performed. This forms a partially validated XML document portion. Next, a second validation of the partially validated XML document portion with the second portion of the schema is performed using the second operator. The XML document constraints are verified and the modified data is merged into the XML document, thus avoiding a full validation of the XML document when certain XML Schema types are absent in the modified data.
US07774313B1

Policy-based performance of continuous data protection on protected data. A write request targeted to a portion of the protected data is detected. In addition, a journaling policy data structure(s) is accessed. The journaling policy data structure represents policy for how frequently to journal write request to a backup medium and/or what backup medium to journal write requests to depending on one or more characteristics of write request targets. The journaling policy data structure is then used to determine whether the write request should be presently journaled and/or to identify the backup medium that the write request should be journaled to based on the one or more characteristics of the portion of the protected data targeted by the write request. The journaling policy may, but need not, be selected so as to preserve storage and/or network bandwidth associated with the journaling process.
US07774310B2

A data store is distributed between a server and a client. The distributed data store includes global data. A transformation is applied to the global data to generate client-specific data based on the global data. The client-specific data is stored on the client which uses the client-specific data to perform tasks relating to the client-specific data.
US07774308B2

An apparatus and method efficiently delete a first items within a distributed datastore. In particular, an already well defined procedure for insertion of data is used for deletion. Deletion of a first item is effected through the insertion of a second item. The second item can contain a deletion key or be denoted by an appended flag or modified associated meta-data value. The first item can be deleted upon arrival of the second item or subsequent to arrival through an offline garbage collection process.
US07774303B2

A record management system is provided for generating a multi-dimensional view for different measures. A set of records is retrieved in response to a set of queries. The set of records is maintained in a master table. The record management system generates a record structure foundation, including a query map and a master table index. The record management system then employs the record structure foundation to generate a multi-dimensional layout mapping for the measures that are to be represented in the view. The record structure foundation and measure values in the master table are used to convert the layout mapping into the desired multidimensional view. The record management system includes data storage units. These data storage units are coupled to a set of processing engines, which that provide for performing operations that result in the generation of a multi-dimensional view.
US07774301B2

Provided are techniques for transforming unstructured information into content in a uniform context. The unstructured information and metadata associated with the unstructured information are extracted from one or more source content repositories. One or more custom transformations are performed on at least one of the unstructured information and the metadata. At least one of the transformed, unstructured information and the metadata are loaded into one or more target content repositories.
US07774297B2

A system and method analyzes queries in a computer network, and identifies problem-causing queries that could be harmful to the system. If a query does not match any queries in a database, the query is transmitted to its destination. If a query matches a query in the database, that query is blocked from transmission to the destination. If a query is transmitted to its destination, and it is later determined that query caused a problem on that destination, that query is added to the database of queries. In one embodiment, a query that does not cause any problems is written to a pool of current up-to-date backup databases that may be used if the main system goes down. In another embodiment, the system tests variants of a query that caused a problem at the destination to attempt to discover other queries that could cause a problem.
US07774291B2

Associative memory systems, methods and/or computer program products include a network of networks of associative memory networks. A network of entity associative memory networks is provided, a respective entity associative memory of which includes associations among a respective observer entity and observed entities that are observed by the respective observer entity, based on input documents. A network of feedback associative memory networks includes associations among observed entities for a respective positive and/or negative evaluation for a respective task of a respective user. A network of document associative memory networks includes associations among observed entities in a respective observed input source, such as a respective input document. A network of community associative memory networks includes associations among a respective observer entity, observed entities that are observed by the respective observer entity, and observed tasks of users in which the observer entity was queried. Associations may be observed into and imagined from the network of networks of associative memory networks.
US07774290B2

The present disclosure includes a system and method for learning (or discovering and extracting) business knowledge from a collection of source code. The collection of source code is abstracted to generate an abstracted data stream, which is then transformed to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format. The transformed data in XML format can be further converted to target formats or processed to satisfy different needs such as software system documentation, migration, impact analysis and security analysis. The disclosure also includes an implementation and operation for a pattern abstraction engine configured to receive an input data stream and format it for abstraction into a standard format using a pattern matching mechanism. The disclosure also includes an implementation and operation for a contextual pattern decoder engine configured to extract knowledge attributes and contextual taxonomy from classified blocks of an input data stream.
US07774272B2

A computer-implemented simulator models the entire analytic value chain so that data generation, model fitting and strategy optimization are an integral part of the simulation. Data collection efforts, data mining algorithms, predictive modeling technologies and strategy development methodologies define the analytic value chain of a business operation: data→models→strategies→profit. Inputs to the simulator include consumer data and potential actions to be taken regarding a consumer or account. The invention maps what is known about a consumer or an account and the potential actions that the business can take on that consumer or account to potential future financial performance. After iteratively performing simulations using varying inputs, modeling the effect of the innovation on a profit model, the simulator outputs a prediction of the commercial value of an analytic innovation.
US07774271B1

A computing system facilitating electronic bill presentment and payment features for authorized users via a user interface is introduced including an analysis engine. The analysis engine, in response to user interaction with the user interface, selectively performs user-defined analysis on at least a subset of retrieved billing information associated with one or more billers. The analysis engine further generates one or more user-defined report(s) based, at least in part, on the user-defined analysis.
US07774269B2

A Future Check Financing Method is disclosed. The method enables purchasers and others to present future-dated checks (or other payment vehicles) at the point of sale for purchases. The potential recipient of the future-dated payment vehicles and/or a check guarantee entity is able to make a lending decision based solely on the presenter's check writing history. The recipient of future-dated checks under the method will receive full payment (typically minus service charges) nearly immediately after completing the transaction with the presenter, rather than when all future-dated payment vehicles become payable. The check writing history may include negative check writing history for the presenter, but also may include positive check writing history for the presenter.
US07774266B1

Systems and methods for determining a present value of an option on a security having a fixed cash flow leg based upon a Martingale. The Martingale may be based upon a ratio of the present value of the option and a numeraire. The numeraire may be a coupon annuity which may be based on coupons of the security post expiry of the option, accrual periods of the coupon, and spread-adjusted discount factors for coupon dates of the option. The spread-adjusted discount factor may be based on an instantaneous forward rate and a time-varying spread. The present value of the option may be determined based upon a spread, a notional value of the security, and an expectation of a maximum value of (1) a difference between an artificial strike coupon and a forward swap rate and (2) zero. This spread may equal a difference between the forward swap rate and a strike coupon or the strike coupon divided by the forward swap rate.
US07774265B2

A method of multi-enterprise optimization at a buyer computer includes accessing a forecasted demand for at least one item and generating one or more proposed flexible trade contracts using the forecasted demand for the item. The proposed flexible trade contract is communicated to a seller computer and subsequently executed after acceptance of the proposed flexible trade contract at the seller computer to create a flexible trade contract. Each proposed flexible trade contract may be a forward contract, an option contract, or a flexible forward contract.
US07774257B2

A financial advisory system and a user interface for such a system are provided. According to one embodiment, information regarding a retirement income goal of an individual is received. Multiple input values for corresponding decision variables are also received. The decision variables include an indication regarding a target retirement age for the individual, an indication regarding anticipated monetary contributions directed toward the retirement income goal and an indication regarding the individual's risk tolerance. A probability distribution dependent upon the decision variables is generated based on simulated market return scenarios and representing a set of possible future portfolio values based on the plurality of inputs. Finally, feedback regarding the likelihood of the individual achieving the retirement income goal is provided in view of the input values by graphically depicting one or more of the set of possible future portfolio values relative to a graphical indication of the retirement income goal.
US07774252B2

A method and system for analyzing historical medical provider billings to statistically establish a normative utilization profile. Comparison of a medical provider's utilization profile with a normative profile is enabled. Based on historical treatment patterns and a fee schedule, an accurate model of the cost of a specific medical episode can be created. Various treatment patterns for a particular diagnosis can be compared by treatment cost and patient outcome to determine the most cost-effective treatment approach. It is also possible to identify those medical providers who provide treatment that does not fall within the statistically established treatment patterns or profiles.
US07774245B2

A building management and optimization system and method are disclosed. Building services data obtained at the building is received by a building optimization platform through a first communication network. The building optimization platform includes at least one server system for generating an electronic invoice based on the building services use data. A representation of the electronic invoice is transmitted to a user interface through a second communication network for web-based review, editing and approval by a property manager associated with the building.
US07774243B1

A method and system for transferring selected items among agents within a materials handling facility. According to one embodiment, a method may include a number of agents moving along respective paths through an inventory storage area of a materials handling facility. While moving along a respective path, a first agent may select items from the inventory storage area to be delivered to a corresponding order processing area, where each of the selected items may be specified in a corresponding customer order and at least two of the selected items may be delivered to two different corresponding order processing areas. After the first agent selects a particular item, the first agent may transfer the particular item to a second agent, and the second agent or another one of the agents may deliver the particular item to the corresponding order finalization area.
US07774241B2

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for batching items (9, 11) of non-uniform weight into batches fulfilling certain weight criteria. The items (9, 11) are conveyed across a scale (10) registering the weight of each item individually, and subsequently, the items (9, 11) are combined into batches. In particular, the invention relates to a method of analyzing process deviations in a batching process, e.g. to detect faults in a batching system or in order to improve a batching process flow. One sophisticated application of the invention is to include a simulation of the batching process to accurately predict the results for the pack-sizes on demand and recommend the optimal ones to the operator.
US07774238B2

An online marketplace management system includes software for managing sales by a user on one or more online marketplaces that are operated by entities other than the user. Online marketplaces are online e-commerce sales (e.g., retail) outlets that act as aggregators where third-party sellers (e.g., retailers) can sell items through branded web portals of the online marketplaces for a fee or a percentage of the sales prices. The software of the online marketplace management system includes an inventory management tool for managing inventory that is offered for sale on the one or more online marketplaces, and a pricing tool that provides automatic pricing of inventory that is offered for sale on the one or more online marketplaces, the automatic pricing being based upon real-time pricing of like inventory available on at least one online marketplace from one or more third parties other than the user.
US07774237B1

A method for identifying high-risk orders associated with a customer that includes the steps of: receiving an order that includes a customer number, an order type and a plurality of entries; identifying a customer contract based on the order type and the customer number, the customer contract having a plurality of terms that correspond to the entries; comparing the entries to corresponding terms using rules; and identifying a high-risk order containing at least one error from the comparison. The method can also include assigning a result code or a result text to the order, which corresponds to the errors that are identified, and changing the rule set by adding or removing rules.
US07774236B2

A system and method for drive-through product order management. The system comprises a display and a processor. The display displays first customer product order information representative of a customer product order wherein the first customer product order information is positioned in a first position of the display. The processor correlates an indicator with the first customer product order information and positions the first customer product order information in a second position of the display.
US07774230B2

An apparatus and method are provided which use client information from a client to automatically select and present financial products appropriate for the client. The apparatus according to one aspect of the invention comprises an input device for inputting client information relevant to a need by the client for the financial products, for inputting information about the financial products, for inputting ancillary data which excludes the client information and the financial products information, and for inputting decision criteria pertaining to selection from among the financial products. The apparatus still further includes decision making logic circuitry for using the client information, the financial products information, the ancillary information, and the decision criteria to select a subset of the financial products. It further includes an output device for preparing a client communication which identifies the subset of the financial products.
US07774223B2

A system for scheduling a location-specific service appointment, the system comprising a communication network, a target service location, a desired service type, a service provider grouping, and an availability calendar. The communication network interconnects data input devices, data output devices, and a central processing unit (CPU). The CPU unit comprises a precompiled service provider database. The target service location and the desired service type are input into the CPU and the service provider database, comprising a plurality of service provider resumes, is searched. The select service provider grouping is compiled based on matched service location information and service expertise information. At least one service provider resume is selected from the select service provider grouping and the availability calendar is then provided upon a data output device. The selected service provider resume, a selected calendar day, and a selected appointment time operate to schedule a location-specific service provider appointment.
US07774222B2

A system is described for managing business processes through a plurality of distinct input channels, wherein the processes have a number of consecutive process phases. The system comprises a process management module which is configured to receive requests from a customer through any one of the input channels and to execute on the basis of these requests a business process. The system uses a process definition database for storing process definitions of each of the business processes and the process phases used therein. An interface module handles the communication between the input channels and the process management module, wherein a session service in the interface module stores session information about a particular one of the plurality of input channels through which a given request for executing a process phase was received.
US07774212B2

Techniques are presented for determining threshold probability or confidence levels for associating various types of health information with a set of users. Spatio-temporal information associated with one or more of the subjects is determined. Health information associated with spatial-temporal information is also determined. Candidate health-subject associations are associated with probabilities based on the spatio-temporally tagged identity and spatio-temporally tagged health information. Candidate health-subject associations with probabilities exceeding a threshold probability level are assigned as actual health-subject associations. Treatment plans, reports, remedial procedures and or other health related tests, procedures or the like are determined based on the associated health information.
US07774209B2

A method for issuing both a virtual card and a physical card to a cardholder comprises issuing a virtual card to a cardholder, with the virtual card comprising an identifier and an associated database record of a stored value. A physical card is also issued to the cardholder. The physical card includes an identifier that is different from the virtual card identifier, and the physical card is in an inactive state until the physical card is activated by linking of the physical card identifier to the database record of the stored value.
US07774201B2

A purpose of the present invention is to provide an acoustic apparatus capable of automatically setting a gain which is suitable for both an averaged signal strength of input voice and an instantaneous signal strength thereof, capable of easily recognizing an effect by a user, which is achieved by switching a turn-ON and a turn-OFF of an automatic gain variable operation, and further capable of readily recognizing a change in gain values by the user. The acoustic apparatus is provided with a gain setting unit (20) for setting a gain from an averaged voice strength within a predetermined time period, and another gain setting unit (22) for setting a gain in response to an instantaneous signal strength thereof; and the acoustic apparatus adjusts a signal strength of an audio input signals (Si) based upon a gain “C” obtained by multiplying a gain “A” by another gain “B.”
US07774200B2

A method and apparatus for processing speech in a wireless communication system uses code excited linear prediction (CELP) speech encoded signals. A speech input receives samples of a speech signal and a codebook analysis block selects an index of a code from one or more codebooks. A prediction error between a predicted current sample and a current sample of the speech samples is determined. An innovation sequence is determined based on the prediction error and an index is selected based on the innovation sequence. The index is transmitted to the receiver to enable reconstruction of the speech signal at the receiver.
US07774199B2

An apparatus for processing a signal and method thereof are disclosed. Data coding and entropy coding are performed with interconnection, and grouping is used to enhance coding efficiency. The present invention includes the steps of obtaining a difference value and index information and entropy-decoding the index information and identifying an entropy table corresponding to the entropy-decoded index information and entropy-decoding the difference value using the identified entropy table and obtaining data using a reference value corresponding to a plurality of data and the decoded difference value.
US07774184B2

Computer-based method and system are disclosed for conduction a brownfield assessment. The system/method involves a workflow manager that standardizes the tasks needed to be performed during the brownfield assessment and streamlines the completion of these tasks. The workflow manager incorporates expert knowledge and best practices identified over time for previous brownfield assessments. The expert knowledge and best practices are then applied automatically through operation of the workflow manager. Such an arrangement can result in significantly reduced completion time as well as more consistent deliverables from engineer to engineer and project to project.
US07774180B2

The system for identifying zones of proximity between a plurality of digitally simulated objects comprises: (a) first memory (111) for storing data describing the geometry of the objects, (b) an initialization module (120) for creating a population of pions, and (c) a central processor unit (140) comprising at least: (c1) a unit (141) for selecting a percentage of the population of pions to be subjected to combats in pairs, (c2) a comparison and calculation unit (142) for evaluating the quality of each of the pions in each pair of pions subjected to a combat, (c3) a marking unit (143) for identifying in each session of the tournament which of the pions of a pair of pions subjected to a combat has won or lost, (c4) an iteration unit (144) for causing the pions that have been subjected to at least one combat to evolve, in association with at least one operator for producing an exploratory mutation, and at least one redefinition operator, and (c5) an extraction module (145) for retaining only the best pions from the population for determining the zones of proximity between at least two objects.
US07774178B2

In some embodiments, a method including the steps of: during a polymerization reaction producing a polymer resin in a fluid bed reactor, measuring reaction parameters including at least reactor temperature, at least one property of the resin, and amount of at least one condensable diluent gas in the reactor; determining from at least one measured resin property using a predetermined correlation, a dry melt initiation temperature value for a dry version of the polymer resin; and during the reaction, using a melt initiation temperature depression model to determine in on-line fashion a reduced melt initiation temperature for the resin (e.g., a temperature at which the resin is expected to begin to melt) in the presence of the at least one condensable diluent gas in the reactor.
US07774174B2

Various tools and techniques are provided for reducing an original circuit network into a simpler, realizable RCLM circuit network. Branches of the original network are merged to reduce its total number of nodes. More particularly, the branches of the original circuit are merged so that the resulting reduced circuit approximately replicates the timing characteristics of the original circuit over the desired operating frequency range. The determination whether to merge two branches is made based upon one or more circuit characteristics associated with the node connecting the branches.
US07774173B2

A model parameter determination program stored in a storage medium used to direct a computer to efficiently and effectively determine a parameter of a model in a simulation, and includes a step of receiving input of data of a variable in a model of a system to be analyzed; a step of generating a constraint expression relating to a parameter of a model based on the received data and the model of the system; and a step of obtaining presence/absence of a solution and/or a possible range of a feasible parameter by applying a quantifier elimination algorithm to the constraint expression.
US07774167B2

The invention relates to a method for generating a system for providing diagnosis information, and to a corresponding system. The aim of the invention is to simplify the provision of information for diagnosing technical installations or technical processes. To this end, components pertaining to an automation system and having diagnosis interfaces for providing diagnosis information for diagnosing the respective components are collected in at least one group, and the diagnosis information of the respective group is provided by combining the diagnosis information of the components collected in the respective group.
US07774166B2

An apparatus for analysing the condition of a machine having a rotating shaft, comprising: at least one input for receiving measurement data from a sensor for surveying a measuring point of the machine; said measurement data being dependent on rotation of said shaft; data processing means for processing condition data dependent on said measurement data; said data processing means comprising means for performing a plurality of condition monitoring functions (F1, F2, Fn), wherein said data processing means includes a Field Programmable Gate Array circuit coupled to said at least one input.
US07774165B2

Provided is a method for monitoring measurement data by way of measurement channels. The measurement channels are processed in a plurality of time series of state values with mutually different time bases. Limit value ranges are ascertained in a learning phase and monitoring-related steps are triggered in a monitoring phase when limit values are exceeded. A good value extent is calculated for a time series with an upper and a lower limit value, with the inclusion of a limit value range which is predetermined in the learning phase and a state base value of the time series, which is determined in the monitoring phase.
US07774159B2

A 3D multi-degree of freedom detecting device includes a first electromagnetic radiation source, a second electromagnetic radiation source, a first sensing module, and at least one second sensing module. The first electromagnetic radiation source is used to generate first electromagnetic radiations, and the first electromagnetic radiation source is a point source. The second electromagnetic radiation source is used to generate second electromagnetic radiations, and the second electromagnetic radiation source is a point source. The first sensing module has a plurality of first sensing elements for receiving different radiation energies generated by the first electromagnetic radiations and the second electromagnetic radiations from different spatial angles. The at least one second sensing module has a plurality of second sensing elements for receiving different radiation energies generated by the first electromagnetic radiations and the second electromagnetic radiations from different spatial angles.
US07774157B2

A method of checking turbomachine blades is presented that may be implemented using a computer and a measuring device. Turbomachine blades compatible with embodiments of the method have a profile including a centerline, suction face, pressure face, leading edge and trailing edge. The method measures geometrical coordinates of many points on a blade section profile, calculates an aerodynamic parameter of the blade section as a function of the measured coordinates, verifies whether the calculated aerodynamic parameter value departs from a valid range of parameters from a reference blade, and validates or rejects the blade depending upon whether the value of the aerodynamic parameter falls within the valid range.
US07774146B2

A biological information measurement device stores, in a storage unit, biological data representing data of calculated biological information and measurement date data in association with each other. The biological information measurement device displays, as measurement frequency specifying information, information for specifying frequency of day(s) when the measurement was conducted, in a prescribed period from a current date based on a plurality of pieces of measurement date data stored in the storage unit and an output from a time keeping unit.
US07774145B2

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for measuring an analyte in a host. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for transcutaneous measurement of glucose in a host. In some embodiments, a device is provided for monitoring glucose concentration in a host, including a continuous glucose sensor and an integrated receiver including a single point glucose monitor. In some embodiments, a computer system is provided that determines a rate of change of continuous analyte sensor data.
US07774144B2

A method and system are disclosed for identifying and/or locating complex patterns in an amino acid sequence stored in a computer file or database. According to an aspect of the present invention, techniques are provided to facilitate queries of protein databases. For protein descriptions received in response to the queries, embodiments of the present invention may scan the received protein descriptions to identify and locate Replikin patterns. A Replikin pattern is defined to be a sequence of 7 to about 50 amino acids that include the following three (3) characteristics, each of which may be recognized by an embodiment of the present invention: (1) the sequence has at least one lysine residue located six to ten amino acid residues from a second lysine residue; (2) the sequence has at least one histidine residue; and (3) at least 6% of the amino acids in the sequence are lysine residues.
US07774143B2

A method of diagnosing, predicting, or prognosticating about a disease that includes obtaining experimental data, wherein the experimental data is high dimensional data, filtering the data, reducing the dimensionality of the data through use of one or more methods, training a supervised pattern recognition method, ranking individual data points from the data, wherein the ranking is dependent on the outcome of the supervised pattern recognition method, choosing multiple data points from the data, wherein the choice is based on the relative ranking of the individual data points, and using the multiple data points to determine if an unknown set of experimental data indicates a diseased condition, a predilection for a diseased condition, or a prognosis about a diseased condition.
US07774139B1

A method of collecting weather data includes determining probable occurrences of weather events. Contact information corresponding to a plurality of users is maintained. Weather collection devices are sent to the plurality of users prior to the occurrence of the probable weather event. Data is collected by the weather collection devices upon the actual occurrence of the probable weather event.
US07774138B2

A vehicle control device includes: a first memory for storing a road condition data; a position detector for detecting a position of a vehicle; a first controller for detecting and controlling unusual behavior of the vehicle; a driving condition detector for detecting a driving condition; an information acquiring element for acquiring weather information; a second memory for storing a driving data; a data acquiring element for acquiring the driving condition, the road condition data at an attention point, and the weather information; a memory controller for memorizing the attention spot in the second memory; a first optimum mode determining element for determining an optimum vehicle control mode based on the driving condition, the road condition data and the weather information; and a second controller for controlling the vehicle to coincide the driving condition with the optimum vehicle control mode before or at the attention spot.
US07774124B2

The invention relates to a method for determining the composition of a fuel blend from a first and at least a second fuel to operate an internal combustion engine with at least one combustion chamber, wherein fuel blends of different composition combust at different optimal ignition angles ZWmax with an optimal degree of efficiency ηmax. Provision is thereby made for the ignition angle ZW of the internal combustion engine to be altered, for the degree of efficiency η of the internal combustion engine or a parameter, which is a function of it, to be determined as a function of the ignition angle ZW and for the composition of the fuel blend to be determined from the change in the degree of efficiency Δη or the parameter, which is a function of it, when the ignition angle ZW is altered and/or from the ignition angle ZW as a function of the degree of efficiency η or the parameter, which is a function of the degree of efficiency η. The method makes it possible to determine the fuel mixing ratio in the fuel tank of internal combustion engines, which can be operated with different fuels.
US07774119B2

A shift control system of an automatic transmission and a method thereof include controlling the off-going and on-coming clutches according to hydraulic pressures of the off-going and on-coming clutches calculated based on a flare amount when a flare occurs, controlling the on-coming clutch according to hydraulic pressure of the on-coming clutch calculated based on a shifting time interval when the flare does not occur and the shifting time interval is smaller than or equal to a predetermined time interval, and controlling the off-going and on-coming clutches according to hydraulic pressures of the off-going and on-coming clutches calculated based on an excess rate of change of a turbine speed when the shifting time interval is larger than a predetermined time interval.
US07774116B2

A device for controlling a passenger protection system of a motor vehicle includes at least one structure-borne noise sensor, used to receive body vibrations, and an evaluation device, used to evaluate the structure-borne noise signal. The evaluation provides information about an impact object and/or the characteristics of the impact. The evaluation device is configured to analyze the structure-borne noise signal in relation to the frequencies contained therein, wherein the frequency spectrum contained in a signal section is distributed into a plurality of frequency ranges. The current signal energy is determined for each frequency range, and the signal energy of the frequency range is a standardized. The device also comprises a passenger protection system, which can be actuated according to the information relating to the impact object and/or the characteristics of the impact. Further, the evaluation device is embodied such that during standardization, the signal energy of each frequency range is established in relation to the signal energy of a specific reference frequency range, and the resulting ratio course is compared to predetermined threshold values.
US07774104B2

An electronic apparatus detachably holding a portable apparatus, includes: a housing portion housing the portable apparatus; a guide mechanism guiding the portable apparatus to set one side of the portable apparatus as an axis and cause another side opposing the one side to revolve, when the portable apparatus is attached and/or detached to or from the housing portion; and a housing portion side connector to be fitted with or removed from a portable apparatus side connector provided at the portable apparatus, and the housing portion side connector is located closer to the other side of the portable apparatus than to one side thereof, when attached.
US07774096B2

An apparatus for the dispensing of product is provided. The apparatus includes a dispenser that is configured for dispensing product and a sensor in communication with an electrical circuit carried by the dispenser. The sensor is configured for detecting identification information about the product when the electrical circuit is completed by the product. Additional exemplary embodiments are also provided in which the sensor operates through optical detection, smell, physical contact with the product, or vibration instead of or in addition to the completion of an electrical circuit.
US07774090B2

Systems and methods to select a tool are provided. In at least one embodiment, a system receives first tool data defining a first tool and requirement data defining a requirement of a process to be performed within a manufacturing facility. The system stores the first tool data in memory. The system automatically determines whether the first tool data satisfies a selected requirement definition and outputs a first representation of the first tool if the first tool data satisfies the selected requirement definition thereby enabling a user to select the tool.
US07774088B2

Irrespective of operation mode of systems in which predetermined axes belong to, a multi-system numerical controller is provided that freely combines axes belonging to arbitrary systems, and then simultaneously operates axes belonging to a plurality of systems in a predetermined manual mode, or simultaneously operates a plurality of axes belonging to the same system in respective manual operation modes so as to safely take interpolation control in manual operation. The numerical control apparatus includes a plurality of manual operation controllers and independent of the systems; a manual-operation-mode selecting signal provided each for the manual operation controllers; an arbitrary-axis selection signal, provided each for the manual operation controllers or manual modes, for selecting axes from any of the systems; a manual-move-speed instructing signal provided each for the manual operation controller; a manual operation reset signal provided each for the manual operation controllers.
US07774087B2

A wire electrical discharge machine (WEDM) is disclosed, which comprises: a movable crane; a measure unit, mounted on the crane for measuring the deformation of the same; and a control unit, electrically connected to the measure unit and used for controlling the crane to move; wherein a lookup table describing the relation between the crane's deformation and position error is stored in the control unit, basing on which the control unit is able to perform a feedback displacement control on the crane with respect to its deformation.
US07774084B2

A system for implanting a temporary anchorage device in a jaw bone of a patient makes use of a digital representation of at least a portion of the patient's dental arch, including teeth and corresponding roots, in order to select a temporary anchorage device (TAD) implant site that does not interfere with a tooth root. A surgical guide relates the information from the digital representation to an actual location in the patient's jaw bone. The surgical guide is formed to fit over at least a portion of the occlusal, buccal, labial, and/or lingual surfaces of the dental arch proximate to the selected TAD implant site and includes a physical and/or visual marker that indicates the selected TAD implant site.
US07774083B2

Methods and systems for position sensing are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes measuring at least three discrete point positions associated with a first component using at least one transmitter having a known position and orientation and in a line of sight with the three discrete point positions, the three discrete point positions having known distances relative to one another. The method computes a current position and orientation of the first component using data provided by the at least one transmitter and the three discrete point positions, along with position and orientation data from a last known location of the first component assuming that no sudden position changes since the first component has moved from the last known location. The first and second components may be a workpiece and a tool that performs a manufacturing operation on the workpiece.
US07774075B2

Methods and apparatus for determining an object's three-dimensional location (i.e. real world coordinates) using the audio-video infrastructure of a 3G cellular phone or a 3C (Computer, Communications, Consumer) electronic device. A first detection device (e.g. a camera) is used to capture images of the objects. The captured image data is used to compute location data of the object in a first two-dimensional plane. A second detection device (e.g. microphone or infrared detector) may be used to collect additional location data in a second plane, which when combined with image data from the captured images allows the determination of the real world coordinates (x, y, z) of the object. The real-world coordinate data may be used in various applications. If the size of an object of interest is known or can be calculated, and the size of the projected image does not vary due to rotation of the object, a single camera (e.g. the camera in a 3G or 3C mobile device) may be used to obtain three-dimensional coordinate data for the applications.
US07774073B2

An apparatus and method for forming a control node in a programmable architecture, is disclosed. The node includes a plurality of user-programmable, microprocessor-based modules connected together. The modules are connected to create a parallel-processing environment with a selected functionality. Hot-swapping of the modules can be determined in the node. Power is distributed throughout the modules in the node. The modules may be automatically programmed to accommodate a target independent device.
US07774070B2

A method for combining the effective modalities of electrotherapy and phototherapy is provided. A medical electrode assembly is substantially transparent or translucent to visible, infrared and/or ultraviolet light so that light rays emitted by a phototherapy device can shine through and pass transversely across every layer of the medical electrode assembly to impinge upon the skin of the patient to which the assembly is attached. This includes an area of skin located directly underneath the medical electrode assembly and thereby enables the combination therapy to be achieved.
US07774065B2

A system and method for measuring the capture threshold of a bipolar lead in order to determine an appropriate value for the stimulus pulse energy to be used with the lead by a cardiac rhythm management device. An appropriate bipolar stimulating configuration can also be determined. The method is particularly useful in testing bipolar leads used to excite the left ventricle such as when delivering cardiac resynchronization therapy.
US07774061B2

A cardiac device is described with the capability of detecting cardiac ischemia using multiple sensing modalities. The device may be configured to modify its behavior in delivering therapies to treat bradycardia or tachyarrhythmias in response to detection of cardiac ischemia.
US07774057B2

A gene regulatory system detects ischemia events and is capable of delivering a biologic therapy in response to the detection of an ischemic event or the reception of a command. The biologic therapy protects the heart from ischemic damage by regulating the expression of an exogenously introduced gene product. In one embodiment, the gene regulatory system includes an implantable system that emits at least one gene regulatory signal in response to the detection of the ischemic event or the reception of the command. The gene regulatory signal directly or indirectly regulates gene expression of the gene product.
US07774056B2

The disclosure is directed to techniques for delivering electrical stimulation for patient notification. An implantable medical device (IMD) may deliver patient notification stimulation via one or more device site electrodes, e.g., electrodes located proximate to an implant site for the IMD, configured as cathodes. Anodes for delivery the patient notification stimulation may be located in an electrode array that is provided by one or more leads and located distally from the implant site, e.g., an electrode array located at one or more target sites for delivery of stimulation therapy. In some embodiments, the IMD may inhibit the patient notification stimulation for a period in response to input from the patient, and then resume the stimulation at the end of the period. In this manner, the notification stimulation may be “snoozed” like an alarm clock. When the stimulation resumes, it may be different, e.g., more urgent, then prior to inhibition.
US07774048B2

An endoscope device includes a light source unit that creates multiple excitation lights having different peak wavelengths, an illumination unit, and an imaging unit that includes an objective optical system and an image pickup device. The imaging unit is capable of acquiring images of fluorescent lights having different peak wavelengths that are emitted by multiple fluorescent substances contained in a living organism. The illumination unit transmits the excitation lights to a tip of the endoscope device, and the multiple excitation lights are then directed so as to illuminate a living organism that contains multiple fluorescent substances. A variable transmittance optical element or an array of different type of filters may be placed before the image pickup device to separately detect the multiple fluorescent substances. Specified conditions and transmittances for the variable transmittance optical element and filters are disclosed to insure that the multiple fluorescent substances may be separately detected.
US07774037B2

An apparatus for the measurement of at least one analyte in the blood of a patient, which includes a light source generating broadband light and a light-transmission arrangement having a plurality of transmitting fibers is positioned for simultaneously transmitting multiple wavelengths of the broadband light from the light source to the blood of the patient. The measurement apparatus further includes an optical fiber arrangement having a plurality of light detector fibers for leading multi-wavelength light, in spectrally unseparated form, transmitted through, or reflected from, the blood and a light detection arrangement for receiving the multi-wavelength light in its spectrally unseparated form from the optical fiber arrangement, for spectrally decomposing the received light, and for determining amplitudes of selected wavelengths of the decomposed light. The measurement apparatus utilizes a non-pulsatile element of the patient's blood for determining the measurement of at least one analyte in the blood as a function of the amplitudes of the selected wavelengths.
US07774036B2

The example embodiments relate to a system for automatically evaluating oxygen saturation of the optic nerve and retina, including an image capturing system which includes a fundus camera, a four wavelengths beam splitter, a digital image capturing device, a computer system, and image processing software for registering and analyzing multi-spectral images of the retina, and for evaluating oxygen saturation level.
US07774035B2

A superconducting article includes a substrate; first and second buffer layers overlying the substrate, such that the substrate is positioned so as to be interposed between the first and second buffer layers, first and second superconductor layers overlying the first and second buffer layers. Further, the first and second stabilizer layers respectively overlying the first and second superconductor layers, the first and second stabilizer layers adapted to conduct current and prevent burnout of the first and second superconductor layers when the first and second superconductor layers are in a non-superconductive state.
US07774031B2

A portable electronic device with an operation mode determined in accordance with power consumption and an operation mode switching method thereof are proposed. The method examines the voltage required by different systems to control every power system independently. By examining the capacity of a battery cell unit and comparing the capacity result with a first reference capacity and a second reference capacity, whether to offer operation power in order to operate a mobile communication module or a digital camera module is determined. Therefore, when a digital camera module, which has high power consumption requirements, is off, the mobile communication module can still operate to effectively use energy provided by the power supply unit.
US07774029B2

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for controlling a wireless terminal. The apparatus comprises a folder opening/closing detection module detecting opening/closing states of folder housings pivoting away from a body housing of the terminal in different directions and generating opening/closing detection signals, a key input module comprising input modules each having inner and external key(s), a display module comprising a first display module disposed in one of the folder housings and a second display module disposed in the body housing, a position detection module detecting a terminal position and generating position detection signals, a voice inputting/outputting module comprising input/output modules each having a speaker and a microphone and mounted on different sides of the terminal, rotary-type speakers each rotatably mounted inside one of the folder housings, and a control module controlling said input/output and display modules (including speakers) according to the folder opening/closing signals and/or the generated position signals.
US07774025B2

A method of printing content using a print medium, comprising the steps of: determining, using a sensor module, a print media identifier from the print medium, the print media identifier having been linked to the content, and the content associated with previously printed content on the print medium; and, printing, using a printer, the content on the print medium.
US07774016B2

A satellite communications interoperability module and method for frequency down-conversion. The module insertable in-line with an intra-facility link communicating a multiplexed signal between the outdoor unit (ODU) and the indoor unit (IDU). Electrical circuitry of the module transforming and forwarding the multiplexed signal over the intra-facility link, the multiplexed signal including at least direct current, a standard tone, and L-band data signals. Switching means of the module specifies operations performed by the electrical circuitry to transform the multiplexed signal frequencies, waveforms and voltages according to predetermined parameters compatible between the ODU and the IDU. An interoperability method for compatibility with a range of different indoor units applied by the interoperability module and or incorporated into an integral ODU is application of a second frequency shift upon the L-band signal output from the ODU primary down-conversion circuit.
US07774009B2

A mobile communication terminal for setting a background music during a phone conversation and a method thereof, the mobile communication terminal comprising a transceiver for receiving a message including information of a storing path of a pre-set call background music, and a controller for requesting and downloading the call background music on the basis of the received message.
US07774005B2

Disclosed are a system and a method for sending a short text message to both a mobile phone and a mail server. The system includes at least one base station for providing wireless network nodes of the first and second mobile phones; a short message service center for receiving a short message from the first mobile phone and sending the received short message to both the second mobile phone and an email address of a subscriber having the second mobile phone, if the email address is included in the received short message; and at least one mobile switching center for delivering a request for sending a short message which has been received from the first mobile phone to the short message service center and sending the short message to the second mobile phone upon receiving an instruction to send the short message from the short message service center.
US07774003B1

Common search queries can be provided to a mobile device that are associated with a current location of a mobile device. Once a location of a mobile device is determined, common search queries associated with the location can be automatically transmitted to the mobile device. The queries can be used to update an auto-complete function for partial queries or strings entered by a user of the mobile device.
US07773997B2

A system and method for controlling Quality of Service (QoS) in a wireless network on a per-user basis. According to the preferred embodiment, each user will have a QoS profile, listing the levels of service he is authorized to receive. The RAN assigns radio and network resources for the user, based on the applications that the user is running and the user's profile. A QoS server in the base station controller manages user QoS. When the base station controller receives a packet data call from a mobile station, the QoS profile and the application type that the mobile station is executing will be used to determine QoS parameters for the user's call.
US07773996B2

Apparatus, and an associated method, for providing notification of communication resource allocation to perform an EDGE-based, or other, data radio communication service. A matrix representer forms a matrix representation of communication resource allocations made across a plurality of radio carriers. A bit map constructor constructs a bit map of the matrix representation. And, an RLC header is formed that includes a header extension that is populated with the assignment bit map.
US07773992B2

Interoperability between wireless communication systems, such as the IS2000-1x and IS856 systems, is facilitated by using supervision timers. A wireless communication device starts one or more supervision timers and performs an intersystem transition. When the wireless communication device returns from the transition, the supervision timers are used to estimate the duration of the transition. The wireless communication device then performs a sequence of tasks appropriate to the estimated duration.
US07773991B2

A control signal data processing load associated with mobile terminals currently having a connection with a radio access network is regulated. The connection is terminated when the control processing cost for maintaining the connection exceeds the benefit of maintaining the connection to achieve shorter access latency. A connection activity level is determined for current connections between multiple mobile terminals and a base station. A current data processing load in the base station associated with the mobile terminal control signaling is calculated. A decision is made whether one or more of the mobile terminals is likely to request a handover of its respective connection to a neighboring base station. Based on the current load, the likelihood of requesting handover of the respective connection, and the connection activity level determined for the respective connection, a decision is made whether to terminate the respective connection.
US07773977B2

A method for sharing a data file among devices is provided, wherein the data file corresponding to a first data file stored in any of information-processing devices is transmitted to a file server, when a mobile terminal controlling a data-file-sharing operation requests registration of the first data file, as an object to be used by the other device. The data file is stored in a management region. The file server transmits file-sharing information including location information and attribute information of the data file. The file-sharing information is transmitted from the information-processing device to the mobile terminal which selects a second data file for reception on the basis of the attribute information, accesses the file server on the basis of the location information corresponding to the second data file, and requests transmission of the second data file so that the second data file is transmitted.
US07773975B2

Networks and methods are disclosed for providing an indication of the capability of a communication network for serving special number calls. Before a user places a special number call, the communication network determines the capability of the communication network for serving a special number call, and provides the indication of the network capability to the user. The user is thus kept aware of the quality of the special number service available to them through the communication network.
US07773974B1

A service is provided to cell phone subscribers to improve reachability. A home location register node maintains state information on a subscriber's cell phone status. Cell phone status information includes: off; on, registered and available to receive calls; on, registered but busy participating in an ongoing call; on, registered but temporarily unavailable; and on, registered but unattended. Temporarily unavailable is further qualified: poor reception location, high interference, cell throughput saturation, intentional user disposition. Long term unavailability may also be inferred and indicated depending on the device and/or system status. When a call to a subscriber's cell phone cannot be completed or is not answered, the service annunciates the reason to the calling party. The calling party can then make a more informed decision as to when to reattempt the call and is more likely to reattempt the call. The service is provided in conjunction with call forwarding to landlines phones and/or voicemail.
US07773967B2

A Multi-mode-multi-band direct conversion receiver with complex I and Q channel interference mitigation processing for cancellation of intermodulation products (IMPs) are described. In one embodiment, a method comprising over sampling of the entire receiver passband to acquire the IMP source signals that can generate IMPs within the signal of interest (SOI), generate a coherent complex I-Q channel estimates of the interference, generating estimates of 2nd and 3rd order IMP products, sampling of the transmitter feed thru signal and blocking signals and computing the cross modulation products estimate, using the cross modulation cancellation to cancel of the effects of the on chip transmitter feed thru to support building a single transceiver chip with full duplex operation, and creation of an estimate of the DC offset in the receiver in a closed loop fashion to cancel the DC offset in the I and Q channels independently and simultaneously, and adjusting the rate of update to match system parameters.
US07773965B1

The present invention is a quadrature VLIF receiver, including calibration circuitry, and methods to closely match signal processing of an in-phase signal path and a quadrature-phase signal path to optimize VLIF image rejection. The calibration circuitry includes a variable gain variable-phase calibration signal generator, a variable gain amplifier for each signal path, phase adjustment circuitry for each signal path, and switching circuitry to support calibration steps. The calibration signal generator supplies a calibration signal at the same frequency as mixer local oscillator signals; therefore, during calibration, all signals downstream of the VLIF mixer are at DC, which simplifies calibration measurements, thereby minimizing calibration times.
US07773957B2

Disclosed is a mobile communication terminal provided with a rotational display unit. The mobile communication terminal comprises: (a) a main housing comprising a first hinge axis formed on one end; (b) a connection member hingedly connected to the main housing so as to be opened from and closed into the main housing around the first hinge axis, and comprising a second hinge axis on the upper surface of the connection member and perpendicular to the first hinge axis; and (c) a rotational housing rotatably connected and opposite to the connection member, and rotated around the second hinge axis.
US07773955B2

A Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver includes a baseband processor, a receiver section, and a transmitter section. The receiver section communicatively couples to the baseband processor and includes a plurality of tuned RF circuits. The transmitter section communicatively couples to the baseband processor and includes a plurality of tuned RF circuits. In a calibration operation, the transmitter section applies a RF test signal to its plurality of tuned RF circuits. The baseband processor applies a plurality of tuning control settings to each the tuned RF circuit. The baseband processor, for each of the plurality of tuning control settings, measures an output of the tuned RF circuit. The baseband processor selects a tuning control setting for the tuned RF circuit based upon at least one measured output of the tuned RF circuit. Finally, the baseband processor is operable to apply a selected tuning control setting to the tuned RF circuit.
US07773954B2

A device and method for synthesizing a transmission frequency (a Tx frequency) in a wireless terminal are provided, which are designed for stably operating a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) in order to synthesize a Tx frequency for a certain channel. The device includes a Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver for operating a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) in order to synthesize the Tx frequency when the wireless terminal requires the Tx frequency, and for transmitting the Tx frequency when the PLL is stabilized, a first signal generator for providing the RF transceiver with a first signal until the PLL is stabilized, a second signal generator for providing the RF transceiver with a second signal in a duration, for which the first signal is not provided, until the PLL is stabilized, and a controller for controlling the first signal generator to provide the RF transceiver with the first signal until the PLL is stabilized, and for controlling the second signal generator to provide the RF transceiver with the second signal in the duration for which the first signal is not provided.
US07773950B2

A receiver circuit suppresses effects of “benign” impairment from the calculation of received signal quality estimates, such that the estimate depends primarily on the effects of non-benign impairment. For example, a received signal may be subject to same-cell and other-cell interference plus noise, which is generally modeled using a Gaussian distribution, and also may be due to certain forms of self-interference, such as quadrature phase interference arising from imperfect derotation of the pilot samples used to generate channel estimates for the received signal. Such interference generally takes on a distribution defined by the pilot signal modulation, e.g., a binomial distribution for binary phase shift keying modulation. Interference arising from such sources is relatively “benign” as compared to Gaussian interference and thus should be suppressed or otherwise discounted in signal quality calculations. Suppression may be based on subtracting benign impairment correlation estimates from total impairment correlation estimates, or on filtering the benign impairment in channel estimation.
US07773941B2

A method and system for positioning a relay in a wide area communication network can enable improved operating efficiency of the network. The method includes processing a plurality of requests, received from a plurality of wireless communication devices, for connections to the network, where each device in the plurality of wireless communication devices can operate using a wide area networking standard and can operate using an ad hoc networking standard (step 305). A location in the network of each device in the plurality of wireless communication devices is then determined (step 310). An operating position for the relay is then determined based on an evaluation of the location in the network of each device in the plurality of wireless communication devices (step 315).
US07773938B2

A vehicle system interface comprises an antenna configured to receive a digital radio signal, a digital radio receiver circuit configured to receive the digital radio signal from the antenna and to obtain digital audio data from the digital radio signal, an FM modulator and transmitter circuit, and a microprocessor in operable communication with the digital radio receiver circuit and the FM modulator and transmitter circuit. The microprocessor is configured to generate a first message requesting a series of FM radio signal levels and the microprocessor is also configured to select a suitable FM radio frequency from the series of FM radio frequencies. The microprocessor is also configured to induce the FM modulator and transmitter circuit to broadcast the digital audio data in an FM radio signal over the suitable FM radio frequency.
US07773936B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, a device and a system for implementing directional broadcast in mobile data broadcasting. In the method, upon receiving a broadcast message from a content server, a network element processes the broadcast message according to first location information carried in the broadcast message and second location information in the network element. In the embodiments of the present invention, with the first location information carried in the broadcast message and the second location information set in the network element, upon receiving the broadcast message, the network element processes the broadcast message according to the first location information and the second location information, so that the content server may implement directional broadcast for a special location area without directly accessing a directional location area, which reduces the network complexity.
US07773933B2

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of preventing excessive charging in the toner within the cleaning device for effectively preventing generation of the black spots derived from the leak current. In the image forming apparatus comprising a cleaning device having a cleaning blade for scraping out the toner on a latent image carrier body surface and the image forming method using the same, the toner contains a titanium oxide as an additive agent, and with the premise that the fluorescence X ray intensity of the titanium oxide added to the toner before use is X1, and the fluorescence X ray intensity of the titanium oxide added to the toner within the cleaning device is X2, X1 and X2 satisfy the following relationship formula (1): X2/X1≧1.2  (1).
US07773926B2

One of aspects of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus includes an intermediate transfer member rotating at a first circumferential speed, and an image carrier capable of having a plurality of toner images formed thereon in turn, each of the toner images having a color different from one another, for transferring the toner images onto the intermediate transfer member, the image carrier rotating at a second circumferential speed. At least one of the first and second circumferential speeds are adjustable in accordance with a driving mode selected from a group consisting of a monochrome mode and a color mode. Also, a first difference between the first and second circumferential speeds in the monochrome mode is greater than a second difference between the first and second circumferential speeds in the color mode.
US07773924B2

An image formation apparatus is disclosed to form a color image for imprinting, and the color image for imprinting is imprinted to an imprinting medium. The image formation apparatus includes an image formation unit for forming plural sets of marks for position error compensation for compensating for a position error of the different colors, which position error is generated when forming the color image on the conveyance belt, a detection unit for detecting position information about positions of the sets of marks for position error compensation formed on the conveyance belt by the image formation unit, a control unit for performing a position error compensation process based on the position information detected by the detection unit, and a storage process of storing the position information of the sets of the marks for the position error compensation detected by the detection process.
US07773920B2

A developing apparatus includes a non-magnetic sleeve installing a magnetic field creating device, a developer carrier that carries and conveys developer including magnetic carrier and toner, and a development casing that contains developer. The development casing includes an opening that allows the developer carrier to be partially exposed and oppose a latent image carrier. The surface of the developer carrier vertically moves in the opening. An angle (θ) between an inner wall surface of the development casing, located in the vicinity of opening on the down stream side and the horizontal plane, meets the following relation, wherein μ represents a static friction coefficient of the inner wall surface in relation to the toner; Sin θ>μ×cos θ.
US07773918B2

A particle supply apparatus is disclosed that includes a particle accommodating unit that accommodates particles, a gas spouting unit that is arranged at a bottom portion of the particle accommodating unit and is configured to spout gas toward the particles, a conveying mechanism that applies suction to the particles accommodated in the particle accommodating unit and conveys the particles toward a supply destination, and a gas discharge unit that discharges gas contained within the particle accommodating unit toward an exterior side of the particle accommodating unit.
US07773906B2

An image forming device is disclosed which has: an image holding member which rotates; a charging roller press-contacting and being rotated by the image holding member, and charging the image holding member; and a cleaning roller press-contacting and being rotated by the charging roller, and cleaning the charging roller. The cleaning roller has a core whose both end portions are rotatably supported, and a cleaning member which is formed from a roller-shaped porous elastic body and is provided at a peripheral surface of the core. Axial direction end portion sides of the cleaning member are formed to be thicker than an axial direction central portion of the cleaning member.
US07773896B2

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a image forming unit, a measurement unit and a controller. The image carrier includes a central region on which a target image as an object of an image forming is formed and a peripheral region placed outward of the central region. The image forming unit forms a reference image on the peripheral region and the central region, before the image forming is started. Also, the image forming unit forms the target image on the central region based on a preset condition and a third reference image on the peripheral region, during the image forming. The measurement unit measures a physical quantity for the reference images.
US07773882B2

Communication is provided between at least two of a plurality of stations. A signal is received from a first one of the plurality of stations, and the signal is coded using a first code that is assigned to that station. The coded signal is converted to obtain a further coded signal that is decodable using a further code that is assigned to at least a second one of the plurality of stations. The further coded signal is transmitted for delivery to at least the second one of the plurality of stations.
US07773881B2

An OCDM signal generation section generates an encoded optical pulse signal by encoded an optical pulse signal. The encoded optical pulse signal is then inputted to a wavelength disperser and the time waveform of the encoded optical pulse signal is shaped to be outputted as a shaped and encoded optical pulse signal. A WDM signal generation section generates an optical wavelength division multiplexing signal. A OCDM signal extraction section then decodes the OCDM reception signal by using the same code as the time-spreading/wavelength-hopping code for each channel and generates a decoded OCDM reception signal.
US07773879B2

A cable television system (100) having forward and reverse paths includes, in the reverse path, a digital optical transmitter (200) for receiving an RF signal, converting it to a digital signal, and adding a digital pilot tone thereto. A laser is driven in accordance with the summed digital signal to generate a digital optical signal representative of the pilot tone and the RF signal. The cable television system (100) also includes an optical receiver (305) for receiving the digital optical signal and recovering therefrom the RF signal and the pilot tone. The optical transmitter (200) and receiver (305) are coupled by fiber optic communication media (110).
US07773875B2

Provided is an auto-focusing camera module having a liquid lens. The auto-focusing camera module includes a lens barrel having a liquid lens and a solid lens stacked and disposed therewith; an image sensor for focusing light that is passed through the liquid lens and the solid lens; a substrate provided in a lower end of the lens barrel to electrically mount the image sensor; and a power supply unit fixed integrally in the lens barrel and electrically coupled between the liquid lens and the substrate to apply a power source to the liquid lens. Therefore, the auto-focusing camera module may be useful to control its focus to coincide with high pixels and high performances of the camera module, manufacture a small final product by lowering the entire height of the camera module, enhancing the productivity of the camera module by employing a simple liquid lens to simplify an assembly structure of the liquid lens that is in contact with the substrate, and reduce the manufacturing cost.
US07773872B2

A camera is provided which is configured to receive a photographic lens having a diaphragm. The camera includes a defocus amount detection unit configured to detect first information corresponding to a defocus amount, from light passing through the photographic lens mounted on the camera; an acquisition unit configured to acquire second information corresponding to an image-forming position from a lens position output unit provided on the photographic lens; and an image-forming position prediction unit configured to predict a change in image-forming position based on a change in the second information and a plurality of the past first information stored in a memory, wherein the image-forming position prediction unit predicts the image forming position in consideration of third information corresponding to time required for diaphragm driving that is acquired from a diaphragm driving time prediction unit provided on the photographic lens.
US07773868B2

A method of delivering hot water to a water fixture in which a supplemental hot water heater is installed before the cold water inlet of a tankless hot water heater. The supplemental hot water heater is used to recirculate heated water through the tankless hot water heater at a flow rate below the minimum flow rate of the tankless hot water heater (the flow rate at which the tankless heater's heating element is activated) so that water entering the tankless hot water heater is pre-heated by the supplemental hot water heater without activating the heating element of the tankless hot water heater.
US07773866B2

A system, apparatus and method for preventing a water tank from overheating. The apparatus includes a water delivery system for delivering water to a reservoir for receiving water. The reservoir includes a level sensor and an associated heater for heating water in the reservoir. The system includes a water dispensing system for dispensing heater water from the reservoir. A controller is provided to control the operation of the system.
US07773855B1

A mini-TV or picture-in-graphic (PIG) window within a digital video recorder (DVR) menu may be repurposed after one or more activities, such as watching a digitally-recorded program, to display content other than live television content on a channel that was being tuned to before the one or more activities.
US07773853B2

A recording method of recording a file and management information for the file into a user area of a recording medium. In the case where recording start of moving picture is instructed, an operation mode at the last recording time is judged with reference to information within a memory. In the case where the operation mode at the time of last recording time is still picture mode, intermediate management information for performing management of extended file by still picture file is recorded to start recording operation in moving picture mode for recording VTS subsequently to intermediate management information. In the case where operation mode at the last recording time is moving picture mode, recording of moving picture is continued as VTS previously recorded.
US07773837B2

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chip comprising an array of modulated sources, each providing a modulated signal output at a channel wavelength different from the channel wavelength of other modulated sources and a wavelength selective combiner having an input optically coupled to received all the signal outputs from the modulated sources and provide a combined output signal on an output waveguide from the chip. The modulated sources, combiner and output waveguide are all integrated on the same chip.
US07773833B2

Light having components of frequencies f0, f+1 and f−1 outputted from an optical modulator (10) is monitored, a second light detection means (14b) measures the power P2 of all the components, and a first light detection means (14a) measures the power P1 with frequency f0 component cut out by a filter means (13). Based on these light receiving powers (P1) and (P2), phase differences imparted by the respective DC electrodes of Mach-Zehnder optical waveguides (MZ-A, MZ-B, MZ-C) of the optical modulator (10) are controlled. The control is performed to minimize the light receiving power (P1) and to maximize the light receiving power (P2).
US07773832B2

There is provided an image outputting apparatus for generating an album by selecting adequate images for an appreciator out of a plurality of images. The image outputting apparatus has an final image storing section for storing a plurality of final images, an image-capturing-time storing section for storing image capturing time when each of the plurality of final images stored in the final image storing section was captured, an output time getting section for getting output time when the plurality of final images stored in the final image storing section is required to be outputted, a time range setting section for setting a wider time range when a difference between the output time obtained by the output time getting section and the image capturing time of the final image stored in the final image storing section is longer, an image selecting section for selecting a plurality of final images captured within a preset time range among the plurality of final images stored in the final image storing section and an image output controlling section for outputting the plurality of final images selected by the image selecting section at different positions within one and same output area.
US07773825B2

An image stabilization apparatus of the present invention includes a detection unit which detects an amount of an image blur between a plurality of image data, an evaluation unit which selects at least one image data to use in correcting image blur from the plurality of image data according to a result of the detection of the amount of image blur, and a correction unit which generates image data with its image blur corrected using the image data selected by the evaluation unit.
US07773812B2

A method and system are provided for comparing a focal product with several comparison products. First, selecting a focal product and several attributes relating to the focal product and the comparison products, standardizing and weighting the attributes, and determining for each weighted attribute an attribute score. Next, based on the attribute score, calculating a total score for each comparison product, and based on the total score, presenting to a user or purchaser the comparison products most relevant to the user's criteria.
US07773801B2

A learning-type classifying apparatus comprises defective region extracting unit for extracting defective regions of classification targets from an image in which the plurality of regions of the classification targets are present, characteristic value calculating unit for calculating characteristic values for the extracted regions of the classification targets, classifying unit for classifying the extracted regions of the classification targets into predetermined classes on the basis of the calculated characteristic values, region integrating unit for integrating the regions which belong to the same class as a result of the classification, display unit for displaying images of the integrated regions and the classification results, input unit for correcting errors in the classification results, and teacher data creating unit for creating teacher data for each of the regions so that the classification results of the integrated regions are reflected in each region included in the integrated regions.
US07773799B2

A method for performing automatic stereo measure of a selected point in a scene. A sensor image is initially obtained from a sensor providing an image of a scene. First and second reference images of the scene that are a stereo pair of images are also provided. The sensor image is registered with the first reference image and a point of interest is selected from one of the sensor or first reference images. A stereo point measurement using the selected point and the two reference images is performed to determine a point in the second reference image that represents a stereo mate of the selected point in the first reference image. An analysis of a three dimensional grid volume centered about the selected point in the first reference image is then performed. The analysis uses both reference images, the selected point and its stereo mate to determine the three dimensional coordinates of the point in the grid that best matches the location of the stereo mate point in the second reference image.
US07773798B2

The present invention provides a modeling technique with improved modeling accuracy. A modeling system obtains a plurality of pieces of measurement data by measuring an object a plurality of times, and obtains a standard model as a standard three-dimensional model of the object. The modeling system deforms the standard model so as to optimize a predetermined evaluation function including an evaluation element on the plurality of pieces of measurement data, thereby generating a three-dimensional model of the object.
US07773797B2

The present invention relates to a high-performance computer vision system and method for measuring the wings deformation of insects with high flapping-frequency, large stroke-amplitude and excellent mobility during free-flight. A geometrical optic unit composed of a polyhedral reflector with four reflection-planes and four planar reflectors is used to image one high-speed CMOS camera to four virtual cameras, combined with double laser-sheet sources, multiple virtual stereo and structured-light sensors are available to observe the free-flight of insect at different viewpoints simultaneously. In addition, an optoelectronic guiding equipment is included to lead the free-flight of insect and trigger the camera to capture the image sequences of insect-flight automatically. The deformation of insect-wings can be reconstructed by the spatial coordinates of wing-edges and the distorted light-lines projected on the surface of wings.
US07773792B2

Method for performing segmentation of an interior vessel within the body of a patient, the method including obtaining a sequence of intravascular ultrasound images of an interior vessel and dividing the sequence into batches, detecting uninformative regions in each of the batches, the uninformative regions arising from an acoustic shadow cast by guide wire and by calcified plaque within the interior vessel, extracting a preliminary outer boundary of the interior vessel, tracking images in each of the batches to counter various distortions, performing statistical analysis and spatial integration on each of the batches to obtain a classification of blood and tissue regions, extracting a secondary outer boundary of the interior vessel utilizing the classification of blood and tissue regions and refining result, and extracting the inner boundary of the interior vessel based on the classification of blood and tissue regions.
US07773788B2

System and method of evaluating quality assurance criteria related to the delivery of a radiation therapy treatment plan. The method includes the acts of acquiring image data of a patient, generating a treatment plan for the patient based at least in part on the image data, the treatment plan including a calculated radiation dose to be delivered to the patient, acquiring an on-line image of the patient in substantially a treatment position, delivering at least a portion of the calculated radiation dose to the patient, monitoring quality assurance criteria related to the delivery of the treatment plan, calculating the radiation dose received by the patient, and determining whether delivery of the treatment plan occurred as intended based on the quality assurance criteria and the radiation dose received by the patient.
US07773787B2

Disclosed is a method and system for detecting a boundary of a vessel in an image. Edges in the image are detected. Edge detection is based on the change in intensity over some distance while varying the scale of the distance. A set of edges is then selected from the detected edges. An initial vessel boundary is determined based on the selected set, and a shape descriptor (e.g., one or more elliptical shape descriptors) is applied to the initial vessel boundary to determine a final vessel boundary.
US07773785B2

One embodiment discloses a computerized method of facilitating cardiac intervention, comprising inputting patient data, creating a computerized interactive model of a heart based on the patient data, wherein the model comprises features, simulating at least one proposed cardiac intervention treatment by adding or deleting features to the model, and determining the effects of the proposed cardiac simulation upon the entire model. Simulations may be repeated to allow the user to determine an optimal cardiac intervention. Additionally, a template may be created from the model to use as a guide during the cardiac intervention.
US07773776B2

An image processing apparatus is provided with a halftone frequency determining section for determining a halftone frequency of an image data consisting of plural color components. The halftone frequency determining section is provided with a flat halftone discriminating section for extracting information of density distribution per segment block, and discriminating, based on the information of density distribution, whether or not the segment block is a flat halftone region in which density transition is low; a threshold value determining section for determining a threshold value by using an adjusting value that is predetermined in accordance with a reading property of the image reading apparatus with respect to respective color components, the threshold value being for use in extraction of the binary data of the pixel density; a maximum transition number averaging section for averaging the transition numbers of the binary data, the transition numbers being worked out by using the threshold value; and a halftone frequency estimating section for estimating the halftone frequency, based on the average. With this arrangement, it is possible to realize an image processing apparatus capable of performing highly accurate halftone frequency determination even for composite color halftone.
US07773774B2

The present invention is directed to a system and method for test target selection in conjunction with dynamic test pattern generation. In the invention, a test pattern page(s) is composed using an optimal set of test targets, which can be accommodated or adjusted to fit within size constraints of the test pattern. The method of the present invention makes use of layout optimization to ensure that related and optimized test targets are accommodated on a single test pattern. For example, it may be preferable to “squeeze in” a smaller-than-normal uniform area target, rather than not to print it at all during a test.
US07773766B2

The present invention provides a cord bush that makes it possible to reliably inhibit a liquid such as water from running along a cord, the length of which can be adjusted, into a control box through as well as a microphone control box including the cord bush. A first flock layer 33 formed by electrostatically transplanting short fibers is provided along a guide hole 23 in a cord bush 22. This inhibits a liquid from infiltrating into a control box 12 through the gap between an electric cord 15 and a cord bush 22.
US07773759B2

Improved vocal signals are obtained in headsets and similar devices by including a microphone inside a chamber formed at least in part by the wearer's ear. This second microphone provides a reduced noise input signal. The reduced noise signal is corrected by input from another microphone, located outside the chamber. This correction can include echo cancellation, spectral shaping, frequency extension, and the like.
US07773758B2

A method and circuit for deriving a set of multichannel audio signals from a conventional monaural or stereo audio signal uses an auxiliary multichannel spectral mapping data stream. Audio can be played back in stereo and multichannel formats from a conventional stereo signal on compact discs, FM radio, or other stereo or monaural delivery systems. The invention reduces the data rate needed for the transmission of multichannel digital audio.
US07773756B2

A method and circuit for deriving a set of multichannel audio signals from a conventional monaural or stereo audio signal uses an auxiliary multichannel spectral mapping data stream. Audio can be played back in stereo and multichannel formats from a conventional stereo signal on compact discs, FM radio, or other stereo or monaural delivery systems. The invention reduces the data rate needed for the transmission of multichannel digital audio.
US07773755B2

A reproduction apparatus comprises an inverse characteristics converting section that converts the acoustic characteristics of an acoustic space into inverse characteristics thereof, a reproducing section that reproduces music data, an acoustic characteristics output section that outputs acoustic characteristics different from the acoustic characteristics of the acoustic space, an adjusting section that adjusts the music data reproduced by the reproduction section on the basis of the inverse acoustic characteristics of the acoustic space converted by the inverse characteristics conversion section and the acoustic characteristics output from the acoustic characteristics output section and an output section that outputs the music data adjusted by the adjustment section to the acoustic space.
US07773751B2

The object of the present invention is providing the apparatus and method for controlling playing and copying the digital audio contents by way of embedding the control code into and extracting the control code from the digital audio contents. To achieve the object of the invention, the present invention includes control code embedding apparatus which includes timing deciding part for distributing control code, control code embedding part and digital audio signal summing part, and control code extracting apparatus which includes distribution information collecting part, control code discerning part, and decoding/instruction generating part.
US07773747B2

A method whereby an encryption apparatus encrypts a message on the basis of a fibration X(x, y, t) serving as a public key when private keys are two or more sections corresponding to fibration X(x, y, t)=0 of an algebraic surface X, the method comprises embedding plaintext M obtained by concatenating the message to a random number as the coefficients of plaintext polynomial M(t) of degree l−1 or less, and generating encrypted text F=Epk(M, p, q, f, X) from the plaintext polynomial M(t) by an encrypting process of performing operations including at least one of addition, subtraction, and multiplication of random polynomials p(x, y, t), q(x, y, t), a random irreducible polynomial f(t) of degree l or more, and the fibration X(x, y, t) with respect to the plaintext polynomial M(t).
US07773741B1

A signal processing system which discriminates between voice signals and data signals modulated by a voiceband carrier. The signal processing system includes a voice exchange, a data exchange and a call discriminator. The voice exchange is capable of exchanging voice signals between a switched circuit network and a packet based network. The signal processing system also includes a data exchange capable of exchanging data signals modulated by a voiceband carrier on the switched circuit network with unmodulated data signal packets on the packet based network. The data exchange is performed by demodulating data signals from the switched circuit network for transmission on the packet based network, and modulating data signal packets from the packet based network for transmission on the switched circuit network. The call discriminator is used to selectively enable the voice exchange and data exchange.
US07773737B2

Method and module for the direct dialing from a first subscriber with a first terminal (1) in a telephone system (20a) to a second subscriber with a number of terminals from which at least one is connected outside the telephone system (20a) in which case availability information (14) about the second subscriber is requested by an availability service (24) that is connected outside the telephone system (20a) and at least parts of the availability information (14) are made accessible to the first subscriber at the first terminal (1) allocated to a direct dialing function (11, 12, 15) in order to set up a connection attempt to the connection of the second subscriber that has the highest probability of success in view of the availability information.
US07773735B2

A plurality of route information messages that correspond to a plurality of telecommunication devices are sent to a prepaid service control point for delivery of a prepaid flexible alerting call.
US07773731B2

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for dynamically changing an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Responses to a menu of prompts are monitored. A presentation order of the menu of prompts is automatically updated according to a set of rules. The set of rules describe qualifications for dynamically changing the menu of prompts.
US07773725B2

A method and apparatus for multi-energy object inspection using a brilliant x-ray source. A first mono-energetic x-ray image of an object at a first selected energy is generated. A second mono-energetic x-ray image of the object at a second selected energy is generated. The first selected energy is different than the second selected energy. Additional mono-energetic x-ray images may be generated at energies different than previous energies up to n selected energies. The mono-energetic x-ray images are mathematically combined and processed to form a result. The result of processing the mono-energetic x-ray images is presented. The result comprises processed mono-energetic x-ray image data describing materials in the object with greater sensitivity, identifying the layers, and identifying the material composition than in the first image or the second image.
US07773714B2

The invention concerns a method (500) for employing adaptive event codes. The method includes the steps of generating (512) at least one adaptive event code in which the adaptive event code corresponds to a preexisting event code, storing (514) the adaptive event code in at least one table (154, 156), running (516) the table in which the adaptive event codes are at least initially disabled and enabling (522) the adaptive event code in response to a system event in which the preexisting event code that corresponds to the enabled adaptive event code is executed (526). The method can further include the step of ignoring (518) the adaptive event codes during the running step when the adaptive event codes are disabled.
US07773713B2

A system and method for clock data recovery for programming direct digital synthesizers is disclosed. A counter is used to calculate a coarse measurement of the clock frequency of a received digital signal, and a tap delay line is used to calculate a fine measurement of the clock frequency of the received digital signal. The coarse and fine measurements are used to calculate a value for programming a direct digital synthesizer to produce a clock signal that is an approximate replica of the clock frequency of the received digital signal.
US07773712B2

A clock switching circuit in which one clock signal is selected from 2N-phase input clock signals with the same frequency but with each shifted in phase (where N is an integer equal to or greater than 3), based on N-bit selection signals, and is output as an output clock signal, comprises a selector group having 2N−1 selectors each of which select and output one clock signal from two input clock signals, and an operation control circuit which generates 2N−1 operation control signals to execute control to set the 2N−1 selectors into an active state or into a sleep state. The selectors select the clock signals based on the selection signals. The operation control circuit executes control to set a portion of the selectors among the 2N−1 selectors to the active state and to set the remaining selectors to the sleep state, based on the selection signals.
US07773709B2

A semiconductor memory device includes an aligning signal generator, a data aligning unit, a data transmitting controller and a data transmitter. The aligning signal generator receives a data strobe signal to output aligning signals. The data aligning unit aligns a plurality of data pieces input in succession in response to the aligning signals. The data transmitting controller generates a data transmitting signal synchronized with the transition of the aligning signal. The data transmitter transmits an aligned data output from the data aligning unit to a data storage area in response to the data transmitting signal. A method for driving the semiconductor memory device includes aligning data pieces input in succession as parallel data in response to a data strobe signal, generating a data transmitting signal corresponding to transition of the data strobe signal and transmitting the parallel data to a data storage area in response to the data transmitting signal.
US07773694B2

Modulated signal A is transmitted from a first antenna, and modulated signal B is transmitted from a second antenna. As modulated signal B, modulated symbols S2(i) and S2(i+1) obtained from different data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. In contrast, as modulated signal A, modulated symbols S1(i) and S1(i)′ obtained by changing the signal point arrangement of the same data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. As a result the reception quality can be changed intentionally at time i and time i+1, and therefore using the demodulation result of modulated signal A of a time when the reception quality is good enables both modulated signals A and B to be demodulated with good error rate performances.
US07773692B2

System and methods for a digital linearization of a non linear element. Digital predistortion methods and circuitry for linearizing a non-linear element that address long or “memory” effects and shorter duration effects, these two predistortion functions are operated together in an adaptive fashion with the non-linear element to provide a highly linear system. A short duration predistortion block comprises an Nth order polynomial filter coupled to a programmable linear equalizer. The Nth order filter includes programmable non-linearities and variable delay taps. The Nth order filter may be configured to implement a non-sequential or a sequential ordered polynomial. The equalizer may, in a preferred embodiment, include circuitry for equalizing imbalances between real and complex signal values. The Nth order filter may implement a compound Volterra filter. The combined system of the predistortion circuitry and a non-linear element has a linear input-output signal response. Methods for initializing, parameterizing and adapting the system are disclosed.
US07773689B2

Multimodal memory controllers are disclosed that include: a transmitter having a first input signal line, a second input signal line, a first output signal line, a second output signal line, a first single-ended driver, a second single-ended driver, a differential transmitter, and a mode control signal line, the mode control signal line having asserted upon it a mode control signal, the transmitter configured to operate the output signal lines using the single-ended drivers at a first voltage when the mode control signal is a first value and to operate the output signal lines using the differential transmitter at a second voltage when the mode control signal is a second value, and the transmitter configured to protect the differential transmitter from the first voltage when the mode control signal is the first value.
US07773660B2

Frequency channel selection in a data transmission method uses a frequency hopping method. In a first method step, interference in a frequency channel is determined by detecting multiple erroneous transmissions in the frequency channel, and the frequency channel with interference is then eliminated from the frequency hopping sequence. In a second method step, the strength of external signals is measured within the frequency range of an eliminated frequency channel with interference, and the frequency channel is reinserted into the frequency hopping sequence if the strength is below a prescribed threshold value.
US07773658B2

An unstable optical resonator for an optically active medium comprising a spherical back mirror and a spherical outcoupling mirror is proposed, and an outcoupling which is asymmetrical in relation to the optical axis takes place therein.
US07773655B2

A high-brightness laser module is configured with a beam-compression unit capable of reducing a diameter of parallel light beams which are emitted by respective spaced apart individual laser diodes. The module further has an objective lens configured to losslessly launch the light with the reduced diameter into a fiber.
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