US07897196B2

A pumping system that accurately dispenses fluid using a pump, including reducing the error in the amount of a fluid a pump dispenses by correcting for the compliance of a dispense system.
US07897187B2

The invention relates to a material consisting of a powder selected from a thickening means and lecithin powder, and syrup. Said material is especially suitable for producing food and fodder. The invention also relates to a method for producing said material, to the use of said material, and to products consisting of the same.
US07897186B2

Methods for improving the foaming properties of whey protein preparations by contacting an aqueous solution containing whey protein with a phospholipase are disclosed. Treatment of a whey protein preparation with a phospholipase results in a whey protein preparation having improved foam overrun and foam stability when whipped, as compared to a whey protein preparation that is not treated with a phospholipase.
US07897184B1

A topical cosmetic composition for increasing skin whitening or lightening is described. The composition includes a pomegranate extract in an amount effective to reduce melanin composition. The pomegranate extract may be standardized to about 20% punicalagin. The composition may also include an extract from the genus larix, such as Larix sibirica. The larix sibirica may be standardized to 80% taxifolin. A method for using the compositions is described.
US07897183B2

The present invention comprises mixtures of herb extracts which exert synergistic antioxidant effect and comprise the herb licorice and at least one other herb selected from the group consisting of ginger, kudzu, sophora, and thyme. Skin care preparations incorporating such herb extract mixtures, and their methods of preparation and use, are also claimed.
US07897176B2

Provided are a dispersion comprising organic-inorganic hybrid type particles carried thereon with a biologically active substance, wherein the above particles can be obtained by allowing a block copolymer represented by Formula (I): PEG-block-poly(carbo)  (I) (wherein PEG represents a polyethylene glycol segment, and carbo represents a repetitive unit having a carboxylate ion on a side chain) and an aqueous medium system capable of forming hydroxyapatite to coexist with the biologically active substance, and a preparing method for the same.
US07897172B2

A compressible extended release tablet or tablet layer having a drug release profile that is not strongly dependent on tablet hardness may be prepared by dry blending a pharmaceutically active ingredient with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, wherein the hydroxypropyl methylcellulose has a bimodal or multimodal number average molecular weight distribution that includes at least one mode over 20,000 Daltons and at least one mode under 10,000 Daltons. An additional advantage of the invention is that the tablet formulations may be prepared without resort to wet granulation.
US07897170B2

According to an aspect of the present invention, implantable or insertable medical devices are provided that contain at least one covalently crosslinked polymeric region, which contains at least one block copolymer comprising at least one low Tg block and at least one high Tg block.
US07897169B2

To provide a food which suitably supply ubiquinol, a substance indispensable to the living body but is liable to be decreased and fall short of the requirements, through ingestion in the same ways as the ordinary foods in daily living. A ubiquinol-enriched oil/fat-containing food.
US07897158B2

A single polypeptide is provided which comprises first and second domains. The first domain enables the polypeptide to cleave one or more vesicle or plasma-membrane associated proteins essential to exocytosis, and the second domain enables the polypeptide to be translocated into a target cell or increases the solubility of the polypeptide, or both. The polypeptide thus combines useful properties of a clostridial toxin, such as a botulinum or tetanus toxin, without the toxicity associated with the natural molecule. The polypeptide can also contain a third domain that targets it to a specific cell, rendering the polypeptide useful in inhibition of exocytosis in target cells. Fusion proteins comprising the polypeptide, nucleic acids encoding the polypeptide and methods of making the polypeptide are also provided. Controlled activation of the polypeptide is possible and the polypeptide can be incorporated into vaccines and toxin assays.
US07897152B2

The present invention relates to a vaccine for increasing the immunogenicity of a tumor antigen thus allowing treatment of cancer, as well as a vaccine that increases the immunogenicity of a viral antigen, thus allowing treatment of viral infection, including immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In particular, the present invention provides a fusion protein comprising a viral chemokine fused to either a tumor antigen or viral antigen which is administered as either a protein or nucleic acid vaccine to elicit an immune response effective in treating cancer or effective in treating or preventing viral infection.
US07897145B2

The present invention relates to methods for treating renal failure. Particularly, the present invention relates to methods for treating renal failure by administering to a subject complexes that include a member of the IL-6 family linked to a soluble receptor of the member of the IL-6 family, or isolated polynucleotides encoding same, the complexes capable of activating a gp130 mediated signaling pathway, thereby treating acute or chronic renal failure.
US07897141B2

Methods for producing echogenic polymer microcapsules and nanocapsules for use in diagnostic imaging and delivery of bioactive compounds as well as targeted imaging and delivery to selected tissues and cells are provided. Compositions containing these echogenic polymer microcapsules and nanocapsules for use in diagnostic imaging and delivery of bioactive agents are also provided.
US07897137B2

A method for producing high-active titanium dioxide anatase hydrosol by using metatitanate as precursor, is characterized in comprising the following steps in order: (1) Wash process: adding alkali to wash so as to remove sulfate ion; (2) Dispersion process: adding acid to disperse the filter cake and obtaining a uniform suspension; (3) Peptization process: peptizing the suspension obtained in dispersion process according to the method of (a), (b) or (c). When producing transition metal or rare earth doped anatase hydrosol, transition metal or rare earth salt solution with a predetermined concentration is first prepared, and then added into the metatitanate suspension which has not been washed by alkali. Subsequently, the resulting suspension is filtered and washed until no sulfate ion is present. When producing precious metal deposited anatase hydrosol, precious metal solution is added into prepared pure anatase hydrosol, and then, the resulting solution is irradiated with ultraviolet light for 0.5-10 hours under stirring continuously. The advantages and beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: (1) the raw material has low price and little pollution as well as abundant source; (2) the hydrosol has excellent degree of dispersibility and higher anatase crystallization; (3) the hydrosol has higher activity under visible light irradiation owing to doping/depositing technique; (4) the properties and activity of the hydrosol can be further enhanced by using post disposal, such as microwave and ultrasonic technique; and (5) the hydrosol is a kind of nano-material with about 10 nm particle size. The anatase hydrosol can be applied for indoor air purification, crop disease control, odor control and so on.
US07897128B2

The present invention provides a process for making a complex metal oxide comprising the formula AxByOz. The process comprises the steps of: (a) reacting in solution at a temperature of between about 75° C. to about 100° C. at least one water-soluble salt of A, at least one water-soluble salt of B and a stoichiometric amount of a carbonate salt or a bicarbonate salt required to form a mole of a carbonate precipitate represented by the formula AxBy(CO3)n, wherein the reacting is conducted in a substantial absence of carbon dioxide to form the carbonate precipitate and wherein the molar amount of carbonate salt or bicarbonate salt is at least three times the stoichiometric amount of carbonate or bicarbonate salt required to form a mole of the carbonate precipitate; and (b) reacting the carbonate precipitate with an oxygen containing fluid under conditions to form the complex metal oxide.
US07897126B2

Processes are described for the extraction and recovery of alkali metal from the char that results from catalytic gasification of a carbonaceous material. Among other steps, the processes of the invention include a hydrothermal leaching step in which a slurry of insoluble particulate comprising insoluble alkali metal compounds is treated with carbon dioxide and steam at elevated temperatures and pressures to effect the conversion of insoluble alkali metal compounds to soluble alkali metal compounds. Further, processes are described for the catalytic gasification of a carbonaceous material where a substantial portion of alkali metal is extracted and recovered from the char that results from the catalytic gasification process.
US07897124B2

Biogases such as natural gas and other gases capable of being biologically derived by digestion of organic matter are converted to a clean-burning hydrocarbon liquid fuel in a continuous process wherein a biogas is fed to a reaction vessel where the biogas contacts a liquid petroleum fraction and a transition metal catalyst immersed in the liquid, vaporized product gas is drawn from a vapor space above the liquid level, condensed, and fed to a product vessel where condensate is separated from uncondensed gas and drawn off as the liquid product fuel as uncondensed gas is recycled to the reaction vessel.
US07897116B2

The present invention relates to a composite internal in a circulating fluidized bed reactor, comprising guide plates, disturbing plates and 2 to 30 round tubes, wherein the guide plate (3) is secured with its one side to the round tube (1), and the disturbing plate (4) is secured with its one side to the round tube (1) and with its another side to another side of said guide plate (3), with an angle of 50 to 90° included between the guide plate (3) and disturbing plate (4). The round tubes (1) each provided with respective guide plate and disturbing plate are fixed together at one end, and said 2 to 30 round tubes (1) are arranged in one and the same plane. The other end of each round tube (1) is arranged in a radiate manner with respect to the fixed point as a center, and an angle included between each round tube (1) is different from or equal to each other, in a range of 100 to 180°. With said composite internal, replacement of particle groups and exchange between gas phase and solid phase flowing fast in a center area will be effectively improved, thereby improving the effect of gas-solid mass transfer and the work efficiency of the circulating fluidized bed, because the effective disturbance on upward and downward particle groups and the gas flow field are adjusted.
US07897114B2

A microreactor assembly comprising a fluidic interconnect backbone and plurality of fluidic microstructures is provided. The fluidic microstructures are supported by respective portions of the fluidic interconnect backbone, The microreactor assembly comprises a plurality of non-polymeric interconnect seals associated with the interconnect input and output ports. The interconnect input port of the fluidic interconnect backbone is interfaced with the microchannel output port of a first fluidic microstructure at one of the non-polymeric interconnect seals. The interconnect output port of the fluidic interconnect backbone is interfaced with the microchannel input port of a second fluidic microstructure at another of the non-polymeric interconnect seals. The interconnect microchannel is defined entirely by the fluidic interconnect backbone and is configured such that it extends from the non-polymeric interconnect seal at the microchannel output port of the first fluidic microstructure to the non-polymeric interconnect seal at the microchannel input port of the second fluidic microstructure without interruption by additional sealed interfaces.
US07897113B2

A fluidic device for performing assays can include control components such as vacuum pumps, gas pumps, “broken open valves,” and “self-close valves” for controlling the flow of fluids in the fluidic device. The vacuum pump can be used to pull a fluid in a specific direction in a channel, and the gas pump can be used to push a fluid in a specific direction in a channel. The broken open valve can be used to connect two separate regions at the control of a user, and the self-close valve can be used to automatically seal off a channel after passage of a fluid. The vacuum pumps, gas pumps, broken open valves, and self close valves can be made small in volume so that the fluidic device can be made as a small and portable device.
US07897110B2

A system for detecting at least one contamination species in an interior space of a lithographic apparatus, including: at least one monitoring surface configured to be in contact with the interior space, a thermal controller configured to control the temperature of the monitoring surface to at least one detection temperature, and at least one detector configured to detect condensation of the at least one contamination species onto the monitoring surface.
US07897108B1

A sensor has a sensor substance, an electromagnetic energy source, and a detector. The sensor substance may be able to emit electromagnetic energy different than that provided by the energy source when an analyte of interest is in contact with the sensor substance and electromagnetic energy is received by the sensor substance. The energy source and the detector may be provided on the same side of the sensor substance.In a method according to the invention, a determination may be made as to whether an analyte is present in a sample. Such a method may provide a sensor, such as that described above. Electromagnetic energy may be provided to the sensor substance using the energy source, and the sensor substance may be contacted with a sample. Electromagnetic energy may be emitted from the sensor substance and received at the detector. The detector may provide a signal indicating the type of electromagnetic energy emitted from the sensor substance. The signal from the detector may be analyzed to determine whether the analyte was detected.
US07897107B2

Analyte meter protectors, meters that include the same, and methods.
US07897104B2

Provided is a sterilizing control method for a dishwasher. The method includes inputting a command for a sterilizing cycle, and turning a sterilizer disposed within a tub on and off at regular, predetermined intervals, according to the inputted command.
US07897103B2

An elongated rod assembly is made by preparing a plurality of rods. Each rod is prepared by the steps of furnishing at least one nonmetallic precursor compound, thereafter chemically reducing the precursor compounds to produce the metallic material, and thereafter consolidating the metallic material to form the rod, wherein the rod has a rod length equal to the assembly length. The rods are bundled together to form a bundled rod assembly. The rod assembly may be used as a consumable feedstock in a melting-and-casting operation.
US07897097B2

A method of making a fenestration framing member includes providing a core of size and shape corresponding to the desired size and shape of the fenestration framing members. A fiberglass mat is placed on the core to form a fiberglass-engaged core, and resin is vacuum infused into the mat to form a fenestration framing member that includes fiberglass-reinforced resin engaging the core. The starting core and the final fenestration framing member preferably are of curved geometry lengthwise of the core and member. The step of vacuum infusing resin into the mat surrounding the core preferably is carried out by placing the fiberglass-engaged core into a vacuum enclosure, preferably a vacuum bag, and connecting the vacuum enclosure to a vacuum source and a resin source. In one embodiment of the disclosure, the mat surrounds the core so that the core is part of the fenestration framing member. In another embodiment, the mat is engaged with at least one contoured face of the core and is removed from the core following resin infusion, so that the core is not part of the fenestration framing member in this embodiment.
US07897094B2

A mold and a method for producing two-color injection-molded parts involves simultaneous injection of two kinds of molding material, in which a pressure difference between two kinds of molding materials is induced so that one of the molding materials is infiltrated into and bonded to the other molding material during solidification. The method for producing two-color injection-molded parts may include simultaneously injecting a first material and a second material to a first gate and a second gate to be filled in a first cavity and a second cavity, and closing the second gate such that the first molding material, which is not solidified, pushes a slide mold provided between a first mold block and a second mold block using a holing pressure of the first gate and is infiltrated into an unsolidified layer of the second molding material and solidified.
US07897089B2

A laminated rotor core (36) wherein permanent magnets (47) are inserted in respective magnet insertion holes (46) is disposed between and pressed by an upper die (37) and a lower die (29). The upper die (37) has resin reservoir pots (50) provided above the laminated rotor core (36) and at positions corresponding to the respective magnet insertion holes (46). Raw resin material put in the resin reservoir pots (50) is heated by the upper die (37). Subsequently, the resin material in a liquefied state is ejected from the resin reservoir pots (50) by plungers (52) that are inserted and moves vertically in the resin reservoir pots (50) and is directly filled in the magnet insertion holes (46). Consequently, the respective magnet insertion holes (46) are filled with the resin material more evenly and highly reliable products can be supplied at low cost.
US07897086B2

This invention is directed to a partitioning device for separating a chamber of a patient's heart into a productive portion and a non-productive portion. The device is particularly suitable for treating patients with congestive heart failure. The partitioning device has a frame-reinforced, expandable membrane which separates the productive and non-productive portions of the heart chamber. Elements of the frame include ribs that are secured to the expandable membrane, to form an integrated structure that may be unilaminar or bilaminar in form. The proximal ends of the ribs of the frame have tissue-penetrating elements about the periphery thereof which are configured to penetrate tissue lining the heart wall at an angle approximately perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the partitioning device. The partitioning device has a hub with a non-traumatic distal end to engage the ventricular wall.
US07897083B2

The object is to provide a method for manufacturing liquid crystalline resin composition having a hollow filler and a fibrous filler using a common melting-kneading extruder to maintain well-balanced relation between the residual percentages of hollow filler and the fiber length, which balance could not be attained in the prior art. A liquid crystalline resin composition having 5 to 30% by weight of hollow filler and 5 to 30% by weight of fibrous filler is manufactured using a melting-kneading extruder provided with a screw. (1) The liquid crystalline resin is fed from a main feed port located at upstream side in the extruding direction, while a hollow filler and a fibrous filler are fed from a side feed port located at downstream side in the extruding direction. The manufacture is conducted under the specific conditions between (2) L1 as the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the distance between the position of the side feed port and the position where the internal pressure of the extruder reaches 0.1 MPa; (3) L2 as the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the length of maintaining the internal pressure of the extruder at or above 0.1 MPa after feeding the hollow filler and the fibrous filler; and(4) La as the ratio L/D in which D is the screw diameter and L is the length of the resin plasticizing zone.
US07897073B2

Displacers are used in production of concrete surfaces. The displacers are embodied, for example, as plastic balls or plastic shells and are locked in lattices that are open on one side, preferably downwardly. The modules can then be pressed into a first or second concrete layer that can already contain a first reinforcement mesh. The thus produced semi-finished product can then be covered with a concrete mass during the subsequent finishing process.
US07897071B2

Systems and methods for producing silicone hydrogel contact lenses are described. Certain of the present systems include a contact lens mold forming station, a station for filling a contact lens mold section with a lens precursor composition and for placing a second mold section on the filled mold section to form a contact lens mold assembly, a curing station for forming a contact lens, a mold assembly separation station, and an extraction/hydration station. Certain of the present methods include forming a plurality of mold sections, placing a lens precursor composition on a surface of a first mold section, placing a second mold section on the first mold section, polymerizing the lens precursor composition, separating the first and second mold sections, removing the silicone hydrogel contact lens from one of the mold sections, extracting extractable components from the contact lens, and hydrating the contact lens.
US07897063B1

A composition and method for breaking down and denaturing friction-reducing compound introduced into the ground during the drilling of gas and oil wells and for destroying other contaminants and biohazards naturally present within and artificially introduced into hydrocarbon wells, which are formed as a result of the drilling and pumping processes. The composition includes several species of oxidizing agent compounds that are effective in breaking down hydrogen sulfide produced by bacteria as well as the friction-reducing polymer used during drilling and several other organic compounds.
US07897058B2

A method of forming features, e.g. contact holes, at a higher density than is possible with conventional lithographic techniques involves forming an array of sacrificial positive features, conformally depositing a sacrificial layer so that negative features are formed interleaved with the positive features, directionally etching the sacrificial layer and removing the sacrificial features. The result is an array of holes at a higher density than the original sacrificial features. These may then be transferred into the underlying substrate using a desired process. Also, the method may be repeated to create arrays at even higher densities.
US07897057B1

A gas sensor system and its method of fabrication is disclosed. The sensor system comprises an optrode, light source, and a light detector. In a sensor for hydrogen gas, the optrode is comprised of a porous substrate into which an intimate mixture of reagent and catalyst is incorporated. The mixture reacts with the hydrogen to produce a color/intensity change in relation to the concentration of gas. The optrode further includes a reversing agent, boron, to restore the benchmark conditions of the sensor system in real-time. The method of fabricating the optrode includes the steps of cleaning; etching to achieve the proper porosity; incorporating the reagent, catalyst, and reversing agent using capillary action; and removing excess reagent and catalyst.
US07897053B2

A method and apparatus for treating a fluid using a wave energy uses a gas-sparged pipe configured to create a flow of the fluid in a thin film along a vortex path from a first end to a second end of the gas-sparged pipe, a first electrode and a second electrode that are at least partially disposed within the gas-sparged pipe, spaced apart from one another, and axially aligned with one another along a central axis of the gas-sparged pipe from the first end to the second end. The electrodes are used to create an open electrical arc to provide the wave energy directly exposing the fluid as the fluid flows along the vortex path in close proximity to and surrounding the electrical arc such that only a gas separates the fluid from the open electrical arc.
US07897051B2

The invention relates to a method for separating proteins from liquid media, comprising providing a liquid medium containing proteins, providing a clay material which has: a specific surface greater than 150 m2/g, a pore volume greater than 0.35 ml/g, an ion exchange capacity greater than 40 meq/100 g, and a sediment volume in water of less than 15 ml/2 g, equilibrating said clay material to a pH of from 3.5 to 9.0, treating said liquid medium with the equilibrated clay material, and separating the purified, protein-depleted liquid medium from the clay material.
US07897047B2

Materials, compositions, substances and methods and systems for stormwater treatment in wet ponds, dry ponds and a green roof system. A first embodiment provides in-situ treatment unit within the retention pond by withdrawing the stored stormwater to circulate the stored stormwater into the in-situ treatment unit to sorb nitrogen from the stored stormwater. A second embodiment provides uses a riprap apron, a perforated riser located at the bottom of the riprap apron and a goetextile media encased in a sorption media jacket around the perforated riser. A third embodiment provides a green roof stormwater treatment system that includes protection for waterproofing and insulating the roof, a pollution control media layer for filtration and sorption of solids and dissolved materials found in stormwater, a growing media for growing vegetation, and a cistern to store the runoff stormwater between irrigation events. The green roof system includes recycling runoff stormwater by irrigating the green roof with the stored stormwater.
US07897039B2

An apparatus for collecting condensed water of an air conditioner evaporator in heavy construction equipment is disclosed, which is able to receive condensed water into a receiver from an evaporator and treats the same which comprises a body which is installed at one side of the evaporator and includes a plurality of support frames provided in the interior of the same, with its upper and lower sides being fixed with a vibration resistant member; a water collection pipe which allows the condensed water produced from the evaporator to be supplied to a water inlet valve; a storing tank which is connected with the water inlet valve and stores condensed water inputted via the water inlet valve; a water purification filter which filters dirt, heavy metallic substances and organic chemicals contained in the condensed water supplied from the storing tank; and a water purification tank which stores the filtered condensed water and has a pipe extended to the outside of the body.
US07897035B2

Systems and methods for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the system employs a plurality of contacting zones and separation zones with at least some of the heavy oil feedstock being supplied to at least a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone. The contacting zones operate under hydrocracking conditions, employing a slurry catalyst for upgrading the heavy oil feedstock, forming upgraded products of lower boiling boiling hydrocarbons. In the separation zones, upgraded products are removed overhead and optionally, further treated in an in-line hydrotreater. At least a portion of the non-volatile fractions recovered from at least one of the separation zones is recycled back to the first contacting zone in the system.
US07897026B2

A fluid particle-separating device includes a sorting, first and second diverting channels, a detector, a microprocessor, first and second actuators, and first and second sieving valves. The sorting channel receives fluid containing first and second particles. The first and second diverting channels guide the first and second particles. The detector recognizes the sizes and numbers of the first and second particles and outputs first and second recognition signals. The microprocessor receives the first and second recognition signals and outputs first and second control signals. The first and second sieving valves respectively inside the first and second diverting channels allow the particles to pass through or not. The first actuator receives the first control signal and controls the deformation of the second sieving valve to block the first particle. The second actuator receives the second control signal and controls the deformation of the first sieving valve to block the second particle.
US07897023B2

The invention relates to chemical engineering, in particular to devices for electrolyzing aqueous solutions of alkali or alkali-earth metal chlorides and for obtaining gaseous electrolytic products such as chlorine and oxygen. It can be used for water purifying and disinfecting processes and for electrochemically producing some chemical products. The inventive device includes at least one electrochemical reactor (1) comprising from 2 to 16 electrochemical cells. Lines for supplying and discharging cathode and anode chambers are embodied in the form of pipelines having an inner diameter equal to or less than 0.5 of the interelectrode distance and lengths which are equal to or greater than 2 Ld, wherein the interelectrode distance is an anode-to-cathode distance and Ld is the cathode length. A manifold for supplying an initial solution (10), a lower manifold of the cathode circulation circuit (15), a heat exchanger (18), an upper manifold of the cathode circulation circuit (14) and a manifold for collecting gaseous products of the anodic chamber cells (13) are arranged along the same vertical axis. The upper manifold of the cathode circulating circuit (14) is mounted at a height not less than then the distance equal to Ld from the cathode chamber output. The number of the inputs and outputs of the manifolds corresponds to the number of cells in the reactor, and said inputs and outputs are arranged symmetrically with respect to the vertical axis of symmetry of the manifold.
US07897010B2

The present invention provides methods for deinking printed waste paper—particularly methods that use a deinking composition that includes a hydrophobically-modified inorganic particle (“MIP”) to improve ink collection efficiency under traditional alkaline, reduced alkali, and true neutral deinking conditions. Deinking compositions are provided that include a hydrophobically-MIP substrate, a nonionic surfactant, and a fatty acid, or mixtures thereof. The improved ink collection of the present invention can result in deinked pulp of high quality and/or yields that has excellent brightness and effective residual ink concentrations (“ERIC”) values.
US07897005B2

A method of connecting structural components having a relatively low thickness, the method including pre-applying, at an off-site location, one of an adhesive and a substance which activates an adhesive to at least one of at least one of the sides of the groove of one of the structural components and at least one of the sides of the tongue of another of the structural components, and connecting, at a site different from the off-site location, the structural components together by causing the tongue to be inserted into the groove.
US07897004B2

A method for fabricating stringers is provided. The co-cured composite stringer includes a stringer and a mandrel positioned within a channel defined in the stringer. A plurality of strips are positioned within an opening of the mandrel, and a substrate layer, such as aircraft skin, is positioned adjacent to the stringer. During application of the substrate layer to the stringer, the mandrel and plurality of strips support the stringer.
US07896991B2

The present invention relates to a method for the manufacture of sheet molding compounds (SMC) in which the required glass fiber nonwovens are manufactured in-line and have an inhomogeneity of 10% or less, a weight per unit area of 400 g/m2 or higher and a strength of less than 10 N. Furthermore, the present invention describes resin mats that comprise the glass fiber nonwovens in accordance with the invention that represent valuable intermediate products.
US07896987B2

The present invention is a bi-propellant system comprising a gelled liquid propane (GLP) fuel and a gelled MON-30 (70% N2O4+30% NO) oxidizer. The bi-propellant system is particularly well-suited for outer planet missions greater than 3 AU from the sun and also functions in earth and near earth environments. Additives such as powders of boron, carbon, lithium, and/or aluminum can be added to the fuel component to improve performance or enhance hypergolicity. The gelling agent can be silicon dioxide, clay, carbon, or organic or inorganic polymers. The bi-propellant system may be, but need not be, hypergolic.
US07896982B2

Bulk solidifying amorphous alloys exhibiting improved processing and mechanical properties and methods of forming these alloys are provided. The bulk solidifying amorphous alloys are composed to have high Poisson's ratio values. Exemplary Pt-based bulk solidifying amorphous alloys having such high Poisson's ratio values are also described. The Pt-based alloys are based on Pt—Ni—Co—Cu—P alloys, and the mechanical properties of one exemplary alloy having a composition of substantially Pt57.5Cu14.7Ni5.3P22.5 are also described.
US07896975B2

The present invention is to provide a sump assembly which enables leaked washing water therein to be circulated smoothly without remaining therein, and a dishwasher using the same cleanly and sanitarily. For this, the present invention includes a sump housing for holding washing water; an impeller housing secured to the sump housing for placing an impeller pumping the washing water therein; a filter housing provided on an upper portion of the impeller housing for placing a filter filtering the washing water therein; and a connection device for making a lower portion of the filter housing in communication with the sump housing. Owing to the above configuration, the dishwasher may be used cleanly and sanitarily, resulting in enhancing washing efficiency and endurance of a product.
US07896968B2

The object of this invention is to provide a winding type plasma CVD apparatus in which quality of a layer can be made uniform by supplying a reaction gas uniformly to a deposition area of a film, and can perform a self-cleaning process of a deposition portion in the path of deposition onto the film.A film (22) is supported between a pair of movable rollers (33, 34) arranged on the upstream side and downstream side of the deposition portion (25) with regard to the traveling direction of the film, and then the film (22) is made to travel substantially linearly at the deposition position. Consequently, the distance between a shower plate (37) and the film (22) is kept constant, and the quality of the layer is made homogeneous. The film is heated by means of a metal belt (40) traveling simultaneously on the back side of the film. The moveable rollers (33, 34) ascend from the deposition position to the self-cleaning position, and the film (22) can be separated from the shower plate (37). Self-cleaning can be carried out in the path of the deposition onto the film by closing the aperture of a mask (51) with a shutter (65), thereby preventing leakage of cleaning gas.
US07896966B2

An applying amount to an applying medium is controlled in a liquid applying apparatus. Specifically, before driving a pump, a circulation speed decision processing (S3) is carried out. According to this decided speed, a speed of the circulation flow generated in a liquid holding space is controlled in a pump operating process (S4). This controls a pressure in the liquid holding space. As a result, a state of flow of the applying liquid at a contact member of a liquid holding member in contact with the applying roller is changed, and an amount of the applying liquid adhering to an applying roller and going out of the contact portion is controlled. This can control the amount of the applying liquid to be applied to the applying medium.
US07896953B1

A process and device to capture of CO2 at its originating source, such as a power plant, is disclosed. Absorbent material is recharged by desorbing CO2, so that it may be sequestered or used in another application. Continual recharging results in loss of absorbent surface area, due to pore plugging and sintering of particles. Calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide was immobilized to a fibrous ceramic-based fabric substrate as a thin film and sintered, creating an absorbent material. The samples were characterized, showing continuous cyclic carbonation conversions between about 62% and 75% under mild calcination conditions at 750° C. and no CO2 in N2. Under the more severe calcination condition at 850° C. and 20 wt % CO2 in N2, yttria fabric was superior to alumina as a substrate for carbon dioxide capture and the reactivity of the calcium oxide absorbent immobilized to yttria was maintained at the same level in the 12 cycles.
US07896951B2

A system for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from gasses generated in burning fossil fuel, includes a vessel, separator and reheater. The upper portion of the vessel receives downward flowing, first type solid particles capable of absorbing heat from upward flowing gasses and second type solid particles capable of capturing carbon dioxide from the gasses. The separator separates the second type solid particles with the captured carbon dioxide from the gasses discharged from the first vessel discharge, and directs the separated second type solid particles with the captured carbon dioxide to a separator discharge. The reheater directs the first type solid particles and the second type solid particles with the captured carbon dioxide in a downwardly flow to a first reheater discharge, such that heat from the first type solid particles causes the captured carbon dioxide to be released from the second type solid particles.
US07896942B2

A plate-shaped filter insert for, in particular, a gas filter with a seal which projects outward on a first of two opposite plate surfaces should be simple and inexpensive to produce with good durability. For this purpose, such a filter insert has the following features: —the filter material (1) is designed as a web material folded in a zigzag shape, each of whose folds on the top side are sealed by a first sealant strip (2), —the first sealant strips (2) each project bent outward at one of the two opposite upper plate sides formed by the backs of the folds, —at the end folds lying in longitudinal direction of the web material, a second sealant strip (3) running transverse to this longitudinal direction is attached, —the second sealant strips (3) are each bonded tightly to the first sealant strips (2), —a circumferential sealant material (4) is applied to the first and second sealant strips (2, 3) bonded tightly to one another.
US07896933B2

A hydrogen supplying apparatus equipped with a hydrogen separation membrane and a catalyst plate, which is made by forming a catalyst layer on a metal plate, wherein the metal material of the membrane is different in hardness from that of the catalyst plate.A method of producing the hydrogen supplying apparatus, which comprises: bonding a catalyst plate and a hydrogen separation membrane to each other, by friction-stir welding, wherein a welding tool is pressed towards only one of the membrane and catalyst plate, forming a reaction layer between the membrane and the catalyst plate by the frictional heat, and forming ripples in the welded interface.
US07896930B2

The present invention relates to a process for bleaching hair wherein a water free bleaching composition, preferably in form of a dust free powder or a granulate comprising at least one compound with bleaching and/or highlighting effect is mixed with an liquid oxidizing composition wherein water free bleaching powder is passed through a sieve.
US07896919B2

Embodiments disclosed herein provide a method of implanting an intervertebral disk prosthesis that can be assembled and disassembled in a minimally invasive fashion. The prosthesis comprises a first fixing element having an anchoring first face and a co-operation second face; a second fixing element having an anchoring first face and a co-operation second face; a first prosthesis element having an active first face and a co-operation second face, the co-operation faces of the first fixing element and the first prosthesis element serving to fasten the two elements together; a second prosthesis element having an active first face and a co-operation second face, the co-operation faces of the second fixing element and the second prosthesis element serving to fasten the two elements together; and each of the active faces of the prosthesis elements defining at least a portion of a spherical cap that is respectively concave or convex.
US07896918B2

The present invention concerns a space holder, especially for vertebrae or intervertebral discs for implantation into human or animal organisms, having a cylinder-like body (1) and, at the ends of the cylinder-like body, means (2) provided for connecting to adjacent body parts, said cylinder-like body (1) essentially being formed as a solid cylinder from at least one material that is elastically deformable under the conditions of use, such that the space holder is compressible and extensible in the axial direction and, with reference to means (2) provided at the ends for connecting the space holder to adjacent body parts, can bend about a radial axis of rotation (13).
US07896909B2

A method of treating an annular fissure in an intervertebral disc includes providing a catheter having a distal end, a proximal end and a longitudinal axis, the distal end having an intradiscal section with at least one functional element, applying a force longitudinally to the proximal end of the catheter which is sufficient to advance the intradiscal section through the nucleus pulposus and around an inner wall of an annulus fibrosus, but which force is insufficient for the intradiscal section to puncture the annulus fibrosus, positioning the functional element at the selected location of the disc by advancing or retracting the catheter and optionally twisting the proximal end of the catheter, and using the functional element to treat the annular fissure.
US07896897B2

The present disclosure relates to a sheath system for enabling access through an opening in the body of a patient is provided. The sheath system includes a dilation assembly having a radially expandable tubular sheath defining a lumen having a first cross-sectional area when in a non-expanded condition, and a handle assembly operatively coupled to a proximal end of tubular sheath, the handle assembly defining an aperture formed therein, and a first thread defined on the handle in the aperture thereof. The sheath system further includes an expansion assembly including a tubular member defining a lumen having a second cross-sectional area which is larger than the first cross-sectional area of the tubular sheath of the dilation assembly and having an outer surface defining a second thread, the second thread being arranged for engaging the first thread.
US07896894B2

A gastric reduction apparatus that facilitates the creation of a transoral linear passageway through the stomach includes an elongated body including a proximal end and a distal end. The elongated body is generally sinusoidal shaped with at least one tissue engaging surface oriented such that a needle will pass therethrough. The elongated body also includes at least one needle passing channel respectively formed adjacent the at least one tissue engaging surface. The at least one needle passing channel generally passes through the center of the sinusoidal waveforms defined by the at least one tissue engaging surface such that a needle will pass entirely through stomach tissue contacting the tissue engaging surface of the elongated body. The elongated body further includes a suture passing channel.
US07896886B2

A humeral fracture fixation system is provided and includes a nail-plate fixation device having a plate-like head portion, an intramedullary nail portion, and a bent neck portion therebetween which creates an angle between the plate and nail portions. The upper surface of the nail portion is substantially straight for contact with the endosteum and the nail portion includes threaded holes for machine screws. The head portion includes locking holes for receiving fixed-angle bone support elements, and K-wire alignment holes. The front of the head portion includes suture holes while presenting a smooth profile. A specific implantation jig and screw guide cannula are also provided.
US07896881B2

An acetabular reamer is provided. The acetabular reamer includes a body having a peripheral surface. The peripheral surface is defined by a radius extending from an origin. The body defines an axis of rotation of the body. The body defines an end surface operably connected to peripheral surface of the body. The body further defines a relief surface spaced from the axis of rotation and operably connected to peripheral surface. The acetabular reamer also includes a cutter operably associated with the body for reaming a portion of the acetabulum and a support structure secured to the relief surface.
US07896872B2

An apparatus and method for treating an intervertebral disc having an inner nucleus pulposus and an outer annulus fibrosus includes a thermal probe defining proximal and distal ends and having a guidable region adjacent the distal end thereof. The guidable region is characterized by having sufficient rigidity to advance within the annulus fibrosus of the intervertebral disc in response to an axial force exerted on the proximal end of the thermal probe while having sufficient flexibility to substantially follow and conform to an azimuthal course defined by the natural striata of the annulus fibrosus. The thermal probe is adapted for connection to a thermal energy source to provide thermal energy to the annulus fibrosus to alleviate pain associated with the intervertebral disc.
US07896867B2

The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for controllably adjusting a fluid delivery device. The device includes an electrochemical pump capable of transporting a fluid. A displaceable member is positioned between a pump product chamber and a reservoir, wherein the pump product chamber is capable of retaining water generated from the pump. The displaceable member is controllably displaced upon generation of water from the electrochemical pump and the reservoir contains the fluid that is delivered upon displacement of the displaceable member.
US07896864B2

A vacuum and irrigation wound bandage system is provided for use with a wound. The system includes a vacuum source, an irrigation source, and a bandage positioned adjacent the wound to create a sealed environment around the wound. The vacuum source of the system is in communication with the bandage to create negative pressure between the bandage and the wound.
US07896858B2

A pull-on disposable absorbent article may comprise multiple components creating multiple seams. The components may comprise multiple graphic objects that cooperate to form an appearance of a waistband around a viewable outer circumference of the pull-on disposable absorbent article. The components may further comprise multiple patterns of graphics in the form of multiple objects disposed immediately adjacent to one or more of the seams. Each of the graphic objects and patterns of graphics may be disposed on a viewable outer surface.
US07896851B2

Disclosed is a catheter to be percutaneously inserted into a living body lumen, which includes a sheath portion having a lumen extending therein, an insertion member slidably disposed in the lumen of the sheath portion and having a distal end portion capable of protruding from a distal end portion of the sheath portion, an injection needle disposed at the distal end portion of the insertion member for injecting a therapeutic composition into a target tissue, and an electrode disposed at a distal end portion of the catheter for measuring a cardiac action potential.
US07896849B2

A syringe (12) having: a syringe body (18) in which a passage (28) for the circulation of fluid is defined, the circulatory passage (28) being extended by a main element (20) for fluidic connection to a complementary volume (13); and a movable piston (36) inside the syringe body (18), defining, with the syringe body (18), a chamber for the containment of fluid, opening out through the circulatory passage (28). The syringe body (18) defines a closed space in which the piston (36) is movably mounted. The piston (36) also defines in the closed space an auxiliary return chamber. The syringe body (18) defines a return passage (48) opening out into the auxiliary return chamber (46). The return passage (48) is extended by an auxiliary element (50) for connection to the complementary volume (13).
US07896846B2

A seal assembly for reception of an elongated surgical instrument is provided which includes a body having at least one opening configured and dimensioned to permit entry of an elongated surgical instrument and defining a central longitudinal axis; a seal member formed of a resilient material and defining an aperture therein, the aperture being configured and dimensioned such that insertion of the surgical instrument into the aperture causes the resilient material defining the aperture to resiliently contact the outer surface of the surgical instrument in a substantially fluid tight manner; and a fabric layer juxtaposed relative to the resilient material. A coating may be applied to the seal member to reduce friction between the seal member and surgical instrumentation inserted therein. The coating is preferably a hydrocyclosiloxane membrane prepared by plasma polymerization process.
US07896840B2

A balloon catheter that comprises an inner shaft, a balloon and a sleeve that defines a lumen. A portion of the inner shaft is positioned within the lumen and the balloon is engaged to the sleeve at least two engagement points.
US07896833B2

Apparatus administers dental anesthetic to intraligamentary tissue with a drive unit and handpiece with injection needle connected by flexible tube to the unit. The drug is passes to the tissue at an instantaneous pressure at the needle tip that varies due to placement. A minimum threshold pressure is desired for administering the drug to the tissue. A practitioner moves the handpiece to insert the needle tip near the intraligamentary tissue and the instantaneous pressure is sensing or calculating. An auditory ascending signal indicates when the instantaneous pressure is rising, and when the instantaneous pressure reaches the threshold pressure a perceptible auditory specific signal indicates the practitioner has moved the tip into intraligamentary tissue. The tip is then maintained for supplying a selected dosage of the drug. Another auditory signal notifies the practitioner that the instantaneous pressure is declining or fluctuating before reaching the minimum threshold pressure.
US07896832B2

A system for assisting flow of blood by a patient's heart. The system includes a transseptal cannula adapted to be inserted percutaneously in the jugular vein and extend through the atrial septum from the right atrium to the left atrium. The system includes a blood pump mechanism having a blood pump for pumping blood received from the transseptal cannula that has been oxygenated at specified flow rates over a range of physiological pressures. The blood pump is connected to the transseptal cannula. The system includes a perfusion cannula adapted to be inserted percutaneously in the axillary artery for returning oxygenated blood to the atrial system of the patient. The perfusion cannula is connected to the blood pump. A method for assisting blood flow by a patient's heart. The method includes the steps of inserting percutaneously in the jugular vein of the patient and extending through the atrial septum from the right atrium to the left atrium a transseptal cannula. Next there is the step of inserting percutaneously in the axillary artery a perfusion cannula for returning oxygenated blood to the arterial system of the patient. Then there is the step of pumping blood with a blood pump connected to the transseptal cannula and the perfusion cannula at specified flow rates over a range of physiological pressures.
US07896830B2

An ultrafiltration device adapted to be worn on a portion of the body of a patient includes a blood inlet tube leading from a first blood vessel, a blood pump, an anticoagulant reservoir for infusing anticoagulants into the blood, a blood filter including a substrate through which the blood is circulated and filtered, a fluid bag for storing the excess fluid and a blood outlet tube leading to a second blood vessel.
US07896829B2

A continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) device adapted to be worn on a portion of the body of a patient. The CRRT device is worn by the patient and operates on rechargeable batteries for more than 5 hours. Dialysate is used to remove impurities from the blood. The dialysate is recycled and refreshed by a filter section. Less than one liter of dialysate is required to circulate through the wearable CRRT device.
US07896828B1

An ankle support that is adapted to securely hold the lower leg, ankle and foot of a wearer so as to provide reparative support thereof and an associated method of fabrication thereof. The ankle support includes an outer shell formed of a rigid material that conforms substantially to the configuration of the wearer and including an upper portion for at least partially surrounding the lower leg, an intermediate portion about the ankle and a lower portion that at least partially supports the foot; an inner liner formed of a flexible and conformable material and including an upper portion for at least partially surrounding the lower leg, an intermediate portion about the ankle and a lower portion that at least partially supports the foot and an interlocking mechanism including cooperating and interlocking members of the respective outer shell and inner liner that assist in retaining the inner liner within the outer shell.
US07896823B2

Devices that employ external compression stocking-type garments in the treatment of edema, chronic wounds, deep venous thrombosis prevention or claudication all share a number of significant limitations. These include the frequent need for custom fitting to assure an appropriate fit, vigilant maintenance to assure a continued “good fit,” limited compliance with proper use by patients and difficulty of application. There is a large body of evidence demonstrating that patients often decline to wear the compressive stockings as prescribed or in the form that would be most beneficial because they find these devices to be difficult to put on and take off.Building on the limitations of existing therapies, and distilled lessons learned from the field of prosthetics and wound healing, the present invention employs vacuum-assisted negative pressure to provide compression and help pump fluid from the tissues of affected limbs. The device is embodied in the form of a flexible stocking-like garment that will utilize a pumping mechanism to generate negative pressure around the limb and thus create vacuum compression that will mobilize fluid in a limb and increase venous return to the heart. Through the use of a circumferential wrap, the present invention provides a major advance in both the distribution of vacuum and the securing of the device over the limb.
US07896822B2

A universal spark gap electrode with inner conductor formed as an elongate rod, an insulative sheath fit over the inner conductor, and an inner electrode tip soldered or brazed into the inner conductor. The inner conductor passes through an adapter and into an annular base with a spark gap cage and second electrode tip mounted thereon. The adapter is equipped with a molded annular jacket-type adapter mounted exteriorly thereon for engagement with the connecting receptacle of a lithotripsy machine. The annular base has a double-threaded collar that couples over the insulative sheath, and the adapter body screw-couples over the threaded collar of the annular base. This, the annular base, adapter body and insulative sheath are screw-coupled together in a coaxial configuration. Once the electrode is connected, the electrode tips generate a spark at the spark gap that vaporizes a small quantity of water, which creates an acoustic shock wave, which can be focused into the tissue of the patient and at a focal point corresponding to the position of a kidney stone or the like. A main advantage of the foregoing design is that the adapter can easily be substituted and replaced by an alternately-configured adapter to mate with other brands of lithotripters.
US07896818B2

A sampler cap includes a sampler connector, an analyzer connector and a liquid impermeable closure member, which may be a membrane or a filter. The sampler cap may be used to transfer a test sample to an analyzer without removing the sampler cap from the sampler.
US07896817B2

A biopsy device and method may be used to obtain a tissue sample, such as a breast tissue biopsy sample. The biopsy device includes an outer cannula having a distal piercing tip, a cutter lumen, and a cutter tube that is rotated by an integral motor and manually translated past a side aperture in the outer cannula to sever a tissue sample. A sample capturing structure (e.g., sample barrel) has a plurality of sample cavities (e.g., radially symmetric, revolver handgun orientation) that are manually aligned one at a time to capture one or more samples.
US07896816B2

Skin test device has a film backing. The film backing is made of silicone, and is marked off into divisions by grooves. The divisions each have a different sample containing a suspected allergen. The film backing has a see-through feature and the condition of the skin can visually be checked when the film backing is staying on the skin. The divisions are easily separable from each other. When certain samples cause significant allergic reactions, the divisions corresponding to those samples can be removed immediately.
US07896814B2

An electro-impedance tomography (EIT) system (2), with a computing unit (4) and a respirator (1) is described for gentle mechanical lung ventilation especially in case of atelectases. The presence, the extent and/or the spatial distribution of atelectases is detected by the EIT system (2) and sent to the respirator (1) so that the respiration pressure is increased step by step by the respirator (1) until the current image of the lung status corresponds to a first status image of healthy lungs or comes close to it with minimal deviations. The respiration pressure is subsequently reduced again step by step by the respirator (1) until the computing unit (4) detects a reduction of the ventilated lung areas and the respiration pressure is subsequently increased again by means of the respirator (1) to the last value at which no change occurred in the ventilated lung areas.
US07896807B2

A physiologic data acquisition system includes an analog input, a sigma-delta front end signal conditioning circuit adapted to subtract out DC and low frequency interfering signals from and amplify the analog input before analog to digital conversion. The system can be programmed to acquire a selected physiologic signal, e.g., a physiologic signal characteristic of or originating from a particular biological tissue. The physiologic data acquisition system may include a network interface modulating a plurality of subcarriers with respective portions of an acquired physiologic signal. A receiver coupled to the network interface can receive physiologic data from, and send control signals and provide power to the physiologic data acquisition system over a single pair of wires. The network interface can modulate an RF carrier with the plurality of modulated subcarriers and transmit the resulting signal to the receiver across a wireless network. An integrated circuit may include the physiologic data acquisition system. Also included are methods for acquiring physiologic data comprising the step of selectively controlling an acquisition circuit to acquire the physiologic signal.
US07896806B2

A speculum cover that is adapted to sheath the blades of a speculum, and to support lateral vaginal walls to facilitate vaginal/cervical examination during gynecological exams and surgery. The speculum cover includes top and bottom pockets for the respective blades of the speculum, and side portions having openings therein for sampling of tissue at the vaginal locus. In a specific implementation, the speculum cover is of a four-ply construction, formed by impulse welding or other polymeric film joining technique, and the two inner plies of the cover include rearwardly extending flaps to which are adhesively secured donning guide members for facilitating installation of the cover on the speculum.
US07896802B2

An endoscope insertion portion of the invention includes an outer surface formed between a plurality of observation windows oriented in a spouting direction of the air/water feeding portion, the outer surface being in the same plane as surfaces of the plurality of observation windows.
US07896796B2

Outserts having printed information thereon are disclosed and are formed in accordance with a method in which a plurality of parallel folds are made in a sheet of paper in a first fold direction using a plurality of pairs of folding rollers and stop members to form an intermediate folded item and in which a plurality of cross-folds are made in the intermediate folded item to form the outsert. The cross-folds may be made to divide the length of the intermediate folded item into ten panels, fourteen panels, or eighteen panels.
US07896795B2

A folder has a jaw cylinder and a folding cylinder including a gripper for gripping an edge of a first signature and a tucking blade for tucking the first signature into the jaw cylinder. The folding cylinder includes a signature support supporting a second signature against the jaw cylinder, the signature support and the gripper being movable automatically together with respect to the tucking blade. A transfer cylinder, method and signature support are also provided.
US07896791B2

To provide a conductive roller which does not cause defective images with, for example, black lines, which would otherwise be caused by current leakage due to aggregation of carbon black particles or a similar phenomenon, and a method for inspecting the roller.The conductive roller having a metallic core and at least one rubber elastic layer provided on the outer peripheral surface of the core, the rubber elastic layer being formed from a conductive rubber which has ion conductivity and which contains carbon black micropowder, characterized in that said rubber elastic layer satisfies the relationship represented by the following formula: |θmax/θmin|≦5,  [F1] wherein θmax represents the maximum value of phase difference θ as measured upon application of an AC voltage of 1.0 V within a frequency range of 100 mHz to 10 kHz, and θmin represents the minimum value of phase difference θ as measured under the same conditions.
US07896781B2

A training apparatus configured for skating-type sports whereon a user can perform training, exercising, strengthening and conditioning while wearing footgear designed for use in skating-type sports. The training apparatus comprises a pair of interconnected opposed matching elongate platforms extending backward and away from each other preferably at an angle equal to or less than 90°. Each platform is provided with an abrasion-resistant exercise surface assembly configured to slidingly communicate with and to controllably engage and disengage a user's footgear. Each platform is provided with a controllably pivotable and lockable foot stop assembly. The training apparatus is provided with an electronic device configured to measure, monitor, record and report at least one of a user's vital signs and a physical performance criterion associated with skating-type motions and activities. The training apparatus is optionally provided with a vertically adjustable knee brace apparatus.
US07896776B2

Riding comfort of a vehicle is improved by reducing deceleration and acceleration exceeding the expectation of a rider due to gear changes. A gear change control device calculates current torque being transmitted from a drive-side member of a clutch to a driven-side member of the clutch, and calculates post-completion torque estimated to be transmitted from the drive-side member to the driven-side member after the completion of engagement of the clutch. The gear change control device then controls the degree of engagement of the clutch according to the difference between the current torque and the post-completion torque, and receives a next gear change command according to the difference between the current torque and the post-completion torque.
US07896774B2

A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices are clutches and brakes. The transmission provides a plurality of speed ratios.
US07896771B2

A differential lock mechanism is provided for use in an axle assembly having a differential, an input member and first and second axles. A lock sleeve is co-axially disposed about the first axle, with the lock sleeve being rotatable with the first axle and laterally movable relative to the first axle. A lock collar is co-axially disposed about the lock sleeve and is laterally movable between outboard and inboard positions. A biasing member biases the lock sleeve toward the rotatable carrier and a lock fork is engaged with the lock collar. The lock fork is operable for moving the lock collar between the outboard and inboard positions. The lock collar is disengaged with the rotatable carrier when the lock collar is in the outboard position and is engaged with both the rotatable carrier and the lock sleeve when the lock collar is in the inboard position.
US07896770B2

A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, a dual clutch assembly, two countershaft gearing arrangements, one planetary gear set, a plurality of interconnecting members, and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the countershaft gearing arrangements includes a plurality of co-planar gear sets. The torque transmitting devices include a combination of clutches, brakes, and synchronizers.
US07896769B2

A manual valve control for a multi-speed vehicle transmission is provided. Electronic and hydraulic components are provided, including trim valve systems that are multiplexed by a shift valve and a manual valve. The trim valves and shift valve are self-diagnosing via a plurality of multiplexed pressure switches. The control enables single and double range shifts among the multiple forward speed ratios, including shifts to and from sixth and higher forward ratios, reverse and neutral. The control also includes a reduced engine load at stop feature. In addition, a power off/limp home feature provides a plurality of failure modes, including a failure mode for sixth and higher forward speed ratios.
US07896767B2

Short fibers 6a protruded from side faces 5a of rubber ribs 5 are thermal contracted by frictional heat by belt slip of the rubber rib side faces 5 on a V groove face of a pulley. This allows the short fibers 6a to be buried in rubber ribs 5.
US07896766B2

The present invention relates to a side bow conveyor chain whose respective chain links are interconnected by a chain hinge which is adapted to be pivoted about a first and a second axis, said chain hinge comprising a pivot bolt which is arranged along said first axis, a pivot pin which is arranged along said second axis and through which the pivot bolt extends, and a reception sleeve, which extends along the second axis and in which the pivot pin is pivotable relative to the reception sleeve about said second axis. The reception sleeve is provided with lateral pivot openings which allow the pivot bolt to pass through. The stability of such a chain is improved by the features that inner and outer chain links are provided in alternating succession, that an inner chain link comprises a reception sleeve on either end thereof and at least one inner link plate interconnecting said reception sleeves, that an outer chain link comprises a pivot bolt and a pivot pin on either end thereof and at least two outer link plates interconnecting the same, and that each of the end faces of the at least two outer link plates laterally encompasses a reception sleeve of a neighbouring inner chain link. The inner and outer link plates, which are arranged such that they are set up on edge, extend vertically to the first axis when the chain moves straight ahead.
US07896764B2

A transmission noise attenuation device for a bearing assembly of a belt-driven conical-pulley transmission having a chain that serves as an endless torque-transmitting device. A shaft is rotatably supported in a bearing that includes a bearing outer ring with a cylindrical outer surface, wherein the bearing is supported in a bearing housing. At least one cam ring is positioned between the bearing housing inner surface and the bearing outer ring outer surface. The cam ring is elastically deformable to allow limited radial movement between the bearing housing inner surface and the bearing outer ring outer surface.
US07896761B2

A lacrosse head having at least one of a flexible stringing member and a recessed scoop is provided. In one embodiment, a slot is formed in a head along a stop member, a sidewall, and/or a scoop to provide the flexible stringing member. In another embodiment, the flexible stringing member is a flexible stringing bar that extends from a stop member to a scoop. In another embodiment, the flexible stringing member is more flexible in one direction than another. Through these embodiments, a flexible stringing member can dampen and dynamically narrow the pocket, enhance ball retention, increase pass/shot accuracy, and satisfy pocket-forming preferences. In another embodiment, a scoop has a recess that curves toward a stop member to increase the amount of surface area that contacts a ball when scooping.
US07896760B2

A tennis ball delivery device for use in practicing one's tennis stroke. The device includes an adjustable frame, at least one declining ball delivery conduit carried by the frame in an upper portion thereof, a declining ball discharge shoot carried by and communicating with the delivery conduit and a ball release mechanism carried by the discharge conduit. The release mechanism allows a single ball to fall from the shoot in response to the activation thereof. A depending handle that can be easily struck by the player's racket in initiating their tennis stroke is operatively connected to the release mechanism so as to effect the release of the ball.
US07896756B2

A golf swing training apparatus allows a user to learn a stable swing motion by acquiring a correct swing posture in performing a swing motion and to train turning motion of the user's shoulder and a rotating motion of the user's waist in a natural manner. The golf swing training apparatus includes: a body, which is arranged between both arms when a user takes an address posture, and has a reverse trapezoid-shape corresponding to a shape formed by the arms. The golf swing training apparatus controls changes in shapes of both arms, such as the interval between the arms becomes widened, bending of elbows, etc. when a golfer performs a swing motion in a swing training so as to guide his/her shoulder and waist to be smoothly turned. As a result, the golfer can learn a stable swing motion.
US07896751B2

An encapsulated fastener includes a nut having a face with a concave gap adapted to receive a bolt. The nut is encapsulated by an encapsulation including an extension, which includes a tube adapted for receiving a portion of the bolt and a flange adapted for engaging a face of the nut. The encapsulation extension is placed on the nut in an overmolding tool, wherein an encapsulation base is injection molded over a portion of the encapsulation extension. The encapsulation base encapsulates the nut and extends into the nut concave gap forming a base foot and washer protrusion. The nut is encapsulated except for its bore which is sealed off during the overmolding process by a spring-mounted mandrel. Alternative embodiments of the invention include tubes with different configurations for contacting the bolt whereby the tube or cylinder is reinforced. A method and tooling for manufacturing the encapsulated fastener are also provided.
US07896745B2

An online GOSTOP game providing method and system which can support a GOSTOP game using a plurality of decks of cards and improve a user's interests through various types of records is provided. Namely, a GOSTOP game service using a plurality of decks of cards is provided. Through this, point calculation and modified game method by various combinations of cards are applied in the GOSTOP game service. Accordingly, it is possible to construct an online GOSTOP game providing system which can increase interests of a user playing a GOSTOP game.
US07896741B2

A method and system for configuring a progressive system that insures enhanced operative control and security of the progressive system. The progressive controller provides one or more security keys to access and verify modifications to the progressive configuration. The allocated number of gaming devices connected to the progressive system is authenticated by a dedicated security key. Gaming devices in excess of the allocation are disabled from the progressive system. The security keys are configured with an expiration parameter that requires gaming establishments to remain current with respect to progressive system agreements.
US07896739B2

A gaming system includes multiple gaming machines. The gaming machines are configured to issue value tickets, such upon cash-out. The tickets may be presented at the same gaming machine that issued the ticket or at other of the gaming machines. In particular, each gaming machine generates its own tickets, including associated ticket records. The ticket records generated at each gaming machine, however, are transmitted to other gaming machines so that when a ticket is presented at any of the gaming machines, any of the gaming machines can directly validate the ticket and credit the associated value.
US07896738B2

When the number of bets is determined and a game is started, reels start spinning. After a lapse of a predetermined time, fifteen symbols are repositioned in symbol display regions. Particularly, in case a “RED7” symbol or a “BLUE7” symbol is included in the repositioned symbols, an animation effect to represent a volcanic eruption of a volcano, a performance character, and a sound effect corresponding to a volcanic eruption sound of the volcano are outputted by dragging and dropping the “RED7” symbol or “BLUE7” symbol to a crater of the volcano.
US07896733B2

A power or life meter is displayed in a video game. Firing a weapon depletes the indicated power. Meanwhile, the power is recharged at a predetermined rate. If the indicated power exceeds capacity, the game character is adversely impacted. If the indicated power is completely depleted, the game character loses a benefit.
US07896732B2

A system for chopping and spreading crop residue produced by an agricultural combine wherein the spreader is advantageously disposed directly rearwardly of a cleaning system of the combine for receiving chaff and other crop residue directly therefrom, without aid of a mechanism to convey the chaff to the spreader, and wherein the chopper is disposed just above and/or rearwardly of the spreader and is configured for discharging crop residue from the threshing system of the combine into the spreader for spreading thereby with the chaff.
US07896730B2

A separation chamber particularly suited for meat processing is configurable to have various feed and discharge end diameters and/or chamber length. The separation chamber may also have configurable cutting perforations.
US07896728B2

A tool for use in an abrasive machining process has a body extending along a central longitudinal axis from a first end to a tip end. An abrasive material is located on the tip end. The body has a tip end protuberance. An abrasive material is located on the protuberance. A body lateral surface has, over a radial span of at least 20% of a radius of the protuberance, a continuously concave longitudinal profile diverging tipward.
US07896725B2

A radio controlled two wheeled vehicle incorporates a disposition of two motors, a gear system and electronics to provide a balancing and mobility during operation. There is a low center of gravity provided by relatively heavy wheels. The two-wheeled vehicle provides increased balancing at slower speeds between the drive system motors. In the motorbike, and a figurine having movable joints is attachable to the bike and provides for tilting of the bike and steering effects during the bike operation.
US07896715B2

A crimping terminal includes a pair of core wire crimping pieces raised up from a bottom plate. A contact strip is provided with gaps formed between the core wire crimping pieces and the contact strip for inserting core wires of an aluminum electric wire. The contact strip has a sloped wall or a curved wall for guiding the core wires from the gaps toward the bottom plate. The contact strip is formed in a flat plate shape, and has sloped walls at both left and right sides thereof. The contact strip is formed in an arc sectional shape, and has curved walls at both left and right sides thereof. The contact strip is formed in an inverted V sectional shape, and has sloped walls at both left and right sides thereof. The contact strips are arranged two-tiered. A serration is formed on the contact strip.
US07896706B1

An audio jack connector has an insulating housing. The insulating housing has a passageway extended from a front surface towards a rear surface thereof for receiving an audio plug connector, a first groove communicated with the passageway and a second groove communicated with the first groove. A first switch terminal received in the first groove has a base plate, an elastic arm extended from one end of the base plate and bent towards the passageway, and a first contacting portion formed at a free end of the elastic arm. A first convexity is formed at a substantially root portion of the elastic arm. A second switch terminal received in the second groove has a second contacting portion. The first contacting portion is driven to move outwards to contact with the second contacting portion when the audio plug connector is inserted in the passageway and resists against the first convexity outwards.
US07896700B2

A socket connector is disclosed that includes a housing, multiple contact modules fixed to the housing, and multiple shield members coupled and fixed to the corresponding contact modules. The contact modules and the shield members are alternately arranged in alignment in a longitudinal direction of the housing. The shield members are fixed to the housing.
US07896691B2

An electronic device and an airproof connector module thereof are provided. The electronic device is connected to a peripheral device by the connector module. The connector module includes a casing, an adapting board, a first connector, a second connector, a first elastic sealing element, and a second elastic sealing element. The adapting board is disposed in a containing space in the casing. The casing has a connection hole and an opening. The first connector is disposed at the connection hole, and the second connector is disposed at the opening. The first connector and the second connector are coupled to the adapting board. The first elastic sealing element fills space between the first connector and the connection hole. The second elastic sealing element fills space between the second connector and the opening.
US07896690B1

Disclosed herein is an electrical connector, which includes a first base, a second base and a cover. The first base includes a first recess and a first conductor. The first recess is positioned on an upper surface of the first base. The first conductor extends into the first recess through a lateral surface of the first base. The second base, has a structure similar to the first base, and includes a second recess and a second conductor. The cover includes a body, a first convex ring, a second convex ring and a metallic connector. When the cover engages with both the first and second bases, the first and second convex rings respectively engages with the first and second recesses, and thus forming two enclosed space.
US07896688B2

A contact pin is accommodated in the housing body such that a first end portion of which is adapted to be subjected to soldering and is projected from an outer face of the housing body. A cover body including upper cover (17) and lower cover (18) is coupled to the housing body so as to cover the first end portion of the contact pin.
US07896685B2

An installation switching device comprises a housing having a front and a rear face, a mounting side, at least one front and rear narrow side, two wide sides and having an opening at least on the rear face. The installation switching device further comprises a screwless terminal connection including a clamping spring disposed in a terminal connection space and configured to connect a plurality of connecting conductors and a terminal cover part swivelably connected to the housing and configured to cover the opening, the terminal cover part having a terminal face with a plurality of terminal openings, each corresponding to one of the plurality of connecting conductors to be connected and a guide device molded onto each of the at least one terminal openings and configured to guide the connecting conductors.
US07896680B2

A socket connector includes an insulative housing (13), a number of contacts (12) received in the insulative housing and a cover (10) moveable with respect to the insulative housing. The cover has a mating surface (104) facing the insulative housing, a coupling surface (103) opposite to the mating surface, rows of slots (102) extending through the mating surface and the coupling surface, and at least one block (101) on the mating surface. The at least one block is located between two adjacent slots.
US07896676B2

A retractable connector device having an inner housing, a cover belt, and two sidewalls. The device may comprise electronic components for electronic devices including computer peripheral devices such as serial bus devices, Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices, or IEEE 1394 devices. The belt surrounds a portion of the inner housing. The belt is for moving the device between at least two positions, a deployed position where the connector extends through a hole in the inner housing to connect to a receiving device, and a stored position where the connector is within the housing, separated and protected from external elements by, at least in part, the belt.
US07896673B2

A lamp socket includes a lamp connection unit which is electrically connected to a lamp, a power connection unit which is disposed below and adjacent to the lamp connection unit along a longitudinal axis and is electrically connected to an electric source which supplies power to the lamp, and a fastening member which is disposed on the power connection unit, wherein the power connection unit comprises at least one sub-component which has a surface area perpendicular to the longitudinal axis which is larger than the largest surface area of the lamp connection unit perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and wherein the sub-component of the power connection unit with the largest surface area perpendicular to the longitudinal axis is located proximate to the lamp connection unit.
US07896666B2

A socket structure includes: an insulating shell; a connecting base mounted on the bottom of the insulating shell, the connecting base comprising a pillar and a lower groove, the pillar extending upwardly from the top of the connection base, and a hole disposed in the pillar, the lower groove arranged on the top of the connecting base; a conducting strip arranged in the hole; an inner conducting ring disposed around the surface of the pillar; and an outer conducting ring inserted in the lower groove. The outer conducting ring does not shake in the insulating shell, ensuring a stable connection between the plug connecting terminals and the outer electric ring.
US07896656B2

The present application provides a modular interconnect apparatus. In one embodiment, the interconnect apparatus includes a frame; and a plurality of coaxial modules connected to the frame, wherein each of the plurality of coaxial modules comprises: a signal contact having a middle portion, a first end and a second end; a first ring shaped ground contact surrounding the first end of the signal contact, wherein the first end of the signal contact is coaxial with the first ring shaped ground contact; a second ring shaped ground contact surrounding the second end of the signal contact, wherein the second end of the signal contact is coaxial with the second ring shaped ground contact; and a housing that houses at least a portion of signal contact and ground contacts.
US07896650B2

Hardenable and hardened dental compositions that include radiation-to-heat converters, and articles including such hardenable and hardened compositions, are provided. Upon irradiating, the hardened compositions increase in temperature, which can be useful for reducing the bond strengths of orthodontic appliances adhered to tooth structures with the hardened compositions.
US07896645B2

A system when installed in-line with a pollution source provides reduction and/or complete combustion of harmful emissions generated there from. Such emissions including (but not limited to) compounds such as oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, odors, organic and inorganic particulates. The pollution source can be of any type, such as smoke from a smokestack, engine exhaust, etc. The re-burner system is of very simple construction, is extremely energy efficient and does not require any moving parts or maintenance, respectively.
US07896641B2

An apparatus for simultaneously activating two or more portions of a web in different directions. The apparatus includes a pair of intermeshing activation rolls with three-dimensional surface features disposed thereon. The three dimensional surface features are arranged in discrete regions on the rolls such that at least two of the regions provide different directions of activation. The rolls include one or more buffer regions positioned between the discrete regions on the roll that provide different directions of activation.
US07896635B2

A movable mold and a slide mold are employed. There is also employed a deposition apparatus which is equipped with a deposition element such as a target electrode in the inside of a depositing chamber. A body portion and a cover member are primarily molded by the movable mold and the slide mold. The molds are opened while the body portion being left in the movable mold and while cover member being left in slide mold. The body portion left in the movable mold is deposited in the molds with its inner surface being covered with the depositing chamber. Next, the slide mold is driven so that the cover member may be registered with the deposited body portion. Then, a secondary molding resin is injected to integrate the body portion and the cover member.
US07896632B2

Apparatus and method for disassembling a toroidally shaped core is provided. The core is configured to carry a cured tire and includes multiple core segments extending generally radially from a central axis. The apparatus includes a base; one or more segment positioning devices connected for movement relative to the base and operative to move one or more core segments from an assembled core position next to an adjacent core segment around the central axis to a radially inward position; and one or more segment removal devices operatively connected for engaging the one core segment at the radially inward position and removing the one segment from the radially inward position to a remote position external to the core. The segment removal device operatively moves in three axes of motion to relocate the one segment from the remote position to a storage position and deposit the core segment at the storage station in a retrieval-ready orientation. All of the core segments may be moved sequentially in like manner by the segment removal device in order to disassemble the core.
US07896625B2

A vacuum pumping system comprises a vacuum pumping arrangement comprising: a drive shaft; a motor for driving said drive shaft; a molecular pumping mechanism comprising a turbomolecular pumping mechanism; and a backing pumping mechanism. The drive shaft drives said molecular pumping mechanism and said backing pumping mechanism. The system also comprises an evacuation mechanism, such as a load lock pump, for evacuating at least, said turbomolecular pumping mechanism.
US07896624B2

A method of running a down hole rotary pump using a top drive, sucker rod or any drive shaft from surface. A first step involves providing a gear box having an input end and an output end. The gear box is being capable of receiving an input of a first speed at the input end and producing an output of a second speed which is one of either faster or slower than of the first speed at the output end. A second step involves positioning the gear box down hole with the input end coupled to a remote lower end of a sucker rod and the output end coupled to a rotary activated pump. A third step involves applying a driving force to the sucker rod to rotate the sucker rod at the first speed, with the rotational force being transmitted to the rotary activated pump through the gear box which rotates the rotary activated pump at the second speed.
US07896619B2

Compressor fan blades have an isotropic core and composite fiber layers in an epoxy matrix. The fibers on opposite broad surfaces of the blade extend at an angle of between 25° and 35° to the blade length. The fibers on opposites sides of the blade are inclined in opposite senses such that extension force applied to the blade as it rotates produces opposing forces in the composite layers that resist untwisting of the blade. The thickness of the fiber layers varies from the leading edge to the trailing edge, being thicker towards the leading edge.
US07896614B2

A wind turbine includes an electrical stall sensor configured on a pressure surface of at least one turbine blade at a location to detect backflow in a stall condition. The stall sensor includes a flap pivotally configured on the respective pressure surface so as to be moved from a first position towards a second position by backflow over the pressure surface during a stall condition. A sensor circuit responds to movement of the flap between the first and second positions and generates a corresponding electrical signal that indicates the stall condition.
US07896610B2

A three-dimensionally vibration-preventing buffering mechanism is proposed, which is designed for use in conjunction with a dynamic module for the purpose of buffering the three dimensional vibrations of the dynamic module during operation, and which is characterized by the use of a group of specially-designed chained elastic members, each being composed of at least three integrally-linked flexure hinges whose axes of concavity are oriented respectively in parallel with the three axes of a three-dimensional rectangular coordinate system, so that the vibrations of the dynamic module in all three dimensional directions can be respectively buffered by these flexure hinges to provide a three-dimensional vibration-preventing buffering effect.
US07896609B2

The present invention is a vertical wind turbine having a turbine with a plurality of blades or wind vanes. The blades are constructed and attached to the shaft of the turbine so as to allow them to twist open to present more surface area to wind currents when a threshold rotational velocity is reached. Also presented are a novel outer shell that is placed over at least part of the shaft and a novel turbine blade.
US07896605B2

An extension plate assembly for dumping debris into a dump box from a storage tank mounted on a trunk. The storage tank is fitted with a pusher plate that both compacts and pushes debris out of the back of the storage tank. The extension plate apparatus includes extension arms that are rotatably attached on one end to the pusher plate and rotatably attached on the other end to an extension plate. When the pusher plate is in its rearward most position, the extension arms extend beyond the edge of the storage tank. The extension plate assembly allows debris to be pushed out of the storage tank and distributed more evenly into a dump box.
US07896603B2

A trailer (10) or container (11) includes a frame (12) having a central axis (14) spaced between rear wheels. A plurality of storage supports (20) are supported on the trailer frame, with each storage support supporting a plurality of objects thereon. A carriage assembly (24) rotates the plurality of storage supports. A powered drive (110) rotates the carriage assembly. A powered restrictor (120) limits rotational movement of a respective carriage support during transit. Flexible members 142 and 144 interconnect the drive member and driven members each mounted with respect to a storage support. The container may be transported on a motorized vehicle. A preferred tire support mechanism is provided for use when transporting tires.
US07896598B2

A swage-type fastener to secure a plurality of workpieces together, which includes a pin member, having an elongated pin shank to be located in aligned openings in the workpieces. An enlarged head at one end of the pin engages one side of the workpieces. A grooved pin portion extends past an opposite side of the workpieces. A collar includes a shank portion adapted to be swaged into the pin lock grooves in response to a relative axial swage load applied by an installation tool. The collar is as-headed and does not require thermal processing yet provides an optimum balance of reduced collar shank wall thickness and increased hardness, whereby the swage load is minimized. A low swage load thread form for the lock grooves of the pin member is also provided, a reduced diameter, and a relatively short pull portion pin extension.
US07896595B2

An engagement fitting attaches to a rotational fastener, and is anchored to a point stationary relative to the fastener. A rotational coupling attaches the engagement fitting to an anchor member, allowing uni-directional rotation of said engagement fitting on the rotational fastener, relative to the anchor member, about the fastener axis, in a loosening direction of said rotational fastener, to prevent self-loosening of the fastener.
US07896587B1

A locator for a drilling tool includes a main body having at least one locating hole, an inlet connector mounted on the main body and connected to the locating hole, and an inlet pipe having a first end connected to the inlet connector and a second end connected to a container. Thus, the cooling agent of the container is injected outwardly to pass through the inlet pipe and the inlet connector into the locating hole to provide a cooling effect to the drilling tool. In addition, the locator performs the cooling work automatically, so that the operator needs not to perform the drilling work by his one hand and to perform the cooling work by his other hand, thereby facilitating the operator operating the locator and protecting the operator's safety.
US07896568B2

A light on a self-supporting collapsible arm having a plurality of frictionally restrained articulating joints, where the frictional joint has a male half joint with a first plate and an annular shaft with an inner wider diameter. In the surface of the first plate is a first O-ring seated in a first groove. A matching female half joint has a second plate and coaxial to the bearing in the surface of the second plate is a second O-ring seated in a second groove. The opposing side of the second plate of the female half joint has a third O-ring in a third groove. The third O-ring tensions a snap pin that couples the male and female half joints. The snap pin has a head with a compressible ridge which expands when the snap pin is pushed in far enough to engage the inner wider diameter of shaft.
US07896567B2

An electrically driven dispensing device, particularly a toothbrush, utilizing replaceable pressurized cartridges, of the bag-in-can type. The toothbrush has a ‘top-loading’ structure in which the cartridge is housed in a recess at the brush end of the toothbrush handle, the recess being accessible by removing the brush head. Other features include an elastomeric valve outlet located on the brush head which can also function as a tooth wiping or polishing blade, and a non-linear drive shaft which enables the brush head to be driven from a motor located at the base end of the handle whilst keeping the handle slim in design.
US07896556B2

A needle roller bearing comprises an outer ring having a plurality of outer ring members split by split lines extending in an axial direction of the bearing, a plurality of needle rollers arranged on an orbit surface of said outer ring so that they can roll thereon, and a cage holding the needle rollers at intervals. The outer ring member has a projection serving as a positioning engaging part which engages with a housing for positioning, and an engaging click protruding from an axial end of the outer ring member inward along a diameter to prevent the cage from moving in an axial direction, in positions shifted from its circumferential center.
US07896552B2

A rotary encoder includes a rotary shaft that may be manufactured easily and efficiently includes a rotating magnet with a mounting precision in which variance may not occur readily. A rotary shaft includes a rotary shaft main unit with a rotating magnet mounting part for mounting a rotating magnet and a ring-shaped rotating magnet that is formed integrally with this rotating magnet mounting part of the rotary shaft. In a method of manufacturing the rotary shaft, a ring-shaped rotating magnet is formed integrally with the rotary shaft mounting part of the rotary shaft main unit.
US07896551B2

Hydrodynamic bearing assemblies and apparatuses are disclosed. Such hydrodynamic bearing assemblies may be employed in bearing apparatuses for use in downhole motors of a subterranean drilling system or other mechanical systems. In one embodiment of the present invention, a hydrodynamic bearing assembly includes a plurality of bearing segments distributed circumferentially about an axis. Each bearing segment includes a superhard bearing surface. The plurality of bearing segments define a plurality of seams. Each seam is formed between circumferentially-adjacent bearing segments of the plurality of bearing segments. Further embodiments of the present invention include hydrodynamic bearing apparatuses and downhole motors that may utilize any of the disclosed hydrodynamic bearing assemblies.
US07896549B2

A parallel spacer for a linear guideway comprises a plurality of parting portions, connecting portions and a retaining portion. Each of the parting portions is a thin member disposed between each pair of neighboring rollers. The connecting portions are employed to connect the parting portions and the retaining portion, and the retaining portion is arranged at a side of the respective rollers and located in an axial direction thereof, the retaining portion is an integral structure for connection with the respective connecting portions.
US07896548B2

The present disclosure relates to a reclosable package or bag with a slider zipper, and further including a first gusset with a perforated line or similar line of weakness formed between the slider zipper profiles in order to provide tamper evidence and a second gusset formed below one zipper profile in order to allow the filled packaged to stand up for display purposes. This package or bag is typically bottom filled, but then displayed to the customer in the orientation with the bottom in the upper position and the zipper in the lower position. One alternative embodiment substitutes a press-to-close-zipper for the slider zipper. A further alternative embodiment omits the perforated line and provides for a separation in the web between the zipper profiles to form a mouth for the package or bag.
US07896547B2

A radiation image capturing system detects the position of a radiation detecting cassette disposed below a patient and the position of a radiation source for emitting a radiation, based on the differences between the propagation times of radio waves emitted from an antenna device to an image capturing apparatus and the radiation detecting cassette. Based on the detected positions, the relative positions of the image capturing apparatus and the radiation detecting cassette are calculated, and then compared with each other by a position determining unit to judge how the image capturing apparatus is positioned with respect to the radiation detecting cassette. If the image capturing apparatus is not positioned in head-on facing relation to the radiation detecting cassette, then a warning is issued, and an actuating mechanism moves the image capturing apparatus to an appropriate position.
US07896545B2

Some embodiments include apparatus and methods having a first switch, a second switch, and a circuit coupled to the first and second switches. The first switch may be configured to switch between an on-state and an off-state based on a value of a first current flowing through a number of resistors and a diode coupled in series with the resistors. The second switch may be configured to switch between the on-state and the off-state based on a value of a second current on a circuit path. The second current is a function of a voltage at a node between two of the resistors and a resistance of the circuit path. The circuit may be configured to provide a temperature reading based on the number of times the first switch or the second switch switches between the on-state and the off-state during a time interval.
US07896538B2

A power take-off unit is connected to a power take-off gear/port on a concrete mixing truck transmission, the power take-off unit being driven by the engine so it is always providing power as long as the engine is running. A hydraulic pump is connected to and driven by the power take-off unit. Hydraulic lines connect the pump to a planetary drive assembly for the concrete mixing drum; the drum itself is capable of receiving only a small/light load of concrete, in the range of two to five cubic yards.
US07896526B2

A light source for endoscopy or microscopy comprises a lamp, a heat sink, the heat sink being thermally connected to the lamp and at least one heat pipe, which is thermally connected to the heat sink and which dissipates the heat that is generated by the lamp and transferred to the heat sink.
US07896521B2

A lighting assembly having a plurality of light sources and a lens matrix having a plurality of lenses. The lens matrix may be positioned relative to the light sources so that each light source resides in a first orientation within one of the lenses and emits a light distribution. Relative translation between the light sources and the lens matrix alters the orientation of the light sources within the lenses, creating a different light distribution. A light source's orientation may change within the same lens, or the light source may translate to a different lens to alter the distribution of its emitted light.
US07896512B2

The vehicle headlamp is provided with a main lamp unit fixed and arranged inside a lamp chamber and sub-lamp units as an auxiliary lamp capable of changing and forming light distribution patterns by using semiconductor light emitting elements as light sources. The sub-lamp units are respectively equipped with a vertically changing mechanism for changing the illuminating direction in a vertical direction, a laterally changing mechanism for changing the illuminating direction in a lateral direction and a pattern changing mechanism for changing a light distribution pattern.
US07896502B2

A projection apparatus includes an outer casing, a light source disposed within the casing for generating light beams, and an optical engine connected to the light source for receiving the light beams in order to project an image. A heat sink includes an air tunnel mounted within the casing, and having air inlet disposed above the light source, and an exhaust fan mounted within an opening unit in the casing such that the fan unit is disposed in alignment with an air outlet of the air tunnel to transmit the intensive heat generated from the light source.
US07896492B2

Eyewear holder plus conference/meeting identification dual strap or item(s) holder for securing eyewear, such as, but not limited to, prescription or non-prescription eyewear, as well as a lanyard attachment, such as, but not limited to (plastic/rubber ring, clip, swivel, J-hook, Bulldog or other) for holding identification or item(s) to neck with a double to single strap design (with or without printing/sewing on strap) and (in various strap colors and/or materials—such as, but not limited to polyester, chain, cotton, neoprene, precious stone, nylon, elastic, alloy, leather, composite, laminate or some combination) and an adjustment block to aid in fastening around one's neck for easy adjustment.
US07896488B2

Herein includes an offset printing apparatus for transferring and optionally fixing a phase change ink onto a print medium including a) a phase change ink application component for applying a phase change ink in a phase change ink image to an imaging member; b) an imaging member for accepting, transferring and optionally fixing the phase change ink image to the print medium, the imaging member having i) an imaging substrate, and thereover ii) an intermediate layer including a polyurethane, and iii) outer coating including a nitrile butadiene and a conductive filler; and c) a release agent management system for supplying a release agent to the imaging member, wherein an amount of release agent needed for transfer and optionally fixing the phase change ink image is reduced.
US07896477B2

A liquid transport apparatus includes a base member having a surface in which a pressure chamber and a liquid flow passage are formed, the liquid flow passage being communicated with the pressure chamber and having a flow passage cross-sectional area smaller than that of the pressure chamber and a piezoelectric actuator having a pressure-applying portion which applies a pressure to a liquid in the pressure chamber and an opening/closing portion which opens and closes the liquid flow passage. The pressure-applying portion faces the pressure chamber, the opening/closing portion faces the liquid flow passage, and the pressure-applying portion and the opening/closing portion are arranged along the surface of the base member.
US07896474B2

A liquid ejection head includes a plurality of ejection outlets for ejecting a liquid droplet; a plurality of flow paths communicating with the ejection outlets; an ink supply port for supplying liquid to the flow paths; and a plurality of heat generating elements provided correspondingly to the ejection outlets, for generating thermal energy for ejecting liquid present inside the flow paths. The plurality of heat generating elements is arranged in a staggered fashion with predetermined intervals with respect to a direction of a long side of the ink supply port. Adjacent staggered heat generating elements are connected to a common wiring line and are connected to individual wiring lines.
US07896473B2

A nozzle assembly for an inkjet printhead is disclosed. The nozzle assembly includes an inkjet nozzle having an actuator for ejecting an ink droplet from the inkjet nozzle when a resistive element of the actuator is heated by an electrical current. A drive transistor provides an energy pulse to the resistive element of the actuator, and control logic controls the drive transistor. The actuator develops a pressure of less than 100 kPa within the inkjet nozzle.
US07896463B2

The present invention provides an ink jet printing apparatus that can inexpensively print desired colors without causing ink color mixture. In a print head, a plurality of nozzle rows for respective ink colors are arranged in parallel with one another. Arrangements and driving control are provided so that few mists resulting from an ink ejecting operation move so as not to reach the print head or fall.
US07896456B2

A method for driving a liquid drop ejector (1) equipped with a piezoelectric actuator (7) including a piezoelectric ceramic layer (6) having a size covering a plurality of pressurizing chambers (2). An arbitrary piezoelectric deformation region (8) of the liquid drop ejector (1) is deflected in one thickness direction and the opposite direction, respectively, by applying a driving voltage waveform including a first voltage (−VL) and an equivalent second voltage (+VL) of the opposite polarity in order to vary the volume of the pressurizing chambers (2) of a corresponding liquid drop ejecting portion (4), and a liquid drop is ejected through a communicating nozzle (3). Since gradual creep deformation of the inactive region (16) of the piezoelectric ceramic layer (6) is prevented, the ink drop ejection performance is maintained at a good level over a long term.
US07896455B2

An element substrate has a plurality of printing elements, and a block selection unit which divides the plurality of printing elements into a plurality of blocks and time-divisionally drives the blocks. The element substrate includes a plurality of input terminals which divide the plurality of printing elements included in each block into a plurality of groups and supply a driving voltage to the printing elements belonging to each group, a delay circuit which externally receives an enable signal for enabling energization to the printing elements and generates a plurality of delayed enable signals having different delay times with respect to the enable signal, and a wiring which supplies the enable signal and the plurality of delayed enable signals output from the delay circuit to different groups in the order of the different delay times.
US07896448B2

A method for pre-filling a low-pressure storage device of a motor vehicle braking system, having a changeover valve, a hydraulic pump, an outlet valve, and a low-pressure storage device situated in a suction line of the hydraulic pump. The low-pressure storage device can be pre-filled in a particularly simple and low-noise manner if the actuation of the foot brake pedal is monitored using a sensor mechanism and, when there is an actuation, the changeover valve is closed in order to lock in the braking pressure acting on the wheel brake, and at least one of the outlet valves is opened in order to release the braking pressure into the low-pressure storage device.
US07896444B2

A conveyor pan for use with a shearer with a skid-type shoe in a longwall mining operation, the conveyor pan including a side member having a surface adapted to be engaged by the shearer skid-type shoe, the surface being formed by a piece of the side member that extends horizontally for the length of the side member. The piece has a first end and a second end, each piece end having a top, a rear, a front and an edge. The first end edge and the second end edge are each formed by each edge being between 45 degrees removed from a vertical plane extending at 90 degrees to the horizontal plane formed by the side member surface.
US07896442B2

A method to facilitate moving from a seated position to an upright position utilizes a chair including a seat with articulating sections and associated foot rests.
US07896439B2

A chair has a seat 1 and a backrest 2 and the backrest 2 is allowed to be tilted backward by elastic deformation of right and left back frame devices 4. The right and left back frame devices 4 each are composed of two unit frames 43 and 44. The back frame device 4 has a main portion 4a which are disposed outside the right and left sides of the seat 1, upper inward portions 43a and 44a which are connected to an upper rear end of the main portion 4a, lower inward portions 43b and 44b which go under the seat 1 from a lower end portion of the main portion 4a, and forward end portions 43c and 44c which are integrally connected to the lower inward portions 43b and 44b. The forward end portions 43c and 44c are fixed to the base 7. The back frame device 4 can be largely elastically deformed with the combination of a characteristic in which the back frame device is long, a characteristic in which the back frame device has the lower inward portions 43b and 44b, and a characteristic in which the back frame device has the forward end portions 43c and 44c. Accordingly, the backrest 2 can be tilted backward at a large angle.
US07896436B2

Office components are described that include a base, a seat supported by the base, a microprocessor, and a load sensor electrically coupled with the microprocessor and mechanically coupled with the seat and, based on movement thereof, operative to detect occupancy of the seat and provide a signal to the microprocessor indicative thereof. The load sensor may be a strain gauge, a piezo device or combination thereof.
US07896432B2

A vehicle furniture system for use proximate to a vehicle driver's seat, the system comprising: a first post having a first post first end, a first post body, and a first post second end mountable to the floor of the vehicle; a primary support having a primary support longitudinal axis generally perpendicular to a primary support lateral axis, a primary support top surface, a primary support bottom surface, a primary support first longitudinal side rotatably and slidably engageable to the first post, a primary support second longitudinal side, a primary support first lateral side, and a primary support second lateral side, the primary support disposable in a first position, a second position, a third position, and a fourth position; a primary support rod; and a second support adjacent to the primary support with the primary support in the second position and the third position.
US07896428B2

A vehicle body structure that may be installed in a front part or in a rear part of a vehicle, includes a flexural portion disposed in respective side members extending in an anteroposterior direction of the vehicle and having a vertical bending strength smaller than that of other portions of the members. The vehicle body structure also includes a pendent portion hung on a lower part of the side member on an outer end side with respect to the flexural portion and having an anteroposterior bending strength larger than a bending strength of the flexural portion. The vehicle body structure enables the side members to absorb an impact with a simple configuration even in the event of a collision between vehicles with different bumper heights.
US07896424B2

A folding top for a cabriolet vehicle is provided, that includes a first roof part which is embodied as a rigid shell element, a second roof part which is embodied as a rigid shell element, and a forced control unit. The first roof part and the second roof part are pivotable relative to a body of the vehicle, are driven by a common force-introducing unit, and are movable by the forced control unit. The forced control unit includes a mechanical control device, by which movement of the second roof part can be delayed from movement of the first roof part.
US07896407B2

Auxiliary safety module for doors provided with an anti-panic opening device, comprising, a rotating locking member movable between an extracted position and a recessed position, a first elastic element tending to maintain the locking member in its extracted position, a cursor movable between a first position and a second position, a transmission mechanism operatively associated to the cursor and to the locking member and arranged to establish a univocal correlation between the positions of the cursor and of the locking member, so that when the cursor is in its first position, the locking member is in the extracted position and when the cursor is in the second position, the locking member is in the recessed position, a movable feeler having a projecting portion and a retaining portion which co-operates with the cursor, the feeler being movable between an engaged position and a disengaged position, a second elastic element associated to the feeler and tending to maintain the feeler in said engaged position, wherein, when the feeler is in its disengaged position, the cursor is free to move between the first and the second position and vice versa and wherein when the feeler is in the engaged position, the cursor is locked in its second position.
US07896404B2

A tubular reducer fitting for transitioning from an existing electrical nonmetallic tubing socket of one size to an electrical nonmetallic tubing socket of a smaller size. The male end portion has a cylindrical outer surface with a pair of axially-spaced projections extending outwardly therefrom and is receivable in an existing electrical nonmetallic tubing socket. The female end portion has an electrical nonmetallic tubing socket therein. The male end portion is configured for locking reception in a first trade size electrical nonmetallic tubing socket and the opposite female connector end portion has a smaller trade size electrical nonmetallic tubing socket herein.
US07896402B2

The present invention relates to spacers and pipelines. The spacers are mounted between two pipes—an internal line and an external line—and hold them at a defined distance. A closure is necessary for fixing the spacer on the pipes. Space, weight, and mounting time may advantageously be saved by integrating the closure into the spacer.
US07896400B2

A system for pre-positioning a hose clamp (2) on a hose end (24) includes: a) a fixing part (1′) which is connected non-releasably to an annular segment of the hose clamp (2) and is fastened to the hose end (24), and b) one or more fixing parts (1, 1″) which each have a U-shaped element which, fastened to the hose end (24), is directed with its open side (3) to the hose surface. The web (6) connects the two U-legs (4, 5) and extends axially and parallel to the hose surface. The U-leg (4), which lies closest to the hose end (24), has a connecting element (7) for attaching the U-shaped element to the end face of the hose end (24). The U-shaped element is configured in such a way that the hose clamp (2), which is pulled on to the hose end (24), is fixed releasably in the intermediate space (8) of the U-shaped element by way of an annular segment of the hose clamp in such a way that the hose clamp (2) is released from the fixing when tightened. The fixing part (1) remains without function on the hose end (24) after the hose clamp (2) has been tightened.
US07896399B1

A exhaust system repair apparatus provides a basic u-bolt member and saddle clamp design which can be positioned behind an existing damaged flange, one which cannot be tightened against an opposing flange in order to create an exhaust seal. The apparatus features ears which are attached to and positioned proximal to the u-bolt base. Each ear further comprises a slot to align with an opposing, existing flanges'holes. Slots are available which are exactly positioned for a given application, or the elongated slots are provided in other embodiments which provide a more universal fit. The apparatus thereby provides for tightening the damaged flange against an undamaged opposing flange, without having to replace a damaged flange.
US07896396B2

An automotive vehicle includes a support arrangement for supporting the steering column, an air-conditioning unit, a head-up display (HUD) and/or pedals. The automotive vehicle has a window arch which extends below the windscreen in the region between the two A-columns of the automotive vehicle. In order to facilitate assembly, the window arch has, on the engine compartment-side, recesses in order to be able to fix the support arrangement or a corresponding instrument panel module from the engine compartment.
US07896388B2

To provide a seat that enhances the stability and expansion speed with respect to the inflation expansion performance of airbag unit disposed thereinside. In one form, a seat is provided comprising a backrest part covered at its entirety with top fabric material and, at a given region of the top fabric material, it is furnished with tear line; an airbag constituted of a bag consisting of two basis fabrics joined together and disposed within the backrest part so as to at the time of inflation, cleave the tear line and expand over the head of driver or passenger; and reinforcing fabric disposed on the top fabric material so as to inhibit any cleavage of the top fabric material at regions other than the tear line.
US07896387B2

An air bag device for automobile comprising a side air bag member arranged at a vehicle body side portion or a vehicle seat in a folded state, expanded by being supplied with a gas upon a vehicle being impacted from the side or rolling over, and which deploys between a passenger seated on the vehicle seat and the vehicle body side portion, and a head portion protection air bag member which deploys in a curtain shape in a downward direction inside of a vehicle compartment up to a position of overlapping a deploying region of the side air bag member in a vehicle width direction, and which has a shape that fits with the deployed side air bag member.
US07896370B2

The present invention relates to a trailing arm mounting device for a vehicle with a small-sized frame, in which mounting assembly that connects small-sized frame and the trailing arm and has a limit on the weight and cross-section by reducing the size of frame expands the fixing portion for small-sized frame, such that the fastening force to the mounting assembly is increased and the dynamic stiffness of the trailing arm used for small-sized frame is also increased.
US07896358B2

A lift truck includes a magneto-rheological damper coupled between the base frame and a frame holding a vertically sprung suspended wheel. The damper is electrically connected to a vehicle control system, which increases and decreases the damping force as a function of at least one of a weight of a load on the forks of the lift truck, a height of the mast of the lift truck, and a speed of the lift truck. As the weight of the load, height of the mast and speed of the vehicle increase, the damping force is increased. As the weight of the load, height of the mast, and speed of the vehicle decrease, the damping force is decreased. When the damper is activated to increase the damping force, the truck can maintain a four point stance, providing a larger footprint for the center of gravity, thereby limiting truck sway or oscillation. When the damper is not active, or the damping force is increased, as, for example, during unloaded operation, the suspension of the truck is relatively soft, providing a smoother ride, thereby increasing operator comfort and productivity.
US07896355B2

A tool-bit holder (10) for varying tool-bit shank profiles comprising a hub (12) having a longitudinal bore (28) adapted for receiving a tool-bit shank (66, 70, 80). The hub (12) has a plurality of radial slots (38) communicating with the first section (30) of the longitudinal bore (28). The tool-bit holder (10) has a collar (14) fixedly attached to the hub (12) adjacent the open (29) and disposed annularly about the hub (12). A sleeve (16) is axially slideably mounted and disposed annularly about the hub (12). The sleeve (16) has a plurality of radial bores (48), each being in communication with a respective radial slot (38) of the hub (12) with a detent ball (18) disposed within each. A spring (20) is provided for biasing the sleeve (16) towards the open end (29) wherein the detent ball (18) engages an inner ramp face (46) of the collar (14).
US07896343B2

Feeding systems for documents or other sheet materials include: (a) an inlet; (b) an outlet; (c) a feed path extending between the inlet and outlet; and (d) a feed system that moves materials along the feed path. The systems further may include: (e) a bidirectional feed path extending from the feed path; (f) a supply system that moves materials to the feed path; (g) a bidirectional drive system that moves materials along the bidirectional feed path; and/or (h) a bidirectional feed path access control system. Drive systems may be provided for driving the feed system and at least one of the supply system, the bidirectional drive system, and/or the access control system such that operation of the feed system is independent of operation of the other systems and/or such that a single motor may be used to drive any or all of the systems.
US07896333B2

In a sheet processing apparatus that, for example, sorts or staples sheets after image formation, when preceding finishing is not completed on a processing tray, a third sheet fed anew into a waiting tray of a sheet placing member configuring a sheet waiting unit, which temporarily puts a sheet conveyed thereto on standby, is stacked to be shifted such that leading ends of second and third sheets are located further on a conveying direction upstream side than a leading end of a first sheet. Consequently, longitudinal alignment in the processing tray after that is surely performed.
US07896326B2

An article, method, and kit for holding an object in place on a wall that include a jig with a support member and a platform member that is coupled to, and extends perpendicularly from, the support member. The support member has a top end including a portion adapted to be positioned behind a wall-facing surface of an object placed upon the platform member and an opening that is adapted to removably engage a coupling device on or in a wall such that the support member is disposed in a substantially vertical hanging position upon the wall. The jig may further include a brace member that forms a triangle by connecting a lower side of the platform member to the support member.
US07896325B2

A holding apparatus for securing an object is disclosed. The holding apparatus secures the object allowing access to the object from different angles and positions. The holding apparatus can be rotated while the object is attached providing access to different areas of the object. The holding apparatus can easily and quickly secure the object.
US07896319B2

A sauna apparatus includes a heating section for heating air to generate heated air, a heated-air-blowing section for sending the heated air, a humidifying section for humidifying air to generate humidified air, a humidified-air-blowing section for sending the humidified air, a merging chamber for mixing the sent heated air and the sent humidified air to generate heated and humidified air, and an outlet for blowing the heated and humidified air generated. This sauna apparatus provides air having uniform temperature distribution and uniform humidity distribution, and allows temperature and humidity to be controlled easily.
US07896316B2

The present invention relates to a truck crane with a winch, in particular a hoisting winch, which is mounted on the uppercarriage, wherein the truck crane includes means for raising and/or lowering the winch.
US07896311B2

The present invention relates to a solenoid valve configured to be mounted to a shock absorber of a vehicle to adjust damping force. solenoid valve of a shock absorber in which a damping force is adjusted through adjustment of back pressure against a disc valve. The solenoid valve includes a back pressure chamber for generating back pressure against the disc valve by a fluid introduced through a back pressure adjusting flow passage, and a spool moved in a spool guide by operation of a solenoid to control opening/closing or opening rate of the back pressure adjusting flow passage. The back pressure adjusting flow passage includes a variable orifice with an opening rate of the variable orifice being adjusted by the spool and the spool guide, the back pressure chamber, and a fixed orifice formed on the disc valve.
US07896300B2

A supporting mount mounts a device to a post and is removably fixed to the post without being fastened thereto by any penetrating fastener. A front panel is at the front post face and has the device fixed thereto. A pair of opposing side panels are at respective side post faces. Each side panel has a lower lateral edge connecting to the front panel, an upper lateral portion distal from the front panel, and a hook at about the upper lateral portion. A connecting element at the back post face engages the hooks at the upper lateral portions of the side panels. The mount pivots into frictional contact with the back post face at the top portion of the connecting element and with the front post face at a bottom portion of the front panel.
US07896295B2

Elements, couplers, systems, and methods for joining two or more trough members. A locking element for a coupler of a cable trough system can include a main body with an aperture, a shaft extending through the aperture of the main body, the shaft being rotatable with respect to the main body, and a handle member coupled to a first end of the shaft. The locking element also includes a member coupled to a second end of the shaft, and a spring coupled to the main body, the spring rotating the shaft and the member into a locked position.
US07896266B1

Method and apparatus for a wheeled attachment for use with a conventional pressure washer wherein the attachment comprises a wheeled platform having an inlet to receive fluid, i.e., water or cleaning fluid, from the pressure washer along with a plurality of outlets for spraying water directly onto a relatively wide area of the surface to be cleaned. The attachment is expected to be most effective for cleaning horizontal surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways, decks, docks and other horizontal surfaces. The attachment further comprises first and second height-adjustable wheels for attachment to the sides of the platform along with a splash guard disposed on the rear of the platform for protecting the user from overspray. A manifold connects the single inlet to the plurality of outlets in order to transfer fluid from the inlet to the outlets so that fluid is uniformly applied to the surface to be cleaned.
US07896262B2

A fuel injection valve has a valve guide, a valve member movable in a center opening of the valve guide along an axial direction of the valve guide, and a covering layer disposed on a surface of the valve guide. The valve guide has a valve seat placed on an inner surface thereof and a nozzle hole from which fuel is injected. The valve member is seated on the valve seat to close the nozzle hole and leaves the valve seat to open the nozzle hole. The covering layer is placed around an outlet opening of the nozzle hole. The covering layer is made of boron nitride in a hexagonal crystal system so as to have a hydrophilic property higher than that of the surface of the valve guide.
US07896261B2

A Y-shaped plumbing fitting comprises three generally radially extending tubes connected together for transmission of fluid therebetween. The radially outward end of each tube is terminated by a pipe connector. The axes of the three tubes extend radially in a common plane and intersect at a single point, subtending angles of 120° with each other. A further connector is provided extending substantially perpendicularly to the common plane of the three tubes to connect a fitting to the three tubes. An irrigation system, using the Y-shaped plumbing fitting comprises a network of pipes connected by the “Y” shaped fittings. Each pipe in the network is connected at each end to a leg of a respective Y-shaped fitting such that the pipes each form one side in a hexagonal shaped pipe network formation. Alternate “Y” shaped plumbing fittings are fitted with watering outlets.
US07896260B2

This injector with two valves (7, 10) which open at different fuel pressures so as to establish a primary flow regime and then a secondary flow regime is characterized in that the primary regime is enriched with fuel via an orifice (21) which adds a branch to the primary flow path of the fuel, but which is closed when the secondary valve is displaced so as to prevent enrichment of the fuel in the secondary regime. This invention applies in particular to certain aircraft engines.
US07896256B2

A disposable fragrance chamber (10) for dispensing a fragrance from an aromatic liquid. The disposable fragrance chamber (10) consists of an outer casing body (20) having pad exposure openings (24), a detachable lid (34) and an absorbent pad (30) disposed between the body (20) and the lid (34). The chamber (10) permits an aromatic liquid to be applied into the absorbent pad (30) through the pad exposure openings (24). The aromatic liquid emits a fragrance into the surrounding environment when the chamber (10) is installed on an earring post (40) that extends beyond a person's ear lobe (48) held in place with an earring clasp (50).
US07896249B2

A flexible optic or optical system is deformed using a non-overlapping iris or any of several deformable ring or polygon shapes. In some examples, the deformation of the flexible optic is controlled by one or more actuators comprising a shape memory material. The flexible optic may be used in, e.g. a bar code reader or imager.
US07896245B2

In a cart terminal device, a goods-layout-information storage unit stores goods layout information, having information indicating a layout region within a shop related to a goods classification indicating goods laid out in the layout region, and a contents-position-information storage unit stores contents position information, having a transmitter number related to the goods classification. When a user assigns an optional position and an optional transmitter within the shop, a transmitter-position-information creating unit obtains a goods classification corresponding to the position by referencing the goods layout information, and obtains a goods classification corresponding to the transmitter by referencing the contents position information. When the obtained goods classifications coincide with each other, the transmitter-position-information creating unit creates transmitter position information, having position information related to a transmitter number for identifying the transmitter.
US07896243B2

A solution for consumer self-service merchandise order placement, payment, and pick up, integrated with a merchant's Internet e-commerce site and with an effective merchant point-of-sale management system. The solution includes a system and apparatus and of a set of specific business methods. A self-service merchandising machine for un-attended, autonomous, and automatic dispensing of retail products includes an input/output subsystem; a control subsystem having and being based upon a computer; a specially configured storage subsystem; a unique pick-and-place robotic-based product retrieval subsystem with an adaptive material handling system; and a product extraction subsystem. A related method of using the machine includes the steps of enabling self-service retail sale; permitting Internet sale with local merchandise pick-up; managing the business operations of the system; replenishing inventory using Kanban methods; restocking inventory; operating and monitoring a security camera; handling Category I error; and handling Category II error.
US07896241B2

A card vending machine includes a storage area, wherein each of a plurality of memory cards to be issued by a respective one of at least two different issuers are stored. A security mechanism conditions access of each issuer to only a respective portion of the storage area upon authorization of this issuer. An interface mechanism is operated by a user to define a purchasing transaction and a controller is operative, in accordance with the interface mechanism, to customize a memory card at least in part according to the purchasing transaction.
US07896238B2

A method and system provides coded access to a transactional or other type of system by acquiring account identification data corresponding to a combination of a plurality of colors. The account identification data is transmitted to, for example, a remote server to correlate the account identification data against an account database to evaluate corresponding account information. Based on the account information, access to the transactional or other type of system may be controlled.
US07896228B1

An automated banking machine (10) is operative to carry out financial transactions and includes a user interface (15). The user interface includes a card reader (16) which is operative to read data on user cards which identify user's financial accounts. A fascia of the machine includes a keypad (404, 438, 458) through which users input confidential data. Covers (400, 422, 430) prevent unauthorized persons from viewing confidential inputs to the keypad. Alternatively, movable panels (462, 464) are movable to prevent unauthorized viewing of confidential inputs. Alternatively a keypad cover is selectively collapsible to prevent digit access. A visual indicator is operative to indicate to a user that keypad inputs are being encrypted. Disinfecting techniques may be used to disinfect manual contact surfaces of the machine.
US07896222B2

This invention discloses a method, using pure niobium as a transient liquid reactive braze material, for fabrication of cellular or honeycomb structures, wire space-frames or other sparse builtup structures or discrete articles using Nitinol (near equiatomic titanium-nickel alloy) and related shape-memory and superelastic alloys. Nitinol shape memory alloys (SMAs), acquired in a form such as corrugated sheet, discrete tubes or wires, may be joined together using the newly discovered technique. Pure niobium when brought into contact with Nitinol at elevated temperature, liquefies at temperatures below the melting point and flows readily into capillary spaces between the elements to be joined, thus forming a strong joint. A series of diagrams of the interface at various stages of brazing is illustrated by FIG. 10.
US07896219B2

A method and apparatus for welding of battery terminals to an interconnect includes: juxtaposing two or more battery cell terminals to each other to create a terminal stack including an innermost terminal and an outermost terminal; juxtaposing a battery cell interconnect with the innermost terminal of the stack; positioning an anvil in contact with the interconnect; directing an air stream against the outermost terminal so that the air stream compresses the terminal stack and urges the innermost terminal into contact with the interconnect; positioning a sonotrode horn in contact with the outermost terminal; and energizing the sonotrode horn to vibrate the terminal stack and thereby make an ultrasonic weld between the stacked terminals of the terminal stack and the interconnect. The air stream is directed at the terminal below the sonotrode horn to capture any debris and a suction removes the debris.
US07896202B2

A disposable pump for a collapsible reservoir has an upper chamber, a lower chamber and a seal base in between. The upper and lower chambers have flexible sections or bellows that expand or contract the chambers, and the seal base has a rigid rod that selectively forms a seal on an opening in the seal base between the upper and lower chambers. One of the two chambers has a nozzle and the other chamber has a top cap that leads in many embodiments to a collapsible bag reservoir. In at least one embodiment a solenoid overcomes the biasing force of a compression spring and lifts the seal base off the rigid rod. This opens the seal and assisting pushing out potentially very viscous liquids into the chamber that includes the nozzle and the liquid ultimately dispenses from the pump through the nozzle.
US07896194B2

A small-diameter front-end portion of a feed rod is allowed to enter into the screw hole of a nut delivered by a nut chute, and the nut is fed to an intended position by the forward movement of the feed rod. When an abnormal nut having a screw hole into which the small-diameter front-end portion cannot be inserted is delivered, the abnormal nut is prevented from being flicked by the feed rod. In order to achieve this, in a standby state, the small-diameter front-end portion of the feed rod enters a nut receiving chamber and is then stopped. On condition that the abnormal nut is received in the nut receiving chamber, if the feed rod moves forward to enter into the standby state, the abnormal nut is slightly pushed out forward from the nut receiving chamber.
US07896184B2

A crate, such as for transporting egg cartons or other items, includes a base, opposed side walls and a rear wall extending upward from the base. A front wall opposite the rear wall is selectably moveable between a closed position and a retracted, open position. In the retracted position, access to the interior of the crate is provided. The front wall includes an upper section pivotable relative to a lower section. At least one of the adjacent edges of the upper section and the lower section is contoured away from the other when the upper section is in the closed position. The contoured edge provides improved access to the interior of the container when the upper section is in the retracted position.
US07896183B2

A refuse container comprising a lower member having lower side walls, upper wall sections, a hinge for pivotally mounting the upper wall sections one to the other such that the upper wall sections may be opened and closed, at least one section fastener for securing the upper wall sections together in a closed position, and a wall securing device that provides support for coupling the upper wall sections to the lower side walls. The present invention allows both of the upper walls sections to be releasably attached to the lower side walls using a combination of annular protrusions and recesses, and at least one section fastener that couples the upper wall sections to each other, thereby allowing easy access to the contents of the container such that a trash liner may be easily removed and the refuse container may be easily cleaned.
US07896182B1

A container for facilitating bulk storage and transport of goods, which includes a top portion, a base portion, and a sidewall portion which define an interior cavity, and a polyurea layer of sufficient thickness adhering to and coating at least the exterior areas of the top, base and sidewall portions. The top, base, and sidewall portions are preferably composed of polystyrene. The sidewall portion further includes a plurality of panels, wherein each of the plurality of panels includes end portions configured for interlocking engagement with one another to form a rigid joint exhibiting tensile strength.
US07896181B1

The present invention is directed to a multi-functional bottle including a threaded cap, a protector seal, a tube member, a snap-off cap member, and a bottle to allow a person to have a multi-functional bottle that contains an optional cartridge for storing powdered products, e.g., baby formula, and/or solid objects such as lottery tickets or novelty items.
US07896180B2

An improved drinking container for soft drinks, flavored drinks as well as other similar nutritional and energy supplement drink products which allow the end user to control the amount of flavor, mix, nutritional or energy supplement or any other additive added to the liquid drink product. The drinking container and method associated therewith permits an end user of the drinking container to controllably inject an additive into the liquid drink product to attain a desired ratio of additive in the drink product via a dispenser having measurement units marked or formed thereon to provide controlled amounts of the additive to the main liquid drink product such as water or carbonated water for flavoring, calorie control and/or nutritional supplements.
US07896174B2

An accessory tray for a pressure washer. The accessory tray of some embodiments has an accessory supporting portion for supporting and/or storing accessories of the pressure washer. The accessory supporting portion has a concave surface, which allows the accessories to be supported substantially normal to the ground regardless of the relative angle between the accessory tray and the ground. Some embodiments also have a flexible cantilevered member positioned above a portion of the accessory tray to trap an accessory against the accessory tray. Some embodiments can have a hose hook that supports and stores a hose of the pressure washer. The hose hook has a concave shape to allow the hose to be supported substantially normal to the ground.
US07896169B2

A variety of improved hydroclone based fluid filtering systems are described. The hydroclones generally include a tank having an internal chamber and a filter (preferably a surface filter) that is positioned within the internal chamber. The filter defines a filtered fluid chamber within the internal chamber of the tank. The hydroclone may be operated such that a vortex of flowing fluid is formed between the chamber wall and the filter with the filter being located in the center of the vortex. With this arrangement, the filter acts as a cross-flow filter. In one aspect of the invention, the filter is a stepped filter. In another aspect of the invention, the filter is an surface filter, as for example, an electroformed metal surface filter. In some preferred embodiments, the openings in the filter are arranged as slots that extend substantially vertically so that they are oriented substantially perpendicular to the flow path of fluid flowing in the adjacent portion of the vortex. In another aspect of the invention, a circulating cleaning assembly is provided in the hydroclone region. The cleaning assembly is arranged to help clean the filter and is driven by the vortex of flowing fluid formed in the hydroclone region of the internal chamber. In yet another aspect of the invention, improved hydroclone intake structures are described. The described hydroclones may be used to filter water and other fluids in a wide variety of applications.
US07896165B2

A materials classifying cyclone with at least one vibrator for transmitting generated vibrations into the downwardly swirling slurry of materials to interrupt the flow pattern thereof so that some of the smaller particles trapped in the outer portions of the slurry are freed for movement into the vortex of the cyclone to increase the operating efficiency of the cyclone. In a first embodiment, the cyclone has a solid metallic conical housing with the vibrator attached to the periphery of the housing. In a second embodiment, a plurality of longitudinal struts in spaced apart relationship provide the conical housing with open sides with the vibrator mounted on one of the struts which transmit the vibrations to abrasion resistant liners mounted in the housing. In still another embodiment, the vibrator is coupled to an abrasion resistant liner which is exposed in one of the open spaces of the conical housing.
US07896148B2

The present invention relates to methods and systems for receiving and distributing currency. In particular, the present invention provides a novel apparatus for the inflow and outflow of a variety of currency. The systems of the present invention are capable of recycling a variety of currency from multiple countries and multiple denominations. The systems of the present invention have the added advantage of compact size.
US07896138B2

The invention concerns an arrangement and a method for controlling the power supply of the load of an elevator system. The arrangement has at least a monitoring unit and at least one controllable power source. The controllable power source is connected between the load of an elevator system and the monitoring unit such that the power supply of the load of the elevator system can be controlled by means of a control signal transmitted to the controllable power source by the monitoring unit. The monitoring unit according to the invention contains at least one input for determining the status of at least one safety switch of the elevator system. On the basis of the status of the safety switch a control signal either having pulses or being in a static state is sent with the monitoring unit to at least one controllable power source.
US07896106B2

A rotary drag bit exhibiting enhanced cutting efficiency and extended life is provided. The rotary drag bit comprises a bit body having a face surface, and a plurality of cutters coupled to the face surface of the bit body. The plurality of cutters comprises at least one pilot cutter and a rotationally trailing larger, primary cutter at substantially the same radius and, optionally of slightly less exposure. The pilot cutter is sized and positioned to pre-fracture the formation and perform an initial cut, while the primary cutter removes weakened, remaining formation material along the same rotational path. A method to pre-fracture subterranean formations using a rotary drag bit having a pilot cutter configuration is also provided.
US07896098B2

Power tools are taught that may include, for example, means for detecting impact sounds generated, e.g. by a hammer strikes an anvil or by oil pulse from an oil unit. The detecting means may include a receiver (30) adapted to selectively convert sound within a narrow frequency range into electric signals. Preferably, the impact sounds fall within the narrow frequency range of the receiver (30). A processor 38 may be utilized to control the motor (22) in order to stop the rotation of the hammer when a pre-determined number of impact sounds has been detected by the detecting means. In addition or in the alternative, various means for setting various operating conditions are taught, including dials 34, sound sensors 30, keypads and remote control devices 250. Further, means for performing maintenance condition status checks are taught.
US07896097B2

An electric power tool includes a planetary gear reduction mechanism, a switch mechanism, an impact mechanism, a hammer mechanism, a torque fixing mechanism, and a torque adjusting mechanism. The switch mechanism includes a driving member, a first driven member, and a second driven member. A switching member is provided on the electric power tool and connected to the driving member to move it, and the driving member may drive the first driven member and the second driven member respectively to start or shut the impact mechanism and the hammer mechanism.
US07896095B2

A soil aeration apparatus may include aeration tines that are actuated by a relatively compact gear system that reduces the size and weight of the apparatus. In addition, a soil aeration apparatus may operate without a centrally disposed support shaft, thus enabling the tine-holder shafts to be positioned closer to one another and reducing the size of the apparatus.
US07896092B2

Device to extinguish a fire produced in a building, characterized by having a bomb comprising a hollow body whose inner part carries a load of a fire-retarding component and an actuator that, when it hits the surface of the building, activates a detonator that makes the charge explode, scattering the fire-retarding component over the whole surface area of the radius of action, the detonator and explosive charge contained inside a receptacle and the detonator being connected by means of an electrical wire to one or various actuators installed on the surface of the body of the bomb.
US07896084B2

Apparatus and methods are provided to prevent an operator from inadvertently dropping a string into a wellbore during assembling and disassembling of tubulars. Additionally, the apparatus and methods may be used to for running in casing, running in wellbore components or for a drill string.
US07896079B2

A technique facilitates a water flood, e.g. dump flood, operation. A standard electric submersible pumping system is deployed in a wellbore to draw water from an aquifer or water source zone along the wellbore. A shroud and a crossover port are used in combination with the submersible pumping system to redirect pumped water downwardly along an isolated flow path. The downward flow of pumped water is directed along the wellbore and injected into a desired, injection zone to facilitate recovery of oil or to perform other types of water flood operations.
US07896078B2

A method of enhancing the productivity of a subterranean formation penetrated by a gas, oil or geothermal well consists of introducing into the formation and/or well a pumpable polymerizable fluid comprising a crosslinkable, monofunctional alkene, multi-functional alkene (such as a difunctional alkene), a heat inducible free radical initiator and brine. The fluid may be used in the thermal insulation of production tubing or transfer pipes and hydraulic fracturing.
US07896061B2

The objective of the present invention is to provide a product that is superior in barrier properties (for example, zinc erosion resistance and anti-adhesive property), abrasion resistant property, surface hardening property, thermal stability and life-time prolonging property. The product, which is made in direct contact with molten metal containing zinc in a molten state, is characterized by including an iron-tungsten alloy coating that is applied to a part or the whole of the surface of the product that comes directly in contact with the molten metal.
US07896052B2

The present invention is a bonding apparatus which bonds a first object to be bonded and a second object to be bonded by bringing a bonding member into contact with an upper surface of the second object to be bonded placed on an upper surface of the first object to be bonded and ultrasonically vibrating the second object to be bonded by the bonding member, and the bonding member includes: a contact portion brought into contact with the second object to be bonded; and a holding portion holding the second object to bonded. With this structure, it is possible to prevent the object to bonded from sliding sideways to thereby properly bond the objects to be bonded to each other, even with a low pressing force.
US07896030B2

The present invention provides a joint member which suppresses the increase of the number of members and enables the provision of a further compactified integrated fluid control apparatus.A sensor-equipped joint member 10 includes a channel block 41 including a V-shaped channel 41a formed therein for communicating adjacent fluid control devices 16 and 20 to each other at their lower-end openings, and a pressure sensor 42 provided on a side surface of the channel block 41. The channel block 41 is provided with a branched channel 41b which is branched from the V-shaped channel 41a and is communicated to the pressure sensor 42.
US07896028B2

A control device includes a valve body, a seat ring, and an actuator. The valve body defines a flow-path for a fluid. The seat ring is disposed within the flow-path. The actuator is coupled to the valve body and includes a control member. The control member is adapted for displacement relative to the seat ring for regulating a flow of the fluid through the flow-path. The control member includes a scaling disk adapted to sealingly engage the seat ring and close the flow-path. The seat ring includes an orifice disposed within the flow-path such that the seat ring prevents at least a portion of the flow of the fluid from substantially perpendicularly impacting the sealing disk.
US07896025B2

A valve assembly for controlling water flow to a water delivery device. The valve assembly includes a valve body and a valve cartridge sealingly received within the valve body.
US07896014B1

A bike multi-functional rainproof assembly comprises a foldable frame having a foldable tube; a front end of the foldable tube being installed with a joint for connecting with a quick connecting rotary seat; a box having a front end combed with a rear retaining frame; the rear retaining frame for connecting to a rear side of a bike seat; the box having a lock and a ring; releasing the ring, a box bottom can be opened; the box bottom being installed with a telescopic rod set; and the telescopic rod set including a main frame, a movable rotary seat, a quick connecting rotary seat, a telescopic frame, and a sub-telescopic frame; the sub-telescopic frame being installed with a waterproof cloth; after the interior components of the telescopic rod set is expanded and fixed, the waterproof cloth having the effect of waterproof.
US07896003B2

A patient interface device that includes a body portion comprising a pair of arms and a chin support. A first end portion of each arm in the pair of arms is coupled to an opposite end of the chin support. The chin support is adapted to be disposed under the mandible responsive to the patient interface device being donned by a user. At least one headgear attachment element is provided on each arm in the pair of arms. A circuit portion is provided at a second end portion of each arm in the pair of arm. A patient interface portion is coupled to the circuit portion.
US07896001B2

There is provided a pressure-responsive device (40) suitable for use in an inhaler, the pressure-responsive device (40) comprising a closed frame (42) over which is fixed a membrane (44), a tongue (46) being supported on the membrane (44). Two upstanding wings (50) are integrally moulded with the tongue (46) and incorporate square apertures (52). A method of manufacturing the pressure-responsive device (40) is also provided.
US07896000B2

An integrated, modular solar collector comprising an array of solar collection devices, wherein the array of solar collection devices is mounted in a frame providing for air flow, piping and/or electrical connections between the devices.
US07895977B2

A device for the safe handling of nonhuman primates includes a transparent elongated body having a top end and a bottom end. A ventilated lid is attached to the top end of the body by means of a hinge and includes a positive locking arrangement. The bottom end of the body is removably connected to a base which has first and second springs attached thereto. The body includes a plurality of apertures into which are positioned a plurality of inserts. Inserts proximate the bottom of the body include projections which are positioned under the first and second springs to maintain the body on the base.
US07895966B2

A tank handle or cap is designed for the convenience of the consumer. One aspect of the invention cap allows the end user to determine at a glace and from a distance if the tank is full or empty based on color distinction and/or word imprints on different sides (halves) of the invention cap. The cap is removably securable to the tank in different orientations to effectively expose the telling side of the invention cap. This allows the user the ability not to have to go over to the tank and lift the tank to gauge if the tank is full or not. This will reduce the risk of possible back injury. Other design features include an easy-to-use grip and open and close directional indicators to allow clear and concise understanding and operation of tank valves.
US07895964B2

A retractable boat top device is disclosed having an arched canopy assembly operatively deployed in mounted attachment upon a conventional radar arch or like elevated structure on the deck of a boat. The arched canopy assembly includes a stationery roof section formed having a curved planar surface transversely mounted within the radar arch, a pair of telescoping extension arms mounted on opposite sides of the roof section, and an arched roller assembled to hold a flexible canopy material thereon and operatively connected between the outer ends of the extension arms so that the flexible canopy material may be extended and retracted relative to the stationery roof section in an arched configuration substantially in the same plane as the roof section. The arched roller includes a curved roller bar supported coaxially within the bore of a flexible hose member that supports the canopy material in a rolled-up state and further includes torsion spring members mounted along opposite sides of the roller bar to maintain tension upon the canopy material during roll-out and retraction.
US07895953B2

A structural support for supporting a food guard shield includes first and second spaced apart sheet-like arms and at least one spacer positioned between the sheet-like arms. The first and second sheet-like arms can be securely connected to each other or to the at least one spacer to form a substantially rigid structure for supporting the food guard shield. The support can have a variety of shapes, including shapes resembling alphanumeric character and logos.
US07895946B2

A weapon and weapon system, and methods of manufacturing and operating the same. In one embodiment, the weapon includes a warhead including destructive elements and a guidance section with a target sensor configured to guide the weapon to a target. The target sensor includes a front lens configured to provide a cover to protect the target sensor from an environment and a fast fresnel lens behind the front lens to provide a multi-lens focusing system for the target sensor. In a related embodiment, the weapon includes an aft section including a tail fin having a modifiable control surface area thereby changing an aspect ratio thereof.
US07895944B2

Bailing systems and methods for bailing a material into bales. The bailing systems may include a movement mechanism, a compactor disposed downstream of the movement mechanism and a controller in wired or wireless communication with the movement mechanism and the compactor. In some examples, the movement mechanism includes an arm, a first sensor configured to collect dynamic arm position data, and a second sensor configured to collect dynamic movement parameter data. In some examples, the controller includes instructions for determining the length of the material by comparing dynamic arm position data and dynamic movement parameter data. In some examples, the compactor includes a ram, a block, and an actuator configured to move the block between a passageway position and a ram position.
US07895943B2

A system for extracting liquid from a mass comprising a portable platform having an upper surface, a system mass input, a polymer feeding and blending system on the upper surface, a liquid extraction assembly on the upper surface, and piping having a first section between the system mass input and the polymer feeding and blending system, and a second section between the polymer feeding and blending system and the liquid extraction assembly. The system is configured to have mass inputted into the system mass input, transport the mass to the polymer feeding and blending system through the first section of the piping, inject polymer into the mass in the polymer feeding and blending system, and transport the mass from the polymer feeding and blending system to the liquid extraction assembly. Pressure from mass forced into the liquid extraction assembly forces liquid in the mass to exit the mass.
US07895936B2

The invention relates to a piston of an internal combustion engine comprising an upper part (1) and a lower part (3) that consist of a respective light metal alloy (15) and to an associated method for increasing the thermal load-bearing capacity of a multi-part piston that is subjected to high thermal stress in an internal combustion engine. The piston is provided with at least one insulating element, in particular a gap (7) between the lower part (3) and the upper part (1), at least one piston ring carrier (6), which consists of a different material from that of the upper part (1) and the lower part (3), in particular of steel or grey cast iron, being located next to said gap as a component. A thermal current that is introduced into the piston base (2) is prevented from dissipating via the piston ring carrier (6) by means of the insulating element.
US07895927B2

Woodworking machines and safety methods for use with those machines are disclosed. The machines include a detection system adapted to detect one or more dangerous conditions and a reaction system associated with the detection system. The reaction system can include an explosive to trigger the system, and also can be configured to retract a cutting tool at least partially away from a cutting region upon detection of a dangerous condition by the detection system.
US07895924B2

A socket connection device including a main body; a slide rod installed in the main body and slidable along the main body, a shallow depression and a deep depression being formed on a front end of the slide rod; and a ball body inlaid in a through hole of the main body. In normal state, a bottom edge of the ball body falls on the shallow depression and a top edge of the ball body protrudes out of the main body. When the slide rod moves to a position where the deep depression is aligned with the through hole, the ball body moves into the deep depression without protruding out of the main body. In the invention, a center of the ball body is positioned outside a bottom wall of the shallow depression. When fitting a socket on the connection device, the socket presses the ball body to drive the slide rod slide, whereby the ball body drops into the deep depression. Therefore, the socket can be directly connected with the device without performing any additional operation.
US07895921B2

A ratchet tool includes a head and a handle, a ratchet is received in the space and two pawl sets are respectively received in two recesses defined in the inner periphery of the space. Each pawl set has a pawl and a spring which biases the pawl to be engaged with the teeth of the ratchet. Each pawl has a flat surface defined in the end having the engaging teeth. An operation member has a flange which is rotatably engaged with a groove defined in the inner periphery of the space and the flange includes a pressing surface which presses one of the flat surfaces of the two pawls by operating the operation member. By choosing one of the pawls to be engaged with the ratchet, the ratchet tool can output torque in desired direction.
US07895909B2

A movement conversion device (4) for a motor-driven, hand-held, power tool (2) for converting a rotational movement into a linear reciprocating movement includes an axially reciprocating spindle (10), a motor-driven driving gear (20), an eccentric member (16) displaceably supported on the driving gear (20) and extending into the connecting link guide (14) provided at a spindle end for converting the rotational movement of the driving gear (20) into the reciprocating movement of the reciprocating spindle (10), the eccentric member (16) having a first position with respect to a rotational axis (D) of the driving gear (20) in which a distance (a) between the eccentric member (16) and the rotational axis (D) is greater than in at least one second position of the eccentric member (16), and a load-controlled spacing device associated with the eccentric member (16) for automatically adjusting the distance (a) between the eccentric member (16) and the rotational axis (D) of the driving gear (20).
US07895898B2

A negative pressure gauge includes a body and a multi-stage positioning means. The body is provided with an airflow passage. The multi-stage positioning means includes a rotary piece and a cover plate. The rotary piece is pivotally connected to the body and is provided with positioning recesses and venting troughs. The cover plate covers the rotary piece and is fixedly connected to the body. The cover plate extends to form a positioning protrusion corresponding to the positioning recesses. When the rotary piece rotates with respect to the cover plate, the positioning recesses allow the positioning protrusion to be selectively positioned therein and control the communication or obstruction between the venting troughs and the airflow passage.
US07895896B2

A pressure sensor includes a housing, a pressure input orifice opened on a pipe sleeve formed on the housing, a diaphragm that seals the pressure input orifice and has one face as a pressure receiving face, a force transmitting unit connected to a central area of the other face of the diaphragm in the housing, and a pressure sensitive element whose detection direction of a force is a detection axis. A displacement direction and the detection axis of the force transmitting unit are roughly orthogonal to the pressure receiving face. One end and the other end of the pressure sensitive element are respectively fixed to the housing and the force transmitting unit with an adhesive therebetween, and the adhesive is an inorganic adhesive.
US07895893B2

A method for operating a vibrating gyroscope and to a sensor arrangement comprising such a vibrating gyroscope, wherein the vibrating gyroscope is used as a resonator and is part of at least one control circuit that excites the vibration gyroscope by feeding an excitation signal with its natural frequency. An output signal can be tapped from the vibrating gyroscope from which the excitation signal can be derived by filtering and amplification. In accordance with the invention, once a sensor arrangement comprising the vibrating gyroscope is switched on, an initial value for the natural frequency is calculated from a previously measured value of the natural frequency stored in a memory and parameters that effect a modification of the natural frequency since start of the measurement, and the excitation signal is fed to the vibrating gyroscope with the calculated initial value of the frequency.
US07895892B2

A rotation sensor has a substrate with a first surface and a second surface. A shear-wave transparent mirror is arranged on the first surface of the substrate, and a shear-wave isolator is arranged above the shear-wave transparent mirror, the shear-wave transparent mirror and the shear-wave isolator being arranged separated from each other to define a Coriolis zone there between. A bulk-acoustic-wave resonator is arranged above the shear-wave isolator, and a shear-wave detector is arranged on the substrate in a direction, in which a shear-wave generated by the bulk-acoustic-wave resonator upon rotation propagates.
US07895887B2

The present invention aims to coaxially aligning a tire with support rims with high accuracy by eliminating an effect of a tread outer surface.A radial inner end position of the bead portion of the tire his detected by a photoelectric sensor at circumferentially separated four points, and a deviation between the central axis of the tire and the central axis of a pair of support rims. The bead portion of the tire, which is an subject of the detection of the inner end position, is a portion where its dimension and shape are hardly changed even if the tire runs (i.e., is used) for a long time, so that the above-mentioned deviation can be determined at a high accuracy to, thereby, conduct a center alignment of the tire with the support rims at a high accuracy.
US07895886B2

An evaluation method for pneumatic tires and a system thereof, is provided, capable of appropriately evaluating an adverse effect, such as deterioration, of tire temperature by expressing severity of a temperature imposed on a member of tire made of rubber or the like in quantitative and convenient manners. Detection counts are calculated for each detected temperature according to a detection counts calculating unit 102 based on information of temperatures of pneumatic tires detected by a temperature sensor of a temperature detector 101. Temperature severity numbers of the pneumatic tires are calculated from a computing equation by a severity calculating unit 104 based on the detection counts and contribution coefficients of deterioration of tire rubber with temperatures stored in a contribution coefficient storage 103 as parameters. Using the calculated temperature severity number, a determination unit 105 determines thermal deterioration of the tire.
US07895882B2

A method and apparatus are disclosed for using an acceleration of a flow control system to determine the density of a fluid relative to the density of an in-line flow object.
US07895871B2

The invention relates to a rolling device (1) comprising at least two working rolls (2, 3) which are respectively mounted in a roll stand (6) by means of working roll assembly pieces (4, 5). At least one of the working rolls (2, 3) is adjustable relative to the other working roll (2, 3) within the roll stand (6), especially in a vertical direction, so as to adjust a desired rolling gap. At east one working roll (2, 3) is effectively connected to bending means (7), with the aid of which said working roll (2, 3) can be impinged upon by a bending moment. The working roll assembly piece (4, 5) is provided with arms (9, 10) that laterally protrude relative to the axis (8) of the working roll (2, 3) to absorb the force generated by the bending means (7). In order to improve the adjustability of the rolling device to a large ascent, a pressure-transmitting element (12) which can be displaced relative to the roll stand (6), particularly in a vertical direction, is disposed between a pressure-generating element (11) of the bending means (7), especially a piston, and the protruding arm (9, 10) of the working roll assembly piece (4, 5).
US07895868B2

A cylinder lock includes a sleeve having a plurality of locking holes, a key plug housed in the sleeve and having an output portion to output an interrupted motion of a clutch device by moving in an insertion and extraction direction by an insertion and extraction of a matching key, and a plurality of key matching members movably supported to the key plug, arranged to be insertable and removable in the plurality of locking holes respectively, and withdrawn from the plurality of locking holes respectively by an insertion of the matching key into the key plug. A portion of key matching members among the plurality of key matching members has a hook protruding toward a key insertion direction, and the sleeve has an engaging portion engaging with the hook by a movement in a key insertion direction of the key plug in locking holes among the plurality of locking holes which correspond to the portion of key matching members in the state that the plurality of key matching members are inserted into the plurality of locking holes.
US07895866B2

A cylinder lock assembly includes a cylinder body and a plug assembly which is manufactured in a multiple of pieces to facilitate casting of each plug piece in a single operation. The plug assembly includes a plug body with a plug insert opening to receive a plug insert. The plug insert opening is generally L-shaped in cross-section to receive the plug insert which is correspondingly shaped. The plug insert includes a plug outer portion which defines an arcuate outer surface which corresponds with the outer circumference of the plug body when the plug insert is mounted therein. A plug pin chamber portion extends generally transverse to the plug outer portion to define a multiple of tumbler pin chambers which extend through the plug outer portion.
US07895865B2

The present application relates to lock assemblies that provide a secondary coupling point, utilizing an anti-rotation pin or extended tailpiece leg or other method, which rotationally couples the tailpiece to the cylinder plug, thereby preventing rotation of the tailpiece independently of the cylinder plug. Therefore, a tailpiece within a bolt cam or other actuator used to withdraw a bolt or unlock a lockset cannot be rotated after the tailpiece connector connecting the tailpiece to the cylinder plug has been forcibly removed, severed, or destroyed.
US07895864B2

An additive dispenser includes a fluid-retaining chamber. A siphoning post extends upward from a lower surface of the fluid-retaining chamber and cooperates with a cap or other structure so as to form a siphon chamber. When water is added to the chamber and a liquid level rises above an inlet to the siphoning element, a siphoning effect draws fluid from the chamber. When the siphoning effect is interrupted, any unsiphoned fluid remaining in the chamber exits by permeation through one or more porous elements located in a base of the chamber.
US07895861B2

A conformable nosing device is described herein which conforms to have a bowed shape that substantially matches a bowed shape of a glass sheet and which engages the glass sheet to help minimize the motion of the glass sheet and to help reduce the stress within the glass sheet while the glass sheet is being scored and separated into individual glass sheets. In addition, the conformable nosing device can include a passive nosing device which can be controlled to further help minimize the motion of the glass sheet while the glass sheet is being scored and separated into individual glass sheets.
US07895854B2

A refrigeration system for controlling airflow around an air-cooled heat generating device having a plurality of components includes a refrigerant line split into second refrigerant lines, which are arranged in a parallel configuration with respect to each other. Evaporators are positioned along the second refrigerant lines and in the path of airflow supplied into the components or airflow exhausted from the components. The refrigeration system further includes a variable speed compressor and a controller for controlling the speed of the variable speed compressor. Furthermore, the refrigeration system includes a temperature sensor configured to transmit signals related to a detected temperature to the controller, and the controller is configured to vary the speed of the variable speed compressor based upon the detected temperature.
US07895845B2

An adaptive defrost control for a frozen product machine implements an algorithm that utilizes various operating parameters of the machine to adaptively adjust the time interval between successive defrost cycles in a manner such that defrost cycles occur only on an as-needed basis. The adaptive defrost control minimizes the time during which the machine is in a defrost cycle, thereby maximizing the uptime of the machine during which frozen product can be prepared.
US07895839B2

A combined circulation condenser for a steam cycle apparatus is disclosed. The steam cycle apparatus includes a steam generator with a port for receiving a fluid. The steam generator presents heat to the fluid to generate steam that is directed out another port, which presents the steam to a turbine to generate electrical power. The turbine has an outlet that directs an exhaust steam into a condenser. A fluid flow system is inside the condenser, which directs cooling water along a pathway through the condenser so that the cooling water cools the exhaust steam, forming condensate. A condensate pump collects and pumps the condensate along another pathway through the condenser so that the condensate can additionally cool the exhaust steam. Simultaneously, the exhaust steam warms the condensate. This pathway directs the condensate to a feed pump, which pumps the condensate back to the steam generator through the generator's input port.
US07895837B2

A differential hydraulic master cylinder (10) has a cylinder body (12) in which is provided a larger diameter first chamber (18) and a smaller diameter second chamber (20). A first fluid passageway (60, 74, 78, 80) connects the first chamber (18) with a source of ambient pressure and contains a pressure relief valve (70) for connecting the first chamber with said source of ambient pressure when the pressure in the first chamber reaches a threshold value. A second fluid passageway (76, 78, 80, 82) connects the first chamber (18) with an outlet (11) and the second chamber (20). A non-return valve (72) is located in the second passageway to prevent hydraulic fluid from flowing from the second chamber (20) to the first chamber (18) at least when the pressure relief valve (70) is open. The non-return valve (72) and the pressure relief valve (70) each have a movable valve member (100, 102, 88; 122) which are mechanically interconnected.
US07895831B2

An exhaust emission control system for an internal combustion engine with a filter provided in the exhaust system of the engine, for collecting particulates from exhaust gases. An ECU carries out the post injection for additionally injecting fuel into a combustion chamber of the engine after a combustion stroke of the engine to thereby perform a regeneration operation for regenerating the filter. A vehicle speed sensor detects a travel distance of a vehicle on which the engine is installed, and the ECU calculates a post injection allowable amount such that the post injection allowable amount increases in accordance with increase in the detected travel distance. During execution of the post injection, the amount of fuel injected through the post injection is subtracted from the post injection allowable amount, and when the post injection allowable amount becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined first threshold value, the post injection is inhibited.
US07895829B2

A DPF and a SCR catalyst are provided in an exhaust pipe, and a urea solution addition valve is provided between the DPF and the SCR catalyst for performing addition supply of urea solution into the exhaust pipe. In a urea solution supply system, the urea solution of prescribed concentration is stored in a urea solution tank, and a urea solution pump is provided in the tank. A urea solution supply pipe is connected to the urea solution pump. A part of the urea solution supply pipe is structured as a compound pipe structure defining two passages. One of the two passages serves as a urea solution passage, and the other one serves as an engine coolant passage.
US07895828B2

The present invention relates to a structure of a liquid reducing agent injection nozzle in an exhaust emission purifying system arranged to inject and supply a liquid reducing agent into an exhaust flow passage so as to reduce and purify NOx in exhaust gas. A nozzle tip end portion of the liquid reducing agent injection nozzle which protrudes from a wall surface of an exhaust flow passage into the passage, is bent obliquely with respect to an exhaust flow direction, or nozzle holes of the nozzle tip end portion are formed so as to tilt in the exhaust flow direction with respect to a radial direction perpendicular to a center axis of the nozzle tip end portion or are unevenly distributed in the circumferential direction of the nozzle tip end portion.
US07895819B2

A system for driving a fuel pump in a turbine engine is disclosed. The system includes an electric motor and a fluid flow assistance unit controlled by a control valve. In the system, the control valve is a regulator valve the opening of which is controlled as a function of information representative of the speed of the pump, and/or the speed of the turbine engine, and/or the flow rate of fuel delivered to the turbine engine. As a result, operating safety of the turbine engine can be increased in the event of the electric motor failing or of its electricity generator failing, and the weight/size/cost ratios of the drive system are improved.
US07895809B2

A support beam and attachment clevis assembly having a pair of “J” beams, each “J” beam having a stem and a tail, each “J” beam's tail having a distal end and a longitudinal extension, each “J” beam's stem having an upper end and a longitudinal extension, the longitudinal extension of each “J” beam's stem being greater than that of said each “J” beam's tail; and incorporating a plurality of blind rivets interconnecting the pair of “J” beams so that the distal end of each “J” beam's tail contacts the upper end of the other “J” beam's stem.
US07895806B2

Interlocking insulated wall sections (20-24), each of which contains a shell (30) having an outer panel (33) and a pair of end walls (35-36). A cover (31) is having an inner panel (38) and two end walls (39-40) is fitted over the shell. A first end wall (39) of the cover is mounted in contact with an end wall (35) of the shell and a second end wall (40) of the cover passes into the shell between the two end walls of the shell. An L-shaped flange (43) is connected to the second end wall of the cover and has a first leg of the flange (44) that rests in contact with the inner panel and a second leg of the flange (45) rests in contact with the other end wall of the shell. A space (50) is thus provided between the two panels of the wall section and is filled with an insulation (55). Each wall section is dimensioned so that it can be received in the opening between the second end wall of the cover and the end flange so that two wall sections can be interlocked together in assembly.
US07895799B2

The present application includes disclosure of various embodiments of composite construction beams and beam systems. In at least one exemplary embodiment of a composite construction beam of the present disclosure, the beam comprises an elongated shell having a length and an interior volume, wherein the elongated shell defines a first aperture. An exemplary construction beam further comprises a first conduit within the interior volume of the elongated shell, the first conduit having a curved profile extending along a longitudinal direction of the beam, and a second conduit within the interior volume of the elongated shell, the second conduit extending along at least a portion of the length of the elongated shell, wherein the first conduit and the second conduit are in communication with one another. In at least one embodiment, a construction beam of the present disclosure comprises a first flange positioned upon the elongated shell relative to the first aperture.
US07895797B2

A vehicular drive-thru food ordering and delivering system and method are provided. The system includes a lot, a drive-thru lane and a building for receiving and filling drive-thru orders. The building has a primary food delivery window for passing ready orders to drive-thru customers, and a downstream in-line parking area for drive-thru vehicles having a delayed order. Proximate to and downstream from the primary food delivery window is a doorway for attendant access from the primary food delivery window to the downstream in-line parking area. An attendant runway is proximate and downstream of the doorway and proximate to the in-line vehicle waiting area. A customer with a delayed order can be directed to wait in the downstream in-line waiting area. When the delayed order is ready for delivery, an attendant can deliver the ready order via the proximate doorway and proximate attendant runway to a vehicle waiting in the in-line vehicle waiting area.
US07895795B1

An elastic space-deployable boom of carbon fiber reinforced plastic or other resilient material having an open substantially triangular cross-section when deployed and stowed with a flattened cross-section about a circular hub.
US07895790B2

An algae cultivation apparatus includes a light guide plate, at least one transparent circulating channel, at least one light emission module, an algae guide-in module, an algae collection module, a gas guide-in module, a gas collection module, a culture medium guide-in module, a temperature control module and a pH value control module. With the installation of the light guide plate and at least one light emission module, a 24-hour light source can be introduced to improve the production efficiency of an algae.
US07895789B2

Soft or pliable spinning appendages can be attached to any fishing lure, hard or soft, using a swivel mechanism that provides unrestricted 360° rotation. The appendages increase attractiveness, flash, vibration, color, or scent. Due to their slow spinning speed and neutral buoyancy in water, the appendages provide unique properties to slow-moving lures not possible with prior art hard blades. A weedless swivel mechanism is also provided.
US07895782B2

A light box display configured for frontal access to change out graphics and to perform maintenance tasks. This is accomplished in the present invention while assuring that the graphics is held in a state of moderate tension to retain the graphics in a flat and properly oriented configuration. In the preferred embodiment, the light box comprises a moveable interior frame to which the graphics sheet and diffuser are both secured. The moveable interior frame rests on a plurality of upper and lower slides which facilitate movement of the inner frame. Such movement is controlled, in part, by at least one pneumatic piston which biases the frame toward the front of the light box and provides a mechanical lock that holds the frame in its rearward position to facilitate frontal access. The graphics sheet is held in place along the top and bottom front peripheral edges of the moveable frame by a plurality of spring-biased wire connection members within roller guides. One end of each wire member is attached to the rear peripheral surface of the moveable inner frame and the other end is threaded through a grommeted hole along the outer edge of the graphics sheet. Side spring-biased wire connection members are also provided.
US07895777B2

A display mounted on a shopping cart handle allows shoppers to find information, to obtain coupons, to refer to in-store audio or video programs, and the like.
US07895775B2

The present invention relates to a draghead (1) for a trailing suction hopper, comprising a visor (2), revolvable around a first axis (6) for removing soil, and a suction line (31) connected to the visor (2) for the removal of the loosened soil, characterised in that the draghead (1) is provided with a pressure plate (21), which comprises a number of mainly disc-shaped penetrating bodies (22) on the soil-facing side of the pressure plate (21), in such a way that their circumferential edge (23) is capable of transferring forces to the soil.
US07895768B2

Some embodiments of the invention provide a moisture absorbent hand-covering device that is in the form and shape of a glove for drying. In some embodiments, the drying glove of this invention has a first outer layer and a second inner layer. The outer layer comprises at least one layer of material with propensity to absorb at least one type of liquid. In some embodiments, the second inner layer comprises at least one layer of material with propensity to repel at least one type of liquid. The outer layer absorbs the liquid for the purpose of removing it. The inner layer resists passage of the liquid, and thus protects the hand of the user during operation. In some embodiments, the liquid absorbed is water, and the liquid repelled is water.
US07895762B2

A digital depth gauge is provided for measuring a depth of a hole in an object. In one embodiment the gauge includes: a user interface with a display and at least one actuator; a reader shaft with a distal end and a proximal end connected to the user interface; a probe that extends from the distal end of the reader shaft and which includes a tip configured to locate a distal surface of the hole; a sleeve member with a distal end configured to abut a proximal surface of the hole, the sleeve member being coupled with the reader shaft for relative translational and rotational movement; and a sensor interposed between the reader shaft and the sleeve member for measuring relative translational movement between the reader shaft and the sleeve member. In some embodiments, the gauge may include a means for aligning elements of the sensor.
US07895760B1

A sheet material holder assembly comprising a top body having a top surface, a handle projecting generally upward from the top surface, and a first magnetic piece affixed to the top body opposite the top surface and a base having a second magnetic piece, at least a portion of the first magnetic piece aligned atop at least a portion of the second magnetic piece. The base may also include a cradle for receiving a tab of the top body which may be a straightedge having markings. A sheet material may be placed between the top body and the base for use in cutting or other use.
US07895753B2

A shaving cutter assembly for an electric hair cutting appliance the shaving cutter assembly including a shaving cutter and a carrier to which the shaving cutter is fixedly connected via at least one metallic weld.
US07895745B2

The present invention includes a method for fabricating elongated wind turbine blades and wind turbine blades formed by the method. The method includes providing a first shell reinforcing fiber structure. At least one shear web reinforcing fiber structure is positioned adjacent to the first shell reinforcing fiber structure. The method includes infusing the first shell reinforcing fiber structure and shear web reinforcing fiber structure with a matrix material and curing the matrix material to form a unitary composite first shell component. Thereafter a composite second shell component is attached to the composite first shell component to form an elongated composite airfoil suitable for use as a wind turbine blade. The wind turbine blades formed include unitary components providing reduced number of adhesive joints.
US07895740B2

Methods of making analyte sensors for determining the concentration of an analyte, such as glucose, in a biological fluid such as blood or serum, using techniques such as coulometry, amperometry, and potentiometry are provided. The sensor includes a working electrode and a counter electrode, and may include an insertion monitoring trace to determine correct positioning of the sensor in a connector. The methods provide a sensor that is calibration-adjusted, eliminating the need for a user to enter a calibration code or for the meter to read a calibration code.
US07895732B2

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a perpendicular magnetic recording having a main pole, return pole and trailing side shield disposed on the trailing side and the cross track direction side of said main pole. A process is described where the main pole has an etching layer in the upper part. The top and sides of the main pole having the etching signal layer in the upper part are covered with a nonmagnetic gap layer while leaving open a region forming the side shield. The nonmagnetic gap layer is then etched until a signal from the etching signal layer is detected by an etching signal detector. The trailing side shield on the top and sides of the nonmagnetic gap layer are then formed after the etching is halted.
US07895726B2

There is disclosed a connector for tubing, in particular, expandable tubing sections. There is also disclosed a method of sealing a connection between tubing sections, in particular, expandable tubing sections.In one embodiment of the invention, a connector (10) is disclosed which is suitable for coupling expandable tubing sections (11,13) together. The connector (10) comprises first and second portions (12,14) adapted to be provided on respective expandable tubing sections (11, 13), at least one of the portions (12,14) including a seal profile (16) which is adapted to be urged into sealing engagement with the other portion (12,14) on expansion thereof.
US07895725B2

An improved process for manufacturing a biopsy needle assembly is provided. The process may comprise the steps of forming an aperture for receiving tissue to be sampled in an exterior surface of an elongated tube for receiving a cutter, wherein the elongated tube comprises a proximal portion and a distal portion; forming a hole in the exterior surface of the elongated tube; and applying a coating of material over the elongated tube to form a lumen for receiving vacuum on the exterior surface of the elongated tube, wherein the hole in the exterior surface of the elongated tube provides communication between an interior of the elongated tube and an interior of the lumen. In one version, the elongated tube may be placed in a mold configured to form the vacuum lumen when material is injected into the mold. A proximal hub may advantageously be formed by overmolding.
US07895724B1

A method for identifying tools using the steps of providing a tool, wherein the tool is chosen from the group including a wrench, a socket, a nut, and a bolt; applying an indicator being a color-coded indicia onto the tool, wherein the indicia is visible to a user, wherein the indicia aids in identifying the tool, wherein the colors are chosen from the group including blue, red, orange, yellow, green, brown, violet and light gray; wherein the indicia is a band, the band being substantially flat, the band being raised an effective distance above the surface of the tool, wherein the band can be felt by a user, wherein the band aids in identifying the tool; and, wherein the band has a single portion, wherein the single portion can be felt by a user to identify English size tools. The method uses a band having two interconnected portions, wherein the two interconnected portions can be felt by a user to aid in identifying metric size tools. Also, the indicator may be a protrusion shaped like a tear-drop, an “X” or “O” shaped indicator, or an o-ring shaped indicator.
US07895719B2

The security buckle includes a first body member having one or more walls defining a receiving cavity and one or more mating slots; and a second body member adapted to engage the receiving cavity, the second body member including one or more latching tabs for engaging the one or more mating slots wherein the second body member is inhibited from disengagement while the one or more latching tabs engage the one or more mating slots, and wherein the first body member includes a portion of the one or more walls defining a security slot adapted for receiving an interfering object that includes an engagement mode for insertion and removal from the slot and an interfering mode for inhibiting the one or more latching tabs from disengaging from the one or more mating tabs until the interfering object is transitioned to the engagement mode.
US07895718B2

A mechanical fastening system having an engaging component and a receiving component. The receiving component has a first bond line, a second bond line, a bond zone, and a plurality of consecutive sweep regions. The second bond line is disposed adjacent to the first bond line such that a portion of the second bond line overlaps a portion of the first bond line. The bond zone circumscribes the first bond line and the second bond line. The plurality of consecutive sweep regions are disposed within the bond zone. At least one sweep region includes a portion of both the first bond line and the second bond line, and the remaining sweep regions include at least a portion of the first or the second bond lines. The receiving component has a bond ratio greater than or equal to about 1 and less than or equal to about 20.
US07895715B2

A fleece-laying device for laying a fleece from a card web having a laying carriage movable above and transversely to an output conveyor belt, an upper carriage also movable transversely to the output conveyor belt, and a first card web conveyor belt and a second card web conveyor belt for guiding the card web via the upper carriage and the laying carriage into a laying nip formed in the laying carriage. The fleece-laying device includes a card web guiding area between the upper carriage and the laying carriage with two sections of the first and second card web conveyor belts holding the card web between them and being guided over at least one support roll mounted in a support carriage which is also movable transversely to the output conveyor belt.
US07895708B2

A hose assembly for a suction cleaner, comprising a suction hose portion which is able to be extended lengthwise when subject to lengthwise tension and to return to a lengthwise-contracted configuration when relieved of the lengthwise tension, and a support means extending lengthwise of the hose portion and co-operable therewith to constrain at least part of it in its contracted configuration. There may also be a hose portion which is substantially non-extendible in normal use.
US07895700B2

Disclosed is a cleaning device having a cleaning head to which a cleaning sheet is to be attached. The cleaning head has a pad whose bottom face functions as a cleaning part. The cleaning part has a recess, side contact parts on both sides of the recess and a rear contact part behind the recess. When a front portion of the cleaning head is pressed against a floor surface by a pushing force acting on the shaft, the recess prevents excessive frictional resistance. In addition, the cleaning sheet can be efficiently exploited because dirt can be collected also in the center of the cleaning part.
US07895696B2

A convertible implement is provided having a first implement with a first operable head connected to a first handle. The first implement is removably connected to a second implement having a second operable head connected to a second handle.
US07895692B1

The portable collapsible baby mattress apparatus provides multiple caregiving functions for an infant. The inflatable mattresses pads are selectively fastened to provide a horizontal mattress assembly, and selectively disassembled for portability and compact state. Functions include simulation of a caregivers heartbeat and breathing, entertainment and education for an infant via the view screen and speaker/mic, infant monitoring with alarm, and height and swivel adjustment of the view screen.
US07895691B2

An individual crib rail bumper providing protective padding in and around a child's crib to increase bodily protection and to provide additional comfort, support, and aesthetic design. An individual crib rail bumper is a long, cushioned, 2-sided, rectangular shaped soft protective material that securely wraps 360 degrees around each individual crib rail by use of strategically placed fasteners. A set of individual crib bumpers offers different fabric choices on each side and is designed to accommodate any size crib rail. They can easily be applied and are simple to remove for washing. The individual vertical crib bumpers also provide critical safety features that resolve long outstanding safety hazards of the standard and widely used conventional crib bumper.
US07895681B2

A protective structure for protecting a body from impact includes an inner layer of relatively flexible material, and which has a plurality of spaced-apart openings extending between opposite faces thereof and a corresponding plurality of protective units. Each protective unit includes a thin-wall, collapsible, fluid-tight enclosure with a volume of fluid filling the enclosure and at least one orifice in an enclosure wall that resistively vents fluid from the enclosure at a selected rate in response to an impact on the structure. The plurality of protective units are received in the plurality of openings so that corresponding first segments of the enclosures projecting form one face of the first layer together form a middle layer. Cooperating surfaces on the inner layer and each protective unit retain each protective unit in the corresponding opening in the inner layer. A method of making the protective units is also disclosed.
US07895679B2

Goggles include a lens frame and connection arms for a wearing belt. The connection arms are provided respectively at right and left parts on a side of a front surface of the lens frame. Each of the connection arms is selectively kept in a state that the arm overlaps and rests on the front surface of the lens frame, or in a state that the arm stays at a position with a space from the front surface of the lens frame after having moved rotationally on its inner end from the front surface of the lens frame outwardly. The goggles provide a preferable fitted comfortability to a wearer's face regardless of whether he uses a helmet or not and regardless of the thickness of the inner liner of the helmet.
US07900258B2

An automated analysis system identifies the presence of malicious P-code or N-code programs in a manner that limits the possibility of the malicious code infecting a target computer. The target computer system initializes an analytical virtual P-code engine (AVPE). As initialized, the AVPE comprises software simulating the functionality of a P-code or intermediate language engine as well as machine language facilities simulating the P-code library routines that allow the execution of N-code programs. The AVPE executes a target program so that the target program does not interact with the target computer. The AVPE analyzes the behavior of the target program to identify occurrence of malicious code behavior and to indicate in a behavior pattern the occurrence of malicious code behavior. The AVPE is terminated at the end of the analysis process, thereby removing from the computer system the copy of the target program that was contained within the AVPE.
US07900254B1

A technique for identifying reply mailer computer program viruses detects whether a reply message is generated in less than a threshold reply time and whether or not the reply message includes an attachment. The generation of a reply message in less than a threshold reply time and including an attachment is deemed indicative of an infected reply message and accordingly that message will be quarantined, deleted, disinfected or the like. The mail server using the present technique maintains a temporary log of email messages sent indicating the sender, the recipient, and the time of sending. This log is used to identify replies and determine whether or not those replies have been received in less than the reply threshold time.
US07900240B2

A computer-based system provides secure, configurable access to computer network resources. A human-readable language is provided for defining access policy rules. Rules in this language are converted in an automated fashion into filters applied within the various subsystems and components in a multi-layer security system. Network users are authenticated by an access control security system that obtains basic information about that user. Based on the user ID, a set of abstract policies can be retrieved. The retrieved policies are associated with the user and the groups associated with that user. Based on the retrieved rules, a set of rules for multiple layers of the network are generated and applied to those subsystems. Two or more of the subsystems may be placed in series with different types of processing occurring in each of the subsystems, reducing the workload of subsequent subsystems.
US07900230B2

An intelligent switching network for delivering satellite signals to a plurality of Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD). The network comprises a plurality of inputs, designed to receive a plurality of satellite signals, wherein the satellite signals are directed to the inputs based on an originating satellite for each of the satellite signals, a multiswitch, having a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs, wherein at least some of the inputs are coupled to the plurality of inputs and receive the satellite signals, and an interface, coupling the plurality of IRDs to the outputs of the multiswitch through the interface on a single cable, wherein the interface controls the flow of signals from the plurality of IRDs to the multiswitch and controls the flow of satellite signals to the plurality of IRDs based on commands from the IRDs to the interface.
US07900229B2

A system and method for utilizing user profiles in an interactive television system. An interactive television system includes a broadcast station, a set-top box, and a remote mobile or fixed unit. The system is configured to create and/or update a user profile in response to an access made in a first access mode. In response to detecting a user access in a second access mode, the system accesses the user profile, selects data based at least in part on the user profile, and transmits the data to the user.
US07900228B2

A graphical user interface (“GUI”) for a content management system is provided, such as to present television program information and/or information associated with other forms of multimedia content. In some situations, the GUI displays various types of information about multiple pieces of content that are currently appropriate for display, and one or more users may make various types of selections that affect the information being displayed. In addition, in some situations various techniques are employed to maintain a state of the GUI that is focused on one or more current selections as changes occur, such as to coordinate information display between multiple distinct information panes or other view areas of the GUI, to alter the information to be displayed in the GUI based on a selected piece of content, and/or to enable identification of a selected piece of content from within a large number of pieces of content.
US07900220B2

A slot-in disk drive device has a drive unit for providing power to move a slider and thus a sliding plate attached to the slider. Guiding slots on the sliding plate rotate a transmission bar. A guide pin is disposed on the transmission bar and moves with a loading stick. One end of a receiving bar is formed with a locking slot. A substrate having inclined slots arranged in parallel and used for guiding the receiving bar. A locking member mounted on the disk drive device has a stopper edge located on moving path of projecting guide pin of the transmission bar and a locking pin. One end of a pulling spring is fixed to the locking member so that the locking pin locks with the locking slot. One end of a restoring bar is mounted on the substrate, and a restoring torsion spring supports and restores the receiving bar.
US07900214B2

The current state of art for over-the-air (OTA) provisioning typically consists of a rigid set of operations that are suited to deliver a fixed content type. The runtime environment on the terminal is designed to handle a limited set of predefined content types and incapable of any content-adaptive or customized provisioning by the content provider or publisher. A system and method is provided for adaptable provisioning of an application program on a runtime environment of a terminal. The application includes generic application content. The method comprises the steps of configuring a provisioning API set including a generic API, such that the generic API is addressable by at least two dissimilar content types of the generic application content. The method also obtains an enabler related to a selected content type of the generic application content, such that the enabler is configured for executing provisioning instruction requests for the generic application content according to the selected application content. The method also provisions portions of the generic application content having the selected application content by using the enabler to access the generic API.
US07900212B2

A method of interfacing with a remote engine can include the step of instantiating at least one stateful bean, such as a stateful session Enterprise Java Bean. For each stateful bean instance, an engine can be allocated. Each stateful bean instance can be associated with an allocated engine, where each stateful bean instance can operate as an interface for accessing the associated engine. Each associated stateful bean can then be added to a bean pool so that bean instances in the bean pool are available for handling requests.
US07900211B2

Provided are methods, computer programs and apparatus for communication in a distributed object-oriented data processing environment. Requests for retrieval of data items from another data processing apparatus include embedded objects having executable class functions for performing operations at the target data processing apparatus. This has the advantages of the request implicitly sending data as well as requesting data and allows the request to perform a test on data within an object. Objects within the request can be embedded within each other with different encryption and compression applied to the different objects. As well as achieving communication efficiencies, the ability to selectively encrypt components of a request can be used to provide greater security. For example a store may be able to interpret the request, but credit details may be separately encrypted such that only a bank can decrypt that subcomponent of the request.
US07900204B2

Embodiments of apparatuses, methods, and systems for processing interrupts in a layered virtualization architecture are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a recognition logic, window logic, and evaluation logic. The event logic is to recognize an interrupt request. The window logic is to determine whether an interrupt window is open. The evaluation logic is to determine whether to transfer control to one of at least two virtual machine monitors in response to the interrupt request if the interrupt window is open.
US07900199B2

A method for creating a reusable library, including providing one or more functions, providing a function table for the provided one or more functions, and providing a configuration structure for communicating values between the provided one or more functions and a program that calls the reusable library. The program that calls the reusable library communicates a function table structure to the reusable library containing information as to which of the one or more functions are desirable. When those of the one or more functions that are not desirable contain dependencies, those dependencies are canceled.
US07900196B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus and computer usable program code for collecting information on wait states occurring during execution of a program. Filter criteria associated with a wait state are identified. A determination is made as to whether the filter criteria are met for the wait state. Information is collected about a set of requesters associated with the wait state in response to a determination that the filter criteria have been met.
US07900193B1

A system and method for identifying errors in a computer software include: identifying a potential problem in the computer software; triggering a portion of the computer software by the identified potential problem; determining a control flow graph and a data flow graph for the triggered portion of the computer software originating at the identified potential problem; and analyzing the control flow graph and the data flow graph to verify that the identified potential problem is an actual error. The potential problem may be identified using test tools such as a static analysis tool or a unit test tool.
US07900191B1

A system, method, distribution system, and computer readable medium for locating an element of a computing environment are described. The invention feature selecting a label within a state diagram associated with a graphical model and processing the selected label to generate a location identifier. The invention also features analyzing the location identifier to determine which element of a graphical model is associated with the location identifier and positioning the graphical model to display the element associated with the location identifier to a user viewing the graphical model.
US07900190B2

Business object templates which include a plurality of hierarchically arranged entities and characterize services associated with the entities can be used to generate new business objects. These new business objects are generated based on projections of the business object template. In some variations, the business objects include a subset of the entities defined by the business object template. In other variations, the business objects include all of the entities defined by the business object template but with only certain entities being activated.
US07900187B2

Software that modifies the source code for readily available software tasks—typically applications and hardware drivers—so that a small, fast, reliable operating system can be synthesized to control execution of these readily available software tasks.
US07900185B2

A pattern writing circuit self-diagnosis method for a charged beam photolithography apparatus and a charged beam photolithography apparatus which enable to maintain normality of the charged beam photolithography apparatus are provided. The pattern writing circuit self-diagnosis method for a charged beam photolithography apparatus is a pattern writing circuit self-diagnosis method for a charged beam photolithography apparatus which irradiates a charged beam on a target sample to write a desired pattern. Layout information and a pattern writing conditions which is prepared in advance are input to the pattern writing circuit, and processing result data of the pattern writing circuit output as a result of the inputting is collected. The collected processing result data of the pattern writing circuit is compared with correct data. The charged beam photolithography apparatus has means which realizes the pattern writing circuit self-diagnosis method.
US07900183B2

A method, computer program product, and data processing system for combining results regarding test sequences' coverage of events in testing a plurality of related semiconductor designs are disclosed. Test patterns are randomly generated by one or more “frontend” computers. Results from applying these patterns to the designs under test are transmitted to a “backend” computer in the form of an ordered dictionary of events and bitmap and/or countmap data structures. The backend computer combines results from each test sequence in a cumulative fashion to measure the overall coverage of the set of test sequences over the plurality of designs.
US07900181B2

Systems, methods, and media for block-based assertion generation, qualification and analysis are disclosed. Embodiments may include a method for generating assertions for verifying a design. The embodiment may include generating session preferences, the session preferences including a selection of one or more assertion schemas for use in generating the assertions, where the selected assertion schema each have one or more design attributes. The embodiment may also include parsing the design to determine locations in the design for the assertions based on the design architecture, structure, and hierarchy and generating the assertions based on at least the session preferences, the determined locations for the assertions, and the design attributes associated with the selected assertion schema. Generating the assertions may further include analyzing and modifying existing assertions based on the session preferences and design attributes or qualifying the assertions for consistency and compliance with the session preferences and design attributes.
US07900174B2

A method and a system for characterizing an integrated circuit (IC) design are disclosed. The method includes receiving a description of leaf cells used in the IC design. The IC design is described in a high-level language by using the description of the leaf cells. The description of the IC design includes specifying placement of the leaf cells and specifying connectivity between them. Further, the method includes extracting a circuit netlist file based on the physical layout of the IC design. The instructions are defined in the high-level language to perform simulations on the extracted circuit netlist file. These simulations are performed on the circuit netlist file to determine the values of the design parameters. Furthermore, the method includes providing the values of the design parameters of the IC design in a pre-defined output format based on the simulations.
US07900171B2

A receiver circuit has a chain of stream processing circuits (10a-c)—having control parameter inputs for receiving control parameter values. To facilitate design of circuits that receive data with a variable block size, an included control circuit (14) selects block sizes of blocks of samples in the respective streams of a plurality of the stream processing circuits (10a-c), a control parameter value for each particular block. The control circuit transmits instructions specifying the selected block sizes and control parameter values to local control circuits (11). Each local control circuit is coupled to the control circuit (14) and the control input of a respective corresponding stream processing circuit (10a-c). Each local control circuit (11) receives at least part of the instructions and applies parameter values from the instructions to its corresponding stream processing circuit (10a-c). The local control circuit (11) controls timing of control parameter updates using block sizes from the instructions.
US07900164B1

A structure for measuring both interconnect resistance and capacitance. The structure comprises a plurality of metallic interconnects, a first circuit for measuring capacitance charging current at a first interconnect and a second circuit for measuring the voltage drop between two positions at a second interconnect. The first circuit includes two electrically connected pseudo-inverters. Two control signals are fed into the two pseudo-inverters such that their associated capacitances are charged and discharged periodically. The first interconnect capacitance is determined by measuring the difference of charging currents between the two pseudo-inverters. A constant current flows through the second circuit and the interconnect resistance is determined by the voltage drop and the constant current.
US07900160B2

A system and method are provided for generating one or more menus having options that display insights from visualizations. The options presented in the menus enable users to determine relationships between elements of the visualization. The relationships may be displayed textually to enable user to navigate the menus using a keyboard, a text-to-voice converter, and/or pointers.
US07900150B2

A method of constructing a data transformation block includes selecting a first discrete logic visual icon and a second discrete logic visual icon from a logic repository. A combination valid state is established when the first discrete logic visual icon can be combined with the second discrete logic visual icon. The first discrete logic visual icon and the second discrete logic visual icon are combined in response to the combination valid state to form a data transformation block. The data transformation block has a corresponding functional language source code description of the logical operations to be performed by the data transformation block. The data transformation block processes data to form transformed data. The data transformation block may be stored in the logic repository so that others can access it.
US07900142B2

An undo process performed on a data object includes selecting a stored prior state of the data object; comparing the stored prior state with the current state of the data object to determine differences between the stored prior state and the current state of the data object other than the effect of the undesired editing operation; and applying the differences to the stored prior state of the data object to obtain a new state of the data object. Each prior state of the data object corresponds to an effect of one of previously performed editing operations on the data object.
US07900138B2

A method and system for converting ACORD XML files to and from ACORD AL3 files in real-time. The method for converting from ACORD XML to ACORD AL3 format includes: applying a stylesheet to at least one ACORD XML file thereby generating at least one data record in an intermediate format and including information included in the at least one ACORD XML file; and, translating the at least one record in the intermediate format to ACORD AL3 format. The method for converting from ACORD AL3 files to ACORD XML files includes: translating at least one record including information stored in the ACORD AL3 file format to an intermediate format; and, applying a stylesheet to the at least one record in the intermediate format thereby generating at least one ACORD XML file being indicative of the information and suitable for transmission.
US07900135B2

Extensible markup language layout and rendering behaviors are disclosed. A core engine provides existing layout and rendering behaviors for a predetermined markup language, such as HTML. External components are designed to provide extended layout and/or rendering behaviors, in addition to the behaviors of the core engine. A mechanism, which can be part of the core engine, extends the existing behaviors with the behaviors of the external components. The behaviors of the external components can participate with the behaviors of the core engine.
US07900128B1

A data dependent descrambler for a communications channel that receives a scrambling seed and a scrambled user data sequence with N symbols each with M bits comprises a first decoder that analyzes adjacent symbols of the scrambled user data sequence, that performs G-constraint decoding on the adjacent symbols when a first of the adjacent symbols is an all-one symbol and that does not perform G-constraint encoding when the first of the adjacent symbols is not an all-one symbol. A first descrambler communicates with the first decoder and generates a user data sequence based on the scrambled user data sequence and the scrambling seed.
US07900124B2

The use of a multi-track format in both optical and magnetic data storage applications provides for a number of improvements to system performance including data density and data transfer rates. However, the full advantage in data density can only be achieved through the use of joint equalization and joint detection. The complexity of implementation of these functions arc addressed with a transform domain equalization architecture and a reduced complexity detection method based on a breadth first search of a time-varying trellis. The trellis results from a one dimensional representation of a two dimensional target response, obtained by arranging samples from adjacent tracks in a sequence that respects the original proximity of the samples.
US07900123B2

A method for near maximum-likelihood sequential decoding is provided. According to the method, paths unlikely to become the maximum-likely path are deleted during decoding through a level threshold to reduce decoding complexity. Besides, the method performs maximum-likelihood decoding through sequential decoding by adopting a metric, so that a received signal does not have to go through a hard decision procedure.
US07900114B2

An electronic device includes an integrated circuit operating on the basis of an operating clock signal, an error detection circuit and a control circuit coupled to the error detection circuit. The control circuit is configured to increase the frequency of the operating clock signal starting from a nominal operating frequency of the integrated circuit, to evaluate a frequency increment at which an error is detected by the error detection circuit, and to reset the frequency of the operating clock signal to said nominal frequency.
US07900110B2

An optimized JTAG interface is used to access JTAG Tap Domains within an integrated circuit. The interface requires fewer pins than the conventional JTAG interface and is thus more applicable than conventional JTAG interfaces on an integrated circuit where the availability of pins is limited. The interface may be used for a variety of serial communication operations such as, but not limited to, serial communication related integrated circuit test, emulation, debug, and/or trace operations.
US07900109B2

A method implemented in a test system comprises a test debug system and a target system, said target system comprising a test access port that functions according to a plurality of states and also comprising an adapter. The method comprises the adapter transferring data to the test debug system while the test access port remains in a predefined state. The predefined state comprises a state in which no scans occur.
US07900105B2

A low overhead dynamically reconfigurable shared scan-in test architecture is provided. This test architecture advantageously allows for changing scan inputs during the scan operation on a per shift basis. The flexibility of reconfiguring the scan input to scan chain mapping every shift cycle can advantageously reduce both test data volume and test application time.
US07900100B2

A system, method and program product for utilizing error correction code (ECC) logic to detect multi-bit errors. In one embodiment, a first test pattern and a second test pattern are applied to a set of hardware bit positions. The first and second patterns are multiple logic level patterns and the second test pattern is the logical complement of the first test pattern. The first and second test patterns are utilized by the ECC logic to detect correctable errors having n or fewer bits. One or more bit positions of a first correctable error occurring responsive to applying the first test pattern are determined and one or more bit positions of a second correctable error occurring responsive to applying the second test pattern are determined. The determined bit positions of the first and second correctable errors are processed to identify a multiple-bit error within the set of hardware bit positions.
US07900096B2

A method for automatically detecting and correcting one or more hang conditions within one or more of a master device and target device of a serial bus interface when one or more signals are held in an invalid state. A hang timer monitors one or more operations of the serial bus when the serial bus is participating in a serial bus transfer. If the transfer does not end before the bus timeout value has been exceeded, the hang timer will issue a reset to the state machine forcing the state machine back to an idle state. The hang timer will also disable the serial bus drivers of the state machine, whereby the hang condition is corrected.
US07900091B2

The invention discloses a method for recovering a basic input output system (BIOS) and a computer device thereof. The computer device of the invention includes a motherboard, a power button, a BIOS storage unit, and an embedded controller. The BIOS storage unit is disposed on the motherboard, and it stores a first boot block code and a second boot block code. When the computer device is connected with a power supply to supply standby power to the motherboard, and the power button is not pressed, the embedded controller detects whether the first boot block code is damaged. If the first boot block code is damaged, the embedded controller recovers the first boot block code via the second boot block code.
US07900090B2

Systems and methods (“utility”) for providing a computer system with a mechanism to record live data on a continuous basis which may be analyzed subsequent to a fault condition is provided. The utility uses the existing DRAM memory of a computer system as a retentive DRAM (RDRAM) device that may be used to store the data. To accomplish this, software and firmware is provided for continuously refreshing the DRAM memory across resets that are due to fault conditions. Further, non-maskable interrupts (NMI) are used to flag a variety of fault conditions to the computer system. To make the utility platform independent, a standardized power and configuration interface is used to implement a computer system reset that preserves the contents of the RDRAM.
US07900086B2

A mechanism for accelerating test, debug and failure analysis of a multiprocessor device is provided. With the mechanism, on-chip trace logic is utilized to receive internal signals from logic provided in modules of the multiprocessor device. The modules are preferably copies of one another such that, given the same inputs, each module should operate in the same manner and generate the same output as long as the modules are operating properly. The modules are provided with the same inputs and the internal signals of the modules are traced using an on-chip trace bus and on-chip trace logic analyzer to perform the trace. The internal signals from one module are compared against another module so as to determine if there is any discrepancy which would indicate a fault. Additional pairs of modules may be compared to pinpoint a faulty module that is the source of the fault.
US07900081B2

A microcomputer includes a main oscillator for generating and outputting a main clock signal, a sub oscillator for generating and outputting a sub clock signal, a central processing unit that operates based on the main clock signal, a signal output circuit that operates based on the sub clock signal and outputs a timing signal at a predetermined interval, and a voltage monitoring circuit that operates based on the sub clock signal and intermittently performs a voltage monitoring function in response to the timing signal. The sub oscillator operates independently of the main oscillator.
US07900053B2

An electronic device includes password protected functionality using a password that can be changed by the user. A user-specified password is stored in association with unique version data that is subsequently provided to help user recall of the password associated therewith.
US07900044B2

A method, apparatus and system for secure forensic investigation of a target machine by a client machine over a communications network. In one aspect the method comprises establishing secure communication with a server over a communications network, establishing secure communication with the target machine over the communications network, wherein establishing secure communication with the target machine includes establishing secure communication between the server and the target machine, installing a servelet on the target machine, transmitting a secure command to the servelet over the communications network, executing the secure command in the servelet, transmitting data, by the target machine, in response to a servelet instruction, and receiving the data from the target machine over the communication network. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
US07900039B2

When a SET receives a positioning service from a V-SLP by performing a roaming from a H-SLP to the V-SLP in a SUPL-based positioning system, only a new TLS connection is generated using an abbreviated handshake protocol without generating a new TLS session after the roaming. That is, when opening a TLS session for ensuring security in a SUPL-based positioning method, in particular, when opening a new TLS session between the V-SLP (V-SPC) and the SET after opening the TLS session between the H-SLP and the SET, the key information having used in the previous TLS session is provided to the V-SLP to set a new TLS connection, thereby reducing a load of an entire system.
US07900038B2

A method and apparatus for a broker entity is provided. A high-speed embedded firewall, a message-processing router, secure session protocol, transport management, and integrated intrusion detection is provided in a single-chip format.
US07900035B2

An electronic appliance which is carried by a user, the electronic appliance includes: a first processor configured to perform a first operating system, and to perform a first process of a user interface when the booting of the first operating system is completed; and a second processor configured to perform a second operating system which is booted within a shorter time period than the first operating system, to perform a second process of a user interface in which a user instruction is acquired from an input unit shared by the first processor when the booting of the second operating system is completed, and to suppress execution of the second process of the user interface when the booting of the first operating system is completed.
US07900033B2

A processor includes firmware and at least one instance of an operating system (OS). When the OS encounters an unrecoverable error (a “panic”), data regarding the error is pushed to the firmware via capsule services, rather than immediately being displayed to the screen via legacy video INT10h services. The panic data may be provided to the OS and displayed by the OS after a reset. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US07900028B2

In a method used for initializing a first bus device and a second bus device sharing a common transmission engine of a bus, a first link of the first bus device and a second link of the second bus device to the common transmission engine are disabled when the computer system is booted. Next, the first link and the second link are enabled in order. Then, a first state updating signal from the first bus device is issued after the first link to the common transmission engine is established. Finally, a second state updating signal from the second bus device is issued after the first state updating signal is received and the second link to the common transmission engine is established.
US07900021B2

An image processing apparatus for storing taken image data into a memory and for reading the stored image data to effect image processing thereof, including: a storage section for storing sequence codes that indicate processing procedures of a series of image processing for the image data; an image processing section for effecting the series of image processing on the read out image data; and a sequencer for controlling the image processing section based on the sequence codes read out from the storage section in effecting the series of image processing at the image processing section, wherein the sequence codes are composed of data coding all sequence instructions corresponding to the series of image processing and are tranferred and stored collectively from CPU to the storage section before starting the series of image processing every time when the series of image processing is to be effected.
US07900018B2

Provided are an embedded system and a method for relocating memory pages therefor. The embedded system includes a processor, a data relocating circuit for receiving a logical address from the processor, mapping the received logical address to a physical address to locate a valid page in a predetermined bank, and generating a bank power control signal according to whether or not a corresponding memory bank includes valid pages, and a memory including a plurality of memory banks addressed by a physical address outputted from the data relocating circuit and a plurality of switching means for selectively supplying a power voltage to each of memory banks in response to the bank power control signal.
US07900017B2

According to one embodiment, a computer system is disclosed. The computer system includes a processor, a chipset coupled to the processor and a memory coupled to the chipset. The chipset translates partitioned virtual machine memory addresses received from the processor to page level addresses.
US07900010B2

A memory manager for a system, a system that includes the memory manager and a method of using thereof are provided. The memory manager manages memory allocations in at least a memory. The memory manger comprises, a first unit configured for receiving a plurality of requests from one or more components of one or more applications of a system. The memory manager also includes a second unit configured for optimizing memory allocations for the plurality of requests.
US07900009B2

This digital portable personal stereo comprises a housing containing a connection interface for connection to earphones; a digital memory immovably attached to the housing; an electronic circuit for accessing said memory; and a control interface for controlling said electronic circuit wherein that a encrypted audio content is prerecorded in the digital memory, and in that the portable personal stereo is adapted to prevent any other audio content from being written in the digital memory.
US07900001B2

Increasing security for a hand-held data processing device with communication functionality where such a device includes an access-ordered memory cache relating to communications carried out by the device. The hand-held data processing device has a locked state that is entered by the device receiving or initiating a trigger. On occurrence of the trigger to enter the locked state the memory cache is reordered so as to disrupt the access-ordering of the cache to obscure device traffic information and thus increase the security of the device in the locked state.
US07900000B2

A plurality of contents intrinsic values that are values intrinsic to respective contents of a plurality of files stored in one or more first storage devices are calculated. Whether two or more identical contents intrinsic values are contained among the plurality of contents intrinsic values is determined. When two or more identical contents intrinsic values are present, an access destination of a first file corresponding to a first contents intrinsic value from among these two or more contents intrinsic values is changed to a position having stored therein a second file corresponding to a second contents intrinsic value from among these two or more contents intrinsic values.
US07899996B1

Adaptively pre-fetching data includes collecting a first set of statistics based on a number of avoidable read-misses in which data exists that is prior to data being read, collecting a second set of statistics based on a number of avoidable read-misses in which data exists that follows data being read, and collecting a third set of statistics based on said first and second sets of statistics. On the basis of the second set of statistics, a pre-fetch technique is selected from a first technique that pre-fetches data following data being read and a second technique that pre-fetches data before and following the data being read. The first and third set of statistics may be used to determine when to pre-fetch data.
US07899993B2

Microprocessor having a power-saving instruction cache way predictor and instruction replacement scheme. In one embodiment, the processor includes a multi-way set associative cache, a way predictor, a policy counter, and a cache refill circuit. The policy counter provides a signal to the way predictor that determines whether the way predictor operates in a first mode or a second mode. Following a cache miss, the cache refill circuit selects a way of the cache and compares a layer number associated with a dataram field of the way to a way set layer number. The cache refill circuit writes a block of data to the field if the layer number is not equal to the way set layer number. If the layer number is equal to the way set layer number, the cache refill circuit repeats the above steps for additional ways until the block of memory is written to the cache.
US07899991B2

Systems and methods which provide an extensible caching framework are disclosed. These systems and methods may provide a caching framework which can evaluate individual parameters of a request for a particular piece of content. Modules capable of evaluating individual parameters of an incoming request may be added and removed from this framework. When a request for content is received, parameters of the request can be evaluated by the framework and a cache searched for responsive content based upon this evaluation. If responsive content is not found in the cache, responsive content can be generated and stored in the cache along with associated metadata and a signature formed by the caching framework. This signature may aid in locating this content when a request for similar content is next received.
US07899988B2

A video media data storage system may include first and second pluralities of data storage devices each arranged in a redundant array of independent drives (RAID) configuration for permitting writing and reading of video media data. The system may further include at least one memory controller coupled to the first and second pluralities of data storage devices for performing mirrored writing of video media data to both the first and second pluralities of data storage devices. The at least one memory controller may also be for generating respective first and second file allocation tables (FATs) including video media data time stamps and validity information for both of the first and second pluralities of data storage devices, and selectively reading video media data from the first and second pluralities of data storage devices based upon the first and second FATs.
US07899985B2

Provided is a computer system including: one first server; a plurality of second servers; and a plurality of storage subsystems, in which the computer system applies to each file stored in the storage subsystems one of a first file storage mode and a second file storage mode in a distributive manner, the first server integrates directory structures that are unique throughout the respective second servers to provide the integrated directory structures as a directory structure that is unique throughout the computer system to the client computer, and at least one of the first server and the second servers analyzes a utilization state of the file and switches a file storage mode that is currently applied to the file to the other file storage mode based on a change in the analyzed file utilization state.
US07899971B2

A storage controller of the present invention is capable of providing a plurality of external volumes to a mainframe as a single virtual volume without lowering write performance. A virtual volume inside a main storage apparatus is associated with a plurality of external volumes inside an external storage apparatus. When the mainframe formats the virtual volume, a control information creation unit of the main storage apparatus creates and stores control information related to the virtual volume. Consequently, it is possible to enhance processing performance when the write size specified by the mainframe coincides with the data size set in the write destination, that is, during a so-called isometric write.
US07899956B2

Herein described are at least a system and a method of reducing or decreasing the rate of interrupts transmitted by a device to a microprocessor. In a representative embodiment, the device comprises a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter. In a representative embodiment, the rate of interrupts is reduced by receiving and using a first signal as an input to a first counter. The first counter outputs a first count, and compares the first count to a value provided by a memory. Subsequently, a second signal is generated to initiate an interrupt when the first count equals the value. In a representative embodiment, a system for delaying transmission of an interrupt from a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) to a microprocessor comprises a counter capable of generating a count, a memory capable of storing a value, and a comparator used for comparing the count to the value.
US07899953B2

A data transfer system is provided, in which divided data generated by data generation terminals are randomly transmitted to data transfer apparatuses by a host terminal, a parameter list controlling the order of transfer of divided data is generated by a parameter list generation part, and a transfer processing part transfers divided data transferred in a DMA mode to an electron beam drawing apparatus according to the parameter list through a general-purpose high-speed data transfer bus by bypassing a CPU.
US07899951B2

An apparatus and a method for routing data in a radio data communication system having one or more host computers, one or more intermediate base stations, and one or more RF terminals organizes the intermediate base stations into an optimal spanning-tree network to control the routing of data to and from the RF terminals and the host computer efficiently and dynamically. Communication between the host computer and the RF terminals is achieved by using the network of intermediate base stations to transmit the data.
US07899950B2

Systems and methods for transmitting information from a multifunctional device to a centralized management server are disclosed. A method for transmitting information between a multifunctional device and a centralized management server includes collecting information from a multifunctional device using a wireless device; rendering the information secure using a secure functionality; and transmitting the secure information over a network to a centralized management server.
US07899944B2

A computer program product, an apparatus, and a method for limiting a number of open exchanges at a channel subsystem of an I/O processing system using data from a control unit. The computer program product includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method that includes sending a command message to the control unit, and receiving a transport response information unit message in response. The method further includes extracting a maximum control unit exchange parameter from the transport response information unit message, and determining a limit value for a maximum number of open exchanges between the channel subsystem and the control unit as a function of the extracted maximum control unit exchange parameter. The method additionally includes applying the limit value to prevent opening of a new exchange.
US07899938B1

Internet-based software and associated database provide group analysis overlay to monitor client-server web traffic and provide direct marketing to client group. Client car, patient, office or school sensor and interface provides overlay attribute for database comparison to classify usage pattern, location, timing, or family for targeted messaging for enhanced service from server source. Database group registry tracks client classification and provides adaptive context mapping according to set attribute relative to targeted on-line transaction.
US07899936B2

A device for a modularized system with decentralized and function-executing modules comprising a module with associated clock that is arranged to effect time-stamping of events associated with the system and of reference events selected from among these. The module comprises a memory device for storing the module's time stamps relating to the events noted by the module and to the reference events selected from among these. The module also comprises a microprocessor that generates messages related to the module's stored time stamps. In addition, the module is arranged to transmit the respective generated messages to a time conversion unit via one or more communications links, and the time conversion unit is arranged, after any intermediate storage, to relate the module's respective noted reference event and effected time-stamping to additional reference events and time-stamping introduced into the unit or already in the unit.
US07899932B2

Network Address Translator (NAT) traversal is performed for a host located behind the NAT running a server, e.g., an HTTP server, using a relay server and a redirect server. The host (of the HTTP server) located behind the NAT uses a NAT-discovery process to determine the presence of the interposed NAT. Seamless IP communication over the IP network is provided using a Dynamic DNS (DDNS) system that is updated using a user registration database, which contains information about the presence or absence of a NAT relative to the HTTP server.
US07899928B1

Efficient multicasting within a layer 2 network is provided. Participation by a layer 3 router is not required. The spanning tree created by common layer 2 networking protocols is exploited for multicast signaling and traffic handling.
US07899927B1

Plural arbiters arbitrate over a set of queues. The arbiters are constructed as a series of pipelined stages. Conflict detection logic detects conflicts among the arbiters in arbitrating across the queues, and, when a conflict is detected, the conflict detection logic alters processing related to conflicting queues in one arbiter when another arbiter has not passed a predetermined commit point in processing the queue.
US07899924B2

A hardware engine that streams media asset data from a media buffer to a network under instructions provided by a host PC is disclosed. The PC preferably stores control blocks that provide packet header formatting instructions in a media buffer along with the media asset data to be streamed. In a preferred embodiment, the hardware engine comprises programmable logic devices so that the engine can be upgraded. The present invention further comprises methods for designing the hardware engine, methods for upgrading the hardware engine, and methods for streaming digital media asset data.
US07899917B2

A synchronization framework is provided for synchronizing data groups between a server and clients that may go off-line. The framework includes a client sync provider component that interfaces to client storage in a storage format independent way, a sync agent component that collects synchronization metadata maintained by the clients and uploads and/or downloads changes to the data groups to and/or from server storage and a server sync provider component that interfaces via sync adapters to server storage independently of storage format. The framework provides default building blocks for building off-line synchronizing applications that behave according to default application synchronization scenarios, and also enables custom building blocks for custom off-line application synchronization scenarios.
US07899910B1

A method and system of accessing an information system using a portable access device is provided. The method includes identifying a communication profile associated with a first network server, attempting, by the portable access device, to establish a communication link between the portable access device and the first network server using communication channel that is selected by the portable access device based on the communication profile, a location of the portable access device with respect to the first network server, a desired quality of the communication link, and a cost of the communication link, attempting to establish the communication link includes using at least a portion of the description information, and capturing data received by the portable access device in a memory located in the portable access device in accordance with a failed attempt to establish the communication link.
US07899909B1

A method, system, and program product for reserving resources in a networked environment, e.g. a storage area network. A resource is some object that a user must use or change to complete a task. When a user plans a task, the user selects some high-level resources and properties to reserve and a Reservation Service embodiment creates reservations for them. Accordingly, the method system and program product embodiments overcome inefficiencies in reserving resources in a data storage environment while still allowing such reservations to occur. The method includes reserving portions of properties for resources from more than one available choice.
US07899905B2

In one embodiment, a method for monitoring events in a home network is provided. The method includes receiving a subscription request from a control point, wherein the subscription request indicates one or more event variables to monitor for the control point. Then a change is detected in an event variable. Then, it is determined if the event variable has been indicated by the control point as an event variable to monitor for the control point. If so, then the control point is notified of the change in the event variable.
US07899904B2

A system and method for hardware processing of regular expressions is disclosed. A register bank is loaded with state information associated with one or more states of a state machine. State information such as transitions and spin counts are updated as characters of an input data stream are processed. A crossbar is used to interconnect the states stored in the register bank.
US07899900B1

A method of monitoring a device among distinct devices communicatively coupled to a network is described. The method includes accessing the device using a first communication protocol, receiving information from the accessed device, parsing the received information to extract parameter values representing an operational status of the device, storing a data string associated with each of the extracted parameter values. The operational status information corresponding to the extracted parameter values is retrieved from a database. The monitored device is accessed using a second communication protocol if the first communication protocol is not configured to retrieve information requested from the accessed device.
US07899897B2

Disclosed is a system and program for task processing and monitoring of configuration and state information. A first server process and a second server process are detected. A first agent process is registered with the first server process. A second agent process is registered with the second server process. When a task is to be executed by the first server process, the task is executed with the first agent process. When the task is to be executed by the second server process, the task is executed with the second agent process.
US07899892B2

Extensibility computer servers and extensibility applications can be managed. Extensibility computer servers and extensibility applications can be discovered using a management application on a management computer server. An extensibility agent can be installed on an extensibility computer server, and used to provide status information. Tasks can be created for managing extensibility computer servers and extensibility applications. Entity groups representing extensibility computer servers and extensibility applications can be displayed and selected. Extensibility computer servers and extensibility applications can be displayed based on the selection of an entity group. Task templates associated with a selected entity group can be displayed.
US07899885B2

A data backup and recovery system that includes a backup and recovery (EBR) management network system. The EBR management network system includes an infrastructure for performing information storage, backup, and recovery operations for a business enterprise that is fully scalable and sharable. The EBR management network system includes the following modular backup and recovery models: (1) LAN network based backup and recovery models for applications requiring <200 GB; (2) LAN network based GigE backup and recovery model for applications requiring >500 GB and <1.5 TB; LAN-Free dedicated tape drive backup and recovery models; (3) LAN-Free shared tape drive backup and recovery models; (4) Server-Free backup and recovery models; and (5) application storage manager (ASM) backup and recovery models.
US07899881B2

An optimum pathway to data stored on a data storage system having N storage devices and more than N pathways is determined in response to a read request for the data. A sorter separates the read request into an appropriate segment size for sending to the storage devices of the data storage system. An assigner generates the set of read permutations satisfying the read request. A read permutation is selected based on a metric. A collector receives the requested data from the N storage devices in response to the selected read permutation being sent to the storage devices.
US07899878B2

A method for tracking a process is disclosed. Requests are received from process threads according to a time order. A request requests a buffer entry operable to record a trace message from a process thread of a process. A first buffer entry is assigned to a first process thread associated with a trace message according to the time order. A second buffer entry is assigned to a second process thread according to the time order subsequent to the assignment of the first buffer entry. The trace message associated with the first process thread is written to the first buffer entry in response to the assignment of the first buffer entry.
US07899876B2

An image projection device which can freely set access information to other devices which are connected to a communication network and exhibits excellent user-friendliness and secrecy is provided. An image projection device acquires image data via the communication network and projects an image based on the image data. The image projection device includes: a receiving unit which receives an E-mail transmitted from another device which is connected to the communication network and containing information on the image data; a content analyzing unit which analyzes a content of the E-mail received by the receiving unit; and an image data acquiring unit which acquires the image data via the communication network based on an analysis result obtained by the content analyzing unit.
US07899873B2

Systems and methods of controlling a messaging system are provided. A particular method includes generating an n-times-use network address to access a control interface in response to receipt of a message addressed to a subscriber at a messaging system. The method further includes determining a notification address associated with the subscriber and generating a notification message addressed to the notification address. The notification message includes at least a portion of content of the message and the n-times-uses network address. The n-times-use network address is selectable a predetermined number of times at a browser application to send a control message to the control interface to control disposition of the message.
US07899870B2

Sources of spam, such as botnets, are detected by analyzing message traffic for behavioral patterns and indications of suspicious content. The content of a known malicious source is analyzed. Message traffic associated with the known malicious source is analyzed. Associated message traffic includes messages sent directly from the known malicious source to recipients, and messages sent from the recipients to subsequent direct and indirect recipients. Portions of the content of the known malicious source are selected and content of associated message traffic is analyzed for an indication of the selected content. If the selected content is found in the content of a message, the source of the message is determined to be a source of spam. Associated message traffic is additionally analyzed for behavioral patterns, such as anomalies and/or flurries of activity, to determine a potential malicious source.
US07899869B1

A method, system and graphical user interface for a chat system is disclosed. One aspect of certain embodiments includes broadcasting popular messages to users that have not previously received the popular messages and including with the popular messages one or more qualitative signals based on user feedback.
US07899865B2

Methods of managing media server resources that may be used for VoIP calls are disclosed. In an embodiment, a media server resource broker receives a request for a set of media server resources from an application server. The media server resource broker determines the service request should be handled by a first media server based on the type of request and the availability of the first media server and provides the address of the first media server to the application server. The media server resource broker updates records regarding an assignment level of the first media servers to reflect the most recent request. When the call is complete and the resources become idle, the media server resource broker can update the assignment level to reflect the increase in availability of resources in the first media server.
US07899857B2

Provided is a programmable matrix element or “PME” (which may be part of an ASIC central processing unit) operable to manipulate a data set of real and complex numbers derived from an input signal. Specific operations may include: addition, subtraction, multiplication, accumulation, storage and scaling. Each PME includes a plurality of multi-stage signal processing modules, which may be two-staged modules. Each state, in turn, includes: at least one data manipulation module for manipulating the input signal; a crosspoint switch for facilitating the receipt and parallel distribution of an input signal/manipulated output signal; and a programmable control module operable to support data manipulation by controlling manipulation functions, storing data and routing signals. A given crosspoint switch may be programmed to interconnect data manipulation modules in “datapipe” fashion, which is to say via a specified number of parallel data pathways.
US07899846B2

Embodiments are directed to generating declarative model editors. A computer system receives a first user input indicating a selection of a native underlying schema that includes constraints that are to be followed by models based on the native schema. The computer system receives a second user input indicating a declarative entry that includes user-configurable model editor characteristics. The computer system automatically generates a declarative model editor based on the selected native schema and user-configurable model editor characteristics. Other embodiments are directed to editing models using declarative model editors. A computer system receives user input indicating a declarative entry to be applied to a model, generates a declarative model editor based on the declarative entry, receives a model that is editable by the generated declarative model editor, and edits user-configurable characteristics of the model. The model characteristics conform to the constraints in the native underlying schema.
US07899845B2

A data structure comprising a first set of data fields wherein each data field contains data representing a managed object of an object-oriented model; a second set of data fields wherein each data field contains data representing an instance of a collection class; a third set of data fields wherein each data field contains data representing an instance of a first association class; a fourth set of data fields wherein each data field contains data representing an instance of a data source class; and a fifth set of data fields wherein each data field contains data representing an instance of a second association class. At least one data field of the first set is associated with a data field of the second set by a data field of the third set, and the data field of the second set is also associated with a data field of the fourth set by a data field of the fifth set. An information handling system readable medium having stored thereon said data structure. Methods for modifying data of the data structure.
US07899844B2

A method and system for accessing and display of data records from large data sets. The method includes defining a plurality of boundaries to logically partition the large data set into a plurality of buckets in accordance with a predefined sort order. The sort order is based on data stored in at least two columns of a database table in which at least a base portion of each data record is stored. In response to a request to retrieve a data record or group of related records, such as all contacts having a given first and last name, a determination is made to which bucket the data record or at least a portion of group of related records are stored in. A query is then formulated to retrieve a subset of the large set of records from the database corresponding to data records contained in the bucket.
US07899840B2

A group join query facilitates navigation of relationships (e.g., one-to-many or many-to-one) across a plurality of data collections. Such a query operator produces nested or hierarchical results that capture the arguments passed thereto. If desired, the nested results can be flattened to simulate conventional relational database results.
US07899837B2

A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to extract data model object information and report data values from data model objects in at least one semantic abstraction to define indexed fields. A search query is received. The search query is applied against the indexed fields to define matching data model objects and matching report data values. A proposed abstract query with at least one matching data model object and a corresponding semantic abstraction is generated.
US07899835B2

A method of reviewing business activity data of a business entity includes maintaining ticket records for a plurality of human-implemented jobs performed at a business entity. The method further includes monitoring business activities that occur on a computer system, and storing in a first log a first record for each of the activities. The method additionally includes automatically extracting from the first log a set of second records including a record for each business activity from the first log that indicates that a job was initiated, viewed, altered, rerun, or deleted by a human. The method further includes automatically extracting from the set of second records a set of third records. If a record in the set of third records indicates that a job was initiated, altered, rerun, or deleted by a human and does not have a corresponding ticket record, the record is flagged.
US07899831B2

Folder recommendation in a file operation is accomplished by: receiving (325) information relating to the file operation; providing history data (321) of one or more previous operations, the data including details of information relating to a previous operation and a folder on which the previous operation was performed; and selecting a folder (324) for recommendation including matching the file operation to one or more folders based on the history data. In one embodiment, the operation is an operation of saving a file, and the information relating to the operation is file information. In another embodiment, the operation is an operation of retrieving a file, and the information relating to the operation is destination information.
US07899825B2

The present invention includes a method and device for detecting duplicate documents by triangulation. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US07899823B1

The present invention relates to inventory management solutions, and in particular, to methods and systems for inventorying items over wireless and data networks, using digital imaging, positioning, and data terminals. The user experience in performing inventory management is simplified and enhanced over existing methods.
US07899819B2

A computerized method for managing data performed in a computer system. The data is stored in a data base including flat lines. Each of the flat lines includes values of the data and tags associated with the values forming tag-value pairs. The flat lines are scanned and an object of a class is created. The class specifies a subset including one or more tags selected from the tags of the flat lines. The flat line points to the object if a portion of the tag-value pairs of the flat line includes all the tags of the subset. When the flat line contains multiple alternative ways, through the subset(s) of tags or through different tag-value pairs, of pointing to the object of the class, then the object as individually identified by the alternative ways is taken to be the same object.
US07899818B2

A method of providing search results includes performing a search in response to a search request, providing a first list of results responsive to the search request, providing a list of selectable terms based on content included in the first list of results, receiving a user-selected term from the list of selectable terms, and providing a second list of results. The second list of results excludes results having content related to the user-selected term.
US07899810B2

A relational database access system and method provides a new data representation and a query technique which allows information system end users to access (query) relational databases without knowing the relational structure or the structure query language (SQL). The present invention utilizes semantically dynamic objects.
US07899809B2

A multimedia database is queried using an iterative step in which, at the current iteration, a portion retrieved from the database is determined using an ordered set of query criteria worked out at the previous iteration or at a previous initialization step if the current iteration is the first iteration, and using a criteria vector comprising characteristic values of a predetermined set of query criteria for the portion retrieved from the database. The criteria vector is initialized at the initialization step if the current iteration is the first iteration, and determined during the previous iteration otherwise.
US07899797B2

A method and system for providing package resolution in a database system is disclosed. The method and system comprise providing a statement within a server which allows an application to identify a list of package collections. The method and system further includes executing the statement to obtain the appropriate package. A system and method in accordance with the present invention provides a new current package path value, which is set via a statement referred to as Set Current Package Path. The SET CURRENT PACKAGE PATH statement allows the application to supply a precedence list of qualified package collections during execution time, therefore the scheme for resolving packages can be changed at any point during execution. The SET CURRENT PACKAGE PATH statement improves application development by making the package resolution mechanism less error prone and less tedious for the application developer, while providing an optimal-performance solution in the client-server environment.
US07899795B1

A system and method are provided to recover lost flexible volumes of an aggregate capable of supporting flexible volumes. The method includes discovering lost flexible volumes of the aggregate and recovering them. Wherein recovering a lost flexible volume includes creating and populating a new label file associated with an container inode.
US07899787B2

The present invention describes a technique for using shadowing object for approval control in an object-oriented software environment. The technique calls a business operation and determines whether the business operation needs to be approved. If the business operation needs to be approved, a shadowing business object and a shadowing connector corresponding to the original business object and the connector are created, and the business operation is performed on the shadowing business object and connector, and all results are stored in the shadowing business object, and all messages to be sent are buffered in the connector. If the business operation is approved, the original business object is replaced by the shadowing business object. The technique is flexible, efficient, easy to be modified and supplemented.
US07899784B2

A method for performing multiple merge operations with a source data structure and a plurality of destination data structures, in which the source data structure is scanned one time in order to obtain source data that is then used for multiple merge operations. The source data is then used consecutively in order to merge the source data into the one or more destination data structures. Each merge is performed using the same scan of the source data structure and within the same execution of a database command.
US07899781B1

In general, the invention relates to a client device. The client device includes a local data repository comprising a plurality of local case records associated with a local instance of a legal matter. The client device further includes a customization engine configured to display at least one of the plurality of local case records and a synchronization engine configured to synchronize the local instance of the legal matter with a corresponding web instance of the legal matter, wherein the web instance of the legal matter is located in a web data repository operatively connected to the client device.
US07899779B1

A system, method and computer program product for a system, method and computer program product for controlling synchronization between a stationary computer and a mobile device, including detecting connection of the mobile device to the computer; intercepting a request for synchronization of data between the mobile device and the computer; parsing a data stream that transfers data between the computer and the mobile device; during the parsing, identifying objects within the data stream; determining if a particular identified object is of a type that is approved for synchronization; and permitting a selective transfer between the computer and the mobile device of those objects that are approved.
US07899747B1

An automated method is provided for processing large deposits that exceed an established deposit insurance limit so that the large deposits are fully insured. The large deposits are received from a plurality of banks from their respective depositors. A processor receives orders from the plurality of banks to process large deposits. The processor prioritizes the orders for order filling based on an order matching process that simultaneously processes multiple orders as part of the order matching process. The processor partitions each of the large deposits into a plurality of deposit portions in a manner such that each deposit portion does not exceed the established deposit insurance limit. The processor assigns at least some of the deposit portions for each of the large deposits to at least some banks other than the bank that received the large deposit for deposit therein, wherein the assigning occurs based at least in part on the results of the order matching process.
US07899746B1

An automated method and article of manufacture are provided for processing large deposits that exceed an established deposit insurance limit so that the large deposits are fully insured. The large deposits are received by a plurality of banks from their depositors. A processor receives an order from a bank to process a large deposit. The processor partitions the large deposit into a plurality of deposit portions such that each deposit portion does not exceed the established deposit insurance limit. A network of banks is provided for receiving the plurality of deposit portions for deposit therein. The processor determines if there is an insufficient number of banks within the network of banks to receive all of the deposit portions. A loan is obtained from a lending bank using the processor if it is determined that there is an insufficient number of banks within the network of banks to receive all of the deposit portions. The amount of the loan is equal to the amount of the order to process the large deposit minus the amount that the network of banks can receive. The processor then assigns at least some of the deposit portions that the network of banks can receive to at least some of the banks in the network of banks.
US07899740B2

Disclosed are systems and methods for placing and processing test orders and real orders.
US07899733B2

In an automated exchange system, a separate virtual instrument is used in the matching process of the system. The virtual instrument guarantees that both a derivative instrument and its underlying instrument are traded together. The underlying instrument, i.e. the instrument in which derivative instruments are traded, is then preferably displayed together with the virtual instruments. The underlying instrument is presented with a price. The matching of the virtual instrument can take place in a matching module of the automated exchange system. After a trade in a virtual instrument is matched in the matching process of the system, the match is reported to a subsequent deal capture module where the corresponding different trades or deals of the virtual instrument are formed. The trades or deals formed in the deal capture module do not need to be matched because the number of instruments and the price can be deduced from the information relating to the virtual instrument.
US07899728B2

A system and method are provided for assigning ratings (the “Ratings”) on mutual funds and other investment funds (collectively the “Funds”) based on various information gleaned from public and privately traded financial, currency, interest rate and other futures, along with options on said futures (collectively the “Futures”). In an illustrative implementation, the system can operate to combine information on the historical rates of return and variability in the rates of return of the Funds with the expected range of future returns for various asset classes as determined by the pricing of the Futures. Illustratively, the rating for the Funds (the “Rating”) can incorporate the range of expected future returns, the variability of past returns, and the level of risk.
US07899724B1

A unit may include a forward contract and a remarketable security that secures performance of obligations of the forward contract. The forward contract may require a holder to purchase a quantity of stock from an issuer at a settlement price on or before a settlement date. The remarketable security may have an issue denomination and a maturity date that is later than the settlement date.At the time of issue, the unit may provide that the remarketable security is to be offered to new holders at a remarketing time at a remarketing denomination that is different from the issue denomination. The unit also may provide, at time of issue, that the remarketable security is to be remarketed with a remarketing coupon frequency different from an issue coupon frequency, without subordination to senior debt of the issuer, and/or without a previously available interest rate deferral option to the issuer.
US07899716B2

A product distribution module integrated with a payment module. Actions in the distribution module trigger actions in the payment module. For example, a user clicking a “buy” button triggers the creation of a product mailer for a seller, and triggers the payment module to collect and hold the purchase price and shipping costs from the buyer. Acceptance of delivery by the buyer, or the expiration of a time-out period after tracking delivery by the distribution module, triggers release of the purchase price to the seller. A “shared responsibility” return method and system is also provided. The buyer has until a time out period to object to the product. If the buyer objects, in the buyer's discretion the product can be returned, but the buyer is required to pay a portion of the return shipping costs subject to an algorithm.
US07899710B1

A system and method for determination and presentation of package offers. A package offer is an offer for sale by a retailer of a package of products at a package price. A retailer may offer products for sale in an on-line retail environment or in a physical retail environment. A determination is made that a primary product is of interest to a customer. This determination may involve detecting and interpreting input signals transmitted from a customer device. In response to detecting that the primary product is of interest to the customer, a package is determined that may comprise the primary product and at least one secondary product. A package may be determined by accessing a database to locate a pre-determined package or to select the secondary products ad hoc. A package price is determined that is less than the sum of the corresponding retail prices of the primary product and secondary products in the package. A package price may be based on a profit margin of the primary product and/or a profit margin of at least one of the secondary products. A package offer for the sale of the package at the package price is then presented to the customer. The customer may indicate an acceptance of the package offer and authorize a financial account to be charged for the amount of the package price. The package products may be shipped to the customer or may be picked up at a retail establishment.
US07899706B1

Systems and methods for dynamic privacy management are disclosed. In some embodiments, a customer may accept or reject using the text-messaging feature of his mobile phone offers of discounted goods or services from a partner in exchange for the customer's consent allowing the vendor to release the customer's personal information to the vendor. By controlling dissemination of his personal information in this way, a customer may tailor his own dynamic privacy agreement with the provider in an informal manner and with very little effort. The customer may also control the amount of spam he receives from vendors by specifying the types of offers he is or is not receptive to.
US07899690B1

An Internet enabled, business-to-business computerized transaction system is disclosed in its preferred embodiment for use in providing rental car services for high volume users and comprises an Internet web portal through which the high volume user may access a plurality of service providers including an integrated business computer network for at least one rental vehicle service provider. The rental vehicle services provider computer network is configured to interconnect a geographically diverse plurality of branch offices, cataloguing their available rental vehicles and schedules for same as well as handling all transactional data relating to its business. The Internet web portal provides ubiquitous connectivity and portability for a multi-level business organization who regularly places high volumes of rental purchases with its business partner and also those other service providers who may or may not have the same integrated business computer system and software. Utilizing the method and apparatus of the present invention large volumes of rental transactions may be placed, monitored, altered during performance, and closed out with financial accounting and payment being made virtually without human intervention.
US07899685B2

A method and system for enabling display of real-time clinical trial enrollment data. A set of computer forms corresponding to an application enable administrative personnel to define a plurality of clinical trial parameters, including trial protocols, clinical sites, and optional regions. As the data is entered, it is stored in a central database, typically through a dedicated connection between a client running the application and the database. Software and infrastructure for supporting an Internet web portal is also provided, whereby the web portal enables clinical site personnel to enter subject enrollment data that is stored in the database as it is entered (i.e., in real-time). Various charts pertaining to the subject enrollment data may then be generated, including subject status charts and subject enrollment rate charts. In general, the charts may be aggregated across individual sites, regions, and all sites corresponding to a given protocol.
US07899678B2

The time-scale of a digital signal is efficiently modified. A system suitable for embedded or stand-alone processing includes a module that can transform the time-scale of the signal according to a user's preference. An improved method for time-scale modification is based on envelope-matching but introduces a new function that is very fast to compute, the use of which avoids the computation of correlation coefficients where they are not needed. The invention is demonstrably faster than other methods related to SOLA (synchronized-overlap-and-add) with envelope matching, yet with no sacrifice in quality of the processed output.
US07899677B2

An improved audio coding technique encodes audio having a low frequency transient signal, using a long block, but with a set of adapted masking thresholds. Upon identifying an audio window that contains a low frequency transient signal, masking thresholds for the long block may be calculated as usual. A set of masking thresholds calculated for the 8 short blocks corresponding to the long block are calculated. The masking thresholds for low frequency critical bands are adapted based on the thresholds calculated for the short blocks, and the resulting adapted masking thresholds are used to encode the long block of audio data. The result is encoded audio with rich harmonic content and negligible coder noise resulting from the low frequency transient signal.
US07899667B2

A waveform interpolation speech coding apparatus and method for reducing complexity thereof are disclosed. The waveform interpolation speech coding apparatus includes: a waveform interpolation encoding unit for receiving a speech signal, calculating parameters for a waveform interpolation from the received speech signal, and quantizing the calculating parameters; and a realignment parameter calculating unit for restoring a characteristic waveform (CW) using the quantized parameter, calculating a realignment parameter that maximizes a cross-correlation among consecutive CWs for the restored CW.
US07899648B2

A system for determining a region searched (3003, 5001, 5002, 7002, 7003, 8001, 8002, 8003) by a moving scent detector (201) in the presence of wind, said moving scent detector having pre-calibrated scent capabilities, the system comprises: positioning means (101) attached to the moving scent detector for determining a trajectory (3001) followed by the moving scent detector; scent pattern obtainment means for obtaining an oriented scent pattern (2003, 3002, 4001); and, combination means arranged for combining said trajectory and said oriented scent pattern to obtain the region searched by said moving scent detector. The invention also relates to a method for determining a region searched by a moving scent detector in the presence of wind.
US07899640B2

There is presented a system and method for characterizing an integrated circuit (IC) for comparison with a pre-defined system-level characteristic related to an aspect of IC operation, wherein a test procedure on the IC that invokes this aspect is executed, while at least one operational bottleneck is invoked to constrain operation of the IC to exhibit a system-level operation thereof related to the aspect. Data generated via the test procedure in response to the bottleneck is collected and the system-level operation exhibited thereby is compared for consistency with the pre-defined system-level characteristic.
US07899634B1

A method, apparatus, and a system for generating a binary mapping of wafer regions using measured value. A first measured value relating to processing a first workpiece is acquired. A second measured value relating to a second workpiece is acquired. At least a first region common to the first and second workpieces is defined. A determination is made as to whether the results associated with the first or second measured value is above a predetermined threshold. A first binary value is assigned to the first region based upon a determination that the results associated the first or second measured value data is above the threshold.
US07899633B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a sensing instrument capable to detect a substance existing in a very small quantity, such as environmental pollutants, instantly with a high degree of precision. As a specific means for solving the problem, a frequency signal from a crystal oscillator is sampled using a frequency signal from a reference clock generating part, the sampling value is outputted in a digital signal, quadrature detection is conducted with the digital signal for a frequency signal corresponding to the output signal, the rotational vector rotating at a frequency corresponding to the difference between the frequency of the frequency signal and the frequency of a sinusoidal wave used for the quadrature detection is taken out, and the variation of the frequency is detected by detecting the velocity of the rotational vector based on the respective sampling values. In addition to that, the measurement range of the variation of frequency can be widened by multiplying the above-described rotational vector by the reversely rotational vector corresponding to the velocity of the rotational vector.
US07899630B2

A metering device of a power substation and method are provided for operating on a secondary analog waveform output by a transformer assembly receiving a primary waveform. The method includes stepping down the secondary waveform and generating a corresponding output signal; operating on the corresponding output signal for generating a corresponding first digital signal having a value proportional to the corresponding output signal and within a first range; and operating on the corresponding output signal for generating a corresponding second digital signal having a value proportional to the corresponding output signal and within a second range. The method further includes processing the first digital signal and outputting a corresponding first output signal; processing the second digital signal and outputting a corresponding second output signal; processing the first and second output signals; and generating output corresponding to the processing of the first and second output signals.
US07899626B2

The present embodiments relate to a system and method of measuring the methylation level of DNA. Some embodiments relate to a system and method of measuring methylation level of DNA with a gene array.
US07899625B2

A robust classification method for cancer detection from mass spectrometry data includes inputting the mass spectrometry data, preprocessing the spectrometry data, conducting robust feature selection, generating predictions for the test data sets using multiple data classifiers, the multiple data classifiers including artificial neural networks, support vector machines, weighted voting on data patterns, classification and regression trees, k-nearest neighbor classification, and logistic regression, and constructing and validating a meta-classifier by combining individual predictions of the multiple data classifiers to generate a robust prediction of a phenotype. The test data sets are used exclusively for validation of the meta-classifier.
US07899622B2

A method and instrument provide a very detailed symmetric resistivity image of a formation. A first asymmetric resistivity image is collected from a first arrangement of electrodes, which form an asymmetric sensor. A second asymmetric resistivity image is collected from a second arrangement of electrodes, which form an asymmetric sensor. The first image and the second image overlap each other. The images are assembled about a selected reference point and then processed to provide the very detailed symmetric resistivity image.
US07899615B2

A point-of-interest display system includes an updateable database which interfaces with a microprocessor which receives data from a GPS receiver providing the system with current vehicle location and direction of travel information. A display provides the operator textural and elemental graphic display information, and easily accessible control switches allow the operator to select upcoming highway exits, categories of points of interest, and points of interest and display directions to a selected entry.
US07899609B2

A method for controlling power supply of a pre-heat plug in an internal combustion engine to reach an ignition temperature for restarting the engine after the engine has stopped. The temperature of the pre-heat plug is determined using a first mathematical model and according to an elapsed engine-stop time, and additional energy to be supplied to the pre-heat plug for reaching the ignition temperature is determined using a second mathematical model and according to the temperature of the pre-heat plug.
US07899604B2

A computer simulates a relationship between a fuel-rate of fuel which collides with the cavity of the piston and the fuel injection timing, and/or the relationship between the fuel-rate of fuel which collide with the cylinder inner wall and the fuel injection timing. A range of the fuel injection timing in which the combustion state is stable is computed based on the simulation results. This range of fuel injection timing may be defined as the measuring range in which the measure points are arranged. Furthermore, the fuel injection timing is varied gradually around an upper and lower limit values of the measuring range and the engine torque is measured. The measuring range is corrected so that the combustion state becomes stable.
US07899603B2

In a fuel injection controller for a fuel injection system that executes an injection quantity learning operation for a fuel injection valve, a drive signal is outputted when the diagnosis condition is satisfied. An actual injection quantity of fuel that is actually injected by the fuel injection valve is computed. The fuel injection controller computes a correction amount based on a difference between the actual injection quantity and the command injection quantity. The fuel injection controller determines whether the correction amount exceeds a limit value. An injection deviation amount between the command injection quantity and the actual injection quantity of fuel, which is injected based on the drive signal corrected by the limit value, is computed when the correction amount exceeds the limit value.
US07899601B2

A method for operating an internal combustion engine including extended operation in a homogeneous charge compression ignition mode at high loads includes operating the engine in the homogeneous charge compression ignition mode including spark-assisted ignition, monitoring an engine load, monitoring an engine speed, determining the engine to be in a high ringing range based upon the engine load and the engine speed, and when the engine load is in the high ringing range, operating the engine in a reduced ringing mode. The reduced ringing mode includes modulating a fuel injection timing according to a calibrated maximum combustion chamber cooling fuel injection timing, determining a preferred combustion phasing value, and modulating a spark timing based upon the modulated fuel injection timing and the preferred combustion phasing value.
US07899599B2

A method and a system for monitoring the location of a mining vehicle in a mine. The mine includes a first and a second work area. At least one identifier whose exact location is known is arranged in the first work area. The location of the mining vehicle is determined continuously by use of a dead reckoning. The location data, based on the dead reckoning, can be updated by use of the identifier. The location data are transmitted to a mine control system for monitoring the mining vehicle.
US07899598B2

The invention relates to a method for controlling a surface-modifying machine, wherein information on the desired condition and on the actual condition of ground to be prepared is provided and is used to derive control statements for the machine based on a comparison of the desired and the actual condition. The information on the actual condition is represented by a point cloud as a spatial distribution of discrete surface points. In order to derive control statements, at least two surface points each from the point cloud are used for every horizontal position so that non-differentiated information can be derived that for example also allow to identify various planes.
US07899596B2

A method for triggering and transferring a vehicle into a pedestrian preventive safety state to increase the passive safety of the other party in an accident, in which a triggering condition of the pedestrian preventive safety state of the vehicle is generated on the basis of a signal of at least one vehicle sensor, which can indicate a high probability of a vehicle accident, particularly with a pedestrian or a bicyclist, for an immediately imminent time span, and with the presence of a positive triggering condition of the pedestrian preventive safety state, a part or a section of the vehicle, which could inflict additional bodily injury on the other party in the case of an accident with the vehicle, is moved from an area of probable impact with the other party and/or additionally shielded, whereby the vehicle is at least partially transferred to the pedestrian preventive safety state.
US07899589B2

A navigation apparatus stores control information used for controlling a vehicle in a portion of a road between two intersections (i.e., an exit from an intersection) in a form that is associated with each of plural links in road data. For example, a stop line at an entrance to an intersection is detected as a control end point, and a point at an exit from an intersection is detected as a control start point. In addition, a travel locus of the vehicle is stored as control information associated with the control start point and the control end point based on an absolute position of the vehicle. The control information is output to a vehicle control unit when the vehicle travels the road with the control information available for use by the control unit. In this manner, the control unit of the navigation apparatus precisely controls the vehicle based on a shape of the road in a real world.
US07899586B2

A guidance system includes a device to generate an alphanumeric identification characteristic, enabling identification of a data item which is used for a selected guidance mode of an aircraft. The system also includes a display unit which automatically shows the alphanumeric identification characteristic on a display screen.
US07899585B2

A device includes a computer for computing the difference between at least two items of control information that are generated by at least two different flight management systems of an aircraft, and a system for generating a warning signal if the difference is greater than a threshold value.
US07899583B2

The parking detection system method described herein could guide people around urban environments detect guide and navigate them to empty parking spaces, add-on to the car-based navigation systems and or to the cellular phone. We have focused on the task of detecting and navigating even in situations in which Global Positioning Systems (GPS) cannot provide this information, such as when the person is indoors or in crowded urban areas where there is no line of site to the GPS satellites and without the need for central computer system or internet connections. The parking information will be received directly from RF sensors and will display as a floating overlay on the existing navigation system and or cellular phone as Bluetooth application.
US07899571B2

A method of conditioning a CMP polishing pad to attain a desired thickness profile in a polished layer on a wafer is disclosed. The incoming thickness profile of the layer to be polished, the thickness profile of the polishing pad, a polish rate of layer as a function of pressure and the removal rate of polishing pad material by a conditioning block are used to compute a sweep pattern for the conditioning block which will produce a desired thickness profile on the polishing pad. The method may be applied to maintaining the desired profile on the polishing pad during the course of polishing multiple wafers. The pad profile may be adjusted to keep pressure between the pad and the wafer to a safe limit to reduce polishing defects.
US07899569B2

A method of forming a three-dimensional object using an extrusion-based layered deposition system, the method comprising generating a build path for building a layer of the three-dimensional object, where the build path defines a void region. The method further comprising generating at least one intermediate path in the void region, and generating a remnant path based at least in part on the at least one intermediate path.
US07899565B1

Systems, methods, and computer program products for displaying visual representations of features of audio data are provided. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided. Audio data is received. A visual representation of the audio data showing pan position is displayed. Displaying the visual representation includes calculating pan position data comprising one or more pan positions associated with audio data per unit time and plotting the calculated pan position data.
US07899558B2

A method, system, and computer program product for updating and/or expanding the functionality of the sequence control of at least one control unit of a motor vehicle are provided. In accordance with the method, a first data may be read from a first control unit and a second data may be read from a second control unit. A first check in the vehicle may be performed to ascertain whether the version of the sequence control currently running in the second control unit corresponds to a predetermined version of a sequence control or is even more current than the predetermined version. If the outcome of the first check is positive, a more current version in comparison with the version of the sequence control currently running in the first control unit may be saved and/or a version which expands the functionality may be saved in the first control unit.
US07899549B2

Cardiac lead implantation systems and methods including an electronics arrangement provided with a user interface and a coupler assembly. A coupler body is configured to detachably grasp a cardiac lead and couple with electrical contacts of the cardiac lead. A user interface includes an output indicative of sensed cardiac parameters, such as one or both of cardiac signal amplitude and lead electrode impedance, and may include an audio output device and/or a visual output device. Methods of lead implantation involve advancing a cardiac lead into proximity with a patient's heart, and contacting cardiac tissue with an electrode arrangement to locate a suitable implant location. Sensing of one or more cardiac parameters is accomplished and an audible representation of the sensed parameters is produced, the audible representation varying as the electrode arrangement is moved relative to the cardiac tissue.
US07899543B2

A network interface module that forms part of a bilateral cochlear implant system which allows two standalone BTE units to be synchronized both temporally and tonotopically in order to maximize a patients listening experience. The bilateral cochlear network includes a communications interposer adapted to be inserted between the BTE battery and the BTE housing or modified BTE devices.
US07899542B2

Systems and methods are disclosed to stimulate spine tissue to treat medical conditions such as pain and spinal injury. The invention uses electrical stimulation of the spine, where vibrational energy from a source is received by an implanted device and converted to electrical energy and the converted electrical energy is used by implanted electrodes to stimulate the pre-determined brain site. The vibrational energy is generated by a controller-transmitter, which could be located either externally or implanted. The vibrational energy is received by a receiver-stimulator, which could be located in the various regions on around the spine. The implantable receiver-stimulator stimulates different locations in the spine region to provide therapeutic benefit.
US07899540B2

A method and apparatus for treatment of an eating disorder includes electrically stimulating the vagus nerve of the lower esophagus, cardia, esophageal/cardia junction, cardia/fundus junction or upper stomach so as to induce afferent action potentials on the vagus nerve. A device comprising a gastric band including stimulation electrodes may be noninvasively adjusted after implantation to provide increased or decreased restriction on the patient's gastrointestinal tract. Each stimulus may be administered as a series of programmed pulses of defined amplitude, duration and period, to evoke a responsive signal to the brain by the target nerve, effective for producing a temporary feeling of satiety in the person. A programmable implantable stimulus generator may be operatively coupled to a nerve electrode. Methods are also provided to identify electrodes nearest to a branch of the vagus nerve to apply an electrical stimulation signal with improved efficiency.
US07899528B2

Automatic external defibrillator apparatus may be provided for use in cooperation with an intraosseous apparatus. Apparatus and methods may also be provided to execute protocols calling for external defibrillation and drug delivery. The disclosure provides a medical apparatus including two electrodes, a processor, a display, a driver, a drug delivery slot, a drug delivery port, and a voltage source. The two electrodes may include an attachment operable to releasably connect the two electrodes to the patient. The processor may be operable to collect and analyze a rhythm associated with the patient's heart from the two electrodes. The display may be operable to communicate instructions to a user. The driver may be operable to insert an intraosseous device into a bone and associated bone marrow of the patient. The drug delivery slot may be operable to receive a drug. The drug delivery port may be operable to communicate the drug from the drug delivery slot to the patient via the intraosseous device. The voltage source may be operable to deliver an electric shock to the patient via the two electrodes.
US07899524B2

Methods for determining whether the brain activity of a human subject in response to a stimulus of interest or question of interest is characteristic of a state of interest, such as a deceptive state or a truthful state, are disclosed. Some methods include the use of control questions, including truthful control questions and deceptive control questions, to provide bases for comparison for responses to stimuli of interest or questions of interest. Some methods include the use of differences between two states, such as a deceptive state and a truthful state. In some methods, brain maps are generated and compared. Also disclosed are systems for detecting deception by measuring brain activity.
US07899522B1

Techniques are provided for evaluating heart failure within a patient. In one example, the implantable device detects a decrease, if any, in selected morphological parameters derived from the intracardiac electrogram (IEGM) that are indicative of possible heart failure, such as paced depolarization integrals (PDI) or peak-to-peak amplitudes of QRS-complexes. The device also detects a decrease, if any, in transthoracic impedance, which is also indicative of possible heart failure. Acute heart failure is indicated if there is a decrease in the morphological IEGM parameters but no significant decrease in transthoracic impedance. Chronic heart failure is indicated if there is a decrease in transthoracic impedance but no significant decrease in the morphological IEGM parameters. If both transthoracic impedance and the morphological IEGM parameters are found to be decreasing significantly, the device issues a warning of severe heart failure.
US07899521B2

The invention relates to an EKG measurement device. The EKG measurement device comprises a number of EKG electrodes and a common-mode measurement unit connected on its input side to the EKG electrodes. Inventively an EKG trigger unit is connected on its input side to the EKG electrodes and to the common-mode measurement unit.
US07899518B2

Instruments and methods are described for performing non-invasive measurements of analyte levels and for monitoring, analyzing and regulating tissue status, such as tissue glucose levels.
US07899507B2

A patient monitor has multiple sensors adapted to attach to tissue sites of a living subject. The sensors generate sensor signals that are responsive to at least two wavelengths of optical radiation after attenuation by pulsatile blood within the tissue sites. Multiple data channels and associated quality parameters are derived from the sensor signals. A processor is configured to operate on the channels according to the quality parameters so as to provide a robust oxygen status measurement.
US07899506B2

The present invention discloses a spectral measurement method via continuous light source and discrete light source, and a measurement instrument for non-invasive detection of human body tissue components. Said instrument includes an incident unit, a probe, a receiving unit and a data processing unit. Said composite spectral measurement method improves or strengthens the output light intensity at the wavelength that carries information of the target component within human body. It enables the spectral detection in the whole wavelength range, and thus significantly enhances the SNR of the detecting system. In the non-invasive detection instrument, light from both the continuous light source and discrete light source can be firstly selectively light-split by AOTF, or AOTF conducts light-splitting for the continuous light source, while the discrete light source LD is controlled by a spatial chopper. When data of the spectral curves achieved from said continuous light source and discrete light source are processed, data acquired under different measuring modes can be compared.
US07899503B2

A mobile phone (100) includes a base (10), a cover (20) and a connecting apparatus (30). The cover is rotatably mounted on the base. The connecting apparatus connects the cover to the base. Either of the base and the cover defines a leading pole (24) and another of them defines a leading groove (14) corresponding to the leading pole. The leading pole slides in the leading groove and is selectively retained in at least two places.
US07899501B2

A method of operating a control module of a mobile device that communicates with a cellular network and that is powered by an auxiliary power supply comprises generating an interrupt signal based on a tick of a system timer interrupt of the control module; incrementing a counter value based on the interrupt signal; and commanding the auxiliary power supply to cease powering the mobile device when the counter value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.
US07899500B2

In exemplary embodiments, a hands-free adapter provides hands-free operation of a device. The adapter communicates with the device, and in some embodiments, with a headset. The hands-free adapter allows a user to use voice commands so that the user does not have to handle the device. The hands-free adapter receives voice commands from the headset and translates the voice commands to commands recognized by the device. The hands-free adapter also monitors the device to detect device events and provides notice of the events to the user.
US07899491B2

A position finder and communication system processes signals received from multiple satellite and land based locations and generates processed position finder signal. A first cross-correlator and a transmit baseband filter generates cross-correlated in-phase and quadrature-phase processed filtered baseband signals from an input signal and a second cross-correlator generates cross-correlated in-phase and quadrature-phase processed spread spectrum signals. A processor processes data, voice or video signal into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) or into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) processed data, voice or video signal. The processed position finder signal is further processed jointly with one or more of the signals generated by the first or second processed cross-correlated signal or with the processed OFDM or OFDMA signal and the jointly processed signal is provided to a quadrature modulator for quadrature modulation and transmission of the quadrature modulated signal. The transmitter for transmission of the quadrature modulated signal includes a first amplifier operated in a first radio frequency (RF) band in a linearly amplified (LINA) mode and a second amplifier operated in a second radio frequency (RF) band operated in a non-linearly amplified (NLA) mode. The cross-correlated in-phase and quadrature-phase processed filtered baseband signals and cross-correlated in-phase and quadrature-phase processed spread spectrum signals are used in a cellular communication system and the OFDM or OFDMA signal is used in a wireless local area network, wherein the cellular communication system and wireless local area network are distinct communication systems and networks.
US07899487B2

A mobile communication terminal and a method of link management are discussed. According to an embodiment, the terminal includes a display unit for indicating a message including at least one specific data; a link manager for setting a link to the at least one specific data included in the message, and assigning a sign to each specific data; and a transmitter for sending the message including the sign(s) assigned by the link manager.
US07899485B2

A method and apparatus for controlling transmit power levels of a plurality of different data streams transmitted from at least one base station to a mobile station in a mobile radio communication system. The first and second data streams are transmitted from the base station and received at the mobile station. A stream of power control commands is formed at the mobile station in accordance with either the first or second received data stream. A power control signal is formed at the mobile station from the first stream of power control commands and transmitted to the base station. A received stream of power control commands is formed from the received power control signal at the base station, and the transmit power levels of the first and second data streams from the base station are controlled in accordance with the received stream of power control commands. Additional streams of power control commands can also be generated at the mobile station where one or both of the first and second data streams are simultaneously transmitted to the mobile station from further base stations, and these additional streams of power control commands can be interleaved to form an interleaved power control signal that is sent to all the base stations transmitting the first and second data streams to the mobile station and used for controlling the transmit power of the first and second data streams from such base stations.
US07899479B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for sharing presence information, including: acquiring group presence information and sending the group presence information to a group member. Embodiments of the present invention also provide a system and apparatuses for sharing presence information. The system includes a group presentity sub-system capable of acquiring the group presence information and sending the group presence information to the group member. The apparatuses include a group server, a presence server and a presence information management apparatus. With the method, system and apparatuses provided by the embodiments of the present invention, group members may conveniently share the presence information of each other, which also enriches the service functions of a single group service.
US07899478B2

A method of acquiring interoperability between a push to talk server and a chat server is disclosed. A push to talk server comprises an interface adapted to receive requests from another server to send messages to push to talk clients via the push to talk server. A chat server comprises an interface adapted to send to the push to talk server a request for permission to send chat messages to push to talk clients. A computer program product is described for communicating messages in a communication network comprising a push to talk server and a chat server.
US07899476B2

The invention discloses a method for processing a PUSH notification, including: placing non-compressible fields into the Push notification and placing into the PUSH notification a field signifying message type and a field of internal ID after the fields are compressed; determining whether the PUSH notification may be carried in one short message; if yes, having the PUSH notification carried in one short message; otherwise, having the PUSH notification carried in two short messages; determining whether there are any unoccupied bytes in the short message; if yes, determining whether to place the initiator From field into the PUSH notification according to the number of the unoccupied bytes in the short message, and determining whether to compress Subject field and place the Subject field into the PUSH notification; otherwise, terminating the processing flow of the PUSH notification. The present invention may have the PUSH notifications carried in two short messages at most.
US07899474B2

Responsive to the sensing of an occurrence of an event, an action may be executed according to which a message is generated. The message may be generated with a format that is based on an application definition document. According to the application definition document, a label may be generated for associating with the message. The message and label may then be stored in a queue in a manner that allows the label to be associated with the message. Subsequent to the message having been stored, a representation of the queue may be displayed for review by a user interested in the status of the message, or the queue in general. The label associated with the message is displayed in the representation rather than the actual code of the message, thereby allowing the viewer of the display to make an informed decision regarding further activity to carried out on the message.
US07899473B2

The present invention provides a ‘411xx’ value added service to wireless users. The disclosed ‘411xx’ service allows a mobile user who may be unfamiliar with their current geographic location to nevertheless obtain quick, accurate, and current information relating to the geographic area, e.g., different services in their current location, stores, libraries, gas stations, etc., via a mobile terminated (MT) short message system (SMS) message. In addition to the traditional ‘4-1-1’ dialed digits, a mobile user would also dial a number (or numbers) representing a feature code for a particular service, e.g., nearby ATMs, or traffic information. Upon receiving a 411xx call, the MSC generates an ORREQ/TCAP trigger based on a translation of the requested service represented by the extra ‘xx’ digits. The 411xx call is terminated on the MSC after an audible whisper notice plays to the caller, e.g., “thank you for calling, your requested information will be sent momentarily”.
US07899467B2

A technique for estimating the location of a wireless terminal at an unknown location in a geographic region is disclosed. The technique is based on the recognition that there are traits of electromagnetic signals that are dependent on topography, the receiver, the location of the transmitter, and other factors. For example, if a particular radio station is known to be received strongly at a first location and weakly at a second location, and a given wireless terminal at an unknown location is receiving the radio station weakly, it is more likely that the wireless terminal is at the second location than at the first location.
US07899453B2

A system, a method for call processing and a device are provided. The device includes an IMSI and multiple MSISDN, wherein the multiple MSISDN includes a main-number and a sub-number, the sub-number is corresponding to an incoming call answering policy and an outgoing call number policy, and the device is capable of receiving an incoming call message carrying the sub-number and processing the incoming call message according to the incoming call policy corresponding to the sub-number and capable of configuring an outgoing call message according to the outgoing call number policy corresponding to the sub-number and sending the outgoing call message to a communication network.
US07899451B2

As no single wireless network can provide both broadband high-speed radio transmission and seamless full mobility for commercial wireless communications in terms of technology, cost, spectrum and performance, a new wireless converged network access infrastructure based on Open Wireless Architecture (OWA) has been disclosed, wherein the spectrum is separated into low spectrum band (LSB) for wide area seamless mobility networks and high spectrum band (HSB) for very high-speed broadband wireless access systems in order to maximize the spectrum utilization efficiency for the converged multiple wireless access networks of the fully service-oriented wireless communications including multimedia broadcast and multicast service.
US07899441B2

The present invention discloses a method for resolving and accessing a selected service in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), wherein a service resolving unit is preconfigured for initial access, the method comprising: a WLAN user terminal sending a service establishing request to the service resolving unit; after receiving the service establishing request, the service resolving unit sending a service authentication and authorization request containing the user's subscription information to the service authentication authorization unit, which performs authentication and authorization to the requesting WLAN user terminal; then judging whether the authentication and authorization is successful, if yes, the service authentication authorization unit returning the address of the authorized destination device to the requesting WLAN user terminal so as to establish a service connection between the WLAN user terminal and the destination device; otherwise, the service authentication authorization unit returning the failure information of the service establishing request. With this method, the analytical access processing of the selected service can be simplified while the security and reliability of the network greatly enhanced.
US07899435B2

The present invention, which is aimed at providing a wireless communication unit which is operated by battery power and offers long battery life, power control method thereof and a wireless network which utilizes the wireless communication unit, includes: a direct demodulation standby part for prestoring an own unit identification code to compare the identification code included in the high-frequency signal with the own unit identification code; an intermittent power supply part for intermittently supplying power to the direct demodulation standby part; and a power control part for controlling the power supply to the transmitting/receiving part, wherein the direct demodulation standby part notifies the power control part and the intermittent power supply part, whether or not the identification code coincides with the own unit identification code after comparing the both, the power control part supplies power to the transmitting/receiving part upon receiving the notification from the direct demodulation standby part, indicating that the identification code coincides with the own unit identification code, and the intermittent power supply part intermittently supplies power to the direct demodulation standby part upon receiving the notification from the direct demodulation standby part indicating that the identification code does not coincide with the own unit identification code.
US07899432B2

In an embodiment, a submillimeter wave heterodyne receiver includes a finline ortho-mode transducer comprising thin tapered metallic fins deposited on a thin dielectric substrate to separate a vertically polarized electromagnetic mode from a horizontally polarized electromagnetic mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07899431B2

A method and apparatus are provided for providing improved radio frequency (RF) receiver signal correction. For RF receiver circuitry (106) having receive path and a warmup period associated therewith and including at least one analog baseband gain control stage (218) having a gain associated therewith, the method includes the step of performing a DC correction calculation operation during the warmup period to derive a DC correction value having a first component and a second component for each of the at least one gain control stage (218). The DC correction calculation step includes the steps of performing a first closed loop correction (460) of a baseband path to derive the first component of the DC correction value and performing a second closed loop correction (462) of the receive path as a function of the (218) gain during the warmup period to derive the second component of the DC correction value. During operation after the warmup period (464 , 466), an open loop correction is performed for instantaneous DC correction as function of the PMA (218) gain and the DC correction value.
US07899428B2

A radio receiver front-end includes first and second RF receiver sections and an RF combining module. The first RF receiver section is coupled to receive an inbound RF signal and provide to a first representation of the inbound RF signal, wherein the inbound RF signal includes a desired signal component and an undesired signal component. The second RF receiver section is coupled to receive the inbound RF signal and to provide a second representation of the inbound RF signal. The RF combining module is coupled to combine the first and second representations of the inbound RF signal to produce a desired RF signal, wherein the desired RF signal includes the desired signal component and an attenuated representation of the undesired signal component.
US07899427B2

A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board in the housing and having radio frequency (RF) circuitry and a power amplifier and microphone mounted thereon. An antenna is carried within the housing and operative with the RF circuitry. An RF shield surrounds and isolates the microphone from the RF circuitry, power amplifier and antenna and shields the microphone from radiated energy generated from the RF circuitry, antenna or power amplifier.
US07899424B2

A method for reducing frequency glitches in a digital transceiver due to power amplifier input impedance variations. According to the method, the power amplifier is switched on after the end of a prior packet reception period and before a new packet transmission begins. Instead of ramping the power amplifier gain, the method ramps the modulation signals. As a consequence, any VCO frequency transients that may result from turning on the power amplifier have an opportunity to decay before the new packet transmission is initiated. This technique effectively isolates the transmitter power amplifier from the frequency synthesizer VCO to facilitate fast switching transceiver operation.
US07899420B2

A wireless transmission device includes a RF power amplification section for amplifying a transmit RF signal and outputting the amplified signal to a transmission antenna, a detector section, and a control section. The RF power amplification section includes a plurality of stages of amplification, the transmit RF signal is input to an input of a first one of the plurality of stages of amplification, and an output of a last one of the plurality of stages of amplification is output to the transmission antenna. The detector section includes a plurality of detectors provided so as to correspond to the plurality of stages of amplification, each for detecting an input level of a corresponding one of the stages of amplification, and a synthesizer for synthesizing together detection outputs from the plurality of detectors. The control section controls, in a feedback control, an output level of the RF power amplification section based on an output level of the synthesizer.
US07899419B2

It has now been found that in some transmitter implementations which transmit multiple code channels, for example CDMA transmitters, the observed power for each code channel at the output relative to the other code channels is dependent upon the total transmit power due to non-linearities in the transmitter. Methods and apparatus are provided which use pre-set digital gains or digital gain adjustments to compensate for the non-linearities as a function of total transmit power such that at the output, the desired relative powers are observed.
US07899415B1

A radio system comprises a power source and a power amplifier circuit coupled to the power source on a power line. The radio system also comprises an active cancellation circuit. The active cancellation circuit comprises a bi-directional DC-DC converter. The active cancellation circuit is configured to cancel low-frequency emissions from the power amplifier circuit on the power line.
US07899409B2

A transceiver is described that includes a power amplifier (PA), a low noise amplifier (LNA), and an impedance matching circuit having a first and second differential output node. The first and second differential output nodes are coupled to outputs of the PA and to inputs of the LNA. The impedance matching circuit provides a load impedance to the outputs of the PA. The transceiver further includes a first impedance device having an output impedance coupled between the first and second differential output nodes. In this way, the combination of the output impedance and the load impedance matches with an impedance at the inputs of the LNA.
US07899406B2

Disclosed is an apparatus in a diversity system of a mobile terminal having a main receiving unit and a sub-receiving unit, which includes a sub-antenna for receiving an input signal and a part of a transmitted signal of a transmitting unit, a band-pass filter (BPF) designed to greatly attenuate a low-band frequency of the part of the transmitted signal received through the sub-antenna, a high-pass filter (HPF) for additionally attenuating the part of the transmitted signal attenuated through the BPF, a low-noise amplifier for minimizing a noise of an output value of the HPF, an HPF for passing therethrough only a high-frequency component of an output value of the low-noise amplifier, and a mixer for mixing output values of the HPF and outputting a baseband signal. One of two BPFs in the sub-receiving unit is replaced by one HPF, and thus the HPF can be fabricated on chip with the terminal receiving unit. Additionally, through the on-chip HPF, the use of an additional BPF is eliminated, and the size and the unit price of production of the mobile terminal can also be reduced.
US07899402B2

Method of estimating Doppler spread comprising the steps of estimating a de-biased value according to the relation Formula (I), is a preliminary Doppler spread squared, based on measured parameters, and K2 is a constant.
US07899386B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a transferor, a fixing unit, and a guide. The image carrier carries a toner image. The transferor opposes the image carrier to form a transfer nip and transfers the toner image on the image carrier onto a recording medium at the transfer nip. The fixing unit fixes the toner image on the recording medium. The guide guides the recording medium bearing the toner image from the transferor toward the fixing unit and includes a surface portion directly contacting the recording medium. The surface portion includes a material for charging the recording medium to have a polarity opposite to the polarity of a toner forming the toner image.
US07899378B2

An image forming apparatus includes at least one supporting roller, a movable belt supported by the supporting roller, and a shifting restricting unit to prevent the movable belt from shifting to any one side along an axial direction of the supporting roller. The shifting restricting unit includes a guide rail formed between the movable belt and the supporting roller to guide movement of one end of the movable belt, and a belt pressurizing member formed at the other end of the movable belt to generate tension on the movable belt to compensate for a shifting force on the guide rail side by the guide rail.
US07899374B2

A magnetic particle carrying device includes a magnetic field generator and a hollow cylindrical structure. The magnetic field generator generates a magnetic field. The hollow cylindrical structure encases the magnetic field generator and attracts magnetic particles on an external surface of the hollow structure using the magnetic field. The external surface of the hollow cylindrical structure is provided with a plurality of elliptical depressions. The depressions include first type depressions and second type depressions. A long axis of a first type of elliptical depression is substantially extending in an axial direction of the hollow cylindrical structure, and a long axis of a second type of elliptical depression is substantially extending in a circumferential direction of the hollow cylindrical structure. The external surface of the hollow cylindrical structure has more elliptical depressions of the second type than elliptical depressions of the first type.
US07899365B2

An image forming apparatus for forming a color image has developing devices with different color toners. Each developing device has a toner carrier and a layer thickness-controller facing the carrier. Circularity of toner in a particular color is smaller than that of toners in other colors. The layer thickness-controllers of the developing devices containing toners in other colors contact the carrier at a particular linear pressure. Additionally, the coefficient of variance (CV value) of the particle diameter distribution of toner in a particular color may be defined by the formula CV ⁢ ⁢ VALUE = ( STANDARD ⁢ ⁢ DEVIATION ⁢ ⁢ OF ⁢ ⁢ VOLUME - AVERAGE ⁢ ⁢ PARTICLE ⁢ ⁢ DIAMETER ⁢ ⁢ DISTRIBUTION ) ( ARITHMETIC ⁢ ⁢ VOLUME ⁢ - AVERAGE ⁢ ⁢ PARTICLE ⁢ ⁢ DIAMETER ) × 100 and may exceed the CV value of the toners in other colors. The image forming apparatus contains the contaminating toner in the developing device, makes the image resistant to color mixing, and reduces image staining, even if there is leakage of a toner and contamination of the toners in different colors with the scattered toner.
US07899350B2

A fixing device including a fixing member to melt a toner so as to fix a toner image onto a recording medium, a temperature sensor to detect a temperature of the fixing member, and a heater to heat the fixing member based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor. A driving speed of the fixing member is reduced after printing is completed, and subsequently the fixing member stops driving. The fixing member is controlled to have a desired temperature (Ts) after the fixing member stops driving that is lower than a desired temperature (Tp) during printing.
US07899348B2

A controller takes in a detection signal indicating the surface electrical potential of a photoconductive drum (7) from a surface electrical potential sensor (step #1), and determines whether the surface electrical potential is smaller than the predetermined threshold value (step #2). As a result, when the controller (6) determines that the surface electrical potential is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value (NO in step #2), it uses the low print rate density patch to execute the density adjustments in accordance with the toner density and the developing bias associated with the density patch (step #3). When the controller (6) determines that the surface electrical potential is smaller than the predetermined threshold value (NO in step #1), it uses a high print rate density patch to execute the density adjustments in accordance with the toner density and the developing bias associated with the density patch (step #4).
US07899346B2

The humidity detecting device includes a detection unit and a controller. The detection unit includes a humidity sensor for producing a humidity detection signal by detecting a humidity, a temperature sensor for producing a temperature detection signal by detecting a temperature surrounding the humidity sensor, and a common power supply line connected to the humidity sensor and the temperature sensor. The controller includes an application circuit for applying a power supply voltage to the humidity sensor and the temperature sensor through the common power supply line, a read circuit for producing a read-out humidity value corresponding to the humidity detection signal and a read-out temperature value corresponding to the temperature detection signal, and a correction circuit for correcting the read-out humidity value based on the read-out temperature value.
US07899341B2

A technique that can contribute to improvement of analysis accuracy in analysis processing concerning an image forming apparatus is provided. An image forming apparatus that forms, on a sheet, a test pattern formed by a color obtained by mixing toners of plural colors, scans a test pattern image formed on the sheet with a color sensor, and performs predetermined image quality control processing on the basis of information scanned, the image forming apparatus including an analysis-information forming unit that forms predetermined information used for an analysis concerning the image forming apparatus on a sheet.
US07899338B2

A method and device for adequately controlling the DC bias of each of the optical modulating sections of an optical modulator even while the optical modulator is operating in normal mode and even with a simple structure. An optical modulator bias controller (B) for controlling the DC bias of each optical modulating section of an optical modulator (1) is characterized by comprising DC bias application means (3) for applying a DC bias to each of the optical modulating sections, a low-frequency signal superimposing circuit (2) for superimposing a low-frequency signal fB with a specific frequency on a modulating signal b applied to each optical modulating section, optical sensing means (9) for sensing a change of the intensity of the light wave passing through the combining section, and bias control means (4) for extracting the change of the intensity of light corresponding to the low-frequency signal from the optical sensing means and controlling the DC bias application means according to the extracted change of the intensity of light.
US07899335B2

A light emitting element driving differential switch (2) includes first and second transistors (M1, M2). A third transistor (M3) is connected as an auxiliary switch in parallel to the first transistor (M1) whose drain is connected to a light emitting element (1). A third switch driving signal (IN3) is input to the third transistor (M3) to turn ON the third transistor (M3) at a slightly earlier point in time than when complementary switch driving signals (IN1, IN2) are input to the first and second transistors (M1, M2) to drive the first and second transistors (M1, M2). This improves the rising characteristics of the output from the light emitting element having a high power level.
US07899334B2

The present invention provides a signal distribution module for use in a directionless reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer application, including: a multi-cast switch having a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports; a plurality of optical amplifiers coupled to the plurality of input ports of the multi-cast switch, wherein the plurality of optical amplifiers form an optical amplifier array; a tunable optical splitter coupled to the plurality of optical amplifiers; and a pump laser coupled to the tunable optical splitter.
US07899312B2

There is provided a lens barrel with an vibration reduction unit, which allows a reduction in dimension of the lens barrel in the optical-axis direction in the accommodated state, and an imaging device including such lens barrel. The lens barrel includes first and second lens units, a drive part for driving one of the first and second lens units in the optical-axis direction with respect to a stationary part, the drive part driving the one of the first and second lens units to approach each other during shifting to an accommodated state, and an vibration reduction part for moving the other lens unit in a plane substantially orthogonal to the optical axis so that at least part of a position of the other lens unit in the optical-axis direction coincides with a position of the drive part in the accommodated state.
US07899311B1

The present invention is a camera system having a rigid camera frame to receive a removable shutter and serve as a releasable attachment point for the camera lens system and image receiving means. An adaptor and wedge have complementary contact points that allow constant alignment and orientation of the system components after removal and reattachment without recalibration or realignment. The camera system may be used in a photographic imaging system such as an airborne reconnaissance system.
US07899309B2

Apparatus for vaporizing liquid in a vaporization pathway having an actively controlled temperature are disclosed according to some aspects. The apparatus can comprise a first body having a cross sectional shape and dimensions substantially equal to the cross sectional shape and dimensions of a cavity in a second body, which allows the first body to be non-permanently inserted into the second body. The outer surface of the first body, the inner surface forming the cavity in the second body, or both can be modified to create a vaporization pathway between the first and second bodies when the surfaces mate and/or align. The liquid vaporizer can further comprise a vaporization pathway inlet for fluid comprising liquid, a vaporization pathway outlet for fluid comprising primarily vapor, and a heater in thermal communication with the first body, the second body, or both. The heater provides active control of the temperature of the vaporization pathway.
US07899305B2

A user interface for a digital video recorder (DVR) comprises a graphical button that is user-selectable to cause the DVR to skip to a particular point in a program recorded by the DVR. The particular point is at a particular time interval before an end of the program. If the particular point is untagged, the graphical button has a first label when a playback position of the DVR is at a beginning of the program and a second label when the playback position of the DVR is at the end of the program. The first label differs from the second label. If the particular point is tagged, e.g. by a content owner of the program, the graphical button has a third label that differs from the first and second labels.
US07899299B2

A system including an overhead cable pathway structure and an adapter panel or cable termination device that mounts overhead to the cable pathway structure. The cable termination device including a plurality of adapters and a cable pathway exit having a curved surface that guides cables exiting from the overhead cable pathway structure to the adapters.
US07899293B2

Disclosed is an optical transmission fiber having reduced bending and microbending losses that is commercially usable in FTTH or FTTC transmission systems.
US07899292B2

A guiding nonlinearity cell. The novel nonlinearity cell includes a nonlinear medium and a waveguide adapted to guide input electromagnetic energy through the nonlinear medium. In an illustrative embodiment, the cell includes a thin layer of a liquid or solid nonlinear medium disposed between two parallel plates adapted to guide energy through the length of the medium by total internal reflection. The plates can be made from a material having a refractive index less than a refractive index of the medium to provide total internal reflection within the liquid, or they can be made from a material matching the refractive index of the medium such that outer walls of the plates provide total internal reflection, allowing energy to leak into the plates.
US07899275B2

There are provided a data processing apparatus which makes an I/F for data processing modules (processors) versatile to facilitate addition/modification on a data processing module basis in accordance with processing contents, an image processing apparatus, and a method for the apparatuses. A data processing module (3) includes a read address generator (11), read FIFO (7), write address generator (13), write FIFO (9), and arbiter (10) and is connected to a host arbiter (4) through a 1-channel port. The read address generator (11) and write address generator (13) generate interrupts upon acceptance of final access requests so as to control activation of each data processing module (8-1-8-m) in accordance with the state of each data processing module in interrupt processing. Note that data transfer among the respective data processing modules is performed on a RAM (6).
US07899273B2

An image processing apparatus that generates an output image according to interpolation performed by using an input image includes a pixel-value calculating unit that calculates a pixel value of a pixel of the output image according to interpolation performed by using pixel values of pixels of the input image and an interpolation function, an edge determining unit that determines an edge direction, which is a direction of an edge in the pixel of the output image, using the input image, and an adjusting unit that adjusts the interpolation function such that a degree of pixels of the input image present in a direction along the edge direction contributing to the interpolation is large and a degree of pixels of the input image present in a direction orthogonal to the edge direction contributing to the interpolation is small.
US07899269B2

A CPU 200 selects one or multiple image data GD to be pasted on ornamental image data among plurality of input image data GD and gains image processing control information GI related to the selected image data GD. The CPU 200 selects desired ornamental image data FD and gains layout control information LI related to the selected ornamental image data FD. The CPU 200 also reads image quality adjustment information GC included in the layout control information LI. The CPU 200 executes image quality adjustment of each of the selected image data GD with the image processing control information GI and the image quality adjustment information GC. The CPU 200 pastes the respective image data GD, which have gone through the image quality adjustment, on the ornamental image data FD according to the layout control information LI to generate resulting output image data.
US07899267B2

A local method uses a cascade of multiple nonlinear edge preserving filters, and nonlinear pixel point operations, to calculate the pixel gain. Multiple low-pass filters are used, being applied to surrounding neighborhoods of the current pixel of narrow and of wide extent. The number of filter stages may be determined based on the image content. The coefficients used to combine a gray level image extracted from the input image with the ascending scale regions can be automatically extracted from high-pass filtered images of the ascending scale regions. Multiplying each color component of the input image by one or more pixel dependent gain or attenuation factors, using a nonlinear mapping function that can lighten shadow regions as well as darken bright regions, generates the output image.
US07899247B2

An apparatus usable in an image encoding and decoding system includes segmentation unit to divide an image into one or more blocks, to segment the blocks into a binary mask layer of a foreground and a background according to a cost optimized function and a feature vector to generate a segmentation image according to the segmented blocks.
Patent Agency Ranking