US08345273B2
The present invention discloses, as an example, an information processing apparatus for downloading an expansion module for a print driver from a server apparatus for setup, including: a reception unit for receiving a program from the server apparatus; a determination unit for determining whether the reception unit receives the expansion module for the print driver and a license management program which is an expansion program for the print driver; an obtaining unit for obtaining, in response to a determination by the determination unit that the reception unit receives the expansion module for the print driver and the license management program, by calling the received license management program, license information indicating a license status of the expansion program; and a decision unit for deciding whether a use of the expansion program is permitted in the information processing apparatus by using the obtained license information.
US08345266B2
In a method and system for measuring wear in the lining of a vessel by a laser contouring system having an electromagnetic radiation emitting and receiving device. The laser contouring system references permanent marks and temporary marks positioned outside, on, or within the vessel. The distances and direction from the electromagnetic radiation emitting and receiving device to the fixed and temporary marks is determined during an initial measurement by the electromagnetic radiation emitting and receiving device from a first scanning position. The electromagnetic radiation emitting and receiving device is then moved along a path from the first scanning position to a second scanning position wherein some of the marks which were scanned from the first scanning position are scanned again to determine the relative position of the vessel and points on the internal lining of the vessel to determine the contour of the lining.
US08345260B2
A method of detecting a movement of a measuring probe provided between an objective lens adapted to image an object plane on a predetermined image plane and the object plane is disclosed. Additionally, a measuring instrument comprising an objective lens and a measuring probe is disclosed. An input beam of light is split into a measurement beam and a reference beam. The measurement beam is focused on a reverse focal plane of the objective lens such that the measurement beam is collimated by the objective lens. The collimated measurement beam is reflected at the measuring probe. The reflected measurement beam is directed towards the objective lens such that the objective lens focuses the reflected measurement beam on the reverse focal plane. The reflected measurement beam is collimated. The collimated reference beam and the reference beam are superimposed to form a superimposed beam and an interference between the reflected measurement beam and the reference beam is detected.
US08345258B2
An optical device for characterizing a test surface combines a Fizeau interferometer with a polarization frequency-shifting element. Two substantially collinear, orthogonally polarized beams having respective frequencies differing by a predetermined frequency shift are generated by the polarization frequency-shifting element and projected into the Fizeau optical cavity to produce a pair of test beams and a pair of reference beams, wherein the beams in each pair have orthogonal polarization states and have frequencies differing by the predetermined frequency shift. A second, substantially equal frequency shift is introduced in the Fizeau cavity on either one of the pairs of test and reference beams, thereby generating a four-beam collinear output that produces an interferogram without tilt or short-coherence light. The invention may also be implemented by reversing the order of the Fizeau cavity and the polarization frequency-shifting element in the optical train.
US08345252B2
An apparatus for measuring a spatially under-sampled Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) of a surface. The apparatus may comprise a first light source directed to illuminate the surface from a first illumination direction, and a plurality of sensors positioned to receive light reflected by the surface. The plurality of sensors may comprise first, second and third sensors positioned to receive light reflected by the surface in first, second and third non-coplanar directions. In various embodiments, the apparatus may also comprise a computer in communication with the plurality of sensors. The computer is configured to convert light sensed by the plurality of sensors into a first appearance property of the surface considering the first, second, and third reflectance directions.A method of calculating xDNA, the vector sum of the observed reflectance intensity over a plurality of wavelengths and angles. Methods of using the calculated xDNA for formulating recipes for a surfaces colors. Furthermore, a method for using the calculated xDNA for rendering the surface color.
US08345249B2
Provided is a liquid sample analyzing method for analyzing an analyte in a liquid sample by using a test piece (1) on which overflow blocking lines (7) are formed to prevent the liquid sample from flowing to the outside from a passage region (3a) of an extended layer (3). In a state in which the liquid sample is not extended in the passage region (3a) of the extended region (3), the test piece (1) is measured so as to cross the passage region (3a) of the extended layer (3) and the overflow blocking lines (7). Thus in a state in which a difference in brightness is large between the passage region (3a) of the extended region (3) and the overflow blocking lines (7), it is possible to properly recognize the boundary portions between the passage region (3a) of the extended region (3) and the overflow blocking lines (7).
US08345247B2
The invention relates to a device for detecting signs of bacterial infection of teeth, comprising a light source, a receiving unit, an evaluation unit, coupled to the receiving unit, at least one emission fiber, coupled to the light source, and at least one detection fiber, coupled to the receiving unit. The invention is characterized in that the common distal front face of the at least one emission fiber and the at least one detection fiber is connected to a front face of a flexible plastic optical wave guide, the diameter of the plastic optical wave guide being less than 400 μm, preferably less than 300 μm.
US08345233B2
A defect inspection apparatus emits light to a test object, detects reflected of scattered light from the test object and detects a defect in the test object The apparatus comprises a temperature-controlled part accommodating section that accommodates parts having a need for controlling a temperature, which is out of a plurality of parts in the defect inspection apparatus. A first temperature measuring instrument measures a temperature in the temperature-controlled part accommodating section; and a temperature control unit controls a temperature of the interior of the temperature-controlled part accommodating section at a prescribed temperature according to the temperature measured by the first temperature measuring instrument. Accordingly, a defect inspection apparatus can efficiently perform temperature control without involving an enlarged size can be achieved.
US08345232B2
An inspection system includes imaging optics for imaging an object plane into an image plane. The imaging optics include an objective lens having positive optical power, a first lens group having negative optical power, and a second lens group having positive optical power. The optical elements are arranged along a common unfolded optical axis with a pupil plane of the imaging optics located between the first lens group and the second lens group.
US08345230B2
An illumination apparatus to illuminate a sample surface with excellent illumination efficiency and a reflective characteristics measuring apparatus using the illumination apparatus. The illumination apparatus includes a plane light source positioned on a normal at a center of the sample surface and a mirror having an internal reflective surface positioned between the plane light source and the sample surface. The internal reflective surface has a circular or polygonal shape in a section perpendicular to the normal and the circular or polygonal shape substantially corresponds to an imaginary circle centered on the normal and having a radius equal to half a distance between the plane light source and the sample surface. In place of the mirror, a plurality of reflective faces may be positioned.
US08345228B2
A measuring device for quantitative determination of optical characteristic values for detecting photo- and/or electrochemical decomposition reactions taking place on surfaces of photocatalytically active substrates.
US08345225B2
A lithographic arrangement allows for controlling radiation characteristics. An illumination system provides a beam of radiation from radiation provided by a radiation source. The radiation source includes an array of individually controllable elements, each individually controllable element being capable of emitting radiation. A support structure supports a patterning device. The patterning device imparts the radiation beam with a pattern. A projection system projects the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate held by a substrate table. A radiation peak intensity detection apparatus detects a peak in the intensity of an emission spectrum of one or more of the individually controllable elements of the radiation source.
US08345216B2
A substrate conveyance device that conveys a substrate having been exposed with a pattern image via a projection optical system and a liquid, the substrate conveyance device comprising: a liquid detector that detects the liquid adhering on the substrate.
US08345214B2
A cooling device is provided that can thin a boundary layer and thus obtain the effect of sufficiently improving the heat transfer coefficient. The cooling device for an electronic apparatus that has a plurality of members juxtaposed such that the surfaces of the members confront each other, the surface of at least one member of these members having a heat discharge surface from which heat is discharged, includes: a duct (100) equipped with an opening (100a) whereby a first air flow emitted from the opening (100a) flows in a first direction along the heat discharge surface, and a duct (101) equipped with an opening (101a) whereby a second airflow emitted from the opening (101a) flows along the heat discharge surface in a second direction that intersects with the first direction. Taking as a boundary a line (200c) that passes through the center (200a) of the heat discharge surface, the center of the opening (101a) is located on the side opposite the side in which the opening (100a) is provided.
US08345211B2
A display panel includes a plurality of display lines provided in each of blocks and extending in parallel with each other, a plurality of drive circuits provided outside a display region and connected to the display lines in the respective blocks, a plurality of first lines provided outside the display region and intersecting end portions closer to the drive circuits of the display lines in the respective blocks, the first lines being insulated from the display lines, and a second line provided outside the display region and intersecting end portions farther from the drive circuits of the display lines of all the blocks, the second line being insulated from the display lines. The second line is configured to intersect the first lines while being insulated from the first lines, and be supplied with a display signal from each of the drive circuits via an amplifier circuit.
US08345209B2
A display device in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes a non-rectangular display area, a frame area surrounding the display area, a plurality of picture elements arranged in the display area, and a plurality of effective display areas having respective colors provided in the picture elements, wherein each of the plurality of effective display areas having respective colors provided in the picture element located in a boundary portion of the display area (display-area edge) is formed such that aperture ratios are the same within one picture element and that center lines in terms of a second direction (longitudinal direction) perpendicular to a first direction along which each color of the effective display areas having respective colors is lined up are located on an extension line of the center line of effective display areas provided in the picture element adjacent in a first direction (lateral direction).
US08345191B2
An optical component capable of changing polarization light state and a liquid crystal display (LCD) device using the same are provided. The optical component including a transparent substrate and a wavelength compensator is disposed at any position from the outer side of the LCD device to the outside in an output direction of an output light. The wavelength compensator is directly attached to the surface of the substrate to convert an output light of the LCD device from a linearly polarized light into a circularly polarized light or an elliptically polarized light, thereby effectively reducing eye fatigue. The LCD device is provided with such an optical component such that a linearly polarized light emerging from the LCD device is converted into a circularly polarized light or an elliptically polarized light to lessen the eye fatigue.
US08345189B2
A diffractive display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, first illuminating means, second illuminating means, and an optical material layer. The optical material layer includes a first portion and a second portion. The first portion includes a first diffraction display section in which first refractive index isotropic regions and first refractive index anisotropic regions are inclined with respect to the output surface of the first substrate. The second portion includes a second diffraction display section in which second refractive index isotropic regions and second refractive index anisotropic regions are inclined with respect to the output surface of the first substrate.
US08345186B2
A backlight includes a spot-shaped light source and a light guide unit including a light guide arranged to diffuse and surface-emit light from the light source. The light guide unit includes a substrate to dispose and fixate the light source and the light guide. Protruding sections are provided on an incident surface of the light guide upon which light from the light source is incident, so as to protrude in a direction opposite to an incident direction of the light from the light source. Further, the light guide is fixedly disposed on the substrate by connecting the protruding sections to the substrate. As a result, with the illumination device including the light source and the light guide, it is possible to achieve an illumination device with a higher light use efficiency and higher luminance homogeneity.
US08345185B2
The present invention provides a color mixing lens which can improve color reproducibility, be made slim and adjust an emission pattern; and a liquid crystal display device having the same. The color mixing lens includes a light receiving portion having light receiving recesses which respectively house light emission diodes formed at a side surface thereof for positioning at least two light emission diodes at the side surface for producing color lights different from each other, a color mixing portion formed on the light receiving portion for mixing the lights from the light emission diodes into a white color light, and a light emission portion formed on the color mixing portion for emitting the white light from the color mixing portion through a top surface thereof.
US08345181B2
A fluorescent tube (LP1) and a fluorescent tube (LP2) in a liquid crystal display device (79) emit light when the tubes are positioned at turning angles within a prescribed range to a hold pedestal (59). A fluorescent tube (LP3) and a fluorescent tube (LP4) also emit light when the tubes are positioned at prescribed turning angles within the prescribed range to the hold pedestal (59).
US08345172B2
A display device uses a field sequential color scheme. Assume that a panel video writing period defines a period from the start of writing image data into a display panel to the completion of displaying the image on the basis of the image data in a sub-frame. A light source driving circuit generates a driving signal for gradually increasing the luminance of a light source of a color corresponding to a displayed image in the present sub-frame from zero to a predetermined value within the panel video writing period of the present sub-frame and for gradually decreasing the luminance of the light source from the predetermined value to zero within the panel video writing period of the next sub-frame. A light source driver drives the light source to emit light in accordance with the driving signal.
US08345171B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for changing digital broadcast channels. In one implementation, upon receiving a request for switching to a new channel in a digital broadcast receiving device, the device switches from a power saving mode, in which the device processes time-slices only for the currently selected broadcast channel, to a channel changing mode, in which broadcast data is buffered for more than one broadcast channels in anticipation of channel surfing. In another implementation, the user's perception of the channel change delay is mitigated by displaying channel information about the newly selected channel.
US08345161B2
In a case of changing the resolution of the synthesized image signal obtained by synthesizing the first image signal and a second image signal, identification information for identifying whether or not the character signal is contained is added to the synthesized image signal based on presence/absence of the character signal, by a character signal creating unit and a character signal synthesizing unit. Then, based on the identification information, a resolution changing unit separates the synthesized image signal into a third image signal containing a component of the character signal and a fourth image signal containing no component of the character signal, changes the resolutions of the third image signal and the fourth image signal, and synthesizes the third image signal and the fourth image signal with the resolutions changed, based on the identification information.
US08345155B2
An integrated circuit comprises deflicker unit is described for adaptively applying deflicker filtering to image data to be displayed using an interlaced scan line technique. The deflicker unit comprises analysis unit arranged to receive the image data and identify at least one region of an image to which deflicker filtering is to be applied, and filter arranged to apply deflicker filtering to those regions identified by the analysis unit. In one example, the analysis unit may be arranged to identify regions of the image to which deflicker filtering is to be applied based at least on energy levels for a high frequency range component within the vertical frequency domain of the image data.
US08345152B2
A CCD sensor has a shutter to prevent frame shift smear during transfer of an image from the image region to a store region. The CCD sensor has an extended dynamic range, because each integration is in two parts, the second part of which has a different sensitivity than the first part. In order to avoid an asymmetry in the uncovering and covering of the image region, a two-bladed shutter is used.
US08345148B2
Certain aspects of a method and system for inverse telecine and scene change detection of progressive video may include determining a cadence, for example, 3:2 or 2:2 pulldown, and phase of received progressive input pictures. A difference between two or more consecutive received progressive input pictures may be determined. The motion compensation of a plurality of output pictures may be controlled based on the determined cadence, phase and difference between two or more consecutive received progressive input pictures. The system may be enabled to determine repeated pictures and scene changes. The motion compensation of output pictures may be stopped during detected scene changes.
US08345133B2
A plurality of photoelectric conversion elements including a first photoelectric conversion element, a second photoelectric conversion element, and a third photoelectric conversion element, are arranged in a photoelectric conversion apparatus of the present invention. Provided, between the first photoelectric conversion element and the second photoelectric conversion element, is a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type and of a first width in which a signal charge is a minor charier. And, provided, between the first photoelectric conversion element and the third photoelectric conversion element, is a second semiconductor region of the first conductivity type in a higher impurity concentration and of a second width narrower than the first width at a position deeper in a semiconductor substrate rather than a depth of the first semiconductor region.
US08345132B2
A color image sensor is disclosed. The color image sensor includes a pixel array including a color filter array (“CFA”) overlaying an array of photo-sensors for acquiring a color image. The CFA includes first color filter elements of a first color overlaying a first group of the photo-sensors and second color filter elements of a second color overlaying a second group of the photo-sensors. The first color filter elements contribute to a first color channel of the color image and the second color filter elements contribute to a second color channel of the color image. The color image sensor further includes a color combiner unit coupled to combine the first color channel with the second color channel to generate a third color channel of the color image based on the first and second color channels. An output port is coupled to the pixel array to output the color image having three color channels including the first, second, and third color channels.
US08345127B2
An image processing apparatus calculates a smoothed value obtained by smoothing signal levels of a plurality of pixels including a processing target pixel in a local area of an input image and a feature amount representing an edge degree of the processing target pixel using a pre-noise reduction image obtained by reducing an impulse noise of the input image. The image processing apparatus weighted-adds a signal level of the processing target pixel and the smoothed value at a ratio corresponding to the feature amount and outputs the weighted-addition result as a signal level after noise reduction processing.
US08345122B2
An image playback method that performs a sequential display of a plurality of image data including a moving image stored in a memory unit while each being switched at predetermined time intervals, includes converting a format of moving image data for the sequential display into a predetermined format for the sequential display prior to the sequential display.
US08345116B2
A noise reduction filter processing circuit includes a first operating part calculating first saturation information indicative of a saturation of an input image, a nonlinear processing part performing nonlinear processing on the input image, a second operating part calculating second saturation information indicative of a saturation of the input image subjected to the nonlinear processing, and a correction operating part performing a correction operation on the input image subjected to the nonlinear processing using the first saturation information and the second saturation information.
US08345111B2
An image capturing device, including an rectangular image capturing element having long sides and short sides; an image capturing optical system forming an image of a subject on the rectangular image capturing element; a first driving device which moves the rectangular image capturing element in a first direction slanted by a predetermined angle from the long side and the short side of an outer shape of the rectangular image capturing element in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the image capturing optical system; and a second driving device which moves the rectangular image capturing element in a second direction slanted by a predetermine angle from the long side and the short side of the outer shape of the rectangular image capturing element in the plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the image capturing optical system, but the second direction differs from the first direction.
US08345109B2
An imaging device includes a MOS image sensor that shoots an image of a subject, and a control unit that selects one of plural shutter drive modes and drives the MOS image sensor in the selected shutter drive mode. The control unit analyzes a through image of a subject that is obtained by the MOS image sensor before main shooting (step S3) and performs the selection automatically based on a result of the analysis (steps S6, S9, and S10).
US08345100B2
A method is provided for removing an illumination generated shadow in a captured image. Each pixel of the captured input image is plotted on a two dimensional logarithmic graph. A linear axis for the plurality of color sets is determined that is substantially orthogonal to a respective illumination direction of each respective color set. A log-chromaticity value of each plotted pixel is projected on the axis. An orientation of the linear axis is selected to minimize an illumination effect and provide optimum separation between each of the respective color sets on the linear axis. Edges in the input image and illumination invariant image domain are identified. The identified edges of the input image are compared to identify edges in the illumination invariant image domain. A determination is made whether a shadow edge is present in response to the comparison. A shadow-reduced image is generated for scene analysis by a vehicle vision-based system.
US08345094B2
An inspection system for inspecting an interior surface of a pipeline has a frame adapted to travel in the pipeline and an imaging means for imaging a selected portion of the interior surface of the pipeline. The imaging means has a field of view and is mounted in a rotatable manner on the frame. The inspection system has with a two-dimensional pattern generator for generating a two-dimensional pattern projection. The generator is mounted with the imaging means to project the two-dimensional pattern projection in the field of view thereof. The imaging means provide images of the selected portion of the internal surface comprising the two-dimensional pattern projection for monitoring a perpendicularity of the optical axis of the imaging means with respect to the selected portion of the interior surface of the pipeline thanks to a shape of the two-dimensional pattern projection prior to inspection of the internal surface.
US08345090B2
A fluoroscopy apparatus includes an illumination portion irradiating an observation target with illumination light; a fluorescence image acquisition device acquires fluorescence emitted from an observation target to acquire a fluorescence image; a fluorescence image-acquisition optical system forms an image of the observation target using the fluorescence; a reference-light image acquisition device acquires returning light from the observation region to acquire a reference image; a reference-light image-acquisition optical system forms an image using the returning light; and an image correction section corrects the fluorescence image by the reference image, wherein the product of an pixel density of the reference-light image acquisition device and the image-forming magnification of the reference-light image-acquisition optical system is less than the product of the pixel density of the fluorescence image acquisition device and the image-forming magnification of the fluorescence image-acquisition optical system.
US08345084B2
A system includes a first prism pair that converts beams emitted from a subject and having two substantially parallel optical axes arranged side-by-side in one direction into beams arranged side-by-side in a direction intersecting the aforementioned side-by-side direction; and a second prism pair that performs conversion to reduce the distance between the optical axes of the two beams converted by the first prism pair and that has exit surfaces arranged side-by-side in a direction perpendicular to the side-by-side arrangement direction before entering the first prism pair. The first prism pair includes a first parallelogram prism that reflects, twice, the beam containing one of the two optical axes in a first plane containing one of the optical axes, and a second parallelogram prism that reflects, twice, the beam containing the other of the two optical axes in a second plane containing the other optical axis and parallel to the first plane.
US08345082B2
A video conferencing system with more than three endpoints and a multipoint control unit displays a merged image of the video conference participants at an endpoint monitor. The participant images are separated from their corresponding background and merged to make all participants appear the same size on the monitor. The system also identifies an active endpoint based on the level of sound received from the endpoints and highlights a corresponding participant as a speaker.
US08345081B2
An improved videoconferencing system and method are provided for connecting a host to a plurality of participants. Unlike other videoconferencing methods and systems, the videoconferencing system and method of these preferred embodiments allow each of the parties of a videoconference to benefit from the interaction between the host and the selected participant without limiting the number of participants that can join the videoconference. The host and participants can interact with the videoconferencing system by issuing voice commands or DTMF signals to a voice response unit or by using a computer to access the videoconferencing system directly or indirectly though a network such as the World Wide Web.
US08345074B2
A light-emitting device includes: a board; plural light-emitting chips that are one-dimensionally arrayed in a longitudinal direction of the board and that are connected to a first potential and a second potential; and plural capacitors that each include a first electrode and a second electrode arranged in a short-side direction of the board, and that are arrayed in the longitudinal direction of the board so that the first electrode and the second electrode are alternately positioned between each adjacent two of the capacitors. The first electrode is connected to the first potential for the light-emitting chips, and the second electrode is connected to the second potential for the light-emitting chips.
US08345071B2
In a display control circuit of this invention, a write gray scale level determining part outputs write gray scale level data for performing overshoot drive on a liquid crystal display device. Moreover, an achievable gray scale level determining part outputs achievable gray scale level data indicating a gray scale level which achieves after a lapse of one frame. Further, an error noise predicting part compares, with a predetermined threshold value, predicted values as differences between gray scale level values of plural pieces of input image data and a mean gray scale level value of these gray scale level values to control a data selecting part such that when at least one of the predicted values exceeds the threshold value, the data selecting part gives, to an image compressing part, the input image data rather than the achievable gray scale level data predicted that a decoding error becomes large. This configuration allows suppression or elimination of after-image noise.
US08345067B2
A volume of a patient can be mapped with a system operable to identify a plurality of locations and save a plurality of locations of a mapping instrument. The mapping instrument can include one or more electrodes that can sense a voltage that can be correlated to a three dimensional location of the electrode at the time of the sensing or measurement. Therefore, a map of a volume can be determined based upon the sensing of the plurality of points without the use of other imaging devices. An implantable medical device can then be navigated relative to the mapping data.
US08345063B2
Embodiments of a filtering method and apparatus for anti-aliasing as described herein take advantage of improved existing hardware by using as input the data stored in the multisampling anti-aliasing (MSAA) buffers after rendering. The standard hardware box-filter is then replaced with a more intelligent resolve implemented using shader programs. Embodiments find scene edges using existing samples generated by Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) hardware. Using samples from a footprint larger than a single pixel, a gradient is calculated matching the direction of an edge. A non-linear filter over contributing samples in the direction of the gradient gives the final result.
US08345057B2
An apparatus and method for creating a coordinated image display. A computer system comprising stored digital templates for said image display can be operated by a user to generate the image display. The templates each have a plurality of digital openings for displaying digital images and each of those openings has a required image attribute. The group of required attributes for the openings are stored as a template recipe. The template recipe includes a required image attribute for a dependent opening. The dependent opening is dependent on an image attribute of an image captured by a capture device coupled to the computer system, which includes scanners and cameras. The captured image can be of a paint swatch, a fabric, furniture, carpeting, or any other item or image.
US08345056B2
A method for filling closed regions in a drawing using a region filling tool. Rather than selecting individual regions to fill, or filling based on style-by-layer techniques, the user creates a path or an area boundary to identify the regions to be filled. A graphics application may then fill each region that intersects the path or area boundary with a selected color or graphical style. In this manner, multiple regions in the drawing may be identified using one interaction with the region filling tool, allowing the user to more efficiently and intuitively fill regions in the drawing with the selected color or graphical style.
US08345052B1
A method and system for using a graphics processing unit (“GPU”) frame buffer in a multi-GPU computing device as cache memory are disclosed. Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method, which includes the steps of designating a first GPU subsystem in the multi-GPU computing device as a rendering engine, designating a second GPU subsystem in the multi-GPU computing device as a cache accelerator, and directing an upstream memory access request associated with an address from the first GPU subsystem to a port associated with a first address range, wherein the address falls within the first address range. The first and the second GPU subsystems include a first GPU and a first frame buffer and a second GPU and a second frame buffer, respectively.
US08345046B2
The invention relates to a method, computer program and device for automatically adding shadows to objects (2; 20) in a computer-generated scene (1). This is performed by calculating a first three dimensional [3D] position for a shadow object 5 (5; 50) based on a 3D position of a first original object (2; 20) and a 3D position of a first light source (3; 30), and adding a shadow object (5; 50) to said scene (1) at said first 3D position.
US08345045B2
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for controlling a shader declaratively. A declarative programming model enables declarative statements to be used that control an instantiation of a shader in a declarative presentation framework. A shader-based effect that was specified declaratively is instantiated programmatically for rendering graphic effects for a software application. Declarative statements are sent to a shader processor to enable a shader to render the graphical effect customizations for the software application. A method is also described for utilizing a declarative programming model as a multiple pass effect that controls and encapsulates a set of shaders to be run during a multiple pass operation.
US08345044B2
A method for use in deformation of an object. The method includes providing a high-resolution model of the object and providing a control cage for the model that includes control faces each defined by control vertices. The method includes generating a thin-layer segment for each of the control faces including extruding a set of the control vertices a distance toward the model. The method includes binding the control cage to the high resolution model based on the thin-layer segments. Each of the thin-layer segments includes a segmented mesh corresponding to a set of the control faces surrounding each face as it is used as seed for a segment. The method includes determining heat diffusion weights for the segments and using the weights along with mean value coordinates to statically bind the cage to the model and to determine influences of segments during deformation of the model with the cage.
US08345042B2
A retrieval method targeted for partial characteristic shapes existing in a polyhedral shape is provided. The method converts inputted shape model data into triangular mesh data, extracts and classifies triangular mesh data groups that form the partial characteristic shapes. The method calculates the characteristic amount of the triangular mesh data groups that represent the classified partial characteristic shapes and then calculates the difference between the characteristic amount of the triangular mesh data groups and the characteristic amount of a query shape to display a partial characteristic shape that has a small difference in the characteristic amount or the query shape. Furthermore, the method displays a list of candidates for similar shapes based on the difference value of the characteristic amount.
US08345037B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device and a driving method thereof are provided. The LCD device includes a display panel including pixel units, a data driving circuit, and a gate driving circuit. The gate driving circuit provides a first gate off voltage to one pixel unit of the pixel units when the data driving circuit provides a data voltage having a positive polarity to the pixel unit, the gate driving circuit provides a second gate off voltage to one pixel unit of the pixel units when the data driving circuit provides a data voltage having a negative polarity to the pixel unit. The second gate off voltage is less than the first gate off voltage.
US08345011B2
A method for express execution of multimedia playing with device group activation is provided. A device activation group table is provided to a multimedia computer system. The device activation group table defines, according to the functional features of each multimedia players connected to the computer, each hot key and its associated multimedia player, driver, and application program. To execute the express activation of the group function menu, the method includes the following steps: detecting the depression of a hot key; computer loading and executing the driver for the multimedia player associated with the depressed hot key in the computer by referring to the device activation group table; and loading and executing the application program for the multimedia player associated with the depressed hot key to activate the associated multimedia player. For those multimedia players associated with the hot keys that are not depressed, no action is taken.
US08345010B2
A movable barrier operator system operational component includes an integral display comprising at least one of a numeric display, an alphanumeric display, and a graphics display. The display can comprise an active display or an active interactive display and can further operate in conjunction with adjacent user-input interface opportunities. So configured, numerous user interface events can be highly leveraged to contribute to ease of installation and ease and reliability of use.
US08345007B2
A method for reading mapping on electronic documents, the method including: showing a text to be read on an electronic display; showing a mouse cursor on the electronic display to be used by a reader as a reading assist; storing on a memory device, in association with the text to be read, a state of the mouse cursor moved by the reader who reads the text, as information reflecting the reader's reading state; showing, on an electronic display, an already read text whose state of the mouse cursor has already been stored on a memory device; and mapping onto the already read text, the stored state of the mouse cursor read out from a memory device, as a trace reflecting the reading state of the previous reading.
US08344993B2
A backlight device for LCD displays can include a light-emitting source of the type that includes a cold-cathode or hot-cathode fluorescent tube that is lit with a high-frequency power supply. The high-frequency power supply can be PWM-controlled to adjust the brightness. The high-frequency power supply can also be randomly phase-modulated with an irregular modulation code to light the fluorescent tube. This enables the infrared radiation from the fluorescent tube to be spread over a wider band such that the level thereof is lowered to a level that does not interfere with typical remote controls.
US08344974B2
An OLED device is disclosed. The OLED device disposes a voltage divider and a switch unit in the output stage of a power supplier, thereby lowering the level of a supply voltage VDD, which is applied to a driver IC in an emission interval, below that of the supply voltage which is applied to the driver IC in a non-emission interval. Accordingly, the OLED device can reduce electric power consumption.
US08344968B2
A plasma display apparatus is disclosed. The plasma display apparatus includes a plasma display panel including a scan electrode and a sustain electrode that are positioned parallel to each other, and an address electrode crossing the scan electrode and the sustain electrode and a driver that supplies a reset signal to the scan electrode and supplies a first signal, whose a direction is the same as a direction of the reset signal, to the sustain electrode in a reset period of at least one of a plurality of subfields of a frame. The first signal overlaps a predetermined period during which the reset signal rises to a maximum voltage and then again rises to a voltage less than the maximum voltage.
US08344966B2
Method and apparatus for providing a fault tolerant display unit for an electronic device such as a glucose meter, including display unit, and a controller unit operatively coupled to the display unit, the controller unit configured to control the display unit to display an information, where when a failure mode of the display unit occurs, the display unit is configured to display a modified information, where the modified information is different from the information for display under the control of the controller unit, is provided.
US08344962B2
An apparatus comprising: a ground plane configured to receive an antenna, operable in a first resonant frequency band, at a first end of the ground plane; and a member configured to electromagnetically couple with the antenna, provide the ground plane with an electrical dimension, in combination with the antenna, having a resonant mode at the first resonant frequency band, and to reduce current distribution at a second end of the ground plane, different to the first end.
US08344959B2
First, second and third feed ports interface to an antenna that has an impedance disposed between its ends which are defined by the first and second feed ports. The third feed port interfaces to the antenna at an intermediate point between the ends. In a first mode (balanced mode) the impedance enables signals to/from the first and second feed ports to resonate along the whole of the antenna, and in a second mode the impedance enables signals to/from the third feed port to resonate along a portion of the antenna, the portion terminating at the impedance. In embodiments, the first mode is for RFID signals and the second mode is for any one or more of Bluetooth/WLAN/GPS/FM signals. The first and second mode may operate simultaneously. Also detailed is a method for making an electronic device having such an antenna.
US08344951B2
An antenna for use in an RFID device is disclosed. The antenna of the RFID device includes an antenna substrate including a cavity in which an RFID chip is inserted, and also includes a first antenna electrode and a second antenna electrode. The first and second antenna electrodes are formed on the antenna substrate so as to connect to the RFID chip, and are tilted at specific slopes while interposing the cavity therebetween. The antenna is connected to the RFID chip using a simple insertion method, so that connection speed is increased.
US08344940B2
Provided are a sensor capable of adjusting vertical alignment and a sensor vertical alignment adjusting apparatus using the same. The sensor has a structure with a plurality of switchable transmitting and receiving antennas so as to be able to adjust the vertical alignment, or a structure with a tilting motor for adjusting a radiating or receiving angle. The sensor vertical alignment adjusting apparatus using such a sensor corrects vertical misalignment of the sensor by determining whether or not the vertical misalignment of the sensor occurs, variably switching one from among the plurality of transmitting or receiving antennas of the sensor or controlling the tilting motor, and adjusting the radiating angle of the sensor signal or the receiving angle of a reflected wave of the sensor signal.
US08344937B2
Methods and apparatus for a first radar; identifying a blind spot in coverage of the first radar; providing a second radar to illuminate the blind spot, and merging data from the first and second radars using target classification prior to tracking to reduce false targets. In one embodiment, polarimetric data is used to classify targets.
US08344933B1
A radar system has an antenna. The system includes electronics configured to facilitate communication using radar returns received and transmitted by the antenna. The electronics is configured to extract communications data from a received radar return. The electronics is further configured to provide communications data with an outgoing radar pulse for data transmission.
US08344926B2
The analog-to-digital converter comprises a first stage in which a voltage to be converted is applied to the input of a first comparator. The first comparator delivers a first digital result representative of the comparison between the voltage to be converted and the reference voltage on a first digital output. The first digital output is connected to means for calculating a first intermediate voltage. A second comparator compares the first intermediate voltage with the reference voltage and delivers a second digital result on a second digital output terminal. The digital output terminal is connected to second means for calculating a residual voltage according to the voltage to be converted, the first and second voltages and the first and second digital results.
US08344906B2
Spatial relationship information and performance information are determined for vehicles within a vehicular environment. Traffic signaling information is received from a traffic regulation system associated with the vehicular environment. At least one synchronized control action is calculated for each of the vehicles to synchronize the vehicles with the traffic regulation system based upon the traffic signaling information, the determined spatial relationship information, and the determined performance information for each of the vehicles. The associated at least one synchronized control action is communicated to each of the vehicles. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08344897B2
A system and method for directing when and where an agricultural vehicle should refill a container thereof may comprise a sensor for detecting an amount of material in the container, a location determining device, and a processing device communicably coupled with the sensor and the location determining device, as well as a display, a speaker, and/or an automated steering system. The processing device may use information regarding the amount of material in the container, the location of the agricultural vehicle, and a variety of other factors to determine when the container needs to be refilled and to determine a refill location at which the agricultural vehicle should refill. The processing device may send these refill instructions to the display, the speaker, and/or the automated steering system. The processing device may also alert a refill vehicle to travel to the determined refill location, if necessary.
US08344889B2
An RFID tag includes a circuit board assembly having a substrate comprised of a material with a high dielectric constant of greater than approximately 4 and having a first side and a second side. A patch antenna is mounted to the first side of the substrate. A metallic ground plane is mounted to the second side of the substrate, and an RFID circuit is at the second side of the substrate. A shorting wall includes a plurality of through holes extending through the substrate and interconnecting the antenna with the ground plane. The plurality of through holes are generally linearly arranged relative to each other along an edge of the ground plane. An electrically conductive via extends through the substrate and interconnects the antenna with the RFID circuit. The via is at a distance from the shorting wall whereby an impedance of the RFID circuit approximately matches an impedance of the antenna. A backplane is coupled with the ground plane, on a side of the ground plane opposite the substrate.
US08344885B2
An apparatus is disclosed including one or more security structures. The one or more security structures includes: a weldable frame; a plurality of composite panels, each panel securable to the weldable frame, each composite panel configured to form at least one joint with at least one adjoining composite panel; and a respective security element embedded within each of the composite panels. The security element is configured to detect a breach in the composite panel.
US08344876B2
A system, apparatus, and method for motion monitoring. In an embodiment, a plurality of self-powered active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transmitters are each configured to intermittently transmit radio frequency pulse at a rate proportional to motion, containing identification information. The pulse produced by each of the RFID transmitters are received and analyzed at a receiver. The analysis results in the identification of pattern of activity, which is used to produce meaningful data regarding the motion of a user. The RFID transmitters may be provided on a wearable tag.
US08344865B2
A method and apparatus for determining coolant leakage in a vehicular propulsion system battery. An AC isolation resistance test is used to determine whether an isolation fault has occurred within the battery, but can also determine the capacitance of the circuit or system, which can further determine the coolant leakage levels of the vehicular propulsion system battery. This eliminates having an additional device to measure the coolant leakage.
US08344864B1
The traffic safety system includes a comprehensive control server with a mass storage unit, a main data collector with a main data collection mass storage unit, and a sub data collector with a sub-data storage unit. Also included are vehicle embedded sensors and embedded sensors disposed in various infrastructure components such as roadways, traffic lights street lamps, and the like. All sensors are in network communication with the control server, main and sub data collectors. The control server, main and sub data collectors are all in operable communication with each other via the same network communications infrastructure. This networked system monitors and controls vehicle activity on roads equipped with the embedded sensors. The system generates alerts, which are sent to drivers warning them of laws, which are applicable to the controlled roadways. Without human intervention, the control system autonomously enforces road activity that is compliant with the applicable roadway laws.
US08344857B1
The present disclosure provides a power rectifier for a Radio Frequency Identification tag circuit. The rectifier is constructed from a pair of complementary MOS transistors. Gates of the transistors have predetermined voltages applied to them. The applied voltages bias the transistors to near their active operating region. During the same time additional control signals are applied to the gates of the transistors, the control signals are synchronous, but out of phase, with each other.
US08344850B2
A system and method for authorizing a remote device amongst multiple remote devices for passive functions, such as passive entry and passive start, includes a vehicle having a plurality of strategically located antennas, combinations of which transmit a query signal and receive query responses, a challenge antenna amongst the plurality of antennas for transmitting a challenge signal to at least one of the multiple remote devices in accordance with a challenge order, and a control unit having a controller in communication with the antennas for determining the challenge order based upon the query responses. Upon a failure, the system determines which of the remote devices to challenge next based upon the failure type and the number of retries remaining.
US08344846B2
A resistor includes a substantially cylindrical resistive element having a resistance of less than about 1 mΩ, a substantially cylindrical first termination electrically connected to the resistive element and a second termination electrically connected to the resistive element. The substantially cylindrical first termination is hollow to allow for accepting a connection such as from a battery cable. In addition there may be sense leads present on the resistor. A method of forming a substantially cylindrical resistor includes forming a hollow cylindrical resistor body by rolling a flat sheet comprising a resistive element and a first termination and a second termination joined on opposite ends of the resistive element.
US08344841B2
An inductor structure includes a first inductor and a second inductor. The second inductor includes a loop that surrounds the first inductor. The first inductor includes a first loop and a second loop, and a crossover section coupling the first loop to the second loop so as to cause current flowing through the first inductor to circulate around the first loop in a first rotational direction and around the second loop in a second rotational direction opposite to the first rotational direction; wherein the first and second inductors are arranged in an equilibrated configuration about a first axis that bisects the inductor structure such that the first loop is on one side of the first axis and the second loop is on a second side of the first axis, such that the magnetic interaction between the inductors due to current flow in the inductors is cancelled out.
US08344823B2
An antenna switching arrangement with a quadrature arrangement of transmission lines through which a desired signal path may be configured via switches selectively grounding junctions of the switching arrangement. The desired path routing a signal from an input port to one or both of first and second output ports to generate a signal with vertical linear polarization, horizontal linear polarization or circular polarization. The selected polarization may be changed as desired and/or multiple antenna switching arrangements applied to enable simultaneous signals with different polarizations.
US08344821B2
A printed circuit board layout method includes the following steps. A printed circuit board with a signal layer and a pair of differential transmission lines positioned on the signal layer is provided. A first distance is determined; when the distance between the pair of differential transmission lines is greater than the first distance, an eye width and an eye height of an eye diagram nearly remains the same. When a distance between the pair of differential transmission lines is less than the first distance, an eye width and an eye height of an eye diagram decreases. A second distance that is less than the first distance is set between the pair of differential transmission lines which makes the eye width and the eye height greater than a predetermined value, and which is determined by a Far End Crosstalk (FEXT) on the eye diagram when the pair differential transmission lines transmit signals.
US08344820B1
A circulator/isolator assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a first magnetic substrate having first surface and a second surface and a first ground plane formed on the first surface. A dielectric layer is disposed adjacent first magnetic substrate. The dielectric layer includes a multi-port junction circuit coupled to transmission traces. One of the traces forms an input port and another forms an output port. A first magnet is disposed proximate the multi-port junction circuit of the dielectric layer. The first magnet excites a circular, unidirectional magnetic flux field in the first magnetic substrate that limits electromagnetic wave propagation to a single direction.
US08344805B2
There is provided a high-frequency differential amplifier circuit comprising: a first MOS transistor, a second MOS transistor, a first positive feedback element and a second positive feedback element. The first MOS transistor and the second MOS transistor each has a source connected to a first power source and a drain connected through loads to a second power source. The first and second MOS transistors receives at their gates, first and second input signals having phases reverse to each other. The first positive feedback element includes a first capacitor and a first variable resistance connected in series between the gate of the first MOS transistor and the drain of the second MOS transistor. The second positive feedback element includes a second capacitor and a second variable resistance connected in series between the gate of the second MOS transistor and the drain of the first MOS transistor.
US08344796B2
A switched capacitor circuit includes a capacitor and switches located on an input side and an output side of the capacitor. The switched capacitor circuit also includes an operational amplifier of a later stage which receives an output of the capacitor, wherein a current value of a current supplied to the operational amplifier is switched according to at least one open/closed state of at least one of the switches.
US08344793B2
A differential voltage controlled current source generating one or more output currents is based upon a single external resistor. The differential voltage controlled current source may generate an output current that is proportional to a received differential voltage and a bias current with the use of a single external resistor. The technique may be used to generate multiple accurate and process independent current sources. The current sources may be a zero temperature coefficient (ZTC) current, a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) current, or an inversely proportional to absolute temperature (NTAT) current. The output of the current sources may be inversely proportional to the resistance of the external resistor.
US08344790B2
A circuit includes a charge pump and a feedback circuit. The charge pump coupled to a switch provides a control signal to the switch. The feedback circuit coupled to the charge pump receives the control signal and adjusts an operating frequency of the charge pump based upon the control voltage. The control voltage is adjusted to a predetermined target voltage by adjusting the operating frequency through the feedback circuit.
US08344788B2
The semiconductor device includes a power element which is in an on state when voltage is not applied to a gate, a switching field-effect transistor for applying first voltage to the gate of the power element, and a switching field-effect transistor for applying voltage lower than the first voltage to the gate of the power element. The switching field-effect transistors have small off-state current.
US08344787B2
A combination mixer arrangement comprising a first mixer and a second mixer coupled in parallel between first and second input ports and an output port. The mixers are arranged to be driven simultaneously by an input signal provided at the second input port. They are de-coupled, so a bias voltage applied at the first input port provides dc bias simultaneously for the mixers to enable gain expansion of the first mixer responsive to an increase in said input signal and thereby an improved linearity for the combination mixer arrangement.
US08344780B2
Flip-flop circuits including a dynamic input unit and a control clock generator are provided. The dynamic input unit precharges an evaluation node to a power supply voltage in a first phase of a clock signal, selectively discharges the evaluation node based on input data in a second phase of the clock signal, and compensates for voltage drop of the evaluation node in response to a first control clock signal. The control clock generator generates the first control clock signal and a second control clock signal based on at least the clock signal.
US08344769B2
There is provided a jitter suppression circuit and a jitter suppression method in which both shortening of a pull-in time and high jitter suppression characteristics is satisfied. In a jitter suppression circuit using a digital phase locked loop, both shortening of a pull-in time and high jitter suppression effect can be satisfied by determining whether the loop is in a synchronous state or not using a phase difference between an input clock and an output clock, and changing characteristics of a loop filter by the determination result.
US08344767B2
In one general aspect, an apparatus can include a first voltage detect circuit configured to produce an output signal at a first power supply voltage, and configured to be in a non-monitoring state at a second power supply voltage greater than the first power supply voltage. The apparatus can include a second voltage detect circuit configured to change from a non-monitoring state to a monitoring state and configured to produce an output signal at a third power supply voltage between the first power supply voltage and the second power supply voltage. The apparatus can also include a combination circuit configured to produce a power-on-reset signal based on a logical combination of the output signal produced by the first voltage detect circuit and the output signal produced by the second voltage detect circuit.
US08344766B2
A reset transistor is prevented from being deteriorated when power-down occurs during a programming operation or an erasing operation. It is made possible to protect the reset transistor as well as other transistors in a circuit to which a high voltage is applied when the power-down occurs during the erasing operation on an EEPROM, because the system is not reset all at once based only on a first reset signal POR of a power-on reset circuit, but is reset based on the first reset signal POR and a low voltage detection signal LD from a low voltage detection circuit so that the reset transistor is not turned on while the high voltage is applied to it.
US08344757B2
A semiconductor device includes a first circuit block connected between first and second power lines, a logic circuit that receives an output signal of the first circuit block that is connected between the first power line and a fourth power line or a third power line and the second power line, and a second circuit block that receives an output signal of the logic circuit that is connected between the third and fourth power lines. In an active state, a first potential is supplied and in a standby state, a second potential lower than the first potential is supplied between the first and second power lines. In any of the active state and the standby state, the first potential is supplied between the third and fourth power lines. With this configuration, speeding-up of a critical path can be realized while maintaining a subthreshold current low.
US08344756B2
Field programmable gate arrays using resistivity-sensitive memories are described, including a programmable cell comprising a configurable logic, a memory connected to the configurable logic to provide functions for the configurable logic, the memory comprises a non-volatile rewriteable memory element including a resistivity-sensitive memory element, an input/output logic connected to the configurable logic and the memory to communicate with other cells. The memory elements may be two-terminal resistivity-sensitive memory elements that store data in the absence of power. The two-terminal memory elements may store data as plurality of conductivity profiles that can be non-destructively read by applying a read voltage across the terminals of the memory element and data can be written to the two-terminal memory elements by applying a write voltage across the terminals. The memory can be vertically configured in one or more memory planes that are vertically stacked upon each other and are positioned above a logic plane.
US08344753B1
A terminal resistor apparatus includes an input-side switch, an input-side terminal resistor, an output-side switch, and an output-side terminal resistor. When a plurality of the terminal resistor apparatus are connected, the input-side switch of the first terminal resistor apparatus will be conducted so that the input-side terminal resistor will be connected, but the output-side switch will not be conducted so that the output-side terminal resistor will not be connected. The input-side switch of the last terminal resistor apparatus will not be conducted so that the input-side terminal resistor will not be connected, but the output-side switch will be conducted so that the output-side terminal resistor will be connected. The input-side switches of the other terminal resistor apparatus will not be conducted so that the input-side terminal resistors will not be connected, and the output-side switches will not be conducted so that the output-side terminal resistors will not be connected.
US08344747B2
A probe unit includes: large diameter probes; small diameter probes; a large-diameter probe holder having large hole portions which individually hold the large diameter probes, and reception hole portions which have diameters smaller than those of the large hole portions, communicate with the large hole portions, and receive end portions of the small diameter probes so that the end portions come into contact with the large diameter; and a small-diameter probe holder probes having small hole portions which individually hold the small diameter probes. The central axes of the large hole portion and the small hole portion that communicate with each other are separated from each other, and the small hole portions include two small hole portions which are adjacent to each other and of which central axes are separated from each other by a distance shorter than a distance between the central axes of two large hole portions that are corresponding to the two small hole portions.
US08344745B2
The fabrication of the wafer may be analyzed starting from when the wafer is in a partially fabricated state. The value of a specified performance parameter may be determined at a plurality of test structures located on an active area of a die of the wafer. The specified performance parameter is known to be indicative of a particular fabrication process in the fabrication. Evaluation information may then be obtained based on a variance of the value of the performance parameter at the plurality of locations. This may be done without affecting a usability of a chip that is created from the die. The evaluation information may be used to evaluate how one or more processes that include the particular fabrication process that was indicated by the performance parameter value was performed.
US08344742B2
The invention provides methods of investigating a mechanism of action of a compound, which includes providing a device for monitoring cell-substrate impedance; attaching the device to an impedance analyzer; adding cells to two or more wells; adding a test compound to at least one of the wells and providing at least one control well; monitoring impedance of the wells to obtain a series of impedance measurements; plotting impedance measurements to obtain impedance curves and comparing the impedance curves to determine a time frame at which the test compound has a significant effect on cell growth or behavior. Determining the time frame provides information on changes in cell status in response to the test compound, including cell attachment or adhesion status, cell growth or proliferation status, the number of viable or dead cells, cytoskeletal organization or structure, and the number of cells going through apoptosis or necrosis.
US08344741B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus for monitoring clearance in a rotary machine are provided. According to one embodiment of the invention, there is disclosed a method for monitoring clearance between a rotatable member and a stationary member in a rotary machine. The method may include providing a flex circuit capacitance sensor. The flex circuit capacitance sensor may include at least one capacitance sensing layer, at least one shielding layer adjacent to the capacitance sensing layer, at least one ground layer adjacent to the shielding layer, and a set of conducting leads connected to the capacitance sensing layer. Further, the method may include mounting the capacitance sensor between a portion of the rotatable member and a portion of the stationary member. Clearance may be determined between the rotatable member and the stationary member based at least in part on a capacitance indication from the capacitance sensor.
US08344730B2
An apparatus includes a unit which acquires, by a first sequence, an MR signal before administration of a contrast agent and which also acquires, by a second sequence, an MR signal after the administration, the first sequence dephasing a magnetization after RE excitation to make a greater signal reduction in a first signal component regarding a fluid flowing within a first range than in a second signal component regarding the fluid flowing within a second less than the first range, the second sequence bringing the MR signal after the administration to a level corresponding to the concentration of the agent, a unit which reconstructs first and second images, and a unit which generates a third image on the basis of the first and second images, the third image showing the degree of a change of the fluid after the administration from a state before the administration.
US08344728B2
NMR spectroscopy is performed on intervertebral disc tissue. Extent of degeneration is determined based on the NMR spectroscopy. Correlation between NMR spectral regions and at least one of tissue degeneration and pain are made. Accordingly, NMR spectroscopy is used to determine location and/or extent of at least one of degeneration or pain associated with a region of tissue, such as for example in particular disc degeneration, or discogenic pain. NMR spectral peak ratios, such as between N-Acetyl/cho and cho/carb, are readily acquired and analyzed to predict degree of tissue degeneration and/or pain for: tissue samples using HR-MAS spectroscopy; and larger portions of anatomy such as joint segments such as a spine, using clinical 3 T MRI systems with surface head or knee coils; and tissue regions such as discs within spines of living patients using 3 T MRI systems with a surface spine coil, thus providing a completely non-invasive diagnostic toolset and method to image and localize degeneration and/or pain.
US08344722B2
A method for measuring electric current applied to a load includes: with a sensor element having an inaccuracy, measuring an electric current supplied to a load to produce a measurement of the electric current; with the sensor element, measuring the electric current with an added perturbation current; and using measurements of the electric current taken with and without the perturbation current to refine the measurement of the electric current.
US08344705B2
A method employing a lead-unity-lag adjustment on a power generation system is disclosed. The method may include calculating a unity power factor point and adjusting system parameters to shift a power factor angle to substantially match an operating power angle creating a new unity power factor point. The method may then define operation parameters for a high reactance permanent magnet machine based on the adjusted power level.
US08344704B2
A method and apparatus for allowing the user of a power generator coupled to a time-varying load, to define an alternative reference impedance to enable on or more metrics to be provided relative to the alternative reference impedance. The metrics, for example, may provide indicia of performance of the power generator system. One illustrative embodiment provides a power delivery system that applies power to a plasma chamber to create a plasma therein; determines a reference impedance of the plasma at an operating condition; and controls the power delivery system based on the determined reference impedance.
US08344701B2
A method for preventing fake charging of an electronic apparatus is provided. The method includes: providing a power management table for setting function units for each power range; activating a fake charging preventing function according to a predetermined condition or an activating operation of users; detecting power of the electronic apparatus every a first predetermined time interval; determining a current power range the detected power falls into; determining whether the current power range is changed; beginning to time when the current power range is changed; activating function units which are disabled and whose power range is the current power range when the timing reaches a second predetermined time interval and the detected power is still in the current power range.
US08344698B2
Disclosed is a charging control method including: a full charging step of charging a lead storage battery until the battery is fully charged; a refresh charging step of performing refresh charging of charging the lead storage battery with a predetermined refresh charging quantity of electricity after the lead storage battery has been fully charged; and a refresh charging quantity setting step of setting the refresh charging quantity of electricity in the refresh charging step for the lead storage battery which has been fully charged at a present time, depending on a temperature of the lead storage battery throughout a deficient charging period, the deficient charging period being a period from a time when the lead storage battery has been fully charged at a previous time to a time when the lead storage battery has been fully charged at the present time in the full charging step.
US08344696B2
A charging signal Vi responding to a charging current is inputted to one input terminal (−) of an operational amplifier 95 forming a comparator and a setting signal Vr corresponding to a setting current value is inputted to the other input terminal (+) of the operational amplifier 95. When the charging signal Vi is not higher than the setting signal Vr, a charging stop signal is generated from the output terminal of the operational amplifier 95 to interrupt a switch unit 4. A starting signal Vcc larger than the setting signal Vr applied to the other input terminal (+) is applied to the one input terminal (−) of the operational amplifier 95 through a condenser 94 till a prescribed time elapses from the start of a charging operation to generate a charging start signal from the output terminal of the operational amplifier 95 and electrically conduct the switch unit 4.
US08344694B2
A battery circuit including a first battery cell with a first parameter having a first value and a second battery cell with a second parameter having a second value. The second battery cell is coupled to the first battery cell in series. The battery circuit further includes a magnetic device operable for storing energy transferred from the first battery cell via a first winding coupled to the first battery cell and for releasing the stored energy to the second battery cell via a second winding coupled to the second battery cell if the first value of the first parameter is greater than the second value of the second parameter.
US08344692B2
A charging device includes an air nozzle that prevents power-feeding-side terminals from becoming wet by blasting air, fitting switches operated when a power feeding connector is removed from a connector holding portion, and an ECU that activates an air compressor and a vacuum pump on the basis of operations of the fitting switches. The power-feeding-side terminals can be prevented from becoming wet while the power feeding connector is attached to a power receiving connector of an electric vehicle after being removed from the connector holding portion.
US08344691B2
A retrofitting, inductive-battery-charging device for use with a surgical sterilization device, comprising an inductive charging assembly and an inductively powered battery-charging platform that is sterilizable inside a surgical sterilization device and is operable to charge at least one rechargeable battery of a battery-operated surgical instrument when the rechargeable battery is placed at the platform. The inductive charging assembly comprises an inductive-power-supply sub-assembly electrically connected to a power supply and is operable to supply power inductively over a distance at least equal to a width of a wall of the surgical sterilization device, and an inductive-power-receiver sub-assembly that is sterilizable inside the surgical sterilization device and electrically coupled to the platform. The inductive-power-receiver sub-assembly is operable to supply charging power to the platform for charging the at least one rechargeable battery when placed at the platform, and to inductively receive electrical power from the inductive-power-supply sub-assembly at least over the distance.
US08344687B2
A battery pack updating method updates firmware stored in internal control circuit memory via an update signal sent from a main device that supplies power. When battery pack memory is updated, an AC adapter is connected to the main device, and power is supplied to the main device from the AC adapter. The updating method transmits a charging and discharging blocking signal from the main device to the battery pack control circuit via a communication line. The charging and discharging blocking signal stops discharge from the battery pack rechargeable battery, and stops charging of the rechargeable battery. With rechargeable battery discharging and charging to and from the main device stopped by the charging and discharging blocking signal, the updating method transmits update data from the main device to the battery pack control circuit to update memory.
US08344678B2
A servomotor control system includes: an integrated control unit for integrally controlling servomotors; and servomotor units coupled with the integrated control unit and the servomotors. Each servomotor unit includes: a motor driver; a rotation detector of the servomotor; an original point detector for detecting an original point of the servomotor; a communication element for obtaining control information including rotation position instruction information from the integrated control unit; a rotation position calculator for calculating a current rotation position of the servomotor based on a rotation detection signal; a motor drive instruction element for outputting driving instruction information to the motor driver according to the control information and the current rotation position; and a current rotation position correction element for resetting the current rotation position to a predetermined original point when the original point detector detects the original point.
US08344668B2
In a method and apparatus for propagating optical signals via optical cables such as plastic optical fiber, known as lightguide joint and mingled with the electrical wiring and home automation system for controlling LED illuminators enclosed in standard screw type bulb bases or plug-in bases, such as used for halogen lamp via optical signal propagated through such standard bases. Same optical signals are propagated through power outlets and via power cable assemblies to electrical appliances for controlling the appliances operation and on-off switching. Full range of control, distribution, signal conversion, keypads and touch screen including video interphones monitors and shopping terminals operate and controls such home automation via the optical cables.
US08344666B1
A circuit for implementing a configurable light timer controlling a light is disclosed. The circuit comprises an input portion for receiving timing characterization data, the input portion having a slot adapted to receive a portable memory device storing the timing characterization data; a control circuit coupled to access a set of data of a plurality of sets of data of the timing characterization data; and a multiple setting selection actuator coupled to the control circuit, the multiple setting selection actuator enabling a selection of the set of data to be implemented by the control circuit. A method of implementing a configurable light timer is also disclosed.
US08344662B2
There is provided a light emitting diode (LED) driver removing signal interference by varying a switching frequency within a preset range. The LED driver includes a power supply section switching input power and supplying driving power to at least one LED; a switching control section controlling the switching of the power supply section according to a clock signal being supplied; and a clock signal generation section supplying the clock signal having a preset variable frequency range to the switching control section.
US08344660B2
An apparatus and method of controlling a light are disclosed. One method includes detecting a light adjusting trigger event, selecting a random delay time, and adjusting the light, wherein the light adjustment occurs the random delay time after detecting the light adjusting trigger event.
US08344656B2
A control circuit for a switched mode power supply includes a transconductance amplifier circuit for receiving a voltage signal related to a current from an input of the power supply and producing a first signal, an analog signal processor coupled to the amplifier circuit for receiving the first signal and a second signal from the input of the power supply and a third signal from an output of the power supply. The analog signal processor is configured to produce a fourth signal as a function of the first, the second, and the third signals. An adder circuit is coupled to the fourth signal and a dimmer control signal, and the adder circuit is configured to output a fifth signal. A comparator circuit is coupled to the adder circuit for providing a control signal to a power transistor that controls current flow in the power supply based on comparison of the fifth signal and a reference signal.
US08344652B2
An optical measuring apparatus including: a measuring apparatus body, a lighting unit, a lighting controller. The lighting unit is demountably mounted on the measuring apparatus and has an LED as a light source. The lighting controller is configured to control the lighting unit according to a light intensity command value. The lighting unit includes a storage unit in which a calibration value is stored. The calibration value generates a light intensity corresponding to the light intensity command value. The lighting controller is configured to read calibration values corresponding to the light intensity command value out from the storage unit of the lighting unit upon receipt of the light intensity command value, and controls the LED on the basis of the calibration value.
US08344645B2
In at least one embodiment of the disclosure, a method for driving a discharge lamp includes changing a duty ratio of an AC current to be supplied between a first electrode and a second electrode of the discharge lamp in accordance with a predetermined pattern, and setting a current value when the first electrode operates as an anode during one cycle so as to be smaller than a current value when the second electrode operates as an anode during one cycle.
US08344641B1
Disclosed is an illumination controller for use with at least one three-color LED module. The illumination controller includes a command input, three color control outputs, and a processor. The command input receives a unitary illumination control command having first, second and third color level values, and a fade rate value. First, second, and third color control outputs pulse modulates respective first, second and third signals that powers an illumination level for each color. The processor, responsive to a control command, transitions the first color control output in accordance with the received command's first color level value and the fade rate value, transitions the second color control output in accordance with the received command's second color level value and the fade rate value, and transitions the third color control output in accordance with the received command's third color level value and the fade rate value. The three colors may be red, green, and blue.
US08344638B2
Representative embodiments of the invention provide a system, apparatus, and method of controlling an intensity and spectrum of light emitted from a solid state lighting system. The solid state lighting has a first emitted spectrum at a full intensity level and at a selected temperature, with a first electrical biasing for the solid state lighting producing a first wavelength shift, and a second electrical biasing for the solid state lighting producing a second, opposing wavelength shift. Representative embodiments provide for receiving information designating a selected intensity level or a selected temperature, and providing a combined first electrical biasing and second electrical biasing to the solid state lighting to generate emitted light having the selected intensity level and having a second emitted spectrum within a predetermined variance of the first emitted spectrum over a predetermined range of temperatures.
US08344633B2
A driving circuit (10) for driving a plurality of light sources (1) arranged in a series configuration (2) is described. A controllable current source (20) is connected to said series arrangement of light sources. Each light source (1(i)) is bridged by a corresponding controllable switch (25(i)). A controller (30) controls the operation of the current source (20) to set a current level and controls the operative states of the respective switches (25(i)) in order to individually control the light output of the corresponding light sources. The controller (30) is capable of individually setting the switch control signals (SL(O) for the respective switches (25(i)). Especially, the controller (30) is capable of boosting the light output of one selected light source (1(x)) while maintaining the light output of other light sources in the series arrangement (2). To this end, the current level is increased while the other light sources are dimmed.
US08344614B2
An organic light emitting display (OLED) device and a method of manufacturing the same, the OLED device including a first substrate having an organic emission unit on a surface thereof, a second substrate above the first substrate, an inorganic sealing member between the first substrate and the second substrate, the inorganic sealing member bonding the first substrate and the second substrate. and a filler, the filler filling a space between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein a volume of the filler is greater than a volume of a space between the first substrate, the second substrate, and the inorganic sealing member prior to bonding the first substrate and the second substrate.
US08344611B2
A blue-green emitting Ce3+-activated oxyfluoride phosphor for use with a light emitting diode (LED) in solid state lighting applications. The blue-green emitting Ce3+-activated oxyfluoride phosphor is represented as: (Sr1-x-yAEy)3(Al1-zTz)O4F:Ce3+x wherein 0
US08344601B2
A light emitting device with improved heat dissipation is provided. The light emitting device includes a first lead frame, a second lead frame, a light emitting element and a housing. The first lead frame includes a light emitting element mounting portion, a first heat dissipation portion extending from the light emitting element mounting portion in a first direction, and second and third heat dissipation portions extending from the light emitting element mounting portion in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The second lead frame extends in the second direction and is disposed between and spaced apart from the second and third heat dissipation portions. The light emitting element is mounted on the light emitting element mounting portion and is electrically coupled to the first and second lead frames. The housing encapsulates the first and second lead frames. The second and third heat dissipation portions have a first width and the second lead frame has a second width the same as or different from the first width.
US08344596B2
In one general aspect, various embodiments are directed to an ultrasonic surgical instrument that comprises a transducer configured to produce vibrations along a longitudinal axis at a predetermined frequency. In various embodiments, an ultrasonic blade extends along the longitudinal axis and is coupled to the transducer. In various embodiments, the ultrasonic blade includes a body having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the distal end is movable relative to the longitudinal axis by the vibrations produced by the transducer.
US08344593B2
A vibration type driving apparatus is provided, in which a plurality of vibration members include rotation units that are formed so as to be rotatable around respective rotation axes that are parallel to respective directions of forces generated by elliptical movements; in which any vibration member that is positioned in a range where an angle between a direction of movement of a moving member and the corresponding rotation axis is greater than a predetermined angle is tilted by the rotation unit, and vibration mode for push-up moving is generated at the any vibration member; and in which the elliptical movement of any vibration member that is positioned in a range where the angle is less than the predetermined angle causes the moving member to move.
US08344589B2
Regarding a boundary acoustic wave device in which at least a part of an IDT electrode is embedded in a groove disposed in a piezoelectric substrate, the acoustic velocity is increased. A boundary acoustic wave device is provided with a piezoelectric substrate, a first dielectric layer, and an IDT electrode. The surface of the piezoelectric substrate is provided with a groove. The IDT electrode is disposed at the boundary between the piezoelectric substrate and the first dielectric layer in such a way that at least a part thereof is located in the groove. In the inside of the groove, the groove angle γ, which is the size of an angle formed by an upper end portion of the inside surface of the groove with the surface of the piezoelectric substrate, is less than 90 degrees.
US08344582B2
An electric machine includes a rotor, a first tooth portion, and a second tooth portion spaced apart from the first tooth portion and cooperating with the first tooth portion to at least partially define a rotor opening. At least a portion of the rotor is disposed within the rotor opening. A bridge has a first end connected to the first tooth portion and a second end connected to the second tooth portion such that the bridge defines a portion of the rotor opening. An aperture is defined by the bridge and is disposed between the first end and the second end.
US08344571B2
The present invention relates to a high-efficiency permanent magnet motor driven by a direct current (DC) without alternation, with the motor generating a high-efficiency kinetic energy synthesized from active energy of a stator and passive energy of a rotator, comprising: a stator comprising a coil distributively wound radially around a circular planar PCB, creating a magnetic field on both sides of the stator located at the center of two rotators; and a rotor comprising two circular planar permanent magnets with a corresponding size to the magnetic field of the stator, with the magnet having both faces magnetized arranged such that the magnetized faces of the magnets and the magnetic fields on both sides of the stator facing each other have the same polarity. Constant power is provided when DC power is applied to the coil of the stator, the rotor rotates, in the absence of an AC.
US08344569B2
A generator for a wind power has teeth which are surrounded by windings and separated by slots, and permanent magnets that form the poles of the exciter field. The ratio of the number of slots to the product of the numbers of poles and winding phases is fractional and >1. Alternatively or additionally, the front and/or rear edges of successive poles or groups of poles are oppositely inclined to the axis of rotation.
US08344567B2
A rotating electrical machine includes a flange provided at one end of a hollow frame in an axial direction; a rotor including a shaft, the shaft being rotatably supported by the flange; and a stator fixed to an inner section of the frame, the stator surrounding the rotor. The rotor includes a first rotor core and a second rotor core arranged in the axial direction and having recesses formed in the axial direction, and a rotor-core space defined by the recesses that are formed in the first rotor core and the second rotor core and that face each other.
US08344566B2
A drive device includes a rotating electrical machine; a control device that controls the rotating electrical machine; and a case that accommodates the rotating electrical machine and the control device. The case includes a machine chamber that accommodates the rotating electrical machine, and an electric chamber that accommodates the control device. The machine chamber and the electric chamber are separated from each other by a partition wall, and a connection member that electrically connects the rotating electrical machine and the control device to each other is provided so as to extend through the partition wall in a fluid-tight state. Each of the machine chamber and the electric chamber has an opening on one axial end side of the rotating electrical machine, and a cover that covers the openings in a separated state from each other is mounted to the openings.
US08344565B2
An actuator arrangement for the axial displacement of an actuation member by means of a drive force which is generated by an electric machine, in particular for a shift-clutch arrangement of a multi-step gear change transmission. The actuation member is mounted axially displaceably on a rotary shaft. The electric machine has a stator fixed to a housing and a rotor which is coupled to the actuation member and is arranged coaxially with respect to the actuation member. The rotor is coupled to the actuation member with a form fit in the axial direction. Here, the rotor or the actuation member has a radial projection which engages into a radial groove of the other part.
US08344555B2
An ECU executes a program including a step of turning on an SMRP and an A-SMRP if an ignition switch is turned on; a step of detecting voltage values VB(1) and VB(2) of running batteries when VH is detected and if VH is higher than 180 V; a step of detecting that SMRP connected to the running battery is welded, if VB(1) is higher than 150 V; and a step of detecting that A-SMRB connected to the running battery is welded, if VB(2) is higher than 150 V.
US08344554B2
The present invention relates to a controlled truncating radio connection for a high-voltage impulse test system, preferably for quality assurance of power transformers. According to the invention, the truncating radio connection is expanded by an additional damping unit, made of a serial damping resistance and a damping inductance having a radio connection connected in parallel thereto, and thereby combines the functionalities of a truncating radio connection and an overshoot compensation in only one auxiliary component.
US08344539B1
A drive shaft is supported at first and second ends with bearings for rotational reciprocation. A sail has a fixed portion and a reciprocable portion. An inextensible cord couples the reciprocable portion of the sail to the drive shaft adjacent to the first end whereby wind contacting the sail will reciprocate the reciprocable portion of the sail to pull the inextensible cord and rotate the drive shaft. A generator is rotatably coupled to the drive shaft adjacent to the second end for creating electrical energy in response to the reciprocation of the sail from the action of the wind.
US08344534B2
A system for capturing energy may comprise a vehicle having a body with an interior and an exterior, and at least one aperture being formed in the exterior through which air enters. An energy capture apparatus comprises a primary guide duct positioned in the interior with an entrance adjacent to the at least one aperture and an exit, a turbine assembly in communication with the primary guide duct to receive air flowing along the air path and having an output. The apparatus may also include a generator configured to receive rotational motion from the turbine assembly and generate electrical power, and a secondary guide duct in communication with the output of the turbine assembly. The system may comprise an air utilizing component with an exit of the secondary guide duct being positioned adjacent to the component.
US08344527B2
An efficient apparatus for converting momentum into useful work is provided. The apparatus is disposed within a roadway such that when a passing automobile drives over the device, the top of the device is moved downward on a hinge causing a pulley attached to a clutch to rotate a shaft. The clutch ensures that on the “up-stroke” the shaft is not rotated in the opposite direction. Through a series of pulleys, an optimum gear ratio is achieved finally connecting to a generator to output electricity. The top of the device is returned to be even with the roadway by a spring loaded wheel assembly. The apparatus is designed to accommodate loads up to 18,000 lbs and be capable of being deployed across a multi-lane roadway.
US08344520B2
A stacked structure of chips including a first chip and a second chip is provided. The first chip includes a first and a second circuit blocks, a signal path, a first and a second hardwired switches. The second chip stacks with the first chip stack and includes a third circuit block, a third and a fourth hardwired switches. If the first circuit block is defective and the second and the third circuit blocks are functional, the first hardwired switch and the third hardwired switch are set correspondingly such that a power-supply bonding pad is connected to the third power terminal and disconnected to the first power terminal, and the second hardwired switch and the fourth hardwired switch are set correspondingly such that the third signal terminal is electrically connected to the signal path to make the third circuit block replace the first circuit block and provide the first function.
US08344519B2
A battery protection package assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a power control integrated circuit (IC) with pins for a supply voltage input (VCC) and a ground (VSS) on a first side of the power control IC. First and second common-drain metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are electrically coupled to the power control IC. The power control IC and the first and second common-drain metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET) are co-packaged on a common die pad. The power control IC is vertically stacked on top of one or more of the first and second common-drain MOSFETs. Leads coupled to a supply voltage input (VCC) and a ground (VSS) of the power control IC are on a first side of the common die pad.
US08344508B2
A semiconductor device includes: a metal-containing compound layer on a semiconductor substrate; a dielectric film on the semiconductor substrate and the metal-containing compound layer; a contact hole penetrating through the dielectric film to reach the metal-containing compound layer; a contact plug in the contact hole. The semiconductor device further includes a manganese oxide layer extending between the contact plug and respective one of the dielectric film and the metal-containing compound layer.
US08344500B2
The present invention discloses an integrated circuit module and method of manufacturing the same. The integrated circuit module includes a chip and a carrier supporting the chip. The carrier defines a front side and a back side, and the chip is disposed on the front side. The carrier includes a first insulating layer defining a first opening at the back side, a second insulating layer defining a second opening and a chip accommodation opening at the front side, and a patterned conductive layer sandwiched in between the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer. The patterned conductive layer is formed with an inner contacting portion exposed through the chip accommodation opening and an outer contacting portion exposed through the first opening and the second opening. The inner contacting portion is connected to the chip through the chip accommodation opening. The outer contacting portion is provided for electronically connecting an electronic device to the patterned conductive layer selectively at the front side through the second opening and at the back side through the first opening.
US08344499B2
A method of making a chip-exposed semiconductor package comprising the steps of: plating a plurality of electrode on a front face of each chip on a wafer; grinding a backside of the wafer and depositing a back metal then separating each chips; mounting the chips with the plating electrodes adhering onto a front face of a plurality of paddle of a leadframe; adhering a tape on the back metal and encapsulating with a molding compound; removing the tape and sawing through the leadframe and the molding compound to form a plurality of packaged semiconductor devices.
US08344478B2
Inductors and methods for integrated circuits that result in inductors of a size compatible with integrated circuits, allowing the fabrication of inductors, with or without additional circuitry on a first wafer and the bonding of that wafer to a second wafer without wasting of wafer area. The inductors in the first wafer are comprised of coils formed by conductors at each surface of the first wafer coupled to conductors in holes passing through the first wafer. Various embodiments are disclosed.
US08344476B2
The present invention provides a technology capable of improving an operation reliability of a semiconductor device. Particularly, a fuse material which constitutes the copper can be prevented from migrating being locked in the recesses or the grooves after a blowing process. A semiconductor device includes an insulating layer including a concave-convex-shaped upper part; and a fuse formed on the insulating layer.
US08344474B2
In a sophisticated metallization system, self-aligned air gaps may be provided in a locally selective manner by using a radiation sensitive material for filling recesses or for forming therein the metal regions. Consequently, upon selectively exposing the radiation sensitive material, a selective removal of exposed or non-exposed portions may be accomplished, thereby resulting in a highly efficient overall manufacturing flow.
US08344468B2
A photovoltaic device includes lateral P-I-N light-sensitive diodes respectively formed in portions of a planar semiconductor material (e.g., polycrystalline or crystalline silicon) layer that is entirely disposed on an insulating material (e.g., SiO2) layer utilizing, e.g., STI or SOI techniques. Each light-sensitive diode includes parallel elongated doped regions respectively formed by P+ and N+ dopant extending entirely through the semiconductor layer material and separated by an intervening elongated intrinsic (native) region. The light-sensitive diodes are connected in series by patterned conductive (e.g., metal film) structures. Optional bypass diodes are formed next to each lateral P-I-N light-sensitive diodes. Optional trenches are defined between adjacent light-sensitive diodes. The photovoltaic devices are either utilized to form low-cost embedded low power photovoltaic arrays on CMOS IC devices, or produced on low-cost SOI substrates to provide, for example, low-cost, high voltage solar arrays for solar energy concentrators.
US08344464B2
One exemplary disclosed embodiment comprises a semiconductor package including multiple transistors coupled to an exposed conductive clip. A driver integrated circuit (IC) may control the transistors to implement a buck converter. By exposing a top surface of the exposed conductive clip outside of a mold compound of the package, enhanced thermal performance is provided. Additionally, the conductive clip provides a short distance, high current carrying route between transistors of the package, providing higher electrical performance and reduced form factor compared to conventional designs with individually packaged transistors.
US08344460B2
Ni3Si2 FUSI gates can be formed inter alia by further reaction of NiSi/Ni2Si gate stacks. Ni3Si2 behaves similarly to NiSi in terms of work function values, and of modulation with dopants on SiO2, in contrast to Ni-rich silicides which have significantly higher work function values on HfSixOy and negligible work function shifts with dopants on SiO2. Formation of Ni3Si2 can applied for applications targeting NiSi FUSI gates, thereby expanding the process window without changing the electrical properties of the FUSI gate.
US08344449B2
An embodiment of a process for manufacturing an electronic device on a semiconductor body of a material with wide forbidden bandgap having a first conductivity type. The process comprises the steps of: forming, on the semiconductor body, a first mask having a first window and a second window above a first surface portion and a second surface portion of the semiconductor body; forming, within the first and second surface portions of the semiconductor body underneath the first and second windows, at least one first conductive region and one second conductive region having a second conductivity type, the first conductive region and the second conductive region facing one another; forming a second mask on the semiconductor body, the second mask having a plurality of windows above surface portions of the first conductive region and the second conductive region; forming, within the first conductive region and the second conductive region and underneath the plurality of windows, a plurality of third conductive regions having the first conductivity type; removing completely the first and second masks; performing an activation thermal process of the first, second, and third conductive regions at a high temperature; and forming body and source regions.
US08344445B2
A non-volatile semiconductor memory cell with dual functions includes a substrate, a first gate, a second gate, a third gate, a charge storage layer, a first diffusion region, a second diffusion region, and a third diffusion region. The second gate and the third gate are used for receiving a first voltage corresponding to a one-time programming function of the dual function and a second voltage corresponding to a multi-time programming function of the dual function. The first diffusion region is used for receiving a third voltage corresponding to the one-time programming function and a fourth voltage corresponding to the multi-time programming function. The second diffusion region is used for receiving a fifth voltage corresponding to the multi-time programming function.
US08344420B1
Embodiments include but are not limited to apparatuses and systems including a heterostructure having a first barrier layer, a gallium nitride channel layer on the first barrier layer, and a second barrier layer on the gallium nitride channel layer and including a first sublayer, a second sublayer, and a third sublayer. The first barrier layer, the first sublayer, and the third sublayer may each include aluminum. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08344418B2
A group III chalcogenide layer for interfacing a high-k dielectric to a III-V semiconductor surface and methods of forming the same. A III-V QWFET includes a gate stack which comprises a high-K gate dielectric layer disposed on an interfacial layer comprising a group III chalcogenide. In an embodiment, a III-V semiconductor surface comprising a native oxide is sequentially exposed to TMA and H2S provided in an ALD process to remove substantially all the native oxide and form an Al2S3 layer on the semiconductor surface.
US08344408B2
An exemplary light emitting diode (LED) package includes a substrate, an LED chip mounted on the substrate, and a wire. The LED chip includes a semiconductor structure and an electrode disposed on the semiconductor structure. The wire electrically connects the electrode of the LED chip to an electrical portion of the substrate. The wire has a first joint and a second joint connected to the substrate. The wire forms a first curved portion between the electrode and the first joint and a second curved portion between the first joint and the second joint.
US08344407B2
A white light source includes: an insulating substrate; a light-emitting diode chip provided on the insulating substrate and that emits ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 330 nm to 410 nm; and a phosphor layer formed to cover the light-emitting diode chip, including a red emitting phosphor, a green emitting phosphor, and a blue emitting phosphor as a phosphor, and the phosphors are dispersed in a cured transparent resin, wherein when it is assumed that the shortest distance between a surface of the phosphor layer and a peripheral portion of the light-emitting diode chip is t(mm) and the mean free path defined by the following expression (1) is L(mm), the t and L satisfy 3.2≦t/L.[Expression 1] L=1/(n×σ) (1) (n: number of phosphors per unit volume of the phosphor layer (pcs/mm3), and σ: average cross section area of a phosphor in the phosphor layer (mm2)).
US08344403B2
A semiconductor light emitting device including a substrate, an electrode and a light emitting region is provided. The substrate may have protruding portions formed in a repeating pattern on substantially an entire surface of the substrate while the rest of the surface may be substantially flat. The cross sections of the protruding portions taken along planes orthogonal to the surface of the substrate may be semi-circular in shape. The cross sections of the protruding portions may in alternative be convex in shape. A buffer layer and a GaN layer may be formed on the substrate.
US08344389B2
An optoelectonice device array includes a plurality of packages, each enclosing an optoelectronic device, and positioned in at least one row. Each package overlaps at least one adjacent package, and may be hermetically sealed.
US08344388B2
A display device includes: a pixel array unit having pixels including a circuit configuration, in which a first electrode of an electro-optical element and a source electrode of a driving transistor are connected together, a gate electrode of the driving transistor and a source electrode or a drain electrode of a writing transistor are connected together, a holding capacitor is connected between the gate electrode and the source electrode of the driving transistor, and an auxiliary capacitor is connected between the first electrode and a second electrode of the electro-optical element, disposed on a substrate in a matrix shape, wherein, from one pixel of adjacent pixels to an area of the other pixel, the auxiliary capacitor of the one pixel is set to be disposed, and an electrode of the auxiliary capacitor that is disposed on the electro-optical element side is conductive with the second electrode of the electro-optical element.
US08344374B2
It is an object to provide a semiconductor device typified by a display device having a favorable display quality, in which parasitic resistance generated in a connection portion between a semiconductor layer and an electrode is suppressed and an adverse effect such as voltage drop, a defect in signal wiring to a pixel, a defect in grayscale, and the like due to wiring resistance are prevented. In order to achieve the above object, a semiconductor device according to the present invention may have a structure where a wiring with low resistance is connected to a thin film transistor in which a source electrode and a drain electrode that include metal with high oxygen affinity are connected to an oxide semiconductor layer with a suppressed impurity concentration. In addition, the thin film transistor including the oxide semiconductor may be surrounded by insulating films to be sealed.
US08344363B2
A FET is formed on a semiconductor substrate, a curved surface having a radius of curvature is formed on an upper end of an insulation, a portion of a first electrode is exposed corresponding to the curved surface to form an inclined surface, and a region defining a luminescent region is subjected to etching to expose the first electrode. Luminescence emitted from an organic chemical compound layer is reflected by the inclined surface of the first electrode to increase a total quantity of luminescence taken out in a certain direction.
US08344357B2
A 3-terminal electronic device includes: a control electrode; a first electrode and a second electrode; and an active layer that is provided between the first electrode and the second electrode and is provided to be opposed to the control electrode via an insulating layer. The active layer includes a collection of nanosheets. When it is assumed that the nanosheets have an average size LS and the first electrode and the second electrode have an interval D therebetween, LS/D≧10 is satisfied.
US08344344B2
Provided are resistive memory devices and methods of fabricating the same. The resistive memory devices and the methods are advantageous for high integration because they can provide a multilayer memory cell structure. Also, the parallel conductive lines of adjacent layers do not overlap each other in the vertical direction, thus reducing errors in program/erase operations.
US08344337B2
Methods for implanting an silaborane molecule or a selected ionized lower mass byproduct into a workpiece generally includes vaporizing and ionizing silaborane molecule in an ion source to create a plasma and produce silaborane molecules and its ionized lower mass byproducts. The ionized silaborane molecules and lower mass byproducts within the plasma are then extracted to form an ion beam. The ion beam is mass analyzed with a mass analyzer magnet to permit selected ionized silaborane molecules or selected ionized lower mass byproducts to pass therethrough and implant into a workpiece.
US08344333B2
A photonic crystal substrate exhibiting resonant enhancement of multiple fluorophores has been demonstrated. The device, which can be fabricated uniformly from plastic materials over a ˜3×5 in2 surface area by nanoreplica molding, features a 1-D periodic grating structure which utilizes two distinct resonant modes to enhance electric field stimulation of a first dye excited by a first laser (e.g., λ=632.8 nm laser exciting cyanine-5) and a second dye excited by a second laser (e.g., λ=532 nm laser exciting cyanine-3). The first and second lasers could be replaced by a single variable wavelength (tunable) laser. Resonant coupling of the laser excitation to the photonic crystal surface is obtained for each wavelength at a distinct incident angle θ. The photonic crystal is capable of amplifying the output of any fluorescent dye with an excitation wavelength in a given wavelength range (e.g., the range 532 nm<λ<660 nm) by selection of an appropriate incident angle. The device can be used for biological assays that utilize multiple fluorescent dyes within a single imaged area, such as gene expression microarrays.
US08344331B1
A probe for detecting K-alpha photon emissions. A housing has an aperture at an end. A detector crystal is situated within the housing adjacent to the housing aperture. An energy conversion device is situated within the housing between the detector crystal and the aperture. The energy conversion device is made from a predetermined material configured to convert energy directed through the housing aperture from a source of primary photon emission radiation to a corresponding secondary K-alpha emission within a predetermined emission energy acceptance window. A power supply is coupled to the detector crystal and is configured to establish a polarized electrical field between the anode and the cathode of the detector crystal. The detector crystal receives the K-alpha emission and generates an electrical signal representative of the amount of target emissions received through the housing aperture.
US08344329B2
Provided is a radiation sensor comprising: a phosphor layer that converts incident radiation into converted light containing a first light component having a first wavelength region that includes a maximum peak wavelength different from a maximum peak wavelength of the radiation, and a second light component having a second wavelength region of 400 nm to 460 nm, different from that of the radiation and the first wavelength region; an organic photoelectric conversion layer; and an insulating substrate provided with a charge detection layer, and that includes a storage capacitor and a thin film transistor having an oxide semiconductor active layer, wherein the first and second light components each pass through the organic photoelectric conversion layer and arrive at the oxide semiconductor active layer, and wherein an intensity of the second light component is lower than an intensity of the first light component.
US08344324B2
An apparatus for acquiring information on a time waveform of a terahertz wave is comprised of a terahertz wave-generating unit, a waveform information-detecting unit, and a delay unit for changing the time after the terahertz wave is generated in the generating unit until it is detected as waveform information of the terahertz wave in the detecting unit, wherein the delay unit is configured so as to change a propagating distance of the terahertz wave generated by the generating unit, and associates waveform information of the terahertz wave, which is detected in the detecting unit, and the propagating distance every terahertz wave generated by the generating unit.
US08344322B2
In some aspects, the present invention embodies both the method and apparatus for converting a pattern of irradiation to a visible image. An embodiment of the present invention provides an array of micro-electro-mechanical sensors with each sensor includes a deflectable micro-cantilever, responsive to absorbed incident radiation and to an applied repulsive electrostatic field. In an aspect, the sensor device also includes a null-sensing circuit coupled to a switch contact on or near the substrate, which senses when the micro-cantilever reaches its null location, by electrical connection with an upper switch contact on the micro-cantilever. Other embodiments are also described.
US08344319B2
The present disclosure provides a novel system and method for evaporating and ionizing compounds comprising an LIAD source and an ionization source that operates at atmospheric pressure. This system is readily adaptable for use with most commercially available mass spectrometers. Ionization sources include Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization sources (APCI) and Atmospheric Pressure Photo Ionization (APPI) sources. The ionization sources are positioned such that the analyte desorbing from the surface of the LIAD is fed into the ion stream produced by the ionization source and ionized analyte and ionized fragments of the analyte are fed into the sample inlet of a mass spectrometer. These systems allow for the mass spectrometric analysis of non-polar compounds that lack readily ionizable functional groups, such as saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons and compounds with medium to low polarity, as well as hydrocarbon mixtures, such as petroleum.
US08344312B2
A color filter array is provided. The color filter array includes a plurality of basic filter blocks arranged in all directions. Each of the basic filter blocks include one or more color filters. The color filters include a first type color filter that passes through all light without filtering it or has a higher light transmittance than a second type color filter, a third type color filter, and a fourth type color filter. The second through fourth color filters being a red, green or blue filter. Accordingly, the color filter array increases sensitivity to incident light or increases brightness of outgoing light.
US08344309B2
A method for calibrating a phase include comparing a phase of an in-phase output signal and a phase of a quadrature-phase output signal and generating a digital code corresponding to a comparison result, and controlling the phase of the in-phase output signal in response to quadrature-phase differential input signals and the digital code, and controlling the phase of the quadrature-phase output signal in response to in-phase differential input signals and the digital code, to make a phase difference between the in-phase output signal and the quadrature-phase output signal 90°.
US08344289B2
An electric cooking range includes an oven having an electric baking element and a back panel positioned behind the oven. A spacer bracket is positioned between the back panel and an electrical terminal block. A bottom panel is positioned below the bracket and spaced apart from a number of mounting feet so as to create a gap between the bottom panel and the mounting feet. The bracket has a passageway positioned over an opening formed in the bottom panel such that when the baking element is energized, air from the gap is drawn into the passageway and advanced upwardly along the passageway.
US08344285B2
The invention firstly comprises a method of ablation processing including a step of ablating a region of a substrate (1) by way of a laser beam (3) characterized by a further step of removing debris ablated from the region (1) by way of a flow of a fluid (7), namely a gas or vapour, a liquid or a combination of these, wherein the flow of fluid (7) is directed to flow over the region so as to entrap debris and thereafter to remove the entrapped debris from the region by directing the flow of fluid with any entrapped debris away from region along a predetermined path (6) avoiding subsequent deposition of entrapped debris on the substrate. The invention further comprises apparatus enabling a laser to ablate a region of a substrate characterized by a partially closed debris extraction module (‘DEM’) (4) located between a focusing or imaging lens (2) for a laser beam (3) and a region of a substrate (1), the DEM (4) having input (8) and output (6) ports by way of which a flow of a fluid (namely a gas or vapour, a liquid or a combination of these) is caused to flow over the region (1) so as to entrap debris ablated from the region and thereafter to remove the entrapped debris from the region by providing for the flow of fluid with entrapped debris to pass away from region along a predetermined path to prevent subsequent deposition of entrapped debris on the substrate.
US08344280B2
The invention relates to a joining head arrangement for joining components, such as studs, onto a workpiece. The joining head arrangement comprises a housing and a slide that is mounted on the housing and is movable, by means of a linear drive, in a joining direction in relation to the housing. The joining head further comprises a component holder, arranged on the slide, and operable to hold a component during a joining operation. A feed device delivers components, at a transfer location, to the component holder. The component holder is rotatable about an axis, which is aligned transversely relative to the joining direction, from a transfer position to a joining position.
US08344271B1
An article of luggage includes a built-in scale that slides into and out of a base. When the scale is disposed within the base, the user can measure the weight of the luggage. When the scale is external to the base, the user can weigh him or herself.
US08344267B2
Connecting element for mounting on a printed circuit board, which connecting element has at least two connecting lines which cross one another and are not electrically connected between respectively associated contacts.
US08344266B2
Techniques for optimizing application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and other IC pin assignment corresponding to a high density interconnect (HDI) printed circuit board (PCB) layout are provided. Applying the techniques described herein, pin assignments may be systematically and strategically planned, for example, in an effort to reduce the PCB layer count and associated cost, increase signal integrity and speed, reduce the surface area used by an ASIC and its support circuitry, reduce plane perforations, and reduce via crosstalk when compared to conventional designs with an ASIC mounted on a multilayered PCB.
US08344261B2
Disclosed are a carrier substrate including an insulating base material with a copper foil layer formed on at least one surface thereof, a metal layer formed on the copper layer and having a length shorter than that of the copper foil layer, and an insulating layer formed on the metal layer, a fabrication method thereof, a printed circuit board (PCB) using the same, and a fabrication method thereof. Because there is no land at the via and core in the substrate, because a circuit pattern connected with the via can be formed to be finer, so the circuit pattern can be highly integrated and the substrate can become thinner. Thus, a printed circuit board (PCB) having a smaller size and reduced number of layers can be fabricated.
US08344254B2
An electrical cable of the type that is of the type to have a connector member coupled thereto. The electrical cable includes a conductive outer sheath and a label disposed on the conductive outer sheath The label includes information about the cable and has at least one conductive region to facilitate electrical conductivity between the conductive outer sheath and the connector member.
US08344249B1
An electrical box including at least four sides extending from a bottom to an open top and a front surface, a first outer tab extending from one of the at least four sides and proximate the front surface, a second outer tab extending from one of the at least four sides opposite the first outer tab and proximate the front surface, a first aperture adjacent the first outer tab, a second aperture adjacent the second outer tab, a first locking tab mounted within the first aperture, a second locking tab mounted within the second aperture, and wherein the first and second locking tabs slide towards the front surface for securing a mounting wall between the first outer tab and the first locking tab and between the second outer tab and the second locking tab.
US08344244B2
A solar cell includes a p-type semiconductor substance, and an n-type semiconductor substance. The p-type semiconductor substance and the n-type semiconductor substance form a pn junction or a pin junction, and the p-type semiconductor substance or the n-type semiconductor substance includes a structure film having a plurality of carbon nanotubes electrically connected to each other.
US08344240B2
A solar power generation system containing a plurality of roofing tiles, each of which containing a housing that encloses photovoltaic panels, solar panel control systems and light sources (light source). The housing and solar panel control system, in addition, may also contain modules and assemblies such as solar panel processing circuitry, communication and power interfaces, heater assembly, electrical rotational assembly, self cleaning assembly, and so forth. For optimal functioning, it is essential that all these modules incorporated within the housing function properly. The light sources are communicatively coupled to the solar panel processing circuitry and a central control unit; and are operable to produce a visible output. The light sources identify a solar panel among plurality of solar panels of the solar power generation system, and display a visible light that indicates operating condition of that solar panel. The visible light may indicate, for instance, problems related to the maintenance, cleaning, solar panel positional adjustment, and heater assembly. The visible light may also indicate operational conditions of a plurality of solar panels, within a block of roofing tiles; where rest of the roofing tiles are incorporated with minimum number of light sources, to minimize the cost. In addition, the visible output may display colorful holiday lighting and advertisements, especially at the roofing edges.
US08344233B2
An exemplary method includes providing a music collection of a particular scale, determining a distance parameter for locality sensitive hashing based at least in part on the scale of the music collection and constructing an index for the music collection. Another exemplary method includes providing a song, extracting snippets from the song, analyzing time-varying timbre characteristics of the snippets and constructing one or more queries based on the analyzing. Such exemplary methods may be implemented by a portable device configured to maintain an index, to perform searches based on selected songs or portions of songs and to generate playlists from search results. Other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US08344225B1
A novel maize variety designated X08A182 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X08A182 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X08A182 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X08A182, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X08A182. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X08A182.
US08344220B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH115012. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH115012, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH115012 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH115012.
US08344208B2
A series of viral vectors derived from foxtail mosaic virus, sunn hemp mosaic virus and white clover mosaic virus sequences, and which are capable of expressing heterologous proteins in plants, including the tobacco, Nicotiana benthamiana, and cowpea, bean, and other legumes with the properties of unusually limited expression in the absence of gene silencing suppressors and high level expression in their presence. In a preferred embodiment, these viral vectors may be introduced via agroinoculation, and expression of the heterologous gene may be inducible with little or no leakiness in the absence of induction.
US08344204B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH457359. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH457359, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH457359 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH457359.
US08344196B2
A process from converting alcohol feedstock to diesel/turbine fuels.
US08344193B2
The present invention provides fully renewable turbine and diesel fuels derived completely from biomass sources. In one embodiment the fully renewable turbine fuel is comprised of mesitylene and at least one alkane. Preferably, the turbine fuel comprises from about 50 to 99 wt % mesitylene and from about 1 to 50 wt % of at least one alkane. In another embodiment the diesel fuel comprises mesitylene, octadecane, and optionally octane or nonane. Preferably, the diesel fuel comprises from about 50 to 99 wt % mesitylene, and from about 1 to 50 wt % octadecane. These biomass derived fuels may be formulated to have a wide range of cetane values and differing freezing and boiling points.
US08344190B2
Process for producing fluorinated olefins from fluorinated materials, the process comprising thermally decomposing the fluoropolymers into fluoroolefins in a reactor having a feeding zone where the fluorinated materials are fed into the reactor and a decomposition zone where the fluorinated materials are thermally decomposed and wherein the thermal decomposition is carried out in the presence of microwave irradiation.
US08344174B2
The efficiency of catalyzed batch esterification reactions is improved by the use of a particular temperature and pressure profile during the reaction cycle. In particular elevated pressure is maintained to prevent alcohol boil off during initial mixing and reaction of the reactants prior to any catalyst addition, and preferably the pressure is reduced rapidly after the desired reaction temperature has been reached.
US08344167B2
A method is for producing propylene oxide, the method including the steps of: reacting hydrogen peroxide with propylene either in an acetonitrile solvent or in a mixture of solvents which include acetonitrile and water, in presence of a titanosilicate catalyst, whereby a reaction mixture containing propylene oxide is obtained; separating the reaction mixture obtained in the reacting into a gas and a reaction liquid; and distilling the reaction liquid obtained in the separating, whereby the reaction liquid is separated into a column top liquid containing propylene oxide, and a column bottom liquid including acetonitrile or a combination of acetonitrile and water, in combination with other steps. This enables industrially efficient production of propylene oxide with use of acetonitrile.
US08344162B2
This invention is directed to stereoselective synthesis of compounds of formula (I) or formula (II): or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, ester, amide, complex, chelate, clathrate, solvate, polymorph, stereoisomer, metabolite or prodrug thereof; wherein R3, R4 and R5 are defined herein. Compounds of formula (I) and formula (II) are known to be useful in treating arrhythmias.
US08344161B2
The invention relates to a novel process for the preparation of (3S,4S)- or (3R,4R)-1-benzyl-4-(halogen-aryl)-pyrrolidine-3-carboxylic acids of formula I or salts thereof, wherein X and Y are each independently hydrogen or a halogen atom, with the proviso that at least one of X or Y is a halogen atom. The compounds of formula I are useful as starting materials or intermediates for the preparation of pharmaceutically active compounds, especially for compounds, which are useful for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.
US08344157B2
A process for preparing 1,3-disubstituted pyrazolecarboxylic esters of the formula (I) where X, Y, Z=hydrogen or halogen and R1=C1-C6-alkyl, by metering an enol ether of the formula III where R2 is C1-C6-alkyl at from (−41) to (−80)° C. into an alkyl hydrazine of the formula II H2N—NH-lower alkyl (II).
US08344156B2
A halogenating agent is added to a mixture including a base, a fluoroalkylcarboxylic acid derivative and an acrylate derivative to produce a fluoroaclyacetic acid derivative represented by the following Formula (3): wherein Rf represents a fluorine containing alkyl group, R1 and R2 represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an aryl group, an arylalkyl group or an acyl group, or together represent an atomic group that forms a 5- or 6-membered ring containing a nitrogen atom to which R1 and R2 are bonded; R3 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an aryl group, or an arylalkyl group; and R4 represents an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an aryl group, or an aryl alkyl group.
US08344154B2
2-Ethenylthio-type carbapenem derivatives of formula (I) or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are provided. The compounds according to the present invention have potent antimicrobial activity and a wide antimicrobial spectrum against pneumococci including penicillin resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP), Haemophilus influenzae including β-lactamase-negative, ampicillin-resistant Haemophilus influenzae (BLNAR), and Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis.
US08344141B2
Zeolite material of the pentasil type has an alkali metal and alkaline earth metal content of not more than 100 ppm and a molar ratio of Si to Al of from 250 to 1500, at least 90% of the primary particles of the zeolite material being spherical and 95% by weight of the spherical primary particles having a diameter of less than or equal to 1 μm.
US08344139B2
Crystal forms of (6R)-L-erythro-tetrahydrobiopterin dihydrochloride, hydrates and solvates and processes for their preparation are provided. These crystal forms are either intermediates for the preparation of stable polymorphic form B or are suitable for solid formulations.
US08344137B2
A compound of formula (I) as well as pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein R1 to R5 have the significance given in claim 1, can be used as a medicament.
US08344131B2
The present disclosure relates to RNAi agents useful in methods of treating Beta-ENaC-related diseases such as cystic fibrosis, pseudohypoaldosteronism type 1 (PHA1), Liddle's syndrome, hypertension, alkalosis, hypokalemia, and obesity-associated hypertension, using a therapeutically effective amount of a RNAi agent to Beta-ENaC.
US08344126B2
The invention relates to a double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) targeting X-Box Protein 1 (XBP-1), and methods of using the dsRNA to inhibit expression of XBP-1.
US08344114B2
Antagonists of human proprotein convertase subtilisin-kexin type 9 (“PCSK9”) are disclosed. The disclosed antagonists are effective in the inhibition of PCSK9 function and, accordingly, present desirable antagonists for the use in the treatment of conditions associated with PCSK9 activity. The present invention also discloses nucleic acid encoding said antagonists, vectors, host cells, and compositions comprising the antagonists. Methods of making PCSK9-specific antagonists as well as methods of using the antagonists for inhibiting or antagonizing PCSK9 function are also disclosed and form important additional aspects of the present disclosure.
US08344113B2
The invention provides a series of compositions, methods, kits, articles and species associated primarily with the diagnosis and/or treatment of cell proliferation, specifically cancer. Cell proliferation associated with aberrant expression of MUC1 is particularly focused upon. Mechanisms associated with MUC1 cell proliferation are discussed.
US08344112B2
IGF-1R specific antibodies useful in the detection and diagnosis of cellular proliferative disorders
The present invention relates to mammalian antibodies, designated 12B1 and antigen-binding portions thereof that specifically bind to insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-IR), preferably human IGF-IR. Also included are chimeric, bispecific, derivatized, single chain antibodies derived from the antibodies disclosed herein. Nucleic acid molecules encoding the mammalian antibodies as well as methods of use thereof are also disclosed. Also included are pharmaceutical compositions comprising these antibodies and methods of using the antibodies and compositions thereof for treatment and diagnosis of pathological hyperproliferative oncogenic disorders associated with expression of IGF-1R.
US08344096B2
The phosphorus-containing polycarbonate polyol disclosed herein has a structural unit (I) represented by a formula: —OCOO— and a structural unit (II) represented by a residue A, wherein A denotes a n-valent residue in which n of alcoholic hydroxyl groups are removed from a phosphorus compound having at least n of alcoholic hydroxyl groups, in which n is an integer of 2 or larger, and wherein a terminal group of the polyol is a alcoholic hydroxyl group. The novel phosphorus-containing polycarbonate polyol, as a reactive flame-retardant agent, can provide flame-retardant properties easily to polyurethane or the like.
US08344085B2
The present invention provides a novel polymer, and a mixture and a cement admixture thereof. The cement admixture has higher dispersibility compared to the previous ones. The novel polymer of the present invention has a different structure from the conventional copolymers used for cement admixtures, using an unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer and an unsaturated polyalkylene glycol monomer as the monomer components.The novel polymer of the present invention basically contains a polyalkylene glycol chain and a polymer segment bonded to the chain. Another type of the novel polymer of the present invention contains two polyalkylene glycol chains and a polymer segment connecting the chains. In these polymers, at least one of unsaturated monomers constituting the polymer segment is an unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer or an unsaturated polyalkylene glycol monomer. The cement admixture of the present invention comprises a polymer, made from these monomers, or a mixture thereof.
US08344083B2
The present invention relates to a transparent resin composition which comprises (a) a (meth)acrylate based unit comprising one or more (meth)acrylate based derivatives; (b) an aromatic based unit having a chain having the hydroxy group containing portion and an aromatic moiety and (c) a styrene-based unit comprising one or more styrene-based derivatives, and an optical film that is formed by using the same.
US08344081B2
The present invention relates to a transition metal complex useful as a transition metal catalyst in the preparation of an ethylene homopolymer or a copolymer of ethylene and an α-olefin, a catalyst composition comprising the same and a process of preparing an ethylene homopolymer or a copolymer of ethylene and an α-olefin using the same. More particularly, it relates to a transition metal complex having a cyclopentadiene derivative and at least one phenyl oxide ligand substituted at the 2-position of phenyl with, for example, a silyl group having a C1-C30 hydrocarbon group or a C1-C20 hydrocarbon group, around a group IV transition metal, with no crosslinkage between the ligands, a catalyst composition comprising the transition metal complex and a cocatalyst selected from the group consisting of an aluminoxane and a boron compound, and a process for preparing an ethylene homopolymer or a copolymer of ethylene and an α-olefin using the same.
US08344078B2
Techniques and systems for producing a polyolefin using reactors in series are described. Described embodiments include techniques and systems for polymerizing a monomer in a first polymerization reactor to form a first polyolefin, discharging a first slurry continuously from the first polymerization reactor to a second polymerization reactor, and discharging a second slurry continuously from the second polymerization reactor. Using continuous take-off devices disposed on either or both reactors, pressure control may be attained such that the rate of transfer between and withdrawal from both reactors are within a desired range.
US08344076B2
The present invention provides hydrolytically resistant monomers prepared by the reaction of an epoxy compound and a reactive ester and methods for producing the monomers. Also provided are adhesive compositions containing the hydrolytically resistant monomers and methods for use thereof.
US08344071B2
Disclosed is a two-pack fluorine coating composition which comprises a combination of: a base component comprising a fluorinated copolymer having a hydroxyl group which can be dissolved in a low-polar weak solvent even at a low temperature and; a curing agent comprising a polyisocyanate compound. Specifically disclosed is a fluorine coating composition comprising: (A) a base component which comprises a fluorinated copolymer of a fluoroolefin and a monomer having a double bond copolymerizable with the fluoroolefin and which has a fluorine content of 10 mass % or more, wherein 5 to 30 mol % of the monomer has a hydroxyl group and 10 to 50 mol % of the monomer has a branched alkyl group having 3 or more carbon atoms; and (B) a curing agent comprising a polyisocyanate compound which is produced by the reaction between at least one diisocyanate selected from an aliphatic diisocyanate and a alicyclic diisocyanate and a monoalcohol having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and which has an [(allophanate group)/(isocyanurate group)] ratio of 90/10 to 81/19 by mole.
US08344067B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rubber composition having: excellent sealing properties, heat resistance and acid resistance; a low reaction force, low hardness and low compression set; and excellent low-temperature recovery properties that contribute to sealing properties particularly in low-temperature environment. It is another object of the invention to provide uses of the rubber composition and main bodies on which the rubber composition has been mounted. The rubber composition of the present invention comprises a specific ethylene/α-olefin/non-conjugated polyene copolymer [A], a SiH group-containing compound [B] having two SiH groups in one molecule, and a SiH group-containing compound [C] having three SiH groups in one molecule.
US08344058B2
A process for making a block copolymer compatibilizer comprises reacting an acrylic and/or vinyl monomer that has functional groups with one or more vinyl monomers in the presence of a free radical initiator and a stable free radical to form a reaction product that includes residual unreacted acrylic and/or vinyl monomer, and reacting one or more vinyl monomers with the reaction product to form a second block that incorporates the residual unreacted acrylic monomer. The block copolymer is used to compatibilize a clay nanocomposite material with a thermoplastic or thermoset resin. The block copolymer can be used with existing, commercially-available clays, or the block copolymer can be formed with a polar block that is miscible in a polar dispersion medium for use as a intercalate in producing a clay nanocomposite material.
US08344046B2
The present invention provides a chemical ink comprises a solvent, a binder polymer, a colorant and optionally a crosslinker. The ink of the invention has one or more of the following characteristics: a viscosity lower than about 50 centipoises; a surface tension of from about 20 mN/m to about 60 mN/m; a particle size of less than about 5 μm; prolonged stability; an appropriate color level (visible by eye); uniform drop formation; jet stability; good adhesion to contact lenses; good transfer from a mold to a lens made in the mold; and stability of ink in inkjet nozzles. The ink of the invention is useful for inkjet printing of a high-quality color image on a contact lens or a mold so as to produce a colored contact lens.
US08344042B2
The invention provides for a biodegradable synthetic bone composition comprising a biodegradable hydrogel polymer scaffold comprising a plurality of hydrolytically unstable linkages, and an inorganic component; such as a biodegradable poly(hydroxyethylmethacrylate)/hydroxyapatite (pHEMA/HA) hydrogel composite possessing mineral content approximately that of human bone.
US08344035B2
A process for making a carbonaceous material and a carbonous residue from scrap tires is disclosed. Tires are digested in an oil product. Steel and glass fibers are separated. A product enhancing additive comprising halogen based organic or inorganic compounds is added. The resulting carbonaceous material is then cured to create the final product. The produced carbonous residue is well suited for capture of mercury. The present invention has the benefits of providing a use for scrap tires that would otherwise require disposal in a landfill, and also produces a product useful for capturing a harmful element, thereby providing multiple environmental and economic benefits.
US08344029B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a substituted propanamide derivative or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof that is useful as a prophylactic or therapeutic agent for a bone metabolic disease. The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a compound having General Formula (I) or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof as an active ingredient: [wherein, R1 represents a C6-C10 aryl group that may be substituted by a group selected from Substituent Group α, for example; R2 represents a C6-C10 aryl group that may be substituted by a group selected from Substituent Group α, for example; and X represents a hydroxyl group or a C1-C6 alkoxy group, for example].
US08344027B2
This invention relates to novel 4-dimethylaminobutyric acid derivatives of the formula wherein A1, A2, R1, m and n are as defined in the description and in the claims, as well as pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. These compounds inhibit carnitine palmitoyl transferase (CPT) activity, in particular CPT2 activity, and can be used as medicaments in methods for the treatment of diseases modulated by CPT2 inhibitors.
US08344024B2
An anhydrous color cosmetic composition comprising at least one resveratrol derivative and particulates; and an anhydrous emulsion skin care composition.
US08344017B2
An anti-hepatitis C virus agent or anti-HIV agent comprising, as an active ingredient, a fullerene derivative which has a nitrogen atom forming a ring together with adjacent bonded carbon atom pairs constituting the carbon cluster skeleton of the fullerene or a quaternary amine salt thereof is provided.
US08344011B2
The present invention is directed to novel opioid receptor modulators of Formula (I). The invention further relates to methods for preparing such compounds, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, and their use in the treatment of disorders that may be ameliorated or treated by the modulation of opioid receptors.
US08344007B2
A cantharimide compound may include the backbone of formula (1). R1, R2, R3, and R4 may be independently selected from the group consisting of H, C(O)OR5, C(O)R6, C(O)NR7R8, NR9C(O)R10, N—R11R12, O—R13, S—R14, P(O)(OR15)(OR16), As(O)(OR17)(OR18), SO2R19, SO3R20, and B(OR21). X1 to X4 may be independently selected from the group consisting of nitrogen and carbon, such that X1 to X4 are not all hydrogen. Y1, Y2 and R5 to R21 may be independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, C1-12-alkyl, -aryl, heteroaryl, and a bioactive polymer.
US08344005B2
The invention provides a compound of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein R is C1-4 alkyl useful in the treatment of diseases and conditions for which antagonism of NK1 receptor is beneficial.
US08344003B2
The present invention relates to a compound which has a glucokinase-activating effect and is useful as a therapeutic agent for diabetes mellitus, being represented by a formula (I): [wherein X1 represents a nitrogen atom, sulfur atom, oxygen atom or the like; R1 represents a 6- to 10-membered aryl group, 5- to 7-membered heteroaryl group or the like; D represents an oxygen atom or sulfur atom; R2 and R3 are the same or different, each representing a hydrogen atom, lower alkyl group or the like; a formula (II) represents an optionally substituted 5- to 7-membered heteroaryl group or the like; a formula (III) represents a monocyclic or bicyclic heteroaryl group] or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.
US08344001B2
Compound of formula (I) wherein W, X, Y, Z is —C(R1)═ or N; R1 is hydrogen or alkyl, V is N or C (i.e. carbon), A is a bond or an alkylene linker with 1 to 3 carbon atoms, with the proviso that when A is a bond, V must be CH, R is ethyl, propyl, a branched C3-6 alkyl or a cyclic C3-8 alkyl, m and n is 1-3, D is heteroaryl optionally substituted with halogen, hydroxy, cyano, alkyl, cycloalkyl, alkoxy, —(CH2)0—(C═O)p—NR2R3, or D is aryl optionally substituted with one or more of the groups independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, hydroxy, cyano, alkyl, cycloalkyl, haloalkyl, alkoxy, haloalkoxy, alkylsulfonyl, alkylsulfinyl, heterocyclyl, heterocyclylalkyl, heterocyclyl-alkoxy, heterocyclylcarbonyl, alkylcarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, alkylcarboxy, cyanoalkyl, hydroxyalkyl, alkoxyalkyl, alkylcarbonylamino, alkylcarbonylaminoalkyl, arylcarbonylamino, aryl-carbonylaminoalkyl, heteroarylcarbonylamino or heteroarylcarbonylaminoalkyl, —(CH2)0—(C═O)p—NR2R3, wherein o is 0-3, p is 0 or 1, and R2 and R3 independently are hydrogen, alkyl or cycloalkyl; or R2 and R3, can together with the attached nitrogen form a heterocyclyl group, and salts and solvates thereof have binding affinity for the histamine H3 receptor.
US08343995B2
The present invention provides compositions containing clopidogrel, present as a free base or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and sulfoalkyl ether cyclodextrin (SAE-CD). The compositions can be liquid, suspension or solid compositions. They can be adapted for oral, peroral or parenteral administration. The SAE-CD serves to aid in dissolution and stabilization of the clopidogrel in aqueous media. The stability of clopidogrel against hydrolytic degradation, thermal degradation, and photolytic degradation are improved. SAE-CD provides improved results over other cyclodextrin derivatives. The SAE-CD-containing composition of clopidogrel can be provided in liquid form, solid form or as a reconstitutable powder. Both ready-to-use and concentrated liquid compositions can be prepared. The liquid composition is optionally available as a clear solution. The compositions herein can be administered perorally or parenterally and provide substantial pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and/or therapeutic advantages over a tablet composition administered perorally and excluding SAE-CD.
US08343994B2
The present invention provides an agent for the prophylactic or treatment of diabetes, diabetic complications, insulin resistance syndrome, metabolic syndrome, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, cardiac failure, cardiomyopathy, myocardial ischemia, brain ischemia, cerebral apoplexy, pulmonary hypertension, hyperlactacidemia, mitochondrial disease, mitochondrial encephalomyopathy or cancer, namely, a PDHK inhibitor and the like. A compound represented by the following formula [I] or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or a solvate thereof: wherein each symbol is as defined in the specification.
US08343987B2
The invention relates to novel heterocyclic derivatives of the general formula (I), processes for their preparation, and their use in medicaments, especially for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, acute coronary syndrome, acute myocardial infarction, and heart failure development.
US08343985B2
The present invention relates to compounds and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and formulations comprising the compounds or a pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof that are useful in modulating lyn kinase activity. In particular, the compounds or a pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are useful for treating or preventing a disease or disorder including cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, dyslipoproteinemia, a disorder of glucose metabolism, metabolic syndrome (i.e., Syndrome X), a peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-associated disorder, septicemia, a thrombotic disorder, type II diabetes, obesity, pancreatitis, hypertension, renal disease, inflammation, or impotence.
US08343977B2
The present invention relates to substituted triazolo-pyrimidine compounds and methods of synthesizing these compounds. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing substituted triazolo-pyrimidine compounds and methods of treating cell proliferative disorders, such as cancer, by administering these compounds and pharmaceutical compositions to subjects in need thereof.
US08343976B2
The present invention relates to compounds, compositions and methods for treating a disease in an animal, which disease is responsive to inhibiting of functional cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) polypeptide by administering to a mammal in need thereof an effective amount of a compound defined herein (including those compounds set forth in Tables 1-2 or encompassed by formulas Ia, Ib, IIa, and IIb) or compositions comprising these compounds, thereby treating the disease. The present invention particularly, relates to a method of treating diarrhea and polycystic kidney disease.
US08343966B2
Compounds of formula I in free or salt or solvate form, where T1, T2, X, Ra, Rb, R8 and R9 have the meanings as indicated in the specification, are useful for treating inflammatory or obstructive airways, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, liver fibrosis, muscle diseases and systemic skeletal disorders. Pharmaceutical compositions that contain the compounds and processes for preparing the compounds are also described.
US08343965B2
Compositions, preferably pharmaceutical compositions, containing micronized tanaproget, or pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, microcrystalline cellulose, croscarmellose sodium, sodium lauryl sulfate, butylated hydroxyanisole, povidone, and magnesium stearate, are provided. The compositions are useful in contraception and hormone replacement therapy and in the treatment and/or prevention of uterine myometrial fibroids, benign prostatic hypertrophy, benign and malignant neoplastic disease, dysfunctional bleeding, uterine leiomyomata, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and carcinomas and adenocarcinomas of the pituitary, endometrium, kidney, ovary, breast, colon, and prostate and other hormone-dependent tumors, and in the preparation of medicaments useful therefor. Additional uses include stimulation of food intake.
US08343961B2
The present invention relates to substituted heterocyclic compounds and substituted tetrahydroisoquinoline compounds and methods of synthesizing these compounds. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing substituted benzodiazepine compounds and substituted tetrahydroisoquinoline compounds and methods of treating cell proliferative disorders, such as cancer, by administering these compounds or pharmaceutical compositions to subjects in need thereof.
US08343960B2
This invention relates to novel 1,4-diaza-bicyclo[3.2.2]nonyl pyrimidine derivatives and their use in the manufacture of pharmaceutical compositions. The compounds of the invention are found to be cholinergic ligands at the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and modulators of the monoamine receptors and transporters.Due to their pharmacological profile the compounds of the invention may be useful for the treatment of diseases or disorders as diverse as those related to the cholinergic system of the central nervous system (CNS), the peripheral nervous system (PNS), diseases or disorders related to smooth muscle contraction, endocrine diseases or disorders, diseases or disorders related to neuro-degeneration, diseases or disorders related to inflammation, pain, and withdrawal symptoms caused by the termination of abuse of chemical substances.
US08343958B2
The present invention provides compounds of Formula (I) that are useful for modulating the biological activity of the melanocortin-5 receptor (MC5R). Compounds of this invention can be used to treat diseases and/or conditions in which downregulation of MC5R is beneficial. Such diseases and/or conditions include, but are not limited to, acne, seborrhea, seborrheic dermatitis, cancer, and inflammatory diseases.
US08343957B2
The invention provides a novel chemical series of formula I, as well as methods of use thereof for binding to the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor and modulating GABAA, and use of the compound of formula I for the treatment of GABAA receptor associated disorders. The general structure of formula I is shown below: The invention further provides a method of modulation of one or more GABAA subtypes in an animal comprising administering to the animal an effective amount of a compound of formula (I).
US08343951B2
The object of the present invention is to establish a volatile sulfide production inhibitor that can inhibit the production of volatile sulfides from a composition and to provide a method for inhibiting the production of volatile sulfides from a composition by using the inhibitor. The object are solved by providing a volatile sulfide production inhibitor comprising L-ascorbic acid 2-glucoside as an effective ingredient and a method for inhibiting the production of volatile sulfides from a composition by incorporating the volatile sulfide production inhibitor into the composition.
US08343948B2
A method of prophylaxis and/or treatment of mastocarcinoma (i.e., mammary carcinoma) involves the topical application of a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of a steroidal aromatase inhibitor locally, and not systemically, to an area of a patient in need of treatment. This local application avoids the side effects associated with systemic use of steroidal aromatase inhibitors.
US08343938B2
The cardiac-specific miRs, miR-133 and miR-1, are critical in determining hypertrophy of cardiac myocyte cells (CMC), and that restoration of levels of expression thereof can alleviate the symptoms of CMC hypertrophy.
US08343934B2
Classes of compounds that exhibit effective inhibition of autotaxin enzymes are provided. Such classes include naphthalenesulfones, phenylsulfones, and certain peptides with unnatural amino acids and exhibit reactivity with autotaxin to ultimately reduce the size of the reactive sites thereon to prevent conversion of lysophosphatidyl choline to lysophophatidic acid. Furthermore, such compounds can be incorporated within delivery forms for human ingestion. As such, these compounds accord an excellent manner of potentially reducing generation of certain cancers attributable to the presence of naturally occurring autotaxin within the human body. Methods of inactivating autotaxin to certain degrees therewith such compounds are encompassed within invention as well.
US08343931B2
The present invention provides methods to prevent photoreceptor death. In particular, the present invention provides peptides which prevent FAS-mediated photoreceptor apoptosis.
US08343926B2
The invention relates to therapeutic agents for use in the prevention or treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In particular the invention relates to use of inhibitors of cell cycle re-entry and progression to the G1/S transition or inhibitors of progression of the cell cycle through the G1/S transition point in the prevention or treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
US08343922B2
Compositions and methods for the treatment of bone diseases, bone fractures, bone injuries and other bone abnormalities involving the use of Dkk protein, a Wnt antagonist, a Wnt inhibitor, or any other related protein for the stimulation or enhancement of mineralization and for stimulating the renewal of cells. One Dkk protein, Dickkopf-2 (Dkk-2), acts to stimulate bone formation independently of Wnt proteins which may be inhibited and/or antagonized by Dkk-2. Dkk-2 displayed enhanced specific targeting ability and enhanced biological activity in stimulating or enhancing mineralization. Dkk-2 also played a role in the differentiation and self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells, particularly in osteoblastogenesis and osteoclastogenesis.
US08343920B2
The present invention provides for a method for stimulating the proliferation of pluripotential stem cells in a mammal comprising administration of pregnancy related compounds more particularly human chorionic gonadotropin, leutenizing hormone or prolactin. The present invention further provides for a method of treatment of tissues or organs experiencing cellular damage, injury or disease.
US08343918B2
The invention relates to stabilized polypeptides having an IGF-1 or IGF-2 sequence and an E-peptide sequence, where the natural physiological cleavage of the E-peptide from the IGF is prevented.
US08343911B2
The invention presented herein provides methods and compositions for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections. The methods are based on the discovery that depletion of bioavailable iron stimulates surface motility in bacteria thus inhibiting the ability of a bacterial population to develop into a biofilm.
US08343909B2
A producing method of Abelmoschus manihot Medicus flower perfumed products comprises steps of choosing a carrier from one of Abelmoschus manihot Medicus oil, vegetable oil with unsaturated fatty acid more than 60% and acid value less than 4.0, and cosmetic base oil grade high purity mineral oil; choosing Abelmoschus manihot Medicus flowers as main ingredient flowers; immersing the main ingredient flowers in the carrier by immersing the main ingredient flowers below a liquid level of the carrier; and placing stationarily the carrier with the main ingredient flowers immersed therein in dark places and keeping the carrier out of any direct sunlight under an environment with a temperature between 18 degrees centigrade and 48 degrees centigrade for more than 6 hours, or a temperature below 18 degrees centigrade for more than 180 hours.
US08343905B2
The present invention relates to an aqueous detergent composition comprising the following elements in the indicated amounts expressed as percentage by weight: a) 0.1-15% of at least one alkyl ether carboxylate of formula (I): R—O—(CH2CH2O)m—CH2—COOX wherein, —R represents a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated alkyl or alkenyl group containing between 3 and 10 carbon atoms, —m represents a number comprised between 0.5 and 20, and —X represents hydrogen or a suitable cation, selected from an alkaline metal, an alkaline earth metal, ammonium, alkylamino, alkanolamino or glucammonium, b) 0.1-15% of at least one amine oxide, c) 0.1-40% of at least one alkyl ether sulfate type anionic surfactant with a hydrocarbon chain containing between 10 and 18 carbon atoms, d) water up to 100%; said detergent composition is particularly suitable for manual dishwashing, for washing kitchen utensils, as well as in certain domestic cleaning applications of general use, such as the cleaning of hard surfaces.
US08343904B2
A phosphate and phosphonate-free gel automatic dishwashing detergent provides improved spotting and filming performance by including a spot reduction system that contains a combination of a polyacrylate and a carboxymethyl inulin. The gel detergent may also be free of a bleach ingredient (i.e., it does not contain either chlorine bleach or an oxygen bleach).
US08343903B2
There is disclosed a cleaning composition comprising (i) 0.1 to 10 percent by weight of the cleaning composition of a biofilm removing detergent solution comprising a combination of an alkyl (C8-18) polysaccharide, a non-ionic surfactant and a nitrogen containing surfactant-biocide (ii) 2 to 80 percent by weight of the cleaning composition of one or more polar solvent (iii) 0.5 to 15 percent by weight of the cleaning composition of one or more primary amine (iv) two or more chelating agents (v) 0.1 to 5.0 percent by weight of the cleaning composition of an alkaline buffer system providing a pH of about 11.5 to 13.3 in aqueous solution (vi) 0.005 to 5.0 percent by weight of the cleaning composition of an alkoxyaminosilane. Also disclosed is a process of cleaning, decontaminating and/or passivating metallic surgical instruments and/or equipment using the composition of the invention.
US08343893B2
The present application relates to substituted enaminocarbonyl compounds of the formula (I) in which A, B, D, R1 to R3 are each as defined in the description, to processes for preparation thereof and to the use thereof for controlling animal pests.
US08343877B2
A method for fabrication of features of an integrated circuit and device thereof include patterning a first structure on a surface of a semiconductor device and forming spacers about a periphery of the first structure. An angled ion implantation is applied to the device such that the spacers have protected portions and unprotected portions from the angled ion implantation wherein the unprotected portions have an etch rate greater than an etch rate of the protected portions. The unprotected portions and the first structure are selectively removed with respect to the protected portions. A layer below the protected portions of the spacer is patterned to form integrated circuit features.
US08343876B2
A plasma chamber with a plasma confinement zone with an electrode is provided. A gas distribution system for providing a first gas and a second gas is connected to the plasma chamber, wherein the gas distribution system can substantially replace one gas in the plasma zone with the other gas within a period of less than 1 s. A first frequency tuned RF power source for providing power to the electrode in a first frequency range is electrically connected to the at least one electrode wherein the first frequency tuned RF power source is able to minimize a reflected RF power. A second frequency tuned RF power source for providing power to the plasma chamber in a second frequency range outside of the first frequency range wherein the second frequency tuned RF power source is able to minimize a reflected RF power.
US08343873B2
A method for producing a semiconductor wafer includes a number of steps in order including a bilateral material-removing process followed by rounding off an edge of the wafer and grinding front and back sides of the wafer by holding one side and grinding the other. The front and back arc then polished with a polishing cloth including bound abrasives and subsequently treated with an etching medium to carry out a material removal of no more than 1 μm on each side. The front side is then polished using a polishing cloth including bound abrasives and the back side is simultaneously polished using a polishing cloth free of abrasives while a polish with abrasives is provided. The edge is then polished followed by polishing the back with a polishing cloth including bound abrasives and simultaneously polishing the front with a cloth free of abrasives while a polish including abrasives is provided.
US08343871B2
A method for making a semiconductor device includes forming a first mask pattern on a device layer, forming a second mask pattern on the first mask pattern, etching the device layer not covered by the first and second mask patterns to thereby form a first trench, trimming the first mask pattern to form an intermediate mask pattern, depositing a material layer to fill the first trench, polishing the material layer to expose a top surface of the intermediate mask pattern, removing the intermediate mask pattern to form an opening, etching the device layer through the opening to thereby form a second trench.
US08343870B2
A semiconductor device which can effectively suppress a short channel effect and junction leakage is provided. A semiconductor device includes a field effect transistor. The field effect transistor includes a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type, a gate electrode formed on a gate insulating film, and source and drain electrodes. The field effect transistor also includes second semiconductor regions of a second conductivity type. The field effect transistor further includes third semiconductor regions of the second conductivity type having an impurity concentration higher than that of the second semiconductor region and formed between the source electrode and the first and second semiconductor regions and between the drain electrode and the first and second semiconductor regions, and side wall insulating films formed on both the side surfaces of the gate electrode. The source electrode and the drain electrode are separated from the side wall insulating films.
US08343869B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a method of printing lines. The method may include depositing material on a substrate from a plurality of nozzles to form a multi-layered line of a desired cross section area or a desired height by dispensing the material in at least two layers in a single scan. Each layer may be printed by different nozzles and the number of layers in the line is determined based on the desired cross section area or height.
US08343863B2
A method for generating n-type carriers in a semiconductor is disclosed. The method includes supplying a semiconductor having an atomic radius. Implanting an n-type dopant species into the semiconductor, which n-type dopant species has a dopant atomic radius. Implanting a compensating species into the semiconductor, which compensating species has a compensating atomic radius. Selecting the n-type dopant species and the compensating species in such manner that the size of the semiconductor atomic radius is inbetween the dopant atomic radius and the compensating atomic radius. A further method is disclosed for generating n-type carriers in germanium (Ge). The method includes setting a target concentration for the carriers, implanting a dose of an n-type dopant species into the Ge, and selecting the dose to correspond to a fraction of the target carrier concentration. Thermal annealing the Ge in such manner as to activate the n-type dopant species and to repair a least a portion of the implantation damage. Repeating the implantation and the thermal annealing until the target n-type carrier concentration has been reached.
US08343858B2
A method for manufacturing a microcrystalline semiconductor film having high crystallinity is provided. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device which has favorable electric characteristics with high productivity is provided. After a first microcrystalline semiconductor film is formed over a substrate, treatment for flattening a surface of the first microcrystalline semiconductor film is performed. Then, treatment for removing an amorphous semiconductor region on a surface side of the flattened first microcrystalline semiconductor film is performed so that a second microcrystalline semiconductor film having high crystallinity and flatness is formed. After that, a third microcrystalline semiconductor film is formed over the second microcrystalline semiconductor film.
US08343856B2
Semiconductor structures comprising a III-nitride (e.g., gallium nitride) material region and methods associated with such structures are provided. In some embodiments, the structures include an electrically conductive material (e.g., gold) separated from certain other region(s) of the structure (e.g., a silicon substrate) by a barrier material in order to limit, or prevent, undesirable reactions between the electrically conductive material and the other component(s) which can impair device performance. In certain embodiments, the electrically conductive material may be formed in a via. For example, the via can extend from a topside of the device to a backside so that the electrically conductive material connects a topside contact to a backside contact. The structures described herein may form the basis of a number of semiconductor devices including transistors (e.g., FET), Schottky diodes, light-emitting diodes and laser diodes, amongst others.
US08343855B2
The invention concerns a nanostructured device (100) comprising a substrate (101), an intermediate layer (102), a zone (103) consisting of multiple three-dimensional structured sites (104) made of semiconductor material, having chemical species (106) fixed to the surface of said three-dimensional nanostructured sites (104). The inventive device is useful for making a biochip and an electronic memory. The invention also concerns a method for forming an electronic memory.
US08343849B2
To provide a technical means which is capable of increasing crystallinity and planarity of a single crystal semiconductor layer, crystal defects are reduced in such a manner that a single crystal semiconductor substrate, in which an insulating film is formed on its surface and an embrittlement region is formed in a region at a predetermined depth from the surface, and a supporting substrate are attached to each other with the insulating film interposed therebetween; the single crystal semiconductor substrate is separated in the embrittlement region by a heat treatment; a single crystal semiconductor layer is irradiated with laser light over the supporting substrate with the insulating film interposed therebetween; a surface of the single crystal semiconductor layer is etched; and a plasma treatment is performed on the surface of the single crystal semiconductor layer.
US08343841B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a first semiconductor layer on a front side of the semiconductor substrate. Additional semiconductor layers may be formed on a font side of the first semiconductor layer. The substrate is subsequently removed. In some embodiments, one or more additional semiconductor layers may be formed on the back side of the first semiconductor layer after the semiconductor substrate has been removed. Additionally, in some embodiments, a portion of the first semiconductor layer is removed along with the semiconductor substrate. In such embodiments, the first semiconductor layer is subsequently etched to a known thickness. Source regions and device electrodes may be then be formed.
US08343835B2
A method of producing a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor, includes the steps of forming, on a top surface of at least one of semiconductor pillars, an epitaxial layer having a top surface larger in area than the top surface of the at least one of the semiconductor pillars and forming a source region or a drain region so as to be at least partially in the epitaxial layer.
US08343833B2
A semiconductor device including a plurality of units having identical structures, each unit includes: a drain electrode; a drift layer that includes a low concentration layer on the drain electrode and a reference concentration layer on the low concentration layer, a gate electrode on the reference concentration layer; a pair of source regions that are provided on an upper surface of the reference concentration layer and in the vicinity of both ends of the gate electrode; a pair of base regions that surround outer surfaces of the source regions; a source electrode electrically connected to the source regions and the base regions; and a pair of depletion-layer extension regions that are respectively provided under the base regions in the reference concentration region. Boundaries between the depletion-layer extension regions and the low concentration layer are positioned lower than a boundary between the reference concentration layer and the low concentration layer.
US08343832B2
A method of forming a semiconductor device includes the following processes. A first pillar and a second pillar are formed on a semiconductor substrate. A semiconductor film is formed which includes first and second portions. The first portion is disposed over a side surface of the first pillar. The second portion is disposed over a side surface of the second pillar. The first and second portions are different from each other in at least one of impurity conductivity type and impurity concentration. A part of the semiconductor film is removed by etching back. The first and second portions are etched at first and second etching rates that are different from each other.
US08343831B2
In a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device may include a first active structure, a first gate insulation layer, a first gate electrode, a first impurity region, a second impurity region and a contact structure. The first active structure may include a first lower pattern in a first region of a substrate and a first upper pattern on the first lower pattern. The first gate insulation layer may be formed on a sidewall of the first upper pattern. The first gate electrode may be formed on the first gate insulation layer. The first impurity region may be formed in the first lower pattern. The second impurity region may be formed in the first upper pattern. The contact structure may surround an upper surface and an upper sidewall of the first upper pattern including the second impurity region. Accordingly, the contact resistance between the contact structure and the second impurity region may be decreased and structural stability of the contact structure may be improved.
US08343829B2
A recessed-gate transistor device includes a gate electrode embedded in a gate trench formed in a semiconductor substrate, wherein the gate trench includes a vertical sidewall and a U-shaped bottom. A source region is provided at one side of the gate trench within the semiconductor substrate. A drain region is provided at the other side thereof. An asymmetric gate dielectric layer is formed between the gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate. The asymmetric gate dielectric layer has a first thickness between the gate electrode and the drain region and a second thickness between the gate electrode and the source region, wherein the first thickness is thicker than the second thickness.
US08343826B2
When forming sophisticated high-k metal gate electrode structures in an early manufacturing stage on the basis of a silicon/germanium semiconductor alloy for adjusting appropriate electronic conditions in the channel region, the efficiency of a strain-inducing embedded semiconductor alloy, such as a silicon/germanium alloy, may be enhanced by initiating a crystal growth in the silicon material of the gate electrode structure after the gate patterning process. In this manner, the negative strain of the threshold voltage adjusting silicon/germanium alloy may be reduced or compensated for.
US08343825B2
A method of forming a semiconductor device includes implanting an amorphizing species into a crystalline semiconductor substrate, the substrate having a transistor gate structure formed thereupon. Carbon is implanted into amorphized regions of the substrate, with specific implant conditions tailored such that the peak concentration of carbon species coincides with the end of the stacking faults, where the stacking faults are created during the recrystallization anneal. The implanted carbon pins partial dislocations so as to prevent the dislocations from disassociating from the end of the stacking faults and moving to a region in the substrate directly below the transistor gate structure. This removes the defects, which cause device leakage fail.
US08343823B2
Nanowire and larger, post-based HEMTs, arrays of such HEMTs, and methods for their manufacture are provided. In one embodiment, a HEMT can include a III-N based core-shell structure including a core member (e.g., GaN), a shell member (e.g., AlGaN) surrounding a length of the core member and a two-dimensional electron gas (2-DEG) at the interface therebetween. The core member including a nanowire and/or a post can be disposed over a doped buffer layer and a gate material can be disposed around a portion of the shell member. Exemplary methods for making the nanowire HEMTs and arrays of nanowire HEMTs can include epitaxially forming nanowire(s) and epitaxially forming a shell member from each formed nanowire. Exemplary methods for making the post HEMTs and arrays of post HEMTs can include etching a III-N layer to form III-N post(s) followed by formation of the shell member(s).
US08343821B2
A thin film transistor with excellent electric characteristics, a display device having the thin film transistor, and a method for manufacturing the thin film transistor and the display device in a high yield are provided. In the thin film transistor, a gate electrode, a gate insulating film, crystal grains that mainly contain silicon and are provided for a surface of the gate insulating film, a semiconductor film that mainly contains germanium and covers the crystal grains and the gate insulating film, and a buffer layer in contact with the semiconductor film that mainly contains germanium overlap with one another. Further, the display device has the thin film transistor.
US08343820B2
A method for fabricating a vertical channel type non-volatile memory device including a plurality of memory cells stacked along channels protruding from a substrate includes: alternately forming a plurality of first material layers and a plurality of second material layers over the substrate; forming a buffer layer over the substrate with the plurality of the first material layers and the plurality of the second material layers formed thereon; forming trenches by etching the buffer layer, the plurality of the second material layers, and the plurality of the first material layers; forming a material layer for channels over the substrate to fill the trenches; and forming the channels by performing a planarization process until a surface of the buffer layer is exposed.
US08343816B2
It is an object to form a high quality gate insulating film which is dense and has a strong insulation resistance property, and to propose a high reliable organic transistor in which a tunnel leakage current is little. One mode of the organic transistor of the present invention has a step of forming the gate insulating film by forming the conductive layer which becomes the gate electrode activating oxygen (or gas including oxygen) or nitrogen (or gas including nitrogen) or the like using dense plasma in which density of electron is 1011 cm−3 or more, and electron temperature is a range of 0.2 eV to 2.0 eV with plasma activation, and reacting directly with a portion of the conductive layer which becomes the gate electrode to be insulated.
US08343811B2
A module including a carrier and a semiconductor chip applied to the carrier. An external contact element is provided having a first portion and a second portion extending perpendicular to the first portion, wherein a thickness of the second portion is smaller than a thickness of the carrier.
US08343801B2
Programmable metallization memory cells include an electrochemically active electrode and an inert electrode and an ion conductor solid electrolyte material between the electrochemically active electrode and the inert electrode. An electrically insulating oxide layer separates the ion conductor solid electrolyte material from the electrochemically active electrode.
US08343799B2
An object is to manufacture a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor at low cost with high productivity in such a manner that a photolithography process is simplified by reducing the number of light-exposure masks. In a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device including a channel-etched inverted-stagger thin film transistor, an oxide semiconductor film and a conductive film are etched using a mask layer formed with the use of a multi-tone mask which is a light-exposure mask through which light is transmitted so as to have a plurality of intensities. The etching step is performed by wet etching in which an etching solution is used.
US08343780B2
The invention relates to a method for straining or deforming a pattern or a thin layer (24), starting from an initial component comprising the said thin layer and a prestressed layer (20), this method comprising: an etching step of the prestressed layer, perpendicular to its surface.
US08343779B2
The invention relates to a method for forming a pattern on a substrate (S) with an upper surface and a lower surface which comprises the steps of depositing a first layer (E1) of an opaque material on the upper surface of the substrate (S), depositing a photosensitive layer (R) such that part of the photosensitive layer (R) covers at least part of the first layer (E1), exposing the photosensitive layer (R) to a light beam (L), the light beam (L) impinging on the lower surface of the substrate (S) under an oblique angle (Φ) of incidence, removing the exposed region of the photosensitive layer (R), depositing a second layer (E2) of an opaque material such that part of the second layer (E2) covers a remaining region of the photosensitive layer (R), and removing at least a part of the remaining region of the photosensitive layer (R). According to another aspect of the method of the invention anisotropic plasma etching is applied from above the upper surface of the substrate (S) after removal of the exposed region of the photosensitive layer (R) and thereafter the second layer (E2) is deposited. The method of the invention can be applied for forming a source electrode and a drain electrode of a thin-film field effect transistor. The invention furthermore relates to an electronic device fabricated by such a method.
US08343778B2
The invention encompasses microfluidic microarray assemblies (MMA) and subassemblies and methods for their manufacture and use. In one embodiment, first and second channel plates are provided and are sealingly connected to a test chip in consecutive steps. Each plate includes microfluidic channels configured in a predetermined reagent distribution pattern. The test chip comprises a plurality of discrete test positions, each test position being located at the intersection between a first predetermined reagent pattern and a second predetermined reagent pattern, wherein at least one of said patterns is non-linear. The first channel plate allows the distribution of a first reagent on said test chip, wherein said first reagent is immobilized at said test positions. The second channel plate allows the distribution of a second reagent on said test chip, wherein said second reagent comprises a plurality of different test samples.
US08343772B2
A specimen processing device comprising: a specimen processing unit for processing specimens; a first conveyance mechanism for conveying specimens from a carry-in side towards a carry-out side on the opposite side of the carry-in side with respect to the specimen processing unit through a specimen supply position for supplying specimens to the specimen processing unit; a second conveyance mechanism for conveying specimens from the carry-in side towards the carry-out side without passing the specimen supply position; a first control device for controlling the first conveyance mechanism; and a second control device for controlling the second conveyance mechanism, is disclosed. A specimen conveyance device and a specimen conveyance method are also disclosed.
US08343768B2
The effectiveness of an oxidative sterilization process is determined by exposing a known amount of a primary amine or aldehyde indicator chemical to an oxidative germicide. The oxidative germicide reacts with the indicator chemical. The amount of indicator chemical remaining after exposure to the germicide is determined by reacting the indicator chemical with a dye precursor chemical to form a colored product. The amount of indicator chemical remaining is determined from the intensity of the color of the colored product. The amount of indicator chemical remaining on the substrate is a measure of the effectiveness of the germicidal treatment. The dye precursor is an aldehyde when the indicator chemical is a primary amine and a primary amine when the indicator chemical is an aldehyde. An integrator for determining the effectiveness of the germicidal process includes an indicator chemical, where the indicator chemical is a primary amine or an aldehyde.
US08343756B2
Devices for fluid control and biological particle manipulation (e.g., cell enrichment and blood sampling) are disclosed. The devices a based on the ability to control the flow of fluids through the use of microfluidic valves. The valves are characterized, for example, by microstructures disposed on a mobile diaphragm.
US08343748B2
Recombinant truncated human furin was expressed in CHO cells and concentrated approximately 50-fold by ultrafiltration and diafiltration. The concentrate was purified by column chromatography on CAPTO MMC™ (mixed cation exchange/hydrophobic interaction gel) resulting in a 30-50 fold purification factor and a yield of at least 60%. The at least 20% pure preparation obtained after CAPTO MMC™ (mixed cation exchange/hydrophobic interaction gel) chromatography had already a purification degree allowing on-column maturation of pro-VWF. Then an additional Arginine Sepharose chromatography purification was carried out. This two column process for purification of truncated human furin resulted in an almost pure furin preparation with a specific activity of approximately 290,000 U furin/mg protein and a yield of about 50%.
US08343747B2
In one aspect, the invention is directed to polypeptides having an amylase and/or glucoamylase activity, polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides, and methods for making and using these polynucleotides and polypeptides. In one aspect, the polypeptides of the invention can be used as amylases, for example, alpha amylases, to catalyze the hydrolysis of polysaccharide, oligosaccharide or starch into sugars. In one aspect, the invention provides delayed release compositions comprising an desired ingredient coated by a latex polymer coating. In alternative embodiments, enzymes are used to make biofuels, e.g., ethanol, butanol, propanol, or a gasoline-ethanol mix, including a bioethanol, biopropanol, biobutanol, or a biodiesel, or for any form of fuel or biomass processing.
US08343736B2
The present invention relates to an efficient production method of xylitol by using the xylitol producing microorganism introduced with arabinose metabolic pathway to inhibit the production of arabitol, the byproduct, and instead to use arabinose only for cell metabolism in xylose/arabinose mixed medium. More precisely, to express efficiently L-arabinose isomerase (araA), L-ribulokinase (araB) and L-ribulose-5-phosphate 4-epimerase (araD) in Candida tropicalis, codon optimization was performed. Then, each gene was inserted in the gene expression cassette containing the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter and the selection marker URA3, which was introduced into Candida sp. microorganism. As a result, arabitol, the byproduct interrupting the purification and crystallization of xylitol could be inhibited, making the production method of xylitol of the present invention more efficient. The xylitol producing microorganism introduced with arabinose metabolic pathway of the present invention can be effectively used for the production of xylitol with high productivity by inhibiting the generation of arabitol.
US08343734B2
The invention relates to processes for fermentative production of L-proline using bacteria which contain mutated variants of the proB gene.
US08343732B2
The present invention relates to a method for detecting ATP in a sample by using luminescence, wherein a luminescence reagent is added to the sample that has not undergone any pre-treatment with an extractant in order to effect the formation of an ATP complex, wherein the luminescence of the ATP com lex thus formed is measured.
US08343729B2
The present invention relates to a method for producing marine ostracod crustacean luciferin or a derivative thereof represented by a general formula (4), characterized by reacting a compound represented by a general formula (2) with a compound represented by a general formula (3): wherein R1, R2, R3, R5, Y1 and Z1 are the same as defined in the specification.
US08343723B2
The present inventors succeeded in cloning the CDT genes of C. coli and C. fetus, which were previously unknown, and in determining their sequences. In addition, the inventors also developed specific primers and primers common to the two species by comparing the CDTs of C. jejuni and C. fetus. Furthermore, the inventors demonstrated that these primers were applicable to multiplex PCR that simultaneously allows for the rapid and convenient determination of the presence of Campylobacter CDT and identification of species, and that they can also be used in PCR-RFLP-based typing.
US08343718B2
The invention relates to a novel strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus, resulting from a sample collected in Hanoi (Vietnam), reference number 031589, nucleic acid molecules originating from the genome of same, proteins and peptides coded by said nucleic acid molecules and, more specifically, protein N and the applications thereof, for example, as diagnostic reagents and/or as a vaccine.
US08343711B2
There is disclosed a patterning process comprises at least (1) a step of forming an organic underlayer film on a substrate and then forming a photoresist pattern on the organic underlayer film, (2) a step of attaching an alkaline solution containing an alkaline substance onto the photoresist pattern and then removing the excess alkaline solution, (3) a step of applying a solution of a siloxane polymer crosslinkable by action of the alkaline substance onto the photoresist pattern to form a crosslinked part by crosslinking the siloxane polymer near the photoresist patterns, and (4) a step of removing the uncrosslinked siloxane polymer and the photoresist pattern. There can be provided a patterning process capable of forming a further finer pattern simply and efficiently and with a high practicability applicable to semiconductor manufacturing.
US08343708B2
A positive photosensitive composition includes: (A) a resin that has an acid decomposable repeating unit of formula (I) and increases its solubility in an alkali developer by action of an acid; (B) a compound that generates an acid upon irradiation; (C) a resin that has: a fluorine atom and/or a silicon atom; and a group selected from groups (x) to (z); and (D) a solvent: (x) an alkali soluble group, (y) a group which decomposes by action of an alkali developer and increases a solubility of the resin (C) in an alkali developer, and (z) a group which decomposes by action of an acid, wherein, Xa1 represents hydrogen, alkyl, cyano or halogen, Ry1 to Ry3 each independently represents alkyl or cycloalkyl, and at least two of Ry1 to Ry3 may be coupled to form a ring, and Z represents a divalent linking group.
US08343706B2
The present invention relates to a fluorine-free photoacid generator (PAG) and a photoresist composition containing the same. The PAG is characterized by the presence of an onium cationic component and a fluorine-free fused ring heteroaromatic sulfonate anionic component containing one or more electron withdrawing substituents. The onium cationic component of the PAG is preferably a sulfonium or an iodonium cation. The photoresist composition further contains an acid sensitive imaging polymer. The photoresist composition is especially useful for forming material patterns on a semiconductor substrate using 193 nm (ArF) lithography.
US08343699B2
Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a conductive support, an intermediate layer provided on the conductive support, and a photosensitive layer provided on the intermediate layer in which the intermediate layer contains a polyolefin resin containing a specific component at a specific mass ratio, and a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus each having the electrophotographic photosensitive member.
US08343686B2
Tubular objects having two or more concentric layers that have different properties are joined to one another during their manufacture primarily by compressive and friction forces generated by shrinkage during sintering and possibly mechanical interlocking. It is not necessary for the concentric tubes to display adhesive-, chemical- or sinter-bonding to each other in order to achieve a strong bond. This facilitates joining of dissimilar materials, such as ceramics and metals.
US08343674B2
A fuel cell system and a method for controlling the same corrects concentration sensing values by estimating temperature according to the load amount of a stack. A control method of a fuel cell system including the steps of: measuring the load amount of loads supplied with power from a stack; estimating temperatures at the area where a concentration sensor is installed from the load amount values; producing the corrected concentrations by correcting the concentration sensing values according to the estimated temperatures; and controlling the drive of the fuel cell system according to the corrected concentrations.
US08343668B2
A porous tin particle and its preparation method are provided in the present invention. The method includes steps of: (a) performing a reductive (or reductive electrochemical) reaction on a tin particle which simultaneously reacts with lithium ions to form a tin-lithium (Sn—Li) alloy; and (b) performing an oxidative (or oxidative electrochemical) reaction on Sn—Li alloy to release the lithium ions therefrom, and the porous tin particle is formed. The porous tin particle could be further applied in manufacturing the electrochemical electrode for lithium-ion battery with longer cycle life and higher reversibility.
US08343666B2
A nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery has a positive electrode including an active material of complex oxides capable of storing and emitting lithium ions, a negative electrode, a separator, and an electrolytic solution made of a nonaqueous solvent. A discharge curve of this battery when being discharged with a constant power has two or more points of step-like flections near the end of electrical discharge in a range of 5% to 20% of a discharge capacity thereof as determined from an initial discharge voltage in a state of full charge to a discharge-end voltage.
US08343660B2
Provided is a hydrogen storage alloy which is characterized in that two or more crystal phases having different crystal structures are layered in a c-axis direction of the crystal structures. The hydrogen storage alloy is further characterized in that a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of a lattice constant a in the crystal structures of the laminated two or more crystal phases is 0.03 Å or less.
US08343654B2
The invention relates to a rechargeable battery pack. Particularly, but not exclusively, the invention relates to a rechargeable battery pack for a battery powered appliance such as a hand held vacuum cleaner. The rechargeable battery pack includes at least one power interface for transferring power from the battery pack to an appliance during use and a single charger input terminal to which an output terminal of a battery charger is connectable during use for charging the battery pack, wherein the single charger input terminal is connectable to the output terminal of a battery charger when the battery pack is connected to an appliance and when the battery pack is not connected to an appliance.
US08343653B2
A secondary battery according to the present invention includes a polymer cell in which insulating wing portions are provided on lead tabs and a top case assembled to the polymer cell and having an evasion portion to reduce interference with the insulating wing portions. A secondary battery can reduce interference which occurs between an insulating wing portion having an irregular shape. Further, as a result, it is possible to reduce the variance of the external dimension of an inner pack and achieve a more stable manufacturing process of the inner pack, and increase the reliability and competency of the inner pack to which the polymer cell is applied.
US08343648B2
An energy storage cell having a flexible envelope, which cell is attached flat to a heat-conducting plate.
US08343640B2
A material for an organic photoelectric device includes a compound represented by the following Formula 1:
US08343638B2
An organic light emitting diode is disclosed, and includes a light-efficiency-improvement layer containing a compound represented by Formula 1:
US08343636B2
Crosslinkable compounds useful for making hole-transporting materials for organic light-emitting devices, hole-transporting layers made from the crosslinkable compounds, and light-emitting devices that include the hole-transporting layers.
US08343629B2
Composites of a fluoropolymer and an organopolysiloxane/polyurethane/polyurea adhesive exhibit strong adhesion while also offering desirable handling properties.
US08343614B2
A method of thermally insulating an object that requires a Class A standard insulation material, said method comprising suitably locating a metallized polymeric reflective insulation material adjacent said object, wherein said polymeric material is selected from a closed cell foam, polyethylene foam, polypropylene foam, expanded polystyrene foam, multi-film layers assembly and a bubble-pack assembly. The object is preferably packaging, a vehicle or a residential, commercial or industrial building or establishment. The polymeric material may contain a fire-retardant and the bright surface of the metallized layer has a clear lacquer coating to provide anti-corrosion properties, and which maintains satisfactory reflectance commercial criteria.
US08343611B2
A one-way vision film includes a white film base material; a shrinkable color tone layer on one side of the base material; and a self-adsorptive foamed layer on the base material opposite to the shrinkable color tone layer. The one-way vision film is perforated with through-holes. The self-adsorptive foamed layer has an adhesive function attachable to a surface onto which the film is attached and is printable. Since the printing ink is deposited to the bottoms of the open pores while not closing the openings of the open pores, open pores exposed to the surface of the foamed layer function like suction cups adhering onto a smooth surface. Accordingly, there is no need for forming ink-receptive and pressure-sensitive layers, unlike a conventional film, so the film can have a low cost, three-layer structure. The one-way vision and printed film is easily attachable onto a smooth and transparent substrate like glass.
US08343607B2
An apparatus and method for making a trim panel. The method includes providing a preform laminate including a compressible material sandwiched between a flexible skin and a back skin. Positioning the preform laminate in the mold. Placing an insert with the preform laminate in the mold to created a step to establish a seam location and define a secondary area on the preform laminate. Compressing the compressible material by introducing a molten polymeric material to the mold forming a substrate and bonding the substrate to the preform laminate forming the trim component. The preform laminate folds onto itself and creates a crease along the step to simulate the seam and provide a contour change with the appearance of cushioning in the secondary area, and removing the trim panel component from the mold.
US08343601B1
Aqueous polyurethane coating compositions are disclosed in this specification. The aqueous polyurethane coating compositions contain a polycarbonate-polyurethane resin component, an aminoplast resin component, and a polyacrylic polyol component.
US08343599B2
A surface covering for melting ice and/or snow comprises at least one elongate element arranged to form a generally flexible mat structure, and a melting composition integrated with the elongate element. The elongate element may comprise a tube defining a cavity therein, and the melting composition may be disposed within the cavity.
US08343597B2
The present invention relates to a photoreactive norbornene polymer comprising a photoreactive norbornene monomer, a process for preparing the same, and an alignment layer using the same. The photoreactive norbornene polymer includes a photoreactive functional group having a halogen, in particular, a fluorine substituent group so that it gives a compositional gradient in the alignment layer to improve an orientation rate, an orientation, and an adhesion property.
US08343595B2
A liquid crystal compound and a liquid crystal medium are described. The liquid crystal compound is stable to heat and light and has a large dielectric anisotropy and a large optical anisotropy. The liquid crystal medium has a wide temperature range of liquid crystal phase, a large optical anisotropy and a large dielectric anisotropy, and exhibits an optically isotropic liquid crystal phase. The liquid crystal compound has 4 or 5 benzene rings, one of which is a chlorofluorobenzene ring. The liquid crystal medium is characterized in containing the liquid crystal compound and a chiral dopant and exhibiting an optically isotropic liquid crystal phase.
US08343584B2
A method of manufacturing a decorative article, including a first coating formation step of forming a first coating of primarily TiN on a substrate; a second coating formation step of forming a second coating on the first coating by means of a dry plating method using a target containing 70.0 wt %≦85.0 wt % Au and 15.0 wt %≦30.0 wt % Cu; a heat treatment step of promoting formation of a solid solution of the constituents of the second coating by applying a heating process that heats the substrate on which the first coating and the second coating are disposed to 300° C.≦395° C. and then applying a cooling process; and an acid treatment step that, of the constituents of the second coating to which the heating process was applied, removes the constituents not forming a solid solution by applying an acid treatment.
US08343577B2
Disclosed herein are core-shell type nanoparticles comprising nanoparticle cores made of a metal or semiconductor, and shells made of crystalline metal oxide formed on the surfaces of the nanoparticle cores, as well as a preparation method thereof. According to the disclosed invention, the core-shell nanoparticles, consisting of metallic or semiconductor cores and crystalline metal oxide shells, can be prepared by epitaxially growing metal oxide on the surfaces of the metallic or semiconductor nanoparticle cores. By virtue of the crystalline metal oxide shells, the core nanoparticle made of metal or semiconductor can ensure excellent chemical and mechanical stability, and the core-shell nanoparticles can show new properties resulting from the interaction between the metal cores and the metal oxide crystal shells.
US08343576B2
Provided is a core/multishell semiconductor nanocrystal including a core and multiple shells, which exhibits a type-I band offset and high photoluminescence quantum yield providing a bright tunable emission covering the visible range from about 400 nm to NIR over 1600 nm.
US08343565B2
Grape material is processed to yield a grape extract high in concentrated polyphenols, with ORAC values exceeding at least about 10,000 μmol TE/g. The grape material is dried, and soaked in ethanol to commence desired concentrate extraction. Following ethanol removal, inactive residue is at least partially separated from the desired concentrate solution, which passes through a macroporous absorption resin that absorbs desired active ingredients. Ethanol resin washing yields an intermediate extraction solution. After ethanol removal, the intermediate extract solution with the mixed active ingredients is refined. During refinement, high concentration of polyphenols and monomeric phenols are separated, and collected. These collected materials yield a desired high ORAC extract solution. Further drying yields the desired material, which is tested and packaged. This material exhibits good water solubility, mild flavor, and can be added to foodstuffs and nutritional supplements as a beneficial antioxidant.
US08343563B2
Disclosed herein is a food product that includes a filling and a coating. The filling typically includes cooked egg material. The coating typically includes a cooked, non-yeast leavened batter.
US08343558B2
There is provided a novel microorganism capable of fermentation without placing particular limitations on fermentation conditions, as well as a method of processing green coffee beans using the novel microorganism, the method adding new, high-quality flavor and aroma to a coffee beverage by a simple operation, without instigating a particular increase in raw material costs and without requiring a new processing step.The method for processing green coffee beans includes a fermentation step of bringing nutritive substances and microorganisms into contact with one another and causing fermentation in the presence of green coffee beans, wherein the microorganism used in the fermentation step is a microorganism belonging to the genus Geotrichum.
US08343551B2
Nanocomposite particles having good solubility and redispersibility in water are provided. The nanocomposite particles include a sugar material and nanoparticles containing a drug to be delivered and a biodegradable polymer, the sugar material being disaccharide, and a mass ratio of the nanoparticles to the disaccharide being within the range of from 40:60 to 60:40.
US08343543B2
Pharmaceutical compositions that contain a lipase inhibitor having a melting point ≧37° C., a sucrose fatty acid ester wherein the sucrose fatty acid ester is a mono-, di-, tri- or tetra-ester, and optionally one or more pharmaceutically acceptable excipients, are useful for treatment of obesity.
US08343536B2
A biofilm-inhibiting medical product includes a carrier formed from a natural, bioremodelable material, whereby the carrier includes a biocidal bismuth thiol agent and/or one or more other biofilm-inhibiting or wound healing agents. A method for using the biofilm-inhibiting medical product to treat a wound or tissue defect in a patient's body is described.
US08343534B2
Tissues useful in providing fibrous tissue products for skin contact, such as facial tissue, bathroom tissue, disposable handkerchiefs which comprise a volatile rhinological effective composition for delivery to human skin.
US08343533B2
The present invention features a process for making a lozenge product including the steps of forming a powder blend containing an amorphous carbohydrate polymer into the desired shape of the lozenge product and applying radiofrequency energy to the shape for a sufficient period of time to soften or melt said amorphous carbohydrate polymer to fuse the shape into said lozenge product.
US08343529B2
An implantable drug delivery medical device with alternating hydrophilic and amphiphilic polymer layers and methods of using for the treatment of vascular disease are disclosed.
US08343527B2
The invention provides photocrosslinkable, injectable, biodegradable oligo(poly(ethylene glycol) fumarate) (OPF) hydrogels made from the photopolymerization of an OPF macromer with UV light and a photoinitiator. Hydrogels with varying mechanical properties and water content can be made with changes in macromer and crosslinking agent concentration in a precursor solution. The biodegradable OPF hydrogels can be injected as a fluid into a bodily defect of any shape, may incorporate various therapeutic agents, e.g., cells and/or growth factors, and may be implanted via minimally invasive arthroscopic techniques.
US08343516B2
A drug dosage form is provided in the form of a solid tablet which is greater than 50% by weight the local anesthetic agent. The local anesthetic agent may be selected from the group consisting of an aminoamide, an aminoester, and a combination thereof. The drug tablet may be in the form of a mini-tablet which is greater than 70 wt % drug, with the balance being excipient. For example, the anesethetic agent may include lidocaine, in a salt or base form, combined with binder and lubricant excipients. Implantable drug delivery devices including the tablets are also provided, e.g., one or more of the drug tablets may be contained in a biocompatible housing. The drug tablets may be substantially cylindrical with flat end faces, and the device may have from 10 to 100 drug tablets aligned in the housing with the flat end faces of adjacent tablets abutting one another.
US08343512B2
Compositions and methods, including vaccines and pharmaceutical compositions for inducing or enhancing an immune response are disclosed based on the discovery of useful immunological adjuvant properties in a synthetic, glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant (GLA) that is provided in substantially homogeneous form. Chemically defined, synthetic GLA offers a consistent vaccine component from lot to lot without the fluctuations in contaminants or activity that compromise natural-product adjuvants. Also provided are vaccines and pharmaceutical compositions that include GLA and one or more of an antigen, a Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist, a co-adjuvant and a carrier such as a pharmaceutical carrier.
US08343510B2
The invention relates to a composition comprising at least two protective proteins against Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) or functionally active variant thereof; a protective peptide against S. agalactiae; one or more nucleic acid(s) encoding the at least two proteins and/or the protective peptide; a method of producing the composition; a pharmaceutical composition, especially a vaccine, comprising the composition and/or at least one protective peptide; methods for producing antibodies; a mixture of antibodies against the at least two proteins of the composition; the use of the composition and/or at least one protective peptide and/or one or more nucleic acid(s) for the manufacture of a medicament for the immunization or treatment of a subject; methods of diagnosing a S. agalactiae infection; a method for identifying a ligand capable of binding the composition and/or at least one protective peptide; and the use of the composition and/or at least one protective peptide for the isolation and/or purification and/or identification of an interaction partner of the composition and/or peptide.
US08343505B2
An aquatic subunit vaccine comprises an antigenic fusion protein and suitable carrier or adjuvant. The antigenic fusion protein sequence consists from its amino terminus to carboxyl terminus of a receptor binding motif and a translocation domain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A and has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No: 8; a viral antigenic protein affecting fish disease; and a signal peptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID No: 10.
US08343504B2
The present invention relates generally to methods and materials for treating conditions associated with IgE activation in humans and animals, and to agents capable of modulating the activation. The agents of the invention comprise or are related to IGBPMA polypeptides from ticks.
US08343502B2
Compositions and methods for treating and/or preventing a variety of diseases and conditions that are amenable to immunotherapy and, in one particular embodiment, compositions and methods for treating and/or preventing cancer in an animal are described. Specifically improvements related to the use of a yeast-based vaccine comprising a yeast vehicle and an antigen that is selected to elicit an antigen-specific cellular and humoral immune response in an animal, for use in prophylactic and/or therapeutic vaccination and the prevention and/or treatment of a variety of diseases and conditions are disclosed.
US08343497B2
The present invention provides compositions and systems for delivery of nanocarriers to cells of the immune system. The invention provides nanocarriers capable of stimulating an immune response in T cells and/or in B cells. The invention provides nanocarriers that comprise an immunofeature surface. The nanocarriers are capable of targeting antigen presenting cells when administered to a subject. The invention provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising inventive nanocarriers. The present invention provides methods of designing, manufacturing, and using inventive nanocarriers and pharmaceutical compositions thereof.
US08343492B2
Nucleic acids encoding a new family of chemokines, the CX3C family, from a mammal, reagents related thereto, including specific antibodies, and purified proteins are described. Methods of using said reagents and related diagnostic kits are also provided.
US08343491B2
Hypoxia induced mitogenic factor (HIMF) is a member of the “found in inflammatory zone” (FIZZ)/resistin family of proteins and has potent mitogenic, angiogenic, and vasoconstrictive effects in the lung vasculature. We use antibodies to HIMF to treat certain diseases including adult respiratory distress syndrome, radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and emphysema.
US08343485B2
The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising a chemotactic hematopoietic stem cell product comprising an enriched population of CD34+ cells containing a subpopulation of CD34+/CXCR-4+ cells having CXCR-4-mediated chemotactic activity, methods of preparing these compositions and use of these compositions to treat or repair vascular injury, including infarcted myocardium.
US08343474B2
The invention relates to new compounds of Formula 1: [(O3/2)Si CH2CH2SX]a [Si(O4/2)]b[Si(O3/2V)]c. The compounds are useful as scavengers for the removal of unwanted organic and inorganic compounds, for solid phase extraction, for solid phase synthesis, for acid and metal mediated heterogeneous catalysis, for metal ion abstraction and for the immobilization of bio-molecules.
US08343472B2
The present invention relates to biocompatible, biodegradable polyurethane/urea polymeric compositions that are capable of in-vivo curing with low heat generation to form materials suitable for use in scaffolds in tissue engineering applications such as bone and cartilage repair. The polymers are desirably flowable and injectable and can support living biological components to aid in the healing process. They may be cured ex-vivo for invasive surgical repair methods, or alternatively utilized for relatively non-invasive surgical repair methods such as by arthroscope. The invention also relates to prepolymers useful in the preparation of the polymeric compositions, and to methods of treatment of damaged tissue using the polymers of the invention.
US08343462B2
The present invention relates to formulations for use in medical or diagnostic procedures comprising a stabilizing agent alone or in combination with an osmotic agent. In one embodiment, the stabilizing agent is a natural hydrocolloid, preferably locust bean gum, and the osmotic agent is a sugar-based compound, preferably mannitol. The present invention also relates to formulations and methods for distending an anatomic segment. The present invention further relates to formulations and methods for delineating an anatomic segment on a diagnostic image, for example. The formulations of the present invention are especially suitable for use with diagnostic imaging procedures including, but not limited to, magnetic resonance imaging (MR), computer assisted tomography (CT), and CT-PET (position emission tomography), as well as other medical and therapeutic uses.
US08343460B2
The present application discloses compositions and methods of synthesis and use of F-18 labeled molecules of use in PET imaging. In particular embodiments, the labeled molecules may be peptides or proteins, although other types of molecules may be labeled and utilized. Preferably, the F-18 is attached to a targeting molecule by formation of a metal complex and binding of the F-18-metal complex to a chelating moiety. In other embodiments, the metal may first be attached to the chelating group and subsequently the F-18 bound to the metal. More preferably, the F-18 label moiety may be attached to a targetable conjugate that is used for pretargeting in combination with a bispecific or multispecific antibody. The F-18-metal labeled molecules are stable in human serum at 37° C.
US08343456B2
A hydrocarbon reforming catalyst which maintains carrier strength even after a long-term thermal history and which exhibits high catalytic activity is prepared by causing at least one noble metal component selected from among a ruthenium component, a platinum component, a rhodium component, a palladium component, and an iridium component to be supported on a carrier containing manganese oxide, alumina, and at least one compound selected from among lanthanum oxide, cerium oxide, and zirconium oxide, or a carrier containing silicon oxide, manganese oxide, and alumina. By use of the reforming catalyst, hydrogen is produced through steam reforming (1), autothermal reforming (2), partial-oxidation reforming (3), or carbon dioxide reforming (4). A fuel cell system is constituted from a reformer employing the reforming catalyst, and a fuel cell employing, as a fuel, hydrogen produced by the reformer.
US08343454B2
A Cu2O spherical assembly particle composition is composed of Cu2O spherical assembly particles, each of which is formed by agglomerating a plurality of Cu2O ultrafine particles that have an average diameter in the range from 1 to 100 nm and a standard deviation on the diameter in the range from 0 to 10%. The Cu2O spherical assembly particles have an average diameter in the range from 0.1 to 10 μm and a standard deviation on the diameter in the range from 0 to 40%. This Cu2O spherical assembly particle composition is composed of Cu2O assembly particles with excellent uniformity, so it shows excellent properties such as realizing a good electric conductivity during a curing process for wiring. Accordingly, the spherical Cu2O assembly particle composition may be usefully used as precursors for solar energy conversion, magnetic storage medium, catalyst, gas sensor, and copper wire formation.
US08343453B2
To provide a carrier for two-component electrophotographic developer not only having excellent fluidity but also having proper surface irregularities necessary for imparting electric charge, without generating cracks/chipping of particles even under an influence of stirring stress over a long period of time. A particle surface has raised parts of striped pattern extending almost continuously in a plurality of directions while being superposed on one another, with a surface formed with raised parts of striped pattern occupying 80% or more of the whole surface of a particle. Depths of grooves between the adjacent raised parts are 0.05 μm or more and 0.2 μm or less, average surface roughness Ra is 0.1 μm or more and 0.3 μm or less, roundness is 0.90 or more, and average particle size is 15 μm or more and 100 μm or less, and a carrier core material thus constituted is coated with resin. Thus, the carrier for two-component electrophotographic developer is prepared.
US08343451B2
A device for making a carbon nanotube film includes a substrate and a catalyst layer on the substrate. The catalyst layer has two substantially parallel sides. The present disclosure also provides a method for making a carbon nanotube film. The catalyst layer is annealed at a high temperature in air. The annealed catalyst layer is heated up to a predetermined reaction temperature in a furnace with a protective gas therein. A carbonaceous gas is supplied into the furnace to grow a carbon nanotube array having two substantially parallel side faces. A carbon nanotube film is drawn from the carbon nanotube array. A drawing direction is substantially parallel to the two substantially parallel side faces of the carbon nanotube array.
US08343450B2
Methods and compositions to extract radionuclides such as various actinides and lanthanides from organic and/or aqueous solutions by utilizing extractant functionalized carbon nanotubes are disclosed. More particularly, phosphorous-containing (such as phosphine oxides, phosphoric acids or phosphates) organic extractants and other predesigned extractants (such as crown ethers, calncrown derivatives, malonamide and diglycolamide derivatives, polyethylene glycol derivatives, cobalt dicarbollide derivatives, and N-donating heterocyclic ligands) can be covalently and/or non-covalently employed on the surfaces and/or ends (tips) of carbon nanotubes for the purpose of removal radionuclides such as various actinides and lanthanides from organic and/or aqueous solutions. Extractant functionalized carbon nanotubes can be used for extracting radioactive nuclides from nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel, which are produced and/or reprocessed from the nuclear power generation or other nuclear application.
US08343449B1
The disclosure provides a device and method used to produce a tubular structure made of a refractory metal compound. In particular, the disclosure provides a device and method used to produce a tubular structure made of a refractory metal compound by reacting a green tubular structure made of a refractory metal with at least one reactive gas.
US08343448B2
Systems and methods are provided for reducing NOx emissions from a vehicle including an engine having an exhaust. In one example, the system comprises a NOx reducing system coupled to the engine exhaust including a base metal zeolite, said NOx reducing system including a first layer with a first pore size and a second layer with a second pore size, said first pore size being smaller than said second pore size.
US08343442B2
A variety of elastomeric-based microfluidic devices and methods for using and manufacturing such devices are provided. Certain of the devices have arrays of reaction sites to facilitate high throughput analyses. Some devices also include reaction sites located at the end of blind channels at which reagents have been previously deposited during manufacture. The reagents become suspended once sample is introduced into the reaction site. The devices can be utilized with a variety of heating devices and thus can be used in a variety of analyses requiring temperature control, including thermocycling applications such as nucleic acid amplification reactions, genotyping and gene expression analyses.
US08343437B2
Compositions, devices and processes related to etching of a very thin layer or fine particles of a metal are disclosed for monitoring a variety of parameters, such as time, temperature, time-temperature, thawing, freezing, microwave, humidity, ionizing radiation, sterilization and chemicals. These devices have capabilities of producing a long and sharp induction period of an irreversible visual change. The devices are composed of an indicator comprising a very thin layer of a metal and an activator, e.g., a reactant, such as water, water vapor, an acid, a base, oxidizing agent or their precursors, which is capable of reacting with the said indicator. Ink formulations composed of a metal powder and a proper activator can be used for monitoring several sterilization processes, such as sterilization with steam. When water is used as an activator, a thin layer of metals, such as that of aluminum can be used as steam sterilization or humidity indicator.
US08343432B2
A waste decomposition apparatus has a container-shaped body, a waste inlet for introducing wastes into the body, an outlet for discharging residual ash out of the body after the wastes introduced into the body are decomposed, and magnetic functioning means for inducing magnetic fields in the wastes introduced into the body. The waste decomposition apparatus includes pressing means for pressing the wastes introduced into the body.
US08343430B2
A compact two-stage granular moving-bed apparatus comprises a vessel, a flow-corrective element, and a filter material supplying part. The vessel comprises a hollow interior, a gas outlet, a first media outlet and a second media outlet. The flow-corrective element divides the hollow interior into a first channel and a second channel. The filter material supplying part has a first provider for providing a first granular material flowing through the first channel and a second provider for providing a second granular material flowing through the second channel, wherein a vertical level of each first and second provider is adjustable so that a first flow path that an exhaust gas flows through the first granular material and a second flow path that the exhaust gas flow through the second granular material is respectively capable of being controlled.
US08343426B2
The present invention includes a separable test tube for use in a centrifugal separator that does not need to separately transfer separation liquid to another test tube for a second separation after a first separation. The separable test tube includes a first tube including a first coupling portion, a second coupling portion, and an adjustment portion. A second tube includes a first body part, a first space portion, a first packing fastener, a third coupling portion which engages the first coupling portion, and an adjustment groove into which the adjustment portion is inserted. A third tube includes a second body part having a second space portion, a second packing fastener, and a fourth coupling portion which engages the second coupling portion. First and second watertight members are coupled to the first and second coupling portions, respectively. First and second packings are coupled to the first and second packing fasteners, respectively.
US08343425B1
A user-friendly multi-layer micro/nanofluidic flow device and micro/nano fabrication process are provided for numerous uses. The multi-layer micro/nanofluidic flow device can comprise: a substrate, such as indium tin oxide coated glass (ITO glass); a conductive layer of ferroelectric material, preferably comprising a PZT layer of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) positioned on the substrate; electrodes connected to the conductive layer; a nanofluidics layer positioned on the conductive layer and defining nanochannels; a microfluidics layer positioned upon the nanofluidics layer and defining microchannels; and biomolecular nanovalves providing bio-nanovalves which are moveable from a closed position to an open position to control fluid flow at a nanoscale.
US08343424B2
A device includes first and second material facing towards each other as to form at least one focusing microstructure with a focal point located outside of the first material.
US08343421B2
According to the invention a method (and corresponding system) of enhancing application of high intensity acoustic waves is provided, wherein acoustic waves, e.g. ultrasound, and a gaseous medium, e.g. steam, coincide at a treatment zone. This is achieved by a combination of one or more high intensity acoustic generators and/or reflectors. In this way, enhanced efficiency in an area of the gaseous medium (or where the gaseous medium is to affect something) is obtained since a second generator or a reflector is located so that the acoustic waves directly influence the gaseous medium.
US08343413B2
An object of the invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a molded foam which is lightweight and excellent in strength. According to the invention, a method for manufacturing a molded foam from a foamed parison includes: an extruding step of extruding a resin blend containing a foaming agent and a thermoplastic resin to form a foamed parison; an attaching step of closely attaching facing portions of an inner wall surface of the foamed parison to each other to form a foamed parison laminated body; a mold clamping step of sealing and mold clamping the foamed parison laminated body by clamping the foamed parison laminated body by split mold blocks; and a sucking step of sucking air between the split mold blocks to reduce a pressure between the split mold blocks, after the attaching step and the mold clamping step.
US08343410B2
A production method for producing molded articles from fiber composites, superparamagnetic particles are selected which become coupled to an external alternating magnetic field. These superparamagnetic particles are added to a resin portion of a strip-shaped starting material further comprising reinforcing fibers. The strip-shaped starting material is then continuously advanced, and, while being advanced, heated by coupling-in an external alternating magnetic field to which the superparamagnetic particles in the resin portion become coupled. Next, the heated starting material is continuously molded into a molded article; and the resin portion in the molded particle is cured.
US08343401B2
A method for forming a filtration media from waste media includes combining the waste media with a binder to form a dry mixture, adding a liquid composition to the dry mixture to form a slurry, and extruding the slurry to form a filtration media. The waste media may include fines or oversized media resulting from a prior media production process that have been subjected to a hydration process. The waste media may be ground and sized prior to combining it with the binder. The binder may include clay, cellulose materials, and combinations thereof. The liquid composition may include water and optionally one or more additional additives selected from the group consisting of permanganates, acids, bases, amines and combinations thereof. In one embodiment, the slurry is extruded into a honeycomb matrix.
US08343400B2
Methods are disclosed by which melt-formed inorganic fibers may be processed to form a gravity-laid inorganic fiber web. The gravity-laying process comprises mechanically separating the melt-formed inorganic fibers and collecting the fibers, and may comprise blending the melt-formed inorganic fibers with other inorganic fibers and/or with inorganic particulate additives.
US08343393B2
In a molding apparatus in which upper and lower dies are held in a bearing, there are provided pipes for introducing N2 gas used for controlling temperatures of balls of the bearing, whereby difference in temperature between the guide member and the upper and lower dies is controlled. With this structure, it is possible to prevent generation of an excessive compressive force between the upper die and the lower die and the bearing, to thereby prevent breakage of the dies. Further, it is also possible to prevent formation of gaps between the upper die and the lower die and the bearing, to thereby mold an optical element excellent in accuracy of an optical axis.
US08343386B2
An electrostatically dissipative adhesive in one embodiment includes a mixture comprising: an adhesive material; and electrically conductive particles intermixed with the adhesive material, the electrically conductive particles being present in an amount between 0 and about 10% by weight of a total weight of the mixture. An electrostatically dissipative adhesive in another embodiment includes a mixture comprising: an adhesive material; and electrically conductive particles intermixed with the adhesive material, the electrically conductive particles being present in an amount between 0 and about 10% by weight of a total weight of the mixture, wherein the mixture has at least 50% of a lap shear strength as measured in accordance with ISO 4587 after curing for 72 hours at 22° C. as the raw adhesive material has as measured in accordance with ISO 4587 after curing for 72 hours at 22° C.
US08343385B2
Disclosed herein is a conductive paste composition. The conductive paste composition according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a conductive powder including nickel or a nickel alloy; a spherical particulate inhibitor including BaTiO3 powders; and a glass composition having Chemical Formula of aLi2O-bK2O-cCaO-dBaO-eB2O3-fSiO2, wherein a, b, c, d, e, and f satisfy a+b+c+d+e+f=100, 2≦a≦10, 2≦b≦10, 0≦c≦25, 0≦d≦25, 5≦e≦20, and 50≦f≦80.
US08343384B2
Disclosed herein is a composition for electrodes that enables a firing process in air at a temperature of 600° C. or less and does not cause an increase in absolute resistance and a substantial variation of the resistance even when the composition is repeatedly subjected to the firing process. The composition for electrodes comprises: about 5 to about 95% by weight of aluminum powder, the aluminum powder having a particle size distribution of about 2.0 or less as expressed by the following Equation (1) and having D50 in the range of about 0.1 μm≦D50≦about 20 μm; about 3 to about 60% by weight of an organic binder; and the balance of a solvent: Particle size distribution=(D90−D10)/D50 (1) wherein D10, D50, and D90 represent particle diameters at 10%, 50% and 90% points on an accumulation curve of a particle size distribution when the total weight is 100%. An electrode and a PDP fabricated using the composition are also disclosed.
US08343380B2
Corrosion inhibitor compositions and methods of use are disclosed. Sugar acids and calcium corrosion inhibitors combined with hypochlorite sources provide use solutions for effective corrosion inhibition for metal surfaces.
US08343375B2
A ferrite powder for producing a ferrite sintered body is provided, the ferrite powder having a median diameter D50 [μm] in a range from 0.1 to 0.8 μm, a degree of spinel formation in a range from 45 to 90%, and a remanent magnetization Br per unit mass [emu/g] satisfying the following formula after application of the maximum magnetic field of 15 kOe: 0.05≦Br≦2.0(ln.D50)+6.3. This ferrite powder produces a homogeneous ferrite sintered body having very few cracks by gel casting.
US08343363B1
A method for fabricating an air-bearing surface (ABS) in a substrate having a surface is described. The substrate is for a magnetic recording head. The method includes providing a mask on the surface of substrate. The mask has an edge adjacent to a portion of the substrate exposed by the mask. The method also includes forming a taper in the portion of the substrate adjacent to the edge. The taper has an angle from the surface of the substrate of at least thirty degrees and not more than seventy degrees. The method also includes performing a reactive ion etching (RIE) to remove the portion of the substrate to form a cavity in the substrate. The angle of the taper is configured to substantially eliminated redeposition from the RIE on the edge.
US08343355B2
A dissolved air flotation system and method for purifying fresh water. The system is self-contained within a standard shipping container, with all components disposed in-line within the shipping container. Float is removed from the flotation tank with a skimmer that drives float downstream onto a conveyor belt, and the conveyor belt conveys float away from the flotation tank, in the downstream direction, and deposits the float in a collection tank. Clean water may be drawn from the flotation tank continuously, while float may be removed periodically.
US08343350B2
The invention comprises a membrane and device and method for removing proteases from fluids, particularly from biological fluids and pharmaceutical solutions, which uses a microporous membrane body, whereby inhibitors that selectively bind proteases are coupled to the membrane body by chemically activated groups.
US08343344B2
The invention relates to a fuel filter (1), in particular for internal combustion engines of vehicles, comprising: a filter housing (2) having a cover (4) and a housing pot (3), a filter element (5) arranged in said housing pot (3) having a water collection space (9) formed in a floor region (10) between said filter element (5) and said housing pot (3) and a guide pipe (11) exiting from said water collection space (9) wherein a water discharge pipe (16) is arranged through which the water contained in said water collection space (9) can be borne out to the top side of said filter housing (2), wherein said guide pipe (11) protrudes over said cover (4) of said filter housing (2).
US08343341B2
A method and apparatus of sanitizing drinking water to be dispensed from a water dispenser having a reservoir includes the steps of providing the ozone gas generator that generates an ozone gas stream, transmitting the ozone gas stream from the generator to the water dispenser reservoir, mechanically breaking up the ozone gas stream inside the reservoir to produce ozone gas bubbles, and using the ozone gas bubbles to disinfect water in the reservoir. The ozone gas stream can be mechanically broken up using a pump such as, for example, an impeller type pump.
US08343331B2
Disclosed herein is a method of correcting erroneous measurement results in a biosensor. The method includes the steps of: (a) applying a first voltage from a voltage generator 12 to a test strip 10 when a blood sample is applied on the test strip 10, and measuring an electric current generated from the test strip within one second of applying the first voltage by a microcontroller unit (MCU), and then calculating a hematocrit value of the blood sample using the measured electric current value! (b) applying a second voltage from the voltage generator to the test strip after calculating the hematocrit value of the blood sample, and measuring an electric current generated from the test strip within a predetermined time of applying the second voltage, and then calculating a glucose level using the measured electric current value; and (c) correcting the glucose level in (b) by using the calculated hematocrit value in (a).
US08343330B2
A microfluidic device which electrochemically regulates a pH of a fluid, and a method of regulating a pH of a fluid using the microfluidic device, include a chamber which includes a cathode formed of a metal adsorbing hydrogen gas, and an anode formed of a metal having a higher standard oxidation potential than, and does not react with, water.
US08343328B2
Process and apparatus for reducing organic content of brine comprising subjecting a brine solution to at least two purification treatments selected from electrochemical treatment, chlorinolysis, or other chemical oxidation treatment, carbon adsorption, extraction, biological treatment and chrystallizing treatment; wherein the organic content of purified brine is sufficiently low to enable sense of the purified brine in an industrial process.
US08343325B2
An electrodialysis apparatus includes a sample chamber including first and second dialysis membranes and filled with a sample between the first dialysis membrane and the second dialysis membrane, an anode chamber including an anode and filled with a first chamber solution between the anode and the first dialysis membrane, and a cathode chamber including a cathode and filled with a second chamber solution between the cathode and the second dialysis membrane. In particular, when a voltage is applied to the anode and the cathode, ionic materials of the sample move to the anode and cathode chambers.
US08343321B2
The invention relates to membrane-electrode assemblies for the electrolysis of water (electrolysis MEAs), which contain an ion-conducting membrane having a front and rear side; a first catalyst layer on the front side; a first gas diffusion layer on the front side; a second catalyst layer on the rear side, and a second gas diffusion layer on the rear side.The first gas diffusion layer has smaller planar dimensions than the ion-conducting membrane, whereas the second gas diffusion layer has essentially the same planar dimensions as the ion-conducting membrane (“semi-coextensive design”). The MEAs also comprise an unsupported free membrane surface that yields improved adhesion properties of the sealing material. The invention also relates to a method for producing the MEA products.Pressure-resistant, gastight and cost-effective membrane-electrode assemblies are obtained, that are used in PEM water electrolyzers, regenerative fuel cells or in other electrochemical devices.
US08343320B2
The electrolytic action torch (2, 12, 19, 22, 26) for the surface treatment of metals, comprises a nib (4, 11) connected with the unipolar supply of electric current (7) from an external apparatus, the other pole being connected with the metal surface being treated and a device for protecting the operator from the gases and vapors generated, and the protection device consists of a member suitable for providing the area of the nib with a flow of pressurized air (3, 5, 9, 23, 27, 29, 36).Different integrated and non-integrated embodiments of the delivery member of air in the vicinity of the nib are described.
US08343319B1
A method and system for providing a magnetic transducer is described. The method and system define a magnetoresistive sensor in a track width direction, provide hard bias material(s) adjacent to the sensor in the track width direction, and provide sacrificial capping layer(s) on a portion of the hard bias material(s). The sacrificial capping layer(s) have a first height in a stripe height direction. The method and system also provide a mask for defining a stripe height of the sensor. The mask covers at least part of the sensor and has a second height in the stripe height direction. The second height is less than the first height. The method and system define the stripe height of the sensor while the mask covers the sensor. The sacrificial capping layer(s) are configured to prevent removal of the portion of the hard bias material(s) while the stripe height is defined.
US08343307B2
A method and apparatus for removing native oxides from a substrate surface is provided. In one embodiment, the apparatus for removing native oxides from a substrate surface includes a showerhead assembly. One embodiment of a showerhead assembly includes a hollow cylinder, a disc and an annular mounting flange. The hollow cylinder has a top wall, a bottom wall, an inner diameter wall and an outer diameter wall. The disc has a top surface and a lower surface. The top surface is coupled to the inner diameter wall. The lower surface is coupled to the bottom wall. The disc has a plurality of apertures connecting the lower surface to the top surface. The annular mounting flange extends from the outer diameter wall of the hollow cylinder. The mounting flange has an upper surface and a lower surface. The upper surface is coplanar with the top wall of the hollow cylinder. The lower surface having an elevation above the top surface of the disc. In another embodiment, a resistive heater is embedded in the hollow cylinder proximate the disc.
US08343305B2
Apparatus and methods for diagnosing status of a consumable part of a plasma reaction chamber, the consumable part including at least one conductive element embedded therein. The method includes the steps of: coupling the conductive element to a power supply so that a bias potential relative to the ground is applied to the conductive element; exposing the consumable part to plasma erosion until the conductive element draws a current from the plasma upon exposure of the conductive element to the plasma; measuring the current; and evaluating a degree of erosion of the consumable part due to the plasma based on the measured current.
US08343304B2
A single-component, moisture-curing composition, including at least one polyisocyanate, a polyaldimine, an α-functional organoalkoxysilane, and an acid in special proportions that can be matched to one another. An exemplary composition cures by moisture as much as possible without forming bubbles. In the curing of the composition by atmospheric humidity, an anisotropic material is produced with a predominantly elastic sheath that is virtually tack-free on the surface and a predominantly plastic core. An exemplary composition can be especially well suited as a flexible sealant.
US08343297B2
A method for making a carbon nanotube film includes the following steps. A carbon nanotube array fixed on a substrate holder is provided. A carbon nanotube film is drawn from the carbon nanotube array. A first part of the carbon nanotube film is adhered to a first bar placed on a bar supply device. The carbon nanotube film is stretched by the first bar. A second part of the carbon nanotube film is adhered to a second bar positioned on the bar supply device. A third part of the carbon nanotube film is adhered to a supporting element placed on a carrier device. The third part of the carbon nanotube film is separated from the first part and the second part of carbon nanotube film. The third part of the carbon nanotube film adhered to the supporting element is obtained.
US08343296B2
The present invention is method for forming a sandwich structure having a pattern of particulate material enveloped between a carrier material and a cover material. The method allows accurate forming of pre-determined pattern at high production speed. Such a method is particularly useful in the manufacture of disposable absorbent articles, such as baby diapers.
US08343286B2
The present invention discloses a method of washing ware, in particular in an automatic domestic or institutional ware washing machine, using a detergent composition containing a cationic starch. This eliminates the need for a surfactant in the rinse step. The cationic starch provides a layer of cationic starch on the ware so as to afford a sheeting action in an aqueous rinse step without any added rinse agent.
US08343277B2
To inhibit a diffusion of particles into a processing chamber and reduce a cost required for exchanging a gas filter. A substrate processing apparatus comprises: a processing chamber processing substrates; a gas supply part supplying processing gas into the processing chamber; wherein the gas supply part has a gas supply nozzle disposed in the processing chamber; a filter removing impurities contained in the processing gas; and a gas supply port opened in the gas supply nozzle, for supplying into the processing chamber the processing gas from which impurities are removed by the filter.
US08343276B2
The present invention provides a high-temperature ionic state fluidized bed compound crystallization technology and an internal reactor structure thereof. The principle of the present invention is that reaction gas is effected by a group of high-frequency external magnetic fields and forms the high-temperature gaseous ion in the first quartz vacuum tube, then forms ion deposition diffusion in the second quartz vacuum tube preheated at constant temperature. As a result, other high-temperature gaseous ions except the silicon hydride are decomposed, rapidly deposited and crystallized in the ion diffusion chamber. And the un-decomposed silicon hydride gas is directly poured into the surface of the silicon heating body of the compound fluidized bed by the static negative high-voltage quartz spray hole to decompose and crystallize, or crystallize by a way of fluid state in the arched heating quartz tube communicating with the top of two quartz reaction furnaces.
US08343275B2
The present invention resides in a silicon single crystal growth method of pulling up and growing a single crystal from a melt of a silicon raw material in a quartz crucible based on a Czochralski method, wherein the method comprises the steps of: applying a DC voltage between an outer wall of the quartz crucible acts as a positive electrode and a pulling wire or pulling shaft for pulling up the silicon single crystal acts as a negative electrode; and fixing an electric current flowing through the silicon single crystal over a period of time for pulling up the single crystal, to grow the single crystal; as well as a pulling apparatus therefor.
US08343271B1
A hydraulic cement comprising a calcium silicate and at least one phosphate compound. The phosphate compound is included in an amount sufficient to react a major portion of the calcium hydroxide that is produced during hydration of the cement to hydroxyapatite or other calcium phosphates. The phosphate compound is preferably a mono-calcium phosphate. The cement is useful in both bio-medical/dental and engineering applications. The calcium hydroxide is reacted by the phosphate to form hydroxiapatite or other calcium phosphate that is co-precipitated with the calcium silicate hydrate to form a composite-like structure on a nano-scale level. The reduced calcium hydroxide content in the set cement increases its strength and reduces its pH. The hydroxiapatite content and the reduced pH render the cement bio-active and suitable for use in medical and dental implants, for example, for replacement bone and tooth material. Due to its high strength, the cement may also be used for structural/engineering applications.
US08343270B2
A hardenable epoxy-free reaction resin system, in particular a casting compound, lacquer, laminating or impregnating resin, which contains an epoxy-free resin component, a mineral filler, and polymer particles dispersed in the resin component. The filler includes nanoparticles.
US08343269B2
The present invention is a colorant compound represented by the following general formula (1): wherein at least one of R2, R4, R7 and R9 is an acylamino group represented by the following general formula (2): wherein R11 denotes one of an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an aryl group, an arylalkyl group, an alkenyl group and a heterocyclic group; and ‘*’ denotes a bonding site with an aromatic ring of the general formula (1).
US08343257B2
The instant invention generally provides polymer pi-bond-philic filler composite comprising a molecularly self-assembling material and a pi-bond-philic filler, and a process of making and an article comprising the polymer pi-bond-philic filler composite. The instant invention also generally provides a process of separating a pi-bond-philic gas from a separable gas mixture comprising the pi-bond-philic gas.
US08343254B2
Composite Ni particles each having a silica coat is improved in oxidation resistance and heat shrink characteristics. A method of preparing composite Ni particles by using an organic Ni composite includes steps of: stirring and heating a nickel salt solution and a raw material of silica coat at a temperature ranging 25° C. to 80° C. for 0.5 hours to 2 hours; filtering, cleaning and drying a resultant product into an organic nickel composite; and thermally treating the organic nickel composite at a temperature ranging from 200° C. to 500° C. for 0.5 hours to 4 hours. The resultant composite Ni particles have excellent oxidation resistance and heat shrink characteristics.
US08343245B2
Air cleaner and preferred components for an air cleaner are provided. In certain arrangements, a band is permanently mounted to the media pack, surrounding the media. Also, the cartridge is non-circular and includes a radial seal thereon.
US08343239B2
The invention provides a group III nitride semiconductor manufacturing system which is free from interruption to rotation of a rotational shaft. The group III nitride semiconductor manufacturing system has a reacting vessel having an opening, a crucible disposed in an interior of the reaction vessel and containing a melt including at least a group III metal and an alkali metal, a holding unit supporting the crucible and having a rotational shaft extending from the interior of the reaction vessel to an exterior of the reaction vessel through the opening, a rotational shaft cover covering a part of the rotational shaft positioned at the exterior of the reacting vessel and connected to the reacting vessel at the opening, a rotational driving unit disposed at an outside of the reacting vessel and regulating the rotational shaft and a supply pipe connected to the rotational shaft cover and supplying a gas including at least nitrogen into a gap between the rotational shaft and the rotational shaft cover, wherein the gas and the melt react to grow a group III nitride semiconductor crystal.
US08343237B2
The present invention provides a composition for treating keratin fibers, and especially human keratin fibers such as the hair, which comprises, in a cosmetically acceptable medium, one or more alkanolamines, one or more amino acids and one or more associative polymers. The present invention likewise provides methods of bleaching and/or coloring keratin fibers, and also multiple-compartment devices or kits for the implementation of these methods.
US08343236B2
A mobile phone anti-theft system includes a mobile phone, a SIM card and a real-name card-issuing system. The real-name card-issuing system includes a central processing unit, a first user information storage area, transmission equipment, and a card reader. The SIM card communicates with the central processing unit through the card reader and the transmission equipment. The real-name card-issuing system sends user information stored in the first user information storage area to the SIM card. If the SIM card needs to change the user information, it should verify first cryptographic keys with the real-name card-issuing system. The mobile phone includes a micro control unit, a second user information storage area and a transmission unit. The SIM card communicates with the micro control unit through the transmission unit. After each startup of the mobile phone, the mobile phone verifies second cryptographic keys with the SIM card.
US08343225B2
A patch for covering an aperture associated with a skull including a plastic composite body having either a planar or arcuate shape exhibits an extending edge profile which matches a profile associated with a reconditioned edge of the skull. A fastener extends through the edge profile for securing the body to the skull. The extending edge profile further includes a first portion and a second reduced portion separated by a shoulder, the skull exhibiting a corresponding outer skull edge portion, inner stepped skull portion and intermediate shoulder being configured to mate with the configuration of the extending edge profile and in order to achieve a generally flush appearance when seating the patch over the skull aperture. One or more screws fasten the edge profile of the body to the skull. This can further include a bone screw with undercut engaging portion extending through the extending edge profile and associated skull location.
US08343211B2
A stent assembly comprises a second stent body and a substantially tubular first stent body defining a first lumen and containing a side branch opening. In an undeployed state, the second stent body is at least partially comprised of rings having peaks and valleys at least some of the valleys of adjacent rings being interconnected by bridges. In an expanded state, the rings of the second stent body define a second lumen opening in fluid communication with the first lumen. The second lumen has superior body vessel coverage and is flexible enough to form an oblique angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the first stent body.
US08343206B2
A drug-eluting stent delivery system has a balloon disposed about at least a portion of a catheter, the balloon having a first end and a second end and a working length therebetween, the first end and the second end each including a tapered portion, each tapered portion being attached to the catheter, the balloon being inflatable from a collapsed configuration to an inflated configuration. A drug-eluting stent has a first end and a second end, the first end and the second end each including a tapered portion, wherein the drug-eluting stent is disposed over the balloon such that at least a portion of the first end and the second end of the balloon are covered by the tapered drug-eluting stent.
US08343200B2
An orthopedic screw system. The screw system comprises an outer member and an inner screw. The outer member has a longitudinal inner channel that defines an interior sidewall and is provided with screw threads on its exterior and interior sidewalls. An inner screw has threads constructed and arranged to engage with those on the interior sidewall, such that the inner screw may be secured within the inner channel. When secured within the inner channel, at least a portion of the length of the inner screw extends beyond the outer member. Methods of installing the orthopedic screw system into osteoporotic or otherwise weakened bone are also disclosed.
US08343198B2
A bone plate system is disclosed which includes a bone plate having at least one plate hole, at least one pin adapted to be disposed in the at least one plate hole, and a polymer component disposed between the at least one pin and the bone plate. The polymer component includes a polymer that may be melted through the application of ultrasonic energy. The at least one pin is constructed of a material that will not melt under such application of ultrasonic energy. The re-solidified polymer component creates a bond between the at least one pin and the bone plate to provide a more rigid and secure mating therebetween, and to at least substantially prevent backout of the at least one pin with respect to the bone plate. A method of implanting the bone plate system is also disclosed.
US08343192B2
Correction of a scoliotic curve in a spine comprises the steps of implanting an expanding rod isolated completely under the skin and attached to selected portions of the scoliotic curve of the spine at opposing ends of the rod; and producing a controlled force by means of expansion of the rod over at an extended time period under external control until a desire spinal curve is obtained. An incremental force is generated to stretch the scoliotic curve of the spine between the selected portions where attachment of the rod is defined. The controlled force is provided steadily for at least one month or alternatively 1-3 months. Multiple rods may be employed each associated with a different scoliotic curve of the spine or a different portion of the scoliotic curve.
US08343191B2
A bone anchoring device includes an anchoring element having a shank to be anchored in a bone or a vertebra, a receiving part connected to the shank the receiving part having a first end opposite to the shank and a second end facing the shank, a longitudinal axis passing through the two ends, a bore coaxial with the longitudinal axis extending from the first end through at least a portion of the receiving part and a substantially U-shaped recess for receiving a rod The U-shaped recess forms two free legs extending in the direction of the first end, the legs are provided with an internal thread. A locking device for securing the rod in the receiving part is provided which includes an external thread cooperating with the internal thread. An engagement structure is provided at the circumference of least a part of the outer surface projecting above the first end of the receiving part, the structure being engageable with a tool in a form-fit manner and wherein a maximum outer diameter of said first locking member in the region of said structure is larger than the inner diameter of the internal thread of the receiving part.
US08343188B2
A spinal device for stabilizing adjacent vertebral bodies of the human spine. The device includes a combination of a screw and a member having a screw hole and a length sufficient to span a disc space between the adjacent vertebral bodies. The member has a portion that is bendable or deformable to prevent the outward excursion of the screw from the screw hole of the member.
US08343187B2
Devices, systems and methods for compressing, cutting, incising, reconfiguring, remodeling, attaching, repositioning, supporting, dislocating or altering the composition of tissues or anatomical structures to alter their positional or force relationship to other tissues or anatomical structures. In some applications, the invention may be used to used to improve patency or fluid flow through a body lumen or cavity (e.g., to limit constriction of the urethra by an enlarged prostate gland).
US08343181B2
A bifurcated catheter includes a first catheter branch having a first distal portion and a second catheter branch having a second distal portion. The first and second distal portions are releasably linked together for delivery to a bifurcated region of a body vessel. Upon delivery to the bifurcated region, the first and second distal portions are released from each other such that the first and second catheter branches may be tracked into first and second vessel branches, respectively.
US08343173B2
Devices, systems and methods facilitate positioning of a cardiac valve annulus treatment device, thus enhancing treatment of the annulus. Methods generally involve advancing an anchor delivery device through vasculature of the patient to a location in the heart for treating the valve annulus, contacting the anchor delivery device with a length of the valve annulus, delivering a plurality of coupled anchors from the anchor delivery device to secure the anchors to the annulus, and drawing the anchors together to circumferentially tighten the valve annulus. Devices generally include an elongate catheter having at least one tensioning member and at least one tensioning actuator for deforming a distal portion of the catheter to help it conform to a valve annulus. The catheter device may be used to navigate a subannular space below a mitral valve to facilitate positioning of an anchor delivery device.
US08343172B2
The inventive sewing device for overcasting a mechanical twisted suture comprises a body (1) provided with a spiral needle (12) which is rotatable and translationally displaceable and is connected to a drive for rotating it, clamping jaws (6, 7) which are arranged on the distal end of the body for fixing the tissue parts to be sewed and provided with a unit for controlling the relative position thereof. The spiral needle (12) is designed in the form of an atraumatic or a hollow needle, is provided with a thread arranged therein, comprises at least two complete turns and is positioned in such a way that it is displaceable in a direction along the clamping jaws (6, 7) at a distance equal to or greater than the entire length of the spiral. The device comprises a nest (17) for catching the pointed end of the needle and/or the thread at the end of the suture and means for extracting the needle from the tissue. Said device makes it possible to reduce the trauma of sewed biological tissue, to improve the quality of the applied suture and to increase the operational reliability of the device by excluding failures in the needle displacement.
US08343162B2
An intervertebral distraction tool has a clamshell head with upper and lower halves, each having a curvate outer surface and a flat inner surface. The distal side of the head is hinged so that the head opens and closes from the proximal side of the head. The hinge is a separating hinge that allows the halves to not only angulate with respect to one another about the hinge axis, but also to vertically separate from one another at the hinge. A distraction separator has decreasing taper at its distal end and a longitudinal bore that accommodates the elongate shaft of the trial so that the separator can be moved longitudinally relative to the shaft. Upon forward movement of the separator, the tapered upper and lower surfaces engage the flat inner surfaces of the head, causing the halves to angulate about the hinge axis of the head, thereby opening the head.
US08343154B2
A modular bone plating system in one embodiment is a bone plate kit including a plurality of bone plates, each of the plurality of bone plates including a male coupling portion, a female coupling portion and a shaft extending between the male coupling portion and the female coupling portion, wherein each of the male coupling portions of each of the plurality of bone plates is configured to couple with each of the female coupling portions of each of the other of the plurality of bone plates.
US08343144B2
Disclosed is a working end of a surgical instrument for delivering heat energy to tissue. The working end includes paired first and second jaw members movable between open and closed positions, with each jaw member defining a jaw body and jaw end-effecter for engaging and heating tissue. At least one jaw member contains an electromagnetic-energy emitter coupled to an electromagnetic-energy source, the electromagnetic-energy emitter is located within the jaw end-effecter, and the jaw end-effecter includes an insert made of an electromagnetic-energy absorbing material.
US08343142B2
An arrangement for carrying out surgical laser treatments of the eye is adapted to emit pulsed treatment radiation with a wavelength of between about 190 nm and about 380 nm and a pulse duration in the femtosecond range. Such treatment radiation allows nonaggressive corneal or intraocular laser treatment of the eye, for example in order to make corneal cuts or deliberately ablate corneal tissue.
US08343135B2
A catheter having features configured to provide a substantially uniform flow rate of a fluid exiting the catheter and also exhibits anti-microbial properties. The uniform flow rate features may include one or more of a flow restricting membrane or flow restricting component within an infusion section of the catheter. In other arrangements, exit holes defining the infusion section of the catheter may be configured to provide the desired uniform flow rate over the length of the infusion section. Furthermore, the catheter also includes anti-microbial properties to inhibit the growth of microbes on or within the catheter and, preferably, to inhibit microbe growth in an anatomical region surrounding the catheter. The desired anti-microbial properties may be provided by an anti-microbial layer, anti-microbial materials dispersed within the material from which components of the catheters are constructed, or a combination of anti-microbial layers and embedded anti-microbial materials. In some arrangements, one or more portions of the catheter may be bio-absorbable.
US08343128B2
A multiple-chamber medical container 1 comprises a container body 5 having two chambers 9, 11 for containing medicaments therein and a partitioning weak seal portion 13 for separating the chambers 9, 11 from each other, a medicinal outlet portion 7 attached to the container body 5 for discharging the medicaments from the chambers therethrough, and an openable small container 15 disposed in the first chamber 9 and having a medicament enclosed therein, the partitioning seal portion 15 being openable so as to cause the chambers 9, 11 to communicate with each other for use. The small container 15 can be opened by opening the partitioning weak seal portion 13.
US08343126B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure include disposable wearable absorbent articles with anchoring systems. In an embodiment, a disposable wearable absorbent article includes an absorbent core and an anchoring system configured to anchor the absorbent core to a wearer, wherein the anchoring system includes a circumferential anchoring member.
US08343124B2
An absorbent article including an absorbent article main body which is extended in a longitude direction and having a front end portion and a rear end portion, and which includes an absorber of liquid-retaining, a topsheet of liquid-permeable covering a surface of the absorber, and a backsheet of liquid-nonpermeable supporting the absorber from a back surface of the absorber, the absorbent article includes: a belt-shaped member extended in the longitude direction of the absorbent article main body, including a base end portion fixed to any one of the absorber and the backsheet and a tip portion not fixed, and being stretchable in the longitude direction; and an attaching sheet provided on a back surface of the belt-shaped member and configured to be attached to clothing, wherein the attaching sheet is extended in a width direction of the belt-shaped member and both end portions of the attaching sheet are fixed to the belt-shaped member.
US08343122B2
The invention provides for a urinary monitoring device to monitor for the presence or absence of markers indicative of a urinary tract infection (UTI). The invention also provides for methods of using such a device.
US08343115B2
System for the subcutaneous delivery into the body of a patient of a fluid from a remote vessel. The system includes a main assembly and placement member with a needle. A delivery tube for carrying the fluid is attached at a near end to the remote reservoir or vessel. At removed end, the delivery tube has a needle for engagement with the main assembly. The main assembly includes a rotating member that when the rotating is perpendicular to the main assembly, it will accept the handle and needle for emplacement of the body onto a patient. After the handle and needle are removed, the delivery tube can be attached to the rotating member which can then be rotated down to a position along to and adjacent the skin of the patient. This provides for a flush mounted infusion device.
US08343114B2
A device for nasal lavage is described. The device ejects a gentle flow of fluid under pressure. The fluid stream provides a high quantity of fluid at low pressure. The low pressure fluid stream is more comfortable for a user than a high pressure fluid stream that are delivered by some types of pressurized cans of solution.
US08343113B2
A medical valve assembly including a rigid external housing and a valve stem of a resilient material. The valve stem includes a passageway for conveying a fluid which has an hourglass shape to create a venturi effect when cleaning the valve stem to improve the efficiency of the cleaning process. The passageway also includes no sharp edges, thus reducing the risk of fluid getting trapped inside the passageway when the medical valve assembly is not in use. Even further, when a needleless syringe is removed from the valve stem, the valve stem expands to an uncompressed state with its top end being generally flush with an end of the housing to present a swabable surface for cleaning purposes.
US08343112B2
Some assemblies can include a male cap and a female cap, each of which can be used to cover separated medical connectors. In certain arrangements, a male cap can include a movable carriage that transitions from a retracted position when an assembly with which the male cap is associated is in a closed state to an extended position when the assembly is in an open state.
US08343111B2
An anti-free-flow mechanism includes an occluder mechanism which is disposed along a segment of tubing and a mounting structure. The occluder mechanism is normally in a biased closed position, but may be moved into an open position by placement in the mounting structure. However, unless force is applied to keep the occluder mechanism in the mounting structure, the occluder will move relative to the mounting structure and return to the first, closed position.
US08343110B2
A syringe is received within a housing, the syringe having a bore terminating at a forward end in a hypodermic needle and at a rearward end in a flared opening in which a bung having a bore surrounded by a skirt is insertod. A drive element has a forward end consisting of a substantially flat annular region that bears upon the skirt of the bung and surrounds a conical middle region that is received in the bore of the bung. An actuator advances the drive element so as to advance the bung and discharge the contents through the needle. The opening in the rear of the synnge is flared by being provided with a radius. The combination of the radius at the opening and the projecting conical middle region of the drive element allows misalignments of the two to be managed during automated assembly.
US08343109B2
When a trigger of an injection device is released, a main spring (4) expands, driving a member (7) forwards. This compresses a weak spring (11), but a spring (5) is stiff enough to remain expanded. A syringe (2) is thus thrust forwards via a collar (9), so that a needle (3) projects from a barrel (1). The spring (4) continues to expand after the syringe has reached its forward position, with the spring (11) fully compressed, so that the stem (8) of the member (7) acts on a piston (14) within the syringe (2), to expel the dose while the spring (5) is caused to be compressed. The spring (5) ensures that the syringe is retained in its forward position during this phase.
US08343107B2
A vascular guidewire introducer device (10) having a needle (52), a bulb (16), and a valve subassembly (100) through which a guidewire (14) is insertable for vascular guidewire insertion into a blood vessel (12) of a patient. The valve subassembly (100) includes a proximal fitting (102), a proximal cap (106), and a valve arrangement (104) disposed within a valve seat (118) defined by one of the fitting and the cap. The valve arrangement includes distal and proximal disc-shaped valve members (122,126) having centered slits (124,128) therethrough, and a spacer (130) disposed between the valve members. A method is disclosed for precisely centering the slits of the valve members during assembly and for retaining the valve members in their precisely centered positions in the valve seat. The valve arrangement permits use with a wide range of guidewire diameters.
US08343103B2
An injection device including a receiving device movable in an insertion movement relative to the injection device, a tensioning element, e.g. a spring, which bears on a part of the injection device, and a coupling element for coupling the receiving device to the spring such that, during an insertion movement of the receiving device the spring is tensioned. In some embodiments, the invention encompasses a method for preparing an injection device for dispensing a substance from an ampoule, wherein a discharging spring of the injection device is tensioned by introduction of the ampoule into the injection device.
US08343099B2
A device for metered administration of a liquid product including a container for the product, a delivery mechanism which acts on the product located in the container and delivers product from the container by means of an axial output movement in a delivery direction, and an inherently axially rigid housing support structure which supports the container in and counter to the delivery direction, wherein the housing support structure has, over the axial length of the container, an axial thermal expansion coefficient which, within a temperature range in which the device is used, corresponds at least substantially to the axial thermal expansion coefficient of the container.
US08343077B1
An oral function and dysfunction quantification device that automatically records the amount of time required for a laboratory animal to gnaw through multiple obstructions in a tube comprising a confinement tube and spring-loaded polymer dowels that actuate timers to precisely record the time required for a rodent to complete a discrete gnawing task. The investigation of human orofacial pain requires an animal test that objectively measures impairment secondary to pain during an oral function (gnawing) that is analogous to behavior that elicits pain in human patients (chewing). The device can also evaluate behavioral change secondary to complex disorders such as anxiety and depression and facilitate evaluation of molecular mechanisms and pharmacologic therapies relevant to chronic orofacial pain and behavioral disorders.
US08343075B2
A method of lancing the tissue of a patient provides a tissue penetration element with a tip configured to penetrate tissue and a shaft portion. The tissue penetration element is disposed in proximity to the tissue of the patient. The tissue penetration element is driven distally towards the tissue of the patient. Contact is made between the tip and the tissue of the patient. The tip is advanced into the tissue during a penetration stroke to a position of maximum inward displacement. The tissue penetration element is displaced proximally over a withdrawal stroke at an average velocity that is substantially lower than an average velocity of the tissue penetration element during the penetration stroke. The tip is removed from the tissue.
US08343056B2
Medical diagnostic instruments and systems are provided that include (i) a proximal handle configured and dimensioned to permit an operator to manually grasp the instrument; (ii) an ultrasound probe including a longitudinal shaft extending distally from the handle and terminating in a distal end, and an ultrasound transducer mounted with respect to the longitudinal shaft proximate the distal end thereof, the ultrasound transducer including an array of ultrasonic energy generation elements; and (iii) a tactile feeler probe mounted with respect to the ultrasound probe, the tactile feeler probe including a longitudinal shaft mounted with respect to the longitudinal shaft of the ultrasound probe and extending distally beyond the distal end thereof, and a feeler probe tip (e.g., a ball tip) defined at a distal end of the longitudinal shaft of the tactile feeler probe. Advantageous methods for use of the disclosed instruments and systems are also provided, e.g., for detecting breaches in cortical bones in connection with pedicle screw placement.
US08343053B2
Automated detection of structure is provided in ultrasound M-mode imaging. A coarse and fine search for structure is used. For example, a less noise susceptible initial position or range of positions for a given structure is determined. This position is then refined. The coarse positioning and/or the refined position may use machine-trained classifiers. The positions of other structure may be used in either coarse or fine positioning, such as using a Markov Random Field. The structure or structures may be identified in the M-mode image without user input of a location in the M-mode image or along the line.
US08343051B2
Methods and apparatus are described for modifying unwanted tissue for cosmetic reasons. The methods provide a non-invasive manner to perform body contouring by destroying adipose tissue while simultaneously causing collagen contraction in a single procedure so that as destroyed tissue is removed from a treatment volume, the volume shrinks gradually to maintain the skin tone of the treatment area. The procedure may involve multiple treatments to the same treatment area or location.
US08343044B2
A light guide for endoscopes is constituted by a plurality of multimode optical fibers, of which at least a portion is bundled. The light guide propagates illuminating light beam that enters from a first end facet thereof to a second end facet thereof, to emit the illuminating light beam onto a portion to be observed. The light guide includes: a light input portion formed by the bundled plurality of multimode optical fibers; and a light output portion formed by the bundled plurality of multimode optical fibers. At least one of the light input portion and the light output portion is shaped in a tapered shape, while the number of multimode optical fibers at the light input portion and the light output portion are the same as that at other portions of the light guide.
US08343043B2
An endoscope includes: a distal end portion provided at a distal end of an insertion portion; a front-view observation window for observing an insertion direction of the distal end portion, which is provided facing toward the insertion direction; a lateral-view observation window for observing a circumferential direction of the distal end portion, which is formed along the outer circumferential lateral surface and has a lateral observation field of view; a light-emitting member having an emission end surface for emitting light in a distal end direction of the distal end portion; a groove portion formed on the outer circumferential lateral surface of the distal end portion so as to be longer than the emission end surface of the light-emitting member along the circumferential direction of the outer circumferential lateral surface of the distal end portion and opposed to the emission end surface, on a proximal end side with respect to the lateral-view observation window; a plurality of particles for scattering light arranged in the groove portion; and a transparent infill filled between the plurality of particles.
US08343038B2
A power supply starter (51) provided with a magnetic body (51e) is mounted on an inner lid portion (42) while a sterilizing sheet (43) is opened for enabling application of a magnetic field from outside of the inner lid portion (42) (inside of the inner lid portion (42)) by the magnetic body (51e), and therefore, the start to drive respective functions of the capsule endoscope (2) is prevented until the magnetic field is applied from outside, and thereby, the start to drive the respective functions of the capsule endoscope can be performed with arbitrary timing and the consumption of power accumulated within the capsule endoscope can be suppressed.
US08343036B1
A thin sheath of flexible, flaccid material is introduced through openings in the body of an animal or human patient to permit surgical tools or fluids to be inserted and removed, or debris removed, during surgeries anywhere in the body to protect the tissue of the body from the instruments used. The sheath is inserted by an obturator which holds the sheath thereon by suction through an aperture in the obturator at its distal end. Once the sheath is inserted, suction is removed to release the sheath. Then a balloon on the distal end of the sheath is expanded to hold the sheath in place in the body while the obturator is removed. The sheath then remains in place with the balloon holding the distal end in the open position to enable fluids to flow through the sheath. After a procedure, the balloon is deflated and the sheath removed.
US08343030B2
A therapeutic method and sound recording including sounding a first harmonic interval for a first duration of at least approximately one minute; and sounding a second harmonic interval for a second, consecutive duration for at least approximately one minute. The first and second harmonic intervals may be just intervals and/or fifths, such as Perfect 5ths (P5). The first duration may overlap with the second duration in order to sound a Major Seventh (M7) chord. The first duration may be approximately twenty minutes long or longer, the second duration may be approximately ten minutes long or longer, and the overlap between the first and second duration may be approximately ten minutes long or longer.
US08343028B2
A device and method for creating a connection with the left ventricle of a heart are provided. A seal member capable of moving between a folded position and an open position is attached to the end of a conduit. An introducer capable of moving between a first and second position allows for the expansion of the seal member into an open position. A clamp component is positioned outside of the heart to provide an axial clamping force with the wall of the heart so that a seal is created between the seal member and the wall of the heart.
US08343021B1
A pair of identical pushup exercise devices that replaceably engage on a same pair of adjacent cove molds of a staircase simultaneously, and are separate and spaced-apart from each other so as to accommodate users of different upper body structures. The pair of identical pushup exercise devices are identical to each other, are separate from each other, and are spaced-apart from each other for accommodating the users of different upper body structures. Each identical pushup exercise device includes a rod. The rod of each identical pushup exercise device replaceably engages on the same pair of adjacent cove molds of the staircase simultaneously, and is gripped by the users of different upper body structures to perform a pushup exercise.
US08343019B2
An exercise device in the form of a yoga bag having two ends that hang down over the sides of the chest of a user and provide resistance to the lung cavities during while breathing exercises are performed is set forth. Each end of the bag is provided with compartments for selectively receiving flowable weighted substances. The center of the bag is contoured to fit around the neck.
US08343015B2
The present invention relates to an exercise device that allows the user to strengthen the muscles that close the hand, against the resistance of a flexion member, as well as to strengthen the muscles that open the hand and spread the digits, against resistance of an extension member, all through full natural planes of motion, without lulls of resistance during the exercise. The device is always taut, due to its unique design, either resisting finger and thumb flexion and adduction or finger and thumb extension and abduction. The result of consistent use is maximum strength, balance and blood flow to the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow.
US08343011B2
An engine with a fast vacuum recovery brake booster system is disclosed. In one example, an actuator is adjusted in response to a flow between the brake booster and an engine intake manifold. Operation of the engine and vehicle brakes may be improved especially when the engine is boosted.
US08343008B1
A variable speed drive apparatus having a pair of bevel pinions connecting a pair of bevel gears, the bevel pinions being mounted in a cage able to rotate independently of the bevel gears, which are connected to an input shaft and an output shaft. The rotational speed of the output shaft is monitored and is decreased if needed by retarding rotation of the cage in response to a higher than desired rate of rotation of the input shaft.
US08343003B2
A joint driving apparatus for a robot comprises an oscillating internally meshing reduction mechanism, a center shaft member, a ring portion, and an oil seal disposed between the ring portion and the center shaft member. The oscillating internally meshing reduction mechanism is fixed to a first member and rotates the second member relatively with respect to the first member. An output member is arranged at the side of an external gear in an axial direction so as to output a relative rotation of an internal gear with the external gear. The center shaft member is fixed to the output member, and has a shaft portion extending up to the side opposite to the external gear in the axial direction of the output member. The ring portion is integrally formed with the first member and faces to the shaft portion of the center shaft member. The oil seal is disposed between the ring portion and the shaft portion.
US08343002B1
A planetary gear assembly having improved planet gear lubrication includes a thrust bearing assembly mounted to the planet gear carrier which provides a friction reducing interface between the carrier and a hub or stationary transmission member. A lubrication dam located radially outwardly of the thrust bearing assembly collects transmission fluid (oil) that has been supplied through a centrally disposed shaft and driven to and past the thrust bearing and into the dam by centrifugal force. Transmission fluid collecting within the dam and between the thrust bearing assembly and the planet gear carrier generates a biasing force which drives the thrust bearing assembly away from the planet gear carrier, thereby ensuring that the bearing position is not indeterminate and positively locating the thrust bearing assembly and providing an annular flow path for the transmission fluid which is then directed into a plurality of axial passageways in stub shafts which support the planet gears. At least one radial passageway in each stub shaft provides lubricating transmission fluid to a bearing assembly disposed between the stub shaft and the planet gear.
US08342997B2
A hydraulic control device for an automatic transmission that prevents the introduction of foreign materials from a starter into the lubricant path and also reduces duct resistance at a non-lockup time when the oil temperature is low. Oil is provided to an oil cooler for cooling the oil, and is also provided to the automatic transmission for lubricating the transmission. The device includes a switching valve that is switched between a lockup state and a non-lockup state of the clutch. In the lockup state, the switching valve is switched to a first position at which a first input pressure is supplied to the starter and a second input pressure is supplied through the oil cooler to the transmission. In the non-lockup state, the switching valve is switched to a second position at which the first input pressure is discharged through the starter and the oil cooler to an oil pan, and the second input pressure is supplied to the transmission.
US08342993B2
A synchronous drive apparatus that includes a continuous loop elongate drive structure and first and second driven rotors that are configured to cooperate with the continuous loop elongate drive structure to generate first and second opposing fluctuating corrective torques, respectively, that are configured to at least partly counteract first and second periodic fluctuating load torques, respectively.
US08342985B2
An iron-type golf club head 1 having excellent durability and weight distribution design and comprising a metallic head body 1A having a face 2 for hitting a golf ball and a recess portion 13, and a metallic weight member 1B having a larger specific gravity than the head body 1A, the member 1B being fitted to and welded to the recess portion to form a part of the outer surface of the head body 1A, wherein at least one closed space 14 surrounded by the weight member 1B and the surface of the recess portion 13 is formed inside the head body.
US08342984B2
A golf club head having multiple components is provided. The golf club head includes a plurality of components wherein at least one component exhibits a different modulus of elasticity than the other components. In some structures, one or more of the plurality of components that comprise the golf club head is titanium or titanium alloy component provided in the heel and/or toe areas of the club head structure immediately adjacent the ball striking face, wherein that titanium or titanium alloy component has a lower modulus of elasticity than the material making up the club face and/or other club head body components.
US08342979B2
Attachable systems and methods allow a golfer to ‘zero in’ on the desired striking zone or “sweet spot” of a club, including putters and non-putters. One or more guides are positionable relative to the desired striking zone, such that if a golf ball interacts with a guide during a swing, the guide provides aural or tactile feedback that the club has hit the ball outside of the desired striking zone. The device may include at least two guides, one positionable on one side of the desired striking zone and the other positionable on the other side of the desired striking zone. The device may comprise guides in the form of a tab or leaf pivotable from an up position when not in use to a down position for use. If the club head has a back side, a portion of the device may contact with the back side. In particular, if the club is an iron with a rear cavity on the club head, a portion of the device may be received in the cavity to enhance stability, particularly during a swing. Training methods are also disclosed.
US08342967B2
A player-matching mechanic selects users for an online asynchronous game where players specify moves at different times. Values from instances of the game are used to determine characteristics of the users including at least one of gameplay characteristics or chat characteristics. Users can be chosen for instances of the game by comparing values corresponding to these characteristics.
US08342962B2
A display system includes a cabinet, a transparent dashboard and a lighting system. The dashboard is fabricated to have at least two refractive indices such that when light from the lighting system is projected therethrough, a unique lighting effect is created.
US08342958B2
The gaming system and method disclosed herein provides a plurality of players with an opportunity to win a plurality of progressive awards maintained by the gaming system. The gaming system accumulates a quantity of progressive event points for each player playing at one of the gaming machines in the gaming system. In one embodiment, the gaming system uses an accumulated quantity of progressive event points for a designated player to determine which one or more of the progressive awards the designated player wins. In another embodiment, the gaming system uses an accumulated quantity of progressive event points to determine the designated player's probability of winning one or more of the progressive awards. Accordingly, the gaming system provides a point-based system in which either a progressive award to win or a probability of winning a progressive award is determined based on the quantities of progressive event points accumulated by the players.
US08342955B2
A bonus game controller is disclosed for use with a plurality of gaming machines in networked relationship with the bonus game controller. The bonus game controller comprises a trigger determiner arranged to determine whether a bonus trigger signal has occurred at a gaming device. The bonus game controller is arranged to implement a first bonus game when a bonus trigger signal occurs at a gaming device, and also comprises a bonus prize allocator arranged to allocate a bonus prize to the gaming device based on an outcome of the first bonus game and based on one or more respective outcomes of at least one other subsequent bonus game implemented within a qualification period. A gaming system including a plurality of gaming devices and a game controller is also disclosed. A corresponding method is also disclosed.
US08342950B1
A hidden attraction game commences play for a number of successive wagers after a gaming machine is idle for a time followed by a wager-in. For each successive wager, the attraction game provides an attraction game outcome with a low value award. Each attraction game outcome corresponds to a base game outcome having a low value base game award. If a base game outcome for a successive wager results in a higher win, the base game controls and the attraction game ends. The player, not aware of the hidden attraction game, believes the attraction game wins are base game wins.
US08342945B2
A gaming machine for conduction a wagering game is disclosed according to one embodiment. The gaming machine comprises a wager input device for receiving a primary wager to play the wagering game. The wagering game further includes at least one display for displaying a randomly selected outcome of a basic game of the wagering game. The randomly selected outcome is indicated by a plurality of symbols. At least one of the symbols is a bonus symbol that triggers a bonus game in response to a certain condition being met. In response to the randomly selected outcome including at least one bonus symbol without the certain condition being met, the at least one bonus symbol may be utilized in a subsequent basic game to trigger a bonus game in the subsequent basic game if the certain condition is met.
US08342944B2
In one example embodiment, a wagering game system includes at least one wagering game computer program operative on the wagering game platform to detect a wager. A persistent state manager software component is operative to read or write persistent state data to and from the wagering game computer program and persistent state media. In one embodiment, the persistent state media is a bar-coded ticket, and in another embodiment an electronic data storage device such as a RFID device. A messaging system allows persistent state media devices to interact with the wagering game.
US08342939B2
An electronic gaming console is illustrated having a console cabinet 10 including a prize display 12, a coin entry slot 13, a payout tray 14 and internally mounted game control processor circuits. A video game is provided for play on the console in which images of spinning reels spin and objects (balls) are dropped through a series of obstacles (pins) and eventually land in one or more of a set of containers. Prizes are paid according to either the state of the reels after spinning or the number of balls which are in each container at the end of the ball drop and/or the manner in which the pins are hit.
US08342932B2
An inventory sensor is positioned and configured to identify playing cards stored in compartments of one or more intermediary playing card receivers. The intermediary playing card receivers may be positioned in a card transport path between an input and an output receiver. The inventory sensor allows an inventory of playing cards to be performed, for example, in response to a possibly anomalous condition or in response to a user request. Playing cards may be transferred back to the intermediary playing card receiver from the output receiver before inventorying. A new randomized set of playing cards can be created at the output receiver after inventorying.
US08342931B2
A system and method for implementing a game of chance based on historical events. The method consists of randomly selecting a set of competitors from an event database. The competitors are presented to a player. A set of criteria comprising a subset of the competitors are received from the player. The database of events is filtered to produce a set of events comprising those events that match the set of criteria. A single event is randomly selected from the set of events to determine an outcome for the game.
US08342927B2
A method for conducting a community wagering game on one or more gaming devices comprises receiving a first wager from a first player and determining a first modifier associated with the first player based upon play of a first base game. The method further comprises triggering and displaying a community gaming event comprising a competition and determining a finishing order of a plurality of participants in the competition, the plurality of participants including at least first and second participants. The method further comprises associating the first player with the first participant, determining a first prize value for the first participant, the first prize value based upon the finishing order, and awarding the first player a first award comprising the first prize value as modified by the first modifier.
US08342925B2
A virtual shuffleboard table gaming apparatus including a housing having a playing field, a game acquisition circuit, and a display. As a puck is propelled towards a puck return at the distal end of the playing field, the puck temporarily obstructs at least two beams from transmitters. Sensors that receive the transmitted beams provide information to the game acquisition circuit indicative of the time when the beams were blocked and unblocked. The duration of time the beams are block are used by a game controller to calculate the angle of travel, location, and velocity of the puck. This information is then used by the game controller to determine the travel path and resting place of a virtual puck on a virtual playing field, as well as determine whether the virtual puck rests in a scoring zone and maintain a game score.
US08342924B2
A system for providing enhanced services to users of a gaming application comprises a server and a platform remotely coupled to the server. The server executes a gaming application. The platform receives a request for enhanced services, and establishes an enhanced services session with a user of the gaming application in response to the request for enhanced services. The enhanced services session corresponds in time at least in part with the execution of the gaming application. The platform further provides enhanced services to the user of the gaming application during the enhanced services session.
US08342923B2
An assembly for covering a grill of an air conditioning vent in the winter comprises a cover having a frame that may have a hole on a top surface and sides including a compressible material along its perimeter for sealing a vent area. In one preferred embodiment, the assembly includes an elastic cord having a looped end and a free end, the looped end being of adjustable size and having two hooks slidably connected to the cord. The hooks are configured to attach to the grill and pulling the free end of the cord tightens the looped end and the hooks. The free end may be attached to the cover so that sliding a barrel lock up the cord urges the cover against the vent area and prevents unwanted upward hot air flow and downward cold air flow in the winter when the air conditioning system is not in use.
US08342918B2
An apparatus for removing a breast from a game bird provides first and second blades pivotally attached to a stabilizer bar projecting outwardly between the first and second blades. The stabilizer bar is generally adapted for insertion into the abdomen of a bird, and the first and second blades can be actuated using one or more handles to create a scissoring effect whereby a region of the abdomen, or the breast, is severed from the bird. Methods of removing a breast from a bird are also disclosed.
US08342912B2
An abrasive water jet processing machine for jetting a fluid and performing a cutting includes a fluid supply device, an abrasive supply device, an injection pressure controller, wherein the abrasive supply device includes a reservoir hopper consisting of a pressure vessel for reserving the abrasive, an abrasive supply tube for communicating with the reservoir hopper and the nozzle, and an air purge device for supplying compressed air to the abrasive supply tube and the reservoir hopper; the injection pressure controller performs a two-stage control of controlling injection pressure in a piercing; and the air purge device includes a flow pressure controller for controlling flow pressure of compressed air passing through the abrasive supply tube, wherein the flow pressure controller controls the flow pressure in the piercing to be higher than that in the cutting.
US08342911B2
A wheel truing apparatus adapted for use in a cylindrical grinding machine wherein a work head with a work spindle for support of a workpiece and a wheel head with a grinding wheel for grinding the workpiece are mounted on a bed for relative movement in a Z-axis direction parallel with the rotation axis of the work spindle and in an X-axis direction crossing the Z-axis direction, characterized in that the wheel truing apparatus comprises a rotary drive portion mounted on the work head or a member united therewith, and a wheel truing tool supported on the rotary drive portion for rotation therewith, the wheel truing tool being provided at its outer periphery with a truing portion for truing a grinding surface of the wheel brought into contact therewith, wherein the rotary drive portion is placed in a position adjacent to said work head in a tooling area defined by a stroke of the relative movements of said wheel head and said work head in the Z-axis direction and apart from said work spindle radially outward and is arranged in such a manner that the rotation axis line of said truing tool is oriented toward the rotation axis line of said grinding wheel in a condition where said truing portion is retained in contact with the grinding surface of said wheel, whereby the truing portion of said tool is brought into contact with the grinding surface of said wheel by relative movement of said wheel head to said work head for truing the grinding surface.
US08342904B2
A toy vehicle configured to move across a support surface is disclosed. In some embodiments, the toy vehicle may include a body having a top portion and a bottom portion; a plurality of wheels rotatably mounted to the body and configured to rotatably support the body on the support surface in a plurality of positions including an upright position, and an inverted position, wherein less than all of the plurality of wheels rotatably support the body on the support surface when the body is in the inverted position; and a stabilizing mechanism mounted to the body, the stabilizing mechanism being configured, when the body is in the inverted position, to move a portion of the body away from the support surface such that one or more of the plurality of wheels may be driven to return the body in the upright position.
US08342903B2
Intersection apparatus for use with tracks for toy vehicles define a first toy vehicle pathway from a ramp portion and across the gap to a corresponding receiving portion, and a second toy vehicle pathway that crosses the first. The ramp portion is translatable in a direction transverse to the pathways between a bypass position in which the trajectory of a toy vehicle traversing the first pathway passes and does not intersect that of a toy vehicle traversing the second, and an intersect position in which the trajectories intersect. The ramp portion may further be translatable to a second bypass position defining a trajectory passing on the opposite side of the second vehicle's trajectory relative to the trajectory defined when the ramp portion is in the first bypass position. When the ramp is in the intersect position, toy vehicles traversing the pathways at substantially the same time will collide.
US08342895B2
A connector includes a male terminal and a female terminal. At least one of the male terminal and the female terminal has an outermost surface layer formed of a metallic material as an alloy layer of Cu—Sn. The alloy layer of Cu—Sn has a concentration of Cu decreasing gradually toward a surface thereof. The metallic material for the connector includes the outermost surface layer formed of the alloy layer of Cu—Sn. The alloy layer of Cu—Sn has the concentration of Cu decreasing gradually toward the surface thereof.
US08342891B2
In one aspect, provided is an electrical connector that can improve reliability of signal connection by ensuring insulation between adjacent terminals. In one aspect, connector housing 2 has front housing 3 and rear housing 4 that are combined together during assembly and that have respective partition walls 10 and 11 to define terminal accommodation chambers 8 and 9, respectively, and wherein movable wall 15 is provided to extend from partition wall 11 of rear housing 4 to displace and connect to partition wall 10 of front housing 3 when both housings 3 and 4 are combined together.
US08342888B2
A high speed connector (106) with reduced crosstalk utilizes individual connector support frames (121, 122) that are assembled together to form a block of connector units (112). Each such unit supports a column of conductive terminals (113) in two spaced-apart columns. The columns have differential signal terminal pairs separated from each other by larger intervening ground shields that serve as ground terminals. The ground shields are arranged in alternating fashion within the pair of columns and they are closely spaced together so as to define within the pair of columns, a serpentine pattern of ground shields that cooperate to act as a single “pseudo” shield within each pair of columns. The ground shields are substantially larger in width (GW) than the differential signal terminal pairs (SPW) to provide more effective signal isolation.
US08342876B2
A leaded device socket includes a lead guide that contacts and urges the leads on an electrical component into the correct position in the device when the component is pressed into the socket. The leaded device socket may also include a receiver for retaining a functional portion of the electrical component in a predetermined position in the circuit. The lead guide and receiver may both be integrally molded with the socket.
US08342865B2
A device for connecting two electrical lines to essentially tubular connecting elements (1, 2) of drill pipes (32), which elements can be screwed to one another, characterized in that on one connecting element (1), a first electrical contact element (10) is located to be able to move in the direction of rotation of the connecting element (1), and that on the other connecting element (2), a second electrical contact element (23) is located in a fixed manner.
US08342861B2
A compact power adapter is disclosed. In one embodiment, a compact power adapter is facilitated by improved approaches to construct and assemble the power adapter. According to one aspect, connectors can serve to electrically couple blades (or prongs) of a power adapter plug to a printed circuit board assembly internal to a housing for the power adapter. The connectors serve to couple AC power to the printed circuit board assembly where the AC power can be converted to DC power. The connectors also facilitate assembly of the power adapter in that reliable interconnections can be provided without wires, soldering or other custom assembly operations. In one embodiment, a base for a power adapter plug of a power adapter can include a metal base connected to a blade (or prong) of the power adapter plug. The metal base can provide mechanical support to the blade as well as electrical connectivity to an internal terminal for the power adapter plug. The internal terminals used by a power adapter plug of a power adapter can be coupled to a printed circuit board assembly using connectors, thereby facilitating interconnection with electrical components used by the power adapter.
US08342860B1
An interface board connector includes a plurality of individual conductive partition element seats. Each partition element seat includes four spring fingers that extend into apertures in a dielectric base plate of the interface assembly. Two adjacent spring fingers form a tweezers-like connector in one of the apertures that couples to a trace on a balun board contact post to form an impedance-matched extension of the balanced transmission line that is an integral part of the adjacent partition element seats. Each spring finger includes three distinct sections. A ramp section allows the balun board, when inserted, to push apart the two spring fingers and slide into place. The contact sections of two adjacent spring fingers form the electrical junction between the balanced transmission line traces on the balun board contact post and the section of balanced transmission line formed by the parallel spring sections of the two adjacent spring fingers.
US08342857B2
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a cable connector. The cable connector may have magnetic properties and/or a locking mechanism. The cable connector may be an HDMI connector and the cable may be an HDMI cable. Further, the connector may be plugged into the corresponding male/female connector port and be held in position by the magnetic properties associated with the connector and the port and/or by a lock lever mechanism. The magnetic array may be moved various distances in various directions. In addition, the connector and/or cable may include a processor, an integrated circuit, an indicator, an LED and/or a user interface.
US08342853B2
A training aid for of a medical procedure where a substance is injected under the skin is disclosed that provides a user with the sensation of “pushing” the substance under the skin to smooth out raised areas. The training apparatus includes an artificial skin area with a raised feature protruding there from that is provided by cam-driven lifters positioned under the artificial skin area. The raised feature simulates the injected substance and may be touched and manipulated by the user.
US08342850B2
A literacy system provides teaching for reading and writing skills particularly adapted to students with autistic spectrum disorders (ADS). In one embodiment, the literacy system may include exercises for teaching visual sequencing, motor skills, phonology, semantics, syntax, and text. The literacy system may have a pre-reading section, which includes exercises for developing visual sequencing skills and motor skills prior to teaching the skills of reading and writing words.
US08342843B2
A dental model articulator of the type that has separable complementary articulation members is connected to a registration object having compatible complementary articulation members. The dental arches of each dental model articulator half is scanned with the reference object to give the axis of the articulator model. This facilitates generating a virtual dental model.
US08342842B2
The present invention is a dental implant utilizing a polymeric dental post. The actual prosthetic portion of the implant may also be manufactured from a polymer. Various post designs are disclosed for setting and securing the post in a patient's jaw. Numerous polymers are disclosed and may be blended to achieve desired characteristics for both the post and prosthetic.
US08342836B2
A carrier mold having prongs that produces shaped tampons is provided. When subjected to pressure the prongs of the carrier mold flex to completely or substantially close one end of the carrier mold. A method of forming a shaped tampon using the carrier mold is also provided.
US08342826B2
A variable capacity vane pump (100) has a pump housing (10) having a high-load bearing part (10a) on which a higher load is exerted than another part when the pump vane pump (100) operates. A control valve (21) for varying a capacity of the vane pump (100) is provided in a valve housing (28) which is formed integrally in the pump housing (10). By arranging the valve housing (28) on the same side of the pump housing (10) as the high-load bearing part (10a) with respect to the rotation axis of the vane pump (100), the high-load bearing part (10a) can be reinforced without increasing the size of the vane pump (100).
US08342821B2
A bearing assembly for a submersible pump motor has a bearing body, having a hub, an outer portion, and a plurality of wing portions. The wing portions are spaced apart to form a plurality of cavities in the bearing body. A mass damper is mounted to the hub. The mass damper has an upper portion, a lower portion and mass damper prongs connecting the upper and lower portion. The mass damper prongs are disposed in the cavities, and act to reduce the amplitude of the vibrating frequency of the motor shaft.
US08342815B2
Fluid inlet and outlet portions are provided for introducing and discharging a hydraulic fluid. The fluid outlet portion includes a plurality of outlet ports. A drive shaft is provided that rotates about its axis. A plurality of volume variable pump chambers are arranged about the drive shaft and rotated by the same. The pump chambers are arranged between the fluid inlet and outlet portions for compressing the hydraulic fluid from the fluid inlet portion before discharging the same from the fluid outlet portion. The pump chambers are exposed to the outlet ports separately one after another when the pump chambers are rotated by the drive shaft. A discharge rate varying mechanism is provided that varies a fluid discharge rate of each of the outlet ports by varying the amount of the fluid led to the outlet ports.
US08342812B2
A variable speed air compressing system includes a compressor, a motor configured to actuate the compressor, and a rectifier configured to receive alternating current from a first power source and to provide rectified direct current having a first voltage. The system also includes an inverter configured to receive the rectified direct current and to receive direct current from a second power source having a second voltage. The inverter is configured to provide alternating current to the motor. The alternating current provided to the motor is based on the rectified direct current if the first voltage is greater than the second voltage and the alternating current is based on the direct current from the second power source if the second voltage is greater than the first voltage.
US08342811B2
A sensor assembly for measuring movements of a fluid pump driven by an electric motor, the electric motor connectable to a feed voltage, the sensor assembly comprising an accelerometer electrically connected to a bias circuit, the latter comprising a feed terminal electrically connectable to the feed voltage of the motor and a signal terminal electrically connectable to an external measuring terminal. A fluid pump is also described, comprising a cylinder, a piston, a housing comprising a hermetic terminal and hermetically enclosing the cylinder and the piston, thus forming a hermetic assembly, the piston driven by an electric motor, the electric motor connected to an electric voltage by a pair of voltage terminals associated to the hermetic terminal, the fluid pump comprising a sensor assembly associated to the cylinder comprising a feed terminal connected to one of the voltage terminals and a signal terminal electrically connected to an external measuring circuit.
US08342810B2
A device executing a start-up control method for an electric scroll compressor has a thermistor (18) and a pressure sensor (20) which, prior to the start-up of the scroll compression unit, detect temperature and pressure of a suction refrigerant introduced into the compression unit (2), and a controller (10) for controlling driving of a motor (4) of the compression unit (2) at the start-up of the compressor. The controller (10) determines at the start-up of the compressor whether or not a liquid refrigerant exists in the compression unit (2) on the basis of the detected temperature and pressure; selects either a normal start-up mode or a liquid-discharge mode in which the rotational speed of the motor (4) is regulated to be lower than in the normal start-up mode, according to the determination result; and controls the start-up of the compression unit (2) through the motor (4) according to the selected mode.
US08342805B2
A lightning protection system for a wind turbine blade or aircraft wing includes a glass-reinforced fiber or carbon-reinforced wind turbine blade or aircraft wing having a tip region, a suction side, a pressure side, a leading edge and a trailing edge. A substantially planar sheet of conductive or semi-conductive material is disposed internal to the blade tip region or wing tip region and between the suction side and pressure side. The sheet operates during a lightning discharge to form an electric field control mechanism causing the lightning discharge to attach to the tip region. The sheet is in electrical communication or galvanic connection with a conductive or semi-conductive path such that the electric field control mechanism and the path together operate to protect the wind turbine blade or aircraft wing from damage caused by the lightning strike in the tip region of the wind turbine blade or aircraft wing by controlling an electric field in the tip region caused by the lightning strike.
US08342803B2
A blade for a turbomachine bladed wheel is disclosed. The blade includes an airfoil and a platform with at least one air injection passage. The platform including includes a groove running along the pressure side of the airfoil at least in the vicinity of a downstream portion thereof, and formed between the pressure side and a ridge formed on the platform surface at a short distance from the downstream portion of the pressure side. At least one air injection passage is arranged in the groove. Because of the presence of the groove, the air stream injected via the air injection passage(s) is kept close to the pressure side and thus provides effective cooling of the downstream portion thereof.
US08342794B2
A system includes a compressor and a control system. The control system includes a processor and associated memory. The control system is configured to receive feedback comprising a thermodynamic characteristic or a mechanical characteristic of the compressor. Also, the control system is configured to generate an indication of a surge event or a stall event in the compressor based on the feedback.
US08342783B2
A key cutting machine is provided for cutting a key blank from a master key. The key cutting machine comprises a first cutting member that rotates about a substantially horizontal axis for cutting a key pattern on a key blank and a second cutting member that rotates about a substantially vertical axis for cutting a key pattern on a key blank. Additional improvements or features of a key cutting machine are also described.
US08342775B2
A groundwater control system and method for regulating the level of groundwater in an agricultural field according to selected criteria concerning the purity of the groundwater including a drainage tile line having a water flow regulator that is computer controlled through a communications link in response to the selected criteria.
US08342766B2
A fragrance tester for applying a fragrance comprising a mechanism for providing a visible indication and a fragrance applicator for applying the fragrance, the tester adapted to apply the fragrance in proximity of said visible indication.
US08342764B2
A device for packaging and/or applying a cosmetic or care product includes a hollow body forming a housing for the product, a base adapted to support the product and a driving arrangement or means for moving the base in translation so as to vary the volume of the housing. In a disclosed example, the driving arrangement or means includes an actuating member mounted movably in rotation about a shaft and able to be moved along the hollow body that is fixedly attached to the base. The actuating member includes at least one portion forming alternatively a stress surface configured to be put under stress by manual contact and an actuating surface configured to be in engagement along the hollow body.
US08342763B2
Devices, systems and methods for a portable printer are provided. Personnel utilize features of the printer to manage products, store information on labels, and aid in shipping. A low battery shut-off feature shuts down the printer at a set battery power percentage; a battery charge control feature controls battery charging to stay within a set range of state of charge values to ensure longer battery life; a ribbon cartridge insertion feature allows for easy replacement of the ribbon cartridge; ribbon cartridge locating features lock the ribbon cartridge into place for printing; a ribbon guiding feature adjusts the ribbon during printing to reduce wrinkles; an RFID coupler mounting feature mounts and shields an RFID coupler inside the printer; a media guide locking feature fixes the media position to prevent misalignment; and a media alignment feature allows the user to properly align the media with the printhead during installation.
US08342761B2
Disclosed is an coating/developing apparatus and method thereof in which the processing time is shortened and the foot prints is reduced by shortening the travel distance of a wafer transfer arm. The coating/developing apparatus of the present disclosure includes, inter alia, liquid processing part (COT) that processes the substrate using a liquid, a cooling processing part (CA) provided to correspond to the liquid processing part (COT) and perform the cooling process for the substrate, a liquid processing unit (COTU) provided to correspond to the cooling processing part (CA) and equipped with a heating processing part (HP) that performs a heating processing for the substrate. The cooling processing part (CA) transfers the substrate to/from the liquid processing part (COT) and the heating processing part (HP).
US08342755B2
A connector and method for assembling a connector. The connector includes a ferrule that is retainably engaged within a hub. The connector further includes a rear housing and a front housing. The front housing is sized to receive and rotationally retain the hub. The front housing has a bore that receives and engages the exterior surface of a rear housing. The front and rear housing include engagement members that allow the rear housing to be retained within the front housing. A grip housing slideably mounts to the front housing. A boot mounts to the rear housing and terminates before the grip. An inner passage of the rear housing includes a flared passage adjacent to the hub.
US08342751B2
The guide rail has a longitudinal groove arranged along its upper rail side and a cover strip which closes off the groove and bears flush against the plane of the upper rail side. The spacing between opposite groove walls of the groove is smaller than the leveled cover strip. In order to retain the cover strip, each of the groove walls are provided with an undercut and retaining strips provided at both longitudinal sides of the cover strip engage into the undercuts. The cover strip is plastically curved around an axis which is parallel to the guide rail, such that the curved cover strip is smaller than the spacing between the groove walls, and after being inserted into the longitudinal groove, the curved cover strip is leveled by means of plastic deformation, such that the retaining strips are displaced into the undercuts.
