US07985858B2

The present invention is directed to the conversion of a 6-keto morphinan to a 6-alpha-hydroxy morphinan in the presence of a ruthenium, rhodium, or iridium asymmetric catalyst and a hydrogen source.
US07985853B2

This invention relates to compounds, compositions, and methods useful for modulating platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) and/or platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFr) gene expression using short interfering nucleic acid (siNA) molecules. This invention also relates to compounds, compositions, and methods useful for modulating the expression and activity of other genes involved in pathways of platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) and/or platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFr) gene expression and/or activity by RNA interference (RNAi) using small nucleic acid molecules. In particular, the instant invention features small nucleic acid molecules, such as short interfering nucleic acid (siNA), short interfering RNA (siRNA), double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), micro-RNA (miRNA), and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) molecules and methods used to modulate the expression of platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) and/or platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFr) genes, such as PDGF and/or PDGFr.
US07985849B2

Sequences of B12-dependent dehydratases with improved reaction kinetics are presented. Use of these B12-dependent dehydratases reduce the rate of the enzyme's suicide inactivation in the presence of glycerol and 1,3-propanediol. The enzymes were created using error-prone PCR and oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis to target the DhaB1 gene, which encodes the α-subunit of glycerol dehydratase. Mutants with improved reaction kinetics were rapidly identified using high throughput assays.
US07985844B2

Modulation of Hyaluronan (HA) synthesis and degradation is disclosed by compounds and compositions that are capable of reducing the level of hyaluronan synthase (HAS) or hyaluronidase (HYAL) or the function or activity of HAS or HYAL. The compounds and compositions can also inhibit the expression of genetic material encoding these enzymes. The compounds and compositions comprise nucleic acid molecules and interactive molecules such as antibodies, small molecule inhibitors and substrate analogs of HAS and HYAL. The compounds and compositions are useful in the prophylaxis and/or treatment of inflammatory disorders including hyperproliferative conditions, such as but not limited to, cancer and psoriasis.
US07985841B2

Filamentous phage comprising a matrix of cpVIII proteins encapsulating a genome encoding first and second polypeptides of an antogenously assembling receptor, such as an antibody, and a receptor comprised of the first and second polypeptides surface-integrated into the matrix via a filamentous phage coat protein membrane anchor domain fused to at least one of the polypeptides.
US07985839B2

The invention is a proteinaceous construct comprising a Factor VIII molecule which is conjugated to a water-soluble polymer via carbohydrate moieties of Factor VIII, and methods of preparing same.
US07985830B2

Methods for synthesizing dimeric or polymeric reaction products of nitrogen aromatics comprise contacting a composition comprising the nitrogen aromatic with a catalyst composition. The catalyst comprises a first metal substrate having a second reduced metal coated on the substrate.
US07985824B1

A method of making a polycarbonate is described. The method comprises reacting an activated diaryl carbonate and a dihydroxy compound at a reaction temperature in a reactor to form a reaction mixture wherein the reactor comprises a heated cover and an open space between the cover and the reaction mixture. The dihydroxy compound comprises a vapor pressure greater than or equal to 0.01 kiloPascals at the reaction temperature and the temperature of the open space in the reactor, the temperature of the cover, or the temperature of the open space and the cover is greater than or equal to the melt temperature of the monomer having the highest melt temperature.
US07985822B2

An epoxy resin composition including an epoxy resin and a curing agent as essential components, in which the curing agent comprises a phenol resin which has each structural moiety of a phenolic hydroxyl group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon group (P), an alkoxy group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon group (B) and a divalent aralkyl group (X), and also has, in a molecular structure, a structure in which the phenolic hydroxyl group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon group (P) and the alkoxy group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon group (B) are bonded with the other phenolic hydroxyl group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon group (P) or alkoxy group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon group (B) via the divalent aralkyl group (X).
US07985812B2

A method for controlling a solution process for the polymerisation of olefins is disclosed. The method is based on an algorithm that calculates predicted operating parameters of the process, including calculation of the extent of reaction (ξ), as a function of the solution density (ρ), and then calculation of the whole composition of the solution. The algorithm resolves a system of equations comprising the equation of state in the PC-SAFT form, the Lewis-Mayo equation for monomer incorporation into a copolymer, and the stoichiometry equation. Predicted parameters are compared to target parameters to detect possible deviations and implement corresponding compensation in the feed.
US07985811B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to measuring and controlling static in a gas phase reactor polymerization. In particular, embodiments relate to monitoring carryover static in an entrainment zone during gas phase polymerization to determine the onset of reactor discontinuity events such as chunking and sheeting. Embodiments also relate to monitoring carryover static to determine the need for effective additions of continuity additives that minimize reactor static activity and thereby preventing discontinuity events.
US07985810B2

A polymer compound comprising a repeating unit of the following formula (1) and at least one of a repeating unit of the following formula (2) and a repeating unit of the following formula (70). (wherein, Q represents Ar1 and Ar2 represent an arylene group, divalent heterocyclic group or divalent aromatic amine group. Ar3 represents an aryl group, monovalent heterocyclic group or monovalent aromatic amine group. Z represents —CR1═CR2— or —C≡C—. R1 and R2 represent a hydrogen atom, alkyl group or the like. m represents 0 or 1.) (wherein, a ring A and a ring B represent an aromatic hydrocarbon ring, and at least one of the ring A and the ring B is an aromatic hydrocarbon ring having two or more benzene rings condensed. Rw and Rx represent an alkyl group, alkoxy group or the like.) (wherein, a ring C and a ring D represent an aromatic ring. E represents O or S.).
US07985807B2

A thermosetting composition containing an aluminosiloxane, a silicone oil containing silanol groups at both ends, an epoxy silicone, and a silicone elastomer. The thermosetting composition of the present invention can be used for, for example, encapsulating materials, coating materials, molding materials, surface-protecting materials, adhesive agents, bonding agents, and the like. Especially, in a case where the thermosetting composition of the present invention is used as an encapsulating material, the thermosetting composition is suitably used for, for example, photosemiconductor devices mounted with blue or white LED elements (backlights for liquid crystal displays, traffic lights, outdoor big displays, advertisement sign boards, and the like).
US07985806B2

An organopolysiloxane represented by formula (1) shown below and having (3,5-diglycidylisocyanuryl)alkyl groups represented by formula (2) at least at both terminals of the main chain: wherein, each R1 represents, independently, a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon group of 1 to 20 carbon atoms, R2 is a group represented by formula (2) shown below, X is a group represented by formula (3) shown below, a represents an integer of 0 to 100 and b represents an integer of 0 to 30, provided that 1≦a+b, and c represents an integer of 0 to 10 wherein, R3 represents an alkylene group of 2 to 12 carbon atoms wherein, R1 and R2 are as defined above, d represents an integer of 0 to 30, and e represents an integer of 0 to 30.
US07985790B2

A fluoropolymer composition comprising: at least one thermoplastic partially fluorinated fluoropolymer [polymer (F)]; water; less than 15% wt (based on total weight of composition) of a water-soluble solvent mixture [mixture (M)] comprising: at least one alcohol solvent [solvent (A)]; at least one glycol derivative solvent having a boiling point of at least 100° C. [solvent (GD)], wherein the solvent (GD) is a derivative of a compound comprising at least two hydroxyl groups, wherein at least one of the hydroxyl group has been derivatized to yield an ether or an ester bond.
US07985786B2

Rubber-modified cementitious substances and various methods of making such substances or components thereof. One embodiment of the substance includes a mix of cement and composite particles, wherein essentially each of the composite particles has a rubber core enclosed in an inorganic exterior and wherein the rubber core is chemically coupled to the inorganic exterior. The chemical coupling between the rubber core and the inorganic exterior and the bonding between the inorganic exterior and the cement result in a rubber-modified cementitious substance that has greater strength than comparable conventional rubber-modified cementitious substances. One embodiment of the method of making a rubber-modified cementitious substance includes (1) reacting a coupling agent with rubber particles and inorganic particles to yield composite particles, wherein essentially each of the composite particles has a rubber core enclosed in an inorganic exterior and (2) combining the composite particles with a cementitious substance to yield a rubber-modified cementitious substance.
US07985779B2

The present invention relates to a novel method for manufacturing a cellular elastomeric polyurethane foam ball. The product polyurethane foam ball may be used as a core for a tennis ball which meets ITF specifications for tennis balls, including weight, diameter, bound, forward deformation and return deformation.
US07985778B2

Synthetic resin containing ester bond is subjected to hydrolysis treatment to reclaim raw material component before polymerization. Method for decomposing and reclaiming synthetic resin having ester bond in composition structure thereof, by conducting hydrolysis treatment and then separation collection treatment. In the hydrolysis treatment, article containing synthetic resin to be decomposed and reclaimed is exposed to water vapor atmosphere filled under saturation water vapor pressure at treatment temperature at or below melting point of the synthetic resin. The synthetic resin in article to be treated is hydrolyzed by water vapor generated at the treatment temperature, to generate decomposition product before polymerizing to the synthetic resin containing an ester bond. The separation collection treatment is treatment in which the decomposition product generated by the hydrolysis treatment is separated into liquid component and solid component to be collected individually.
US07985772B2

The invention concerns novel derivatives of 3,3-diphenylpropylamines, methods for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions containing the novel compounds, and the use of the compounds for preparing drugs. More particularly, the invention relates to novel prodrugs of antimuscarinic agents with superior pharmacokinetic properties compared to existing drugs such as oxybutynin and tolterodine, methods for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, a method of using said compounds and compositions for the treatment of urinary incontinence, gastrointestinal hyperactivity (irritable bowel syndrome) and other smooth muscle contractile conditions.
US07985771B2

The invention relates to a method of treating with furanone derivatives and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, one or more conditions of the skin, in particular regulating skin condition, regulating signs of skin aging, treating a number of conditions such as contact dermatitis, skin irritation, rosacea, acne, psoriasis, and preventing and protecting skin tissue against age-related damage or damage resulting from insults such as harmful (UV) radiation or environmental pollution, stress and fatigue.
US07985768B2

The present invention relates to thiophene containing compounds of formula (I) wherein R1, R2, R3, and n are as defined in the specification, pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds, and methods of treating conditions and disorders using such compounds and pharmaceutical compositions.
US07985767B2

Compounds of the formula are disclosed herein. Therapeutic methods, compositions, and medicaments related thereto are also disclosed.
US07985759B2

The present invention relates to novel compounds representated by formula (I), where R, R1, R2, R3, X, Y, m, n are as defined. The present invention relates to compounds of the general formula I their derivatives, their analogs, their tautomeric forms, their stereoisomers, their diastereomers, their bioisosteres, their polymorphs, their pharmaceutically acceptable salts and pharmaceutically acceptable compositions containing them which are predominantly dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors. The present invention also relates to the processes for the preparation of novel compounds of formula (I) and their use in treating type II diabetes and diabetic complications thereof and also for treating dislipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, obesity and hyperglycemia.
US07985752B2

The present invention relates to novel piperazine derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, a process for preparing the same, and in particular, a high binding for Serotonin 1A(5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT1A) receptor, a pharmaceutical composition for treatment and/or prevention of depression and anxiety including an effective amount of the piperazine compound, and a method of treating depression, anxiety and other conditions related to 5-HT1A receptor in a mammal.
US07985750B2

This invention relates to novel compounds that are substituted oxazolidinones derivatives and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. More specifically, this invention relates to novel oxazolidinones compounds that are derivatives of rivaroxaban. The invention also provides pyrogen-free compositions comprising one or more compounds of the invention and a carrier, and the use of the disclosed compounds and compositions in methods of treating diseases and condition that are beneficially treated by administering a selective inhibitor of factor Xa, such as rivaroxaban.
US07985749B2

The invention provides compounds, pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds and methods of using such compounds to treat or prevent diseases or disorders associated with the activity of Cathepsin S.
US07985741B2

Compositions are provided comprising chito-oligomers obtainable from chitin, comprising oligomers of N-acetyl glucosamine (NAG) and glucosamine, wherein at least 50% of the oligomers have a chain length of about 2-50, and the degree of deacetylation of the oligomers is in the range of about 0-70%, preferably about 30-50%. The compositions are highly useful as pharmaceutical compositions for treatment of joint disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Also provided are methods for treatment of joint disorders and treatment against inflammatory activity.
US07985724B2

Disclosed is a detergent composition for hard surface, containing (A) a monoalkyl glyceryl ether whose alkyl group has 3 to 8 carbon atoms, (B) a specific compound represented by the formula (1), (C) an amine, (D) a polyvalent carboxylic acid having a molecular weight of 40 to 400 and/or a salt thereof, (E) a surfactant provided that (A) and (B) are excluded from (E), and water, wherein the mass ratio of (A)/(B), the content of (A)+(B), the mass ratio of (C)/(D), and the content of (C)+(D) are respectively in a specific range, and the pH of the detergent composition at 20° C. is 9.5 to 11.5.
US07985721B2

A cleaning and purifying composition including at least one solvent, an alkaline agent, a deflocculant, at least one surfactant selected from the group comprising an alcohol ethoxylate surfactant, an alkylamino-polyethoxy-sulfate surfactant, a polyether-phosphate ester surfactant, a surfactant that is a phosphate ester of an ethoxylated alcohol, and a surfactant that is a polyethyleneglycol monoaklyl ether, and a bonding agent.
US07985708B2

A catalyst support is made by coating a metal substrate with a solution containing a precursor for a ceramic and an amphiphilic compound, and treating the coating such that it forms a micelle structure. The coating is then treated to form a mesoporous ceramic coating on the metal substrate. The micelle structure acts as a template, so that the pores are of regular size. The active catalytic material can then be deposited in the pores. The metal substrate may for example be a corrugated foil, which can enable reaction heat to be dissipated from hot spots.
US07985698B2

This invention comprises methods of forming patterned photoresist layers over semiconductor substrates. In one implementation, a semiconductor substrate is provided. An antireflective coating is formed over the semiconductor substrate. The antireflective coating has an outer surface. The outer surface is treated with a basic fluid. A positive photoresist is applied onto the outer surface which has been treated with the basic treating fluid. The positive photoresist is patterned and developed effective to form a patterned photoresist layer having increased footing at a base region of said layer than would otherwise occur in the absence of said treating the outer surface. Other aspects and implementations are contemplated.
US07985677B2

One of methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device of the present invention is as follows: a first conductive layer is formed, a first insulating layer is formed over the first conductive layer, and a second insulating layer is formed over the first insulating layer; then, a first opening portion is formed in the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer to reach the first conductive layer; a mask layer having low wettability to a composition containing a conductive material is formed over the second insulating layer, and a second opening portion larger than the first opening portion is formed in the second insulating layer; subsequently, the first and second opening portions are filled with the composition containing a conductive material to form a second conductive layer.
US07985675B2

A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a first insulating film (third insulating film 24) formed on the semiconductor substrate, having a first trench (second interconnect trench 28), and having a composition ratio varying along the depth from an upper face of the first insulating film; and a first metal interconnect (second metal interconnect 25) filling the first trench (second interconnect trench 28). The mechanical strength in an upper portion of the first insulating film (third insulating film 24) is higher than that in the other portion of the insulating film (third insulating film 24).
US07985674B2

Prior to deposition of a silicon nitride (SiN) layer on a structure, a non-plasma enhanced operation is undertaken wherein the structure is exposed to silane (SiH4) flow, reducing the overall exposure of the structure to hydrogen radicals. This results in the silicon nitride being strongly bonded to the structure and in improved performance.
US07985670B2

A method of realizing a flash floating poly gate using an MPS process can include forming a tunnel oxide layer on an active region of a semiconductor substrate; and then forming a first floating gate on and contacting the tunnel oxide layer; and then forming second and third floating gates on and contacting the first floating gate, wherein the second and third floating gates extend perpendicular to the first floating gate; and then forming a poly meta-stable polysilicon layer on the first, second and third floating gates; and then forming a control gate on the semiconductor substrate including the poly meta-stable polysilicon layer. Therefore, it is possible to increase the surface area of the capacitor by a limited area in comparison with a flat floating gate. As a result, it is possible to improve the coupling ratio essential to the flash memory device and to improve the yield and reliability of the semiconductor device.
US07985659B1

A method for forming a semiconductor device includes providing a first cap wafer having a first opening extending through the first cap wafer, and a second cap wafer bonded to the first cap wafer, wherein the second cap wafer has a second opening extending through the second cap wafer, and wherein the first opening is misaligned with respect to the second opening. After the providing the first cap wafer and second cap wafer, the second cap wafer is bonded to a device wafer, wherein a cavity is formed between the device wafer and the second cap wafer, and wherein the device wafer comprises at least one semiconductor device in the cavity. After the bonding the second cap wafer to the device wafer, a vacuum is applied, wherein during the applying the vacuum, a sealing layer is formed over the first cap wafer, wherein the sealing layer seals the first opening.
US07985658B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor substrate structure comprises forming an oxide region in contact with a first semiconductor, e.g. silicon, substrate, implanting P-type dopants into the first semiconductor substrate to form a P-doped region, bonding the oxide region to a second semiconductor, e.g. silicon, substrate, and removing a portion of the first semiconductor substrate before or after implanting.
US07985655B2

In one embodiment, a method of forming a via includes providing a semiconductor substrate, wherein the semiconductor substrate comprises a through-via region, forming isolation openings and a sacrificial feature in the through-via region, filling the isolation openings to form isolation regions, forming a dielectric layer over the semiconductor substrate after filling the isolation openings, forming a first portion of a through-via opening in the dielectric layer, forming a second portion of the through-via opening in the semiconductor substrate, wherein forming the second portion of the through-via opening comprises removing the sacrificial feature, and forming a conductive material in the first portion and the second portion of the through-via opening.
US07985652B2

A semiconductor device and method for manufacturing a tensile strained NMOS and a compressive strained PMOS transistor pair, wherein a stressor material is sacrificial is disclosed. The method provides for a substrate, which includes a source/drain for an NMOS transistor, and a PMOS transistor. A first barrier layer is formed on the substrate and a first stressor material is formed on the first barrier layer. The first barrier layer is selectively removed from the PMOS transistor. The substrate is flash annealed and the remaining first stressor material and barrier layer is removed from the substrate.
US07985650B2

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a floating gate electrode which is selectively formed on a main surface of a first conductivity type with a first gate insulating film interposed therebetween, a control gate electrode formed on the floating gate electrode with a second gate insulating film interposed therebetween, and source/drain regions of a second conductivity type which are formed in the main surface of the substrate in correspondence with the respective gate electrodes. The first gate electrode has a three-layer structure in which a silicon nitride film is held between silicon oxide films, and the silicon nitride film includes triple coordinate nitrogen bonds.
US07985643B2

A semiconductor structure. The structure includes (a) a semiconductor layer including a channel region disposed between first and second S/D regions; (b) a gate dielectric region on the channel region; (c) a gate region on the gate dielectric region and electrically insulated from the channel region by the gate dielectric region; (d) a protection umbrella region on the gate region, wherein the protection umbrella region comprises a first dielectric material, and wherein the gate region is completely in a shadow of the protection umbrella region; and (e) a filled contact hole (i) directly above and electrically connected to the second S/D region and (ii) aligned with an edge of the protection umbrella region, wherein the contact hole is physically isolated from the gate region by an inter-level dielectric (ILD) layer which comprises a second dielectric material different from the first dielectric material.
US07985640B2

Symmetrical/asymmetrical bidirectional S-shaped I-V characteristics with trigger voltages ranging from 10 V to over 40 V and relatively high holding current are obtained for advanced sub-micron silicided CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)/BiCMOS (Bipolar CMOS) technologies by custom implementation of P1-N2-P2-N1//N1-P3-N3-P1 lateral structures with embedded ballast resistance 58, 58A, 56, 56A and periphery guard-ring isolation 88-86. The bidirectional protection devices render a high level of electrostatic discharge (ESD) immunity for advanced CMOS/BiCMOS processes with no latchup problems. Novel design-adapted multifinger 354/interdigitated 336 layout schemes of the ESD protection cells allow for scaling-up the ESD performance of the protection structure and custom integration, while the I-V characteristics 480 are adjustable to the operating conditions of the integrated circuit (IC). The ESD protection cells are tested using the TLP (Transmission Line Pulse) technique, and ESD standards including HBM (Human Body Model), MM (Machine Model), and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) IEC 1000-4-2_standard for ESD immunity. ESD protection performance is demonstrated also at high temperature (140° C.). The unique high ratio of dual-polarity ESD protection level per unit area, allows for integration of fast-response and compact protection cells optimized for the current tendency of the semiconductor industry toward low cost and high density-oriented IC design. Symmetric/asymmetric dual polarity ESD protection performance is demonstrated for over 15 kV HBM, 2 kV MM, and 16.5 kV IEC for sub-micron technology.
US07985638B2

A semiconductor device manufacturing method which sequentially forms a gate oxide film and gate electrode material over a semiconductor layer of an SOI substrate and patterns the material into gate electrodes. The method further comprises the steps of forming sidewalls made of an insulator to cover side surfaces of the gate electrode; ion-implanting into the semiconductor layer on both sides of the gate electrode to form drain/source regions; partially etching the sidewalls to expose upper parts of the side surfaces of the gate electrode; depositing a metal film to cover the tops of the drain/source regions and of the gate electrode and the exposed upper parts of the side surfaces of the gate electrode; and performing heat treatment on the SOI substrate to form silicide layers respectively in the surfaces of the gate electrode and of the drain/source regions.
US07985632B2

A method for forming a wire in a layer based on a monocrystalline or amorphous material. The method forms two trenches in the layer, crossing through one face of the layer, separated from each other by one portion of the layer, by an etching of the layer on which is arranged an etching mask, and anneals, under hydrogenated atmosphere, the layer, the etching mask being maintained on the layer during the annealing. The depths and widths of the sections of the two trenches, and the width of a section of the portion of the layer, are such that the annealing eliminates a part of the portion of the layer, the two trenches then forming a single trench in which a remaining part of the portion of the layer forms the wire.
US07985629B2

A resin sealing method of a semiconductor device, is provided with: providing a semiconductor device on which a dummy dump is formed; providing a support body including an adhesive layer provided on a surface of the support body; forming a recess in the adhesive layer; inserting the dummy bump of the semiconductor device into the recess of the adhesive layer; adhering the semiconductor device to the adhesive layer with the semiconductor device positioned on the support body; setting the supporting body having the semiconductor device in a resin sealing mold; supplying a resin into a cavity of the resin sealing mold; sealing the semiconductor device with the resin on the support body while using the dummy bump to inhibit displacement of the semiconductor device caused by a flow of the resin supplied into the cavity of the resin sealing mold; and removing the support body, the adhesive layer, and the dummy bump from the semiconductor device sealed with the resin.
US07985625B2

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device involves the steps of: forming a plurality of product formation areas each having a circuit and a plurality of first electrode pads over a main surface of a semiconductor wafer; arranging a plurality of second electrode pads with larger pitches than the first electrode pads in each of the product formation areas; segmenting the semiconductor wafer to separate the plural product formation areas and provide a plurality of semiconductor devices each having the circuit, the plural first electrode pads and the plural second electrode pads on a first surface; and cleaning foreign matter off the first surface of the semiconductor device after the step of segmenting the semiconductor devices.
US07985623B2

An integrated circuit package system is provided including providing a carrier, mounting an integrated circuit die on the carrier, connecting the integrated circuit die with the carrier, and forming an encapsulation having a multi-sloped side over the integrated circuit die for reducing ejection stress.
US07985609B2

Provided is a light-emitting apparatus which can prevent a shadow mask from contacting a light-emitting medium to suppress damage of the medium, by using a conductive layer formed on a device isolation layer as a pressing member for the shadow mask, and can attain more secure conduction between a second electrode and an auxiliary electrode. A production method of the light-emitting apparatus includes forming first electrodes and auxiliary electrodes on a substrate; forming a device isolation layer between the first electrodes and forming an opening on each of the first electrodes and the auxiliary electrodes; forming a conductive layer on the device isolation layer so as to cover the openings above the auxiliary electrodes; bringing a shadow mask into contact with the conductive layer and forming a light-emitting medium in a thickness smaller than the thickness of the conductive layer; and forming a second electrode so as to cover the light-emitting medium, the device isolation layer, and the conductive layer.
US07985594B2

The present invention provides methods for performing dynamic nuclear polarization using biradicals with a structure of formula (I) as described herein. In general, the methods involve (a) providing a frozen sample in a magnetic field, wherein the frozen sample includes a biradical of formula (I) and an analyte with at least one spin half nucleus; (b) polarizing the at least one spin half nucleus of the analyte by irradiating the frozen sample with radiation having a frequency that excites electron spin transitions in the biradical; (c) optionally melting the sample to produce a molten sample; and (d) detecting nuclear spin transitions in the at least one spin half nucleus of the analyte in the frozen or molten sample. The present invention also provides biradicals with a structure of formula (I) with the proviso that Q1 and Q2 are different when X1 and X2 are —O—. The present invention also provides methods for making biradicals with a structure of formula (IA) as described herein.
US07985590B2

Described herein are methods directed to the use of the nanodot taggants in detection and/or simulation scenarios. The nanodot taggants are based on quantum dots and may be engineered so as to have particular emission and or absorbance spectral characteristics. The nanodots are extremely small, i.e., on the order of nanometers in size, and thus do not, in some cases, behave as particles, but rather are able to be carried along and through structures like a gas.
US07985589B2

The invention provides a calibrating method for use in a method of determining the quantity of an analyte labeled with an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) isotope in a test sample. The samples can include, for example, urine, faeces, plasma or blood. The analyte can be, for example, a drug or metabolite of a drug.
US07985585B2

This disclosure relates to compositions comprising human preprimitive streak cells and/or human mesendoderm cells as well as methods for their production. Additionally, disclosed herein are methods of identifying factors useful in the further differentiation of preprimitive streak and mesendoderm cell types.
US07985580B2

The aim of the invention is to produce alcohol from plant-based raw materials while reducing energy consumption. Said aim is achieved by separating the husk portion of cereals during grinding and feed said husk portion to a dryer (21) which dries distiller's wash as a carrier medium for distiller's wash. The lost heat of said dryer (21) is supplied to the distillation station (15) as process heat. The lost heat of a molecular sieve (45) that drains the raw alcohol is also redirected to the distillation station (15) as process heat.
US07985575B2

The present invention describes a single-protein production (SPP) system in living E. coli cells that exploits the unique properties of an mRNA interferase, for example, MazF, a bacterial toxin that is a single stranded RNA- and ACA-specific endoribonuclease, which efficiently and selectively degrades all cellular mRNAs in vivo, resulting in a precipitous drop in total protein synthesis. Concomitant expression of MazF and a target gene engineered to encode an ACA-less mRNA results in sustained and high-level (up to 90%) target expression in the virtual absence of background cellular protein synthesis. Remarkably, target synthesis continues for at least 4 days, indicating that cells retain transcriptional and translational competence despite their growth arrest. SPP technology works well for yeast and human proteins, even a bacterial integral membrane protein. This novel system enables unparalleled signal to noise ratios that should dramatically simplify structural and functional studies of previously intractable but biologically important proteins. The present invention also provides an optimized condensed single protein production system.
US07985574B2

A fermentation process uses substantially pure oxygen. The oxygen is the only reactive gas which is injected into a fermentation vessel. The oxygen is moved through the vessel solely by its own pressure. The process can be used with both mechanically-agitated and air-lifted fermenters. The mechanically-agitated fermenter includes an analyzer for measuring oxygen concentration in the exhaust line, and adjusting the flow of fresh oxygen into the vessel accordingly. In the air-lifted fermenter, an analyzer measures the oxygen concentration in the head space of the vessel, and operates valves which either recycle the gas from the head space, or vent that gas to the outside, according to the measured concentration. A stream of nitrogen is periodically injected into the vessel to drive out carbon dioxide and other gases, to control the pH of the fermentation medium. The present invention substantially improves the efficiency of a commercial fermentation process.
US07985572B2

The present Invention relates to new nitrilases with modified Substrate acceptance, the method to obtain them and the use of the aforesaid nitrilases. Said nitrilases are encoded by a polypeptide sequence, which at a Position corresponding to Position 296 in wild-type Alcaligenes faecalis comprises an amino acid which is not tyrosine. The Invention further relates to nucleic acid sequences and amino acid sequences encoding Said nitrilases, expression constructs comprising Said nucleic acid sequences, vectors comprising the nucleic acid sequences or the exPression constructs, to organisms, preferably microorganisms, comprising the nucleic acid sequences, expression constructs or vectors. The Invention additionally relates to a method for preparing carboxylic acids, preferably substituted chiral carboxylic acids from racemic nitriles.
US07985567B2

The invention provides for a method for producing a 5-carbon alcohol in a genetically modified host cell. In one embodiment, the method comprises culturing a genetically modified host cell which expresses a first enzyme capable of catalyzing the dephosphorylation of an isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) or dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP), such as a Bacillus subtilis phosphatase (YhfR), under a suitable condition so that 5-carbon alcohol is 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol and/or 3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol is produced. Optionally, the host cell may further comprise a second enzyme capable of reducing a 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol to 3-methyl-butan-1-ol, such as a reductase.
US07985562B2

The present invention is directed to a method identifying a risk for a thrombogenic disorder, to a method for selecting patients with a risk for a thrombogenic disorder, to a method for identifying a pharmaceutical for the therapy or prophylaxis of a thrombogenic disorder as well as to a method for producing a medicament and a diagnostic by employing the TAFI-Ile347 polymorphism.
US07985552B2

Chemically reactive carbocyanine dyes that are intramolecularly crosslinked between the 1-position and 3′-position, their bioconjugates and their uses are described. 1,3′-crosslinked carbocyanines are superior to those of conjugates of spectrally similar 1,1′-crosslinked or non-crosslinked dyes. The invention includes derivative compounds having one or more benzo nitrogens.
US07985550B2

Provided is a method for isolating methylated CpG islands. The method includes identifying an imprinted gene adjacent to the methylated CpG island, and identifying a disease which is preferentially transmitted by one parent and which is genetically linked to region of genomic DNA which contains the imprinted gene, whereby the imprinted gene is thereby indicated as a candidate gene involved in transmitting the disease.
US07985547B2

The present invention relates to novel methods for sequencing and mapping genetic markers in polynucleotide sequences using Type-IIs restriction endonucleases. The methods herein described result in the “capturing” and determination of specific oligonucleotide sequences located adjacent to Type-IIs restriction sites. The resulting sequences are useful as effective markers for use in genetic mapping, screening and manipulation.
US07985543B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods for detecting mutations associated with blood type determination in the cat.
US07985540B2

The present invention relates to a method, a chip, a device and a system for extraction of biological material form biological cells. The invention involves exposing the biological particles to an alternating electric field in a sample chamber and may also involve subsequent analysis of the biological material after the extraction.
US07985523B2

Disclosed is a toner composition comprising toner particles which comprise (a) a resin having chemically bonded thereto a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane, (b) and an optional colorant.
US07985522B2

Disclosed is an electrophotographic photoreceptor which is excellent in wear resistance and electrical characteristics. Specifically disclosed is an electrophotographic photoreceptor containing a polyester resin in a photosensitive layer provided on an electroconductive substrate. The polyester resin is composed of a copolymer represented by the general formula 1 below, which has a viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) of 10,000-300,000 and contains a diphenyl ether 4,4′-dicarboxylic acid component and a bivalent phenol component. In the general formula 1, A represents a diphenyl ether 4,4′-dicarboxylic acid residue represented by the formula A below, and B represents a bivalent phenol residue represented by the formula B below. In the formula A, each of Ra1 and Ra2 independently represents a hydrogen atom or a monovalent substituent which may have a substituent, and each of n and m is independently an integer from 0 to 4. In the formula B, each of R1 and R2 independently represents one selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an aryl group, a halogen group, and an alkoxy group.
US07985512B2

An anode support for supporting an anode electrode in a fuel cell assembly in which the anode support has a first support member formed of a porous non-wettable material and a second support member abutting and joined with the second member and having a plurality of through openings. Also disclosed is a bipolar separator having an electrolyte barrier over predetermined limited portions of its outer surface so as to prevent or retard electrolyte creeping.
US07985509B2

A fuel cell system includes a reformer for generating hydrogen gas from fuel containing hydrogen using a chemical catalytic reaction and thermal energy. At least one electricity generator generates electrical energy by an electrochemical reaction of the hydrogen gas and oxygen. A fuel supply assembly supplies fuel to the reformer, and an oxygen supply assembly supplies oxygen to the at least one electricity generator. A heat exchanger is connected to the reformer and to the at least one electricity generator. The heat exchanger supplies thermal energy of the reformer, during initial operation of the system, to the at least one electricity generator so as to pre-heat the at least one electricity generator.
US07985497B2

A multi-layer, microporous polyethylene membrane having at least two layers, which comprises (a) a microporous polyethylene resin layer A comprising high-density polyethylene A having 0.2 or more terminal vinyl groups per 10,000 carbon atoms when measured by infrared spectroscopy, and (b) a microporous polyethylene resin layer B comprising high-density polyethylene B having less than 0.2 terminal vinyl groups per 10,000 carbon atoms when measured by infrared spectroscopy, has well-balanced permeability, mechanical strength, heat shrinkage resistance, shutdown properties, meltdown properties and oxidation resistance.
US07985491B2

An anthrylarylene derivative having a specific structure and an organic electroluminescence device comprising an organic thin film layer which comprises at least one layer comprising at least a light emitting layer and is disposed between a cathode and an anode, wherein at least one layer in the organic thin film layer comprises the anthrylarylene derivative singly or as a component of a mixture. The device exhibits a great efficiency of light emission and has a long life. The anthrylarylene derivative has a sufficient glass transition temperature and is greatly advantageous as the light emitting material used in the above organic electroluminescence device.
US07985489B2

The invention relates to a layered system of a component that can be thermally stressed, comprising at least one for expanding the application scope of layered systems and in particular for improving their life cycle. Said layer has at least one first and at least one second material and a mixture profile (1) that varies at least almost continuously with the layer thickness, without forming a boundary layer between the first and second material.
US07985488B2

An ultrathin copper foil with a carrier not causing blistering at a release layer interface, having a low carrier peeling force, friendly to the environment, and enabling easy peeling of a carrier foil and an ultrathin copper foil even under a high temperature environment and a printed circuit board enabling a stable production quality of a base of a printed circuit board for fine pattern applications using the ultrathin copper foil with the carrier, that is, a ultrathin copper foil with a carrier comprising a carrier foil, a diffusion prevention layer, a release layer, and an ultrathin copper foil, wherein the release layer is formed by a metal A for retaining a release property and a metal B for facilitating plating of the ultrathin copper foil, a content “a” of the metal A and a content “b” of the metal B forming the release layer satisfying an equation: 10≦a/(a+b)*100≦70 and a printed circuit board prepared by using such a ultrathin copper foil with a carrier.
US07985487B2

Disclosed is a corrosion resistant conductive part, which is made by forming a thin plated gold layer of thickness 100 nm or less on a stainless steel sheet, and for which high corrosion resistance is guaranteed even with a very thin gold layer. The part is characterized in that the maximum value “v” of atomic concentration of gold given by Auger analysis is at least 98% of the total atomic concentrations of all the elements, which is deemed to be 100%, in the thin gold layer ranging from the surface to the interface of the gold layer and the metal substrate, at which the descending curve of gold crosses the ascending curve of the most predominant component of the substrate metal.
US07985485B2

A copper foil reducing transmission loss at a high frequency and excellent in bond strength with a resin substrate, including at least a granular layer and a columnar layer in its thickness direction, the columnar layer being formed on at least one surface of the granular layer forming the copper foil or the granular layer being formed on at least one surface of the columnar layer forming the copper foil, the relation of the thickness A of the granular layer and the thickness B of the columnar layer in the copper foil being preferably A/(A+B)=40 to 99%, a method of production and apparatus for production for the same, and a high frequency circuit using the same.
US07985482B2

A stiffener sheet for flexible printed flexible printed circuit boards, includes alternately laminated polyimide layers and polyamideimide layers, wherein a molecular structure of the polyamideimide is represented by the following formula: wherein Ar and Ar′ represents different substituted aromatic groups.
US07985479B2

Polyisocyanate mixtures, their preparation by reacting aromatic polyisocyanate mixtures and nitrogen-containing polyetherol mixtures, and their use as an isocyanate component for the preparation of moisture-curing adhesives, said polyisocyanate mixtures comprising: (A) 15 to 35 wt. % of diphenylmethane diisocyanate with 2 aromatic rings; (3) 10 to 30 wt. % of polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate with 3 or more aromatic rings; and (C) 40 to 75 wt. % of an isocyanate-functional polyurethane; wherein the polyisocyanate mixture has an isocyanate content of 12 to 20 wt. %, an isocyanate functionality of >2.4, a viscosity of <10,000 mPa·s at 25° C., and a shear rate of 80 l/s.
US07985474B2

A wafer-dicing adhesive tape, containing two or more removable adhesive layers, on a base film, that have resin compositions containing a radiation-polymerizable compound, in which a content of the radiation-polymerizable compound in the resin composition constituting an outermost removable adhesive layer is different from that of an inner removable adhesive layer and a stress applied to the base film is sufficiently introduced to the outermost removable adhesive layer irradiated with radiation, so that said layer can be easily peeled off from chips cut; and a method of producing chips using the same.
US07985457B2

Silane cross-linked polyolefin tubes are used for drinking water and/or water for industrial use, are resistant to a chlorine content ranging from 0.1 to 5 ppm, have a minimum degree of cross-linking of 60%, are produced according to the single-stage process, and are comprised of the following polyolefin composition: (A) a polyolefin; (B) a mixture consisting of an organic silane of general formula RSiX3 (B1), of a radical-generating constituent (B2), and of a catalyst (B3); (C) a stabilizer mixture consisting of a high-molecular, phenolic constituent (C1) having a high melting point, of a sulfur-containing constituent (C2), of a phosphorous-containing processing stabilizer (C3), and of a metal deactivator (C4).
US07985455B2

The compound of the present invention is represented by the formula (1). In the formula (1), R1 and R2 are hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine, methyl or ethyl; X1 and X2 are hydrogen, fluorine, methyl or trifluoromethyl; Z1 and Z2 are a single bond, —COO—, —OCO—, —CH═CH—COO—, —OCO—CH═CH—, —CH2CH2—COO—, —OCO—CH2CH2—, —CH2O—, —CONH—, —(CH2)4—, —CH2CH2— or —C≡C—; Z3 and Z4 are a single bond or —O—; A1 and A2 are 1,4-cyclohexylene, 1,4-phenylene, 1,3-phenylene, pyridin-2,5-diyl, pyrimidin-2,5-diyl, naphthalen-2,6-diyl or tetrahydronaphtlane-2,6-diyl; and Y1 and Y2 are alkylene having from 2 to 20 carbon atoms.
US07985454B2

The present invention is directed to compositions of matter, systems, and methods to manufacture nanowires. In an embodiment, a method to produce a catalytic-coated nanowire growth substrate for nanowire growth is disclosed which comprises: (a) depositing a buffer layer on a substrate; (b) treating the buffer layer with boiled water or steam to enhance interactions between the buffer layer and catalyst particles; and (c) depositing catalytic particles on a surface of the buffer layer. Methods to develop and use this catalytic-coated nanowire growth substrate are disclosed.
US07985453B2

A method of manufacturing a calibration apparatus for an optical scanner. The method includes reacting a substrate coated with a functional group and a molecule capable of forming an activated excimer to immobilize the molecule on the substrate.
US07985447B2

A process is provided for rotolining the interior surface of an oil pipe having an inner diameter of at least 2 in (5.1 cm) and no greater than 6 in (15.2 cm) and length of at least 10 ft (3 m), comprising introducing particles of rotolining composition comprising fluoropolymer and no greater than 2 wt % of metal powder into the interior of said pipe, heating the pipe to a temperature above the melting temperature of the fluoropolymer, rotating the pipe around its longitudinal axis during the heating and rocking the pipe end-to-end thereof during the rotating so as to distribute the composition over the entire interior of the pipe, the combination of heating and distributing causing the particles to melt and coalesce to form a rotolining on the pipe over its entire interior.
US07985445B2

A novel method of forming water in oil microcapsules is disclosed. According to the invention microcapsules are obtained by steps comprising dispersing an oil soluble amine modified polyfunctional polyvinyl monomer and an oil soluble bi- or polyfunctional vinyl monomer along with a thermal or UV free radical initiator (optionally included in one or both of the oil or water phases) and an organic acid into an internal phase oil; heating or UV exposing for a time (and temperature) sufficient to oligomerize the amine modified polyfunctional polyvinyl monomer and oil soluble bi- or polyfunctional vinyl monomer forming a pre-polymer. Thereafter the process involves adding to the oil phase oil a water phase comprising a dispersion in water of an anionic emulsifier (and optionally initiator), and adding an emulsifying agent. Emulsifying the water phase into the oil phase (W/O) is controlled through the quantity of water employed. The emulsion is then UV exposed or heated for a time (and temperature) sufficient to decompose the free radical initiators in the oil and/or water phases; thereby forming microcapsule wall material at the interface of the water and oil phases.
US07985441B1

Various embodiments of methods and devices for coating stents are described herein. Among these embodiments are methods of manufacturing an implantable medical device by purifying a polymer with a fluid capable of swelling the polymer, and subsequently coating a device with the purified polymer or fabricating a device from the purified polymer. A preferred polymer is poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene).
US07985435B2

The invention provides saponin mixtures and compounds which are isolated from the species Acacia victoriae and methods for their use. These compounds may contain a triterpene moiety, such as acacic or oleanolic acid, to which oligosaccharides and monoterpenoid moieties are attached. The mixtures and compounds have properties related to the regulation of apoptosis and cytotoxicity of cells and exhibit potent anti-tumor effects against a variety of tumor cells.
US07985432B2

The invention provides compositions and methods useful in repelling target pests, such as insects from target areas. The compositions comprise mixtures or solutions of at least one repellent composition. The compositions of the invention preferably include an effective amount of evening primrose oil (“EPO”) to repel a target pest from a target area, such as animals, humans, plants or building structures, along with a carrier. The repellent composition may include a combination of EPO with another plant extract oil and a combination of EPO with catnip oil, optionally combined with another plant extract oil. The method for repelling target pests from animals comprises contacting a target area with the repellent composition to repel the target pest from the target area. The method also reduces transmission of infectious diseases transmitted by target pests by reducing contact of the pest with target areas.
US07985430B2

An adhesive solid therapeutic composition containing an active ingredient which is an extract of a plant selected from the group consisting of Sambucus nigra, Centella asiatica and Echinacea purpurea, or mixtures thereof and excipients, said excipients comprising (i) a bulk ingredient (ii) an adhesive polymer of acrylic acid and (iii) polyyinylpyrrolidone.
US07985427B2

The invention relates to a gastric juice-resistant device for releasing active substance excipients having delayed intestinal passage from a gastric juice-resistant enclosure, and which serves to increase the active substance concentration in the intestines. The inventive device is characterized in that the active substance excipient containing at least one active substance is provided in the form of a multiparticulate preparation whose individual particles have mucoadhesive properties. The invention also relates to a method for producing said device.
US07985424B2

Dendritic polymers with enhanced amplification and interior functionality are disclosed. These dendritic polymers are made by use of fast, reactive ring-opening chemistry (or other fast reactions) combined with the use of branch cell reagents in a controlled way to rapidly and precisely build dendritic structures, generation by generation, with cleaner chemistry, often single products, lower excesses of reagents, lower levels of dilution, higher capacity method, more easily scaled to commercial dimensions, new ranges of materials, and lower cost. The dendritic compositions prepared have novel internal functionality, greater stability (e.g., thermal stability and less or no reverse Michael's reaction), and reach encapsulation surface densities at lower generations. Unexpectedly, these reactions of polyfunctional branch cell reagents with polyfunctional cores do not create cross-linked materials. Such dendritic polymers are useful as demulsifiers for oil/water emulsions, wet strength agents in the manufacture of paper, proton scavengers, polymers, nanoscale monomers, calibration standards for electron microscopy, making size selective membranes, and agents for modifying viscosity in aqueous formulations such as paint. When these dendritic polymers have a carried material associated with their surface and/or interior, then these dendritic polymers have additional properties for carrying materials due to the unique characteristics of the dendritic polymer, such as for drug delivery, transfection, and diagnostics.
US07985422B2

A dosage form comprising of a high dose, high solubility active ingredient as modified release and a low dose active ingredient as immediate release where the weight ratio of immediate release active ingredient and modified release active ingredient is from 1:10 to 1:15000 and the weight of modified release active ingredient per unit is from 500 mg to 1500 mg; a process for preparing the dosage form.
US07985419B1

A divisible pharmaceutical tablet comprises an upper portion and a lower portion, the upper portion including at least one upper convex surface bordering at least one dividing notch. A ridgeline is formed between the at least one dividing notch and the at least one upper convex surface. The upper convex surface includes an apex defined at a location along the ridgeline.
US07985417B2

A method of inserting a lipid-linked moiety into a lipid assembly, such as a planar lipid monolayer or bilayer, a spherical lipid vesicle, a micelle, or an emulsion envelope monolayer is described. In the method, the lipid assembly and the lipid-linked moiety are contacted in the presence of microwave irradiation to permit the lipid-linked moiety to become associated with the lipid assembly. In one embodiment, the lipid assembly is a liposome and the lipid-linked moiety is a lipid-polymer. Compositions comprised of a lipid layer and of a lipid-linked moiety, prepared in accord with the method, are also described.
US07985416B2

A bandage and method for vital bleaching of human skin discolored as a result of bruising (ecchymosis) provides transdermal delivery of hydrogen peroxide as a bleaching agent in gel or other form. The bandages provide delivery and application by waterproof and light-proof strips and pads carrying hydrogen peroxide in sufficient concentration for safe oxidation of bruised tissue with resultant eradication of visible discoloration, and amelioration of associated tenderness.
US07985414B2

Biological-based polyurethanes and methods of making the same. The polyurethanes are formed by reacting a biodegradable polyisocyanate (such as lysine diisocyanate) with an optionally hydroxylated biomolecule to form polyurethane. The polymers formed may be combined with ceramic and/or bone particles to form a composite, which may be used as an osteoimplant.
US07985402B2

Peptide vectors having high KDR binding affinity and processes for making such vectors are provided. The peptide vectors may be conjugated to phospholipids and included in ultrasound contrast agent compositions. Such ultrasound contrast agents are particularly useful in therapeutic and diagnostic methods, such as in imaging KDR-containing tissue and in the evaluation and treatment of angiogenic processes associated with neoplastic conditions. The present invention also provides processes for the large scale production of highly pure dimeric and monomeric peptide phospholipid conjugates as well as precursor materials used to form the conjugates. The present invention further provides processes for the large scale production of highly pure peptide phospholipid conjugates which contain very low levels of TFA.
US07985394B2

A system and method for manufacturing carbon nanotubes via epitaxial growth from a source of supersaturated carbon solution is disclosed, whereby selection of the diameter, length, and chirality of single-walled or multi-walled nanotubes is enabled.
US07985392B2

An easily dispersible cake of precipitated silica, wherein the precipitated silica has a BET specific surface area of at least 220 m2/g. When the cake is dispersed in ion-exchange water to provide an aqueous dispersion of the silica of 5% by weight in concentration and further diluted to reduce the silica concentration to 1.5% by weight, the dispersion has a light-scattering index (n-value) of at least 2. The easily dispersible cake can be obtained by simultaneously adding an alkali silicate and a mineral acid to a reaction liquid whose pH is being maintained at a fixed value within a range of 7.5-11.5 and whose temperature is being maintained at 92-98° C., thus forming precipitated silica through their reaction, and separating the precipitated silica from the reaction liquid in wet state.
US07985391B2

A method of converting nitrogen oxides in a gas stream to nitrogen comprises contacting the nitrogen oxides with a nitrogenous reducing agent in the presence of a non-zeolite base metal catalyst consisting of: (a) at least one transition metal dispersed on a mixed oxide or composite oxide or a mixture thereof as support material consisting of cerium and zirconium; or (b) cerium oxide and zirconium oxide as single oxides or a composite oxide thereof or a mixture of the single oxides and the composite oxide dispersed on an inert oxide support material, whereon is dispersed at least one transition metal.
US07985387B2

A collection container and a method for collecting a biological sample, particularly whole blood, includes at least one stabilizing agent in an amount effective to stabilize and inhibit protein degradation and/or fragmentation. The stabilizing agent is able to stabilize proteases in the biological sample, particularly at the point of collection, by inhibiting protein degradation and/or fragmentation in the sample when the sample is stored. The stabilizing agent includes one or more protease inhibitors.
US07985382B1

A mobile All Hazards Receipt Facility (AHRF) is provided in an enclosure suitable for mounting on a base vehicle such as a semi-trailer. The AHRF includes a containment area compliant with BSL-3 standards, a containment area compliant with BSL-2 standards, a unique bleaching/decontamination station having an airlock to the outside for receiving incoming sample containers, a class III Biosafety Cabinet (Glovebox) connected to the bleaching station via an airlock through which samples are passed for processing, a biosafety cabinet as well as an onboard air handling system that provides air conditioning, filtration and exhaust and maintains appropriate BSL-2 and BSL-3 air pressure differentials.
US07985379B2

The present invention relates to systems and methods for controlled combustion and decomposition of gaseous pollutants while reducing deposition of unwanted reaction products from within the treatment systems. The systems include a novel thermal reaction chamber design having stacked reticulated ceramic rings through which fluid, e.g., gases, may be directed to form a boundary layer along the interior wall of the thermal reaction chamber, thereby reducing particulate matter buildup thereon. The systems further include the introduction of fluids from the center pilot jet to alter the aerodynamics of the interior of the thermal reaction chamber.
US07985375B2

A system and method for automated handling of vials containing liquid medical specimens is disclosed. The robotic system processes the specimens for further downstream molecular analysis. The processing comprises automated vial cap removal, pipetting of the vial contents, transfer of the vial contents to a destination tray such as a multiwell plate, and recapping of the vial.
US07985374B2

A cadmium-free silver brazing filler metal containing gallium, indium, nickel and cerium falls into the field of metal material and metallurgy. Its chemical composition includes (by mass percentage) Cu 28.0%-35.0%, Zn 28.0%-38.0%, Ga 0.1%-2.5%, In 0.1%-2.5%, Ni 0.1%-2.5%, Ce 0.002%-0.1%, and Ag in balance.
US07985372B2

A ferritic stainless steel sheet for use in raw material pipes for forming bellows pipes has excellent formability. More specifically, the ferritic stainless steel sheet contains 10 % to 25 % by mass of Cr and has a yield stress in the range of 300 to 450 MPa and the product of the yield stress and the uniform elongation properties of at least 5200 (MPa·%). Preferably, the ferritic stainless steel sheet for use in raw material pipes for forming bellows pipes has an average crystal grain size D of 35 μm or less or a surface roughness of 0.40 μm or less as determined by Ra.
US07985365B2

A method of creating a functional utility-surface on a thermoset composite component, including the steps of: fixing the position of a cured thermoset polymer composite component, the thermoset polymer composite component having a thermoplastic polymer surface layer attached to at least a portion of one surface thereof, the thermoset polymer composite component being fixed in position to allow access to the thermoplastic polymer surface layer; and shaping the thermoplastic polymer surface to form a functional utility-surface.
US07985361B2

A process for dispersion spinning non-melt-processible fluoropolymer fiber in which a mixture of an aqueous dispersion of non-melt-processible polytetrafluoroethylene or modified polytetrafluoroethylene fluoropolymer particles and an aqueous solution of matrix polymer is formed. The non melt-processible particles have an SSG of less than about 2.40. The aqueous dispersion contains an aliphatic alcohol ethoxylate nonionic surfactant having a 20% residuals temperature determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of less than about 290° C. and is essentially free of surfactants containing aromatic groups. The dispersion has a fluorinated surfactant content of less than about 300 ppm. The mixture is extruded into a coagulation bath containing a concentration of ions which coagulate the matrix polymer to form an intermediate fiber structure. The intermediate fiber structure is sintered to decompose the matrix polymer and coalesce. The present invention also provides a spinning composition useful for the dispersion spinning of non-melt-processible fluoropolymer fiber.
US07985360B2

An injection molding machine using a plurality of metal molds 2 and a plurality of stations S1 to S10, for executing molding by moving the metal molds in rotation and in one direction includes on one of the sides of the metal molds a plurality of heat pipes 5 which are fitted into the molds and one of the ends of which protrudes from the metal mold, and a heat transfer plate 6 so disposed as to cover a projection portion 5a of the heat pipe protruding from the metal mold. Temperature adjustment plates 4 connected to a temperature adjustment machine 4 are disposed on the other station side and while the metal mold is halted at the station, the temperature adjustment plates clamp the heat transfer plate and adjust the temperature of said metal mold.
US07985356B2

A non-linear optical device comprising a polymer configured to be photorefractive upon irradiation by a green laser. The polymer comprises a repeating unit including a moiety selected from the group consisting of the structures (M-1), (M-2) and (M-3), as defined herein.
US07985354B1

Carbon nanomaterials are stabilized and uniformly dispersed in a liquid such as water using a simple procedure. Methylcellulose is added to hot water where it separates and expands with a temperature of about 80-90 degree Celsius. Methylcellulose swiftly dissolves when the water cools down. Carbon nanomaterials are dispersed in a solvent and sonicated. This nanomaterial dispersed solvent is then added to the methylcellulose dispersed water and mechanically stirred. The resulting uniform mixture is up to 90% by weight nanomaterials and is stable for months.
US07985350B2

This disclosure relates to compositions that include (a) at least one substituted or unsubstituted cyclic alkene, and (b) an antioxidant composition including at least one compound of Formula (I): R1 through R4 in Formula (I) are described in the specification.
US07985339B2

A method for making a polysulfone having zwitterionic functionality comprising reacting a piperazine amine functionalized polysulfone with sultone is described as are blends with other polymers. Membranes containing polysulfones having zwitterionic functionality are also provided. Membranes thus formed are used in hemodialysis, hemofiltration, and water purification.
US07985336B2

The present invention relates to bioartificial devices and systems that mimic kidney or nephron function and methods of making them.
US07985332B2

The electrodesulfurization of heavy oil feedstreams is accomplished wherein a heavy oil feedstreams, along with hydrogen, is passed the cathode side of an electrochemical cell wherein the organically bound sulfur compounds in the heavy oil are reduced and the sulfur is released as hydrogen sulfide. The hydrogen sulfide can be fed directly into the anode side of the electrochemical cell to produce sulfur and hydrogen or it can be passed to an oxidation zone containing an aqueous solution of an oxidized metal salt.
US07985330B2

A method and program prevents a user from bypassing a limit placed on a specified operating life of a sensor by disconnecting and reconnecting the sensor. The present invention checks a characteristic of the sensor to see if the sensor is used prior to the connection of the sensor, and rejects the sensor if the sensor is determined to have been used before. The process of checking the characteristic of the sensor involves performing an Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) procedure and calculating an impedance value. The impedance value can be compared to various threshold values for a variety of purposes including the determination of age, condition, hydration, and stabilization of the sensor.
US07985327B2

An electrode for effective ozone production in an electrochemical cell uses a modified electrode design which adopts a novel catalytic component. The catalytic component has a number of elements selected from various metals and metalloids, and is applied to a substrate in multiple coatings or layers. The catalytic component forms a catalytic surface which is at least partially disrupted by the presence of an element which is relatively inactive with respect to oxygen evolution.
US07985321B2

An absorbent paper sheet for tissue or towel includes from about 99 percent to about 70 percent by weight of cellulosic papermaking fiber and from about 1 percent to about 30 percent by weight fibrillated regenerated cellulose microfiber which was regenerated form a cellulosic dope utilizing a tertiary amine N-oxide solvent or an ionic liquid. Fibrillation of the microfiber is controlled such that it has a reduced coarseness and a reduced freeness as compared with unfibrillated regenerated cellulose microfiber from which it is made and provides at least one of the following attributes to the absorbent sheet: (a) the absorbent sheet exhibits an elevated SAT value and an elevated wet tensile value as compared with a like sheet prepared without fibrillated regenerated cellulose microfiber; (b) the absorbent sheet exhibits an elevated wet/dry CD tensile ratio as compared with a like sheet prepared without fibrillated regenerated cellulose microfiber; (c) the absorbent sheet exhibits a lower GM Break Modulus than a like sheet having like tensile values prepared without fibrillated regenerated cellulose microfiber; or (d) the absorbent sheet exhibits an elevated bulk as compared with a like sheet having like tensile values prepared without fibrillated regenerated cellulose microfiber. In some embodiments, the pulp is pre-treated with debonder to enhance the wet/dry CD tensile ratio of the sheet.
US07985319B2

A one-ply tissue product includes a first external surface and a second external surface, the first surface having a wet-formed pattern and the second surface having an embossed pattern imitating the wet-formed pattern. Additionally, also multi-ply tissue product is suggested comprising at least two plies including two outer plies, each outer ply having a first surface and a second surface, one outer ply having a wet-formed pattern on at least the first surface and the other outer ply having an embossed pattern on at least the first surface imitating the wet-formed pattern on the first surface of the one outer ply, both outer plies being brought together so that their respective first surfaces represent external surfaces of the multi-ply tissue product. Moreover, a corresponding method and an embossing unit are also disclosed.
US07985313B2

Herein are disclosed methods and assemblies for mounting an article to a surface by a double-faced adhesive. At least one spacer is used that is deflectable upon the application of sufficient force. When in a first, undeflected condition, the spacer provides sufficient space between the mounting surface and the double-faced adhesive such that the double-faced adhesive does not contact the mounting surface, thus the position of the article can be adjusted. When in a second, deflected condition, the spacer allows the double-faced adhesive to contact the mounting surface such that a bond can be established between the double-faced adhesive and the mounting surface.
US07985310B2

This invention relates to granules comprising a homogenous mixture of metal flakes and/or metal powder and metal oxide powder, and a binder. The invention also relates to a process for producing such granules. The process includes the step of forming a mixture of metal flakes and/or metal powder and metal oxide powder, forming the mixture into a homogenous blend, adding the blend, together with a binder, to a granulator to form granules, and drying the granules. Granules so formed containing aluminum, aluminum oxide and iron oxide find particular use as sensitizers and energizers in explosives compositions.
US07985309B2

The present invention relates to a solid formulation, more particularly to a pellet-type formulation that produces CO2 gas in a constant rate when contacting liquid acid. The pellet-type formulation of the invention is characterized in that the pellet is produced by the following: preparing a pellet by extrusion molding a composition that comprises a major amount of Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3) and a minor amount of gelatin, and additionally a minor amount of synthetic resin that hardly reacts with acid; coating said pellet with a resin that hardly reacts with acid; and forming a recess or a hole at the center of the pellet. The present invention also relates to a process of preparing a pellet-type formulation that produces CO2 gas in a constant rate when contacting liquid acid.
US07985297B2

A cleaning solution for a quartz part and a method for cleaning the quartz part are provided. The cleaning solution includes from about 5 to about 35 wt % of an ammonium compound, from about 7 to about 55 wt % of an acidic oxidizing agent, from about 5 to about 30 wt % of a fluorine compound and a remaining amount of water. Residual thin films and impurities on the surface of the quartz part may be removed while reducing the damage onto the quartz part.
US07985293B2

A hydraulic composition is provided. This composition exhibits an improved workability in its coating with a trowel, and accordingly, an improved working efficiency with no adverse effects on its physical properties. The hydraulic composition comprises at least one surfactant selected from anionic surfactants having foaming ability (group A), at least one surfactant selected from surfactants which are nonionic antifoaming agents (group B), and a water-soluble cellulose ether. The surfactants of group A and group B are respectively added at 0.000005 to 0.004% by weight (solid content) in relation to the powder ingredients in the hydraulic composition, and the water-soluble cellulose ether is added at 0.02 to 1.2% by weight of the hydraulic composition.
US07985286B2

A phase change ink that includes a colorant and a phase change ink carrier. The phase change ink carrier includes a diblock or tri-block co-oligomer wax of the formula H3C(CH2)m(CX1X2)nCX3X4X5, or CX3X4X5(CX1X2)nH2C(CH2)m(CX1X2)nCX3X4X5, wherein at least one of X1, X2, X3, X4 and X5 are atoms selected from group VII of the periodic table and any remaining one of X1, X2, X3, X4 and X5 are hydrogen, wherein m is an integer of from about 5 to about 50, and wherein n is an integer of from about 3 to about 40. The phase change ink has a property of the phase change ink of providing a surface of a printed portion of the ink having a lower coefficient of friction to glass if the diblock co-oligomer wax was not included in the ink formulation.
US07985279B2

A gas separator having excellent humidifying performance, pressure loss, volume efficiency, and durability humidifies gases used in an on-vehicle fuel cell. The gas separator has upper and lower surfaces of pleat elements of a pleat molding covered by a plate having intake and exhaust ports. The pleat molding is formed by pleating a compound membrane formed of a gas separating membrane and at least one layer of permeable reinforcement material. The pleat element is formed by disposing a reinforcement frame at the outer side part of the molding. The ratio (R=L/H) of a shortest distance (L) between the intake and exhaust ports to a height (H) of the pleat molding is 0.1 to 7.0, and the ratio (W/Le) of the width (W) to the length (Le) of the pleat molding is 0.3 to 10.0. The gas separator operates at a volume flow ratio of 200 or higher.
US07985276B2

Liquid fertilizer compositions and methods of making liquid fertilizer compositions are set forth herein. In one embodiment, a liquid fertilizing composition includes an aqueous ammonium chloride solution having a pH between 6.5 and 8.5, a dispersant selected from anionic polyacrylamides, and a corrosion inhibitor. In another embodiment, a liquid fertilizing composition includes an aqueous solution having a pH between 6.5 and 8.5. The solution includes at least 16.5 percent by weight of ammonium chloride and between 0.5 and 1.0 percent by weight of dispersant. In yet another embodiment, a liquid fertilizing composition has a pH between 7.5 and 8.5. The composition consists essentially of at least 16.5 percent by weight ammonium chloride, between 0.5 and 1.0 percent by weight dispersant, an effective amount of corrosion inhibitor, and water.
US07985275B2

A high temperature filter medium for use in a filtering operation comprising, a nonwoven fabric substrate having a physical structure and comprising a plurality of polymeric fibers, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of polymeric fibers comprise a base polymer and at least a portion of the plurality of polymeric fibers comprise a secondary polymer, and wherein the base polymer, the secondary polymer, or both bond at least a portion of the polymeric fibers together, the nonwoven fabric substrate being capable of retaining the physical structure at a filtering temperature greater than 135° C. A method for making a filter medium being capable of retaining the physical structure at a filtering temperature greater than 135° C.
US07985274B2

The invention relates to a honeycomb structure, made from a porous ceramic material, said structure being characterized in that the porous ceramic material which forms it comprises: from 50 to 95% by weight of silicon carbide SiC; from 5 to 50% by weight of at least one ceramic oxide phase, said structure additionally being characterized by a porosity greater than 10%, by a specific surface area greater than 0.5 m2/g and by a pore size distribution of at least bimodal type. The invention also relates to the process for obtaining such a structure and also to the catalytic support or filter obtained from such a structure, after deposition of a catalyst.
US07985271B2

An engine unit that enhances air intake efficiency of an engine air intake passage for sending air into a transmission case housing a continuously variable transmission. The engine air intake passage supplies air to an engine arranged in a lower portion of a vehicle body. An air cleaner cleans outside air to be sent to the engine air intake passage. A transmission air intake passage sends air into the transmission case. The transmission case is adjacent to the engine in a vehicle width direction. The engine air intake passage extends upward from a front portion of the engine. The transmission air intake passage extends upward from the front portion of the transmission case in the vehicle width direction of the air cleaner and the engine air intake passage.
US07985266B2

The invention relates to colorant compositions for the oxidative dyeing of keratin fibers comprising an inhibiting system of radical scavengers and chelants in the dyeing composition. The invention also relates to methods for reducing color formation outside of the keratin fiber during oxidative dyeing comprising using such colorant compositions.
US07985261B2

A proximal femoral prosthesis minimizes impingement, thereby affording an enhanced range of motion as compared to existing devices. The central portion of the neck of a prosthesis according to the invention is oriented distally relative to a straight line drawn between the ball portion and a point of interconnection to the exposed portion of the stem. Such a configuration reduces impingement in flexion/internal rotation and extension/external rotation, assuming an appropriately placed acetabular component. In the preferred embodiment, the neck is curved between the head and the neck. In alternative embodiments, the neck may be provided in straight and/or modular segments. The invention is compatible with neck-shaft angles, offsets, head sizes, and other dimensions commonly designated with respect to available implants.
US07985258B2

A laparoscopic surgical technique is provided for preparing a site for implantation of a novel fusion device or implant. In accordance with one embodiment of the technique, a laparoscope is provided having an outer sleeve with distraction fingers at one end to distract the disc space. The laparoscope provides a sealed working channel to the disc space, through which the disc space is distracted, the vertebral endplates and surrounding disc is reamed, and the fusion device inserted. A distraction plug is provided for centering the outer sleeve and for providing midline distraction of the disc space. In one embodiment, a fusion device includes diverging bone screws passing through an end wall and upper and lower walls of the device to engage the adjacent vertebrae. In another embodiment, a connector plate is engaged to bilaterally position fusion devices to prevent rotation and resist expulsion of the devices from the disc space.
US07985256B2

A selectively expanding spine cage has a minimized diameter in its unexpanded state that is smaller that the diameter of the neuroforamen through which it passes in the distracted spine. The cage conformably engages between the endplates of the adjacent vertebrae to effectively distract the anterior disc space, stabilize the motion segments and eliminate pathologic spine motion. Angular deformities can be corrected, and natural curvatures restored and maintained. The cage enhances spinal arthrodesis by creating a rigid spine segment, or if filled with compressible substances, the cage can be used for motion preservation between vertebral bodies. Expanding selectively (anteriorly, along the vertical axis of the spine) rather than uniformly, the cage height increases and holds the vertebrae with fixation forces greater than adjacent bone and soft tissue failure forces in natural lordosis. Stability is thus achieved immediately, enabling patient function by eliminating painful motion. The cage shape intends to rest proximate to the anterior column cortices securing the desired spread and fixation, allowing for bone graft in, around, and through the implant for arthrodesis whereas for arthroplasty it fixes to endpoints but cushions the spine naturally.
US07985251B2

A stent having a generally tubular body formed of ring units formed of a plurality of cells each and expandable in the radial direction, wherein each ring unit is constituted of cells connected to one another above and below, arranged to surround the center line of the stent, the ring units are arranged in the axial direction of the stent, and are connected with connector portions, each connector portion is formed of curved portions each having an arch and a generally linear portion continued thereto, 3 to 8 cells are arranged in the axial direction per 10 mm of the length of the stent, and the ratio of the length of the cell in the axial direction and the length of the connector portion is determined such that on the basis that when the length of the cell is 100, that of the connector portion 50 to 100, thereby securing flexibility and radial sustaining force.
US07985250B2

The present invention relates to a device for inserting a self-expanding stent into a body vessel. The device comprises a tube, a pushing element and a grip having a housing via which the pushing element is secured on the grip. Further, the device comprises a stent carrier and a moveable element, the latter of which is guided in the housing of the grip and is coupled to the pushing element. Moving the movable element in the proximal direction effects a movement of the pushing element in the distal direction and a movement of the tube in the proximal direction.
US07985242B2

A spinal stabilization system may be formed in a patient. In some embodiments, a minimally invasive procedure may be used to form a spinal stabilization system in a patient. Bone fastener assemblies may be coupled to vertebrae. Each bone fastener assembly may include a bone fastener and a collar. The collar may be rotated and/or angulated relative to the bone fastener. Extenders may be coupled to the collar to allow for formation of the spinal stabilization system through a small skin incision. The extenders may allow for alignment of the collars to facilitate insertion of an elongated member in the collars. An elongated member may be positioned in the collars and a closure member may be used to secure the elongated member to the collars. A reducer may be used to achieve reduction of one or more vertebral bodies coupled to a spinal stabilization system.
US07985236B2

A rapid ex balloon dilation catheter includes a catheter shaft with a proximal tubular member defining a proximal inflation/deflation lumen for conveying fluids therethrough with a distal portion of the bore of proximal tubular member filled with a fluid-impervious barrier, a distal body extending from the fluid-impervious barrier to the distal end of the shaft, a plurality of distal tubular members defining distal inflation/deflation lumens in fluid communication with the proximal inflation/deflation lumen and extending through the fluid-impervious barrier and the distal body to the distal end of the shaft distal portion, a guidewire tubular member having a bore extending from a side aperture formed in the distal body through the distal body alongside the distal tubular members in a multi-lumen arrangement, and a plurality of stiffening members extending from within the fluid-impervious barrier into the distal body to a point within the shaft distal portion.
US07985229B2

A drill guide has a handle for holding and is configured to actuate a plate-engaging mechanism. An elongated member extends between proximal and distal portions with the proximal portion associated with the handle portion and the distal portion associated with the plate-engaging mechanism. The plate-engaging mechanism is actuated by an actuating member actuated by the second handle portion. The drill guide includes at least one guide sleeve rotatably coupled to the elongated member by a proximal and distal coupler. Furthermore, the plate-engaging mechanism includes a bone plate-engaging portion configured to couple with a bone plate when the second handle portion is moved in a first direction with respect to said first handle portion.
US07985228B2

A method includes moving an actuator from a first position to a second position such that a first shaft is rotatable relative to a second shaft. The second shaft is disposed within the first shaft and coupled to an expandable member. The actuator is moved from the second position to the first position such that the second shaft is rotatable relative to the first shaft through a plurality of discrete increments.
US07985227B2

Generally described the invention relates to methods and apparatuses for aligning the lower extremities of a patient with a mechanical axis. More specifically, the present invention provides an exoskeleton or external framework that positions a patient's leg into a desired mechanical axis in preparation for surgery or other medical treatment.
US07985222B2

The present invention provides bone fracture fixation devices, systems and methods of use and manufacture. One such bone fixation device includes an elongate element having a responsive zone. The element is adapted to be coupled to the bone so that the responsive zone is positioned adjacent a fracture site in the bone. The responsive zone is adapted to apply a desired pressure to the bone when coupled thereto. In some embodiments, the responsive zone comprises a shape memory material, which may be nickel titanium or Nitinol, to apply compressive pressure across the fracture site for longer periods of time than standard bone screws.
US07985220B2

A system and method for transmitting electro surgical energy from a generator to an electrosurgical instrument are provided. The electrosurgical system includes a generator adapted to generate electrosurgical energy for treating tissue. The generator includes one or more active output terminals which supply energy to the tissue. The active output terminals are operatively connected to one or more supply lines. The generator also includes one or more return output terminal which returns energy from the tissue. The return output terminals are operatively connected to at least one return line. The system also includes an electrosurgical instrument operatively connected to the one or more supply lines and one or more return electrodes operatively connected to one or more return lines. The system further includes an electrosurgical cable including one or more supply lines and one or more return lines. The one or more supply lines and one or more return lines are wound in a double helix fashion such that the electrical field along the cable is mitigated along the length thereof.
US07985218B2

A structure for receiving surgical instruments for performing a surgical procedure on a body includes a passage through which the surgical instruments are inserted into the body. The passage has a proximal end and a distal end. An expandable portion enables an increase in the cross-sectional area of the distal end of the passage. The expandable portion has a contracted condition in which the cross-sectional area of the distal end of the passage has a first cross-sectional area. The expandable portion has an expanded condition in which the distal end of the passage has a second cross-sectional area greater than the first cross-sectional area. The second cross-sectional area is greater than a cross-sectional area of the proximal end of the passage when the expandable portion is in the expanded condition. A retaining mechanism resists movement of the expandable portion from the expanded condition toward the contracted condition during the surgical procedure. The retaining mechanism is released at the conclusion of the surgical procedure to permit movement of the expandable portion from the expanded condition toward the contracted condition for removal of the structure.
US07985216B2

A medicinal container engagement and automatic needle device including an automatic needle assembly and a medicinal container receptacle removably joined to the automatic needle assembly.
US07985212B2

The invention provides container systems, kits and methods for peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions. Such a system, for example, includes a first compartment that contains a PD osmotic agent and a second compartment that contains a PD buffer agent. The compartments maintain their respective contents separately from one another for purposes of transport, storage and/or sterilization. However, the compartments are fluidly couplable, so that their respective contents can be combined with one another, e.g., following sterilization of the agents and prior to their introduction into the patient's abdomen. The invention provides, in other aspects, such systems, kits and methods that provide protective structure which inhibits breaking of a seal prior between the second compartment and an outlet of the system, prior to breaking of a seal between the first and second compartments.
US07985211B2

The invention includes a device having a chamber within a syringe. A fluid passageway extends through a syringe piston. A valve is associated with the passageway controlling fluid passage through the piston. The invention includes a piercing structure having a head segment and a body portion, with a channel through the body portion and through at least one surface of the head without passing through the tip. In another aspect the invention encompasses a method of preparing an agent for administration to an individual. A first component is provided within a syringe and a second component is provided within a vial. A closed valve is associated with a fluid passageway between the vial and the syringe barrel through a piston. Valve repositioning allows fluid passage and sliding of the piston joins the first and second components. Repeated sliding of the piston mixes the components to produce the medication agent.
US07985208B2

A collagen corneal shield for placement on the outer surface of the eye for protection of the eye, for delivery of drugs to the eye, or for both protection and drug delivery to the eye, functions without obstructing vision. The shield has a first, central portion comprising non-crosslinked collagen capable of rapid decomposition in the presence of enzymes in the tears, and a second portion comprising crosslinked collagen which decomposes slowly in the presence of enzymes in the tears so that it remains on the eye for a period of time longer than the first portion. The first portion of the shield covers the central portion of the cornea and the second portion of the shield extends outward from the first portion. As a result of decomposition of the first portion the corneal shield becomes a ring or washer shape around the central portion and at least a portion of the cornea is no longer covered by the shield so that vision is not obstructed. The corneal shield can also be contoured so that it has one or more base curve radii selected to provide retention of the shield on the eye.
US07985206B2

A catheter anchoring assembly includes a permeable adhesive strip, a platform for securing the catheter, and a flowable adhesive layer. The flowable adhesive layer adhesively secures the platform to the adhesive strip. The flowable adhesive is applied to one side of the strip with a skin-contacting adhesive on the opposite side of the strip. The flowable adhesive layer and strip are configured so that the flowable adhesive is spaced from the skin-contacting adhesive or, at the very least, is prevented from penetrating the skin-contacting adhesive. The flowable adhesive layer and strip also permit the assembly to be very flexible and, thus, comfortable for a patient to wear.
US07985196B2

A method and a hemodialysis machine provide for at least partial emptying of an extracorporeal blood circulation after patient blood in the circulation has been returned to the patient via an infusion liquid which displaces the blood. The method includes emptying at least a blood chamber of a hemodialyzer subdivided by a semipermeable membrane into the blood chamber and a dialysis fluid chamber without additionally connecting an arterial blood line and a venous blood line of the circulation to one another. The arterial blood line is actively or passively aerated at a first point and the venous blood line is actively or passively aerated at a second point. The infusion liquid is emptied through the membrane into the dialysis fluid chamber and then via a dialysis fluid discharge line. The method is operable by a control program that runs automatically without requiring any manual input after activation of the program.
US07985194B2

One embodiment of the invention is a knee (or elbow) band assembly 100 that has a pocket assembly 106 containing a flexible pad 200 with rounded surfaces 112b, 116b separated by a valley 114b. The band assembly 100 is applied to a leg below the knee or to an arm above the elbow to improve body alignment and function and to relieve pain. The rounded surfaces 112a, 116a apply pressure to the limb to aid in alignment of the patellar or triceps tendons and to activate pressure points on the skin to stimulate the release of tension in the body and to stimulate the body's natural self-curative abilities.
US07985190B2

A system and method for treating cellulite tissue and related conditions comprising apparatus configured to transmit shear and other vibration modes beneath a patient's skin sufficient to break down connective tissue so that pocketing and dimpling of adjacent skin is ameliorated.
US07985185B2

Heart monitoring apparatus with sensing stage connectable to intracardiac electrode picking up electric potentials and adapted to process electric signals representing a time course of said potentials, a mechanical action detection stage adapted to generate a geometry signal having a time course reflecting heart chamber's geometry change, an evaluation unit connected to sensing stage and impedance measuring stage and adapted to determine a first and second fiducial point in the time course of said potentials and geometry signal, respectively, both fiducial points belonging to same heart cycle, and to determine a measured time delay between said fiducial points. Evaluation unit adapted to repeat said determined time delay to determine plurality of measured time delays and variance thereof or divergence of the statistical properties of cycle times based on said time course of said electric potentials versus cycle times based on said time course reflecting a change of a heart chamber's geometry.
US07985173B2

An anterior implant adapted to treat central and lateral cystoceles present in a female patient includes laterally extending stabilizing straps for supporting the implant between the patient's bladder and vagina independently of the patient's arcus tendineous fascia pelvis. Rectocele and hysterocele repairs can be carried out using a single posterior implant which, like the anterior implant, is provided with laterally extending stabilizing straps for supporting the implant between the patient's rectum and vagina.
US07985165B1

An elliptical exercise machine comprises a frame, two transmission rods, two stepping rods, wherein the frame is provided with a driving wheel and two sides of the driving wheel are respectively provided with a crank. One ends of the two transmission rods are connected to two cranks. The two stepping rods are connected to two transmission rods. Another end of each stepping rod is pivoted with a towing rod. Each towing rod is pivoted to the frame. Relatively elliptical orbits are formed through the two stepping rods driven by the two swing arms and the two transmission rods. When the two stepping rods reach a left acme and a right acme of each elliptical orbit, the two towing rods further tow the stepping rods corresponding to each other to generate a quick return effect so that elliptical orbit motion can be smoother.
US07985154B2

A method for controlling hydraulic line pressure for component lubrication in a transmission includes monitoring a speed of an engine and an electric machine, determining a minimum line pressure required to lubricate the engine based upon the speed of the engine, determining a minimum line pressure required to lubricate the electric machine based upon the speed of the electric machine, controlling a minimum line pressure of a hydraulic control system to at least satisfy a larger value of the minimum line pressures.
US07985148B2

A construct for a hockey blade that includes a foam core. The foam core includes a first core face, a second core face, and a core edge. A first layer of resin preimpregnated tape is wrapped continuously around the first core face, the core edge and the second core face. A thread is stitched along the first layer of preimpregnated tape. A second layer of resin preimpregnated tape wrapped continuously around the first layer of resin preimpregnated tape.
US07985147B1

A bat, golf club or stringed racket has the sweet spot replaced by a ring with a ball-catching net secured to a backside thereof to enable the user to develop the necessary hand-eye coordination to consistently engage the optimum portion of the sporting goods device to contact the ball, thereby improving performance/results.
US07985144B1

A garment for retaining proper arm positioning throughout a complete golf swing while being substantially unnoticeable to nearby persons. The garment includes a shirt having a torso portion, a first and second sleeve extending from the torso portion, a pair of anchor members secured to the interior surface of the torso portion via a support strip, and a pair of retaining bands separately encircling the first and second sleeves along an interior surface and generally retained within a channel along the inside of the respective sleeve, the retaining bands being comprised of a stretchable material and each having a catch portion with adjustment slots. The retaining bands extend out of the respective sleeve through a sleeve slot and interior to the torso portion via a torso slot to be secured to the respective anchor member and thus separately restrict movement of the sleeves with respect to the torso portion.
US07985138B2

Systems and methods are provided for the close coupling of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with multiplayer network games. Game state dependent voice communications are used as another method of player interaction in the game environment. The system uses SIP enhanced game servers and conference servers with audio mixing capabilities, and the game server controls the creation, maintenance and changing of the voice conferences. Participation in a voice conference is determined by the game state features associated with each player including distance and direction to determine how the voices are mixed in a voice conference.
US07985128B2

Disclosed is gaming apparatus, which may be a gaming system and a method of gaming implemented on gaming apparatus. A plurality of linked gaming machines are monitored for the occurrence of a first event. The number of occurrences of the first event for each gaming machine is recorded. On the occurrence of a second event, a bonus is awarded on each said gaming machine on which at least one monitored occurrence of the first event has occurred, the bonus award being dependent on the number of occurrences of the first event.
US07985123B2

An adhesive tape, interposed between a lens to be processed and a holding jig when the lens is mounted in a lens processing machine, which has a plastic foam with holes opening in an adhering surface and an adhesive layer formed on the adhering surface of the plastic foam, and having a suction function for providing suction to the adhering surface together with elastic restoration after the plastic foam is deformed under compression. The adhesive tape of the present invention also exhibits sufficient shear adhesive strength in relation to a lens that has received surface processing and can realize precise lens processing.
US07985122B2

A tool for forming a desired pattern on a polishing pad establishes a vibration that is coupled to the polishing pad. The vibration removes small portions of the polishing pad according to the desired pattern. The polishing pad is then used in a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) step to polish a layer on a semiconductor device.
US07985117B2

A toy vehicle for a doll that can be coupled to a child's vehicle is disclosed. In one implementation, the toy vehicle is a toy scooter that is configured to support a doll in a standing configuration.
US07985109B2

A marine stern drive and multi-speed transmission propulsion system in which a transmission, either manual or automatic, is interposed between the engine and stern drive extending at least partially outboard of the transom. A stern drive extension housing enclose the outboard transmission. The various embodiments may include automatic shifting, torque-absorbing couplings, dry oil sump and misalignment couplings. The system may be provided as an OEM item or as a retrofit and allows the engine to be maintained in its normal or original position thus enhancing the performance characteristics of the boat. The stern drive has forward, reverse and neutral shifting capabilities.
US07985108B1

A removable retractable externally mountable dynamic positioning self contained diesel hydraulic thruster system for a floating semi-submersible vessel having a hull with a ballasted waterline, a first pontoon integral with the hull and a second pontoon integral with the hull. The hull supports a deck, wherein the system comprises: at least a pair of azimuthing thrusters, wherein at least one azimuthing thruster is removably mounted to a pontoon of a semi-submersible vessel.
US07985103B2

A communication jack has a housing with a face having a plug receiving aperture. A plurality of conductive path pairs extends from corresponding plug interface contacts located at the plug receiving aperture to corresponding output terminals. A first circuit board is connected to the plug interface contacts and a second circuit board is connected to the plug interface contacts and the output terminals. The first circuit board has a first single stage of crosstalk compensation with opposite polarity of the crosstalk of a plug for a first combination of the conductive path pairs. The second circuit board includes a second single stage of opposite polarity crosstalk compensation for some of the conductive path pairs not compensated on the first circuit board. The stages cancel substantially all of the crosstalk caused by the plug, for the signal operating frequencies, for corresponding combinations of the conductive path pairs.
US07985099B2

An electrical connector is provided and includes a housing having a pair of side walls defining a plurality of terminal grooves therein and a bottom wall connecting with said side walls and defining a top face facing upward. A plurality of terminals are received in said terminal grooves, each comprising a retaining portion and a contacting portion extending from the retaining portion, said contacting portion having a connecting portion cantilevered above said top face. The bottom wall defines a plurality of through holes running therethrough along a vertical direction and facing to an end of the connecting portion which is far away from the retaining portion, and said top face of the bottom wall extends slantwise from the through hole to the side walls therefore places adjacent to the through hole are lower than those adjacent to the side walls in said vertical direction.
US07985090B2

A socket (100) comprises an insulative housing (1) with a number of passageways (13) thereon. A number of contacts are received in the passageways. A cover lid (3) rotationally is assembled to the housing to be in an open position or a closed position. The cover lid comprises a latch member (31) integrally molded thereon to reduce the component of the socket, and the insulative housing forms a step portion (15) for mating with the latch member to keep the cover lid in the closed position.
US07985086B1

An exemplary mounting apparatus includes a connector and two latching mechanisms connected to two opposite ends of the connector. The connector defines a slot in a top surface thereof, and two sliding grooves in two opposite side surfaces thereof. Each sliding groove extends though the two side surfaces. Each latching mechanisms includes a guide pin and a latching member. The guide pin is slidably received in a corresponding sliding groove. The latching member includes a latching portion for engaging with an expansion card, two feet connected to two ends of the guide pin, and two connecting arms each connected between one end of the latching portion and a corresponding foot. When the guide pin is pulled by the latching member to move from a bottom end to a top end of the sliding groove, the expansion card is pushed out of the slot of the connector by the guide pin.
US07985082B2

An external universal serial bus (USB) card reader includes a cover, a circuit board movably received in the cover, a USB connector, and a connector. The USB connector is mounted to a front end of the circuit board. The connector is mounted to a back end of the circuit board and electrically connected to the USB connector. A through cutout is defined in the cover to allow the USB connector pass through. An inserting slot is defined in the cover to allow a memory card pass through. The USB connector is operable to be forced by the memory card to drive the circuit board to move in the cover, resulting in the USB connector extending out of the cover or retracting back into the cover through the through cutout.
US07985071B2

A locking cap for dental implants embedded in hard dental tissue, such as tooth stubs or bones. The locking caps are ovoidal in plan view and may be formed of materials, such as non-adherent polymers, that are rigid, but softer than the material of the dental implant.
US07985066B2

A furnace includes a combustion blower and one or more pressure switches. In some cases, the one or more pressure switches may be used to calculate one or more operating points for the combustion blower. Additional operating points may be calculated by interpolation and/or extrapolation, as appropriate. The furnace may temporarily alter these operating points as necessary to keep the furnace safely operating in response to minor and/or transient changes in the operating conditions of the furnace.
US07985063B2

Molds and related methods and articles are disclosed. In certain embodiments, an exposed surface of the mold has regions with different coefficients of friction.
US07985062B2

The present invention is a thermoforming device that includes a separate forming mold that can be positioned within a pair of primary mold sections to define a separate mold cavity therein. The separate mold cavity can be used to form details on various sections of a formed part that are not present on the remainder of the formed part due to the separation of the sections of the formed part from the remainder of the part due to the sealed engagement of the separate forming mold with the primary mold sections.
US07985061B2

An imprint apparatus in which a mold having a processing surface on which a predetermined imprint is formed is provided and an uncured resin material placed on a substrate is filled and cured in a space between the mold and the substrate and is subjected to imprint of the predetermined imprint formed on the processing surface of the mold. The imprint apparatus includes an attitude control mechanism for controlling attitudes of the mold and the substrate so that a first gap between a first end of the mold and the substrate and a second gap between a second end of the mold and the substrate are different from each other, and a measuring mechanism for measuring attitudes and positions of the mold and the substrate. Also provided is a mechanism for imparting a relative movement between the substrate and the mold so that the resin material approaches the first end of the mold and enters through the first gap and fills at least a part of the space between the mold and the substrate.
US07985059B2

In one embodiment of the present invention, an assembly for HPHT processing comprises a can with an opening. A powder mixture is disposed within the opening. A substrate is disposed within the opening adjacent the powder mixture. Paint is coated on a surface within the opening and opposite the powder mixture with respect to the substrate. A meltable sealant is disposed within the opening and opposite the substrate with respect to the surface and a cap is covering the opening.
US07985058B2

A method and apparatus for making substantially uniformly sized liposomes and other small particles are provided. Droplets of a first liquid are ejected into a laminar flow of a second liquid, each droplet having a volume of from 0.97V to 1.03V, where V is the mean droplet volume and 1 fL≦V≦50 nL, wherein the first and second liquids are no more than sparingly soluble in one another, and wherein the first liquid contains a solute dissolved, dispersed, or suspended therein; and the first liquid is then removed to form a plurality of substantially uniformly sized particles. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes liquid inlet and outlet channels, a plurality of transverse liquid channels extending from the liquid inlet to the liquid outlet channel, a plurality of nozzles in liquid flow communication with the plurality of transverse liquid channels, one or more nozzle actuators coupled to the plurality of nozzles, and an evaporator coupled to the liquid outlet channel.
US07985054B2

In a multicylindrical rotary compressor constituted to be usable by urging an only first vane with respect to a first roller by means of a spring member to switch a first operation mode in which first and second rotary compression elements perform compression works and a second operation mode in which substantially the only first rotary compression element performs the compression work, an object is to reduce generation of collision noises due to collision of the second vane with the second roller at a time when the first operation mode is switched to the second operation mode, and a pressure in a back-pressure chamber of the second vane is discharged on a low-pressure chamber side in a second cylinder in a case where the first operation mode is switched to the second operation mode.
US07985045B2

A steam turbine comprises a rotor with moving blades attached thereto; diaphragms which surround the rotor from an outer periphery side of the rotor; a casing which encloses the diaphragms and the rotor and has an upper half and a lower half clamped together through respective flanges; a displacement detector for measuring a difference d in thermal expansion in the rotor axis direction between the casing and the rotor; heating/cooling devices attached to the flanges respectively to heat and cool the flanges; and a controller which makes control so that the flanges are heated or cooled by the heating/cooling devices until a measured value obtained by the displacement detector reaches a preset value M or S in unsteady operation.
US07985042B1

A thread cage retainer includes a base having an opening to allow for the passage of a threaded fastener. The retainer also has a plurality of arcuately shaped tabs that extend from the base around the opening a circumferential extent to form a channel for receiving the threaded fastener. Each tab includes at least one engaging member that projects inwardly from a portion of the circumferential extent of each tab.
US07985035B2

An application for a flow control system includes a movable plunger held within a stationary riser, the stationary riser being in fluid communication with a drainage system. The movable plunger is buoyant, assisted by one or more attached floats such that, when the liquid level around the flow control system increases to a pre-determined level, the movable plunger lifts due to the buoyancy, thereby maintaining the pre-determined distance between the surface level and a bottom surface of the movable plunger, keeping the flow rate at an approximately constant level independent of the water level.
US07985033B2

A cosmetic application device includes the application stick and the application portion having the brush fixedly mounted at the end of the application stick by the cylindrical capsule, wherein corner portions of the inner surface and the outer surface of the capsule are chamfered so as not to leave sharp edges. Also, the thin and soft protection tube is disposed between the brush and the capsule with the end of the tube extending slightly beyond the end of the capsule, thereby preventing the brush from being bent at an acute angle to avoid broken hair of the brush.
US07985032B2

A platen retaining structure has a head, a platen supporting the sheet material during a processing operation of the sheet material by the head, a first urging member urging the head against the platen, and a frame supporting the head and the platen and formed with a notch and a pawl. The notch has a retaining portion that retains a shaft portion and an opening portion opening to an exterior of the frame. The pawl regulates movement of the shaft portion from the retaining portion to the opening portion of the notch. A release arm engages with the shaft portion and is mounted to undergo movement with respect to the frame. A second urging member urges the release arm and moves the release arm along with movement of the head away from the platen against an urging force of the first urging member, and causes the platen to apply a pressing force in a direction in which the shaft portion of the platen escapes from the notch via the opening portion. An urging direction of the second urging member is set as a direction in which the second urging member applies a pressing force to the shaft portion of the platen through the release arm when an urging force applied by the platen through the head from the first urging means is released to thereby move the shaft portion of the platen from the notch.
US07985031B2

A printer includes a carriage and a channel for guiding the carriage along a path. The carriage includes a protrusion extending from the carriage. The channel includes a first wall and a second wall. The first and second walls are opposed to each other. The protrusion of the carriage extends between the first wall and the second wall. A first portion of the protrusion is in contact with the first wall and a second portion of the protrusion is in contact with the second wall.
US07985020B2

A cross flow inversion mixing baffle that mixes a fluid flow and addresses the streaking phenomenon of the fluid flow in a motionless mixer, the cross flow inversion baffle including a divider wall having first and second sides. On each side of the divider wall, the cross flow inversion baffle includes a perimeter flow diverter, a center-to-perimeter flow portion, and a perimeter-to-center flow portion. The cross flow inversion baffle acts to split the fluid flow so that the fluid in opposing halves of the perimeter of the fluid flow are directed towards opposing halves of the center of the fluid flow, while the center of the fluid flow is split and directed towards opposing halves of the perimeter of the fluid flow.
US07985019B2

A method and an apparatus for continuously mixing two flows, a first, larger flow and a second, smaller flow. The second flow is introduced counter-directed into the first flow. The apparatus comprises a T pipe where a first connection constitutes an inlet for the first flow. A second connection, at 180° in relation to the first connection, constitutes an inlet for the second flow. The second flow is led into the first flow through a conduit within the T pipe. The first connection is provided with a conical portion in which are provided a number of holes, so that the first flow is throttled and divided up into a plurality of subflows immediately before the mixing operation. A third connection is oriented at 90° in relation to the other connections and constitutes an outlet for the intermixed flows, which implies that the intermixed flows are caused to change direction immediately after the mixing.
US07985018B2

An installation for fabricating a mass of rubber comprises a vessel for compounding the mass of rubber. The vessel includes an outlet opening for the mass of rubber; a gate for closing the opening and movable between a position in which the opening is closed, and a position in which the opening is disengaged; scraper means for scraping the rubber adhering to a so-called internal surface of the gate, this device including a movable scraper member comprising an edge designed to scrape the rubber adhering to the internal surface; and synchronization means for synchronizing the movements of the gate and of the scraper member.
US07985011B2

A vehicle lamp can create a desired distribution pattern easily with a simple configuration while having a thin body and light weight. The vehicle lamp can include a light source unit and a convex projection lens configured to project light from the light source unit forward in the direction of light illumination. The light source unit can include a light guide plate having a light emission surface and made of a transparent material to the visible light range and can include a light source disposed in front of one end face of the light guide plate. The projection lens can have a focus arranged on or near the light emission surface of the light guide plate. The light source unit can include a reflection sheet configured to reflect light from the light guide plate back into the light guide plate and can have a shape configured to provide a cutoff pattern. The reflection sheet can be located adjacent an edge of the light guide plate adjacent the light source. A high beam light source unit can be disposed adjacent or on the reflection sheet closer to the projection lens.
US07985008B2

The present invention relates to a plastic component having a visible part that is made in one single layer from a plastic molding compound and that comprises a transparent or translucent matrix, and having a light source that comprises one or more lamp elements, situated under the surface of the visible part. The visible part is implemented as essentially opaque in relation to daylight and transparent or translucent in relation to the light emitted by the lamp elements. The visible part also contains admixed effect pigments and defines a surface appearance image which, when the light source is inactive, essentially corresponds to the surface appearance image of the remaining wall of an object in which the plastic component is installed and which, when the light source is active, is essentially determined by the light source activity. The plastic component according to the invention is characterized in that the lamp elements are selected from a group which comprises light-emitting diodes, organic light-emitting diodes, and fiber-optic light systems, the lamp elements at least partially being embedded in the plastic molding compound of the visible part. The manifold uses of this plastic component comprise installation in vehicles, paneling elements, and furniture, as well as in housings of greatly varying devices.
US07985006B2

A light source device includes a circuit member, a heat dissipation component, an optical component and light emitting diode assemblies. The circuit member defines spaced through holes. The light emitting diode assemblies have a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. Each light emitting diode assembly passes through a corresponding through hole and is electrically connected to the circuit member. The heat dissipation component contacts the first side, is spaced from the circuit member, and is configured to dissipate heat generated by the light emitting diode assemblies. The optical component contacts the second side, and is configured to distribute light emitted from the light emitting diode assemblies.
US07985005B2

A light module is removably coupleable to a light fixture and includes an LED lighting element mounted on a mounting base that is operatively coupled to a housing. The light module also includes one or more resilient members that operatively couple the mounting base to the housing and allow the mounting base and housing to resiliently move relative to each other. The resilient members compress when the light module is removably coupled to the light fixture to exert a generally axial force on the mounting base to drive the mounting base into resilient contact with a surface of the light fixture to provide a thermal coupling between the light module and the light fixture.
US07984999B2

A light emitting device is produced using one or more light emitting diodes within a light mixing cavity formed by surrounding sidewalls. The light emitting device includes a light adjustment member that is movable to alter the shape or color of the light produced by the light emitting device. For example, the light adjustment member may alter the exposure of the wavelength converting area to the light emitted that is emitted by the light emitting diode in the light mixing cavity. Alternatively, the height of a lens may be adjusted to change the width of the beam produced. Alternatively, a movable substrate with areas of different wavelength converting materials may adjustably cover the output port of the light mixing cavity to alter the color point of the light produced.
US07984997B1

A cooler that utilizes multiple LEDs to illuminate an entire interior is disclosed herein. The LEDs are activated by a magnetic reed switch positioned between an inside liner and an outer liner of the cooler. A magnet is positioned in a lid. Removal of the magnetic field of the magnet when the lid is in an open state allows the magnetic reed switch to complete a circuit from a battery to the LEDs thereby allowing the LEDs to illuminate the entire interior chamber of the cooler.
US07984996B2

The dustproof panel includes: (a) a dustproof plate, which has a size covering a screen and extending to a frame member, and whose portion opposing the screen has transparent properties; (b) a frame-shaped dustproof filter formed by attaching a foam body having shrinking properties and containing pores finer than dust particles to a rear surface of the dustproof plate, the attachment being made without gaps therebetween in a frame shape along the edge of the dustproof plate, and the foam body abutting against the frame member; and (c) an attachment/detachment body having a first constituent element attached to the rear surface of the dustproof plate along an inner circumference of the frame-shaped dustproof filter and a second constituent element attached to a front surface of the frame member so as to oppose the first constituent element, the first constituent element and the second constituent element being mutually attachable and detachable.
US07984995B2

A method of inhibiting a subject's eyes from being exposed to projected light when the subject is positioned in front of a background on which an image is displayed comprises capturing at least one image of the background including the displayed image, processing the captured image to detect the existence of the subject and to locate generally the subject and masking image data used by the projector to project the image corresponding to a region that encompasses at least the subject's eyes.
US07984992B2

Provided is a projection optical system including a first part which projects an image; a second part having an image forming device which forms an image using a light and emits the image to the first part, and having an axis angled toward an axis of the first part; a third part including at least one light source, which emits the light, and having an axis angled toward the axis of the second part; and a deflector which guides the light emitted from the third part toward the second part, wherein a pupil plane of the second part is located between the first part and the second part, and a cross-point between the axis of the first part and the pupil plane of the second part is separated from a cross-point between the axis of the second part and the pupil plane of the second part.
US07984983B2

The invention provides an inkjet recording method having applying, by an inkjet system, an ink containing 8 mass % or more of a water-soluble solvent having an SP value of 24 (MPa)1/2 or less measured by a Hoy method onto an outermost surface layer, which contains an organic fine particle having an SP value of 25 (MPa)1/2 or less measured by the Hoy method, of an inkjet recording medium having a support and one or more ink receiving layers including the outermost surface layer.
US07984982B2

A liquid jet apparatus is provided. The liquid jet apparatus includes a nozzle plate which has a nozzle opening communicating with a pressure generation chamber; a flow channel substrate which has a liquid reservoir supplying a liquid to a plurality of pressure generation chambers; and a seal plate which covers at least a part of the liquid reservoir and which has a first damper chamber and second damper chamber. The seal plate has a connection cavity which connects the first damper chamber with the second damper chamber, and the connection cavity is connected to a release path communicating with the air.
US07984978B2

The printing device is ink jet, parallel or serial-parallel type and comprises a plurality of ejection modules each of which with ejection chambers suitable for containing ink and with associated relative heating elements for ink ejection control. The device includes a support and a nozzle plate common to the modules, and in which the support includes a base plate of rigid material that defines through its thickness a feeding duct for the ink which, in use, is substantially parallel to the line of printing (X axis) and the ejection modules are fixed side by side on the base plate and with the ejection chambers arranged in a line in the same direction (X axis), is a hydraulic, tight connection with the feeding duct. The nozzle plate is fixed on the ejection modules constituting an upper, hydraulically tight, closing surface, for the chambers and comprises a plurality of ejection nozzles in a line, in turn in hydraulic connection with corresponding cells of the modules.
US07984968B2

A nozzle assembly for an inkjet printhead includes a substrate defining a nozzle chamber and an ink inlet channel in fluid communication with said chamber; a nozzle defined on the substrate and located over the nozzle chamber, said nozzle having a crown portion with a skirt portion depending from the crown portion, the skirt portion forming a first part of a peripheral wall portion of the nozzle chamber, the nozzle surrounded by a raised rim for supporting a meniscus of a body of ink in the nozzle chamber; and an actuator with a connecting arm fast with the nozzle to operatively displace the nozzle towards the substrate. The nozzle is substantially hexagonally shaped.
US07984967B2

An ink jet head includes an elongated ink supply port extending in a longitudinal direction and a plurality of head groups arranged in a transverse direction crossing with the longitudinal direction. A first array of ink ejection outlets is disposed along one lateral side of an ink supply port, and second and third arrays of ink ejection outlets are disposed along the other lateral side of the ink supply port, wherein widths L2, measured in the longitudinal direction, of partition walls for the first array of the ink ejection outlets are larger than widths L1, measured in the longitudinal direction, of partition walls of the second and third arrays of the ink ejection outlets. The ink jet head further includes a sealing tape for protecting the ejection outlets, the sealing tape being peelable in a direction from the second or third array toward the first array.
US07984962B2

A method of capping a printhead is provided in which a carrier is moved from a non-capping position, through a transition position, to a capping position at which a capping member carried by the carrier caps the printhead, and pivoting of the capping member is effected relative to the carrier during transitional movement of the carrier between the transition and capping positions.
US07984959B2

A technique for detecting a defective printhead nozzle employing acoustical energy. During printhead maintenance, the nozzles of the printhead are sequentially fired to eject ink therefrom. The acoustical energy emitted by a nozzle during ejection of an ink droplet can be detected by a sound receiver. Acoustical energy can also be transmitted in the field of travel of the ink droplet so that when the ink droplet passes therethrough the acoustical energy is perturbated, and such perturbation can be detected. The perturbation can be an attenuation of the received acoustical energy when the ink droplet passes between the acoustical transmitter and a sound receiver. The perturbation can also be a change in the acoustical energy when the ink droplet reflects acoustical energy from the acoustical transmitter to the sound receiver.
US07984954B2

A mounting member for a cabinet tray or drawer includes: an elongate body portion having a front mounting surface and a longitudinal axis; and a plurality of substantially rectangular apertures located in the front mounting surface. The body portion is a unitary structure and being formed of a polymeric material. This mounting member can be employed in cabinets to mount trays or drawers.
US07984949B2

The present invention is a lumbar and bolster support for a seat, especially for an automotive second row seat or a chair back rest. The lumbar and bolster support has a lumbar support member adjustable between a retracted position and an extended position, and a first bolster member and a second bolster member adjustable between a first position and a second position.
US07984944B2

A fender for a motor vehicle is provided that includes, but is not limited to a headlight aperture and a mounting flange for the support on a bodywork of the motor vehicle. The mounting flange and a flange for the connection of a bumper are connected to one another with a bracket. The bracket is mounted to the bodywork.
US07984943B2

A vehicular hood structure, which can generate more properly a load reaction to be inputted to a collision member, even if the collision member collides against the vicinity of an intermediate position between a hood general portion and a portion close to a hood front end edge so that a load acts to deform a hood inner panel of the hood general portion and a hood lock reinforce of a hood front end portion. A rear end portion of the hood lock reinforce is joined, at a leg extending to the hood back side at a portion spaced at a predetermined distance in the hood width direction, to a flat portion of the hood inner panel. In this hood inner panel, a crush bead is formed along the hood width direction at the substantially central portion of a skeleton portion in the hood length direction, and a small bead is formed at the substantially central portion of the flat portion in the hood width direction.
US07984937B2

A door handle apparatus for a vehicle includes a door handle including an outer side handle portion formed with a grip portion, a rotating portion rotatably supported by a supporting member, an operating portion operating a door opening and closing mechanism, and an encasement accommodating electronic components, an unlock electrode accommodated in the encasement and configuring an unlock capacitive sensor detecting changes of an electric capacity between the unlock electrode and the outer panel, an unlock signal circuit transmitting an unlock signal based on the changes of the electric capacity between the unlock electrode and the outer panel, and a lock electrode provided between an end of the grip portion at the side of the rotating portion and the rotating portion and configuring a lock capacitive sensor detecting the changes of the electric capacity.
US07984933B2

An assembly comprises a multi-use torque fitting, a length of tubing, and a compressible ferrule, wherein the assembly is configured to couple an end of the length of tubing to a port of a fluid-handling device in a hermetically sealed or substantially leak-proof manner. Generally, the fitting is configured to provide a degree of compression to the compressible ferrule sufficient to prevent fluid leakage at the ferrule/port interface. This fitting generally comprises a threaded body portion and a torque-limiting body portion, wherein the threaded body portion and the torque-limiting body portion are arranged concentrically along a longitudinal axis of the fitting.
US07984926B2

The present invention relates to a security document and/or document of value comprising: at least one information vector; and at least one masking element in the form of a strip having at least one semi-reflecting region covering the information vector at least in part, the masking element being of a width that is less than the width of the document.
US07984920B2

A device for adjusting a fifth wheel, comprising a displacement device provided with two guide rails placed on the vehicle, in particular on a tractor semi-trailer combination in the longitudinal direction thereof, said guide rails whereon a slide may be installed capable of being moved by means of an actuating device, said actuating device being designed such that, upon a displacement, the positive connection between the guide rails and the slide is maintained. The actuating device, which is designed to move the slide, comprises a first powered device. Additionally, at least one first position sensor is arranged to detect the position of the slide, at least said first position sensor being connected to a control device.
US07984913B2

A chuck including a cylindrical body with a nose section and a tail section, the nose section having an axial bore formed therein. A sleeve is rotatably mounted about the body. Rotation of the sleeve in a closing direction moves the jaws toward a longitudinal axis of the axial bore and rotation of the sleeve in an opening direction moves the jaws away from the longitudinal axis. An O-ring is disposed adjacent the sleeve in a plane that is transverse to the longitudinal axis. A bearing has a first race adjacent the body, a second race adjacent the sleeve and bearing elements therebetween. One race defines a ratchet and the other of the first race and the second race defines a pawl biased toward the ratchet. The O-ring biases the pawl toward the ratchet and when the pawl engages the ratchet prevents the second race from rotating in the opening direction with respect to the first race.
US07984904B2

A document processing system includes a document track composed of a pair of opposing rigid track walls. The documents are moved along the document track in a series to allow operations to be performed on the documents. An apparatus for detecting a document with an attachment includes a strike plate formed by a separate section of a wall of the document track. A magnet is arranged to attract material toward the strike plate. An accelerometer is mounted to the strike plate. The accelerometer detects an impact of an attachment to the strike plate when a document with an attachment passes the strike plate.
US07984900B2

A finisher includes a bundle hook configured to push a sheet bundle in a first direction and convey the sheet bundle; a drive unit configured to drive the bundle hook in the first direction and a second direction; a discharge unit configured to discharge the sheet bundle conveyed by the bundle hook; a stacking unit configured to stack the sheet bundle discharged by the discharge unit; and a control unit configured to control the drive unit to drive the bundle hook in the second direction if the drive unit drives the bundle hook in the first direction and the discharge unit discharges the sheet bundle.
US07984897B2

A stitcher for binding variable thickness collations including a means for determining the thickness of a multi-sheet collation, a stitch head operative to drive a stitch through the multi-sheet collation, an anvil operative to clinch the stitch to bind the sheets of the collation and a plurality of actuators operative to displace forming elements of the stitch head to form the stitch, position the stitch head and anvil against opposite surfaces of the multi-sheet collation, drive the stitch through the collation and clinch the ends of the stitch. A processor, responsive to the thickness value signal, controls the actuators to form the stitch and bind the collation.
US07984891B2

A space-conserving integrated fluid delivery system which is particularly useful for gas distribution in semiconductor processing equipment. The fluid delivery system includes an integrated fluid flow network architecture, which may include, in addition to a layered substrate containing fluid flow channels, various fluid handling and monitoring components. The layered substrate is diffusion bonded, and the various fluid handling and monitoring components may be partially integrated or fully integrated into the substrate, depending on design and material requirements.
US07984890B2

A pilot-operated valve has a main poppet controlling fluid flow between inlet and outlet ports in response to pressure in a control chamber. Fluid flow through a pilot passage, linking the control chamber and the outlet port, moves an exhaust spool between first and second positions to control fluid flow through passages in the main poppet. The first position blocks flow between the control chamber and the outlet port and provides a path between the control chamber and the inlet port. In the second position, flow between the control chamber and the outlet port is enabled, and a second path, that is more restricted than the first path, is provided between the control chamber and the inlet port. When the valve closes, flow through the first path allows movement of the main poppet at a faster rate than during opening when flow occurs through the more restricted second path.
US07984888B2

A supporting device of a display unit includes a stationary bracket securable to a wall, a body coupling device to mount a body of the display unit thereto, and a plurality of connecting devices to connect the stationary bracket with the body coupling device, each connecting device having first and second ends thereof coupled to the stationary bracket and the body coupling device, respectively, to rotate in left and right directions, and having at least one point between the first and second ends thereof to bend in the left and right directions.
US07984886B2

A carrying apparatus of an automobile portable electronic device includes a carrying module, a support rod, a quick release mechanism and a universal joint. The carrying module includes a tray, and the support rod is installed under the tray. The quick release mechanism is installed between the tray and the support rod. The quick release mechanism includes a clamping module and a binder turning rod, and the clamping module is connected to the support rod, and the binder turning rod is passed and disposed at the clamping module. An end of the universal joint is connected to the tray, and another end of the universal joint is covered and clamped by the clamping module, and the tray can be turned and deviated in two-dimensional directions with respect to the support rod.
US07984883B2

An exemplary support structure includes a support body, a connecting body, and a rear board. The connecting body is fixed on the support body. The rear board is rotatable relative to the support body. The rear board defines a through hole therein. The connecting body forms a latch protrusion. When the support body is located at a first position, the latch protrusion is capable of passing the through hole of the rear board. When the support body and the latch protrusion are located at opposite sides of the rear board, and the support body rotates past the first position, the latch protrusion resists the rear board and prevents the support body detaching from the rear board.
US07984881B2

A support stand for a flat-panel display monitor includes a hinge assembly and a support structure having a top end partially receiving the hinge assembly. The hinge assembly includes a first latching module. The first latching module includes an elastic member and a movable plate connected to the elastic member. The support structure includes a second latching module detachably connected to the first latching module. The second latching module includes a positioning plate having a latching portion extending from a bottom surface thereof. The latching portion is capable of latching with the movable plate. When the movable plate is pressed, the elastic member is deformed so that the second latching module is detached from the first latching module.
US07984878B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to a flight control system for controlling an aircraft during flight. The flight control system may include a primary controller configured to receive an input from a pilot and to output a primary control signal and a primary transmission path connected to the primary controller and configured to relay the primary control signal. The flight control system may also include a backup controller configured to receive the input from the pilot and to output a backup control signal and a backup transmission path connected to the backup controller and configured to relay the backup control signal. Additionally, the flight control system may include an actuator having a remote electronics unit configured to receive the primary control signal and the backup control signal and to determine if the primary control signal is available and valid. The remote electronics unit may be configured to output an actuator command based on the primary control signal if the primary control signal is available and valid and to output the actuator command based on the backup control signal if the primary control signal is unavailable or invalid.
US07984877B2

Auxiliary fuel tanks are provided with an inner barrier wall defining an interior volume for containing aircraft fuel, an outer barrier wall adjacent the inner barrier wall so as to define a space therebetween, and a drain part having a port in fluid communication with the space to allow leaked fuel within the space to be discharged therefrom. The drain part may be positioned at a corner junction between at least side and bottom walls of the outer barrier wall. In some advantageous embodiments, the drain part is positioned at a corner junction between the side wall, the bottom wall and an end wall of the outer barrier wall. One or more drain parts may be provided on each auxiliary aircraft fuel tank. If a plurality of drain parts are provided, then each drain part will preferably have a port in fluid communication with the space between the inner and outer barrier walls to allow leaked fuel within the space to be discharged therefrom, and each drain part will be positioned at respective corner junctions between at least side and bottom walls of the outer barrier wall, preferably between the side wall, the bottom wall and an end wall of the outer barrier wall. Aircraft may thus be provided with one or more of such auxiliary fuel tanks.
US07984876B2

An aircraft 1 comprises a walkway 11 moveable between a stowed position and a deployed position. The aircraft may be arranged such that the walkway, in the deployed position, defines a path, at least a portion of which extends from the fuselage at an angle, when viewed from above, of less than 90 degrees to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. The walkway 11, in the stowed position, may be located at an angle, when viewed from above, of less than 80 degrees to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. The opening 9 may be located in a region extending from 20% to 80% of the total cabin length. The walkway may be further moveable to a second deployed position. A longitudinal portion of the walkway 13, in the first deployed position, may define a stepped surface having a first step height, whereas that longitudinal portion of the walkway 13, in the second deployed position, may define either (a) a substantially even surface, or (b) a stepped surface having a second step height, the second step height being less than the first step height.
US07984870B2

A strap and cord winder is adjustable for different width straps and reconfigurable for cords. The winder includes a handle assembly with a center shaft and an offset pin for engaging and winding a strap. The center shaft adjustably passes through a face plate creating an adjustable width between a handle arm of the handle assembly and the face plate for winding different width straps. A cylindrical grip is attached to the face plate opposite the handle arm and the face plate attaches to a chest plate. A spool may be positioned on the center shaft between the handle arm and face plate for coiling cords and hoses and the offset pin engages a notch on one end of the spool to couple rotation of the handle to rotation of the spool. The spool includes disks at each end including open ended slots reaching radially to capture cord ends.
US07984867B2

Apparatus for aligning a refining disc is a refiner is disclosed, the apparatus including a first wedge slidable along a support for the axle package of the refining disc, a second wedge disposed between the first wedge and a bearing housing in which the rotatable axle of the axle package is journalled, the second wedge being slidable transversely to the slidable movement of the first wedge, a controller for controlling displacement of the first wedge including an actuator at one end of the support and a control axle extending from the actuator to the first wedge, the control axle being rotatable and rotatably secured to the first wedge whereby operation of the actuator causes rotation of the control axle, which in turn causes displacement of the first wedge which causes transverse displacement of the second wedge.
US07984863B1

This invention greatly simplifies problem fires above the reach of the longest ladder trucks by using a telescoping, portable shaft extending out of the closest window opening below the fire. Normally, a safe place for firemen. On the outer end of the shaft is a servo-mechanically controlled fire hose nozzle with a miniature television camera, which then both connect along the shaft to the room the shaft extends from. From where firemen can direct water using a console containing a television screen and battery power for the system. Stored in sections aboard its own truck in areas with high buildings, sections which are each, separately, carried up using the stairs by individual firemen, ordinarily the three man crew of a companion ladder fire truck. This invention now allows serious fires in high-rise buildings to be safely and effectively controlled.
US07984862B2

A rail anchor and a rail anchor assembly are provided for use with a concrete railroad tie. An elastomeric plate is placed on a top surface of the railroad tie. A rigid plate is placed on top of the elastomeric plate. The rail anchor is placed adjacent the elastomeric plate and the rigid plate. The rail anchor has a first end with a receiving opening and a second end with a receiving indentation to receive edges of the flanges of the railroad rail. The rail anchor has a center portion joining the two ends. The outer portion of the rail anchor extends downwardly an amount less than the thickness of the elastomeric plate and the rigid plate to avoid contact with the concrete railroad tie.
US07984861B2

A hydrant apparatus comprises at least an outlet pipe, at least a switch for controlling the water flow, and at least a temperature limiting component. The outlet pipe is used for flowing water out of the hydrant apparatus. The switch, coupled to the outlet pipe, is used for controlling the water flow and adjusting the temperature of the water flow. The temperature limiting component limits the temperature of the water flow inside a predetermined range.
US07984860B2

A regulation control system of air conditioning equipment is provided according to the present invention; the regulation control system mainly interconnects an entrance guarding device and/or a human body movement detecting device with an air conditioning control device, by this way, data of air conditioning usage surroundings condition are generated by the entrance guarding device and/or the human body movement detecting device, and then an air conditioning control device executes regulation and control over the air conditioning equipment based on the data of air conditioning usage surroundings condition with referring to a set of preset regulation parameters; thereby providing the air conditioning equipment with proper regulation and control to operate in preset conditions, and further achieving objective of energy management of the air conditioning equipment.
US07984851B2

A pre-encoded financial card is disclosed along with a system and method allowing a user to attach it to pre-existing accounts and activate it instantly.
US07984849B2

A security device comprises a portable magnetic stripe reader and computing functionality associated with the magnetic stripe reader, such as a credit card reader, drivers license reader, debit card reader, club card reader, or any other element that can be mechanically read. A single device may be needed for evaluation of each type of stripe carrying product, or a single device may have multiple functions and can be used (with or without switching to specific identification sequences) for evaluation of different magnetic stripe carrying products. It may be used as a law enforcement device, particularly to combat identity theft and financial fraud.
US07984832B2

A pump dispenser has a large ergonomic actuator designed to ergonomically deliver a composition to a substrate in the consumer's hand without the consumer having to pick up the pump dispenser. The ergonomic design allows the composition to be delivered in a proper aspect ratio to the substrate. The composition can be delivered in such a way that the composition is not aerosolized into the air or delivered to an unintended surface. The method of delivery can be made intuitive to the consumer by providing an actuator skirt that suggests the pumping mechanism or by providing a depiction of a hand or substrate over the pump dispenser. The pump dispenser is also useful for compositions or substrates that are not stable together.
US07984830B2

A fluid dispenser device has a reservoir, a pump, a dispensing outlet, an actuator, and a removable cap. The actuator is integrally formed with the dispensing outlet in at least one embodiment. The cap has detents that project from the cap. The actuator is blocked from actuating by a blocking flange that is integrally connected with the dispensing outlet. The detents from the cap bend the blocking flange so that the reservoir can not move in relation to the dispensing outlet when the cap is in a closed position. When the cap is removed, the detents no longer bend the blocking flange, and the actuator can then move the reservoir in relation to the dispensing outlet and affect dispensation. In at least one embodiment the actuator is not axially aligned with the dispensing outlet.
US07984827B2

An aerosol valve actuator with a top portion rotatable on a bottom portion. The entire top portion in one rotatable position is depressible vertically to actuate the valve. A click post and clicking rib provide a single click in each direction of rotation. Flanges on top and bottom portions interact to stop rotation as soon as each click occurs. Plastic springs interact with spring biasing members only when the top portion is in actuating position, and assure return of the actuator top portion to full upward position for rotation after actuation of even a short-stemmed valve. Downwardly extending flexible connecting flanges connect the actuator top and bottom portions. The top portion has a lower periphery with a plurality of upwardly extending indentations to overlie lateral ribs in the lower portion in actuation position. The top and bottom portions have interfitting cylinders to stabilize the top portion and maintain verticality.
US07984825B2

A method of controlling operation of a mechanism, preferably a dispenser, having a removable component comprises measuring electromagnetic radiation passing through a wave guide carrying at least in part on the removable component and permitting operation of the mechanism only when the measured electromagnetic radiation corresponds with one or more pre-selected parameters. Preferably, the method involves directing emitted electromagnetic radiation with pre-selected input parameters selected from a plurality of input parameters.
US07984823B2

An apparatus, for positioning a flipping cover relative to a base, includes a first member being fixed relative to the flipping cover, and a second member being fixed relative to the base. The first member defines an arched guiding channel around a rotating axis of the flipping cover. The first member forms at least one raised ridge extending into the guiding channel. The second member forms a guiding rod parallel to the rotating axis. The guiding rod is slidably received in the guiding channel. The guiding rod is deformable to get through the at least one raised ridge. A casing utilizing the above apparatus is also disclosed.
US07984817B1

A combined pacifier and beverage container assembly includes a beverage container that has a hollow chamber and a top opening in fluid communication with the hollow chamber. A cap is coupled to the top opening and has a first tubular conduit that has a bottom end seated within the chamber and a top end protruding upwardly away from the cap. A second tubular conduit is attached to the first conduit. A pacifier section is coupled to the second conduit. The pacifier section includes a protective cover tethered to a rear end that has a body spaced from the pacifier section and is provided with a cavity coextensively shaped with the rear end of the pacifier section. The pacifier section is provided with an axial bore that travels along its entire length. The bore is in fluid communication with the second conduit.
US07984816B2

A load stabilizer for an automobile is provided. The load stabilizer includes a hitch assembly having an elongate cross member that extends between opposing frame rails of the automobile and that is pivotable about an axis of rotation defined along a length of the cross member in response to a load applied upon the hitch assembly. A first torsion bar is carried on a first end by the cross member and on a second end by the automobile frame for retarding load variations on the hitch assembly.
US07984813B1

A wine bottle holder which includes an upper support structure including an upper opening, a lower support structure including a lower opening, wherein the lower opening and the upper opening are substantially concentric and including at least one support member connecting the upper support structure to the lower support structure, wherein the support member includes an upper end and a lower end. The upper end includes an upper distal portion extending outwardly from the upper support structure and the lower end includes a lower distal portion extending outwardly from the lower support structure.
US07984807B2

A container is provided for storing and dispensing consumer products including pills, tablets, or capsules. A multi-cavity container is also provided for organizing and storing mixed medication for subsequent dispensation according to predefined dosage regimen. The container can comprise a tray (1) having a generally planar top surface (2) into which has been formed one or more discrete cavities (30) for receiving the consumer products. A sheet (10) can be adhered to top surface (2) using a peelable adhesive to seal discrete cavities (30). Sheet (10) can comprise pre-formed lines of separation (13) defining a closure portion (12) for each cavity, which retains the consumer products in that cavity until the closure portion is removed by separation along its lines of separation. Each closure portion (12) can have low vapor transmission properties created by a patch (24) having high vapor barrier properties.
US07984805B2

A medical apparatus whose purpose it is to permanently retard future use of a medical apparatus, in particular needles, preventing accidental exposure to contaminated sharps. It facilitates the possible removal of medical devices from their respective holders, while preventing possible contaminated discharge of fluids located along the anterior or exterior walls of needles or exterior of medical sharps. This medical apparatus provides for single handed use which complies with OSHA guidelines, and its advanced design facilitates the more common shorter medical needles to which non-medical users are accustomed as well as the wide range of needles that medical professional use. This apparatus is easier to manufacture, shorter in stature that allows for its inclusion in the already overcrowded medical trays used by today's medical personnel, in particular, emergency medical technicians. An embodiment contains multiple apparatuses together allowing for safe storage of several sharps, which is a common need in emergency situations both in the field and in the hospital settings, where doctors or technicians are attempting to stabilize critical patients with multiple injections. The apparatus uses counter-opposing gripping devices with an enveloping containment member which serves both to tension the juxtapositionally aligned gripping devices and to prevent leakage of contaminated fluids from medical devices.
US07984798B1

Electric cord reel with a reel, a crank and handle, a reel support structure, a base structure, a guide aperture and a cord and plug retaining tube the reel is rotatably attached to the reel support structure. The handle fixedly attached to the pivot point of the reel wall. The support structure is fixedly attached to the base structure. The guide aperture fixedly attached to the base structure so that it is in alignment with the spool portion of the reel. The cord and plug retaining tube is removably attached to left and right apertures in the walls of the reel. A standard extension cord portion and plug can be removably retained within the cord and plug retaining tube. A preferred embodiment includes the base structure having a plurality of downwardly facing legs that help keep the structure from sliding when a user pulls on the electric cord.
US07984792B2

A lubrication system for a component is disclosed herein. The disclosed lubrication system can be applied relatively high temperature operating environments, relatively low temperature operating environments, or both. The lubrication system includes a tank operable to contain lubricant and having at least one tank outlet. The lubrication system also includes a tube extending between first and second ends. The first end of the tube is in fluid communication with at least one tank outlet. The lubrication system also includes an atomizer in fluid communication with the second end of the tube to receive lubricant from the tank. The atomizer is operable to dispense atomized lubricant on the component. The tank, the tube, and the atomizer are all adjacent to the component. A method for practicing the invention is also disclosed.
US07984790B2

The present disclosure relates to a step stool, and particularly to a folding step stool including legs that fold between an opened, use position and a collapsed, folded position. The present disclosure also relates to a tray assembly that moves relative to the legs and is used for storing or holding articles associated with use of the step stool. The step stool includes a mechanism to coordinate the movement of the tray assembly and a step of the step stool when the step stool is moved between the opened and collapsed positions.
US07984789B2

An observation stand. In one non-limiting embodiment the observation stand includes a support base, a seat, a platform, and a safety-framework. The support base defines opposite top and bottom ends and first, second and third legs configured in a tripod arrangement. The legs each define an upper end and a bottom end. The seat is attached to, and hence supported by, the upper end of each leg. The platform comprises first, second and third slots. The slots are arranged to respectively accommodate the upper ends of the first, second and third legs. The platform is located proximate to the top end of the support base and below the seat. The platform defines a perimeter. The safety-framework is attached to the perimeter, and helps prevent a user from falling off the platform. An optional ground spike can be fitted to one or more of the legs.
US07984777B2

A vehicle drive assembly is provided. The vehicle drive assembly includes an engine, a transmission operably coupled with the engine, an output shaft operably coupled with the transmission, a differential operably coupled with the output shaft, an axle shaft rotatably coupled to the differential, at least one wheel selectively coupled to the axle shaft via a rotatable axle stub, an electric wheel motor operably coupled to the at least one wheel via the rotatable axle stub, and a coupling device operably coupled with the electric wheel motor for selectively coupling the axle stub with the axle shaft.
US07984776B2

A system for supplying electrical energy to a partial or a total electrified drivetrain of a vehicle, the system may include an energy storage system having an energy storage system output that is excess of an operating voltage of the electrified drivetrain. A first converter having an input coupled to the energy storage system output and a first converter output that is at an operating voltage of the electrified drivetrain. Optionally, a supplemental storage bank may be coupled to the first converter output. A second converter is coupled to the supplemental storage bank to provide an output at an operating voltage of the electrified drivetrain and at a peak operating current of the electrified drivetrain.
US07984766B2

A gas extraction device for down hole oilfield applications utilizes the flow of the liquid, created by an artificial lift device, to produce conditions by which the gas is drawn into tubing. A venturi creates a low pressure area through a constricted section of the tubing. The pressure within the throat of the venturi drops the pressure in the casing. The device is axially adjusted to allow communication ports to a lower pressure area of the casing annulus. The lower pressure in the venturi draws the gas into the liquid stream and into the production tubing above the device. The gas is then transferred through the well head within the liquid stream.
US07984758B2

A multi-lock adapter used to inject high-pressure well stimulation fluids through an independent screwed wellhead includes an adapter pin having a central passageway with an internal diameter at least as large as a passageway through the wellhead. A lockdown flange secures the adapter pin to a casing mandrel of the wellhead. The lockdown flange ensures that stress on connection points to the screwed independent wellhead due to elevated fluid pressures used for well stimulation procedures does not exceed engineered specifications.
US07984756B2

Configurations for gas well dewatering systems having overpressure protection to protect a pump and its peripheral equipment from damage due to overpressure are provided.
US07984754B2

A cooling element for electronic or electromechanical components includes a metal element defining a receiving space and a receiving groove associated with the receiving space. The receiving space has an inner wall and is configured to receive an electronic or electromechanical component by an insertion of the electronic or electromechanical component in an insertion direction. The receiving groove has a longitudinal axis lying transverse to the insertion direction. An elongated spring is disposed in the receiving groove so that a longitudinal axis of the spring lies parallel to the longitudinal axis of the receiving groove and so that the spring is deformed by the insertion of the electronic or electromechanical component. A return force of the spring urges the inserted electronic or electromechanical component against an inner wall of the receiving space in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the spring.
US07984753B2

A heat exchanger includes first tubes and a second tube in a casing. The first tubes and the second tube are arranged in layers such that first spaces are provided between the adjacent first tubes and a second space is defined on a periphery of the second tube. Ends of the first tubes and the second tube are connected to a core plate such that first fluid passages defined inside of the first tubes and the second tube are in communication with a connection flange and the first and second spaces are separated from the connection flange. The casing includes an expansion that is in communication with the first spaces, and a side wall that is in contact with a side wall of an end first tube that is located adjacent to the second tube such that the second space is separated from the first spaces and the communication chamber.
US07984749B2

The invention relates to a continuous casting mold, in particular a thin slab mold in which the flow of a liquid metal in the mold is influenced by a magnetic field generated by permanent magnets, wherein the permanent magnets have, over the width and/or height thereof, different magnetic strengths or are spaced from each other by different distances for a different field strength, so that to provide for variation of the magnetic field strength, the permanent magnets are differently adjusted in groups for changing a field strength distribution.
US07984744B2

In a folding screen device pulled in the lateral direction, the widthwise dimension limit of the screen device in the opening and closing direction of the screen is eliminated. A plurality of screen units include movable vertical frame members attached to both ends of a screen expandable in an accordion manner. The vertical frame members are slidable along a lateral frame member of a building opening. Screen guides in the screen units move out and into the interior of the vertical frame member through upper and lower ends thereof in a bent state, and are led along upper and lower ends of the screen in an extended state. A parallel movement mechanism causes the vertical frame members to move in parallel during opening and closing of the screen. The screen units can be arranged in parallel in the building opening by connecting adjacent vertical frame members of the screen units.
US07984734B2

A router table comprises a table top, a bit mount, and a drive train. The bit mount is configured to hold a router bit such that the router bit extends from the table top defining a bit axis. The drive train is positioned under the table top and is operably connected between the bit mount and a drive coupling. The drive coupling is configured to engage a driven member, with the drive coupling defining a drive axis that is not coaxial with the bit axis. The driven member may be provided by a drive bit on a portable router secured to the table top. Operation of the portable router results in rotation of the driven member. Rotation of the driven member and associated drive coupling operates the drive train and results in rotation of the bit mount and associated router bit.
US07984733B2

Exemplary embodiments are disclosed of devices and methods, which may aid in leaf and debris (or other particles) cleanup or transport sometimes used in conjunction with tarps and/or filling of garbage cans and garbage/leaf bags, etc. In an exemplary embodiment, a funneling apparatus generally includes a sheet having edges defining a perimeter. A stay may be disposed along at least one of the edges and at least partially along the perimeter of the sheet. The funneling apparatus may be reconfigurable between a first configuration in which the sheet is substantially flat and a second configuration in which the sheet is rolled into at least one funnel-like configuration. The stay may be operable for helping the sheet remain substantially flat for the first configuration of the funneling apparatus and/or for helping retain the funnel-like configuration for the second configuration of the funneling apparatus.
US07984732B2

A heald frame has a frame stave, a carrier rod provided along the frame stave and a heald made of a resin material. A plurality of healds are supported by the carrier rod and arranged in a row. A magnet having N and S poles is provided in each heald and the healds are arranged so that the adjacent ends of any two adjacent magnets are of the same polarity.
US07984729B2

A proportional pressure control valve for regulating the pressure level in a hydraulic circuit including a magnet part and a valve part. The valve part includes an inflow opening for the inflow volume flow and two discharge openings. The first discharge opening is for an operating pressure connection and the second discharge opening is for a tank volume flow. The valve part also has a ball seat and a flat seat with an opening. A closing member is operable to control a flow rate through the opening of the flat seat. The valve part also includes a stream deflector disposed between the ball seat and the flat seat that has a circumferential surface configured to deflect a stream filament of the flow by an angle of ≦30 degrees.
US07984706B2

A method and system controls motion of an armature 112 of a fuel injector 100. The armature moves between an open coil 118 and a close coil 116 of the injector. Acceleration current of a certain polarity is applied to the open coil 118 with the armature disposed at the close coil 116. De-latching current of a polarity opposite of the certain polarity is applied to the close coil 116 to release magnetic latch on the armature thereby accelerating movement of the armature towards the open coil 118. Deceleration current is applied the close coil 116 thereby decelerating the armature prior to reaching the open coil. Latching current of the certain polarity is applied to the open coil 118 prior to or just after impact of the armature 112 with the open coil 118 to magnetically latch the armature to the open coil 118 thereby reducing bounce of the armature at impact.
US07984695B1

A pet door employing a pair of flaps secured to a frame installed in an opening in a door or wall. Each flap is hinged at the top to the frame so that the flap opens away from the frame. An outwardly angled flange extends around both sides and the bottom of each flap. The flange allows a pet to nuzzle open the flap located on the side of the frame from which the pet is approaching. Once the pet has opened the first flap, the pet opens the opposite second flap by pushing against it. The angled flanges prevent a pet from being trapped between a flap and the frame of the pet door. Optionally, weights may be provided on the flaps to aid in closing the flaps, and the frame may be provided with a gasket to further seal the flaps with the frame.
US07984693B2

A device and a method for removing teat cups from the teats of a lactating animal, having at least two traction members driven by a common drive for removing the teat cups; and at least one clutch is provided for coupling the traction member to the common drive.
US07984683B1

Compound hull for electric-powered, cruiser-type vessels having a unique hard chine displacement wave form hull that recycles wave energy to minimize drag and results in lowered power requirements for long-period cruising at displacement hull speeds. The inventive hull comprises: 1) an upper hull portion having a flat bottom square transom, the bottom curve of the hull sides of which match the vessel's wave form at hull speed, mated to, 2) a bottom hull portion formed as a double ended V-bottom lower displacement hull having a constant varying dead-rise. The inventive hull requires up to 50% less power than conventional cruisers of other hull shapes, at displacement hull speed.
US07984675B2

A projectile for use in a barrel with stacked projectiles, particularly for a weapon which can be reloaded by a user in the field. The projectile includes a chamber containing a propellant charge, with an exit from the chamber for release of propulsion gases into the barrel. A seal blocks the exit and is opened by ignition of the propellant within the chamber but is resistant to gases produced by ignition of propellant in other projectiles in the barrel. The exit and seal are provided in a range of different forms. The exit may be an aperture in a wall of the chamber with the seal as a moveable barrier, such as a valve-like structure, for example. The seal may also include a rupturable or deformable barrier across the aperture. Alternatively the seal is a thin barrier around the charge such as a wax coating and the exit involves a disintegrable character of the barrier. The seal may also be an inherent property of the geometry of the chamber.
US07984666B2

A Window covering cutter has its base board installed with a first clamping device for clamping a Window covering, and a knife device that is positioned next to the first clamping device, having a cutting opening, a driving plate movably fixed at a side of the cutting opening, and a knife fixed on the driving plate to reciprocate transversely to cut the Window covering. A measuring device is set at one side of the knife device for stably positioning the Window covering and measuring a length between its blocking plate and the cutting opening, providing a swift and precise measurement for cutting. So, the invention can be easily operated to esthetically cut a Window covering.
US07984660B2

A sampling device (10) includes a sample extraction portion (28) which reciprocates within a cylindrical sample housing portion (26). The sample housing portion is axially moveable through a gate valve (22) to permit removal and maintenance of the sample extractor.
US07984657B2

A wireless-enabled tightening system for fasteners is disclosed. The system includes a visual designator configured to project an indicator onto a workpiece. The system also includes a torque wrench comprising a wireless transmitter and a means for identifying whether the correct torque has been applied to a fastener on the workpiece and configured to provide a feedback for a user. The system also includes a camera configured to capture an image of the workpiece when an appropriate amount of torque has been applied to the fastener. The system further includes a microprocessor for determining sequence of the fastener and identifying the tightened fastener.
US07984655B2

An entrapment prevention and detection device for an opening/closing mechanism detects entrapment with a simple structure and does not occupy much space. When a foreign object, such as a human body part approaches a window glass, such as an automobile window, the capacitance of a capacitive sensor increases. A control circuit compares a most recent capacitance obtained by a capacitance detection circuit with a previous value and if the most recent capacitance value is greater than the previous value, when the glass is being raised (closed), the control circuit determines that a foreign object has approached the glass and then stops or lowers (opens) the glass.
US07984649B2

A panel inspection apparatus includes a resonant frequency extracting unit for extracting a plurality of resonant frequencies of a panel, a resonant frequency selecting unit for selecting a combination of resonant frequencies consisting of two resonant frequencies A and B with different vibration propagation paths among the extracted plurality of resonant frequencies, a non-defective range generating unit for generating a non-defective range on a coordinate system in which resonant frequencies A and B are taken on coordinate axes by statistically processing a set of the resonant frequencies A and B selected for each of a plurality of non-defective panels determined as non-defective in advance, and a panel quality determining unit for determining whether the quality of the panel to be inspected is good based on comparison between resonant frequencies A and B selected for the panel to be inspected and the non-defective range generated by the non-defective range generating unit.
US07984640B2

The invention provides for a pressure-based tester for testing integrity of a platform assembly. The platform assembly includes a pair of assembled platform components fastened together and a fluid path extending into both components, the platform assembly suitable for supporting printhead integrated circuits to be tested. The tester includes a housing assembly, a regulated gas supply arranged in the housing assembly, and a retaining mechanism in fluid communication with the gas supply and configured to retain the platform assembly in fluid communication with the gas supply during testing of the platform assembly. The tester also includes a pressure measuring apparatus operatively connected to the gas supply and configured to generate a signal corresponding to a pressure value applied to the retaining mechanism, and a control system configured to control operation of the regulated gas supply, the retaining mechanism and configured to receive the signal from the pressure measuring apparatus and to detect decay in the pressure value.
US07984635B2

The present invention relates, in general, to sheet material forming technology and the forming of structures there from. The invention relates to incremental forming of sheet material (1) with localised heating (5) and more particularly to a system and method for incrementally forming a sheet blank (1) that is at the same time heated by a dynamically moving heating source (5). This dynamic and localised heating locally changes the mechanical properties of the sheet material (1), thus facilitating the forming process.
US07984624B2

A cooling, heat exchanging, system effectively heats or cools the air within an enclosed space. The system operates for an extended time period without requiring the use of a generator or utility power.
US07984620B2

An air conditioning apparatus has plural indoor units having: plural heat exchangers; and flow controllers respectively corresponding to the heat exchangers. In each of the indoor units, one heat exchanger is used as a condenser, and another heat exchanger is used as an evaporator, thereby causing the indoor unit to perform a temperature and humidity controlling operation. An indoor unit(s) which is not set to perform the temperature and humidity controlling operation may be caused to perform a heating operation or a cooling operation. Capacity controls on the condensers and the evaporators are performed by corresponding flow controllers. Gas refrigerants ejected from plural heat exchangers serving as evaporators are joined together, and then distributed to plural heat exchangers serving as condensers.
US07984608B2

A method of directing flow of exhaust gas includes directing a first portion of the flow through a first flow path and directing a second portion of the flow through a second flow path. A temperature of at least a portion of the flow in the first flow path is increased, and the flow in the first flow path is sent through a filter. The first and second portions of the flow downstream of the filter to are combined form a combined flow. The combined flow is maintained within a predetermined range of temperatures, and the combined flow is directed to a catalyst.
US07984599B2

Fasteners, and related methods, for securing deck boards to a support joist are disclosed. In one embodiment, the fastener comprises a base portion and a cap portion on the base portion. In some embodiments, the base portion includes an opening formed therethrough for receiving a securing device, and legs extending from an upper surface of the base portion and between edges of adjacent deck boards to define a spacing between the adjacent deck boards. The cap portion can include an opening for receiving the securing device therethrough to secure the fastener to the support joist. In addition, the cap portion may include legs extending around the base portion and comprising teeth extending therefrom that bite into grooves formed in the edges of the adjacent deck boards when the securing device secures the fastener to the support joist, thereby securing the deck boards to the support joist.
US07984593B2

A surface facing system for covering edifices includes vertical intermediate profiled members, two profiled support members, and at least one exposed element accommodated therein. A top and a bottom receiving and guiding groove is formed on the profiled support member by situating a segment on the front side of the profiled support member and a profiled holding element. The exposed element has a base frame and a plate-shaped element connected to the base frame via its back side. The base frame has at least two horizontal profiled members and at least two vertical profiled members. At least one of the vertical profiled members is connected in a non-positive, form-fit manner to the horizontal profiled members while the other vertical profiled members are connected in a form-fit manner. The exposed element is received in the receiving and guiding groove as a spring via a leg of the horizontal profiled members.
US07984590B2

At both sides of a pair of doors 10L, 10R, a pair of television cameras (two-dimensional image sensors) 18A, 18B for detecting a moving object, and a pair of spare infrared ray sensors 20A, 20B are provided. A central control unit 16 calculates the position and moving direction of moving object by image processing of outputs of television cameras 18A, 18B, and predicts the passing position of moving object on the vertical plane P when the moving object approaches, thereby calculating the target opening degree of a pair of doors 10L, 10R individually, and determines the target opening degree of doors in full closing when the moving object leaves away, and thus outputs move command signals to motor controllers 14L, 14R so that the pair of doors 10L, 10R may be set at the target opening degree.
US07984585B1

Methods and devices for rapidly weaving three-dimensional plant shapes. The plant-weaving device comprises an outer receptacle that is capable of receiving a frame support that supports a variety of three-dimensional frames. Plants with long stems are prepared and inserted in the plant-weaving device, and are woven around and secured to the frame. After weaving, the plants may be stored or transported.
US07984579B2

An electronic weapon, when combined with a unit for deployment, causes skeletal muscle contractions in a human or animal target. According to the present invention, a launch controller for an electronic weapon includes a detector, a stimulus signal generator, and a switch. When the switch is conducting, it completes a circuit in combination with a unit for deployment. The circuit, when completed, operates a propellant of the unit for deployment to deploy at least two electrodes of the unit for deployment to enable the stimulus signal generator to deliver through the target a stimulus current to incapacitate the target by causing contractions of the skeletal muscles of the target. The detector is coupled to the switch and detects whether the switch is conducting prior to combining the unit for deployment and the electronic weapon.
US07984577B2

A system and method for visually representing the priorities of a number of action items in a manner which permits their priorities to be rearranged quickly and easily, utilizing individual display units supported in a rearrangeble sequence on a parallel pair of rails, and a separate note sheet removably attached to each board.
US07984572B2

A snowshoe (1) whose webbing includes a flexible wall (4) maintained in tension inside a framework (2) by portions of the flexible mounting wall which define flexible mounting projections. Supplemental protection parts (8) are disposed surrounding the mounting projections to protect them from wear and impact.
US07984571B2

Sport footwear, in particular ski boot, having passage openings (16, 19) for the wearer's. foot provided frontally in the lower shell (10) and the leg-piece (20). At least the opening (19) in the leg-piece (20) is capable of being closed by two flaps (22, 23), of which at least one is in the form of a pad (23) coupled to the remaining portion (25) of the leg-piece (20) with a clearance fit allowing said pad (23) to freely rotate in view of enabling the wearer's foot to be most smoothly and conveniently introduced in and subsequently extracted from the footwear.
US07984568B2

A condensation washer-dryer, in particular, the air-guiding process. The base module is used to receive function parts and components of the air guide and is closed on the rear side by means of a process air cover and forms a plastic, stable support structure for the washer-dryer. The connecting surfaces are large and extend, preferably, over the entire width of the washer-dryer. Due to said embodiment, air guiding channels are formed in a simple manner on the rear side of the base module and the housing of the process air ventilator is closed on the rear side. Sealing elements are no longer required due to said welding of said type of connection and an exceptionally high mechanical rigidity is obtained.
US07984563B2

A device for determining the distance of a cutting tool, for instance a router bit, relative to a first reference surface or a second reference surface, the second reference surface extending essentially perpendicular to the first reference surface. The device has a central body, a pair of feet mounted to the central body, the feet being spaced apart so as to be able to accommodate between them the cutting tool, and a pointing element slidably arranged relative to the central body. In a horizontal mode of operation, when the feet are placed on or against the first reference surface, the pointing element may be moved relative to the central body to abut the cutting tool for determining the distance between the cutting tool and the first reference surface. At least one of the feet is configured to set the height of the pointer element with respect to the second reference surface.
US07984561B2

A device for determining dimensions of a workpiece includes a locating apparatus, a determining apparatus and a main processor. The locating apparatus includes a locating board supporting workpieces and defining at least one detecting aperture therethrough. The determining apparatus includes a detecting module, the detecting module includes at least one laser detector, each laser detector includes a laser emitter and a laser receiver respectively mounted on two opposite sides of the locating board. The main processor is connected to the locating apparatus and the determining apparatus, the laser emitter emits laser beams traveling through the detecting aperture and received by the laser receiver, and the main processor determines the dimension of the workpiece according to the dimension of parts on the laser receiver shielded by the workpiece.
US07984556B2

A cable cutter for attachment to a power drill has a housing, first and second cutting blades and a drive assembly releasably engageable with the chuck of the drill. The drive assembly includes a worm mounted on a drive and a worm gear and a drive gear mounted on a main shaft. The worm and worm gear are in engagement, as are the drive gear and one of the cutting blades. The housing includes a main plate and an end cap secured to the main plate, with the end cap receiving the drive gear and defining a cut away portion adjacent to the stationary blade to allow the movable blade to pass through the cut away portion for direct engagement with the drive gear. The end cap defines a counterbore facing the main plate, with the counterbore receiving a bearing supporting one of the ends of the main shaft.
US07984554B2

An apparatus for partitioning a food mass, such as a solidified egg, is disclosed including a base, a holder for supporting the food mass, and a plurality of cutting members for partitioning the food mass, wherein the holder is rotatable to permit the cutting members to partition the food mass in a first orientation and in a second orientation. The apparatus further includes a retainer positionable on a top surface of the food mass having passageways permitting the cutting members to pass through a portion thereof. The apparatus may include a cleaning plate receivable by portions of the holder in a position below the food mass, the cleaning plate being removable from the holder to remove food matter from between the support portions. The apparatus may include a lock for securing apparatus in a closed or lowest position for storage.
US07984551B2

This invention relates to a fabricated vehicle wheel and method for producing the same. The wheel includes a rim and a disc secured to the rim. The disc includes a plurality of outwardly extending spokes, an outer rim connecting flange defining a side edge surface and a window formed therein between adjacent pairs of spokes and having a predetermined shape defined by the adjacent pairs of spokes and the side edge surface of the rim connecting flange such that each of the windows extends to an outermost periphery of the wheel disc, at least one of the windows includes at least a first window portion and a second window portion, the first window portion being formed by a first piercing operation and the second window portion being formed by a second piercing operation.
US07984546B2

An apparatus tool for filling vias in a product greensheet and/or repairing vias in a product greensheet. The apparatus tool utilizes a transfer greensheet having filled vias in a fixed array, which vias are punched into the product greensheet to either repair or fill the via of the product greensheet. The apparatus tool employs position determining means such as a camera, a punch head and a corresponding punch die and an activating means to activate the punch head to punch the transfer greensheet via to fill the product greensheet via. The transfer greensheet has a fixed array of filled vias and a transfer greensheet station employs a fixed plate having a plurality of vacuum ports positioned in the non-via areas of the transfer greensheet which secures the transfer greensheet during the repair or fill method. The product greensheet is held by a vacuum plate.
US07984544B2

A force or pressure sensor and appertaining method for manufacturing are provided in which the sensor comprises a repeating conductive trace pattern that can be replicated to produce a consistent conductive trace across more than one adjacent pattern section forming an electrical bus, wherein more than one section of a series of conductive traces are printed on a thin and flexible dielectric backing using the pattern. The thin and flexible dielectric backing has a repeated pattern of conductive traces printed above the dielectric backing and one or more dielectric layers provided above the conductive traces, the dielectric layers having access regions permitting contact of conductors above the one or more dielectric layers, and a sensor conductor layer printed above the one or more dielectric layers that contacts the conductive traces via at least one of the access regions or regions not covered by the one or more dielectric layers.
US07984543B2

Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for electronic device manufacturing. The invention includes removing a first substrate carrier and a second substrate carrier from a moving conveyor using an end effector assembly and concurrently transferring the first and second substrate carriers from the moving conveyor to a support location via the end effector assembly. Numerous other aspects are provided.
US07987512B2

Techniques to provide a secure execution environment are described. In an implementation, a method includes initiating a hardware interrupt by an embedded controller of a computing device. In response to the interrupt, a module is executed that is stored in a basic input/output system (BIOS). The module, when executed, determines whether constrain functionality of the computing device based on a balance.
US07987507B2

A method and system for implementing secure communications between a plurality of devices are provided. The method and system generally include the provision of at least one common encryption parameter to each of the plurality of devices, as well as an identification of the plurality of devices to one another. This information can be maintained and shared by interaction of the plurality of devices with a designated server device. In this way, a secure, point-to-point connection between at least two of the plurality of devices can be established.
US07987500B2

The present invention is a method and system for providing a user with confirmation of the origin of a Web site and related information including the steps of registering a Web site with an assuring third party, saving the registration on a registration server, entering in a database the Web site's Internet domain name and cross-referencing it to the registration data, retrieving the Web site's domain with an Internet browser, and either (1) using a client application tool to call for registration data for the domain name via a secure SSL connection with the registration server, determining if the domain has been registered, and returning and displaying registration data for the domain name as a confirmed identity, or (2) calling a program on the registration server in response to an HTML tag on the domain via a secure SSL connection and passing it the domain name, determining if the domain has been registered, determining if the domain name has been registered, and returning and displaying registration data for the domain name as a confirmed identity.
US07987498B2

It is an object to provide a personal data management system which overcomes a problem of data leakage and a nonvolatile memory card applied to the personal data management system. A personal data management system includes a personal data storage medium including a communication control unit which transmits and receives data to/from a terminal, an encoding unit which encodes the received data, and a nonvolatile memory which stores the encoded data; a terminal including a communication control unit which transmits and receives data to/from the personal data storage medium and a server, a display portion which displays the received data, and an input unit; and the server including a communication control unit which transmits and receives data to/from the terminal, a decoding unit which decodes the encoded data, an identification data storage portion, and a unit which compares the decoded data with data in the identification data storage portion.
US07987494B1

A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing protection for a document is presented. Document content of the document is obtained. An occurrence of a security code within the document content is detected, the security code associated with the document content. A security policy associated with the security code is identified. The identified security policy is then applied to the document content.
US07987489B2

A legacy device bridge for use in a network, such as a wired or wireless residential network, is provided. The legacy device bridge performs protocol conversion to enable a network-attached entity that uses a packet-based communication protocol to communicate with and control legacy devices, such as consumer electronics, that rely exclusively on infrared (IR) or serial communication protocols. The legacy device bridge also performs a virtualization function that allows legacy devices to be advertised to the network as devices that comply with a packet-based discovery and control protocol, and to be controlled as such. The legacy device bridge is also adapted to probe, deduce and publish information relating to the state of a legacy device to other entities on the network.
US07987487B2

A vehicle audio/video media system includes an adapter apparatus in electrical communication with an audio/video head unit. The adapter apparatus includes a digital input receiving digital audio/video content from an external source. A digital-to-analog converter is coupled to the digital input and converts the digital audio/video content into analog audio/video content. An output device is coupled to the digital-to-analog converter. The output device transmits the analog audio/video content to the audio/video head unit.
US07987475B2

A chucking mechanism according to the present invention includes a claw member which retains a discoid disk and is arranged between a plurality of claw portions which put a radial force outwardly to a central opening portion of the disk and a plurality of claw portions, a receiving portion and a sliding portion.
US07987474B2

A slot-in type disc drive is provided by comprising a disc entrance slot for loading a disc into the disc drive along a first direction; a bottom casing; a crossing driving member; and a disc loading device. The crossing driving member has at least a disc driving groove and is moved along a second direction vertical to the first direction. The disc loading device comprises two disc loading levers and two connecting levers. Each of the disc loading levers has a first end close to the disc entrance slot and a second end pivoted on a rotating shaft. Each of the connecting lever having a third end and a fourth end, wherein the third ends are respectively pivoted on the disc loading levers, and the fourth ends are pivoted together on a vertical guiding pin. When the crossing driving member moves along the second direction, the vertical guiding pin is moved along the first direction and moved related to the crossing driving member in the disc driving groove.
US07987468B2

A lightweight, low cost solution provides inter process communications (IPC) in a network processing environment. A method of inter process communication (IPC) between General Purpose Processors in a network processing environment uses software based functions (Application Program Interfaces (APIs)) that enable inter process communication between processors in a network processing environment. The software enabled functions open and close inter process communication paths for transmitting and receiving of inter process communication frames and allow the inter process communication frames to be transmitted to one or several processors in said network processing environment. The software has the capability of selecting either data or control path in said network processing environment to transmit or receive said inter process communication frames.
US07987462B2

A method for automatic throttling of work producers by actively monitoring the amount and rate at which work is both produced and consumed relative to a threshold value, the consumer thread can calculate the subset of the ‘N’ threads which can be placed in a temporary sleep condition, wherein the duration of sleep is determined to give the consumer thread processing time to catch up, keeping the process from being overrun. ‘N’ is the number of unique producer threads.
US07987455B1

One embodiment of the present invention can include a computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media storing a set of computer instructions that are executable by one or more computer processors, wherein the set of computer instructions comprise instructions executable to generate a command according to a generic command structure, forward the command to a remote computer, receive the command at the remote computer and translate the command to platform specific format.
US07987450B2

A solution for managing one or more problems in a software component is provided. The solution includes generating an identifier for each problem based on a call stack for the execution of the software component when the problem occurs. The identifier and a text message for the problem can be displayed to a user. The user can use the identifier to obtain information on the problem and/or one or more updates that address the problem. In one embodiment, the identifier comprises a hash value of the call stack, which is likely to result in a unique value for each possible call stack. In this manner, the identifier will likely provide a unique identifier for each problem.
US07987441B2

A design method places power gates or switch cells using unoccupied locations of logic cell rows. Two types of such switch cells, filler switches and sealer switches, may be provided using the unoccupied locations. In one embodiment, virtual ground voltage references to the logic cells are routed to their associated switch cells. Because conventional standard cell design and placement techniques achieve only a placement density or utilization between 70-80% (i.e., unoccupied space constitutes between 20 to 30% of the available space in each row of logic cells), by placing the power gate cells in the unoccupied space, the method does not increase the silicon real estate requirement even though the power gate cells are introduced into the design. Optimization techniques may be applied to achieve proper sizing and distribution of power gate cells, so as to avoid a performance penalty due to the power gate cells. In one embodiment, fine-grained power gating is achieved by selectively providing non-power-gated logic cells among power-gated logic cells.
US07987440B2

A method and a system for validating clock skews during a hierarchical static timing analysis of a chip or multi-chip package. Each pair of clock inputs of a hierarchical module bounds the allowable clock skew, creating new relative constraints on clock input arrival times propagated to those clock inputs. One embodiment is based on asserted arrival times and a maximum of computed slack values at said clock inputs, while a second embodiment is based on asserted arrival times and a minimum of downstream test slack values. The method further converts module clock assertions into a set of relative timing constraints to allow a hierarchical timing sign-off even in circumstances where absolute timing arrivals are not totally known at the time of module analysis.
US07987430B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for customizing a graphical user interface. A rendition module renders a base GUI to provide an operator with tools for managing Data Processing Devices (DPD). A tag module communicates interface tags to the base GUI. The interface tags describe added functionality for managing a specified DPD, wherein the added functionality is not supported by the base GUI and the base GUI is not configured to employ the interface tags. A translation module translates the interface tags into interpreted display code. The rendition module is further configured to render the interpreted display code with previously rendered display code for the base GUI to provide the added functionality for managing the specified DPD. The operator may manage the specified DPD with the added functionality.
US07987424B2

A second independent computer system is docked into a first computer system. Then, the first computer system uses at least one of an input interface and an output interface of the second independent computer system as a peripheral device for interfacing with the first computer system. While the second independent computer system is undocked from the first computer system at least one of the input interface and the output interface of the second independent computer system are peripheral devices for interfacing solely with the second independent computer system.
US07987420B1

Described herein are systems, methods, computer program products, and combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for enabling web content (as well as other objects) to be loaded on mobile devices (as well as other types of devices), and for users of mobile devices to operate with such web content on their mobile devices in an interactive manner while in an off-line mode.
US07987416B2

Embodiments of the present invention include a computer-implemented method of extracting information. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises defining a plurality of reusable operators, wherein each operator performs a predefined information extraction task different from the other operators. Composite annotators may be created by specifying a composition of the reusable operators. Each operator may receive a searchable item, such as a web page or an annotation, and may generate one or more output annotations. The output annotations may be further processed by other reusable operators and the annotations may be stored in a repository for use during a search.
US07987411B1

A method for writing data to a multi-protocol encapsulation (MPE) buffer includes the steps of determining whether an error is generated in address information of an MPE section by comparing a location of an erasure table referring to the address of the MPE section, with address information of the MPE section, and when the error is generated in the address information of the MPE section, preventing writing data of the MPE section to a location of the MPE buffer referring to the address information of the MPE section, and when the error is not generated, writing the data of the MPE section to the location of the MPE buffer.
US07987410B2

Disclosed herein are various embodiments of methods, systems, and apparatus for encoding OFDM packets in a digital communication system. In one exemplary method embodiment, LDPC codewords in an IEEE 802.11 wireless transmission are shortened, decreasing the iterations necessary to insure accurate communications. The codewords are shortened by adding known bits in predetermined locations in the last data symbol of a packet.
US07987407B2

A data processor includes a cache record error storage and a hard error storage having at least one record error storage and at least one hard error record, respectively, both for keeping track of errors detected when accessing cache records. When an error is first detected, one of the error records in the cache record error storage is allocated to store a cache record identifier for that cache record, and an associated count value is set to a first value. If an error is detected when accessing a cache record, a correction operation is performed in respect of that currently accessed cache record, and access to that currently accessed cache record is then re-performed. If the count value reaches a predetermined threshold value, then the cache record identifier is moved from the cache record error storage to an error record of the hard error storage.
US07987400B2

A method for optimizing scan chains in an integrated circuit that has multiple levels of hierarchy addresses unlimited chains and stumps and separately all other chains and stumps. Unlimited chains and stumps are optimized by dividing an area encompassed by the chains and by a start point and an end point of the stump into a grid comprised of a plurality of grid boxes, and determining a grid box to grid box connectivity route to access all of the grid boxes between the start point and the end point by means of a computer running a routing algorithm. All other chains and stumps are optimized randomly assigning to a stump a chain that can be physically reached by that stump and adding an additional chain to that stump based on the number of latches in the additional chain, its physical location, and the number of latches already assigned.
US07987391B2

A method and apparatus are provided, the method and apparatus comprising running a plurality of identical programs on a plurality of identical computers and recording information about at least some state updates done within each of the plurality of the identical programs running on the plurality of the identical computers using a plurality of digests of the at least some state updates. The method and apparatus also comprises comparing the plurality of the digests to determine whether at least one of the plurality of the identical programs running on the plurality of the identical computers has failed.
US07987389B2

A system for testing sleep and wake functions of a computer includes a test device and a test software installed on a motherboard of the computer. The test device includes a timing module, a counting module, and a switch module. The test software includes an initialization unit, a signal transmission unit, and a comparison unit. The test device communicates with the motherboard, and an operation system of the computer sets that receiving a control signal means executing an operation of putting the computer to sleep or waking the computer up. The system employs the test software cooperating with the test device to test sleep and wake functions of the computer automatically.
US07987387B2

There is provided a file sharing system which allows accessing a memory that stores failure information and using the failure information even in a case where a CPU is shut down. When a failure occurs on a substrate, a control circuit on the substrate detects the failure and stores the information on the failure to an NVRAM. In a normal case, an OS loads the failure information and transmits it to a PC for maintenance. Upon shut down of the OS, a BMC loads the failure information from the NVRAM according to an instruction from the PC for maintenance. If an operator operates a manual switch upon power shut down, the BMC operates with the power supply from a battery, and the failure information is obtained from the NVRAM.
US07987370B2

A digital watermark is added to audio or visual content. An illustrative embodiment segments the content, permutes the segments, and transforms such data into another domain. The transformed data is altered slightly to encode a watermark. The altered data can then be inverse-transformed, and inverse-permuted, to return same to substantially its original form. Related watermark decoding methods are also detailed, as are ancillary features and techniques.
US07987367B2

Provided is a method of key agreement between devices. Using the method, two devices on a network can exchange information using polynomials of a polynomial ring, authenticate each other using the exchanged information, and generate a shared key. Accordingly, an authenticated key agreement protocol, which has better security and a faster processing speed than a conventional encoding system, can be realized.
US07987362B2

A method for authenticating a device including the steps of operating the device to create at least one failure condition; obtaining a measurement based on the at least one failure condition; and, comparing the measurement based on the at least one failure condition with a previously stored measurement based on the at least one failure condition to determine an identity of the device. An apparatus and an article of manufacture for authenticating a device is also disclosed.
US07987359B2

In an information communication system, information communication devices exchange an IP packet over IP networks. When performing a predetermined packet exchanging procedure in which the number of router hops is limited to a predetermined control value or less, each of the information communication devices monitors Time-To-Live values designated in the headers of IP packets received over a period of time from the start of the predetermined packet exchanging procedure to immediately before the end of the predetermined packet exchanging procedure to continuously update the maximum Time-To-Live value of the monitored Time-To-Live values, and checks whether the maximum Time-To-Live value does not exceed the control value.
US07987358B1

Methods of authenticating a user design in a programmable integrated circuit. The methods utilize an identifier unique to the programmable IC and a data word taken from the user design. The data word can be unique to the design and can include a string of data taken from the configuration data for the design, or the values of circuit nodes read from selected points throughout the design. A function is performed on the identifier and the data word, producing a key specific to the user design as implemented in that programmable IC. The key is compared to an expected value. When the key matches the expected value, the user design is enabled. When the key does not match the expected value, at least a portion of the user design is disabled. Circuitry for performing the steps of the method can be implemented in the programmable resources of the programmable IC.
US07987353B2

A method for implementing a remote basic input/output system (BIOS) on a multi-blade server is provided. A remote BIOS partition is created on a management module of the multi-blade server for each blade of the multi-blade server residing on the management module. BIOS settings for operation on a first blade of the multi-blade server are defined.
US07987336B2

This invention generally provides a method for speeding up system boot time, by initializing a subset of memory during the system firmware test/initialization, and allowing the system to boot an operating system with this subset of installed memory. While the system is completing the operating system boot with the subset of installed memory, a remainder of the installed system memory is being initialized/tested. When the initialization the remainder of system memory is completed (and after the OS has booted), the SMI handler is invoked. The SMI handler then simulates a physical memory “Hot Add” event, and reports the event to the OS. This allows much of the memory initialization/test activity to occur in parallel with the firmware initialization/test and operating system startup processes.
US07987335B1

Techniques for virtualizing data are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for virtualizing data comprising identifying source data to be virtualized, intercepting an input/output (i/o) request to the source data, determining whether the input/output request is a read request or a write request, in the event the input/output request is a write request, storing one or more changes contained in the write request, and in the event the input/output request is a read request, determining whether a portion of data requested has been modified and responding to the read request. Responding to the read request may comprise providing stored data in the event a portion of the data requested has been modified, and utilizing source data in the event the data requested is unmodified.
US07987334B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for adjusting memory hold time. A detection module detects a hold time violation for a memory. An adjustment module increases a first voltage of a voltage controller in response to the hold time violation. The voltage controller supplies electrical current at the first voltage to a memory controller and at a reference voltage to the memory. The first and reference voltages are set independently.
US07987331B2

A reset generator for resetting at least one register in a register bank. The register generator comprises a scan mode input terminal configured to input a scan mode signal, a system reset input terminal configured to input a system reset signal, a secure reset output terminal configured to output a secure reset signal and a combination logic unit configured to combine the scan mode signal and the system reset signal. The combination is such that when the scan mode of the at least one register is activated, the secure reset signal is immediately activated for resetting the at least one register. The activation of the secure reset signal is independent of the system reset signal. The secure reset signal is deactivated when the system reset signal is deactivated and the secure reset signal follows the activation/deactivation cycles of the system reset signal after deactivation.
US07987329B2

A storage system is utilized to its fullest storage capacity by setting a write inhibitive attribute to a desired storage area of the storage system. The storage system has a logical volume in which data is stored and a control device which controls access to the data stored in the logical volume. A first area of a desired size is set in the logical volume, and an access control attribute is set to the first area. In response to a request made by a computer to perform access to the logical volume, the control device notifies the computer that the control device does not perform the access when an area designated by the access request contains at least a part of the first area and the access control attribute set to the first area inhibits the type of the access requested.
US07987327B2

In a backup system, a backup request device includes: a storage section that stores a piece of content data; and a transmission section that regards the piece of content data as a piece of backup target data and transmits, along with a piece of device identification information, a piece of backup information including a piece of data quality information and a piece of content identification information, while a backup device includes: a storage section that stores a piece of backup data that is the same content as the piece of backup target data and whose data quality is higher than or equal to the piece of backup target data such that it is associated with the piece of content identification information; and a control section that stores the received piece of backup information in the storage section such that it is associated with the received piece of device identification information.
US07987325B1

A method and apparatus for implementing a storage lifecycle policy based on a hierarchy of storage destinations to improve storage lifecycle management is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises specifying at least one source copy for at least one storage lifecycle operation in a storage lifecycle policy to generate a storage destination hierarchy using the at least one specified source copy and performing the at least one storage lifecycle operation using the storage destination hierarchy.
US07987310B2

An apparatus for connecting electronic devices having a flexible cable bus housing containing a plurality of same or different communication and power channels extending along a length thereof and a plurality of bus ports at different locations along the bus housing length. Each bus port is capable of being operatively connected to one of the communication or power channels. The apparatus further includes a plurality of device connectors adapted to connect to a bus port at one end thereof and to a discrete device at another end thereof. Each connector at the device end has a different plug conforming to one of the communication or power channels. The apparatus preferably further includes a switch for connecting each bus port to the communication or power channel conforming to the device end plug when a device connector is connected to the bus port on the bus housing.
US07987307B2

In an embodiment, a method is provided. The method of this embodiment provides determining a flow context associated with a receive packet; and if the flow context complies with a dynamic interrupt moderation policy having one or more rules, generating an interrupt to process the receive packet substantially independently of an interrupt generated in accordance with an interrupt coalescing scheme (“coalesced interrupt”). Other embodiments are disclosed and/or claimed.
US07987306B2

A method for addressing system latency within a network system which includes providing a network interface and moving data within each of the plurality of memory access channels independently and in parallel to and from a memory system so that one or more of the plurality of memory access channels operate efficiently in the presence of arbitrary memory latencies across multiple requests is disclosed. The network interface includes a plurality of memory access channels.
US07987300B2

A first-type data transfer frame for uncompressed transfer of a control program and control data including reference data, and a second-type data transfer frame for compressed transfer have the same fixed size, and each transfer frame includes compression identification information indicating uncompressed or compressed data. When an on-board vehicle control unit receives a transfer frame with uncompressed control data, the control unit stores the uncompressed control data of the frame in a nonvolatile memory. When the transfer frame has compressed control data, the control unit writes the compressed control data of the frame into RAM, and decompresses control data in the RAM. The control unit sequentially accumulates decompressed control data in the RAM, and when amount of the accumulated control data reaches a setting amount, the control unit halts the decompressing, and transfers the decompressed control data from the RAM into the nonvolatile memory, and restarts decompressing for the next received data transfer frame from the halt point.
US07987298B2

A system and method are provided for detecting connection status of a universal serial bus (USB) port of a mobile phone and a terminal device from among connecting, connected, disconnecting, or disconnected status. A voltage of the USB port is the same as a voltage of a charging interface of the mobile phone. The voltage of the charging interface is detected. The connection status of the mobile phone stored in a storage system is updated according to the voltage status of the charging interface.
US07987297B2

An electrical field device has a microprocessor-controlled control device, a data memory which is inside the device and is connected to the control device via a first memory controller, and a data interface which is connected to the control device and is intended to connect external devices to the electrical field device. In order to ensure access to the data memory inside such a field device even when the control device or internal power supply device is not in working order, the data interface is connected to the data memory inside the device via a second memory controller. There is also disclosed a method for establishing a data link between a data interface of an electrical field device and a data memory inside the device.
US07987280B1

A media agent that monitors multiple broadcast transmissions and a method for the same. The media agent establishes connections with broadcast transmissions and then identifies characteristics of the media content contained within the broadcast transmission. The association between the identified characteristic of the media content and the connected broadcast transmission is maintained to allow the information gathered from the broadcast transmission to be used meaningfully.
US07987277B2

A safety information transmission device includes a reception unit that receives, via a network, safety information indicating whether or not a user is safe, the safety information being received by an information processing terminal if biometric authentication of the user is successful, and a control unit that determines, when a contact method is a contact by an electronic message and a contact destination address is an electronic message address, to transmit the electronic message containing the safety information to the electronic message address.
US07987271B1

Mechanisms and techniques provide a data communications device for inserting an audio tag into a content page during a communications session between a first computerized device and a second computerized device. A data communications device receives a request for a content page from a first computerized device and transfers the request to a second computerized device. The data communications device receives the content page from the second computerized device in response to the request, inserts an audio tag within the content page, and adjusts a connection characteristic associated with the content page to maintain the communications session between the first computerized device and the second computerized device. The data communications device then transfers the content page having the inserted audio tag and modified connection characteristic to the first computerized device.
US07987262B2

A system is described for providing a cloud computing assessment tool. The system may include a memory, an interface, and a processor. The processor may receive a data center configuration from the user. The data center configuration may include a compute and storage capacity. The processor may determine a cloud computing configuration equivalent to the data center configuration. The processor may identify a time period for transitioning from the data center to cloud computing. The processor may identify a plurality of trend values representing changes in the compute capacity and storage capacity over the period of time. The processor may generate a strategy to transition from the data center to cloud computing over the period of time. The strategy may account for the changes in the compute capacity and the storage capacity. The processor may provide a graphical output and a numerical output of the strategy to the user.
US07987258B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a network measurement configuration apparatus which selects an IP meter for measurement traffic of a network, and sets a measurement rule in the IP meter.In order to achieve the above object, there is provided a network measurement configuration apparatus connected to a network having a plurality of measurement devices arranged therein, which measures traffic data of the network based on a measurement rule, comprising, a receiving means which receives a user request including path information and a measurement type, a measurement device selecting means which selects a measurement device responsible for a measurement based on the user request, and a measurement rule setting means which sets a measurement rule in the measurement device thus selected.
US07987249B2

A management console in support of RMCP with RSP is provided with an enhanced management session create function that determines whether the creation of a management session with a managed remote client is being performed following a system failure, and to orchestrate a soft recover, on so determining. In one embodiment, the soft recovery includes sending an authenticated message to the managed remote client, using certain persistently saved session data of a prior open management session with the managed remote client, with the authenticated message being sent in a manner that circumvents the anti-replay protection mechanism of RSP.
US07987244B1

A method, system, and machine-readable medium are provided for utilizing a network repository having stored voice font data. A request for a response, including the voice font data stored in the network repository; is received via a network. The voice font data stored in the network repository is accessed. The response, including the voice font data, is sent via the network.
US07987243B2

A method including receiving a request for a web page; communicating with a content server by receiving content associated with the requested web page; determining whether the content includes particular content requiring plug-in support; initiating a native plug-in to handle the particular content; receiving a request for additional content from the native plug-in; retrieving the additional content for the native plug-in; monitoring the additional content to determine whether the additional content includes media content; and updating the content for the requested web page based on the monitoring.
US07987222B1

A method for performing multiplication on a field programmable gate array includes generating a product by multiplying a first plurality of bits from a first number and a first plurality of bits from a second number. A stored value designated as a product of a second plurality of bits from the first number and a second plurality of bits from the second number is retrieved. The product is scaled with respect to a position of the first plurality of bits from the first number and a position of the first plurality of bits from the second number. The stored value is scaled with respect to a position of the second plurality of bits from the second number and a position of the second plurality of bits from the second number. The scaled product and the scaled stored value are summed.
US07987218B2

A method for establishing a spatial street address data set including: First, in no particular order: (1) providing street address data; (2) providing postal data; (3) providing community translation data; and (4) providing a spatial layer base map. Second, establishing a first data base containing once-translated address entries, each relating to a selected community entry from the street address data or a selected community entry from the community translation data. Third, establishing a second data base containing twice-translated address entries, each relating to a selected street name entry from the postal data or a selected street name entry from the street address data. Fourth, treating the second data base with a geocoder routine to create geocoded address entries in a geocoded data set. Fifth, situating the geocoded data set in a spatial layer. Sixth, orienting the spatial layer with known loci in the spatial layer base map.
US07987213B2

A data storage system comprises a plurality of portable data storage devices (12) coupled via a network (10). Each of the portable data storage devices (12) has an associated storage profile, which defines a which data objects will be stored in the storage device. A recommended profile for at least one of the portable data storage devices us automatically generated, using the steps of—collecting profile information about storage profiles for portable data storage devices (12) other than the at least one of the portable data storage devices (12) and/or data object information about properties of data objects stored by the portable data storage devices (12) other than the at least one of the portable data storage devices (12), —using the profile information and/or data information to guide generation of the recommended storage profile.
US07987201B2

A method, article of manufacture and apparatus for performing private retrieval of information from a database is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprising obtaining an index corresponding to information to be retrieved from the database and generating a query that does not reveal the index to the database. The query is an arithmetic function of the index and a secret value, wherein the arithmetic function includes a multiplication group specified by a modulus of a random value whose order is divisible by a prime power, such that the prime power is an order of the random value. The secret value is an arithmetic function of the index that comprises a factorization into prime numbers of the modulus. The method further comprises communicating the query to the database for execution of the arithmetic function against the entirety of the database.
US07987200B2

A database management system predicts a selectivity for database query conditions requiring a join of records from different tables. The system identifies at least one skewed value in a field specified in the join condition, and constructs, for each skewed value, a set of hypothetical query predicates in which the field specified in the join condition is replaced with a constant equal to the skewed value. The system then predicts the selectivity for the hypothetical predicates, using any appropriate prediction technique. The selectivities of the hypothetical predicates are used to predict a selectivity for the original query.
US07987190B2

A system comprising a processor, a data storage device that is accessible by the processor, and filesystem software that is executable by the processor to organize files on the data storage device are provided. The filesystem software is executable to maintain a filename cache having variable size filename entries. The filename entries may include a filename header section and a name section storing an entire filename of a corresponding file.
US07987158B2

Data and metadata are generated in a computational device, wherein the generated data is stored in a first physical storage device coupled to the computational device, and wherein the generated metadata is stored transiently in the computational device. The data and the metadata are replicated to a second physical storage device. The replicated data and the replicated metadata in the second physical storage device are used to recover from a failure of at least one of the computational device and the first physical storage device.
US07987157B1

System and method for refreshing databases. A refresh mechanism may allow a data warehouse to remain available to users while the data is being refreshed. Embodiments may be used to perform low impact off-host data loading for databases including, but not limited to, data warehouses and to reduce the data loading window. A checkpoint of the production database may be generated. A database clone may be generated from the checkpoint. In one embodiment, the generated database clone includes references to data in the production database and not the data itself, and is thus storage space-efficient. Data may be loaded to the database clone. The checkpoint may then be switched to be the entry point to the production database after the loading is complete.
US07987154B2

A system for updating a data set through a geographical communication network. The data set is stored in a recovery storage unit located in a recovery data center and has to be updated with data blocks generated by a processing system located in a primary data center. The recovery data center is associated through the geographical communication network to a device provided with a temporary storage area for temporarily storing in corresponding storage locations the incoming data blocks generated by the processing system and directed to update the data set, wherein a first synchronous acknowledgement signal is provided to the primary data center acknowledging the successful writing in the temporary storage area of the data blocks as soon as the data blocks are written in the temporary storage area so as not to block or slow down the normal way of operating of the processing system, and wherein the locations of the temporary storage area occupied by the data blocks are made available for new incoming data blocks when a second acknowledgement signal is received acknowledging the successful updating of the data set.
US07987150B1

Automated defect sourcing systems identify root-causes of yield excursions due to contamination, process faults, equipment failure and/or handling. They perform this function in timely manner and provide accurate and timely feedback to address and contain the sources of yield excursion. A signature repository stores known wafer surface manufacturing defect types as set of rules. The signature of a manufacturing defect pattern is associated with the equipment or process that causes the defects, and is used to source the manufacturing defects and to provide process control for changing and/or stopping yield excursion during fabrication. A defect signature rule-based engine matches wafer defects against the signature repository during wafer fabrication. Once the defect signature is detected during fabrication, handling and/or disposing the root-cause of the corresponding defect is facilitated using messages according to an event handling database. Optionally, a real-time process control for wafer fabrication is provided.
US07987145B2

A model predictive controller (MPC) for predictive control of nonlinear processes utilizing an EKF (Extended Kalman Filter) and a nominal trajectory generator. The nominal trajectory generator includes another instance of EKF, a linear corrector, and a time-varying deviation model. A nominal control trajectory can be predicted and an optimal solution for the time-varying deviation model can be computed based on an approximation of a system inverse known as signal de-convolution. The EKF can be utilized to estimate a current process state by supplying a measured output and to predict a future nominal trajectory by supplying a reference output. A Kalman smoother can also be utilized for the signal de-convolution in order to obtain enhanced trajectory estimates.
US07987141B2

The present subject matter relates to a method and system for labeling a mail piece, and more specifically, to the application of variable sized labels to mail pieces based on the contents of the label and real-time mail processing information. More particularly, the present approach involves calculating expected label preparation time based on configuration of a labeler and printer timing information and/or real-time performance measurements to determine execution of information content printing, label feeding and cutting.
US07987136B2

Systems and methods for creating and managing user-customized financial products are operable to create a plurality of user-customized financial products, each a discrete financial instrument comprising a baseline financial product comprised of a combination of one or more underlying product components, where each underlying product components comprises one or more user-customized component parameters. Once created, the plurality of user-customized financial products are disaggregated into their respective underlying product components and associated component values. Next, all component values associated with each of the underlying product components are aggregated, and at least one back-to-back hedging transaction for the aggregated component value of at least one of the underlying product components is executed.
US07987134B1

A two phase auction for an item includes a first phase in which an asking price for the item decreases at predetermined intervals when the auction is a seller's auction and increases at predetermined intervals when the auction is a buyer's auction, and a second phase after the first phase wherein the asking price starts at a level equal to a first bid placed by a first bidder during the first phase and periodically increases when the auction is a seller's auction and decreases at predetermined intervals when the auction is a buyer's auction until no additional bids are received from the first bidder and/or additional bidders, the auctioned item being awarded to a last bidder in the second phase.
US07987132B2

A computer-based method for determining a value of an index-offset deposit product, having a principal amount P, a term T, a specified guaranteed amount G, and an index credit C, comprising: d) setting trial values for fixed-income-linked crediting parameters for said product implying an expected fixed-income-linked credit component F at the end of the term T; e) determining a cost for an equity option paying equity-linked credit component E such that the index credit C=E+F, to be paid at T, together with the principal P, is at least equal to G; and f) summing said equity option cost, present value of principal, and present value of fixed-income-linked credit component to determine said value of said index-offset deposit product.
US07987130B2

Provided are methods and computer software applications for generating a stock portfolio, and/or enhanced stock index, through using a plurality of growth factors and a plurality of value factors to rank stocks, and for constructing investment vehicles based on the stock portfolio. The method, software application, or computer apparatus of the present technology employs a novel stock selection strategy to select stocks from a pre-selected universe of securities such as a commercially available stock market index in order to create a stock portfolio, and/or enhanced stock index, and a fund based thereon that can generate positive alpha as compared to a fund based on the pre-selected universe of securities.
US07987128B2

Methods and systems are provided which enable equities broker-dealers to execute an equity trade order while simultaneously eliminating (or at least reducing) exposure to the negative consequences associated with toxic (or likely toxic) orders in the equities market. By using toxicity and/or profit analyzers, for example, to detect, track and respond to the level of toxic (or likely toxic) orders present in an equities order flow, a broker dealer can reduce the level of risk inherent in serving as counter-party to order flows, such as anonymous equities order flows. Various alternative embodiments are also disclosed.
US07987127B1

A synthetic instrument known as a “Total Fair Value Swap” is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the Total Fair Value Swap may comprise an agreement between two counterparties, a “Fixed Rate Payer” and a “Floating Rate Payer”. According to the agreement, the Fixed Rate Payer makes a stream of payments to the Floating Rate Payer based on a fixed rate, and the Floating Rate Payer makes a second stream of payments to the Fixed Rate Payer based on a floating rate, wherein a first portion of the floating rate is based on a reference interest rate, and wherein a second portion of the floating rate is based on a credit spread associated with the Floating Rate Payer. The reference interest rate may be, for example, London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR), prime interest rate, the US dollar swap rate, the U.S. Treasury Bond rate or any other widely traded interest rate that is reset periodically. The credit spread may be observed from the Credit Default Swap (CDS) market.
US07987126B2

A set of indices is provided which allows accurate tracking of interest rate swap (IRS) markets. The indices are calculated using market data and synthetic purchasing and selling of synthetic interest rate swaps utilizing the present market data. The value of the synthetic interest rate swaps are the basis for the value of a particular index. The purchasing and selling of the synthetic interest rate swap occurs at a frequency to minimize effects of shortening terms on the index. One subset of the IRS indices reflects a plain-vanilla swap for a specific term of years. Another subset of the IRS indices reflects a spread between two specific terms of years. A third subset of the IRS indices reflect two spreads, sometimes referred to as a butterfly, between a middle term of years and a shorter term of years and the same middle term of years and a longer term of years.
US07987120B2

A system for managing electronic receipts is provided. According to one aspect, the system includes a portable device, a base device, a user device and an electronic receipts administration system. The electronic receipts administration system provides the base device with the appropriate data to allow the base device to generate, store and manage electronic receipts accordingly. A user uses the portable device to conduct a transaction with the base device. The base device uses a variety of information to generate an electronic receipt for the transaction. Such information includes, for example, information stored on the portable device, information stored locally on the base device and information stored on another device such as an electronic cash register. The electronic receipt is then stored on the portable device. The user device allows the user to subsequently retrieve the electronic receipt for management purposes.
US07987119B2

A mailpiece inventory management system. The system includes a franking machine, a mailpiece identification system coupled to the franking machine and a administration system adapted to communicate with the franking machine. There can be at least one mailpiece counter in the franking machine with each mailpiece counter associated with a type of mailpiece and incremented when a particular type of mailpiece as identified by the mailpiece identification system is franked by the franking machine.
US07987115B2

Advertisement selection systems and methods for internet articles are provided. A personal advertisement agent generates an article characteristic value according to an internet article edited by a content editor. An advertisement server selects at least one of the advertisements according to the article characteristic value, a specialty characteristic value, and advertisement characteristic values of respective advertisements, wherein the specialty characteristic value is generated according to historical articles published by the client. The selected advertisement is integrated and published with the internet article.
US07987114B2

A method of managing an advertiser and a system for executing the method are provided. The method of managing the advertiser selectively includes: calculating a master index based on contribution performance data and activity performance data of the advertiser; and assigning a grade of the advertiser depending on the master index.
US07987111B1

The present invention is a method and system for characterizing physical space based on automatic demographics measurement, using a plurality of means for capturing images and a plurality of computer vision technologies. The present invention is called demographic-based retail space characterization (DBR). Although the disclosed method is described in the context of retail space, the present invention can be applied to any physical space that has a restricted boundary. In the present invention, the physical space characterization can comprise various types of characterization depending on the objective of the physical space, and it is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide the automatic demographic composition measurement to facilitate the physical space characterization. The demographic classification and composition measurement of people in the physical space is performed automatically based on a novel usage of a plurality of means for capturing images and a plurality of computer vision technologies on the captured visual information of the people in the physical space. The plurality of computer vision technologies can comprise face detection, person tracking, body parts detection, and demographic classification of the people, on the captured visual information of the people in the physical space.
US07987102B2

Disclosed herein is a computer implemented method and system that addresses the need for utilization analysis and performance evaluation of providers in a health care organization. The health care data comprising health plan information of consumers, providers, claims, and hospitals is collected, translated, and organized in a structured relational format and stored in standard tables. The organized health care data is analyzed by calculating consumer statistics for a health plan using the health plan information of the consumers. The claims of the consumers are processed to classify the claims based on age, gender, disease, and comorbid conditions of the consumers. A plurality of costs of the health care organization is determined using one or more of the health plan information. The performance of the providers is assessed using the determined plurality of costs. The providers comprising primary care physicians are analyzed based on entire population of the associated consumers.
US07987101B2

Beneficiary successor planning is performed by the examination of beneficiary data from a new benefits request and determining available succession benefit plans. The successor planning includes re-using existing beneficiary data associated with the request as well as determining the current requested benefits plan. From this information, the successor planning includes generating successor benefit plans which can re-use the beneficiary information that is available and may also indicate triggering events that, when these events occur, would render the successor plan in effect. Through this planning, manual data entry is reduced and the successor benefit plans are automatically generated.
US07987097B2

The invention relates to a method for decoding an audio signal, to allow an audio signal to be compressed and transferred more efficiently. The inventive method comprises steps of receiving an audio signal with spatial information signal, obtaining location information using the number of time slot and parameter of audio signal, establishing a multi-channel audio signal by applying spatial information signal to down-mix signal, and performing a multi-channel array for a multi-channel audio signal in response to the output channel.
US07987093B2

A speech synthesizing device, the device includes: a text accepting unit for accepting text data; an extracting unit for extracting a special character including a pictographic character, a face mark or a symbol from text data accepted by the text accepting unit; a dictionary database in which a plurality of special characters and a plurality of phonetic expressions for each special character are registered; a selecting unit for selecting a phonetic expression of an extracted special character from the dictionary database when the extracting unit extracts the special character; a converting unit for converting the text data accepted by the accepting unit to a phonogram in accordance with a phonetic expression selected by the selecting unit in association with the extracted special character; and a speech synthesizing unit for synthesizing a voice from a phonogram obtained by the converting unit.
US07987092B2

A mechanism is provided for authenticating and using a personal voice profile. The voice profile may be issued by a trusted third party, such as a certification authority. The personal voice profile may include information for generating a digest or digital signature for text messages. A speech synthesis system may speak the text message using the voice characteristics, such as prosodic characteristics, only if the voice profile is authenticated and the text message is valid and free of tampering.
US07987091B2

A robot can make a dialog customized for the user by first storing various pieces of information appendant to an object as values of the corresponding items of the object. A topic that is related to the topic used in the immediately preceding conversation is then selected. Then, an acquisition conversation for acquiring the value of the item of the selected topic or a utilization conversation for utilizing the value of the item of the topic that is already stored is generated as the next conversation. The value acquired by the acquisition conversation is stored as the value of the corresponding item.
US07987077B2

A system and method are provided for simulating a Laser Induced Optical Breakdown (LIOB) protocol to establish a surgical LIOB treatment for a patient. In the system, a library of finite element models characterizing various visual defects in corneas are programmed into a computer. Further, a library of nomograms indicating specific LIOB protocols for correcting respective visual defects are programmed into the computer. As a result, a model and a corresponding nomogram may be selected in view of a patient's diagnostic information. Further, the selected model may be individualized with the diagnostic information to more precisely characterize the patient's visual defects. Thereafter, the computer simulates the indicated LIOB protocol on the individualized model in order to achieve a desired corneal configuration. When the desired corneal configuration is achieved, the final treatment plan may be determined.
US07987071B1

A method and apparatus of performing power line sensing is presented. The method and apparatus includes a three-axial vector magnetic sensor for detecting a magnetic field radiated from a power line. An active isolation system is used to determine the effects of noise and other magnetic fields on the three-axial vector magnetic sensor. Power line status information is then determined from data received from the three-axial vector magnetic sensor and the active isolation system.
US07987062B2

A delay circuit includes a first delay element, a second delay element, and an initializing section that measures a delay amount generated by the first delay element with respect to each delay setting value. The initializing section includes a first loop path that inputs an output signal of the first delay element into the first delay element and a second loop path that inputs an output signal of the second delay element into the second delay element. The initialization section includes a first measuring section that sequentially sets delay setting values mutually different from the delay setting value in the first delay element and sequentially measures delay amounts in the first delay element, a second measuring section that measures a delay amount in the second delay element, and a delay amount computing section that corrects a delay amount measured by the first measuring section.
US07987059B2

A power system oscillation detection device is provided for use in an electric power system. A plurality of sample signals are acquired from the electrical power system via a plurality of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in communication with the power system. The power system oscillation detection device includes a real-time modal analysis module, a real-time mode identification module, and real-time decision and control logic. The real-time modal analysis module calculates modes of at least one of the signals, each mode including mode information. The real-time mode identification module together with the real-time decision and control logic determines, from the mode information, whether there is an undesirable oscillation in the electric power system and activates a remedial action.
US07987058B1

A monitoring device to detect an indication of reverse power flow across a monitored transformer. The monitoring device adapted to handle a series of phase angle differences between a monitored current and a monitored voltage and establish a baseline phase angle difference after the network protector closes to connect the monitored transformer to a distribution network. The monitoring device working to establish a baseline phase angle even when a measured value for the magnitude of the monitored current has a reversed polarity from an actual current flowing from the monitored transformer or when the monitored current and the monitored voltage are not taken from the same phase from the monitored transformer. The monitoring device adapted to detect a significant change in phase angle difference from the baseline phase angle difference as an indication of reverse power flow. This abstract is intended as a tool to help others locate a relevant disclosure and not as a guide to the scope of the claims.
US07987026B2

A servomotor type control system for a railroad track model includes a CPU, a key unit, and multiple servos; a player of the model achieves control operating status of those servos as desired by operating the key unit in conjunction with programming pre-installed in the CPU; accordingly, multiple point rails can be easily controlled and adjusted; the servo relates to a servomotor to allow rail switching highly imitating life situation as a breakthrough of conventional restriction to significantly upgrade delicate sense and precision of a railroad track model.
US07987023B2

An air conditioning (A/C) system that may have a plurality of air conditioning units disposed in different zones of an area that each operate to cool the different zones, a humidity sensor for sensing the humidity in the area, and a controller. The controller may be adapted to analyze a sensible heat load being experienced by each of the air conditioning units and to control a latent heat removal being performed by each air conditioning unit such that a percentage of latent heat removal performed by each air conditioning unit does not exceed a percentage of sensible heat removal being performed by each air conditioning unit.
US07987021B2

To reduce a calculation time required for generating an environment map in a mobile robot. A mobile robot (100) generates a three-dimensional position data set representing an external environment using measurement information obtained from a range sensor (10). Next, based on an old environment map which is the environment map generated in the past and an amount of movement of the mobile robot (100), at least three-dimensional position data belonging to an area determined as the obstacle area in the old environment map, and three-dimensional position data belonging to an unobserved area which is not included in the old environment map are selected as plane-detection target data from among three-dimensional position data included in the three-dimensional position data set. Then, plane detection is executed using the plane-detection target data. Then, the movable area and the obstacle area which are included in the plane-detection target data are recognized using the results of the plane detection. Lastly, a new environment map is generated by integrating the movable area and obstacle area, which are recognized using the results of the plane detection, with an area determined as the movable area in the old environment map.
US07987015B2

In a method for producing optical elements, material on a blank (20) is removed with an abrasive liquid jet (32). The liquid jet (32) has a jet thickness (d) which is greater than the dimension (D) of the blank (20) in a plane (E) perpendicular to the direction (R) of the liquid jet. Predefined removal profiles in aspherical form can be achieved by the liquid jet (32) being guided onto the blank (20) at different angles of incidence (α).
US07987003B2

A network media appliance, comprising at least one packet data network interface, adapted for communicating data packets with a data network according to an Internet Protocol; a media data interface, and a processor, having an associated memory for storing executable code, said code defining at least a remote virtual interface function, and a data transfer function for controlling transfer of data through said media data interface.
US07986998B2

Methods and devices detect context related to a patient when monitoring a physiological condition of the patient and/or when applying one or more modes of therapy. The context may be a patient context such as posture or an environmental context such as ambient conditions. The context may be used in various ways in relation to the physiological measurement, such as to control when the physiological measurements are made, to appropriately flag physiological measurements, to be recorded in association with the physiological measurements, and/or to correct the physiological measurements based on a reference context. A device such as a beacon transmitter is used in detecting the context and a measurement device such as an implantable cardiovascular device is used to capture the physiological measurements.
US07986987B2

A portable device for observing a typological characteristic of the body. For example, the device can be used to observe at least one characteristic of the appearance of the skin or the hair. The device can generate at least two images of the zone under examination. The images differ from each other as to a feature other than magnification and the intensity of the light source.
US07986984B2

An electronic device including a main body, a cap body, a flexible printed circuit board and a protection cover is provided. The cap body disposed on the main body is capable of moving between a first position and a second position on the main body and rotating with respect to the main body in the second position. The flexible printed circuit board connects to the main body and the cap body. The protection cover is slidably disposed on the cap body and has a receiving space. When the cap body rotates in the second position, part of the flexible printed circuit board is within the receiving space and protected by the protection cover.
US07986977B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for acquiring content (e.g., a ring tone or a ring view) for a communication device.
US07986970B2

The described embodiments relate generally to methods, systems and devices for maintaining data integrity of a removable media card of a handheld electronic device, particularly when such media card is removed from such device.
US07986962B2

System and method for providing a high speed connection to a memory medium of a mobile device. The mobile device may be a mobile phone or other type of portable electronic device. The memory medium may be removable and/or may be flash memory, as desired. The mobile device may include a USB hub that provides a direct high speed connection between an external device and a memory medium of the mobile device. The USB hub may also provide a connection (possibly high speed) between the external device and the processor of the mobile device. The mobile device may also include a high speed connection between the processor of the mobile device and the memory medium.
US07986960B2

A method is provided for self-aligning a transmitting frequency between a portable transceiving device and a base station transceiving device. A test signal is transmitted from one of a portable or base station transceiving devices to the other of the portable or base station transceiving devices. The test signal has a frequency that varies during the transmission. The varying of the frequency of the test signal generates a plurality of discrete signals. The other of the portable or base station transceiving devices measures a RSSI value of each discrete signal. The other of the portable or base station transceiving devices determines a discrete signal having a maximum RSSI value. At least a portion of a subsequent message from the other of the portable transceiving device or the base station transceiving device is transmitted at an optimum frequency used for the test signal identified by the test result signal.
US07986951B2

In a bandwidth allocation protocol for a mobile communications network, mobile terminals indicate the total quantity of data awaiting transmission, the maximum delay time of the most urgent portion of the data, and the maximum delay time of the least urgent portion. If a collision occurs between transmission by two mobiles, the mobiles wait for an interval controlled by the network before attempting another contention-based access transmission. The network periodically varies the contention-based access capacity available according to the observed usage level and/or collision rate in the previously allocated contention-based access capacity. The network analyses the forward traffic to individual mobiles and predicts likely return bandwidth requirements. The network stores associations between forward and return frequency channels, so that when a mobile receiving a forward frequency channel request return capacity, the network preferentially assigns return bandwidth to the mobile in one or more of the associated return channels.
US07986946B2

The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for gathering statistics relating to random access operation in a cell of a cellular radio communication network and supervising such random access operation. Statistics are gathered (301), per random access preamble code, relating to random access detections associated with one or more random access preamble codes used in the cell. Based on such gathered statistics, random access operation in the cell may be supervised by evaluating (311) the gathered statistics and, upon determining (312) that the random access detections associated with a specific random access preamble code exhibit an abnormal behaviour likely to be caused by false random access preamble detections, initiating (313) at least one of issuing a corresponding operation and maintenance alarm signal and automatically blocking further use of said specific random access preamble code in the cell.
US07986935B1

A service plan optimizer is provided. The service plan optimizer includes a storage device, a processor, an optimizer engine, and a user interface. The storage device stores usage data for a communication device. The optimizer engine is executed by the processor to compare a current service plan for the communication device with available service plans based on the stored usage data. The optimizer engine is also executed by the processor to form a recommendation based on the comparison. The user interface displays the recommendation.
US07986934B2

A system for increasing the safety of using cellular telephones stores the geographic coordinates of intersections and other traffic features of a local area in a server. The server is interfaced to the cellular telephone network. A programmable GPS enabled telephone handset determines its location upon start-up and transmits that location to through the cellular network to the server. The server responds by transmitting the coordinates of intersections and traffic features surrounding the present location of the telephone handset. As the handset changes location, it determines its new location and compares it to the coordinates provided by the server. If the telephone handset is within a moving vehicle (as determined by the rate of motion of the handset), an audible alarm is issued when the handset comes within a set distance of one of the intersections or traffic features. In this manner a driver speaking on the telephone is alerted before driving into an intersection or other significant traffic feature.
US07986931B2

An echo cancellation circuit for an RFID reader and the method thereof are provided. The echo cancellation circuit includes a gain calculator, a gain adjustment circuit, and a subtraction circuit. The gain calculator provides a complex gain value according to a carrier signal and a received signal through an adaptive algorithm. The gain adjustment circuit is coupled to the gain calculator. The gain adjustment circuit multiplies the carrier signal by the complex gain value, and outputs the result of the multiplication. The subtraction circuit is coupled to the gain adjustment circuit. The subtraction circuit subtracts the output of the gain adjustment circuit from the received signal, and then provides the result of the subtraction as the output signal of the echo cancellation circuit.
US07986929B2

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for filtering an incoming signal in a channel filter of an automatic frequency control (AFC) loop to obtain a filtered incoming signal, generating a frequency offset from the filtered incoming signal in the AFC loop, removing the frequency offset from the incoming signal to obtain an adjusted signal, and providing the adjusted signal to an input of the channel filter.
US07986915B1

In a wireless multi-hop relay network arranged in a tree topology, the base station and one or more relay stations are associated as a virtual base station (VBS). The base station and each relay station have a unique virtual base station identifier (VBS-ID) associated with the path defined by the base station and the one or more relay stations. a relay station in the branch uses its VBS-ID for communicating with an attached subscriber station (e.g. a mobile station) such that communications between the base station and subscriber station occur via the VBS. Subscriber station data communications are relayed between the base station and the one or more relay stations over the VBS via a tunnel connection. The VBS is autoconfigurable. Mobility for subscriber stations and relay stations is provided through reconfiguration of VBS's.
US07986912B2

A sheet conveying apparatus which conveys a recording sheet fed from a sheet feeding section toward a transfer position with controlled timing, including: a pair of registration rollers; a pair of loop rollers to form a loop of the recording sheet, the loop rollers being disposed upstream of the registration rollers in a sheet feeding direction; and a movable conveying unit configured such that the registration rollers and the loop rollers move as a unified body when correcting at least a lateral misalignment, which is a misalignment in a vertical direction to the sheet feeding direction, and inclination of the recording sheet.
US07986911B2

The present application is directed to image forming devices with option trays to introduce media into a media path. One embodiment include the image forming device having a body with a front, back, top, and bottom sides. The sides may form an interior space to contain an imaging unit. The imaging unit may include elements for producing toner images. A media path may extend in a substantially vertical orientation within the interior space. An integrated tray may be positioned at the bottom side of the body and include a first input tray and a manual feed inlet on the front side of the body. Each of first input tray and manual feed inlet form sections of the media path. An option tray may be operatively connected to the bottom side of the body, and may include a second input tray and a multi-purpose feeder. The option tray further lengthens the media path and provides additional avenues to introduce media sheets into the media path.
US07986907B2

A positional misalignment correcting device includes a pattern forming unit that forms a correction pattern and a detecting unit that detects the correction pattern. The detecting unit includes one light emitting element and one light receiving element. The pattern forming unit forms the correction pattern on a transfer member such that a formation area in which the correction pattern is to be formed along a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction of the transfer member is smaller than a light-receiving area of the light receiving element.
US07986902B2

An image forming apparatus includes a container that contains a visualizing agent consumed with an operation of forming a visual image on a recording medium; a holding unit that detachably holds the container; and a regulating unit that is disposed in a packing member for packing the image forming apparatus and engages with a part of the container so as to prevent the container from departing from the holding unit.
US07986900B2

A method of sealing a toner opening port of a printer cartridge is provided for inserting a seal through a toner exit port leading to the toner opening port which is configured to be covered by a toner exit port plug. The seal has a seal frame and a first pull tab attached to the seal frame with a first adhesive, and a second pull tab attached to the seal frame with a second adhesive, the second adhesive being different from the first adhesive. The method further provides for detaching the second pull tab from the seal frame, allowing the first pull tab to cover the toner opening port, and applying pressure with a seal clamp to the seal thereby allowing the seal to attach to the printer cartridge.
US07986888B2

An image processor includes a main body and a consumable product which is replaceably installed to the main body is provided with a storage configured to store a table to which a record indicative of a usage status of the consumable product is to be successively added, an installation detection unit configured to detect that the consumable product is newly installed, a judging unit configured to judge whether the newly installed consumable product has been used in the main body continuously or discontinuously when the detection unit detects that the consumable product is newly installed. A usage status detection unit detects the usage status of the consumable product. A controller updates the latest record of the table if the consumable product has been continuously used, while creates a new record to be added to the table if the consumable product has been used discontinuously.
US07986886B2

An optical signal detector is provided that detects an optical signal from an optical source using a plurality of optical sensors having different wavelength selectivities, thereby determining the peak wavelength of the optical signal and measuring the power of an optical signal corresponding to the peak wavelength. According to the optical signal detector, separate optical filters are not required and space and costs attributable to the installation of the optical filters can be saved, and thus there are effects in that the overall size and manufacturing costs of the device can be reduced.
US07986860B2

Systems and methods are described that employ high-intensity lasers to set up a thin plasma sheet, also called a waveguide or “hot shell”, in the atmosphere as a function of beam intensity and geometry. A laser beam can be spread and directed with physical optics (e.g., lenses, mirrors, other optical elements, etc.) to generate a thin inverted cone-shaped hot shell waveguide in the atmosphere. The hot shell of the waveguide has a different index of refraction (n) from that of the surrounding air layers and as such serves to internally reflect portions of the entering solar rays entering an aperture in the hot shell, toward the tip of the cone and a solar energy storage component positioned there, thus providing a virtual solar energy concentration system. In another embodiment, the solar energy storage component shuts down or otherwise rejects incoming solar energy when fully charged, to mitigate damage to system components.
US07986856B2

An exemplary method for increasing brightness of an image captured in low light includes: transforming the captured image into an original image that has a brightness component; copying the brightness component of the original image as a brightness image; inverting the brightness image into a negative image; and incorporating the negative image into the original image such that a predetermined percentage of gray scale values of pixels of the negative image corresponding to pixels in a dark portion of the original image are respectively added to gray scale values of the pixels in the dark portion of the original image to produce a processed image.
US07986853B2

An image processing apparatus, which obtains a synthesized image whose exposure is corrected by synthesizing a first image and a second image, is disclosed. The image processing apparatus comprises a detection section which detects an amount of displacement of the second image with respect to the first image which is a reference image, a coordinate conversion section which performs coordinate conversion to the second image so as to conform to the first image, and a synthesis section which synthesizes the second image having been subjected to the coordinate conversion with the first image.
US07986852B2

The invention discloses an image processing apparatus for adjusting the lightness of an input image which has a hue. The image processing apparatus includes a look-up table, a processing unit and an adder. The look-up table records M lightness, N hues and M*N corresponding lightness offset values. The processing unit is used for storing the look-up table and for selecting a corresponding lightness offset value from the look-up table according to the lightness and the hue of the input image. The adder is coupled to the processing unit and used for adding the selected lightness offset value to the lightness of the input image, so as to obtain an adjusted lightness. Accordingly, the image quality is improved.
US07986842B2

In an embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for semantic analysis of digital multimedia. In an embodiment of the invention, low level features are extracted representative of one or more concepts. A discriminative classifier is trained using these low level features. A collective annotation model is built based on the discriminative classifiers. In various embodiments of the invention, the frame work is totally generic and can be applied with any number of low-level features or discriminative classifiers. Further, the analysis makes no domain specific assumptions, and can be applied to activity analysis or other scenarios without modification. The framework admits the inclusion of a broad class of potential functions, hence enabling multi-modal analysis and the fusion of heterogeneous information sources.
US07986835B2

A color processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit configured to acquire color conversion data corresponding to an image output device, a color stabilization accuracy calculating unit configured to calculate a color stabilization accuracy of the image output device, and a correcting unit configured to correct the color conversion data according to the color stabilization accuracy. The correcting unit is configured to correct the color conversion data such that an output color saturation in a low color saturation region becomes lower when the color stabilization accuracy is low than when the color stabilization accuracy is high.
US07986828B2

A process identifies a person in image data. The process first executes a training phase, and thereafter a detection phase. The training phase learns body parts using body part detectors, generates classifiers, and determines a spatial distribution and a set of probabilities. The execution phase applies the body part detector to an image, combines output of several body part detectors, and determines maxima of the combination of the output.
US07986824B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a predetermined site luminescence measuring method and a predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus, which allow for determining whether, when the luminescence from the predetermined site in live samples is measured, a photoprotein is localized at the predetermined site in the same ones as the samples. An predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus 100 in the present invention is comprised of: a the sample 102 into which a fused fusion gene is introduced, the fusion gene being obtained by fusing a fluorescence-related gene that expresses a fluorescence protein in addition to a targeting base sequence and a luminescence-related gene; a container 103 for storing the sample 102, a stage 104 on which the container 103 is arranged; a luminescent image capturing unit 106 which captures a luminescent image of the sample 102 (the objective lens 106a to the CCD camera 106c, and the imaging lens 106f); a fluorescent image capturing unit 108 which captures a fluorescent image of the sample 102 (the objective lens 108a to shutter 108f); and an the information communication terminal 110.
US07986800B2

A device includes a main body, a microphone module, and an acoustic guard. The microphone module is connected to the main body and comprises a first acoustic opening and a second acoustic opening, wherein the microphone module receives sound waves via both the first and second acoustic openings. The acoustic guard covers the second acoustic opening and comprises a first sound inlet via which the sound waves enter the acoustic guard and reach the second acoustic opening.
US07986797B2

A signal processing system, a signal processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program in which high frequency components of a narrow-range signal having suppressed high frequency components can be restored with high accuracy. A narrow-range audio signal having low frequency components is divided into frames by a frame-unit dividing unit, and is spectral-transformed into a signal on a frequency domain by a DCT transform unit. A learning-produced-data table extracts, at an address corresponding to a class code supplied from a classifying unit, high-frequency-component DCT spectrum data. In a spectrum combining unit, the extracted high-frequency-component DCT spectrum data is combined with low-frequency-component DCT spectrum data output from the DCT transform unit. Subsequently, a broad-range audio signal having combined high frequency components and low frequency components is output.
US07986795B2

Methods and apparatuses for media playback system are disclosed, including a signal source for providing electrical signal representing media content; a processing unit for processing signal from the signal source; a distorting unit for introducing distortion to signal from the processing unit; a transducer for converting the electrical signal from the distorting unit to energy representing the media content; and a connection link for transmitting the signal from the distorting unit to the transducer. The arrangement protects media content against unauthorized duplication by ripping-off the transmitting signal.
US07986794B2

The invention provides a beam forming method for a small array microphone apparatus to generate cone beam pattern by processing a combined bi-directional beam pattern of two virtual bi-directional microphones formed through at least three omni-directional microphones arranged in an L-shape. The invention also provides a small array microphone apparatus using the beam forming method according to the invention to suppress noise by processing a combined bi-directional beam pattern of two virtual bi-directional microphones formed through at least three omni-directional microphones arranged in an L-shape, thereby outputting a clear audio signal with cone beam pattern.
US07986793B2

An embodiment of an audio system comprises a speaker system configured to automatically change a coupling of an audio speaker from a first channel input to a second channel input if an external speaker is coupled to a first output. In embodiments of the invention, the speaker that connects to an audio source, such as an audio card of a personal computer (PC), automatically swaps channels based on the jack into which an external speaker is plugged. Thus, the reconfiguration of the audio system is automatic for the user in some embodiments, requiring nothing more from the user than selecting one of two jacks for use with an external speaker.
US07986792B2

An adaptor is connectable between a signal processor and a transmission module. The signal processor has three audio channels for feeding respectively a first audio signal, a second audio signal, and a third audio signal having a frequency range lower than a frequency range of the first and second audio signals. The transmission module has two transmission channels capable of transmitting two audio signals to a codeless speaker. The adaptor has three input terminals for receiving the first, second and third audio signals from the signal processor. The adaptor filters at least one of the first and second audio signals for cutting therefrom a lower frequency range comparative to the lower frequency range of the third audio signal, and adds the third audio signal to the one of the first and second audio signals from which the lower frequency range is cut. The adaptor has two output terminals, one of which feeds the one of the first and second audio signals added with the third audio signal to one of the two transmission channels of the transmission module, and the other of which feeds the other of the first and second audio signals to the other of the two transmission channels of the transmission module.
US07986789B2

A multi-channel input signal having at least three original channels is represented by a parameter representation of the multi-channel signal. A first balance parameter, a first coherence parameter, or a first inter-channel time difference between a first channel pair and a second balance parameter, or a second coherence parameter, or a second inter-channel time difference parameter between a second channel pair are calculated. This set of parameters is the parameter representation of the original signals. The first channel pair has two channels, which are different from two channels of a second channel pair. Furthermore, each channel of the two channel pairs is one of the original channels, or a weighted combination of the original channels, and the first channel pair and the second channel pair include information on the three original channels. For multi-channel reconstruction purposes, the parameters are used in addition to down-mixing information to generate a selectable number of output channels in a scalable fashion.
US07986786B2

A computer platform is provided that comprises a processor and a cryptographic co-processor coupled to the processor. The computer platform further comprises a platform entity coupled to the processor. The platform entity establishes a secure relationship with the cryptographic co-processor that enables the platform entity to utilize cryptographic functions provided by the cryptographic co-processor.
US07986784B2

An image processing apparatus prevents reproduction and display of an image file in a viewer of a client PC, etc., by encrypting “fileType” and “version” contained in an Image File Header (IFH), which is file format information, and “tagCount”, “sig_tag0 to 2”, “type0 to 2”, “pointer0 to 2”, and “size0 to 2”, which are file structure information, of small amounts of data, without encrypting image data (data0, data1, data2) themselves each having a large amount of data in the image file of a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF format).
US07986783B2

A data transmitting apparatus has improved security against eavesdropping for secret communication using Y-00 protocol. The multi-level code generation section generates, based on key information, a multi-level code sequence in which a signal level changes so as to be approximately random numbers. The multi-level processing section generates a multi-level signal having a level which corresponds to a combination between information data and the multi-level code sequence. The error signal generation section generates an error signal which changes randomly. The accumulation section accumulates the error signal, and outputs an accumulated error signal. The adding section adds the accumulated error signal to the multi-level signal, and outputs a variable multi-level signal. The modulator section modulates the variable multi-level signal, and outputs a modulated signal.
US07986777B2

A stand allows a user to quickly and easily set the angular orientation of a telephone or other piece of equipment relative to a support surface (e.g. a desktop). The stand is fastened to, and removed from, the equipment without the use of tools by a magnetic attraction. The stand allows a user to tilt the equipment at one of two user-selected angles, to improve access to keys of the equipment and/or to reduce glare on the equipment's display. The display may also be tiltable. The stand provides for at least two course angle adjustments of the tilt of the equipment by the selected orientation of the stand and/or the selected attachment position of the stand relative to the equipment.
US07986769B2

A region of interest is set in a state in which a subject is positioned in front of a radiographic image detector. Further, judgment is made as to whether a defect region is present in the region of interest. If the defect region is present in the region of interest, a relative movement amount of at least one of the subject and the radiographic image detector is calculated. After the at least one of the subject and the radiographic image detector is moved by the calculated relative movement amount, radiography is performed to detect a radiographic image.
US07986767B2

An actual-past-radiography position database stores, as actual-past-radiography positions, the position of a radiographic image detector and the position of a radiation source when radiography was actually performed, associating the position of the radiographic image detector and the position of the radiation source with information about a subject. When the radiation source and the radiographic image detector are positioned to perform radiography, position adjustment amounts for adjusting the positions of the radiation source and the radiographic image detector from standard positions stored in the standard position database are output, as aid information. The aid information is output based on the actual-past-radiography positions that are stored in the actual-past-radiography position database and that are associated with the information about the subject.
US07986761B2

An exemplary shift register (20) includes shift register units (S1˜Sn). The shift register units receive a clock signal and an inverse clock signal and output a plurality of shift register signals in sequence. An output of previous adjacent one of the shift register units is an input of the shift register unit.
US07986760B2

A method and apparatus for the permissive control of a mast and fuel grapple to be used in the movement of reactor fuel components, including fuel assemblies, single blade and double blade guides, to be used in a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) nuclear reactor. The Permissive Control System reduces the chance of human error associated with the movement of reactor components by assisting in controlling the location (plant coordinate) of the mast for picking-up and dropping-off reactor components, the sequence of reactor component movements, the orientation (angular rotation) of the mast and fuel grapple, the raising and lowering of the grapple, and the opening and closing of the fuel grapple.
US07986759B2

A data output apparatus accumulates received sound data in an accumulating unit (jitter buffer), and reproduces sound based on the accumulated sound data. Then, for a predetermined period of time from the time point at which reception of data starts, the data output apparatus restricts or prohibits discarding of data based on an upper accumulation limit amount as a basis for discarding the accumulated data. Moreover, prior to starting reception of sound data after a transfer of a transmission right, dummy data such as soundless data is accumulated in the accumulating unit. Further, the set values of the upper accumulation limit amount, etc. optimized in the previous communication are stored, and the settings stored in association with a transmitting source apparatus are set as the upper accumulation limit amount, etc. after the transfer of the transmission right.
US07986756B2

Techniques for filtering noisy estimates to reduce estimation errors are described. A sequence of input values (e.g., for an initial channel impulse response estimate (CIRE)) is filtered with an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter having at least one coefficient to obtain a sequence of output values (e.g., for a filtered CIRE). The coefficient(s) are updated based on the sequence of input values with an adaptive filter, a bank of prediction filters, or a normalized variation technique. To update the coefficient(s) with the adaptive filter, a sequence of predicted values is derived based on the sequence of input values. Prediction errors between the sequence of predicted values and the sequence of input values are determined and filtered to obtain filtered prediction errors. The coefficient(s) of the IIR filter are then updated based on the prediction errors and the filtered prediction errors.
US07986755B2

An embodiment of the present invention includes a calibration system employed in a multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system for beamforming and receiving a plurality of streams. The system includes a first calibration circuit responsive to inphase (I) and quadrature (Q) pairs of stream and operative to calibrate each I and Q pair and a second calibration circuit responsive to the calibrated I and Q pairs for all streams, wherein the first and second calibration circuits perform calibration in the time domain.
US07986748B2

A method and transmitter for generating a transmission signal are disclosed in various embodiments. In one step, a first magnitude relationship of a received first plurality of symbols is determined to see if it qualifies for modification. At least one of the first plurality of symbols are modified when the first magnitude relationship qualifies to produce a second plurality of symbols. A transmission signal is produced using the second plurality of symbols, where a second magnitude relationship of the second plurality of symbols is different than the first magnitude relationship.
US07986742B2

Pilots suitable for use in MIMO systems and capable of supporting various functions are described. The various types of pilot include—a beacon pilot, a MIMO pilot, a steered reference or steered pilot, and a carrier pilot. The beacon pilot is transmitted from all transmit antennas and may be used for timing and frequency acquisition. The MIMO pilot is transmitted from all transmit antennas but is covered with different orthogonal codes assigned to the transmit antennas. The MIMO pilot may be used for channel estimation. The steered reference is transmitted on specific eigenmodes of a MIMO channel and is user terminal specific. The steered reference may be used for channel estimation. The carrier pilot may be transmitted on designated subbands/antennas and may be used for phase tracking of a carrier signal. Various pilot transmission schemes may be devised based on different combinations of these various types of pilot.
US07986737B2

The invention relates to a method of estimating symbols carried by a digital signal that is received by a receiver over a communication channel (5), said symbols being multiplexed on orthogonal frequency sub-carriers. The inventive method comprises the following steps in relation to each symbol carried by the digital signal, consisting in: performing at least two transforms towards the frequency domain (8,9) on a portion of the received signal essentially corresponding to the symbol, said transforms being performed with a determined time lag (10) therebetween; estimating the parameters (r0, r1, . . . , rn, r′0, r′1, . . . , r′n) of the communication channel from pre-determined binary information contained in the digital signal; and estimating the symbol from a combination of the result of each of the transforms performed and the estimated communication channel parameters.
US07986722B2

A method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor light emitting element includes: forming a stacked layer body of a nitride semiconductor having a second conductive-type layer, a light emitting layer, and a first conductive-type layer stacked on a growth substrate in this order; forming a first Bragg reflector made of a dielectric multilayer film above the first conductive-type layer; forming a first electrode over the first Bragg reflector with the first electrode being electrically connected to the first conductive-type layer; bonding the stacked layer body to a supporting substrate via the first Bragg reflector and the first electrode; removing the growth substrate from the stacked layer body to expose the second conductive-type layer; and forming over the exposed second conductive-type layer a second electrode and a second Bragg reflector made of a dielectric multilayer film so that the second Bragg reflector faces the first Bragg reflector across the stacked layer body.
US07986720B2

A circuit for driving a light-emitting element such as a laser diode LD has a boost circuit for boosting an input voltage to supply it to the light-emitting element, a photoreceptor such as a photodiode PD for monitoring light from the light-emitting element; and a boost control circuit for controlling a boost voltage of the boost circuit based on a monitored amount of the photoreceptor. In the method for driving a light-emitting element by boosting an input voltage to supply the voltage to the light-emitting element, light from the light-emitting element is monitored and its monitored amount is used as a basis to control a boost voltage to the light-emitting element. A control circuit may be provided to control a driving current that passes through the light-emitting element based on the monitored amount of the photoreceptor.
US07986719B2

The disclosed systems and methods provide for the compression and decompression of packet headers. An uncompressed header can be compressed in size to form a smaller, compressed header, such that the compressed header can include values that can be used to re-produce the uncompressed header. A compressed header can include at least two such values. A first value of the at least two values can be computed based on a second, earlier uncompressed header and can be used to derive the uncompressed header. Similarly, a second value of the at least two values can be computed based on a third uncompressed header and can be used to derive the same uncompressed header. Accordingly, the uncompressed header can be derived based on the first value and the second uncompressed header, or based on the second value and the third uncompressed header. The uncompressed header, second uncompressed header, and third uncompressed header can be associated with different packets.
US07986710B2

In a communication system, an information processing apparatus communicates with an information management apparatus via polling communication. In the information management apparatus, specification information including information specifying a timing condition of polling communication is stored, and the specification information is transmitted to the information processing apparatus in response to a request from the information processing apparatus. Transmission of the specification information is performed each time the request is issued via polling communication by the information processing apparatus when the specified timing condition is met. In the information processing apparatus, if the specification information is received, the timing condition is set such that next polling communication is performed when the time condition specified by the specification information is met. The polling communication is started when the timing condition set by the setting unit is met to request the provision of specification information specifying the timing condition of further next polling communication.
US07986703B2

A gateway device providing a search utility to determine both NAT information and forwarding information (“both pieces of information”) in a single search operation. The single search operation may be implemented using a single table storing both pieces of information necessary for processing a packet. As a result, both pieces of information can be potentially retrieved in a single memory access. Due to the single (or few) memory access, the throughput performance of a gateway may be enhanced. In an embodiment, the gateway is implemented as a service selection gateway which provides connectivity between multiple remote systems and service domains. The NAT/forwarding information is partitioned according to service domains such that the information needed to process packets from/to the same service domain is contained in the same table.
US07986701B2

A building control system is described that includes a building controller and a bridge. The building controller may control one or more portions of a building control system and may communicate with the bridge over a wired network. The bridge may be coupled to the building controller and may be configured to communicate with other remotely located building controllers via a wireless network. The bridge may provide a link between the wired communication of the local building controller and the wireless communication of the remotely located building controllers. The bridge may include a cache memory for storing data received from remotely located building controllers. In some cases, the data stored in the cache memory may be requested and received in advance of the data being requested by the local building controller.
US07986695B1

Techniques are described for automatically selecting virtual private network (VPN) site-IDs for each customer site within a VPN established over a network. The techniques described herein enable a network router within a VPN to automatically allocate unique site-IDs for each customer site included in the VPN in a dense manner. In some cases, the VPNs may comprise virtual private local area network (LAN) service (VPLS) domains that transmit layer two (L2) traffic between customer sites, i.e., VPLS sites, via the network. For example, a network service provider may configure a network device, such as a router, to belong to one or more VPNs. When a customer site within one of the VPNs connects to the router, the router configures the customer site on the router. The router then automatically selects a site-ID for the customer site configured on the router.
US07986690B2

In one embodiment, a cloned cable modem detector is configured to assemble a table associating cable modem physical addresses to Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTSs) according to provisioning requests forwarded from the CMTSs. When one of the provisioning requests associates a cable modem physical address with a different CMTS than an existing association in the table, the detector outputs an indication of cable modem cloning.
US07986685B2

Described are a method and a system for using XML in a real-time message for transmission of data from a source to a destination over a network. The real-time XML message includes a header element and a body element. The header element includes one or more destination elements and one source element, each having a unique identifier and a set of pre-defined and user-defined real-time properties. The body element of the message includes the data to be carried to the destination in plain or encoded XML content. XML addresses are proposed as the identifier of the source and destination, and an XML naming service can look up an XML address from the canonical name of the source and destination. Advantageously, the real-time message can be transported through the network using XML addresses included in the destination and source elements of the message.
US07986684B2

A method, apparatus, and communication network system that allows an endpoint to be simultaneously registered with more than one communications server is described. In one embodiment, the communication network system includes a network, a plurality of communications servers that are coupled to the network, and a plurality of endpoints coupled to the network. Each endpoint is capable of being simultaneously registered with more than one communications server. A communication method for an endpoint involves registering a first logical line of the endpoint with a first communications server, and registering a second logical line of the endpoint with a second communications server. Consequently, flexibility is obtained by allowing an endpoint to choose the registering communications server for each logical line of the endpoint.
US07986683B2

A system for setting a router identifier in a network supporting at least one protocol. The system includes an interface storage storing information about at least one port and its Internet protocol address, a router identifier storage storing information about a reference router identifier, an interface manager referring to the interface storage to set information about the Internet protocol address of the port having the highest priority as the reference router identifier, and storing a value of the reference router identifier in the router identifier storage, and at least one daemon process accessing the router identifier storage when automatically setting the router identifier in conjunction with the generation of an event, looking up the value of the reference router identifier, and setting the stored reference router identifier as the router identifier thereof.
US07986681B2

The invention discloses a method for a cellular communications system, in which traffic is sent in frames, each frame comprising a first number of subframes, with a second number of said subframes being available for at least either uplink or downlink traffic. At least one of said second number of subframes is made to comprise at least three parts, as follows: One part which is utilized for uplink traffic, One part which is utilized for downlink traffic, One part which is utilized as a guard period, with said guard period part being scheduled between the uplink and the downlink parts. The duration of at least two of said three parts may be varied to fit the current system need.
US07986680B2

Techniques for selecting transmit formats in a manner to account for the degrees of resource reuse for multiple data streams sent simultaneously from multiple antennas are described. The degree of resource reuse for each data stream indicates the amount of reuse of resources (e.g., orthogonal codes or subcarriers) observed by that stream. Interference estimates for the multiple data streams are derived based on an initial resource assignment. The degrees of resource reuse are determined based on the interference estimates and are used to derive at least one correction factor. At least one transmit format is then selected for the data streams using the at least one correction factor. Each data stream is associated with a transmit format that indicates the amount of resources to use for the data stream and other parameters. Resources are assigned to each data stream in accordance with its transmit format.
US07986677B2

A system is provided for performing location update in a wireless mobile communication system that uses an Internet protocol (IP) address and is classified as at least one paging group. A serving base station (BS) sends a message including an identifier of a paging group where the serving BS is located, determines whether there is a change in IP subnet of a mobile station (MS) upon receipt of a location update request from the MS, and upon recognizing a change in IP subnet of the MS, stores information on a new IP subnet and notifies the change in the IP subnet to the MS. Upon detecting a need for location update, the MS sends a request for location update to a serving BS, and receives a location update success notification and an allocated temporary IP address from the serving BS.
US07986675B2

A method of allocating channels in a user equipment is disclosed. In particular, a method of allocating a plurality of Dedicated Physical Channels (DPCHs) and Enhanced Dedicated Channels (E-DCHs) in a user equipment of a multicode transmission system. The method includes determining whether a High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) is configured for the user equipment (UE) and determining a number of codes used by the DPCH and the E-DCH. The method further includes allocating the DPCH and the E-DCH channels to an I branch or a Q branch based on the number of codes used by the DPCH and the E-DCH and the HS-DSCH configuration.
US07986670B2

Techniques for dynamically configuring IP and providing IP connectivity for a terminal equipment attached to a wireless device are described. The wireless device obtains from a wireless network a dynamically assigned IP address, an IP gateway's IP address, a subnet mask, or none or any combination thereof. Wireless device determines a host IP address (which may be the dynamically assigned IP address), a router IP address (which may be the gateway IP address or a spoofed IP address), a server IP address (which may be the router IP address), and a subnet mask (which may be obtained from the wireless network or spoofed by the wireless device). Wireless device, acting as a DHCP server, provides IP configuration for the terminal equipment, acting as a DHCP client. Wireless device thereafter forwards IP packets exchanged between the terminal equipment and wireless network and processes DHCP packets from the terminal equipment.
US07986669B1

To facilitate vertical handoff, a radio network will identify air interface protocols currently available for use by a wireless device and will then select one of the available air interface protocols based at least in part on the type of communication in which the device is currently engaged. The radio network may further take into consideration the current level of congestion under each available air interface protocol and may select an air interface protocol that has sufficient bandwidth available to support the type of communication in which the device is currently engaged. If the device is not currently operating under the selected air interface protocol, the radio network may then orchestrate a vertical handoff to the selected protocol.
US07986667B2

A method and apparatus of updating a forwarding plane of a network element in response to receiving a mobility event is described. The network element receives a mobility message indicating a mobile node has coupled to a new access port associated with the network element. The message further indicates that the mobile node moved from an old access port to a new access port. The network element adds an entry in a forwarding table of the old egress engine to redirect a set of packets destined to the mobile node to a new egress engine, where the new egress engine is associated with the new access port. Furthermore, the network element redirects the set of packet from the old egress engine to the new egress engine.
US07986654B1

The exemplary embodiments of the invention provide methods, computer program products and apparatus for determining cross-correlations between the received signals in a set of users. An exemplary method includes: receiving an input signal comprising a plurality of user signals, selecting a first received signal and a second received signal from the plurality of user signals, determining a timing offset between the first signal and the second signal, and using the determined timing offset, a first identification of the first signal, and a second identification of the second signal as indices to retrieve at least one cross-correlation coefficient from a memory.
US07986647B2

A portable wireless signal repeater module having embedded integrated patch antennas is installed on a window of a house or office or the interior surface of a vehicle's windshield. The module has two sets of embedded patch antennas, which, when mounted on a window, one set faces outdoors and another face indoors. Signals from nearby cellular service provider's transmitters are received by embedded patch antennas facing outdoors, filtered, amplified, and through a duplexer, passed on to the embedded patch antennas facing indoors for propagation within the indoor environment. Signals from handsets indoors are received by embedded patch antennas of the repeater module facing indoors, filtered, amplified, and through a duplexer, passed on to the embedded antennas facing outdoors for propagation toward nearby cellular service provider's receiver.
US07986646B2

A communication apparatus (1) is a primary station for communicating with a secondary station, and includes: a first protocol control section (111) for transmitting, at a time when communication connection is to be established with the secondary station, (i) a station discovery command with which to confirm a presence of the secondary station, and (ii) a first connect request command, after the station discovery command is transmitted, so as to carry out connection processing; second protocol control means (112) for transmitting, at a time when communication connection is to be established with the secondary station, a second connect request command so as to carry out connection processing; and a protocol switching section (113) for (i) causing the first protocol control section (111) to initially transmit the station discovery command, and in a case where a response to the station discovery command has not been received after an elapse of a predetermined time since the station discovery command was transmitted, (ii) causing the second protocol control section (112) to transmit the second connect request command.
US07986643B2

Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, computer-storage media, mechanisms, and means associated with determining and distributing routing paths for nodes in a network. For each route computational node of multiple route computational nodes in a network: a tree of paths between itself and each of multiple nodes in the network is determined. A particular tree of paths is determined for a particular node of these multiple nodes to the other nodes based on at least two of the determined trees of paths for the route computational nodes. The particular node then sends a packet towards a destination based on the particular tree of paths determined for the particular node.
US07986641B2

A multicast data communication system is provided that has high security, and prevents problems such as an attack by a malicious user creating a great number of meaningless tables at nodes in the network. Clients regularly transmit request packets toward a server; a node receives the request packet, and subsequently receives a delivery-table-creation packet or a delivery packet from the server; if the node has no delivery table corresponding to the server, the node creates the delivery table, registers the addresses of the clients, and their request packet arrival times, and regularly transmits the request packet toward the server; when the node has received a delivery packet from the server, the node duplicates and delivers the delivery packet only to those clients whose request packet arrival times, registered in the delivery table, are within a fixed period from the arrival of the delivery packet.
US07986637B2

A peer-to-peer novel video streaming scheme is described in which each peer stores and streams videos to the requesting client peers. Each video is encoded into multiple descriptions and each description is placed on a different node. If a serving peer disconnects in the middle of a streaming session, the system searches for a replacement peer that stores the same video description and has sufficient uplink bandwidth. Employing multiple description coding in a peer-to-peer based network improves the robustness of the distributed streaming content in the event a serving peer is lost. Video quality can be maintained in the presence of server peers being lost. The video codec design and network policies have a significant effect on the streamed video quality. The system performance generally improves as the number of descriptions M for the video increases, which implies that a higher video quality can be obtained with the same network loading.
US07986635B2

A wireless communication apparatus wirelessly communicable with a plurality of communication devices including an identifier naming unit configured to give each of the plurality of communication devices at least one local identifiers allowed to be set optionally, a communication device management unit configured to associate the local identifier with a pre-assigned identifier to each of the plurality of communication devices, and to manage a relation between the plurality of communication devices with the local identifiers, and an identifier display control unit configured to control a display device to display the local identifier in place of the pre-assigned identifier as information specifying a currently wirelessly communicable communication device among the plurality of communication devices.
US07986625B2

Under the present invention, the performance of a set of system resources is monitored in response to incoming request traffic. When a system resource is approaching an overload condition, a corrective action is identified and implemented. Overload thresholds for each system resource and appropriate corrective actions are contained within a management policy. Based on a performance history of the corrective actions, the management policy can be changed/revised.
US07986623B2

A method for rejecting a request to alter a connection includes establishing a first connection with a first node and a second connection with a second node. The second connection passes through the first node and has an associated first end-to-end state. The method also includes transmitting, for relay by the first node to the second node, a first request to alter the second connection with the second node so that the second connection will have an associated second end-to-end state. The method additionally includes receiving a rejection message from the first node indicating that the first request to alter the second connection failed. The method further includes transmitting a second request to alter the second connection with the second node to ensure that the second connection is again in the associated first end-to-end state.
US07986616B2

A network device for processing packets. The network devices includes a ingress module for performing lookups for layer 2 switching and performing operations for maintaining a layer 2 table. When the ingress module updates the layer 2 table, the ingress module records the operation performed on the layer 2 table in a modification buffer. Entries are added to the modification buffer when the layer 2 table is modified and in the order in which the layer 2 table was modified. The network device thus enables reconstruction of the layer 2 table by performing the operations in the modification buffer.
US07986614B2

A method is disclosed that includes channel estimation for a multi-carrier modulation of a plurality of subcarriers. The method includes performing a first channel estimation to obtain a first estimate of a channel based on a received signal. The method further includes suppressing a portion of elements of the first estimate of the channel to obtain a suppressed estimate of the channel. The method also includes multiplying the suppressed estimate of the channel by a first matrix to obtain a delay restricted estimate of the channel.
US07986613B2

Two novel subchannelization methods are disclosed, for use in a 802.16m system. A downlink subchannelization method supports both localized and distributed sub-carriers, different modulation modes, and supports a variety of different fractional frequency reuse (FFR) group allocations.
US07986612B2

A communication terminal apparatus that can eliminate the waste of reception quality report, suppress the interference of an upstream network, perform an optimum assignment using a scheduling, prevent the loss of resources, and ensure the fairness of transmission assignment using the scheduling. In this apparatus, a reception quality determining part (110) uses a pilot signal, which is included in a received signal, to determine the reception quality for each of subcarrier blocks. A CQI generating part (111) generates CQIs each of which is the information indicative of a result of the determination by the reception quality determining part (110). A sorting part (112) sorts the CQIs in descending or ascending order of the reception quality. A control part (113) instructs, based on information about the number of subcarrier blocks in which the CQIs have been transmitted, collision information and scheduling information, the sorting part (112) with respect to the number of subcarrier blocks in which the CQIs are outputted.
US07986610B2

An adaptive writing method of a high-density optical recording apparatus and a circuit thereof. The circuit includes a discriminator for discriminating a magnitude of a present mark of input NRZI data and magnitudes of leading and/or trailing spaces of the input NRZI data, a generator for controlling the waveform of a write pulse in accordance with the magnitude of the present mark of the input NRZI data and the magnitudes of the leading and/or trailing spaces of the input NRZI data to generate an adaptive write pulse, and a driver for driving a light source by converting the adaptive write pulse into a current signal in accordance with driving power levels for respective channels of the adaptive write pulse. The widths of the first and/or last pulses of the write pulse waveform are varied in accordance with the magnitude of the present mark of input NRZI data and the magnitude of the leading and/or trailing spaces, thereby minimizing jitter to enhance system reliability and performance.
US07986603B1

A holographic data storage (HDS) system and method are provided. Generally, the system includes: a light source for generating a coherent light; beam-forming optics for forming the light into collimated object and reference beams; holographic storage medium; a spatial light modulator (SLM) located in a path of the object beam from the beam-forming optics to the storage medium, the SLM having a number of pixels for encoding data to be stored in the medium into the object beam. Preferably, the SLM can modulate both the amplitude and phase of light from every pixel on the SLM. More preferably, the SLM is also located in a path of the reference beam to the storage medium to modulate the phase of the light to store multiple holographic pages of data in the same physical volume of medium through phase multiplexing. Other embodiments are also described.
US07986600B2

An exemplary method for optimizing a recording signal of an optical recording apparatus to record data onto a disc, the recording signal having a first pulse-width parameter, the method includes selecting an initial value of the first pulse-width parameter; generating adjusted values based on the initial value to record test data onto the disc respectively; measuring mark lengths of lands; determining average lengths of the mark lengths of lands; determining differences between the average lengths and a predetermined standard length; linear curve fitting the adjusted values and the differences employing the following linear curve fitting equation: Y=AX+B to obtain the constants A and B, wherein X represents the adjusted values, Y represents the differences; determining and storing an optimum value of the first pulse-width parameter to be used for recording the data onto the disc, this optimum value equals to −B/A. An optical recording apparatus is also provided.
US07986597B2

A recording medium comprising a recording area, the recording area includes a first area and a second area, the first area includes a frame area, the frame area includes an area in which a second synchronization code sequence and at least a portion of data are to be recorded, and the second area includes an area in which a third synchronization code sequence and a fourth synchronization code sequence are to be recorded.
US07986588B2

The method for exploring desired characteristics of a subsurface sector, having at least one resonant frequency, is based on selectively transmitting suitable narrowband energy waves into the subsurface sector, thereby producing narrowband signals reflected off the subsurface sector. The transmitted narrowband energy waves can be selectively and optimally adjusted in real time so as to provide optimum illumination of the desired characteristics from the explored sector.
US07986587B2

A method of imaging the Earth's subsurface using passive seismic emissions includes detecting seismic signals originating from within the Earth's subsurface over a selected time period using an array of seismic sensors deployed proximate the Earth's surface. Hypocenters of seismic events in the subsurface are determined from the detected signals. Seismic signals detected at selected ones of the seismic sensors are cross-correlated to signals detected at other selected ones of the seismic sensors. The cross-correlated signals are processed to obtain a reflectivity series at a geodetic position of the selected one of the seismic sensors. A spatial distribution of at least one seismic property in the subsurface is determined using the determined hypocenters and the reflectivity series.
US07986580B2

A circuit includes a memory interface control circuit and a self-refresh adjustable impedance driver circuit having at least one adjustable impedance circuit. The memory interface control circuit selectively provides an impedance control signal based on memory self-refresh information. The self-refresh adjustable impedance driver circuit adjusts an impedance value of the adjustable impedance circuit in response to the impedance control signal. In addition, the self-refresh adjustable impedance driver circuit provides a memory interface signal based on the memory self-refresh information.
US07986575B2

A memory cell array is formed by arranging memory cells at intersections of plural first wirings and plural second wirings, and a rectifying element and a variable resistive element are connected in series in the memory cell. The variable resistive element has at least a first resistance value and a second resistance value that is higher than the first resistance value. The control circuit selectively drives the first wirings and the second wirings. The control circuit can perform a short-circuit failure countermeasure program operation. In the short-circuit failure countermeasure program operation, the variable resistive element of the memory cell whose rectifying element is in a short-circuit failure state is programmed from the first resistance value to the second resistance value.
US07986571B2

An apparatus and method for low power, single-ended sensing in a multi-port static random access memory (SRAM) using pre-discharged bit lines includes holding a bit line associated with the memory cell at a zero voltage potential when the memory cell is not being accessed; releasing the bit line from being held at a zero voltage potential when the memory cell is being accessed; charging the bit line to a first voltage potential greater in value than the zero voltage potential during an access of the memory cell, wherein charging the bit line to a first voltage potential occurs for a first predetermined period of time after access to the memory cell has begun; and sensing the memory cell contents during an access of the memory cell, wherein sensing of the memory cell contents occurs for a second predetermined period of time after access to the memory cell has begun.
US07986570B2

The present invention relates to a multi-port register file memory or SRAM including a plurality of storage elements and other circuitry that operate synchronously or asynchronously. The storage elements are arranged in rows and columns and store data. Two read port pairs are coupled to each of the storage elements and a differential sensing device or circuit. The read port is coupled to the storage elements in an isolated manner, enabling a plurality of cells to be arranged in such rows and columns. The sensing device is adapted to sense a small voltage swing. A column mux circuit is coupled to each column and the sensing device. Performance is not degraded unusually as the power supply voltage is reduced due to bus drop or inductive effects.
US07986565B2

A method of erasing data in a flash memory device, including erasing data in at least one flash memory cell using a first erase voltage; detecting whether the at least one flash memory cell has a threshold voltage less than a first voltage; programming the at least one flash memory cell by varying the threshold voltage of the at least one flash memory cell using a second voltage that is greater than the first voltage if the detecting step detects the threshold voltage is less than the first voltage; maintaining the threshold voltage of the at least one flash memory cell if the detecting step detects the threshold voltage is greater than the first voltage; and verifying the at least one flash memory cell using a first verification voltage.
US07986553B2

Memory devices adapted to receive and transmit analog data signals representative of bit patterns of two or more bits facilitate increases in data transfer rates relative to devices communicating data signals indicative of individual bits. Programming of such memory devices includes preprogramming erased memory cells that are to be programmed to a known Vt that is less than the smallest Vt of the possible programmable states. Thus, the subsequent programming pulses start programming all cells from the known threshold voltage.
US07986547B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array having a plurality of read word lines, a plurality of first and second read bit lines, and a plurality of memory cells arranged in array. The memory cell includes a first and a second cell node in complementary pair, a first drive transistor controlled by the second cell node, and a second drive transistor controlled by the first cell node. The read word line and the first read bit line are connected with each other via the first drive transistor. The read word line and the second read bit line are connected with each other via the second drive transistor.
US07986545B2

A non-volatile memory device having a stack structure, and a method of operating the non-volatile memory device In which the non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of variable resistors arranged in at least one layer. At least one layer selection bit line and a plurality of bit lines coupled to the plurality of the variable resistors are provided. A plurality of selection transistors coupled between the plurality of the bit lines and the plurality of the variable resistors are provided.
US07986540B2

Systems and/or methods that facilitate controlling a rate of voltage change across an inductively loaded thyristor when switched are presented. Based on a received control signal indicating a thyristor is to be switched, a control component controls the rate of voltage change across a thyristor associated with an inductive load when the thyristor is switched from a first state to another state to facilitate controlling noise emissions during switching based in part on a predefined noise criteria, without using a filter. A capacitor component is connected to the inductive load and thyristor. The control component employs a voltage-controlled current sink comprising a transistor to facilitate discharging voltage from the capacitor component until the capacitor component is discharged to a predefined voltage level, where at or near such point a gate component can send a signal to the thyristor gate to switch the thyristor to the desired state.
US07986536B2

In one embodiment, a switching controller uses an auxiliary winding voltage of a transformer to form a signal representative of current flow through a secondary winding of the transformer.
US07986530B2

A fixing structure for a battery positions the battery in a casing of an electronic device. The fixing structure includes at least a connecting portion, at least a locking portion, and a receiving portion. The connecting portion is on one side of the battery and with a waterproof element. The locking portion is on the other side of the battery and is opposite to the connecting portion. The receiving portion is on the casing and with a first inserting portion and a plurality of second inserting portions. The first inserting portion and the second inserting portions correspond in position to the connecting portion and the locking portion respectively. Hence, the fixing structure protects the electronic device against permeation of water and ensures secure positioning of the battery.
US07986528B2

A cooling plate structure of a cooling apparatus includes a cooling plate and at least one refrigerant circulating conduit disposed in the cooling plate. The conduit includes refrigerant introducing and discharging ports disposed side by side on an outer surface of the cooling plate in an exposed state, a flow-in part extending from the introducing port to an intermediate position between the introducing port and the discharging port in the cooling plate, and a flow-out part extending along the flow-in part from the intermediate position to the discharging port such that flow-out part is separated from the flow-in part. Heat generating elements are disposed along the circulating conduit at an intermediate portion between a flow-in part corresponding portion and a flow-out part corresponding portion, both corresponding to the flow-in part and flow-out part of the circulating conduit, on the outer surface of the cooling plate.
US07986527B2

Articles for supporting a computer on a user's lap, for cooling the computer, and for isolating the user from heat from the computer. Different embodiments may include a top surface for contacting the computer, a bottom surface for contacting the user's lap, a hollow area, a top aperture through the top surface to the hollow area, a fan, or a combination thereof. The top surface may be at an acute angle to the bottom surface, the fan may include an electric motor powered through a USB cable, or both, as examples. Various embodiments may include at least one side opening or rear opening to the hollow area to allow air to circulate, a foam portion, fabric covering the foam, a plastic portion which provides increased stiffness, or a combination thereof.
US07986515B2

An image display apparatus includes a casing, a stand, and an image display section. The stand is formed of a single rod. The image display apparatus further includes a link mechanism that links the rod and a portion of the rear surface, supports the rod so as to be pivotal between a falling-down position where the rod falls down on the rear surface and a standing position where the rod stands from the rear surface, and locks and holds the rod to the falling-down position and the standing position. The rod is located at the standing position and one of two long sides of the casing and the leading end of the rod are placed onto a placing surface, whereby a first posture in which the casing stands with a first angle with respect to the placing surface is formed. The rod is located at the standing position and one of two short sides of the casing and the leading end of the rod are placed onto the placing surface, whereby a second posture in which the casing stands with a second angle with respect to the placing surface is formed.
US07986513B2

The battery pack holding mechanism according to the present invention Includes: a battery pack housing portion 4 in which a terminal electrode that is connected electrically to an electrode 12b of a connector is disposed and into which a battery pack is housed by being inserted along a pair of side walls 25a and 25b; and a holding member 31 that holds a battery pack 5 housed in the battery pack housing portion 4. The holding member 31 is disposed inside the pair of side walls 25a and 25b in the vicinity of the terminal electrode and has a pair of pinching portions 35a and 35b that are orthogonal to an insertion/removal direction in which the battery pack is inserted/removed and protrude toward opposed surfaces constituting an outer periphery of the battery pack, respectively. According to this configuration, the occurrence of a contact failure in a state where the battery pack is housed can be reduced.
US07986505B2

A dual power source pulse generator in power connection with a pair of electrodes having a first electrode, a second electrode and an air gap therebetween. The dual power source pulse generator includes a first pulse source producing a high voltage low current pulse across the pair of electrodes to allow dielectric breakdown, and a second pulse source electrically connected in parallel with an output of the first pulse source, and producing a low voltage high current pulse to thereby produce a current flow of high-density plasma between the same electrodes of the pair of electrodes in response to the high voltage low current pulse.
US07986495B2

A first insulating layer is formed on a suspension body, and a write wiring trace and a read wiring trace are formed on the first insulating layer. A second insulating layer is formed on the first insulating layer so as to cover the wiring traces. A write wiring trace and a read wiring trace are formed on the second insulating layer. A third insulating layer is formed on the second insulating layer so as to cover the wiring traces. The width of the wiring trace is larger than the width of the wiring trace, and the width of the wiring trace is larger than the width of the wiring trace.
US07986492B2

A patterned disk for a hard disk drive. The patterned disk includes a magnetic material over a substrate. The magnetic material includes a plurality of grooves. The grooves are filled with a lubricant that is hardened with UV exposure or some other hardening process. The lubricant provides a protective cover for the magnetic material exposed by the grooves. The use of lubricants in the fabrication of disks is known, thus the process does not introduce a process step that requires special equipment and/or process development.
US07986489B2

According to one embodiment, a disk controller includes a receiver, a read-modify-write controller, and a wait controller. The receiver receives data in units of predetermined data length. The read-modify-write controller performs a read-modify-write operation when the receiver receives the data to write the data to a sector on a disk medium the rotation of which is controlled. The sector is longer than the predetermined data length. The wait controller delays the start of the read-modify-write operation by the read-modify-write controller for within the time which the disk medium takes to rotate once and which is substantially the same as the time required to control the read-modify-write operation.
US07986486B2

A hard-disk drive. The hard-disk drive includes a magnetic-recording disk having a plurality of tracks formed thereon. The hard-disk drive also includes a magnetic-recording head configured to be positioned over a target track selected from the plurality of tracks and configured to write data to and to read data from the target track. Moreover, the hard-disk drive includes a range-definer configured to define an allowed range of a position error of the magnetic-recording head corresponding to the target track. In addition, the hard-disk drive includes a write-enabler configured to determine whether writing data by the magnetic-recording head is allowed based on the position error of the magnetic-recording head with respect to the target track and the allowed range that is calculated from data read out by the magnetic-recording head.
US07986485B2

A servo writing method is provided for use with unoriented magnetic tape media. A biasing zone is formed, such as between a pair of permanent block or disk magnets, with a strong DC magnetic field that is substantially free of perpendicular components. The method includes feeding the tape through the magnetic biasing zone to form a longitudinal magnetic bias in the magnetic layer of the tape media. The method includes using a write head to write a servo pattern on the tape media after the forming of the longitudinal magnetic bias in the tape media, and the servo pattern produces an output that is substantially symmetric with high amplitudes. In one embodiment, the biasing zone is formed or defined as the gap between first and second magnetic assemblies oriented with a single direction of magnetization, such as in the same direction as the tape travel through the biasing zone.
US07986482B2

As the result of a tape stick condition of magnetic tape with respect to a tape head, the supply reel and the take-up reel apply a base tension to the magnetic tape therebetween of substantially less than a full tension that occurs when the tape is running, and one reel varies the applied tension greater than and less than the base tension by an amount less than the base tension. The variation of the applied tension comprises first applying the greater tension and in succession, second, applying the less tension, comprising a whip effect. The whip effect may be in accordance with a sine wave. The varied tension is less than the base tension to maintain positive tension.
US07986481B2

Provided is a magnetic reproducing method that enables a thin-film magnetic head including a head element for reading data signals which has a noise in its output due to a low temperature to bring out an excellent read characteristic in which the noise is suppressed even under the use environment with the low temperature. The magnetic reproducing method comprises the steps of: heating a head element for reading data signals which has a noise in its output due to a low temperature; and performing a read operation by using the head element for reading data signals under condition that the head element is increased in temperature.
US07986461B2

Device for shaping laser radiation which has sub-beams (3) spaced apart in a first direction (X) perpendicular to the propagation direction (Z) of the laser radiation, in particular for shaping laser radiation which is output by a laser diode bar (1), comprising a first refractive interface (8) which can differently deviate at least a multiplicity of the sub-beams (3) of the laser radiation to be shaped, so that they travel at least partially converging together after passing through the first interface (8) more than before passing through the first interface (8), and furthermore comprising a second refractive interface (9) through which the laser radiation can pass after having passed through the first interface (8), the second interface (9) being able to deviate at least some of the sub-beams (3) so that their convergence is reduced.
US07986452B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can obtain a multiplied harmonic signal fast and with ease, and the method using the apparatus.The object is attained by the method for obtaining a multiple harmonic signal comprises, suppressing a different parity optical signal having parity different from fundamental optical signals; suppressing residual optical signals using an optical filter after suppressing the different parity optical signal; and obtaining the frequency difference component using the fundamental optical signals, and the device realizing the method.
US07986448B2

An image processing method includes creating a conversion table for converting a color in a device-independent color space into a color in a device color space based on a colorimetry result of a color patch output by a device. Creating the conversion table includes converting a color in a three-dimensional color space dependent on a device into a color in a four-dimensional device color space including black. Converting a color in the three-dimensional color space includes separating an input color in the three-dimensional device-dependent color space into color components of the four-dimensional device color space based on a gradation from the input color to black, using a black generation curve of a gray line set by a user and black generation curves set for individual primary colors of RGBCMY, and performing saturation-increase conversion on the color components in accordance with an amount of a black colorant.
US07986447B2

A color image scanning system, method and medium that generates look-up tables for color data correction based on the type of printing paper and the kind of image on the printing papers, thereby improving color reproducibility upon scanning.A color image scanning system may include a storage unit to store look-up tables having correction values of first color data, obtained by scanning a first printing paper having a plurality of color patches, each of the look-up tables corresponding to a type of printing paper, and a final image generation unit to correct second color data, obtained by scanning a second printing paper, with reference to a look-up table of the look-up tables, the look-up table corresponding to the type of printing paper used by the second printing paper.
US07986446B2

A method and a device for the optical scanning of a document by means of a line camera in which the document may be scanned at variable speed. Since on the one hand a line frequency by which the individual lines are scanned is based on the speed of movement, and on the other hand binning is carried out automatically on the basis of the speed of movement, wherein the line frequency is multiplied by a binning factor n, it is possible for a document to be scanned very easily and simply over a wide speed range. Color values are preferably corrected by means of an amplification factor, so that the brightness of the images produced by this means is constant over the whole speed range.
US07986440B2

In order to form a high-quality image, upon execution of multi-pass printing using a printing head with a plurality of nozzles, an image processing apparatus calculates, using a scan duty setting unit, scan duty data for respective nozzles for each scan of the printing head in accordance with input image data. A halftone processor generates a dot pattern to be formed by applying N-ary processing based on predetermined constraining condition information to the calculated scan duty data. A constraining condition information calculation unit generates constraining condition information to be referred to by the halftone processor at the time of the next scan. The constraining condition information is set so that the phase of a next dot pattern to be generated has an opposite phase relationship in a low frequency region with respect to the already printed dot pattern.
US07986436B2

A method and apparatus of adjusting color conversion parameters to be used by a color printer for printing documents or images, includes receiving a user input designating a color conversion parameter to be adjusted. It also includes obtaining information as to at least one other color conversion parameter that is related to the user designated color conversion parameter. It further includes adjusting the user designated color conversion parameter based on a user selection of source color-to-destination color change, and adjusting the at least one other color conversion parameter related to the user designated color conversion parameter based on the same user selection of source color-to-destination color change.
US07986424B2

In response to a positional relationship (distance, or a combination of distance and angle) between an information output unit and a user who uses information displayed in the display unit, a control unit changes the amount of information to be displayed in the display unit based on an information level, the number of pieces of information, a scrolling speed or a cycle. In some aspects, the control unit controls the information output unit to increase the amount of information to be output when the user is close to the display unit.
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