US08443214B2

The present invention relates to a system and method adapted to optimize power consumption in a communication system used in a Gigabit Ethernet environment. The method comprises determining at least one power mode of a host from a plurality of possible host power modes. The method further comprises selecting at least one network interface power management state from a plurality of possible network interface power management states based, at least in part, on the determined power mode.
US08443213B2

A motherboard capable of detecting consumed power and a method for detecting consumed power thereof are provided. The motherboard includes a VCC layer, a plurality of resistance elements, and a detecting module. A plurality of power traces are laid at the VCC layer, and each of the power traces conducts an operating voltage, respectively. The resistance elements are laid at sources of each of the power traces, respectively. The detecting module is coupled with each of the resistance elements, respectively, to obtain a current value of a current flowing through each of the resistance elements, and generates consumed power corresponding to each of the operating voltages according to the current value and the operating voltage corresponding to the current value.
US08443209B2

A power allocation strategy limits performance of a subset of a plurality of computational units in a computer system according to performance sensitivity of each of the plurality of computational units to a change performance capability, e.g., frequency change. The performance of the subset of computational units may be limited by setting a power state in which the subset may be operated and/or reducing a current power state of the subset to a lower power state. The subset whose performance is limited includes computational units that are least performance sensitive according to stored sensitivity data. The subset may include one or more processing cores and performance of the one or more processing cores may be limited in response to a CPU-bounded application or graphics processing unit (GPU)-bounded application being executed.
US08443206B2

A method and apparatus for managing digital rights using a portable storage device are provided. The method includes a device performing primary authentication together with a license provider and establishing primary security association, the device performing secondary authentication together with the portable storage device and establishing secondary security association, receiving a license from the license provider, and transmitting the license to the portable storage device.
US08443204B2

A method and apparatus for secure software installation to boot a device authorized by a ticket are described herein. A ticket request including a device identifier of the device is sent for the ticket which includes attributes for one or more components to boot the device into an operating state. The ticket is cryptographically validated to match the one or more components with corresponding attributes included in the ticket. If successfully matched, the one or more components are executed to boot the device.
US08443195B2

Provided is a method of performing secured communication. In the method, a secured communication request for performing secured communication is received from the second device, a security key required for the secured communication is randomly generated and output, and a plurality of pieces of data encrypted using the security key are transmitted and received to and from the second device.
US08443186B2

An encryption method and apparatus thereof is disclosed. In one embodiment the method includes (a) receiving the content data via the network, (b) changing a sequence of the received content data according to a predetermined algorithm or randomly to store in a form of a cache file, (c) generating a decryption key including information of the changed sequence of the data, and (d) encrypting the decryption key according to a predetermined encryption system, wherein if a playback or transmission of the stored content is requested, the encrypted decryption key is decrypted and the corresponding data is extracted from the cache file according to the sequence information of the decryption key to be played back or transmitted. According to one embodiment of the invention, a user is unable to illegally use content data stored in his local client and content data stored in a local client can be quickly decrypted so as not to affect playback of the content data.
US08443185B2

A computer-implemented system processes secure electronic documents from one or more content providers in accordance with subscriber instructions has a processor and modules operative within the processor. A monitoring module obtains a provider GUID, a subscriber GUID, and a transaction ID from public metadata associated with a transaction received from a particular content provider. A determination module determines any designees of the subscriber and contact information one or more of the subscriber and any designees. A transaction module distributes a transaction addressed to at least one of the subscriber and any designees. Each distributed transaction includes data that is used for management, tracking, and alerting. Also described is a station for constructing transactions for distribution to subscribers through such a system. An end-to-end system and method are described.
US08443184B2

A system and method for personalizing a device is disclosed herein. A user configures a plurality of settings associated with a device. Each setting is identified as a user setting or a platform setting. The user settings are stored in a personalization virtual object with the user. Platform settings are stored separately from the personalization virtual object. Software for personalizing a device provided on a computer readable medium is disclosed herein. The software comprises a code for execution on a central processing unit operable to configure a plurality of settings associated with a device by a user. The software identifies each setting as a user setting or a platform setting. The user settings are stored in a personalization virtual object associated with the user, and the platform settings are stored separately from the personalization virtual object.
US08443182B2

A media data playback device comprises first and second nonvolatile memories. The first nonvolatile memory stores a boot loader and a kernel of an operating system in a compressed format. The second nonvolatile memory serves as a main memory of the device. A processor executes the boot loader to load and decompress the kernel from the first nonvolatile memory to the second nonvolatile memory in response to a boot command. When receiving a shutdown command, the processor determines whether to perform a portion of bootstrapping processes of the device in response to the shutdown command before actually shutdown the device.
US08443178B2

An OS image shrinking apparatus for shrinking a size of at least one OS image stored in a computer. The OS image shrinking apparatus includes an execution history management unit that operates a predetermined application program on the computer for a predetermined time and manages an execution history of a function by monitoring the function executed during operation of the application program, a saved function management unit that refers to the execution history managed by the execution history management unit and manages the function existing in the execution history, as a saved function, among functions included in the OS image, and an unused function processing unit that performs a processing to delete from the OS image a function not managed by the saved function management unit, as an unused function, among the functions included in the OS image.
US08443177B2

An apparatus for extracting instructions from a stream of undifferentiated instruction bytes in a microprocessor having an instruction set architecture in which the instructions are variable length. Decode logic decodes the instruction bytes of the stream to generate for each a corresponding opcode byte indictor and end byte indicator and receives a corresponding taken indicator for each of the instruction bytes. The taken indicator is true if a branch predictor predicted the instruction byte is the opcode byte of a taken branch instruction. The decode logic generates a corresponding bad prediction indicator for each of the instruction bytes. The bad prediction indicator is true if the corresponding taken indicator is true and the corresponding opcode byte indicator is false. The decode logic sets to true the bad prediction indicator for each remaining byte of an instruction whose opcode byte has a true bad prediction indicator. Control logic extracts instructions from the stream and sends the extracted instructions for further processing by the microprocessor. The control logic foregoes sending an instruction having both a true end byte indicator and a true bad prediction indicator.
US08443176B2

A method for reducing cache memory pollution including fetching an instruction stream from a cache line, preventing a fetching for the instruction stream from a sequential cache line, searching for a next predicted taken branch instruction, determining whether a length of the instruction stream extends beyond a length of the cache line based on the next predicted taken branch instruction, continuing preventing the fetching for the instruction stream from the sequential cache line if the length of the instruction stream does not extend beyond the length of the cache line, and allowing the fetching for the instruction stream from the sequential cache line if the length of the instruction stream extends beyond the length of the cache line, whereby the fetching from the sequential cache line and a resulting polluting of a cache memory that stores the instruction stream is minimized. A corresponding system and computer program product.
US08443175B2

A microprocessor integrated circuit includes first and second processors, an internal memory accessible by the first and second processors, and a bus interface unit configured to interface to a bus external to the microprocessor for providing access to a memory external to the microprocessor. The bus interface unit, external bus, and external memory are accessible by the second processor but are inaccessible by the first processor. The first processor writes debug information to the internal memory. The first processor detects an event and provides a notification of the event to the second processor. The second processor, coupled to the bus interface unit, executes microcode in response to the event notification received from the first processor. The microcode reads the debug information from the internal memory and writes the debug information to the external memory via the bus interface unit and external bus for use in debugging the second processor.
US08443172B2

An apparatus in a microprocessor that has an instruction set architecture in which instructions may include a length-modifying prefix used to select an address/operand size other than a default address/operand size, wherein the apparatus marks the start byte and the end byte of each instruction in a stream of instruction bytes. Decode logic decodes each instruction byte of a predetermined number of instruction bytes to determine whether the instruction byte specifies a length-modifying prefix and generates a start mark and an end mark for each of the instruction bytes based on an address/operand size. Operand/address size logic provides the default operand/address size to the decode logic to use to generate the start and end marks during a first clock cycle during which the decode logic decodes the predetermined number of instruction bytes. If during the first clock cycle and any of N subsequent clock cycles the decode logic indicates that one of the predetermined number of instruction bytes specifies a length-modifying prefix, the operand/address size logic provides to the decode logic on the next clock cycle the address/operand size specified by the length-modifying prefix to use to generate the start and end marks.
US08443164B2

A data management device includes a memory configured to save data and a processor. The processor is configured to save acquired data into the memory when the save command is received. The processor is further configured to execute a process which processes the data acquired by the acquisition unit when the specific command is received. The process is different from saving the data into the memory. The processor is still further configured to generate a first data name in accordance with a first rule and attach the first data name to the acquired data. Moreover, the processor is configured to generate a second data name in accordance with a second rule different from the first rule and attach the second data name to the acquired data.
US08443161B2

A cache memory system includes a cache memory that includes a first memory portion and a flexible buffer memory portion. A cache controller is coupled to the cache memory and is configured to control allocation and/or deallocation of blocks from the first memory portion to and/or from the flexible buffer memory portion.
US08443160B2

With a computer system having a host computer and first and second storage apparatuses, the second storage apparatus virtualizes first logical units in the first storage apparatus and provides them as second logical units to the host computer, collects configuration information about each first logical unit, and sets each piece of the collected configuration information to each corresponding second logical unit. The host computer adds a path to the second logical units and deletes a path to the first logical units. The second storage apparatus copies data stored in the first logical units to a storage area provided by the second storage device and associates the storage area with the second logical units.
US08443151B2

An apparatus and method is described herein for optimization to prefetch throttling, which potentially enhances performance, reduces power consumption, and maintains positive gain for workloads that benefit from prefetching. More specifically, the optimizations described herein allow for bandwidth congestion and prefetch accuracy to be taken into account as feedbacks for throttling at the source of prefetch generation. As a result, when there is low congestion, full prefetch generation is allowed, even if the prefetch is inaccurate, since there is available bandwidth. However, when congestion is high, the determination of throttling falls to prefetch accuracy. If accuracy is high—miss rate is low—then less throttling is needed, because the prefetches are being utilized—performance is being enhanced. Yet, if prefetch accuracy is low—miss rate is high—then more prefetch throttling is needed to save power, because the prefetch are not being utilized—performance is not being enhanced by the large number of prefetches.
US08443148B2

Methods and apparatus relating to system-wide quiescence and per-thread transaction fence in a distributed caching agent are described. Some embodiments utilize messages, counters, and/or state machines that support system-wide quiescence and per-thread transaction fence flows. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US08443145B2

A plurality of integrated circuits in a system, each having a program memory loaded with different sections of a program, and a second memory. The integrated circuits perform the program, such that, when one of the integrated circuits requires a portion of the program, which is contained in its own program memory, it extracts it from the program memory and uses it, but when it requires a portion of the program, which is not contained in its own program memory, it reads it from the program memory of one of the other integrated circuits into its second memory and runs that portion of the program from there. In one example, the system is a line card, and the program is specific to one DSL protocol.
US08443143B2

An information processing apparatus capable of connecting to a plurality of terminal devices over a network includes a recording/reproducing unit configured to receive a removable memory medium, a detector configured to detect insertion and removal of the removable memory medium in and from the recording/reproducing unit, and a controller configured to acquire first information identifying a terminal device which is recorded in the removable memory medium when the detector detects the insertion of the removable memory medium and to control permission and prohibition of access to the removable memory medium from the terminal devices based on the first information.
US08443136B2

Methods and apparatuses for enhanced protection of data stored in a FLASH memory system involve a controller capable of using variable size page stripes in the memory system. The controller is configured to store data such that each page stripe comprises a plurality of data pages, with each data page in the page stripe being stored in a different FLASH memory chip. The controller is also configured to maintain one or more buffers containing information reflecting blocks of memory within the FLASH memory chips that have been erased and are available for information storage, and to dynamically determine the number of data pages to be included in a page stripe based on the information in the one or more buffers such that a first page stripe and a second page stripe can have different numbers of data pages.
US08443134B2

Apparatuses, systems, and methods are disclosed for implementing a cache policy. A method may include determining a risk of data loss on a cache device. The cache device may comprise a non-volatile storage device configured to perform cache functions for a backing store. The cache device may implement a cache policy. A method may include determining that a risk of data loss on the cache devices exceeds a threshold risk level. A method may include implementing a modified cache policy for the cache device in response to the risk of data loss exceeding the threshold risk level. The modified cache policy may reduce the risk of data loss below the threshold level.
US08443133B2

A memory system includes a management-information restoring unit. The management-information restoring unit determines whether a short break has occurred referring to a pre-log or a post-log in a NAND memory. The management-information restoring unit determines that a short break has occurred when the pre-log or the post-log is present in the NAND memory. In that case, the management-information restoring unit determines timing of occurrence of the short break, and, after selecting a pre-log or a post-log used for restoration, performs restoration of the management information reflecting these logs on a snapshot. Thereafter, the management-information restoring unit applies recovery processing to all write-once blocks in the NAND memory, takes the snapshot again, and opens the snapshot and the logs in the past.
US08443130B2

A Universal Series Bus USB port detection and testing circuit, configured to detect the voltage output of a USB port of an electronic device, includes a voltage comparing circuit and an indicating circuit. The indicating circuit is connected to an output terminal of the voltage comparing circuit. The voltage comparing circuit compares the voltage output from the USB port against a reference voltage and output a signal whereby the indicating circuit indicates whether the voltage is within, or above, or below, the standard range.
US08443125B2

A method of communicating on a single serial line between two devices is disclosed. The method includes combining a data stream and a clock to form a three-voltage level stream such that the third voltage level records the transitions of the clock while the serial data is either high or low. Either the first or the second device can send a combined stream on the line. The method further includes, in some embodiments, the second device driving the same voltage levels as those transmitted by the first device and the first device sensing current on the single serial line to determine that the second device has received data from the first device.
US08443116B2

An information processing unit includes: a display unit detection unit that detects whether an external display unit is connected to the information processing unit; a transmission unit that transmits, to the other information processing units, a fact that the external display unit is connected when the display unit detection unit detects that the external display unit is connected; and a control unit that performs control so that information transmitted from the other information processing units is displayed on the external display unit.
US08443111B2

A communication method to transfer user operation information includes, if a user's operation is input through the electronic device, and if the electronic device then receives a command from a host device while the electronic device is connected to the host device, transmitting information to the host device notify the host device of the user's operation. Therefore, it is possible for a user to command the host device to perform a frequently used function through a simple operation of the electronic device, without a need to be aware of the complex usage of an application.
US08443107B2

A method, computer program product and electronic device are provided for providing hyper-local geo-targeting based on validated, user-supplied geographic information, wherein the user's anonymity may be maintained. In particular, user-supplied geographic information may be collected in association with a truncated IP address. Once collected, the user-supplied information may be validated using geographic data previously derived from one or more complete IP addresses corresponding to the received truncated IP address. The derived geographic data may have been derived using a system that maps the routing infrastructure of the Internet in order to determine where endpoints on the Internet are located. The validated, user-supplied geographic information, which may be more specific than the derived geographic data, may then be used to provide more granular and accurate geo-targeting, all the while maintaining the privacy of the individual users.
US08443106B2

A method for alerting Internet content providers of the age or other personal information of a computer user, which includes receiving a reverse DNS lookup query from an Internet content provider; and providing the age information of the computer user, in addition to a host name, from a reverse map zone file in response to the request. The personal information may be used by the content provider to select appropriate content for the requesting host, for example for complying with content restrictions. A system of alerting an Internet content provider of the age or other personal information of a computer user is also provided.
US08443104B2

A routing engine functions to respond to a request for routing options for a communication session from a querying node by providing a list of routing options. The original request includes signaling information that is utilized by the routing engine to determine a preliminary list of routing options that identifies vendors capable of handling the communication session. Pre-defined routing definitions may be applied to alter the list of vendors as identified in the preliminary list. Filtering processes may be applied to remove undesirable vendors from the preliminary routing options, resulting in a list of routing options for the communication session. The preliminary list may be ordered according to some parameter, and when a filtering process is applied the process may end upon reaching a first non-compliant vendor.
US08443096B2

Embodiments disclosed herein provide for identification processes and/or procedures for accessories coupled with a mobile computing device. During identification an accessory can communicate lingo information that includes only those lingoes the accessory can use while coupled with the mobile computing device. The accessory can also communicate accessory protocol information to the mobile computing device during identification. The accessory can be limited to using only those lingoes and/or those protocols identified during identification. Various other accessory information, capabilities, preferences, etc. can also be communicated to the mobile computing device during identification.
US08443095B1

Techniques for efficiently determining the boundary between files and for ascertaining the difference between a HEAD response and a GET response. Embodiments of the invention only need to check the responses from the server, instead of having to check to both the responses from the server and the requests from the client, in order to ascertain the boundary between files and to ascertain whether a response from the server is a HEAD response or a GET response.
US08443082B2

Systems and methods for communicating via a network may employ communication devices capable of functioning in a server mode and a client mode. Communication may begin by activating a server mode for a first communication device. The first communication device in the server mode may receive a message from a second communication device, the message comprising an identity associated with the second communication device. The first communication device may retrieve a key associated with the second communication device and verify the identity associated with the second communication device by comparing data in the message from the second communication device with data in the key. A client mode may be activated for the first communication device. The first communication device in client mode may send a message to an address associated with the second communication device, the message comprising an identity associated with the first communication device.
US08443079B2

A device receives network configuration information from a network, determines a logical network based on the network configuration information, and constructs a mixed integer programming (MIP) model based on the logical network. The device also calculates an optimal solution, which minimizes network costs, using the mixed integer programming (MIP) model, performs a post-optimization mapping procedure on the optimal solution to produce an optimal network configuration mapping, and outputs the optimal network configuration mapping for implementation.
US08443078B2

Techniques for identifying and selecting equivalent sets of agents with defined capabilities to perform certain actions are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, determining agents to gather information for a storage area network fabric may be performed through the use of fabric discovery operations which identify agents capable of performing various actions within the fabric. From the determined capabilities of the agents, a dynamic capability grid may be populated to assist with the generation of a list of equivalent subsets to perform the various actions. The most efficient set of agents from each equivalent subset may then be selected to perform actions, with other sets of agents in the equivalent subset available as secondary choices in case of an unexpected failure. For example, a fabric probe may be executed in a storage area network using discovered agents from a list of equivalent subsets to most efficiently accomplish network operations such as zoning and topology.
US08443077B1

Some embodiments provide a method for managing a hosting system that includes several nodes for hosting several virtual machines. The method identifies a particular size of disk volume to monitor within the hosting system. The method determines whether the number of disk volumes of the particular size that are (i) built on a set of hardware resources of a node of the hosting system and (ii) not allocated to a specific virtual machine falls below a threshold. When the number of disk volumes of the particular size falls below the threshold, the method determines at least one particular node on which to build a new disk volume of the particular size. The method sends instructions to the particular node to build a disk volume of the particular size. Some embodiments monitor images of a particular computer system within the hosting system.
US08443072B1

The present invention is directed to providing improved device boot times on a network while that network is congested. According to embodiments of the present invention, when a device initializes, it listens for a congestion alert message before making a request for configuration information. If a congestion alert message is not received, a request for configuration information may be sent without further delay. Alternatively, if a network congestion message is received, the device may implement an alternate connection request sequence, in which transmission of a request for configuration information is delayed. The period of delay may be predetermined, random, or a period of time recommended as part of the congestion alert signal.
US08443069B2

A highly scalable application network appliance is described herein. According to one embodiment, a network element includes a switch fabric, a first service module coupled to the switch fabric, and a second service module coupled to the first service module over the switch fabric. In response to packets of a network transaction received from a client over a first network to access a server of a data center having multiple servers over a second network, the first service module is configured to perform a first portion of OSI (open system interconnection) compatible layers of network processes on the packets while the second service module is configured to perform a second portion of the OSI compatible layers of network processes on the packets. The first portion includes at least one OSI compatible layer that is not included in the second portion. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US08443061B2

A data transmission apparatus transmits first and second data to transmission destinations, respectively. Upon completion of transmission of the second data, the data transmission apparatus instructs the transmission destination of the first data to confirm transmission processing of the first data that is transmitted before the second data is transmitted.
US08443059B2

A method and apparatus for configuring an application at a device in a communications network. A server receives a request message from the device. The request message includes information that identifies the application, and further information relating to either or both of the device type or a network operator associated with the device. The further information is sued by the server to obtain specific configuration information relating to the application. A response is sent to the device, the response including the obtained specific configuration. The specific configuration information is subsequently be used by the device to configure the application.
US08443056B2

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for transmitting and processing download requests specifying download instructions and additional optional intent hints. A client computer signals intent information to an edge server resident within a content delivery network via download requests. The intent information indicates contextual information regarding the download of a digital content file, such as the reason for the download or the amount of the digital content file that might be downloaded in subsequent requests. A suitably equipped edge server adapts the processing of the download request based on the intent information specified by the client computer. In response to the download request, the edge server also transmits a response to the client computer indicating performance characteristics associated with the edge server. The response also indicates alternative servers that can be accessed by the client computer for downloading the digital content file.
US08443048B2

A method, system and program product for assigning a resource to a client in a collaborative environment. The method includes defining, using a tool, a threshold value for collaborative attributes for each resource responding to one or more clients and calculating on a periodic basis, using the tool, an updated value for the collaborative attributes for each resource. The method further includes comparing, upon receipt of a collaboration request, the updated value with the threshold value defined for collaborative attributes for a first resource and, if the updated value is less than the threshold value for the first resource, connecting the client to the first resource for establishing a collaborative session. If not, repeating comparing the updated value with the threshold value for the collaborative attributes defined for a next resource and connecting the client to the next resource whose updated value is less than the threshold value.
US08443046B2

A method can include sending a request to a media content provider requesting media content and receiving the media content and instructions from the media provider. The instructions can be utilized by the media provider to broadcast the media content. The media provider can store the received media content in a database process the instructions then distribute the media content and the instructions to distributed media outlets. The media content provider can receive information indicating that the media content was broadcast by the distributed media outlets according to the instructions.
US08443044B2

Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to detect a device connecting to a network, determine the identity of the network, and publish at least a portion of a list of active contacts to a display, while hiding a list of inactive contacts.The list of active contacts may be selected from an original list of contacts, based on the Identity of the network and a personal rule set associated with a user of the device. The list of inactive contacts is included in the original list and not included in the list of active contacts. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08443040B2

A method for synchronizing presentation of a dynamic data set to a plurality of nodes. The method includes the step of generating, by a consumer node in a plurality of nodes, a plurality of data packets representing a change to a dynamic data set. A host node in the plurality of nodes receives the plurality of data packets. The host node transmits to a synchronization engine the plurality of data packets. The synchronization engine generates metadata information representing the difference between the dynamic data set and the plurality of data packets. The synchronization engine transmits to the plurality of nodes the metadata information and the plurality of data packets.
US08443037B2

A computerized switching system for coupling a workstation to a remotely located computer. A signal conditioning unit receives keyboard and mouse signals generated by a workstation and generates a data packet which is transmitted to a central crosspoint switch. The packet is routed through a crosspoint switch to another signal conditioning unit located at a remotely located computer. The second signal conditioning unit applies the keyboard and mouse commands to the keyboard and mouse connectors of the computer as if the keyboard and mouse were directly coupled to the remote computer. Video signals produced by the remote computer are transmitted through the crosspoint switch to the workstation. Horizontal and vertical sync signals are encoded on to the video signals to reduce the number of cables that extend between the workstation and the remote computer. The signal conditioning units connected to the workstations include an onscreen programming circuit that produces menus for the user on a video display of the workstation.
US08443031B1

A systolic array for Cholesky decomposition of an N×N matrix is described. A plurality of processing cells, including a corner cell, N−1 boundary cells, and (N2−3N+2)/2 internal cells, are arranged into N−1 rows and N columns of processing cells. Each row of processing cells is configured to calculate elements of a respective column of a lower triangular output matrix. Each processing cell of each row is configured to determine a value of a respective element of the lower triangular output matrix using a value of an element calculated in a previous processing cell of the row.
US08443030B1

Floating point multiply-accumulate (FMAC) instructions are processed by a logic circuit. A register file stores operands for a FMAC instruction. A multiplier multiplies an operand S1 and an operand S2 from the register file to produce a resultant operand St. An adder adds two operands St and Sd (which is the result of a prior accumulation) to produce the result Sd of the FMAC instruction. A reorder buffer (ROB) stores and reorders entries corresponding to FMAC instructions, and a hazard-checking block detects whether the FMAC instruction contains a potential hazard. A selector selects an output value from the ROB. The operands St and Sd can be supplied via one of a plurality of paths based on a priority of the paths, and the priority for the paths is based in part on output from the hazard-checking block and contents of the ROB.
US08443021B2

A method of obtaining uniform and independent random numbers is given (a) comprising two distinct odd primes p1, p2 that give mutually coprime integers q1=(p1−1)/2 and q2=(p2−1)/2 with different parity to form the modulus d=p1p2; (b) comprising primitive roots z1, z2 of primes p1, p2, respectively, giving congruence relations z≡zj mod(pj) for j=1, 2 that determine the multiplier z; and (c) comprising the initial value n coprime with d=p1p2. The method generates the coset sequence n={r1=n, r2, r3, . . . } of period T=2q1q2 recursively by rj+1=zrj mod(d) for j=1, 2, . . . in the reduced residue class group Z*d, giving {v1=r1/d, v2=r2/d, . . . } for output.
US08443006B1

Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer program products, for propagating data across shards of a database system are described. According to one method, a first request that includes instructions to place a second request in a queue of a second shard is placed in a queue of a first database shard, and the change is committed to the records of the first shard. A queue processor polling the queue fetches and dispatches the first request, placing the second request in a queue of a second database shard. The second request includes instructions for making the change to the second shard. A queue processor of the second database shard polls the queue of the second database, fetches the second request, and dispatches it to make the change on the second database shard.
US08443005B1

A system gathers information on important and influential people and uses an ontology to build a social graph. The information is organized based on this social graph and provided to users as a service. The system uses ontology models to identify connectivity between entities (e.g., people, organizations, events, and things) in the social graph. Through its ontology, the system can determine, interpret, and represent the relationships of people that occur in the real world.
US08443003B2

A system includes reception of first data content, generation of a first semantic representation of the first data content, determination of whether the first semantic representation is similar to a second semantic representation of second data content, generation of a third semantic representation based on the first semantic representation and on the second semantic representation, and association of the third semantic representation with the first data content and with the second data content if the first semantic representation is similar to the second semantic representation, and association of the first semantic representation with the first data content if the first semantic representation is not similar to the second semantic representation.
US08442983B2

Aspects of the present invention are generally concerned with systems and methods for generating a database of metadata that describes system data and storage operations. The database of metadata may be referred to herein as a “metabase.” For example, to generate a metabase, a data agent may traverse a file system to obtain certain characteristics of data managed by the file system while substantially simultaneously detecting and recording change notifications. These actions may be performed even if the actions of the data agent are interrupted one or more times during the traversal of the file system. The data agent may process the characteristics and change notifications to generate and update a metabase. Once formed, the metabase may be consulted to determine changes in system data rather than determining the changes by scanning the data files themselves.
US08442972B2

A computer-implemented method is provided, including receiving a search query from a user during a search session, and presenting information to the user responsively to the search query. After an indication that the user takes an action related to the search session is received, a portion of the presented information is identified that the user did not select prior to taking the action, and respective scores are assigned to search results generated responsively to the search query, including lowering one or more of the scores of the respective search results that are characterized by the non-selected portion of the presented information. The search results are ranked according to the scores, and presented to the user. Other embodiments are also described.
US08442969B2

A search engine and/or news aggregator considers temporal qualities of electronic documents, a location of a searcher/reviewer, and a situs associated with content of the document to determine how/if they should be presented to users.
US08442964B2

A system and method for capturing and recognizing at least a portion of a source document, whether written or audible, then searching for information, or other documents, that correspond to the captured and recognized portion of the source document. Various techniques for adding translation and/or searching are also disclosed. In some instances, an iterative machine learning process is applied to improve the performance of an aspect of the system.
US08442959B2

A system and method may include receiving an order and an error identifier, indexing a database based on the error identifier to identify a rule identifier, and indexing the database based on the rule identifier to identify a rule. The system and method may further include applying the rule to modify the order to generate a modified order, and submitting the modified order for processing.
US08442958B2

In one embodiment, methods and systems for change management are described. A server system may include a physical server and a virtual server capable of being deployed on the physical server. A server change group may include one or more server change objects. Each server change object may represent a server change to be made to at least one of the physical server or the virtual server. A change manager may receive a request for a change to the server system, select transitioning change objects from among the server change objects to transition the server system from a current state to an expected state after implementation of the change, and execute the transitioning change objects to implement the change to the server system.
US08442957B2

An object management system comprises a computer system configured to store an object (72), which may be a file. The computer system is configured to divide the object (72) into partitions (70), select partitions, and provide the selected partitions to a storage device (14) for storage. The partitions are selected by determining which partitions need to be migrated device, based on whether the partitions have been modified. The system determines this by examining a data object associated with the object. The computer system may be configured to retrieve a selected partition from the storage device.
US08442956B2

Example apparatus, methods, and computers perform sampling based data de-duplication. One example method controls a data de-duplication computer to compute a sampling sequence for a sub-block of data and to use the sampling sequence to locate a stored sub-block known to the data de-duplication computer. Upon finding a stored sub-block to compare to, the method includes controlling the data de-duplication computer to determine a degree of similarity (e.g., duplicate, very similar, somewhat similar, very dissimilar, completely dissimilar, x % similar) between the sub-block and the stored sub-block and to control whether and how the sub-block is stored and/or transmitted based on the degree of similarity. The degree of similarity can also control whether and how the data de-duplication computer updates a dedupe data structure(s) that stores information for finding groups of similarity sampling sequence related sub-blocks.
US08442953B2

Some embodiments include a system, method, apparatus and means for determining that first information in an input data packet is not redundant with second information previously stored in a database system, includes receiving the input data packet, generating a database query based on one or more tagged portions in the input data packet, comparing second information retrieved by the database query with the first information to identify at least a first portion of the first information that is different than the second information, and causing storage of the at least a first portion of the first information in the database system.
US08442950B2

Multi-dimensional surrogation systems and methods are provided that generate at least one data surrogate using information of data and numerous data changes received from at least one data source. The multi-dimensional surrogation transforms data of each data surrogate from a format of the data source to at least one alternative format. Original metadata is extracted from each data surrogate. New metadata is generated by combining portions of the original metadata and components of each data surrogate. The multi-dimensional surrogation generates an extended data surrogate comprising the data surrogate and the new metadata.
US08442938B2

A system to update a data structure based on a plurality of parent data structures, where at least one of the plurality of parent data structures is associated with point data. Some embodiments may include reception of a notification to update from one of the plurality of parent data structures, determination that one or more of the plurality of parent data structures is updating, determination of whether a notification to update has been received from each of the one or more of the plurality of parent data structures, and, if the notification to update has been received from each of the one or more of the plurality of parent data structures, update of the data structure based on data of the one or more of the plurality of parent data structures.
US08442933B2

A visualization system that generates visual mash-ups for industrial automation includes a mash-up component that combines output from a subset of disparate sources into a common interface. The disparate sources include at least one of equipment, computers, or devices within an industrial automation environment. A visualization component generates and displays a mash-up visualization that includes information associated with the common interface.
US08442925B2

A music recommendation method may include obtaining the music belongingness function of music, which is the set of granularity of music in different dimensions, wherein the dimension is the classification of music and the granularity is the classification of the dimension; obtaining the user belongingness function of a user, which is the set of granularity indicating likes of user in different dimensions; calculating a granularity correlation function by using the music belongingness function and the user belongingness function; calculating the value of the probability function indicating likes of user for music by using the granularity correlation function and a dimension weighting coefficient; and recommending the music to the user when the value of the probability function indicating likes of user for music is greater than a preset threshold. An apparatus applying to the method comprises corresponding modules.
US08442918B2

The present invention provides a method for an additional security feature on a gaming machine regarding the content of a cashbox positioned within the gaming machine through the printing of a coupon. The method involves transferring information from a bill validator to a printer all within a gaming machine wherein the transfer of the information is achieved by a serial port connection between the bill validator and the printer.The present invention also provides a system for an additional security feature to a gaming machine through the printing of a coupon containing information relating to the content of a cashbox positioned within the gaming machine. The coupon is produced by information retrieved from the bill validator. The transfer of the information from the bill validator to the printer is achieved through a serial port interconnection between the bill validator and the printer.
US08442915B2

A system and method are provided for authentication. A first request for a transaction is received from a communications device, the first request comprising collation information of a customer to be authenticated and a price of a product or service to be purchased by the customer. An authentication level is set based on the price. A second request is transmitted to a mobile communications device of the customer. Authentication information is received from the mobile communications device, the authentication information comprising identification information of the customer. The authentication information is transmitted to the communications device.
US08442912B2

A method and system for facilitating the creation and promotion of creative works involves displaying or providing information about one or more undeveloped creative works, and receiving and processing requests for purchases of benefits relating to selected ones of the undeveloped creative works. Patron information is stored in a manner associated it with work under development selected by the user. Monetary amounts received from patrons relating to the undeveloped works are aggregated and, at a certain point, made available to the producer of the work to be developed. Patrons may be notified concerning availability of the selected and previously purchased benefits relating to the patron's sponsorship of the particular work. The benefit may be redeemed or obtained in a variety of different manners, depending upon the nature of the benefit.
US08442902B2

System, method, and program for preventing gaming in a trading system. The systems, methods and programs can receive an order from a trader to trade securities in an alternative trading system, determine if gaming is occurring, set a price collar for the order, and submit the order to the alternative trading system with the price collar.
US08442901B2

The present disclosure is directed to facilitating pricing, sales and delivery of a commodity. In one embodiment, a Fuel Offer Generator facilitates the purchase and management of fuel offerings. The Fuel Offer Generator allows Customers interested in securing fuel to obtain an offer for fuel at lock-in prices for various tenors. Fuel Customers may later exercise the fuel offers so their fuel costs are locked-in at desired levels The Fuel Offer Generator may generate hedges to counteract fuel related risks stemming from fuel offer purchases. Ultimately, a customer that purchases a fuel offering can exercise their fuel offering order at a specified price and redeem any difference between the market price for their purchased fuel and the price specified in their fuel offering order. The Fuel Offer Generator allows for the management of regional fuel price offerings and allows for fuel offering redemption based on fuel pump prices.
US08442898B2

In a marketplace, offers are processed that are intended to be associated with other offers in a pool. The offers specify conditions for acceptance. Improvable offers are received that are capable of being associated with offers having more favorable specifications than initial offers associated with the improvable offers. Nonimprovable offers that have more favorable specifications than initial offers associated with improvable offers are identified. The identified nonimprovable offers are associated with corresponding improvable offers. Straddles, which comprise a set of offers and a limit on the associations, may span multiple pools. Information about the marketplace may be obtained from data generated by the operation of the marketplace.
US08442893B2

The present disclosure describes an approach to constructing and implementing risk rating products that provides a number of advantages. Instead of hard-coding attributes of a risk rating scheme, which requires the assistance of a trained programming specialist for any modifications, adjustments, or new products, the present invention provides a set of modular tools that assist non-specialists in on-the-fly generation and implementation of risk rating products. The modularity of this approach facilitates the modification and/or updating of a system component without affecting the operation of other components. Described herein are embodiments of a risk evaluation product builder, which allows users to manipulate visual tools to generate a data-structure comprising an embodiment of a risk rating scheme and insurance quoting product.
US08442887B2

A method and system for providing services to vacation homeowners facilitates the cost-effective administration of a variety of services required by vacation homeowners in a fashion that frees the homeowner from undue expense, time or effort. In one embodiment the method includes: setting up a real estate property on a system via capturing by a computer processor a complete image inventory of the property, creating a unique CRM record along with detailed information on the property; provisioning a new user account formatted into an online, user-accessible, self-care portal; conducting predetermined inspections of the property; assigning each property a unique identifier to ensure high quality case management of the property; tracking the inspections using the identifier; providing automatic alerts to the property owner at the initiation of specific workflow steps; providing alerts and updates; and measuring ongoing customer satisfaction by prompting for specific feedback.
US08442886B1

Improved systems and methods are provided for identifying financial relationships. In particular, financial relationships may be identified by associating tradelines with one or more people who sign or co-sign on the tradeline. In various embodiments a method is provided comprising, receiving, at a computer-based system for credit data analysis comprising a processor and a tangible, non-transitory memory, credit reporting data relating to a tradeline, parsing, by the computer-based system, the credit reporting data to yield primary debtor data and secondary debtor data, and linking, by the computer-based system, the tradeline with the primary debtor data and the secondary debtor data.
US08442876B1

A computerized system and method for managing a returnable container inventory and repairs of the returnable containers. The computerized system and method has features and functionality for tracking and managing repairs of special returnable containers that comprise multiple parts. The computerized system and method supports tracking of containers through a distribution network and management of data related to repairs performed on returnable containers as well as the spare parts that are used to repair the containers. Special handling features support removal of the containers from the distribution network for a variety of reasons. Report features allow a shipper to determine the status of containers throughout the distribution network, to view data related to the container and spare parts inventory, and to manage the container inventory using data collection and analysis features.
US08442872B2

A system and method for providing financial account messages to customers while accessing web sites is disclosed. Methods, systems and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention enable a financial account issuer to provide an application to customer's computer system over a network. The application may be configured to provide various messages associated with the customer's financial account provided by the financial account issuer while the customer browses web sites. The financial account messages may be configured to provide interactive and dynamically changing account status information based on attempted purchases of goods and/or services by the customer at merchants' web sites. The application may also be configured to provide rating information associated with web sites accessed by the customer.
US08442866B2

According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a method for administering a virtual gift card, the method comprising acts of receiving a request from a server of a retailer, providing, in response to the request, an interface to a terminal operated by a purchaser, the interface comprising fields for receiving a value and a recipient for the virtual gift card, receiving from the terminal, in response to input from the purchaser, the value and the recipient for the virtual gift card, generating a code for the virtual gift card, and sending a message to the recipient of the virtual gift card, the message including the code for the virtual gift card.
US08442860B2

A computer client system includes a computer hardware system associated with a first user. The computer hardware system is configured to perform receiving, from a webpage implementation system, a first website associated with the first user; and receiving, from the webpage implementation system, a second website associated with a second user. The first website includes a first functional marketing element associated with a second user. The second website includes a second functional marketing element associated with the first user and reciprocally inserted, by the webpage implementation system, into the second website based upon the first functional marketing element being inserted within the first website.
US08442854B2

The present disclosure describes novel systems and methods that can be utilized to evaluate and/or direct an interaction with a consumer database and/or evaluate a consumer database, where the consumer database contains information about consumers and particular products and/or services held or used by the consumers. The interactions may be, for example, determining a strategy for sales, marketing, cross-selling, and/or retaining one or more of the consumers. The evaluations may include, for example, hierarchically ranking the consumers and/or determining a clustering of the consumers.
US08442846B2

In order to mitigate risk of satellite investment loss, a satellite loss event or failure event for a satellite that will be operated by a satellite operator company is identified. Actuarial data corresponding to prior satellite loss events or failure events substantially corresponding to the satellite loss event or failure event are identified. An investment loss mitigation insurance policy based at least in part on the identified actuarial data is developed. The investment loss mitigation insurance policy includes a salvage provision. The investment loss mitigation insurance policy is offered to the identified financial investors. The investment loss mitigation insurance policy is placed with an underwriting pool.
US08442842B2

A pharmaceutical clearinghouse establishes relationships with a network of FNA Agents servicing requests from patients under institutional patient assistance programs, and with a network of pharmaceutical providers. In response to the clearinghouse receiving a patient request for a pharmaceutical from an FNA Agent, the clearinghouse obtains a subsidy from at least one in-network pharmaceutical provider and provides the subsidy to the FNA Agent; the subsidy may be cash, in-kind pharmaceutical or a combination thereof.
US08442832B2

An apparatus for context awareness includes: a voice-based recognition unit that recognizes a user's emotional state on the basis of a voice signal; a motion-based recognition unit that recognizes the user's emotional state on the basis of a motion; a position recognition unit that recognizes a location where the user is positioned; and a mergence-recognition unit that recognizes a user's context by analyzing the recognition results of the voice-based recognition unit, the motion-based recognition unit, and the position recognition unit. Accordingly, it is possible to rapidly and accurately accidents or dangerous contexts caused to a user.
US08442831B2

A speech recognition capability in which words of spoken text are identified based on the contour of sound waves representing the spoken text. Variations in the contour of the sound waves are identified, features are assigned to those variations, and then the features are mapped to sound constructs to provide the words.
US08442829B2

Speech processing is disclosed for an apparatus having a main processing unit, a memory unit, and one or more co-processors. Memory maintenance and voice recognition result retrievals upon execution are performed with a first main processor thread. Voice detection and initial feature extraction on the raw data are performed with a first co-processor. A second co-processor thread receives feature data derived for one or more features extracted by the first co-processor thread and information for locating probability density functions needed for probability computation by a speech recognition model and computes a probability that the one or more features correspond to a known sub-unit of speech using the probability density functions and the feature data. At least a portion of a path probability that a sequence of sub-units of speech correspond to a known speech unit is computed with a third co-processor thread.
US08442825B1

A device for voice identification including a receiver, a segmenter, a resolver, two advancers, a buffer, and a plurality of IIR resonator digital filters where each IIR filter comprises a set of memory locations or functional equivalent to hold filter specifications, a memory location or functional equivalent to hold the arithmetic reciprocal of the filter's gain, a five cell controller array, several multipliers, an adder, a subtractor, and a logical non-shift register. Each cell of the five cell controller array has five logical states, each acting as a five-position single-pole rotating switch that operates in unison with the four others. Additionally, the device also includes an artificial neural network and a display means.
US08442823B2

A method of performing a search of a database of speakers, includes: receiving a query speech sample spoken by a query speaker; deriving a query utterance from the query speech sample; extracting query utterance statistics from the query utterance; performing Kernelized Locality-Sensitive Hashing (KLSH) using a kernel function, the KLSH using as input the query utterance statistics and utterance statistics extracted from a plurality of utterances included in a database of speakers in order to select a subset of the plurality of utterances; and comparing, using an utterance comparison equation, the query utterance statistics to the utterance statistics for each utterance in the subset to generate a list of speakers from the database of utterances having a highest similarity to the query speaker.
US08442814B2

A Natural Language Understanding system is provided for indexing of free text documents. The system according to the invention utilizes typographical and functional segmentation of text to identify those portions of free text that carry meaning. The system then uses words and multi-word terms and phrases identified in the free to text to identify concepts in the free text. The system uses a lexicon of terms linked to a formal ontology that is independent of a specific language to extract concepts from the free text based on the words and multi-word terms in the free text. The formal ontology contains both language independent domain knowledge concepts and language dependent linguistic concepts that govern the relationships between concepts and contain the rules about how language works. The system according to the current invention may preferably be used to index medical documents and assign codes from independent coding systems, such as, SNOMED, ICD-9 and ICD-10. The system according to the current invention may also preferably make use of syntactic parsing to improve the efficiency of the method.
US08442806B2

Embodiments include storing values of a first plurality of nodes in memory based on tracking the position of a plurality of points of a physical object and maintaining a second plurality of nodes in memory, each node of the second plurality of nodes corresponding to a node of the first plurality. The values of the second plurality of nodes can be used to model interactions with other objects and to render a view of a simulated object. The simulation can access data identifying a simulation boundary and selectively update values of the second plurality of nodes using the first plurality of nodes while ensuring that the simulation boundary is not violated. A value of the second plurality of nodes can be set to be different from the value of the corresponding one of the first plurality of nodes if using the first node's value would violate the boundary.
US08442791B2

A position for a vehicle is corrected by detecting landmarks on the journey route and correcting the measured vehicle position when a landmark of this kind has been identified. The landmarks are stored in a database in the vehicle with associated exact GPS positions. When a landmark is reached, the associated exact GPS position is compared with the position measured in the vehicle, whereupon the measured position is corrected. In this way, the position finding can be improved.
US08442789B2

A method and a device for determining a frequency mask disposed above or below a frequency spectrum of a detected signal determines every individual ordinate value of a first envelope curve disposed completely above or below the frequency spectrum as the maximum value or minimum value of a given number of respectively adjacent ordinate values of the frequency spectrum linked to a window function. Following this, each individual ordinate value of a second envelope curve disposed completely above or below the frequency spectrum and completely above or below the first envelope curve is determined as the maximum value or minimum value of a given number of respectively adjacent ordinate values of the frequency spectrum linked to a window function. Finally, a minimum number of ordinate values of the frequency mask from ordinate values of the first and/or second envelope curve disposed completely between the first and second envelope curve is determined, wherein in each case two successive ordinate values of the frequency mask with a maximum horizontal spacing distance within the first and second envelope curve can be reached in a linear manner relative to one another.
US08442788B2

Provided is a measurement apparatus that measures a signal under measurement, including a strobe timing generator that sequentially generates strobes arranged at substantially equal time intervals; a level comparing section that detects a signal level of the signal under measurement at a timing of each sequentially provided strobe; a capture memory that stores therein a data sequence of the signal levels sequentially detected by the level comparing section; a window function multiplying section that multiplies the data sequence by a window function; a frequency domain converting section that converts the data sequence multiplied by the window function into a spectrum in the frequency domain; and an instantaneous phase noise calculating section that calculates instantaneous phase noise on a time axis of the signal under measurement, based on the spectrum.
US08442783B2

A fuel measuring device, for mounting on the inlet to a vehicle fuel tank, has a sensor for recording a flow rate of fuel flowing through the inlet into the vehicle fuel tank. A processor for integrating the fuel flow rate to determine amount of fuel supplied to the fuel tank and a data storage device, for storing data indicative of the volume of fuel supplied to the vehicle fuel tank, are provided. A connector, for enabling the stored data on fuel volume to be transferred from the fuel measuring device on the vehicle to another device separate from the vehicle. A signal from a sender unit of a vehicle fuel tank may be used. A related method enables fuel usage to be tracked by, for example, the renter of a vehicle, and a further related method provides improved fuel gauges for use in fleets of rental cars.
US08442779B2

A method for identifying a degraded fan measures acoustic data from an operating datacenter fan. A motor rotation frequency and a vane passing frequency are determined from the acoustic data. Amplitudes of the frequencies are determined from the acoustic data. If the amplitude of the motor rotation frequency is greater than the amplitude of the vane passing frequency, then it is determined that the fan is degraded.
US08442770B2

A method of forming a geological model of a region of the earth includes obtaining seismic data relating to the region, the seismic data including seismic traveltime uncertainty. A seismic velocity model of the region may also be provided and includes velocity uncertainty. Ray tracing may be performed on the seismic data using the velocity model to determine the three dimensional positions of a plurality of points of the region. The three dimensional positional uncertainties (7-12) of at least some of the points can be calculated from the traveltime uncertainty, the velocity uncertainty, and uncertainty in the ray propagation direction. This can be combined with the positions determined by the ray tracing to form a geological model.
US08442768B2

A navigation system is configured such that: an in-vehicle device collects and provides position information and movement information of a vehicle to a portable terminal device, and displays image data sent from the portable terminal device. The portable terminal device acquires map information from a map center device based on the position information and the movement information sent from the in-vehicle device, calculates an actual location of the vehicle based on the position information and the movement information sent from the in-vehicle device, and generates image data in which the calculated actual location is superposed on the acquired map information.
US08442763B2

The present invention is related to position calculation and navigation systems, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for making accuracy improvements to a GPS receiver's navigation solutions. According to a first aspect, selective cartography information from a map database accessed by a GPS receiver from a location-aiding device is integrated into the position calculations performed by the GPS receiver. According to another aspect, selective cartography information includes indices representing associated attributes of geographical objects, such as, a width-indicator index for a road segment.
US08442760B2

A GPS receiver is used to receive a signal from GPS satellites, and a current vehicle position is detected based on the received signal. A control unit estimates the current vehicle position based on a travel speed of a vehicle from a vehicle speed sensor and a travel direction of the vehicle from a direction sensor. After correcting the estimated current vehicle position based on the current vehicle position from the GPS receiver, a power supply to the GPS receiver is turned off, and thereafter an error of the estimated current vehicle position is calculated based on an error accumulated for a certain time period regarding the speed and the direction. When the error of the estimated current vehicle position exceeds an error tolerance, the power supply for the GPS receiver is restarted to correct the estimated current vehicle position.
US08442751B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for transferring information with an aircraft. A connection is established between an onboard electronic distribution system executing in an aircraft data processing system in the aircraft and an on ground component. Responsive to a request for a command from the on ground component, the command for execution is identified. The identified command is sent to the onboard electronic distribution system from an on ground component. A transaction identifier is assigned to the command. A transaction associated with the command is maintained on the onboard electronic distribution system and the on ground component using the transaction identifier. An uplink is initiated by the on ground component. An aircraft software part is sent to the onboard electronic distribution system from the on ground component to perform the uplink. A status of a transfer of the aircraft software part on ground component is stored.
US08442746B2

In order to provide an ignition control device 30 which can efficiently control timing of thermal ignition of gaseous mixture in a combustion region 10, the peak estimation part 32, the ignition timing determination part 33, the control timing determination part 34, and the plasma control part 35 control timing of thermal ignition of the gaseous mixture in the combustion region 10 by controlling the pulse generator 36, the electromagnetic wave oscillator 37, the mixer circuit 38, and the spark plug 15 so as to increase the amount of OH radicals in the combustion region 10 during a low-temperature oxidation preparation period that occurs prior to a peak of a heat release rate before the thermal ignition of the gaseous mixture.
US08442739B2

A vehicle driving assist system is provided that calculates a risk potential indicative of a degree of convergence between the host vehicle and the preceding obstacle. A first driving assistance control system controls at least one of an actuation reaction force exerted by a driver-operated driving operation device and a braking/driving force exerted against the host vehicle based on the risk potential calculated. A second driving assistance control system controls the braking/driving force of the host vehicle such that a headway distance is maintained between the host vehicle and the obstacle. A transition detecting section detects a transition of operating states of the first and second driving assistance control systems. The control adjusting section adjusts the control executed by the first and second driving assistance control systems when a transition of operating state is detected.
US08442736B2

A system for controlling a vehicle having a brake assembly for exerting braking force on at least one wheel on the basis of a number of control parameters is provided. The system has a safety system configured to generate the control parameters as a function of a control quantity associated with the braking force to be exerted on the at least one wheel; and a vehicle handling enhancement system configured to: calculate a reference vehicle yaw acceleration on the basis of at least the longitudinal speed of the vehicle and the steer angle of the vehicle; and adjust the control quantity to zero the difference between the actual yaw acceleration and the reference vehicle yaw acceleration.
US08442732B1

A method for determining a driveline ratio for a powertrain having an auxiliary transmission is provided and includes identifying a transmission gear ratio, measuring a transmission output speed, and measuring an auxiliary transmission output speed. An auxiliary transmission gear ratio is identified by comparing the transmission output speed to the auxiliary transmission output speed when the powertrain is in motion. The auxiliary transmission gear ratio is identified from a switch when the powertrain is at rest. An auxiliary transmission module has an auxiliary transmission in communication with a controller. The controller is configured to identify an auxiliary transmission gear ratio, and limit an engine torque command to limit the auxiliary transmission output torque. The engine torque command is limited if the output torque exceeds a predetermined value and if the auxiliary transmission is in a reducing gear ratio.
US08442729B2

This invention provides a traveling system for an engineering machine, adapted to limit a maximum traveling speed of the machine without causing decreases in engineering work efficiency or in accelerating performance during a start of traveling, and to improve fuel efficiency by suppressing a loss of engine output horsepower under the limited state of the maximum traveling speed. During fourth-gear shift control process, capacities of first and second hydraulic motors 23, 24 are controlled in coordinative form and the second hydraulic motor 24 has its minimum tilting amount limited to a tilting amount limit q2cmin. In addition, when a tilting amount of the first hydraulic motor 23 reaches a minimum tilting amount q1min, the engine 10 has its maximum engine speed limited to a first engine speed limit Ncmax1 (e.g., 1,800 rpm).
US08442723B2

A method for activating personal protection means using at least one signal derived from an acceleration sensor. A forward displacement is determined from the signal, and the forward displacement is compared to at least one threshold value surface, which is set as a function of a velocity decrease and a deceleration. The personal protection means is activated as a function of the comparison.
US08442718B2

A battery charging system for a vehicle includes a generator, a battery, a DC/DC converter converting the electrical power generated by the generator and supplying the converted electrical power to the electrical device of the vehicle and supplying the electrical power to an electrical device, and charging the battery, an energy storage device storing the electrical power generated from the generator and providing the stored electrical power to the DC/DC converter, and an engine control unit controlling the generator to charge the energy storage device by providing regenerative power generated by the generator in a deceleration driving section of the vehicle, calculating a low-voltage control amount determined to correspond to a state of the battery connected to the DC/DC converter and whether the electrical device of the vehicle operates, and controlling the DC/DC converter to charge the electrical power in the battery based on the calculated low-voltage control amount.
US08442710B2

The positions and motions of a bow and a stern of the ship are detected using redundant devices and evaluated to automatically perform difficult maneuvers in ports or to generate recommendations for controlling the ship.
US08442709B2

An underwater investigation system may include a host ship, a UUV including a propulsion device and a steering device, and at least one sonar system. The system may further include a guidance controller configured to initiate sonar range measurements between the host ship and the UUV using the at least one sonar system, and estimate a respective UUV position state relative to the host ship at the initiation of at least some of the sonar range value measurements to define a series of successive UUV position state estimates. The guidance controller may be further configured to update UUV position state estimates in the series based upon completion of their respective sonar range measurements, propagate the updates to subsequent UUV position state estimates in the series, and control the propulsion device and the steering device to guide movement of the UUV relative to the host ship based upon the updated position state estimates. The system thereby provides relatively precise guidance and navigation capabilities to maneuver the UUV relatively long distances away from the host ship.
US08442705B2

The present invention provides a device and method for determining aerodynamic characteristics of an aircraft, in particular a pitch moment coefficient at an ascending force of the aircraft without a horizontal tail plane of zero and an aerodynamic neutral point of the aircraft without a horizontal tail plane. In the method according to the invention, forces and mechanical flight parameters on aerofoils and a horizontal tail plane of the aircraft are detected at various detection instants during at least one non-stationary flight maneuvre of the aircraft. In this case, a linear system of equations is formed, which comprises a pitch movement moment balance equation for each detection instant, the pitch movement moment balance equation having the detected forces and mechanical flight parameters. This linear system of equations is evaluated to calculate the aerodynamic characteristics.
US08442703B2

The present invention relates to estimating the attitude angles of an aircraft (1). The estimated attitude angles are generated by a device (9) that performs algorithmic integration on inertial measurements indicative of an angular velocity and of a linear acceleration. Horizontal components (34-39) of desired corrections are obtained by a linear combination of two horizontal components (32-33), with cross coefficients between said horizontal axes being continuous variable over time and dependent on the estimated rate of turn. As a result, the estimated attitude angles are stable, and the biases of the gyros continue to be estimated, including during stages during which the aircraft (1) is turning.
US08442702B2

The present invention provides a fault diagnosis device for optimizing maintenance measures in a system, in particular a flying object. The diagnosis device has a storage unit for storing diagnosis rules, which each have a fault condition indicating the presence of a fault, and a fault conclusion formed by logical combinations of potential fault causes of the respective fault. Furthermore, a logic unit is provided, which logically combines those stored fault conclusions whose associated fault conditions are met and, on the basis of the combined fault conclusions, determines a logical diagnosis result having at least one fault cause hypothesis. A calculation unit subsequently calculates an occurrence probability for each fault cause hypothesis of the logical diagnosis result determined.
US08442699B2

An integrated control system includes a main control system controlling a driving system, a main control system controlling a brake system, and a main control system controlling a steering system, an adviser unit generating and providing information to be used at each control system based on environmental information around the vehicle or information related to a driver, an agent unit generating and providing information to be used at each of the main control systems to cause the vehicle to realize a predetermined behavior, and a supporter unit generating and providing information to be used at each of the main control systems based on the current dynamic state of the vehicle.
US08442695B2

According to an aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus includes a processor operable to manage energy use at a site wherein the processor is configured to detect a user interaction with the apparatus and create a personalized schedule automatically in response to the user interaction. The apparatus can also include a first profile accessible to the processor, wherein the first profile includes a first personalized schedule, and a second profile accessible to the processor, wherein the second profile is different from the first profile and includes a second personalized schedule. In addition, the processor can be configured to determine when to use the first profile or the second profile, initiate an outgoing message using the first or second personalized schedule, and update the first or second profile in response to a user interaction with an interface of the apparatus during use of the first or second personalized schedule.
US08442691B2

Light source having a plurality of light elements (207) and a control system for controlling the light elements. The control system comprises a plurality of light element controllers (213), each connected to a respective light element (207), and arranged to obtain light element data; and a bus interface (203), which is connected to the light element controllers (213) via a light source bus (209). The bus interface (203) provides the light element controllers (213) with a general command, and the light element controllers generate light element drive signals on basis of the general command and the light element data.
US08442690B2

Systems, methods and devices are provided that allow more efficient transfer and processing of sensor information in a hierarchical data system. The system provides for a plurality of component area managers (CAM), each of the CAMS being in operable communication with at least one of a plurality of transducers that monitors a phenomena of a component and in operable communication with a data bus. A CAM comprises a processor in operable communication with the at least one transducer of the plurality of transducers, wherein the first processor is configured to record data generated by the at least one transducer of the plurality of transducers, to reduce the recorded data, to place the reduced data on the data bus. The system also includes a transducer selection module controlled by the first processor by which the first processor selects one of the plurality of transducers to record and a rolling buffer in operable communication with the first processor and in operable communication with the at least one transducer by which to record the data generated by the at least one transducer of the plurality in a first-in-first-out manner.
US08442689B2

A flexible instrument control and data storage/management system and method for representing and processing assay plates having one or more predefined plate locations is disclosed. The system utilizes a graph data structure, layer objects and data objects. The layer objects map the graph data structure to the data objects. The graph data structure can comprise one node for each of the one or more predefined plate locations, wherein the nodes can be hierarchically defined according to a predefined plate location hierarchy. Each node can be given a unique node identifier, a node type and a node association that implements the predefined plate location hierarchy. The layer objects can include an index that maps the node identifiers to the data objects.
US08442687B2

A control system of a multi-link structure configured by connecting a plurality of rigid bodies together is disclosed. The control system includes: a state equation setting means; a predictive control target value setting means; a stability evaluation function setting means; an optimal control input determining means; an optimal momentum calculating means; and a joint driving method determining means.
US08442680B2

A motion state evaluation apparatus of a legged mobile robot uses virtual surfaces (S3a, S2a, S2b) to approximate a plurality of surfaces to be contacted (FL, WL1, WL2) in an operating environment of the robot (1), and calculates translational forces (required virtual surface translational forces) to be applied from virtual surfaces (S3a, S2a, S2b) to the robot (1) in order to implement a compensating total translational external force related to a translational motion of the robot (1). The motion state evaluation apparatus evaluates the motion state of the robot on the basis of the required virtual surface translational forces.
US08442660B2

An intelligent electronic device having an audible and visual interface for providing audible and visual instructions to a user in an event of an alarm or trouble indication in the electrical power system. The intelligent electronic device includes at least one sensor configured for measuring at least one power parameter of an electrical circuit and generating at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one power parameter; at least one digital to analog converter for receiving the at least one analog signal and converting the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; a processor configured for receiving the at least one digital signal and detecting at least one event occurring in the electrical circuit; and an interface configured for providing instructions associated to the at least one detected event. The instructions may be in the form of text, audio and/or video.
US08442657B2

A cardiac rhythm management device that can comprise a lead and a pulse generator. The lead can comprise lead body, a composite conductor, a stylet guide, two or more electrodes and a proximal connector. The composite conductor can comprise two or more conductors which can electrically couple the electrodes to the proximal connector. The electrodes can be disposed on a distal portion of the lead body and can be longitudinally spaced from one another. The proximal connector can be configured to couple to the pulse generator.
US08442655B2

A neurostimulation paddle lead, method of neurostimulation, and neurostimulation system are provided. The neurostimulation paddle lead carries a plurality of electrodes comprising at least four columns of electrodes having a spacing between two inner electrode columns less than a spacing between the inner electrode columns and adjacent outer electrode columns. The inner electrode columns may also be longitudinally offset from the outer electrode columns. The methods and neurostimulation systems steer current between the electrodes to modify a medial-lateral electrical field created adjacent spinal cord tissue.
US08442653B2

An electrode, in particular a deep brain stimulating (DBS) electrode or a deep brain lesioning electrode, a method for manufacturing an electrode and use of the electrode, and a directional electrode.
US08442651B2

An electrode assembly for a medical device system includes an electrode, a shunted lead circuit, and a self-healing material integrated into the shunted lead circuit. The shunted lead circuit is designed to shunt currents induced by relatively high frequency radiation, such as MRI radiation. The self-healing material has a conductive layer and a dielectric layer, where the dielectric layer includes at least one of an oxide, an organic coating, and a composite.
US08442647B2

A medical implantable lead adapted to be implanted into a human or animal body for monitoring and/or controlling of an organ inside the body has a fixation in a distal end, which is adapted to fix a distal end of the lead to the organ, an electrode member in the distal end adapted to be in contact with tissue of the organ and receive and/or transmit electrical signals from and/or to the organ, and at least one electrically conducting coil, which includes one or more electrically conducting helical wires and that is adapted to connect the electrode member in the distal end with a monitoring and/or controlling device in a proximal end of the lead. One or more of the individual wires of the coil has a wire core that is provided with a surrounding electrically insulating layer, which in turn is provided with a surrounding electrically conducting shield layer, and the coil is close lapped such that electrically conducting shield layers of adjacent loops of the coil are in electrical contact with each other.
US08442639B2

Disclosed herein, among other things, is a system for electrical stimulation of blood vessels. An embodiment of the system includes at least one electrode having electrical contact with a blood vessel. The embodiment also includes a stimulation circuit electrically connected to the electrode, the circuit adapted to provide stimulation to the vessel. The embodiment further includes a controller connected to the circuit, the controller adapted to select frequency and voltage parameters for the stimulation circuit to selectively affect vascular therapy, including constriction of the vessel and dilation of the vessel. According to various embodiments, the stimulation circuit and controller are contained within an implantable medical device (IMD). The system also includes a sensor connected to the controller, and the controller initiates and adjusts therapy based on a signal received from the sensor, in varying embodiments.
US08442634B2

Techniques are provided for use by implantable medical devices for controlling ventricular pacing. In one example, optimal atrio-ventricular and interventricular pacing delay values are determined for pacing the heart of the patient based, in part, on a measured inter-atrial conduction delay. Atrio-ventricular conduction delays are then measured within the patient. The atrio-ventricular pacing delays are compared with the measured atrio-ventricular conduction delays. If the atrio-ventricular pacing delays are less than the measured atrio-ventricular conduction delays, biventricular pacing is delivered using the atrio-ventricular pacing delay and the interventricular pacing delay. However, if the atrio-ventricular pacing delays are not less than the corresponding atrio-ventricular conduction delays, as can occur if the inter-atrial conduction delay is large, then alternative pacing regimes are selectively enabled, such as monoventricular pacing in the chamber having the longer conduction delay value, biventricular pacing with negative hysteresis, or biventricular pacing with pacing delays reduced using predetermined offset values.
US08442631B2

A method for monitoring a biological cardiac pacemaker. The method may include stimulating a heart at a region selected for implantation of a biological pacemaker and sensing at least one electrical signal indicative of a cardiac depolarization originating in the region selected for implantation of the biological pacemaker. The method may further include sensing at least one subsequent electrical signal produced by the heart and determining if the subsequent electrical signal originated in the region selected for the biological pacemaker or another region of the heart.
US08442629B2

Provided is to enhance the therapeutic effect of an iontophoretic preparation for treatment of breast cancer or mastitis.An iontophoretic preparation for treatment of breast cancer and/or mastitis containing, as an active ingredient, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic agent and/or an anticancer agent, wherein an electrolyte is topically administered through the nipple part into the mammary gland; subsequently, a donor is applied to the nipple part; and the active ingredient is topically administered through the nipple part into the mammary gland by application of current.
US08442627B2

An implantable medical device used for thoracic fluid monitoring by detection of changes in impedance in a patient. The device measures impedances of the patient in a supine position and in an upright position. The device determines impedance differences between the supine and upright positions which correspond to a diurnal delta value, which may in turn be employed as a diagnostic parameter.
US08442626B2

The embodiments described herein are directed to systems and methods for communicating with a computer. The system includes a capture device having sensors to capture a particular brain activity pattern indicative of the mental activity generated in the user by a particular subject, a data storage device operable for storing a plurality of stored brain activity patterns each of which being associated with at least one computer readable indicia indicative of a subject that generated that brain activity pattern. The system also has a processor operable to receive the captured brain activity pattern, search for matching stored brain activity patterns, and if there is at least one matching stored brain activity pattern, retrieve the at least one indicia associated with the at least one matching stored brain activity pattern. The capture device may be an EEG capture device and the captured and stored brain activity patterns are EEG profiles.
US08442622B2

Based on generated tomographic images, a first feature quantity representative of a clearness of sectional shapes crossing the Z′ axis at the vertebrae is calculated for each of respective points on the Z′ axis. Further, based on the generated tomographic images, a second feature quantity representative of a clearness of sectional shapes parallel to the Z′ axis at the vertebrae is calculated for each of the respective points on the Z′ axis. A third feature quantity representative of a regularity of an array of the vertebrae is calculated for each of the respective points on the Z′ axis, based on the calculated first feature quantity and the calculated second feature quantity. Positions of the vertebrae on the Z′ axis are calculated based on the third feature quantity, which is calculated for each of respective points on the Z′ axis.
US08442621B2

Systems and methods for determining a desired trajectory and/or monitoring the trajectory of surgical instruments and/or implants in any number of surgical procedures, such as (but not limited to) spinal surgery, including (but not limited to) ensuring proper placement of pedicle screws during pedicle fixation procedures and ensuring proper trajectory during the establishment of an operative corridor to a spinal target site.
US08442619B2

A system and method for identifying errors while tracking instrument navigations is enclosed. The method may include assigning a plurality of virtual points to a plurality of sensors. At least one of the virtual points may be a non-fixed virtual point. The assignment of virtual points to sensors may be determined based on the medical instrument, or the medical instrument attachment, being used. Virtual point locations may be determined for the non-fixed virtual point. The locations of the non-fixed virtual point may be determined based on the medical instrument, or the medical instrument attachment, being used. The vector values for vectors terminating at the non-fixed virtual point may be adjusted. The field integrity values for the virtual points may be computed. If a field integrity value is greater than a threshold value, an error signal may be communicated.
US08442614B2

An embodiment of the invention includes a biocompatible stiffness enhanced pliable electrically conductive filament configured for contact with living tissue and electrical communication with such tissue. The pliability of the filament allows the distal end of the filament to remain at the original site of penetration into the tissue despite the movement of the tissue relative to its surrounding environment. To temporarily stiffen the filament, a soluble stiffness enhancing coating is disposed over the filament. The coating may be in the form of a liquid which dries to a solid state after being applied to the filament and renders the filament sufficiently rigid such that under appropriate force, the filament is capable of penetrating into dense tissue. Once in place the stiffness enhancing coating dissolves due to contact with body fluids, the filament, in the absence of such coating, returns to its initial pliability. An electrical insulating layer is disposed over a portion of the filament to render it non-conductive with tissue in the area adjacent the insulating layer. For a filament with such insulating layer, the stiffness enhancing coating would be disposed over the insulating layer. The filament may also include anchoring means configured to further anchor the filament in place.
US08442612B2

The invention is an electrophysiology lead body comprising two or more longitudinal elements, each having an outer surface, the longitudinal elements comprising electrical insulation material, the electrical insulation material consisting essentially of fluoropolymer; at least one conductor disposed within at least one of the longitudinal elements; and a cover consisting essentially of fluoropolymer, wherein the cover surrounds the longitudinal elements.
US08442611B2

A medical device is provided which may include a reservoir which has an opening and contains a sensor; a reservoir cap closing off the opening to isolate the sensor from an environmental component outside the reservoirs, the reservoir cap being impermeable to the environmental component and adapted to selectively undergo a phase change to disintegrate the reservoir cap and thereby expose the sensor to the environmental component. A method of use may include (i) selectively disintegrating a reservoir cap to expose a sensor which is disposed inside a reservoir of a device implanted in a patient, the disintegrating comprising inducing a phase change in the reservoir cap; and (ii) using the sensor to generate an output signal, wherein the output signal is recorded and stored in a writeable computer memory chips, directed to a microprocessor for immediate analysis and processing, or sent to a remote location away from the device.
US08442607B2

The invention features a vital sign monitor that includes: 1) a hardware control component featuring a microprocessor that operates an interactive, icon-driven GUI on an LCD; and, 2) a sensor component that connects to the control component through a shielded coaxial cable. The sensor features: 1) an optical component that generates a first signal; 2) a plurality electrical components (e.g. electrodes) that generate a second signal; and, 3) an acoustic component that generates a third signal. The microprocessor runs compiled computer code that operates: 1) the touch panel LCD; 2) a graphical user interface that includes multiple icons corresponding to different software operations; 3) a file-management system for storing and retrieving vital sign information; and 4) USB and short-range wireless systems for transferring data to and from the device to a PC.
US08442604B1

A case for portable electronic devices including smartphones includes a feature to prevent glare from a flash from affecting images and video captured by a camera lens. Smartphones have telephony, Internet connectivity, and camera and video features. Photos and video can be uploaded through the Internet or sent to other phones. A case has a hole for a camera flash of the smartphone to pass through. The edging of the hole is colored black or another dark color to prevent glare from appearing in the photos or video taken by the smartphone when using the camera flash.
US08442601B2

A mobile phone apparatus has a first case, a second case and a third case each taking the shape of a planar rectangle. A long side of the second case is longer than a long side of the first case, and whereby, in a closed position of the first case, a top surface of the second case is divided into a covered portion and an exposed portion. Also, on a top surface of the first case, a display is provided. Moreover, on the top surface of the second case, a QWERTY keyboard is provided at the covered portion, and a touch key including a cross key being the pointing device is provided at the exposed portion. Then, on a top surface of the third case, a numeric keypad is provided so as to be exposed in response to a sliding of the third case.
US08442591B1

A method and system are shown and described for separating, on a communication channel, multiple complex communication signals originating from corresponding multiple communication sources. The method includes estimating separate complex communication signals using an unmixing matrix. The unmixing matrix is recursively updated by transforming the estimated complex communication signals into real numbers for use with a gradient-based training module. The gradient-based training module is configured to use the real numbers to calculate learning rule updates to apply to the unmixing matrix. The gradient-based training module is configured to minimize error in the signal estimation obtained by application of the unmixing matrix. The transformation of the estimated complex communication signals into real numbers may include applying the complex communication signals to a hyperbolic tangent function.
US08442587B2

The described embodiments relate generally to methods, systems and devices for maintaining data integrity of a removable media card of a handheld electronic device, particularly when such media card is removed from such device.
US08442574B2

A method includes the steps of calculating a transmission power difference between a first carrier and a second carrier, and determining whether or not the transmission power difference exceeds a threshold set up on the basis of a maximum transmission power difference allowable between the first carrier and the second carrier. When the transmission power difference exceeds the threshold set up on the basis of the maximum transmission power difference, the transmission power of the first carrier or the second carrier is controlled while maintaining the transmission power difference within the maximum transmission power difference and not complying with power control information corresponding to the first carrier or the second carrier.
US08442568B2

A subband determining method, a base station, user equipment, and a communications system are provided. The base station of the present invention finds the subband size on the basis of a system bandwidth and divides the system bandwidth into subbands. The base station further selects some subbands to form a subband set and assign the subband set to user equipment and notifies the user equipment of information about the subband set. The user equipment in turn finds its corresponding subband size and the number of subbands for use in feedback on the basis of the size of the assigned subband set. The user equipment further divides the subband set into its corresponding subbands on the basis of a result found and feeds back information about a predetermined number of subbands to the base station. The base station carries out optimization of its transmitter on the basis of the information.
US08442567B2

A system and method for cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio (CR) systems is provided. A method for CR user operation includes coordinating with partner CR users to share spectrum sensing information, combining spectrum sensing information from partner CR users, and determining if a transmission opportunity exists based on the combined spectrum sensing information. The method also includes transmitting a message to a CR user if the transmission opportunity exists, and storing the message if the transmission opportunity does not exist.
US08442561B2

A method for updating a location in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes transmitting a request message to enter idle mode, receiving a response message including an Identifier (ID) of a first paging group and an ID of a second paging group in response to the request message, activating a paging group location update timer, when the MS leaves an area of the first paging group, and updating a location according to the paging group location update timer.
US08442555B2

Systems, apparatuses and methods for monitoring wireless communication performance. A fleet of moving vehicles equipped with communication devices communicate data call records, including a geographic location of the vehicle when the communication was attempted, to a central office. Indications of successful and unsuccessful call record communications attempts are aggregated by geographic area using the geographic location data from the vehicles. Call success rate levels for the geographic areas are determined based on the aggregated indications of successful and unsuccessful call record communication attempts. These levels may be presented on geographical maps or otherwise, and/or used for network analysis purposes.
US08442553B2

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for determining the location of a device with the assistance of fixed receivers. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a first request from the mobile device in the wireless network; wirelessly transmitting one or more positioning requests in response to the first request; receiving signal strength information from one or more receivers in the wireless network sent in response to the one or more positioning requests; determining a location of the mobile device based on received signal strength information by comparing the received signal strength information with signal strength information of reference locations; and sending location information to the mobile device, where the location information is indicative of the location of the mobile device.
US08442547B2

A mobile communications system is described in which base stations communicate with each other using a Master/Slave protocol to exchange load balancing information that can be used to control the handover of mobile devices amongst neighbouring base stations and/or neighbouring cells. The Master base station requests the Slave base station to provide a load status report to it either at a defined time or periodicity or in response to certain events.
US08442531B2

Various example embodiments are disclosed relating wireless networks and relating to context transfers and multi-band operation in wireless networks. In an example embodiment, a multi-band scheduler may be provided for use in a wireless node. The multi-band scheduler may be configured to: receive one or more data units of a flow; assign each received data unit of the flow to a first frequency band of a plurality of frequency bands; determine a band transfer condition for the flow; and perform a context transfer from the first frequency band to a second frequency band for the flow based on the determined band transfer condition.
US08442520B2

A network for providing high speed data communications may include multiple terrestrial transmission stations that are located within overlapping communications range and a mobile receiver station. The terrestrial transmission stations provide a continuous and uninterrupted high speed data communications link with the mobile receiver station employing a wireless radio access network protocol.
US08442510B2

Devices, systems and methods are disclosed which relate to implementing a point-of-presence system on a mobile service network. Such a point-of-presence system includes a mobile device communications network; a mobile device; a point-of-presence logic installed on a mobile device; and an application server in communication with the point-of-presence logic via the communications network. Communications between the point-of-presence logic and the network and application server include network data, configuration, and/or installation of connection and device management applications. This point-of-presence system constitutes a mechanism for the service provider to best optimize network resources, even at the device level, while providing optimum network service to mobile users—even for mobile devices that have not been pre-configured for the mobile service network.
US08442506B2

A radio networking system includes at least a first communication port operable to facilitate communication between the radio networking system and a first communication platform. The system further includes at least a second communication port operable to facilitate communication between the radio networking system and a second communication platform. Additionally, a call control software module is operable to automatically and intelligently switch an incoming call from the first communication platform to the second communication platform which is controlled by a processor operable to execute the call control software module according to the information contained in a system configuration database. The call control software module further manages the configuration of call connections and conferencing services and supports real time user control of desired communication services.
US08442505B1

Caller ID information directed to a user's mobile phone is delivered to the user's home television set for viewing. A determination is made as to whether the mobile phone is within a home zone associated with the user. The determining is performed at a network element within a mobile communications network that provides carrier service to the mobile phone. A presence indication is stored in a database indicating whether the mobile phone is within the home zone associated with the user. When the mobile phone is within the home zone, and based on a user authorization to provide to a video provider information associated with calls, then, for a call to the mobile phone, sending a calling phone identification and a mobile phone destination number to the video provider for insertion of the calling phone identification into a video stream for delivery to the video display device.
US08442503B2

System and method for enabling proximity-triggered messaging in certain coverage areas for social networks and communities-based services. The system includes at least one local unit with cellular radio transceiver, located within a corresponding coverage area. The cellular transceiver broadcasts a LAC different from any other LAC of the radio cells in the surroundings; establishes a Location Update dialogue with any mobile phone answering to the LAC broadcast, obtaining its IMSI number; sends a Location Updating Reject message to each mobile phone whose IMSI number has been obtained; and sends said IMSI number to a central unit. The central unit obtains, for each IMSI number, one valid identity in a community-based service; and provides at least one social network server associated to the corresponding valid on-line identity with the valid identity.
US08442502B2

Technologies are generally described for tracking an object. In some examples, a system may comprise a mobile phone and an augmented reality device. The mobile phone may be effective to receive a transmitted wave and to receive a reflected wave reflected off of an object. The mobile phone may be configured to determine a difference between the transmitted and the reflected wave, and generate first tracking data based on the determined difference. The augmented reality device may be adapted to receive the first tracking data and determine second tracking data regarding the location of the object based on the first tracking data. An image may be generated on a display based on the determined first and second tracking data.
US08442495B2

A system and method for voice messaging the enables the modification of recorded voice messages and caller-specific conveniences. More particularly, the present invention pertains to identifying a caller and, thereby, enabling the caller to modify recorded voice messages and enabling a recipient to designate how calls from a particular caller should be handled, for example, by specifying a greeting message for a particular caller or by specifying the order in which voice messages are presented based upon the associated caller.
US08442492B2

A method of operating a cellular telephone comprises presenting a user with an option of a first rule or a second rule, and accepting a selection of the first rule or the second rule. The first rule relates to a voice message, and the second rule relates to a text message. The method determines that reception is not sufficient to establish communication, and stores an address of an intended recipient. The method also stores the voice message if the first rule was selected or the text message if the second rule was selected. When reception is sufficient to establish communication, the stored message is sent to the address.
US08442491B2

A method and apparatus for providing roaming service in a wireless communication system. A roaming gateway for performing communication between an Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) network and a circuit switched (CS) network receives an authentication request for a roaming mobile station (MS), which roams from an IMS network to a CS network, from a mobile service center (MSC) of the CS network, acquires authentication information for the roaming MS and service information for services, with which the roaming MS has been provided from the IMS network, at the authentication request, checks if the roaming MS is entitled to use the services according to the service information by using the authentication information and the service information, and sends an authentication success message to the MSC when the roaming MS is entitled to use the services.
US08442470B1

A system includes a weighting module, a mixer module, and a frequency selective impedance (FSI). The weighting module is configured to receive an input signal having an amplitude and to generate weighted outputs. Amplitudes of the weighted outputs have ratios relative to the amplitude of the input signal. The mixer module has switches configured to receive the weighted outputs and to generate a staircase waveform when the switches are clocked by clock signals. Amplitudes of steps of the staircase waveform are based on the ratios. The FSI is configured to communicate with the switches. The switches are configured to translate an impedance of the FSI centered on a first frequency to a second frequency determined by a frequency of the clock signals.
US08442463B2

A receiving device is disclosed. The receiving device includes a receiving module and a processing module. The receiving module includes a plurality of parameters. The receiving module is used for setting the parameters according to a control signal, receiving a wireless signal according to settings of the different parameters, and outputting a first output signal and a second output signal separately. The processing module couples the receiving module and generates the control to set the parameters according the first output signal and the second output signal.
US08442461B2

The transmitter synthesizes amplitude and phase components and calibrates a delay mismatch between amplitude and phase components with high accuracy at high speed. The transmitter has: a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and a low-pass filter (LPF) in its amplitude-signal path; and a phase modulator operable to convert up a phase component into an RF component in its phase-signal path. In an operation of delay calibration, a test input signal is supplied to a delay-calibrating unit in the amplitude-signal path, and the delay-calibrating unit provides a test input signal to DAC. Then, LPF generates a test output signal. The delay-calibrating unit detects a delay of the test output signal relative to the test input signal, calibrates an amplitude signal delay in a range from the input of the delay-calibrating unit to the output of LPF, reduces the difference between amplitude and phase signal delays of the phase modulator in the phase-signal path.
US08442459B2

A signal generating section 10 outputs an amplitude signal and a frequency signal by conducting a signal processing on inputted data. A regulator 31 outputs a signal that is proportional to a magnitude of the amplitude signal. The signal outputted from the regulator 31 passes through a low pass filter 41, and is inputted into a power amplifier 51. The power amplifier 51 conducts an amplitude modulation on a frequency signal on which an angle modulation is conducted by an angle modulation section 20, using a signal outputted from the low pass filter 41. A controlling section 60 controls an amount of attenuation of a radio frequency component at the low pass filter 41 based on information such as: a modulation method of the inputted data; a modulation condition of the inputted data; a reception band; an output power of a modulation signal; and a frequency of the modulation signal.
US08442456B2

A wireless communication unit comprises a transmitter having a power amplifier and a feedback path operably coupled to the power amplifier. The feedback path comprises a coupler for feeding back a portion of a signal to be transmitted and a detector for detecting a power level of the fed back signal. A controller provides a ramp signal to the power amplifier that controls an amplitude characteristic of the signal to be transmitted. Averaging logic is operably coupled to the detector and arranged to average the detected power level over a first period. Comparison logic is operably coupled to the averaging logic and arranged to compare the average detected power level with a reference value. The controller is operably coupled to the comparison logic and arranged to scale a ramp signal applied to the power amplifier in response to the comparison.
US08442450B1

A network device includes a first feedback module and a first calibration module. The first feedback module selectively generates a first transmission schedule that is transmitted to a link partner, wherein the first transmission schedule includes a first matrix map. The first calibration module selectively transmits a first set of training signals to the link partner, receives a first set of channel state information (CSI) for the training signals from the link partner according to the first transmission schedule, and generates a first CSI matrix based on the first set of CSI and the first matrix map.
US08442449B2

A receiver and a method are described herein for reducing an amount of channel state information related to a transmit channel correlation matrix ΦTX that is feedback to a transmitter. In addition, to a transmitter and a method are described herein for reconstructing the transmit channel correlation matrix φTX using the reduced channel state feedback information received from the receiver.
US08442448B2

An apparatus and method for transmitting and/or receiving data in a closed-loop multi-antenna system, the method of receiving data including: acquiring CQIs of data streams by channel estimation of a received signal; selecting at least one CQI from among the acquired CQIs; calculating a common CQI using the acquired CQIs; generating feedback information with the at least one CQI, the common CQI, and an index of a data stream with the at least one CQI; and transmitting the feedback information to a transmitter.
US08442445B2

Various cognitive communications system architectures and their corresponding Protocol Reference Models (PRMs) are disclosed. Such PRMs incorporate a Cognitive Plane in addition to conventional Data and Management Planes. The additional Cognitive Plane functionality may include, for example, spectrum sensing, spectrum management, geolocation, and security functions. The Cognitive Plane may further include a Policy Engine and a Learning and Reasoning Module. In some embodiments, Management Plane functions may be effectively combined to form a database of primitives (and their respective values) called a Management Information Base (MIB). In addition, techniques are provided by which various components of cognitive and non-cognitive, as well as mesh-enabled and non-mesh-enabled nodes in a network, inter-operate with each other. The architectures allow a Spectrum Manager (or Signal Space Manager) to combine information from various network layers (e.g., PHY/MAC Layers, Spectrum Sensing Function, Geolocation Function, and/or Security Sublayers), and to make informed decisions on spectrum utilization.
US08442444B2

A method of transmit power control to allow a transmission side to execute transmit power control so that a signal to interference ratio (SIR) measured at a reception side is matched with a target SIR, the method includes digitizing a reception environment at the reception side, and setting the target SIR corresponding to an error rate of reception data for each of the reception environments; and changing the target SIR in accordance with the reception environment measured at the reception side or the reception environment selected at the reception side.
US08442443B2

The present invention relates to a method which analysis the characteristics of the received signal and selects the best beam arrangement for a transmitter/receiver pair for a given situation in a communication system. In particular, the channel delay profile provides characteristics which help to determine and evaluate the quality of a signal link. The result of this evaluation is used for selecting the best beam arrangement.
US08442428B2

A system and method are disclosed for capturing information associated with wireless audio sounds among a plurality of users. When a user encounters audio sound files of interest, the user can capture information regarding the audio sounds, such as title, artist, collection, genre, year, encoding rate, size, playlist, a unique identifier, or other desired information. The information can be used to seamlessly purchase the sound files from a remote digital repository.
US08442424B2

An interactive political event allows clients to provide feedback to political candidates speakers and/or event producers relative to the event being observed. Feedback options include shout outs, emotapplause, and voting. Ticket scarcity management system adjusts event marketing, and/or ticketed sales methodologies, which include free and paid to maintain optimal conditions for an interactive political event. Multiple video/audio streams of an interactive event are simultaneously distributed as part of a broadcast to enable switching between streams by the online audience members and/or users without interruption of the presentation of the event and may include additional data relative to a candidates and/or speakers history and/or position with respect to issues being debated and/or discussed.
US08442412B2

A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus is usable with process cartridges that each include an electrophotographic photosensitive drum. The image forming apparatus includes a movable member that is movable between an inside of the main assembly of the apparatus and an outside of the main assembly of the apparatus in a direction crossing with a longitudinal direction of the drum while carrying the cartridges. A main assembly electrical contact is provided inside the main assembly along a movement path of the movable member. An intermediary electrical contact is provided and includes a first electrical contact portion that is disposed inside the movable member, with the intermediary electrical contact being electrically connectable to a cartridge electrical contact of a cartridge, and a second electrical contact portion is disposed outside the movable member, with the second electrical contact portion electrically connectable to a main assembly electrical contact provided in the main assembly.
US08442403B2

A lighting and control system is described. One embodiment of the lighting and control system includes a lighting node and a controller. The lighting node may include a light emitting diode configured for illumination and further configured for optical communication with the controller, a node radio device configured for radio communication with the controller, and a node memory configured to store a node identifier and a group identifier. The controller may include an optical sensor configured to sense illumination of the lighting node and further configured for optical communication with the lighting node, a controller radio device configured for radio communication with the lighting node, and a controller memory configured to store a group identifier. The lighting node and the controller may each further include a power supply and a processor. In one embodiment, the lighting node and the controller belong to a wireless mesh network.
US08442400B2

The present invention discloses a wavelength-division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) capable of high-bandwidth transmission for optical signals by using modulation format having high spectral efficiency. The WDM-PON according to the present invention provides a larger capacity and higher bandwidth transmission economically (at lower costs) by using a modulation format where spectral efficiency (a transmission bit number per a unit band width) is high, while using a low noise part of a light source.
US08442399B2

An apparatus comprising a path computation element (PCE) coupled to a path computation client (PCC) and configured to perform a path computation using port wavelength restriction information for a network element (NE), wherein the port wavelength restriction information is encoded and received in a port wavelength restriction Type-Length-Value (TLV) that comprises a matrix identifier (ID), a restriction type, and the port wavelength restriction information. Also disclosed is a network component comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory and configured to receive a port wavelength restriction information TLV that corresponds to a NE, and obtain a restriction type and port wavelength restriction information based on the restriction type from the port wavelength restriction TLV, and use the port wavelength restriction information to calculate a path for the NE.
US08442396B2

A focus detection apparatus comprising a focus detection sensor formed by arranging a plurality of pairs of line sensors, each pair of line sensors receiving light beams that have passed through different pupil areas of an imaging lens configured to form an object image, a sensitivity setting unit configured to set a sensitivity for each pair of the plurality of pairs of line sensors, a selection unit configured to select line sensors of the pair of line sensors, whose signals are to be used for focus detection calculation, and a calculation unit configured to perform the focus detection calculation using the signals of the line sensors selected by the selection unit.
US08442395B2

A lens barrel which is capable of increasing the total length of the lens barrel in a shooting state even in a case where the collapsed lens barrel length is short, with a simple construction. A shooting optical system is disposed movably in an optical axis direction. A lens barrel driving member moves the shooting optical system in the optical axis direction while rotating around the optical axis. A lens barrel driving member moving unit moves the lens barrel driving member in the optical axis direction in a transition region during which the lens barrel moves between a shooting state and a non-shooting state while the driving member rotating.
US08442393B2

A shake correction apparatus for correcting shake of a camera includes: a lens support plate including a correction lens and driven in a perpendicular direction with respect to an optical axis; and a position fixing member that decouplably couples with the lens support plate and fixes a position of the lens support plate according to a rotation of the lens support plate.The shake correction apparatus performs a correction operation for offsetting shake when an optical image stabilization (OIS) function is turned on, and performs a centering operation for fixing the correction lens to an original position when the OIS function is turned off. The shake correction apparatus is advantageous for low power operation, being miniaturized, and being light-weighted.
US08442389B2

Provided is an electronic apparatus including: a storage to store first and second contents, each of which includes scenes, and meta-information items each indicating a feature of each scene of the first and second contents; a reproducer to reproduce the first and second contents; an operation receiver to receive an input of an operation by a user; and a controller to control the storage to store an operation-history information item indicating an operation history of the user for each scene during reproduction of the first content while it is associated with the meta-information item of each scene, to calculate a similarity between scenes of the first and second contents based on the meta-information items, and to control the reproducer to change a reproduction mode for each scene based on the operation-history information item and the similarity during reproduction of the second content.
US08442374B2

Optical waveguides using segmented periodically-spaced high contrast gratings bounding a hollow core propagation region on at least two sides. Incident light is received in a hollow waveguide (HW) region (core) between opposing HCG faces which provide lateral confinement in response to glancing reflections of the incident light beam from high refractive index segments of the HCG as it traverses the core. Embodiments are described for planar waveguides (1D) having a planar core between two planar HCGs, as well as 2D waveguides, such as having rectangular segments of the HCG through which light is propagated. Additionally, other configurations of HCG-HW, including those having arbitrary incidence and azimuth, angled HCG segments, propagation in a direction which is transverse, or alternatively parallel, to the segments of the HCG.
US08442344B2

The disclosure describes adaptive filtering techniques to improve the quality of captured image information, such as video or still images. An image sensor captures image information and determines a plurality of parameter values based on a current exposure index and a current scaling factor of the image information. The adaptive spatial image filter includes both horizontal and vertical sharpening filters and configures, i.e., adapts, the horizontal sharpening filter and the vertical sharpening filter based on the plurality of parameter values determined by the image sensor. The adaptive spatial image filter applies the horizontal and vertical sharpening filters to at one channel of the image information to generate filtered image information.
US08442339B2

A method for selecting images from a set of images (according to sharpness and contrast criteria), comprising pre-selecting images by a simplified sharpness and/or contrast analysis of each image in the set of images, and of selecting images by a finer analysis of the sharpness and/or contrast of each pre-selected image. This method is particularly useful to perform an identification by recognition of the iris.
US08442330B2

A system and method for estimating a set of landmarks for a large image ensemble employs only a small number of manually labeled images from the ensemble and avoids labor-intensive and error-prone object detection, tracking and alignment learning task limitations associated with manual image labeling techniques. A semi-supervised least squares congealing approach is employed to minimize an objective function defined on both labeled and unlabeled images. A shape model is learned on-line to constrain the landmark configuration. A partitioning strategy allows coarse-to-fine landmark estimation.
US08442325B2

A method for recognizing a music score included in an image and various information included in the music score, which may be obtained through a camera provided in a mobile terminal without requiring a separate editing program. The method includes detecting a region with staff lines from the image including the music score; detecting a region with an accompaniment chord from the image by taking the region with the staff lines and a region with a musical note into consideration; extracting and removing the staff lines from the music score included in the image; recognizing the musical note by extracting the musical note from the image, from which the staff lines have been removed; recognizing the accompaniment chord by extracting the accompaniment chord from the image, from which the staff lines have been removed; and generating data for reproducing a sound source corresponding to the musical note and accompaniment chord.
US08442324B2

A method and a system for displaying an image based on texts in the image are provided. The method of the invention for displaying the image includes: a text extracting step, extracting text regions in the image to be displayed; a text occupancy amount calculating step, calculating occupancy amount of the text in said image; a comparing step, comparing the calculated occupancy amount with a predetermined threshold; a display step, displaying the image in real size of the image if said occupancy amount exceeds said predetermined threshold. It is achieved to display the image to the user in a manner of satisfying the viewing aim of the user, and unnecessary load of the computer system is avoided.
US08442318B2

A moving image sequence is automatically reframed for a small display. The framing is adjusted in dependence upon foreground and background segment weights derived for pixels in images in the sequence. Reframed images are formed from only those input pixels which fall within a reframing window within the input image area and the position or size of the reframing window is adjusted so as to maximize a weighted total of the sum of the foreground weights of pixels within the window and the sum of the background weights of pixels outside the window.
US08442308B2

Apparatus for processing a digital mesh representing a three-dimensional subject automatically filters out portions of a predetermined color to simplify further processing.
US08442304B2

This invention provides a system and method for determining the three-dimensional alignment of a modeled object or scene. A 3D (stereo) sensor system views the object to derive a runtime 3D representation of the scene containing the object. Rectified images from each stereo head are preprocessed to enhance their edge features. 3D points are computed for each pair of cameras to derive a 3D point cloud. The amount of 3D data from the point cloud is reduced by extracting higher-level geometric shapes (HLGS), such as line segments. Found HLGS from runtime are corresponded to HLGS on the model to produce candidate 3D poses. A coarse scoring process prunes the number of poses. The remaining candidate poses are then subjected to a further more-refined scoring process. These surviving candidate poses are then verified whereby the closest match is the best refined three-dimensional pose.
US08442289B2

There is provided a medical image processing device that enables high-precision identification of the type of a biomedical tissue and display of an identification degree with respect to medical image information in multi-energy imaging. The medical image processing device acquires tissue information (statistic amount information such as average CT value, standard deviation of CT values, etc., display color, etc.) of a biomedical tissue every energy intensity of the multi-energy imaging. The medical image processing device creates an identification map for identifying the type of the biomedical tissue on the basis of the statistic amount information, and further creates an identification probability map for determining the identification degree of the biomedical tissue on the basis of the statistic amount information and the identification map. The medical image processing device acquires imaging information based on the multi-energy imaging, identifies the type of the biomedical tissue on the basis of the identification map, determines the identification degree on the basis of the identification probability map and displays in accordance with the identification.
US08442288B2

A method for processing a digital mesh representing a three-dimensional subject is described. The method comprises utilizing smoothed splines to identify inflection points on the mesh for further processing.
US08442282B2

In consideration of the fact that a lung field varies in the density of sponge-like tissue depending on an individual or display region, an opacity curve which gives priority to a nodule candidate region or an extended nodule candidate region can be set by generating a histogram concerning a volume of interest which includes a foreground region, and using the statistical analysis result on the histogram as an objective index.
US08442272B1

An article of manufacture and method for performing post-BLOB analysis.
US08442271B2

A laser detection method and apparatus for detection of laser beams can each perform operations for producing an interference image from detected light radiation, recording the interference image, and processing the recorded interference image in order to detect laser radiation. In order to allow more robust and faster laser detection, the apparatus and method can detect a spatially defined point distribution from the interference image, and transform the point distribution such that a grid interval remains between a point grid in the point distribution, and a fixed position, which is independent of a position in the original image, is associated with the point grid. The apparatus and method can further detect a grid interval in the point grid that was transformed, and detect the position of the point grid from the point distribution by filtering with the assistance of the grid interval.
US08442261B2

The present invention provides a dome-shaped diaphragm fabricated based on a film base of polyethylene terephthalate resin film. The diaphragm includes a first vibrating part of a dome shape or a flat shape, and a second vibrating part of an annular shape. The second vibrating part includes a peripheral portion of the film base provided around a central portion of the film base. The first vibrating part includes the central portion of the film base, a thermosensitive adhesive resin film, provided on the central portion, and a fiber sheet made of a woven fabric using carbon fiber or an embossed nonwoven fabric. The fiber sheet is layered over the central portion with the thermosensitive adhesive resin film interposed therebetween.
US08442259B2

Systems and apparatuses are provided for vibration confinement and stress management in a loudspeaker. In one embodiment, the loudspeaker comprises a diaphragm that extends from an inner diaphragm region (e.g., dome or cone-shaped) to an outer diaphragm region, wherein the outer diaphragm region bends at a defined angle (e.g., between about 45 degrees and about 135 degrees) relative to the inner diaphragm region. The loudspeaker also comprises a suspension member extending from an inner suspension region to an outer suspension region, the inner suspension region overlapping and attaching with the outer diaphragm region. The bend in the diaphragm isolates the inner diaphragm region from spurious vibrations in the suspension member.
US08442253B2

A hearing aid of the present invention is convenient to repair and replace. The hearing aid includes: (i) an out-of-canal assembly comprising a power source (e.g., a battery) and a processor, and (ii) an in-canal assembly comprising a microphone and a receiver. The out-of-canal assembly is selectively, removably, electrically coupled to the in-canal assembly. Sound perceived by the in-canal assembly is processed by the out-of-canal assembly and transmitted to the user's eardrum. The in-canal assembly is conveniently, selectively decoupled from the out-of-canal assembly for convenient replacement or repair.
US08442233B2

The present invention relates to a solution for handling encryption of control messages in a wireless telecommunications network. Key generation is based on sequence numbers and the present invention reduces access to core network devices for updating sequence numbers relating to network events by separating sequence number generation to different parts of the network and different types of network events. This is done by providing a solution where sequence number rollover events and handover events are separated from each other in providing input to radio resource control message encryption. Three different counters may be used for different types of events and all three may be used as input to an encryption algorithm.
US08442227B1

The present invention allows a communication client to send a session request to initiate a session with a receiving communication client, wherein the session request includes additional information configured to allow the receiving communication client to take an action in association with the communication session. The additional information may include context indicia, which may identify an association related to the subject matter of the session, or a specific instruction to take the action in association with the communication session.
US08442225B2

The application relates to a method for distributing a marked audiovisual sequence from a nominal audiovisual sequence, said nominal audiovisual sequence having a nominal content, wherein a first modified flow having a modified content different from the nominal content is generated, and a second marked complementary flow including marked complementary digital information is generated; said first modified flow and said marked complementary information are transmitted, so as to allow the restoration of said marked audiovisual sequence at the receiving item of equipment; an operation of marking said nominal audiovisual sequence is carried out, so as to determine a marked audiovisual sequence having a marked content; a difference is determined between said marked content, on the one hand, and said modified content or said nominal content, on the other hand; wherein said marked complementary digital information depend on said difference.
US08442217B2

A cryptographic system for encrypting a data stream to be transported over a network by using a one way hash function constructed according to Merkle-Damgard construction includes a plurality of Davies-Mayer structure modules. A Davies-Mayer module modifies two variables A and B according to at least four words by no more than three Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher rounds.
US08442214B2

A tilting portable electronic device includes a base, a cover, at least one connecting bar, a swinging plate and an elastic member. The connecting bar and the swinging plate respectively rotatably connect to the base and the cover. The elastic member is secured with the swinging plate and has an end portion slidably resisting against the cover. when the cover is opened relative to the base, the connecting bar and the swinging plate rotate to support one end of the cover in a slanted position relative to the base, the elastic member is compressed, the end portion slides and resists the cover to make the cover sliding automatically after the cover slides a predetermined distance.
US08442204B2

An automatic location update system receives location information regarding an identified communications device and stores an identification of the communications device, advantageously its telephone number, and the location information, advantageously X/Y coordinates. Weighting factors associated with the coordinates are also stored. The coordinates and weighting factors thus stored are compared and the coordinates that appear to be the most accurate are selected. The selected coordinates are delivered to a positioning server used to route special number calls.
US08442200B2

Processing a communication is disclosed. A first request to establish communication is received at a redirection node from a requesting communication participant. A destination communication participant associated with the request is determined. A communication session in which the requesting communication participant, the redirection node, and the destination communication participant are participants at the same time is established, including sending from the redirection node to an equipment associated with the destination communication participant a second request to establish communication between the redirection node and the equipment associated with the destination communication participant. A communication session processing feature not provided with respect to the communication session by a telecommunication service provider associated with a service provider network used to establish and provide the communication session is made available to at least one of the requesting communication participant and the destination communication participant.
US08442197B1

The present invention is directed, in one embodiment, to the simultaneous streaming of a text representation of a first voice stream from a first call to a telephone for display and transmitting of a second voice stream from a second call to the telephone for audible play to the user.
US08442190B2

A method, a system and a device for call processing are disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention. The method includes: obtaining, by a call initiator, address information of all or part of call managers in a network domain that processes a call, where the all or part of the call managers include a call manager that processes the call and is adjacent to the call initiator; sending, by the call initiator, a first call creating request message to an adjacent call manager according to the address information of the all or part of the call managers; and receiving, by the call initiator, a first call creating response message from the adjacent call manager. In the case that a service at a client side is required to be sent through multiple networks at a server side, inter-domain link selection and admission control may be implemented through section call processing.
US08442186B2

A system and methods for characterizing regions within, or on, an inspected object, wherein a lower-Z scattering material and a higher-Z material may both lie along a common line of sight. The inspected object is scanned with penetrating radiation characterized by an energy distribution, and penetrating radiation scattered by the inspected object is detected in a manner that generates two detector signals that distinguish between materials of higher and lower effective atomic number under distinct sets of conditions with respect to the energy distribution of the penetrating radiation. An image is generated, based on a function of the two detector signals, as is a differential image, so as to allow distinction of higher-Z and lower-Z materials.
US08442182B2

A liquid fluoride salt cooled, high temperature reactor having a reactor vessel with a pebble-bed reactor core. The reactor core comprises a pebble injection inlet located at a bottom end of the reactor core and a pebble defueling outlet located at a top end of the reactor core, an inner reflector, outer reflector, and an annular pebble-bed region disposed in between the inner reflector and outer reflector. The annular pebble-bed region comprises an annular channel configured for receiving pebble fuel at the pebble injection inlet, the pebble fuel comprising a combination of seed and blanket pebbles having a density lower than the coolant such that the pebbles have positive buoyancy and migrate upward in said annular pebble-bed region toward the defueling outlet. The annular pebble-bed region comprises alternating radial layers of seed pebbles and blanket pebbles.
US08442176B2

Computer-readable media, apparatus and other embodiments associated with performing comma alignment with scrambled data are described. One example method includes controlling an apparatus to generate a data stream that facilitates achieving and determining alignment in a device. The data stream includes sequences of N random portions of Y-bit characters followed by a Z-bit alignment character, N, Y and Z being integers. Another example method includes controlling an apparatus to receive and examine the data stream. The method also includes generating an alignment signal upon determining an alignment for recovered data in the device.
US08442166B2

A system including a control module and a correlation module. The control module partitions a total number of subcarriers, in a received signal, into a predetermined number of bands. The correlation module generates a plurality of correlation values for a plurality of preamble sequences. A correlation value for a preamble sequence is generated by correlating symbols in each band with corresponding symbols in the preamble sequence to generate correlations for each band, adding the correlations generated for a respective band to generate a sum for each band, and adding the sums generated for all the bands. The control module select a largest correlation value from the plurality of correlation values and determine that one of the preamble sequences is detected in the received signal in response to the largest correlation value being greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.
US08442165B2

A method and apparatus for estimating a Doppler frequency in a mobile terminal are provided. The method includes calculating two autocorrelation values for intervals of at least one sample from a channel estimation tap with a maximum power, and estimating a maximum Doppler frequency using the two autocorrelation values. The two autocorrelation values are autocorrelation values for intervals of different numbers of samples.
US08442159B2

According to an example embodiment, a communications receiver may include a variable gain amplifier (VGA) configured to amplify received signals, a VGA controller configured to control the VGA, a plurality of analog to digital converter (ADC) circuits coupled to an output of the VGA, wherein the plurality of ADC circuits are operational when the communications receiver is configured to process signals of a first communications protocol, and wherein only a subset of the ADC circuits are operational when the communications receiver is configured to process signals of a second communications protocol.
US08442157B2

A wireless apparatus includes: an A/D converter which samples an in-phase signal component and a quadrature signal component from a quadrature-modulated signal of analog form alternately; a digital quadrature demodulation unit which applies digital quadrature demodulation to an output signal of the A/D converter and outputs an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal; and an error detection unit which, based on the in-phase and quadrature signals output from the digital quadrature demodulation unit, detects a time difference error between the sample timing of the in-phase signal component and the sample timing of the quadrature signal component.
US08442155B2

A procedure for compensating the DC component inherent in any radio frequency chain making it possible from a single measurement, generally located in the digital stage, to determine a set of multiple compensation values that must be applied to multiple compensation points of the analogue chain. The compensation values are calculated by an iterative process converging towards a cancellation of the DC component and avoid saturating amplification components and components of the analogue digital converter.
US08442152B2

A space-time signal processing system with advantageously reduced complexity. The system may take advantage of multiple transmitter antenna elements and/or multiple receiver antenna elements, or multiple polarizations of a single transmitter antenna element and/or single receiver antenna element. The system is not restricted to wireless contexts and may exploit any channel having multiple inputs or multiple outputs and certain other characteristics. Multi-path effects in a transmission medium cause a multiplicative increase in capacity.
US08442136B2

A method of transmitting a control channel format indicator (CCFI), also known as PCFICH (Physical Control Format Indicator Channel), in case where the length of a coded CCFI is not an integer multiple of three, including mapping a plurality of two-bit CCFI into a codebook with each component codeword having three bits; generating a sequence of codewords selected from the codebook by repeating the selected component codeword for predetermined times; generating a codeword by concatenating the sequence of the selected component codewords with the original CCFI bits; and transmitting the codeword carrying information of CCFI. The method further includes a step of generating a permutation of each of the four codewords by assigning K repetitions of the three-bit component codeword to the number of K resource units respectively and mapping remaining K bits of each of the four codewords separately to the number of K resource units.
US08442122B2

A method of encoding scalable video data streams and an encoder configured to generate an encoded scalable video data stream is provided. The encoder includes a mode controller configured to store a plurality of encoding modes, select a sub-set of the plurality of encoding modes and select a first encoding mode. The encoder generates the encoded scalable video data stream dependent on the first encoding mode.
US08442121B2

A method, apparatus and system are provided for controlling a scene structure of a mobile terminal for receiving and displaying data streams in a mobile broadcast system. When logical channels are multiplexed into one physical channel, the multiplexed channels are sequentially decoded and are displayed on an image. A channel circulation scene alternately displays the channels on one image in designated order. In a combination scene structure, a new node is added to a conventional Lightweight Application Scene Representation (LASeR) technology. To compose a scene, fields for time information and scene transition effect are provided. A delay time due to a channel change is reduced. A multi-channel image is effectively provided to address a problem when a user retrieves service content while directly switching a channel. The terminal dynamically composes the multi-channel image using stream source node information from a service provider without an additional mosaic channel.
US08442110B2

A method for regulating bandwidth usage in an output data stream transmitted on an analog channel from a cable head end. The output data stream comprises a plurality of input information content signals. For each input information content signal, a series of images are captured, compressed and formed into an input digital data stream. The bandwidth of each input digital data stream is regulated by associating the stream with a current bit allocation total. During each frame time: a bit allocation increment is added to the current bit allocation total for each input digital data stream. When a data packet to be transmitted for an input digital data stream is received by the multiplexer, the data packet is stored. When the number of bits in the stored data packet is not more than the current bit allocation total for the input digital data stream, the multiplexer forwards the stored data packet for transmission in the output data stream on the analog channel and decrements the current bit allocation total for the given input digital data stream by the number of bits in the stored data packet. In this way, no individual input channel takes more than its share of the bandwidth on the output stream on the analog channel.
US08442107B2

A memory mapping apparatus and a method in a video decoder/encoder utilize a dividing unit, a storage unit and a memory allocation unit. The dividing unit divides picture data into macroblocks and divides each of the macroblocks, which are units of encoding, into partitions having a predetermined size. A storage unit comprises at least one memory bank which is independently accessible. A memory allocation unit allocates adjacent partitions to different memory banks. Accordingly, a total number of cycles necessary to read and write the picture data is reduced.
US08442101B2

A tone signal detection apparatus for detecting a tone signal of a specific frequency is disclosed. The tone signal detection apparatus includes a detecting unit, a determining unit, a time measuring unit, and a time comparing unit. A time during which a signal is not detected by the detecting unit is measured by the time measuring unit, the measured time is compared with a predetermined threshold value by the time comparing unit, and the determining unit determines that signal detection is successful if the measured time is not in excess of the predetermined threshold value.
US08442082B2

A controller for controlling the power of a laser that is used in determining the motion of an object includes a power source that is arranged to supply power pulses to the laser in response to a controller signal. The controller controls the generation of pulses during periods in which a reliable result can be obtained, by detecting the laser radiation that has interacted with pulses reflected from the object, in order to conserve power consumption. Further the power pulses include a heating pulse portion, which serves to stabilize the temperature of the laser and calibrate the laser so that a known lasing wavelength is generated.
US08442062B2

A group communication method in a terminal is provided, which includes: receiving session information and connection management server information; checking whether there is a connection terminal pre-connected to a session corresponding to the session information on own network; when there is the connection terminal at the check result, accessing to a media server that the pre-connected terminal accesses; when there is no connection terminal at the check result, receiving a media server list by accessing to the connection management server based on the connection management server information; selecting and accessing to a media server in the provided media server list; and performing group communication through the session object on the same session.
US08442056B2

The disclosed embodiments relate to a packet-processing system. This system includes an input which is configured to receive packets, wherein the packets include control-message (CM) packets and traffic packets. It also includes a pipeline to process the packets, wherein the pipeline includes access points for accessing an engine which services requests for packets, wherein CM packets and traffic packets access the engine through different access points. The system additionally includes an arbiter to schedule packets entering the pipeline. While scheduling the packets, the arbiter is configured to account for empty slots in the pipeline to ensure that when CM packets and traffic packets initiate accesses to the engine through different access points, the accesses do not cause an overflow at an input queue for the engine.
US08442054B2

A method and core network node for establishing a connection between a first access node and a second access node. The first access node sends to a first core network node, a connection establishment request that includes a set of framing protocol parameters for the framing of information to be sent over an interface between the first access node and the first core network node. The first core network node stores the parameter set and initializes a connection to a further core network node according to the framing protocol. If the further core network node is not connectable to the second access node, connections are successively made to additional core network nodes until reaching a final core network node connectable to the second access node. The final core network node initializes the connection to the second access node, which stores the parameter set. The connection is then established between the first access node and the second access node utilizing the parameter set.
US08442051B2

In the data transmission method of an HSDPA system according to the present invention, a transmitter transmits Data Blocks each composed of one or more data units originated from a same logical channel, and a receiver receives the Data Block through a HS-DSCH and distributes the Data Block to a predetermined reordering buffer. Since each Data Block is composed of the MAC-d PDUs originated from the same logical channel, it is possible to monitor the in-sequence delivery of the data units, resulting in reduction of undesirable queuing delay caused by logical channel multiplexing.
US08442047B2

Disclosed herein are a method for implementing switching between layer-2 multicast route tracing and layer-3 multicast route tracing, and a method, a system, a router and an apparatus for differentiating between a layer-2 property and a layer-3 property. One of the methods includes: The query apparatus judges whether to perform layer-2 multicast route tracing, and adds an IP option of layer-2 multicast route tracing into the IGMP Tracert Query packet if layer-2 multicast route tracing needs to be performed. The last-hop router receives the IGMP Tracert Query packet, judges whether the packet carries the IP option of layer-2 multicast route tracing, and transmits the IGMP Tracert Query packet to a downstream layer-2 node transparently if the packet carries the IP option, or initiates layer-3 multicast route tracing if the packet carries no such IP option. The method, system, and router disclosed herein can implement switching between layer-2 multicast route tracing and layer-3 multicast route tracing, and enable the query apparatus to identify the layer property of each IGMP Tracert Response data block.
US08442042B2

An embedded virtual router is provided for a system comprising a device having a first software component configured to obtain and convey information associated with a consumable and an appliance having a second software component configured to perform a physical cycle of operation on an article using the consumable. The embedded virtual router encapsulates the two software components so that collaboration between them is uniform and identical whether the collaboration is over a network or sharing a runtime environment.
US08442039B2

The present invention discloses a method, User Equipment (UE), and server for multimedia session transfer, and relates to a mobile communication technology, and in particular, to a technology for transferring multimedia sessions from a Circuit Switched (CS) network to a Packet Switched (PS) network. The method includes: receiving a session transfer request sent by a UE, where the session transfer request carries a static Session Transfer Identifier (STI); executing a procedure for transferring the active CS session according to the CS session transfer request, and judging whether the UE has a held CS session; and if so, sending the dynamic STI corresponding to the held CS session to the UE so that the UE can send a CS session transfer request again according to the dynamic STI, and receiving the request for transferring the held CS session and executing a procedure for transferring the held CS session. Further, a UE and a server are provided. With the present invention, two multimedia sessions in a CS network of the UE incapable of IMS Centralized Service (ICS) can be transferred to the PS network.
US08442033B2

Included are embodiments of systems and methods for recording data related to a communication. One exemplary embodiment, among others includes receiving data related to a communication from a communications device, recording at least a portion of the data related to the communication, determining a time of reduced network activity and sending at least a portion of the data related to the communication to a central recording server at a time of low network activity.
US08442032B1

A Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) communications network system that enables direct-dialed (single-stage) access to the Internet Protocol (IP) network from the circuit-switched network. Specifically, the VoIP network system includes a VoIP service implemented on a communications system which, after a customer number has been registered for the service, automatically recognizes calls from the registered customer's telephone number and determines if the call can be routed as a VoIP call over the IP network. In embodiments of the present invention, the customer can register for the VoIP service by selecting both a provider (PIC) and a calling plan or by only selecting a provider. The system can be implemented to handle intra-state, inter-state and international voice-band calls (for example, regular telephone calls, facsimile transmissions and modem initiated calls) using standard circuit-switched telephone lines, cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL) and wireless.
US08442022B2

Provided is a method of transmitting control information using a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) region in a system employing a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna system in which transmission is performed through a plurality of layers. A method of transmitting a channel quality indicator (CQI)/precoding matrix indicator (PMI) using a PUSCH region in a system employing a MIMO antenna system in which transmission is performed through a plurality of layers includes encoding the CQI/PMI using one channel encoder, and transmitting the encoded CQI/PMI using some or all of the layers. Accordingly, it is possible to transmit uplink control information through a PUSCH region using a plurality of layers.
US08442021B2

A method for predicting performance of a radio link in a wireless communication terminal including hypothesizing a second codeword including information associated with a hypothesized first codeword, obtaining channel state information from a received signal, and estimating a decoder error rate of the first codeword under a condition that the second codeword may not be decoded correctly, wherein the decoder error rate is estimated using the channel state information.
US08442020B1

A system and method of generating a position is disclosed. The system and method are configured for receiving from a transmitter an M-code signal, the M-code signal modulated with a pseudorandom number sequence. The system and method are also configured for down converting the received M-code signal to a baseband signal. Further, the system and method are configured for correlating the baseband signal with a known pseudorandom number sequence. Further still, the system and method are configured for processing the converted baseband signal to remove errors due to phase distortion of the M-code signal.
US08442019B2

In one aspect, in general, the invention features a method including a second wireless system determining a frequency of active operation of a first wireless system, and communicating wirelessly on the second wireless system in the vicinity of the wireless communication on the first wireless system, the wireless communication utilizing a spread-spectrum technique that excludes the determined frequency.
US08442011B1

A networking system comprises a proxy mobility agent (PMA) module, and a home agent (HA) module. The PMA module sends a first binding update message including a unique identifier to a remote HA based on a trigger signal. The unique identifier identifies a mobile terminal associated with the remote PMA. The HA module receives a second binding update message including the unique identifier from a remote PMA, and selectively sends the trigger signal to the PMA module based on the second binding update message.
US08442007B2

The present invention discloses a bearer establishing method and system based on handover, wherein the method comprises: an MME transmits the handover required message to the target base station, and carries aggregate maximum bit rate information, namely AMBR information of the UE in the handover required message. In virtue of the above technical scheme, the AMBR information is transmitted to the target base station through the interface S1-MME from the MME when the handover through the MME happens, so that the target base station can obtain the AMBR information and achieve the establishment of the bearers.
US08442003B2

Apparatus and method for associating with any one of a plurality of access points in a mesh network including estimating a plurality of metrics for the access points, the estimated metrics being related to throughputs provided by the access points, and selecting one of the access points to associate with based on the metrics and a plurality of backhaul metrics for the access points, the backhaul metrics being related to backhaul throughputs for the access points. The backhaul metrics may be advertised by the access points.
US08442002B2

For enhancing user throughput and coverage within a multi-cell radio system a method for operating a multi-cell radio system, especially an OFDMA-based radio system including a plurality of base stations, wherein different frequency reuse factors are used within different reuse zones of one cell by a fractional frequency reuse (FFR) scheme, the method includes the following steps: allocating a size or resource to the different reuse zones, and allocating users into different reuse zones. Further, a multi-cell radio system is described, preferably for carrying out the above mentioned method.
US08441995B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and relevant apparatuses for supporting addressing by a user static Internet Protocol (IP) address in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system. The method includes: when a user attaches to a network, downloading, by a Home Subscriber Server (HSS), user subscription data including a user static IP address and information of a corresponding Access Point Name (APN) to a Mobility Management Entity (MME); sending, by the MME, the user static IP address and the information of the corresponding APN to a Serving Gateway (S-GW) through a Create Default Bearer Request message; sending, by the S-GW, the user static IP address, the information of the corresponding APN and an address of an S-GW serving the user to a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) corresponding to the APN which corresponds to the user static IP address; and establishing, by the P-GW, a default bearer according to the user static IP address, the information of the corresponding APN and the address of the S-GW serving the user. The present invention solves the packet data addressing problem of the user static IP address in a simple manner. The procedure is simple and convenient for use and has better applicability.
US08441994B2

A control unit 18 transmits via a processing unit 16 through a wireless unit 12 a participation request to a registrar among multiple other terminal apparatuses forming an ad hoc network. The control unit 18 receives participation approval via the wireless unit 12 through the processing unit 16. The wireless unit 12 through the processing unit 16 all communicate by participating in the ad hoc network when the participation approval is received. The control unit 18 broadcasts a search signal for searching another terminal apparatus to which a role of approving participation of a new terminal apparatus in the ad hoc network is assigned, prior to the transmission of a participation request.
US08441990B2

A method for sharing reverse channel in trunk communication system includes: step A, establishing a forward channel and one or more in a group: step B, mobile stations in idle state determine a sharing reverse channel that can be used based on information of the sharing reverse channel; step C, the mobile station transmits information through the sharing reverse channel. Furthermore a system for sharing reverse channel in trunk communication system includes: channel establishing means, for establishing a forward channel and one or more in a group; reverse channel determining means, for determining a sharing reverse channel that can be used by a mobile station based on the information of the sharing reverse channel; reverse channel information transmitting means, for transmitting information through the sharing reverse channel. This invention saves the air and physics sources of the system, and reduces the collision probability of the signaling of each mobile station in idle state.
US08441989B2

Various embodiments are disclosed for a services policy communication system and method. In some embodiments, an open transaction central billing system includes a communications device, in which the communications device is configured to execute a payment component to accept a billing request from a transaction server; and a transaction server, in which the transaction server is programmed with a set of credentials, and the communications device is in network communication with the transaction server.
US08441986B2

A method of transmitting a cell type information, which is transmitted by a base station in a wireless communication system, is disclosed. The present invention includes broadcasting a first boundary point information (Z) between a cell identity of a public ABS (advanced base station) and a cell identity of a private ABS via an S-SFH SP3 (secondary-super frame header subpacket3), and broadcasting at least one second boundary point (K) information via an AAI-SCD (Advanced Air Interface_System Configuration Descriptor) message. In this case, the at least one second boundary point information (K) indicates a last index of cell identity corresponding to a specific ABS type. Further, an order of ABS types of the public ABS and an order of ABS types of the private ABS are pre-defined.
US08441981B2

In the processing of a data transmission received on wireless data channel HS-DSCH during HS-SCCH-less (HSL) operation according to 3GPP TS 25.214 V7.7.0, a situation is identified wherein redundancy version information corresponding to the received data transmission cannot be obtained from wireless control channel HS-SCCH. The redundancy version information is normally indicative of an HSL redundancy version that specifies derate matching for the received data transmission. In response to identification of the situation, derate matching is applied to the received data transmission according to an HSL redundancy version other than the HSL redundancy version that is specified by HSL for derate matching in the situation.
US08441980B2

A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes: step of establishing, upon receipt of a control channel establishment request for connection-type communication from a priority mobile station 300 in a femto-cell radio base station 201, a control channel for the priority mobile station by using a first reserved resource reserved for the priority mobile station 300 in the femto-cell radio base station 201; step of establishing a data channel for the priority mobile station 300; step of establishing a control channel for the non-priority mobile station 350 by using a non-reserved resource that is not reserved for any mobile station in the femto-cell radio base station 201; and step of establishing a data channel for the non-priority mobile station 350.
US08441977B2

Methods and apparatuses for efficiently using radio resources in a wireless communication system based on a relay station are provided. An operating method of a relay station (RS) for efficiently using radio resources in a wireless communication system based on the RS. The method includes setting a call with a sending terminal; checking whether a receiving terminal of the sending terminal travels in the same RS cell, in a different RS cell of the same base station (BS) cell, or in a different cell of a neighbor BS; and checking a destination address of a data and relaying the data to the receiving terminal according to a result of the checking.
US08441975B2

Medium accessing mechanisms within multiple user, multiple access, and/or MIMO wireless communications. A multi-user super-frame (MU-SF), as controlled by a MU-SF owner, is used to govern the manner by which various wireless communication devices have access to the communication medium. When various wireless communication devices operate within a wireless communication system, communication medium access can be handled differently for wireless communication devices having different capabilities. Per the MU-SF, those having a first capability may get medium access in accordance with a first operational mode (e.g., carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)), while those having a second capability may get medium access in accordance with a second operational mode (e.g., scheduled access). The respective durations for each of the first operational mode and the second operational mode within various MU-SFs need not be the same; the respective durations thereof may be adaptively modified based on any number considerations.
US08441967B2

A system includes a signal processing module and a control module. The signal processing module receives a first clear channel assessment (CCA) signal for a first sub-channel of a communication channel, increases a pulse width of the first CCA signal by a predetermined period of time, and generates a second CCA signal. The control module receives the second CCA signal and a third CCA signal for a second sub-channel of the communication channel. The control module transmits data via one of the second sub-channel and the communication channel based on the second and third CCA signals.
US08441949B2

A technique for routing a call to a unified service domain using one or more client applications providing call routing support from a circuit-switch access domain to unified service domain is described. A first one of the client applications will be provided on a network side and a second one of the client applications may potentially be provided on a terminal side. A method implementation of this technique comprises, on the network side, the steps of receiving a message from the terminal side, detecting, in response to the message, the client application that is to provide the routing functionalities, and controlling an activation state of at least one of the two client applications dependent on a result of this detection.
US08441948B2

In a transmission bandwidth notification /analysis unit (107), IP packets including a transmission bandwidth request is analyzed based on IP packets received by reception interface units (101Rx, 103Rx) and a transmission bandwidth notified from a mobile node (300) is notified to a transmission path control unit (113), and a transmission bandwidth field included in the received IP packets is monitored and a time from when a transmission bandwidth request has been sent to the mobile node (300) till when an IP packet reflecting the transmission bandwidth arrives is measured as well.
US08441944B2

A system and method provide calling and called terminals with multimedia alerting signals such as a ringtone and ringback tone. When desiring to receive first multimedia portal contents as a multimedia alerting signal, the calling terminal presets the first multimedia portal contents and makes a call connection setup request. When desiring to provide second multimedia portal contents as a ringback tone, a called terminal presets the second multimedia portal contents and notifies that the ringtone and ringback tone are set. A Personal Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Portal (PIP) server receives call connection setup-related signals from the calling and called terminals, decides to provide particular multimedia portal contents as the ringback tone according to a predefined priority decision criterion when the calling and called terminals set the multimedia portal contents, and provides the set multimedia portal contents.
US08441938B2

The present invention relates to methods and arrangements for uplink retransmissions from a user equipment to a radio base station in a UTRAN with enhanced uplink. The UE transmits a subframe comprising physical control channel(s) and physical data channel(s) in an initial transmission. According to the present invention, one or more of the physical control channels are transmitted with a lower transmission power level in all or some of the retransmitted subframes in the uplink. This results in reduced control overhead (a smaller part of the transmission power resource is used for control signaling) and thus reduced interference from the overhead. At the same time, the transmission power resource no longer used for the physical control channel information, can be used to increase the transmission power level of the physical data channel information in these retransmitted subframes, which improves the uplink coverage.
US08441933B2

Aspects of the invention pertain to routing packets in a computer system while avoiding deadlock. A turn rule is set according to unique identifiers associated with switches in the system. Numeric values of switches in possible turns are compared to determine whether a turn is permissible. The rule applies to all nodes in the system. The rule may be violated when using virtual channels. Here, a violation is permissible when using monotonically increasing virtual channel numbers or monotonically decreasing virtual channel numbers. Alternatively, the violations of the turn rule may be allowed if they force a packet to change to a later virtual channel in some fixed ordering of virtual channels. Deadlock can thus be avoided in many different types of architectures, including mesh, torus, butterfly and flattened butterfly configurations.
US08441931B2

Method of managing priority during the transmission of a message, in an interconnections network comprising at least one transmission agent which comprises at least one input and at least one output, each input comprising a means of storage organized as a queue of messages. A message priority is assigned during the creation of the message, and a queue priority equal to the maximum of the priorities of the messages of the queue is assigned to at least one queue of messages of an input. A link priority is assigned to a link linking an output of a first transmission agent to an input of a second transmission agent, equal to the maximum of the priorities of the queues of messages of the inputs of said first agent comprising a first message destined for that output of said first agent which is coupled to said link, and the priority of the link is transmitted to that input of said second agent which is coupled to the link.
US08441930B2

Embodiments are configured to provide communication features, including providing channel condition estimates for a communication path, such as packet loss, jitter, and/or available bandwidth, but are not so limited. In an embodiment, a method uses aspects of in-band data packets to provide channel condition estimates. In one embodiment, a system includes a bandwidth estimation component that operates to classify payload packets as part of performing capacity estimation and available bandwidth estimation operations.
US08441929B1

Method for reporting bandwidth loss on a network link that couples a switch element to a network is provided. The method includes determining if credit is unavailable to transmit a packet and a packet is available at a switch port for transmission; determining bandwidth loss due to lack of credit; and reporting the bandwidth loss to a processor of the network switch. The switch element includes a processor for executing firmware code; a port for receiving and transmitting network packets; and a bandwidth loss logic that determines bandwidth loss if credit is unavailable to transmit a packet and the packet is available at the port; and reports the bandwidth loss to the processor.
US08441925B1

A buffer memory can be configured to temporarily store data in a number of queues. A processor can be configured to measure a fullness of the buffer memory. The processor can be configured to adjust thresholds and drop profiles based on a measured global resource usage for a weighted random early detection (WRED) technique with less resources than a conventional.
US08441922B1

In a network having a computing system interfacing with a storage system via a switch, an average transmit wait count value is compared with a first threshold value. The average transmit wait count value is updated when a switch port has a frame available for transmission but is unable to transmit the frame if a port of the storage system is unable to receive the frame or if another switch port is unable to receive the frame. A congestion message is generated for notifying a management module of congestion at the switch port when the average transmit wait count value reaches the first threshold value. Depending upon the characteristics of the congestion, a notification is sent to the computing system to either only reduce a rate of write operations to reduce congestion, or to reduce both the rate of write operations and a rate of read operations.
US08441919B2

A technique dynamically protects against failure of a head-end node of one or more primary Traffic Engineering Label Switched Paths (TE-LSPs) in a computer network. According to the novel technique, a neighboring upstream node (“protecting node”) of the head-end node learns of the primary TE-LSPs (and their respective state control blocks) extending from the head-end node to one or more address prefixes. The protecting node establishes a repair TE-LSP for each of the primary TE-LSPs to a corresponding downstream neighboring node of the head-end node (a “next-next-hop”). In response to detecting a failure of the head-end node, the protecting node locally reroutes traffic destined for the address prefixes to an appropriate repair TE-LSP. Due to the failure of the head-end node, the protecting node then refreshes the states of the primary TE-LSPs using replicated state control blocks accordingly, until the repair TE-LSPs are no longer needed.
US08441918B2

A method and apparatus are provided for performing acquisition, synchronization and cell selection within an MIMO-OFDM communication system. A coarse synchronization is performed to determine a searching window. A fine synchronization is then performed by measuring correlations between subsets of signal samples, whose first signal sample lies within the searching window, and known values. The correlations are performed in the frequency domain of the received signal. In a multiple-output OFDM system, each antenna of the OFDM transmitter has a unique known value. The known value is transmitted as pairs of consecutive pilot symbols, each pair of pilot symbols being transmitted at the same subset of sub-carrier frequencies within the OFDM frame.
US08441908B2

Provided is an optical pickup device which suppresses the decrease of light amount and performs conversion to circular polarization light, wherein the optical pickup device includes a beam splitter and a raising mirror on each of which a layered member is formed, and the optical pickup device satisfies conditional expressions relating to intensities of S-polarized light and P-polarized light with respect to the beam splitter of a laser beam emitted from a semiconductor laser element, reflectances of S-polarized light and P-polarized light on the beam splitter, a reflection phase difference obtained by subtracting a phase of S-polarized light from a phase of P-polarized light after the reflection, reflectances of S-polarized light and P-polarized light on the raising mirror, and a reflection phase difference obtained by subtracting a phase of S-polarized light from a phase of P-polarized light after the reflection.
US08441898B2

A method for copy protection includes providing audiovisual or audio data stored in sectors of a record carrier having a file system, and providing additional or modified data to be stored in further sectors. The method includes generating a first file of the file system referencing at least a part of the sectors and none of the further sectors, so when the first file is rendered by a playback device, the data is reproduced which is included in the part of the sectors. The method also includes generating a second file of the file system being another file than the first file and referencing at least a part of the sectors and further referencing at least one of the further sectors, such that when the second file is rendered by the playback device the part of the sectors and the at least one of the further sectors are reproduced.
US08441895B2

A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head is provided, in which the light-source output can be adjusted according to its variation by environmental influences and over time. The head comprises: a light source; a write head element provided in a element-integration surface; an optical system provided in the element-integration surface and configured to guide a light emitted from the light source to the vicinity of one end of the write head element; and a light detector for monitoring the light-source output, provided in the element-integration surface and comprising a light-receiving surface covering an area directly above at least a portion of the optical system. This light detector with such a light-receiving surface can detect a leakage light emitted from the optical system as a monitoring light. Therefore, feedback adjustment of the light-source output can be realized to stabilize the intensity of light for thermal-assist applied to a magnetic recording medium.
US08441893B2

An electronic timing device is disclosed for simply and easily indicating elapsed time since a food container was opened. The electronic timing device can be directly attached to the food container and can be activated when first opening the food container. Activation occurs via a simple one-button-press operation. Thereafter, the electronic timing device displays elapsed time in days. Additionally, via a further one-button-press operation, the electronic timing device can display elapsed time in hours within the current day. Thereafter, viewing the display readily indicates the elapsed time since the food container was first opened. The electronic timing device can be reused by directly attaching it to another food container and re-activating the electronic timing device. The electronic timing device can be used with any container or to indicate elapsed time of any event having occurred.
US08441890B2

A method for processing geophysical data. The method includes applying a first interferometry on an estimate of a direct ground roll between a receiver location and one or more boundary source locations and an estimate of a direct ground roll between one or more boundary receiver locations and each boundary source location to generate an interferometric estimate of a direct ground roll between the receiver location and each boundary receiver location. The method then includes applying a second interferometry on geophysical data between the source location and each boundary receiver location and the interferometric estimate of the direct ground roll between the receiver location and each boundary receiver location to generate an interferometric estimate of a direct and scattered ground roll between the source location and the receiver location. After applying the second interferometry, the method then includes removing the interferometric estimate of the direct and scattered ground roll between the source location and the receiver location from geophysical data acquired at the receiver location due to a source at the source.
US08441887B2

A decoding circuit withstanding high voltage via a low-voltage MOS transistor, where negative high voltage that can be withstood can be as high as double what the transistor itself can withstand via two-stage CMOS inverters connected serially. When the negative high voltage is withstood, the source of a PMOS transistor in the CMOS inverter is switched to high resistance, and the substrate to the ground; the source of an NMOS transistor in the first CMOS inverter is connected with a half negative high voltage, and the source of an NMOS transistor in the second CMOS inverter with a negative high voltage; the first CMOS inverter, whose output is the half negative high voltage, is grounded at its input terminal, and output of the second CMOS inverter is the negative high voltage.
US08441880B2

Operational stability of the nonvolatile memory in plural power supply voltage modes set up in advance corresponding to the power supply voltage level is realized. A nonvolatile memory is configured with a memory array, a charge pump, a distributor for selecting an output voltage of the charge pump, and a sequencer for controlling operation of the charge pump and the distributor. The nonvolatile memory is also provided with an analyzer which notifies the sequencer of a power supply voltage mode selectively specified among plural power supply voltage modes set up in advance corresponding to power supply voltage levels, and which detects mismatch between the power supply voltage mode notified to the sequencer and an actually supplied power supply voltage and limits the operation of the charge pump and the distributor with the use of the sequencer, based on the detection result. An operational stability of the nonvolatile memory is realized.
US08441879B2

To provide a plurality of memory banks, each of which is divided into a plurality of segments; a bank address register that designates a memory bank that becomes a refresh target; a segment address register that designates a segment that becomes a refresh target; and a refresh control circuit that prohibits a refresh operation of the memory bank or the segment not designated by at least one of the bank address register and the segment address register. This semiconductor device is capable of designating whether to perform a refresh operation not only in a memory bank unit but also in a segment unit within the memory bank, and thus it achieves a further reduction of the power consumption.
US08441861B2

Apparatus and methods determine a program verify (PV) induced reading parameter distribution. A measured post-PV reading parameter distribution can be compared with an expected post-PV reading parameter distribution. For example, de-convolution can be applied to identify the PV induced reading parameter distribution. Based on the PV-induced reading parameter distribution, adjustments can be made to one or more parameters of the PV process.
US08441856B2

A method of providing an operating voltage in a memory device includes applying a read voltage to a selected word line while applying a first pass voltage to at least one unselected word line among word lines adjacent to the selected word line; and while applying a second pass voltage to the remaining unselected word lines (other than the at least one unselected word line to which the first pass voltage is applied). The level of the first pass voltage is higher than the level of the second pass voltage. The level of the first pass voltage may be set based on the level of the read voltage.
US08441808B2

An interposer including stress-engineered nonplanar microsprings may provide interconnection of bonding pads of electronic structures disposed above and below the interposer. The lateral offset between an anchor portion of a microspring disposed for contact at a bottom surface of the interposer and the tip of the microspring located in a free portion of the microspring for contact and deflection over a top surface of the interposer permits the interconnection of devices having different bonding pad pitches. Microspring contacts at the free portion permit temporary interconnection of devices, while solder applied over the free portion permit permanent connection of devices to the interposer.
US08441803B2

A retaining facility for clearance-free fixing of a printed circuit board onto a one-dimensional curved surface is provided. In the direction of curvature of the one-dimensional curved surface, a tensile or compressive force acts on the printed circuit board or on at least one first connection device connected to the latter, with the printed circuit board being bent and pressed onto the curved surface. In this way the printed circuit board is held solidly and with little vibration on the surface even when acted on by centrifugal forces.
US08441800B2

Disclosed is a vehicle-mounted electronic device wherein heat generated from a heat-generating electronic device can be efficiently released without redesigning various kinds of components even if an input/output signal array for a terminal of a connector is changed. The vehicle-mounted electronic device is comprised of a lower housing (2b) having a bottom surface, a part of which is opened; a connector (3) which is projected from an opening (2c) of the lower housing (2b), and which can be connected to an outside device which inputs/outputs electric signals and an outside power source which supplies electric power; a circuit board (5) which is provided within the lower housing (2b), and is electrically connected to the connector (3) to process signals using electric signals and electric power; a metal wiring plate (7) composed of a plurality of metal wires, which is provided within the lower housing (2b) on the side adjacent to the bottom surface of the lower housing (2b), and has an end portion projected from the lower housing (2b) to electrically connect to the circuit board; and heat-generating electronic components (6), the bottom surfaces of which are coupled to a part of the metal wires in the metal wiring plate (7). The thickness of the metal wires coupled to the bottom surfaces of the heat-generating electronic components (6) in the metal wiring plate (7) is larger than the thickness of the terminal of the connector (3).
US08441799B2

To provide an improved solderability for mounting an electronic component onto a circuit board, a package of an electronic component (1) is formed by bonding together a base (3) made of glass and a lid (2). Outer electrodes (8) and (18) are formed on a bottom surface of the base (3), and the outer electrodes (8) and (18) are respectively connected to through electrodes (7) and (17). The outer electrodes (8) and (18) each have a laminated structure of three CrAu layers, that is, from a Cr layer (first layer) to an Au layer (sixth layer). When the outer electrodes (8) and (18) are soldered onto a circuit board, the Au layers as the second, fourth, and sixth layers are dissolved into solder, whereas the Cr layers as the third and fifth layers, which hardly form an intermetallic compound with solder, are separated to remain in solder.
US08441796B2

An electrical power substrate comprises a metallic body at least one surface of the body having a coating generated by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO). The coating includes a dense hard layer adjacent the said surface of the metallic body, and a porous outer layer. Electrically conductive elements are attached to the said coating.
US08441789B2

A module for data center is presented, which is used for heat sinking of a heat source. The module for data center includes a first chamber, a second chamber, and a heat pipe. The heat source is positioned in the first chamber. The second chamber is adjacent to the first chamber. In addition, the heat pipe has an evaporation end positioned inside the first chamber and a condensation end positioned inside the second chamber. The heat pipe absorbs the heat energy in the first chamber with the evaporation end, transfers the heat energy to the condensation end, and eliminates the heat energy with the condensation end.
US08441783B2

There is provided a laptop personal computer comprising: a first chassis 11 accommodating a display section and having a basic shape of substantially rectangle in a planar view; a second chassis 31 accommodating an operation control section and having a basic shape of substantially rectangle in a planar view; and a hinge mechanism 20 for coupling one side 31r of the second chassis and one side 11r of the first chassis and supporting both chassis in a relatively openable and closable manner, wherein the first chassis is provided with a projection part 19 at an edge portion of an other side 11f opposing to the one side 11r, the projection part is formed along the other side and projects to the second chassis side in a state where the first chassis is closed together with the second chassis.
US08441775B2

Techniques are generally described herein for the design, manufacture and use of composite dielectric materials. Embodiments include, but are not limited to, methods, apparatuses, and systems. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed. Some techniques described herein include electrophoretic deposition of dielectric particles to conformally form a thin layer of dielectric material for use in energy storage devices. Example energy storage devices include capacitor devices, which in some instances may be used to replace and/or assist in the operation of batteries, ultra-capacitors, and other similar devices.
US08441769B2

The present invention provides a power supply (200) comprising a ground terminal (110, 320), means (102, 104, 240, 242) for receiving and transmitting a telecommunications signal from/to at least one telecommunications device and means (100) for protecting the telecommunications device from a surge by shunting the surge to the ground terminal (110, 320).
US08441757B2

A magnetic write head having a write pole with a tapered trailing edge. The write head has a non-magnetic step layer and a non-magnetic bump formed on the front edge of the magnetic step layer. A non-magnetic trailing gap layer is formed over the tapered trailing edge of the write pole and over the non-magnetic bump and over the non-magnetic step layer. A magnetic trailing shield is formed over at least a portion of the non-magnetic gap layer.
US08441748B2

An adjustable optical mount embodiment includes a first plate configured to mount an optical element and a second plate disposed adjacent the first plate with a pivot point between the plates. At least one adjustable threaded member has a contact end in contact with a rear surface of the first plate and a threaded outer surface in threaded engagement with a threaded bore of the second plate. A lock collar having a threaded bore in threaded engagement with a threaded outer surface of the adjustable threaded member which extends from a rear surface of the second plate has a torqueable surface disposed at an adjustment end which is configured to be engaged for the application of torque from a rearward position relative to the adjustable optical mount.
US08441746B2

A wide angle photographic lens assembly comprises, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element with negative refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface, a second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface, a third lens element, a fourth lens element with positive refractive power, a fifth lens element with negative refractive power, and a sixth lens element with positive refractive power. By adjusting the conditions among the above-mentioned lens elements, the wide angle photographic lens assembly can provide a wide-field of view and correct the aberration in order to obtain superior imaging quality.
US08441744B2

An optical image system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element with positive refractive power and having a convex object-side surface, a second lens element with positive refractive power, a third lens element with negative refractive power and having a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface, and a fourth lens element with refractive power and having a concave image-side surface. By such an arrangement, the total track length and photosensitivity of the image capturing lens assembly can be effectively reduced while retaining a high image quality.
US08441741B2

An image pickup apparatus includes a first drive unit, a first lens unit configured to be driven by the first drive unit to perform a magnification-varying operation, a second drive unit, a second lens unit configured to be driven by the second drive unit, and a controller configured to control the first drive unit and the second drive unit so as to drive the second lens unit with reference to a position of the first lens unit in performing the magnification-varying operation. The controller controls the second lens unit so as to move only in a first direction in performing the magnification-varying operation.
US08441740B2

A zoom lens primarily includes, in order from an object side to an image-forming side, a first lens group having negative refractive power; a second lens group having positive refractive power and at least consisting of a first lens and a second lens; and a third lens group having positive refractive power. The refractive index of the first lens (Nd21), the refractive index of the second lens (Nd22), the total length of the first lens group, the second lens group, and the third lens group (TTL), and the shortest focal length of the zoom lens (fw) satisfy the following conditions: Nd21−Nd22>0.1 and TTL/fw≧1.3.
US08441728B2

A diffractive lens 11 that includes: a lens base 18, which has a second surface 13 with first and second groups of diffraction grating portions 20 and 21; and a protective coating 17, which is arranged on the first group of diffraction grating portions 20. The first group of diffraction grating portions 20 has a first group of diffraction steps and the second group of diffraction grating portions 21 has a second group of diffraction steps, which is lower in height than the first group of diffraction steps. One of the respective materials of the base 18 and the protective coating 17 has a higher refractive index and a greater Abbe number than the other material. And the second group of diffraction steps is not covered with the protective coating 17.
US08441725B2

The optical image stabilizer includes a shift member holding an image stabilizing element and being movable with respect to a center axis, a lock member disposed around the shift member and rotatable about the center axis between a lock position to limit movement of the shift member and an unlock position to release the limit of the movement of the shift member, and a base member including a supporting portion to rotatably support the lock member. The shift member includes protrusions at its plural circumferential places. The lock member includes, in its inner circumferential part, locking portions to receive contact of the protrusions at the lock position so as to limit the movement of the shift member. The supporting portion is formed so as to include plural openings allowing contact of the protrusions with the lock portions and so as to support the inner circumferential part of the lock member.
US08441711B2

A method of fabricating an electrophoretic display device includes forming a gate electrode, a gate line, a data line and a thin film transistor on a substrate having a display region, a non-display region at a periphery of the display region and a cut portion at an outer region of the non-display region; forming a passivation layer over the thin film transistor; forming a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor; forming an align mark in the cut portion; attaching an electrophoresis film onto the pixel electrode; forming a color filter layer on the base film using the align mark; wherein the step of forming the align mark is simultaneously performed with one of the step of forming the gate line, the step of forming the data line, and the step of forming the pixel electrode.
US08441698B2

A scan bar assembly having a scan element including a length direction; a drive gear; a follower gear; and a housing having a mounting region for mounting the scan element onto the housing; a first mounting member for the drive gear; and a second mounting member for the follower gear, wherein the first and second mounting members and the housing are integrally formed as a single part.
US08441697B2

A method determines displacements between pixels in a captured image of a reference pattern and corresponding pixels in the reference pattern including the steps of capturing the image of the reference pattern having a source pattern modulated by a plurality of carrier frequencies in a corresponding plurality of directions in the source pattern, demodulating at least three of the carrier frequencies in the captured image to form an amplitude image and a wrapped phase image for each of the carrier frequencies, and combining the wrapped phase images weighted by the amplitude images to determine the displacements between pixels in the captured image and corresponding pixels in the reference pattern.
US08441694B2

An image reproduction apparatus includes a scanning unit, a transparent scanning bed optically coupled to the scanning unit, and an adjustable shade associated with the scanning bed, wherein the adjustable shade is configured to be selectively placed across the scanning bed to reduce a portion of the scanning bed.
US08441684B2

What is disclosed is a novel system and method for text vectorization for bitmap images with reduced artificial discontinuities. Dominant points are identified in a bitmap character image. An initial curve is fitted to edge points of the character image in a vicinity of a selected dominant point. A set of boundary parameters in a vicinity of the selected dominant point are estimated based upon the initial curve. The selected dominant point is then classified as one of a sharp dominant point and a smooth dominant point based upon the boundary parameters or alternatively upon predefined classifications produced by an optical character recognition process. Curves are fitted between the selected dominant point and adjacent dominant points. The fitted curves maintain the estimated boundary parameters in the vicinity of smooth dominant points. A vectorized representation of the text character image based upon the fitted curves is produced as output.
US08441683B2

An image processing apparatus and image processing method perform adaptive correction at edges of an image to be printed in accordance with the conditions of output equipment outputting an image to be printed. The image processing apparatus includes: a printed sample generating component for generating a printed sample having a plurality of gray scale regions for correcting gray scale at edges of the image to be printed; a gray scale region selecting component for selecting from the printed sample generated by the printed sample generating component a gray scale region for realizing visually uniform gray scale at the edges; and an edge image correcting component for correcting edge regions of the image to be printed in accordance with a gray level of the gray scale region selected by the gray scale region selecting component.
US08441680B2

A method for calibrating an image printing system that includes a plurality of parallel printers, where each of the printers has a minimum luminance value. The method includes determining a minimum luminance value profile for the plurality of printers in the image printing system based on the minimum luminance values of each of the printers in the image printing system, determining a black point compensation function based on the determined minimum luminance value profile, adjusting luminance values for input image data using the determined black point compensation function, and rendering, with the parallel printers, images on substrates based on the input image data with adjusted luminance levels.
US08441679B2

There is provided an image forming device that includes a conveyor section, an image forming section, an accessing section and a control unit. The conveyor section conveys recording media in a conveying path, the recording media including a recording medium having a data storage unit attached thereto and a recording medium with no data storage unit attached thereto, the data storage unit storing data or being capable of storing data. The image forming section forms an image on the recording medium. The accessing section is disposed at an access position along the conveying path and accesses the data storage unit to execute an access operation to write data into or read data from the data storage unit. The control section is configured to control the conveyor section and the accessing section to bring the recording medium having passed the access position back to the access position and to access the data storage unit attached to the recording medium which has brought back to the access position to execute a re-access operation to write unprocessed data into or read unprocessed data from the data storage unit, the unprocessed data being such data that remained unprocessed with the access operation.
US08441674B2

An image forming apparatus having a first image obtaining portion which obtains an image of a medium as a first image, a second image obtaining portion which can continuously obtain each image of a plurality of originals as a second image, and an image output section which outputs the image has: an input portion which inputs composition instruction information for instructing composition of first image and each second image; a control portion which makes said first and said second image obtaining portions operative when the composition instruction information is inputted; and an image composing portion which forms each composite image by composing each of the second images sequentially obtained by the second image obtaining portion to the first image obtained by said first image obtaining portion. The image output section outputs the composite images formed by the image composing portion.
US08441667B2

A printer driver and an image forming apparatus for appropriately combining additional information (such as a stamp) and an original to print the combined image data. The printer driver according to one embodiment of the present invention, relates to a printer driver connected to a printer for registering form data transmitted from the printer driver, and for combining the registered form data and contents data. The printer driver transmits transparent data as form data and a command indicating that the form data is transparent data, to the printer.
US08441658B2

A printing device for printing on an image-receiving sheet includes an output unit for outputting printed image-receiving sheets to a finishing device. An interface is configured to connect to the finishing device. The interface is arranged for receiving an error signal from the finishing device. A communication unit outputs an error message to a user of the printing device. A control unit controls, when an error signal is received from the finishing device via the interface, a finisher error recovery procedure, wherein an error message is output to the user of the printing device by the communication unit. The error message contains the information that a number N of image-receiving sheets shall be removed from the finishing device, and the number N of the last printed image-receiving sheets are printed again. The number N is pre-configured in the control unit independently of the error signal received from the finishing device.
US08441652B2

There is provided a profile measuring apparatus which measures a profile of an object, including an imaging element; an image formation optical system including an objective lens; a measuring direction changing unit which is configured to change inclination of a surface of the object with respect to the objective lens based on information of the inclination of the surface of the object so that a light flux enters the objective lens with an aperture angle not less than a predetermined degree; and a measuring unit which is configured to measure the profile of the object based on the image, of the object on which the pattern is projected, obtained by the imaging element.
US08441651B2

Disclosed herein is a defect inspection apparatus including: a light source for emitting laser light; a mirror group for splitting the wave surface of incident laser light emitted by the light source into a plurality of component wave surfaces, arranging the component wave surfaces to form an array oriented in one direction and aligning the component wave surfaces to form a single wave surface after propagating the laser light through a moving object of measurement; an interferometer for splitting the single wave surface into two partial wave surfaces to create an interference stripe; an imaging section for taking an image of the interference stripe created by the interferometer; and an analysis section for detecting a defect existing on the surface of the moving object of measurement on the basis of changes of the image, which has been taken as the image of the interference stripe, with the lapse of time.
US08441645B2

A microfabricated analysis chip with integrated waveguides for evanescent field absorption detection is provided. Fabrication of the microfluidic device may be performed by micropatterning a layer of photoresist or other suitable material using a single step photoresist process to produce a microchannel and an optical structure (e.g., a U-bend waveguide) in the microfluidic device. The microfluidic device couples a micro-channel network with a waveguide in a collinear fashion to maintain higher path length and incurring little or no scattering, dispersion, and divergence losses. A sample can be passed through the microchannel while light is transmitted through the waveguide. Any change in refractive index as well as change in optical absorbance property of fluid flowing in the microchannel can be detected by detecting changes in light output power (e.g., changes in absorbance). A change in concentration of solution in the microchannel can be determined by detecting a change in light absorbance output.
US08441644B2

A method and apparatus for the photo-acoustic identification and quantification of one or more analyte species present in a gaseous or liquid medium in low concentration utilizing a laser and a resonant optical cavity containing the medium and having within the cavity at least two partially transparent mirrors, one of which is a cavity coupling mirror and one of which is moveably mounted on an assembly responsive to an input signal.
US08441643B2

A method for testing photosensitivity of an electronic display module, such as a liquid crystal display module, is provided. In one embodiment, a method includes exposing a display module to light at a first intensity and measuring an amount of light transmitted through the display module. The method may also include exposing the display module to light at a second intensity and measuring an amount of that light transmitted through the display module. The measured amounts may then be compared to determine an optical property, such as photosensitivity, of the display panel. Various other methods, systems, and manufactures are also disclosed.
US08441639B2

Various metrology systems and methods are provided.
US08441637B2

A method and device of detecting a scattering light beam for tools measuring scattering signals produced by the interaction of solid microparticles, such as a biological cells moving with a high-intensity, focused light beam, capable of reducing the influence of the cell movement with respect to the optical axis of the illuminating beam, and improving the quality of the signal characterized by the recognition of the individual particle or cell, specifically in fluid currents, such as those used in flow cytometry are disclosed.
US08441633B2

An apparatus for and method of performing multi-photon light sheet microscopy (MP-LISH), combining multi-photon excited fluorescence with the orthogonal illumination of light sheet microscopy are provided. With live imaging of whole Drosophila and zebrafish embryos, the high performance of MP-LISH compared to current state-of-the-art imaging techniques in maintaining good signal and high spatial resolution deep inside biological tissues (two times deeper than one-photon light sheet microscopy), in acquisition speed (more than one order of magnitude faster than conventional two-photon laser scanning microscopy), and in low phototoxicity are demonstrated. The inherent multi-modality of this new imaging technique is also demonstrated second harmonic generation light sheet microscopy to detect collagen in mouse tail tissue. Together, these properties create the potential for a wide range of applications for MP-LISH in 4D imaging of live biological systems.
US08441628B2

The present invention provides an apparatus for inspecting an illumination device where the illumination device allows light from one or more light sources to be emitted to the outside through a number of optical sheets layered on top of each other. The apparatus is provided with: a work stage on which an illumination device is placed; a work frame for fixing the position of the illumination device placed on the work stage; and a pressure reducing apparatus for making the pressure in the space inside the illumination device lower than the pressure in the space outside the apparatus for inspecting an illumination device when turned on during the inspection, wherein the work frame has an opening through which light from the illumination device is emitted and makes contact with the outer periphery of the illumination device and the work stage, respectively, through annular form during the inspection.
US08441624B2

Flow cytometry concepts are modified to enable dynamic characterizations of particles to be obtained using optical scattering data. Particles in flow will be introduced into a sample volume. Light scattered by a particle in the sample volume is collected and analyzed. What differentiates the concepts disclosed herein from conventional flow cytometry is the use of an acoustic source that is disposed to direct acoustic energy into the sample volume. As the particle passes through the sample volume, it responds to the acoustic energy, causing changes in the light scattered by the particle. Those changes, which are not measured during conventional flow cytometry, can be analyzed to determine additional physical properties of the particle.
US08441622B2

A Lidar measurement device for vehicular traffic surveillance and method for use of same are disclosed. In one embodiment, video circuitry acquires video of a field of view having a target therein. A steerable laser progressively transmits laser range-finding signals to the field of view in a horizontal and vertical step-wise manner and receives reflected laser range-finding signals from the target. A processing circuit portion determines target data of the target based upon range and time measurements associated with the reflected laser range-finding signals. The processing circuit then integrates the target data into the video such that the video may displayed with an image of the target and speed measurement associated therewith.
US08441612B2

This invention provides a structurally-simple LED light source that is capable of preventing temperature variations among its multiple LED elements arranged densely on its LED-mounting substrate and also improving the heat release capabilities of the substrate by comprising an LED light source with: a plurality of LED elements each of which is formed by connecting an LED chip to electrodes formed on a ceramic substrate; an LED-mounting substrate on which to mount the plurality of LED elements, the LED-mounting substrate having through holes therein; and a heat sink plate for releasing heat from the LED-mounting substrate, wherein a thermally conductive resin is present between the LED-mounting substrate and the heat sink plate and wherein part of the thermally conductive resin protrudes from the through holes of the LED-mounting substrate and covers the top surface of the LED-mounting substrate on which the plurality of LED elements are mounted, so that the part of the thermally conductive resin is in contact with the plurality of LED elements.
US08441608B2

A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel, a backlight unit providing light to the liquid crystal display panel, a bottom cover receiving the backlight unit, and at least one heat generation sheet disposed between the backlight unit and the bottom cover. The at least one heat generation sheet generates a radiant heat for increasing a surface temperature of the liquid crystal display panel.
US08441607B2

A display device which can ensure sufficient adhesive strength between each pair of substrates of a liquid crystal display panel and a sealing material includes: a first substrate having a predetermined integrated circuit; a second substrate on one surface of the first substrate in an overlapping manner; and an adhesive material between the first substrate and the second substrate that has an annular planar shape. The adhesive material adheres the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein an outer periphery of the adhesive material includes a zone which includes a plurality of first portions passing substantially the same position as an outer periphery of the surface of the first substrate and a plurality of second portions each connected with the two neighboring first portions and having a center portion thereof in a peripheral direction retracted toward an inner peripheral side of the adhesive material.
US08441604B2

A VA mode LCD device is disclosed, to improve the viewing-angle properties by isotropically compensating for a viewing angle, in which the VA mode LCD device includes first and second substrates; a plurality of gate and data lines formed on the first substrate, and formed perpendicularly to define a plurality of pixel regions. A thin film transistor is formed in each pixel region of the first substrate. A pixel electrode and a common electrode are formed in each pixel of the respective first and second substrates, wherein the pixel and common electrodes generate an electric field. At least one first slit of a curved-stripe shape, such as a circular-stripe shape, is formed in the pixel electrode of the first substrate. At least one second slit is formed in the common electrode of the second substrate. A liquid crystal layer formed between the first and second substrates.
US08441598B2

Disclosed is a liquid crystal display device equipped with a balance insulating member having a bottom frame and lamp sockets integrally formed on the bottom frame, including: a lower cover; a plurality of lamps disposed on the lower cover with a certain interval therebetween; a balance insulating member disposed at both sides of the lower cover, and having a bottom frame and lamp sockets integrally formed on the bottom frame so as to be coupled to the lamps; and a liquid crystal panel disposed above the lamps and receiving light, wherein the balance insulating member includes conductive electrodes formed at the lamp sockets, ballast capacitors each connected to the conductive electrodes and disposed on an upper side of the bottom frame, and conductive wirings formed inside the bottom frame and connected to the ballast capacitors.
US08441597B2

In the present invention, a diffusing sheet for diffusing light outputted from a light guide plate is extended to a stepped upper surface of an LED substrate and disposed at a lateral surface of the light guide plate so that the diffusing sheet can completely cover the light guide plate, thereby preventing undiffused light from being supplied to an liquid crystal display device.
US08441589B2

A pixel structure electrically connected to a data line and a scan line, and including a first and a second active device, a first and a second pixel electrode, and a first and a second capacitance electrode is provided. The first pixel electrode electrically connected to the first active device includes a first and a second electrode block electrically connected to each other. The second pixel electrode electrically connected to the second active device is electrically insulated from the first pixel electrode and separates the first and the second electrode block. The first pixel electrode respectively forms a first and a second capacitor with the first and the second capacitance electrode. The second pixel electrode respectively forms a third and a fourth capacitor with the first and the second capacitance electrode. The first and the second capacitor have different capacitances. The third and the fourth capacitor have different capacitances.
US08441583B2

A thin touch panel includes a transparent substrate with a black bordering around the inner surface of the transparent substrate. A plurality of metal connecting structures, metal guiding lines, transparent insulating structures and a transparent sensing layer are formed on the inner surface, so that the transparent substrate not only provides a touch surface, but also has the touch sensing ability, to decrease the manufacture material and increase the transmittance of the touch panel. Besides, the manufacture of the thin touch panel may not use any optical adhesive to decrease the manufacture cost and improve the yield. Further, the thin touch panel may satisfy the trend of thin design.
US08441576B2

A television receiver computes a delay time of an image displayed on the television receiver with respect to an audio signal transmitted from the television receiver to an audio amplifier, based on video delay information as EDID data, delay information transported from a disc recorder and information of a time required until audio data received from the disc recorder is transmitted to an audio amplifier. The audio amplifier controls a delay time lasting until the audio responsive to the received audio data is outputted so that the delay time matches the aforementioned delay time. Thereby, the displayed image in the television receiver and the audio output in the audio amplifier are synchronized.
US08441572B2

To produce a subject's image on an imager as accurately as possible, a technique that is effectively applicable to the process of assembling an optical system is provided.An imaging device includes: an imager; a plate member, to which the imager is attached; and a holding member configured to hold the plate member. The plate member has a first portion, through which at least one fixing hole has been cut, and a second portion, to which the imager is attached and through which at least one adjusting hole has been cut. The plate member is held by the holding member using a number of fastening members to be introduced through the at least one fixing hole and the at least one adjusting hole. When the first portion is fixed on the holding member, the fastening member that is introduced through the at least one adjusting hole adjusts the relative position of the second portion to the holding member.
US08441566B2

An image sensing apparatus comprises: a pixel array in which a plurality of pixels are arrayed in a row direction and column direction; a selection unit configured to select a row of the pixel array; and a readout unit configured to read out signals from the pixels of the row selected by the selection unit, wherein, when the readout unit reads out signals from the pixels of not all rows but some rows in the pixel array, the selection unit resets the pixels of rows in adjacent regions adjacent to readout rows from which signals are read out, and the pixel array includes rows, in which the pixels are not reset by the selection unit, in regions other than the readout rows and the adjacent regions.
US08441560B2

An image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor including a first reference pixel for black level, a second reference pixel for black level, and an effective pixel, and a processing unit which applies first processing to an output signal from the effective pixel based on an output signal from the first reference pixel for black level, and applies second processing to an output signal from the effective pixel based on an output signal from the second reference pixel for black level. The first reference pixel for black level and the second reference pixel for black level each include a charge-voltage converter which converts electric charge into a voltage and a pixel amplifier which amplifies the voltage of the charge-voltage converter. The pixel amplifiers of the first reference pixel for black level and the second reference pixel for black level differ in arrangement.
US08441555B2

An image recording apparatus for recording an image captured by use of electronic zoom, comprises an electronic-zoom setting unit configured to set a zoom magnification when using the electronic zoom, a recording-mode selection unit configured to select at least either a non-compression format or a compression format as a recording mode in recording the captured image, a recording-size setting unit configured to set a recording size in each recording mode, and a control unit configured to, when the zoom magnification is set to a magnification at which an image is enlarged, control a recording size in the non-compression format to be larger than the recording size set by the recording-size setting unit.
US08441546B2

A device includes a first isolated-point candidate detection section calculates a parameter value used for detecting an isolated-point candidate from a near-field region of a target pixel of a color image signal, a color-space conversion section combines a plurality of signals constituting the color image signal together, and converts the combined signals into a plurality of color signals on defined color space, a second isolated-point candidate detection section calculates a parameter value used for detecting an isolated-point candidate from a near-field region of a target pixel of the converted color signal, and an isolated-point degree determination section determines an isolated-point degree on the basis of parameter values calculated by the isolated-point candidate detection sections.
US08441529B2

An endoscope objective lens unit includes a front lens group and a rear lens group with a diaphragm interposed therebetween. The front lens group includes a first lens and a second lens, and the rear lens group includes a third lens, a fourth lens and a fifth lens. The endoscope objective lens unit satisfies following expressions (1A) to (4): (1A) −3
US08441527B2

A 3D image processing apparatus includes: a main screen image processing unit which generates a main screen processed image by performing a format conversion process on a main screen image; a sub screen image processing unit which generates a sub screen processed image by performing a format conversion process on a sub screen image; and a synthesizing unit which generates a synthesized image by synthesizing the main screen processed image and the sub screen processed image. Furthermore, the main screen image processing unit generates a left screen output image by performing the format conversion process on a left screen input image that is a left half of a 3D image, and the sub screen image processing unit generates a right screen output image by performing the format conversion process on a right screen input image that is a right half of a 3D image.
US08441525B2

A method for synchronizing a function on a remote device with a function on a primary device includes selectively broadcasting, from a radio frequency (RF) transmitter of the primary device, data broadcast on channels at different times relative to a fixed period strobe signal of the primary device. Only the channels that have a noise level below a specified threshold level selectively broadcast the data and each of the channels have an associated fixed time frame offset relative to the fixed period strobe signal. Each of the channels is broadcast after their associated fixed time frame offset expires. An RF receiver of the remote device receives the data on one of the channels. The data on each of the channels is received at different times, depending on its associated fixed time frame offset, which results in the data on each received channel having an associated received time reference relative to a strobe signal of the remote device. The remote device strobe signal is synchronized to determine a received time reference and the fixed time frame offset. The remote device function is cyclically performed, which results in the remote device function being synchronized with the primary device function. The method may be used to synchronize a 3D video signal broadcast from a transmitter to sets of 3D glasses.
US08441523B2

Coordinate values of an object located in a coordinate space are stored in a memory. The coordinate space is represented by a first direction, a second direction and a third direction each different. The coordinate values include first coordinate values along the first direction, second coordinate values along the second direction and third coordinate values along the third direction. A stereoscopic image of the object having a parallax along one of the first direction and the second direction is displayed. A direction of the parallax is detected. When the direction of the parallax is the first direction, the first coordinate values are subjected to a parallel projection. When the direction of the parallax is the second direction, the second coordinate values are subjected to the parallel projection.
US08441522B2

A method for the autostereoscopic representation of image information on a matrix screen on which image points are formed through a subpixel group, each with a plurality of subpixels, wherein two stereoscopic fields are imaged on one of two subgroups of the image points, and wherein light emanating from the two subgroups of image points is guided through a barrier raster into two adjacent viewing zones, and wherein a change of the viewer's head position is further detected, and activation of the subpixels is adapted to the change of the head position by shifting intensity centroids, in particular, within the image points upon a change in the viewing distance between the head position and matrix screen by adapting of weightings of intensities within the image points such that a lateral distance between the centroid of the intensity distributions in a left viewing zone and the centroid of the intensity distributions in a right viewing zone in a viewing plane remains constant. A respective device for the autostereoscopic representation of image information is described.
US08441519B2

The present invention has an objective of providing an optical disk having a high resolution picture and a system for reproducing data on the optical disk, which are compatible with a conventional system for reproducing an ordinary resolution picture. A high resolution signal is divided into a main signal and a sub signal by picture division means and MPEG-encoded. The main signal and the sub signal are divided into frames each having 1 GOP or more. The resultant first interleave block 54 and second interleave block 55 are recorded alternately on an optical disk. A high resolution reproduction apparatus reproduced both the first and second interleave blocks, so that a high resolution picture is obtained. A non-high resolution reproduction apparatus reproduces only the first or second interleave block, so that an ordinary resolution picture.
US08441513B2

A light source device includes a surface emitting laser, a surface emitting laser holding unit on which the surface emitting laser is mounted, a parallel plate that is arranged on a light path of a light flux from the surface emitting laser so that the light flux enters into one surface thereof, and that is made of a transparent material, and a holder having a through hole that functions as a light path of the light flux from the surface emitting laser, wherein the surface emitting laser holding unit is brought into contact with the holder, the parallel plate is fixedly bonded to the holder, and a part of the through hole of the holder is sealed with the surface emitting laser holding unit and the parallel plate.
US08441512B2

An optical scanner includes a light source, a deflector and a scanning optical system. The scanning optical system includes a first optical system including at least one resin scanning lens, and a second optical system between the target surface and one resin scanning lens. The second optical system includes at least one of a folding mirror(s) and a glass sheet(s), wherein m1+g2=m2+g1 is satisfied wherein m1 and g1 are respectively number of the folding mirror(s) and number of the glass sheet(s) to which the first ray has a shorter optical path than the second ray does, m2 and g2 are respectively number of the folding mirror(s) and number of the glass sheet(s) to which the first ray has a longer optical path than the second ray does.
US08441505B2

A driver unit comprises a latch circuit for holding digital image data in a voltage state, a digital-to-analog converter, and a voltage compensator circuit for raising the analog display voltage. The digital-to-analog converter can access content of the digital image data from the voltage state in the latch circuit, and convert the digital image data into analog display signals. In other embodiments, a method of driving a liquid crystal display comprises storing digital image data in a latch circuit under a voltage state, accessing a content of the digital image data from the voltage state held in the latch circuit, selecting a reference voltage according to the content of the digital image data for converting the digital image data into analog display signals, and raising the analog display voltage for obtaining a driving voltage.
US08441502B2

The present invention is directed to methods, systems, and apparatuses for automatically determining an object type in a computer automated design application, and more particularly to automatically determining and drawing the pipe type of a pipe in a sprinkler system CAD drawing. The present invention allows a user to make various pipe parameter choices and decisions up front, and to then draw each individual pipe without having to each time make the numerous selections and decisions required to determine that pipe's proper type. The present invention may also be used to determine other component types in non-piping related CAD designs, such as electrical wiring, for example.
US08441501B1

A method and system for adapting a virtual setting to a participant includes launching a simulation program on a computing device, evaluating a virtual profile of the participant and presenting scenarios within the virtual setting appropriate for said participant based on said evaluation, wherein at least a predetermined aspect of the virtual setting is available to the participant regardless of a result of said evaluation and the virtual setting corresponds to the simulation program.
US08441499B2

A method of defining a dynamically adjustable user interface (“UI”) of a device is described. The method defines multiple UI elements for the UI, where each UI element includes multiple pixels. The method defines a display adjustment tool for receiving a single display adjustment parameter and in response adjusting the appearance of the UI by differentiating display adjustments to a first set of saturated pixels from the display adjustments to a second set of non-saturated pixels.
US08441496B1

Various embodiments of a method and system for modifying and rendering scenes via display lists are described. Various embodiments may include a graphical application for generating a display list including display list nodes each corresponding to a respective scene element. To generate a given display list node, the graphical application may determine a scene graph node of a scene graph, allocate a portion of memory dedicated to the display list node, and store in that portion of memory, at least one of the attributes of the respective scene element determined from the particular scene graph node. The graphical application may modify a particular display list node corresponding to the particular scene element by modifying a respective attribute stored in the portion of memory allocated to the particular display list node, and render an image of a scene that includes the particular scene element modified according to the notification.
US08441490B1

A system and method for managing graphics applications include the capability to receive graphics data from an unaware graphics application and convey the graphics data to at least one of a plurality of graphics pipes having different display directions. The system and method further include the capability to modify the graphics data to account for non-planar display of the graphics data.
US08441480B2

An information processing apparatus includes: an acquisition portion that acquires position/direction information indicative of a position and a direction of a projection device; a selection portion that selects at least one piece of drawing data from a plurality of pieces of drawing data relating to parts provided in an object; a generation portion that generates a projection drawing from the drawing data selected by the selection portion; a conversion portion that calculates a distance between the object and the projection device, and a direction of the projection device from the position/direction information, and converts the projection drawing into a perspective drawing by using the calculated distance and the calculated direction; and a control portion that controls the projection device so as to project the perspective drawing onto the object.
US08441479B2

A three-dimensional data processing device includes a bounding volume generating unit for generating a bounding volume of a solid body using stereographic data of the solid body, a view volume setting unit for setting a view volume based on a set viewpoint, and a culling processing unit for determining whether or not to draw the solid body within the view volume using the generated bounding volume. The bounding volume generating unit obtains bottom plane data of the solid body from the stereographic data, obtains an outer quadrangular frame that encloses a bottom plane of the solid body defined by the bottom plane data, obtains an inner quadrangular frame inscribed on the outer quadrangular frame, determines bounding volume geometry data using the inner quadrangular frame as a reference plane, and generates the bounding volume of the solid body from the bounding volume geometry data.
US08441473B2

A method of removing offsets between channels of a liquid crystal panel is provided. The method includes: alternately arranging first type output buffers and second type output buffers for driving the pixels in units of at least two rows of the pixels; and arranging the first type output buffers and the second type output buffers in units of at least two columns of the pixels so that the output buffers with types opposite to those of previous two columns are arranged. The second type output buffers are embodied by switching connections among the differential transistors and connections among the load transistors in the first type output buffers.
US08441469B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device capable of reducing the number of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the number of signal transmitters, and thus reducing manufacturing costs, is disclosed. The LCD device includes a liquid crystal panel having a display to display an image, a plurality of data drive integrated circuits (ICs) connected between one-side portion of the liquid crystal panel and a source PCB, to drive data lines arranged on the display of the liquid crystal panel, a light source unit to provide light to the liquid crystal panel, and a unified board formed with a light source driver to drive the light source unit, and a drive circuit to drive the data drive ICs.
US08441460B2

A touch sensitive apparatus for providing side touch panel as part of man-machine interface is provided. A front panel are disposed on the front surface. A first sensor being a resistive or capacitive type sensor is disposed on or under one of plurality of side surfaces for sensing a touch thereon. A first sensor controller coupling the first sensor is for generating one or more signals in response to the touch on the first sensor. An application module provides a plurality of applications each comprising a plurality of function handlers. A system framework provides registration information for each function handler associated with an action type on the first sensor, determines an action type in terms of the signal(s) from the first sensor controller, and drives one function handler to perform a specific function according to the determined action type and the registration information.
US08441452B1

An apparatus for and method of detecting multiple presences on a touch sensor device are described.
US08441451B2

A mobile terminal is provided including a touchscreen and a controller. The controller is configured to display, on the touchscreen, a moving picture and a subset of a plurality of key frame pictures for the moving picture.
US08441444B2

An interface device providing haptic feedback to a user is in communication with a host computer. The device includes a housing, at least one sensor for detecting user input, and an actuator assembly. The actuator assembly includes a grounded flexure suspension coupled to an inertial mass which moves when the actuator assembly is energized to cause inertial sensations. The inertial mass includes a pole piece surrounding a magnet, and a grounded coil between magnet and pole piece causes the motion of the inertial mass when current is flowed therethrough. Another embodiment provides directional haptic feedback to a user and includes at least two actuator assemblies oriented such that the inertial masses oscillate substantially orthogonally, and can be controlled to output the inertial sensations approximately along a single axis having a desired orientation.
US08441437B2

Triggering haptic sensations based on sound output from a computer device. A portion of sound data is stored that is output to a user as audio from an application program running on a computer. The portion of sound data is analyzed using intelligent heuristics to extract at least one sound feature from the sound data. The execution of at least one haptic effect is triggered based on the sound feature, where the haptic effect is commanded to the haptic feedback device approximately correlated to the output of the portion of sound to the user as audio. The haptic effect causes a haptic sensation to be output to the user. Different haptic effects can be associated with different sound features, frequency ranges, amplitudes, etc.
US08441436B2

To provide an input apparatus, a control apparatus, a control system, a control method, and a handheld apparatus with which a movement of a pointer on a screen can be stopped, for example, with a simple operation or without a user being aware of the operation. An MPU judges whether absolute values of acceleration values are both equal to or smaller than a threshold value (hereinafter, referred to as threshold value for convenience). When both of the absolute values for the acceleration values are not equal to or smaller than the threshold value, the MPU transmits velocity values to a control apparatus. Otherwise, the MPU stops outputting (transmitting) the velocity values. Typically, a time when a position of a casing of an input apparatus falls within an angle range an angle ±α from a line that is perpendicular to a ground (horizontal plane) is a time when the absolute values become equal to or smaller than the threshold value.
US08441430B2

An image display device comprises a liquid crystal display panel configured to selectively implement 2D images and 3D images, panel driving circuits configured to drive the liquid crystal display panel, a backlight configured to include a plurality of light sources and supply light to the liquid crystal display panel, and a controller configured to modulate input data to generate frame data synchronized with N (where N is a positive integer equal to or more than 4) multiple frame frequency, control the panel driving circuits such that the same frame data is displayed in the liquid crystal display panel every two consecutive frame periods, control the backlight to be turned off for a former frame period of the two frame periods allocated to display the same frame data, and control the backlight to be turned on for a latter frame period of the two frame periods.
US08441425B2

To provide a liquid crystal display device suitable for a thin film transistor which uses an oxide semiconductor. In a liquid crystal display device which includes a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer, a film having a function of attenuating the intensity of transmitting visible light is used as an interlayer film which covers at least the oxide semiconductor layer. As the film having a function of attenuating the intensity of transmitting visible light, a coloring layer can be used and a light-transmitting chromatic color resin layer is preferably used. An interlayer film which includes a light-transmitting chromatic color resin layer and a light-blocking layer may be formed in order that the light-blocking layer is used as a film having a function of attenuating the intensity of transmitting visible light.
US08441412B2

A method and apparatus for displaying data on bi-stable and non-bi-stable displays is provided. The apparatus includes a controller chip capable of being connected to a non-bi-stable display through a first interface channel and also capable of being connected to a bi-stable display via the first interface channel and an additional second interface channel. When connected the non-bi-stable display, the second interface channel is not connected. The second interface channel may carry mode information bits to the bi-stable display module to allow the bi-stable display to utilize power-saving features.
US08441410B2

A multi-antenna system feed device and a terminal including such a device is suggested.The device includes at least: a set of Wilkinson combiners, a branch of a combiner feeding an antenna, with the branches connected as inputs to a feed point; a set of switches connected between the antennas and the combiners with each switch switching a combiner branch to its corresponding antenna with the antenna being connected to the line when the switch is closed; A branch feeding an antenna, for instance, will be common to two consecutive combiners of the system. The suggested multi-antenna system feed device applies in particular to the extension of multi-antenna or sector antenna systems, used especially in devices with Multiple Inputs/Outputs of the MiMo type and more specifically to mesh network architectures.
US08441409B2

A ground plane for reducing multipath reception comprises a convex conducting surface and an array of conducting elements disposed on at least a portion of the convex conducting surface. Embodiments of the convex conducting surface include a portion of a sphere and a sphere. Each conducting element comprises an elongated body structure having a transverse dimension and a length, wherein the transverse dimension is substantially less than the length. The cross-section of the elongated body structure can have various user-specified shapes. Each conducting element can further comprise a tip structure. The azimuth spacings, lengths, and surface densities of the conducting elements can be functions of meridian angle. An antenna can be mounted directly on the conducting convex surface or on a conducting or dielectric support structure mounted on the conducting convex surface. System components, such as a navigation receiver, can be mounted inside the conducting convex surface.
US08441398B2

An electronic circuit for a satellite receiver. The electronic circuit includes a correlator circuit operable to supply a data signal including ephemeris data and a subsequent satellite time datum, and a data processor operable to infer satellite time TS from as few as one of the ephemeris data prior to the satellite time datum. Other circuits, devices, receivers, systems, processes of operation and processes of manufacture are also disclosed.
US08441396B2

Systems and methods of providing error tolerant robust simplex wireless data for systems employing time correlated data transfer are provided. In one embodiment, a system comprises: sensors that produce samples of time correlated data; and a node coupled to the sensors by a wireless link. The link comprises a primary stream for simplex transmission of data packets, and a secondary stream for simplex transmission of delayed data packets, the delayed data packets a delayed retransmission of the time correlated data. When the node receives a first data packet from a first sensor via the primary stream, the data receiving node check validity. When the first data packet is corrupted, the node validity checks a second data packet received via the secondary stream. When both packets contain corrupted data, the node builds a reconstructed plurality of sequential time correlated data samples based on non-corrupted data samples from within the data packets.
US08441384B2

A switched-capacitor circuit is disclosed. The switched-capacitor circuit includes a comparator having a first and second input, a first and second sampling capacitor, and a first and second switching circuitry. The first switching circuitry charges the first and second sampling capacitor with an input signal. The second switching circuitry selectively couples the first sampling capacitor with a reference voltage and selectively couples the second sampling capacitor and the first and second input of the comparator to a common voltage. The comparator performs a compare of the input signals against the reference voltage, and outputs a signal.
US08441383B1

The present invention is directed to a photonic digital-to-analog converter (pDAC) system. The system may include a mode locked laser, an optical splitter connected to the laser, and a plurality of reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers connected to the splitter. The mode locked laser transmits a digital optical pulse train to the splitter. The splitter splits an optical pulse of the digital pulse train into multiple optical pulses and provides the multiple optical pulses to the amplifiers via a plurality of optical paths, at least two of the optical paths having different path lengths. The amplifiers amplify the multiple optical pulses and provide the amplified multiple optical pulses to the splitter. The splitter outputs an analog optical pulse train derived from the amplified multiple optical pulses. The system provides for faster sampling rate and lower jitter than Electrical Digital-to-Analog converter (eDAC) systems.
US08441382B2

A current-steering digital-to-analog converter may include a plurality of current cells. Each current cell may comprise a dual bias switched cascode output current source/sink, a bias source, complementary bias switching elements coupled between the bias source and the bias inputs of the switched cascode output current source/sink, and complementary switching signals coupled to the control inputs of the complementary bias switching element.
US08441373B2

Pulses, including electrical waveforms, emitted light, and light reflected by a moving mechanical device, that are emitted by a standard utility meter may be received. A device may be controlled to vary its usage of the utility and that may be used to determine a usage per pulse. The usage per pulse information may be used to convert a pulse rate from a meter to emulate the pulse rate from another meter. Information about the other meter and/or services offered by the other meter may be provided to allow for emulation of the other meter.
US08441371B2

The invention relates to a system and method of a health monitoring network which automates detection of faulty or failed sensors using realt-time fault checking on a dynamically registered sensor data stream. The monitoring system and sensor network can provide a one-touch system to notify users when a sensor requires attention, without prior knowledge of the operational characteristics, installation method or configuration of sensors in the network. The network uses a decision engine to assist in maintenance according to a profile based on individual preferences and capabilities.
US08441367B1

An alert server is operative to notify users when they are in proximity within one another. The alert server may determine to alert a first user of the proximity of a second user when the second user is in an unusual location. The alert server may determine that the second user is in an unusual location when the second user is outside his or her routine geographic location. The alert server may determine whether the second user is outside his or her routine geographic location by assigning confidence values to geographic locations that the second user has previously visited. The alert sent to the first user may be in the form of a text message, e-mail, or other electronic communication. The first user may receive the alert on a mobile device, such as a cellphone, smartphone, netbook, or other mobile device.
US08441366B2

An arrangement of a sensor device with at least one sensor for a contactless activation of at least one moving part of a vehicle, especially a vehicle hatch, the sensor being arranged on at least one support element on the vehicle, in order to permit a detection of an object in at least one detection range adjacent to the vehicle, so that activation of the hatch can be activated via the detection, where the sensor is arranged in shape-mated and/or force-fit fashion on support element.
US08441350B2

An apparatus and method are provided for operation of a display device to provide a home security alarm. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a user alarm activation command by the display device; initiating a detection mode, by the display device, based on the user command; and detecting, by a sensor of the display device, at least one of a presence and motion within a target area of the display device. The process may also include outputting an alarm signal, by the display device, based on detecting the at least one of a presence and motion in the target area.
US08441346B2

A vehicle user is notified of a rear gate ajar condition so that the user can take corrective action by opening and then re-closing the rear gate. The method includes the steps of determining that the rear gate latch has engaged a latch striker but has not reached a fully latched position; operating a vehicle mounted signaling device that is cognizable by a user while still standing at the rear gate so that the user will receive immediate notification that the rear gate latch has not reached the fully latched position, thereby enabling the user to take immediate corrective action by opening and then re-closing the gate to attempt a fully latched position of the rear gate latch; and then, if the vehicle is started without the lift gate operator having taken corrective action to obtain full latching of the rear gate latch, energizing a lift gate ajar light on the instrument panel so that the vehicle driver is notified to take corrective action before driving away.
US08441339B2

The present invention provides a displacement detector for a relative displacement of a fixed member and a movable member, which includes a first member and a second member. The first member is secured to the fixed member and composed of an insulator. The second member moves relative to the fixed member, integrally with the movable member. The second member is disposed opposite to the first member. The second member is composed of an insulator. Either of the first member and the second member includes an IC tag for detection performing non-contact communication, and the other includes a blocking member composed of a conductor blocking the communication performed by the IC tag. When the second member moves a predetermined amount relative to the first member, starting from an initial state, the IC tag for detection moves from inside to outside a region of the blocking member or vice versa.
US08441333B2

A stacked inductor with different metal thickness and metal width. The stacked inductor comprises top and bottom metal traces which are aligned with each other. The thickness and width of the top and bottom metal traces are different. The top and bottom metal traces are connected at the end of metal trace with via holes. The inductance is increased with the use of the mutual inductance between top and bottom metal layers The parasitic resistor is reduced due to the difference of the top and bottom metal widths.
US08441331B2

A planar magnetic structure has an electrically insulating carrier made up of a base portion and opposed upstanding sidewalls. A plurality of planar primary windings and planar secondary windings are interstitially disposed within the carrier with planar dielectric spacers located between each adjacent pair of windings. A ferrite core envelopes the assembly to magnetically couple the windings. The carrier and windings form at least two spaces-apart sets of cooperating registration features which maintain the windings in fixed alignment with the carrier.
US08441319B2

An amplifier comprises: an input stage for receiving incoming signals; a high gain stage coupled to the input stage and providing driving signals in response to the incoming signals to an output driver stage; and an output terminal coupled to the output driver stage. The output driver stage comprises a high side driver circuit having a first terminal receiving a first driving signal pdrive from the high gain stage, a second terminal coupled VDD through a first voltage drop, and a third terminal coupled to the output terminal of the amplifier.
US08441314B1

In a programmable logic device having high-speed serial interface channels, a clock distribution network for providing one or more high-speed clocks to dynamic phase alignment circuitry of those high-speed serial interfaces includes at least one bus that is segmentable (e.g. using tristatable buffers). This allows the bus to be divided into different portions that can be connected to different clock sources when the high-speed serial interfaces are running at different speeds. In one embodiment, the segmenting elements (e.g., the aforementioned buffers) are located between selected channels (e.g., every fourth channel), limiting the size of the different segments. In another embodiment, segmenting elements are located between each channel, allowing complete user freedom in selecting the sizes of the segments. Thus, instead of providing a bus for every clock source, multiple clocks can be made available to different channels by segmenting a single bus.
US08441304B2

A high-frequency switch circuit according to the present invention includes at least a first switch connected between a common terminal and a first terminal, and a second switch connected between the common terminal and a second terminal. Each of the first and second switches includes a plurality of field-effect transistors connected in series and each having a body, a source, a drain, and a gate. A compensation capacitance that compensates a parasitic capacitance generated when the first switch is in an off-state is formed between the drain and the body or between the source and the body in the FET of the first switch. A compensation capacitance that compensates a parasitic capacitance generated when the second switch is in an off-state is formed between the drain and the body or between the source and the body in the FET of the second switch.
US08441300B2

Power consumption is increased in an interface circuit having a signal processing function for waveform shaping due to influence of a circuit added for waveform shaping. Also, since a plurality of boards are connected to a backplane in a system, they are not exchanged in accordance with distances while there are boards being far or near are mixed, but a common board is used. Thus, it is necessary to prepare a configuration of an interface circuit meeting the longest transfer distance. An interface circuit disabling a part of or all of operations of a waveform shaping circuit is provided. Accordingly, in accordance with transfer distances, switching of operation ranges of waveform shaping circuit inside the interface circuit is possible, and operation ranges of the waveform shaping circuit can be limited, and power consumption of the interface circuit, an LSI including the interface circuit, and a server device can be reduced.
US08441295B2

A delay generator comprises: a current source for supplying a current; a first delay portion, connected to the current source, comprising at least a plurality of inverters and a first capacitor having a first capacitance; and a second delay portion, connected to the current source, comprising at least a plurality of inverters and a second capacitor having a second capacitance, wherein the first capacitance is the same as the second capacitance, wherein the first delay portion generates a first delay by discharging of the first capacitor, wherein the second delay portion generates a second delay by charging of the second capacitor, and wherein the total delay generated by the delay generator is obtained by summation of the first delay and the second delay.
US08441291B2

One or more PLLs are formed on an integrated circuit. Each PLL includes an interpolative divider configured as a digitally controlled oscillator, which receives a reference clock signal and supplies an output signal divided according to a divide ratio. A feedback divider is coupled to the output signal of the interpolative divider and supplies a divided output signal as a feedback signal. A phase detector receives the feedback signal and a clock signal to which the PLL locks. The phase detector supplies a phase error corresponding to a difference between the clock signal and the feedback signal and the divide ratio is adjusted according to the phase error.
US08441285B2

An electronic integrated circuit includes a signal path connected between the functional logic (15) thereof and an external output terminal. The signal path includes a switch (S), a bus holder circuit (121B), and an output buffer (19).
US08441279B2

A scan flip-flop circuit includes an input unit and an output unit. The input unit selects one of a data input signal and a scan input signal depending on an operation mode and generates an intermediate signal based on the selected signal. The output unit generates an output signal based on the intermediate signal and selects one of a data output terminal and a scan output terminal depending on the operation mode to provide the output signal through the selected output terminal. A voltage level at the selected output terminal bidirectionally transitions between a first voltage level and a second voltage level. A voltage level at a non-selected output terminal unidirectionally transitions between the first voltage level and the second voltage level.
US08441269B2

The present disclosure relates to a method to determine a characteristic of a subsurface formation using a downhole logging tool. A downhole logging tool having the ability to make substantially concurrent disparate measurements on the subsurface formation is provided and substantially concurrent disparate measurements on the formation using the downhole logging tool are made. Those measurements are used to solve a system of equations simultaneously and the solution to the system of equations is used to determine the characteristic of the subsurface formation.
US08441267B2

A method for operating an inductive conductivity-measuring cell having a primary circuit with a sending coil, a secondary circuit with a receiver coil, and a short-circuit path, which passes through the sending coil and the receiver coil. The sending coil couples via the short-circuit path inductively with the receiver coil, wherein, in the case of closed short-circuit path, a first electrical signal present in the primary circuit is measured, and wherein the first signal is compared with, and/or weighed against, values, which are furnished or stored.
US08441266B1

A sensing circuit for comparing current flow through a reference resistance with current flow through a resistive device under test (DUT) such as a fuse. The sensing circuit includes a comparator having a first PMOS transistor and a first NMOS transistor connected in series between a first input and a first node and a second PMOS transistor and a second NMOS transistor connected in series between a second input and the first node. The first PMOS and NMOS transistors are cross-coupled with the second PMOS and NMOS transistors. Specifically, a first output is connected to the first node to the gates of the second PMOS and second NMOS transistors and a second output is connected to the second node and to the gates of the first PMOS and first NMOS transistors. The reference resistance is connected to one of the inputs and the DUT is connected to the other input.
US08441262B2

A method of predicting an electrochemical mapping parameter in a vehicle that derives at least a portion of its motive power from an energy storage system is provided. The method may comprise providing a plurality of electrochemical mapping parameter sources capable of rendering one or more electrochemical mapping parameters selected from the group consisting of resistance and capacitance and selecting at least one electrochemical mapping parameter source capable of rendering one or more electrochemical mapping parameters based on the state of the energy storage system. The method may also comprise determining an adaptive gain and determining an adaptive factor based on the operating state of the vehicle or the energy storage system. The method may also comprise adapting the one or more electrochemical mapping parameters based on the adaptive factor and adaptive gain to provide an adapted electrochemical mapping parameter value.
US08441255B1

A thermoelectrically cooled GMR sensor having a first thermoelectric layer with an array of nanowires, wherein the nanowires include a diameter of about 1 nanometer to about 1000 nanometers. A plurality of alternating layers of magnetic and nonmagnetic material are positioned over and extend the nanowires to form a GMR assembly. A second thermoelectric layer is positioned over the GMR assembly and extends the nanowires, such that the nanowires have a length of between about 100 nanometers and about 500 microns. Conductors are placed in contact with the first and second thermoelectric layers for connecting the thermoelectric layers to a voltage source.
US08441250B2

Disclosed is a method for using at least one static probe during polymerization in a fluid bed polymerization reactor system to monitor a coating on a surface of the reactor system and a distal portion of each static probe, wherein the coating is exposed to flowing fluid within the reactor system during the reaction. The surface may be a reactor bed wall (exposed to the reactor's fluid bed) and the coating is exposed to flowing, bubbling fluid within the fluid bed during the reaction. The method may include steps of: during the polymerization reaction, operating the static probe to generate a sequence of data values (“high speed data”) indicative of fluid flow variation (e.g., bubbling or turbulence), and determining from the high speed data at least one electrical property of the coating (e.g., of a portion of the coating on the distal portion of the static probe).
US08441248B2

A method of determining a voltage and phase across an electric heating element in a laundry treating appliance, such as a clothes dryer.
US08441247B2

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the critical current of a superconducting tape. A continuous critical current measurement apparatus for measuring critical current of a superconducting tape while feeding a superconducting tape in a liquid nitrogen container includes wheel-type current terminals and wheel-type voltage terminals. The superconducting tape is continuously supplied and fed by a reel-to-reel device, and the critical current of the superconducting tape is measured in real time using the wheel-type current terminals and the wheel-type voltage terminals while the superconducting tape is fed at constant linear velocity in contact with the wheel-type current terminals and the wheel-type voltage terminals. Accordingly, current is applied using wheel-type current terminals and voltage is measured using wheel-type voltage terminals while a superconducting tape is continuously supplied by a reel-to-reel device, thus continuously measuring critical current without burning out the superconducting tape.
US08441246B2

A temperature independent type reference current generating device and methods thereof. A temperature independent type reference current generating device may include a first reference current generator generating a first reference current having a first element decreasing according to a temperature, a second reference current generator generating a second reference current having a second element increasing according to the temperature, and/or mirroring and outputting a second reference current and/or a mirrored second reference current. A temperature independent type reference current generating device may include a first current mirror mirroring a first reference current and/or outputting a mirrored first reference current, and a second current mirror adding a mirrored first reference current and a mirrored second reference current, and/or mirroring a result of an addition to output a mirrored result as an output reference current.
US08441228B2

A battery module for use with a vehicle electrical system. The battery module includes a bi-directional battery voltage converter, a first battery, and a second battery. A first relay selectively connects the first battery to the bi-directional battery voltage converter. A second relay selectively connecting the second battery to the bi-directional battery voltage converter. A controller selectively energizes the first relay, selectively energizes the second relay, and controls a direction of current through the bi-directional battery voltage converter.
US08441225B2

A DC to three-phase AC inverter system includes a three-phase motor, an inverter circuit, switching elements, a capacitor, a DC power source and a control circuit. The DC power source is connected to the three-phase motor at a neutral point thereof. The control circuit calculates voltage commands, first through third divided boost commands by dividing a boost command, and first through third drive signals based on the voltage commands and the first through third divided boost commands. The second and third divided boost commands are used when the PWM control is performed by turning on and off the switching elements for the second and third phases while the switching elements for the first phase continues to be on or off state is set larger than those used when the PWM control is performed by turning on and off the switching elements for the first through third phases.
US08441221B2

The present invention relates to a low-cost windshield wiper control system which can be readily incorporated into existing vehicle systems, particularly into an operator-accessible windshield wiper control unit assembly (100). The windshield wiper control assembly (100) is selectively operable as an intermittent wiper control system, or as a rain sensing windshield wiper control system without the need for microprocessors or multiplex circuitry.
US08441220B2

A control device has a predicting unit for predicting a first current flowing through a motor in a next control period, at a predicting time during a predetermined period after a change of switching state in an inverter by using a current detected before the change and for predicting a second current of a control period later than the next control period by one control period by using the predicted first current, a determining unit for determining a next operating state of the inverter by using the predicted second current and an instructed value so as to reduce a change of switching state in the change of the operating state, and a control unit for controlling the inverter to be set in the determined operating state in the next control period and controlling the current of the motor depending on the operating state of the inverter.
US08441214B2

A lighting system includes a plurality of LED lights having at least two different color LED lights. A controller is coupled to the LED lights for independently controlling the intensity of sets of different color LED lights. A program stored on a storage device is operable on the controller to control the intensity of each of the different sets of different color LED lights to produce light representative of color and intensity changes of outdoor daylight conditions.
US08441206B2

A lighting device comprises groups of solid state light emitters, a sensor and circuitry. If the emitters are illuminated, the sensor is exposed to combined light from the groups, and senses only a portion of the combined light. The circuitry adjusts current applied to at least one of the emitters based on an intensity of the light sensed. Also, a device comprising emitters, a circuit board and a sensor, at least one of the emitters being positioned on the first circuit board and the sensor being spaced from the circuit board. Also, a lighting device comprising emitters, a sensor, and circuitry which adjusts current applied an emitters based on detection by the first sensor, the circuitry comprising a differential amplifier circuit. Also, a lighting device, comprising light emitters and circuitry which adjusts current applied to only some of the emitters based on ambient temperature. Also, methods of lighting.
US08441202B2

An illumination apparatus comprises a plurality of LEDs and a control system connected to receive dimmer-modulated AC line voltage and control the LEDs. The control system is configured to operate in a plurality of different modes wherein changes in dimmer-modulated AC line voltage adjust various characteristic of the LEDs.
US08441200B2

An electronic ballast for operating at least two discharge lamps is provided, which may include a starting detection apparatus for detecting whether one of the discharge lamps has been started; wherein a drive circuit includes an input, which is coupled to a starting detection apparatus, wherein a threshold value entry apparatus is designed to enter a second threshold value for a setpoint value of a total current through at least two inductances, wherein the second threshold value has a smaller magnitude than a first threshold value; and wherein the drive circuit is designed to drive a first electronic switch and a second electronic switch taking into consideration the first threshold value as setpoint value prior to detection of the starting of a discharge lamp by the starting detection apparatus, and taking into consideration the second threshold value as setpoint value.
US08441198B2

A device and a method for driving a light-emitting diode include using multiple current guiding control circuits to drive multiple LED modules. Each of the current guiding control circuits includes at least two transistors connected in parallel to constitute at least two switch circuits. Each of the current guiding control circuits permits or prevents electric current to flow to an immediate downstream one of the LED modules in response to a predetermined voltage level of the positive part of a voltage source. The respective the current guiding control circuits are responsive to different voltage levels. As a result, a maximum number of LED modules are driven to emit light at a given voltage level, thereby achieving the purposes of efficiently utilizing electric power and reducing power loss.
US08441194B2

A multi-function vehicle light assembly (10) (MVLA 10) that is designed to provide a compact light assembly that incorporates in a single enclosure (24) a plurality of LED modules (16). Each module (16) produces a white light that indicates that a vehicle is in reverse, an amber light that indicates that a vehicle is making a right or a left turn, and a red light that functions as a vehicle tail light and to also indicate that the vehicle brakes are being applied. Two embodiments are disclosed in the first embodiment the plurality of LED modules (16) directly produce a set of white, amber and red lights. In the second embodiment an LED module (16) is utilized that includes a blue, green and red LEDs that are selectively combined by an LED control module (22) to provide the required white, amber and red lights.
US08441190B2

A vehicular discharge lamp that emits light by a DC lighting system, the vehicular discharge lamp includes: an outer tube; a light emitting tube disposed in the outer tube and including a light emitting portion and fine tube portions connected to the light emitting portion; cathode-side and anode-side electrodes disposed in the light emitting tube; two lead wires connected to the electrodes; and a metal film or a metal oxide applied on an outer peripheral surface of the fine tube portion on an anode side of the light emitting tube, or the metal wire being wound on the outer peripheral surface. Inert gas having negative pressure is filled in a space outside the light emitting tube in the outer tube, and a negative high-voltage pulse is applied to the anode-side electrode at a time of start-up.
US08441183B2

An organic electroluminescent device includes an optical substrate, a transparent electrode, an organic electroluminescent structure, and a back electrode. The optical substrate includes a base and a plurality of scattering particles. The scattering particles are mixed in the base. The transparent electrode is directly disposed on the optical substrate. The organic electroluminescent structure is disposed on the transparent electrode. The back electrode is disposed on the organic electroluminescent structure.
US08441180B2

A phosphor having an excitation band relative to lights in the wide range of wavelengths from ultraviolet to visible light, and having an emission spectrum in the red range and so on, with a wide half value width, and an LED and a light source using the phosphor and emitting white and other color lights with good color rendering properties are provided. Powdered raw materials of Ca3N2 (2N), CaO (2N), AlN (3N), Si3N4 (3N), and Eu2O3 (3N) are prepared, and the respective raw materials are mixed to have a mole ratio of the respective elements of Ca:Al:Si:Eu=0.985:1:1:0.015. The mixed raw materials are fired at 1000° C. or higher in an inert atmosphere for three hours, and thereafter pulverized to obtain a phosphor having a composition of CaAlSiN2.83O0.25:Eu, which is one example of the phosphor satisfying the above described object. Furthermore, by combining the phosphor with an appropriate LED or a light source emitting from ultraviolet light to visible light, the LED and the light source emitting white and other color lights with good color rendering properties can be obtained.
US08441177B2

A plasma jet ignition plug including an insulating body having an axial hole therethrough. A center electrode is inserted into the axial hole. A cavity portion is defined by the insulating body and center electrode, with the leading end of the axial hole as an opening end. A decreasing diameter portion decreasing in diameter toward a leading end side is formed on the axial hole, the leading end of the decreasing diameter portion is positioned closer to the leading end side than the leading end face of the center electrode. The inside diameter of the leading end of the decreasing diameter portion is made smaller than the outside diameter of the leading end face of the center electrode.
US08441161B2

An electric motor drive device (1) includes a motor (11), a speed reducing part (31) to reduce speed of a rotation outputted from the motor (11) and transmit it to the side of a wheel, and a connection/disconnection part (21) to disconnect or connect rotation transmission of the speed reducing part, a motor side rotation member (18) serving as an input shaft to input the rotation from the motor (11), an output shaft (34) to output the rotation to the side of the wheel, a double shaft (33) arranged coaxially with the input shaft and including a tube-shaped outer side rotation shaft (33o) and an inner side rotation shaft (33i) inserted into the outer side rotation shaft.
US08441150B2

A device for connection to an impedance having a mainly inductive character. The device comprises a reactive element. Furthermore, the device is provided with inputs for inputting output signals of electric inverters for parallel supply and at least one output for connection to a supply terminal for a phase of the impedance, such that the device is composed to substantially filter out a high-frequency differential component of at least two output signals during use.
US08441149B2

A high-speed low dropout (HS-LDO) voltage regulation circuit suitable to enable a power gate unit to produce a variable voltage signal based on the load of a processor is disclosed herein. In various embodiments, selection logic may dynamically enable or disable the HS-LDO circuit to allow the power gate unit to operate under a fully-on or fully-off mode. Other embodiments may be disclosed or claimed.
US08441144B1

A system for selectively regulating current flow to a plurality of electrical devices, being at least partially operative by wireless remote control and including a control assembly connected to at least a first power input and a second power input. The control assembly includes a plurality of outlet sections, each including at least one outlet structured to electrically connect an electrical device to either the first or second power inputs. A timing assembly is operatively structured for time based regulation of current flow from one of the power inputs to one of the outlet sections, wherein another outlet section includes switching capabilities structured to selectively establish a current flow connection with either the first or second power input. A receiver assembly is operatively connected to at least the timing assembly and structured for wireless, operative activation with a remote transmitting unit.
US08441141B1

A wind power system including a first pulley, a second pulley spaced from the first pulley, a continuous loop structure engaged with the first and second pulleys, a plurality of airfoils fixedly connected to the continuous loop structure, wherein the airfoils extend outward from the continuous loop structure, and a fairing positioned to direct airflow to the airfoils.
US08441139B2

The various embodiments herein provide an apparatus for harnessing a wave energy, solar energy and wind energy. The apparatus comprises a floating frame, a base portion connected to the floating frame and at least two linkage units. The two linkage units are a basic linkage unit and a medium linkage unit. The apparatus includes a plurality of floating flaps and at least one power extraction means. A connecting pivot is provided in the linkage units and the base portion. The floating flaps are pivoted vertically on the basic linkage unit and the base portion. The flaps associated with the floating flaps are placed under water against prevailing waves and floats associated with the floating flaps are placed on surface of the water, for absorbing the wave energy from projected portions present at edges and middle portion of the flaps.
US08441132B2

Packaged microelectronic devices recessed in support member cavities, and associated methods, are disclosed. Method in accordance with one embodiment includes positioning a microelectronic device in a cavity of a support member, with the cavity having a closed end with a conductive layer, and an opening through which the cavity is assessable. The microelectronic device can have bond sites, a first surface, and a second surface facing opposite from the first surface. The microelectronic device can be positioned in the cavity so that the second surface faces toward and is carried by the conductive layer. The method can further include electrically coupling the bond sites of the microelectronic device to the conductive layer. In particular embodiments, the microelectronic device can be encapsulated in the cavity without the need for a releasable tape layer to temporarily support the microelectronic device.
US08441126B2

A semiconductor apparatus includes a semiconductor chip in which a plurality of electrode pads are provided on a main surface, and a plurality of bump electrodes are provided on the electrode pads of the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor apparatus also includes a wired board which is allocated in a side of the main surface of the semiconductor chip, and is positioned in a central area of the main surface of the semiconductor chip so as to be separated from an edge part of the semiconductor chip by at least 50 μm or more. The semiconductor apparatus also includes a plurality of external terminals which are provided on the wired board, and which are electrically connected to a plurality of bump electrodes through wirings of the wired board, and sealing part which is provided between the semiconductor chip and the wired board, is made of underfill material that covers a connection part between the bump electrode and the wiring.
US08441113B2

A flexible film interposer for stacking a flip chip semiconductor die onto a second (bottom) semiconductor die, semiconductor devices and stacked die assemblies that incorporate the flexible film interposer, and methods of fabricating the devices and assemblies are provided. The incorporation of the flexible film interposer achieves densely packaged semiconductor devices, without the need for a redistribution layer (RDL).
US08441109B2

A vertical semiconductor power device includes a top surface and a bottom surface of a semiconductor substrate constituting a vertical current path for conducting a current there through. The semiconductor power device further includes an over current protection layer composed of a material having a resistance with a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) and the over current protection layer constituting as a part of the vertical current path connected to a source electrode and providing a feedback voltage a gate electrode of the vertical semiconductor power device for limiting a current passing there through for protecting the semiconductor power device at any voltage.
US08441108B2

A nitride-based semiconductor light-emitting device 100 includes: a GaN substrate 10 with an m-plane surface 12; a semiconductor multilayer structure 20 provided on the m-plane surface 12 of the GaN substrate 10; and an electrode 30 provided on the semiconductor multilayer structure 20. The electrode 30 includes a Zn layer 32 and a metal layer 34 provided on the Zn layer 32. The Zn layer 32 is in contact with a surface of a p-type semiconductor region of the semiconductor multilayer structure 20.
US08441106B2

An apparatus includes a crystalline substrate. A cleaving guide on the substrate is positioned over a cleave plane of the crystalline substrate and positioned in a known location with respect to a feature of an electronic device on the substrate. Cleaving of the substrate along the cleave plane changes a physical characteristic of the cleaving guide and measurement of the physical characteristic provides a parameter representative of the relative position of the cleave plane and the cleaving guide.
US08441104B1

A semiconductor device formed on a substrate includes a first diode junction formation, a second diode junction formation, and at least one through-silicon-via (TSV), in which a cathode and an anode of the first diode are cross-connected to an anode and cathode of the second diode through the at least one TSV for achieving electrical robustness in through-silicon-via based integrated circuits, including photosensitive devices and circuits for signal processing applications.
US08441094B2

A resonator element for the absorption and/or conversion of electromagnetic waves having a predefined wavelength, in particular infrared radiation having a wavelength of 2 μm to 200 μm, into heat, has a three-layer structure formed of a first metal layer, a second metal layer and a dielectric layer interposed between the two metal layers. The maximum lateral dimension of the layers is in the range between one quarter and a half of the predefined wavelength.
US08441089B2

This bispectral detector comprises a plurality of unitary elements for detecting a first and a second electromagnetic radiation range, consisting of a stack of upper and lower semiconductor layers of a first conductivity type which are separated by an intermediate layer that forms a potential barrier between the upper and lower layers; and for each unitary detection element, two upper and lower semiconductor zones of a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, are arranged respectively so that they are in contact with the upper faces of the upper and lower layers so as to form PN junctions, the semiconductor zone being positioned, at least partially, in the bottom of an opening that passes through the upper and intermediate layers. The upper face of at least one of the upper and lower layers is entirely covered in a semiconductor layer of the second conductivity type. Cuts are made around each unitary detection element from the upper face of the stack and at least through the thickness of each semiconductor layer of the second conductivity type, entirely covering one or other of the upper and lower semiconductor layers of the first conductivity type, so as to form semiconductor zones of the second conductivity type.
US08441088B2

A manufacturing method of a solid-state imaging device includes: preparing a photoelectric conversion device; forming an insulating layer on a surface of the photoelectric conversion device; forming a wire-grid polarizer on a support base; bonding a forming surface of the wire-grid polarizer on the support base to the insulating layer on the surface of the photoelectric conversion device and removing the support base from the wire-grid polarizer.
US08441086B2

An image sensor packaging structure with a predetermined focal length is provided. The image sensor packaging structure includes a substrate, a chip, an optical assembly, and an encapsulation compound. The chip has a sensitization area and is coupled to the substrate. Conductive contacts on the substrate are electrically connected with conductive contacts around the sensitization area. The optical assembly has the predetermined focal length and is disposed above the chip so as to form an air cavity between the optical assembly and the sensitization area of the chip. The encapsulation compound is formed on the substrate to surround the chip and the optical assembly. With the above stated structure, not only can the focus adjusting procedure be dispensed with, but also the image sensor packaging structure can be manufactured by a molding or dispensing process.
US08441076B2

An exemplary aspect of the present invention is an SRAM including: a first gate electrode that constitutes a first load transistor; a second gate electrode that extends in a longitudinal direction of the first gate electrode so as to be spaced apart from the first gate electrode, and constitutes a first drive transistor; a third gate electrode that extends in parallel to the first gate electrode, and constitutes a second load transistor; a first p-type diffusion region that is formed so as to intersect with the third gate electrode, and constitutes the second load transistor; and a first shared contact formed over the first and second gate electrodes and the first p-type diffusion region. The first p-type diffusion region extends to the vicinity of a first gap region between the first and second gate electrodes, and is not formed in the first gap region.
US08441073B2

In a semiconductor substrate on which are formed an N-type MOS transistor and a P-type MOS transistor, the gate electrode of the N-type MOS transistor comprises a tungsten film, which makes contact with a gate insulation film, and the gate electrode of the P-type MOS transistor comprises a tungsten film, which makes contact with a gate insulation film, and the concentration of carbon contained in the former tungsten film is less than the concentration of carbon contained in the latter tungsten film.
US08441065B2

A semiconductor device which combines reliability and the guarantee of electrical characteristics is provided. A power MOSFET and a protection circuit formed over the same semiconductor substrate are provided. The power MOSFET is a trench gate vertical type P-channel MOSFET and the conduction type of the gate electrode is assumed to be P-type. The protection circuit includes a planar gate horizontal type offset P-channel MOSFET and the conduction type of the gate electrode is assumed to be N-type. These gate electrode and gate electrode are formed in separate steps.
US08441064B2

A method for manufacturing a non-volatile memory device is described. The method comprises growing a layer in a siliconoxide consuming material, e.g. DyScO, on top of the upper layer of the layer where charge is stored. A non-volatile memory device is also described. In the non-volatile memory device, the interpoly/blocking dielectric comprises a layer in a siliconoxide consuming material, e.g. DyScO, on top of the upper layer of the layer where charge is stored, the siliconoxide consuming material having consumed at least part of the upper layer.
US08441059B2

A semiconductor device includes a substrate of semiconductor material extending in a horizontal direction. A plurality of interlayer dielectric layers are provided on the substrate. A plurality of gate patterns are provided, each gate pattern being between a neighboring lower interlayer dielectric layer and a neighboring upper interlayer dielectric layer. A vertical channel of semiconductor material extends in a vertical direction through the plurality of interlayer dielectric layers and the plurality of gate patterns, a gate insulating layer between each gate pattern and the vertical channel that insulates the gate pattern from the vertical channel, the vertical channel being in contact with the substrate at a contact region that comprises a semiconducting region.
US08441052B2

An image sensor pixel array includes a photoelectric conversion unit that has a second region in a substrate and vertically below a gate electrode of a transistor. A first region under a top surface of the substrate and above the second region supports a channel of the transistor. A color filter transmits a light via a light guide, the gate electrode and the first region to generate carriers collected by the second region. The gate electrode may be made thinner by a wet etch. An etchant for thinning the gate electrode may be introduced through an opening in an insulating film on the substrate. The light guide may be formed in the opening after the thinning. An anti-reflection stack may be formed at a bottom of the opening prior to forming the light guide.
US08441050B2

A fin transistor structure and a method of fabricating the same are disclosed. In one aspect the method comprises providing a bulk semiconductor substrate, patterning the semiconductor substrate to form a fin with it body directly tied to the semiconductor substrate, patterning the fin so that gaps are formed on the bottom of the fin at source/drain regions of the transistor structure to be formed. This is performed wherein a portion of the fin corresponding to the channel region of the transistor structure to be formed is directly tied to the semiconductor substrate, while other portions of the fin at the source/drain regions are separated from the surface of the semiconductor substrate by the gaps. Also, filling an insulation material into the gaps, and fabricating the transistor structure based on the semiconductor substrate with the fin formed thereon are disclosed. Thereby, it is possible to reduce the leakage current while maintaining the advantages of body-tied structures.
US08441049B2

The present invention relates to a flat panel display device comprising a polysilicon thin film transistor and a method of manufacturing the same. Grain sizes of polysilicon grains formed in active channel regions of thin film transistors of a driving circuit portion and a pixel portion of the flat panel display device are different from each other. Further, the flat panel display device comprising P-type and N-type thin film transistors having different particle shapes from each other.
US08441037B2

An objective is to provide a semiconductor device capable of utilizing properties of a high-mobility electron transport layer with a thin film stacked structure having large ΔEc, high electron mobility, and simplified element fabrication process even when the substrate material and the electron transport layer greatly differ in lattice constant. The semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate (1); a first barrier layer (2) on the substrate (1); an electron transport layer (3) on the first barrier layer (2); and a second barrier layer (4) on the electron transport layer (3). The first barrier layer (2) has an InxAl1-xAs layer. At least one of the first barrier layer (2) and the second barrier layer (4) has a stacked structure having an AlyGa1-yAszSb1-z layer in contact with the electron transport layer (3) and an InxAl1-xAs layer in contact with the AlyGa1-yAszSb1-z layer. The stacked structure is doped with a donor impurity.
US08441023B2

According to one embodiment, in a light emitting device, a substrate is transparent to a wavelength of emitted light. A first dielectric layer is formed in a first region on the substrate, and has a refractive index smaller than a refractive index of the substrate. A second dielectric layer is formed in a second region on the substrate surrounding the first region, and has a refractive index larger than the refractive index of the substrate. A first semiconductor layer is formed on the first dielectric layer, the second dielectric layer and the substrate. A second semiconductor layer is formed on the first semiconductor layer, and includes an active layer having a PN junction.
US08441019B2

Disclosed are a light emitting device, a light emitting device package, and a lighting system. The light emitting device comprises a substrate; a light emitting structure including a first conductive semiconductor layer, an active layer and a second conductive semiconductor layer, which are formed on the substrate such that a part of the first conductive semiconductor layer is exposed upward; schottky contact regions on the second conductive semiconductor layer; a second electrode on the second conductive semiconductor layer; and a first electrode on the exposed first conductive semiconductor layer, wherein a distance between the schottky contact regions narrowed as the schottky contact regions are located closely to a mesa edge region.
US08441018B2

An indirect bandgap thin film semiconductor circuit can be combined with a compound semiconductor LED such as to provide an active matrix LED array that can have high luminous capabilities such as for a light projector application. In another example, a highly efficient optical detector is achievable through the combination of indirect and direct bandgap semiconductors. Applications can include display technologies, light detection, MEMS, chemical sensors, or piezoelectric systems. An LED array can provide structured illumination, such as for a light and pattern source for projection displays, such as without requiring spatial light modulation (SLM). An example can combine light from separate monolithic light projector chips, such as providing different component colors. An example can provide full color from a single monolithic light projector chip, such as including selectively deposited phosphors, such as to contribute individual component colors to an overall color of a pixel.
US08441016B2

Disclosed is a high-quality, efficiently manufacturable thin film transistor in which leakage current is minimized. The thin film transistor is provided with a semiconductor layer (34) that contains a channel region (34C) having a microcrystalline semiconductor; source and drain contact layers (35S and 35D) that contains impurities; a first source metal layer (36S) and a first drain metal layer (36D), and a second source metal layer (37S) and a second drain metal layer (37D). The end portion of the second metal source layer (37S) is located at a position receded from the end portion of the first metal source layer (36S) and the end portion of the second drain metal layer (37D) is located at a position receded from the end portion of the first drain metal layer (36D). The semiconductor layer (34) contains low concentration impurity diffusion regions formed near the end portions of the aforementioned source contact layer (35S) and drain contact layer (35D).
US08441015B2

A method for fabricating an LCD device includes providing first and second substrates; forming an active layer on the first substrate and forming first and second ohmic contact layers on the active layer; forming a first insulation film on the first substrate; forming a gate electrode on the first substrate; forming a second insulation film on the first substrate; forming a pixel electrode on the first substrate; forming a third insulation film on the first substrate; removing a portion of the first to third insulation film to form first and second contact holes, wherein the first contact hole exposes a portion of the first ohmic contact layer and the second contact hole exposes a portion of the second ohmic contact layer; forming a source electrode electrically connected with the first ohmic contact layer within the first contact hole; forming a drain electrode electrically connected with the second ohmic contact layer and the pixel electrode within the second contact hole; and attaching the first and second substrates.
US08441010B2

In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor, hydrogen in the oxide semiconductor leads to degradation of electric characteristics of the transistor. Thus, an object is to provide a semiconductor device having good electrical characteristics. An insulating layer in contact with an oxide semiconductor layer where a channel region is formed is formed by a plasma CVD method using a silicon halide. The insulating layer thus formed has a hydrogen concentration less than 6×1020 atoms/cm3 and a halogen concentration greater than or equal to 1×1020 atoms/cm3; accordingly, hydrogen diffusion into the oxide semiconductor layer can be prevented and hydrogen in the oxide semiconductor layer is inactivated or released from the oxide semiconductor layer by the halogen, whereby a semiconductor device having good electrical characteristics can be provided.
US08441004B2

A radiation-emitting device with a first electrode, a first emission layer, a second emission layer and a second electrode. The invention additionally relates to a method of producing a radiation-emitting device.
US08440989B2

Methods and systems for a light source assembly for coupling to a photonically enabled complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip are disclosed. The light source assembly may comprise a laser, a microlens, a turning mirror, and an optical bench, and may generate an optical signal utilizing the laser, focus the optical signal utilizing the microlens, and reflect the optical signal at an angle defined by the turning mirror. The reflected optical signal may be transmitted out of the assembly to grating couplers in the photonically enabled CMOS chip. The assembly may comprise a non-reciprocal polarization rotator, comprising a latching faraday rotator. The assembly may comprise a reciprocal polarization rotator, which may comprise a half-wave plate comprising birefringent materials operably coupled to the optical bench. The turning mirror may be integrated in the optical bench and may reflect the optical signal to transmit through a lid operably coupled to the optical bench.
US08440980B2

Li-containing scintillator compositions, as well as related structures and methods are described. Radiation detection systems and methods are described which include a Cs2LiLn Halide scintillator composition.
US08440973B1

The invention utilizes the changes in physical properties of materials during a solid-solid phase transition in order to enhance the sensitivity of cantilever IR detectors. The substantial changes in properties during insulator-to-metal transitions (IMTs) of some materials are useful for controlling purposes according to the invention. A cantilever arrangement is provided with a cantilever being coated with an insulator-to-metal transitions (IMTs) material. Bending of the cantilever is achieved when the temperature of the (IMTs) material is within its phase transition temperature range. A Focal Plane Array (FPA) for detecting Infrared (IR) radiation including the cantilever arrangement of the invention is also proposed.
US08440966B2

A Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR MS) is provided. A preamplifier is installed as nearest to an ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) trap as possible at a detector part in the mass spectrometer, and thermal noise generated at the preamplifier is minimized by means of a cryo-cooling system to increase a signal-to-noise ratio of ion detection signals such that an ultra-low amount of specimen can be detected, which was impossible in the related art.
US08440962B2

A plurality of targeted ion characteristics and a charge reduction amount are received. A subset of ionized molecules of a sample corresponding to each characteristic of the plurality of targeted ion characteristics is transmitted from a first location to a second location, producing a plurality of selected ionized molecules. Reagent ions are transmitted to the second location to reduce the charge state of the selected ionized molecules. The charge state reduction of the selected ionized molecules is stopped at the charge state reduction amount, producing a plurality of parked targeted ions in the second location. The targeted ion characteristics can include mobilities or mass-to-charge ratios. Quantitation information for an analyte can be obtained by performing targeted ion parking on a plurality of standards, developing a calibration function, performing targeted ion parking on a sample and using the calibration function to determine the concentration of the analyte in the sample.
US08440955B2

A device, computer-readable medium or method for adjusting pixels of a source image prior to being output to a display device comprising: segmenting the pixels of the source image into spatial groups; assigning an adjustment method to each pixel in a group; creating an adjustment matrix set with rows (or columns) corresponding to the plurality of adjustment methods, and columns (or rows) corresponding to a range of pixel values that exceed a discrete output device value, and adjustment values as entries; receiving a pixel of the source image in a graphics processing unit (GPU) and using the GPU to: determine the pixel's relative location in its spatial group and its corresponding adjustment method; determine the range of pixel values that the value of the pixel exceeds a discrete output device value: select an adjustment value from the adjustment matrix set; and adjust the value of the pixel by the adjustment value.
US08440950B1

A roof has a fixed roof section with a bottom, a top, sides and an exposed face. A solar panel has an exterior edge, an interior edge and side edges. The side edges have midpoints intermediate the interior and exterior edges. The solar panel has an outer face and an inner face. Tubing movably couples the solar panel with respect to the fixed roof section. A drive member is adapted to move the solar panel with respect to the fixed roof section. A control sub system includes a processor and a sensor. The processor is operatively coupled to the sensor. In this manner the position of the sun is determined. Also in this manner the drive member is activated and inactivated. Further in this manner the angular orientation of the solar panel may be varied. Finally in this manner the efficiency of the solar panel may be maximized.
US08440949B2

Microwave warming apparatus includes a housing defining a heating waveguide with a longitudinal ridge and a heating cavity. A slot extends through the ridge into the heating cavity for receiving a cartridge containing a looped tube so that the tube extends into the heating cavity where the tube contents are heated by energy coupled into the waveguide. Receiving waveguides adjacent to the slot sense the thermal radiation emanating from the tube and deliver corresponding signals to a radiometer which produces a temperature indication. The cartridge includes a support member which maintains the shape of the tube loop. A pair of notches in the support member have walls enabling the notches to complete the receiving waveguides in the housing.
US08440944B2

An induction heating element including a circular inductor coil that has a circular outer contour and a ferrite element arrangement that has at least one ferrite element with a radially outer edge. At least at one curvature point, the radially outer edge of the ferrite element is curved to a greater degree than the circular outer contour of the inductor coil.
US08440937B2

A self-cleaning GMAW nozzle characterized by the inner surface thereof having a laminate group, preferably composed of sequentially alternating layers of metal and bonding material. Over a period of time of welding, welding spatter begins to accumulate upon an outermost metal layer of the laminate group. As the heat of welding proceeds over this same time, the adhesion of the adjoining bonding layer releases, whereby the outermost metal layer detaches, exposing a clean, new outermost metal layer. The process sequentially repeats until all metal layers have detached.
US08440932B2

A manipulator at low inertia for laser cutting machines of flat sheet metals is described, which comprises a longitudinal movement axis X and a transversal movement axis Y perpendicular to said longitudinal axis and parallel to the plane of the sheet metal, and a supporting equipment (15) for a laser cutting head (14) which is displaceable along said axes. The supporting equipment (15) comprises two sliding blocks (5, 6) driven by respective independent actuators (7, 8) to move along the axis Y at a variable mutual distance, and rods (9, 10) for the articulated connection of said sliding blocks (5, 6) to said laser cutting head (14).
US08440925B2

An encoder with a tri-color LED includes an insulating base, five terminals, a conductive elastic piece, a tri-color LED assembly, an encoder substrate assembly, a conductive wiper assembly, and an insulated light shaft. The five terminals and the insulating base are formed integrally. The conductive elastic piece is received in a receiving chamber of the insulating base. The tri-color LED assembly is disposed in the receiving chamber. The encoder substrate assembly covers on both the conductive elastic piece and the tri-color LED assembly. The conductive wiper assembly is received in the encoder substrate assembly. The insulated light shaft passes through a through hole of the conductive wiper assembly and a through hole of the encoder substrate assembly. Thereby, through voltage variation of an independent tri-color LED loop, color mixing can be controlled, and that to combine the same with the encoder a function of lighting and marking can be achieved.
US08440923B2

Devices and components that can interact with or modify propagation of electromagnetic waves are provided. The design, fabrication and structures of the devices exploit the properties of reactive composite materials (RCM) and reaction products thereof.
US08440921B2

A keypad includes a circuit board, a key, and a rotating member. The circuit board includes at least one first keypad switch and at least one second keypad switch. The key includes a first protruding post configured for actuating the at least one first keypad switch, and a second protruding post for actuating the at least one second keypad switch. The rotating member is rotatably connected to the circuit board and able to retain in a first position and a second position. In the first position, the rotating member prevents the first protruding post from actuating the at least one first keypad switch and allows the second protruding post to actuate the at least one second keypad switch. In the second position, the rotating member allows the first protruding post to actuate the at least one keypad switch.
US08440914B2

A liquid crystalline thermoset oligomer or polymer including a structural unit of Chemical Formulae 1 and 2; and a functional group of Chemical Formula A,
US08440912B1

An electrical cable includes first and second conductive strips and an electrically insulative base extending between and joining the first and second conductive strips and electrically isolating the first conductive strip from the second conductive strip. The first and second conductive strips each include an electrically conductive thermoplastic resin in contact with a longitudinally continuous electrical conductor, the electrically conductive thermoplastic resin having a lower electrical conductivity than the electrical conductor. The electrically conductive thermoplastic resin forms an exposed surface of the cable and a field of fastener elements extending from the exposed surface. Lighting systems and electrical fastening devices include similar features.
US08440908B2

The present invention relates to a dye sensitized solar cell comprising a semiconductor formed of a particulate metal oxide, a dye adsorbed onto the semiconductor wherein the semiconductor interface with the dye is formed by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of a semiconductor material onto the particulate metal oxide.
US08440903B1

The present invention provides a solar module formed using a powder coating and thermal treatment process. The solar module includes a substrate having a surface region and a photovoltaic material overlying the surface region. The solar module further includes a barrier material overlying the photovoltaic material. Moreover, the solar module includes a coating overlying the barrier material and enclosing the photovoltaic material to mechanically protect the photovoltaic material. In certain embodiments, photovoltaic material is a thin film photovoltaic cell and the coating is provided by a powder coating substantially free of bubbles formed by electrostatic spraying and cured with a thermal treatment process.
US08440899B1

A lighting system. Implementations may include an AC input power source coupled with a power conditioning and control module adapted output a low voltage high frequency pulse width modulated (PWM) signal. A remote transmission cable may be adapted to carry the low voltage high frequency PWM signal to a remote transformer adapted to convert the low voltage high frequency PWM signal to a high voltage high frequency PWM signal. A charge pump may be included which is adapted to receive the high voltage high frequency PWM signal and increase a voltage of the signal. A gas discharge tube may be coupled to the charge pump. A controller may be coupled to the power conditioning and control module and adapted to operate the gas discharge tube at two or more light intensity levels with the low voltage high frequency PWM signal.
US08440893B2

When C60 was added to synovial fibroblasts, infiltrating lymphocytes, and macrophages, and the inflammatory cytokine production level was measured, the inflammatory cytokine production level was significantly suppressed in all cells. Furthermore, when C60 was added to osteoclast precursor cells and cultured in the presence of osteoclast differentiation-inducing factors, a certain concentration or more of C60 suppressed their differentiation into osteoclasts. Observation of the effect of C60 addition on bone resorption showed that C60 suppressed bone resorption by osteoclasts. In addition, the use of arthritis model animals confirmed in vivo that C60 suppressed inflammatory symptoms, as well as bone resorption and bone destruction by osteoclasts. C60 is effective for treating arthritic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis through its effects of suppressing osteoclast differentiation, bone resorption, and inflammatory cytokines.
US08440889B1

A novel maize variety designated PHWJH and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PHWJH with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PHWJH through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PHWJH or a locus conversion of PHWJH with another maize variety.
US08440886B2

Fertile transgenic Zea mays (corn) plants which stably express heterologous DNA which is heritable are disclosed along with a process for producing said plants. The process comprises the microjectile bombardment of friable embryogenic callus from the plant to be transformed. The process may be applicable to other graminaceous cereal plants which have not proven stably transformable by other techniques.
US08440884B1

A novel soybean variety, designated XBP44002 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XBP44002, cells from soybean variety XBP44002, plants of soybean XBP44002, and plant parts of soybean variety XBP44002. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XBP44002 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XBP44002, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XBP44002, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XBP44002. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XBP44002 are further provided.
US08440882B2

Compositions and methods for conferring pesticidal activity to bacteria, plants, plant cells, tissues and seeds are provided. Compositions comprising a coding sequence for a delta-endotoxin polypeptide are provided. The coding sequences can be used in DNA constructs or expression cassettes for transformation and expression in plants and bacteria. Compositions also comprise transformed bacteria, plants, plant cells, tissues, and seeds. In particular, isolated delta-endotoxin nucleic acid molecules are provided. Additionally, amino acid sequences corresponding to the polynucleotides are encompassed, and antibodies specifically binding to those amino acid sequences. In particular, the present invention provides for isolated nucleic acid molecules comprising nucleotide sequences encoding the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:13-24 or the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1-12 and 25-44, as well as variants and fragments thereof.
US08440873B2

Process for producing mono-olefins(s) from a feedstock A containing ethanol and propanol, wherein ethanol and propanol are dehydrated into the corresponding same carbon number olefins. The process is performed by 1. reacting feedstock A in a vapor phase dehydration reactor wherein the ethanol and propanol alcohols are converted into a product stream B comprising ethylene, propylene, ethers, water and unconverted alcohols, 2. cooling the product stream B, 3. disengaging the cooled product stream B in a separation unit to give a first stream C containing ethylene, propylene and ethers, and a second product stream D containing water, ethers and unconverted alcohols, 4. feeding the product stream D to a dewatering column wherein the water stream F is separated from the ethers and unconverted alcohols stream E, 5. recycling the stream E into the dehydration reactor of step 1, and 6. cooling the product stream C. In a step 7, the cooled product stream C is fed to a purification unit wherein the ethers stream G is separated from the ethylene and propylene stream H, and in an optional step 8, the ethers stream G is recycled to either the dewatering column of step 4 and/or directly to dehydration reactor of step 1.
US08440870B2

The invention relates to a method for manufacture of hydrocarbon fuels and oxygenated hydrocarbon fuels such as alkyl substituted tetrahydrofurans such as 2,5-dimethyltetrahydrofuran, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and mixtures thereof. The method generally entails forming a mixture of reactants that includes carbonaceous material water, a metal catalyst and an acid reacting that mixture in the presence of hydrogen. The reaction is performed at a temperature and for a time sufficient to produce a furan type hydrocarbon fuel. The process may be adapted to provide continuous manufacture of hydrocarbon fuels such as a furan type fuel.
US08440864B2

In a process for producing sec-butylbenzene, a C4 olefinic hydrocarbon feedstock comprising isobutene and at least one n-butene is contacted with methanol and/or water in the presence of an acid catalyst to selectively oxygenate isobutene to produce an effluent stream rich in n-butene and containing less isobutene than the feedstock. The effluent stream is then contacted with benzene under alkylation conditions and in the presence of an alkylation catalyst to produce alkylation stream comprising sec-butylbenzene.
US08440860B2

A process for manufacturing dialkyl lactamide including reacting lactide and dialkylamine selected from one or more of dimethylamine, diethylamine, and methylethylamine to form a reaction mixture which includes dialkyl lactamide selected from N,N-dimethyl lactamide, N,N-diethyl lactamide, and N,N-methylethyl lactamide, N,N-dialkyl lactoyl lactamide, and dialkylamine, subjecting the reaction mixture to a separation step to form a product stream including N,N-dialkyl lactamide, a first recycle stream including dialkylamine and a second recycle stream including N,N-dialkyl lactoyl lactamide, feeding the recycle streams to the reaction step, and isolating the product stream. The process allows the manufacture of N,N-dimethyl lactamide, N,N-diethyl lactamide, and N,N-methylethyl lactamide on a commercial scale.
US08440857B2

Sulfonate- or sulfate-capped, alkoxylated anti-misting agents having the structures: R((AO)nX)m((AO)nH)p and R3C(O)NH(CH2)zN+(CH3)2CH2CHR4CH2SO3−, and to methods of suppressing mist from electrolyte solutions by adding a mist-suppressing amount of one or more of said compounds to electrolyte solutions.
US08440845B2

A process is disclosed for converting a polysaccharide-containing biomass material to platform chemicals.The process comprises dissolving the polysaccharides in an inorganic molten salt hydrate, converting the polysaccharides to monosaccharides, and converting the monosaccharides to derivatized (di)anhydro sugars that are easily separable from the inorganic molten salt hydrate.The derivatized (di)anhydro sugars are useful as fuel additives and fuel substitutes.
US08440840B2

A dye including an anchoring group in its molecular structure, said anchoring group allowing a covalent coupling of said dye to a surface, for example a surface of a nanoporous semiconductor layer, said anchoring group being represented by formula 1 wherein attachment of said anchoring group within said molecular structure of said dye is at the terminal carbon marked with an asterisk in above formula, wherein G is selected from —COOH, —SO3H, —PO3H2, —BO2H2, —SH, —OH, —NH2, preferably —COOH, wherein A is selected from the group comprising H, —CN, —NO2, —COOR, —COSR, —COR, —CSR, —NCS, —CF3, —CONR2-OCF3, C6H5-mFm, wherein m=1-5, R being H or any straight or branched alkyl chain of general formula —CnH2n+I, n=O-12, preferably 0-4, or any substituted or non-substituted phenyl or biphenyl.
US08440837B2

The present invention provides 2-substituted-ethynylthiazole derivatives of formula (I): wherein R1, R2 and X are as defined herein, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; and pharmaceutical compositions and methods of using same.
US08440819B2

A compound having a structure or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or a prodrug thereof; wherein a dashed line represents the presence or absence of a bond; Y has from 0 to 14 carbon atoms and is: an organic acid functional group, or an amide or ester thereof; hydroxymethyl or an ether thereof; or a tetrazolyl functional group; A is —(CH2)6—, cis-CH2CH═CH—(CH2)3—, or —CH2C≡C—(CH2)3—, wherein 1 or 2 carbon atoms may be replaced by S or O; or A is —(CH2)m—Ar—(CH2)o— wherein Ar is interarylene or heterointerarylene, the sum of m and o is 1, 2, 3, or 4, and wherein 1 -CH2— may be replaced by S or O, and 1 -CH2—CH2— may be replaced by —CH═CH— or —C≡C—; J is hydrogen, OH, O, SH, S, C1-6 alkyl, —O—(C1-6 alkyl), —S—(C1-6 alkyl), F, Cl, Br, I, CN, or CF3; and B is aryl or heteroaryl, is disclosed herein. Therapeutic methods, compositions, and medicaments related thereto are also disclosed.
US08440817B2

The present invention relates to a process for efficiently producing methyl cellulose in an industrially convenient manner. The production process of the present invention includes the step of reacting cellulose with methanol in a subcritical state.
US08440815B2

Disclosed is a new and emerging serotype of Streptococcus pneumoniae designated serotype 6D, and assays and monoclonal antibodies useful in identifying same. Also disclosed is a novel pneumococcal polysaccharide with the repeating unit →2) glucose 1 (1→3) glucose 2 (1→3) rhamnose (1→4) ribitol (5→phosphate. This new serotype may be included in pneumococcal vaccines.
US08440813B2

The invention provides compounds of Formula (I), as described herein, as well as pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds, and synthetic methods and intermediates that are useful for preparing the compounds. The compounds of Formula (I) are useful as anti-viral agents and/or as anti-cancer agents.
US08440804B2

The present invention relates to peptides and polypeptides having the sequence SAVTFAVCAL or variants thereof, capable of binding to Calcineurin and/or to NS5A-TP2 and to their use in therapy, as well as to nucleic acid sequences and vectors encoding these peptides and polypeptides, and to cells comprising said polypeptides, nucleic acid sequences or vectors. The invention further relates to the use of the peptides, polypeptides or their derivatives to bring about phenotypic changes in mammalian cells, particularly to up-regulate calcineurin activity. The invention finally relates to a method for intracellular identification of substances which bind to calcineurin and which modulate the physiological effects of calcineurin.
US08440802B2

The present invention provides for selection of bovine animals that will display phenotypes associated with increased rates of growth. These phenotypes include hot carcass weight, average daily gain, shipping weight, end of test rib eye area, and adjusted weaning weight which is a measure of post-natal growth, based on the knowledge of their CRH, POMC and MC4R genotypes. The predictive value comes from the discovery that certain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes are linked to higher growth rate phenotypes. Specifically, the phenotypes that correlated with specific SNP's are end-of-test rib-eye area, adjusted weaning weight, average daily gain, shipping weight and hot carcass weight. The invention also provides novel kits that can be used in making the determination of these genotypes. The invention further provides for methods of screening bovines to predict which animals will have higher growth rate, allowing producers to selectively breed and manage animals based on desired characteristics, thereby maximizing productivity and profitability in commercial meat production operations.
US08440797B2

The present invention provides an anti-CD81 antibody usable as a pharmaceutical product for human. Specifically, the present invention provides an anti-human CD81 antibody capable of binding to a peptide region consisting of the amino acid sequence of the amino acid numbers 80 to 175 in the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:22.
US08440794B2

The present invention relates to an antibacterial peptide having from the amino to the carboxylic terminal an amino acid sequences selected from the group of: KKIRVRLSA, SEQ ID NO. 1, RRIRVRLSA, SEQ ID NO. 2, KRIRVRLSA, SEQ ID NO. 3, RKIRVRLSA, SEQ ID NO. 4 or a derivative thereof and uses thereof.
US08440792B2

The peptides and derivative metapeptides based upon natural antimicrobial peptides have potent and broad spectrum activity against pathogens exhibiting multiple antibiotic resistance. Specific peptides can also potentiate the antimicrobial functions of leukocytes, such as neutrophils. In addition, they exhibit lower inherent mammalian cell toxicities than conventional antimicrobial peptides, and overcome problems of toxicity, immunogenicity, and shortness of duration of effectiveness due to biodegradation, retaining activity in plasma and serum. The peptides and derivative metapeptides exhibit rapid microbicidal activities in vitro, can be used to potentiate conventional antimicrobial agents, to potentiate other antimicrobial peptides and are active against many organisms that exhibit resistance to multiple antibiotics currently in existence.
US08440787B2

The present invention provides hydmoxyapatite-targeting, multiarm polymer reagents suitable for reaction with biologically active agents to form conjugates, the polymeric reagents comprising one or more polymer chains and a plurality of hydroxyapatile-targeting moieties located at the terminus of one or more of the polymer chains. The multiarm polymers are optionally divided or separated by one or more degradable linkages into polymer segments having a molecular weight suitable for renal clearance. The polymeric reagents of the invention can have a substantially linear structure, although branched or multiarm structures are contemplated as well. The invention is suited for applications in which use of a high molecular weight polymer is desired, such as a total polymer number average molecular weight of at least about 30,000 Da for linear polymers and 20,000 Da for multiarm polymers. Each structure includes one or more linkages capable of degradation in vivo. The use of multiple hydroxyapatite-targeting moieties on each polymer molecule enhances the ability of the polymer reagent to selectively target and bind to hydroxyapatite surfaces, which in turn, can increase the concentration of biologically active moiety delivered to the bone site.
US08440782B2

Method for producing polyesters using titanium atrane catalysts is disclosed. Also disclosed are methods for making the titanium atrane catalysts. The titanium atrane catalysts are useful as esterification and/or polycondensation catalysts, have similar activity, color and byproduct formation as conventional catalyst systems, but with reduced toxicity and regulatory concerns.
US08440779B2

The invention relates to a carbodiimide compound or mixture of carbodiimide compounds derived from a carbodiimidization reaction of at least one oligomer having at least one isocyanate group and comprising at least two repeating units deriving from one or more ethylenically unsaturated monomers.
US08440759B2

The invention relates to an aqueous coating composition for forming a peelable temporary coating on a substrate, said aqueous coating composition comprising at least one water based film-forming polymer, characterized in that the composition additionally comprises solid particles of an amino resin based polymer.
US08440757B2

A rubber composition for a tire tread including a diene rubber component and silica and carbon black, and a pneumatic tire provided with a tread manufactured from this rubber composition, the diene rubber component including: (A) from 30 to 80 mass % of a hydroxy group-containing aromatic vinyl-conjugated diene copolymer including from 20 to 30 mass % of aromatic vinyl units and from 0.1 to 10 mass % of isoprene units, and having an amount of vinyl bonds in a conjugated diene part from 40 to 60 mol %; (B) from 10 to 50 mass % of a high-cis butadiene rubber having an amount of 90 mol % or more of cis-1,4 bonds; and (C) from 10 to 50 mass % of natural rubber; wherein a total amount of the silica and the carbon black is from 90 to 150 parts by mass per 100 parts by mass of the diene rubber component.
US08440750B2

The invention relates to allyl functionalized precipitated silica, rubber compositions containing such silica, particularly sulfur cured rubber compositions, and articles of manufacture having a component thereof such as, for example tires. The invention particularly relates to synthetic amorphous silica, particularly a precipitated silica, treated with an allyl silane, particularly to a precipitated silica containing allyl functional groups.
US08440749B2

The present invention provides a primer for a laminate for packaging having print suitability, such as excellent transfer properties of printing ink and dot reproducibility, high adhesive properties, excellent storage stability for a long period of time under highly humid conditions, and acid resistance which are obtained by improving adhesion between the base layer, a printing ink layer, a coating layer, and an adhesive layer; and a laminate containing the primer layer, and the primer containing: a main component (A) containing a copolymer containing, as a monomer, an unsaturated compound (a) having a hydroxyl group, and at least one unsaturated compound (b) selected from the group consisting of unsaturated carboxylate, styrene, unsaturated carboxylic acid, unsaturated hydrocarbon, vinyl ester, and a halogenated vinyl compound; a curing agent (B) containing a compound having an isocyanate group; and a compound (C) having 2 or more of a carboxylic acid group or 1 or more of an anhydrous carboxylic acid group.
US08440747B2

Cold-pressed mats of lignocellulosic material having a Push Off Test extension equal to at least 85% of that of a mat made with a urea-formaldehyde resin are produced from a lignocellulosic material and binder system. These mats are produced at ambient temperature by separately adding each component of the binder system to the lignocellulosic material, blending the lignocellulosic material and binder system to coat the lignocellulosic material with the binder system, forming the coated lignocellulosic material into the desired form and applying pressure to the formed lignocellulosic material to obtain the desired thickness. The binder system includes: (i) at least one polyfunctional isocyanate and (ii) at least one aqueous dispersion of an adhesive or tackifier.
US08440744B2

The present invention is proposed is an oil-based white ink composition for ink jet recording, comprising a white pigment, a glycol ether dialkyl ether compound solvent, a polymeric dispersant, and a specific acrylic resin. The white pigment is formed of titanium oxide fine particles having an average particle diameter of not less than 0.15 μm and not more than 0.25 μm and coated with at least one of aluminum oxide and silicon oxide. The white pigment is further coated with not less than 0.01% by mass and not more than 2.5% by mass of at least one of an SiH-containing polysiloxane and dimethylpolysiloxane.
US08440742B2

The present invention is drawn toward an ink-jet ink, comprising an aqueous liquid vehicle having acid-functionalized polymer colloid particulates and polymer-attached pigment colorants dispersed in the liquid vehicle. The liquid vehicle can include at least one volatile co-solvent, each volatile co-solvent present having a boiling point at or below about 285° C. The total amount of volatile co-solvent present in the ink-jet ink can be from 5 wt % to 50 wt %. These ink-jet inks can be printed on traditional as well as non-porous substrates. Optionally, heat can be applied to an image printed with the ink-jet ink to drive off at least a portion of the volatile co-solvent(s).
US08440737B2

The invention relates to a composition for injectable cement, comprising a mineral sold phase, a separate liquid phase and, optionally, microparticles of a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer. The mineral solid phase comprises a mixture of powders with the molar composition: (CP)6 (CaO)y (SrCO3)z, [CP being CaHPO42H2O, CaHPO4, Ca1-xSrxHPO4, an equimolar mixture of bis(Ca(H2PO4)2, H2O and CaO, or a mixture of two or three of said compounds] and y+z=4?1. The liquid phase comprises pure apyrogeneic water or a saline aqueous solution with pH 4 to 9. The ratio L/P [volume of liquid phase/mass of solid mineral phase] is at least 0.4 ml/g. The above is of application as bone replacement.
US08440731B2

Provided is a method for producing a functional material, including the steps of: bringing a polyvalent metal cation aqueous solution into contact with a base material; bringing a polyanion aqueous solution containing a functional component into contact with the base material previously in contact with the polyvalent metal cation aqueous solution to bond the polyvalent metal cations and the polyanions to each other, and thereby forming an insoluble compound containing the functional component; and drying the base material including the insoluble compound.
US08440726B2

A solubilizing composition containing (A) at least one oily component selected from esters of oleic acid with alcohols having 1 to 3 carbon atoms and triglycerides of fatty acids having 6 to 12 carbon atoms, (B) a polyoxyethylenesorbitan fatty acid ester, (C) a polyhydric alcohol which is liquid between 15° C. and 25° C., and (D) one or more acidic phospholipids where the fatty acid constituting an acyl group thereof is selected from saturated fatty acids having 6 to 14 carbon atoms and unsaturated fatty acids having 16 to 18 carbon atoms, which contains 20 to 40% by weight of the component (A), 30 to 45% by weight of the component (B), 15 to 40% by weight of the component (C), and 0.5 to 4% by weight of the component (D), based on 100% by weight of a total amount of the components (A) to (D).
US08440719B2

Carboxylic anhydrides are highly suitable as additive for industrial materials, cosmetics, pharmaceutics and foodstuffs, in particular beverages, for protecting them against attack and/or destruction by microorganisms.
US08440718B2

This invention provides pharmaceutical compositions containing lipoxin compounds and therapeutic uses for the compounds in treating or preventing a disease or condition associated with columnar epithelial inflammation. The invention also discloses methods for screening for compounds useful in preventing columnar epithelial inflammation.
US08440712B2

Crystalline sodium atorvastatin, compositions containing the same and methods for the production thereof.
US08440702B2

Compounds having the structure of Formula I, including pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds, are CETP inhibitors, and are useful for raising HDL-cholesterol, reducing LDL-cholesterol, and for treating or preventing atherosclerosis. The compounds have 3 cyclic groups connected by single bonds, as for example triphenyl, which are attached directly to the ring of formula I or attached at the position B.
US08440701B2

The present invention relates to substituted 1-(alkyl)-3-aniline-5-aryl triazole derivatives and analogues or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, processes for preparing them, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in therapy, according to Formula (I). The invention particularly relates to potent positive allosteric modulators of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors which have the capability of increasing the efficacy of nicotinic receptor agonists.
US08440695B2

The present invention provides methods and compositions for modulating certain metabolic processes and for treating a variety of disorders associated with metabolic syndrome, including insulin related disorders, ischemia, oxidative stress, atherosclerosis, hypertension, obesity, abnormal lipid metabolism, and stroke by administering an effective dose of a chloroquine compound. The invention also provides methods and compositions relating to administering an effective dose of a chloroquine compound in combination with at least a second pharmaceutically active ingredient or compound including an antihyperglycemic diabetes treatment, an antihypertensive agent, an antithrombotic agent, and/or an inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis or absorption.
US08440694B2

The present invention relates to novel quinoline compounds of the formula (I) and to the salts thereof. The compounds possess valuable therapeutic properties and are particularly suitable, for treating diseases that respond to modulation of the serotonin 5-HT6 receptor. In formula (I) R is a moiety of the formula (R) wherein * indicates the binding site to the quinolinyl radical and wherein A, B, X′, Y, Q, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, m, n, p, q, Ra, Rb, X and Ar are as defined in claim 1.
US08440673B2

Compounds of the formula I: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein, R1 is optionally substituted pyrazolyl, and R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and R8 are as defined herein. Also disclosed are methods of using the compounds for treating diseases associated with P2X3 and/or a P2X2/3 receptor antagonists and methods of making the compounds.
US08440664B2

This invention provides compounds of formula I: wherein R1, R2, CY, Y1, Y2, X1, X2, and X3 are as described in the specification. The compounds are inhibitors of PI3K and are thus useful for treating proliferative, inflammatory, or cardiovascular disorders.
US08440657B2

The invention relates to novel substituted piperidines, to processes for preparation thereof, to the use thereof for treatment and/or prophylaxis of diseases and to the use thereof for production of medicaments for treatment and/or prophylaxis of diseases, especially of cardiovascular diseases and tumour diseases.
US08440654B2

Thieno- and furo-pyrimidine compounds are described, which are useful as H4 receptor modulators. Such compounds may be used in pharmaceutical compositions and methods for the modulation of histamine H4 receptor activity and for the treatment of disease states, disorders, and conditions mediated by H4 receptor activity, such as inflammation.
US08440653B2

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.
US08440643B2

This invention provides novel β-lactamase inhibitors of the aryl- and heteroaryl-sulfonamidomethylphosphonate monoester class having nitrogen-based cations or quarternary ammomium groups. The compounds inhibit three classes of β-lactamases and synergize the antibacterial effects of β-lactam antibiotics (e.g., imipenem and ceftazimdime) against those micro-organisms normally resistant to the β-lactam antibiotics as a result of the presence of the β-lactamases.
US08440639B2

Provided herein is a pharmaceutical composition or a kit comprising a combination of a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor analog and an adenosine A1 receptor agonist. Also provided herein is a method of reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) in a subject using such a combination or kit. In a particular embodiment, provided herein is a combination of dorzolamide marketed under the brand Trusopt™ and Compound A.
US08440633B2

A composition comprising 2-desoxoparaherquamide and abamectin for the treatment of a parasitic infestation in mammals.
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