US08133892B2
Novel compounds of formula 1 or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof inhibit cytochrome P450 monooxygenase.
US08133887B2
The invention relates to compounds of the formula (I), in which R1, R2, R3, R4, Y and A have the meanings indicated, and to processes for the preparation thereof and to the use thereof for the preparation of medicaments.
US08133885B2
The present invention relates to compounds having general Formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising said compounds and the use of these derivatives to modulate glucocorticoid receptor activity.
US08133881B2
The invention provides a “street-safe” version of a controlled substance that permits the therapeutically beneficial effects of the substance while reducing or eliminating the euphoric effects that lead to substance abuse. The invention provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising a controlled substance and a carbohydrate covalently bound to said controlled substance in a manner that renders said controlled substance pharmacologically inactive or substantially diminishes its activity and methods of using the same.
US08133880B2
The invention relates to Purine Derivatives having the formula; The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising an effective amount of the Purine Derivative; and methods for treating or preventing an ischemic condition, reperfusion injury, a cellular proliferative disorder, a cardiovascular disease, a neurological disorder, a skin disorder, a radiation-induced injury, a wound, or an inflammatory disease comprising administering an effective amount of the Purine Derivative to a subject in need thereof.
US08133879B2
The present disclosure provides 2-adenosine N-pyrazole compounds of structural formula shown below that are potent and selective agonists for A2A adenosine receptor, compositions comprising these compounds, and methods for using these compounds in a variety of applications including myocardial perfusion imaging methods.
US08133878B1
Restenosis in a subject can be treated by administering to a tissue, e.g., a blood vessel, of the subject an agent that increases SERCA activity. For example, a stent that is coated with the agent can be introduced into a blood vessel.
US08133876B2
Compounds, compositions and methods are provided for modulating the expression and function of small non-coding RNAs. The compositions comprise oligomeric compounds, targeted to small non-coding RNAs. Methods of using these compounds for modulation of small non-coding RNAs as well as downstream targets of these RNAs and for diagnosis and treatment of disease associated with small non-coding RNAs are also provided.
US08133868B2
The subject invention provides dipeptides useful in promoting healthy muscle tissues as well as effective immune responses. The dipeptides of the subject invention are particularly advantageous because they are stable, bioavailable, and can be formulated in an aqueous solution.
US08133867B2
A therapeutic agent for rheumatoid arthritis, particularly a therapeutic agent for ameliorating an inflammatory symptom or bone deformity in rheumatoid arthritis, which comprises an antibody that binds to a hepatocyte growth factor receptor as an active ingredient.
US08133865B2
The present invention provides von Willebrand Factor-polymer conjugates and Factor VIII-polymer conjugates, each having a releasable linkage. Methods of making conjugates, methods for administering conjugates, are also provided.
US08133860B2
The present invention relates generally to the use of erythropoietin (EPO) to facilitate resuscitation from cardiac arrest. For a mammalian subject suffering from cardiac arrest, concurrent administration of EPO with resuscitation after the onset of ventricular fibrillation facilitates the resuscitation. Administration of EPO serves to attenuate myocardial abnormalities caused by cardiac arrest and the resuscitation efforts and favor improved resuscitation outcomes.
US08133840B2
This invention relates to a stable composite material comprising a support member that has a plurality of pores extending through the support member, and a macroporous crosslinked gel that is located in, and fills, the pores of the support member, in which crosslinked gel is entrapped a stabilizing polymer, which stabilizing polymer is neutral, linear or branched, non-crosslinked, and substantially water-insoluble. The presence of the stabilizing polymer is such that it allows the composite material to largely retain its porosity and morphology after being dried. The invention also relates to a process for preparing the stable composite material described above, and to its use. The stable composite material is suitable, for example, for separation of substances, for example by filtration or adsorption, including chromatography, for use as a support in synthesis or for use as a support for cell growth.
US08133823B2
The invention relates to a method for picking up semiconductor chips from a wafer table and, optionally, their mounting on a substrate by means of a pick-and-place system. The position and orientation of the semiconductor chip to be mounted next are determined by means of a first camera and made available in the form of positional data relating to a first system of coordinates. The position and orientation of the substrate place on which the semiconductor chip will be mounted are determined by means of a second camera and made available in the form of positional data relating to a second system of coordinates. The conversion of coordinates of the first or second system of coordinates into coordinates of motion of the pick-and-place system occurs by means of two fixed mapping functions and two changeable correction vectors. The correction vectors are readjusted on the occurrence of a predetermined event.
US08133820B2
Substrate contamination from tungsten is prevented. A substrate processing method comprises a main treatment process for oxidizing a substrate containing tungsten with a gas containing oxygen, and a cleaning process for removing tungsten oxides with a gas containing hydrogen. The main treatment process includes loading the substrate containing metal into the processing chamber; supplying gas containing oxygen into the processing chamber; and supplying electric power to a high-frequency electric power supply to generate plasma containing oxygen elements, stopping the supply of electric power, and unloading the substrate from the processing chamber. The cleaning process includes supplying gas containing hydrogen into the processing chamber after unloading the substrate; supplying electric power to a high-frequency electric power supply to generate plasma containing hydrogen elements; and stopping the supply of electric power.
US08133807B2
One object of the present invention is to provide a transparent electrode substrate with an ITO film formed thereon, used for example as the transparent electrode plate in a dye sensitized solar cell, for which the electrical resistance does not increase even when exposed to high temperatures of 300° C. or higher. In order to achieve the object, the present invention provides a substrate for a transparent electrode, wherein two or more layers of different transparent conductive films are formed on a transparent substrate, and an upper layer transparent conductive film has a higher heat resistance than that of a lower layer transparent conductive film.
US08133806B1
Methods of depositing a III-V semiconductor material on a substrate include sequentially introducing a gaseous precursor of a group III element and a gaseous precursor of a group V element to the substrate by altering spatial positioning of the substrate with respect to a plurality of gas columns. For example, the substrate may be moved relative to a plurality of substantially aligned gas columns, each disposing a different precursor. Thermalizing gas injectors for generating the precursors may include an inlet, a thermalizing conduit, a liquid container configured to hold a liquid reagent therein, and an outlet. Deposition systems for forming one or more III-V semiconductor materials on a surface of the substrate may include one or more such thermalizing gas injectors configured to direct the precursor to the substrate via the plurality of gas columns.
US08133805B2
Methods for forming a dense dielectric layer over the surface of an opening in a porous inter-layer dielectric having an ultra-low dielectric constant are disclosed. The disclosure provides methods for exposing the sidewall surface and the bottom surface of the opening to a plurality of substantially parallel ultra-violet (UV) radiation rays to form a dense dielectric layer having a substantially uniform thickness over both the sidewall surface and the bottom surface.
US08133799B2
Techniques for integrated circuit device fabrication are provided. In one aspect, an integrated circuit device comprises a base, at least one die attached to the base, and a counterbalancing layer on at least a portion of at least one side of the base adapted to compensate for at least a portion of a thermal expansion difference existing between the base and the die. In another aspect, warping of an integrated circuit device comprising at least one die attached to a base is controlled by applying a counterbalancing layer to at least a portion of at least one side of the base adapted to compensate for at least a portion of a thermal expansion difference existing between the base and the die.
US08133796B1
A method for fabricating shallow trench isolation structures is provided. A patterned pad layer and a patterned mask layer are sequentially formed on a substrate, wherein the substrate includes a memory region and a periphery region. By using the patterned mask layer as a mask, the substrate is partially removed to form a plurality of trenches. A first liner layer is formed on the substrate to cover surfaces of the patterned mask layer, the patterned pad layer and the trenches. After removing the first liner layer in the periphery region, a pull-back process is performed on the patterned mask layer, and a pull-back amount of the patterned mask layer in the periphery region is larger than a pull-back amount of the patterned mask layer in the memory region. An insulating layer is formed in the trenches to form a plurality of shallow trench isolation structures.
US08133794B2
In various embodiments, semiconductor structures and methods to manufacture these structures are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes removing a portion of a semiconductor material using an orientation-dependent etch to form a first cavity, a second cavity, wherein the first cavity is isolated from the second cavity, a first protrusion is between the first cavity and the second cavity, and the semiconductor material comprises silicon. The method further includes performing a thermal oxidation to convert a portion of the silicon of the semiconductor material to silicon dioxide and forming a first dielectric material over the first cavity, over the second cavity, over at least a portion of the semiconductor material, and over at least a portion of the first protrusion. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08133792B2
A structure of a capacitor set is described, including at least two capacitors that are disposed at the same position on a substrate and include a first capacitor and a second capacitor. The first capacitor includes multiple first capacitor units electrically connected with each other in parallel. The second capacitor includes multiple second capacitor units electrically connected with each other in parallel. The first and the second capacitor units are arranged spatially intermixing with each other to form an array.
US08133791B2
The invention relates to a method according to the part of the surface of the semiconductor body adjoining the opening and which is to be kept free is provided with a cover layer after which the high-crystalline layer is formed by means of a deposition process. The material of the cover layer can then easily be chosen such that it can be selectively etched relative to the silicon underneath. In addition, the cover layer can easily be selectively deposited on the relevant part of the surface because use can be made of an anisotropic deposition process. In such a process the cover layer is not deposited in the hollow and on the bottom of the hollow. It will be apparent that for the high-crystalline layer also other materials can be chosen such as SiGe having such low Ge contents that the SiGe cannot be etched selectively very well compared to the Silicon.
US08133777B1
A method of fabricating a memory is provided. A substrate including a memory region and a periphery region is provided. A plurality of gates each having spacers is formed on the substrate. A plurality of openings is formed between the gates in the memory region. A first material layer is formed in the memory region to cover the gates and fill the openings. A barrier layer is formed on the substrate to cover the gates in the periphery region and the first material layer in the memory region. A second material layer is formed on the substrate in the periphery region to cover the barrier layer in the periphery region. The barrier layer covering the first material layer is removed. The first material layer is partially removed to form a plurality of second openings. Each second opening is disposed on a top of the gate in the memory region.
US08133772B2
A semiconductor structure is disclosed. The semiconductor structure includes an active semiconductor layer, a semiconductor device having a gate disposed on top of the active semiconductor layer, and source and drain regions and a body/channel region disposed within the active semiconductor layer, an insulator layer having a first and second side, the first side being adjacent to the active semiconductor layer, a substrate disposed adjacent to the second side of the insulator layer, a deep trench capacitor disposed under the body/channel region of the semiconductor device. The deep trench capacitor electrically connects with and contacts the body/channel region of the semiconductor device, and is located adjacent to the gate of the semiconductor device. The semiconductor structure increases a critical charge Qcrit, thereby reducing a soft error rate (SER) of the semiconductor device.
US08133770B2
A silicon film is crystallized in a predetermined direction by selectively adding a metal element having a catalytic action for crystallizing an amorphous silicon and annealing. In manufacturing TFT using the crystallized silicon film, TFT provided such that the crystallization direction is roughly parallel to a current-flow between a source and a drain, and TFT provided such that the crystallization direction is roughly vertical to a current-flow between a source and a drain are manufactured. Therefore, TFT capable of conducting a high speed operation and TFT having a low leak current are formed on the same substrate.
US08133748B2
To provide a high throughput film deposition means for film depositing an organic EL material made of polymer accurately and without any positional shift. A pixel portion is divided into a plurality of pixel rows by a bank, and a head portion of a thin film deposition apparatus is scanned along a pixel row to thereby simultaneously apply a red light emitting layer application liquid, a green light emitting layer application liquid, and a blue light emitting layer application liquid in stripe shapes. Heat treatment is then performed to thereby form light emitting layers luminescing each of the colors red, green, and blue.
US08133736B2
A method of detecting a cancer, such as ovarian cancer, in a test subject including (a) determining the amount of a lysophosphatidyl ethanolamine in a sample of a bodily fluid taken from the test subject, and (b) comparing the amount of the lysophosphatidyl ethanolamine in the sample of the bodily fluid taken from the test subject to a range of amounts of the lysophosphatidyl ethanolamine found in samples of the bodily fluid taken from a group of normal subjects of the same species as the test subject and lacking the cancer, such as ovarian cancer, whereby a change in the amount of the lysophosphatidyl ethanolamine in the sample of the bodily fluid from the test subject indicates the presence of the cancer, such as ovarian cancer.
US08133725B2
There is provided a method of inducing differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells to neural cells or skeletal muscle cells by introduction of a Notch gene. Specifically, the invention provides a method of inducing differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells to neural cells or skeletal muscle cells in vitro, which method comprises introducing a Notch gene and/or a Notch signaling related gene into the cells, wherein the finally obtained differentiated cells are the result of cell division of the bone marrow stromal cells into which the Notch gene and/or Notch signaling related gene have been introduced. The invention also provides a method of inducing further differentiation of the differentiation-induced neural cells to dopaminergic neurons or acetylcholinergic neurons. The invention yet further provides a treatment method for neurodegenerative and skeletal muscle degenerative diseases which employs neural precursor cells, neural cells or skeletal muscle cells produced by the method of the invention.
US08133723B2
An aspect of the present invention is directed towards DNA plasmid vaccines capable of generating in a mammal an immune response against a plurality of influenza virus subtypes, comprising a DNA plasmid and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient. The DNA plasmid is capable of expressing a consensus influenza antigen in a cell of the mammal in a quantity effective to elicit an immune response in the mammal, wherein the consensus influenza antigen comprises consensus hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), matrix protein, nucleoprotein, M2 ectodomain-nucleo-protein (M2e-NP), or a combination thereof. Preferably the consensus influenza antigen comprises HA, NA, M2e-NP, or a combination thereof. The DNA plasmid comprises a promoter operably linked to a coding sequence that encodes the consensus influenza antigen. Additionally, an aspect of the present invention includes methods of eliciting an immune response against a plurality of influenza virus subtypes in a mammal using the DNA plasmid vaccines provided.
US08133722B2
Provided are a cell culture compartment unit and an array including the same. The cell culture compartment unit includes: a cell culture region and a bio material emission region including a cell culture fluid, which are separated with a porous membrane therebetween; a piezoelectric device on the porous membrane of the cell culture region; a thin layer for cell attachment being on the piezoelectric device and having at least one surface on which cells are attachable; and a first power supply applying a first electric field to the piezoelectric device.
US08133719B2
Random arrays of single molecules are provided for carrying out large scale analyses, particularly of biomolecules, such as genomic DNA, cDNAs, proteins, and the like. In one aspect, arrays of the invention comprise concatemers of DNA fragments that are randomly disposed on a regular array of discrete spaced apart regions, such that substantially all such regions contain no more than a single concatemer. Preferably, such regions have areas substantially less than 1 μm2 and have nearest neighbor distances that permit optical resolution of on the order of 109 single molecules per cm2. Many analytical chemistries can be applied to random arrays of the invention, including sequencing by hybridization chemistries, sequencing by synthesis chemistries, SNP detection chemistries, and the like, to greatly expand the scale and potential applications of such techniques.
US08133718B2
An analytical strip and a detecting method using the analytical strip are provided. The analytical strip includes a substrate having a channel thereon. The channel has a first region, a second region and a third region, which are arranged successively. A first antibody is localized in the first region. A saccharide and a peroxidase are localized in the first or second region. A second antibody for recognizing a different epitope of an identical antigen with the first antibody is immobilized in the second region. A substrate reagent including a saccharide oxidase is localized in the third region.
US08133716B2
The present invention pertains to a method and an apparatus for treating municipal solid waste, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for treating and recycling municipal solid waste not separately collected, and also for minimizing the amount of final waste to be buried. To this end, the present invention is characterized by comprising the steps of: an input step of inputting the municipal solid waste and microorganisms to a reactor; a first reaction step of firstly reacting the municipal solid waste with the microorganisms input to the reactor in the input step; a first separation step of transferring first intermediate matters completing the first reaction in the reactor to a first separator and then separating organic matters (it may also comprise small-sized inorganic matters passing through the screen of the first separator, also referred to as “second intermediate matters”) and inorganic matters, further comprising a recycled material recovering step of separating and recovering the recycled material by properties for recycling the inorganic matters; a second reaction step of transferring second intermediate matters passing through the first separator to a decomposing field constructed with good air circulation and then carrying out second reaction of the second intermediate matters; a second separation step of transferring third intermediate matters completing the second reaction in the decomposing field to a second separator and then separating foreign matters from the third intermediate matters; and a post-treatment step of post-treating fourth intermediate matters separated in the second separation step to make a final material.
US08133711B2
The present invention provides BGL7 polypeptides with the biological activity of a β-glucosidase and a method of producing a recombinant enzyme having β-glucosidase activity.
US08133708B2
The present invention provides methods and compositions for producing isoprene hydrocarbons from microalgae, cyanobacteria, and photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic bacteria.
US08133705B2
The invention relates to a novel aminotransferase, DNA encoding the enzyme, a recombinant vector into which the DNA has been introduced, and a transformant into which the vector has been introduced. Further, the invention also relates to a method for producing an optically active amino compound utilizing the enzyme or transformant. The aminotransferase of the invention has an ability of efficiently converting a ketone compound, particularly a cyclic ketone compound to an optically active amino compound. According to the invention, a method for efficiently producing an optically active amino compound, particularly an optically active cyclic amino compound is provided.
US08133699B2
The invention relates to expression vectors comprising a DNA sequence of 146 bp capable of acting as chromatin insulator, to host cells containing such vectors, to a method of producing a desired polypeptide by using vectors containing said sequence and to the use of said DNA sequence.
US08133695B2
Disclosed are assays, methods, and kits for the screening of test compounds for their capability to induce cardiotoxicity in a subject. In particular, whether a test compound has the effect to prolong the Q-T interval as measured by an electrocardiogram in a human. The assays, methods, and kits disclosed herein make use of the binding interaction between novel fluorescent tracers and the hERG K+ channel, and the propensity of a test compound to influence that binding interaction.
US08133691B2
The invention relates to a kit comprising MHC Class I and Class II HLA-coated beads containing specific antigenic peptides for binding to antigen-specific T cells and the appropriate negative control peptides. Also provided are methods for making the coated beads and methods for use. The application of these beads go to the stimulation of peripheral blood cell populations and in vitro-stimulated culture for the elicitation of functional activities such as cell activation and signaling, cytokine secretion, proliferation and cytotoxicity activity.
US08133688B2
The present invention primarily relates to a method for analyzing the amount of immunoregulatory integrin binding factors and/or patient endogenous antibodies which are directed against such factors, the factors having the capacity to modulate the immune functions in a subject suffering from cancer or inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, by utilizing binding reagents to determine these factors and/or the patient endogenous antibodies which are directed against such factors, whereby the prognosis and/or the therapeutic efficacy of any treatment of a subject suffering from cancer or inflammatory or autoimmune diseases can be determined and/or monitored. The invention further relates to the use of therapeutically active compounds for eliminating, inhibiting or enhancing such binding factors for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals to be used in the treatment of cancer, inflammatory conditions or autoimmune diseases.
US08133687B2
The present invention provides methods of predicting or detecting labor in a female subject and methods of testing a compound for an ability to delay the onset of labor. The present invention also provides methods of testing a labor marker useful in the diagnostic methods, isolated peptides identified in the present invention, methods for inhibiting labor, utilizing the peptides, and kits comprising methods of the present invention.
US08133679B2
Methods of screening candidate agents to identify lead compounds for the development of therapeutic agents for the treatment of a neurodegenerative disease, such as Huntington's Disease and Parkinson's Disease and methods for identifying a mutation in, or changes in expression of, a gene associated with neurodegenerative disease, such as Huntington's Disease and Parkinson's Disease, are provided.
US08133676B2
There is provided a method of nucleic acid analysis which allows analysis of genetic diversity in multiple populations to be performed rapidly and simultaneously. The method comprises (a) isolating nucleic acid from said sample; (b) providing at least two pairs of labelled primers, wherein each said primer pair is complementary to a marker sequence in a nucleic acid of at least one member; (c) amplifying the nucleic acid; (d) digesting the labelled amplified nucleic acid with at least one restriction enzyme to produce restriction fragments, and size sorting said fragments to produce a restriction fragment length profile, and (e) analysing said restriction fragment length profile so obtained; wherein the primer pairs provided for each marker have a different sequence to the sequence of the primer pairs for each other marker, and wherein each said primer pair is uniquely labelled relative to the other primer pair(s). In one embodiment each primer pair is uniquely labelled at the 5′ end with a fluorophore. The restriction fragments can be conveniently analysed by a DNA sequencer. The method of the invention has the advantage that it allows nucleic acid amplified using multiple marker sequences to be simultaneously analysed.
US08133673B2
The present invention relates to the development of a novel method for the selection of nucleic acid processing and other enzymes. In particular the invention relates to a method for the selection of nucleic acid polymerases and other enzymes with desired properties based on the method of compartmentalized self-tagging.
US08133672B2
Compositions, kits, methods and systems for nucleotide sequencing comprising producing polymerase reactions that exhibit two kinetically observable steps within an observable phase of the polymerase reaction. Two slow step systems can be produced, for example, by selecting the appropriate polymerase enzyme, polymerase reaction conditions including cofactors, and polymerase reaction substrates including the primed template and nucleotides.
US08133671B2
The technology described herein generally relates to systems for extracting polynucleotides from multiple samples, particularly from biological samples, and additionally to systems that subsequently amplify and detect the extracted polynucleotides. The technology more particularly relates to microfluidic systems that carry out PCR on multiple samples of nucleotides of interest within microfluidic channels, and detect those nucleotides.
US08133666B2
The present invention provides methods of identifying agents that reduce a level of active APOBEC3C in a cell. The present invention provides agents that reduce a level of active APOBEC3C in a cell; and compositions comprising the agents. The present invention further provides methods of reducing the mutation rate of a lentivirus in a cell; and methods of reducing the emergence of drug-resistant strains of lentivirus. The present invention further provides methods for treating lentivirus infections.
US08133664B2
Some embodiments include methods of forming patterns of openings. The methods may include forming spaced features over a substrate. The features may have tops and may have sidewalls extending downwardly from the tops. A first material may be formed along the tops and sidewalls of the features. The first material may be formed by spin-casting a conformal layer of the first material across the features, or by selective deposition along the features relative to the substrate. After the first material is formed, fill material may be provided between the features while leaving regions of the first material exposed. The exposed regions of the first material may then be selectively removed relative to both the fill material and the features to create the pattern of openings.
US08133652B2
The present invention provides an image processing method which includes at least any one of image recording and image erasing, wherein a light irradiation intensity at a center position of the laser beam irradiated in the image recording is controlled; in the image recording, a first auxiliary line extended by a predetermined distance from a start point of each of image lines constituting an image in the opposite direction from the scanning direction and a second auxiliary line extended by a predetermined distance from an end point of each of the image lines in the scanning direction are prepared, and when the first and second auxiliary lines including an image line are continuously scanned, the image line is scanned with irradiating the laser beam, and the first and the second auxiliary lines are scanned without irradiating the laser beam to thereby record the image.
US08133641B2
Disclosed are a half tone mask having a multi semi-transmission part and a manufacturing method thereof that can pattern a plurality of layers using one mask, by having at least two or more semi-transmission parts with light transmission that are different from each other. The half tone mask having a multi semi-transmission part comprises a transparent substrate, a light transmission part formed the transparent substrate to transmit irradiation light of a predetermined wavelength band, a light shielding part formed the transparent substrate to shield the irradiation light of the predetermined wavelength band, and at least two or more semi-transmission parts formed by depositing semi-transmission material on the transparent substrate to pass through the irradiation light of the predetermined wavelength band with each different light transmission.
US08133639B2
The present invention relates to a system, as well as articles and holographic recording medium comprising the system, where the system comprises: a polymerizable component comprising at least one photoactive polymerizable material; and a photoinitiator component comprising at least one photoinitiator for causing the polymerizable component to polymerize to thereby form a plurality of holographic gratings when activated by exposure to a photoinitiating light source; wherein when a portion of the polymerizable component has been polymerized to form at least one holographic grating, the unpolymerized portion of the polymerizable component is resistant to further polymerization when not exposed to the photoinitiating light source. The present invention also provides methods for forming at least one holographic grating in a holographic recording medium having such a photopolymerizable system.
US08133635B2
The present invention relates to an electrolyte membrane including a graft polymer having a sulfonic acid group as a proton conductive group, in which, when the electrolyte membrane is divided into four equal parts in a thickness direction thereof, a content of the sulfonic acid group in each of outer regions is larger than a content of the sulfonic acid group in each of inner regions; in which A1, A2, B1 and B2 satisfy the following formula: 1.5≦(A1+A2)/(B1+B2)≦8, in which A1 and A2 each represent a maximum value of a distribution amount of the sulfonic acid group in each of the two outer regions, and B1 and B2 each represent an average value of a maximum value and a minimum value of a distribution amount of the sulfonic acid group in each of the two inner regions; and in which the electrolyte membrane has an ion-exchange capacity of 0.5 to 2 meq/g.
US08133626B2
A fuel cell system that includes a control system for regulating the power produced by the fuel cell system. The fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack adapted to produce electrical power from a feed. In some embodiments, the fuel cell system includes a fuel processing assembly adapted to produce the feed for the fuel cell stack from one or more feedstocks. The control system regulates the power produced by the fuel cell system to prevent damage to, and/or failure of, the system.
US08133625B2
A power controlling apparatus for a fuel cell system includes a fuel cell controller which analyzes power state information of a fuel cell system, transmits a power state information signal based on the analysis to a power conversion controller, receives a load request power information signal from the power conversion controller, analyzes the received load request power information signal, and changes an outputtable power amount based on the analysis. The power controlling apparatus also includes a power conversion controller which transmits a load request power information signal based on power information requested by a load to the fuel cell controller, analyzes the power state information signal transmitted by the fuel cell controller, and controls a power convert amount based on the analysis.
US08133618B2
A process for preparing an at least partially lithiated transition metal oxyanion-based lithium-ion reversible electrode material, which includes providing a precursor of said lithium-ion reversible electrode material, heating said precursor, melting same at a temperature sufficient to produce a melt including an oxyanion containing liquid phase, cooling said melt under conditions to induce solidification thereof and obtain a solid electrode that is capable of reversible lithium ion deinsertion/insertion cycles for use in a lithium battery. Also, lithiated or partially lithiated oxyanion-based-lithium-ion reversible electrode materials obtained by the aforesaid process.
US08133606B2
An electrochemical battery cell comprising a cell housing defining an inner space, a first terminal and a second terminal; and at least one pre-formed pellet disposed within the inner space of the cell housing. The pellet includes an outer electrode portion formed from a material to geometrically define the pellet in a solid form. The outer electrode portion is in electrical communication with the first terminal of the cell housing. The pellet also includes an inner electrode encapsulated by a separator and embedded within the material of the outer electrode portion. The inner electrode is in electrical communication with the second terminal of the cell housing and electrically insulated from the outer electrode material. In a preferred embodiment, the inner electrode comprises an anode and the outer electrode portion comprises a cathode portion. The integrated anode/cathode pellet configuration facilitates lowers costs, a more robust design and ease of manufacturability while maintaining and allowing increased performance characteristics of the battery cell.
US08133598B2
A hard coating film having wear resistance superior to conventional TiAlN coating films, oxide coating films, and the like. The hard coating film of the present invention has a component composition represented by one of the following two formulas: (TiaAlbSic)Ox, wherein 0.3≦a≦0.7, 0.3≦b≦0.7, 0≦c≦0.2, a+b+c=1, and 0.8≦[x/(2a+1.5b+2c)]≦1.2; and (TiaCrdAlbSic)Ox, wherein 0.05≦a≦0.4, 0.1≦d≦0.85, 0≦b≦0.7, 0≦c≦0.2, a+b+c+d=1, and 0.8≦[x/(2a+1.5d+1.5b+2c)]≦1.2; where variables a, d, b, and c denote the atomic ratios of Ti, Cr, Al, and Si respectively, and variable x indicates the atomic ratio of O.
US08133597B2
Disclosed is an organic EL device having high luminous efficiency and long emission life, wherein emission wavelength is controlled. Also disclosed are an illuminating device and a display. Specifically disclosed is an organic electroluminescent device containing at least a light-emitting layer sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. This organic electroluminescent device is characterized in that the light-emitting layer contains a metal complex having a partial structure represented by the following general formula (1).
US08133594B2
Steel sheet for container use able to realize superior corrosion resistance and canmaking ability, wherein at least one side of the steel sheet is provided with a chemical conversion coating film including a mixture of a zirconium oxide compound and a zirconium phosphate compound, the zirconium oxide compound is segregated at part or all of a region of 40 to 100% from the surface with respect to the total thickness of the chemical conversion coating film, and the zirconium phosphate compound is segregated at part or all of a region of 0 to 40% from the surface with respect to the total thickness of the chemical conversion coating film.
US08133592B2
A laminated adhesive thermoplastic resin film includes a laminated layer containing a polyester resin (A) and a polyester resin (B) different from each other in glass transition temperature and a melamine-based crosslinking agent (C) as components and having a surface energy of 48 to 55 mN/m, formed at least on one surface of the thermoplastic resin film, wherein the glass transition temperature of the polyester resin (A) is 110° C. or higher; the glass transition temperature of the polyester resin (B) is 60° C. to lower than 110° C.; and the amount of the melamine-based crosslinking agent (C) is 75 to 200 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight based on the weight of the polyester resin (A) and the polyester resin (B).
US08133591B2
The present invention provides an electrically conductive element for an electrochemical cell element having enhanced protection for an underlying metal substrate with a surface susceptible to forming metal oxides. One or more regions of the surface are coated with a metal coating overlaid with an adhesion promoting coating comprising a silicon containing material derived from organosilanes. The adhesion promoting coating is overlaid with a conductive, protective polymeric coating. The present invention further provides methods of making such an electrochemical cell element to have improved adhesion of conductive, protective polymer coatings.
US08133574B2
In accordance with the invention, there are image forming apparatus, fuser members, and methods of making fuser members. The method of making a fuser member can include providing a substrate having a longitudinal axis, providing a first flow coating solution including a fluoroelastomer polymer, and providing a second flow coating solution including a crosslinking agent. The method can also include mixing the first flow coating solution and the second flow coating solution to form a third flow coating solution and forming a continuous fluoroelastomer layer over a surface of the substrate by applying the third flow coating solution onto the substrate in a spiral pattern, wherein the crosslinking agent concentration can be varied along the longitudinal axis by changing the ratio of the first flow coating solution and the second flow coating solution in the third flow coating solution.
US08133572B2
Light-collimating films as well as other microstructured film articles are described that comprise a (e.g. UV) cured light transmissive film comprising the reaction product of a polymerizable resin composition. Polymerizable resin compositions are also described that comprise aliphatic urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer(s), bisphenol-A ethoxylated diacrylate(s), and a crosslinker having at least three (meth)acrylate groups.
US08133564B2
Provided are: a molding material for a Blu-ray Disc substrate or an HD DVD substrates which is reduced in the occurrence of appearance failures and can realize a stable yield; and a method of producing the molding material. The molding material for a Blu-ray Disc substrate or an HD DVD substrate includes: an aromatic PC resin produced by an interfacial method (A); 150 to 350 ppm (in terms of mass ppm of a total amount of the molding material, the same applies hereinafter) of fatty acid monoglyceride having 14 to 30 carbon atoms (B); 10 to 150 ppm of PETS (C); and 30 to 120 ppm of antioxidant (D). The method of producing the molding material includes: introducing the component (A) into an extruder together with, with respect to the amount of the component (A), 150 to 350 ppm of fatty acid monoglyceride having 14 to 30 carbon atoms (B), 10 to 150 ppm of PETS (C), 30 to 120 ppm of antioxidant (D), and 500 to 1,000 ppm of water (E) having an electrical conductivity of 1 μS/cm or less at 25° C., each amount being ppm of the ingredient (A) such that the water content of the PC resin in the extruder is adjusted to 500 to 1,300 ppm; producing a strand from the mixture by melt extrusion molding; cooling the strand; and cutting the strand into pellets.
US08133563B2
The present invention provides a double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape or sheet including a bubble-containing pressure-sensitive adhesive layer; and a releasable liner protecting a pressure-sensitive adhesive surface of the bubble-containing pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, said releasable liner comprising at least a releasably treated layer formed by an ionizing radiation-curable silicone type releasing agent, in which the releasably treated layer formed by the ionizing radiation-curable silicone type releasing agent is employed onto a pressure-sensitive adhesive surface on the heavier releasable side. The double-sided pressure-sensitive adhesive tape or sheet may employ a bubble-containing pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed by a bubble-containing pressure-sensitive adhesive composition in the form in which a gas component is mixed in a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition.
US08133560B2
The embodiments of the present invention relate to multilayer thermoplastic structures having improved sealability and tearability. More specifically, the present invention relates to a multilayer heat sealant structure having at least three layers that may be coextrusion coated or otherwise laminated to a substrate, such as metallized polymeric material, foil, or other substrates.
US08133558B2
The invention provides polylactic acid (PLA) films substantially free of plasticizers and methods of manufacturing same by blown film process are provided. PLA films are environmentally degradable and have applications in, at least, packaging and labeling.
US08133554B2
Methods for depositing material onto microfeature workpieces in reaction chambers and systems for depositing materials onto microfeature workpieces are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method includes depositing molecules of a gas onto a microfeature workpiece in the reaction chamber and selectively irradiating a first portion of the molecules on the microfeature workpiece in the reaction chamber with a selected radiation without irradiating a second portion of the molecules on the workpiece with the selected radiation. The first portion of the molecules can be irradiated to activate the portion of the molecules or desorb the portion of the molecules from the workpiece. The first portion of the molecules can be selectively irradiated by impinging the first portion of the molecules with a laser beam or other energy source.
US08133538B2
A method of producing a mold having an uneven structure and a mold for an optical element are provided. The method includes forming on a nickel substrate a mixed film using nickel and a material which phase separates from nickel simultaneously, the mixed film including a plurality of cylinders including nickel as a component thereof and a matrix region including the material which phase separates from nickel as a component thereof and surrounding the plurality of cylinders; and removing the matrix portion from the mixed film by etching to give a mold including nickel or a nickel alloy. The uneven structure is disposed in plurality on the substrate, and a pitch of the uneven structure is within a range of 30 nm or more and 500 nm or less and a depth of the uneven structure is within a range of 100 nm or more.
US08133531B2
Titanium dioxide particles are coated first with an interstitial coating and then with silicon dioxide or alumina. The coatings are suitably applied via an atomic layer deposition process. The interstitial coating preserves the bright white coloration of the particles after they are coated. The particles therefore can be used as pigments and white fillers in polymers, paints, paper and other applications.
US08133527B2
A stabilized bran component and a stabilized whole grain wheat flour containing the component are produced by subjecting a bran-enriched coarse fraction which contains bran, germ and starch to grinding or milling to reduce grittiness of the coarse fraction without substantially damaging the starch due to abrasion. The coarse fraction may be stabilized by heating to substantially reduce the lipase and lipoxygenase activity of the coarse fraction without substantial gelatinization of the starch. High levels of natural antioxidants and vitamins are retained while avoiding substantial acrylamide formation during the stabilization. The stabilized coarse fraction or stabilized bran component may be combined with a fine fraction which contains predominantly endosperm to obtain a stabilized whole grain wheat flour. The stabilized whole grain wheat flours and the stabilized bran component exhibit extended shelf life and may be used for making baked goods, such as cookies, with desirable oven spread, and a non-gritty mouthfeel.
US08133526B2
Low-lauric, low-trans fat compositions useful for food and other applications.
US08133523B2
This invention provides edible compositions comprising pharmaceutically or nutraceutically active agents in particulate form homogeneously dispersed in a fat matrix, such as chocolate or chocolate compound coating.
US08133516B2
The therapeutic ultrasound gel is a composition that lubricates the abdomen for ultrasound scanning, that enhances the transmission of sound waves during ultrasound diagnostic imaging, and that has beneficial therapeutic effects in preventing the formation of stretch marks. The composition contains effective amounts of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis), glycerin, and various agents for preventing the formation of stretch marks, with the balance being sufficient water to adjust the consistency of the composition. The composition may also be formulated for home use, chiefly by the addition of vitamin D3 or, alternatively, vitamin K. Either formulation may contain additional excipients, including surfactants, emulsifiers, humectants, stabilizers, thickeners, pH balancers, preservatives, colorants, and scent, if desired.
US08133510B2
The invention relates to a film-shaped form of administration for topically administering at least one agent and/or nutrient to a living being. Said form of administration comprises at least one agent-containing and/or nutrient-containing layer that is based on crosslinked hydrophilic polymers which are crosslinked with at least one polyacrylic acid derivative.
US08133501B2
Implantable or insertable medical devices are provided, which comprises: (a) a biocompatible polymer; and (b) at least one therapeutic agent selected from an anti-inflammatory agent, an analgesic agent, an anesthetic agent, and an antispasmodic agent. The medical devices are adapted for implantation or insertion at a site associated with pain or discomfort upon implantation or insertion. In many embodiments, the therapeutic will be selected from at least one of (i) ketorolac and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof (e.g., ketorolac tromethamine) and (ii) 4-diethylamino-2-butynylphenylcyclohexyl glycolate and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof (e.g., oxybutynin chloride). Also provided are uses for the implantable or insertable medical devices, which uses comprise reducing pain or discomfort accompanying the implantation or insertion of such devices. Further uses may comprise reducing microbial buildup along the device. Methods for manufacturing implantable or insertable medical devices are also provided.
US08133498B2
A polypeptide having α/β type SASP activity, for use as a medicament.
US08133497B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for applying an fragment of a neurotoxin such as the active light chain (LC) of the botulinum toxin (BoNT), such as one of the serotype A, B, C, D, E, F or G botulinum toxins, via permeabilization of targeted cell membranes to enable translocation of the botulinum neurotoxin light chain (BoNT-LC) molecule across the targeted cell membrane to the cell cytosol where a therapeutic response is produced in a mammalian system. The methods and apparatus include use of catheter based delivery systems, non-invasive delivery systems, and transdermal delivery systems.
US08133496B2
The present invention relates to methods and compositions for treating urinary tract infections. In particular, the present invention relates to vaccines and immune modulators for treating urinary tract infections.
US08133478B2
A cosmetic composition for caring for and/or making up the skin, lips and/or body in the form of a film, which is non-transferable, long-lasting with a comfortable feeling of use to consumers over long periods of wear time. The composition contains graftable POSS which forms a film when it cures in situ. The invention also relates to using such film for preparing a cosmetic composition and a makeup process and makeup kit comprising the product.
US08133477B2
A composition comprising an inorganic particulate material in an amount of about 20 wt % to about 70 wt %, a carrier for the particulate material comprising a compound of formula (I) in an amount of about 1 wt % to about 70 wt %, a particulate material coating material in an amount of about 0 wt % to about 5 wt %, and a dispersing agent for the particulate material in an amount of about 0 wt % to about 5 wt %, based on the total weight of the composition, wherein one of R1 and R2 is a straight or branched chain C1-C30 alkoxy radical, and the non-alkoxy R1 or R2 is hydrogen; and R3 is a straight or branched chain C1-C30 alkyl radical.
US08133471B2
The invention describes methods for inhibiting angiogenesis in a tissue by administering an antagonist that specifically binds to a proteolyzed or denatured collagen type-IV with substantially greater affinity than to the native triple helical form of collagen type-IV. Methods utilizing such antagonists for therapeutic treatment of tumor growth, tumor metastasis or of restenosis also are described, as are methods to use such antagonists as diagnostic markers of angiogenesis in normal or diseased tissues both in vivo and ex vivo. The invention further describes methods for treating tumors using said antagonists in combination with radiation therapy and therapies comprising the antagonists and radiation treatment.
US08133470B2
A novel microporous crystalline silicoalumino/(metallo)aluminophosphate molecular sieve framework (designated as BPC-1), having in its as-synthesized form, an X-ray diffraction pattern including the lines listed in Table 1, and method of its synthesis using 4-dimethylaminopyridine as organic templating agent in fluoride medium under microwave-hydrothermal conditions.
US08133468B2
Processes are provided for conjointly producing Br2, a concentrated aqueous solution containing CaCI2, and Cl2 from an aqueous HBr-rich stream and a feed brine dilute in CaCI2 that comprises NaCI. Such processes can comprise feeding the aqueous HBr-rich stream and the feed brine to a tower, oxidizing bromide moieties within the tower with Cl2 from a Cl2 source, at least a portion of which is produced according to this invention, to produce Br2, recovering Br2 from the tower, removing a bromide-depleted bottoms from the tower, such bottoms containing HCI, adding a Ca++ source to the bromide-depleted bottoms to convert substantially all of the HCI in the bottoms to CaCI2, as necessary, removing water from the treated bottoms to produce the concentrated aqueous solution, producing Cl2 and caustics from residual chlorides such as NaCI, and using at least a portion of the thus produced Cl2 in the Cl2 source.
US08133449B2
A portable, lightweight, easy-to-carry, reusable, durable, and environmentally-friendly assembly for sterilizing contaminated equipment using conditions of a chemical sterilant, heat, and humidity generated in situ without requiring external electricity, fuels, or other exogenous energy sources for operation. The carry assembly includes a plastic carry-case or insulated aluminum pressure vessel having an inner chamber for accepting microbiologically contaminated objects, a vessel disposed in the chamber for serving as a reaction chamber and/or boiler, a chemical combination which upon mixing generates at least minimally sufficient conditions of the sterilant, heat, and humidity to effect sterilization of the objects, and outlet valves mounted on the carry-case for controllably venting pressures above ambient air pressure.
US08133447B2
Methods and systems for the production of linear alkylbenzenes are described herein. The methods and systems incorporate the novel use of a high shear device to promote dispersion and mixing of one or more olefins (e.g. propylene) with an aromatic. The high shear device may allow for lower reaction temperatures and pressures and may also reduce reaction time with existing catalysts.
US08133446B2
Slurry hydrocracking a heavy hydrocarbon feed produces a HVGO stream and a pitch stream. At least a portion of the pitch stream is subjected to SDA to prepare a DAO stream low in metals. The DAO is blended with at least a portion of the HVGO stream to provide turbine or marine fuel with acceptable properties for combustion in gas turbines or for marine fuel grades.
US08133438B2
A microfluidic device that comprises a microchannel structure in which there are one, two or more flow paths (101;201a,b;301a,a′,b) all of which comprises a porous bed I (104,204,304) that is common for all of the flow paths and exposes an immobilized reactant R that is capable of interacting with a solute S that passes through the bed. The characteristics are that at least one of the flow paths comprises/comprise a second porous bed II (105,205,305) that is placed upstream of porous bed I (104,204,304) and is dummy with respect to interaction with solute S but capable of interacting with a substance DS that is present in a liquid aliquot together with solute S and is capable of disturbing the result of the interaction between solute S and said immobilized reactant R. There is also disclosed a method utilizing the device and variant of the device in which the immobilized R is replaced with a generic affinity ligand LI and/or porous bed II exposes a generic ligand LII that may be different from LI.
US08133437B2
A method for making an antimicrobial suture comprising the steps of positioning an antimicrobial agent source within a package comprising an inner surface, said antimicrobial agent being selected from the group consisting of halogenated hydroxyl ethers, acyloxydiphenyl ethers, and combinations thereof; positioning a medical device within the package; and subjecting the package, the antimicrobial agent source and the medical device to time, temperature and pressure conditions sufficient to vapor transfer an effective amount of the antimicrobial agent from the antimicrobial agent source to the medical device, thereby substantially inhibiting bacterial colonization on the medical device. Alternatively, the packaged medical device is produced according to the steps of positioning a medical device within a package; exposing the package having the medical device to an antimicrobial agent source; and subjecting the package having the medical device and the antimicrobial agent source to time, temperature and pressure conditions sufficient to transfer an effective amount of the antimicrobial agent from the antimicrobial agent source to the medical device within the package, thereby substantially inhibiting bacterial colonization on the medical device.
US08133433B2
The disclosure relates to fluorescent lamps and methods of manufacture wherein the mercury is dosed into the lamp in a solid material containing mercury, bismuth, indium and another metal. In one embodiment, the metal is selected from the group consisting of zinc, tin, lead, silver, gold, copper, gallium, titanium, nickel, and manganese. Preferably, the atomic ratio of the indium to the bismuth is in the range of about 0.4:0.6 to 0.7:0.3. The atomic ratio of zinc to the combination indium and bismuth may preferably be in the range of about 0.01:0.99 to 0.20:0.80, and the atomic ratio of mercury to the combination of the indium, bismuth and zinc is preferably in the range of about 0.01:0.99 and 0.15:0.85.
US08133432B2
Provided is a conductive material to be used for a resistor and a sensor, which is enhanced its mechanical strength while maintaining a stable resistance ratio. In the conductive material used for the resistor and the sensor, 400 to 10,000 ppm of Sr is contained in Pt, and the balance is an inevitable impurity. An intermetallic compound phase formed of Pt and Sr is precipitated and dispersed in Pt.
US08133429B2
In a method of forming a chalcogenide compound target, a first powder including germanium carbide or germanium is prepared, and a second powder including antimony carbide or antimony is prepared. A third powder including tellurium carbide or tellurium is prepared. A powder mixture is formed by mixing the first to the third powders. After a shaped is formed body by molding the powder mixture. The chalcogenide compound target is obtained by sintering the powder mixture. The chalcogenide compound target may include a chalcogenide compound that contains carbon and metal, or carbon, metal and nitrogen considering contents of carbon, metal and nitrogen, so that a phase-change material layer formed using the chalcogenide compound target may stable phase transition, enhanced crystallized temperature and increased resistance. A phase-change memory device including the phase-change material layer may have reduced set resistance and driving current while improving durability and sensing margin.
US08133428B2
To provide a photocurable composition with which a fine pattern molded product on which a fine pattern of a mold is highly precisely transferred can efficiently be produced.A photocurable composition comprising 100 parts by mass of a photocurable monomer (A), from 5 to 60 parts by mass of a colloidal silica (B) (solid content) having an average particle size of at most 200 nm, and from 0.1 to 10 parts by mass of a photopolymerization initiator (C), wherein the photocurable monomer (A) comprises a multifunctional monomer (A1) having at least 3(meth)acryloyloxy groups in one molecule and a bifunctional monomer (A2) having two (meth)acryloyloxy groups in one molecule, at least one compound belonging to the multifunctional monomer (A1) or the bifunctional monomer (A2) has a hydroxy group, and the ratio of the total amount (mol) of hydroxy groups to the total amount (mol) of the multifunctional monomer (A1) and the bifunctional monomer (A2) is at least 10%.
US08133427B2
The present invention is directed to providing a photo nanoimprint lithography which can form a more uniform base layer. A photo nanoimprint lithography according to the present invention includes the steps of discretely applying a photo-curable resist drop-wise onto a substrate, filling an asperity pattern of a mold with the photo-curable resist by bringing the mold having the asperity pattern formed therein into contact with the photo-curable resist, curing the photo-curable resist by irradiating the resist with a light and releasing from the mold the photo-curable resist which has been photo-cured, wherein an intermediary layer is formed on a surface of the substrate for maintaining a discrete placement of the photo-curable resist that has been instilled drop-wise on the substrate until the mold is brought into contact with the photo-curable resist that has been instilled drop-wise on the substrate.
US08133424B2
This element (2) is of the type including a hollow elongate body (4) made of metal and having a closed section; and a continuous second body (6) made of plastics material overmolded on the metal first body (4), the plastics material second body (6) including at least two rings (24) surrounding the metal first body (4), the rings (24) being longitudinally spaced part. In any cross-section of the metal first body (4), the plastics material second body (6) is situated entirely outside the outline of the metal first body (4), and the ratio of the axial length of each ring (24) over the longitudinal distance between the rings (24) is less than 1. The invention is applicable to the front faces of motor vehicles.
US08133420B2
Expandable polymer compositions are used to reinforce or provide various types of insulation to cavities in structural elements. The polymer compositions include at least two different segments, which may or may not be joined. At least one of the segments will expand before another segment when heated. The first-to-expand segment forms a physical barrier to the expansion of later-expanding segments, thereby restricting the expansion of the later-expanding segment in at least one direction. In this manner, the location of the expanded polymer within the cavity can be easily and inexpensively controlled.
US08133416B2
The ultraviolet shielding compound is highly transparent in the visible light spectrum and shields approximately 100% of ultraviolet A (UVA), ultraviolet B (UVB) and ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation. The ultraviolet shielding compound is formed from polyvinyl alcohol (PYA) doped with phosphotungstic acid (H3PW12O40). Preferably, the ratio of phosphotungstic acid to polyvinyl alcohol is 1. The ultraviolet shielding compound may be formed by first making a polymeric solution of polyvinyl alcohol dissolved in deionized water. Next, phosphotungstic acid is dissolved in deionized water to form an acidic solution. The acidic solution is added to the polymeric solution to form a mixture. The mixture is then thickened and cast. The cast mixture may then be dried to produce the ultraviolet shielding compound in the form of a flexible film.
US08133413B2
This invention relates to a composition using a ruthenium oxide and/or a polynary ruthenium oxide as conducting components and using a Cu containing glass frit.
US08133407B2
Provided is a composition comprising (a) at least one halogenated compound selected from the group consisting of C3-C5 hydrofluoroolefin, CF3I, and combinations thereof, and (b) an effective stabilizing amount of a sesquiterpene selected from the group consisting of farnesol, farnesene, and mixtures thereof.
US08133404B2
An electromagnetic wave shielding material and a sheet using the same are described. Also described is a gel state electromagnetic wave shielding material including an ionic liquid, and fine particles capable of reflecting, suppressing or absorbing an electromagnetic wave suspended in the ionic liquid. The electromagnetic wave shielding material may provide both high electromagnetic interference shielding ability and flexibility when used in sheet form, and in some applications, may provide flame and heat resistance.
US08133401B2
A method and apparatus is provided for conveying lime slurry, removing and controlling the amount of grit, and feeding lime slurry, wherein the lime slurry moves through a recirculation loop, and wherein gravity removal of grit from the lime slurry takes place.
US08133398B2
An apparatus and method for controlling a water characteristic of a body of water by controlling the cyclic release of a water characteristic material into the body of water with or without the system being responsive to a level of the water characteristic in the body of water with the system capable of being controlled from a display or from a wireless control module or both.
US08133395B2
A method for automatically without any required manual interaction packing a media bed in a column (3) from a slurry being a dispersion of said media particles and a liquid, said method comprising the steps a)-f) which all are performed automatically: a) filling the column (3) with a certain volume of slurry; b) packing a media bed from the slurry to a predefined target bed height or a predefined target bed compression; c) testing the separation efficiency of the packed bed; d) automatically unpacking the bed if test results not are acceptable or alternatively flow conditioning the packed bed if test results not are acceptable and return to c); e) calculating new volume of slurry to be filled into the column based on the test results; f) repeat from a).
US08133394B2
Wastewater can be purified in a device, which includes a cup-shaped vessel, having a wastewater inlet tube for the water at a certain level and an outlet tube at a lower level than the inlet tube, and a horizontal distribution disc, which vertically divides the vessel, has at least one opening and is provided with a substantially vertical distribution tube for receiving the water from the inlet tube. Water above the distribution disc is pumped through a filter head with a filter. Filtered water is let out through the outlet tube, whereas unfiltered water is transferred back to the distribution tube. Flocculation agent is added to the unfiltered water before reaching the distribution tube.
US08133393B2
The present invention is a method for refining native biomass to extremely fine and highly disrupted particles using high shear and/or cavitation in combination with high temperature and high or low pH conditions which dissolve biomass to a high percentage. The method of the present invention results in a high percentage of hydrolysis, in many cases near theoretical levels, in short residence times while minimizing inputs over other methods, using low chemical inputs, and optionally with no chemical inputs in certain stages compared to existing processes. The method of the present invention also uses minimal electrical energy inputs and conserves heat energy within the process and reduces equipment requirements while producing concentrated products.
US08133383B2
A localized corrosion monitoring (LCM) device is modified to obtain polarization resistance (Rp) from electrical resistance of a probe having a strip of metal under investigation (test electrode), a reference electrode and a temperature sensor (e.g. thermocouple). This configuration allows the probe to be used in areas where only a thin film of conductive fluid is available or required to provide potential monitoring. Thus, the applicability of the LCM technique is broadened. All the above devices are expected to be configured in one item of equipment, except for the probe which may be remotely located from the rest of the equipment.
US08133378B2
A solid polycrystalline potassium ion conductor having a β″-Al2O3 structure, its production, and the preparation of potassium metal using this potassium ion conductor.
US08133367B1
Sputtering is performed using a sputtering system having a sputtering source having a sputtering medium, a sputtering target positioned so as to be impinged upon by the sputtering medium of the sputtering source, wherein the sputtering target comprises a mass of a first loose granular material, and an open-top vessel in which the mass of the first loose granular material of the sputtering target is received and positioned so that the first loose granular material does not fall out of the open-top vessel by gravity. Some of the first loose granular material is sputtered from the sputtering target, a quantity of a second loose granular material is added to the mass of the first loose granular material in the open-top vessel, and thereafter some of the second loose granular material is sputtered from the sputtering target.
US08133364B2
The present application discloses a method and system of depositing a lead selenide film onto another material. The lead selenide film may used in a photoconductive application or a photovoltaic application. Furthermore, the applications may be responsive to infrared radiation at ambient temperature. In one embodiment, a method includes sputtering the lead selenide film, performing a sensitization process, and applying a passivation film. In one exemplary embodiment, a p-n junction is formed by directly adhering a lead selenide film to a silicon substrate.
US08133359B2
An apparatus and methods for plasma-based sputtering deposition using a direct current power supply is disclosed. In one embodiment, a plasma is generated by connecting a plurality of electrodes to a supply of current, and a polarity of voltage applied to each of a plurality of electrodes in the processing chamber is periodically reversed so that at least one of the electrodes sputters material on to the substrate. And an amount of power that is applied to at least one of the plurality of electrodes is modulated so as to deposit the material on the stationary substrate with a desired characteristic. In some embodiments, the substrate is statically disposed in the chamber during processing. And many embodiments utilize feedback indicative of the state of the deposition to modulate the amount of power applied to one or more electrodes.
US08133353B2
A creped paper product is provided according to the invention. The creped paper product comprises a result of creping a web of fibers comprising synthetic fibers to provide a creped paper product having a stretch of at least 3% in the machine direction according to TAPPI test T494. The web of fibers can include about 0.5 wt. % to 100 wt. % synthetic fibers based on the total weight of the fibers. In addition, the web of fibers can contain about 0.5 wt. % to about 10 wt. % of synthetic fibers and about 90 wt. % to about 99.5 wt. % of cellulosic fibers. When the web of fiber includes a mixture of synthetic fibers and cellulosic fibers, the creped paper product can be provided having a tear strength in the machine direction according to TAPPI test T494 at least 10% greater than an otherwise identical creped paper product that does not contain synthetic fibers. A method for forming a creped paper product is provided according to the invention.
US08133352B2
A method of manufacturing high purity fiber cement grades of cellulose fibers is described. Additional washing steps, coupled with an elevated temperature, are used in the process to extensively wash the pulps and remove substantially all COD components remaining in the pulps. The pulps are counter-currently washed by diffusion and dewatering at elevated temperatures following the brown stock washer systems. During the additional washing steps, the pulps are soaked in counter-current heated water for a pre-determined time and some chemicals may be introduced to chemically break down the COD components in the pulps and to make them more soluble in the aqueous solution. The additional washing steps can be performed using existing equipment at conventional pulp mills. A formulation and a process of making fiber reinforced cement composite materials are also described using the low COD and high purity cellulose fibers. The pulps with lower COD contents have superior performance in manufacture of fiber reinforced cement composite materials. A smaller amount of the low COD and high purity fibers is needed to achieve the same reinforcement efficiency, compared to regular cellulose fibers.
US08133349B1
An inductively coupled plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber in which a semiconductor substrate is processed, a substrate support, a dielectric window forming a wall of the chamber, an antenna operable to generate and maintain a plasma in the processing chamber, and a showerhead plate of dielectric material adjacent the dielectric window. The showerhead plate includes gas holes in fluid communication with a plenum below the dielectric window, the plenum having a gas volume of no greater than 500 cm3. The gas holes extend between the plenum and a plasma exposed surface of the showerhead plate and the gas holes have an aspect ratio of at least 2. A gas delivery system is operable to supply an etching gas and a deposition gas into the processing chamber through the showerhead plate while the semiconductor substrate is supported on the substrate support. The plasma processing apparatus can rapidly replace the etching gas in the plenum with the deposition gas within about 200 milliseconds and vice versa. The plasma processing apparatus is operable to etch silicon on the semiconductor substrate at a rate of 10 μm/minute or higher.
US08133344B2
The present invention relates to a method of producing a hollow fiber membrane bundle having an end fixed with a casting material wherein the ends of hollow fiber membranes are fixed with the casting material in a condition that an insert is placed inside a hollow fiber membrane bundle at a position inner than a region where a fixing portion is formed, and then the insert is removed from the inside of the hollow fiber membrane bundle; and relates to a method of producing a hollow fiber membrane filter element through this method. The hollow fiber membrane bundle produced by the method of the present invention can be used in various types of filtration treatment such as external pressure filtration.
US08133343B2
A method comprising a step of manufacturing an elastic laminated body by laminating two webs and while inserting an elastic member in an extended state in a web length direction in between; a step of cutting the elastic laminated body in a length direction so that a concave portion and a convex portion appear alternately; a step of attaching a cover sheet to bridge between the concave portion and the convex portion of cut first elastic laminated body and second elastic laminated body, respectively; a step of widening the first elastic laminated body and the second elastic laminated body to which the cover sheet is attached; and a step of attaching an absorber onto the cover sheet, lessens the occurrence of wrinkles and creases produced when webs are cut, and eliminates a problem attributed to the occurrence of wrinkles and arising when an absorber is attached.
US08133342B2
A method is provided of fabricating ink jet labels. The method includes the step of providing a web of tag stock paper. The web has first and second sides. A web of ink jet stock paper is provided. The ink jet stock paper has a first side coated with an ink jet coating and a second side. The second side of the ink jet stock paper is laminated to the first side of the tag stock paper to provide a web of label stock.
US08133340B2
A universal door skin blank comprises an exterior side and an interior side for securing to a frame member, first and second molded, spaced stiles, and a flat planar portion disposed between the stiles and lying on a plane spaced from the plane of the stiles. An interface portion is disposed between and contiguous with the stiles and the flat planar portion. The invention also relates to a door having at least one universal door skin blank, with at least two separately formed rails secured to the planar portion of the blank at opposite ends thereof.
US08133339B2
A method of bonding material in a process system for producing a bonded product includes the steps of loading a plurality of rolls of elastomeric material in an unwind system; programming a controller with an unwind speed and a rewind speed, the controller in communication with the unwind system and a rewinder disposed downstream from the unwind system for respective communication of the unwind and rewind speeds to the unwind system and the rewinder; unwinding a quantity of material from the plurality of rolls of elastomeric material into a pressure bonder disposed upstream of the rewinder, the pressure bonder and the rewinder operating faster than the unwind system operating at the unwind speed to generate a speed differential, wherein the speed differential imparts a stretch state to the quantity of material; and bonding the stretched quantity of material with the pressure bonder.
US08133338B2
A stack structure is formed by stacking and bonding a plurality of substrates. The stack structure includes bonding films each of which is interposed in a bonding region between, adjacent glass substrates, and bonded to oxygen atoms in the glass of the substrate by anodic bonding.
US08133335B2
Propellant compositions are provided herein for use in small arms cartridges. Such propellant compositions include from about 70 to about 90% by weight of a cellulose-based organic fuel, from about 5 to about 30% by weight of a non-azide, nitrogen-containing primary organic oxidizer and from about 0.5 to about 10.0% by weight of a secondary nitrate, perchlorate, chlorate or peroxide oxidizer. Preferably, such compositions are in the form of extruded shaped hollow cylindrical grains having a length in the range of 0.030 to 0.200 inch, a diameter in the range 0.040 to 0.070 inch, and having a coaxial opening there through having a wall grain thickness in the range 0.008 to 0.016 inch. Ignition grains are also provided for use alone or in a mixture with the propellant compositions. When used in a small caliber firearm or muzzleloader, the temperature of combustion is at a level that ensures substantially complete combustion of the fuel during firing so that the products of combustion are mostly gaseous.
US08133334B2
A Ni—Fe—Cr alloy having high strength, ductility and corrosion resistance especially for use in deep-drilled, corrosive oil and gas well environments, as well as for marine environments. The alloy comprises in weight %: 35-55% Ni, 12-25% Cr, 0.5-5% Mo, up to 3% Cu, 2.1-4.5% Nb, 0.5-3% Ti, up to 0.7% Al, 0.005-0.04% C, balance Fe plus incidental impurities and deoxidizers. The alloy must also satisfy the ratio of (Nb−7.75 C)/(Al+Ti)=0.5-9 in order to obtain the desired high strength by the formation of γ′ and γ″ phases. The alloy has a minimum of 1% by weight γ″ phase dispersed in its matrix for strength purposes and a total weight percent of γ′+γ″ phases being between 10 and 30.
US08133329B2
One embodiment includes compacting a powder material using at least a first magnetic field to form a compact and selectively sintering a first portion of the compact and leaving a second portion of the compact unsintered to form a component.
US08133319B2
A Periodic Table Group 13 metal nitride crystal is grown by causing a reaction of a Periodic Table Group 13 metal phase with a nitride-containing molten salt phase to proceed while removing a by-product containing a metal element except for Periodic Table Group 13 metals, from the reaction field. According to this process, a high-quality Periodic Table Group 13 metal nitride bulk crystal can be produced under low pressure or atmospheric pressure.
US08133316B2
A process for preparing an asphalt mixture from recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), virgin aggregate, filler and first and second binder materials, is disclosed. The process comprises steps of transporting RAP through a first drum; transporting virgin aggregate through a second drum; adding a first binder material to the RAP in the first drum to provide treated RAP; supplying the treated RAP, the virgin aggregate, filler and a second binder material to a mixing zone; and mixing to provide the asphalt mixture.
US08133314B2
An ink composition includes at least a pigment, a humectant, and water in from 10 to 60% by weight to the total amount of ink. The humectant is a mixture of (A) at least one compound selected from glycerin, 1,2,6-hexanetriol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, and dipropylene glycol; (B) either trimethylol propane or trimethylol ethane, or a mixture thereof; and (C) at least one compound selected from betaines, saccharides, and ureas and having a molecular weight in the range of from 100 to 200, at a content weight ratio of (A):(B):(C) of 1.0:0.1 to 1.0:1.0 to 3.5.
US08133309B2
A turbomachine includes a compressor portion having an intake and a filtration system having an interior and an exterior. The filtration system is arranged upstream of the intake and includes a drain capable of fluid communication with the exterior of the filtration system. The drain includes a one-way valve that allows liquid separated from air flowing through the interior of the filtration system to pass through the drain to the exterior of the filtration system in a first direction, and substantially limits a flow of unfiltered air from entering the intake from the exterior in a second direction.
US08133306B2
A gas diffusion substrate includes a non-woven network of carbon fibres, the carbon fibres are graphitised but the non-woven network has not been subjected to a graphitisation process. A mixture of graphitic particles and hydrophobic polymer is disposed within the network. The longest dimension of at least 90% of the graphitic particles is less than 100 μm. A process for manufacturing gas diffusion substrates includes depositing a slurry of graphitised carbon fibres onto a porous bed forming a wet fibre network, preparing a suspension of graphitic particles and hydrophobic polymer, applying onto, and pulling the suspension into, the network, and drying and firing the network. Another process includes mixing a first slurry of graphitic particles and hydrophobic polymer with a second slurry of graphitised carbon fibres and liquid forming a third slurry, depositing the third slurry onto a porous bed forming a fibre-containing layer, and drying and firing the layer.
US08133301B2
Disclosed herein is a nanoporous hybrids formed by covalent bonding between a crystalline organic-inorganic hybrid and a gigantic mesoporous metal oxide, containing organic groups on the surface thereof, having a size of 10 nm or more. Since the covalently-bonded hybrid nanoporous composite has a large surface area, a multiple microporous structure, a large pore volume and includes an organic-inorganic hybrid having backbone flexibility, the covalently-bonded hybrid nanoporous composite can be used as materials for storing liquids and gases, such as hydrogen, methane and the like, and can be used as adsorbents, separating materials, catalysts, and the like. Further, the covalently-bonded hybrid nanoporous hybrids can be used in the application fields of biomolecule supporting, drug delivery, harmful material removal, nanoparticle supporter, sensors, catalysis, adsorbents, fluorescent materials, solar cells, and the like.
US08133288B2
An aqueous fuel for generating hydrogen includes alkaline aqueous composition of about 17 to 37 mole percent of a sodium borohydride, and from about 0.001 to 1 mole percent of sodium hydroxide.
US08133282B2
Methods and instrumentation for implantation of an intervertebral disc prosthesis are provided. A guide tool with sagittal and coronal reference features guides placement of guide pins relative to a sagittal plane and a coronal plane of the vertebrae. A retainer lockable to the guide pins has a ratcheting mechanism providing distraction or compression. A rasp, planer or other tools may be aligned to the retainer and inserted into the intervertebral space to prepare the vertebral endplates. An interoperatively adjustable trial is alignable to the retainer and measures an angularity of the intervertebral space. A prosthesis with keying features may be mounted to a prosthesis inserter with complementary features, held by pivotable arms and compressed between prongs. The inserter may be aligned to the retainer and advanced to implant the prosthesis in the intervertebral space. A prosthesis remover may grip one prosthetic end plate and extract the entire prosthesis.
US08133281B2
An intervertebral implant with a central axis, a top part, a bottom part, a joint comprising a joint part and a joint shell, and a joining means. The top part has a top apposed surface that is suitable for placing it on a vertebra situated above it; The bottom part has a bottom apposed surface, that is suitable for placing it on a vertebra situated below it. One of the two parts is operatively associated with a convex joint part and the other part to a matching joint shell. The joint part and the joint shell are mounted against one another in a sliding manner such that the top part and the bottom part can rotate relative to one another at least about one axis of rotation. The joining means holds the top part and the bottom part together without impairing the capability of the joint to pivot while allowing a clearance between the joint part and the joint shell.
US08133269B2
In order to provide a vascular stent, with which the risk of restenosis is reduced without having to use anti-proliferative active substances, there is proposed a carrier of a dimensionally stable material, as well as one or more layers, which are disposed at least in sections on the carrier, of a material based on crosslinked gelatin that is resorbable under physiological conditions, wherein the adhesion between the carrier and the layer and/or between individual layers can be neutralised.
US08133259B2
A child's pacifier having a shield with a concave side and a convex side, a nipple extending outwardly from the concave side and a handle extending outwardly from the convex side. The shield is in the shape of two wings, each wing having two lobes, with the shield having a plurality of holes and a curved edge providing a bumper.
US08133254B2
A method of performing surgery includes the steps of providing a forceps having a housing including a shaft that extends therefrom and at least one handle moveable relative to the housing and providing an end effector assembly configured to selectively engage a distal end of the shaft. The method also includes the steps of inserting the forceps through a first opening formed in a body; inserting the end effector assembly through a second opening formed in the body; engaging the end effector assembly with the distal end of the shaft in vivo; and actuating the end effector assembly by moving the handle relative to the housing. The method may also include the steps of providing a coupling at the distal end of the shaft, and engaging, via the coupling, the distal end of the shaft with the end effector assembly.
US08133239B2
An apparatus for the repair of a cardiovascular valve has leaflets comprising a grasper capable of grabbing and co-apting the leaflets of the valve. In a preferred embodiment, the grasper has jaws that grasp and immobilize the leaflets, and then a fastener is inserted to co-apt the leaflets. The apparatus is particularly useful for repairing mitral valves to cure mitral regurgitation.
US08133232B2
An expandable bone device including first and second bone support elements, a manipulator positioned between the first and second bone support elements and connected to them by link members, the manipulator adapted to move the first and second bone support elements between a collapsed orientation and an expanded orientation, wherein in the collapsed orientation the first and second bone support elements are drawn towards the manipulator and in the expanded orientation the first and second bone support elements are moved outwards away from a longitudinal axis of the manipulator, and deformable support struts connected between the manipulator and the first and second bone support elements that deform when moved by the manipulator from the collapsed orientation to the expanded orientation and vice versa, wherein in the expanded orientation the deformable support struts form a structure that maintains the first and second bone support elements in the expanded orientation.
US08133231B2
An instrument kit for performing a repair procedure on a meniscal tear in a knee for use in combination with a mechanical repair device is disclosed. The instrument kit includes at least one template including an elongate body defining X, Y and Z axes. The elongate body adapted for insertion in a knee of the patient to approximate a path to a meniscal tear within the knee. The elongate body has a length defining the X-axis. The instrument kit including a first template having a linear elongate body, a second template having a distal end portion which is offset in a direction of the Y-axis, and a third template having a distal end portion which is offset in a direction of the Z-axis.
US08133225B2
The present application relates to an implant for tubular bones and to a method for treating fractures of tubular bones. The implant is used to connect two parts of a tubular bone that has broken with a substantially smooth break. The implant is formed by a shaped piece that is inserted into the medullary cavity of a broken tubular bone. The shaped piece has at least one through-opening, which has a substantially constant internal diameter and extends substantially through the shaped piece and through which a cord can be pulled in order to stabilize the fracture. The shaped piece is made of resorbable material, and two anchor parts can be secured on the cord. The anchor parts fix the cord to the bone, and the shaped piece exploits the principle of an internally braced stack in order to press the fracture surfaces of the bone against each other.
US08133200B2
A pen needle assembly includes a cap for covering the non-injection end of a needle of a pen needle. The needle is received by a hub, which is disposed in an outer cover. The cap is adapted to be connected to the outer cover in a first or second position. The cap is removable in the first position and the cap is locked to the outer cover in the second position.
US08133198B2
A medical fluid injector and methods for operation thereof. In certain embodiments, the medical fluid injector includes a medium that is expandable and contractible in response to a thermal gradient, a thermal device coupled to the medium, and a syringe interface coupled to the medium. The thermal device may include a heater, a cooler, or a combination thereof.
US08133195B2
In a device for handling blood in extracorporeal blood circulation that has at least one oxygenator, one heat exchanger, and one blood filter, the inlets and outlets in the oxygenator/heat exchanger unit are embodied such that a blood flow cross section of A≧80 mm2, preferably A≧120 mm2, is assured. The device can also be operated in an isolated form as a single structural part, which takes on the functions of an oxygenator and a heat exchanger with a blood filter. If a pump is provided in the device, then the pump drive can be removed as needed.
US08133178B2
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for measuring an analyte in a host. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for transcutaneous measurement of glucose in a host.
US08133176B2
Sensors and monitors for a physiological monitoring system having capability to indicate an accuracy of an estimated physiological condition. The sensor senses at least one physiological characteristic of a patient and is connectable to a monitor that estimates the physiological condition from signals detected by the sensor. The sensor includes a detector for detecting the signals from the patient which are indicative of the physiological characteristic. The sensor is associated with a memory configured to store data that defines at least one sensor signal specification boundary for the detected signals. The boundary is indicative of a quality of the signals and an accuracy of the physiological characteristic estimated from the signals by the monitor. The sensor further includes means for providing access to the memory to allow transmission of the data that defines the at least one sensor boundary to the monitor.
US08133175B2
A device serves for temporarily immobilizing a tissue in an area of a pulsating blood vessel during a cardiac and thoracic surgical intervention. A pod of the device can be placed onto a tissue beneath a pulsating blood vessel. The pod has a rigid holder supporting a flexible element. The flexible element has suction openings in an area of contact with said tissue. The pod has a connector piece for the connecting to an underpressure source. A flexibility of said flexible element is in that said flexible element adapts to a shape of said tissue in said area of contact when placed on said tissue.
US08133173B2
A surgical access system including a tissue distraction assembly and a tissue refraction assembly, both of which may be equipped with one or more electrodes for use in detecting the existence of (and optionally the distance and/or direction to) neural structures before, during, and after the establishment of an operative corridor to a surgical target site.
US08133172B2
Described is a surgical system for monitoring a patient's condition during surgery. One aspect is a non-contact EEG sensor. The non-contact EEG sensor can be used to predict the onset of physiological disorders. Another aspect includes the use of a plurality of pressure sensors to determine the pressure applied by retractors on the patient, including the brain and other organs.
US08133161B2
A conductive member includes a conductive support and an electrical resistance adjusting layer formed on the conductive support. The electrical resistance adjusting layer includes a thermoplastic resin, a polymeric ion conductive material, and a graft copolymer which is compatible with both of the thermoplastic resin and the polymeric ion conductive material. The electrical resistance adjusting layer is formed in a sea-island structure formed from a sea portion made of the polymeric ion conductive material and island portions made of the thermoplastic resin, the island portions being dispersed in the sea portion and each of the island portions is formed in an elongate shape. A layer made of the graft copolymer is formed at boundaries between the thermoplastic resin and the polymeric ion conductive material.
US08133157B2
A method of controlling fuel injection in an engine of a vehicle comprising of deactivating a fuel injector of the engine during a deceleration condition of the vehicle; and reactivating the fuel injector when a rate of change of a powertrain shaft deceleration is greater than a threshold.
US08133156B2
The temperature of a machine component is controlled by transferring heat generated by a torque converter under restricted conditions to the component. The machine includes a circulating fluid system configured to transfer heat from the torque converter to the remotely positioned machine component. A controller is configured to sense the temperature of the component, and to restrict motion of the torque converter turbine when the sensed temperature is below a desired temperature. Heat generated by the torque converter under the restricted condition is transferred through the circulating fluid system to the remote component, such as the machine power source, to control the temperature thereof.
US08133154B2
A control system for determining a desired gear ratio of an automatic transmission includes a pedal rate module that determines a pedal rate of an accelerator pedal, and a shift module that determines the desired gear ratio of the transmission based on a position of the accelerator pedal and the pedal rate. The shift module determines the desired gear ratio based on a comparison of the pedal rate and a predetermined rate. The predetermined rate is based on a first period since the transmission shifted into a current gear. The shift module also determines the desired gear ratio based on one of a second period the pedal rate remains less than a positive rate and a third period the pedal rate remains greater than a negative rate. A related control method is also provided.
US08133141B2
The invention relates to a hydraulic system for actuating a continuously variable belt-driven conical-pulley transmission having two conical pulleys encircled by an endless torque-transmitting means, each of which comprises two conical disks, one of which is axially movable depending on the pressure in an associated pressing chamber, and having a torque sensor which includes a torque sensing chamber that is connected to a hydraulic energy source and is linked with the pressing chambers.The invention is distinguished by the fact that the pressing chambers are connected via a first hydraulic resistance element to the torque sensing chamber, and via a second hydraulic resistance element to an additional pressure chamber, in which a lower pressure prevails than in the pressing chambers and/or the torque sensing chamber.
US08133139B2
A game ball, which may be a soccer ball or a variety of other types of ball. The game ball includes a plurality of pentagonal panels, with each of the pentagonal panels having five convex edges. The game ball also includes a plurality of hexagonal panels, with each of the hexagonal panels having three substantially linear edges and three concave edges. The pentagonal panels and the hexagonal panels are connected along abutting concave edges and convex edges, and the hexagonal panels are connected each other along abutting linear edges.
US08133138B1
A broadhead is formed from a ferrule, at least one blade pivotally coupled to the ferrule, and a biasing member positioned under the blade between the ferrule. The biasing member applies pressure upward to a trailing edge of the blade, which is prevented from pivoting forward beyond a pre-determined angle in relation to the ferrule by a point coupled to the ferrule.
US08133135B2
Wood-type golf club heads include: (a) a club head body including heel, toe, crown, sole, and weighted rear portions; and (b) a variable thickness ball striking face. The club head body parts and weighted portion(s) may be arranged such that the club head has a moment of inertia about a vertical axis passing through the club head center of gravity of at least 5000 g-cm2. Such club heads may include: (a) a cup face member including a ball striking face portion and a return portion; (b) sole and crown portions engaged with the return portion; (c) a rear body member engaged with the crown and/or sole portions; (d) a weight member at the club head rear; and/or (e) a hosel member engaged with the cup face member, the crown portion, and/or the sole portion.
US08133129B2
An iron type golf club head includes a club head having a first body component defining a striking face, and a second body component releasably secured to the first body component with a fastener. The second body component defines at least a perimeter portion of a rear face of the club head body and may define substantially an entire rear face of the club head body.
US08133124B2
The present invention enhances a golf tournament using novel tournament scoring and novel rules that include allowing viewer interaction with a live tournament to affect the outcome of the tournament. In a match play golf tournament, the number of tournament points awarded to a match winning team is directly proportional to a sum of the difference in the number of holes won and the number of holes left to play. In addition, elected spectators of the event may participate in a team's compliance with one or more of the tournament rules, such as selecting a player whose results will be counted double. The tournament is preferably based on the Ryder cup format, but condensed into a single day.
US08133121B2
A system and process for aggregating and displaying information about a plurality of gaming tables to a user comprising a stacking component and a console area. The console area displays one or more active tables, while the stacking component displays changing information about each table the user has open. The stacking component may include one or more sub-components or dialogs, including a table list dialog, a player information dialog, a hand information dialog and/or an action area dialog.
US08133114B2
Systems and methods for controlling an overhead sign in a system of gaming machines and a sign controller are described. One aspect of the systems and methods includes allowing a gaming machine to send events comprising a script to a sign through a sign controller.
US08133110B1
A method, apparatus, and computer readable storage medium for implementing a slot machine game with cascading reels. Reels and further reels can be spun, allowing for a plurality of lines.
US08133108B2
To provide a gaming machine which can carry out a lizhi effect rich in impact without giving a feeling of boredom.A gaming machine being provided with a display device, which can display an image and can be switched to a transmissive condition or a non-transmissive condition, in front of a plurality of symbols which can be variably displayed, in the event that a combination of the plurality of symbols reaches a lizhi, as well as portions in front of the plurality of symbols taking on the non-transmissive condition, a symbol image corresponding to a last stop displayed symbol is variably displayed on the display device.
US08133106B2
A method of operating a plurality of wagering game tournaments on a plurality of gaming machines includes receiving a wager from a player to play a wagering game on a gaming machine of the plurality of gaming machines. The method further includes providing an option, at the gaming machine, to enter the plurality of wagering game tournaments. The method also includes entering at least one of the plurality of wagering game tournaments and playing in any entered tournament when the tournament begins.
US08133104B2
The online poker gaming system comprises a live or recorded poker game, and at least one gaming terminal. The live or recorded poker game involves a group of players sitting around a table. Each player is playing for prize money so there is a cash incentive for each to win. The player terminal displays images of the live or recorded game being broadcast for view by an online player. The player terminal also includes a schematic of the game for presenting in a concise and visual way, the game status and gaming data of the live or recorded game. The player terminal also includes a keypad, enabling the online player to select one or more players to win, and select a value for each selection. So while the online player cannot make gaming decisions—fold, call, check, and raise—the online player can participate by making selections, much as one would make selections at a racetrack. The online player can make multiple playing selections unavailable to the player sitting at the table.
US08133101B2
A combine harvester where opposing concaves on either side of a rotor of a processing system substantially simultaneously travel symmetrical paths. The concaves of the processing system may be pivotally supported on a rockshaft where the axis of the rockshaft moves in a generally vertical manner so that the concaves then move generally radially toward or away from the rotor.
US08133095B2
A method of shaping an ophthalmic lens includes machining the edge face of the lens by at least one rotary tool having an axis of rotation movable relative to the lens axis, both in rotation and radial and axial translation. These movements are controlled so that the edge face of the lens presents a profiled shape with an engagement ridge suitable for engaging in a bezel of eyeglasses and first and second margins. Given first and second longitudinal curves of the first and second margins, respectively, the edge face of the lens is machined in such a manner that, at each axial section of the lens, the traces in the axial section of the first and second longitudinal curves present first and second distances from the axis of the lens, with the difference (rs) therebetween being a function of the position of the plane of the axial section under consideration.
US08133087B1
An outboard motor cooling water distribution system directs water from the water jacket of an engine through a container in which a conduit has a first inlet opening that is configured to cause a water stream to entrain debris from a region near a drain opening of the container and prevent the debris from building up in the vicinity of the drain opening. Debris which is heavier than the water is drawn upwardly through the first inlet opening of the conduit and conducted away from the container. Debris which is lighter than water is entrained in a second water flow and conducted through a second inlet opening of the conduit so that it can be drawn into the conduit and conducted away from the container. The creation of the first water flow maintains the area around the drain opening in a clean condition as a result of the velocity and direction of the water flow caused by the position and size of the first inlet opening of the conduit. The primary function of the present invention is to prevent a buildup of debris in the area around the drain opening and the potential blockage of the drain opening that could result from that type of buildup.
US08133085B2
In cowling structure for an outboard motor, a through hole is formed below an upper-cowling joining surface of a lower cowling; control cables are supported with a cable supporting groove of a back side plate, and the back side plate is fixed to the through hole; a sealing member that is covered on the outside of the control cables, is fitted into the through hole; a groove of a front side plate is placed around the control cables, and the front side plate is set onto the sealing member; and the sealing member is fixed to the lower cowling by a bolt together with the front side plate. The cowling structure for an outboard motor can prevent water intrusion by removing a notch on an upper-cowling joining surface of a lower cowling.
US08133077B2
A shield connector (C) includes a tubular metallic shield shell (30) integrally attached to the outer circumferential surface of a housing (10) made of resin by insert molding. The shield shell (30) is formed with a cut (32) extending between opposite ends in a longitudinal direction, and a pair of opening preventing pieces (34A, 34B) which extend radially inward or outward, circumferentially face each other and can come into contact with each other when edges (33A, 33B) at the opposite sides of the cut (32) are displaced in directions away from each other are provided on the opposite edges (33A, 33B) of the shield shell 30 facing each other with the cut (32) therebetween.
US08133076B2
A connector has an inner housing (11) accommodating female terminal fittings (80); an outer housing (12) disposed to surround a periphery of the inner housing (11); and a rubber member (70) disposed to be sandwiched between the inner and outer housings (11, 12). When a mating housing (90) is fit between the inner and outer housings (11, 12), the rubber member (70) is held therebetween and is compressed in a fit-on direction and with a fit-on surfaces of the inner and mating housings (11, 90) kept in contact with each other in a pressed state.
US08133072B2
A cable assembly includes a cover, a first connector, a cable, and a second connector. The first connector includes a housing, a plurality of terminals received in the housing, and a metal shell. The cable includes a first end electrically connected to the first connector and a second end. The second connector is electrically connected to the second end of the cable. The first connector is attached on the cover and includes a mating surface parallel to the cover. The first end of the cable is arranged on one side of the first connector and the second connector includes a mating surface perpendicular to the cover.
US08133064B2
A power outlet includes a base and sliding covers. The base has conductive terminals for electrically connecting to terminals of a power line. The conductive terminals are partially exposed from the base and a pair of first guiding portions arranged in parallel to each other is disposed on each side of the base exposing the conductive terminals. Each of the sliding covers has second guiding portions capable of sliding with and engaging with the corresponding first guiding portions so as to allow the sliding covers to slide relative to the base, thereby shielding the exposed portions of the conductive terminals and preventing accidental touching of the exposed portions of the conductive terminals by a user and thus avoiding the risk of electric shock.
US08133061B1
A dual-sided connector pin interposer includes a substrate comprising a first side opposite a second side. The interposer includes a first plurality of flexible pins protruding from the first side of the substrate. The first plurality of flexible pins is positioned for installation in a first plurality of pad connectors of the pinless socket. The interposer includes a second plurality of flexible pins protruding from the second side of the substrate. The second plurality of flexible pins is positioned for installation in a second plurality of pad connectors of the pinless integrated circuit component. The first plurality of flexible pins are electrically connected to the second plurality of flexible pins through the substrate to provide electrical contact points between the pinless socket and the pinless integrated circuit component when the interposer is installed.
US08133054B2
The present invention concerns an orthodontic appliance for accelerating the tooth aligning effect and shortening the treatment period, and has an object to provide an appliance which can bring about higher aligning effect than usual ways by giving vibration to tooth to be aligned to activate bone remodeling of the targeted tooth and the alveolar bone and enhance the shift of the tooth. This appliance includes a vibrating element and a dental mouthpiece having the vibrating element built therein. The provision of the vibrating element in the dental mouthpiece facilitates the application of vibration and handling, and continues the treatment safely even at home. The inner shape of the dental mouthpiece serves aligning treatment as well as acceleration of the effect.
US08133051B2
An orthodontic bracket is comprised of a translucent ceramic containing at least 99.5 wt % of alumina, and having an absorption/scattering coefficient of at most 2.8 mm−1 for visible light at a wavelength of 550 nm and a bending strength of, at least 700 MPa. This bracket is obtained, for example, by sintering a molded body of highly-pure alumina fine powder at a temperature of from 1,200° C. to 1,300° C. to obtain a sintered body composed of crystals having a relative density of from 96% to 99.5% and an average crystal grain size of at most 1 μm, and thereafter subjecting the sintered body to an HIP treatment at a temperature of from 1,200° C. to 1,350° C. and under a pressure of at least 50 MPa. Such an orthodontic bracket has high strength and high translucency, can be processed into a complicated shape, similar to that of a metal bracket, and maintains excellent translucency.
US08133049B1
A variable modular support system for use in a kiln, as well as a method of constructing such a support system in a kiln, comprises plurality of refractory blocks each having an upper surface and a lower surface and at least one transverse recess in either the upper or lower surface, the plurality of refractory blocks comprising a first base refractory block and a second base refractory block spaced from the first refractory block by a variable and selectable distance. Connecting rods extend from the recess of the first base refractory block or a refractory block stacked thereon to the recess of the second base refractory block or a refractory block stacked thereon, the connecting rods forming a rack or shelf located between the first base refractory block and the second base refractory block.
US08133045B2
A rotary fluid device having a housing that defines a pumping chamber, a shaft disposed in the housing, and a rotor disposed in the pumping chamber and engaged with the shaft. The rotor includes a body which defines a bore that includes an oblique tapered surface. A pivot line is disposed along the tapered surface. The pivot line is a circumferential line at which the rotor pivots. A method for manufacturing a rotor includes turning an outer peripheral surface of the rotor. A bore is formed in the rotor. The bore includes an oblique tapered surface that has a pivot line disposed along the tapered surface, wherein the pivot line is a circumferential line at which the rotor pivots.
US08133042B2
A chemical liquid supplying apparatus, which can discharge chemical liquid with high precision, is provided. A pump assembly is detachably mounted in a pump case in which liquid inflow and discharge ports are formed. The pump assembly includes: a cylindrical body in which a piston is slidably incorporated axially; an elastically deformable bellows forming a pump chamber in the pump case and forming a drive chamber in which an indirect medium is enclosed; and an axially elastically-deformable bellows cover continuing with a sliding surface of the piston and forming a seal chamber in which the indirect medium is enclosed, and the pump assembly is unitized. The pump assembly is coupled to a drive shaft via a connecting member, and by axial-directional reciprocating movement of this drive shaft, the piston causes the bellows to perform a pump operation, whereby the chemical liquid is discharged from a liquid discharge portion.
US08133037B2
The invention concerns an external gear hydraulic pump including a pump body housing rotating pinions that mutually engage. Located on opposite sides of the body are a cover and a support, forming an outlet manifold for high pressure fluid. Acoustic insulation elements damp the vibrations produced by the pinions. The acoustic insulation elements acoustically decouple the pump body from the support.
US08133032B2
A rotor blade has a tip with an outer face including at least two channels which each extend to an outlet in the vicinity of the trailing edge. Accordingly, gas leakage around the tip must cross at least three walls, at least in the vicinity of the uncovered turning region near the trailing edge of the blade. Leakage gas entering the channels will tend to create a vortex and pass along the channel to the outlet.
US08133028B2
A cooling fan structure includes a driving device having a rotatable section disposed therein for providing a rotatable effect. The rotatable section has a first end longitudinally extending to a top of the driving device and a second end longitudinally extending to a bottom of the driving device. A set of fan blades is radially mounted to the rotatable section of the driving device and driven by the rotatable section. Each fan blade has an inner end. The inner end has a first connection and a second connection respectively extending therefrom. The first connection of each fan blade is connected to the first end of the rotatable section. The second connection of each fan blade is connected to the second end of the rotatable section.
US08133021B2
A dynamic compressor, in particular a turbo compressor, having an exterior housing, a compressor unit featuring a tubular housing with an outer wall and a circular cross section, wherein the compressor unit is received by a circular opening which is located in the exterior housing and has an inner wall. Two compressor elements, which are at a distance from each other, are provided between the outer wall of the tubular housing and the inner wall of the opening in which the compressor unit is received, and wherein, furthermore, a fluid supply line is provided which penetrates the exterior housing and extends between the compressor elements which are at a distance from each other.
US08133011B2
The invention concerns a novel type of turbomachine. The stator of the turbomachine comprises a plurality of profiled members forming stiffeners arranged on the blade stage. The profiled members are distributed uniformly at periphery of the blade stage and individually between two consecutive blades. The stiffeners are fixed to the internal and external ferrules of the stator in order to uniformly increase the axial and radial stiffness of the stator in normal operation of the turbomachine and to allow the internal ferrules to have a limited displacement during the normal functioning of the turbomachine. This makes it possible to reduce the axial sizing of the turbomachine, and consequently its mass.
US08133008B2
An axial flow fluid apparatus axially provided with a plurality of blade rows having a plurality of blades arranged around a shaft is provided. A fluid passage for jetting a fluid to a downstream velocity defect region resulting from a blade is formed in at least one of blades constituting a blade row installed on the upstream side of the plurality of blade rows so as to lead from a positive pressure surface to a negative pressure surface or a trailing edge.
US08133006B2
A frame for a serially connected axial flow fan unit includes a first housing and a second housing coupled together. The first housing includes a first axial locking mechanism and a first unlocking mechanism, and the second housing includes a second axial locking mechanism and a second unlocking mechanism. The first and the second axial locking mechanism are locked against each other through their movement along their axis. The first and the second unlocking mechanism unlock the first and the second housing with a twisting force equal to or greater than a predetermined value when the first and the second housing are twisted relative to each other. When the first and the second end portion are brought into contact, the first and the second axial locking mechanism are locked against each other and the first and the second unlocking mechanism engage with each other.
US08133005B2
A blower includes a housing and a plurality of impellers. The impellers are disposed in the housing, and a mutual air-gathering passage is formed between the impellers and the housing. Compared to the prior art, the mutual air-gathering passage of the blower of the present invention can collect the airflow and stabilize the airflow. Thus, the air pressure at the air outlet is increased, and the overall airflow performance is improved.
US08133004B2
A jet engine includes a shaft rotatably supported in a bearing arrangement, a compressor and a turbine arranged on the shaft, and an electromechanical unit arranged centrally about the shaft axis to provide a motor function for starting the jet engine and/or a generator function for a power supply, and a function of an active magnetic bearing arrangement. The electromechanical unit is embodied as a transverse flux machine. The electromechanical unit preferably includes a rotor carrying permanent magnets and a stator with an undulating profiled stator surface.
US08133002B2
A method of forming stacks of wafers. One half of the number of the wafers provided serially in the transfer carrier is transferred out of the transfer carrier in the form of a first wafer stack in a mounted standby position located outside of the transfer carrier, then the other half of the number of wafers serially provided in the transfer carrier is moved out of the transfer carrier in the form of a second wafer stack and the second wafer stack is swiveled so that the wafers of the second wafer stack reach a position swiveled by 180° in relation to the position of the wafers of the first wafer stack in its standby position. The second wafer stack is transferred to the standby position of the first wafer stack, aligned to it and then joined together as form fitting with the first wafer stack.
US08133000B2
A system for loading, unloading and carrying a boat, upright with motor, on a vehicle includes a raised carrying rack positioned at an incline above the vehicle and a loading arm extending rearwardly from the back of the vehicle and supported in cantilever fashion by cables. A winch, cable and pulley system pulls the boat out of the water, onto the loading arm, up onto rollers at the rear of the carrying rack, and to the forward end of the carrying rack where it is secured. The loading arm may be folded upright after the boat is loaded on the carrying rack.
US08132985B2
Armor units for rubble mound structures including breakwaters, revetments, groins, jetties, and the like. Embodiments are appropriate for ocean, river, lake and reservoir structure armoring, to prevent erosion from damaging hydrodynamic forces resulting from waves and water currents, and the like. An embodiment includes a central rectangular section, three “half H-shaped” appendages, two identical frusta (end members), and a flat bottom with two extrusions, nominally smaller than other appendages and frusta. An embodiment is symmetric about two perpendicularly intersecting vertical planes extending through the centroid of the unit. The three half H-shaped members are connected to outer parts of a side defined as the top and the two longitudinal sides of the central section. The three half H-shaped members and the two end members comprise four-sided frusta that taper from a base at the central rectangular section to four-sided distal ends. For select embodiments, the frusta are generally symmetric.
US08132984B2
A self-propelled concrete finishing trowel has a power steering system that facilitates operator selection of a desired steering performance response of the trowel. The power steering system includes a controller that communicates operator steering instructions from one or more joysticks and the powered actuators associated with the driven shafts. A selector allows the operator to select one or more preset steering modes, each of which has a different set of steering response characteristics for a given range of joystick motion.
US08132982B2
A composition for dust suppression including an acrylic polymer, a polyvinyl acetate polymer, glycerin, and water is herein disclosed.
US08132964B2
A bearing includes an inner race member having an end surface. An outer race member is disposed about the inner race member. The outer race member has an internal shoulder for engaging the end surface of the inner race member. The inner and outer race members are configured to define a raceway between them and to define a snap ring seat between them. There are cylindrical rollers in the raceway and a snap ring in the snap ring seat. The bearing may be provided as a follower head on a cam follower or may be eccentrically mounted on a drive shaft to serve as a cam. A bearing can be assembled by inserting the inner race member into the outer race member, disposing cylindrical rollers in the raceway and disposing a snap ring in the snap ring seat.
US08132963B2
The aim of the invention is to reduce the temperature gradient at the connection terminals of a connection unit to which lines can be joined. The inventive temperature compensation element is made of at least one first strip of thermally conducting material on which terminal lugs are arranged in a row at essentially right angles to the strip and are insulted in relation to each other and the strip. The terminal lugs are connected to the strip in a thermally conductive manner and can be respectively contacted to the lines with corresponding contact terminals of the connection unit.
US08132960B2
A shaker is disclosed which is driven by a motor through a swing mechanism so as to swing a wine bottle, for example, drink within the bottle such as wine. The shaker comprises a base, a container, and a bottle seat disposed at a bottom in the container for receiving a bottle body, characterized in that the drink shaker further comprises a swing mechanism disposed in the base and driven by the motor through a conversion mechanism, and the swing mechanism is capable of driving the bottle seat to swing rightward and leftward in a plane or in different planes.
US08132948B2
A method and apparatus for directing light from a light source along a trajectory to avoid particular obstacles and provide uniform illumination of a surface having a particular geometry such as a cylindrical geometry is described. The surface may enclose components such as PCBs that provide particular functionality that operate as obstacles to a light beam.
US08132943B2
An adjustable recessed lighting fixture includes a housing which is adapted to be recessedly mounted in a wall. A base is fixedly mounted in the housing. The base has a substantially semi-spherical cavity defined therein. A casing is pivotally and receivably disposed in the cavity such that the casing is movable relative to the cavity along a semi-spherical shape of the cavity. At least one socket is disposed in the casing. The socket has a light emitting unit installed therein which is adapted for providing illumination. By manually and rotatably adjusting the casing relative to the base, a projecting direction of the light emitting unit is changed.
US08132928B2
An improved solar reflector utilizing a tensioned reflective membrane. The reflector structure includes a membrane attached on the outer surface of a metal strap that is positioned on an end form by means of a curved-face tensioning block.
US08132926B2
An electro-optic device includes an electro-optic element and a dust-proof substrate which is joined to at least one surface of the electro-optic element. The dust-proof substrate has a plurality of protrusions on a surface opposite to the surface of the electro-optic element to which the dust-proof substrate is joined.
US08132923B2
A cooling device which prevents ambient persons from being exposed to an unpleasant feeling as much as possible by properly controlling an exhausting direction of the air which is used for cooling and exhausted from a chassis and an image projection apparatus having the cooling device are obtained. The cooing device cools first and second members to be cooled provided in the chassis, has first and second exhaust fans for guiding winds which have cooled the respective first and second members to an outside of the chassis, and is characterized in that the first and second exhaust fans are arranged so as to face the same surface of the chassis and the winds exhausted from the first and second exhaust fans are mixed.
US08132921B2
According to one embodiment, a projection display apparatus comprises an optical system configured to modulate light from a light source in accordance with an input image signal and to project modulated light onto a screen, a cooling fan configured to cool the optical system, an error detector configured to detect a driving error of the cooling fan, a target rotation speed setting unit configured to set a target rotation speed of the cooling fan, and a target rotation speed controller configured to increase the target rotation speed of the cooling fan when the error detector detects a drive error of the cooling fan.
US08132920B2
A video projector includes a reduced size spatial light modulator (400) that spatially modulates light from a light source (502) according to only a portion (e.g., ½) of a video frame at a time. A beam steerer (508, 600, 1600) steers spatially modulated light from the spatial light modulator to a correspond region (e.g., upper half, lower half) of a projection screen/surface (512) and one or more lenses (506, 510, 702, 802, 1002, 1008, 1100, 1300, 1502) insure that the spatially light modulator (400) is imaged onto the projection screen/surface (512).
US08132915B2
A binocular indirect opthalmoscope has a light source for producing an illumination beam and an illumination mirror (7) for directing the illumination beam to an eye to be viewed. The opthalmoscope also has, viewing optics including left-hand and right-hand eyepieces (12,13) and an optical splitter (9,10) for directing light along left-hand and right-hand viewing paths to the two eyepieces. An aperture holder (20) is pivotally mounted in a frame (3,5,6) of the opthalmoscope and adjusts the size of the illumination beam, under the control of a manually rotatable control knob (24). The movement of the aperture holder is transmitted, by means of mechanical linkage, to a moveable carriage (15) on which is mounted both the optical splitter and the illumination mirror, so that when the user moves the control knob to adjust the size of the illumination beam the optical splitter and the illumination mirror are also adjusted in position with respect to the opthalmoscope frame.
US08132911B2
An eye examination device has a fundus observation system and an optical stimulation system. The optical stimulation system has an optical targeting subsystem and an optical stimulation subsystem, wherein the optical stimulation system is structured to be used to provide light stimulation to a portion of a fundus of an eye targeted by the optical targeting subsystem in conjunction with observations made with the fundus observation system.
US08132905B2
The invention relates to a recording device that includes a casing and a conveying unit that conveys a recording medium, and the conveying unit is positioned in the casing. The recording device also includes a recording unit that performs recording on the recording medium that is being conveyed by the conveying unit, and the recording unit opposing the conveying unit in the casing. The recording device may also include a cassette that is removably mountable to the casing and that is positioned in an area adjacent to the conveying unit when the cassette is mounted to the casing. The recording device may also include a movement mechanism that moves a portion of the conveying unit to the area adjacent to the conveying unit when a portion of the cassette is removed from the casing.
US08132898B2
A recording head includes ejection ports that eject ink, a first liquid chamber for supplying ink to the ejection ports, a second liquid chamber for supplying ink to the first liquid chamber, a gas reservoir disposed in the upper part of the first liquid chamber and collecting gas, a first outlet through which fluid is discharged out of the gas reservoir, and a pump chamber into which fluid is moved through the first outlet out of the first liquid chamber by producing a pressure difference from the first liquid chamber.
US08132896B2
A liquid discharge head includes a liquid discharge substrate including a discharge port for discharging liquid, and a flow path member including a transparent member that is transparent to a laser beam, an absorption member capable of absorbing a laser beam, and a flow path for supplying liquid to the liquid discharge substrate, wherein the flow path is formed between the transparent member and the absorption member by emitting a laser beam toward a flow path portion of the absorption member constituting a portion of a wall of the flow path and toward a periphery of the flow path portion through the transparent member and thereby welding the transparent member and the absorption member at the periphery of the flow path portion, and wherein the flow path portion includes an inclined surface inclined with respect to a direction of the laser beam that has passed through the transparent member.
US08132894B2
A method and an inkjet printing apparatus for ejecting ink in a deflected manner are provided. The inkjet printing apparatus includes an inkjet printhead having a passage plate, an electrostatic-force-application unit, and a heating unit. The passage plate includes ink chambers that hold ink and nozzles that eject the ink from the ink chambers as ink droplets. The electrostatic-force-application unit applies an electrostatic force. The heating unit heats up a portion of the ink inside the nozzles. The heating unit can include heaters disposed around each nozzles or a laser diode disposed outside the inkjet printhead. The electrostatic force forms a meniscus at the surface of the ink inside the nozzle. When a portion of the ink inside the nozzle is heated by the heating unit, the shape of the meniscus is changed and the direction in which the ink droplets are ejected through the nozzles is deflected.
US08132887B2
A system and processes for the accurate measurement and control of image color values on a printing press with or without the presence of a color bar. More particularly, a universal closed loop color control system and processes for controlling the color quality of color images printed on a substrate online or offline, with or without a color bar printed on the substrate. The system may be run in a “Color Bar Mode” and scan simple rectangular color patches corresponding to each ink key in the print units, or can run in “Gray Spot Mode” and maintain overall target ink density values on the substrate as well as gray balance if the job has critical half tone images, or if the color bar is obtrusive on the job.
US08132885B2
A system evaluates image quality in an image generating system in a manner that accounts for the interaction of the calibration tools used to evaluate and correct image quality in the image generating system. The system includes a test pattern generator configured to generate an image with an image generating system, an image capture device configured to generate a digital signal corresponding to the generated test pattern, an image evaluator configured to process the digital signal to detect and correct anomalies detected in the generated test pattern, a plurality of calibration tools, each calibration tool being comprised of at least one test pattern, at least one set of detection criteria, and at least one set of anomaly correction parameters, and a controller configured to select the calibration tools for operation of the test pattern generator and the image evaluator in accordance with a predetermined sequence that attenuates changes arising from application of correction parameters of one calibration tool upon a later selected calibration tool.
US08132883B2
An inkjet-type image forming apparatus includes a recording head configured to eject ink to form an image; a carriage where the recording head is provided, the carriage being configured to reciprocate in a direction orthogonal to a sheet transport direction; a transport unit disposed upstream of a print area in the sheet transport direction, the transport unit being configured to intermittently transport a sheet to the print area; a transport control unit configured to control the transport unit; a platen guide plate; a suction unit configured to suction the sheet onto the platen guide plate; and a control unit.
US08132878B2
An ink jet printing apparatus, an ink jet printing method, and a data generating apparatus are provided in which an image performance such as an abrasion resistance can be improved and a printing head can have a longer life by ejecting processing liquid at an appropriate time. The processing liquid is ejected, to a predetermined area on a printing medium in which the formation of a image by ink is completed, from a printing head in two or more scannings in five scannings of the printing heads.
US08132865B2
A multi-surface sponge product includes a foraminous portion adhered to an abrasive portion to form a unitary product, each portion and the resulting product having a pair of sidewalls and in cross-section or side elevation having the form of a parallelogram. The sidewalls form gripping areas and the angled forward and reward end opposite ends of the parallelogram shaped body form wedges. The multi-surface body is low profile and various edges and corners thereof enable the foraminous and abrasive portions to be selectively used to engage corners of many differently configured surfaces to be cleaned, to either scrub the surface or simply clean or absorb fluid, depending on which portion of the product is emplaced in the edge or in a corner.
US08132864B2
The present disclosure discloses a child safety seat comprising: (a) a supporting base structure adapted to be secured to a vehicle seat; (b) a child seating surface wherein the seating surface comprises a seat bottom and a seat back, and wherein the seat back has disposed therein at least one pair of laterally spaced shoulder belt restraints; (c) a child harness wherein the harness comprises a pair of shoulder belts running from the restraints in the seat back to a seat bottom locking tongue, each shoulder belt having a restraint engaging means affixed to an extreme end of the belt for insertion into the laterally spaced pair of restraints in the seat back, and a buckle affixed to the front center portion of the seat bottom for receiving the seat bottom locking tongue; and (d) an emergency means of disengaging at least one of shoulder belts from at least one of the restraints in the back of the seat, the disengaging means being actuated from the rear face or side of the seat.
US08132855B2
A furniture member leg rest ratcheting member for temporarily retaining a leg rest assembly in multiple extended positions includes a one-piece homogeneous member having a first portion including at least two cavities each defining a leg rest assembly extended position. A second portion has a male engagement tongue. A third portion has opposed first and second bracket engagement members spaced from each other. The third portion is elastically deflectable with respect to the first and second portions to permit a furniture mechanism bracket to be received between the first and second bracket engagement members when the male engagement tongue of the second portion is engaged with the furniture member bracket and to allow a ratcheting motion of the first and second portions with respect to the third portion.
US08132853B2
A cab includes left and right rear pole members having internal spaces and prescribed shapes in cross-section. The right rear pole member includes a first hole portion that extends along the longitudinal direction of the right rear pole member and penetrates the right rear pole member in the left-and-right direction of the right rear pole member, and a first plate-shaped member inserted into and secured in the first hole portion.
US08132852B2
A vehicle body structure includes: a floor tunnel bulging from a center of a floor of a vehicle chamber; a pair of seats flanking the floor tunnel from left and right sides of the floor tunnel; a load receiving member placed on an upper part of the floor tunnel; a left floor cross member extending from a left side of the floor tunnel in the vehicle width direction; and a right floor cross member extending from a right side of the floor tunnel in the vehicle width direction. The load receiving member contacts the seat when the seat receives an impact load from a side of the vehicle body. In addition, the load receiving member transmits the impact load to the floor of the vehicle body. Left and right side rim parts of the load receiving member are connected respectively to the left and right floor cross members.
US08132844B2
A heavy vehicle door or ramp is opened and closed using an intuitive control system. The door includes a latch assembly, a lock assembly, and a power unit to assist in opening and closing the door. The door includes an interior joy stick handle and an exterior lever handle. From outside the vehicle, the door is opened and closed by pivoting the lever handle downwardly and upwardly, respectively. From the interior of the vehicle, the joy stick handle is pulled inwardly to close the door and push outwardly to open the door. Pivoting the joystick handle forwardly engages the blast locks, while pivoting the joystick handle rearwardly unlatches the latch assembly and disengages the blast locks. The power assist unit is actuated by pivotal movement of the outside door handle and lateral pivotal movement of the interior joystick handle. Perimeter bump strips offer safety functions to prevent injuries when remote function is active.
US08132839B2
A recreational vehicle cover is provided which is compact and easy to use. The cover has an attached storage pouch, and remains attached to the vehicle during use.
US08132831B1
A system for moving fluid from one location to another. The system comprising a fluid delivery system, a first piece of flexible tubing that receives fluid from the fluid delivery system and a second piece of flexible tubing. The system further includes a connector having an aperture that receives the second piece of flexible tubing. The connector is then positioned inside the first piece of flexible tubing so that the connector is urged against the inner walls of the first piece of flexible tubing so that fluid can be communicated from the first piece of flexible tubing to the second piece of flexible tubing.
US08132820B2
A lower arm mounting unit for a multi-link suspension system having a knuckle rotatably supporting a wheel, and first and second lower arms connecting the knuckle to a vehicle body, may include a pair of mounting protrusions formed to the knuckle, a first ball stud connecting an end portion of the first lower arm to the pair of the mounting protrusions, and a second ball stud connecting an end portion of the second lower arm to the pair of the mounting protrusions and the first ball stud by inserting the end portion of the second ball stud between the pair of the mounting protrusions, the end portion of the first ball stud, and the knuckle.
US08132808B2
A sheet conveying device includes a controller having a processing unit to cause a first detector to detect an uppermost sheet, an elevator to lift and stop a sheet stack at a reference position, and a second detector to detect and store the position. In a primary operation of the controller, the uppermost sheet is attracted and conveyed for a given number of times while the second detector contacting it, a variation amount of angle is calculated and converted to a thickness of M sheets. With a driven contact roller retracted in a secondary operation, the sheet stack is lifted each time the uppermost sheets by a thickness of N sheets are attracted and conveyed based on the stored thickness of M sheets under N=XM (“M” represents a positive number, “N” represents a positive integer, and “X” represents a positive number of 1 or greater).
US08132807B2
The drive arrangement of a currency validator includes a drive roller release mechanism that provides release of the rollers from a drive shaft. This release allows a banknote to be forcibly withdrawn without damaging a drive train or the drive roller. The drive roller is supported on and rotatable about a drive shaft. The drive shaft includes an intermediary drive ring secured on the shaft and in engagement with the drive roller. A spring bias urges the drive roller to engage and rotate with rotation of the shaft and the intermediary drive ring secured on the shaft. When necessary the drive roller can rotate relative to the shaft by overcoming the spring bias.
US08132806B2
A sheet feeding device includes: a lift-blowing unit which blows air to a plurality of sheets stacked on a tray to lift an uppermost sheet from the sheets; a sheet absorbing unit which absorbs the sheet lifted by the lift-blowing unit by a negative pressure; an air suctioning unit which supplies the negative pressure to the sheet absorbing unit by air suction; a handling-blowing unit which handles the sheets by blowing air to the sheets absorbed onto the sheet absorbing unit; and a sheet transporting unit which transports the absorbed sheet, wherein the handling-blowing unit adjusts a volume of air blown thereby.
US08132799B2
The present disclosure provides a pin clamp having first, second and third pins, a finger and stripper assembly. The first pin moves in response to an actuation. At least one finger is positioned adjacent the first pin, and is movable between clamped and unclamped positions. The second pin is located adjacent the first pin and is in operable communication with the finger. The stripper assembly comprises the third pin that is selectively engagable with the second pin, and an actuator that moves the third pin. The first activation of the actuator moves the third pin causing it to engage the second pin causing it to move the finger to the clamped position. The second actuation of the actuator moves the third pin causing it to disengage from the second pin causing it to not move the finger to the clamped position.
US08132796B2
A fluid filled type vibration damping device wherein an elastic rubber film is disposed to partially define a primary fluid chamber disposed on one side thereof, and a pressure operating chamber is disposed on an opposite side from the primary fluid chamber with the elastic rubber film interposed therebetween. The elastic rubber film has a dome shape and an attraction face of the pressure operating chamber has an inverted dome shape, and has a negative pressure suction groove including an outer circumferential groove extending in a circumferential direction at an outer peripheral portion of the attraction face and opening to the pressure operating chamber, and a negative pressure suction bore for introducing a negative pressure to the pressure operating chamber is connected to the negative pressure suction groove.
US08132791B2
Disclosed is a fence post with selectively covered, molded channels for use in modular fences. The post includes at least one longitudinally-extending channel that is covered by the exterior surface of a side of the fence post in such a way that channel is not visible from the exterior of the fence post until the covering portion of the fence post is cut away, in whole or in part, to make the channel accessible. The channel cover may be removed, in whole or in part, to allow longitudinal ends of pickets to be slid into the channel, either horizontally or vertically according to the selected portion of the channel cover that is removed. In this way, one fence post design may be used to stably support pickets connected on any of the sides of the post while leaving the other sides smooth in external appearance.
US08132782B2
A method for controlling or regulating a vacuum valve that includes: a valve body (1) with a valve opening (2); a closing member (3) that can be moved between an open position and a closed position over a closing path (s) for closing the vacuum valve and that closes the valve opening (2) in the closed position, in which at least one elastic seal (4) is pressed onto a seal face (35); an actuator (5) for moving the closing member (3); and a control device (9) by which the actuator (5) can be triggered; the point (p) of the closing path (s) at which the elastic seal (4) contacts the seal face (35) and/or a velocity (v) of the closing member (3) at that point is used as a controlling parameter for the control device (9).
US08132780B2
A subsea female coupler has a body defining a socket for the reception of a probe of a male coupler. The socket includes an annular shoulder and, outwardly of the shoulder, a part-conical seat which tapers towards the interior of the socket. An annular seal is disposed to provide radial sealing between the socket and the probe and is positioned in the annular shoulder. A metal retainer in the form of a securing ring, which has a bevelled rim for abutment with the seat, provides sealing between the region of the seal and the exterior of the body of the coupler. The retainer has a screw-threaded periphery for engagement with a complementary thread on the interior of the socket. An inner ring liner fits within the retainer and has a flange for abutting the seal.
US08132779B2
Disclosed herein are a solenoid valve for a brake system and a manufacturing method thereof, to achieve easy manufacture and low manufacturing costs via a more simplified configuration than the related art. The solenoid valve includes a valve core, a sleeve into one side of which the valve core is inserted, an armature movably received in the sleeve, a seat having an orifice that is opened or closed by the armature, a return spring to press the armature toward the orifice, a filter member press-fitted in a modulator block having an inlet path and outlet path, a filter being coupled to the filter member, and a seat housing having one side press-fitted into the filter member and the other side press-fitted into the sleeve, the seat being press-fitted in the seat housing. The seat housing takes the form of a tubular member having an approximately constant thickness and is provided with a stepped portion to determine a position of the seat.
US08132778B2
A remote controlled valve for cessation of water flow from an outflow component such as a showerhead or faucet during periods where water flow is not required by the user to provide for water conservation. The device features a remote control having a large contact area for contact with the user's arm or leg or hip to allow for activation without the use of their hands and fingers. The large size also renders the remote control unit easily located by sense of touch and without the user's eyesight to encourage use by users who might otherwise be concerned about reinitiating water flow during shampooing or while using the device on a sink with their hands wet or occupied.
US08132770B2
A stemware holder maintains a piece of stemware in an upright position even during turbulent conditions. An embodiment has a base extending downward from a cap. The cap has a lower portion with a flat surface and an upper portion with two prongs that define a slot. A wall extends around part of the perimeters of the upper and lower portions and has a front opening. The upper and lower portions, partial perimeter wall, and front opening define a groove. The groove narrows slightly from the front to the rear. The stemware holder base is insertable into the recess of a standard cup holder. The base of a piece of stemware can be slid into the groove through the front opening with the stem extending through the slot. The prongs and groove collectively assist in maintaining the stemware upright. Another embodiment employs a similar cap that is fixable directly to a surface without insertion into a cup holder recess.
US08132767B2
A threaded rod hanger has quick lock plunger mechanism that includes plunger pieces within a tapered bore in a housing. The plunger pieces have tapered outer surfaces. A spring within the housing presses the plunger pieces toward the narrow end of the bore, with the spring located between the plunger pieces and a back plate that closes off part of a wide end of the tapered bore. The plunger pieces have internally threaded surfaces that engage threads on a threaded rod that is inserted into the bore, between the plunger pieces. Once the threaded rod has been inserted between the plunger pieces and released, the plunger pieces are pushed toward the narrow bore end. This causes the plunger pieces to press inward, automatically causing the internal plunger half threads to engage the external threads on the threaded rod.
US08132755B2
An exhaust system for an aircraft has a primary exhaust duct for communicating exhaust gas from an engine exhaust exit and is configured for movement with the engine. A secondary exhaust duct is in fluid communication with the primary exhaust duct and is movably mounted to the airframe. The secondary duct has a portion selectively rotatable relative to the remainder of the secondary duct for directing the exhaust gas vector. The system has means for maintaining a generally consistent relative alignment between the primary duct and the secondary duct.
US08132754B2
A traversing device for stabilizing the yarn path of a thin and uniform flat fiber bundle without causing any trouble, e.g. entanglement of single fibers, and ensuring a good winding appearance of the winding package of fiber bundle, and a yarn path guide for stabilizing the yarn path without causing any trouble, e.g. entanglement of single fibers.
US08132745B2
Output of a showerhead system is selectable between a plurality of spray modes using a control mode selector located adjacent to a shower pipe. The showerhead system also includes an adjustment mechanism located near or about the shower pipe to pivotably adjust the position of the showerhead. The showerhead system also has dual support structures in the form of arms extending between the control mode selector and the showerhead. The dual arms each house one or more hoses that may be flexible and transport water from the mode selector can be adjusted to direct water to individual hoses or simultaneously to multiple hoses.
US08132742B1
A windshield wiper spray nozzle offset device includes an offset arm and an attachment device. The offset arm includes an offset leg extending from a clamping base. The attachment device is preferably a clamp plate and at least two fasteners. The at least two fasteners are preferably used to secure the clamping base and clamp plate to opposing sides of the wiper arm. However, other attachment devices may also be used, such as spring clips. The wiper arm may also be modified by making the offset arm as an integral portion of the wiper arm. A nozzle snap-on retainer and a hose snap-on retainer are removed from the wiper arm and snapped on to the offset leg. The offset position of the spray nozzle increases the spray area thereof.
US08132739B2
A hydro-thermo irrigation mat (10) is comprised of a base sheet (11), a water-permeable root-shielding top sheet (12), and a capillary mat (15) of absorbent material therebetween. One or more flat pliable drip tapes (18) are loosely disposed in spaced-apart relationship between the top sheet (12) and the capillary mat (15). Hot water convection tubes (25) are disposed co-axially with the drip tapes (18) but between the base sheet (11) and the capillary mat (15). The drip tapes (18) are connected to a water supply line (22) and the hot water convection tubes (25) are secured to a hot water supply line (28). Water within the mat is heated and distributes heat from the hot water convection tubes (25) substantially throughout the mat.
US08132734B2
A financial transaction card includes a housing and an account identifier. The housing includes a soft and pliable material and defines a chamber configured to maintain at least one item. The account identifier is disposed on an exterior surface of the housing. The account identifier is configured to link the housing to a financial account or a financial record. Other embodiments of financial transaction cards, financial transaction card assemblies, and associated methods are also disclosed.
US08132729B2
A sensing device is disclosed. The sensing device includes a coded data sensor, a barcode sensor and a processor. The coded data sensor senses coded data portions disposed on respective positions on a surface of a product item. Each code data portion encodes an identity of the product item and the position of the respective code data portion. The barcode sensor senses a barcode on the surface of the product item. The processor generates data indicative of the position of each sensed coded data portion and the identity of the product item.
US08132718B2
An automated banking machine operates responsive to data included on user cards. The machine includes a deposit accepting device. The deposit accepting device is operative to receive a stack of sheets and to separate each sheet from the stack through operation of a picker. Each sheet is aligned with the sheet path and analyzed by analysis devices including at least one magnetic read head, an imager, and/or a validation device. Sheets determined not to have at least one property of a genuine sheet are returned to the user of the machine. Sheets determined to have the at least one property of a genuine sheet are processed and stored in the machine for reuse.
US08132717B2
A system controlled responsive to data bearing records includes a card reader that is operative to read card data from user cards including identifying data, and authorizes operation of an automated banking machine responsive to the identifying data. The automated banking machine is operative to generate a check in response to inputs from a user of the banking machine. The banking machine is operative to present the check to a user of the automated banking machine. The banking machine is operative to present an interface or other method for a user to sign the check. The user's banking account is charged an amount corresponding to the value of the check. In exchange for the check being presented at the same banking machine that generated the check, the banking machine provides the user with cash dispensed from the automated banking machine.
US08132716B1
A banking transaction system includes customer stations and a server provider station. The customer stations include automated banking machines. Each machine includes a cash dispenser and a card reader that reads financial account indicia from user cards. A service provider at the service provider station is able to communicate with a customer at a machine to help carry out a banking transaction. The customer may also carry out a banking transaction without involvement of the service provider. A pneumatic tube transport can move items between a service provider and customers. Computers operating facial image transformation software and vocal sound transformation software allow computer-generated outputs at customer stations of facial images and vocal sounds that customers may find more acceptable than those produced by the actual service provider.
US08132713B2
System and methods for generating one more tests to be performed on a payment device are provided. A vendor selects one or more features to be included in his payment device and provides that information to the system. The system analyzes the information and provides a list of tests to be performed on the reference payment device. In addition, the system also provides a list of one or more reference payment device configurations provided for testing purposes.
US08132712B2
A metered dose inhaler dose counter, the counter includes: an actuator; a rotary gear wheel having a plurality of ratchet teeth; a driver for driving the rotary gear in a step-wise fashion in response to displacement of the actuator; a pawl that prevents reverse rotation of the rotary gear; and a display coupled to the rotary gear.
US08132708B1
A method of performing friction stir welding is provided herein. More specifically, traditional friction stir welding requires a rotatable head that is forced against a plurality of work pieces to bond the same. The rotational and normal forces generated by the friction stir welding tool are generally reacted by a backing plate, anvil, mandrel or other mechanisms, such hardware are subject to the applied forces and are often supported with additional internal supports. Conversely, a method of performing a friction stir weld is described that omits the need for such a backing member and internal supports as it is performed using a self reacting pin tool.
US08132707B2
The present invention provides a flow soldering apparatus that can suppress the occurrence of soldering defects, even if VOC-free flux or low-VOC flux is applied to an electronic circuit substrate. In other words, the flow soldering apparatus according to the present invention includes: a water content sensor for measuring a residual water content of a surface of a substrate; and a monitoring device for judging whether soldering quality is satisfactory or not by using a residual water content value of the surface of the substrate acquired from the residual water content measured by the water content sensor, on the basis of a correlation between a residual water content value of a surface of a sample substrate and a residual water content value of through holes of the sample substrate, as acquired previously by using a plurality of substrate samples.
US08132702B2
A fastener driving tool arranged to drive fasteners into a workpiece includes at least one electric motor having a central stator and an external rotor arranged to rotate around the stator. The rotor may be in the form of a flywheel. The tool includes an energy transfer member such as a driver arranged to transfer kinetic energy from the rotor to a fastener held in the tool, thereby to drive the fastener from the tool into a workpiece. The electric motor may be a brushless motor. The tool may include two such motors, arranged such that both of their rotors propel the driver simultaneously.
US08132697B2
A fountain-style carbonated soft drink dispenser includes a housing adapted to attach to a beverage container, an actuator for selectively opening a fluid conduit, and one or more long tubes that vary a pressure drop across the dispensing assembly and convey fluid. The resistance through the tube(s) is decreased as the pressure within the container decreases so as to maintain a substantially constant flow rate throughout dispensing.
US08132692B2
A method of interfolding gloves including superposing finger portion of second glove adjacent finger portion of first glove, with second glove finger portion being disposed parallel and in a direction opposite the first glove finger portion, in a superjacent opposing relationship. First glove hand and cuff are lapped over second glove finger to create lapped, superjacent opposing fold. By repeatedly lapping previous glove hand over subsequent glove fingers, a glove bundle is formed. Folding can be longitudinal before lapped, superjacent opposing folding. Gloves are disposed in portable dispenser with lapped, superjacent folding and dispensing opening cooperating to dispense one glove, cuff first.
US08132689B2
A cookware handle designed to be grasped by a user's hand, consisting of a rigid structure attached to the cookware and a flexible grip surrounding the rigid structure. The rigid structure contains at least one hollow cavity positioned directly underneath the grip, facing the hand support area.
US08132687B2
A double-walled container and method of manufacturing are disclosed. A first container having a smaller diameter than a second container is inserted into the second container. A portion of the first container is expanded and/or a portion of the second container may be narrowed so that first and second container is interlocked and form a double-walled container. The first and/or second containers may have ribs. An air gap between the first and second containers provides thermal insulation to contents of the double-walled container.
US08132684B2
A closure includes a skirt and internal lugs on the skirt. The skirt has an undulating circumferential contour that includes alternate outwardly convex and outwardly concave portions, with the internal lugs being disposed within the outwardly concave portions of the skirt. The skirt preferably is sufficiently flexible to allow the outwardly concave portions of the skirt to assume an outwardly convex geometry as a result of outward pressure on the internal lugs during demolding of the closure. The closure thus may be simply axially stripped from the mold core during the demolding operation without requiring movement of portions of the mold core to clear a path for travel of the lugs. The lugs preferably are shaped as an inverted U that opens toward a free edge of the skirt, further to facilitate demolding of the closure.
US08132683B2
A sling-type protective cover for a container. An exemplary protective sling for a baby bottle may include a plurality of straps extending longitudinally from a base. The bottom end of a baby bottle may be received in the base, and each of the straps may include an opening for engaging the neck of the bottle. The protective sling may be constructed from an elastic material, such as a thermoplastic elastomer.
US08132681B2
Disclosed is a sanitary, hygienic toothbrush and holder. The holder carries a plurality of pegs on its front surface. At a distal end of the toothbrush handle is an opening, sized to fit cooperatively over a peg of the holder. At least a portion of the margin of the opening is thinned toward the opening from a surface of the handle, so that, in use, at least a portion of the thinned margin rests cooperatively upon the peg of the holder when the toothbrush is placed by a user in a hanging position.
US08132678B2
The present invention discloses new types of polybenzoxazole-based mixed matrix membranes and methods for making and using these membranes. The polybenzoxazole-based mixed matrix membranes are prepared by fabricating a polyimide-based mixed matrix membrane by dispersing molecular sieve particles in a continuous aromatic polyimide matrix with pendent hydroxyl groups ortho to the heterocyclic imide nitrogen; and then converting the polyimide-based mixed matrix membrane to a polybenzoxazole-based mixed matrix membrane by heating between 200° and 600° C. under inert atmosphere or vacuum. The polybenzoxazole-based mixed matrix membranes of the present invention can be fabricated into any convenient geometry such as flat sheet (or spiral wound), tube, hollow fiber, or thin film composite. These polybenzoxazole-based mixed matrix membranes exhibit high thermal stability, significantly higher selectivity than the neat polybenzoxazole polymer membranes, and much higher permeability than traditional mixed matrix membranes.
US08132669B1
A carrying case for a device having a “look into” end and a “see out of” end, wherein the carrying case comprises a main panel having an inner side surface to which a device is coupleable and also having at least a first edge; a back panel, having at least a first edge, and coupled to the main panel, such that the back panel is rotatable (i) away from the main panel to an open position and (ii) towards the main panel to a closed position; at least one side panel having at least a first edge alignable with the at least first edge of the main panel, and at least a second edge alignable with the at least first edge of the back panel, wherein at least one pair of alignable edges are releasably secured such that the edges are connected in the closed position and disconnected in the open position, and wherein in the open position a line of sight is created between an object, the “see out of” end of the device and the “look into” end of the device.
US08132668B2
A package made from a biodegradable material, such as paperboard, utilizes multi-layered sheets of relatively thin material which can be cut to desired shapes relatively inexpensively and folded into adjacent layers which are adhesively attached to one another to form the package. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the package defines a book-like package having an outer envelope with one side defining a sleeve for receiving a disk and an opposite side which receives a laminated multi-layered holder having a pocket in the shape of a memory chip/card or other electronic component to be held therein.
US08132661B2
The invention provides a device for selectively diverting products sideways from a load-bearing conveying surface of a conveyor that is moving in a direction of transport, comprising a frame, an elongated diverter element having an upstream end, a downstream end and a deflecting surface there between, pivoting means for pivoting the diverter element in a reciprocal fashion about a vertical pivot axis extending on one side of the conveying surface, between a passive position, in which the diverter element extends beside the conveying surface so as to allow products to pass freely on the conveying surface, and an active position, in which the diverter element extends at least partially above the conveying surface for diverting products present on the conveying surface sideways from said conveying surface, and driving means for driving the deflecting surface with respect to a remaining part of the diverter element at least in the active position, wherein the pivoting means are arranged for translating the diverter element as well during the pivoting movement of the diverter element from the passive position to the active position and vice versa.
US08132656B2
A one-way clutch, including: a first annular element; a second annular element arranged to lockingly engage with the first element for relative rotation of the second element, with respect to the first annular element, in a first rotational direction; a third annular element at least partly rotatable about the axis and axially disposed between the first and second elements; and a fourth annular element at least partly rotatable about the axis and including a radially disposed body and an axial protrusion extending from the body and connected to the third element. The axial protrusion forms a portion of a space arranged to at least partially enclose fluid to dampen energy associated with the locking engagement of the first and second annular elements, and the first or second element is axially disposed between the third and fourth elements.
US08132652B2
An elevator system includes at least one shuttle elevator and at least two local elevators, the elevator cars of which are arranged to travel in the same elevator hoistway such that they can serve at least one shared transfer floor of a transfer level. The control system of the elevator system receives destination calls given from a destination call appliance, forms a plurality of route alternatives and allocates a destination call to one or more elevators by selecting the best route alternative. When allocating a destination call, the control system takes into account that the elevator cars of the local elevators that travel in the same elevator hoistway cannot simultaneously be at a shared transfer floor in cases in which the route alternative includes a part-trip with a local elevator and a change of elevator at a shared transfer floor.
US08132651B2
An inexpensive apparatus for powering a toy plane including a rubber band motor which is connectable to the plane's propeller and to a winding mechanism, including a gear mechanism which is activated by a handle. As the handle is repeatedly squeezed and released by the user, the motor is wound up. An anti-reversing ratchet is coupled with the motor to prevent unwinding until the user wishes to launch the plane.
US08132650B2
A device for the safe descent of people or cargo along the cable, for example, for the salvation of people in case of fire in high-rise building. To provide the salvation of a few people during the same rescue operation, the device ensures movement along the cable in both directions, downwards and upwards. There is no need for any extensive preparation before using the device. The cable, with or without a handing device, is fixed in the point of lowering, dropped downwards with the weight and then is reeled three times upon the contact disk. Such connection ensures moving the contact disk along the cable without sliding.
US08132647B2
A tree step system 100 having a tubing 110; and a step lag screw 130, whereby the tubing 110 may be used as a hammer to drive the step lag screw 130 into a tree 20 and the tubing 110 may further be used for leverage to turn the step lag screw 130 into the tree. The tree step system 100 may include a rod step 150, and an adjustable fastener 170 for adjusting the depth of the adjustable fastener 170 and preventing the tree step system 100 from rotating. The rod step centerline may be offset ninety degrees from the centerline of the step lag screw 130, whereby the offset provides for ease of climbing and entering a tree stand with the proper foot. The tubing 110 may comprise an upper tubing 114 and a lower tubing 124 for ease of installation.
US08132645B2
An attenuation device, particularly a pulsation attenuator, has a casing (1) defining a fluid chamber (11) through which a fluid may flow along a flow axis (7), and has an attenuation element made of a resilient material located within the casing (1). The attenuation element has at least two annular bodies (15, 17) that are disposed in an at least partially overlapping manner, surrounding the flow axis (7) at least partially.
US08132641B2
A seismic wave generating device and methods for generating seismic waves having a relatively strong longitudinal energy and a relatively weak transverse energy are disclosed. A device may have a hollow casing and a striking member passing through the hollow casing, the striking member or the hollow casing bearing a spacing member. A method may drive the hollow casing into the earth, then remove earth from within the hollow casing. The method may place a striking member through the hollow casing and may drive the striking member further into the earth to create seismic waves with a relatively strong longitudinal energy and a relatively weak transverse energy.
US08132640B2
A frangible mount for a vehicle differential that includes a first horizontal mounting flange, a second mounting flange parallel to and vertically offset from the first mounting flange, and a generally circular differential shaft bushing holder portion with a central axis transverse to the first and second mounting flanges. The mount also includes a first transition integrally formed with, and between, the first mounting flange and the receiver portion, a notch defined between the first mounting flange and the first transition, and a second transition integrally formed with, and between, the second mounting flange and the receiver portion. When an axial force is applied to the bushing holder portion in excess of a threshold value, either the first transition or the first mounting flange fracture and either the second transition or the second mounting flange fracture, thus, allowing the bushing holder portion to be displaced apart from the first mounting flange and second mounting flange.
US08132638B2
A wheel disconnect system is provided including a rear drive module and a constant velocity joint housing. The rear drive module includes a housing, at least one actuator, and at least one dog clutch. The dog clutch includes a first portion configured to move when the actuator is moved and a second portion configured for engagement with the first portion. The constant velocity joint housing is formed integrally with the second portion of the dog clutch. A wheel may be disconnected from the rear drive module unless engagement of the first and second portions of the dog clutch allows torque to be transferred to the wheel. In one embodiment, a hydraulically activated piston may be used to activate the first portion of the dog clutch. In another embodiment, a ball ramp may be used to activate the first portion of the dog clutch. A vehicle driveline including a wheel disconnect system is also provided.
US08132629B2
A sprinkler system and a method for mitigating scaling, microbiological influenced corrosion and oxidative corrosion are disclosed. The system includes a piping network in fluid communication with a source of pressurized water and an air pump. The network is vented to the ambient. The air pump moves initially dry ambient air through the system, either by maintaining a negative or a positive air pressure within the network. The dry air absorbs residual water within the network and exhausts it to the ambient. Rate of air flow through the system is controlled by restrictor elements such as orifices, throttle valves or venturies within the piping network.
US08132626B2
A connection apparatus for coupling a top drive to a tubular gripping member comprises a body having a first joint coupled to the top drive and a second joint coupled to the tubular gripping member, wherein the body is adapted to allow fluid communication between the top drive and the tubular gripping member and to allow relative movement between the top drive and the tubular gripping member.
US08132625B2
An eductor sub is used as a portion of a downhole debris removal apparatus. It features an eductor outlet port that is selectively closed for run in to allow flow pumped through a tubing string to all go to the lower end of the debris removal tool to fluidize the debris and help prevent the tool from getting stuck on the way to the desired depth. When the desired depth is reached a ball lands on a seat that is connected to a sleeve that is displaced to move the sleeve away from the eductor outlet so that future flow coming down the casing string will create a reduced pressure within the tool to draw some of the exiting flow after the eductor exit in a downhole direction along an annular space to the debris removal tool entrance for debris removal.
US08132623B2
A method of servicing a wellbore in contact with a subterranean formation, comprising: placing a wellbore servicing fluid comprising a crosslinkable polymer system and a filler into a lost circulation zone within the wellbore. A method of blocking the flow of fluid through a lost circulation zone in a subterranean formation comprising placing a first composition comprising a packing agent into the lost circulation zone, placing a second composition comprising a crosslinkable polymer system and a filler into the lost circulation zone, and allowing the compositions to set into place.
US08132621B2
A formation evaluation system and method. A formation evaluation system includes an assembly interconnected as part of a tubular string and displaceable to multiple positions proximate each of multiple zones intersected by a wellbore. The assembly includes at least one formation evaluation instrument for determining a characteristic of formation fluid, and a pump which draws the fluid into the assembly. A method of evaluating multiple subterranean zones during a single trip into a wellbore includes the steps of: interconnecting a formation evaluation assembly in a coiled tubing string; for each of the multiple zones, displacing the formation evaluation assembly to a position proximate the respective zone, receiving formation fluid from the respective zone into the formation evaluation assembly, and determining at least one characteristic of the formation fluid; and performing the multiple displacing, receiving and determining steps during the single trip of the coiled tubing string into the wellbore.
US08132618B2
A system comprises a progressive cavity pump including a helical rotor disposed within a mating stator. In addition, the system comprises a rod string having a longitudinal axis, a first end, and a second end coupled to the rotor. Further, the system comprises a rotation retarding device coupled to the first end of the rod string, wherein the rotation retarding device retards the rotation of the rod string relative to the stator. Still further, the system comprises a lifting device coupled to the rotation retarding device, wherein the lifting device is operable to apply an axial lifting force to the rotor.
US08132611B2
The invention provides method for metallic nanonstructures self-assembly methods and materials testing. Preferred embodiment methods permit for the formation of individual nanostructures and arrays of nanostructures. The nanostructures formed can have a metal alloy crystal structure. Example structures include slender wires, rectangular bars, or plate-like structures. Tips can be shaped, single layer and multiple layer coatings can be formed, tips can be functionalized, molecules can be adhered, and many testing methods are enabled.
US08132604B2
A pneumatic tire comprising a shoulder rib segmented into a main rib located at the inner side thereof in a width direction of the tire and a thin rib located at the outer side thereof in the width direction of the tire by a thin groove extending along a circumferential direction of the tire, wherein the thin groove includes a large-width portion having a relatively larger groove width and a small-width portion having a relatively smaller groove width continuously formed one after the other along the circumferential direction of the tire, and an inner wall of the large-width portion located at the thin rib side is disposed at a further outer side with respect to an inner wall of the small-width portion located at the thin rib side as viewed in the width direction of the tire, a protruding portion protruding outwardly in the width direction of the tire from an edge line of the thin rib located at the outer side in the width direction of the tire is formed at a position where the large-width portion is disposed in the circumferential direction of the tire.
US08132603B2
The present invention relates to a protective cover for a windshield comprising: a top handle, where said top handle extends from both sides of the cover; a bottom handle, where said bottom handle extends from both sides of the cover; straps, where the straps extend from the top handle and the bottom handle; Velcro tips at the tip of each strap; and a magnetic strip, said strip extends across the top edge of the cover. In one embodiment, the straps are elastic and capable of extending lengthwise. The cover may include reinforcement strips extending across the length of the cover and the cover may be made of a Tyvek material. The magnetic strip seals the top edge of the cover to prevent the intrusion of rain or snow.
US08132601B2
A tote bag for being partitioned or alternatively expanded. The bag has a partition mode and an expansion mode and includes a front panel, a rear panel, and a pair of side panels. The front panel is attached to the rear panel by the pair of side panels. The pair of side panels fold and attach to each other to form a partition thereby dividing the tote bag into a pair of compartments when the tote bag is in the partition mode thereof and separate from each other and unfold to eliminate the partition thereby expanding the tote bag when the tote bag is in the expansion mode thereof.
US08132599B2
An automated system for inflating balloons. A balloon inflator comprises an electronic control system that activates the pressurized gas source to inflate a balloon. The balloons are fed through the inflator on a belt and, at the appropriate time as governed by the electronic control system, pressurized gas is emitted into a balloon. Once the balloon bursts or is removed from the inflator, the belt is advanced and that the next balloon is inflated. In the preferred embodiment, the system comprises multiple inflators and the electronic control system is operated remotely using radio frequency signals.
US08132595B2
A pump iron restraint system is disclosed in which a fastening system is coupled to successive pump iron joints and a wireline is threaded through the fastening system. The fastening system may comprise a pair of endless flat straps, each of which is coupled to one of the pump iron joints. The eyes of the endless flat straps are placed around the interior arch of the screw pin shackle. A wireline is placed through the spaced formed by the screw pin and the screw pin shackle. The wireline is secured at the well site so that the wireline is taut.
US08132576B1
A capsule for containing a chemical coloring agent as it treats a lock of hair has a male side with a projection and a female side with a cavity, connected by a hinge that allows the projection and the cavity to be swung into sealing relationship with the hair trapped therebetween. A reinforcing pattern of interconnected elements form a region of one of the surfaces, the pattern forming an array of spaced-apart islands. The interconnected elements provide enhanced rigidity for the capsule and provide the capsule a better grip on the hair to maintain the capsule in place. The male side and/or female side may be provided with a trough positioned opposite the hinge to reduce overflow of the coloring agent, and can be provided with a well positioned near the hinge to allow the hair to more readily distribute itself when folded over.
US08132575B2
A hair holder including a tube configured to allow a hair bundle to be inserted from a one-end opening toward an other-end opening. The hair holder is designed to allow hair treatment to be applied inside the tube to the hair bundle by supplying a hair treating agent into the tube. A hair-treating-agent leak-prevention member is provided on an inner-surface side of the tube in the vicinity of the one-end opening, the hair-treating-agent leak-prevention member achieving an effect of preventing leakage of the agent when pressed against the hair bundle.
US08132569B2
A hair brush having a brush handle equipped with an assembly end piece (1) at its end and by at least one detachable brush head (2) able to be attached to the assembly end piece (1). The brush head (2) is constituted by a hair-bearing rod (7) inserted into the inner part of an essentially rigid perforated tubular sleeve (8) and the assembly end piece (1) is equipped with at least one annular groove (4) that is at least 5 mm deep, and preferably about 15 mm deep and a diameter matching that of the tubular sleeve (8) whereof it is intended to receive one of the ends (12) or male end.
US08132568B2
A preformed artificial nail assembly having a pair of artificial nails sized to correspond to at least a portion of said natural nail, and an application tab assembly extending between the pair of artificial nails. The application tab assembly includes a body portion and a neck portion adjacent each said artificial nail, said neck portion being disposed between the body portion and the distal end of the artificial nail. The application tab assembly may include an area of weakness that allows the assembly to be separated into two separate tabs, one adjacent each of the artificial nails of the pair. The user may utilize the application tab assembly as a single unit to place the nails, or separate the assembly into to separate tabs to allow the user to place the nails utilizing separate tabs.
US08132567B2
A dental oral appliance for use with patients who suffer with sleep disorders, to reduce or eliminate snoring or obstructive sleep apnea and to open the airway for a sleeping patient. Retention for the appliance is provided by an occlusal coverage of the upper or lower teeth. A raised incisor ramp that extends from the incisal tip of the incisors toward the lingual, or posterior ramps, separate the posterior teeth to open the airway. A transpalatal member, which extends from the lingual of the right molars to the lingual of the left molars, inhibits the upward and backward movement of the tongue. The transpalatal member may be curved and may slidably fit in the body of the appliance. A posterior tongue restrainer may be attached to the transpalatal member.
US08132562B1
A rail gun armature assembly utilizing unique carbon-carbon composite materials and armature design to enable repeated use of very high velocity projectile firings with minimal damage to rail guns, and a rail gun rail assembly utilizing unique carbon-carbon composite materials to enable repeated use of very high velocity projectile firings with greatly reduced damage to the gun rails.
US08132547B2
The inventive management system comprises a high-temperature circuit (12) provided with a high-temperature cooling radiator (20), a low-temperature circuit (14) provided with a low-temperature cooling radiator (30, 30a, 30b), wherein the same heat carrier fluid runs through said circuits. Said system also comprises a radiator (36) assignable to first switching means (52) and to second switching means (54) for switching the system from a connected configuration, in which the assignable radiator (36) is connected to the low-temperature circuit (14), to a disconnected configuration, in which the assignable radiator is connected to the high-temperature circuit (12), and vice-versa. The switching means are sequentially actuated after a time-delay during switching from the disconnected configuration to the connected configuration and/or from the connected configuration to the disconnected configuration in order to minimize thermal shocks in the assignable cooling radiator (36).
US08132545B2
An apparatus for generating high temperature steam according to the present invention comprises a high pressure container including a hollow body having a certain volume and sealed shape and a vapor outlet formed at an upper or lower portion of the body for discharging vapor generated therein; a heat supply unit for supplying high temperature heat to the high pressure container; a water supply pump positioned at an outside of the high pressure container and supplying the high pressure container with water from an outside; a spray nozzle for spraying the water supplied from the water supply pump to the high pressure container; and a vapor discharge line connected to the outlet of the high pressure container to guide the vapor generated in the body.
US08132520B2
A conveyor grate for the transport and cooling of bulk material, for example cement clinker, comprises a grate floor having multiple planks (12), adjacently situated transverse to the direction of transport on associated support structures and operationally moved longitudinally relative to one another individually or in groups, with moving gaps (14) designed as blow openings situated therebetween, and a method for operating such a conveyor grate. The mutually facing side edges or side edge regions of two adjacent planks (12) form two complementary, mutually engaging profiles between which the moving gap (14) is formed. In the method according to the invention, at least a quantity of the cooling air is blown through the moving gaps (14) which is sufficient to blow the moving gaps (14) completely open.
US08132513B2
An amusement park ride with one or more evacuation zones. The ride includes a track with a rail defining a ride path. The ride path includes at least one evacuation zone along a first length of the track at a first height and a non-evacuation zone along a second length of the track with one or more portions at a second height greater than the first height. The track is sloped in the non-evacuation zone toward the evacuation zone. The ride includes a vehicle supported on the rail via roller elements such as load bearing wheels. The ride includes a drive assembly that provides a driving force to selectively move the vehicle along the ride path. The drive assembly is adapted to automatically disengage from the vehicle upon loss of power. The vehicle is free rolling upon loss of power to travel to the evacuation zone based on gravity.
US08132509B2
In a printed product color misregister amount detection method, a reference register mark including a first color area portion with a predetermined width and a blank portion in contact with the first color area portion is printed in a reference color on a printed product to be printed by a multi-color printing press. A positional shift detection register mark including a second color area portion with a width smaller than that of the first color area portion of the reference register mark is printed in a color other than the reference color to have as a target position a position where the width of the second color area portion falls within the width of the first color area portion of the reference register mark. Density information representing a density of a color component which is of the same color as that of the positional shift detection register mark within a target range including the first color area portion and the blank portion in contact with the first color area portion of the reference register mark where the positional shift detection register mark has been printed is measured. A positional shift amount between the reference color and the color other than the reference color as a color misregister amount is obtained on the basis of the measured density information.
US08132492B1
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a deployment device that is operative to deploy Special Material (SM) to protect the vehicle when an enemy infrared (IR) threat is present. The deployment device constructed in accordance with the present invention comprises at least one, and preferably a pair of canisters which are each filled or loaded with SM, then factory sealed to prevent oxidation or contamination. Each of the canisters included in the deployment device includes an input shaft which, when rotated, is operative to transmit the rotary motion to each of four threaded rods. The rods have two primary functions, which are to advance a piston thereby preloading the SM within the canister toward the open end thereof, and to turn rotary metering devices which are located at the open end of the canister. The advancing piston maintains consistent compression in the SM stack within the canister. Additionally, the rotary metering devices which are located in respective ones of the four corners of the canister at the aft end thereof control and thus meter how the SM is dispensed into the airstream behind the aircraft. In this regard, the rotary metering devices have external features that interleave with the stack of SM. As the rotary metering devices turn, the interleaving features continuously release and engage the SM stack, thus controlling the distinct amount of SM released. When stationary, the rotary metering devices positively retain the SM stack within the canister.
US08132487B2
To generate a bevel in an uncured composite layup, an edge of part cut through the composite layup is performed at about 90° relative to the composite layup and a bevel cut is performed on the edge of part.
US08132486B1
A pneumatic power screw gun with a reinforced hammer head, has a reinforced base end above the handle with a cradle mounted thereon, the cradle being adapted to receive and secure a hammer head in place as desired.
US08132485B2
A device for transforming alternating rectilinear motion into intermittent rotary motion, in particular for the command of indexed rotary tables. The device includes at least one fixed base element (11) with cam guide elements (14), a moving slide element (12) associated with the fixed element, equipped with mechanical locator elements (15) following the cam guide elements (14) and susceptible to alternating movements on and with respect to the fixed base element commanded by an actuator, and an index plate (13) rotatably associated with the fixed element, interacting mechanically with the moving slide element (12) and susceptible to angular rotation pitch in answer to the alternating movements of the moving slide element. The index plate is connected to an indexed rotary table to be commanded.
US08132478B2
A motion guide device includes a ball nut attached onto a shaft and having helical grooves for receiving ball bearing elements, and a ball coupler including a flexible coupling member having a number of openings formed between spacers for receiving ball bearing elements, the ball bearing element is contacted with the ball nut at a contact point which is spaced from the inner peripheral surface of the ball nut for a spacing distance, and the ball bearing element is contacted with the screw shaft at a contact point which is spaced from the outer peripheral surface of the screw shaft for a spacing distance that is preferably smaller than the spacing distance between the contact point of the ball bearing element and the ball nut.
US08132477B2
A ball screw device having a novel ball circulation structure suitable for a screw shaft with a large lead, optimum for downsizing and weight saving of a nut member, capable of being manufactured at low cost, and capable of exhibiting high reliability even under severe use conditions. In a ball screw device where a screw shaft and a nut member are screwed to each other through an intermediation of a large number of balls, a no-load ball path which forms an infinite circulation path for the balls is constituted by a no-load ball groove spirally formed in an inner peripheral surface of a through-hole of the nut member and by a pair of direction change grooves which communicatively couple a load rolling groove and the no-load ball groove to each other so as to complete the infinite circulation path as a closed loop.
US08132476B2
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for handling small quantities of fluids useful, for example, in measuring the gas and/or liquid sorption and desorption properties of substances such as hydrogen sorption by solid or liquid hydrogen storage materials. In one embodiment, low-volume rotary valves are used to dose samples in a sample holder. In another embodiment, a rotary valve is used as a dosing/bypass valve to both condition and measure samples. The invention also relates to an actuator for a rotary valve that has a manual override feature.
US08132468B2
A sensing device is provided for measuring flexural deformations of a surface. Such a sensing device may be used as a user interface in portable electronic devices. The sensing device comprises at least one cell. The cell comprises a first electrode, a central electrode, a second electrode, a first piezoelectric sensing layer placed between the first electrode and the central electrode, a second piezoelectric sensing layer placed between the central electrode and the second electrode, and a circuit connected to the first, second and the central electrodes. The circuit is configured to measure a first electrical signal between the first electrode and the central electrode, and a second electrical signal between the second electrode and the central electrode. At least one of the first electrical signal and the second electrical signal is responsive to an external stress applied on the sensing device.
US08132462B2
The receive sensitivity of an ultrasound array transducer structured with a diaphragm electro-acoustic transducer (101) being a basic unit is affected by change in a charge amount with elapsed time due to leakage or the like, which causes drift of the primary beam sensitivity, degradation in the acoustic SN ratio due to a rise in the acoustic noise level, and degradation in the directivity of an ultrasound beam. To addressing this problem, a charge controller (charge monitor 211) is provided to control charge in an electro-acoustic transducer (101). A charge monitoring section (102) monitors the change in the charge amount. When change in the charge amount is small, transmit sensitivity or receive sensitivity is calibrated by a controller (104) by, for example, multiplying a receive signal by a calibration coefficient corresponding to the change amount. Further, when the change in the charge amount is large, for example, charges can be re-emitted from a charge emitter (103).
US08132461B2
An ice thickness measurement system for determining thicknesses of an ice sheet such as an ice rink that is positioned on a solid or granular substrate. The system determines the thickness of the ice sheet using an acoustic technique, is portable, and may include a display graphic or graphical user interface on the portable unit to direct operators of the unit where to conduct an array of measurements on the ice sheet. The system may also be compatible with a computer for downloading of data and uploading of graphical displays.
US08132457B2
A nano-sensor including a substrate including pores formed thereon and a detecting mechanism for detecting changes in capacitance due to the presence of a substance. A method of measuring humidity by sampling air with the nano-sensor, detecting changes in capacitance, and determining the relative humidity of air. A method of detecting the presence of a substance by taking a sample with the nano-sensor, detecting changes in capacitance, and determining the presence of a substance. A method of making the nano-sensor by forming nano-pores on a substrate, and forming, on the surface of the substrate, a detecting mechanism for detecting changes in capacitance due to the presence of a substance.
US08132453B2
A reservoir pressure in an underground formation surrounding a well is analyzed based on a direct measurement of the pressure at the wall of the well using the permeability of mud cake on the wall of the well in the region in which the pressure measurement is made; determining the thickness of mud cake on the well of the well; determining the hydrostatic pressure in the well in the region in which the pressure measurement is made; calculating a pressure decay index from the mud cake permeability and thickness, the hydrostatic pressure and the measured pressure; and using the pressure decay index to analyze the measured pressure to derive the reservoir pressure.
US08132449B2
Procedures for diagnosing an exhaust gas treatment device, which is dosing a reagent into the exhaust gas area of a combustion process, whereby the reagent is brought up to a dosing pressure and subsequently dosed, at which the diagnosis is undertaken with the aid of an evaluation of a pressure drop of the reagent, and a device for implementing the procedure are suggested. After turning off the pump a pressure drop that occurs afterwards is evaluated. The evaluation of the pressure drop considers a leakage loss of the pump.
US08132445B2
The invention relates to a rheometer having a rotatable shaft (1) on which a rotor plate (2) is fastened, and having a measuring instrument (10) for measuring torques exerted on the rotor plate (2) by a substance (6) to be studied during rotation of the shaft (1), a first measurement gap (5) for holding the substance (6) to be studied being formed between a first side (3) of the rotor plate (2) and a first shear face (4) and a second measurement gap (9) for holding the substance (6) to be studied being formed between a second side (7) of the rotor plate (2), opposite the first side, and a second shear face (8). The rheometer contains a magnet for generating a magnetic field in the first and second measurement gaps (5, 9).
US08132444B2
A protective heated screen for an element of a sensor surrounds a portion of the element and reduces and/or minimizes the propensity for liquid droplets to come in contact with the heated element. The screen can allow fluid flow therethrough to allow the sensor element to come in contact with the fluid stream. The screen can be in continuous heat-transferring contact with the sensor element such that both the sensor element and screen are at a temperature significantly greater than the ambient temperature. Liquid droplets contacting the heated screen may evaporate such that the liquid droplets do not come in contact with the sensor element. The screen can also break down the liquid droplets into smaller droplets such that the thermal stress created by the droplets contacting the heated element is reduced over that caused by a larger droplet.
US08132443B2
The present invention is generally directed to a microfabricated gas chromatograph column having two patterned substrates, each optionally having a stationary phase material coating, bonded together to provide a continuous flow channel. The flow channel can have a serpentine arrangement or a modified serpentine arrangement comprising alternating series of consecutive turns in one direction where each series has enough turns to move carrier gas and analyte molecules from the center of the column cross section to an outer wall of the channel or from one outer wall of the channel to the opposite outer wall. Different portions of the substrates can be coated with differing thicknesses of stationary phase material and/or with different stationary phase materials. The column can have a circular cross-section or a semi-circular cross-section where the flat portion of the cross-section has grooves. Also disclosed is the related method of making the microfabricated gas chromatograph column.
US08132435B2
A locking apparatus having a body, at least one arm and a tapered member; wherein relative movement between the arm and the tapered member extends the arm from the body. In use, the arm is arranged to press against a wall of a channel to hold the locking apparatus in place and prevent the opening of a roller shutter.
US08132426B2
There is provided a method of making a heat treated (HT) coated article to be used in shower door applications, window applications, or any other suitable applications where transparent coated articles are desired. For example, certain embodiments of this invention relate to a method of making a coated article including a step of heat treating a glass substrate coated with at least a layer of or including diamond-like carbon (DLC) and an overlying protective film thereon. In certain example embodiments, the protective film may be of or include both (a) an oxygen blocking or barrier layer, and (b) a release layer. Following and/or during heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering, or the like) the protective film may be removed. Other embodiments of this invention relate to the pre-HT coated article, or the post-HT coated article.
US08132425B2
A pair of reinforcing ribs (50, 50) are formed on the bottom plate (33) of a box body (31) of an electrical component box (30). The reinforcing ribs (50, 50) have their respective pivot guides (50a, 50a) provided at their front ends to engage with associated pins (38b, 38b) on the safety cover (38). The safety cover (38) is pivotally supported to the pivot guides (50a, 50a) of the reinforcing ribs (50, 50) to allow it to open and close the opening of the box body (31).
US08132415B2
Disclosed herein are a fuel nozzle of a gas turbine combustor for dimethyl ether (DME, CH3OCH3) and a design method thereof. The fuel nozzle includes a pilot fuel injection hole formed at the center of the nozzle and a plurality of fuel injection ports formed at equiangular positions around the pilot fuel injection hole to inject DME. Each of the fuel injection ports includes a pair of upper and lower DME injection orifices communicating with a fuel-air mixture injection swirler. The upper DME injection orifice becomes gradually wider, whereas the lower DME injection orifice becomes gradually narrower. Thus, DME can be optimally combusted in the gas turbine combustor, thereby achieving cost reduction of power plants, enhancement in reliability of the power plants, and diversification of usable fuel.
US08132413B2
A method of converting heat energy generated in an evaporator to mechanical energy by expanding an evaporated working fluid includes evaporating the working fluid in the evaporator and expanding the evaporated working fluid in an expansion device. The expansion is in a low-pressure expansion device which is formed as a roots blower in which the working fluid is expanded and heat energy is converted to mechanical energy.
US08132410B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for the production of hydrogen and the use of high-temperature heat sources in energy conversion. In one embodiment, a primary loop may include a nuclear reactor utilizing a molten salt or helium as a coolant. The nuclear reactor may provide heat energy to a power generation loop for production of electrical energy. For example, a supercritical carbon dioxide fluid may be heated by the nuclear reactor via the molten salt and then expanded in a turbine to drive a generator. An intermediate heat exchange loop may also be thermally coupled with the primary loop and provide heat energy to one or more hydrogen production facilities. A portion of the hydrogen produced by the hydrogen production facility may be diverted to a combustor to elevate the temperature of water being split into hydrogen and oxygen by the hydrogen production facility.
US08132407B2
An EGR system compensates for differing EGR flows and/or exhaust temperatures and can maintain the cooler exit temperature above the critical temperature, thereby reducing the possibility of EGR cooler fouling. A plurality of exhaust gas recirculation cooler modules is disposed between an exhaust gas passage and an air passage. The cooler modules receive exhaust gas from the exhaust gas passage and supply the received exhaust gas to the air passage for recirculation into an intake manifold. Each of the cooler modules includes a cooler portion, a bypass portion, and a flow control device. The cooler portion and the bypass portion are arranged such that fluid flowing through the cooler portion and the bypass portion flows therethrough without flowing through the other of the cooler portion and the bypass portion. The cooler portion reduces a temperature of the fluid flowing through the cooler portion.
US08132390B2
Method for manufacturing a composite flat covering material, comprising supplying a web of stretch aluminum mesh which after stretching has been tempered, passing the web of stretch aluminum mesh in immersed condition through a bath of first bituminous material, passing the stretch aluminum mesh out of the bath, skimming first bituminous material along at least an upper side of the web of stretch aluminum mesh and applying a layer of second bituminous material onto the skimmed side.
US08132388B2
A modular concrete building is made of a plurality of precast concrete panels which may be assembled to provide a building. The panel sections include lower frame panels or support members, wall panels, floor panels, and roof panels. The building may be assembled by securing the floor panels to the support members, securing the wall panels to the floor panels, and securing the roof panels to the wall panels and to adjacent roof panels. The roof panels are made of precast concrete and include stiffening ribs.
US08132385B2
Benchtop panels are formed with spaced apart longitudinal edge webs and intermediate webs and spaced apart transverse edge webs and intermediate webs forming a grid with parallel top and bottom surfaces. At least one pair of longitudinal and transverse intermediate webs are closely spaced to allow subdividing the panel into plural panels by severing portions of a panel at a point between the closely spaced webs. Longitudinal bottom surface flanges provide for ease of mounting panels on a frame or table at spaced apart frame members. A connector with spaced apart legs and a connecting tab may be inserted in openings formed in gussets of adjacent panels to secure panels to each other.
US08132373B2
A system for hanging items from a modular building panel is disclosed. One embodiment of the system includes a modular building panel with a hole in the panel, a hanging member, with a load distribution plate, and an attachment shaft, and an attachment means at the end of the attachment shaft. Several embodiments of the present invention are described.
US08132369B2
An integrated tilt/sash lock assembly for a sash window is disclosed. The sash window assembly has an upper sash window and a lower sash window slideable within a master frame, the integrated assembly has a keeper adapted to be connected to the upper sash window. A rotor assembly is adapted to be supported by the lower sash window, the rotor assembly having a rotor connected to a spool. A latch bolt is adapted to be supported by the lower sash window and is adapted to engage the master frame. A connector has a first end connected to the spool and a second end connected to the latch bolt. An actuator is connected to the rotor assembly. The actuator has a locked position wherein the rotor engages the keeper. The actuator is moveable to an unlocked position wherein the rotor assembly is disengaged from the keeper, and is further moveable to a tiltable position wherein the connector retracts the latch bolt from the master frame.
US08132352B2
Multiple improvements dramatically increase the reliability and accuracy of a handgun. By combining a plurality of improvements, the accuracy and reliability of a M1911-A1 is dramatically increased. The improvements include a modified sighting system that enables the user to accurately adjust for varying target ranges without losing sight of the targets or altering contact with the weapon. Lubrication notches are incised into the slide/frame interaction regions to prevent fouling. An ambidextrous safety is added that is retained by an interaction with the sear chip shaft. The hammer is modified to provide a region in which foreign matter can migrate to prevent fouling and improve reliability. And the interaction between the sear chip and the hammer is modified to provide a decreased trigger pull that maintains a positive and safe contact between the sear and the hammer at the sear ledge.
US08132350B1
A hammer spring assembly comprises a spring and a member operatively coupling the spring and a hammer of a firearm when the hammer spring assembly is connected to a firearm. The hammer is biased by the spring to rotate forward toward a cartridge or firing pin. The spring exerts a bias force on the member in the forward direction, which urges the member against a curved rearward surface of the hammer at a hammer contact point. As the hammer rotates rearward, the hammer contact point moves along the rearward hammer surface so as to cause a desired variation of an effective lever arm about the hammer pivot point of the bias force exerted on the hammer. Methods comprise connecting the hammer spring assembly to a firearm, or providing the hammer spring assembly and instructing a user to connect it to a firearm.
US08132344B2
The invention generally relates to a selectable boot articulation and support system. One embodiment of the present invention relates to a boot system including an intercoupled upper and lower shell configured to encase a user's foot and lower leg. The boot system further includes an articulation system effecting the articulation between the upper and lower shell. The articulation system includes an instep member coupled and positioned with respect to the upper shell in a manner that facilitates selection between a locked configuration and an unlocked configuration. The unlocked configuration provides increased articulation and decreased stiffness between the upper and lower shell with respect to the locked configuration. The instep member may include a releasable dorsal coupling between portions of the upper shell. The instep member may also include one or more moveable lateral couplings with the upper shell.
US08132339B2
Disclosed is a cloth treating apparatus, which supplies hot air to a accommodating space receiving clothes to dry the clothes. The cloth treating apparatus includes a cabinet including a accommodating space to receive clothes, and an electric component chamber, in which a moisture supply device to spray steam to the accommodating space and a air supply device to supply hot air are installed; and a condensed water treating unit to treat condensed water, generated by condensing the steam sprayed to the accommodating space or the hot air supplied from the air supply device. Therefore, the cloth treating apparatus treats the condensed water generated in the accommodating space, and thus prevents the generation of substances harmful to the human body, such as mold, in the accommodating space.
US08132338B2
A paper machine configured as a swing machine capable of producing both light and heavy grades providing a Yankee hood split into a wet end half and a dry end half, at least one hood half being a flex-hood half wherein the supply for that half is capable of being run with either combustion heat or recycled heat and is capable of either recirculating the exhaust from the hood or discharging it to the atmosphere. The heater for the flex-hood half comprises both a primary combustion heat source and an indirect heat source capable of extracting by-product heat from another operation. The exhaust system for the flex hood half is capable of being run in either a straight through mode or in a recirculating mode.
US08132331B1
An apparatus that aids in the removal of heavy-duty universal joints or Spicer® joints is herein disclosed. The apparatus is comprised of a metal plate approximately four (4) inches long and two-and-a-half (2½) inches wide. Two (2) outer apertures in the metal plate attach to the corresponding retaining bolt holes on an existing universal joint. The inner hole has a driver shaft driven by a three-quarter (¾) inch hex fitting. This driver shaft facilitates the removal of the joint caps of the universal joint. The apparatus is secure and will not slip or reposition itself while in use. When finished, the apparatus is removed from the drive shaft. The use of the apparatus allows for the removal of heavy-duty universal joints in an efficient manner.
US08132329B2
A method and tool for mass manufacturing convertible roofs having an outer shell, a frame and lateral linkage parts for supporting the outer shell, the outer shell including at least two outer shell parts is provided. The method includes the steps of providing an upper tool fixture and a lower tool fixture, aligning and assembling the frame and outer shell in the lower tool fixture such that the frame and outer shell are upside down, aligning and assembling connection members onto the frame part so the roof can fittingly engage the windshield frame when the roof is in a closed position, and lowering the lateral linkage parts onto the assembled frame and outer shell using the upper tool fixture.
US08132328B2
A method of making a fibrous structural member including first, second, third and fourth portions, including folding first and second portions including continuous filaments about a first common fold such that the first and second portions are adjacent and substantially parallel to each other, folding a third portion about a second fold common with the first portion such that the third portion extends from the first and second portions at an angle thereto, and folding a fourth portion about a third fold common with the third portion such that the fourth portion is adjacent and substantially parallel to the third portion.
US08132317B2
A electronic apparatus manufacturing cell defining an electronic apparatus manufacturing cell envelope having a first side and having a second side opposite the first side. According to one aspect, the electronic apparatus manufacturing cell comprises an infeed conveyor, a pass conveyor and a reject conveyor. The infeed conveyor extends from a point outside of the electronic apparatus manufacturing cell envelope on the first side to a point inside of the envelope. The pass conveyor extends from a point inside the electronic apparatus manufacturing cell envelope to a point outside of the electronic apparatus manufacturing cell envelope on the second side. The reject conveyor extends from a point inside the electronic apparatus manufacturing cell envelope to a point outside of the electronic apparatus manufacturing cell envelope on the first side.
US08132302B2
The present invention is an organizer device having a primary back strap 10, the primary back strap 10 having a first end, a second end and a middle portion. The first end having a first buckle portion 32 and a means for suspending the back strap 20, the second end having a second buckle portion 28, the middle portion having at least one attachment location with an appended buckle portion 38 interposed between the first and second ends; and wherein the second end is provided to receive the first end of a second primary back strap. The device further has at least one removable cinch strap device 40 having a first end and a second end, the first end having two buckle portions 38, 39, a first buckle portion 39 for removable attachment to the attachment location with an appended buckle 38 on the primary back strap 10 and a second buckle portion 39 to attach to the buckle portion at the second end of the cinch strap 40 to form a loop for holding a coil of cable 100, a power tool box or other material.
US08132301B2
Worm thread clamp and method of forming worm thread clamp. The worm thread clamp includes a tension strap having end sections arranged to overlap in a circumferential direction to form a radially inner end section and a radially outer end section, a housing connected to the radially inner end section, and a tension screw arranged in the housing to engage thread elements on the radially outer end section. The radially inner end section is arranged to project from the housing in the circumferential direction and includes a bridge, and a weakening area is enclosed in the bridge. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
US08132299B2
A cord safety device for a window covering includes a first and a second body. The first body includes: a first pivot portion, disposed on a periphery; a first fixing portion, disposed on a periphery at a predetermined angle with respect to the first pivot portion; a first stop portion, disposed on an inner side of the first body and protruded towards the second body; a first recess, disposed on an upper periphery; and a guiding block, disposed on one end of the first stop portion adjacent to the first fixing portion, in which the guiding block has a guiding surface for guiding the cords. The second body includes: a second pivot portion, disposed corresponding to the first pivot portion; and a second fixing portion, disposed corresponding to the first fixing portion, thereby being separably fixed with the first fixing portion.
US08132298B2
The present utility model relates to a fastener for cord comprising a cord lock mounted on a cord of an article for locking the cord, characterized in that said cord lock has a engaging portion which is provided with a hollow central zone having an inner diameter, said fastener for cord further has a base fixed on said article, a convex portion is arranged on said base for engaging with said central zone in a manner of snap-fastening, the inner diameter of said central zone is slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the convex portion on said base so as to make the central zone engaged, in a manner of snap-fastening, with said base. The present utility model is available for fastening an article (such as a fixer or bottom on a cord) so as to avoid inconveniency brought to users by the article.
US08132294B2
Snap hinge (10) for furniture comprising two articulated quadrilaterals elastically driven by at least two elastic means wherein at least one of said elastic means consists of a double spiral flexure spring stressed perpendicularly to the winding axis of the double spiral.
US08132289B2
A locking device for a telescoping pole for use with a retractable handle system, the pole having at least one moveable section slideably mounted in a guide member having at least one opening. The locking device includes a body fixed to the movable section, a locking member carried by the body and movable between locking an unlocking positions, a rotatable lever carried by the body and pivotable between a release position, in which relative movement is permitted between the movable section and the guide member, and a blocking position, in which the lever comes to bear on the guide member and exerts a force assuring a transverse immobilization of the moveable section in the guide member. The lever is coupled to the locking member to be displaced toward the blocking position when the locking member is engaged in the opening under the force produced by a restoring element.
US08132286B2
An apparatus may include a first support, a first cleaning material coupled to a first side of the first support, a second support rotatably coupled to the first support at a first edge of the second support, the second support defining a first opening disposed adjacent to a second edge of the second support opposite the first edge, a second cleaning material coupled to a first side of the second support, and a latch coupled to the first support, the latch to engage the first opening of the second support to maintain the first side of the first support in a substantially fixed relationship with respect to the first side of the second support.Some aspects include placing a second support between a musical instrument and a string coupled to the musical instrument, the second support defining a first opening disposed adjacent to a first edge of the second support, rotating a first support with respect to the second support to dispose the string between the first support and the second support, the first support coupled to a second edge of the second support opposite the first edge, and engaging a latch coupled to the first support with the first opening of the second support to maintain the first support in a substantially fixed relationship with respect to the second support.
US08132284B1
A toothbrush in which at least some of the bristles are linked together at their ends proximate to the head by a web in the toothbrush head, with a pad of a resilient elastomeric material adjacent to the web. When pressure is applied to the bristles this pressure is communicated to the web, and the web bears upon the pad, and communicates the pressure to the pad of elastomeric material. By the toothbrush excessive pressure between the teeth and the bristles during toothbrushing may be relieved.
US08132282B2
The present invention generally pertains to a self-propelled mechanical sweeper. The mechanical sweeper comprises a pickup broom for lifting debris toward a first belt conveyor. The sweeper further comprises a second deployable conveyor assembly mounted on a turntable and adapted for conveying the debris from the first conveyor to an auxiliary vehicle such as a dump truck.
US08132279B1
A dishwasher and associated control method are provided wherein a water supply manifold supplies a wash chamber with wash liquid. The supply manifold includes a hot water inlet from an external hot water source and a separate inlet from a storage tank, and is configured to be selectively actuated between the hot water inlet or storage tank inlet. A controller is in communication with the supply manifold and is configured to act on a signal that is indicative of an actual or pre-defined high electricity demand period on a power supply to the hot water source. The controller is configured to generate an output control signal to the supply manifold to cause the manifold to direct substantially only water from the storage tank to the wash chamber during the high electricity demand period.
US08132278B1
A flat table extension is removably attached to one end of an operating table via a support mechanism that is connected with one of the operating table support legs.The support mechanism includes a pair of support posts, one of which is rotated from a first position parallel with the operating table to a second position lower than the operating table to lower the table extension as required.
US08136167B1
A computer-implemented method may include receiving, over a network, an image from an image capture device, determining an image adjustment to the image, and communicating, over the network, the image adjustment to the image capture device.
US08136160B2
Method, system and computer-readable medium to select monitors that increase the likelihood of detecting prefix hijacking events of a destination prefix are disclosed. The method includes assigning each of the candidate prefix hijack monitors to a respective cluster of a plurality of clusters. Each of the candidate prefix hijack monitors is associated with an autonomous system (AS) that indicates an AS path of autonomous systems (ASes) from the AS to a destination prefix associated with a destination AS. The method further includes iteratively merging a pair of clusters with a highest similarity score amongst cluster pairs of the plurality of clusters into a single cluster until a processed number of clusters is less than or equal to a predetermined number of clusters. The method also includes ranking each candidate prefix hijack monitor of each of the processed number of clusters according to a route type from an AS associated with the candidate prefix hijack monitor and an AS distance from the AS associated with the candidate prefix hijack monitor to the destination AS. Yet further, the method includes determining a highest ranked candidate prefix hijack monitor of each of the processed number of clusters.
US08136157B2
A program providing device include an emulation means for emulating a hardware environment and a software environment of a vehicle-mounted information system, a program receiving means for receiving a program which is developed for the vehicle-mounted information system, a constraints holding means 21 for holding, as constraints, resource states and environment conditions of the vehicle-mounted information system, a program execution restricting means 22 for restricting the operation of the program on the basis of the constraints held by the constraint holding means, and a program execution means 112 for executing the program received from the program receiving means by using resources provided by the emulation means according to the restrictions provided by the program execution restricting means.
US08136153B2
In an embodiment of the present invention, the ability for a user or process to set or modify affinities is restricted in order to method for control a multi-processor environment. This may be accomplished by using a reference monitor that controls a process' capability to retrieve and set its or another process' affinity. This aids in the prevention of security breaches.
US08136146B2
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for allowing limited access to a federation partner's audit logs in a secure, controlled manner, for the purposes of compliance demonstration. A request for audit data is received by a partner in the federated environment. The partner validates the request and requests a local report using local parameters against a local audit log store. The partner then builds a response based on the local report.
US08136139B1
A method, system, and medium are provided for enabling playback of licensed media content. The depicted embodiments provide a method to enable users to play a high-quality media file on a computing device. More specifically, the method provides a method to authenticate a high-fidelity license on a computing device to enable playback of an associated high-quality media file. Illustrative examples of high-quality media files include any media file that may contain a video and/or audio component.
US08136131B2
An optical pickup includes an actuator having an objective lens and an optical base on which the actuator is supported. The actuator includes a yoke having an opening, a first straight section and an opposing second straight section, the opening being interposed between the straight sections, the first and second straight sections having a first and a second bent section, respectively, as an extension of each bent section. The yoke is formed as coving the actuator with the straight sections so that the objective lens is exposed through the opening without being obstructed by the optical base. The first bent section has one contact section whereas the second bent section has two contact sections. The optical base includes an ark-like support section. The optical base supports the actuator in such a way that the contact sections are made to have contact with the ark-like support section.
US08136127B1
Representative embodiments are disclosed of a system and method for linearly exposing client-server interaction comprising interpreting a function command representing a first group of sequential action requests to an integrated multimedia communication server (iMCS), sequentially transmitting the first group of sequential action requests from an interactive multimedia runtime (iMR) client to the iMCS, wherein a next sequential action request of the first group is transmitted to the iMCS prior to receiving a response message from the iMCS associated with a previous sequential action request of the first group, queuing response messages received from the iMCS, and handling the queued response messages.
US08136113B2
A sleep function capable of putting a fixed high-priority thread to sleep within a time-window is disclosed. After a sleep request has been made by a fixed high-priority thread via the sleep function, a determination is made whether or not the fixed high-priority thread is awoken before a requested sleep duration under the sleep request. If the fixed high-priority thread is awoken before the requested sleep duration, the number of tasks for the fixed high-priority thread to perform is increased in order to delay the start sleep time of the fixed high-priority thread from a point within a first time-window in which the sleep request was made to an end boundary of the first time-window.
US08136109B1
Delivering data and formatting information includes delivering object definition files from a server to a client; generating definitions and object instantiations at a client using JavaScript or another simple browser-interpreted language, for objects relating to data modeling and presentation; and presenting data using those objects at the client, using a web browser without a separate runtime environment or application plug-in, but maintaining substantial state at the web browser regarding the data itself and the format for its presentation. Definition files are modified to provide object properties consistent with a full object-oriented language, including for example hierarchical inheritance of object properties. Code ballooning generates definitions and individual instantiations, with the effect that a very large amount of DHTML, or another markup or presentation definition language for use with the application, can be generated from relatively small aggregate size of definition files communicated from the server to the client.
US08136104B2
A runtime system implemented in accordance with the present invention provides an application platform for parallel-processing computer systems. Such a runtime system enables users to leverage the computational power of parallel-processing computer systems to accelerate/optimize numeric and array-intensive computations in their application programs. This enables greatly increased performance of high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
US08136102B2
A runtime system implemented in accordance with the present invention provides an application platform for parallel-processing computer systems. Such a runtime system enables users to leverage the computational power of parallel-processing computer systems to accelerate/optimize numeric and array-intensive computations in their application programs. This enables greatly increased performance of high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
US08136100B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for software installation and icon management support. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a cross-platform package of information stored in a platform independent format, the cross-platform package information including a cross-platform icon and one or more descriptors for the cross-platform icon; translating the cross-platform icon to a predefined icon format for a specific operating system (OS) on a computer; and providing the translated icon in the predefined icon format for display by the OS on the computer.
US08136096B1
A method finds an error in a computer program. A plurality of execution breakpoints are set in the computer program. A portion of the execution of the computer program is simulated as recorded in the trace data in the reverse order until one a plurality of conditions is met, wherein one of the plurality of conditions is an attempt to execute a machine instruction associated with one of the plurality of execution breakpoints.
US08136093B2
A mechanism is provided for linking with source code, code commentary relating to the source code's execution. An advantage is achieved by storing the code commentary received from a user during software debugging about a program's execution directly alongside the source code.
US08136090B2
A method for installation and configuration of a software product includes installing a software product and determining configuration settings of the software product based upon a social network of peers. A system for installation and configuration of at least one software product includes at least one client install package capable of utilizing a social network for at least one of installing software; transmitting configuration settings; transmitting post-installation configuration settings; or responding to post-installation configuration modifications; and a server that stores and aggregates the configuration settings of a plurality of users, forming at least one social network.
US08136089B2
In a system in which documents are generated dynamically in response to user requests, historical data is collected regarding data retrieval subtasks, such as service requests, that are performed to generate such documents. This data is used to predict the specific subtasks that will be performed to respond to specific document requests, such that these subtasks may be initiated preemptively at or near the outset of the associated document generation task. A subtask that would ordinarily be postponed pending the outcome of a prior subtask can thereby be performed in parallel with the prior subtask, reducing document generation times. In one embodiment, the historical data is included within, or is used to generate, a mapping table that maps document generation tasks (which may correspond to specific URLs) to the data retrieval subtasks that are frequently performed within such tasks.
US08136086B2
A multi function peripheral (MFP) is provided with a scanner and a printer for operating a copy function, and a macro control unit and macro function unit for operating a macro function in order to reliably operating the macro function even for an event generated asynchronously with a user operation. The macro control unit manages pairs of user operations and events generated by the user operations. The macro function executes a record process of generating a macro file constituted of a plurality of scripts from user operations and a reproduce process of reproducing the user processes. A script corresponding to an event of waiting for execution completion of a copy job is recorded in the macro file at a row next to the row at which a copy start script is written.
US08136077B2
Techniques for timing-optimal placement, pin assignment, and routing for integrated circuits are described herein. According to one embodiment, a list of paths providing implementation possibilities is constructed. A means is provided for removing paths from the list as well as a means for committing paths to the implementation if such paths are required for making the circuit implementation valid. Paths with worst case attributes are iteratively removed from the list until all paths in the list are committed to the implementation. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08136076B2
There is provided a system for generating configuration data for implementing a circuit design in a segmented reconfigurable device. A placement and routing design aiding system (30) includes a database (31) for storing hardware information (89) including data of PEs included in each segment and data of a first-level and second-level routing matrix and an apparatus (33) for mapping the circuit design onto the PEs. The mapping apparatus (33) generates mappings of the circuit design onto the PEs by carrying out an iterative algorithm that minimizes a cost function based on the hardware information (89). The cost function includes an item that minimizes usage of the second-level routing matrix (22) that connects between the segments.
US08136075B1
A multilevel shared database for routing for an integrated circuit is described. An aspect relates generally to a database comprising routing edges defined by tile templates. The routing edges are associated with a plurality of wire length segmentations. The tile templates are associated with tiles of an integrated circuit. The tiles are repeated circuit blocks forming an array. A portion of the tile templates are shared among a portion of the tiles such that the tile templates are less in number than the tiles. The tile templates are associated with pointers for pointing to wire templates.
US08136064B2
A data processor which includes: a circuit data providing section which provides circuit data including a character string; a replacement section which bijectively maps the character string of the provided circuit data to integer values; and a data developer which executes data processing including hierarchical development with respect to the circuit data of the integer values obtained by the replacement section.
US08136059B2
Illustrative embodiments provide a computer-implemented method for resolving indeterminate states by inserting logic into a design. The computer-implemented method receives an original design input from a requester to form a received input and determines whether the received input contains an indeterminate output. Responsive to a determination that the received input contains an indeterminate output, the computer-implemented method generates a temporary design from the received input, wherein the temporary design contains “unique” output and all inputs, updates the temporary design, and synthesizes the original design and each temporary design individually to form a synthesized original design and a set of synthesized temporary designs. The computer-implemented method merges the synthesized original design with the set of synthesized temporary design to form a final design; and returns the final design to the requester.
US08136048B2
In a method for displaying menus on a storage automation library, a user's input to the library is processed and, in response thereto, either 1) a menu derived from a local menu structure is displayed, or 2) a remote menu mode is activated. Between activation and deactivation of the remote menu mode, the library waits for a remote host to return remote menu data. A method by which a remote host retrieves the status of such an indicator, and apparatus for implementing these and other related methods, are also disclosed.
US08136041B2
Disclosed are systems and methods for playing a musical composition in an audible and visual manner. In one aspect, a visual representation of a phonograph playing an analog record is transmitted to a viewer/listener along with the actual analog audio generated by same. Such transmission may occur via television networks, the Internet, or other similar networks. In another aspect, such visual representations are played with digitally recorded audio in a time-correlated manner. In yet another aspect, such visual representations are recorded with digital audio in a soft format such as a digital file, MP3 file, or the like for use with portable audio and visual devices, for streaming via the Internet, for use in gaming, and/or for use as software. Such visual representations may also be displayed at live events such that the timing of the video play and the performance of the live or recorded audio is correlated.
US08136040B2
Systems and methods for varying the audio of multiple windows on a personal computer are provided. The windows may overlap in various configurations. These configurations may cause the audio associated with media playing in each media window that is overlapped to be varied in a number of different ways. The audios may be scaled in response to a set of user preferences.
US08136036B2
Large data sets are displayed and processed. User mark-up language display provides a plurality of line items, each line item including a checkbox. A name/value pair is generated and stored to a text string responsive to the user selecting a checkbox of a line item. The name/value pairs are parsed into a parameter names array and a parameter values array responsive to the user selecting a submit command. The parameter names array is processed to identify each parameter name containing a checkbox indicia, and for each parameter name containing a checkbox indicia, line item detail is retrieved from the detail arrays corresponding for display to the user, who may store a current document as a draft. The user selects or deselects a line item, and the parameter names array is again processed to identify new data available in, or old data no longer available in, the detail arrays.
US08136034B2
A system and method are provided for analyzing elements of text for comparative purposes. Text is provided to the system in an electronic format readable by the system. The system divides the text data into scenes, which may then be compared against a range of various values across a database of scenes from different texts. Data from one text can be used to identify other texts with similar styles, or identify texts with different styles, and to rank those differences on a spectrum. The system may use data from one text to identify other texts that a user may like, and present information about the text to the user in various forms.
US08136032B2
There is disclosed a document edit support device including: an object obtaining unit that obtains an object as data expressing at least one of a text and an image, which are included in a document as an edit target and are to be located in a layout area; a grid line obtaining unit that obtains a plurality of grid lines in the layout area; and a grid line selection unit that selects at least one of the plurality of grid lines selected by the grid line obtaining unit, so that a predetermined condition is satisfied by blank spaces which remain when the object obtained by the object obtaining unit is located along the selected at least one of the plurality of grid lines.
US08136025B1
Document identification tags are assigned to documents to be added to a collection of documents. Based on query-independent information about a new document, a document identification tag is assigned to the new document. The document identification tag so assigned is used in the indexing of the new document. When a list of document identification tags are produced by an index in response to a query, the list is approximately ordered with respect to a measure of query-independent relevance. In some embodiments, the measure of query-independent relevance is related to the connectivity matrix of the World Wide Web. In other embodiments, the measure is related to the recency of crawling. In still other embodiments, the measure is a mixture of these two. The provided systems and methods allow for real-time indexing of documents as they are crawled from a collection of documents.
US08136023B2
A method for decoding tail-biting convolutional codes. The method includes initializing a correction depth, selecting a first starting state from a set of encoding states, and initializing a metric value for the selected starting state as zero and the other states as infinity. The input bit stream is read and a Search Depth Viterbi algorithm (SDVA) is performed to determine path metrics and identify a minimum-metric path. The ending state for the minimum-metric path is determined and the output for this ending state is identified as “previous output.” A second starting state is set to the ending state of the minimum-metric path, and symbols equal to the correction depth from the previous output are read. The SDVA is performed on the second set of read symbols to generate a corrected output. A decoded output is generated by replacing symbols at the beginning of the previous output with the corrected output.
US08136020B2
A present invention discloses a method for performing forward error correction (FEC) in long-haul submarine transmission systems. Data is encoded at a transmitter by serially concatenated, binary Bose-Ray-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) error correcting codes. The invention encodes a stream of data employing a plurality of serially concatenated, binary Bose-Ray-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) error correcting codes, arranging data into a frame of parallel data blocks (the outer frame) with redundancy bits appended by a BCH(3896, 3824) code; the outer frame is then interleaved to produce a frame of serial data blocks (the intermediate frame); and the final frame (the inner frame) is produced by appending the redundancy bits of the BCH(2040, 1952) code to the intermediate frame. The data, once encoded, is transmitted across a datapath and decoded at the receiver.
US08136012B2
A method for detecting topology changes of a computer network, includes the following steps of acquisition of the raw data from the configuration tables of the network elements during successive primary pollings, the following steps being carried out between two successive primary pollings: calculation and storage of a checksum value for each network element having raw data which are considered to be sensitive, at least one secondary polling, allowing the sensitive data to be retrieved again from each corresponding element, comparison of the previously-stored checksum value, at each secondary polling and for each element termed sensitive, with a new checksum value calculated with the new sensitive data, for each sensitive element, when the two checksum values differ, updating in a topology database only the topology data relative to the corresponding element.
US08136007B1
A system and method for adaptive error correction that optimizes bandwidth by taking into account expected, or predicted, interferences. The bandwidth used for error correction is applied judiciously based on the value of the content and the need to receive the content the first time it is broadcast. The present invention further applies local optimizations in the case of spot-beam satellite broadcasts. As each spot corresponds to a particular geographic region, different input parameters may be used, thereby maximizing efficiency.
US08136006B2
A turbo decoding method and apparatus for performing iterative decoding on a received signal is provided. A decoder receives a signal and an (N−1)th decoding result, performs Nth decoding thereon, and outputs first extrinsic information. A transformer reduces a bit width of the first extrinsic information output from the decoder and outputs second extrinsic information. A memory stores the second extrinsic information output from the transformer. A de-transformer de-transforms the second extrinsic information stored in the memory, to third extrinsic information having a same bit width as that of the first extrinsic information, and inputs the third extrinsic information to the decoder.
US08136005B1
A storage system comprises a linear block encoder. A write circuit writes an output of the linear block encoder to a storage medium. A read circuit reads data from the storage medium. A channel decoder decodes the data. A soft linear block code decoder that decodes the data decoded by the channel decoder. The channel decoder decodes the data read in a first iteration. In a subsequent iteration the channel decoder decodes the data read by the read circuit and utilizes information decoded by the soft linear block code decoder. A threshold check circuit selects an output of the soft linear block code decoder if a number of parity check violations has a first relationship with respect to a threshold, or an output of the channel decoder if the number of parity check violations has a second relationship with respect to the threshold.
US08136002B2
An addressable interface selectively enables JTAG TAP domain operations or Trace domain operations within an IC. After being enabled, the TAP receives TMS and TDI input from a single data pin. After being enabled, the Trace domain acquires data from a functioning circuit within the IC in response to a first clock and outputs the acquired data from the IC in response to a second clock. An addressable two pin interface loads and updates instructions and data to a TAP domain within the IC. The instruction or data update operations in multiple ICs occur simultaneously. A process transmits data from an addressed target device to a controller using data frames, each data frame comprising a header bit and data bits. The logic level of the header bit is used to start, continue, and stop the data transmission to the controller. A data and clock signal interface between a controller and multiple target devices provides for each target device to be individually addressed and commanded to perform a JTAG or Trace operation. Trace circuitry within an IC can operate autonomously to store and output functional data occurring in the IC. The store and output operations of the trace circuitry are transparent to the functional operation of the IC. An auto-addressing RAM memory stores input data at an input address generated in response to an input clock, and outputs stored data from an output address generated in response to an output clock.
US08135989B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for interrogating one or more diagnostic targets using a remotely loaded image. A set of managed machines, such as personal computers or servers, can be managed by a network management engine communicating with the machines via a secure channel. The network management engine can access a selected diagnostic target to temporarily deactivate the installed native operating system on that target, insert a substitute operating environment, and remotely interrogate the target to perform hardware, software, security, or other diagnostics or installs. The network management engine can connect to the diagnostic target, extract security keys from the native operating environment, remotely load the substitute environment, and then perform diagnostic or provisioning activities while the native environment is deactivate and the diagnostic target is effectively off-network. Installations, diagnostics, or other activities that require the diagnostic target to be isolated from other machines can therefore be safely conducted.
US08135982B2
A method for controlling a system includes receiving an indication that an operation has failed in a secondary storage device, suspending data operations sent to the secondary data storage device from a primary storage device, determining a failure policy set by a user, and initiating a first policy responsive to determining that the first policy is active, the first policy including sending a status query to the secondary storage device, determining whether a response has been received from the secondary storage device, determining whether the response indicates a failure of the secondary storage device responsive to determining that the response has been received from the secondary storage device, and continuing processing tasks on the server and data operations on the primary storage device responsive to determining that the response indicates a failure of the secondary storage device.
US08135976B2
A modulated clock, a method of providing a modulated clock signal, an integrated circuit including a modulated clock and a library of cells including a modulated clock. In one embodiment, the modulated clock includes (1) a clock controller configured to generate a digital control stream and (2) clock logic circuitry having a first input configured to receive a clock signal and a second input configured to receive the digital control stream. The clock logic circuitry is configured to provide a modulated clock signal in response to the clock signal and the digital control stream, wherein the modulated clock signal has an effective frequency that differs from the first frequency.
US08135974B2
A power on control device and method are used at an adaptor providing a constant voltage. The power on control device includes a first voltage converting circuit, a second voltage converting circuit, a third voltage converting circuit, and a comparison module. The first voltage converting circuit receives the constant voltage and generates a reference voltage. The second voltage converting circuit receives the constant voltage and generates operating voltages. The third voltage converting circuit receives the operating voltages and generates preparatory voltages corresponding to the operating voltages according to the operating voltages. The comparison module outputs a power good signal when all the preparatory voltages are larger than the reference voltage.
US08135954B2
A server, e.g., a client (105, 107, 109), receives a request for a digital signature to be applied to digital information, obtains a representation of the information, determines a designation of key pair(s) to be applied thereto; and transmits a request for the digital signature to a front end server (103a, 103b). The front end server determines one or more of whether the client is authentic and authorized, the user identifier is authentic, and the user identifier is permitted to make the request. If so, the front end server transmits a request to generate a digital signature to a back end server (101). The back end server determines one or more of whether the front end server is authentic and the designated key pair correspond to the requesting front end server. If so, the back end server generates the digital signature based on the information and the key pair(s).
US08135953B2
A system and method for providing variable security levels in a wireless communication network. The present invention optimizes the often conflicting demands of highly secure wireless communications and high speed wireless communications. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, various security sensors are scanned to determine the likely presence of an intruder within a predetermined trust zone. If an intruder is likely present, the security level is changed to the highest setting, and consequently a lower data rate, while the intruder is identified. If the identified intruder is in fact a trusted node, the security level is returned to a lower setting. If the identified intruder is not a trusted node, the security level is maintained at an elevated state while the intruder is within the trust zone.
US08135952B2
A system and method of security for navigation, positioning, and localization systems, and applications of cryptography thereto are provided. The security can be applied to navigation, aircraft landing guidance, air traffic control, location-based access control, the prevention of relay attacks against financial and legal transaction protocols and protection of other data transmissions.
US08135944B2
A plurality of separately powered data interface circuits, a controller circuit, and power switch circuits that collectively enable a supply of power to only one of the data interface circuits and disable the supply of power to the other data interface circuits. Alternatively, the separately powered circuits need not be data interface circuits.
US08135923B2
In a method for enabling a root device to access a plurality of memory locations in an address space in an endpoint device, a first access is sent to the endpoint device by transmitting a first header and a first address. The header includes a continue bit that is set at a first state that indicates that the first access is accessing a selected first memory location that the address is being sent. A first memory location is accessed when the continue bit is in the first state. A second access, which accesses accessing a second memory location that is contiguous to an immediately previously accessed memory location, is sent to the endpoint device by transmitting a header that includes a continue bit set to a second state and not sending an address. The second memory location corresponds to the first address plus a predetermined address offset.
US08135920B2
In an apparatus for controlling the access operation by a plurality of data processing devices to a memory, each data processing device (10, 11, 12) is assigned a respective address region which indicates the part of the addresses of the memory (13) which the respective data processing device can access. A control device (21) blocks an access operation by a data processing device to the memory (13) if the access operation address is not located in the address region which is assigned to the respective data processing device (10, 11, 12).
US08135915B2
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for providing hardware assistance to prefetch data during execution of code by a process or in the data processing system. In response to loading an instruction in the code into a cache, a determination is made by a processor unit as to whether a prefetch indicator is associated with the instruction. In response to the prefetch indicator being associated with the instruction, a pointer to a data structure identified by the prefetch indicator is selectively prefetched into the cache in the processor.
US08135911B2
A method, system, and computer program product are provided for managing a cache. A region to be stored within the cache is received. The cache includes multiple regions and each of the regions is defined by memory ranges having a starting index and an ending index. The region that has been received is stored in the cache in accordance with a cache invariant. The cache invariant guarantees that at any given point in time the regions in the cache are stored in a given order and none of the regions are completely contained within any other of the regions.
US08135905B2
This invention achieves data capacity efficiency via data de-duplication and maximizes a power-saving effect by disk operation control. In a storage system, when data is received from a computer, a value representing the bit string for the data is calculated and whether or not a value identical to the calculated value is stored in a data management table is judged. If it is judged that an identical value is not stored, the received data is registered in the data management table and stored, based on a group management table, in disk device(s) associated with a logical unit number of a logical unit constituting an active group. Meanwhile, if it is judged that an identical value is stored, the received data is stored in disk device(s) based on the group information managed in the group management table and the management information managed in the data management table.
US08135904B2
A method includes storing at a non-volatile memory in a data storage device a first copy of a memory management table. The method further includes storing, at the non-volatile memory, a list of data entries that identify unused blocks of the non-volatile memory, where the list defines an order of allocating the unused blocks. The method further includes, in response to detecting a power event, accessing an entry of the ordered list to identify a block, and selectively updating the first copy of the memory management table based on a status of the identified block.
US08135903B1
A non-volatile semiconductor memory is disclosed comprising a plurality of paired pages, wherein each pair comprises a first page and a second page. A write command is received from a host comprising write data and a write address. The write address is mapped to a physical address of a selected one of the paired memory pages. The write data is compressed to generate compressed data, and when the compressed data fits in one of the pages of the selected pair, the compressed data is stored in the first page and in the second page of the selected pair in an S-mode.
US08135894B1
A system and a method for reducing interrupt latency is described. The system includes a first interrupt source configured to generate a first interrupt, a second interrupt source configured to generate a second interrupt, and a processor. The processor includes a shadow set that stores data used to service the first interrupt. The processor receives the second interrupt and receives a designation of the shadow set to service the second interrupt. The processor determines, based on a dedicated bit, whether the shadow set is used to service the first interrupt upon receiving the second interrupt.
US08135892B2
A method and apparatus for transferring data from a first electronic device to a second electronic device, both first and second electronic devices having Universal Serial Bus (USB) client interfaces, the method comprising the steps: connecting the two electronic devices with a USB cable; toggling the voltage on a VBUS line of the USB cable between logic high voltage and no voltage at the first electronic device; detecting toggles of the VBUS line at the second electronic device; and interpreting the toggles detected in the detecting step as data.
US08135887B2
A relay unit (70) is used to connect one or a plurality of manipulation terminals or external storage units to an entertainment apparatus. The entertainment apparatus (10) has a first mode and a second mode as operation modes. The relay unit includes a first relay processing unit (200-1) for the first mode, a second relay processing unit (200-2) for the second mode, and a control signal generator (201) configured to generate a control signal based on a selection signal externally entered. The relay unit (70) carries out relay processing for the first mode when the entertainment apparatus (10) is operating in the first mode, and carries out relay processing for the second mode when the entertainment apparatus (10) is operating in the second mode.
US08135885B1
A data packer of an input/output hub of a computer system packs and formats write data that is supplied to it before the write data is written into a memory unit of the computer system. More particularly, the data packer accumulates write data received from lower bandwidth clients for delivery to a high bandwidth memory interface. Also, the data packer aligns the write data, so that when the write data is read out from the write data packer, no further alignment is needed.
US08135883B2
Hub apparatus that supports multiple high speed devices and a super speed device. The hub apparatus may include at least one upstream port for coupling to a host device and at least one downstream port for coupling to at least one downstream device. The hub apparatus may further include an embedded device as well as an internal hub coupled to the upstream port, the embedded device, and the at least one downstream port. The internal hub may be configured to provide a connection between the host device and the embedded device at a first speed (e.g., USB high speed). However, when supported by the host device, the embedded device may communicate with the host device at a higher speed than the first speed (e.g., USB super speed), e.g., without using the internal hub.
US08135881B1
A serial peripheral interface (SPI) controller can be configured in response to data received via the interface. The SPI controller can perform read and write operations upon registers of a register bank in response to signals received via one or more of a data signal line, a clock signal line, and a select signal line. By detecting combinations of signals on one or more of the data signal line, clock signal line and select signal line, the SPI controller can detect the initiation of data read and write operations that may be in accordance with any of several different SPI protocols.
US08135878B1
A bus scheduling device having a group of direct memory access (“DMA”) engines, a group of target modules (“TM”), a read pending memory, and a bus arbiter is disclosed. A common bus, which is coupled with the DMA engines, TMs, and the read pending memory, is employed in the device for data transmission. DMA engines are capable of transmitting and receiving data to and from TMs via the common bus. The read pending memory is capable of storing information indicating the read status of the DMA engines. The arbiter or bus arbiter arbitrates bus access in response to a bus allocation scheme and the information stored in the read pending memory.
US08135873B2
An information processing device includes: an address converter including a base address register in which address conversion information is stored and a conversion circuit that converts a PCI Express standard bus address of an inputted packet to a non-PCI Express standard bus address; and a packet generator. When first configuration information of a first device that has a device-unique unique address, is connected to a non-PCI Express standard bus and is unaware of the unique address is stored, the packet generator generates an address setting-use configuration write request packet, and when second configuration information including change information for changing the base address register to a base address register of a second device where at least one of an address width and an internal memory address is a device-unique unique value, the packet generator generates a change setting-use configuration write request packet and outputs the generated packet to the address converter.
US08135871B2
A computer system includes an information processing apparatus configured to incorporate a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) command into a CBW (Command Block Wrapper), and transmits the CBW based on USB (Universal Serial Bus) protocol; and a peripheral apparatus configured to receive the CBW transmitted from the information processing apparatus, and transmit a value of a predetermined register indicating a state of a GPIO (general purpose input/output) interface to the information processing apparatus, when the SCSI command is a predetermined SCSI command. The information processing apparatus may issue the SCSI command based on an application program. The peripheral apparatus carries out a process corresponding to the SCSI command when the SCSI command is not the predetermined SCSI command.
US08135869B2
Methods of scheduling tasks in computer systems architectures are disclosed. In one aspect, a method may include comparing a connection address of a first node with a connection address of a second node, determining that the connection address of the first node matches the connection address of the second node, and scheduling tasks to the first and second nodes based, at least in part, on the determination. Apparatus to implement task scheduling, and systems including the apparatus are also disclosed.
US08135866B2
A system and method for handling stale messages is presented. A first message is transmitted to a peer entity. The first message includes a first timestamp. A second message is received from the peer entity. The second message is related to the first message and includes a second timestamp. A third message is received from the peer entity. The third message includes a third timestamp. A staleness of the third message is determined using the first timestamp, second timestamp, and third timestamp. When the third message is stale, the third message is at least one of ignored and discarded. When the third message is not stale, the third message may be processed.
US08135864B2
The method of the present invention is capable of providing distributed imaging capability to a user of a computing device within a UNIX printing environment. Document creation, manipulation, editing, and output are provided by the present invention. Document design and image data are associated with the originating user. Generic access instructions cause associated document data to be retrieved or stored in accordance with the present invention. Multiple documents and output devices may be employed to accomplish the requesting user's needs. Further, interactive graphical printing configuration and monitoring may be utilized.
US08135863B2
Data collected by sensors (10, 30) is transmitted to data collection points (31, 61) over a network using an epidemic protocol in which data received by a relay (3) is forwarded to a randomly-selected group of further relays (4, 5, 6) unless the same data has been previously received by the relay (3) or the data is time-expired. Data received by a relay (3) from different sources (1, 2, 30) in the same time-frame is aggregated using a Bloom filter process so that in each time frame only a single Bloom filter message is transmitted by each relay.
US08135859B1
Infrastructure services such as addressing, directory services, performance monitoring, and diagnostic capabilities are shared among nodes of an ad-hoc mesh network without a designated network manager. A first mesh node creates parameters corresponding to the services to be provided. As each new mesh node joins the network, parameters are update, synchronized among the mesh nodes, and stored in a virtual database shared by the mesh nodes. For some of the services such as performance monitoring, a designated representative may be elected by a group of mesh nodes once a predetermined number of connected mesh nodes is exceeded. The representative nodes may share performance monitoring information among themselves and act as redundant back-up servers.
US08135850B2
The present application relates to systems and methods for managing of Real Time Stream Protocol (RTSP) sessions by an intermediary located between a client and a server. An intermediary located between a client and a server receives a response from the server to a request of the client to setup a media stream. The response may include a first session identifier established by the server. The intermediary may encode a port of the server and an internet protocol address of the server into the first session identifier to form a second session identifier. The intermediary may modify the response to identify the second session identifier as the session identifier provided by the server. The intermediary may transmit the modified response to the client responsive to the request of the client to setup the media stream.
US08135849B2
A computer system comprises a server that serves a plurality of clients and performs client authentication and authorization during client login to the server using file system permissions specified for domain sockets. The server creates a domain socket file for individual users during initialization which sets permissions enabling user access to the domain socket file, monitors file descriptors for received connection requests from client processes, and either opens a requesting client process with permission-enabled user access or denies access to an unauthorized client process.
US08135842B1
The claimed invention herein provides a simple, economical, and safe way to connect a new class of Internet-ready devices and appliances to the Internet without the use of a personal computer (PC). The claimed invention herein provides an Internet dial-tone, so to speak, to applications ranging from toys and entertainment consoles to electronic books and health equipment just as a traditional telephone jack provides a plain old telephone system (POTS) dial-tone for phones, modems, and fax machines. The invention herein features a modem, network stack, and application protocols alleviating the need for sophisticated logic within attached devices. With one-touch, appliances can quickly and easily connect to the Internet.
US08135835B2
Methods, brokerage systems and program products for enabling a mobile electronic device communicate with another electronic device for accomplishing a requested task without interrupting a user of the other electronic device. A task is requested at the mobile device and a transmission signal locates other electronic devices within a receivable range of the transmission signal. A number of scenarios of various combinations of located other devices is built, whereby each scenario is capable of accomplishing the requested task. One of these scenarios is selected, information relating to the task is sent to the electronic devices within such scenario, and then the requested task is performed by such selected electronic devices. Upon completion of the task, deliverables may be transmitted from the selected electronic device to a predetermined destination. Owners of the selected electronic devices may be rewarded for usage of their devices.
US08135828B2
A client-based collaborative approach called WebProfiler is used for diagnosing Web transaction failures. The WebProfiler leverages end-host cooperation to pool together observations on the success or failure of Web transactions from multiple vantage points. These observations are utilized by a collaborative blame attribution algorithm to identify a suspect network entity that caused the Web transaction failure.
US08135827B2
A web-based hosted solution through which application developers create, manage and monitor application usage analytics in an online manner. Preferably, an application under test is one of: application software, a script-enabled web application, or a rich Internet application (RIA). During the development process, a usage monitoring API is integrated into the application and the application is deployed. As users interact with the application, a log file is generated, typically in one of two ways. If the application is able to write to a local file system (in the user's machine), usage information is gathered in a log file local to the deployed application and then dispatched to an upload server for processing in a batch manner. If the application is not able to write to the user machine's local file system, the usage information is sent to a remote logging server, preferably on a just-in-time basis, and then the log file is generated on the logging server. In either case, preferably the usage information that is tracked comprises “features,” “faults” and “failures” of the application, independent of platform, location, and number of deployed application instances.
US08135825B2
A method for loading and managing a software application in a mobile equipment intended to receive digital data of mobile television services broadcasted via a unidirectional mobile network comprising system software stored in a memory and at least one security module. The application is associated with broadcasted mobile television services of the DVB-H type. The method, comprises a previous step of transmitting, at connection of the mobile equipment to a bidirectional mobile network, identification data of the mobile equipment and of the security module to the managing center, and a further step of reading by the system software of the mobile equipment a descriptor stored in the security module designating a server of the managing center suitable for providing the mobile equipment with the application or an update of said application by downloading into said mobile equipment via the bidirectional mobile network. The invention further includes a security module for mobile equipment containing at least one descriptor designating a server of a managing center suitable for providing the mobile equipment with an application or an update of said application by downloading into said mobile equipment.
US08135821B2
A method for validating that a networked system of modules conforms to at least one interoperability rule pertinent to interoperability of at least two of the modules includes the steps of obtaining the at least one interoperability rule, the at least one rule being encoded in computer-operable format; obtaining configuration information pertinent to at least one of the modules, the configuration information being encoded in computer-operable format; and comparing the at least one interoperability rule to the configuration information to validate whether the system conforms to the at least one interoperability rule
US08135815B2
A method for a computer system includes determining network devices within a network topology, wherein the network devices includes a first application server hosting a first application, receiving a policy for the network comprising requirements of a first application server including a description of a set of required network traffic, receiving a plurality of configuration files associated with the plurality of network devices, determining a network configuration model in response to the plurality of configuration files, computing network traffic on all network paths to and from the first application server to determine a plurality of computed paths, determining if the network traffic includes at least the set of required network traffic associated with the first server, and generating a report indicating whether the network traffic includes at least the set of required network traffic.
US08135809B2
Architecture for gathering and presentation to a remote user (watcher) of presence, preferences, and capabilities information of a local user (publisher). An extensible presence document is employed, as transmitted by the publisher, that contains specific information about the capabilities of the publisher endpoint and preferences that are for the publisher overall. The document is aggregated, and the aggregated capabilities are transmitted to watchers. The watchers render this information in a user experience.
US08135807B2
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for distributing data packets on an aircraft data network having a plurality of end systems. The systems and methods include retrieving a configuration module, retrieving a payload description module, selecting a network interface component, selecting a port rate for the network interface component, selecting a payload module, generating payload data, generating a data packet from the generated payload data, and transmitting the generated data packet to at least one of the plurality of end systems via the network interface component and the aircraft data network.
US08135805B2
A method delivering content from a plurality of sources to a plurality of end servers through a central manager is provided. The method includes receiving the content from the plurality of sources at the central manager, formatting the content to a form usable by the plurality of end servers, creating a transaction generic to the plurality of end servers where the transaction includes a reference to a set of instructions for storing the formatted content, sending the transaction to an end server in the plurality of end servers, and calling the reference to execute the set of instructions where the set of instructions store the formatted content into the memory of the end server.
US08135794B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products that provide for a runtime messaging infrastructure, which abstracts send and receive operations for exchanging messages with partner endpoint. The messaging infrastructure improves availability and scalability of a message application by improving on the availability and scalability of the underlying message transports. In particular, availability and scalability are improved by linking the message application at runtime with any number of the message transports, without the message application specifying a transport at development time. The message infrastructure receives instructions from the message application specifying end-to-end delivery assurances. The infrastructure uses transports in order to fulfill the specified delivery assurance, and creates a link between the message application and transports for use in exchanging messages. Session state storage can be maintained in a pluggable store, which could be, for example, a durable database store or an application memory store.
US08135789B2
A method for analyzing content of multimedia files is presented. The method comprises processing messages from mail servers, determining a type of the message, executing a convert module and obtaining text content of the message when said type is audio, extracting text from the text content or the message, creating a text version of components from the text, dividing the text version into different files, and analyzing the different files. Further, the messages can be captured, sent to a pending folder, retrieved from the pending folder. Creating the text version and dividing the text version can be performed by a mail engine. Natural language processing can be performed on the files. The text can be examined for compliance and, if appropriate, marked with quarantine violations.
US08135782B2
An electronic apparatus comprises a plurality of communication units including a first communication unit which communicates via a first communication network and a second communication unit which communicates via a second communication network. The electronic apparatus acquires presence information indicating a communication state of a communication apparatus from a presence server managing a communication state of a communication apparatus on a communication network, via at least one communication network. The electronic apparatus acquires presence information of an alternative communication apparatus being as a communication apparatus which communicates via the second communication network in place of the second communication unit included in itself. The electronic apparatus determines as to whether the alternate communication apparatus is in an online state, based on the acquired presence information. The electronic apparatus suppresses electric power to be consumed by the second communication unit, when the alternate communication apparatus is in an online state.
US08135776B2
A system for managing the communication of multi-page documents. The system may use a software module document splitter adapted to receive a multi-page document being uploaded as a single file and to split the multi-page document into a plurality of independent files, with each independent file representing a single page of the document. The software module document splitter may also associate meta data with each single page that enables the single pages to be downloaded, one at a time, by an electronic device being used by a user, from a file storage device remote from the electronic device. This provides the appearance to the user that the electronic device is in possession of single, multi-page file.
US08135762B2
A system and method for providing a cost-effective, metadata independent mechanism for the determination of file types. When a user makes a request to store data, the storage device communicates with a storage management software function. The storage management software invokes a file determination system in order to determine the true file type of the file. The file determination system inspects the file header or raw data information and utilizes a structure or an algorithm that specifies, for various file types, the necessary data and patterns required in the file to be of this type, and determines the true file type. Thus storage management software can compare the true file type of a file being inspected to rules established by an administrator and subsequently inform the storage device to either accept or not accept the users request to store data.
US08135753B2
A dynamic information hierarchy may be provided. Logging data comprising a captured user event and a component ID associated with a hierarchical node may be stored in a raw data table. The stored data may be aggregated across the nodes of the hierarchy, stored in an aggregation table, and provided to a user in a report.
US08135749B2
To provide a human relationships registering system, a method and a server for registering human relationships, a program for registering human relationships, and a medium storing human relationships registering program and readable by a computer, all of which are used to establish wide and close relationships with members having a variety of occupations or engaged in various technical fields and to obtain expert knowledge or information. The human relationships registering system comprises first data processing units 2 and 3 including sections for receiving personal data of a new member, and a second data processing unit including a section for storing the received personal data. The second data processing unit stores the personal data of the new member in correlation to an existing member when the existing member confirms the new member.
US08135736B2
A content providing system includes a content distribution server and a content receiving terminal connected to each other through a communication channel. The content receiving terminal includes an operation input unit specifying one point on a line, a time information output unit outputting the specified point as time information, a request sender sending a content providing request including the output time information to the content distribution server, and a provider providing at least one content item to a user. The content distribution server includes a content storage unit in which a plurality of content items are stored in association with at least the corresponding time information, a search unit searching the content storage unit for at least one content item according to a search condition based on the time information, and a content distributor distributing at least one content item to the content receiving terminal.
US08135728B2
Extraction analysis techniques biased, in part, by query frequency information from a query log file and/or search engine cache are employed along with machine learning processes to determine candidate keywords and/or phrases of web documents. Web oriented features associated with the candidate keywords and/or phrases are also utilized to analyze the web documents. A keyword and/or phrase extraction mechanism can be utilized to score keywords and/or phrases in a web document and estimate a likelihood that the keywords and/or phrases are relevant, for example, in an advertising system and the like.
US08135725B2
A method comprises identifying a first user having stored in a database a set of first bookmarks associated with a topic of interest; determining a level of relatedness of a second user to the first user by comparing a first number of overlapping bookmarks that were stored in the database by the second user and that overlap the set of first bookmarks; determining a level of value of the second user to the first user by comparing a second number of related nonoverlapping bookmarks that were stored in the database by the second user, that relate to the topic of interest, and that do not overlap the set of first bookmarks; and presenting at least a portion of the related nonoverlapping bookmarks to the first user.
US08135724B2
In one embodiment, a method of tagging content can include: accessing a frame of a digital media production; identifying an object for tagging within the frame; defining a metadata tag for the object; and storing the metadata tag in association with the identified object and the frame in the digital media production. In one embodiment, a method of substituting content can include: receiving tagged digital media in a controller; identifying an object for substitution by searching through objects and metadata tags in the tagged digital media; retrieving a substitute object using the controller; and re-rendering the tagged digital media to produce a customized digital media using the substitute object in place of the identified object.
US08135716B2
According to some embodiments, a programming language in an application server may include access to different database server implementations, wherein the programming language accesses content of database tables via work areas derived from the database tables. A database table, having columns to store content, each column being associated with a column type, may be mapped to a work area such that, at a database server, each column in the database table is mapped to a corresponding component of the work area, the corresponding component having a default component type based on the column type of the associated column in the database table. It may be determined that a particular column in the database table is to store large object data content, and, in response to the determination, a new mapping to a work area may be defined such that the particular column maps to a corresponding component having a component type other than the default component type.
US08135710B2
Classifying an electronic document in a computer-based system is disclosed. For each classification instance in a plurality of classification instances, a confidence data indicating a degree of confidence that the electronic document is associated with that classification instance is determined. A classification, based on a first classification instance in the plurality of classification instances, is assigned without human intervention to the electronic document if the confidence data associated with the first classification instance exceeds a first threshold.
US08135707B2
The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for using metadata to improve search result presentation. The method according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises receiving a search query from a user and parsing the search query and retrieving a ranked list of search results. The method then extracts metadata from the search results and casts the extracted metadata into an object model. A template is then applied to the cast extracted metadata and a search results page is generated comprising the ranked list of search results and the templated metadata.
US08135703B2
An apparatus and method for a multi-partition query governor in a partitioned computer database system. In preferred embodiments a query governor uses data of a query governor file that is associated with multiple partitions to determine how the query governor manages access to the database across multiple partitions. Also, in preferred embodiments, the query governor in a local partition that receives a query request communicates with a query governor in a target partition to accumulate the total resource demands of the query on the local and target partitions. In preferred embodiments, a query governor estimates whether resources to execute a query will exceed a threshold over all or a combination of database partitions.
US08135692B2
An information retrieval apparatus for retrieving a web page using a retrieval keyword includes a word extract portion for extracting an objective word from the web page on a display based on the specifying a display position of the web page on the display, wherein the word extract portion further extracts a peripheral word placed around the objective word, and a retrieval portion that performs web page retrieval using the objective and peripheral words.
US08135690B2
A method of automatically classifying a concurrency object includes intercepting a call that is configured to create the concurrency object. Concurrency type information for the concurrency object is identified based on the call. The type information indicates whether the concurrency object is a lock object or a synchronization object. The concurrency type information is associated with the concurrency object.
US08135687B2
An attribute rule enforcer evaluates the attributes of a call to add, modify, or delete information in a directory, such as a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory. The attribute rule enforcer determines if the attributes of the call comply with predetermined rules governing the directory's content. The directory attribute rule enforcer may be located at the front end of the directory's access server, and intercepts calls to the directory access server. If the directory attribute rule enforcer determines that the attributes of a call complies with the rules governing the content of the directory, it will forward the call to the directory's access server for action. If, on the other hand, the directory attribute rule enforcer determines that the attributes of a call do not comply with the rules governing the content of the directory, the attribute rule enforcer will reject the call. Further, it may forward an appropriate error message to the source of the call.
US08135681B2
Disclosed is a system for, and method of, calculating parameters used to determine whether records and entity representations should be linked. Such parameters may be set as negative to account for fields that do not match. The system and method apply iterative techniques such that parameters from each linking iteration are used in the next linking iteration. The system and method need no human interaction in order to calibrate and utilize record matching formulas used for the linking decisions.
US08135673B2
Systems and methods for dynamic display of revision indicia are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for dynamic display of revision indicia in an information product generated by a publishing system includes determining that at least one element of a structured content has been revised; adding a time-stamp metadata to each element of the structured content; and rendering the structured content for publication, wherein rendering includes comparing the time-stamp metadata of each element with a baseline date; and if the time-stamp metadata indicates that a particular element has been revised subsequent to the baseline date, displaying a revision indicia at least proximate to each element in the information product.
US08135665B2
Systems and methods for generating an optimized deployment scheme include generating a request identifying a type of resource requested by hierarchically arranged organizational entities including a first organizational entity located at a first level and a second organizational entity at a second level, executing a database query to retrieve business data corresponding to the first and second organizational entities, determining, based on the business data, a first quantity and a second quantity, the first quantity identifying a quantity of the resource available for deployment to the first organizational entity, and the second quantity identifying a quantity of the resource available for deployment to the second organizational entity, modifying the first quantity based on the second quantity, and generating, by using a processor of the computer system, an optimized deployment scheme based on the first quantity, the modified first quantity, and the second quantity.
US08135662B2
Although recording of usage data is common in scholarly information services, its exploitation for the creation of value-added services remains limited due to concerns regarding, among others, user privacy, data validity, and the lack of accepted standards for the representation, sharing and aggregation of usage data. A technical, standards-based architecture for sharing usage information is presented. In this architecture, OpenURL-compliant linking servers aggregate usage information of a specific user community as it navigates the distributed information environment that it has access to. This usage information is made OAI-PMH harvestable so that usage information exposed by many linking servers can be aggregated to facilitate the creation of value-added services with a reach beyond that of a single community or a single information service.
US08135653B2
A control device for a plant includes a manipulation signal generation section for generating the manipulation signal to the plant, a model adapted to simulate a characteristic of the plant, a learning section for generating an input signal of the model so that an output signal obtained by the model simulating the characteristic of the plant satisfies a predetermined target, a learning signal generation section for calculating a learning signal in accordance with a learning result in the learning section, a manipulation result evaluation section for calculating a first deviation as a deviation between a first measurement signal of the plant obtained as a result of application of a certain manipulation signal to the plant and a target value of the measurement signal, and a second deviation as a deviation between a second measurement signal of the plant obtained as a result of application of an updated manipulation signal to the plant and the target value, and a correction signal generation section for generating, when the second deviation calculated by the manipulation result evaluation section is greater than the first deviation, a correction signal of the manipulation signal to be generated by the manipulation signal generation section.
US08135651B2
A system and method for printing multiple postage indicia, such as an outbound and/or an associated return postage meter stamp, including a desired postage amount, onto a document or label is described. A processor based system is programmed to interact with a customer to produce the desired postage indicia and to print multiple ones of the indicia substantially contemporaneously. The indicia may include information to allow their use at a later date and/or from a location other than where they are produced.
US08135650B2
The present invention is a method and apparatus for effectuating bilateral buyer-driven commerce. The present invention allows prospective buyers of goods and services to communicate a binding purchase offer globally to potential sellers, for sellers conveniently to search for relevant buyer purchase offers, and for sellers potentially to bind a buyer to a contract based on the buyer's purchase offer. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus of the present invention includes a controller which receives binding purchase offers from prospective buyers. The controller makes purchase offers available globally to potential sellers. Potential sellers then have the option to accept a purchase offer and thus bind the corresponding buyer to a contract. The method and apparatus of the present invention have applications on the Internet as well as conventional communications systems such as voice telephony.
US08135649B2
A method for automatically linking an anonymous electronic trade order having an order quantity (q) to an identity of a trader by providing an identity marker (s) of the trader; embedding the identity marker (s) by splitting the anonymous trade order into a number (n) of trade orders each having a corresponding order quantity x (i) to generate a trade order set; and placing the generated trade order set in an electronic order book.
US08135641B2
A system and method are provided for displaying information related to a plurality of tradeable objects using a single graphical interface. One example graphical interface includes at least two screen regions displayed in relation to each other, with each region including a plurality of locations. Each location in the first screen region corresponds to a value along a first value axis, and each location in the second screen region corresponds to a value along a second value axis. The graphical interface also includes a first indicator in the first region and a second indicator in the second region. In response to a repositioning command based on an algorithm, the graphical interface includes a repositioned first value axis and the second value axis, such that the indicators are displayed in new locations determined based on the algorithm.
US08135637B2
A method of allowing a user to participate in an auction. The method includes, in a computer system, determining, information relating to the auction, and generating coded data indicative of at least one parameter relating to the auction. The computer system then determines a layout defining an arrangement for at least one of the coded data and the information before causing printing of a form by causing printing of the coded data and the information using the layout. The coded data is adapted to be sensed by a sensing device which can generating indicating data indicative of the at least one parameter. The computer is responsive to the indicating data to determine the at least one parameter, thereby allowing the user to participate in the auction.
US08135630B2
A method for distributed inventory management includes receiving information regarding a number of participants in a value chain and information regarding one or more items relevant in the value chain. The method also includes modeling relationships between two or more of the participants based on the received information and modeling the one or more items based on the received information. The method further includes receiving inventory data from the participants relating to the one or more items, evaluating the received inventory data according to one or more business rules associated with an agent, executing a business process associated with the agent based on the evaluation of the inventory data and the models of the relationships and the items, and communicating output of the business process to one or more of the participants.
US08135628B2
Computer-implemented product design creation system and method for quickly developing a product design having desirable component elements. Multiple candidate product designs are simultaneously displayed for review. Controls are provided allowing a reviewer to enter a preference level for individual component elements of each of the displayed designs. A new set of candidate designs is created based on the entered preference levels. The new candidate designs are displayed for further review and further preference level selection.
US08135622B2
In a disclosed order support system, devices connected to a communication network are searched for and device information is acquired from each of the found devices. Specified information used for extracting devices to be monitor target candidates is obtained, which is specified according to a predetermined attribute in the device information. Based on the obtained information, devices to be monitor target candidates are extracted from among the found devices. A list of the extracted devices is displayed, and devices to be monitor targets are selected. Status information of a consumable element in each monitor target device is acquired and sent to an order-support apparatus. The order-support apparatus creates an e-mail including a URL of a website used for ordering the consumable element detected as being deficient according to the received status information, and sends the e-mail to an e-mail address associated with the device with the deficient consumable element.
US08135610B1
A method and process according to the invention supports at least two distinct activities. A first activity relates to system analysis—the ability to collect, measure, track, monitor and report on health and performance of individual systems within a complex environment of highly interdependent and/or loosely coupled systems. Another activity relates to customer experience tracking—the ability to capture and track an entire customer's experience as that person interacts with multiple technologies such as a web site, telephony system and a set of agent tools. According some aspects, a system according to the invention provides the backbone for monitoring production systems and for enabling integrated, real-time reporting of a company (e.g. insurance agency) website, telephony system and agent desktop suite. In one example, the system uses specialized probes embedded in key processes to collect extensive, targeted information in a non-intrusive manner and to relay that information back to a centralized service for processing and further analysis. The key pieces of captured information are known as checkpoints.
US08135602B2
Techniques for delivering data for coordinating multiple party use of a facility include producing conditions data by measuring without human intervention current condition of a facility that is used by multiple human parties. Availability data that indicates present or future availability for the facility is generated based at least in part on the conditions data. Coordination data based at least in part on the availability data is presented for the parties. These techniques allow rapid dynamic adaptation to changing status of a high-value facility while being less reliant on varied and subjective human motivations for reporting status changes. Undue exposure of sensitive information can be avoided by deriving less detailed views from high-resolution images of the facility and its users. Coordination data can be projected directly onto, and manual input can be derived from, a magnetic white board currently used for coordination at many facilities.
US08135592B2
The present invention relates to a technology capable of providing a hearer with an easy-to-hear synthetic speech to the hearer. The speech synthesizer includes an input unit receiving an input of a sentence, a generation unit generating synthetic speech data from the sentence inputted to the input unit, an accumulation unit accumulating the sentence inputted to the input unit, a collation unit acquiring, when a sentence is newly inputted to the input unit, a collation target sentence that should be collated with this new sentence from the accumulation unit, and calculating a variation degree of the new sentence from the collation target sentence through the collation between the new sentence and the collation target sentence, a calculation unit calculating a variation coefficient corresponding to the variation degree, and a correction unit correcting the synthetic speech data with the variation coefficient.
US08135591B2
A method and system are disclosed that train a text-to-speech synthesis system for use in speech synthesis. The method includes generating a speech database of audio files comprising domain-specific voices having various prosodies, and training a text-to-speech synthesis system using the speech database by selecting audio segments having a prosody based on at least one dialog state. The system includes a processor, a speech database of audio files, and modules for implementing the method.
US08135588B2
A transform coder leading to reduction of degradation of perceptual sound quality even if an adequate number of bits is not assigned. Candidates of a correction scale factor stored in a correction scale factor codebook are outputted one by one, and an error signal is generated by subjecting the candidate and scale factors outputted from scale factor computing sections to a predetermined operation. A judging section determines a weight vector given to a weighted error computing section depending on the sign of the error signal. The weighted error computing section computes the square of the error signal, multiplies the square of the error signal by the weight vector given from the judging section and computes a weighted squared error E. A search section determines the candidates of the correction scale factor which minimizes the weighted squared error E by a closed loop processing.
US08135585B2
An apparatus and method for processing an encoded signal are discussed. The method includes: if a coding type of an audio signal is a mixed signal coding type, extracting spectral data and a linear predictive coefficient from the audio signal; generating a residual signal for the linear prediction by performing an inverse frequency conversion on the spectral data; reconstructing the audio signal by performing a linear prediction coding on the linear predictive coefficient and the residual signal; and reconstructing a high frequency region signal using an extension base signal corresponding to a partial region of the reconstructed audio signal and band extension information.
US08135578B2
A method of creating an application-generic class-based SLM includes, for each of a plurality of speech applications, parsing a corpus of utterance transcriptions to produce a first output set, in which expressions identified in the corpus are replaced with corresponding grammar tags from a grammar that is specific to the application. The method further includes, for each of the plurality of speech applications, replacing each of the grammar tags in the first output set with a class identifier of an application-generic class, to produce a second output set. The method further includes processing the resulting second output sets with a statistical language model (SLM) trainer to generate an application-generic class-based SLM.
US08135569B2
A system and method for modeling of complete tooth, including root and crown, of a patient to facilitate orthodontic treatment are provided, wherein generic tooth modeling is combined with tooth crown modeling for a patient to yield complete tooth modeling. A generic tooth 3D model for a particular tooth is morphed with a 3D model of a patient's crown for the corresponding tooth to yield a complete 3D model for that tooth. Modeling techniques can be conducted with computer-based systems, such as systems configured for storing patient data and generic tooth data, morphing such data and/or facilitating additional orthodontic treatment applications, through the use of one or more algorithms. Adjustment of the complete tooth model for the tooth can be provided through additional patient information, such as X-ray imaging, to address variations in root shape between a generic root and an actual root shape for a patient.
US08135566B2
Determining a node path through a node graph includes modifying the node graph in accordance with a predetermined platform performance, performing a path finding process through the node graph to obtain the node path, determining if the platform performance has changed, adjusting the node graph to compensate for a change in the platform performance, and re-performing the path finding process through the adjusted node graph to obtain the node path.
US08135558B2
Embodiments herein present a method for automated simulation testbench generation for serializer/deserializer datapath systems. The method provides a database of transactors for generating and checking data within the datapath system, wherein the transactors are adaptable to arbitrary configurations of the datapath system. The database is provided with a single set of transactors per core. Next, the method automatically selects one set of transactors from the database for inclusion into the simulation testbenches. Following this, the method maps the first datapath and the second datapath through the datapath system by interconnecting the selected set of the transactors with the datapath system. The method further comprises setting control pins on the cores to facilitate propagation of the data through the cores of the datapath system. Subsequently, the control pins are traced to input ports and control registers.
US08135556B2
Systems and methods are provided for controlling the simulation of a coupled hybrid dynamic system. A physical test rig configured to drive the physical structure component of the system and to generate a test rig response as a result of applying a test rig drive signal. A processor is configured with a virtual model of the system. The processor receives the test rig response and generates a model response of the system based on the received test rig response and a virtual drive input. The system is driven with a random input. The processor compares the test rig response with the model response, the difference being used to form a system dynamic response model for generating the test drive signal. An inverse of the system dynamic response model is used to iteratively reduce the difference between the model response and the test rig response below a defined threshold.
US08135555B2
A strobe offset control circuit is disclosed. The control circuit comprises a strobe signal input to receive a strobe signal and a data receiver to receive a data signal in response to a sample signal derived from the strobe signal. A calibration enable input is provided to receive a calibration enable signal. The calibration enable signal places the strobe offset control circuit in one of a calibration mode or a receiver mode. In the calibration mode, a phase offset between the data signal and the sample signal is adjusted based on output from the receiver. In the receiver mode, the phase offset between the data signal and the sample signal is not adjusted based on output from the receiver.
US08135549B2
A method and device for calculating the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) caused in a body by the electric field of a wireless communications device. The method involves using a model of a body, wherein the device is placed in proximity to the model and the electric field is measured at discrete points, including measuring the magnitude of the electric field at points of a first and a second surface of the model. By means of the measured magnitudes, the phase at said points is determined, such that the complex electric field at said points is determined. The complex electric field at said points is then used to determine the complex electric field in the model of the body. The complex electric field is used in order to calculate the SAR value caused by the device.
US08135547B2
The failure of an upstream filtration membrane, or the presence of a foulant in a fluid is detected using a membrane-based detector. The fluid or an effluent from the filtration membrane is directed to permeate through a first permeable membrane, and from the first membrane to permeate through a second permeable membrane. A ratio between (P1-P2) and (P2-P3) is determined, where P1 is a first pressure at a feed side of the first membrane, P2 is a second pressure between the first and second membranes, and P3 is a third pressure at a permeate side of the second membrane. The ratio is correlated with the failure of the filtration membrane, or with the presence of the foulant.
US08135543B2
A method, apparatus and system for acquiring seismic data is disclosed that in one aspect receives a seismic signal detected by at least one sensor in response to a seismic energy signal generated by a source at a selected location at a data acquisition unit in data that is in data communication with the sensor, receives at least one parameter of the source and/or receiver at the data acquisition unit; and generates a data block at the data acquisition unit having data representative of the received seismic signal and a header that contains data representative of the at least one parameter of the source and/or receiver. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.
US08135536B2
A lead route guidance system capable of displaying route guidance not causing the user to be confused by the difference between the line of vision and the route guidance image, a portable route lead guidance device, and program are provided. The lead route guidance system comprises route storage means storing a route from a start point to a destination, route guidance image creating means for creating a route guidance image (24) containing a route image (22) for specifying the route and a lead image (23) for leading the route by displaying a lead position on the route ahead of the current position of the user, a display screen (11) for displaying thereon the route guidance image (24), walk detecting means for detecting walk of the user, and lead position updating means for updating the lead position depending on the walk of the user when the walk of the user is detected.
US08135535B2
Modeling catalyst exotherm due to blowthrough is provided. The method of advantageously utilizes catalyst temperature based on an amount of blowthrough air and a combustion air-fuel ratio generating a catalyst exotherm.
US08135534B2
An internal combustion engine and method of operating such an engine are disclosed. In some embodiments, the engine includes a piston provided within a cylinder, wherein a combustion chamber is defined within the cylinder at least in part by a face of the piston, and an intake valve within the cylinder capable of allowing access to the combustion chamber. The engine further includes a source of compressed air, where the source is external of the cylinder and is coupled to the cylinder by way of the intake valve, and where the piston does not ever operate so as to compress therewithin an amount of uncombusted fuel/air mixture, whereby the engine is capable of operating without a starter. In further embodiments, the piston is rigidly coupled to another, oppositely-orientated second piston, and the two pistons move in unison in response to combustion events to drive hydraulic fluid to a hydraulic motor.
US08135533B2
An electronic engine control apparatus includes a first storage unit, a second storage unit, a third storage unit, and a processor. The processor performs, when the control apparatus is activated, an initialization control process which includes processes of; extracting from the first storage unit specific information on engine control software stored in the first storage unit; determining whether the specific information extracted is coincident with specific information stored in the third storage unit; initializing retention data stored in the second storage unit when the specific information extracted from the first storage unit is determined as being incoincident with that stored in the third storage unit; and updating the specific information stored in the third storage unit with that extracted from the first storage unit after completion of the initializing process. Further, the processor starts performing the process of executing the engine control software before completion of the initialization control process.
US08135522B2
A vehicular drive system switchable between a continuously-variable and step-variable shifting states, and a control device for controlling the vehicular drive system so as to reduce a shifting shock of an automatic transmission included in the drive system, which takes place due to an overlap control involving a switching control of the drive system and a shifting control of the automatic transmission.Execution-timing control means 82 is provided to command switching control means 50 and step-variable shifting control means 54 to sequentially execute a switching control by the switching control means to switch transmission mechanism 10 between an electrically established continuously-variable shifting state and a step-variable shifting state, and a shifting control by the step-variable shifting control means to shift an automatic transmission portion 20, even when an overlap control involving the switching control and the shifting control is required, whereby the switching and shifting controls can be rapidly completed. Since the transmission mechanism 10 is not switched during the shifting control of the automatic transmission portion 20, the input speed of the automatic transmission portion 20 will not change due to the switching control, apart from a change of the input speed as a result of the shifting control, making it possible to prevent the complicated shifting control and reduce the consequent shifting shock.
US08135517B2
A control method of the torque of a road vehicle having a powertrain system provided with an engine and a driveline which transmits the torque generated by the engine to the road surface; the method contemplates the steps of: determining a target torque; modeling the powertrain system as a single physical component which presents a characteristic mechanical inertia and a characteristic torsional elasticity; determining a current load torque of the vehicle; determining a target torsion of the powertrain system according to the target torque and the current load torque; determining a current torsion of the powertrain system and a current torsion speed of the powertrain system; determining a requested torque on the basis of the energy balance according to the target torsion, the current torsion, the current torsion speed, and the current load torque; and using the requested torque on the basis of the energy balance to control the torque generation of the engine.
US08135516B2
A method for controlling a steering device with steering power support means for a motor vehicle with at least one steerable road wheel, where the steering device may include a steering shaft with a first end to adopt a steering wheel, a control device controlling said power support means, sensing means detecting steering shaft torque introduced in said steering shaft, and means to determine a hands-off situation in which the driver does not introduce a torque into said steering shaft, wherein the steering power support means support the driver on the basis of a driver demand introduced into the steering shaft, may comprise determining a steering wheel torque on basis of the steering shaft torque; determining a time derivative of the detected steering wheel torque; if the absolute value of the steering wheel torque is lower than a threshold torque limit and if the absolute value of the derivative of steering wheel torque is lower than a threshold derivative torque limit, a counter is increased by one count; if the absolute value of the steering wheel torque is higher or equal than a threshold torque limit, or/and if the absolute value of the derivative of steering wheel torque is higher or equal than a threshold derivative torque limit−, said counter is decreased by one count; and if said counter has a value equal to or higher than a threshold count limit the hands-off state is determined.
US08135513B2
An analysis unit for a driver assistance system for a vehicle includes an input for receiving image information which is captured by a camera, a calculating device for using image information to calculate a variable which describes an angle of inclination of the vehicle, a determining device for using the variable to determine an output signal, wherein the output signal relates to a vertical orientation of electromagnetic radiation which is to be emitted by a transmitter unit, and an output for outputting the output signal. A driver assistance system, a computer program product and a method for operating a driver assistance system, are also provided.
US08135510B2
An on-board emergency reporting apparatus includes a collision detection sensor, an airbag inflator for inflating an airbag in the event of collision detection, an airbag deflator for deflating the inflated airbag, a camera for capturing an image of an occupant seated on a seat provided with the airbag, a controller for transmitting the captured image to an emergency reporting center through a communication device, and a deflation sensor for detecting whether the volume of the inflated airbag is reduced to a predetermined threshold value. The controller causes the camera to start capturing upon detection of a reduction in the volume of the inflated airbag to the predetermined threshold value.
US08135507B2
A driver condition estimation apparatus 5 estimates condition of a driver. The driver condition estimation apparatus 5 includes a driver condition estimating unit 50a for estimating the condition of the driver before the driver starts driving; and a control variable changing unit 50b for changing control variables of in-vehicle devices based on the condition of the driver estimated by the driver condition estimating unit 50a.
US08135505B2
Techniques are described for determining locations of interest based on user visits. In some situations, the techniques include obtaining information about actual locations of users at various times, and automatically analyzing the information to determine particular locations in a geographic area that are of interest, such as for frequent destinations visited by users. After determining a particular location of interest, it may be represented by generating a corresponding location model to describe the geographic subarea or other location point(s) covered by the determined location of interest, and one or more points of interest (e.g., businesses, parks, schools, landmarks, etc.) may be identified that are located at or otherwise correspond to the determined location of interest. In addition, a determined location of interest may be further used in various ways, including to identify later user visits to that location (e.g., to a point of interest identified for the location).
US08135497B2
A portable, medication dispensing device which dispenses prepackaged pill strands of medication from a secure, storage compartment through a mechanism which physically limits the quantity dispensed per a pre-programmed protocol. The device has a detachable storage component which can be filled by trained clinical or pharmacy staff, which can be locked. The device has a dispensing mechanism, which employs a user-powered, hub to advance a pill strand of pre-packaged medications, when appropriate. This advancing hub is secured from advancing inappropriately by a locking mechanism where a sturdy piston is moved into and out of recesses in the rounded surface of the hub. The device also contains standard electronic components, including a power source, central processing unit (CPU), visual and auditory outputs, and communications ports.
US08135493B2
A recording material stacking apparatus equipped with a plurality of discharge ports and a plurality of stacking trays can be set to normal mode and large capacity stacking mode each having a different maximum loading capacity. A stacking tray on the upper side has a plurality of lower limit positions and uses a lower limit position located on the upper side when normal mode is selected. On the other hand, it uses a lower limit position located on the lower side when the large capacity stacking mode is selected. The lower limit position located below a stacking tray on the upper side when this large capacity stacking mode is selected exists at a position in which it blocks a lower discharge port of sheets. Selection of the large capacity stacking mode and normal mode is executed according to a result of computation from data input through an input portion.
US08135487B2
A temperature setting method of the present invention includes the steps of: measuring states of an etching pattern within the substrate for a substrate for which a series of photolithography processing including thermal processing and an etching treatment thereafter have been finished; calculating temperature correction values for regions of a thermal processing plate from measurement result of the states of the etching pattern within the substrate using a function between correction amounts for the states of the etching pattern and the temperature correction values for the thermal processing plate; and setting the temperature for each of the regions of the thermal processing plate by each of the calculated temperature correction values.
US08135486B2
Even in case that a wafer is so greatly deviated that a peripheral portion of the wafer cannot be detected, position determination of the wafer can be performed without inflicting a damage on the wafer. The wafer peripheral portion, which is a target, is detected based on output images from a plurality of imaging units disposed along a peripheral portion shape of the wafer (step S210), and a wafer position deviation correcting step (step S220) or a rough correcting step (step 230) is performed according to the number of the imaging units capable of detecting the wafer peripheral portion. In case that the wafer peripheral portion cannot be detected by all the imaging units, a wafer position adjusting step (step 240) for moving the wafer is performed in a position adjusting direction acquired by a combination of the output images by each imaging unit.
US08135480B2
A digital indicating controller outputs data provided by performing control computation of input data and has a communication function with an external apparatus. The digital indicating controller includes a sequence computation section which executes a ladder program with at least any of the input data, the data provided by performing control computation, internal and external setup data, internal and external setup parameters, or data from the external apparatus as condition input and outputs the execution result.
US08135477B2
A neurostimulator conduit introducer is provided. The neurostimulator conduit introducer includes a central lead having a proximal end and a distal end; one or more secondary leads each having a proximal end and a distal end; and a biocompatible conduit enclosing the central lead and the one or more secondary leads, wherein the biocompatible conduit is moveable along the central lead and the one or more secondary leads. Methods of using the neurostimulator conduit introducer and kits including the neurostimulator conduit introducer are also provided.
US08135472B2
Systems and methods for treating autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and related dysfunctions are disclosed. A method in accordance with a particular embodiment includes determining that a patient suffers from an autistic disorder and, based at least in part on the determination, selecting a cortical signal delivery site. The method can further include implanting an electrode within the patient's skull and external to a cortical surface of the patient's brain, and treating the autistic disorder by applying electrical signals to the implanted electrode in conjunction administering an adjunctive therapy to the patient.
US08135470B2
Techniques are described that allow an implantable device to sense gastric data and activity data from a patient, and estimate the patient's amount of energy consumed and energy expended based on the sensed data. A system provides feedback to the patient, a family member, or a doctor about the patient's energy consumed, energy expended, and net energy. The data may be provided in table or graphical format, and may show daily or weekly energy balance data or may show a trend of the daily or weekly energy data. The patient may receive feedback by an implanted alert module that provides and audio alert or a vibration alert. In addition, data acquired by the system may be used to adjust the patient's stimulation therapy parameters.
US08135469B2
This invention relates to the use of an electromagnetic generator and a pressure bladder located within a biological body in such a position to take advantage of the pressure fluctuations found within that body to produce electrical power. The invention uses these pressure fluctuations to displace the moving parts of a generator, to produce electricity in accordance with the Faraday principal, to power implanted devices.
US08135468B2
Various techniques are provided for use with an implantable medical device for estimating cardiac pressure within a patient based on admittance (or related electrical values such as impedance or conductance) that takes into account the presence of acute MR within the patient. Briefly, the device detects an indication of acute MR, if occurring within the patient. The device also applies electrical fields to tissues of the patient and measures electrical parameters influenced by the electrical field, such as admittance, impedance or conductance. The device then estimates cardiac pressure within the patient based on the measured electrical parameter and the indication of acute MR. In one example, different linear correlation functions are used to convert admittance values to left atrial pressure (LAP) values depending upon the presence or absence of acute MR within the patient.
US08135466B2
A medical implant system is described for inhibiting infection associated with a joint prosthesis implant. An inventive system includes an implant body made of a biocompatible material which has a metal component disposed on an external surface of the implant body. A current is allowed to flow to the metal component, stimulating release of metal ions toxic to microbes, such as bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses. One detailed system is completely surgically implantable in the patient such that no part of the system is external to the patient while the system is in use. In addition, externally controlled devices are provided which allow for modulation of implanted components.
US08135451B2
A patient support table for a magnetic resonance system with a magnetic field generation device creating a magnetic field of 7 T or more, comprising a table plate able to be moved into and out of the patient chamber of the magnetic resonance system by means of a drive device, characterized in that the drive device features a pneumatic cylinder with a piston which is coupled to the table plate, with the pneumatic cylinder featuring two working areas divided via the piston and able to be supplied separately with a working medium.
US08135446B2
An apparatus and method for an improved sleep mode in a mobile terminal are provided. The apparatus includes a transceiver for communicating with a base station, a modem for modulating and demodulating signals for transmission via the transceiver or received via the transceiver, and a controller for controlling a sleep cycle of the mobile terminal, the sleep cycle including a listening window and a sleep window. The controller controls the sleep cycle based on an Advanced Mobile Station (AMS) timer, a Hybrid Repeat Request (HARQ) Downlink (DL) Retransmission timer, a HARQ DL Gap timer, and a HARQ Uplink (UL) Gap timer.
US08135443B2
A portable device includes a controller that is responsive to a remaining power capacity of the battery, and a power consumption level of the portable device and based on user prioritized functional processing capability features, dynamically controls functional processing capability features of the device. The controller provides power for a higher priority feature at the expense of a lower priority functional processing capability feature consistent with the user prioritized functional processing capability features. A wireless portable device is also disclosed that includes a wireless signal strength determinator that determines a received signal strength of the wireless device and a controller that adjusts the functional processing capability feature of the wireless device based on the determined received signal strength and based on battery capacity information. In this way, received signal strength information is used as a further input to determine how to best adjust functional processing capability features of the device.
US08135442B2
A communication apparatus for use in a vehicle includes a transmission repeater, a transmission terminator and a re-number unit. In a wireless communication between the communication apparatus and a communication unit in a facility such as a toll collection booth or the like, the transmission repeater transmits transmission data to the communication unit repeatedly until receiving an acknowledgement of reception completion of the transmission data from the communication unit, and the transmission terminator terminates repeated transmissions of the transmission data by the transmission repeater when a number of the repeated transmissions of the transmission data reaches a standard value. Further, the re-number unit changes the number of the repeated transmissions of the transmission data based on a content of the transmission data from the communication unit.
US08135439B2
A basic idea of the invention is to provide multi-user resource scheduling and distribution based on balancing the power resources used for the different narrow beams in order to smooth the interference levels over the whole cell, area and to reduce interference fluctuations. The resource scheduling principle according to the invention is especially useful when the available resources are not fully utilized. The idea is to select, for each antenna beam of at least a subset of the antenna beams, at least two mobile users for service using the respective antenna beam during a transmission time interval, and to distribute power resources to the antenna beams for use during the transmission time interval based on the guideline of balancing the power resources among different antenna.
US08135438B2
A method and apparatus to manage call control in a Computer Telephone Interface (CTI) system includes: a computer terminal to generate a call control message including call control identification information using a CTI application program in response to a call control command from a user, and transmitting the generated call control message; wireless terminals to perform call control upon receipt of the call control message; and an exchange to receive the call control message from the computer terminal, and to maintain the call control message generated by the computer terminal unchanged and to interface it to a corresponding one of the wireless terminals in response to the call control identification information being detected from the received call control message.
US08135432B2
A method and apparatus for managing a communication link in a communication network are provided. A continuous actuation button is configured to initiate a communication link between communication devices. The communication link is initiated when a force applied on the continuous actuation button exceeds a first force threshold. The force applied on the continuous actuation button is sampled at periodic time intervals. A release event of the continuous actuation button is detected when the force applied on the continuous actuation button reaches a second force threshold. The communication link is maintained for a predefined period of time after detecting the release event based on whether the sampled force indicates that the release event was unintentional. The predefined period of time is sufficient to allow a user to take action to avoid disconnection if undesired.
US08135424B2
A cooperative sensing technique (300) operates by selecting a group of subscribers (302) from a secondary system, measuring a cooperative sensing metric (306) and then using the metric to identify an achievable spatial diversity gain for the group of selected subscribers (308). Once an achievable spatial diversity gain is determined for the group (308/412), it is compared to a required spatial diversity gain (310), and if the condition is met at (310), the validated group can begin spectrum sensing (314) to identify a vacant/suitable channel for operation. If the achievable spatial diversity gain is insufficient, then a new group of users is selected (312) within the secondary system and the process repeats itself.
US08135423B2
A communication apparatus is provided in which only a terminal having a specific positional relationship can perform communication through a relatively simple arrangement. When initial setting is performed or communication is started, a timing calculator calculates a time difference corresponding to the difference between a path from a first antenna to a terminal and a path from a second antenna to the terminal, based on a transmission signal from the first antenna and a reflection signal provided by having the transmission signal reflected from the second antenna or a communication partner, i.e. the terminal, and returned back to the first antenna. Based on the time difference thus calculated, the timing calculator outputs a signal for regulating the transmission timing of transmission data from the first antenna to a variable delay unit. The variable delay unit delays transmission timing of the transmission data depending on the timing regulation signal and outputs the delayed transmission data to a modulator/demodulator.
US08135418B2
A method for managing a plurality of call origination requests is provided. The method includes receiving (204) the plurality of call origination requests from a plurality of communication devices. Further, the method includes queuing (206) the plurality of call origination requests, based on a predefined policy, when a base station is operating in a congestion mode. Furthermore, the method includes processing (208) each call origination request of the plurality of call origination requests, based on the queued plurality of call origination requests.
US08135411B2
A method for determining at least one terminal for which signals transferred between the at least one terminal and a base station of a wireless cellular telecommunication network have to be relayed by a relay, the base station allocating resources of the wireless cellular telecommunication network. The method includes, executed by a management entity: receiving from the base station, information indicating to which terminal or terminals at least a part of the resources are allocated; receiving from the relay, a list of indicators of resources, and determining the at least one terminal for which signals transferred between the at least one terminal and the base station have to be relayed by the relay according to the information indicating to which terminal or terminals at least a part of the resources are allocated and to the list of indicators of resources.
US08135402B1
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for sending and/or acknowledging an access probe in a radio access network. In one aspect, a method for transmitting an access probe to a radio access network, wherein time slots available to receive communications from the radio access network are defined in control-channel periods, wherein each control-channel period comprises one or more control-channel cycles, is disclosed. The method involves (a) determining a wait time until a control-channel cycle that is assigned to the access terminal; (b) making a determination as to whether or not the determined wait time is less than a predetermined maximum wait time; (c) if the determined wait time is less than the predetermined maximum wait time, then transmitting an access probe to the radio access network during the assigned control-channel cycle; and (d) otherwise, if the determined wait time is greater than the predetermined maximum wait time, then transmitting the access probe to the radio access network before the assigned control-channel cycle.
US08135396B2
A wireless communication terminal includes a measuring unit configured to measure each of channel qualities of resource blocks that a base station can allocate, a generating unit configured to divide the resource blocks into a plurality of groups, to generate quality data representing the channel qualities of a prescribed number of resource blocks included in each of the groups, which have relatively high channel quality, and to generate position data representing the positions which the resource blocks which have relatively high channel quality take in each of the groups, an encoding unit configured to encode the quality data and the position data to obtain encoded data, a modulation unit configured to modulate the encoded data to obtain a modulated signal, and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the modulated signal to the base station.
US08135394B1
Methods and means provide for handling wireless signal sessions. A failure in wireless communication between a wireless device and a supporting wireless system is detected. The wireless signal session is preserved in a hold state for a limited time. The wireless system attempts to reestablish communication with the wireless device by way of one or more resources of the wireless system prior to the expiration of hold period. Reestablished communication can involve another communications tower or other aspects of the wireless system. In one or more embodiments, other wireless devices are accessed and serve to daisy chain wireless communications between the wireless device and wireless system until direct communications can be reestablished.
US08135393B2
The present disclosure relates to networks and lifecycle transaction management of mobile devices. There is provided a system and method for managing the lifecycle of applications on mobile devices. The system has components for implementing a method comprising the steps of creating a transaction context comprising a transaction command, sending the transaction context in a transaction context message to a plurality of mobile devices, and evaluating an ending scenario based on transaction statuses of the plurality of mobile devices.
US08135385B2
A mobile terminal (200) comprises an application execution unit (240) configured to execute an application program; an access control rule management unit (270) configured to retain an access control rule defining whether the application program has an access authorization to a confidential resource in the mobile terminal and a determining unit; an access control rule query unit (220) configured to acquire, from an external device, the access control rule by designating at least one of an identifier of a user identity module installed in the mobile terminal and an identifier of the mobile terminal, and to retain the acquired access control rule in the access control management unit; a query requirement determination unit (260) configured to determine whether to update the access control rule when the application program makes an access to the confidential resource, and to update the access control rule; an authorization management unit (230) configured to determine whether the application program has the access authorization based on the access control rule; and a confidential resource management unit (250) configured to determine whether to permit an access request to the confidential resource by the application program, based on a result of the determination of the authorization management unit (230).