US08652237B2
A system and process are disclosed for selective removal and recovery of H2S from a gaseous volume, e.g., from natural gas. Anhydrous organic, sorbents chemically capture H2S gas to form hydrosulfide salts. Regeneration of the capture solvent involves addition of an anti-solvent that releases the captured H2S gas from the capture sorbent. The capture sorbent and anti-solvent are reactivated for reuse, e.g., by simple distillation.
US08652236B2
The present invention describes a method for recovery of high purity carbon dioxide, which is substantially free of nitrogen oxides. This high purity carbon dioxide is obtained by introducing into the method a step in which carbon dioxide absorbed in an absorbing agent is flashed. The present invention also discloses a plant for recovery of said high purity carbon dioxide comprising an absorption column, a flash column, a stripper column, and a down stream purification unit comprising a washing column, a dehydrator, a condenser and a distillation unit.
US08652234B1
High molecular weight (HMW) gases are separated from an exhaust gas of a combustion source using a blower and an interior vent within the exhaust stack. The interior vent includes a vent wall having a top portion attached to the interior surface of the exhaust stack along the entire inner perimeter of the exhaust stack and a lower portion that extends downward into the exhaust stack to form an annular space or gap between the vent wall and the interior surface of the exhaust stack, and at least one opening in the interior surface of the exhaust stack between the top and bottom portions of the vent wall. The blower creates a tangential flow of the exhaust gas with sufficient centrifugal force to concentrate substantially all of the HMW gases along the inner surface of the exhaust stack. A transfer pipe removes the HMW gases from the interior vent.
US08652233B2
A fluid degasification system for a hydraulic circuit includes a gas/fluid separation tank, a fluid entry passage directing fluid into a small foam generating cup containing foam and a small amount of additional fluid, thereby stimulating foam formation. A separation screen is positioned below the foam generating cup to receive bubbles formed in the cup and to allow liquid to pass through the screen to a degasified-fluid collecting chamber below the screen as the bubbles resting on the separation screen decompose.
US08652220B2
A battery is provided with a plurality of unit cells each having a tab, a bus bar connecting the tab of one of the plurality of unit cells and the tab of another one of the plurality of unit cells, and a plurality of welding points disposed on a center of gravity of an area, in which the bus bar and the tab are overlapped, or a vicinity thereof, and at least one position of line segments, radiately extending from the center of gravity, or a vicinity thereof, such that the bus bar and the tab are connected to one another at the plurality of welding points.
US08652219B1
The invention herein provides for an improved dye material composed of a dry particulate mixture of azo and phthalocyanine dyes for concrete surface applications.
US08652213B2
A joint prosthesis device comprises a head configured to fit within a cup and in one embodiment includes a first member for attachment to a first bone in a joint and including a first articulation surface portion defined by a first radius of curvature and a second member for attachment to a second bone in the joint and including a second articulation surface portion defined by a second radius of curvature and a third articulation surface defined by a third radius of curvature, wherein each of the second radius of curvature and the third radius of curvature has a length that is different from the length of the first radius of curvature by less than 0.05 millimeters and wherein the origin of the second radius of curvature is not coincident with the origin of the third radius of curvature.
US08652212B2
An orthopedic component having multiple layers that are selected to provide an overall modulus that is substantially lower than the modulus of known orthopedic components to more closely approximate the modulus of the bone into which the orthopedic component is implanted. In one exemplary embodiment, the orthopedic component is an acetabular shell. For example, the acetabular shell may include an outer layer configured for securement to the natural acetabulum of a patient and an inner layer configured to receive an acetabular liner. The head of a femoral prosthesis articulates against the acetabular liner to replicate the function of a natural hip joint. Alternatively, the inner layer of the acetabular shell may act as an integral acetabular liner against which the head of the femoral prosthesis articulates.
US08652200B2
A medical device comprising a plurality of capsules, and a method of administering therapeutic agent to a patient using the same. The capsules further comprise a therapeutic agent and a multilayer polyelectrolyte shell. The medical device is adapted to apply a pressure to the capsules that is greater than or equal to the critical pressure of at least a portion of the capsules, such that therapeutic agent is released from the capsules.
US08652197B2
A low profile support frame for use as an or in an expandable intraluminal medical device includes first and second wire members that define arcuate paths having opposing curves. Connectors join the wire members, and barbs can be disposed on the connectors. The support frame has radially compressed and radially expanded configurations. When the support frame is in the radially expanded configuration, substantially no portion of the support frame is disposed on a first transverse axis of the frame opposite one end of the frame and substantially no portion of the frame is disposed on a second transverse axis of the frame opposite the other end of the frame. The support frame can be used as an intraluminal medical device by itself or as a component in a medical device that includes other components, such as a stent, prosthetic valve, occluder, or filter.
US08652195B2
An artificial blood vessel includes a flexible tube and a structure provided at one end portion of the tube and capable of being deformed to a first outside diameter and a second outside diameter greater than the first outside diameter, wherein the tube is provided with a lock part which is locked at a desired position when the tube is folded back from its other end portion to the inside.
US08652194B1
An apparatus and method to treat vulnerable plaque. In one embodiment, the apparatus has a medical device to treat an occlusive plaque, and is also adapted to release a biologically active agent to treat vulnerable plaque located downstream from the occlusive plaque. In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus has an expandable tube attached to the inner surface of a stent, and a layer of endothelial cells seeded on the inner surface of the expandable tube. The expandable tube shields a vulnerable plaque from a body lumen.
US08652187B2
Apparatus and method for making and using devices that generate optical signals, and optionally also electrical signals in combination with one or more such optical signals, to stimulate (i.e., trigger) and/or simulate a sensory-nerve signal in nerve and/or brain tissue of a living animal (e.g., a human), for example to treat nerve damage in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) or the central nervous system (CNS) and provide sensations to stimulate and/or simulate “sensory” signals in nerves and/or brain tissue of a living animal (e.g., a human) to treat other sensory deficiencies (e.g., touch, feel, balance, visual, taste, or olfactory) and provide sensations related to those sensory deficiencies, and/or to stimulate (i.e., trigger) and/or simulate a motor-nerve signal in nerve and/or brain tissue of a living animal (e.g., a human), for example to control a muscle or a robotic prosthesis.
US08652186B2
A system and method is provided for improving the visibility of hair on the skin surface, in a region that is bloodied or bruised, and potentially expanding the candidate pool of the hair grafts to be selected for harvesting. The system uses a light source comprising at least two emitters and the method comprises controlling the contrast between the image of the blood and the image of the skin surface. The method of the present invention may be implemented with various hair harvesting and transplantation systems, including manual, partially automated and fully automated systems.
US08652173B2
Knotless suture anchors are disclosed for surgical use, which contain one or more types of ratcheting mechanisms that will allow a surgeon to pull a suture strand through an anchor device in one direction, without allowing the suture strand to travel or creep backward, in the other direction. This will allow a surgeon to emplace a number of such anchors in hard bone(s) or soft tissue(s), during installation of an implant device, while the various suture strands remain loose and do not interfere with proper positioning of the implant. When the implant device is roughly in position, the surgeon can gently “snug” all of the suture strands (which preferably should be braided, to provide a non-smooth surface that will enable a stronger and more secure grip by the ratcheting mechanism), so that they will all reach a moderate plateau of gentle yet firm tension. After the surgeon has ensured that the implant is in proper position, with all of the anchoring sutures in a “snug” status, a series of final tightening and tensioning steps can be carried out on all of the suture strands.
US08652169B2
Wound closure methods and apparatuses are provided which utilize blood fluid by activating the clotting cascade of the blood fluid outside the body within a substantially enclosed sterile container then introducing coagulated blood to the wound site. Methods and apparatuses for providing ways of inhibiting anticoagulants and slowing fibrin clot degradation are also disclosed. Kits for practicing the invention singularly or in combination with and/or associated with preferred procedures are also disclosed.
US08652167B2
The invention provides a cardiovascular occluder for treating a cardiovascular abnormality comprising a frame and an alarmin or an alarmin activator bound to the surface of the frame. The invention further provides methods of manufacturing the cardiovascular occluder and methods of treating cardiovascular abnormalities by delivering the cardiovascular occluder.
US08652165B2
A ergonomic surgical instrument is provided having a first and second trigger. The instrument comprises a shroud and at least one toggle switch located on the shroud's lateral surface for selectively engaging the first or second trigger to actuate an end-effector. The toggle fixes the position of one trigger with respect to the shroud while permitting the other trigger to actuate the end-effector.
US08652162B2
The present invention relates to a catheter suitable for conducting and positioning a medical device in an organic cavity comprising at least one side branch, such as a blood vessel, which comprises a tubular body, having a central lumen having a cross-section suitable for the passage of the medical device and a mandrel slidable in the central lumen and distally a flexible end portion. On the outer surface of the mandrel there is a longitudinal groove defining, with the inner wall of the tubular body, a passage suitable for receiving a first guide wire in a sliding manner. In addition, in the mandrel there is an inner lumen suitable for housing a second guide wire in a sliding manner. The present invention further relates to a catheter assembly comprising the aforesaid catheter and a method of use the same.
US08652161B2
Laparoscopic instruments and trocars are provided for performing laparoscopic procedures entirely through the umbilicus. A generally C-shaped trocar provides increased work space between the hands of the surgeon as well as S-shaped laparoscopic instruments placed through the trocar when laparoscopic instrument-trocar units are placed through the umbilicus. In order to facilitate retraction of intra-abdominal structures during a laparoscopic procedure, an angulated needle and thread with either one-or two sharp ends is provided. Alternatively, an inflatable unit having at least one generally C-shaped trocar incorporated within the unit's walls can be placed through the umbilicus following a single incision. Generally S-shaped laparoscopic instruments may be placed through the generally C-shaped trocars to facilitate access to intra-abdominal structures.
US08652157B2
Disclosed herein is a system for releasing a ligament. In one embodiment, the system includes a proximal handle, a tubular body, and a flexible body. The tubular body includes a proximal end and a distal end. The handle is coupled to the proximal end. The flexible body extends through the tubular body and includes a tissue cutting portion. The flexible body or tubular body is longitudinally displaceable to move the tissue cutting portion between a non-deployed state and a deployed state.
US08652153B2
An intervertebral disc repair system comprises an implant and a delivery tool configured to deploy the implant at least partially in a vertebral body of a patient. The implant includes an anchor member and an adjustable suture assembly coupled thereto. The delivery tool includes a proximal handle, an outer tubular member extending distally from the handle, a needle cannula slidably received within the outer tubular member having a sharpened tip for penetrating tissue (e.g., the vertebral body), an inner pusher member slidably received within the needle cannula, and an actuating mechanism coupled to the handle for selectively retracting the needle cannula relative to the outer tubular member and the inner pusher member. At least the anchor member of the implant is releasably received within the needle cannula.
US08652141B2
The various embodiments disclosed herein relate to implantable devices for the treatment of structural bone and joint deformity, including hallux valgus. More specifically, the various embodiments include systems, devices, and methods for implantation of a flexible or tension band for treating such deformity.
US08652139B2
A flip retrograde cutting instrument and method of retrograde drilling using such an instrument. A method of forming a socket includes providing a flip retrograde cutter, inserting the cutter into a joint with a blade of the cutter in a straight position, pivoting the blade to a non-straight flip position, locking the blade in the flip position, and retrograde drilling a socket using the blade in the flip position.
US08652138B2
Methods and devices are described for modifying tissue in a spine of a patient to treat or alleviate spinal stenosis. In one embodiment, a method may include: advancing at least a distal portion of an elongate tissue modification device into an epidural space and between target tissue and non-target tissue in the spine; positioning the tissue modification device so that at least one abrasive surface of the device faces target tissue and at least one non-abrasive surface faces non-target tissue; applying tensioning force at or near separate distal and proximal portions of the tissue modification device; and translating the tissue modification device back and forth while maintaining at least some tensioning force to abrade at least a portion of the target tissue with the at least one abrasive surface. Unwanted damage to the non-target tissue may be prevented via the at least one non-abrasive surface.
US08652136B2
A femur fixation device including an elongated nail configured for insertion into the medullary canal of the femur and a buttress element extending from the elongated nail. The buttress element is configured to reinforce the lesser trochanter region of the femur and assist in stabilizing the head portion of the femur.
US08652134B2
An electronic apparatus includes a circuit portion that is configured to control an operation of the electronic apparatus and a heat-activated mechanical switch including, for example, a shape-memory material. The shape-memory material has a property such that the shape-memory material assumes a predetermined shape when the electronic apparatus is heated to a transition temperature. The shape-memory material disables the apparatus by acting on the circuit portion when the shape-memory material assumes the predetermined shape.
US08652124B2
The present invention relates to an anti-seeding arrangement (100) for invasive treatment of a human or animal body comprising an elongated hollow member (102), and a first electrode (116) of which one portion is arranged near one end of the elongated hollow member (102), said first electrode (116) being connectable to an electromagnetic field generator (110), wherein the elongated hollow member (102) is arranged to be inserted into the human or animal body, control means (106, 108) arranged to control the electromagnetic field generator (110) for delivering radio frequency bursts to the first electrode (116), and sensing means (104) to sense a physical property dependent on the insertion length of the elongated hollow member (102) in the human or animal body, and wherein the control means (106, 108) is arranged to control the operation of the electromagnetic field generator (110) in dependence of the sensed physical property.
US08652118B2
An agent delivery apparatus for administering a pharmacological agent formulation to a sub-mucosal compartment of a body organ, comprising injector means having an internal formulation chamber that is adapted to receive and contain the pharmacological agent formulation therein and an elongated agent delivery member having a first end that is in communication with the internal formulation chamber and a second ejection end, the injector means including force generating means that is adapted to generate sufficient force to expel the pharmacological agent formulation from the injector means and into and through the agent delivery member, and out of the ejection end of the elongated agent delivery member. In one embodiment of the invention, the delivery member comprises a needleless delivery member.
US08652109B2
Syringe (1) including a cylinder (2) and a piston (4), in which the outlet end (6) of the cylinder (2) is integrated with a valve male luer lock connector (7).
US08652105B2
A surgical access apparatus for providing access inside a body includes a housing having a first port, a tubular member extending distally from the housing and defining a longitudinal axis therealong, wherein the tubular member includes a lumen extending therethrough. a shaft insert disposed in the lumen of the tubular member, wherein the shaft insert forms first, second, and third passageways extending along the lumen of the tubular member, wherein each of the first, second, and third passageways is adapted to receive a surgical instrument; and a first seal assembly covering the first port of the housing and defining a first passage disposed in communication with the first passageway defined by the shaft insert in the tubular member, wherein the first seal assembly is adapted to form a seal around the surgical instrument inserted through the first passage of the first seal assembly.
US08652101B2
The invention relates to an implantation device for implanting a sensor element for detecting at least one analyte in a bodily fluid or body tissue. The implantation device comprises at least one cannula for piercing a skin surface of a patient. The cannula has at least one holding area for holding the sensor element. The implantation device furthermore has at least one hydraulic container, connected to the cannula, for holding a hydraulic fluid and at least one pressure generation device. The pressure generation device is designed to apply pressure to the hydraulic fluid, wherein the sensor element can be transferred from the cannula into the body tissue using the hydraulic fluid.
US08652098B2
A balloon catheter having a radiopaque coil embedded in the catheter's body corresponding to a landmark of the balloon or other location on the catheter body. The radiopaque coil can be viewed under fluoroscopy to located the balloon or other structure of the catheter. The coil can be readily inserted in the manufacturing process by inserting it between two layers that form the catheter body, and then sealing the coil inside the catheter at the desired location. This facilitates both the manufacturing process and prevents the marker from being dislodged during the manufacturing, navigation, or inflation process.
US08652097B2
A method of combining a drug in a first container and a liquid in a second container includes placing the first container and the second container in fluid communication with a housing, combining the liquid and the drug in the first container, transferring the liquid and the drug from the first container to the housing, and transferring the liquid and the drug from the housing to a third container.
US08652092B2
The invention relates to applicators (1) for implantation of an implant, having a cylinder (2) and a plunger (3) displaceably mounted therein, which plunger (3) has a pusher plunger (31) for pushing the implant out of a cannula, the cannula being mounted on a cylinder part, the cylinder part (4) being movably guided in the cylinder (2), there being provided a gear mechanism (5) which couples the plunger (3) to the cylinder part (4), a movement of the plunger (3) relative to the cylinder (2) being converted into an opposite movement of the cylinder part (4).
US08652091B2
A fluid injection device includes: a pulse generation section that includes a fluid chamber whose volume is changeable, and an inlet flow passage and an outlet flow passage that are connected to the fluid chamber; a first connection flow passage connected to the outlet flow passage, having an end portion; a second connection flow passage connected to the inlet flow passage; a fluid injection opening formed at the end portion of the first connection flow passage, having a diameter smaller than the diameter of the outlet flow passage; a connection flow passage tube including the first connection flow passage and having rigidity adequate to transmit pulses of fluid flowing from the fluid chamber to the fluid injection opening; and a pressure generation section that supplies fluid to the inlet flow passage.
US08652090B2
The devices and methods shown provide for the minimization of extravasation during arthroscopic surgery. The anti-extravasation surgical portal plug allows a surgeon to drain excess fluids from the soft tissue surrounding the surgical field during arthroscopic surgical procedures.
US08652088B2
Very accurate measurements of mass transfer can be made rapidly by permitting diffusion of an agent desired to be measured into or out of a small, very precisely known volume of a microdialysis probe, then rapidly pumping or flushing (“pulsing”) the probe with a known volume of fluid as a single pulse. The diffusion and pulsing may be repeated. The method, hereinafter called pulsatile microdialysis (PMD) to distinguish it from prior art continuous flow microdialysis, is useful for measurements in a number of processes, including protein binding, adsorption to binding agents such as activated charcoal, release from microemulsion drug delivery systems, determination of drug diffusion coefficients and concentrations, and for various other purposes.The method is based on mathematical manipulation of Fick's Laws. Resulting equations were verified against experimental data using methazolamide, warfarin and benzocaine as test drugs.
US08652083B2
The anti-obesity stent includes a tubular structure having outer and inner surfaces and proximal and distal ends. The tubular structure is sized to fit within a duodenum in substantially coaxial relation therewith. The tubular structure is impervious or semi-permeable to digestive substances and chyme within the duodenum. The anti-obesity stent includes a transport structure at least a part of which is coincident with or connected to the outer surface. The transport structure extends to the distal end of the tubular structure. At least one retainer structure is connected to the tubular structure. The retainer structure secures the tubular structure within the duodenum such that the transport structure is positioned to receive digestive fluids from a papilla of Vater on an inner surface of the duodenum. The transport structure provides a conduit for the digestive fluids therein to flow to the distal end.
US08652082B2
A proposed blood treatment apparatus includes: a blood treatment unit, at least one fluid pump and at least one blood pump. The blood treatment unit is configured to receive untreated blood and fresh blood treatment fluid, and emit treated blood and used blood treatment fluid. The fluid pumps are configured to pass blood treatment fluid through the blood treatment unit. The blood pumps are configured to extract untreated blood from a blood source, pass extracted blood through the blood treatment unit and deliver treated blood to a target vessel. Additionally, at least one of the fluid pumps is configured to control the operation of at least one blood pump via the blood treatment fluid. Moreover, at least one of the blood pumps is integrated into a joint apparatus element, which includes the blood treatment unit. Thus, this blood pump and the unit may be mounted as well as be discarded jointly.
US08652081B2
A lumbar traction device that can alleviate lower back pain is provided. The device includes a harness or girdle that is fitted about the torso region of a patient and an adjustable support assembly in the form of adjustable legs that allow the degree of traction to be adjusted by the patient. The device is safe and easy to use by a patient without constant medical supervision and is particularly suitable for use in domestic or office environments.
US08652080B2
An apparatus and method of use for a wrist extension brace, intended to be used to position, secure, stabilize, and extend a patient's wrist for the purpose of assisting cannulation of blood vessels in the wrist and forearm. The apparatus generally includes a frame having a fixed dorsiflexion angle and means for cushioning a patient's hand, wrist and forearm and means of attaching such to the wrist extension brace. The method of use includes the steps of attaching the apparatus to a patient's wrist and adjusting it after such attachment.
US08652070B2
According to some exemplary embodiments, a method or system can involve associating a plurality of biokinetographic comparison results with a first specific dysfunction from a group of specific dysfunctions, each of the biokinetographic comparison results obtained from a comparison of a biokinetographic value to a standard for a corresponding biokinetographic variable.
US08652068B2
An integrated lancet and testing striplet for measuring a body analyte level in a health care regimen includes a skin piercing member and an analyte sensor coupled together.
US08652065B2
Detecting transitions in a breathing cycle which includes using a second derivative 54 of a flow waveform 51 to find breathing transitions 51c in the waveform 51.
US08652059B2
A cuff includes a cuff main body portion and a gripping portion provided on an outer peripheral surface of the cuff main body portion. The cuff main body portion includes an air bladder, a tightening belt wrapped around an outer side of the air bladder, and a wrapping length adjustment mechanism for variably adjusting a wrapping length of the tightening belt. The wrapping length adjustment mechanism has a bias spring for pulling and biasing the tightening belt in a direction in which the wrapping length of the tightening belt is shortened, a first restriction portion for restricting extension of the wrapping length, and a second restriction portion for restricting shortening of the wrapping length. The gripping portion includes a push button for switching actions of the two restriction portions. In this configuration, the cuff may be easily attached to a measurement site regardless of the circumferential length of the site.
US08652049B2
According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises an ultrasonic probe, an ultrasonic transmission/reception unit, an echo processing unit configured to generate complex data based on the echo signals, a phase shifting unit configured to shift a phase of each ensemble data constituted by N complex data associated with the same depth on the same ultrasonic raster in accordance with a reference phase, an interpolation processing unit configured to interpolate ensemble data associated with an interpolated raster between adjacent ultrasonic rasters based on the phase-shifted ensemble data, and an image data generation unit configured to generate image data based on the phase-shifted ensemble data and the interpolated ensemble data.
US08652048B2
An implant predicts decompensation of a patient's heart based on an acoustic pressure measurement. The implant includes first and second acoustic transducers, which are matched to each other and which rest in/on the patient's thorax. The first acoustic transducer emits an acoustic signal which has at least one first signal portion having a first frequency. The second acoustic transducer is designed to receive and re-emit the emitted acoustic signal, or to reflect it, such that the first acoustic transducer receives the emitted acoustic signal. A signal processing unit communicates with at least one of the two acoustic transducers and determines an attenuation value as a function of the attenuation of the received acoustic signal versus the originally emitted acoustic signal, and provides a prediction signal as a function of a comparison of the attenuation value to a threshold value, wherein the prediction signal indicates the development of decompensation.
US08652047B2
The method of accurately measuring the volume of urine in a bladder includes generating a plurality of ultrasound scan planes using the received ultrasound signals; detecting distances between the front and back walls of the bladder for each scan line in the ultrasound scan planes; determining an area of the bladder using the detected distances of the scan lines for each ultrasound scan plane; generating a virtual radius of the bladder using the determined area of the bladder for each ultrasound scan plane; determining a calibration coefficient for each ultrasound scan plane using the detected distances of the scan lines; calibrating the virtual radius of the bladder for each ultrasound scan plane using the calibration coefficient; determining the volume of urine in the bladder by calculating the volume of a sphere of which the radius is the average of the calibrated virtual radii for the ultrasound scan planes.
US08652042B2
A human skin moisture measuring device having an interdigitated resistive sensor formed on a plate-like transparent support is described, with a face designed to be placed into contact with the skin to be subjected to the moisture degree measurement. The device further comprises image sensing means turned towards the opposite face of the support and a lighting device arranged sideways relative to the support to direct the light radiation in the support at a prefixed angle. Means for processing the signal coming from the interdigitated resistive sensor and from the image sensing means give as output a value of the measured moisture degree that is normalized with respect to the actual surface of contact between skin and sensor.
US08652040B2
Wearable apparatus for monitoring various physiological and environmental factors are provided. Real-time, noninvasive health and environmental monitors include a plurality of compact sensors integrated within small, low-profile devices, such as earpiece modules. Physiological and environmental data is collected and wirelessly transmitted into a wireless network, where the data is stored and/or processed.
US08652037B2
A data collection system is formed from an analyte detection meter and a base station. The meter and the base station are operatively connected to one another to transfer data from the meter. The base station is able to communicate transferred data to a data receiving server, and the transfer of data occurs in response to a defined stimulus such as the proximity of the meter and base station or an alarm set at a predetermined time of day. The data collection system can be used in combination with a system interface that provides a data management system (DMS) resident on a device such as a personal computer. The DMS can recognize a particular meter and may incorporate into the displayed information not only the data resident on the meter but also information previously transferred from the meter. The DMS may be launched on the computer as soon as connection with a meter is detected. The DMS may also reproduce the display of the particular meter on the display of the computer such that the user need only learn one set of controls. Changes to the setting of the meters may be accomplished through the computer and an update transferred and stored on the connected meter.
US08652034B2
A surgical instrument stabilizer includes a body having a first material and a second material. The first material includes a wall defining an inner surface and an outer surface. The inner surface defines a first cavity configured for disposal of the second material. The outer surface defines an outer portion, a lateral portion and an inner portion. At least a portion of the lateral portion is configured to flexibly conform to a patient body surface. The inner portion defines a second cavity for disposal of an instrument and is configured to engage an outer surface of the instrument. Methods of use are disclosed.
US08652018B2
A machine tool is provided with a tool magazine including a guiding plate, a turntable and holders. The guiding plate includes an annular groove with a semi-circular section and a semi-oval section. The semi-circular section is defined by a radius. The semi-oval section is defined by a semi-major axis identical to the radius of the semi-circular section and a semi-minor axis shorter than the semi-major axis. The turntable includes claws extending from the periphery. Each of the holders is pivotally connected to a related one of the claws and includes an end for holding a tool and another end formed with a ball movably located in the annular groove. Thus, some of the holders of which the balls are located in the semi-circular section of the annular groove close while the other holders of which the balls are located in the semi-oval section of the annular groove open.
US08652007B2
A pressure accumulation system for an internal combustion engine can prevent exhaust pressure from excessively increasing when pressurized gas is contained in a pressure accumulation container. A pressure accumulation system is applied for an internal combustion engine provided with an exhaust shut-off valve mounted in an exhaust path. The pressure accumulation system has a pressure accumulation tank into which gas can be introduced from that portion of an exhaust path. The pressure accumulation system also has a sensor for detecting the exhaust pressure, and an EGR valve is controlled based on the detection value from the exhaust gas sensor such that the pressure in that portion of the exhaust path which is on the upstream of the exhaust shut-off valve is limited below a predetermined exhaust gas upper limit value (Pmax) when gas is contained in the pressure accumulation tank.
US08652005B2
A transmission configuration for a vehicle with at least a wet clutch (7) functioning as starting element. A coolant and a lubricant supply is provided via at least a pump device (5) which can be driven by a drive motor (1) of the vehicle. The pump device (5) can be driven in such a way that the conveyed flow volume of the pump device (5) is proportional to the rotational speed difference between the rotational speed of the drive motor (1) and the rotational speed of the clutch (7) which is designed and functions as the starting element.
US08652004B2
A method of operating a vehicle drive train having a drive machine, a transmission apparatus having a plurality of shift elements and an output drive. The plurality of shift elements are engaged or disengaged in a power flow for achieving different transmission ratios within the transmission apparatus. The output drive is coupled to a transmission output shaft and the drive machine is coupled to a transmission input shaft of the transmission apparatus. Upon a request to interrupt power flow within the transmission apparatus, between the transmission input shaft and the transmission output shaft, a maximum number of shift elements are transferred to and/or held in an engaged operating state, and the remaining portion of the shift elements are transferred to and/or held in a disengaged operating state with the transmission output shaft being rotatable.
US08652003B2
A transmission configured with a speed change control unit which, when upshifting the speed in an accelerator on condition, executes an engagement control including a torque phase control after executing a filling control, which controls the hydraulic control unit in such a way that a hydraulic servo of the engagement side frictional engagement element is filled with hydraulic oil, and a standby control, which controls the hydraulic control unit in such a way that hydraulic pressure for the hydraulic servo is maintained at a preset standby pressure. A correction unit is configured to correct at least one of an execution time of the filling control and the standby pressure to an increment side when a fluctuation in a rotational acceleration of the input shaft exceeding a preset determination reference is detected after the standby control.
US08652002B2
A method of operating a torque converter clutch in an engine start-stop vehicle improves launch after an auto stop event. During the autostop event, hydraulic fluid is supplied to the torque converter clutch operator through one or more solenoid valves by an auxiliary electric pump. When the prime mover is started at the conclusion of the autostop event, the torque converter clutch is thus locked, assuring rapid and sufficient torque transfer through the torque converter to the transmission and improved acceleration during vehicle launch. As the vehicle accelerates, the hydraulic pressure in the clutch operator is reduced and slip through the clutch increased to achieve a smooth launch and return to conventional torque converter operation.
US08652000B2
A clutch type driving mechanism used in a hybrid powered vehicle is disclosed to include a motor, a speed reducing mechanism, a hollow shaft, an output shaft and first and second one-way clutches. The motor provides a rotational kinetic energy through the hollow axle to the speed reducing mechanism. The speed reducing mechanism and the output shaft transfer a unidirectional rotary motion to the hollow shaft through the first one-way clutch and the second one-way clutch respectively. Thus, when the output shaft works as a drive shaft, it does not transfer the rotary motion to the speed reducing mechanism, avoiding power loss and allowing transfer of the rotational kinetic energy rapidly and efficiently without bearing much load.
US08651999B2
A drive device has an internal combustion engine, a first electrical machine, and a second electrical machine. The first electrical machine is at least indirectly connectable to the internal combustion engine. In addition, the drive device has an output which is at least indirectly connected to an output shaft. According to the invention, a switching device is provided, using which, in a first state, the internal combustion or the first electrical machine is connectable to the output shaft or, in a second state, the second electrical machine is connectable to the output shaft.
US08651986B2
A drive clutch for a continuously variable transmission that includes an input shaft designed to engage with an engine. A sheave assembly is mounted about the input shaft. A bearing assembly separates the sheave assembly from the input shaft such that the input shaft can rotate independently from the sheave assembly. At least one sheave clutch assembly is positioned about the input shaft. The sheave clutch assembly is configured to provide engagement between the sheave assembly and the input shaft when the rotation of the input shaft increases above a certain threshold value. An axial control mechanism is mounted on the input shaft adjacent to the second sheave. The axial control mechanism controls the movement of the second sheave toward and away from the first sheave as a function of the speed of the input shaft. A continuously variable transmission including the drive clutch and a driven clutch is also disclosed.
US08651984B2
A first lacrosse head constructed from a first material having first properties or a second lacrosse head constructed from a second material having second properties is selectively used in lacrosse activities, based on environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and/or solar activity, to provide generally consistent head performance as perceived by a lacrosse player across a range of environmental conditions. The first and second heads can be identical in structure, but constructed from different materials. For example, the first head can include a polyamide, optionally, Nylon 6,6 polyamide, and the second head can include a high performance polyamide resin, optionally a polypthalamide. An environmental indicator that provides visual and/or audible output with regard to environmental conditions can be included with at least one of the first head, the second head and a shaft to which the heads can be joined. Related methods of use are also provided.
US08651983B2
A swing ball game has a top support frame member. A swing hangs from the top support frame member. The swing has a swing seat configured to swing in a front and rear direction. At least one vertical support frame member is connected to the top support frame member and supports the top support frame member. A rocker support frame member has a rocker bottom profile. The vertical support frame member is connected to the rocker support frame member. The rocker support frame member is oriented sideways so that the top support frame member can rock in a left and right direction.
US08651966B2
A coupling apparatus for transmitting torque from a drive shaft to an output shaft includes two couplings with a respective primary part and secondary part. The primary and secondary parts are twistable to a certain extent relative to one another against the force of springs. Several carriers for carrying spring plates and support plates are arranged in a distributed manner over the circumference of the coupling. There is a locating pin between two screws for positioning a carrier, the locating pin being axially parallel to the screws. One coupling is in a drive connection with the drive shaft, and the other coupling is in a drive connection with the output shaft. Every carrier which can be inserted into a respective recess in the primary part or secondary part of the respective coupling forms a premounted spring unit together with the spring plates carried by the carrier.
US08651959B2
Described are one or more embodiments that include a browser application (“browser”) with multiple parts. A first part of the browser (e.g., a toolbar, a dropdown, a pop-up, a widget, etc.) presents first content associated with one or more wagering games. Concurrently a second part of the browser (e.g., a main content display area) presents second content independently from presentation of the first content in the first part of the browser. In some embodiments, the first content and second content are from separate content providers with a marketing relationship. In some embodiments, in response to concurrent presentation of the first and second content, the browser application detects the marketing relationship between the content providers and presents one or more indicators. The one or more indicators indicate the marketing relationship. For example, the indicators can indicate cross-marketing, available coupons, and/or awards available via the first or second content.
US08651957B2
A method and system for providing an interactive gaming system is disclosed. At least one interactive social gaming community allows a plurality of users to engage in a wagering contest against a single entity. An initial amount of gaming units associated with an initial user investment is allocated to each user. A payout table is dynamically generated and includes at least one threshold amount of gaming units associated with rewards available to the user. A bet request signal received from a user is automatically reconciled with an outcome of at least one type of contest occurring during an active gaming period. A user account is updated by modifying an amount of gaming units in a user account based on a result of the at least one type of contest and determines if user has earned the reward associated with the at least one threshold.
US08651949B2
A series of co-packaged products, wherein each product includes a physical toy, action figure, or the like, along with an associated CD-ROM or other media encoded with software code or logic that includes a computer game that uses as a game character a rendering of the physical toy with which the CD-ROM is co-packaged. In an embodiment, each CD-ROM in the series includes all of the games that are associated with each respective game character in the series. Each CD-ROM is further configured, if it is a first such CD-ROM being installed on the computer, to generate and store a configuration file that indicates which ones of the game characters should be activated. Thus, once a first CD-ROM of the series is installed on the computer, a subsequent install of software encoded on another CD-ROM will result in, perhaps, only a modification of the configuration file, without having to install the entire computer game again.
US08651945B2
Gaming devices and methods of operating gaming devices are provided that include indicator or designator symbols. When an indicator or designator symbol is generated and displayed, the indicator or designator symbol indicates at least one symbol display area as a modification symbol display area. Upon at least one subsequent generation of symbols displayed in the symbol display areas, awards associated with symbols displayed in the modification symbol display areas are modified.
US08651942B2
A gaming device having multiple interacting independently operated symbol generators, such as wheels. In one embodiment, each wheel includes a plurality of sections that are associated with a plurality of different outcomes which are displayed to a player. One or more of the wheels are activated, either sequentially or simultaneously and the results of the wheel activations influence one or more subsequent wheel activations. Upon a terminating event, an outcome based on the results from one or more spins of one or more of the wheels is provided to the player.
US08651938B2
A simulated musical interface associated with a gaming machine enhances player excitement and interaction with the gaming machine. In one embodiment, the simulated musical interface is associated with a game in which the player uses the interface to play a simulated instrument on a gaming machine to affect, or apparently affect, the outcome of the game. As the player plays the simulated instrument via the simulated musical interface, indicia or graphical representations may be generated for a game of chance on a display associated with the gaming machine.
US08651937B1
An apparatus, system and method for an electronic bingo game variation comprising generating at least one electronic bingo card comprising characters from a predetermined character set; drawing a fixed or minimum number of characters to create a draw pool; matching the draw pool to the bingo card; daubing the matches to create a pattern; comparing the pattern to a set of qualifying patterns to identifying a qualifying bingo card. A qualifying pattern may comprise a pattern one match short of a winning pattern. At the conclusion of the game, offering a second chance to win to players with qualifying cards, the second chance comprising repopulating each square of the qualifying card, exclusive of the qualifying pattern, with new characters to create a second card and reapplying the draw pool to identify a second chance winner.
US08651921B2
A surface treatment device includes an enclosure which has an opening through which the leading edge of an aerofoil passes. A sealing element is provided on the enclosure to seal the device to the surfaces of the aerofoil. An abrasive is located within the enclosure and two fluid openings are also provided through which a chemical accelerant can be pumped. In operation the enclosure is oscillated relative to the component so that material is abraded. Whilst the enclosure is oscillated a chemical accelerant is simultaneously pumped through it. The device allows for the local application of a surface treatment on a component.
US08651915B2
One embodiment may take the form of a flexible creation animated by magnets or electromagnets brought near the flexible creation. Iron particles blended with a flexible material of the flexible creation may interact with the magnetic fields generated by the magnets, causing the object or portions of the object to move toward or away from the controlling magnets, thereby animating the object.
US08651907B2
A water jacketed exhaust component includes an exhaust pipe having a radially inwardly tapered tail end, a water jacket disposed in surrounding relation with the exhaust pipe, and a generally V-shaped spray ring. The spray ring includes a first and second set of apertures that create diverging streams of cooling water. A first set of apertures creates an annularly disposed series of streams that are directed downstream and radially inward. These streams are generally directed toward the outer surface of the exhaust pipe structure which extends downstream of the spray ring. A second set of apertures creates an annularly disposed series of streams that are directed downstream and radially outward. These streams are generally directed toward the inner surface of the water jacket structure extending downstream of the spray ring. By providing a water jacketed exhaust component with a spray ring that creates diverging streams of cooling water, the present invention provides a water jacketed marine exhaust component that provides improved exhaust gas cooling over a wider range of engine operating conditions. An alternate embodiment includes a V-shaped spray ring configured to create converging streams of cooling water.
US08651904B2
A propeller drive assembly, for steering and driving a ship (1), comprises a drive motor (2) and a transmission housing (4) secured to a ship hull and a control housing (7) secured to an exterior surface of the hull. The control housing (7) comprises a propeller (8) supported on a driven shaft (6) and the control housing (7) is pivotably coupled, via a steering shaft (10), to the transmission housing (4) for steering the ship (1). A transmission output shaft (5) is connected with the driven shaft (6) and a lubricant circuit of the transmission housing (4) is separate from a lubricant circuit of the control housing (7). At least one sealing element is provided, in a region of a shaft passage of the transmission output shaft (5) and in a region of a shaft passage of the steering shaft (10), for mutually sealing the transmission housing lubricant circuit and the control housing lubricant circuit.
US08651901B2
An electrical connector is disclosed having a housing having at least one row of terminal receiving passageways. Each passageway includes a locking latch. An overstress protection rib is positioned below each latch. A channel extends through a front wall of the housing and adjacent to the at least one row of terminal receiving passageways, and on the opposite side of the latch. A terminal position assurance member (TPA) has a pre-locked position with the TPA positioned forward of the latch allowing the latch to resile into the channel, and a fully locked position where the TPA is positioned underneath the latch.
US08651900B1
A connector terminal includes a metal socket defining a top opening and a bottom through hole, a probe head having a lower stoppage portion stoppable inside the metal socket and supported on a spring inside and an upper contact portion extending out of the top opening of the metal socket, and a plug tightly plugged into the bottom through hole of the metal socket.
US08651898B2
A connector includes an insulated body with a slot to receive therein a terminal module and a casing entirely enclosing the insulated body. An arm has at least two extensions respectively adapted to two oppositely formed sidewalls of the insulated body and each is provided with a boss formed on a distal end of the at least two extensions. At least two through holes are adapted to be defined in each of the two sidewalls of the insulated body to receive therein the bosses.
US08651883B2
A multicontact connector having a housing including cavities; contacts each having a portion received in one of the sockets and another portion projecting beyond a face of the housing; and a locking cap for locking the connector to a complementary connector, the cap being mounted on the housing and configured to slide relative to the housing between a locked position and unlocked position; and the cap projects beyond the face of the housing over a distance greater than the distance whereby the contacts project from the face of the housing.
US08651875B2
A charge connector latching mechanism integrated into a vehicle's charge inlet is provided, where the latching mechanism includes a retractable latching pawl. The retractable pawl is configured to be positioned in at least a first, default position where the pawl extends through an inlet surface of the charge inlet, and a second position where the pawl is retracted and does not extend through the inlet surface. In the first position the retractable pawl prevents insertion of a charge connector into the charge inlet if the charge connector is uncoupled from the inlet, and prevents removal of the charge connector if the charge connector is coupled to the inlet. In the second position the retractable pawl allows insertion/withdrawal of the charge connector into/from the charge inlet. The front surface of the retractable pawl may include a nub configured to fit within a recess within the front face of the charge connector.
US08651869B1
A game having two numerical dice, each numerical die having ten faces, each face labeled with a number such that each numerical die has a face labeled with each 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9; two symbol dice, each symbol die having ten faces, each face labeled with a symbol; a plurality of creature cards forming a first deck of cards, each creature card has a front face labeled with at least a picture, a name, a card type, a rarity, an ability, and a spell symbol; and a plurality of spell cards forming a second deck of cards, each spell card has a front face labeled with at least a picture, a name, an ability, a series symbol matching one symbol on the symbol dice, an attack, and a defense.
US08651865B2
A set of one-piece angled abutments, each abutment including an angled stump, a short intermediate cylindrical portion, and a lower threaded portion, wherein the placement of the starting point of the thread within the first round in the lower threaded portion of each abutment determines the angular orientation from 0° to 360° attained by the stump once the abutment is fully tightened to an implant located in the patient's mandible, the set has a variable number of abutments depending on the value of the constant angular offset chosen for spacing the beginning of the thread of each abutment included in the set, each set being defined by a constant angular offset with a value which is a divisor of 360 and the sets of abutments being accompanied by a circular box to easily select the abutment that attains the ideal angular orientation for a patient's needs.
US08651863B2
The present invention is a dental implant system that has a band of connective tissue rings and grooves on an external surface of the dental implant system. The connective tissue band grooves have a depth of from greater than about 25 μm to about 600 μm. The dental implant system is designed to minimize tissue loss and to reduce the risk of bacterial infection in the implant site.
US08651856B2
A heat recovery method in the manufacture of anodes in an annular anode furnace includes conveying a first partial quantity of the hot air produced in a cooling zone by the waste heat of the anodes into a heating-up zone using a first suction device. A second partial quantity of the hot air produced in the cooling zone is conveyed to a heat exchanger that is realized independently of the annular anode furnace using a second suction device. The heat transfer medium that serves for operating the heat exchanger is primarily heated with the hot air withdrawn from the cooling zone.
US08651851B2
A mould for forming meat, comprising a bottom die formed as a recipient, a concavity of which faces in an upwards direction and is configured to contain the meat, a cover for closing and sliding internally of the mouth of the concavity, and elastic pusher that pushes the cover in order to compress the meat contained in the concavity of the bottom die; the elastic pusher being located externally of and by a side of the bottom die, and being singly interposed between an opposing element fixed to the bottom die and a vertically-mobile hook element fixed to the bottom die, which hook element is configured to hook the cover in order to create a constraint preventing the cover from separating from the hook element in an upwards vertical direction.
US08651848B2
A sizing device is installed on a downstream side in an extrusion direction of a die. A table having two sizing unit attachment portions which are adjacent to each other in a lateral direction orthogonal to the extrusion direction. The table is provided at a device body so as to be laterally movable between a first position where one of the two sizing unit attachment portions is at a production position and the other of the two sizing unit attachment portions is at a standby position, and a second position where the other of the two sizing unit attachment portions is at the production position and the one of the two sizing unit attachment portions is at the standby position. A sizing unit for production configured to perform cooling and sizing in practice is detachably attached to one of the two sizing unit attachment portions at the production position to coincide with an extrusion line. A sizing unit for replacement is detachably attachable to the other of the two sizing unit attachment portions at the standby position.
US08651842B2
A scroll compressor includes a high-pressure space capable of communicating with a discharge port and a back pressure space capable of communicating with an intermediate port. A fluid passage includes a seal ring that closes the fluid passage when the pressure of the back pressure space is lower than that of the high-pressure space, and opens the fluid passage when the pressure of the back pressure space is higher than that of the high-pressure space.
US08651834B2
A linear compressor comprises: a fixed member including a cylinder for providing a refrigerant compression space; a movable member, which includes a piston for compressing refrigerant inside the cylinder and a supporter composed of a center portion being aligned with a center of the piston and a support portion extended radially of the piston and which makes a linear reciprocating movement about the fixed member; a plurality of mainsprings supported on the support portion of the supporter, for elastically supporting the piston in an axial direction; and a mass member, which includes a center portion to couple with the center portion of the supporter and a plurality of ends extended from the center portion to maintain an air-gap towards the support portion of the supporter and towards the mainsprings. The linear compressor of the present invention can accommodate a maximum mass member in a defined space of a linearly reciprocating movable member, so material loss is prevented and more installation space can be secured.
US08651833B2
The present invention provides a combined gas and liquid pump (46) for an internal combustion engine (10). The pump (46) includes a casing (58) having a cavity (60) containing a rotor (62) and a vane (64) slidably mounted to the rotor (62), wherein the cavity (60) is provided with an inlet (50) connectable to a gas source, a further inlet (48) connectable to a liquid source which is separate to the gas source, and an outlet (56). The rotor (62) and vane (64) are movable to draw liquid and gas into the cavity (60) through the respective inlets (50,48) and to move said liquid and gas out of the cavity (60) through the outlet (56). The inlets (50,48) are arranged through the casing (58) such that fluid is drawn first through one of the inlets and then through the other of the inlets before being discharged through the outlet (56).
US08651832B2
In a fuel pump, a case member and a discharge-side cover define a fuel passage. A holder is held between the case member and the discharge-side cover. Brush terminals are supported by the holder to conduct electricity between power receiving terminals and brushes. The power receiving terminals have connector portions that are connected with the brush terminals. A wall of the discharge-side cover and a wall of the holder clamp the connector portions therebetween. The wall of the discharge-side cover and the wall of the holder partition an installation space, which is isolated from the fuel passage and in which the connector portions are enclosed.
US08651827B2
A lead line weld joined portion is disposed externally of a magnetic circuit, i.e., of a yoke portion. This allows generation of a sufficient magnetic biasing force between a first core portion and the anchor.
US08651826B2
A capacity control valve capable of enhancing the function of discharging liquid refrigerant in a control chamber during startup of a variable capacity compressor, and improving the control speed of a swash plate during control is provided. The valve has an adapter that has an annular bearing surface and is provided to a free end of a pressure-sensitive body in the elongation and constriction direction, and a valve body for discharging liquid refrigerant, moveably provided inside the adapter. A slit is provided to an engaging part of the adapter with a third valve part, and an introduction hole for causing the control chamber pressure to act on a bottom surface of the valve body for discharging the liquid refrigerant is provided to the base part side, and an urging force is provided whereby the valve body for discharging the liquid refrigerant is urged in a valve-opening direction away from the third valve part.
US08651824B2
A condensate pump for an HVAC system includes a reservoir for collecting condensate water, a pump motor connected to an impeller pump for pumping the condensate water out of the reservoir, and a floatless pump control module. The floatless pump's microcontroller detects the water level in the reservoir and, based on the water level in the reservoir, controls the operation of the pump motor, and if necessary, sounds an alarm and shuts down the HVAC system. The floatless pump microcontroller may employ an ultrasonic transducer or capacitance sensors to detect the level of condensate water in the reservoir. The microcontroller implements a variable water lift feature to pump the water using the lowest possible speed for the pump. The microcontroller implements a self-cleaning feature to pump stagnant water out of the reservoir and to pulse water in the drain line and the agitation of the water in the reservoir. The microcontroller implements an anti-clog feature to clear a clogged drain line when an overflow condition is detected.
US08651816B2
A fan blade connection system and method for connecting at least one composite blade (110) to a rotor hub (120), more particularly, for fans used in industrial ventilation and cooling applications. The invention aims to provide a better connection, mainly in regard to the stresses distribution. The preferred embodiments are directed to a system and method for connecting a composite blade (110) to a rotor hub (120) comprising a fastener element (130) arranged in the blade root (111) and extending transversally to the longitudinal axis of the blade (110), said fastener element (130) being adapted for receiving one of the ends of a tensioning member (140) in a longitudinal position in relation to said blade (110). The tensioning member (140) may have an intermediary interface (160) between the blade (110) and the rotor hub (120), fixed by the end of the tensioning member, or fixed by at least one fastener component, which passes through holes in the rotor hub and in the intermediary interface.
US08651812B2
A engine such as a gas turbine engine has a bladed rotor 24 having variable pitch blades 8. In normal operation, the pitch angle of the blades 8 is controlled by a primary pitch control system. A back-up system is provided for controlling the blades 8, for example to displace them to a feathered condition, in the event of failure of the primary pitch control system. The back-up system comprises a pump 32 mounted on the rotor 24, and driven by relative rotation between the rotor 24 and a contra-rotating rotor 23. In response to a failure signal on a conduit 48, the pump delivers hydraulic fluid under pressure to a secondary actuator 30, which acts on the blade 8.
US08651811B2
A propeller control system includes a propeller control logic subsystem in conjunction with an engine control logic subsystem to provide an optimized transition from forward to reverse speed governing under all operating conditions. By creating a Propeller control Mode (PCM) map relative the blade angle and Power Lever Angle (PLA), the minimum blade angle allowed for forward speed governing and the maximum blade angle allowed for reverse speed governing is determined. By combining the actual propeller blade angle, the min and max angles for speed governing, and the PLA signal, the state of the propeller speed governor is determined.
US08651801B2
A seal monitoring and control system for a gas lubricated non-contacting seal includes various sensors providing signals to a programmable logic control system. The control system is disposed to determine a presence of an anomalous operating condition of the seal, for example, based on phase, relative position of rotor to stator or other signals in combination provided by the various sensors to provide an output signal, which in one embodiment performs at least one mitigating process to correct the anomalous operating condition by adjusting at least one operating parameter of the seal.
US08651798B2
A kinetic hydropower generation system has a turbine and a generator coupled to the turbine. An underwater intake nozzle assembly is fluidly coupled to the turbine. For one embodiment, an underwater tower nozzle may be fluidly coupled between the turbine and the underwater intake nozzle assembly. The underwater intake nozzle assembly may include a collector and a converging nozzle.
US08651791B2
A door assembly for an agricultural storage bin includes an exterior chute communicating with a lower portion of a bin door opening. The exterior chute extends outwardly at an upward inclination from a bottom edge of the door opening to an open top end spaced below a top end of the door opening. An inner door panel hinged at an inner side of the bin wall spans an upper portion of the door opening above the exterior chute when closed. A cover member spans an open top end of the exterior chute when closed. An unloading auger can be readily inserted through the external chute below the inner door panel for unloading the bin by removing the cover member. The inner door can be subsequently opened inwardly when the level in the bin falls below the upper portion of the bin door opening.
US08651788B1
The present invention relates to an adjustable spacer. The spacer includes an elongate member. The spacer includes a sleeve extendable around the elongate member. The elongate member is moveable relative to the sleeve. The sleeve has a locking member. The spacer includes an engaging member configured to selectively engage the locking member for inhibiting movement of the sleeve relative to the elongate member when a desired spacing of the elongate member relative to the sleeve is determined.
US08651787B2
An external surface for a fastener insert to be embedded in a component includes ridges extending along an outer surface of the portion to be embedded. The ridges include end-to-end projections that vary in width and height from one end of a projection to an opposite end of a projection. Wedges are formed in the surface between adjacent ridges.
US08651786B2
A fastening device (21) for mounting on a mounting rail (11) having a rear-engagement member (22) which is configured to be introduced into the mounting opening (15) and to engage behind the rims (14) of the mounting opening (15) of the mounting rail (11); including a tensioning device (32) which cooperates with the rear-engagement member (22) and has a longitudinal axis, for clamping the fastening device (21) to the mounting rail (11); including a contact plate (42) for resting on the outside of the mounting rail (11) that has a feed-through opening for a part of the tensioning device (32); and a spring element (52) configured between the contact plate (42) and the rear-engagement member (22) for preloading the rear-engagement member (22) circumferentially with respect to the longitudinal axis (34) of the tensioning device (32); including a holding device (62) between the rear-engagement member (22) and the contact plate (42) for holding the rear-engagement member (22) in the preloaded position; upon release of the holding device (62), the rear-engagement member (22) being movable by the spring element (52) from the insertion position to a rear-engagement position where it engages behind the rims (14) of the mounting opening (15). One stop element (47) having a stop face for limiting the capacity of the rear-engagement member (22) for twisting rotation is provided on the contact plate (42).
US08651781B2
A spindle assembly useful at high rotational speeds including a tool holding and releasing collet mechanism operated by an axially movable drawbar held in its tool holding position by a spring the force of which is overcome by a piston movable between first and second positions. A plurality of arms pivotally secured at one end thereof to a housing with a second end thereof engaging said piston and having a cam surface intermediate the first and second ends thereof engaging an actuator positioned to engage said drawbar, overcome said spring and move the collet mechanism to its tool releasing position. The ratio of the distance between the pivot point and cam surface with respect to the distance between the pivot point and the second end thereof being such to magnify the force of the piston sufficient to overcome the spring force.
US08651776B2
A countersink cutter or assembly for countersinking to precise depths in various applications, including aerospace applications, uses a pneumatically driven pistol grip motor attached to a countersink tool assembly. The countersink tool assembly, which has a multi-fluted cutter, is coupled to and is coaxial with the spindle. The cutter can be preset to a precise depth at the back end of assembly through the slot using a gage.
US08651772B2
A method for transporting a solid particulate within a gasifier system is provided. The method includes discharging solid particulate through an inlet into an opening defined within a rotor, wherein the inlet and the solid particulate are at a first pressure. The method further includes rotating the rotor such that at least one end of the opening is aligned in flow communication with a duct at a second pressure that is different from the first pressure. The solid particulate is discharged from the rotor opening through an outlet such that the solid particulate is at the second pressure, and the rotor is rotated such that at least one end of the rotor opening is aligned in flow communication with a pressure source that is at approximately the first pressure, and such that the opening is at the first pressure.
US08651769B2
A tube (1) of a friction bolt has an outer part (3) and an inner part (5) folded inward and a gap (7) extending in the longitudinal direction of the tube, at which gap the outer part transitions into the inner part. The lateral wall areas (9) of the inner part are flat and have a shape in which the free space between the outer and inner parts is substantially lenticular as in known tubes. The bottom (15) of the inner part lies against the outer part, and the weld (13) is arranged at a lateral offset from the plane of symmetry (11) as the area where the bottom lies against the outer part of the tube. Finally, the radii of curvature (R3) in the area of the transitions (4) from the outer part into the inner part of the tube are greater than in known tubes.
US08651765B2
A device for the restraint and release of a deployable body mounted on a support structure, the device being operable between a stowed condition and a released condition, and having: a pair of subassemblies, each for being attached to either the deployable body or the support structure, these subassemblies having mating surfaces which interlock with one another in the stowed condition to substantially prevent lateral movement of the deployable body relative to the support structure; a releasable tensioned element which is connected to both of the subassemblies, exerting a compressive pre-load action on the said subassemblies that keep them together; a force measurement system that allows monitoring the cited compressive pre-load action applied; a releasing device for releasing the cited pre-load, allowing the free separation of the subassemblies; further being provided with a tensioning mechanism embedded in the device such that it applies a substantially pure-tension pre-load to the releasable tensioned element.
US08651740B2
A radiography system is provided. The radiography system includes a radiographic device arranged in a movable manner, a measuring device to measure at least one of external force and torque applied to the radiographic device, and a drive device to move the radiographic device based on a direction and magnitude of the at least one of the force and torque measured by the measuring device.
US08651738B2
A high-temperature plug (10) is provided for a heating element and/or thermocouple or a temperature sensor with at least one wire section (18) embedded in an insulating manner within a metal jacket (16) with a wire end (14) led out from the metal jacket (16) on the front side. The high-temperature plug (10) has a connection sleeve (11) made of metal, into which the at least one wire section (18) embedded in an insulating manner within the metal jacket (16) opens. At least one contact element (12) is in electrical contact within the connection sleeve (11) with the wire end (14) led out from the metal jacket (16) on the front side. At least the end section, facing the at least one wire end (14), of the at least one contact element (12) is embedded in an insulating compound (13) or a metal oxide, such that the embedding fixes the contact element (12) in the connection sleeve.
US08651737B2
The present disclosure includes sensing device embodiments. One sensing device includes a heater layer, a resistance detector layer, constructed and arranged to indicate a temperature value based upon a correlation to a detected resistance value, an electrode layer, and a sensing layer.
US08651735B2
A sensor arrangement for determining an inside temperature in a motor vehicle having a climate control device and at least a panel is at least a part of a control part of the climate control device, where the sensor arrangement includes a housing with at least a front wall and a rear wall, the housing is filled with a heat-insulating material, a first temperature sensor attached to a rear of the front wall and a second temperature sensor attached to an inner side of the rear wall, said inner side facing a rear of the front wall, and where the front wall is a part of the panel of the motor vehicle.
US08651733B2
A timepiece includes: a movement (10) that has a balance wheel/spring assembly (12) having a system for adjusting the operative length of the spring, which is rotatable; a control member (14) that is accessible, by the user, outside the timepiece; a transmission wheel (22) that is rotatably mounted, on the periphery of the movement (10), onto a frame, the movement (10) being placed inside the transmission wheel, the transmission wheel (22) being kinematically connected or connectable to the control member (14) and moreover being kinematically connected to the adjustment system; and a display part (30) that is kinematically connected to the transmission wheel (22) and drives a display member, intended for displaying the adjustment value that is applied to the operative length of the spring. The display part (30) is formed of movable parts that are mounted onto a first separate module, assembled to the frame.
US08651732B2
The invention relates to a stirring device for activated sludges comprising a hyperboloid stirring body (2) attached to a shaft (1), wherein a plurality of transport ribs (3) are provided on the top (O) of the stirring body (2) running toward the circumferential boundary (UM) thereof, wherein the transport ribs (3) have an oblique course, at least in sections, relative to a radial direction, and wherein an oblique position of the transport ribs (3) is selected such that, when the stirring body (2) rotates in a predetermined rotational direction (R), a flow is generated that is directed radially outward away from the circumferential boundary (UM) of the stirring body (2). In order to improve the efficiency of the stirring device, the invention proposes that at least one propeller (6) be attached to the shaft (1) that, when the stirring body (2) rotates in the rotational direction (R), generates a flow (A) directed toward the top (O) of the stirring body (2).
US08651726B2
By introducing a stack of alternating high and low index dichroic material layers on the exit surface of a waveguide for a wedge type directional backlight, natural reflectivity differences between polarized components can be increased, effectively reflecting the vast proportion of S-polarized light rays, while at the same time transmitting the P-polarized light rays, of light impacting the exit surface of the waveguide at an angle sufficient to exit the waveguide. This recovers polarization in wedge type backlight systems, increasing illumination exiting the waveguide. Also, on the back reflecting surface of the waveguide, a birefringent material can be added to efficiently transform S-polarized reflected light from the dichroic stack, into returning P-polarized light. Because returning rays that are now P-polarized by the birefringent material have already achieved the critical angle for exiting the waveguide, the rays transformed to P-polarization can now also exit the waveguide, increasing waveguide illumination.
US08651719B2
A light guide decorative plate includes a light permeable insulated decorative plate, and at least one optical fiber embedded in the light permeable insulated decorative plate. The optical fiber has one end exposed from the light permeable insulated decorative plate for guiding light emitted from a light source into the optical fiber, and another end opposite to said one end for exit of the light therethrough.A touch light decorative plate is also disclosed.
US08651717B2
A lamp includes a projection lens, a light-emitting element disposed rearwardly of a rear-side focal point of the projection lens to be directed upward, a reflector disposed to cover the light-emitting element from an upper side to reflect light from the light-emitting element toward the projection lens, and a shade disposed with an upper end edge thereof passing closely below the rear-side focal point to block part of reflected light from the reflector. Generally the entirety of a portion of the projection lens positioned above the optical axis is cut away. A reflective surface that reflects downward the reflected light from the main reflector is formed on a rear surface of the shade. A sub reflector that reflects forward the reflected light from the reflector reflected by the reflective surface of the shade so as not to be incident on the projection lens is disposed below the shade.
US08651714B1
A portable lighting device for illuminating a path engaged by a user, or enabling the user to be seen by other cyclists, pedestrians, motorists and the like is provided. Advantageously, the portable lighting device is small (configured to fit in the user's palm), light (configured to be comfortably attached to a user's bicycle frame, helmet or carried in the hand of the user) and durable (configured to be usable in any weather condition). In addition, the light is conveniently powered by an attachable battery pack and may store variable brightness and mode settings for versatile usage. Moreover, the light utilizes a EEPROM to store the user re-configured settings in conjunction with adjustably bright high-brightness LEDs ranging upwards of 3000 lumens to provide the user with an excellent lighting tool.
US08651712B2
The present invention provides a lamp unit for low beam, a lamp unit for high beam, and a lamp unit for shoulder edge beam. The lamp units each are made of a semiconductor-type light source and a reflector that has reflection surfaces configured to illuminate the light from the semiconductor-type light source forward of a vehicle, as a predetermined light distribution pattern. As a result, the present invention is capable of fully utilizing the light from the semiconductor-type light source, making it possible to facilitate a light distribution design configured to form the light in a predetermined light distribution pattern.
US08651705B2
An LED lighting fixture comprising (a) a front-housing portion having a surrounding lateral wall defining a front cavity and extending to a front-housing forward edge at an open front-end, (b) a rear-housing portion having a backwall and a surrounding wall which define a rear cavity, the surrounding wall extending to a rear-housing forward edge, the rear-housing portion joined to the front-housing portion with the rear-housing surrounding wall substantially in alignment with the front-housing surrounding wall, (c) a cross-member secured with respect to the housing portions in a position at the juncture thereof and spanning the interior of the joined housing portions, the cross-member having a front surface facing the front cavity, and (d) an LED illuminator secured to the front surface of the cross-member.
US08651696B2
The light-emitting device includes: a substrate which has a single layer structure in which a conductive member is partially provided on a surface of the substrate; a plurality of light-emitting elements which are directly provided on the surface of the substrate so as to be electrically connected with the conductive member; a first light reflection resin layer; a second light reflection resin layer which is provided in a looped shape on the surface of the substrate so as to surround an area in which the plurality of light-emitting elements are provided; and a sealing resin which covers the plurality of light-emitting elements. In the area in which the plurality of light-emitting elements are provided, the conductive member is covered with the first light reflection resin layer, the conductive member, which is provided under the second light reflection resin layer, is covered with the second light reflection resin layer directly, and a printed resistor, which is provided under the second light reflection resin layer, is covered with the second light reflection resin layer via the first light reflection resin layer. This makes it possible to provide the light-emitting device which (i) reduces absorption of light so as to achieve excellent light extraction efficiency, and (ii) is highly reliable.
US08651691B2
Apparatus and associated methods involve a light module adapted to mount to an open face of a conduit body. In an illustrative example, the light module may include an electrical interface for making operative electrical connection to conductors disposed within the conduit body. In some particular embodiments, the electrical interface may include an insulation displacement-style connector to facilitate installation and/or removal of the light module. In various examples, the conduit body may substantially conform to a form factor of a conduit body for a conventional conduit system.
US08651680B2
An occupant protection device is provided for a vehicle that includes, but is not limited to at least one airbag module that is arranged in a hub region of a steering wheel. The airbag module includes, but is not limited to a visual surface facing a vehicle driver and the visual surface is entirely or partially formed of a textile.
US08651671B2
A projection display device which displays an image by projecting the image on a screen includes a laser light source 1 (1a, 1b, 1c) for emitting coherent light, a display device 3 for forming an image to be displayed on a screen 5 in an area illuminated by a luminous flux from the laser light source 1, a first diffusion plate 14 for diffusing a luminous flux, and a second diffusion plate 15 for diffusing a luminous flux. The first diffusion plate 14 is provided in at least one of a conjugate position of the laser light source 1 or the vicinity of the conjugate position in the optical path of the optical system including the laser light source 1 through the screen 5. The second diffusion plate 15 is provided in at least one of a conjugate position of the display device 3 or the vicinity of the conjugate position. At least one of the first diffusion plate 14 and the second diffusion plate 15 fluctuates perpendicularly to an optical axis.
US08651661B2
The invention relates to a method for preparing an ophthalmic lens (20) for mounting the same into the rim of a rimmed spectacles frame that comprises the step of acquiring a first longitudinal profile (27) of a groove of said rim, the step of blocking the lens in a holding means, and the step of trimming the ophthalmic lens using trimming means, during which the holding and trimming means are driven so that the ophthalmic lens is trimmed and includes a fitting rib extending along a second longitudinal profile (25; 26) derived from the first longitudinal profile. According to the invention, the method comprises the step of determining a second longitudinal profile of a singular portion (Z1) having a reduced curvature radius. Furthermore, during the trimming step, the holding and trimming means are driven so that the section of the fitting rib is locally narrowed in terms of width and/or height in said singular portion, and/or so that the setpoint of the trimming radius is reduced in said singular portion.
US08651658B2
An aquatic mask comprises an outer mask structure (20 or 30) including one or more lenses, and an inner frame (10) suitable for containing ophthalmic corrective lenses. The outer mask structure (20 or 30) and the inner frame (10) include complementary formations (21 or 31 and 11 and 12) whereby the inner frame (10) can have a resilient push-fit engagement with the outer mask structure (20 or 30).
US08651656B2
Haptic or tactile features, which are generally not visually perceptible or reproducible, are applied at varying positions on a substrate according to a predetermined scheme. A plurality of raised image areas are specified for a group of substrates and raised marks are printed in only one raised image area for each substrate in a manner that is evenly distributed between the raised image areas for the group of substrates. The substrates will present a relatively uniform stack avoiding localized large pile heights when the substrates are stacked. A clear marking material is used to print the raised marks so as not to obscure underlying data printed on the substrate. The clear marking material may include a monomer that may become cross-linked in an exposure process to resist deinking of the substrate. The clear marking material may be mixed with a phosphorescing or fluorescing material as an additional security measure.
US08651651B2
In an ink jet ink containing a pigment, a binder resin, water, an organic solvent, and a surfactant, the surface tension of the ink is in a region defined by γ0−γx≧1.0 (γ0: surface tension before evaporation, γx: surface tension at an evaporation rate X %) when the evaporation rate X of the ink is in a range of 0
US08651643B2
An ink cartridge for an inkjet printer includes a bottom face and a front face; an ink interface on the front face of the ink cartridge for connection to a cartridge receiving structure; a guide interface in the bottom face for guiding the cartridge along a straight line during insertion into the cartridge receiving structure for connecting the ink interface; a latch track disposed in the bottom face of the ink cartridge to guide a latch of the cartridge receiving structure; a latch stop disposed in the latch track for engaging the latch, where the latch track comprises a locking track and an unlocking track to accommodate movement of the latch with respect to the latch stop, the locking track being at least partly separate from the unlocking track; and a latch guide for redirecting the latch towards the locking track, rather than the unlocking track.
US08651640B2
An ink supply structure includes at least one ink cartridge, at least one dye ink chamber, and at least one pigment ink chamber. The at least one dye ink chamber is contained in the at least one ink cartridge for storing a dye ink. The at least one pigment ink chamber is contained in the at least one ink cartridge for storing a pigment ink. One of the dye ink within the dye ink chamber and the pigment ink within the pigment ink chamber is selectively supplied from the at least one ink cartridge.
US08651637B2
A liquid supply device includes a liquid container having a liquid chamber and a contact portion, and a mounting portion having an opening, and first and second surfaces. The liquid container is inserted into and removed from the mounting portion via the opening. The mounting portion includes an urging member that urges the liquid container toward the opening, a retaining member that selectively retains the liquid container in the mounting portion, and a stopper having a bendably deformable resilient member that extends from one of the first and second surfaces in a direction opposite the insertion direction of the liquid container, and that contacts the contact portion of the liquid container in the mounting portion. A first force required for deforming the resilient member in the insertion direction is less than a second force required for deforming the resilient member in the removal direction.
US08651633B2
A group timing delay device is provided to shift the timing of drop formation waveforms supplied to drop formation devices of nozzles of one of first and second groups so that print drops formed from nozzles of the first and second groups are not aligned relative to each other along a nozzle array direction. A charging device includes a common charge electrode associated with liquid jets formed from the nozzles of the first and second group and a source of varying electrical potential between the charge electrode and liquid jets. The source of varying electrical potential provides a charging waveform that is independent of print and non-print drop patterns. The charging device is synchronized with the drop formation device and the group timing delay device to produce a print drop charge state on print drops and a non-print drop charge state on non-print drops.
US08651628B2
A liquid droplet ejecting head is disclosed which includes at least one or more nozzles which eject liquid droplets; one or more dedicated liquid chambers which are communicatively connected to the nozzle; a common liquid chamber which is communicatively connected to the dedicated liquid chamber; and an energy generating unit which generates energy provided to the dedicated liquid chamber, wherein at least one wall face of the common liquid chamber includes a flexible wall, which has flexibility; a buffer chamber is included in an opposing area via the flexible wall and the common liquid chamber; and wherein the buffer chamber is communicatively connected to an external space in an area not opposing the common liquid chamber.
US08651623B2
An inkjet recording head includes: plural element substrates from which ink is ejected; and a flexible wiring substrate which includes a first wiring area, a second wiring area and a bending portion, the first wiring area including plural openings in which the element substrates are placed and which includes, in the periphery thereof, electrode terminals electrically connected to the element substrates, and the bending portion being bent between the first wiring area and the second wiring area. The flexible wiring substrate includes a slit which extends between the plural openings and reaches the bending portion or a position further than the bending portion from an end portion of the flexible wiring substrate on the side on which the first wiring area is provided, at a position opposite to the bending portion.
US08651620B2
There is provided a nozzle contact unit capable of realizing a contact state, where a contact surface comes into close contact with a nozzle formation surface to block a plurality of nozzle openings, and a separated state, where the contact surface is separated from the nozzle formation surface. The nozzle contact unit separates the contact surface from the nozzle formation surface to sequentially open the nozzle openings preferentially from the nozzle opening of the nozzle with a shorter flow passage length of ink flowing from a supply port to the nozzle via a common ink chamber among the plurality of nozzle openings in a procedure from the contact state to the separated state.
US08651617B2
Ink-jet recording apparatus including carriage movable between first and second stationary members, cap movable between first position for covering nozzles of recording head mounted on the carriage and positioned near the first stationary member, and second position spaced from the first position, abutment portion movable by the carriage moving in first direction to move the cap to the first position, and control device for moving the carriage in second direction for abutment onto the second stationary member, setting this position of abutment as provisional point of origin of the carriage, moving the carriage in the first direction for abutment of the carriage onto the abutment portion at a speed lower than a speed of movement of the carriage before the abutment, further moving the carriage for abutment onto the first stationary member, and setting this position of abutment as point of origin of the carriage.
US08651616B2
According to this invention, an inkjet printing apparatus having an arrangement for detecting an amount of remaining ink in an ink tank starts a printing operation in a short time immediately after power-on. If an operation in preceding use is ended without any error at the time of power-off, and no error has occurred even at the time of power-on, the inkjet printing apparatus of this invention starts the printing operation without executing the operation of detecting the amount of remaining ink in the ink tank after power-on.
US08651613B2
A method of calibrating a transport roller includes forming a reference image through nozzles arranged in an array having an array height, moving a substrate a distance along a substrate transport path by the transport roller having a radius and a circumference, and determining an offset value based on an actual distance of substrate advancement corresponding to the reference image and movement of the transport roller. The circumference of the transport roller is equal to or less than at least one of the array height of the nozzle array or an image height of the reference image.
US08651605B2
An image recording apparatus includes: an image recording portion; a treatment-liquid ejecting portion; a conveying mechanism having a support face; an adsorption mechanism including first and second electrodes arranged so as to be spaced from each other and so as to face a recording medium supported on the support face with the support face interposed between the recording medium and the first and second electrodes; and a controller which controls the treatment-liquid ejecting portion to eject treatment liquid onto at least a part of a first area of the recording medium before the image recording. The first area is an area near a leading end of the recording medium, and wherein the first area is overlaid, as seen in a direction perpendicular to the support face, on an area interposed between the first and second electrodes.
US08651603B2
A platen gap adjustment mechanism includes a carriage guide shaft, a carriage drive unit and a main carriage. The carriage guide shaft is configured to extend perpendicularly to a media conveyance direction that passes over a platen. The carriage drive unit is supported on the carriage guide shaft and pivotable around an axis of the carriage guide shaft. The main carriage is supported on the carriage drive unit, pivotable around a parallel axis that is parallel to the axis of the carriage guide shaft, and configured to carry a printhead for printing on a print medium conveyed along the media conveyance path past the platen. The main carriage is moveable toward and away from the platen according to a thickness of the print medium while being slidable in sliding contact with the print medium conveyed over the platen to maintain a constant gap between the printhead and the print medium.
US08651594B2
A bedside cabinet comprises a body (10) carrying two drawers (12) and (14) all made from synthetic plastics material by rotational molding. The body (10) comprises a proximal wall (16) and a distal wall (18) each extending upward from a generally horizontal platform (20), and a horizontal top (22) extending between the proximal wall (16) and the distal wall (18). An upstand (28) carries a horizontal shelf (30) extending partly over the top (22) and both the top (22) and the shelf (30) are directed towards the proximal side of the cabinet, having raised lips (32) and (34) respectively around their distal edges and their ends. The cabinet lacks dirt traps and is easily cleaned. In addition the drawers (12) and (14) are reversible so as to open forwards whether the cabinet is on the right-hand side or the left-hand side of a bed.
US08651591B1
A lock device for two-way travel drawers of a support body is provided with in combination a peg on a central portion of one side of the drawer; two two-way travel slides each on an outer surface of either side of the drawer; and a lock assembly including a groove member, a sliding member, a lock, and snapping members. The groove member has a rectangular section and includes front and rear flanges to be secured to a wall of the support body. The sliding member has a rectangular section, is slidably disposed in the groove member, and includes openings. The lock is disposed on an upper portion of the wall of the support body and capable of actuating to activate the sliding member. The snapping members are retained in the openings and capable of locking or unlocking the peg when the sliding member moves.
US08651585B2
An auxiliary braking system and method of controlling the braking a towed vehicle is provided that includes a remote control that is in selective communication with an auxiliary braking unit positioned in a towing vehicle. More specifically, it is often desirable for the operator of the towing vehicle to assess the performance of the auxiliary braking apparatus positioned in a towed vehicle. In addition, it is often advantageous for the operator to perform real time adjustments to the performance parameters of the auxiliary braking apparatus positioned in the towing vehicle without having to cease driving and physically access the auxiliary braking device.
US08651579B2
Panel assemblies designed and configured to be installed into cushioned and other occupant-supporting furniture to increase the support provided to one or more occupants of the furniture. Each panel assembly is composed of interconnecting components, such as panels and slats. The components are interconnected in any one or more of a variety of manners, including side-to-side, overlapped, and stacked, and combinations thereof. Each panel assembly can be made from one or more kits of components that can be provided along with instructions, such as assembly instructions and installation instructions.
US08651577B2
The adjustment device according to the invention for an adjustable element, in particular the backrest of a chair, has a guide rail and a sliding element which is movable in the guide rail along an adjustment axis. Furthermore, a blocking element is provided, which blocking element can be secured on the guide rail or on the sliding element in a latching position in which the sliding element can be moved along the adjustment axis at least in one direction between two end positions, wherein the blocking element comes into operative contact with latches spaced apart along the adjustment axis. During the installation of the adjustment device, the blocking element is secured on the guide rail or the sliding element in an installation position in which the sliding element can be introduced into the guide rail in the direction of the adjustment axis.
US08651576B2
A multi-position seat for a kayak or other watercraft includes a seat frame and a pivotally connected back support. A pair of side elevation adjusters engages the seat frame on its lateral sides. Each adjuster includes a thumbwheel adjuster within an elevator traveler within a side frame, the traveler engaging a threaded shaft that is held in a fixed rotational position. The frame includes a tunnel structure associated with a front cross member. A strap passes through the tunnel, exits at lateral sides of the front cross member, and connects to lateral sides of the pivotally connected back support. The strap is user-adjustable in length so that the angle of the back to the seat is adjustable. The seat is thereby adjustable in angle front-to-back, can be canted left-to-right, changed in elevation, and the back support can be adjusted in angle and elevation.
US08651570B2
A protective headrest for land vehicles provides ergonomic support and protection against injury to a passenger's head and spine. The protective headrest has a back wall, sides, top and front wall. The front wall includes a head support segment co-joined and adjacent to a spine support segment. The head support segment has a semi-spherical concave curvature adapted and shaped to correspond with a passenger's head. The spine support segment is substantially shaped as a convex curvature adapted and shaped to correspond with the passenger's spine region at the neck-head interface. The spine support segment is located proximate and adjacent to the head support segment on a vertical plane. Preferably, the headrest includes a memory foam or other moldable insert within the head support segment and/or the spine support segment.
US08651568B2
The present invention relates to holding rack for a rifle comprising of a dining chair, a first hook attached to the backrest and extending rearward, and a second hook attached to the stretcher and offset laterally from the first hook, with both hooks being covered with a soft material to protect the rifle. The preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a dining chair having a seat, a strecher and a backrest, a first hook attached to the back rest and extending rearward thereform; and a second hook attached to the stretcher and extending rearward therefrom, the second hook offset laterally from the first hook; whereby the rifle is engaged in suspension by the first hook through its trigger guard and its barrel rests against the second hook. Both the first and second hooks are covered with a soft material to protect the rifle. The spacing and angle of the hook themselves and the angle at which the hooks attach to the chair being critical for the rifle to rest safely. The chair legs preferable have a glide or cap attached to them with said glide or cap comprised of heavy duty specially formulated k-resin designed for military use, and the angle of the back legs of said chair is critical to stabilize weight when a rifle is mounted into said apparatus.
US08651558B2
A stiffener for a vehicle, may include a coupling stiffener part, an upper stiffener part extending integrally from an upper end of the coupling stiffener part, and protruding to a forward direction of the vehicle with a predetermined length, and a lower stiffener part extending integrally from a lower end of the coupling stiffener part, and protruding to the forward direction of the vehicle, with a predetermined length, wherein the coupling stiffener is secured to a bumper back beam, and wherein the upper stiffener part and the lower stiffener part are complementarily operated about the coupling stiffener part serving as a support shaft in a seesaw type manner to absorb shocks, in the event of a collision between the vehicle and a pedestrian.
US08651544B2
A jaw crusher liner handling tool includes a lifting eye having a radially extending shank and a radially extending lug, the lug including a hole parallel to the axis of the eye. The shank includes an elongate head on its end that is remote from the eye and is parallel to the axis of the eye.
US08651541B2
A holding support for electronic device is disclosed, which includes a case and a bracket. A bracket compartment is formed on the case and defined by an opening formed on the outer surface of the case. The bracket has a body and at least one finger hole formed thereon for sliding a finger through. The bracket can be retracted in or extended from the bracket compartment by being arranged at a retracted position or extended position, respectively. Therefore, the user can firmly secure the electronic device and prevent from dropping it accidentally.
US08651538B2
The invention relates to a lock comprising a lockable knob, formed by a closure tongue (1) non-rotatably mounted on the shaft of a cylinder (2) which rotates in a casing (3) under the action of a knob (4). The knob (4) is mounted on the cylinder (2) and casing (3) such that it can move linearly between two end positions, namely an operating position and a locked position. The casing (3) and the knob (4) include at least two geometrically arranged linear guides (33, 43) which, during the linear movement of the knob (4), are engaged with, or released from one another. In addition, the cylinder (2) and the knob (4) include radial openings (20, 40) which are positioned coaxially in the locked position and offset axially in the operating position. The cylinder (2) and the casing (3) include geometrically arranged cams (22, 32) which limit the rotational movement of the cylinder (2) in the casing (3) between the tongue (1) -opening and -closing positions.
US08651531B2
An apparatus for disposing of waste fluids includes a conduit system adapted to transport waste fluid from a receptacle to a sanitary sewer using an eductor having a venturi device. The conduit system includes first and second conduits. First and second connectors are used to connect the first conduit to the second conduit. The second connector includes a flap that acts as a check valve.
US08651526B2
In a steering apparatus, an upper bracket that supports a steering column is configured as a breakaway bracket, and has a telescopic adjustment function that allows the steering wheel position to be adjusted in the axial direction of the steering column. The upper bracket has a first through-hole extending through the upper bracket in the axial direction. The upper bracket is provided with a guide rail 7 that has a fixed portion and a body portion. The fixed portion is fixed to a mounting stay. The body portion extends from the fixed portion toward the front of a vehicle in the axial direction, and is inserted in the first through-hole.
US08651521B2
An airbag module for installation in a motor vehicle has an airbag made of an airbag fabric and folded up before being triggered by an inflation device. The airbag fabric has at least one slit forming an adaptive ventilation opening and a retaining strap, which at one end is held releasably on a retainer on the airbag module and at the other end is connected fixedly to the airbag. The slit (11) is cut into the airbag fabric and has two ends configured to prevent the slit (11) from tearing when pressure is applied. The retaining strap is arranged on the inside of the airbag and is guided through a securing loop (17) attached to the airbag fabric opposite the fixed end (14) of the retaining strap across the slit (11) toward the retainer.
US08651519B2
A restraint system for a mobile platform is provided and may include a seatbelt, an anchor attached to the seatbelt and to the mobile platform, and an airbag attached to the mobile platform via the anchor. The airbag may be movable from a pre-deployed state to an inflated state.
US08651509B1
A tow strap apparatus includes a casing, a reel, a tow strap, a driving unit and a speed-increasing gearbox. The reel is rotationally placed in the casing. The tow strap is reeled on the reel. The driving unit is supported on the casing. The speed-increasing gearbox connects the driving unit to the reel.
US08651482B2
A pickup arm for print media arranged to engage a roller.
US08651468B2
The present invention provides a tubular vibration-damping mount capable of securing durability against an input in a direction perpendicular to an axis. A tubular vibration-damping mount comprises a core member, a tubular member, a rubber member, an upper surface of which has, as viewed in a cross section including an axis of the core member, a recessed portion in a radially inner direction of the rubber member and an inclined portion whose inclination angle is smoothly and upwardly increased in the radially inner direction from a point on the tubular member as a starting point, and a bracket, wherein the tubular member has, in an area higher than a lower end of an adhesion surface between the tubular member and the rubber member and the upper surface of the rubber member starts from a point on the inner periphery of the diameter-enlarged portion of the tubular member, which the point agrees with the starting point.
US08651453B2
The invention relates to a valve cartridge for a solenoid valve, having a capsule, a magnetic armature that is movably guided within the capsule, a valve insert that is inserted into the capsule at a first end, and a valve body, which is pressed into a second end of the valve insert and has a main valve seat. The magnetic armature, moved by a generated magnetic force, moves a tappet guided within the valve insert. The tappet has a closing element with a sealing element which plunges into the main valve seat of the valve body in a sealing manner for carrying out a sealing function, and an associated solenoid valve. According to the invention the valve insert is configured as a one-part slotted bushing, and the valve body is configured as a bonnet-shaped bushing. The valve body configured as a bushing is pressed into a second end of the valve insert configured as a slotted bushing such that the main valve seat is disposed within the valve insert.
US08651452B2
A valve having an improved multiple position notch plate providing a large number of selectable valve positions with enhanced strength, including in the travel stop limiting the range of movement of the valve handle connected to the valve member. The notch plate includes a plurality of intermediate notches extending only partially through a radial outer periphery thereof, at spaced locations along an arcuate path of movement of a detent element in connection with the valve handle. In one embodiment, the intermediate notches are disposed in radial outer tips of fingers defining a plurality of through notches extending completely through the notch plate, also for receiving the detent element for holding the handle. As a result a greater number of valve positions can be achieved, with robustness and strength to withstand hammer blows, kicking and the like.
US08651445B2
The present invention relates to a portable book holder that can be converted from its original size into a small size if a user wants to carry the portable book holder, thereby making it easy to be carried, adjust a supporting area in accordance with the sizes of a book, and allow a user to adjust a book holding stand to his or her desired arbitrary angle.
US08651438B2
A collapsible device has a main body surrounded by a collar whose position is adjustable along the longitudinal axis of the main body. Pivotally connected or hinged legs are attached to the collar and to the main body with struts. When the collar is on one position, the legs deploy outward from the main body to the extent permitted by the struts, thereby allowing the legs to support the collapsible device upright. An operational unit is attached to a member that telescopes from the main body. When the collar is another position, the legs are drawn in toward the main body to form a cylindrical shape for facilitating transportation. The operational unit can be positioned so that when the telescoping member is retracted into the main body, the collar surrounds the exterior of the operational unit, thus protecting the operational unit for transport.
US08651436B2
A holding device has an elastic locking piece having an extending part extending to the outside from a locking claw part. The contact part of an unlocking operating piece contacts the outside of the extending part to reduce the unlocking force of the unlocking operating piece. A sawtooth-form part is in a locked state when a locking piece of an elastic locking piece enters the sawtooth-form part. The elastic locking piece has the extending part extending outside from the locking claw part. The unlocking operating piece has a contact part for contacting with the extending part. The contact part contacts the outside of the extending part when the unlocking operating piece is pressed, the locking claw part of the elastic locking piece is ejected from the indented part of the sawtooth-form part by the contact, and the locked state between the sawtooth-form part and the locking claw part is unlocked.
US08651434B2
Systems and methods for communicating through a rail are provided. In one embodiment, a method for communicating through a rail is provided. The method includes sending an acoustic signal through the rail of a designated section of track. The acoustic signal includes control commands to remotely control operation of a rail vehicle on the designated section of track.
US08651432B2
A lift platform with a kinesthetic control system that is coupled to means for altering air flow through the first and second longitudinally-spaced ducts comprising the lift platform is provided. The control system includes a control handle bar with left and right hand grips, and first and second control roll bars located on either side of the lift platform's central cowling. Forward/rearward movement of the control handle bar from a neutral position generates nose-down/nose-up pitching moments, respectively; counterclockwise/clockwise movement of the control handle bar from the neutral position generates counterclockwise rotation/clockwise rotation of the lift platform about a lift platform vertical centerline; and left movement/right movement of the control roll bars generates left roll/right roll moments about the lift platform roll axis.
US08651427B1
An aerodynamic lift structure includes a wing and at least one wing tip device at an outboard portion of the wing. A surface of each wing tip device has a recess that reduces flow impact at a junction of the wing and the wing tip device.
US08651426B2
Noise generated by a gas turbine engine 6 supported by a pylon 8 on a wing 2 of an aircraft is reduced by influencing a shear layer generated between the free-stream flowfield and flow from the engine 6. The shear layer is influenced by means of one or more winglets 18, 20, 22 which interact with the free-stream flowfield to deflect the shear layer 14 downwardly, to avoid interaction with a flap 4 on the wing 2, or to reduce the strength of the shear layer 14.
US08651425B2
A helicopter includes a rotor system having a rotor with an adjustable pitch that is controlled at least in part by a pilot using a collective control and which helicopter generates a Low RPM signal that is indicative of a threshold low rotational speed of the rotor. An actuator arrangement can move the collective control by exerting a force on the collective control such that the pilot is able to overcome the actuator force but which otherwise can move the collective control from a current operational position toward a minimum pitch position. A clutch can co-rotate with a motor to serve in transferring the actuation force to reduce the adjustable pitch and can slip relative to the actuator shaft assembly responsive to an application of a counterforce applied by the pilot to the collective control such that the counterforce overcomes the actuation force.
US08651407B2
The present invention discloses a composite impactor for impact crushers, said impactor comprising a ferrous alloy at least partially reinforced with titanium carbide according to a defined geometry, in which said reinforced portion comprises an alternating macro-microstructure of millimetric areas concentrated with micrometric globular particles of titanium carbide separated by millimetric areas essentially free of micrometric globular particles of titanium carbide, said areas concentrated with micrometric globular particles of titanium carbide forming a microstructure in which the micrometric interstices between said globular particles are also filled by said ferrous alloy.
US08651397B2
A paint sprayer includes a frame, a motor supported by the frame, a pump operably coupled to the motor to draw paint from a paint source and pressurize the paint, and a blower supported by the frame and operable to discharge pressurized air into the pressurized paint discharged by the pump.
US08651396B2
A personal defense device is provided that includes an irritant. The personal defense device may have an irritant dispensing member that is carried on the back of a user. The irritant dispensing member may be configured for dispensing the irritant such that the irritant is dispensed behind the user.
US08651395B2
Systems and devices for emitting volatile materials are disclosed. In some embodiments, devices for emitting two or more fragrance compositions are disclosed. In one non-limiting embodiment of a device, the device has a housing, and the housing is supported on an electrical outlet by a plug at least indirectly joined to the housing. The device contains a first volatile composition and a second volatile composition. The first volatile composition is emitted in an alternating period relative to said second volatile composition. In one embodiment of the device, the volatile compositions are alternately emitted during periods that are each greater than 15 minutes to about 24 hours in length.
US08651390B2
Embodiments of a printed security mark and a process are disclosed.
US08651386B2
An electronic card and a method for processing data stored in the electronic card. The electronic card includes a memory containing data to be read by a card reader. The electronic card may include a programmable field source containing wire structures geometrically configured and energized in a manner that drives an electric current through only two wire structures at a time for generating a time varying magnetic field that induces a readback signal in the card reader as the electronic card is being swiped through the card reader. An electrical current in at least one wire in the electronic card generates a time varying magnetic field and may include a finite time derivative of electrical current whose magnitude does not exceed a specified maximum time derivative of electrical current corresponding to a peak voltage threshold (Vth) and an overshoot ratio (f) of the card reader.
US08651370B1
The inventive technology disclosed herein relates to techniques, systems, methods and apparatus for providing coded souvenirs linked to web-based personalized content related to individual consumer identifiers, locality identifiers and/or both as well as to methods and apparatus for providing and servicing a coded personalized souvenir program. Additional embodiments also include laser engraved coded souvenirs.
US08651368B2
A method for controlling an electronic device for use with a docking station is disclosed. The method includes detecting a coupling of the electronic device with the docking station, obtaining an image of an identifier associated with the docking station in response to detecting the coupling, and performing a predefined operation by the electronic device based on the image of the identifier in response to obtaining the image.
US08651366B2
The present invention relates to rigid-buckling-resistant-fluted containers with an arcuate outer rim. The container such as a pressformed paperboard plate of overall diameter “D” including a generally planar bottom region, an upwardly extending fluted region surrounding the generally planar bottom region, and an outwardly and downwardly extending peripheral region having an arcuate radial profile. The containers being produced of a lightweight board but exhibiting high strength and rigidity relative to the low weight board.
US08651340B2
A fluid reservoir for storing a fluid for a handheld device includes a housing and a flexible membrane. The flexible membrane delimits a variable storage volume in the housing. The storage volume may be varied by a defamation of the membrane. The variable storage volume has an output port. The fluid reservoir further includes a forcing member to exert a force on the membrane to pressurize a fluid in the storage volume. The forcing member has a recess for receiving a part of the storage volume. The membrane may be received into the recess of the forcing member during a compression stroke. By virtue thereof, a volume defined by the recess may be effectively used to become part of the storage volume for the fluid.
US08651335B2
A tamper evident nozzle shield (100) may be configured to fit a pump or pump dispenser to protect a fluid path (12) in the dispenser from contamination or to prevent or visually indicate if a dispenser or pump dispenser has been tampered with.
US08651328B2
A dispenser apparatus for dispensing a flowable material includes a chassis portion, a sensor disposed proximate the chassis portion for sensing a presence of an object, a pump assembly arranged on the chassis portion, operative to dispense the flowable material responsive to receiving a signal from the sensor, and a shield member disposed proximate to the sensor.
US08651327B2
A system for storing biopharmaceutical materials includes a plurality of flexible walls bounding an interior for holding biopharmaceutical materials therein. At least one port is connected to a first wall of the walls and provides fluid communication between the interior and an exterior to allow a draining of the interior. A collapsible conduit includes a plurality of perforations along the conduit. The plurality of perforations is configured to allow flow of the biopharmaceutical materials from the exterior to the interior of the conduit. The conduit has a cross-sectional area transverse to a length of the conduit and the conduit extends from one of the at least one port toward an opposite end of the interior. The conduit is collapsible by the flexible walls and forms a reduced cross-sectional area to allow a flow of the biopharmaceutical materials through and/or along the conduit to the port.
US08651324B2
A vending machine for dispensing convenience food products, picked up from a special refrigerated storage compartment, and delivered to an appropriate manual pick-up area. Its structure defines isolated areas communicating by a door; the first area being designed for containment of the products to be dispensed, the second area being designed for handling, picking up and dispensing of the product picked up from the area. The pick-up and delivery area includes a turret having an element for supporting a door adapted to seal and close a corresponding opening of a partition between the areas and; the door rotating with the structure of the turret, as it moves away from the opening, and at least one element for containing the product to be delivered, which is adapted to longitudinally slide along the turret and be opened by a loading and unloading door; the enclosure being displaced by a translating element.
US08651322B2
An article dispensing apparatus has a housing defining a first chamber and a second chamber that are divided by a dividing wall, a lid covering the second chamber and a cover covering the first chamber, with the first chamber holding a plurality of articles, and an opening provided in the dividing wall to allow an article to pass through to the second chamber. A figure is retained inside the second chamber, the figure having a pair of arms that are normally positioned adjacent the opening in the dividing wall to receive an article that is transferred from the first chamber via the opening in the dividing wall. An actuator is coupled to the figure to push the figure upwardly through the lid so that the figure, and the article held in the arms of the figure, are delivered outside the housing.
US08651319B2
Lid for a container for filling the container from above, the opening being closable by a pivotable closure element mounted on an inner side of the lid so as to be rotatable about a first axis (X) which axis is horizontal when the lid is located on top of the container. The closure element includes a first part for closing the top of the container located on one side of the axis (X), and a second part as a counterweight on the other side of the axis (X). A pivotable bias element is rotatably mounted on the inner side of the lid on a second axis (Y) which is parallel to the first axis (X). The bias element is biased onto the second part by gravity and causes the first part to be pressed to the opening.
US08651316B2
Apparatus and methods for the controlled preparation of a beverage from one or more beverage bags within a variety of containers and the quick and sanitary storage of the bag or bags once the beverage preparation has been completed. The apparatus may include a drinking aperture, an even retention structure profile, and a bag retention aperture that is openable such that at least a portion of the bag may be drawn within and thereby retained in a position elevated above the beverage so that the beverage can be consumed even with the apparatus in place on the container and the bag or bags retained within the apparatus. The apparatus also may include a depressed wall section sized and shaped such that, when a bag is secured by the bag retention aperture, the bag is prevented from blocking a drinking aperture even when the container is rotated for drinking.
US08651307B2
A one-piece plastic hot-fill container may employ a shoulder portion, a base portion and a sidewall portion, which may be integrally formed with and extend from the shoulder portion to the base portion. The container may further employ a plurality of compression ribs molded into the sidewall portion—a first of the plurality of compression ribs intersecting a second of the plurality of compression ribs to form a rib interface, at least the first and the second of the plurality of compression ribs changing from a first shape to a second shape in response to cooling of the liquid.
US08651301B2
A method according to the invention of controlling a rotation speed of a motor of a speed-controllable hoist drive comprises receiving a lift speed instruction; forming a final speed instruction by using initial information containing the lift speed instruction; and using the final speed instruction as a speed instruction for the rotation speed of the motor of the speed-controllable hoist drive. The method further comprises monitoring a position derivative of an actual value of a cable force. The initial information for forming the final speed instruction comprises the position derivative of the actual value of the cable force.
US08651300B2
A sectional rack includes at least four vertical supports, at least two shelves, and a plurality of clamping members. Each vertical support includes two laterally juxtaposed left and right posts, and a plurality of connecting members connected to between the two posts. Each clamping member defines a vertically extended receiving recess, which has two wing portions formed at two ends of an open side thereof, and is sized for one post of the vertical support to partially set therein, allowing the clamping member to assemble to the vertical support. The shelves are respectively provided at four corners with an outward-opened C-shaped clamping member each for tightly fitting around and thereby pushing the two wing portions of the clamping member toward each other to firmly clamp the post in the receiving recess, so that the four corners of the shelves are firmly connected to the posts of the four vertical supports.
US08651297B2
A freestanding display rack for supporting and displaying product at a point of sale comprises a pair of spaced apart side panels. A back panel is attached to the side panels by interfitting tabs and notches along adjacent edges of the back panel and the side panels. A plurality of shelves extends between and supported at their opposite ends on the side panels by mechanical interlocking engaged between the shelves and the side panels. The mechanical interlocking comprises a slot formed through the side panels adjacent each of the shelves and a tongue projecting outwardly from each end of the shelves. The tongues extend through the respective slot in the side panels and being folded against an outer surface of the respective side panel. A graphics header extends above the shelves and side panels.
US08651296B2
A freestanding display rack is made of materials that can be recycled by utilizing existing fiber recycling chains and can be shipped to the point of sale in a knocked-down flattened condition. The display rack comprises a pair of spaced apart side panels each having an outer surface, and an inner surface facing an opposite side panel. A back panel is attached to the side panels by interfitting tabs and notches along adjacent edges of the back panel and the side panels. A plurality of shelves extends between and supported at their opposite ends on the side panels by mechanical interlocking engaged between the shelves and the side panels. The mechanical interlocking comprises channels formed in the inner surface of each the side panel, and depending flanges on opposite side edges of each the shelf engaged in a respective channel. A graphics header extends above the shelves and side panels.
US08651289B2
A gun and fishing rod holder. The holder comprises at least one stand mounted on a table. The at least one stand can be arranged in first (gun holding) and second (fishing rod holding) configurations. The first (gun holding) configuration of a stand comprises a pair of U-shaped channels. The second (fishing rod holding) configuration of a stand comprises an upside-down U-shaped support having a plurality of rod holders.
US08651284B2
A hydrophilic semipermeable hollow-fiber membrane for blood treatment, with an integrally asymmetric structure based on a synthetic polymer. The hollow-fiber membrane possesses on its inner surface a separating layer and an adjoining open-pored supporting layer, and has an ultrafiltration rate in albumin solution of 5 to 25 ml/(h·m2·mmHg). The hollow-fiber membrane is free from pore-stabilizing additives and has a maximum sieving coefficient for albumin of 0.005 and a sieving coefficient for cytochrome c that satisfies the equation SCCC≧5·10−5·UFRAlb3−0.004·UFRAlb2+1.081·UFRAlb−0.25.
US08651283B2
A mesh screen, for example for filtration wheels used in water treatment, provides a set of pleated filter elements assembled by in-molding the mesh into stringers subdividing a frame. Retention strips following the pleated edges of the filter elements at the stringers include apertures permitting direct clamping of the mesh near the stringers and the ability to visually inspect, after molding, engagement between the molded elements and the mesh while providing an increased engagement area between the mesh and elements of the over-molded frame.
US08651282B2
An apparatus for segregating particulate by density and/or size including a fluidizing bed having a particulate receiving inlet for receiving particulate to be fluidized. The fluidized bed also includes an opening for receiving a first fluidizing stream, an exit for fluidized particulate and at least one exit for non-fluidized particulate. A conveyor is operatively disposed in the fluidized bed for conveying the non-fluidized particulate to the non-fluidized particulate exit. A collector box is in operative communication with the fluidized bed to receive the non-fluidized particulate. There is a means for directing a second fluidizing stream through the non-fluidized particulate as while it is in the collector box to separate fluidizable particulate therefrom.
US08651280B2
Cup retaining apparatus and methods are described herein. Retaining a cup or glass within or along a plate assembly allows for the user to hold both the plate and cup or glass with a single hand. Generally, a cup or glass retaining plate assembly may comprise a platform defining an opening which is sized to support a cup or glass extending at least partially through the platform. A retaining clip or arm may be pivotably attached to the platform and movable between a retaining position and a releasing position, wherein the opening opens along a portion of a periphery of the platform such that the cup or glass is secured within the opening when the retaining clip or arm is in the retaining position and wherein the cup or glass is removable when the retaining dip or arm is in the releasing position.
US08651275B1
A flatware napkin holder combining three elements, a rectangularly folded dinner napkin, a triangular-shaped napkin enfolding a place setting of flatware and a customizable pouch having a closed bottom, closed sides and an open top, the dinner napkin, luncheon napkin and flatware sitting inside the pouch, extending through the open top. The pouch is customizable to complement a motif for any festive occasion with an additional ornamentation. The flatware napkin holder can be used as a place card holder for a table having assigned seats. The dinner napkin, the luncheon napkin, the pouch and the pouch ornamentation can be the same color or complementary colors, using two or more colors, resulting in an exceedingly large number of possible combinations to match any color theme of the decorating motif.
US08651274B2
Described is a device comprising a retro-reflective marker sphere comprising: a core ball comprising: a generally spherical body portion, a mounting base extending from one end of the body portion of the core ball, and a mounting recess having a recess opening in the mounting base and extending into the body portion of the core ball, and a retro-reflective covering on the core ball, the retro-reflective covering comprising an opening through which the mounting base of the core ball extends, wherein a flat lower surface of the mounting base is spaced proximally from a lower edge of the opening of the retro-reflective covering, and wherein the mounting recess includes an interior screw thread for engaging an exterior screw thread of a mounting post when the retro-reflective marker sphere is mounted on the mounting post.
US08651273B2
A tool bag that includes a tool bag body formed from a base with first and second endwalls attached to opposite end portions of the base. The tool bag body also includes a first sidewall attached to a side of the tool bag body that is releasably attached to the first endwall and releasably attached to the second endwall, and a second sidewall attached to a second side of the tool bag body opposite the first sidewall. The second sidewall includes a sidewall section flexibly joined to a cover section, where the sidewall section is releasably attached to vertical portions of the first endwall and the second endwall. The removable cover is removably attachable to a top portion of the first and second endwalls. The tool bag can also include a rotatable handle and a tool wall for simple, secure storage of tools.
US08651269B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to a fluid enclosure including a structural filler and an outer enclosure wall conformably coupled to the structural filler. Embodiments of the present invention further relate to a method of manufacturing a fluid enclosure. The method includes conformably coupling an outer enclosure wall to a structural filler.
US08651267B2
A conveying screw apparatus for transporting loose material. The apparatus includes:—a power unit apt to rotate an Archimedes screw pushing the loose material;—a charging hopper of the loose material in a tubular body containing the Archimedes screw and the loose material; —a feeding channel of the loose material towards a user; —pushing elements of the loose material present in the feeding channel; and —a back flow preventing device, preventing the back flow of pushing air together with loose material; such a device closing, in case, a through hole to the feeding channel. The back flow preventing device includes a shutter, provided with a plate, undergoing the action of a helical spring which, in any opening/closing step of the through hole, is always substantially perpendicular to the feeding first direction of the material in the tubular body.
US08651265B2
A conveyor includes a plate with a closed-loop track along which vials are driven in a continuous manner in holders arranged so as to be in free contact with each other in order to form a continuous stream along the track. Each holder includes a horizontal platen (72) to which is connected a plurality of vertical blades (72) forming a ring and capable of elastically moving away from the rotational axis of the platen, the inner surfaces thereof being intended for bearing against the periphery of a vial.
US08651259B1
A ladder bridge apparatus for use in connecting two ladder sections is disclosed herein. The ladder bridge apparatus, in its simplest form, includes an adjustable center stabilizer bar connecting outer rail bridge assemblies. The rail bridge assemblies are directly connected to the adjacent ladder sections. The ladder bridge apparatus can be utilized in conjunction with a material transport device to transport materials over the rails of a first ladder section and onto and across the ladder bridge apparatus to a second ladder section.
US08651252B2
A frequency-dependent mechanism provided at the lower end of a piston rod includes a tubular housing displaceable in an inner tube, together with the piston rod as one unit, and further includes a free piston and O-rings. A shutter of a passage area varying mechanism is provided with an axially extending inner hole, orifices, and oil grooves. The opening area between oil holes 3C and the orifices 33B is changed according to the rotational position of the shutter. The opening area between oil holes 3D and 3E and the oil grooves 33C and 33D and the opening area between oil holes 3F and 3G and the oil grooves 33E and 33F are also variably adjusted according to the rotational position of the shutter.
US08651246B2
An electromagnetic brake contains a coil seat including plural receiving holes disposed on a front end thereof to receive plural compression springs respectively and an electromagnetic coil mounted on the front end thereof; a movable friction piece fitted on the front end thereof; a brake member fixed in a front end of the friction piece and including a transmitting shaft fitted thereon; a fixed member secured on a front end of the brake member, wherein the electromagnetic coil includes a first silicon steel ring, a plurality of slots and a number of elongate grooves, and each slot includes an isolation holder fitted therein, and the isolation holder includes a recess formed on one side thereof to correspond to the groove of the first silicon steel ring, and between two abutting isolation holders is provided with a coil set formed by an enameled copper wire.
US08651245B1
A bicycle brake unit includes a first arm, a second arm and a connector, when the brake cable is pulled, the first and second cable connectors on the two arms are moved toward each other to pivot the first and second arms. The first rail on the first arm and the second rail on the second arm are moved relative to each other via the rotation of the pivot. The pivot is movable in the elongate slot in the connector which is pivotably connected to the first and second arms. The first and second arms are pivoted toward each other to brake the wheel by the brake pads on the two arms. The first and second arms apply even forces to the two brake pads.
US08651241B2
An elevator system has two elevator cars arranged one over the other, but that can travel independently of each other. Both elevator cars are suspended on suspension and traction mechanisms and each is coupled to a separate counterweight. Both elevator cars have a lower cable, wherein the two lower cables are tensioned by separate tension devices. The lower cable of the first, lower elevator car is fastened to the first elevator car and the first counterweight, The lower cable of the second, upper elevator car is guided at the second elevator car and at least one of the two lower cable ends thereof is secured by a weighted body secured in place with play and/or free-floating.
US08651237B2
An apparatus is provided for lifting a worker into an elevated work position. The apparatus includes a worker-support cage configured for engagement with a bucket of a front-end loader.
US08651222B2
A support of an axle transmission in the rear region of a passenger vehicle on a rear axle carrier and on the floor panel structure of the vehicle body in a further connecting point with the interposition of elastic supports is provided. On the output side, the transmission is supported on the sole transverse member of the rear axle carrier, which includes two longitudinal members, and on the input side the transmission is fixed to the floor panel structure via a serial connection of two elastic supports with a mass body arranged therebetween. The transmission may be fixed to two connecting points on the floor panel structure, the connecting points lying next to each other substantially in the transverse direction. Two such serial connections of elastic supports may be provided with a common mass body with a weight ranging from 3 to 7 kilograms.
US08651220B2
A position-adjustable, dual-pod control system for a machine, such as a backhoe loader is disclosed. The system includes a horizontal cross beam connected to a pair of brackets. The pair of brackets are mounted to the machine by way of a pair of bearings that enables pivotal movement of the cross beam in the fore and aft directions while the cross beam is positioned perpendicularly to the fore and aft direction or the fore-aft centerline of the machine. The bottom end of each pod arm is pivotally coupled to the brackets thereby enabling the pod arms to be pivoted towards or away from the centerline. Each bracket includes a through hole that accommodates a bearing that is mounted to the machine, such as to the floor of the machine.
US08651212B2
The invention relates to a battery holder which is configured to be inserted into the tube opening in the seat tube of the frame of an electric bicycle and to be pulled out. The bicycle saddle is connected to the battery holder via a saddle pillar.
US08651211B2
A cooling device for a motor vehicle has an internal combustion engine in a rear region of a vehicle body and has a charge air cooler arranged below an extendable rear spoiler. The charge air cooler is arranged in an oblique plane in an air deflection duct of the vehicle body and has inflow air flowing through it. Downstream of the charge air cooler, the air deflection duct is configured as an outflow air nozzle that narrows toward the end and is arranged to achieve a horizontal discharge of the outflow air.
US08651205B2
A drive axle assembly includes a drive axle configured to rotate with a driving torque, a first clutch pack assembly located at an end of the drive axle, and a second clutch pack assembly located at an opposite end of the drive axle. A first drive wheel assembly is operatively connected to the first clutch pack assembly, wherein the first clutch pack assembly is configured to convert the driving torque of the drive axle to a first driving torque of the first drive wheel. A second drive wheel assembly is operatively connected to the second clutch pack assembly, wherein the second clutch pack assembly is configured to convert the driving torque of the drive axle to a second driving torque of the second drive wheel.
US08651203B2
Polycrystalline compacts include a polycrystalline material comprising a plurality of inter-bonded grains of hard material, and a metallic material disposed in interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded grains of hard material. At least a portion of the metallic material comprises a metal alloy that includes two or more elements. A first element of the two or more elements comprises at least one of cobalt, iron, and nickel. A second element of the two or more elements comprises at least one of dysprosium, yttrium, terbium, gadolinium, germanium, samarium, neodymium, and praseodymium. The metal alloys may comprise eutectic or near-eutectic compositions, and may have relatively low melting points. Cutting elements and earth-boring tools include such polycrystalline compacts. Methods include the formation of such polycrystalline compacts, cutting elements, and earth-boring tools.
US08651202B2
A percussion drilling assembly for boring into the earth is disclosed. The percussion drilling assembly includes a top sub, a casing coupled to the top sub, and a feed tube assembly disposed within the top sub and the casing. The feed tube assembly includes a non-rigid coupling having a throughbore and a tubular body disposed therein. The tubular body is translatable in the radial position and/or rotatable relative to a longitudinal centerline extending through the non-rigid coupling.
US08651201B2
A combined cuttings stream inlet and air stream outlet apparatus, for placement within the inspection hatch of a conventional drill cuttings box, is disclosed. The combined cuttings stream inlet and air stream outlet apparatus has a central cuttings stream inlet conduit, disposed within a larger air stream outlet conduit. The air stream outlet conduit is sized to closely engage the diameter of the inspection hatch when inserted into the hatch opening. The annulus between the two conduits forms a flow area for air to exit the cuttings box. In use, the combined apparatus is easily inserted into the hatch opening of the cuttings box, preferably with a gasket between the apparatus and the hatch opening, and is held in place by the cuttings/air stream. When the cuttings box is full, the apparatus is simply pulled out and inserted into an empty cuttings box.
US08651198B2
A spindle lock device includes an engaging ring fixed in position relative to a body case of an impact screwdriver. A flat relief surface is definable on an outer circumference of the anvil that can be disposed inside of the engaging ring. An engaging member can be disposed between the engaging ring and the flat surface of the anvil. The engaging member can wedge between the engaging ring and an end portion in the circumferential direction of the relief surface of the anvil, so that the anvil is locked with respect to rotation relative to the body case.
US08651196B2
Included are embodiments of a power assisted garden tool. Some embodiments include a handle and an interchangeable tool implement including a garden tool end, a connection end, and an impact platform. Similarly, some embodiments include a drive mechanism coupled to the handle, the drive mechanism including a power source, a motor that provides rotational motion to a rotary shaft, and a piston coupled to the rotary shaft, the piston exhibiting reciprocating motion from the rotational motion, the piston making contact with the interchangeable tool implement, such that the reciprocating motion of the piston causes motion of the interchangeable tool implement.
US08651195B2
A jetting apparatus for fire extinguishing gas has a gas cylinder which is charged with pressurized fire extinguishing gas therein and onto an opening of which a sealing plate opening is attached. The jetting apparatus has a two part case that can receive the gas cylinder. The jetting apparatus has a seal breaking member that has a neb capable of breaking the sealing plate. The jetting apparatus has a seal breaking member holder that is attached the seal breaking member. The jetting apparatus has a mouth part of the gas cylinder that is attached detachably, and a cylinder holder that has a through hole movably housing the seal breaking member therein. The jetting apparatus has a seal breaking member holder and a cylinder holder that can relatively approach each other. The jetting apparatus has a jetting port that is provided on the outside of the apparatus and can communicate with the through hole. The jetting apparatus has a control valve that can intercept passages communicating the through hole with the jetting port and is provided in the passages.
US08651192B2
A bottom hole assembly (BHA), adapted to be positioned in a casing and to isolate a portion of a wellbore, which includes a packer assembly with a first sealing element extending between first and second portions of the packer assembly. A method of setting a BHA in a casing which includes increasing a BHA pressure to activate an anchor assembly, applying a mechanical force to mechanically deform a first sealing element to thereby establish an initial seal between the first sealing element and an interior surface of the casing, and increasing a pressure in a space between the BHA and the casing and in a cavity within the BHA to increase a differential pressure across the first sealing element and thereby establish a pressure-energized seal between the first sealing element and the interior surface of the casing.
US08651191B2
A slim hole production system for pumping liquids to the surface of a hydrocarbon well and especially a hydrocarbon well that is producing both natural gas and liquids where the diameter of the hole in the production area is too small to get production tubing and a sucker rod into a productive arrangement. The slim hole pump includes a hollow tube that raises and lowers the plunger and carries the liquids to the surface and uses the annulus to produce the gas.
US08651189B1
removable blowout recovery valve. The large end of the valve (or funnel) is placed over a well pipe (or other pipe) through which oil (or other fluid) is flowing out. The small end of the valve is connected to a return pipe. A high pressure pipe with a smaller diameter is inserted into the well pipe. A sleeve connected to the return pipe is placed over the well pipe. A locking collar is attached to the sleeve. Positioning rings are attached to the high pressure pipe, that can fit inside the well pipe. A sharp edge extends from the sleeve, by which irregularities in the well pipe can be cut. Lasers or other cutting devices are attached to extension arms, that can also cut irregularities in the well pipe. The slope of the valve can be changed. The valve can be removed and raised with the aid of floats.
US08651185B2
The uncontrolled flow of fluid from an oil or gas well may be reduced or stopped by injecting a composition including 2-cyanoacrylate ester monomer into the fluid stream. Injection of the monomer results in a rapid, perhaps instantaneous, polymerization of the monomer within the flow stream of the fluid. This polymerization results in formation of a solid plug that reduces or stops the flow of additional fluid from the well.
US08651183B2
The subject matter describes a tactile sensing device comprising an end effector and a control unit. The control unit is capable of receiving tactile information from the at least one end effector. The device enables a user to identify and relatively quickly map the shape and location of unknown surfaces.
US08651177B2
A well conveyance apparatus for conveying equipment into a wellbore possessing long-lasting movable and slidable hydraulic seals against the interior of a borehole casing located within a wellbore in a geological formation in the earth that is caused to move by the application of pressurized wellbore fluids against the seals. The seals are allowed to rotate on bearings about the tool mandrel to prevent the build-up of torque on the seals to minimize wear and to extend the life of the seals. Vibratory means are attached to the tool mandrel to vibrate the sealing portion of the seals, so as the extend the life of the seals and to minimize wear of the seals. Sensor arrays provide information to a computer system that is used to control the vibratory means, pressure relief valves, and other parameters to minimize wear of the hydraulic seals.
US08651176B2
One embodiment provides an adjustable guide 10a to steer the end 90 of a pipe string 88 into position to be engaged and supported by a pipe gripping apparatus such as, for example, an externally gripping elevator assembly 10. The adjustable guide 10a may comprise a plurality of angularly distributed guide inserts 30, each having a sloped surface 30A to engage a pipe end 90. Another embodiment provides an adjustable guide 60a to steer a pipe connection into position to pass through a spider 60. The guide inserts 30, 80 of an adjustable guide may be controllably positionable to together form a guide that is concentric with the bore of the tapered bowl of an elevator assembly or a spider. One embodiment comprises a guide insert retainer 11 having a plurality of channels 28, each slidably receiving a guide insert 30 and positionable by rotation of a threaded shaft 40.
US08651172B2
A cooling system for a heat-generating structure includes a heating device, a cooling loop, and one or more reservoirs. The heating device is configured to heat fluid coolant comprising a mixture of water and antifreeze and vaporize a portion of the water into vapor while leaving a portion of the antifreeze as liquid in the fluid coolant. The cooling loop has a portion that splits the fluid coolant received from the heating device into a first path configured to receive at least some of the portion of the water as vapor and a second path configured to receive at least some of the portion of the antifreeze as liquid. The one or more reservoirs are configured to receive one of the at least some of the portion of the water as vapor from the first path or the at least some of the portion of the antifreeze as liquid from the second path.
US08651162B2
A tubular heating element which is resistant to damage caused by foreign material is disclosed. The tubular heating element is pivotably attached to the side sealing machine at its leading (upstream) edge. The trailing (downstream) edge of the tubular heating element is moved by means of a compressible force, such as an air cylinder. In this way, the air in the cylinder pushes the tubular heating element downward into the plane of the film. However, a foreign object located on the film can overcome the force of the air cylinder, thereby lifting the tubular heating element out of the path of the film.
US08651146B2
The different embodiments of the cable stand-off serve as a thermally inslutative protector. In one embodiment, the cable stand-off includes an elongated member defining a lumen therethrough, and a plurality of fins extending from an outer surface of the elongated member, wherein the plurality of fins includes sets of fins, each set of fins being spaced a longitudinal distance from one another and being positioned around a circumference of the elongated member. Another embodiment of the cable stand-off comprises an elongated member having a helical shape and surrounding at least a portion of a length of at least one energy transmission conduit. In yet another embodiment, a cable stand-off comprises an elongated surrounding at least a portion of a length of an energy transmission conduit, wherein the elongated member is made of a non-flammable, low particulate, flexible fiber material.
US08651143B2
A device for shutting an aircraft jettisoning circuit includes a coupling endpiece. The endpiece carries a sealing gasket and means suitable for modifying a dimension of the gasket.
US08651139B2
A valve includes a body, a plug and a diaphragm defining an aperture and a seat. The diaphragm is substantially movable in response to a force applied to the seat by the plug. The valve can be cycled between an open state in which the plug is free of the seat, a closed state in which the plug is seated against the seat, and a third state in which the plug is seated against the seat and substantially deflects the diaphragm.
US08651137B2
A gas manifold system includes a plenum that receives a gas at a positive pressure and a manifold having at least one exit port. One or more valves are disposed between the plenum and the manifold. When opened, the valve(s) permit a stream of the gas at positive pressure to flow from the plenum into the manifold. A baffle is disposed in the manifold between the valve(s) and the exit port(s). The baffle obstructs each stream of gas entering the manifold such that the gas is reduced to substantially zero pressure in the manifold at the exit port(s).
US08651134B1
A draining tool useful for controlled draining of a fluid container, such as a threaded spin-on type oil filter. The draining tool includes a piercing pin having a tapered point, striking head, resilient spring, resilient spring retainer assembly, and piercing pin retainer assembly. The draining tool includes a central block having an axial bore housing the piercing pin, and an internal chamber having a channel permitting drainage of fluid from the internal chamber. One end of the central block provides an attachment assembly suitable for holding the tool against the fluid container allowing the fluid container to be pierced by the piercing pin and the internal chamber to receive fluid flowing from the fluid container.
US08651131B2
A control valve for an air cushion bed includes a first main body, a membrane plate, a second main body, a sensor, and a depressurization unit. The membrane plate is clamped between the first main body and the second main body. The second main body at one side of the membrane plate is connected with the sensor. The sensor is used to detect the inputted air pressure. When the air is over, the air can be depressurized by the depressurization unit. The control valve of the present invention is applied to input and control the air of the air cushion bed, having depressurization and air detection functions.
US08651130B2
A fluid supply includes a container (100, 300) containing a bag (102, 302) and a valve (104, 304).
US08651125B2
A portable barrier has a pedestal assembly including (i) a plurality of legs that are movable with respect to each other, the plurality of legs includes a first leg and a second leg, and (ii) a first limiter connected to the first leg and the second leg. The portable barrier further has a cover assembly including (i) a plurality of arms that are movable with respect to each other, the plurality of arms includes a first arm and a second arm, and (ii) a covering connected to the first arm and the second arm. Further, the portable barrier has (i) a second limiter extending between the first arm and the first leg, (ii) a supplemental component movable with respect to the second arm; and (iii) a third limiter extending between the second arm and the supplemental component.
US08651124B2
A tent including an integrated vestibule and a sleeping chamber having a dividable pocket for receiving at least one mattress therein and a plurality of tie-downs for tightening up loose pocket panel material when a mattress is not contained therein. The dividable pocket further includes a fastener for optionally and selectively dividing the pocket into discreet sections or a single section.
US08651121B2
A substrate processing apparatus includes a chamber configured to dispose a substrate to be processed with a substrate holder, a spin chuck to rotate the substrate, a gas discharging head configured to discharge a dehumidified gas to the substrate, a processing liquid supply nozzle, an IPA supply nozzle, and a driving device configured to move the gas discharging head between a retreat position of an upper part of the chamber and an approach position near the substrate. In particular, the gas discharging head is positioned at the approach position when the IPA is supplied to the substrate so that the dehumidified gas is supplied from the gas discharging head to the substrate when the IPA is supplied to the substrate.
US08651108B2
An oxygen delivery apparatus for delivery of oxygen to an infant from a source includes a mouthpiece having a body portion and lip-engaging flange portions which surround the body portion and a nipple which extends to one side of the central body portion for acceptance by the mouth of an infant. The body portion of the mouthpiece includes a pair of internal passageways each having an inlet and an outlet and wherein the inlets of the passageways are adapted to accept oxygen delivered thereto from a source and wherein the outlets of the passageways are disposed at locations along the surface of the mouthpiece so that when the nipple is accepted by the mouth of an infant, the outlets of the passageways are disposed adjacent, but not within, the nostrils of the infant.
US08651104B2
A dry powder inhaler includes a chamber holding a bead-like actuator to which a powdered medicament is adhered. Air is drawn into the chamber through an inlet flow channel and exits through an outlet flow channel. The bead-like actuator oscillates in response to the air flow, dislodging powdered medicament to be entrained in the air flow and delivered to the patient.
US08651094B2
The present disclosure provides improved bows (e.g., crossbows and/or vertical bows). More particularly, the present disclosure provides advantageous bows having improved limbs, trigger releases, safety mechanisms and/or dry fire mechanisms. In exemplary embodiments, the present disclosure provides for systems and methods for fabricating bows (e.g., crossbows/vertical bows) having improved limbs (e.g., crossbow limbs), trigger releases, safety mechanisms and/or dry fire mechanisms, and wherein the bows provide increased arrow speed and/or more efficient release of stored energy.
US08651090B2
A direct fuel injection cylinder for an engine of a vehicle includes a direct fuel injector disposed in an injector bore within a cylinder head. A beveled conical wave washer is disposed between a shelf in the injector bore and a shoulder of the direct fuel injector. During operation of the vehicle, the beveled conical wave washer is elastically deformed by radial displacement caused by absorption of high frequency energy from the direct fuel injector. Elastic deformation of the beveled conical wave washer may reduce noise which may be caused by impact of the direct fuel injector and the cylinder head.
US08651085B2
An improved lubrication system and method for the normally contacting and abutting piston pin and connecting rod journal bearing surfaces of an internal combustion engine that includes an inertia pump in a connecting rod. The inertia pump reacts to the movement of the connecting rod and conveys a predetermined measure of lubricating oil at a high enough pressure to overcome the forces which cause the surfaces to normally maintain contact. By separating the normally contacting surfaces of the pin and the connecting rod journal, the surfaces become lubricated. Several embodiments of inertia pumps provide variations in implementing the invention.
US08651082B2
In a premixed compression ignition diesel engine 1 with fuel being injected midway of a intake passage 15, an intake port 6 is formed with an orifice 10 which is throttled in passage cross-sectional area at least in an opening operation of an intake valve 7. This prevents adhesion of the fuel to an inner wall of the intake passage and promotes atomization of the fuel. A combustion chamber is fed with the sufficiently atomized fuel, which prevents combustion failure in the combustion chamber to attain reduction of particulate matters.
US08651072B2
In an internal combustion engine, a variable compression ratio mechanism which can change the mechanical compression ratio and a variable valve timing mechanism which can control a closing timing of an intake valve are provided. When the variable compression ratio mechanism breaks down, the mechanical compression ratio and the intake valve closing timing are made to change from a current operating point toward a low mechanical compression ratio side demanded operating point without entering the no-entry region.
US08651067B2
The invention relates to a steam circuit in a power station, comprising at least one evaporator and at least one superheater, characterized in that a condensate collector and return line is provided between the superheater and the steam generator to trap condensate in the superheater and return the condensate to the evaporator.
US08651063B1
A wheeled dog cover (1) having a frame (3) wheels (24) located thereon. Said frame having a top panel (7) and side panels (6, 8) that cover side portions (9a, 9b) and a top portion (10) of the frame to protect a dog from rain and other elements. Panels may also be located on the front and back of the frame to fully enclose the frame. A push handle (22) is provided for controlling movement of the wheeled dog cover. In addition a leash attachment bar (23) is located on the wheeled dog cover for attaching a dog's leash to so as a dog walks the wheeled dog cover moves with the dog. The front wheels of the walker are preferably swivel wheels to allow the wheeled dog cover to be steered right or left.
US08651061B2
A swiftlet breeding facility, for use in creating and harvesting edible bird's nests. The facility includes sub-systems for injecting live insect and worm prey, and water, into an aerial enclosure to provide a feeding system imitative of a natural swiftlet feeding environment.
US08651056B2
A pet bowl water cooling system includes a bowl, a pump for removing water from the bowl, a heat transfer device, and a conduit adapted to carry the water to the heat transfer device, to carry cooled water back to the bowl. The heat transfer device can include a metal coil submersed in a relatively cool liquid medium. Preferably, the bowl includes a float valve to allow water to flow into the bowl when the float valve is activated. In an embodiment, the liquid medium includes water in a water reservoir of an evaporative cooler. In an embodiment, the evaporative cooler includes a housing that is disposed between studs of a wall. The dog bowl can be mounted on an interior wall or an exterior wall. In an embodiment, the evaporative cooler is disposed within a wall of a dog house and the dog dish is mounted thereon.
US08651038B2
The present disclosure provides an improved design for a multi-sectional truss spar hull platform having a truss and a spar hull. One or more sections can be transported to a designated location and off-loaded into water from an available transport vessel. The truss includes a skirt tank at the upper end of truss that can be coupled to the lower end of the hull. The skirt tank can provide buoyancy during float-off and mating operations to the hull. The skirt tank is designed to allow the portion above the water to be coupled to the hull in a first orientation, the truss with the skirt tank rotated with the hull in the water to a second orientation to expose the previously underwater portion, and then the previously underwater portion can be coupled together above the water. The integral skirt tank will be flooded after the spar hull is up-ended.
US08651032B2
To provide a classification device in which product fine powder little in mixture ratio of coarse particles can be obtained. A classification device characterized in that a setting pitch P between stationary fins 13 and a width L of each stationary fin 13 are combined so that a value of P/L is in a range between 0.042×(θ−50)+0.64 and 0.019×(θ−50)+0.22 in 50°≦θ≦70° when θ is an inclination angle of each stationary fin 13, P is the setting pitch, and L is the width in a direction of circulation of particles.
US08651027B2
An aviation pallet includes an EPS loading board, which includes an EPS plate and at least three EPS supporting legs extended from the bottom surface of the EPS plate for supporting the EPS plate, wherein the EPS plate and the EPS supporting legs are wholly injection molded; and a PET film adhering to the surface of the EPS plate and the surface of the EPS supporting legs; and has a plurality of jacks provided between each two EPS supporting legs. A method of producing the aviation pallet includes forming a main body step: laminating step; heating and cutting steps; vacuum forming step; and cooling and shape steps. The aviation pallet has good mechanical properties, folding resistance, most solvents resistance, low and high temperature resistance, and is lightweight, no poison, no smell, healthy and safe.
US08651025B2
An overhead wafer transport system includes an over head transportation (OHT) rail and at least one shuttle. The OHT rail includes a main track and two lateral tracks, each having a hollow transverse cross-section, each lateral track being in corresponding connection with the main track through the two sides thereof, constituting an approximate tri-directional branch form. The shuttle has a track-interface assembly and a docking unit, the track-interface assembly being adapted to travel along the OHT rail. The track-interface assembly being arranged at the junction of the two lateral tracks and the main track, wherein the track-interface assembly is adapted to selectively travel along at least one of the main track and the lateral tracks. Therefore, the overhead wafer transport system can be applied to a clean room with higher transfer efficiency and clean room space utilization.
US08651019B1
A crank press includes an encoder measuring an angle value of a servo motor, a strain detector module generating a converted load value associated with deformation of a machine body, a memory storing at least one relation between an angle value and each of an upper torsion limit and an upper load limit, and a controller calculating a torque command value based on a position command, reading the upper torsion limit corresponding to the measured angle value, determining whether the torque command value exceeds the upper torsion limit, outputting the torque command value when negative, and outputting the upper torsion limit when affirmative. The controller further stops the servo motor when the converted load value exceeds the upper load limit corresponding to the measured angle value.
US08651014B2
A fire containment system and method is disclosed. The fire containment system is designed to assist in temporarily containing a fire within a semi-enclosed space having an open side for operator access. An exhaust air blower exhausts air from the semi-enclosed space through an exhaust vent. An inlet air blower provides air to the semi-enclosed space through an inlet vent. In the case of a fire in the semi-enclosed space, the fire will be drawn away from the open side and toward the inlet vent due to the air supplied by the inlet air blower. The fire is thus encouraged to remain within the semi-enclosed space, allowing additional time for a fire suppression mechanism to be activated.
US08650995B1
A sandpaper cutting tool having a substantially rectangular multi-tiered platform including a first and second measuring surface, a top surface, and a back. The second measuring surface is positioned between the first measuring surface and the top surface. The first measuring, second measuring, and top surfaces vertically align and define the back. The first measuring surface has a front cutting edge and a first blade having a serrated edge vertically aligned adjacent the front cutting edge. The second measuring surface has a front cutting edge and a second blade having a serrated edge vertically aligned adjacent the front cutting edge. A first backstop is defined between the first measuring surface and the second measuring surface. A second backstop is defined between the second measuring surface and the top surface.
US08650993B2
A fixing device for a tool member includes a handle having a receiving space opened at one end thereof for receiving a connector, the tool member having an operation head defined at one end thereof, a connecting end defined at another end of the tool member for connecting to the connector, the connector having two flat bodies which are pivoted with each other, a fixing unit defined between the two flat bodies for fixing the connecting end of the tool member to the connector, the connector having at least one engaging rib defined at one end thereof for engaging with a wall of the receiving space. Therefore, the tool member is easily detachable from the handle via the connector.
US08650979B2
A drive system of an electric vehicle includes a drive motor, a transmission and a hydraulic system. The transmission has an input shaft, a countershaft, an output shaft, a first transmission unit placed between the countershaft and the output shaft, a first clutch, a second transmission unit placed between the countershaft and the input shaft, and a second clutch. The drive motor is attached to the input shaft, which is attached to the countershaft to provide power of the drive motor to the countershaft; the first clutch is configured for linking or cutting off the power transmission between the countershaft and the first transmission unit; and the second clutch is configured for linking or cutting off the power transmission between the countershaft and the second transmission unit. The first transmission unit has a first transmission ratio greater than a second transmission ratio of the second transmission unit.
US08650971B2
A simply-structured initial slippage detection mechanism. When a contact member comes in contact with a contact receiving member via a pressure-sensitive conductive sheet, it is confirmed, on the basis of a change in resistivity of the pressure-sensitive conductive sheet and in response to a detection signal transmitted from the pressure-sensitive conductive sheet, that initial slippage has occurred right before the occurrence of slippage displacement, at a time when a high-frequency waveform component generated right before the occurrence of the slippage displacement of the contact member exceeds a predetermined threshold value. Therefore, it is possible to realize a slippage detection device whose slippage detection section is smaller, more lightweight and thinner.
US08650966B2
A strain gauge assembly is disclosed, including a plurality of strain gauges arranged in a side-by-side relationship, each having a first end and a second end. The first and/or second end of one of the plurality of strain gauges is offset from a corresponding first and/or second end of another of the plurality of strain gauges.
US08650955B2
A gyroscope comprising: a support structure; a drive mass springedly coupled to the support structure such that movement of the drive mass with respect to the support structure is substantially restricted to movement in a first direction; a driver configured to cause the drive mass to oscillate with respect to the support structure in the first direction; a sense mass springedly coupled to the drive mass such that movement of the sense mass with respect to the drive mass is substantially restricted to movement in a second direction, which is orthogonal to the first direction; and a digital trigger comprising a proximity switch coupled between the drive mass and the sense mass, wherein the switch is configured to switch from an open state to a closed state each time the sense mass is in a reference position with respect to the drive mass.
US08650946B1
A thermal flow sensor is responsive only to a modulated component of the flow. At zero flow the modulated component disappears, except for an artifact caused by motion of the modulator. This artifact is minimized by reducing the extent of modulator motion and by sampling the modulated signal at a quiescent part of the modulator's operating cycle. This results in a thermal flow sensor with a very stable zero.
US08650941B2
A method for checking the functionality of at least one injector (10) of an internal combustion engine (8), in which at least the functionality of a lambda sensor (12), which is designed to ascertain a state of the at least one injector (10) is checked, a steady-state operating condition of the internal combustion engine (8) being set, and a check being performed as to whether at least one signal of the lambda sensor (12) is stable for the set operating condition. Depending on whether the signal of the lambda sensor (12) is stable, a lambda value for the at least one injection valve (10) is measured using the lambda sensor (12) at the set operating condition.
US08650931B1
Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for providing and using self-sealing fuel tank test fixtures. According to some embodiments disclosed herein, a self-sealing fuel tank test fixture includes a fuel cube configured for storing fuel. The fuel cube includes a front side configured to support a test sample for the test. The self-sealing fuel tank test fixtures also can include a knife valve selectively configurable from a first position in which the fuel in the fuel cube is separated from the front side and a second position in which the fuel in the fuel cube is allowed to contact the test sample.
US08650925B2
Methods for forming a tube that includes a feature extending from an inner surface of the tube are provided. The methods can include using a die and stamper, single impact extrusion, double impact extrusion, and progressive deep draw process.
US08650922B2
Provided are a pipe bender which is capable of spiral pipe bending and a method for spiral pipe bending with radii of bend using the pipe bender. The pipe bender includes an XY sliding mechanism), which has a Y-axis movement means travelling back and forth and an X-axis movement means travelling from side to side; a turning table device for rotating a turning table provided on top thereof, the turning table device being placed on the XY sliding mechanism; a bender with a cylindrical shaft rotatably supported, the cylindrical shaft placed on the turning table and secured to a worm wheel; a center shaft passing through the hole of the cylindrical shaft and having a lower end secured to a bottom; and a bending roller provided on top of the cylindrical shaft rotatable about the center of a support roller and which is disposed adjacent to the support roller.
US08650919B2
An anti-break lock includes a body and two rods respectively extend from two ends of the body. Two rings extend radially from the body. The body has a passage which communicates with one of the rings and the ring is engaged with an engaging block. The engaging block has a recess in which a pad is received. The passage has a resilient member and a stop pin received therein and the stop pin has a first shoulder and a second shoulder formed in two ends thereof. A contact portion extends from the second shoulder. The body has a room which communicates with the passage. A resilient piece and an engaging member are received in the room. When the lock is damaged, the contact portion is inserted into the recess and stopped by the engaging member so that it cannot move back to its initial position. The lock cannot be unlocked.
US08650917B2
An apparatus for determining the number of doses and the types of a treating chemistry available in a bulk dispensing system, and providing an indication of the determination on a user interface.
US08650915B2
Inorganic fiber production processes and systems are disclosed. One process includes providing a molten inorganic fiberizable material, forming substantially vertical primary fibers from the molten material, and attenuating the primary fibers using an oxy-fuel fiberization burner. Other processes include forming a composition comprising combustion gases, aspirated air and inorganic fibers, and preheating a fuel stream and/or an oxidant stream prior to combustion in a fiberization burner using heat developed during the process. Flame temperature of fiberization burners may be controlled by monitoring various burner parameters. This abstract allows a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure. It will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b).
US08650914B2
A method for recycling glass mat waste, wound rovings, and other products includes providing a source of glass mat, or a plurality of rovings, for example on a roll, and routing the glass mat or rovings into a submerged combustion melter. An unwind system and a pair of powered nip rolls, powered conveyors, or other arrangement may work in combination to provide a substantially consistent rate of material into the melter. The melter may operate under less than atmospheric pressure to avoid fumes escaping the melter. A slot in the melter allows ingress of the glass mat or rovings into the melter, and a glass mat former such as a folder may be used to ensure that the mat fits through the slot. Alternatively, the glass mat may be cut by a slitter prior to entering the slot.
US08650913B2
A method of forming a needled rotary fiberglass glass insulation product is provided. The formation of the needled insulation product may be conducted in a continuous in-line process in which the fibers are rotary formed, a binder is sprayed onto the hot fibers, the fibers are collected onto a conveyor and formed into a fiberglass pack, the fiberglass pack is passed through the oven, and the cured insulation blanket is passed through a needling apparatus. The reduction in thickness and increased density caused by the needling process permits the production of lower thickness and higher density insulation products. In particular, the needled insulation product may have a thickness of less than about 0.75 inches and a density from about 1 pcf to about 10 pcf. The needled insulation product may be utilized in household appliances, water heaters, and HVAC equipment.
US08650912B2
A method for manufacturing quartz glass using a main burner having a multi-tube assembly having a center tube, a first enclosure tube surrounding the center tube, a second enclosure tube surrounding the first enclosure tube, a tubular shell surrounding the multi-tube assembly, and a plurality of nozzles disposed within the tubular shell, a double-tube assembly surrounding at least a forward opening of the main burner includes feeding silica-forming compound to the center tube, a combustion-supporting gas to the first enclosure tube and the nozzles, a combustible gas to the second enclosure tube and the tubular shell, and a combustion-supporting gas to the double-tube assembly, forming oxyhydrogen flame for hydrolyzing or decomposing the silica-forming compound to form silica, depositing the silica on the target, and melting and vitrifying the deposited silica into quartz glass.
US08650911B2
Glass is heated from above and below while the glass resides on rolls (3) in a tempering furnace (1). The upper surface of the glass (4) is heated by hot air jets formed by sucking air from inside the furnace (1) and pressurizing the hot air and recycling it back to the upper surface of the glass. Air which has been taken from outside the furnace (1) and pressurized by a compressor (17) and heated is blown to the lower surface of the glass.
US08650909B2
A rough mold of a machine for forming glass items is provided with a multifunctional group, which has a common support head; a handling device for moving the common head along a first handling axis; and a further handling device for rotating the common head about a second handling axis; the common head being fitted with a mold closing member for sealing the top opening of the rough mold, and at least one further operating member selectable from a funnel-shaped member for guiding at least one glass gob into the rough mold, a blowing member for blowing pressurized air into the rough mold, and one or more members for treating the inner surface of the rough mold.
US08650907B2
The method produces a reshaped glass-ceramic article by forced reshaping of a flat green glass part during a ceramicizing process with temporarily lowered viscosity due to crystallization heat. To perform the forced reshaping economically the forced reshaping takes place in a continuous oven for ceramicizing and in an oven section in which the viscosity of the green glass part is temporarily lowered as a result of crystallization heat. An apparatus for performing the process is provided in the continuous oven including different active reshaping devices and/or a hollow mold. The method produces glass-ceramic articles with undamaged surfaces corresponding to surfaces produced during the making of the green glass part (smooth or structured, e.g. knobbed).
US08650901B2
The present invention relates to a tray having an icemaker as well as having a holder to fix the icemaker to the tray.
US08650899B2
An ice-making assembly for a refrigerator, which can effectively separate ice from a tray and a power transmission assembly for transmitting power to the tray are provided. The power transmission assembly includes a body unit defining an exterior of the ice-making assembly and a plurality of gear teeth protruding from an outer circumference of the body unit. Each of the gear teeth includes a first end portion protruding from the body unit by a predetermined distance and a second end portion further protruding from the body unit than the first end portion. According to the embodiments, even when the water is infiltrated into the power transmission assembly and frozen, the frozen ice can be removed in a direction by the above-described structures of the gears.
US08650895B2
A method of constructing modular air conditioning systems for vehicles includes providing identical universal base units that can be built out into a variety of different types of air conditioning systems. Each base unit includes a frame, a condenser, an evaporator coil, and a blower, and has open-circuit refrigerant connection lines so as to be non-operational without a completion kit. Completion kits are provided in a variety of configurations, including at least two of a simple connection kit, a front box kit, and a compressor kit, each of which is connectable with a universal base unit to form a unique type of air conditioning system.
US08650885B2
A gas turbine engine assembly includes a rotor shaft having a threaded portion, a rotor stack support positioned radially outward from the rotor shaft, and a locking nut. The locking nut includes a body portion, a threaded portion located on a radially inner surface of the body portion, and a lug portion extending from the body portion. The rotor stack support radially rests upon the body portion of the locking nut, and the rotor stack support axially rests against the lug portion of the locking nut. The threaded portion of the locking nut and the threaded portion of the rotor shaft are engaged together.
US08650880B1
An active combustion control device provides modulated fuel flow to the combustor of a turbine engine to mitigate combustion instability. The device includes a valve unit and an electronic valve driver controlling translation and rotation components in the valve unit that drive a metering member having a modulating end. The axial position and rotation of the end geometries relative to static flow ports inside the valve unit modulate the fuel flowing from the valve unit to the combustor atomizer. The amplitude and frequency of the modulated fuel flow match that of the instable combustor fuel flow and the phase is offset by 180 degrees so that the resultant fuel flow is at or near a stable state.
US08650872B2
A control unit of a hydraulic brake apparatus for a vehicle including a housing, a switching control valve, pressure increase control valves, pressure decrease control valves, a reservoir, a pump driven by a motor, a first passage, a second passage, an inner bore and a passage forming member being liquid-tightly fitted into the inner bore in order to form an extended ring-shaped passage, wherein the extended ring-shaped passage forms a part of the first passage, and the switching control valve, the pressure increase control valves and the outlet valve are connected to the extended ring-shaped passage, and a part of the second passage is formed within the passage forming member, and end portions of the part of the second passage are connected to the switching control valve and the switching valve.
US08650864B2
An exhaust system for a marine engine comprising liquid-cooled manifold and catalytic converter assemblies. Each assembly uses a separate cooling system to cool either the exhaust manifold or a shell inside which resides the catalytic converter. The housing or shell containing the catalytic converter uses water to cool an exterior surface of a water jacket to an acceptable temperature conforming to federal regulations. The liquid-cooled manifold assembly may use either water or glycol to cool outer cooling tubes surrounding exhaust tubes extending from the engine block to the catalytic converter assembly.
US08650858B2
An exhaust emission control apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes: an exhaust gas purification catalyst arranged in an exhaust gas passage of the internal combustion engine; an air/fuel ratio sensor installed on an upstream side of the exhaust gas purification catalyst and detects an air/fuel ratio of an exhaust gas discharged from the internal combustion engine; air/fuel ratio feedback control means that performs feedback control of the air/fuel ratio based on an output of the air/fuel ratio sensor; and sensor output correcting means that corrects a shift in the output of the air/fuel ratio sensor. The sensor output correcting means is configured so as to correct a shift in the output of the air/fuel ratio sensor using a lean shift amount of the air/fuel ratio sensor output in accordance with a quantity and/or a proportion of an aldehyde included in the exhaust gas.
US08650852B2
A support assembly for a turbine system is disclosed. The support assembly includes a transition duct extending between a fuel nozzle and a turbine section. The transition duct has an inlet, an outlet, and a passage extending between the inlet and the outlet and defining a longitudinal axis, a radial axis, and a tangential axis. The outlet of the transition duct is offset from the inlet along the longitudinal axis. The support assembly further includes an annular contact member extending from the transition duct. The contact member is configured to allow movement of the transition duct about at least one axis.
US08650849B2
A yarn feed device for the workstations of twisting or cabling machines wherein the yarn feed device (13) is a component of a retrofittable supplementary assembly set (12).
US08650848B2
Multi-station textile machine, in particular two-for-one-twisting or cabling machine, produces a high degree of flexibility with a simple structure by a respective double spindle unit (1) having a centrally arranged carrier (2), with a carrier (2) having a cross-member (20), which extends from one workstation to the other of the double spindle unit (1), supported by means of adjustable feet (26) on the ground, the carrier (2) furthermore having a centrally arranged hollow profile (21), which extends vertically from the cross-member (20), the hollow profile (21) being at least configured to receive a bobbin removal device (31, 33) and for fastening a winding device (3).
US08650847B2
In an example, a system for harvesting nut and fruit trees includes an electro-mechanical shaker head, a transport mechanism, and a control system. The electro-mechanical shaker head is configured to dislodge fruit or nuts from a target tree using a linear energy system. The transport mechanism is configured to position the electro-mechanical shaker head on the target tree. The control system is communicatively coupled to the shaker head and configured to dynamically control shaker head operation.
US08650835B2
A carton processing apparatus and method can be used to reduce inventory of pre-printed or pre-labeled cartons. The carton processing apparatus can use a stacked inventory of unassembled cartons in a first planar orientation. A carton can be picked from the inventory, rotated from the first planar orientation to a print plane, and transported near a carton coding device, such as an ink jet printer, which can apply indicia to the carton. The processed carton can be further rotated or provided to a downstream device or process.
US08650827B2
An assembly (14, 16) for securing two juxtaposed panels (64, 66) to a structure (74), each panel including a joining flange (68, 70) located at, or adjacent to, respective juxtaposed edges thereof. The assembly includes a retaining member (14) having a substantially planar surface (24) supporting at opposite edges thereof respective first flanges (26, 28) and a clamping member (16) having two spaced-apart legs (48, 40) depending from a web (36). Second flanges (46, 48) are each supported on a facing internal surface of a respective one of the legs so as to extend away from the web. Each leg engages a respective exposed surface of an adjacent joining flange, the first and second flanges being oriented in opposite directions so as to interlock when the clamping member is mounted on the retaining member and thereby limit lateral separation of the legs.
US08650815B2
The invention relates to a frame for a solar module, wherein the frame comprises a plurality of aluminum extruded profiles, which form the sides of the frame and which are connected to each other at the corners thereof, wherein at least one aluminum extruded profile comprises at least one hollow chamber, wherein the frame comprises corner elements, wherein at least one corner element comprises a discharge opening, and the discharge opening is connected to a hollow chamber of at least one adjacent aluminum extruded profile.
US08650811B2
An apparatus comprising a number of platforms and a number of beams. The number of platforms has a first side and a second side. Each platform in the number of platforms is comprised of a number of devices. The number of beams is connected to the second side of the number of platforms at a plurality of connection points. The plurality of connection points is configured such that an orientation of the number of platforms remains substantially unchanged in response to a load on the number of platforms.
US08650807B2
The present invention provides a system, or kit, of blow molded panels having integrally formed connectors which combine to form an enclosure, commonly in the form of a utility shed. The corner sections, roof, wall and floor panels are formed of blow molded plastic with integrally formed connectors to interlock with one another. In one embodiment, the ends of the wall panels have locking plugs that are constructed and arranged to fit into corresponding sockets and slide to an engaged position for interlocking cooperative engagement rigidly connecting the components together.
US08650801B2
A counterweight mechanism that includes a radial arm with a weight and a series of elements interconnected between the door and the arm. The weight provides a closing force when in a first position and provides an opening force when in another position. The weight may be an over center weight and the closing force reduces when the weight moves toward an over center position. The counterweight mechanism may require manual resetting after the weight is in the second position. Door movement may be though an angle that is less than an angle of movement of the radial arm.
US08650795B2
A coating for an animal decoy or fishing lure with a surface reflection which closely matches the spectral reflectance pattern of the animal that it is designed to mimic, including both human-visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, with the intent of making the decoy or fishing lure appear more realistic to animals that can see in both the human-visible and ultraviolet spectrums.
US08650792B1
A loader for gun magazines. The loader includes a handle and a pair of spaced apart, outwardly extending prongs. In an embodiment, a stiffener is used to maintain alignment of prongs, and to keep the prongs from being urged apart during use. The loader is used by engaging prongs with a cartridge in the magazine, and then urging the cartridge against biasing means to create space for a cartridge to be loaded. Once space is created, the cartridge to be loaded is urged into magazine while cradled between prongs of the loader.
US08650776B2
A sole structure for an article of footwear is provided. The sole structure extends longitudinally from a back edge to a front edge of the article of footwear and transversely from a medial side to a lateral side of the article of footwear. The sole structure includes an outsole having a ground-contacting layer. A first rib projects upward from the ground-contacting layer. The rib has side walls and an end wall. A channel is defined by the side walls and end wall. The channel opens downward through the ground-contacting layer and has a depth extending above the ground-contacting layer. The rib may have a multi-stage vertical stiffness profile. The sole structure may include a midsole attached to the outsole. An article of footwear having the sole structure attached to an upper is also provided.
US08650767B2
A coordinates measuring head unit is provided, which is compact, inexpensive, and capable of performing high-precision measurements at high speeds, and facilitates, for example, measurements conducted on machine tools or in-situ measurements on transport lines. The head unit includes: drive means (an X-axis drive section, a Y-axis drive section, and a Z-axis drive section), an integrated housing for accommodating the drive means, and fixture means (fixture surface). The drive means allows a probe to be moved by computer numerical control along a plurality of drive axis, which are orthogonal to each other, and abut against a measuring target to measure the dimensions of the measuring target. The fixture means is provided on one of side surfaces of the housing to attach one of the drive means to a support (a support on a stand secured to a base).
US08650765B2
An alignment tool and method is disclosed for use in aligning wheels of trucks and truck trailers. The tool includes at least one self-leveling laser for checking wheel alignment. The self-leveling laser includes a body, an attachment member and a laser. The attachment member secures the alignment tool to the vehicle or trailer and the alignment tool provides for self-leveling to enable a user to make various predetermined measurements from the laser marking “+” when aligning the wheels of the vehicle or trailer. The alignment tool also may include a fifth wheel adapter for attaching the alignment tool to a fifth wheel pin of a truck trailer when checking the alignment of a truck trailer.
US08650758B2
A shaving blade assembly pre-form comprising a blade frame comprising transverse connecting strips; a plurality of blades welded to the blade frame that span the transverse connecting strips along a length of the frame; and a disposable tie disposed parallel to the plurality of blades and across said transverse connecting strips.
US08650753B2
A seal (48) between a compressor rotor blade (26) and compressor casing (28) comprises an abradable structure (59) on the compressor casing (28). The abradable structure (59) comprises a metallic foam (60) having pores (66, 68). The metallic foam (60) has a first a region (62) and a second region (64). The first region (62) of the metallic foam (60) is arranged adjacent to the compressor casing (28) and the second region (64) of the metallic foam (60) is spaced from the compressor casing (28) by the first region (62) of the metallic foam (60). The pores (68) of the second region (64) of the metallic foam (60) contain an abradable material (70) and the pores (66) of the first region (62) of the metallic foam (60) do not contain an abradable material.
US08650746B2
A lens assembly tool includes a lens receiving frame having a first surface, a positioning plate positioned on the lens receiving frame, and a pressing plate positioned on the positioning plate and having a second surface. The first surface defines a plurality of receiving holes. The positioning plate defines a plurality of through holes aligned with the plurality of receiving holes. The second surface forms a plurality of pressing punches aligned with the plurality of receiving holes.
US08650742B2
The application relates to a process for preparing a crosslinked cable, including: —applying one or more layers including a polymer composition on a conductor, wherein at least one layer includes one or more free radical generating agents, —crosslinking by radical reaction said at least one layer including said free radical generating agent(s), —cooling the obtained crosslinked cable in pressurized conditions, and —reducing or removing the content of volatile decomposition products(s), which are originating from optionally in elevated temperature, from the crosslinked cable obtained from cooling and recovery step.
US08650740B2
A method for making a collated fastener assembly includes arranging a plurality of fasteners in a row parallel to one another, in a plane, and spaced from one another, preheating the fasteners, applying a molten polymer material onto the fasteners and conveying the fasteners with the polymer into a mold cavity. The fasteners are maintained in the plane. The polymer is molded onto the fasteners and between adjacent fasteners to form a molding having a collar encircling a shank of each fastener and a connecting portion between adjacent fasteners. The molding maintains the space between the fasteners. A cooling stream is introduced onto the fasteners and the molding as the fasteners and the molding exit from the mold cavity.
US08650739B2
A method for manufacturing a transmission electron microscope (TEM) micro-grid is provided. A support ring and a sheet-shaped carbon nanotube structure precursor are first provided. The sheet-shaped carbon nanotube structure precursor is then disposed on the support ring. The sheet-shaped carbon nanotube structure precursor is cut to form a sheet-shaped carbon nanotube structure in desired shape. The sheet-shaped carbon nanotube structure is secured on the support ring.
US08650735B2
A wheelchair docking system is provided to prevent accidental movement of a wheelchair away from a transfer object, such as a bed or toilet, while a person is transferring between the wheelchair and the object. The system includes a latch assembly and a post assembly, one of each which is mounted on the wheelchair and on the transfer object. The latch assembly is moveable between an open position to receive and release the post assembly and a closed position to retain the post assembly. The latch assembly is biased to the closed position. A lock is provided in the latch assembly to hold the latch assembly in the open position. In an alternative embodiment, the post assembly has interchangeable parts for mounting on different objects, and a clamp which is opened and closed by a dual-function pivotal post member.
US08650730B2
A clinching tool is provided. A further aspect of the present application locates an anvil and/or movable die members closer to one lateral outside surface of a die body than the opposite lateral outside surface. In another aspect, an offset clinch die and pneumatic tool are employed. Another aspect includes a die body having an anvil and two linearly movable die members which essentially surround a lateral outside surface of the anvil when in inward positions.
US08650712B2
A device for use in a door assembly that is positioned in a cabinet and defines a pivot axis. The device includes a base member adapted to be fixedly secured to the cabinet, an intermediate member slidingly engaged with the base member, and a cover connected to the intermediate member and having a hinge pin socket therein. The intermediate member includes a transversely extending adjustment screw associated therewith that defines a first axis. Rotation of the adjustment screw causes the intermediate member and cover to move in a direction substantially perpendicular to the first axis.
US08650709B2
A handle for a wand of a vacuum cleaning appliance includes a handgrip portion and a conduit for receiving an air flow. The handle includes an aperture for admitting ambient air into the conduit. A first valve occludes a first portion of the aperture, and a second valve occludes a second portion of the aperture. A control mechanism moves the first and second valves away from the aperture to admit ambient air into the conduit. To vary the air flow into the conduit, the control mechanism includes a first manually operable actuator located on the handle for moving both of the first and second valves away from the aperture, and a second manually operable actuator is located on the handle for moving only one of the first and second valves away from its respective portion of the aperture.
US08650700B1
A leaf blower wheel attachment that is connected to a canister suction attachment that is part of a typical leaf blower. The bottom end of the canister suction attachment is placed into each of two U-shaped attachment members. A pair of wheels are utilized, with each wheel being associated with one of the U-shaped attachment members. Each wheel has an associated wheel axle centrally disposed though a horizontal axis thereof, with each wheel axle operationally engaging the outer wall of each elongated U-shaped attachment members to secure the associated wheel to the canister. The canister suction attachment can then be dragged across a ground surface while in use instead of being carried.
US08650691B2
The present invention relates to a strand guiding device that comprises a curved body having a first end and a second end. The strand guiding device further comprises at least one channel extending from the first end to the second end inside the strand guiding device, the channel being arranged to be traversed longitudinally by a strand of a cable, and further arranged to hold the strand in place when under tension. The body of the guiding device is filled with a protective material for protecting the strand from corrosion and allowing later removal of the strand.
US08650690B2
An article of footwear includes an upper and a sole assembly secured to the upper. The sole assembly includes a mat formed of at least one randomly dispersed extruded tubular member, each tubular member being hollow in an in-use condition in which the mat provides support for a user's foot.
US08650679B1
A method for spreading a hammock is disclosed. The method may include selecting a hammock comprising a hammock base having a first end, a second end opposite the first end in a longitudinal direction, a first side, and a second side opposite the first side in a lateral direction. The method may further include suspending the first end of the hammock base from a first anchor and suspending the second end of the hammock base from a second anchor. Once suspended, the hammock base may be spread in the lateral direction using exclusively a dynamic spreader system. The dynamic spreader system may automatically adjust the amount of the spreading in response to changes in the weight, shape, or orientation of contents within the hammock base.
US08650677B2
A hoist for moving persons, provided with a base structure, provided with one lifting column having a straight longitudinal axis and a lower end and which is provided with a first actuator for realizing a lifting movement, provided with a clamping device which is connected to the lifting column so as to be movable in the direction of the longitudinal axis and has at least one set of cooperating clamping elements which are designed for clamping a person to be moved, provided with a horizontal shaft by which the lifting column is pivotally connected to the base structure, and provided with a second actuator connected to the lifting column and to the base structure, and configured for varying the pivotal position of the lifting column with respect to the base structure.
US08650673B1
A sump for a swimming pool or spa includes a grate having an elongated slot for inflow of water at a low velocity high flow rate. A housing includes an outlet for conveying water to an oversized suction line to maintain the low velocity high flow rate to the junction with a conventionally sized standard suction line in fluid communication with a suction pump. A bypass line discharges water into the housing when the slot is covered to thereby prevent suction at the slot sufficient to entrap a swimmer against the grate. The grate, a frame supporting the grate on the housing and the housing are devoid of elements that might cause entanglement of hair drawn into the sump. A hydrostatic valve may be coupled with the housing.
US08650670B2
An improved plunger comprises a generally V-shaped handle attached to a top distal end of a shaft. The handle comprises two mirrored arms that face inwards from a base so that neither of them nor the shaft shares a vertical or a horizontal plane. The handle is removably detachable from the plunger so that it can be washed, disinfected, and sanitized. At least one extension shaft portion extends a height of the shaft when it is not collapsed into and housed in the hollow shaft. A snaking attachments formed of a linearly aligned, spiral wound coil has an attachment end attachable to said dislodging protrusion.
US08656509B2
It has been difficult to highly accurately measure the profiles of samples using scanning probe microscopes at the time when scanning is performed due to scanning mechanism fluctuations in the non drive direction, i.e., vertical direction. The present invention is provided with, on the rear side of a sample stage, a high-accuracy displacement gauge for measuring fluctuation in the non drive direction, i.e., vertical direction, at the time when the sample stage is being scanned in the horizontal directions, and as a result, highly accurate planarity evaluation with accuracy of sample nm-order or less is made possible by correcting sample surface shape measurement results obtained using a probe.
US08656494B2
A system and method for optimization of AV processing of disk files. The system includes an AV scanner, a data cache module, an AV service and file analysis module. The optimization allows for reduction of time needed for the AV processing. Trusted files associated with a trusted key file are found. The trusted files that have been found are cached and excluded from further AV processing and the AV processing time is reduced.
US08656491B1
Remediating a suspicious element in a web page is disclosed. An indication of a suspicious element is received. A quarantine instruction is sent to a server of the web page. One example of a quarantine instruction is an instruction to block the page from being served. Another example of a quarantine instruction in as instruction to block an element of the page from being served.
US08656473B2
Systems and methods are provided for linking a web identity and a portable device to provide web access to a user from a vehicle. An example system includes a presence agent that may be configured to validate the presence of the portable device in the vehicle by recognizing a device identifier saved on the portable device. After the presence of the portable device is validated, a security manager may receive a user identifier, and verify if the user identifier corresponds with a known user value. Then, the security manager may send a user identity secure proxy to a credential manager. The credential manager may be configured to receive the user identity secure proxy, and in response, pass one or more credentials to a computing device onboard the vehicle. The credentials may indicate that the user is authorized to access one or more web services from the computing device.
US08656467B1
A device for communicating with other devices to allow them to access applications, comprises: at least a first application; authentication means for authenticating a communicating device; and access control means accessible by a communicating device requesting access to the first application without the communicating device having been authenticated by the authentication means. The device is further arranged to arbitrate whether access of the communicating device to the first application is granted or refused wherein if the arbitration requires an authentication of the communicating device, the access control means instructs the authentication means to authenticate the communicating device.
US08656465B1
In one example, a method includes intercepting, by a first security module, a request from a software application executing on the computing device to access a resource of the computing device. The first security module may include a first group of permissions received from a second security module included in an operating system. The second security module may control access by software applications executing on the computing devices to resources of the computing device based upon permissions granted to the software applications. The method may also include identifying a second group of permissions granted to the software application. The second group of permissions may be a subset of the first group of permissions. The method may also include determining, based upon the first group of permissions, whether the software application is allowed to access the resource. The method may also include controlling access to the resource, based on the determining.
US08656464B2
Upon obtaining second (first) class information corresponding to a second (first) device newly added to a network, the communication controller refers to fundamental request (notification) information and obtains request (notification) information corresponding to the obtained second (first) class information. The communication controller refers to notification (request) authorization information and obtains second (first) sender information associated with the notification (request) information indicative of the same processing as that indicated by the obtained request (notification) information. The communication controller creates request (notification) authorization information indicative of a combination of the first (second) sender information indicative of the second (first) device newly added to the network, the obtained request (notification) information, and first (second) destination information indicative of the same first (second) device as the first (second) device indicated by the obtained second (first) sender information.
US08656461B2
Various embodiments are disclosed relating to performing a trusted copy and paste operations between a source application and a target application. For example, a trust system may receive a paste request for pasting copied source content, and may compare a source trust level associated with the source content to a target trust level associated with a target application. In this way, for example, harmful or disruptive code may be prevented from being pasted into the target application.
US08656451B2
A policy application server and methods for use are described. The policy application server is a logical element of a policy-based control and charging system for a mobile data service network. The policy application server is configured to manage policies including creating, revising, formatting, and provisioning of policies. The policy application server is configured to assemble policy rules from policies and context data. Context data includes subscriber and service information needed to make a particular policy rule. The policy application server gathers context data from one or more network databases. The policy application server is configured to send policy rules to select ones of a plurality of policy decision engines. The policy application server manages the storing of policies, policy rules and formatted context data in select ones of a plurality of policy repositories.
US08656448B2
Methods, apparatus, products are disclosed for providing policy-based application services to an application running on a computing system. The computing system includes at least one compute node. The compute node includes an application and a plurality of application services of a service type. Providing policy-based application services to an application running on a computing system includes establishing, on the compute node, a service policy specifying one of the application services of the service type for use by the application, establishing a performance ruleset, the performance ruleset specifying rules for analyzing the performance of the computing system, measuring performance of the computing system, and adjusting the service policy in dependence upon the performance ruleset and the measured performance. Providing policy-based application services to an application running on a computing system may also include accessing, by the application, the specified application service.
US08656443B2
A server may be used to handle at least some of processing of content retrieved via and/or derived from Internet access operations of a plurality of set-top boxes (STBs). Resource allocation and/or utilization, and/or tasks or applications performed in the server during the processing may be configured based on control data, which may be determined by the server and which may comprise capabilities of links between the server and each of the plurality of STBs, requirements of the tasks, characteristics of the content and/or the Internet access operations, user preferences and/or interactions, and/or content provider preferences. The server may dynamically reconfigure the tasks and/or resources based on monitoring of its operations and/or changes of the control data. Configuring tasks and/or resources may comprise time slicing access to resources that are commonly used during concurrent servicing of at least some of the plurality of STBs by the support server.
US08656438B2
A queue management module receives a message to queue location information for multimedia content. The queue management module stores the location information in a queue corresponding to a subscriber. The queue management module receives a message for location information from a video distribution module. The queue management module transmits a message for retrieval of multimedia content to the video distribution module. In other examples, a queue agent module transmits a message for location information for multimedia content to a queue management module. The queue agent module receives a message for retrieval of content from the queue management module. The queue agent module retrieves the multimedia content from the remote content server using the location information received in the message for retrieval of content. A data storage module identifies available storage in limited storage provided for the subscriber and stores the retrieved multimedia content in the limited storage for the subscriber.
US08656435B2
A method of controlling revelation of one or more metadata items is disclosed. Each of the one or more metadata items is associated with one or more parts of an audio-visual data stream (101). The method comprises: for a given one or more parts (103,105) of the audio-visual data stream (101), revealing one or more metadata items (113,115,117) associated with the given one or more parts (103,105) of the audio-visual data stream (101) only after the given one or more parts (103,105) of the audio-visual data stream (101) have been accessed.
US08656433B2
A TV program information management method has steps of creating a channel information table, receiving and updating channel program information, generating arranged channel information and receiving download request. A management platform generates an arranged channel information according to the channel information table and the updating channel program information. The arranged channel information is hierarchical information related to cable providers, grouped channels by similarity that are provided by the cable providers, programs of the channels and ratings of the programs. A remote control downloads the arranged channel information therein so a desired program may be selected easily.
US08656430B2
A processing system includes a memory module that stores an electronic program guide (EPG) authoring application. A processing module executes the EPG authoring application including a graphical user interface that responds to input from an end user. The EPG authoring application creates EPG configuration data to configure an EPG application of a client device associated with the end user.
US08656426B2
An end-user rendering system including an advertisement database to receive advertisements, and store the advertisements therein, a state database to store information, a decision model optimization module to receive a tree-type decision model and optimize the tree-type decision model based on at least some of the information stored in the state database, an advertisement decision module to evaluate the optimized tree-type decision model and select an advertising campaign, the selected advertising campaign having at least one advertisement, and a rendering module to render the at least one advertisement of the selected advertising campaign. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
US08656420B2
A system for providing a routing service that enables a client to locate a target service in distributed computing environment that supports multiple communications protocols. The system includes a main database and a routing mechanism. The main database has routing information. The routing mechanism can be distributed in multiple instances. The routing mechanism includes a local database. The local database stores an extract of the main database. The routing mechanism uses the local database to make routing decisions. To locate the target service, the client first obtains a reference to the routing mechanism. The client then sends a request with input parameters to the routing mechanism. The routing mechanism then returns output parameters to the client. The output parameters contains a reference and/or associated properties of the target service depending on the type of the target service. The client analyzes the returned output parameters and locates the target service.
US08656417B2
An application programming interface (API) provides telecommunication services in the form of a resource modeled as an object, which object can be essentially any coherent and meaningful concept that may be addressed. The API model permits simpler and more intuitive invocation and usage of the API. The object model for the API avoids having to understand service infrastructure for proper API invocation and tends to increase the usability of the service represented by the API. With the object-modeled resource, the device can be made to appear to an application programmer as a webpage, so that interacting with the device is the same as interacting with a webpage, such as by utilizing HTTP requests and responses. The object-model API can increase the ease with which an application programmer can utilize the services offered, as well as increase the ease with which the API may be integrated into an overall communication system.
US08656406B2
In a system including a load balancer to select a virtual server to which a request is to be transferred, the load balancer includes a function to monitor resource use states of physical and virtual servers and a function to predict a packet loss occurring in a virtual switch. The request count of requests processible by each virtual server is calculated based on the resource amount available for the virtual server and a packet loss rate of the virtual switch, to thereby select a virtual server capable of processing a larger number of requests.
US08656399B2
A computer-implemented method of performing runtime analysis on and control of a multithreaded computer program. One embodiment of the present invention can include identifying threads of a computer program to be analyzed. Under control of a supervisor thread, a plurality of the identified threads can be folded together to be executed as a folded thread. The execution of the folded thread can be monitored to determine a status of the identified threads. An indicator corresponding to the determined status of the identified threads can be presented in a user interface that is presented on a display.
US08656384B2
A system and method of providing a user with a post installation configuration file include providing a user with a list of software applications that are available for installation. At least one software application selection from the list of applications is received by the system. At least one post installation configuration script associated with the use selected software application is retrieved, the at least one post installation configuration script using a common user interface for a plurality of software application from the list of software applications. The at least one post installation configuration script associated with the use selected software application and the at least one user selected software application are packaged into a user package.
US08656378B2
Memoization may be deployed using a configuration file or database that identifies functions to memorize, and in some cases, includes input and result values for those functions. At compile time, functions defined in the configuration file may be captured and memoized. During compilation or other pre-execution analysis, the executable code may be modified or otherwise decorated to include memoization code. The memoization code may store results from a function during the first execution, then merely look up the results when the function may be called again. The memoized value may be stored in the configuration file or in another data store. In some embodiments, the modified executable code may operate in conjunction with an execution environment, where the execution environment may optionally perform the memoization.
US08656373B2
A system and method for deploying one or more graphical programs on a personal digital assistant (PDA). One or more selected graphical programs may be programmatically converted to an executable format that can be executed by the portable computing device. For example, the graphical programs may be initially represented as a plurality of data structures that define or specify the operation of the respective graphical programs, and conversion software program may operate to access these data structures from memory and convert the data structures to an executable format suitable for the portable computing device. The executable may be transferred to the portable computing device for execution.
US08656361B2
A debugger session is initiated to monitor application execution. A debugger canvas corresponding to the debugger session is identified and displayed. The displayed debugger canvas includes one or more code bubbles created during a prior debugger session. The one or more code bubbles already present on the displayed debugger canvas are reused during the current debugger session. Accordingly, existing code bubbles and bubble sets are reused on a debugger canvas when entering a debug session, thus providing a more stable and manageable view for debugging an application in an integrated development environment. The code fragments in code bubbles on a debugger canvas can be analyzed, inspected, and edited during or after a debug session. Notations can also be added to a debugger canvas in the form of note bubbles and context data bubbles.
US08656356B2
A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for creating an OWL ontology from a Java source code, wherein the Java source code includes a plurality of Java classes. Each of these Java classes includes one or more Java members and one or more Java objects. The Java objects are used to instantiate each of the Java classes. An OWL class is created for each of the Java classes, and an OWL concept is created for each of the Java members. Further, an OWL instance is created for each of the Java objects. Each of the OWL classes, the OWL concepts, and the OWL instances are assigned data type properties and object properties. Subsequently, each of the OWL classes and relations between them, each of the OWL concepts, and each of the OWL instances are included to form the OWL ontology.
US08656351B2
A system and method for configuring a state diagram with graphical source code is described. The state diagram may be created in response to user input. The state diagram may include a plurality of state icons and a plurality of connector elements interconnecting the state icons, where the state icons represent a plurality of states and wherein the connector elements represent transitions between the states. Graphical source code may be associated with one or more of the state icons.
US08656343B2
An artifact update notification system that includes a server computer and client computer is discussed and described. The server computer stores artifact preferences, determined according to objective and subjective criteria, of artifact characteristics. The client computer executes a software development environment that makes use of a software artifact. The server computer and client computer interact to perform an update cycle. The update cycle includes the server computer communicating to the client computer whether there is an actionable change to the software artifact with respect to the artifact preferences. If there has been an actionable change to the software artifact, the client computer performs an update action in the software development environment in response to the actionable change. A related artifact update notification method is also described, as is a computer-readable storage medium that includes instructions for operation of a computer to execute a related artifact update notification method.
US08656338B2
Technologies are generally described for hardware synthesis using thermally aware scheduling and binding. Multiple versions of a hardware design may be generated, each having variations of schedule and binding results. The scheduling and binding may be performed such that thermal profiles of the multiple versions have thermal peaks that are distant between the versions. The increased physical distance between the thermal peaks of the versions can give the versions unique thermal characteristics. A schedule of rotation between the multiple versions of the design may be constructed such that the thermal profile of the integrated circuit balances out during operation. A linear programming framework may be used to analyze the multiple designs and construct a thermally aware rotation scheduling and binding. For example, the K most efficient versions may be selected and then durations for operating each version within a rotation may be determined.
US08656337B2
A method, device, and article for assisting in the design of a logic circuit. The method can be such that: logic circuit description data is acquired, a first netlist is generated which is logically integrated with a first frequency based on the acquired logic circuit description data, and a second netlist is generated which is logically integrated with a second frequency higher than the first frequency based on the acquired logic circuit description data, logical operation elements and the wiring for the logical operation elements are arranged based on the first netlist, and a timing report is outputted which is related to the execution timing for each block divided into a predetermined wiring unit, and any block not satisfying the desired operational speed based on the outputted timing report is extracted, the first netlist is replaced with the second netlist for any extracted block, and placement and routing is performed.
US08656334B2
A method, system, and computer usable program product for multiple threshold voltage cell families (mVt families) based integrated circuit design are provided in the illustrative embodiments. The integrated circuit includes cells, and a cell includes an electronic component. A design process is initialized by using cells from the mVt families in the design. The cells from the mVt families are included in iterative manipulation of the design. The cells from the mVt families are further included in violation cleanup and subsequent steps of the design process. A version of the design is produced that is usable to implement the circuit with the cells from the mVt families.
US08656333B1
A plurality of approaches for forming a semiconductor device using an adaptive patterning method is disclosed. Some approaches include placing a semiconductor die unit on a carrier element, calculating trace geometry for a second set of traces, constructing a prestratum comprising a first set of traces, and constructing the second set of traces according to the calculated trace geometry. Forming the semiconductor device may further include electrically connecting at least one of the first set of traces to at least one of the second set of traces, and electrically connecting at least one bond pad of the semiconductor die unit to a destination pad through the at least one of the first set of traces and the at least one of the second set of traces.
US08656330B1
In one embodiment of the invention, a design verifier is disclosed including a model extractor and a bounded model checker having an arithmetic satisfiability solver. The arithmetic satisfiability solver searches for a solution in the form of a numeric assignment of numbers to variables that satisfies each and every one of the one or more numeric formulas. Conflict in the search, results in the deduction of one or more new numeric formulas that serve to guide the search toward a solution. If the search finds a numeric assignment that satisfies each and every one of the one or more numeric formulas, it indicates that a functional property of the system is violated.
US08656329B1
A system and method are provided for generating a programmably implemented model which emulates a power delivery network serving an integrated circuit (IC) core in an electronic system. The system and method generally comprise measures for establishing a power integrity (PI) topology including models for a voltage regulator module that generates at least one predetermined supply voltage level, and for a conductive power rail portion of the power delivery network (PDN). The system and method further comprise measures for interconnecting to the conductive power rail portion model a first behavioral model indicative of the current consumption characteristics of the IC core, and a second behavioral model indicative of the current consumption of an IO interface buffer driving an output signal of the electronic system.
US08656326B1
The circuit design process requires ways to reduce the power consumption of large integrated circuits and system-on-chip designs. This is typically done by introducing a process of clock gating thereby enabling or disabling flip-flops associated with specific functional blocks within the circuit. However, such changes in the circuit require synthesis and verification to ensure correctness of design and operation as sequential clock gating changes the state function dynamically. It is therefore necessary to define synthesis methods adapted to such dynamic changes in the design. According to an embodiment a sequential clock gating method uses an exclusive-OR technique to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art methods.
US08656319B2
A method of optical proximity correction (OPC) convergence control that includes providing a lithography system having a photomask and an illuminator. The method further includes performing an exposure by the illuminator on the photomask. Also, the method includes optimizing an optical illuminator setting for the lithography system with a defined gate pitch in a first direction in a first template. Additionally, the method includes determining OPC correctors to converge the OPC results with a target edge placement error (EPE) to produce a first OPC setting for the first template. The first OPC setting targets a relatively small EPE and mask error enhancement factor (MEEF)of the defined gate pitch in the first template. In addition, the method includes checking the first OPC setting for a relatively small EPE, MEEF and DOM consistency with the first template of the defined gate pitch in a second, adjacent template.
US08656316B2
A device, system and method to present electronic content on a first mobile electronic device in communication and configured to receive electronic content from a second electronic device. In accordance with a system, a first mobile electronic device having a first processor, a first short-range communications subsystem coupled to the first processor, and a first display coupled to the first processor; and a second mobile electronic device having a second processor, a second short-range communications subsystem coupled to the processor, a long-range communications subsystem coupled to the processor and operable to couple to a content server via a communication network, and a second display coupled to the second processor, wherein a short-range wireless connection is established between the first and second short-range communications subsystems of the first and second mobile electronic devices.
US08656315B2
In general, this disclosure describes techniques for moving a graphical selector. In one example, a method includes activating, by a computing device, a graphical key that is displayed with a presence-sensitive interface of the computing device. Upon activation of the graphical key, the method also includes receiving gesture input corresponding to a directional gesture using the presence-sensitive interface of the computing device and moving a graphical selector displayed with the presence-sensitive interface from a first graphical location to a second graphical location by at least one selected increment based on a property of the gesture input.
US08656313B2
A display system manages the states of two cursors that are situated on an interactive window of a display screen, as a function of the last actions carried out by the crew.
US08656312B2
In a content display apparatus in which a plurality of contents are displayed according to the order of metadata added to each content, the plurality of contents are arranged hierarchically by metadata and a group of metadata, and an array of plurality of contents arranged hierarchically is formed. Icons representing contents are displayed on a display device according to the order of the array of plurality of contents formed, and when a command for scroll is made for the displayed icons, icons in the hierarchy level to which the icons belong are scroll displayed. The scroll speed for scroll displaying the icons is changed, and based on the changed scroll speed, the hierarchy level is changed so that icons in different hierarchy level are displayed and scrolled.
US08656311B1
At least some embodiments of the present disclosure include a method for compositing media and non-media content of user interface for display on a device. The method includes constructing a data structure having a hierarchy of layers associated with the user interface of the device. The method further includes determining whether each layer of the data structure is associated with media or non-media content. The data structure or layer tree is traversed in order to determine whether each of the layers of the data structure is associated with media or non-media content. The method further includes detaching a layer associated with media content from the data structure. The method further includes storing media content in a first memory location. The method further includes storing non-media content in a second memory location. The method further includes compositing the media and non-media content for display on the device.
US08656309B2
Media menu items are generated within a media interface environment. Media menu item abstractions are generated, one of the media menu item abstractions arranged in a foreground position, and one or more of the media menu item abstractions arranged in background positions in the media interface environment. Selection of a media menu items transitions to a corresponding content menu interface.
US08656300B2
The present invention provides a system or method for displaying rich presentation taskbar buttons for a corresponding application. In one example, the rich presentation taskbar button may receive content from an application through a programming interface. The present invention further relates to a system and method for displaying a rich presentation taskbar button and for displaying and/or dismissing a thumbnail of an application window associated with the rich presentation taskbar button. The present invention may further include a system and method of pinning the thumbnail on a display or dismissing a thumbnail. The present invention also relates to a system and method for displaying multiple taskbar buttons in a taskbar including controlling the size of individual taskbar buttons, consolidating taskbar buttons and placing taskbar buttons into an overflow based on the type of taskbar button in the taskbar.
US08656294B2
A user interface (UI) for a text editing application executing on an electronic device, such as a wireless communication device, partitions a touch-sensitive display into two functional areas, a user input area and a text composition area. The UI displays text output in the text composition area and allows a user to scroll “user documents” through the input area. From an active user document displayed in the input area, users can automatically copy-and-paste text directly into a text area without having to exit the text editing application.
US08656293B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for configuring mobile devices using emulations of the mobile devices.
US08656290B1
Collaborative editing of electronic documents in realtime is provided. A host serves a client code over a network to a plurality of clients that each employ a browser to run the client code. The client code revises the text document locally in response to user input, frequently sends those edits to the host, receives updates from the other clients via the host, and revises the local text document accordingly. Each client, in some embodiments, stores three variables, one for edits not yet reported to the host, one for edits reported by not yet acknowledged, and one for the text document as modified by the acknowledged edits. Updates from the other clients are applied to the three variables according to certain rules. A composition of the three variables yields a version of the text document. The host keeps records of which edits were introduced by which client.
US08656284B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for establishing Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements and metrics for different types of actual user activities over IP networks. These activities include, but are not limited to web browsing, sending and receiving email, file downloading and uploading, peer to peer (P2P) networking, VoIP, online gaming, and media streaming. The measurement of the QoE metrics is based on both objective and subjective metrics, including network characteristics, such as packet loss and latency, along with empirical observations of the user activities.
US08656282B2
An authoring tool for post-production insertion of tags and pointers into a video sequence is disclosed. Such an authoring tool can facilitate tag and pointer coordinate capture and tracking by using position detection (e.g., via a touchscreen) coupled to a display system. In one embodiment, a method can include: (i) selecting a video frame loop for viewing on a display device; (ii) receiving a list of tags for positioning within the selected video frame loop; and (iii) positioning a selected tag from the list of tags in one or more frames of the video frame loop. Also, the method can include positioning a pointer corresponding to the selected tag in the one or more frames.
US08656265B1
To help reduce latency when an application presents an embedded web view, the application may provide to a web view controller not only a base uniform resource indicator of a web application defining the web view but also preview data for the web view controller to render for presentation together with a cached version of the web view. In accordance with script logic defined by the web application, the web view controller may then (i) incorporate the provided preview data into the cached version of the web view and render the result as a preview view for presentation at a user interface, (ii) download instance data for the web view while the preview view is presented, and (iii) upon receipt of the instance data, establish and render a full version of the web view based on the instance data, for presentation at the user interface.
US08656256B2
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for operating a multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory circuit. Data is read from a memory block of a plurality of memory blocks in the MLC flash memory circuit, wherein each of the plurality of memory blocks can operate in one of at least three modes of operation comprising an MLC mode, a single-level cell (SLC) mode and a defective mode, and wherein the memory block is initially operating in the MLC mode. Error correction is performed on the read data to correct read errors in the read data. A determination is made if a number of bits corrected by the error correction exceeds a predetermined threshold value. If the number of bits corrected by the error correction exceeds the predetermined threshold value, the operating mode of the memory block is switched from the MLC mode to the SLC mode.
US08656254B2
A controller includes a link interface that is to couple to a first link to communicate bi-directional data and a second link to transmit unidirectional error-detection information. An encoder is to dynamically add first error-detection information to at least a portion of write data. A transmitter, coupled to the link interface, is to transmit the write data. A delay element is coupled to an output from the encoder. A receiver, coupled to the link interface, is to receive second error-detection information corresponding to at least the portion of the write data. Error-detection logic is coupled to an output from the delay element and an output from the receiver. The error-detection logic is to determine errors in at least the portion of the write data by comparing the first error-detection information and the second error-detection information, and, if an error is detected, is to assert an error condition.
US08656249B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses for multi-level layer decoding of non-binary LDPC codes. For example, an apparatus is disclosed for layer decoding of multi-level low density parity check encoded data. The apparatus includes a low density parity check decoder operable to perform layered decoding of a plurality of circulant submatrices from an H matrix. The apparatus also includes a parity check calculator connected to the low density parity check decoder, operable to detect whether a stopping criterion has been met in the low density parity check decoder. The low density parity check decoder is also operable to end a decoding operation at less than a maximum number of iterations when the stopping criterion is met.
US08656245B2
A digital communication decoding method for low-density parity-check coded messages. The decoding method decodes the low-density parity-check coded messages within a bipartite graph having check nodes and variable nodes. Messages from check nodes are partially hard limited, so that every message which would otherwise have a magnitude at or above a certain level is re-assigned to a maximum magnitude.
US08656237B2
A scan test architecture facilitates low power testing of semiconductor circuits by selectively dividing the serial scan paths into shorter sections. Multiplexers between the sections control connecting the sections into longer or shorted paths. Select and enable signals control the operation of the scan path sections. The output of each scan path passes through a multiplexer to compare circuits on the semiconductor substrate. The compare circuits also receive expected data and mask data. The compare circuits provide a fail flag output from the semiconductor substrate.
US08656235B2
In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method includes receiving, in a processor, a device description code identifying components of a device and connections between the components, wherein some of the components and connections form boundary cells used for testing the device. The method can include processing, in the processor, the device description code to determine that the components and the connections meet a standard governing components and connections necessary for the boundary cells. The method can also include traversing the connections between the components to determine that the connections meet the standard, and reporting, via one or more output devices, that the device complies with the standard.
US08656230B2
A method for driving an electronic device stably is provided. The electronic device includes a power supply circuit to which power is fed by power sequentially supplied from a contactless power feeding device, and a plurality of loads to which power is sequentially supplied from the power supply circuit. Further, a method for driving an electronic device stably is provided. The electronic device includes a power supply circuit to which power is fed by power supplied from a contactless power feeding device, and one or more loads to which the power supply circuit repeatedly supplies power. The power supply potential Vdd is restored to more than or equal to 90% of the initial potential Vdd0 within an interval in which the power supply circuit is not connected to a load; then, the next load may be connected to the power supply circuit, and may be driven.
US08656227B2
An on-line client service method for a storage apparatus includes establishing a link between a client host and the storage apparatus for detecting the current status of the storage apparatus, the client host generating a diagnostic result of the storage apparatus, the client host transmitting the diagnostic result to a far-end server, the far-end server determining whether the storage apparatus functions abnormally according to the diagnostic result. If the storage apparatus functions abnormally, the client host reloads a firmware provided by the far-end server to the storage apparatus, and determines whether the storage apparatus functions abnormally after the storage apparatus is reloaded with the firmware.
US08656223B2
An information handling system includes a peripheral component interconnect express root complex, a basic input output system, and a root complex mirroring block. The peripheral component interconnect express root complex includes a plurality of peripheral component interconnect express ports. The basic input output system is in communication with the peripheral component interconnect express root complex, and is configured to detect a peripheral component interconnect express adaptor configuration, and to set a peripheral component interconnect express mirroring setting based on the peripheral component interconnect express adaptor configuration. The root complex mirroring block is in communication with the basic input output system, and is configured to mirror data between a first peripheral component interconnect express adaptor and a second peripheral component interconnect express adaptor based on the peripheral component interconnect express mirroring setting.
US08656216B2
A failure diagnostic system (100) for a multicore CPU having installed therein a plurality of CPU cores (11) that is configured to be switched from a SMP mode to an AMP mode includes: load prediction means for predicting a processing load of the multicore CPU; mode switching means for switching at least one of the CPU cores (11) to the AMP mode when the processing load is less than a threshold; and failure diagnostic means for performing a failure diagnosis of the CPU core that has been switched to the AMP mode.
US08656214B2
A dual ported replicated data cache. The cache is configured for storing input data blocks. The cache includes an augmenter for producing an augmented data block with parity information from the input data block, a first memory array for storing the augmented data block, and a second memory array for storing the augmented data block.
US08656207B2
A method performs statistical static timing analysis of a network that includes a phase-locked loop and a feedback path. The feedback path comprises a set of delays operatively connected from the output of the phase-locked loop back to the input of the phase-locked loop. One embodiment herein computes a statistical feedback path delay for the feedback path. The method can use a separate statistical parameter to represent random uncorrelated delay variation for each delay in the feedback path. The method also computes an output arrival time for the phase-locked loop based on the negative of the statistical feedback path delay.
US08656199B2
A power-down method for a system including a plurality of volatile memory devices is disclosed. The method includes providing some of the plurality of volatile memory devices or some memory regions of the volatile memory devices to operate in a self-refresh mode, thereby increasing a rebooting operation speed and reducing power consumption.
US08656198B2
A method for power management is disclosed. The method may include monitoring requests for access to a memory of a memory subsystem by one or more processor cores; and monitoring requests for access to the memory conveyed by an input/output (I/O) unit. The method may further include determining if at least a first amount of time has elapsed since any one of the processor cores has asserted a memory access request and determining if at least a second amount of time has elapsed since the I/O unit has conveyed a memory access request. A first signal may be asserted if the first and second amounts of time have elapsed. A memory subsystem may be transitioned from operating in a full power state to a first low power state responsive to assertion of the first signal.
US08656190B2
A one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be used in any computing system to store system information such as security violations and policies for responding to them. A one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be cryptographically signed, encrypted with a per device key and accessible by only the most privileged software executed by a computing device, e.g., hypervisor or operating system kernel. A one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be mirrored in RAM for performance. Recordable event fields in a software repository may be one-time-settable without the ability to reset them in a field operation mode whereas they may be resettable in a different mode such as a manufacturing mode. Memory allocated to a one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be reset, reclaimed, reassigned, scaled and otherwise flexibly adapted to changing conditions and priorities in the lifespan of a computing device, which may be particularly useful for service-backed consumer devices.
US08656187B2
A method operating on a computer begins by generating a read command to read at least some of a plurality of data slices from a dispersed storage network. The method continues by receiving the at least some of the plurality of data slices. The method continues by performing a reverse information dispersal algorithm on at least some of the plurality of data slices to produce a plurality of transposed data elements. The method continues by reverse transposing the plurality of transposed data elements to recover data elements of a data segment.
US08656186B2
A method, system and program are provided for enabling selective access to multiple users' encrypted data in a single storage cartridge. A unique, derived key is generated for each user's data by performing cryptographic operations on a combination of a common base key and metadata related to the data to be encrypted (e.g. its total block count). The base data key is wrapped with one or more encryption keys to form one or more encryption encapsulated data keys (EEDKs). The base key and the derived key are wrapped to create a session encrypted data key (SEDK), which along with the EEDKs, are conveyed to the tape drive, where the SEDK is decrypted. The EEDKs are then stored in one or more places on the storage cartridge. The base key and the derived key are used to encrypt a predetermined user's data, with the derived key stored on the cartridge with the encrypted data. The encrypted data may be subsequently decrypted by retrieving the EEDK and decrypting it with a decryption key to extract the base data key. The extracted base data key can then be used with other information to calculate the derived key. Once calculated, the derived key is used to decrypt its associated encrypted data.
US08656185B2
A method and apparatus for preventing compromise of data stored in a memory by assuring the deletion of data and minimizing data remanence affects is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of monitoring the memory to detect tampering, and if tampering is detected, generating second signals having second data differing from the first data autonomously from the first processor; providing the generated second signals to the input of the memory; and storing the second data in the memory. Several embodiments are disclosed, including self-powered embodiments and those which use separate, dedicated processors to generate, apply, and verify the zeroization data.
US08656182B2
A security technique to reduce the risk of unauthorized release of a software object. The technique allows identification of an individual responsible for the unauthorized release by marking each object with information, which acts as a fingerprint from which a person manipulating the object in a development environment can be identified. The development environment may be configured to quickly and automatically mark the object whenever a manipulation that may precede an unauthorized release occurs. To prevent circumventing the security technique, the object may be configured to enforce a requirement for a valid fingerprint such that the object is disabled if the fingerprint is removed or altered. Despite the marking, personally identifiable information is not revealed because the fingerprint is generated through a one-way cryptographic function performed on identifying information.
US08656180B2
Systems and methods for activating a token to enable a user to enter a transaction based on information received from a recovery key and a passcode are described herein.
US08656179B2
A system for encrypting Secure Volumes using an encryption key which is saved in the open after being encoded inside a hardware token device utilizing a secure secret which is stored inside the device, and which never leaves the device. The encrypted volume can be accessed again only after a hardware token has decoded this encryption key. The system also provides means whereby the holder of a Master token and the holder of a Grand Master token may also have access to the volume as long as the user token was previously registered to the Master token, and the Master Token was previously registered to the Grand master token before the secured volume was encrypted. Also, the system allows members of user groups so designated at the time the volume is encrypted, to be able to have access to the volume as long as their token was previously registered with the same Master Token as the user that encrypted the volume and as long as the token encrypting the volume was also a member of the authorized user group.
US08656174B2
The invention provides a method of recovering from de-synchronization attacks includes registering original and altered digital content using nonlinear transformations to iteratively attempt to provide better-approximated registration. Approximation occurs at more than one level of granularity, by selecting among a greater number of possible transformation functions at each step. Transformations and comparisons might be conducted directly on pixel values, on coefficients for a set of basis wavelets, or on some transformation of the original and altered digital content. A human operator might assist this process, such as by suggesting transformations or providing evaluation of the degree of registration. Upon resynchronization, embedded identifying information in the original digital content is recovered.
US08656173B2
An electronic image data verification program disclosed herein is capable of detecting presence or absence of a change, specifying a changed portion (the position of a change) if present, and making the presence or absence and the changed portion provable to third parties, by generating partial signature information separately from electronic image information to be registered, by dividing and maintaining the partial signature information, and by clearly separating functions/roles of the electronic image information (original information) and the partial signature information (verification information). The present invention comprises: a partial signature information generation section 40 that uses partial information of electronic image information, to generate partial signature information for specifying presence or absence of a change to the electronic image information and a changed portion if a change has been made; a registration section 70 that registers the electronic image information and the partial signature information generated from the electronic image information; a storage section 80; and a partial signature verification section 50 that uses the electronic image information and the partial signature information registered by the registration section, to verify presence or absence of the change to the electronic image information, or a changed portion if a change has been made to the electronic image information.
US08656170B2
Techniques are provided for determining freshness of control messages in a network. At a first device that is to enter into a secure communication session with a second device, timestamp information and time window size information are sent to the second device in a control message during a first exchange between a first device and a second device. At the first device, timestamp information and time window size information are obtained from a control message received from the second device by the first device during the first exchange. At the first device, the freshness of a control message is tested based on the timestamp information of the control message during a second exchange and the time window size information received from the second device during the first exchange.
US08656165B2
A method of displaying electronic documents on a vehicle display screen is described. The vehicle includes a display screen embedded in a window of the vehicle in a manner visible from outside the vehicle. The method includes storing the digital certificate in a memory unit of the control module. The method includes displaying information on the display screen by retrieving the digital certificate. Also, upon validating the digital certificate, the information associated with the digital certificate is displayed on the display screen, wherein the information includes an electronic document that indicates at least one of compliance with a local law, valid insurance, validation of payment of taxes associated with the vehicle, and a parking receipt for parking the vehicle, wherein the display screen comprises at least one button, manipulable by a user outside of said vehicle, to select a display mode of said display screen.
US08656155B2
Digital certificate public information is extracted using a processor from at least one digital certificate stored within at least one digital certificate storage repository. The extracted digital certificate public information is stored to at least one dynamically-created certificate public information directory. At least a portion of the digital certificate public information stored within the at least one dynamically-created certificate public information directory is provided in response to a digital certificate public information request.
US08656150B2
An overclocking method applied to a computer system includes the following steps: setting a first operating voltage and a first clock rate; generating a first control signal to a power supply and generating a second control signal to a clock generator according to the first operating voltage and the first clock rate, respectively; controlling the computer system into a sleep mode; resuming the computer system from the sleep mode after a predetermined time; restarting the power supply and the clock generator, and generating the first operating voltage by the power supply according to the first control signal and, generating the first clock rate by the clock generator according to the second control signal; and setting a parameter of a memory controller in a north bridge chip of the computer system via the first clock rate and the first operating voltage.
US08656142B2
An illustrative embodiment provides a computer-implemented process for managing multiple speculative assist threads for data pre-fetching that sends a command from an assist thread of a first processor to second processor and a memory, wherein parameters of the command specify a processor identifier of the second processor, responsive to receiving the command, reply by the second processor indicating an ability to receive a cache line that is a target of a pre-fetch, responsive to receiving the command replying by the memory indicating a capability to provide the cache line, responsive to receiving replies from the second processor and the memory, sending, by the first processor, a combined response to the second processor and the memory, wherein the combined response indicates an action, and responsive to the action indicating a transaction can continue sending the requested cache line, by the memory, to the second processor into a target cache level on the second processor.
US08656141B1
An integrated circuit includes a plurality of tiles. Each tile includes a pipelined processor configured to process multiple streams of instructions for the processor; and a switch including switching circuitry to forward data over data paths from other tiles to one or more pipeline stages of the processor and to switches of other tiles. At least some of the data is forwarded based on one or more streams of instructions for the switch.
US08656140B2
An internal buffer is provided for a DRP core. A selector SEL switches input/output destination of the DRP core between external memory and an internal buffer. Control software executed by a CPU core receives information a pipeline of configurations for a sequence of target processing and generates combinations as to whether the processing result is transferred between the configurations via the external memory or via the internal buffer as transfer manners. Next, for each manner, bandwidth and performance of the external memory used by the DRP core in the manner are calculated. The manner of the best performance satisfying a previously specified bandwidth restriction is selected among the manners and the selector SEL is switched in accordance with the manner.
US08656124B2
A method for re-establishing a backup relationship between first and second volumes associated with one or more storage media in a data storage system is provided. The method comprises storing first information for preserving the backup relationship, in response to or in advance of receiving a request to terminate the backup relationship; recording changes to the first or second volumes that occur subsequent to terminating the backup relationship; and re-establishing the backup relationship between the first and second volumes according to the first information such that the first and second volumes are synchronized by merging the recorded changes with the first or second volumes.
US08656121B2
Fine-grained detection of data modification of original data is provided by associating separate guard bits with granules of memory storing original data from which translated data has been obtained. The guard bits indicating whether the original data stored in the associated granule is protected for data coherency. The guard bits are set and cleared by special-purpose instructions. Responsive to attempting access to translated data obtained from the original data, the guard bit(s) associated with the original data is checked to determine whether the guard bit(s) fail to indicate coherency of the original data, and if so, discarding of the translated data is initiated to facilitate maintaining data coherency between the original data and the translated data.
US08656116B2
A shared memory made on a chip based on semiconductors comprising: an integer number m, greater than one, of data buses; m address and control buses; m input/output interfaces, each input/output interface being connected to one of the m data buses and to one of the m address and control buses; an integer number p, greater than one, of memory banks, each memory bank comprising: a memory, comprising a data input/output and an address and control input controlled by each of the address and control buses; a block of m switches, each of the m switches being connected on the one hand to a memory data bus, said memory data bus being connected to the data input/output of the memory, and on the other hand to one of the m data buses.
US08656114B2
In general, the present invention relates to data cache processing. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system that provides reconfigurable dynamic cache which varies the operation strategy of cache memory based on the demand from the applications originating from different external general processor cores, along with functions of a virtualized hybrid core system. The system includes receiving a data request, selecting an operational mode based on the data request and a predefined selection algorithm, and processing the data request based on the selected operational mode. The system is further configured to delegate computational or memory resource needs to a plurality of sub-processing cores for processing to satisfy application demands.
US08656100B1
This invention is a system and method for managing provisioning of resources for one or more data storage networks using a new architecture.
US08656097B2
A method of controlling a hybrid hard disk drive. The method includes receiving a read command from a host; searching metadata of a file to be read; determining whether the metadata satisfies a predetermined setup condition; and if the metadata satisfies the setup conditions, copying the file to be read, from a first storage device and storing the file in a second storage device.
US08656088B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to throttling accesses to a flash memory device. The flash memory device is part of a storage system that includes the flash memory device and a second memory device. The throttling is performed by logic that is external to the flash memory device and includes calculating a throttling factor responsive to an estimated remaining lifespan of the flash memory device. It is determined whether the throttling factor exceeds a threshold. Data is written to the flash memory device in response to determining that the throttling factor does not exceed the threshold. Data is written to the second memory device in response to determining that the throttling factor exceeds the threshold.
US08656085B2
A flash memory device resilient to bit errors and a programming method suitable for the flash memory are provided. The flash memory device stores data in a parallel manner in a superpage which is generated by grouping a plurality of physical pages into a logical page. The flash memory device spreads input data using a predetermined spreading code to generate spread data. The spread data is stored on a superpage-by-superpage basis.
US08656084B2
A user device includes a flash memory configured to store an index including a plurality of index nodes and a controller configured to control the flash memory. The controller is configured to detect a pointer ID corresponding to a selected key of a first index node, translate the detected pointer ID to an index address by using a pointer table, and access a second index node corresponding to the selected key by using the index address.
US08656079B2
A method and apparatus are provided for controlling system management interrupts is disclosed. The method comprises: receiving an interrupt signal; determining a type associated with the interrupt signal; using the determined type to access control information indicating an action to be applied to the determined type of interrupt; and blocking, passing or remapping the interrupt signal in response to the control information. The apparatus comprises a memory, an interrupt unit and a logic circuit. The memory is adapted to store control information regarding a plurality of types of interrupt signals. The interrupt unit is adapted to receive the interrupt signal, and use the interrupt type contained in the interrupt signal to access the control information stored in the memory. The logic circuit is adapted to block, pass or remap said interrupt signal in response to the control information.
US08656078B2
Transaction identifier expansion circuitry is provided, along with a method of operating such circuitry. The transaction identifier expansion circuitry interfaces between a master device and interconnect circuitry used to couple the master device with a plurality of slave devices to enable transactions to be performed. Transaction analysis circuitry is responsive to each transaction in a sequence of transactions initiated by the master device, to compare at least one attribute of the transaction with predetermined attributes indicative of the target slave device for that transaction. Based on the comparison, an initial transaction identifier is then mapped to one of a plurality of revised transaction identifiers, such that the revised transaction identifier is dependent on the target slave device. Reordering circuitry is then arranged to buffer response transfers received from the interconnect circuitry destined for the master device, with each response transfer having the revised transaction identifier associated therewith. The reordering circuitry then re-orders the response transfers having regard to the original transaction order of those transactions within the sequence of transactions that had the same initial transaction identifier, prior to provision of each response transfer to the master device. By such an approach, the performance of a high performance master device can be maintained, by ensuring that for at least the transactions targeted to a particular subset of the slave devices, no intervention by deadlock avoidance circuitry within the interconnect is required when routing transactions to those slave devices, due to the use of different transaction identifiers when accessing those slave devices.
US08656076B2
The disclosed USB device holder includes a USB unit, a main body made of cardboard and having a receiving portion for receiving and maintaining the USB unit.
US08656059B2
Methods and structure for transferring administrative information through a communication interface. Features and aspects hereof provide for exchanging administrative information between an initiator device and a target device using read and write commands encoded with a reserved sub-tag value. In the context of a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) system, a portion of a parameter (e.g., the LBA parameter) of a read or write command (a Native Command Queuing command) is defined to encode a sub-tag value. One or more sub-tag values are reserved to indicate that the corresponding read or write command is related to the exchange of administrative information rather than the reading or writing of data on a storage device. A parameter value encoded in the LBA field or data length field of the read or write command indicates administrative data to be returned to the initiator or to be updated within the target device.
US08656058B2
A method for back-off retry with priority routing in a single, cohesive SAS expander includes routing a data transfer between an input of a single, cohesive SAS expander and an output of the single, cohesive SAS expander, wherein the single, cohesive expander includes a first SAS expander, and at least one additional SAS expander via at least one inter-expander link (IEL). The routing of data may further include routing a first OPEN request on a direct path through the first SAS expander to a port of a device and routing a second OPEN request on an alternate path from the first SAS expander and through a second SAS expander to the port of the device. The method further includes determining link availability between the second SAS expander and the port of the device, and, upon determination of a failed link or a busy link, re-routing the data transfer from the second SAS expander to the first SAS expander or a third SAS expander, or retrying the data transfer through the second SAS expander.
US08656055B2
A computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, apparatus, and system for converting and restoring an object are provided. In one embodiment, an object created by a server is serialized, at the server, into a compressed object format. The compressed object format is then inserted into a tag of a file. The file can then be sent from the server to the client at runtime. In another embodiment, a file is received, at a client. The client then automatically deserializes and loads the compressed data within the tag of the file into an object created by the client. The client then uses the object to load and invoke a view engine in order to render a view.
US08656049B2
A system for injecting code into an HTML file comprises a memory and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The memory stores code. The processor receives a request for content. The processor determines whether the request for content includes a request for compression and, if so, deletes the request for compression associated with the requested content. The processor retrieves the requested content. If the retrieved content is associated with an HTML file, then the processor injects the code into the HTML file to thereby modify the HTML file. The processor communicates the modified HTML file to a client.
US08656043B1
Apparatus and method for providing an adaptive personalized entertainment experience that is customized for each user. Details of playback or presentation of a composition to a user may be captured at one or more use-devices. The captured details may include user actions and user control actions that are associated with each played or presented composition. A target time for the playback or presentation of a composition to a user, and/or a targeted time between playbacks or presentation of a composition to a user, may be determined by using the captured details of the playback or presentation of compositions. A customized sequence of compositions may be automatically generated for each user by utilizing a history of the details of playback and/or presentation associated with the user; and/or the user actions and/or control actions. The personalized sequence may automatically adapt to changing user preferences and feedback over time.
US08656024B2
Transactional application processing in a distributed environment using an application-aware network infrastructure element is described. In an embodiment, an apparatus comprises a plurality of network interfaces, forwarding logic, and transaction manager logic. The plurality of network interfaces is operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks. The forwarding logic is coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and, when executed, is operable to receive packet flows therefrom and to forward the packet flows thereto. The transaction manager logic is encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed is operable to: receive first information that specifies one or more remote resources associated with an extended transaction, where the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and reserve the one or more remote resources by sending out one or more reservation requests over a network management protocol.
US08656021B2
The problem is solved by including a read unit reading operation information corresponding to an application according to an execution request and relating to an operation of the application; and a construction unit constructing an execution environment in which the application operates, based on the operation information read by the read unit.
US08656013B2
Data monitoring including: establishing a real-time connection between at least two processing entities; defining transfer preferences for data and metrics to be sent for monitoring; and sending the data and metrics from at least one sending entity to a collecting entity of the at least two processing entities using a data push process, wherein the data push process is based on the transfer preferences defined in advance for the data and metrics.
US08656009B2
A primary application comprising one or more executables is defined, and a network ontology for the primary application is determined and stored in a database, where the network ontology comprises one or more nodes of an enterprise network that communicate during execution of the one or more executables. Next, a change of state for at least one of the nodes is detected and used to determine one or more elements of the network ontology for the primary application that have a changed state. Further, an impact summary view is generated to indicate the elements of the primary application that have a changed state, and the impact summary view is displayed to a user.
US08656004B1
A method and apparatus for delivering selected multimedia content to a user of a mobile device in a pervasive computing environment is disclosed. Communication with a mobile device in the environment is established. A user profile and viewing history is received from the mobile device. Multimedia content is selected and sequenced for viewing by the user. The selection of multimedia content is based on search logic that includes the user profile and viewing history. Metadata is transmitted to the mobile device that is associated with the selected multimedia content.
US08656002B1
Systems and method for the management of resource dependent workflows are provided. One or more resource control devices monitor usage of a computing resource by server computing devices. Each resource control device may direct a server computing device to proceed with a workflow or to pause processing a workflow. A resource control device may further direct a server computing device to take resource conserving actions. When a computing resource is determined to be available, a resource control device may direct a paused server computing device to resume a workflow.
US08655999B2
A mechanism is provided in a storage management application that automatically reconfigures agents and scheduled probes of agents in cases where the agents do not automatically reconfigure themselves to manage a newly formed fabric after fragment segmentation. The solution does not burden the storage administrator to reconfigure agents or to reconfigure regularly scheduled inventory probes through storage management applications.
US08655995B2
Devices, systems and methods for commissioning a home network and inhibiting unaffiliated wireless communication devices that are physically proximate to each other from forming a wireless network. A wireless communication device may include a transceiver capable of communicating with at least a second device, a non-volatile memory capable of storing a network name, a controller, and a user input acceptance element capable of placing the controller in a network set-up mode. The controller may have a plurality of modes including the network set-up mode, as well as a status indicator for providing an indication of whether the device is operating with one of a parent status and a child status. A method for joining a wireless network may include entering a network set up mode, and scanning for a second device operating with a parent status. If the second device is operating with the parent status, the network name of the second device may be adopted as the network name. However, if there is no second device operating with the parent status, the network name may be established as either a new name or an existing name.
US08655987B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a bid to display in a predetermined area of a web page an organic-activity-stream entry matching particular story characteristics. The bid includes a bid amount and one or more targeting criteria. The method includes, n response to identifying an organic-activity-stream entry as matching the story characteristics, providing for display the organic-activity-stream entry in a predetermined area of a web page based at least in part on the bid amount and targeting criteria.
US08655977B2
An intermediate device communicatively connected to a host device and a sequential device in a storage area network. The host device is configured to issue different kinds of commands to the sequential device, including an inquiry command. The sequential device is configured to sequentially process requests from the host device. The intermediate device is configured to cache inquiry data about the sequential device itself in a cache memory connected to the intermediate device and service inquiry commands from the host device.
US08655967B1
A communications platform having an XML based message-processing platform that enables users to receive electronic messages. The processing platform may include at least one server that receives an electronic message addressed to the platform, wherein the electronic message includes a routing indicator including at least one user identity and one or more message attributes. The one or more message attributes may include “folios” which include information folios that at least one of intelligently store, display and synthesize “incoming” electronic messages. The platform further includes at least one database that stores a user-defined endpoint table, the endpoint table correlating endpoints with sender defined message attributes. In this embodiment, the platform may include a sender stylesheet and an electronic message stylesheet.
US08655963B2
A reception apparatus which receives a first and second message includes a determination unit configured to determine correspondence between the first message and the second message, an acquisition unit configured to acquire data length information expressing a data length from the first message, and an extraction unit configured to extract data which has the data length based on the data length information from the second message when the determination unit determines that the first message corresponds to the second message.
US08655955B2
A system for responding to requests using stream processing can include a processor configured to initiate executable operations including receiving a server request from a server, wherein the server is configured to generate the server request responsive to a client request, generating a request identifier associated with the server request, and, responsive to the server request, sending a stream processing request derived from the server request to a first stream processing node. The stream processing request can include the request identifier. Responsive to receiving a create response message including a stream processing result and the request identifier from a second stream processing node, the stream processing result can be correlated with the server request. A write response message specifying the stream processing result can be sent to the server.
US08655953B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for obtaining and presenting information to a user playing a media item identifying playback positions of a number of other users also playing the media item. In one embodiment, a first user begins playback of a media item. Information identifying playback positions of a number of second users also playing the media item is obtained from a playback information broker and presented to the first user. The first user may then provide user input identifying a desired action to take with respect to one or more of the second users. In response, the desired action is effected.
US08655950B2
A computer-implemented method of alerting users to collaborative activity can include receiving a user input selecting at least one of a plurality of data types to be included within a notification, wherein the plurality of data types correspond to collaborative session data exchanged during a collaborative session among a plurality of users. The method can include buffering collaborative session data during the collaborative session and responsive to detecting an occurrence of an awareness triggering event, outputting the notification comprising at least a portion of the buffered collaborative session data corresponding to the selected at least one of a plurality of data types.
US08655938B1
A system and method is disclosed for measuring contributor weight or influence in social media. Content posted by a user on one or more social media platforms is identified. The identifying the content posted by the user includes searching the one or more social media platforms for content posted by the user with identifying information. Downstream content associated with the content posted by the user is identified. Metrics measuring a contributor weight of the user based on the downstream content are calculated.
US08655921B2
When a searching apparatus accepts a search condition including a logical condition formed of variables, transition table is created by using a BDD method. In the transition table, a combination of a bit string indicative of true or false of a variable at each level for arriving from a starting-point variable to an arrival variable and the starting-point variable is associated with the arrival variable. Then, a true/false decision on the search condition of the search target data is made by, with an arrival variable of a transition destination being taken as the starting-point variable, extracting a bit string of a predetermined number of digits from the starting-point variable from among logical bit strings of the search target data and specifying the arrival variable as the transition destination based on the combination and the transition table.
US08655920B2
A method, system and computer program product for creating a report on the basis of a plurality of remote datasets includes an intelligence server, one or more tree servers and one or more databases. Each tree server creates one or more segments, or slices, of a report, using information that resides on the tree server. Slices are aggregated into a tree structure, and the tree structure is converted into a report. The intelligence server receives updates from the tree servers. The tree servers and the intelligence server remain in communication for the purposes of passing update messages. The update messages are received and processed at the intelligence-server in a manner that facilitates synchronization with the contributing tree servers and provides live updates to the user.
US08655914B2
A method and system for controlling access to stored data is provided. The storage access control system leverages a preexisting security infrastructure of a system to inform the proper access control that should be applied to data stored outside of its original location, such as a data backup. The storage access control system may place similar access control restrictions on the backup files that existed on the original files. In this way, the backed up data is given similar protection as that of the original data.
US08655912B2
A computer-implemented method and system for combining keywords into logical clusters that share a similar behavior with respect to a considered dimension are disclosed. Various embodiments are operable to order a list of keywords from high activity to low activity, partition the list into at least two sets, a head partition including keywords with an activity level above a predefined threshold, a tail partition including the remainder of the keywords in the list, model the keywords in the head partition based on a set of variables, score the keywords in the head partition based on the modeling, and cluster head partition keywords with tail partition keywords having at least one common variable into at least one keyword cluster.
US08655911B2
Techniques are provided for (1) extending SQL to support direct invocation of frequent itemset operations, (2) improving the performance of frequent itemset operations by clustering itemset combinations to more efficiently use previously produced results, and (3) making on-the-fly selection of the occurrence counting technique to use during each phase of a multiple phase frequent itemset operation. When directly invoked in an SQL statement, a frequent itemset operation may receive input from results of operations specified in the SQL statement, and provide its results directly to other operations specified in the SQL statement. By clustering itemset combinations, resources may be used more efficiently by retaining intermediate information as long as it is useful, and then discarding it to free up volatile memory. Dynamically selecting an occurrence counting technique allows a single frequent itemset operation to change the occurrence counting technique that it is using midstream, based on cost considerations and/or environmental conditions.
US08655901B1
This specification describes technologies relating to search systems. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a query pattern, the query pattern identifying a particular rule to interpret a particular type of query, the query pattern being in a first language; identifying a collection of queries in the first language matching the query pattern; annotating each query of the collection of queries with one or more labels; translating the collection of annotated queries in the first language into a translated collection of queries in a second language; aligning the translated collection of queries including identifying a most common term in the translated collection of queries and determining the corresponding positions of the annotations relative to the translated query terms; and extracting a translated query pattern from the aligned translated collection of queries.
US08655900B2
A universal data management interface (UDMI) system includes a processing system generates a visual interface through which a user can access, manage, and manipulate data on plural different types of remote databases. The UDMI connects to multiple standard database management systems and to allow multiple users to access, manage, and manipulate data within each of the multiple standard database management systems. The UDMI also allows multiple virtual databases that reside in a single database to be available as a network service.
US08655899B2
A method, software, database and system for attribute partner identification and social network based attribute analysis are presented in which attribute profiles associated with individuals can be compared, attribute partners can be identified, groups of individuals can be formed, associations between individuals can be determined, and attribute based information can be analyzed and referenced. Attributes, both genetic and non-genetic, can be analyzed and utilized not only for the basis of comparisons between individuals, but also to form groups based on overlapping genetic and non-genetic attributes.
US08655893B2
A method for organizing images from multiple image capture devices includes allowing the determination of an offset between image capture times recorded in a first image capture device and image capture times recorded in a second image capture device, adjusting the image capture times recorded in the second image capture device by the offset to produce adjusted image capture times by a computer processor, and sequencing images taken by the first image capture device and the second image capture device in an chronological order. The sequencing is based on the image capture times for the images captured by the first image capture device and the adjusted image capture times for the images captured by the second image capture device.
US08655889B2
An autonomous blog engine is implemented to enable the autonomous generation of a blog. The autonomous blog engine receives media objects that are captured by an electronic device during a trip session. The autonomous blog engine determines a place of interest based on photographs selected from the media objects. The autonomous blog engine then generates textual content using one or more pre-stored knowledge items that include information on the place of interest. The autonomous blog engine further autonomously publishes a blog entry on the place of interest that includes one or more photographs from the photograph cluster and the textual content.
US08655874B2
An information reproducing apparatus and method thereof. The information reproducing apparatus includes a storage unit, communication unit, controller, and display unit. The storage unit stores music data and at least one first string of characters corresponding to the music data. The reproducing unit reproduces the music data from the storage unit. The communication unit communicates with an image data storage unit, which stores a plurality of image data each corresponding to at least one second string of characters. The controller controls acquisition of one image data from the image data storage unit via the communication unit. The one image data is acquired based on a comparison between the at least one first string of characters and the plurality of the at least one second string of characters. Further, the display unit is configured to display the acquired image data when the reproducing unit is reproducing the music data.
US08655865B1
A method and apparatus for facilitating indexing of rich Internet content by accessing a portion of rich Internet content containing a plurality of states and a plurality of transitions that connect various ones of the plurality of states through activation of at least one entity. The method and apparatus accesses contextual information coupled to at least one of a transition, a state or an entity, and examines at least one of the plurality of states using the at least one of the plurality of transitions and the contextual information.
US08655861B2
In one example, a method comprises receiving, with a data access service, an input query from an enterprise software application, wherein the data access service is positioned between the enterprise software application and a multidimensional data source; parsing the input query into a parse tree; generating an abstract syntax tree based on the parse tree, the abstract syntax tree comprising input query elements and multidimensional expression query elements based on the input query; performing an evaluation of metadata comprised in the multidimensional expression query elements of the abstract syntax tree; restructuring the abstract syntax tree based on the evaluation of the metadata; executing a query based on the restructured abstract syntax tree on the multidimensional data source; and retrieving a query result set from the multidimensional data source comprising results that are responsive to the query based on the restructured abstract syntax tree.
US08655857B1
Integrating a new class into a class hierarchy is disclosed. A new class having a place in a class hierarchy is received. Metadata, associated with the new class, that includes the new class's place in the class hierarchy is also received. Hierarchy data associated with a previously compiled class is dynamically modified to reflect the place of the new class in the class hierarchy.
US08655854B2
A computer-based method for media composition of a family of related time-based media programs. The method involves creating a master program with time-based elements of video and/or audio as well as time-based and non-time-based metadata, creating a derivative program that includes derivative elements, defining an inheritance relationship between the master program and the derivative program that specifies elements of the master program to be inherited by the derivative program, and causing the derivative program to inherit the specified elements from the master program in accordance with the inheritance relationship. User interfaces are provided for creating, editing, and viewing hierarchical trees of related programs.
US08655853B2
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to a system and method for optimizing transaction termination. A database interface receives an indication to terminate a transaction. The database interface decides whether to send a command to the underlying database server to terminate the transaction. If the database interface does send a command to the database server, it determines which command is appropriate to send.
US08655843B2
A device receives medical data associated with a user of the device, and creates a body template based on the received medical data, where the body template includes layers that are representations of a human body associated with the user. The device also displays the body template to the user, where the user is capable of manipulating one or more layers of the body template in order to review the medical data.
US08655840B2
An apparatus for providing sub-file level synchronization may include a processor configured to receive an indication of a change to a portion of a file, generate a file identifier in response to the receipt of the indication, the file identifier including a sub-file identification indicative of the portion of the file, and enable synchronization of the portion of the file based on the sub-file identification. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided.
US08655836B2
The disclosure discloses a method for implementing data synchronization between a source database and a target database, which includes: a synchronization device acquires at least one first Logical Change Record (LCR) and a keyword of the first LCR from the source database; the synchronization device determines whether there is a second LCR with a keyword as same as the keyword of the first LCR in the synchronization device itself; the synchronization device processes the first LCR to generate a processed LCR according to the determination result, so that the synchronization device stores only one LCR containing the keyword of the first LCR; and the synchronization device sends the processed LCR to the target database. Accordingly, the disclosure also discloses a device and system for implementing data synchronization between a source database and a target database. The disclosure can reduce the data transmission load when implementing the synchronization between the source database and the target database.
US08655835B2
An information generating device in an information communication system in which contents and catalog information including its attribute information are distributed in node devices, includes: a first storage unit storing first catalog information, the catalog information including link information associating the plurality of attribute information with each other; a acquisition unit acquiring, in response to updating the content of the attribute information, the updated attribute information; a generation unit generating the link information for updating the first catalog information on the basis of the attribute information acquired by the first acquisition unit, and the first catalog information stored in the first storage unit, and generate second catalog information including the generated link information and the updated attribute information; a second storing unit storing the second catalog information; and an updating unit updating the first catalog information on the basis of the second catalog information for each given period.
US08655831B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for automatically parsing data from disparate data sources. In some implementations, actions include receiving first data from a first data source, identifying a first regular expression that corresponds to a data format of the first data, selecting a first set of parsing rules from a plurality of parsing rules based on the first regular expression, parsing the first data based on the first set of parsing rules to provide a first set of sub-data, populating data fields of a first data object with respective sub-data from the first set of sub-data, and transmitting the first data object to a computing device.
US08655828B2
A method of improving the accuracy and computation time of automatic image recognition by the implementation of association graphs and a quantum processor.A method of solving problems using a quantum processor by casting a problem as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (“QUBO”) problem, mapping the QUBO problem to the quantum processor, and evolving the quantum processor to produce a solution to the QUBO problem.
US08655824B1
Analyzing a set of policies. A goal comprising a particular outcome is received. An analysis object comprising a data structure maintaining information needed to perform an analysis of the goal is defined. The analysis object is configured to limit a number of calculations needed to achieve the goal. Each member of a set of expressions found in the set of policies has an output. The output is the same for each expression. One of the set of expressions is solved. The solved output is cached in the analysis object such that the solved output is associated with each member of the set of expressions. The analysis object is processed to create a set of values that achieves the goal. Processing includes referencing the cache to retrieve the solved output each time a member of the set of expressions is to be solved during processing of the analysis object.
US08655823B1
Improved techniques of identifying actions to take in response to events involve assigning, to each set of event parameter values which characterizes an event, a set of weight values, each weight value indicative of a probability of the event belonging to a cluster of events which follow a set of rules. To continue the previous example, an event management system may determine the probability of the first event belonging to the first cluster is 51% and that for the first event belonging to the second cluster is 49%, while the probability of the second event belonging to the first cluster is 49% and that for the second event belonging to the second cluster is 51%. In such a case, the event management system can be configured to respond to such similarly configured events in similar ways.
US08655818B2
An apparatus for discrimination includes a memory, an alignment unit configured to align nodes of a decision tree in the memory, wherein a node in which depth from a root node is not greater than a threshold is aligned in accordance with a breadth of first order, and a node in which depth from a root node is greater than a threshold is aligned in accordance with a depth of first order, and a discrimination unit, receiving an inputted data, configured to discriminate a class of the inputted data using the nodes aligned in the memory.
US08655814B1
A method of generating a model of propulsive efficiency for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is based on a multilayer perception neural network model using data from aquatic species, such as undulatory fin propulsion in the knifefish (Xenomystus nigri), and a sensitivity analysis is used to lower the number of required inputs. The model of propulsive efficiency allows an AUV to achieve high values of propulsive efficiency over a range of forward velocity, giving a lowered energy drain on the battery. In an embodiment, externally monitored information, such as that on flow velocity, is conveyed to an apparatus residing in the vehicle's control unit, which in turn signals the locomotive unit to adopt kinematics, such as fin frequency and amplitude, associated with optimal propulsion efficiency. Power savings could protract vehicle operational life and/or provide more power to other functions, such as communications.
US08655808B2
The present invention relates to a prosthetic device including a prosthetic joint which accurately transitions between a loose mode and a stiff mode to more accurately mimic a human gait. The prosthetic joint includes a state controller which utilizes a sensor to detect prosthetic joint movement data, and compares it with prosthetic joint movement decision values to determine when a solenoid should be energized to place the prosthetic joint in the loose mode. An optimization unit connects to the prosthetic joint in a prosthetic joint system. The optimization unit generates a plurality of data files containing prosthetic joint movement data corresponding to an amputee walking without stumbling. By iteratively analyzing the prosthetic joint movement data, the optimization unit adjusts the prosthetic joint movement decision values to ensure that the prosthetic joint does not prematurely enter a stumble recovery state.
US08655803B2
Aspect of the exemplary embodiment relate to a method and apparatus for automatically identifying features that are suitable for use by a classifier in assigning class labels to text sequences extracted from noisy documents. The exemplary method includes receiving a dataset of text sequences, automatically identifying a set of patterns in the text sequences, and filtering the patterns to generate a set of features. The filtering includes at least one of filtering out redundant patterns and filtering out irrelevant patterns. The method further includes outputting at least some of the features in the set of features, optionally after fusing features which are determined not to affect the classifiers accuracy if they are merged.
US08655797B2
Logic circuits provide networks to simulate the functions of neural networks of the brain, and can discriminate degrees of state, and combinations of degrees of state, corresponding to a number of neurons. Logic circuits comprise Recursive AND NOT Conjunctions (RANCs), or AND NOT gates. A RANC is a general logic circuit that performs conjunctions for 2n possible combinations of truth values of n propositions. The RANCs function dynamically, with capabilities of excitation and inhibition. Networks of RANCs are capable of subserving a variety of brain functions, including creative and analytical thought processes. A complete n-RANC produces all conjunctions corresponding to the 2n possible combinations of truth values of n propositions.
US08655795B1
A system and related method are disclosed for establishing geographical communication and predicting mail delivery using mailbox-mounted devices adapted to detect delivery automatically and transmit that detection to associated electronic devices. Detection may be performed by various means including accelerometers, cameras, and magnetometers. The method includes maintaining a registry of mailbox-mounted devices, and passing communication between electronic devices used by owners of mailbox-mounted devices. The communication can include detection by the mailbox-mounted devices of mail delivery, and calculation of the postal carrier's probable route using that delivery detection.
US08655792B1
Content of a private profile/site of a user is derived based on analysis of the user's friend's profiles/sites. A mapping module maps a social networking group with a number of members. A pattern module determines a pattern of publishing activity of each of the members in posting content on sites of other of the members. A profiling module defines a member usage profile for each member based on the pattern. An identification module identifies a private site of a private member of the social networking group to be analyzed. An analysis module analyzes content posted by the private member on public sites of public members of the social networking group. A prediction module predicts responses of the public members to the content posted by the private member based on the member usage profiles of the public members. An estimation module estimates the type and amount of content posted on the private site based on the analysis of the public sites and the prediction based on the member usage profiles.
US08655790B2
The present invention relates to devices and methods that coordinate an external conversation process between entities with an internal workflow of one of the entities. More particularly, it relates to devices and methods that are compliant with an inter-enterprise conversation process standard for routing electronic commerce documents between enterprises. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US08655787B1
A computer-implemented technique processes a potentially sensitive item of data (e.g., data which may be either a credit card number or a token having a similar format). The technique involves, after the potentially sensitive item of data is properly received within a physical memory location, generating a token result which indicates whether the potentially sensitive item of data satisfies a valid-token requirement. The technique further involves preserving the potentially sensitive item of data in an unaltered form within the physical memory location when the token result indicates that the potentially sensitive item of data satisfies the valid-token requirement. The technique further involves replacing the potentially sensitive item of data within the physical memory location with a token when the token result indicates that the potentially sensitive item of data does not satisfy the valid-token requirement.
US08655785B2
An authenticated digital confirmation of an installation or an update of a licensed computer data product, for providing the licensor with a validation that the installation/update was carried out as intended, and conveying relevant details of the installation/update. The installation/updating facility (internal software, external hardware device, or combination thereof) examines and documents the pre-installation/update state of the target computer system, performs the installation/update, examines and documents the post-installation/update state, and generates the confirmation, which is a summary or digest of the process and the status thereof. The confirmation is securely authenticated and sent to the licensor for validation, to be used for order fulfillment, billing and accounting, and other purposes.
US08655783B1
A computer-implemented method includes issuing a transaction on the Automated Clearing House (ACH) electronic network, the transaction including instructions for printing a check, receiving the transaction, and printing the check according to the instructions.
US08655779B2
A user selects a product to be liquidated from a product provider and then designates to the transacting entity that reward points are to be used towards the purchase of the liquidated product. The transacting entity acts to decrease the number of reward points in the user's reward account by the required number of points. The reward account holder conveys consideration to the transacting entity equivalent to the par value of the reward points consumer obtains the product in exchange for reward points having a retail value equivalent to what he would have otherwise paid for the product, while the reward account holder is required to convey only the par value of the points. The product provider is able to liquidate the product and obtain payment equivalent to what it would otherwise have obtained in a prior art liquidation process, auction or trading environment.
US08655777B2
A business derives its cost to pay accounts payable (AJP) with a corporate card versus other payment methods. The business identifies each merchant to whom the business owes AJP who but does not accept the corporate card. A weighting factor is derived for each such merchant from costs of paying with and without the corporate card, as well as from its history of past payments to the merchant. The benefit to the business is derived, using the corresponding weighting factor, for each such merchant in paying the corresponding AJP to the merchant with the corporate card. Where the benefit exceeds a predetermined threshold, information is sent to each such merchant sufficient for the merchant to receive payment of the corresponding AJP with the corporate card.
US08655772B2
A system and method for qualifying a participant over a global network for an auction or other e-commerce transaction helps to significantly reduce or eliminate Internet commerce fraud. An auction site, for example, enlists the system to maintain funding accounts for prospective participants. When a bid is placed or a transaction is entered, the funds are reserved in the funding account including funds for a deposit if required. In the case of an auction, in the event that a bidder is not the high bidder, the reserved funds are released. At completion of the transaction, the funds may be transferred from the funding account to the seller, and the holds are released. A balance in the funding account can be established according to funds deposited in the account in an interest-bearing account or via a line of credit issued from a bank card issuing company or the like.
US08655768B2
A method of managing trading orders is provided. The method includes receiving a request to place a first order to trade a first product, the request being made using an account having one or more current balances. The method further includes determining a risk value for the first order based at least in part on the first product. The method further includes determining whether to approve the first order based at least in part on the risk value determined for the first order and one or more of the current balances for the account, and if the first order is approved, placing the first order.
US08655763B2
A computer-implemented system and method supporting microfinance funds aggregation for a retail investor are disclosed. A particular example embodiment includes receiving a purchase request at a host site from an investor at an investor site, the purchase request including information identifying a security offered for sale by a security issuer on the host site; facilitating payment for the security by the investor via a financial site; receiving confirmation of payment for the security; and sending confirmation of payment for the security to the investor.
US08655761B2
A computer-implemented method includes generating, using an embedded client application, a keyword context for a container document holding the embedded client application; generating, using the embedded client application, a geographic context associated with a device on which the container document is displayed; submitting the keyword context and the geographic context to a remote server; and displaying an interactive application using information obtained in response to the submission of the keyword context and geographic criteria.
US08655758B2
Systems and methods are provided to model financial transactions. According to some embodiments, simple events, branch events, composite events, and/or contingent events associated with a financial transaction are defined. The events may then be used to automatically manage the transaction during the transaction's lifecycle.
US08655755B2
Disclosed herein in a preferred embodiment is an automated financial instrument brokerage system wherein a front end layer interacts with customers to generate activity requests for an intermediate layer. The intermediate layer preferably processes the activity requests and places financial instrument orders on a financial market if appropriate. A backend layer preferably provides data to the intermediate layer for processing activity requests. Multiple heterogeneous front end customer applications may be supported by the same intermediate layer. Further, multiple backend layer applications may interact with the intermediate layer in a manner transparent to the front end layer. Further, scalability can be achieved be partitioning various tasks of the intermediate layer onto separate servers, and more preferably on-separate redundant servers. Load balancers may then be used in the intermediate layer to provide distributed access to these servers. Also disclosed herein is a caching technique whereby turnaround time for processing activity requests can be reduced by reducing the number of times that the intermediate layer needs to interact with the backend layer.
US08655752B2
The invention includes a computer readable medium with executable instructions to analyze radio frequency (RF) tag information. The executable instructions access cross-enterprise RF tag information, identify a product transition based upon the cross-enterprise RF tag information, define a new product path based upon the product transition, and apply logic to the new product path to facilitate cross-enterprise product flow analysis.
US08655745B1
A system, method, and computer readable medium for facilitating user interaction with numerous product suppliers to determine which supplier to utilize for ordering a product based on various parameters are provided. A user may interact with one or more suppliers using similar or different parameters for each supplier within the same application without having to switch to another external application. Results are provided in a visually appealing and logical manner and automate the ordering of an item if that item is found at a particular supplier within predefined thresholds specified by the user. In this manner, orders may be submitted at the moment order thresholds are met, and decisions may be made automatically by one or more of the system, the user, or on an interaction by the user and another individual.
US08655737B1
A product catalog includes information regarding products for sale online by various merchants. An analysis software module can identify brand names in the product catalog that relate to the same brand. The analysis module can compute parameters of pairs of product offers having matching product identifiers. The analysis module can group the product offer pairs into brand pair groups based on the brand names for the products subject to the product offers. The analysis module can compute parameters of each brand pair group based on product offer pairs in the brand pair group and attributes of product offers in the product catalog. The analysis module can use the computed parameters to determine whether the brand names of each brand pair are related. The analysis module can use the identified related brand names and additional attributes of product offers to identify product offers related to the same product.
US08655736B2
Systems and methods of buyer-side consolidation of compatible purchase orders are described herein. Purchase orders can be identified for consolidation using spatial and temporal proximity parameters. Purchase orders can be modified by changing a ship date or a delivery date and the changing can be based on a buyer input. Shipments can be consolidated based on the purchase order modifications and less than truckload shipments can be reduced. Consolidated shipments can be associated with different requested delivery dates, different suppliers, and/or different buyers. Buyer-side consolidation of compatible purchase orders can occur before purchase orders are processed by a transportation management system.
US08655729B2
A wireless communication device is configured to be able to communicate via both a first access point and a second access point for using the first access point to obtain validation credentials in order to permit use of the second access point to access a network. The wireless communication device comprises a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions. The instructions are operable to: initiate communication with the second access point in order to access a network; obtain an access point identifier from the second access point, the access point identifier for identifying the second access point; transmit the access point identifier to a validation server via the first access point; receive validation credentials from the validation server via the first access point; and use the validation credentials to validate the wireless communication device with the second access point to obtain access to the network.
US08655726B1
A method and system for deriving a consumer's shopping habits includes a process for deriving a consumer's shopping habits whereby data representing financial transactions conducted by a given consumer using one of more payment methods is obtained. Payee identification data for the payees associated with the financial transactions is then obtained/derived from the financial transactions data. The payees' identification data is then analyzed to determine each payee's geographic location. The data representing the geographic location of the various payees is then aggregated, mapped, and analyzed to derive a geographical shopping area for the consumer, i.e., to determine where the consumer does a significant amount of his or her shopping.
US08655718B2
A system for monetization of content includes a storage device for storage and retrieval of data, and a library of content and advertisements stored within the storage device. The library comprises an organizational structure for facilitating the storage and retrieval. The system also includes a monetization engine for identifying within the library a first content item having a first monetizable feature. The system is configured for selecting a second content item from several content items within the library, and associating the second content item to the first content item by using the first monetizable feature for presentation of the second content item in conjunction with the first content item. Further embodiments include various additional systems, methods, and computer readable media for implementation of the foregoing.
US08655710B2
The present invention provides a public sector technology expenditure benefits realization framework that offers an unparalleled approach for addressing the very specific needs of public sector organizations combining the development of the business case with technology implementation program and integrating a sustainable long-term benefits realizations program. Specifically, in one embodiment, the methodology of the present invention integrates three steps: (1) the visioning phase for creating the vision for the planned benefits; (2) the integration phase comprising the integrating the planned benefits from the technology expenditure; and (3) the realization phase during which the public entity incorporates a sustainable benefits realization and monitoring program.
US08655709B2
Process Brokering Services (PBS) are implemented though the concept of Adaptive Documents to facilitate electronic commerce (e-commerce). PBS provides a single point of process control over the various fragmented execution flows and brings together the elements for process integration (views, content, flows) in a unified, scalable architecture on an industry standard platform. The two principal functions of the PBS are brokering of multiple business processes encapsulated in various back-end systems including workflow engines and business applications, and aggregating content from multiple enterprise information systems in the business context and managing the shared access to this based on the roles of the participants. The dynamic services provided by PBS are accessible to clients through the PBS Interface.
US08655708B2
Methods and systems are provided for determining and using market areas associated with one or more branches of a business. Market areas are determined using a combination of deterministic and probabilistic techniques. Distances are calculated between customers and associated branches and a convex hull formed containing the closest 60%. A block and a tightened block is formed of dissemination areas contained within the convex hull. Where blocks are shared between branches, dissemination areas are weighted according to the portion of customers associated with each branch.
US08655707B2
Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for delivering products according to propagated changes in a demand planning hierarchy. Demand planning data is received in addition to a change to the product quantity or a disaggregation factor at a node of the hierarchy. The product quantity is updated at other nodes based upon the received change. Updating the product quantity at other nodes includes solving a set of simultaneous equations to generate an updated demand planning hierarchy. The simultaneous equations include a sum of the product quantity at a node and a augmenting flow at the node equals a sum of the product quantities of children nodes of the nodes and a relieving flow at the node, and disaggregation factors at the node and other nodes are implemented. Solving the set of simultaneous equations includes minimizing the sum of the augmenting flows of the node and other nodes.
US08655698B2
This invention relates to an automated method and system for forming and implementing a performance-based logistic contract through managing the maintenance an item of equipment in accordance with a maintenance plan. Embodiments of the present invention include a method and system for maintaining an item of equipment supports the provision of predictive maintenance in a manner which eliminates or reduces downtime of the equipment. The method includes tracking performance data on the equipment or a particular component of the equipment. At least one required maintenance activity is predicted based upon the performance data with respect to a defined performance standard. Performance of the required maintenance activity is scheduled at a defined respective time based upon the prediction.
US08655690B2
This invention relates generally to a computer system and method for integrating insurance policy underwriting. In one aspect it integrates the older legacy insurance policy generating systems to on line systems where users access the system through browsers. The computer system to perform the process of underwriting, rating, quoting, binding, and booking an insurance policy includes browsers, data bases, processors and a dispatcher that parses the information to select an insurance process. Suitable software programs review messages received from users to determine if certain messages are less than a prescribed limit. If a message is greater than the limit, then the message is parsed into a header information and one or more data fields whereby the header information is provided to a legacy processor and to policy generation software for further creation of policy related information and documentation.
US08655683B2
A contents estimating system and method for providing an estimate of the cost of settling an insurance claim which includes a server having an embedded program compiled on the server and embedded in a web page, a client having a browser removably connected to the server, an inventory data acquirer for acquiring inventory data of each of the items that are the subject of the insurance claim and insert them into the web page, a price data acquirer for acquiring prices of the items of inventory data that are the subject of the insurance claim and insert them into the web page, and a liability limits data acquirer for acquiring liability limits data for the insurance claim and insert them into the web page, in which, upon receipt of a claim of loss from the insured, the web page is displayed on the screen of the client, the embedded program is executed within a client process with substantially unrestricted access to the client's system resources, and an estimate of the cost of settling a claim is produced by mapping an item of the inventory data to the price data, subject to the liability limits data, and is provided to the insured upon calculation, at the insured's location or the location of the loss.
US08655675B2
A system and method for providing to an individual certain information which is relevant to that individual's health status. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for providing information relevant to an individual's health status and wherein the information provided is chosen on the basis of not only the individual's health status but also complex psychosocial behavioral factors related to that individual's motivational structure and likely impact.
US08655674B2
A method of providing personal service assistance in a virtual universe is disclosed. The method provides a customer avatar (CA) access to a personal assistance avatar or personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar, hereinafter PCSR avatar. Through the PCSR avatar, the CA communicates a need or requests for personal service assistance from a business or organization. The communication of the received request is processed to identify an appropriate business, organization or vendor that meets the need or request. The identified business, organization or vendor is contacted for a representative from the business to accede to the request from the CA. The representative from the business is allowed to assume control of the PCSR avatar to conduct the session necessary for rendering the assistance or transaction. Upon completion of the session, control of the PCSR avatar is reverted to that prior to the session.
US08655663B2
An audio signal interpolation device is presented, including an input unit for receiving an input audio signal, a phase splitting unit for splitting the input audio signal, a high range interpolation unit for interpolating a high range component into the signal, a phase combining unit for combining an in-phase component signal with a differential phase component, a high-pass filter for high-pass filtering the audio signal from by the phase combining unit, a delay unit for producing a delayed audio signal, and an addition processing unit for adding the delayed audio signal to the audio signal output from the high-pass filter.
US08655655B2
A sound event detecting module for detecting whether a sound event with characteristic of repeating is generated. A sound end recognizing unit recognizes ends of sounds according to a sound signal to generate sound sections and multiple sets of feature vectors of the sound sections correspondingly. A storage unit stores at least M sets of feature vectors. A similarity comparing unit compares the at least M sets of feature vectors with each other, and correspondingly generates a similarity score matrix, which stores similarity scores of any two of the sound sections of the at least M of the sound sections. A correlation arbitrating unit determines the number of sound sections with high correlations to each other according to the similarity score matrix. When the number is greater than one threshold value, the correlation arbitrating unit indicates that the sound event with the characteristic of repeating is generated.
US08655653B2
A method, system and program for encoding and/or decoding a speech signal. The method comprises: generating a first signal representing a property of an input speech signal; transforming the first signal using a simulated random-noise signal, thus producing a second signal; quantizing the second signal based on a plurality of discrete representation levels, thus generating quantization values for transmission in an encoded speech signal, and also generating a third signal being a quantized version of the second signal; and performing an inverse of the transformation on the third signal, thus generating a quantized output signal, wherein the generation of the first signal is based on feedback of the quantized output signal. The method further comprises controlling the transformation in dependence on a property of the first signal so as to vary the magnitude of a noise effect created by the transformation relative to the representation levels.
US08655650B2
A method is provided for decoding data streams in a voice communication system. The method includes: receiving two or more data streams having voice data encoded therein; decoding each data stream into a set of speech coding parameters; forming a set of combined speech coding parameters by combining the sets of decoded speech coding parameters, where speech coding parameters of a given type are combined with speech coding parameters of the same type; and inputting the set of combined speech coding parameters into a speech synthesizer.
US08655629B2
A computer-implemented land planning system is designed to generate at least one conceptual fit solution to a user-defined land development problem. The system electronically creates at least one candidate solution to the land development problem. The candidate solution incorporates a number of engineering measurements applicable in development of an undeveloped land site. A fitness function quantitatively evaluates the candidate solution based on its fitness. A heuristic problem-solving strategy manipulates the engineering measurements of the candidate solution to achieve a more quantitatively fit solution to the land development problem. A computer output device outputs to a user documentation illustrating the fit solution to the land development problem.
US08655625B2
The invention relates to a method for breaking down a set of signals consisting of an instantaneous linear mixture of independent components. The method comprises a step (200) consisting in estimating a mixture matrix A by using the product of one or more trigonometric rotation matrices by one or more hyperbolic rotation matrices.
US08655624B2
A measurement system uses a plurality of transducers that may differ from each other in at least one respect, such as having different operating principles or being made by different manufacturers. Respective measurement values obtained from the transducers are applied to a processor which provides a measured value based on the measurement values from a plurality of the transducers. The processor also provides information about the calibration drift of each of the transducers based upon a comparison between the measurement value obtained from the transducer to a value obtained from a combination of respective measurement values obtained from a plurality of the transducers. The calibration drift information provides an objective evaluation about the calibration condition of each of the transducers. When a transducer is determined to be outside of its calibration tolerance, a calibration needed alert occurs.
US08655622B2
Techniques for interpreting orientation invariant motion are disclosed. Unlike a prior art controller that has a specific physical design to induce or force a user to grip the controller in a consistent way, a disclosed controller does not have such a physical design and allows a user to grip the controller in any way that is comfortable to the user. One or more transformations or rotations are designed to transform or rotate readings from inertial sensors housed in the controller to readings independent from how the controller is being gripped by a user.
US08655614B2
A method for determining the amplitude of an infrared object may include receiving an infrared image of the object from a sensor, and expressing the objects infrared amplitude as a function of its position coordinates. The sum of the squared residuals of the objects true infrared response and a model of the objects infrared response may be minimized to determine the centroid of the infrared image. The objects infrared amplitude may then determined based on the centroid location.
US08655610B2
A system and computer program product for virtual machine placement in a datacenter include using one or more server power characteristics to determine a power cost for any given virtual machine placement in the datacenter, using a heat profile of one or more datacenter components in relation to one or more cooling resources in the datacenter to determine cooling cost for any given virtual machine placement in the datacenter, and using the power cost and cooling cost to apply integrated energy cost minimization at one or more levels of hierarchy in the datacenter to determine placement of a virtual machine in the datacenter such that the integrated energy cost of the datacenter is minimized.
US08655608B2
A set of current measurements may be transmitted from a remote Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) to a local IED. The current measurements may comprise a timestamp and/or be associated with timestamp information to allow the local IED to time align the local current measurement with the remote current measurement. The local IED may detect a fault within the power system segment defined by the local and remote IEDs by comparing an operating current to a scaled restraint current. A fault may also be detected by comparing the operating current to a scaled nominal current. The operating and restraint currents may be derived from the local and remote current measurements. The restraint current scale may be derived from the characteristics of the local and/or remote IED. The current measurements may correspond to a negative-sequence component and/or a zero-sequence component of a three-phase current measurement set.
US08655601B1
The present invention relates to a method of detecting soil nutrients or soil nutrients in soil from reflected light, and also includes systems for the measurement, calculation and transmission of data relating to or carrying out that method.
US08655599B2
The present invention relates to genetic analysis and evaluation utilizing copy-number variants or polymorphisms. The methods utilize array comparative genomic hybridization and PCR assays to identify the significance of copy number variations in a subject or subject group.
US08655597B2
The present invention relates to a scoring system for the prediction of cancer recurrence by selecting genes and/or proteins whose expression patterns associated with recurrence of cancer, and generating formulae with the selected genes and/or proteins for the prediction of cancer recurrence. The present invention relates to a kit for determining the likelihood of recurrence of cancer, comprising DNA chip, oligonucleotide chip, protein chip, peptides, antibodies, probes and primers that are necessary for effecting DNA microarrays, oligonucleotide microarrays, protein arrays, northern blotting, in situ hybridization, RNase protection assays, western blotting, ELISA assays, reverse transcription polymerase-chain reaction to examine the expression of at least 2, 4, 6, 10, 12 or more genes and/or proteins, that are indicative of cancer recurrence.
US08655595B1
In various embodiments, a flood risk score may be determined for a property point that provides a comprehensive assessment of the property point's risk of flooding. Determining the flood risk score may include determining a flood risk characteristic for the property point and assigning a flood risk score that corresponds to the flood risk characteristic. In some embodiments, flood risk characteristics may include a difference in elevation between the elevation of the property point and an elevation of a calculated point (e.g., on a known flood risk zone boundary). Flood risk characteristics may also include a flood zone determination for the property point and/or proximity of the property point to a known flood risk zone boundary or a flood source. In some embodiments, flood risk scores may be provided on flood risk score reports.
