US09177281B2
According to various embodiments, a shipping label validation system is provided for determining whether a shipping label is valid or counterfeit. The system may be used, for example, by a shipping entity (e.g., a common carrier) to prevent counterfeiting by generating and embedding onto the shipping label a shipping label hash index based upon at least a portion of the data located on the shipping label. The shipping label data may include, for example, a sender's address, recipient's address, package weight, tracking number, routing code, service code, and/or MaxiCode. The system may also be used to detect existing counterfeit shipping labels by independently generating a confirmation hash index based upon the same portion of the data used to calculate the shipping label hash index. In various embodiments, the system identifies counterfeit shipping labels based upon any discrepancies revealed when comparing the shipping label hash index to the confirmation hash index.
US09177276B2
A computer-readable recording medium stores a program causing a computer to execute an association process that includes identifying a second storage location associated with a first storage location by referring to a memory unit configured to store storage location association information indicating relevance between the first storage location and the second storage location where data prepared at a second operation stage associated with a first operation stage is stored. The second storage location is identified when new data is stored to the first storage location where data prepared at the first operation stage among multiple stages for manufacture of a product is stored. The association process further includes creating and recording in the memory unit, data association information indicating the relevance between the new data stored in the first storage location and the latest data among the data that is stored in the second storage location.
US09177265B2
A system for managing a prescribed drug regimen for a user, the system including at least one electronic device (Pod) for interactive communication with at least one user, a Pod server coupled via a communication link to each Pod, said Pod server including an analysis unit, the analysis unit including a database of drug characteristics, and a processor for comparing sensed characteristics of a drug in one of the Pods with characteristics in the drug characteristics database, so as to identify the drug, and to provide to the Pod an indication of compatibility of the drug with the drug regimen.
US09177258B2
There is provided an information processing method including inputting a feature quantity vector and an objective variable corresponding to the feature quantity vector, generating a basis function for outputting a scalar quantity by mapping the feature quantity vector, mapping the feature quantity vector using the basis function and calculating the scalar quantity corresponding to the feature quantity vector, evaluating whether or not the basis function used to calculate the scalar quantity is useful for estimating the objective variable using the objective variable along with the scalar quantity and the feature quantity vector corresponding to the scalar quantity, generating an estimation function for estimating the objective variable from the scalar quantity by machine learning on the basis of the scalar quantity and the objective variable corresponding to the scalar quantity using the basis function evaluated to be useful, and outputting the estimation function.
US09177253B2
Cost factors are utilized and may be estimated to determine split points in a DFA-NFA hybrid. The cost factors may comprise NFA start states, DFA backup factor, DFA-NFA token frequency, DFA steps to match, and NFA states to match. Other cost factors may be used as necessary. The cost factors are multiplied by tunable coefficients and summed. NFA states at minimum cost points are determined for entrance states in the NFA. A DFA is compiled from the entrance paths to the entrance states. NFA states and transitions needed only to reach entrance states may be deleted and all remaining NFA states are made available for execution by the NFA engine. An NFA representation of an NFA is examined by bounded depth-first recursion from each start state.
US09177252B2
A composite DFA for multiple regular expressions or other rules may be generated in a two-step process—first compiling single rule DFAs, then performing subset construction on those DFAs to generate the composite DFA, with subset information retained. A new batch of one or more rules may be added by another subset construction from the old composite DFA and new single rule DFAs, with subset information for the new composite DFA compressed into sets of states from old and new single rule DFAs. A batch of one or more rules is deleted by deleting references to single rule DFA states from composite DFA subsets, deleting composite DFA states with empty subsets and merging composite DFA states with identical subsets. Rules are changed by deleting the old versions and then adding the new versions.
US09177247B2
In particular embodiments, a method includes accessing a first binary decision diagram (BDD) representing data streams from sensors, selecting portions from the first BDD based on ease-of-analysis, and constructing a plurality of sub-BDDs by partitioning the first BDD, wherein the sub-BDDs comprises a first sub-BDD representing the selected portions, and second sub-BDDs representing the non-selected portions.
US09177242B2
To provide a wireless identification semiconductor device provided with a display function, which is capable of effectively utilizing electric power supplied by an electromagnetic wave. The following are included: an antenna; a power source generating circuit electrically connected to the antenna; an IC chip circuit and a display element electrically connected to the power source generating circuit; a first TFT provided in the power source generating circuit; a second TFT provided in the IC chip circuit; a third TFT provided in the display element; an insulating film provided to cover the first to third TFTs; a first source electrode and a first drain electrode, a second source electrode and a second drain electrode, and a third source electrode and a third drain electrode which are formed over the insulating film; and a pixel electrode electrically connected to the third source electrode or the third drain electrode. The first source electrode or the first drain electrode is electrically connected to the antenna.
US09177239B1
Techniques are provided for generating machine-readable optical codes that have an aesthetic component that is integrated into the codes themselves. In this manner, the machine-readable optical codes can be designed to be aesthetically pleasing and/or can convey information to human viewers, and can even be disguised so that they do not appear to be machine-readable optical codes at all. Such information can be (but need not be) distinct from the information encoded for reading by a machine, even when the information is integrated into the code itself. The techniques described herein can be applied to any type of machine-readable optical code.
US09177238B2
A computer-implemented technique can receive, at a computing device, a uniform resource locator (URL) for a web page and a plurality of images. A number of pixels corresponding to a desired resolution for encoding the images determined and the images are converted to modified images having the desired resolution. The technique can then generate an animated two-dimensional barcode using a plurality of two-dimensional barcodes generated for the plurality of images, respectively. A specific two-dimensional barcode can be generated by: generating first data representative of the modified image and appending the first data to either an end of the URL to obtain a first modified URL or after a terminator bit of the two-dimensional barcode. The two-dimensional barcode can then be generated using the first and second data and third data representative of an error correction code (ECC) and that is based on the first data and the second data.
US09177237B2
A computer system and method are provided to intercept a task from a primary user account 121 prior to execution of the task by the computer device 200, where the task relates to an untrusted content. A task isolation environment 350 is provisioned for executing the task, including programmatically creating a secondary user account 121b on the computer device. A local printer and/or a network printer which are connected to the primary user account 121 are discovered and automatically provisioned in the secondary user account 121b. Access to the or each printer 500 is controlled by an agent 300 on the computer device 200.
US09177233B2
A display processing apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive display information indicating whether gloss-control plane image data is displayed and whether clear plane image data is displayed. The gloss-control plane image data specifies a type of a surface effect applied to a recording medium and a glossy area to which the surface effect is to be applied, and indicates a color of the glossy area when being displayed. The clear plane image data specifies a transparent image formed on the recording medium and indicates a color of the transparent image when being displayed. The apparatus also includes a generating unit configured to synthesize color plane image data indicating a color image and one of the gloss-control plane image data and the clear plane image data that is specified to be displayed thus to generate a synthetic image.
US09177229B2
Techniques for tracking one or more objects at each position in an interval in a video input with the use of a Kalman filter, including obtaining a first location estimate of an object with an object detector, obtaining a second location estimate and a movement estimate of the object with an object tracker, determining a final estimate of a position and/or a velocity of the object with the Kalman filter.
US09177223B2
An edge detection engine operates to scan an image to identify edges within the image. An annular aperture is used to locate the edges in the image. An output image is generated by the edge detection engine that identifies the locations of the edges found in the image.
US09177221B2
A parking lot with a plurality of parking spaces for vehicles that have OCR-readable license numbers and onboard units with radio IDs that can be read out via radio signals. The parking lot including a central computer for storing parking space reservations, a vehicle license number and an assigned radio ID, a radio beacon for the parking spaces for reading out the radio ID of an entering vehicle via radio and signaling the radio ID to the central computer, and at least one camera unit for each parking space for reading the license number of a vehicle and correspondingly signaling the license number to the central computer. The central computer checks whether for a radio ID signaled to the central computer the vehicle license number is subsequently signaled by the camera unit of this parking space, and to log instances in which this is not the case.
US09177217B2
According to one embodiment, an information detection apparatus includes an image input unit, a symbol detection unit, a service information detection unit and an output unit. The image input unit inputs an image captured by an image capturing apparatus. The symbol detection unit configured to detect a first symbol and a second symbol, which are predetermined, according to the image input by the image input unit. The service information detection unit configured to detect a service information existing at a relative position predetermined for the first symbol and the second symbol in the image when the first symbol and the second symbol are detected by the symbol detection unit according to the image input by the image input unit. The output unit configured to output the service information detected by the service information detection unit.
US09177211B2
A method and an apparatus for identifying motor vehicles for monitoring traffic. The identification is carried out by image-evaluation and includes determining the size ratios of a license-plate contour in a perspectively distorted image on the basis of stored standardized license-plate formats, determining the size of the perspective distortion of the license-plate contour on the basis of the associated standardized license-plate format, establishing a calculation rule for the perspective rectification on the basis of the ascertained distortion of the license-plate contour with respect to the associated license-plate format, rectifying the extracted license-plate-containing motor-vehicle view, and comparing the rectified image with reference images of front views of motor vehicles stored in a database in order to assign the image with greatest correspondence to a group of classified motor vehicles.
US09177206B2
A social photo curation system is used to automatically identify a subset of photos for an album to provide to a viewing user. The album and its photos are associated with metadata indicating information about the photos, such as individuals tagged in the photos, locations where the photos were taken, keywords or concepts associated with the photos, and the quality and variety of the photos. The social photo curation system uses this metadata to score and select the photos for a particular viewing user. The scoring and selection of photos for the album may be independent of the viewing user, or it may be customized based on the viewing user's interests and connections to other users in a social networking system.
US09177188B2
Method and system for detecting detection patterns of a QR code is disclosed, detection is performed in a first direction and then in a second direction based on the first direction detection to detect a line segment having a length ratio of black:white:black:white:black meeting a predetermined ratio to determine the central points of the detection patterns, and thereby find out all detection patterns. Line-by-line traversal detection in a first direction is used to detect the detection patterns. Detection is performed based on the detected central point of the first line segment. Thus, detection steps may be greatly saved to simplify the detection procedure and improve computing speed. Fast detection of detection patterns may be realized for a QR code image.
US09177184B2
An improved beam shape control device, and more particularly an improved antenna comprising a beam shape control device, is distinguished by the fact that the beam shape control device (RET, M-RET) comprises reading electronics with an RFID receiving antenna and/or writing electronics with an RFID transmitting antenna, by means of which antenna-specific data can be read from an RFID tag positioned in the region of the antenna.
US09177181B2
A tamper-evident credential has a radio frequency identification (RFID) package with a first antenna and a subordinate antenna, RFID package defining a first part of the credential. The credential also has a subordinate RFID package defining a second part of the credential. The subordinate RFID package selectively coupled to said subordinate antenna so that an interrogation signal applied to said first antenna package is transmitted to the subordinate RFID package across said subordinate antenna.
US09177180B2
There is provided an RF tag reader including an omission-in-reading determining section which determines that an RF tag belonging to a predetermined group might be unread when tag information is not acquired from an RF tag, which belongs to the group and whose tag information is not acquired yet, within a predetermined time after tag information corresponding to any one of a plurality of RF tags grouped as the predetermined group is acquired.
US09177176B2
Aspects of a method and apparatus for a secure system-on-a-chip (SOC) architecture for multimedia data processing are provided. A processor may configure at least one subsystem within the SOC via at least one unsecured bus while a security processor enables secure functionalities in configured subsystems via at least one secure bus. The unsecure buses may comprise a data bus and/or a control bus, for example. The secure buses may comprise a secure control bus and/or a secure key bus, for example. The configurable subsystems may be multimedia processing units, input and output modules, and/or memory controllers. The security processor may program bits in security registers within the subsystems to enable secure functionalities, such as data routing paths and/or key loading paths, for example. Moreover, the security processor may validate code to be executed by a processor for configuring the SOC subsystems.
US09177166B2
A multi-functional device is attached to a secure network and includes a control circuit. The control circuit receives indications as to whether a user is authenticated to use the multi-functional device and in response, generates and sends a control signal to the multi-functional device. As long as the multi-functional device continues to receive the control signal, the multi-functional device remains in an operational mode to allow the authenticated user to access the multi-functional device functions. If the multi-functional device ceases to receive the control signal, the multi-functional device deactivates itself.
US09177160B1
Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for key management in full disk and file-level encryption are provided herein. A method includes fetching a distinct cryptographic key from a secure module in connection with a request to perform one of a decryption operation and an encryption operation on at least one of an individual file and an individual sector within a storage device on a computing device; using the distinct cryptographic key to perform the one of a decryption operation and an encryption operation on the at least one of an individual file and an individual sector within the storage device on the computing device; and discarding the distinct cryptographic key subsequent to said performing the one of a decryption operation and an encryption operation on at least one of an individual file and an individual sector within the storage device on the computing device.
US09177159B2
A secure data parser is provided that may be integrated into any suitable system for securely storing and communicating data. The secure data parser parses data and then splits the data into multiple portions that are stored or communicated distinctly. Encryption of the original data, the portions of data, or both may be employed for additional security. The secure data parser may be used to protect data in motion by splitting original data into portions of data, that may be communicated using multiple communications paths.
US09177147B2
In one embodiment, a processor includes at least one execution unit. The processor also includes a Return Oriented Programming (ROP) logic coupled to the at least one execution unit. The ROP logic may validate a return pointer stored on a call stack based on a secret ROP value. The secret ROP value may only be accessible by the operating system.
US09177146B1
A database of known graphical user interface layouts is generated using samples of known executable files. An executable file having an unknown function is obtained; it is executed within a safe environment and its graphical user interface is identified. Layout analysis enumerates all of the windows within the interface and extracts the position values of each window and the dimension values of each window to form a set of layout information. If the layout database contains this layout information set then it is determined that the layout information is of the same type of software corresponding to the type of software contained within the database (or of the type of software to which the layout information is matched within the database). A match may occur if all the windows match, if only some percentage of the windows match, or if the windows do not match exactly but the dimensions of the corresponding window in the database are within a certain percentage.
US09177145B2
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for tracking modified files on a virtual machine including the steps of identifying an altered disk sector, associating the altered disk sector with code that is operated in a virtual machine, and causing a malicious code scan to be performed on the code.
US09177138B2
Disclosed is a change convergence risk mitigation system. The change convergence risk mitigation system typically includes a processor, a memory, and a risk mitigation module stored in the memory. The change convergence risk mitigation system is typically configured for: receiving information associated with a plurality of events; determining an event risk score for each of the plurality of events; aggregating the event risk scores of the plurality of events and, based on the event risk scores, determining a risk level for each of the plurality of time periods; identifying a risk mitigation event; determining a risk mitigation time period from the plurality of time periods such that the risk mitigation time period would not have a predefined level if the risk mitigation event occurred during the risk mitigation time period; and providing a recommendation that the risk mitigation event occur during the risk mitigation time period.
US09177134B2
An information processing apparatus includes following components. An authentication processing unit authenticates a user. A display displays information. An accessing unit accesses an external service. An authenticated-access-information acquiring unit acquires authenticated access information associated with user information for identifying an authenticated user. An unauthenticated-access-information acquiring unit acquires unauthenticated access information having been input by an unauthenticated user when accessing the external service. A controller performs control, when an authenticated user attempts to access the external service, so that the authenticated-access-information acquiring unit acquires authenticated access information associated with user information of the user and the accessing unit accesses the external service by using the acquired authenticated access information, and, when a user attempts to access the external service without being authenticated, so that the unauthenticated-access-information acquiring unit acquires the unauthenticated access information and the display displays the acquired unauthenticated access information.
US09177127B1
An improved technique generates confounders for KBA questions from personal information management (PIM) data created from within an organization. An enterprise KBA (eKBA) server collects PIM data such as email data for a particular member of the organization. For email data, the eKBA server extracts facts from the headers of emails and generates queries having a corresponding correct answer from a first subset of the facts. Moreover, the eKBA server extracts a set of confounders from a second subset of the facts. The eKBA server then forms a multiple-choice KBA question from the query, the corresponding correct answer, and selected confounders.
US09177099B2
Methods and systems for organizing, representing and processing polymeric sequence information, including biopolymeric sequence information such as DNA sequence information and related information are disclosed herein. Polymeric sequence and associated information may be represented using a plurality of data units, each of which includes one or more headers and a payload containing a representation of a segment of the polymeric sequence. Each header may include or be linked to a portion of the associated information.
US09177097B2
A method and apparatus for verifying routing of a number of signal lines in an aircraft. A number of pathways through a volume is identified in the aircraft for a desired routing of the number of signal lines using a preferred systems layout for the aircraft. A determination is made as to whether a designed routing of the number of signal lines in a design of the aircraft is within the number of pathways through the volume for the desired routing of the number of signal lines. The number of signal lines is identified as having the desired routing in response to a determination that the designed routing is within the number of pathways through the volume.
US09177096B2
An approach is provided in which a design tool executes static timing analysis of an integrated circuit design using a first set of timing values corresponding to a first set of layout properties of a transistor included in a standard cell utilized by the integrated circuit design. When the design tool determines that the static timing analysis generates a timing violation within a violation budget, the design tool selects a second set of timing values of the standard cell corresponding to a second set of layout properties of the transistor. The design tool determines that re-execution of the static timing analysis using the second set of timing values resolves the timing violation and, in turn, generates mask layer data that includes the second set of layout properties.
US09177089B2
A computer-implemented method and non-transitory computer readable medium for circuit design verification. Formal verification is performed on a circuit design to prove a correctness of a property of the circuit design. The circuit design has a cone of influence representing a portion of the circuit design capable of affecting signals of the property. A proof core of the circuit design is identified, the proof core being a portion of the cone of influence that is sufficient to prove the correctness of the property. A coverage metric is generated that is indicative of a level of formal verification coverage provided by the property based on the proof core of the circuit design.
US09177087B1
One embodiment relates to a method of generating worst case inter-symbol interference (ISI) inducing short patterns for simulating and/or testing a communication link. The method includes the generation of a binary clock sequence comprising bits of alternating values at the beginning of the pattern. In addition, an ISI inducing binary sequences and its complement are generated after the clock sequence. Another embodiment relates to a pattern generator for generating an worst case inter-symbol interference inducing short pattern for testing a communication link. Other embodiments, aspects, and features are also disclosed.
US09177083B2
A method for the computer aided design of human machine interface animated graphical elements is provided. The method includes receiving through a user interface a selection of a graphic comprising a plurality of components in a design format. The method also includes receiving through the user interface an indication that a first component of the plurality of components is static, and an indication that a second component of the plurality of components is dynamic. The method also includes converting the first component from the design format to a static format, and converting the second component from the design format to a dynamic format. The method then exports the graphic with the first component in the static format and the second component in the dynamic format.
US09177082B2
Methods for computer aided design (CAD) and corresponding systems and computer-readable mediums. A method includes performing a setup process to instantiate a booklet of CAD drawings. The method includes receiving a user selection of a template from a user. The method includes receiving geometry content information from the user and receiving reference geometry from a user. The method includes creating the booklet of CAD drawings based on the template, geometry content information and reference geometry. A CAD system maintains a CAD drawing booklet, the CAD drawing booklet associated with a plurality of drawings each including a sheet collection, and each drawing associated with at least one component.
US09177080B2
Content items may be segmented and labeled by topic to provide for the capture, analysis, indexing, retrieval and/or distribution of information within information rich media, such as audio or video, with greater functionality, accuracy and speed. The segments and other related information may be stored in a database and made accessible to users through, for example, a search service and/or an on-demand service. Automatic segmentation may include receiving a text representation, calculating relevance intervals based on the text representation, determining a nodal representation based on the relevance intervals, and determining segments of the content item based on the nodal representation.
US09177078B1
A system for converting educational credentials from a first country to credentials for a second country includes a database configured to store data related to at least one of grading scales, credit scales, course descriptions, rankings, and weighting for educational credentials and a processor configured to receive data from a user related to course grades and credits earned in the first country and a selection of the second country. The processor retrieves data from the database based on the user data and converting the course grades and credits earned in the first country to grades, credits, and grade point averages for use in the second country based on the data from the database. The processor provides the grades, credits, and grade point averages equivalent in the second country to an electronic display for display to the user.
US09177069B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, including a method that comprises: determining a target geographic feature that has insufficient targeting information associated therewith, the target geographic feature defining a location; determining one or more similar geographic features to the target geographic feature, each geographic feature including targeting information, the determining based on shared excess queries that are shared between geographic features that are determined to be similar to the target geographic feature, wherein each excess query is a query associated with and exceeds an expected query count for each of the similar geographic features and the target geographic feature; attributing targeting information associated with at least one of the one or more similar geographic features to the target geographic feature; and serving content responsive to queries that relate to the target geographic feature based at least in part on the attributed targeting information.
US09177068B2
Systems and methods are provided to facilitate search of listings of businesses according to opening date or age of the businesses at their current business locations. For example, a user may submit a search request for listings of new businesses (e.g., the businesses having the “Grand Opening” status) at a location specified by the user.
US09177067B2
A computer-implemented method for enhancing user data derived from digital communications includes (1) detecting a transaction request from a first computing device in response to an issue-specific invitation, (2) generating a first dataset based on the transaction request, the first dataset including an issue-specific data element corresponding to the issue-specific invitation, (3) associating the first dataset with a user of the first computing device, (4) identifying a second dataset associated with the user, and (5) appending the second dataset to the first dataset to generate an appended dataset. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09177058B2
A method for providing search results to a user operating a third-party web page includes receiving a search request from the third-party web page. One or more search results may be identified that satisfy the search request. The one or more search results each have identifying information to be presented to a user, as well as substantive content. A unique identifier, such as an opaque token, is associated with each of the search results. The identification of the one or more results is provided to the third-party web page in a pop-up window or a widget. A request for the content for a selected search result of the one or more search results is received. The unique identifier may be used to validate the request, and the content is provided to the user, either directly or through the widget, on the third-party webpage.
US09177049B2
This application relates to information analysis and more particularly to a system and method for interactive visual representation of information content and relationships using layouts and gestures. A visualization tool is provided which facilitates both ad-hoc and more formal analytical tasks as a flexible and expressive thinking environment. The tool provides a space focused on ‘Human Interaction with Information’ and enabling evidence marshalling. Capabilities of the tool include put-this-there cognition, automatic analysis templates, and gestures for the fluid expression of thought and scalability mechanisms to support large analysis tasks.
US09177045B2
Topical search engines can add contextual keywords to an input query to bias results toward a particular topic or domain. In one instance, query context models can be constructed to facilitate topical search. Upon receipt of one or more topic-relevant sites, a plurality of topical queries can identified automatically. Contextual keywords can be identified with respect to the plurality of topical queries as a function of lexical generality, among other things. Subsequently, a query context model, comprising the identified topical queries and related contextual keywords, can be employed to restrict query results to a particular topic.
US09177041B2
A method and apparatus for generating a graphical depiction of related data are provided. Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, wherein when executed by at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to identify a graph wherein a node represents a stored object having one or more application-specific attributes associated with a primary application, wherein the primary application includes other than a presentation of nodes in a graph drawing, and wherein edges represent stored relationships between said objects, which include a relevancy to the primary application. The computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to receive a selection formula wherein the selection formula is based on the one or more application-specific attributes of the objects, and wherein the formula classifies the objects based on at least one of predetermined and selectable values of the attributes; and depict a visual representation of the graph.
US09177037B2
A multi-dimensional analytical view (MDAV) calculation can be enhanced by use of an in-memory MDAV runtime at a search engine server. The in-memory MDAV runtime can perform all or some of the processing required to respond to a data request that requires some analytical processing.
US09177035B2
Techniques for replicating data to a database include determining a change to at least one database value in a database table on a source repository; updating, based on the change to the at least one database value, a snapshot value associated with the change to the at least one database value stored in a log table; incrementing a commit value associated with the snapshot value stored in a commit table, the commit table comprising a plurality of commit values associated with a plurality of corresponding snapshot values; initiating replication of the database from the source repository to a target repository; determining a maximum commit value of the plurality of commit values; and replicating the database value in the database table from the source repository to the target repository based on the commit value associated with the snapshot value being less than or equal to the maximum commit value.
US09177033B2
In an EclipseLink environment, persistence units are associated with a single data source. However, in accordance with an embodiment, a user can define multiple persistence units, each with a different set of entity types (i.e., classes) stored in multiple data sources, and expose them through a single composite persistence unit which combines the entities from across the multiple data sources through a single persistence context. A plurality of different types of data sources can be used, including Java Transaction API (JTA) and non-JTA data sources as well as EclipseLink's native JDBC connection pools. Each member persistence unit continues mapping its classes to its own data source. Therefore, a composite persistence unit allows one to map different entities to different data sources. Composite persistence units can be created at runtime.
US09177032B2
Decision devices, systems, and methods to provide a product resource are provided herein. The decision devices include an analysis engine. The analysis engine receives an information resource and at least one product parameter. The analysis engine searches the information resource to identify at least one search result and dynamically analyzes the at least one search result to provide the product resource.
US09177031B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for ranking channel pages of a host system. Content channels may comprise content relating to a particular category or having a commonality. Explicit data provided by user input, and/or implicit data derived or received from a user device or third party may be used to generate explicit and/or implicit parameters. Based on the parameters, content channels may be ranked and displayed in an order based on the ranking, and/or a home content channel may be identified. The host system may therefore target a user with relevant content.
US09177028B2
Detecting data duplication comprises maintaining a fingerprint directory including one or more entries, each entry including a data fingerprint and a data location for a data chunk. Each entry is associated with a seen-count attribute which is an indication of how often the fingerprint has been seen in arriving data chunks. Higher-frequency entries in the directory are retained, while also taking into account recency of data accesses. A data duplication detector detects that the data fingerprint for a new chunk is the same as the data fingerprint contained in an entry in the fingerprint directory.
US09177026B2
A method for joining records from database tables is proposed. Join attributes are ordered into a sequence S0, and a scope C is initialized to empty. Tables including a join attribute A that is first in S0 are identified. A new sequence S′ omits A from S0. Iteration through each identified table proceeds in join attribute A order. The iteration utilizes a tree index structure for each identified table where the index key includes all join attributes in the identified table in S0 order. For each matched value v of the join attribute located during the iterating, a new scope Cv is created by appending “A=v” to the scope C. If S′ is empty, a tuple corresponding to the scope Cv is output. Otherwise, S0 is set to S′ and for each scope Cv, C is set to Cv and the steps beginning with the identifying step are recursively invoked.
US09177025B2
According to some embodiments, a system and method for a parallel join of relational data tables may be provided by calculating, by a plurality of concurrently executing execution threads, hash values for join columns of a first input table and a second input table; storing the calculated hash values in a set of disjoint thread-local hash maps for each of the first input table and the second input table; merging the set of thread-local hash maps of the first input table, by a second plurality of execution threads operating concurrently, to produce a set of merged hash maps; comparing each entry of the merged hash maps to each entry of the set of thread-local hash maps for the second input table to determine whether there is a match, according to a join type; and generating an output table including matches as determined by the comparing.
US09177023B2
Computer-implemented systems and associated operating methods create and use an operator map to identify and evaluate database query plan robustness landmarks. The computer-implemented system comprises logic that creates a map evaluating performance of an implementation of a database engine operator during execution under actual operating conditions. The logic measures and maps performance for a selected range of runtime conditions including resource availability and data characteristics.
US09177014B2
A news and/or search engine system predicts events and stories based on existing events, stories, etc., extracted from a knowledge domain. These predictions can be used for a number of different purposes, including locating new content and actual event outcomes.
US09177012B2
A facility for maintaining a subscriber history pertaining to the use of a mobile device with an IP-based telecommunications service offered by a service provider. When a connection request is made by a mobile device to access an IP-based telecommunications service, one or more identifiers associated with the requesting mobile device and access point are provided in the request and stored by the facility. In some cases, the identifiers are stored even if the mobile device is unable to, or not authorized to, access the telecommunications service. Additional parameters associated with the request from the mobile device, such as a time stamp and details of a subsequent telecommunications session, are also associated with the stored request. The history of requests to access the IP-based telecommunications service from the mobile device are maintained by the facility and provided to a service support provider.
US09177011B2
A system and a method for locating application-specific data that has been previously deleted and located in an address of the data storage device marked as being available for storing new data. The method includes accessing unidentified data from at least one data storage device; examining the unidentified data to detect at least one application-specific data pattern associated with at least one application; for each detected application-specific data pattern, executing an application-specific validation process to determine whether the unidentified data includes valid data associated with a corresponding application; and if it is determined that the unidentified data includes valid data associated with the corresponding application, then recovering the valid data.
US09177008B1
Updatable cursors for positioned updates are provided in a distributed shared-nothing data store by associating with each row of data in a result set hidden metadata that identifies the segments and the locations on such segments of such row. When an update is issued to data under a cursor, the associated metadata is transparently inserted into the update statement before it is dispatched to the segments to insure that the correct data is accurately updated. For cached query statements, generic metadata identifiers are used for building and caching, and the actual metadata identifiers are folded into the statement in place of the generic identifiers before dispatch.
US09176998B2
A method, system, and computer program product for minimizing surprisal context data. The method comprising the steps of: identifying characteristics of a data event; receiving an input of rank of at least two identified characteristics of the data event; the computer generating a hierarchy of ranked, identified characteristics based on the rank of the at least two identified characteristics of the data event; and comparing the hierarchy of ranked, identified characteristics to a repository of reference artifacts arranged in characteristic context patterns. If at least one reference artifact arranged in characteristic context patterns from the repository matches the hierarchy of ranked, identified characteristics, the characteristic context pattern is stored as a surprisal context filter and compared to a data input of data events to detect anomalous events.
US09176996B2
Copying data in a table from a source database to a target database is performed by copying the table into a conflicts schema. A first INSERT/SELECT statement is executed to copy data from the table. Then, in response to a determination that the table definition for the table in a source database dictionary is not compatible with a table definition for the table in a target database dictionary, the INSERT/SELECT statement execution is rolled back in response to a determination that the data from the first INSERT/SELECT statement did not fit in a table in the target schema of the target database. A second INSERT/SELECT statement is executed including a WHERE clause to copy data from the table to the target schema of the target database. In response to a determination that the second INSERT/SELECT statement did not copy data from the table to the target schema of the target database, a third INSERT/SELECT statement is executed forcing the data to fit.
US09176979B2
A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computing system for defining at least a portion within a simulation modeling file for copying from an original location, thus defining an identified portion. A destination location is defined for the identified portion. A multi-threaded copying procedure is effectuated to copy the identified portion from the original location to the destination location, thus generating a copied portion of the simulation modeling file. The multi-threaded copying procedure utilizes at least two processing threads.
US09176977B2
Embodiments relate to providing a data stream interface for offloading the inflation/deflation processing of data to a stateless compression accelerator. An aspect includes transmitting a request to inflate or deflate a data stream to a compression accelerator. The request may include references to an input buffer for storing input data from the data stream, an output buffer for storing processed input data, and a state data control block for storing a stream state. The stream state is provided to the compression accelerator to continue processing the data stream responsive to the request being a subsequent request. The compression accelerator is instructed to store a current stream state in the state data control block responsive to the request being a non-final request. Accordingly, the current stream state is received from the compression accelerator responsive to the request being a non-final request. The processed input data is received from the compression accelerator.
US09176976B2
Systems and methods for compressing a raw logical data object (201) for storage in a storage device operable with at least one storage protocol, creating, reading, writing, optimizatic in and restoring thereof. Compressing the raw logical data object (201) comprises creating in the storage device a compressed logical data object (203) comprising a header (204) and one or more allocated compressed sections with predefined size (205-1-205-2); compressing one or more sequentially obtained chunks of raw data (202-1-202-6) corresponding to the raw logical data object (201) thus giving rise to the compressed data chunks (207-1-207-6); and sequentially accommodating the processed data chunks into: said compressed sections (205-1-205-2) in accordance with an order said chunks received, wherein said compressed sections serve as atomic elements of compression/decompression operations during input/output transactions on the logical data object.
US09176968B2
A directory operational block data structure is provided by a processor within a memory. The directory operational block data structure allows configuration of a directory of a file system, at an operating-system level, with at least one executable program to be executed in response to configurable operating-system level directory events associated with the directory. A first program is attached within the directory operational block data structure to execute in response to a specified directory event. The attached first program is executed at the operating-system level in response to detection of the specified directory event.
US09176967B2
Implementations of the present disclosure involve a system and/or method for storing one or more data files in an n-level directory tree of a data storage system. In general, the system and/or method computes an n-byte value from a data file name which is used to create a directory path in the data storage system, where parts of the n-byte value are used to form each directory name in the directory path. Storage and retrieval of a data file is performed by storing in or retrieving data files from the computed directory. In one embodiment, the calculated n-byte value is obtained by computing the value with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) algorithm. Use of the CRC algorithm to compute the directory path provides a balanced set of directories and number of data files that is repeatable such that location and retrieval of the data file is accomplished without the need to search through each directory of the system.
US09176957B2
A fact checking system is able to verify the correctness of information and/or characterize information by comparing the information with one or more sources. The fact checking system automatically monitors, processes, fact checks information and indicates a status of the information. The fact checking system is able to operate selectively, for example, only fact checking information after detecting a trigger.
US09176954B2
An information processing apparatus includes a presenting unit, an information extracting unit, a characteristics extracting unit, and a limiting unit. The presenting unit presents information. The information extracting unit extracts, in a case where the information presented by the presenting unit is selected, information associated with the selected information from a storing unit that stores plural pieces of information and association between the plural pieces of information. The characteristics extracting unit extracts characteristics relating to the plural pieces of information and the association between the plural pieces of information. The limiting unit limits, in a case where the presenting unit presents the information extracted by the information extracting unit and the number of pieces of information to be presented is greater than or equal to or greater than a predetermined number, information to be presented on the basis of the characteristics extracted by the characteristics extracting unit.
US09176952B2
A computerized system for performing statistical machine translation with a phrasal decoder is provided. The system may include a phrasal decoder trained prior to run-time on a monolingual parallel corpus, the monolingual parallel corpus including a machine translation output of source language documents of a bilingual parallel corpus and a corresponding target human translation output of the source language documents, to thereby learn mappings between the machine translation output and the target human translation output. The system may further include a statistical machine translation engine configured to receive a translation input and to produce a raw machine translation output, at run-time. The phrasal decoder may be configured to process the raw machine translation output, and to produce a corrected translation output based on the learned mappings for display on a display associated with the system.
US09176945B1
Provided are computer implemented methods and systems for extracting data. According to a method, a message associated with one of several accounts is received. The message is processed to detect one or more key words. A template related to the one or more key words is determined. The template is associates one or more portions of the message with one or more tags. Based on the determining, the data from the message is extracted using the template.
US09176940B2
A method for an electronic device having an input device and a display, including, displaying a block of text within a text editing application, displaying, in proximity of the block of text, an alignment control interface after a precondition is met, detecting a dragging motion associated with the alignment control interface, modifying an alignment of the block of text based, at least in part, on the detected dragging motion, detecting an end of the dragging motion, and, displaying, in a predetermined position associated with the alignment of the block of text, the alignment control interface. An electronic device including a display, an input device, a memory, and a processor, the processor being configured to execute the method.
US09176937B2
A method, system and computer program product for ensuring a user interface specification accurately describes its corresponding user interface. The system links sections of the user interface code with corresponding user interface objects. Furthermore, the system links these sections of the user interface code with corresponding sections of the user interface specification. Upon detecting a modification to the user interface code which reflects an update to the user interface, the system notifies the user that the user interface specification needs to be updated. By linking the user interface objects to the user interface code and linking the user interface code to the corresponding sections of the user interface specification, appropriate modifications to the user interface specification can be recommended or implemented based on the modifications to the corresponding sections of the user interface code, which reflect the changes to the corresponding objects on the user interface.
US09176933B2
Application of content and associated functionality from multiple content sources to an electronic content item is provided. Content from a first document may be displayed over a second document via a user interface component. If desired, such content may be inserted into the second document, and application functionality associated with the inserted content may be retained after it is inserted into the second document. One or more navigation means may be provided for conveniently navigating inside a content item (e.g., a document) for adding new content or for reviewing or editing existing content. In addition, a number of content views and content mappings may be provided.
US09176928B2
A system for evaluating the convergence to a solution for a matrix equation comprises at least one reconfigurable computing device such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an update storage element, a conversion element, a summation unit, and a comparator. The FPGA includes a plurality of configurable logic elements and a plurality of configurable storage elements, which are utilized to form the update storage element, the conversion element, the summation unit, and the comparator. The update storage element is configured to store a plurality of updates. The conversion element determines the absolute value of the updates. The summation unit accumulates the absolute values of the updates to produce a total sum, which is compared to a convergence factor by the comparator. Convergence is signaled when the total sum is less than the convergence factor.
US09176923B2
In one embodiment, a computer system has a plurality of chassis interconnected by cables. Each cable initially connects a unique port pair consisting of a port of one chassis and a port of another chassis. The disconnection of cables is monitored, including electronically recording a disconnection sequence in which the port pairs are disconnected by removing each cable from at least one port of the respective port pair. Visual guidance is provided for re-cabling the computer system by sequentially identifying the port pairs in a reversal of the disconnection sequence, wherein identifying each port pair includes illuminating visual indicators associated with the ports of each port pair with a matching illumination pattern.
US09176914B2
Disclosed are a method of configurating a CANopen network, a method of operating a slave device of the CANopen network, and a system for controlling a PC device using the CANopen network. The method of operating the slave device connected to the CANopen network includes creating a process data object for transmission, designating identifier information for the process data object, and transmitting the created process data object to a device corresponding to the designated identifier information. The identifier information includes a communication object identifier allowing another slave device or a master device connected to the CANopen network to receive the process data object.
US09176908B2
A memory controller accesses different types of memory devices running at different native rates through the use of a time division multiplexed bus. Data is transferred over the bus at one rate when accessing one type of memory device and at a different rate when accessing another type of memory device. In addition, the memory controller may provide control information (e.g., command and address information) to the different types of memory devices at different rates and, in some cases, time multiplex the control information on a shared bus.
US09176907B2
A high-speed, low-cost data processing system capable of ensuring expandability of memory capacity and having excellent usability while keeping constant latency is provided. The data processing system is configured to include a data processing device, a volatile memory, and a non-volatile memory. As the data processing device, the volatile memory, and the non-volatile memory are connected in series and the number of connection signals are reduced, the speed is increased while keeping expandability of memory capacity. The data processing device measures latency and performs a latency correcting operation to keep the latency constant. When data in the non-volatile memory is transferred to the volatile memory, error correction is performed to improve reliability. The data processing system formed of these plurality of chips is configured as a data processing system module in which the chips are disposed so as to be multilayered each other and are connected by a ball grid array (BGA) or a technology of wiring these chips.
US09176904B2
The present techniques provide systems and methods of controlling access to more than one open page in a memory component, such as a memory bank. Several components may request access to the memory banks. A controller can receive the requests and open or close the pages in the memory bank in response to the requests. In some embodiments, the controller assigns priority to some components requesting access, and assigns a specific page in a memory bank to the priority component. Further, additional available pages in the same memory bank may also be opened by other priority components, or by components with lower priorities. The controller may conserve power, or may increase the efficiency of processing transactions between components and the memory bank by closing pages after time outs, after transactions are complete, or in response to a number of requests received by masters.
US09176902B1
Described are techniques for migrating data. A source data storage system includes a source device and a target data storage system includes a target device. A passive path and an active path are provided for a host to access data of a logical device. The host recognizes the passive path and the active path as paths to the logical device. The passive path is between the host and the source data storage system. The active path is between the host and the target data storage system and used in connection with proxying requests directed to the logical device received from the host through the target data storage system while migrating data for the logical device from the source device to the target device. Migrating is controlled by a migration module executing on the target data storage system that copies data from the source device to the target device.
US09176896B2
An apparatus includes a storage medium and a controller. The storage medium generally stores user data in logical pages. The controller may be configured to encrypt and decrypt user data during write and read operations, respectively. The user data is generally in a plurality of data bands. Each data band is encrypted and decrypted using a unique media encryption key. When a boundary between a pair of data bands is within a logical page, the controller may be configured to create two logical page instances, a first logical page instance storing data from a first data band of the pair of data bands and a second logical page instance storing data from a second data band of the pair of data bands. The first and second logical page instances are encrypted and decrypted using the unique media encryption key of the first and second data bands, respectively.
US09176892B2
A controller receives a request to perform staging or destaging operations with respect to an area of a cache. A determination is made as to whether more than a threshold number of discard scans are waiting to be performed. The controller avoids satisfying the request to perform the staging or the destaging operations or a read hit with respect to the area of the cache, in response to determining that more than the threshold number of discard scans are waiting to be performed.
US09176889B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining image search results. One of the methods includes receiving a notification that contents of a first memory page for a first virtual machine on a first host machine are the same as contents of a second memory page for a second virtual machine on a second different host machine. Storage space occupied by the first memory page on the first host machine is deallocated based on the notification. A request from the first virtual machine for the first memory page is received. In response to the request, a copy of contents of the second memory page is obtained from the second host machine.
US09176883B2
A data storage architecture is composed of an array of a flash memory solid state disk and a hard disk drive or any nonvolatile random access storage that are intelligently coupled by an intelligent processing unit such as a multi-core graphic processing unit. The solid state disk stores seldom-changed and mostly read reference data blocks while the hard disk drive stores compressed deltas between currently accessed I/O blocks and their corresponding reference blocks in the solid state disk so that random writes are not performed on the solid state disk during online I/O operations. The solid state disk and hard disk drive are controlled by the intelligent processing unit, which carries out high speed computations including similarity detection and delta compression/decompression. The architecture exploits the fast read performance of solid state disks and the high speed computation of graphic processing units to replace mechanical operations on hard disk drives while avoiding slow and wearing solid state drive writes.
US09176877B2
In response to snooping a read-type memory access request of a requestor on a system fabric of a data processing system, a memory channel interface forwards the request to a memory buffer and starts a timer. In response to the forwarded request, the memory buffer performs a lookup of a target address of the request in a memory controller cache. In response to the target address hitting in a coherence state permitting provision of early data, the memory buffer provides a response indicating early data and provides a copy of a target memory block of the request to the memory channel interface. The memory channel interface, responsive to receipt prior to expiration of the timer of the response indicating early data, transmits the copy of the target memory block to the requestor via the system fabric prior to receiving a combined response of the data processing system to the request.
US09176875B2
In an embodiment, a processor includes multiple tiles, each including a core and a tile cache hierarchy. This tile cache hierarchy includes a first level cache, a mid-level cache (MLC) and a last level cache (LLC), and each of these caches is private to the tile. A controller coupled to the tiles includes a cache power control logic to receive utilization information regarding the core and the tile cache hierarchy of a tile and to cause the LLC of the tile to be independently power gated, based at least in part on this information. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09176871B1
Various techniques are provided for performing garbage collection in a chunk store that is being used to implement a hierarchical file system. In general, the techniques involve a “trace” phase in which all chunks that correspond to current versions of files are marked, and then a sweep phase in which all chunks that were not marked during the trace phase are reclaimed. Various techniques are also described for using snapshots to avoid the need to halt operations on the file system while the trace phase is being performed. In addition, techniques are provided for using a cache of last-touched timestamps to avoid the need to mark all current chunks in each trace phase.
US09176870B2
Certain example embodiments relate to a highly-concurrent, predictable, fast, self-managed, in-process space for storing data that is hidden away from the garbage collector and its related pauses. More particularly, certain example embodiments relate to improved memory management techniques for computer systems that leverage an off-heap direct-memory data store that is massively scalable and highly efficient. The off-heap store may be provided in connection with a Java-based environment, and garbage collection may be completely or nearly completely avoided for the off-heap store. The off-heap store may be integrated into a tiered storage solution in certain example embodiments.
US09176868B2
Solid state storage devices and methods for flash translation layers are disclosed. In one such translation layer, a sector indication is translated to a memory location by a parallel unit look-up table is populated by memory device enumeration at initialization. Each table entry is comprised of communication channel, chip enable, logical unit, and plane for each operating memory device found. When the sector indication is received, a modulo function operates on entries of the look-up table in order to determine the memory location associated with the sector indication.
US09176860B2
Computer-implemented systems and associated operating methods implement a fast join for databases which is adapted for usage with flash storage. A system comprises a processor that performs a join of two tables stored in a storage in pages processed in a column orientation wherein column values for all rows on a page are co-located in mini-pages within the page. The processor reduces input/output operations of the join by accessing only join columns and mini-pages containing join results.
US09176853B2
An attempt to write to a block of data in a main volume of data is detected. An indicator associated with the block of data is accessed before a copy-on-write operation to a snapshot volume is performed for the block of data. The indicator is used to determine whether the copy-on-write operation is to be performed for the block of data.
US09176852B2
In managing testing on a testbed environment a test automator executes an operation specified in a test script to be performed on a testbed environment, wherein the operation refers to a particular role identifier identifying one of a plurality of roles hosted within the testbed environment by at least one host in the testbed environment, wherein the operation does not refer to any of the at least one host. The test automator performs the operation on a particular host of the at least one host of the testbed environment using at least one value from a host description file for calling the particular host assigned to the particular role identifier in a configuration file.
US09176847B2
A method of and system for managing diagnostic information is disclosed. The method and system may include creating a data space in volatile memory. The data space may be configured to collect a selected diagnostic information. The selected diagnostic information may include a first diagnostic information from a first source and a second diagnostic information from a second source. The method and system may include collecting in the data space the selected diagnostic information. The method and system may include releasing from the data space at least a portion of the selected diagnostic information in response to a triggering event.
US09176834B2
A method is provided in the illustrative embodiments. A failure is detected in a first computing node serving an application in a cluster. A subset of actions is selected from a set of actions, the set of actions configured to transfer the serving of the application from the first computing node to a second computing node in the cluster. A waiting period is set for the first computing node. The first computing node is allowed to continue serving the application during the waiting period. During the waiting period, concurrently with the first computing node serving the application, the subset of actions is performed at the second computing node. Responsive to receiving a signal of activity from the first computing node during the waiting period, the concurrent operation of the second computing node is aborted.
US09176829B2
Techniques involving replication of virtual machines of virtual machines in a clustered environment are described. One representative technique includes receiving a replication request to replicate a primary virtual machine. A clustering broker is configured to act on the replication request on behalf of a cluster of recovery nodes, by at least placing a replicated virtual machine corresponding to the source virtual machine on a recovery node and facilitate tracking the migration of the replicated virtual machine within the cluster. The clustering broker returns an address of the recovery node that has been placed or found through tracking for the particular virtual machine.
US09176826B1
Techniques for archiving data, including methods, systems, and apparatus, including machine-readable media storing executable instructions. In some implementations, an apparatus includes a touch screen, one or more processors, a battery, non-volatile data storage device, and machine-readable media including executable instructions for performing data archiving operations. In some implementations, communication with a source device is established. A device driver may be transmitted from the apparatus to the source device and installed on the source device. The device driver may be configured to generate an identifier for the source device. A particular logical data storage area may be assigned based on the received identifier. A user interface may be displayed on the touch screen to receive user input requesting data from the source device. The data from the source device may be received by the apparatus and stored the particular storage area assigned to the source device.
US09176825B2
A system or method for granular application data lifecycle sourcing from a single backup is disclosed. In one embodiment of the method, a computer system periodically creates a primary backup copy of data stored on a storage system in order to create a plurality of primary backup copies. The computer system also periodically creates a secondary backup copy of data stored on the storage system in order to create a first plurality of secondary backup copies, wherein each of the secondary backup copies of the first plurality is created in part by copying data from a respective one of the primary backup copies. The periodicity of creating the primary backup copies, however, is distinct from the periodicity of creating the secondary backup copies of the first plurality.
US09176822B2
A method begins by a processing module receiving a large data file for storage in a dispersed storage network (DSN) and determining initial dispersed storage error encoding parameters. The method continues with the processing module encoding, during a first time interval of receiving the large data file, first data segments of the large data file using the initial dispersed storage error encoding parameters to produce a first plurality of sets of encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module writing the first plurality of sets of encoded data slices to the DSN and monitoring processing of the writing to produce first write processing performance information. When the first write processing performance information compares unfavorably to a desired write performance range, the method continues with the processing module adjusting, for a second time interval, the initial dispersed storage error encoding parameters to produce adjusted dispersed storage error encoding parameters.
US09176814B2
In a solid state memory device, codewords stored in a unit of the memory device are decoded using an error correcting iterative decoding process. An average number of iterations needed for successfully decoding codewords of the unit is determined, and the average number of iterations is monitored. The average number of iterations can be taken as a measure of wear of the subject unit.
US09176806B2
In a memory inspection in a computer installing a x86 CPU, system software related to low-frequent processing is prevented from going down, and the suppression of performance degradation and the avoidance of a reduction in memory capacity by the memory inspection is realized. The computer having a processor, a memory, and an I/O device. The memory stores a system software realizing a system control unit, and an inspection program realizing an inspection unit. The processor has a memory fault notifying unit notifying the system control unit of a fault address. The system control unit includes an adjustment unit that determines whether the inspection program needs to be executed, or not, based on the type of event occurring, plural event processing units processing the event by using different storage areas of the memory, a fault recording unit recording the memory fault, and an event processing unit selector.
US09176805B2
Reducing memory dump data size by: (i) receiving a memory dump data including a set of stack(s), including at least a first stack which includes a current stack portion; (ii) removing from the memory dump data a first removed data portion that comes from a portion of the first stack to yield an optimized memory dump data; (iii) determining respective ranking values for a plurality of ranked data portions from the set of stacks; and (iv) selecting a ranked data portion from the current stack portion of the first stack to be a first removed data portion based, at least in part, upon the ranking values.
US09176801B2
A database language is extended to define constraints on a data model (e.g., entity-relationship model) rather than the concrete database. The constraints can be declarative (e.g., constraints that are defined using expressions of the database language) or programmatic (e.g., constraints that are defined as a stored procedure implemented in a domain specific language). By storing the constraints at a higher level than the database level, the constraints can be performed without changing the persistency of the database. Also disclosed are techniques for handling of constraints on partially loaded entities.
US09176794B2
A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for providing improved access to accelerated processing device compute resources to user mode applications. The functionality disclosed allows user mode applications to provide commands to an accelerated processing device without the need for kernel mode transitions in order to access a unified ring buffer. Instead, applications are each provided with their own buffers, which the accelerated processing device hardware can access to process commands. With full operating system support, user mode applications are able to utilize the accelerated processing device in much the same way as a CPU.
US09176793B2
Apparatus and method for use with a data processing system, wherein the data processing system comprises a client and a server, comprising: a receive component for receiving a call from a client application to a first method of an object, and for receiving a reply on the channel; an interceptor component, for wrapping the object to provide a wrapped call to a second method of the wrapped object, and for invoking a response handler; a client encoder component for converting the wrapped call into a message; a client channel manager component for establishing a channel to the server; a sender component, for sending the message on the channel; a reply decoder component for decoding the reply to provide a response; and the sender component further for sending the response to the client application.
US09176773B2
Tools and techniques for migrating applications to compute clouds are described herein. A tool may be used to migrate any arbitrary application to a specific implementation of a compute cloud. The tool may use a library of migration rules, apply the rules to a selected application, and in the process generate migration output. The migration output may be advisory information, revised code, patches, or the like. There may be different sets of rules for different cloud compute platforms, allowing the application to be migrated to different clouds. The rules may describe a wide range of application features and corresponding corrective actions for migrating the application. Rules may specify semantic behavior of the application, code or calls, storage, database instances, interactions with databases, operating systems hosting the application, and others.
US09176772B2
A session established for an application is suspended from an instance and later resumed on the server or a different server. When a session is suspended, its state is captured and persistently stored as a session image in a data repository, and the session is terminated. When the session is resumed, a new session is established on an instance, the session image of the session to resume is retrieved from the repository and restored to the newly established session. The suspension and resumption of a session may be initiated by an application, which may request the suspension and resumption of a session.
US09176763B2
A method for efficient execution of a guest in a virtualized computing environment is provided. The method comprises causing an execution of at least one virtual machine on a computing hardware, the virtual machine executes a hypervisor in a first security ring; and causing an execution of a single guest program on one of the at least one virtual machines, the single guest program comprises a kernel being executed in the first security ring and at least one application being executed in a second security ring.
US09176758B2
A controller device is connected to a group of virtual machines and one or more network devices in a network. The controller device is configured to store policies relating to when to start up and when to shut down the virtual machines based on users logging into the network, users logging out of the network, users attempting to access the plurality of virtual machines, and/or particular types of traffic in the network; receive network activity data from a network device of the one or more network devices in the network; identify, based on the network activity data and the policies, a virtual machine, of the group of virtual machines, to start up or shut down; and cause the virtual machine to start up or shut down.
US09176757B2
The invention relates to a method for the virtualization of a hardware resource associated with a computer system by an executable piece of code adapted for being injected into a process belonging to an application that is executed on an operating system comprising at least one API that is executed on the computer system. The method comprises: intercepting a call from the process to an API service related with the management of the data flow produced between the process and the hardware resource; and managing the data flow produced between the process and the hardware resource by the piece of code on the basis of the interception of the call from the process to the API service related with the management of the data flow produced between the process and the hardware resource.
US09176754B2
Some embodiments provide a system that executes a web application. During operation, the system loads the web application in a web browser and loads a native code module associated with the web application into a secure runtime environment. Next, the system provides input data associated with the web application to the native code module and processes the input data using the native code module to obtain output data. Finally, the system provides the output data to the web application for use by the web application.
US09176752B1
Techniques for using hardware-based mechanisms for updating computing resources are described herein. At a time after receiving a code update request, one or more hardware-supported system management capabilities of processors within a computing system are invoked at least to interrupt execution of currently running instructions. While the system management capabilities are active and instruction execution is suspended, programmatic routines are updated. After the updates are complete, instruction execution is resumed.
US09176749B2
A graphical user interface is generated at a mobile communication terminal having a first touch screen of a first size, the graphical user interface including one or more touch screen input options. The generated graphical user interface is transmitted from the mobile communication terminal and to a vehicle communication terminal having a second touch screen of a second size. An indication of touch screen input received at the second touch screen of the vehicle communication terminal is received at the mobile communication terminal and from the vehicle communication terminal. A function corresponding to the touch screen input received at the second touch screen of the vehicle communication terminal is executed at the mobile communication terminal.
US09176727B2
A computer system for determining whether or not a tool for deploying a software patch should be invoked is provided. The system may include a receiver that receives information regarding patch deployment over a first pre-determined amount of time. The system may include a processor configured to determine, based on the historical information, a patch deployment index. The patch deployment index may characterize patch deployment as a number of patches deployed per unit time. The receiver may receive historical information regarding patch deployment over a second amount of time. The processor may use the historical information regarding patch deployment of the second pre-determined amount of time to determine a second patch deployment index. The processor may compare the first deployment to the second patch deployment index. When the difference between the second index and the first index is greater than a pre-determined threshold, the processor may invoke the tool.
US09176715B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for developing a user interface. The method may include receiving a software development framework-independent data processing application of a consumption layer. A software development framework type may be received out of a plurality of supported software development framework types of a model layer. A plurality of object models adhering to the selected software development framework type may be displayed. A particular object model out of the plurality of object models may be received. A plurality of elements from the particular object model may be displayed for incorporation into the user interface. A selection of elements out of the plurality of elements may be received. The user interface may be generated, where the generating includes incorporating the selected elements for the software development framework-independent data processing application according to the particular object model of the selected software development framework type.
US09176712B2
Node Grouped Data Marshalling may involve converting programming objects to marshalled data. A marshaller application may determine a class type for each of the programming objects to be marshalled. Two or more of the objects may be of the same class type and may derive from a shared base class. The marshalling application may group of the objects based on the objects' class types. The objects may be marshalled using a set of key-value pairs where keys may identify the class type of an object and where the values may represent the contents of the object and may itself be a set of key-value pairs. A marshalling application may generate a textual representation of the objects such that each grouping of class types is identified by a single key name.
US09176705B2
Uplink transmission device and method for an audio signal via an audio interface are provided. In the device, a first pin of the audio interface is connected to a signal output terminal of an uplink audio signal generating device via a first circuit, and a second pin of the audio interface is connected to the signal output terminal of the uplink audio signal generating device via a second circuit. The first pin of the audio interface is one of a microphone pin and a ground pin, and the second pin of the audio interface is the other one of the microphone pin and the ground pin. The first circuit and the second circuit are attenuation circuits for each other.
US09176704B2
A controller performs image recognition of the design of at least part of a picture obtained by capturing, by an image capturing unit, an image of a character(s) printed on or attached to a character item, generates an augmented reality image by combining a stagecraft image, prepared in association with each of image-recognized designs, with a subject image of a person wearing or having the character item, and displays the augmented reality image on a display unit.
US09176690B2
A print job processing system determines a set of job size thresholds for a set of print jobs received over a period of time by a print shop. The print shop includes multiple cells. The system orders the job size thresholds from lowest to highest, assigns the lowest job size threshold to a first one of the cells, assigns the highest job size threshold to a second one of the cells, and assigns each of the remaining thresholds to the remaining cells so that each of the cells has an assigned threshold. Then, when the system receives a print job, it determines a size for the received print job, identifies which of the cells has an assigned job size threshold that corresponds to the size of the received print job, and routes the received print job to the identified cell. The identified cell may then process the received print job.
US09176680B2
A network of collection, charging and distribution machines collects, charges and distributes portable electrical energy storage devices (e.g., batteries, supercapacitors or ultracapacitors). Vehicle diagnostic data of a vehicle using the portable electrical energy storage device is stored on a diagnostic data storage system of the portable electrical energy storage device during use of a respective portable electrical energy storage device by a respective vehicle. Once the user places the portable electrical energy storage device in the collection, charging and distribution machine, or comes within wireless communications range of a collection, charging and distribution machine, a connection is established between the collection, charging and distribution machine and the portable electrical energy storage device. The collection, charging and distribution machine then reads vehicle diagnostic data stored on the diagnostic data storage system of the portable electrical energy storage device and provides information regarding the diagnostic data.
US09176675B1
A technique performs a host write operation on behalf of a host computer. The technique involves receiving a write request from the host computer, and providing a data write command and a zero write command to backend storage in response to the write request from the host computer. The backend storage maintains a file on behalf of the host computer. Additionally, the data write command includes host data to be written to the file. Furthermore, the zero write command defines a field of zeroes to be written to the file. The technique further involves sending an acknowledgement to the host computer, the acknowledgement serving as a response to the write request from the host computer.
US09176674B2
In a method for allocating space on a logical disk, a computer receives an allocation request to allocate a number of requested logical disk extents. The computer selects one of a first group having an array of logical disk extents and a second group having an array of logical disk extents. The computer selects a group having a number of free logical disk extents that is greater than or equal to the number of requested logical disk extents. The logical disk extents in the array of the first group and in the array of the second group correspond to disk blocks on a logical disk. The logical disk spans one or more physical random access disks. The computer locks the selected group to prevent allocating a logical disk extent other than in response to the allocation request.
US09176670B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a semiconductor storage device (SSD) system based on asymmetric RAID storage. Specifically, embodiments of this invention provide a set of (at least one) of RAID controllers coupled to a host computer. A set of storage drives is coupled to each asymmetric RAID controller. The RAID method and configuration of each storage device are dynamically adapted based on user policy parameters and storage performance characteristics.
US09176662B2
Systems and methods for simulating liquid-on-lens effects may provide an interface through which users can add and/or manipulate fluids on a virtual camera lens. A physically based fluid simulation may simulate the behavior of the fluid as it is deposited on and/or manipulated on the virtual lens, and determine the distribution of the fluid across the lens. A ray tracing technique may be employed to determine how light is refracted through the virtual lens and the fluid, and to render a distorted output image as seen through the lens and the fluid. As the fluid is manipulated, corresponding changes in the image may be displayed in real time. The input image may be an existing single image or a direct camera feed (e.g., of a tablet type device). The user may select a fluid type and/or various fluid properties for the image editing operation.
US09176658B1
A computing device can periodically acquire a current track time for a media content item being played. The device can periodically compare the current track time with a respective start time and a respective end time for each line (or segment) in a plurality of lines of text (or segments of text) associated with the media content item. If the device determines that the current track time is between start and end times for a given line of text, then the device can display the given line of text. A user of the device can scroll through the lines of text associated with the media content item. If the user selects a particular line of text, the device can identify a start time for the selected line of text. The device can then play the media content item at the identified start time of the selected line of text.
US09176657B2
A method for selecting multiple content items in a list of content items is presented. In an embodiment, the method first displays a list of content items along the first direction on a display of the computing device. Then, the method detects a first portion of gesture for selecting a first content item in the list of content items. While the first content item is selected, the method detects a trigger for a second portion of the gesture, and then selects at least one second content item based on the second portion of the gesture. The trigger for the second portion of the gesture is a scroll gesture, and while the first content item is selected the scrolling of the list is disabled. A method for manipulating multiple content items in a list of content items is also presented.
US09176655B2
According to one embodiment, a medical image observation apparatus includes a data receiver, a display, and a controller. The controller controls the display to array medical images for each of groups, the medical images being classified into the groups in accordance with at least one of a type of medical image generation apparatus, an imaging condition, an image generation method, an imaging position, an instruction and a setting by an operator, and an imaging date/time, to display medical images corresponding to at least two of the groups, and to scroll the medical images arrayed on a display screen on a group basis based on a scroll instruction of the operator.
US09176654B2
A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, is characterized in that one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.
US09176649B2
Method, application, and medium of remote management of a computer system using voice and gesture based input are disclosed. An application module is executed on a processor of a computing device. The application module (a) displays a first user interface on the computing device, the interface allowing a user to enter a first input which includes at least one of a voice input and a gesture input, (b) receives input data which include at least one of audio input data and multitouch input data from the computing device representing the first input, (c) determines, based on the input data, a first command from a plurality of commands targeted to a baseboard management controller (BMC) managing a computer system, (d) constructs a first message including the determined command, and (e) sends the first message to the BMC over a network.
US09176643B2
A method and system for playing video on a graphical user interface (GUI) that provides a singular user interface for searching, retrieving, and playing video available over a network from a server.
US09176639B1
A user interface (UI) is provided on a client device to a user. The UI includes a concept bar and a content window. The concept bar includes a plurality of concept tabs associated with concepts currently relevant to a collaborative communication session involving the user and other participants. The concept tabs are configured to enable interaction with the concept tabs by the user. The content window is presented separately from the concept bar, and includes content relevant to the collaborative communication session based on the concept tabs presented by the concept bar. The content presented by the content window is modified in response to interaction by the user with the concept tabs.
US09176636B1
A capacitance sensing module includes a timer circuit configured to generate a repetitive trigger signal, a low power oscillator block configured to generate a clock signal having a higher frequency than the repetitive trigger signal, a sensing block coupled with the timer circuit and the oscillator block and configured to, in response to the repetitive trigger signal, detect a presence of a conductive object at a capacitive sensor button by applying an excitation signal based on the clock signal to the capacitive sensor button, and a wake logic block coupled with the sensing block and configured to transition a processing unit from a low power consumption state to a high power consumption state in response to the sensing block detecting the presence of the conductive object at the capacitive sensor button.
US09176630B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus relate to capacitive touch sensors with a fine-pointed, active stylus. The active stylus is configured to receive a signal from the capacitive touch sensor for synchronizing a time base of the stylus with the capacitive touch sensor. The active stylus is configured to receive a signal from a matrix of the capacitive touch sensor to measure a first position along one axis, and transmit a signal from the single electrode of the stylus to the matrix to indicate a second position of the stylus along another axis of the matrix. The stylus can transmit the received signal to report the first position of the stylus.
US09176629B2
A pixel unit, method for sensing touch of an object, and a display apparatus incorporating the same are provided. The display apparatus includes a data line. The pixel unit includes a first switch circuit electrically connected to the data line and a sensing circuit electrically connected to the first switch circuit. The sensing circuit generates a signal in response to the touch of the object, while the signal is transmitted through the data line with the first switch circuit turned on. In addition, the display apparatus further includes a readout line. The pixel unit further includes a second switch circuit electrically connected to the readout line. The sensing circuit is electrically connected to the second switch circuit. In a first time period, the sensing circuit receives a reference voltage via the first switch circuit. Then the signal generated by the touch of the object is transmitted through the readout line via the second switch circuit in a second time period.
US09176616B2
In one embodiment, a display device having a touch function includes an insulating substrate and a plurality of pixels formed on the insulating substrate and arranged in a matrix of rows and columns. The pixels form a plurality of pixel blocks formed of a plurality of rows and columns of the pixels. A sensor circuit is arranged in a space between adjacent pixels on the insulating substrate and includes a coupling electrode, a detection electrode arranged adjacent to the coupling electrode for forming a coupling capacitance therebetween, and a reading-out circuit to read out a potential of the detection electrode. At least one sensor circuit is arranged in each pixel block. The contact or non-contact by a fingertip or a nib is detected by a potential difference of the detection electrode.
US09176608B1
The amount of power and processing needed to process gesture input for a computing device can be reduced by utilizing a separate gesture sensor. The gesture sensor can have a form factor similar to that of conventional camera elements, in order to reduce costs by being able to utilize readily available low cost parts, but can have a lower resolution and adjustable virtual shutter such that fast motions can be captured and/or recognized by the device. In some devices, a subset of the pixels of the gesture sensor can be used as a motion detector, enabling the gesture sensor to run in a low power state unless there is likely gesture input to process. Further, at least some of the processing and circuitry can be included with the gesture sensor such that various functionality can be performed without accessing a central processor or system bus, thus further reducing power consumption.
US09176607B2
When a handwritten image is input using a handwriting input device while an image based on any general data stored in a storage unit is being displayed on a display unit, the input/output apparatus displays a handwritten image in addition to the displayed image, and creates handwritten data including data specifying information specifying general data which is a basis for the displayed image. The input/output apparatus terminates the display of the handwritten image when the display of the image superposed by the handwritten image is terminated, and displays the image based on the data specified by the data specifying information included in the handwritten data when the handwritten image is displayed. This allows the association between the displayed image and the handwritten image to be saved and to easily be reproduced.
US09176603B2
An interactive pointing device capable of switching capture ranges includes an image capturing element and a processing unit. The image capturing element is used for capturing an optical signal, and outputting an image signal. The processing unit is used for determining a switching signal, and responsible for processing and analyzing the image signal. Through the determination about the switching signal and the coordinate conversion of the image signal by an arithmetic unit, the interactive pointing device capable of switching capture ranges is enabled to be operable in hosts with different resolutions.
US09176595B2
A speed adjustable USB keyboard is provided. The keyboard comprises a plurality of keys, wherein each of the keys generates a press signal when being pressed and a release signal when being released; and a control module, coupled between the keys and a computer, for simulating a part of the press signal as the release signal to respond to polling signals from the computer according to the setting of at least one of a repeat delay and a repeat rate of the keys.
US09176589B2
One embodiment of the invention discloses a gesture recognition apparatus including a left source configured to generate a left basic signal, a right source configured to generate a right basic signal, a detector configured to detect the left basic signal, the right basic signal and Doppler shift signals of the left and right basic signals after reflection by a hand, the detector disposed between the left source and the right source, and a processer configured to deal with signals from the detector and recognize a gesture. And a method of gesture recognition is also disclosed.
US09176585B2
A touch panel support which has a full flat surface and an outstanding operability is provided. The touch panel support includes a touch panel assembly and a case assembly for supporting the touch panel assembly. The touch panel assembly has, on the periphery thereof, a stepped engagement part which is lower than the surface of the touch panel assembly. The case assembly has a case main body for accommodating the touch panel assembly so as to allow a force feedback perpendicular vibration thereof and a bezel which is secured to the opening of the case main body. The bezel is engaged with the engagement part of the touch panel assembly so as not to inhibit the perpendicular vibration of the touch panel assembly. The surfaces of the touch panel assembly and the bezel are formed to be flush with each other.
US09176582B1
Devices and methods are described for timing notifications based on blinks. An example method may include (1) receiving input data that is indicative of movement of an eye; (2) detecting an occurrence of an event; in response to detection of the event: (3) determining at least one notification corresponding to the event; (4) delaying presentation of the at least one notification until the computing device determines that the input data is indicative of at least one blink by the eye; and in response to the input data that is indicative of the at least one blink, (5) causing the at least one notification to be presented.
US09176574B2
A system and method for accessing and utilizing ancillary data with an electronic camera device includes a data source that stores various selectable ancillary data files such as image template files, text overlay files, image background files, and special program instruction files. The data source may be implemented in any effective manner, including as a service on an distributed computer network like the Internet, as a discrete electronic device such as a personal computer, or as a removable, non-volatile memory device such as a flash memory. The electronic camera device may then utilize an ancillary data module to access, select, and download the ancillary data files from the data source for subsequently combining with other captured image data to thereby produce new composite images.
US09176570B2
One particular example implementation may include an apparatus that includes logic, at least a portion of which is in hardware, the logic configured to: determine that a first device maintains a link to a platform in a selective suspend state; assign a first latency value to the first device; identify at least one user detectable artifact when a second device exits the selective suspend state; and assign, to the second device, a second latency value that is different from the first value.
US09176569B2
The embodiment of the application provides an apparatus and a method for dynamically adjusting a frequency of central processing unit CPU. The apparatus is used for a computer system which executes a CPU bound application and a memory bound application, and comprises: a ratio acquiring unit for acquiring the ratio of memory access instruction as executing an application task set; a frequency calculating unit connected with the ratio acquiring unit for calculating an adjusted new frequency of CPU in inverse proportional to the ratio of memory access instruction acquired by the ratio acquiring unit; and a frequency adjusting unit connected with the frequency calculating unit for adjusting the frequency of CPU to the new frequency of CPU. With the apparatus and method for adjusting the frequency of CPU according to the embodiment of the invention, the frequency of CPU can be decreased in consideration of the ratio of memory access instruction so as to reduce the power consumption of the computer system.
US09176563B2
A system and method are provided to improve power efficiency of processor cores, such as processor cores in a multicore processor. A break-even time of a processor core may be determined that affects which power saving mode a processor core should enter when an expected idle of the processor core is identified. The break-even time of the processor core may be determined during run-time to help determine an applicable power saving mode that improves power efficiency of the processor core.
US09176561B2
A battery pack management system and method that can increase the stability of a product employing the battery pack by directly or indirectly correcting an error when the error is generated in a microprocessor of the battery pack. In the battery pack management system, the host device receives updated data of a predetermined program from the server through communication with the server and transmits the received updated data to the battery pack. The battery pack includes a battery cell, a charge/discharge control unit that controls charging and discharging of the battery cell, a microprocessor that incorporates a storage medium that records and stores the updated to data of the predetermined program transmitted from the host device, the microprocessor controls the charge/discharge control unit to be reset and applies the updated data of the predetermined program to the charge/discharge control unit to operate the charge/discharge control unit in a safety mode.
US09176547B2
A liquid submersion cooling system that is suitable for cooling a number of electronic devices in parallel using a plurality of cases connected to a rack system. The system cools heat-generating components in server computers and other devices that use electronic, heat-generating components and are connected in parallel systems. The system includes a housing having an interior space, a dielectric cooling liquid in the interior space, a heat-generating electronic component disposed within the space and submerged in the dielectric cooling liquid. The rack system contains a manifold system to engage and allow liquid transfer for multiple cases and IO connectors to engage electrically with multiple cases/electronic devices. The rack system can be connected to a pump system for pumping the liquid into and out of the rack, to and from external heat exchangers, heat pumps, or other thermal dissipation/recovery devices.
US09176543B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems, apparatuses and methods for using a mobile device with an accelerometer to gain access into a secured or restricted area. A first device and a second device interact by making physical contact with each other thereby generating interaction data that is representative of the physical interaction between the first and second device. The first and second device may be mobile phones. The second device may be a point of sale terminal, access point device, or any other stationary (i.e., in a fixed position) device positioned at a line, door, gate, or entrance. A server computer determines, based on interaction data, that the first device and the second device made physical contact. After determining that the first device and the second device made contact, communications may be initiated between the devices. Communications may relate an access transaction comprising an exchange of information, such as credentials, between a prospective entrant (operating the first device) and a gatekeeper (operating the second device) to verify that the prospective entrant is permitted or is not permitted access to a particular area that is secured or restricted by the gatekeeper. Other embodiments are direct to confirmation transactions. Access transaction and confirmation transactions may be combined with a financial transaction using a payment processing network.
US09176535B2
In embodiments of a flexible display flexure assembly, a flexure assembly includes a structure of pivotable links that couples first and second housing parts of a foldable electronic device. The first housing part of the foldable electronic device includes a flexible display, and the first housing part is integrated with a first section of the flexible display. The second housing part of the foldable electronic device is integrated with a second section of the flexible display. The pivotable links are implemented to collapse relative to each other to form a bend radius of the flexible display and support the flexible display in a closed position of the foldable electronic device. The structure of the pivotable links is also implemented to support the flexible display in an open position of the foldable electronic device.
US09176524B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a hinge, a member attached to the hinge, and a housing. The housing accommodates the member and includes a wall configured to support the member and a portion configured to support the member from a side opposite to the wall.
US09176520B2
Examples include a method that involves (a) detecting, by a network device, a command for a playback device to play an audio program, (b) obtaining, by the network device from a wide area network (WAN), audio information corresponding to the audio program, and (c) transmitting, by the network device to the playback device via a direct communication link, (i) the audio information and (ii) control information that directs the playback device to play the audio program.
US09176517B2
The present invention relates to a method for assembling a pedal assembly for a motor vehicle, the method including:—pivotally mounting a pedal lever (10) by inserting a cylindrical end portion (12) thereof through an opening in a first housing part (1) to be at least partially received in a complementary shaped first cylindrical bearing space portion (7) provided in the first housing part.
US09176516B2
A dual stage accelerator pedal spring assembly is provided that allows the transition point between stroke stages to be adjusted in order to control pedal travel within the first stroke stage and provide the driver with a customizable accelerator pedal interface. The spring assembly, which uses two springs exhibiting different spring force, allows adjustment of the relative positions of the two springs in order to control the transition point between the first and second pedal stroke stages.
US09176515B2
An accelerator pedal reaction force control device for controlling a depression reaction force of an accelerator pedal provided to a motor vehicle, the control device including: a reaction force actuator that provides the accelerator pedal with a depression reaction force; a target reaction force setting unit that sets a target depression reaction force; and a vehicle speed maintenance depression amount setting unit that sets an amount of depression of the accelerator pedal for maintaining a current vehicle speed as a vehicle speed maintenance depression amount, wherein, when a pedal depression amount exceeds the vehicle speed maintenance depression amount, the target reaction force setting unit performs a cruize assist whereby the target depression reaction force is set to a value of a cruize assist depression reaction force.
US09176508B2
A thermal workload distribution controller receives, for each of multiple thermal controlled areas, at least one current thermal measurement from at least one separate thermostat node. The thermal workload distribution controller selects a particular thermal controlled area from among the multiple thermal controlled areas that is most optimal to receive additional heat based on the at least one current thermal measurement received for each of the thermal controlled areas. The thermal workload distribution controller distributes at least one workload to a server node associated with the particular thermal controlled area, wherein the heat dissipated by the server from executing the workload affects a thermal environment of the particular thermal controlled area.
US09176507B2
The concepts relate to reducing energy loss associated with hot water systems. One example is manifest as a selective hot water isolation device that is configured to be connected in fluid flowing relation with a first water line and a second water line and where the selective hot water isolation device is configured to control water cross-over from the second water line into the first water line based upon water flow through the first water line.
US09176496B2
A substrate treating apparatus having a substrate treating unit, a load port for receiving pods for storing the substrates, and transferring the pods to and from the substrate treating unit, and a buffer between the substrate treating unit and the load port for transferring the substrates to and from the substrate treating unit and the load port, and temporarily storing the pods; a carrier transport system for transferring the pods to and from the load port; and a host computer for transporting the pods in response to conditions. A transport-related control unit, when the load port is being used by one of the pods and a vehicle of the carrier transport system approaches to transfer another of the pods to the load port, to suspends a notice of transfer disapproval until completion of the use by the one of the pods.
US09176493B2
Managing an automation system that includes software requires a projects manager, an applications manager, and a topologies manager. The applications manager includes a single object-oriented functional description of the automation system based on an object meta-model. The functional description includes a plurality of composite functional objects, each of which further include a monitoring facet and a supervision facet. The monitor facet and the supervision facet each include a mapping interface. The topologies manager includes an object-oriented topological description of the automation system based on the object meta-model, and includes a plurality of topological objects. The projects manager includes a monitoring project and a supervision project which relate to the automation system. Monitoring facets are assigned to the monitoring project and supervision facets are assigned to the supervision project. Part of the topological objects are mapped with the monitoring facets and the supervision facets via mapping interfaces.
US09176489B2
A control apparatus consisting of various componentry that are included together in a single, self-contained casing, the control apparatus for providing real time control of machinery and vehicles. The control apparatus includes a casing that defines a storage area therein. An integration card is positioned within the storage area, the integration card including a plurality of management ports. The control apparatus includes a computer processor, a GPS card, a radio card, and an LED light board that are in direct communication with the integration card. The control apparatus further includes a Wi-Fi card and a display screen that are in direct communication with the computer processor of the apparatus. A power surge protector is connected directly to the computer processor and the integration card.
US09176462B2
An image forming apparatus having a drawer unit that includes therein a paper-feeding conveying path for conveying a recording medium conveyed from a paper feeding unit on which the recording media are stacked to an image forming unit and/or a discharge conveying path for conveying the recording medium on which an image has been formed to a discharging unit, and be drawn out from an apparatus main body; a lock unit that locks the drawer unit to the apparatus main body; a straddle detecting unit that detects whether the recording medium straddles a conveying path in the apparatus main body and a conveying path in the drawer unit; and a controller that controls the lock unit to lock the drawer unit to the apparatus main body when the straddle detecting unit detects the straddle.
US09176456B2
An image forming unit includes a charging roller, a cleaning roller, a bush member, and a shifting mechanism. A first journal portion of the bush member allows the charging roller to shift in a direction of abutment against and separation from a photosensitive drum and journals the charging roller with play in the direction of abutment and separation when the charging roller is free from nip with the photosensitive drum. When the charging roller forms a nip with the photosensitive drum by the movement of the bush member actuated by the shifting mechanism, the first journal portion journals the charging roller so that the charging roller is pressed by the photosensitive drum to shift to a position within the first journal portion close to the cleaning roller.
US09176453B2
A reduction gear unit incorporatable in an image forming apparatus includes planetary gear mechanisms each including a sun gear, an outer gear, planetary gears arranged between the outer gear and the sun gear at equal intervals and meshing with the sun gear and the outer gear, and a carrier rotatable coaxially with the sun gear and the outer gear to rotatably support the planetary gears. An extreme upstream mechanism in the drive transmission direction includes an input element connected to a drive source. An extreme downstream mechanism includes an output element connected to a member outputting the drive force to a rotary member. Any mechanism other than the extreme downstream mechanism includes an output element connected to an input element of an adjacent mechanism located downstream of any other mechanism. The sun gear of the extreme downstream mechanism has a larger pitch diameter than any other mechanisms.
US09176451B2
An image forming apparatus executes control for predicting a toner remaining amount, if the apparatus can acquire a predetermined value as identification information indicating a type or a manufacture of a toner cartridge.
US09176445B2
A fixing device includes a separator disposed downstream from a fixing nip formed between a fixing rotary body and a pressing rotary body in a recording medium conveyance direction to separate a recording medium from the fixing rotary body. The separator includes a front disposed opposite an outer circumferential surface of the fixing rotary body with a given interval therebetween and a conveyance face contiguous to the front, over which the recording medium slides. A coating layer, made of fluoroplastic, coats the front and the conveyance face of the separator. The coating layer includes a front portion corresponding to the front of the separator and produced with a plurality of recesses extending in a width direction of the separator orthogonal to the recording medium conveyance direction throughout substantially an entire width of the separator in the width direction thereof.
US09176443B2
An infrared temperature sensor including: a sensor case made of metal and including a first airspace (a light guiding region) that guides infrared rays entering from an infrared entrance window, and a second airspace (a light shielding region) that is adjacent to the light guiding region via a partition wall, and where an upper wall that blocks entrance of the infrared rays is formed on an entrance side of the infrared rays; a film that absorbs the infrared rays reaching the film through the light guiding region, and converts the infrared rays to heat; a sensor cover that is made of metal and arranged opposing the sensor case via the film; an infrared detection element and a temperature compensation element arranged on the film, wherein the light guiding region and the light shielding region have substantially symmetrical forms with respect to the partition wall.
US09176442B2
An image heating apparatus includes an endless belt configured to heat an image on a sheet at a nip potion, a heat generation device configured to cause the belt to generate heat, a nip forming member configured to form the nip portion between the nip forming member and the belt, and a pressing roller configured to press an inner surface of the belt toward the nip forming member, the pressing roller including an elastic porous layer containing a plurality of filler particles, wherein a thermal conductivity of the elastic porous layer in an axial direction of the pressing roller is in a range of 6 times to 900 times a thermal conductivity of the elastic porous layer in a radial direction of the pressing roller.
US09176441B2
An image heating apparatus, which is configured to heat an image formed on a recording material, includes a cylindrical rotatable member including a conductive layer, and a coil including a helically shaped portion helically wound along a generatrix direction of the rotatable member inside the rotatable member. The coil is configured to produce an alternating magnetic field for causing the conductive layer to generate heat by electromagnetic induction. The image heating apparatus further includes a magnetic core disposed in the helically shaped portion. The magnetic core includes a plurality of divided cores into which the magnetic core is divided in the generatrix direction. The number of turns of the coil per unit length at a region that corresponds to a boundary between the divided cores is larger than the number of turns of the coil at a region that does not correspond to the boundary.
US09176432B2
An intermediate transfer member (34) (ITM) transfers ink solids from an image bearing surface to a substrate. The ITM has an outermost surface having an absorptivity of less than or equal to about 5 percent when measured after 36 hours of immersion in Isopar L at 100 degrees Celsius. An imaging liquid developer system (22) deposits the ink solids and an ink solids carrier onto the outermost surface of the ITM, wherein the imaging liquid developer system (22) is configured to supply the ink solids carrier at a reduced thickness or reduced density as compared to more absorptive ITMs.
US09176429B2
A developing device includes a housing, a developing roller, a developer supply path, a developer conveyance path, a supply-side conveying member, an agitating side conveying member and first projection members. The developing roller is rotatably supported in the housing. The supply-side conveying member includes a supply-side spiral member formed by connecting spiral pieces, in the first direction and having a hollow interior formed by the connected spiral pieces and a first rib member extending in the first direction, is arranged in the developer supply path and conveys the developer in the first direction by being driven and rotated. The first projecting members extend in the first direction along an outer wall portion of the first rib member from a first area where the supply-side spiral member and the first rib member intersect and project radially outward in the rotation of the supply-side conveying member.
US09176428B2
A cartridge includes: a casing including a developer accommodation part for accommodating developer; an agitator for agitating the developer and rotatable about a first rotational axis extending in an axial direction; a receiving member rotatable about a second rotational axis upon receipt of a drive force inputted thereto; a first drive-force transmission member rotatable about a third rotational axis upon receipt of the drive force from the receiving member; and a second drive-force transmission member rotatable about the first rotational axis together with the agitator. The second drive-force transmission member can contact the first drive-force transmission member and receive the drive force therefrom, the first rotational axis being positioned closer to the second rotational axis than the third rotational axis is to the second rotational axis when projected in the axial direction of the agitator.
US09176414B2
A charging device for electrically charging a photosensitive member includes a charging member for electrically charging the photosensitive member by being supplied with a voltage, and a supporting member for supporting the charging member so as to press-contact to the photosensitive member. The charging member includes an electroconductive support, an elastic base layer supported by the electroconductive support, and an elastic surface layer, provided on a surface of the elastic base layer, being harder than the elastic base layer. The elastic surface layer is provided with projected portions and recessed portions. The projected portions are elastically deformable in contact with the photosensitive member, leaving electrically dischargeable gaps between the recessed portions of the elastic surface layer and the photosensitive member.
US09176413B2
There is provided a liquid developer containing a toner that has a ratio G′(65)/G′(90) of a storage modulus G′(65) at 65° C. to a storage modulus G′(90) at 90° C. of from 1×10 to 1×103, and a carrier liquid that has a difference ΔSP(tc) of SP value between the carrier liquid and the toner of from 1.5 to 7.0, and an image forming apparatus containing an electrostatic latent image holding member, a charging device, a latent image forming device, a developing device, a transfer device and a fixing device.
US09176408B2
An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes a toner particle including a core particle containing a polyester resin and a coating layer containing a vinyl resin that coats the surface of the core particle, and an external additive that is formed of silica particles having an average circularity of from 0.75 to 0.9 and an average value of ratios of circle equivalent diameters Da obtained by a plane image analysis to the maximum height H obtained by a stereoscopic image analysis of more than 1.5 and less than 1.9.
US09176392B2
A system and method are used to manufacture a device using at least one exposure step. Each exposure step projects a patterned beam of radiation onto a substrate. The patterned beam includes a plurality of pixels. Each pixel delivers a radiation dose no greater than a predetermined normal maximum dose to the target portion in the exposure step and/or at least one selected pixel delivers an increased radiation dose, greater than the normal maximum dose. The increased dose may be delivered to compensate for the effect of a defective element at a known position in the array on a pixel adjacent a selected pixel or compensate for underexposure of the target portion at the location of a selected pixel resulting from exposure of that location to a pixel affected by a known defective element in another exposure step.
US09176390B2
A method includes moving a correction device into a neutral position; subsequently ascertaining, for a given arrangement of imaging light channels in the illumination optical unit of the projection exposure apparatus, intensity distributions of at least some of the individual imaging light partial beams along a transverse coordinate transverse to a displacement direction of an object to be imaged; subsequently ascertaining, in dependence on the transverse coordinate, an actual variation of actual values of structure image sizes of object structures in an image field, onto which the object is imaged; and subsequently specifying a predetermined variation of the structure image sizes over the transverse coordinate and displacing correction elements of the correction device, starting from the neutral position, such that the actual variation matches the predetermined variation within a tolerance bandwidth. The method can provide improved imaging results as compared to known uniformity adjustment.
US09176384B2
The invention comprises methods for the photolithographic patterning of features in a photo-curable polymer composition coated onto a plastic substrate. In one embodiment of this invention, the plastic substrate is coated with a reflective film such as a metallic barrier. In another embodiment, the plastic substrate is coated or co-extruded with a polymer barrier layer containing an additive that absorbs the photo-curing radiation. In yet another embodiment the plastic substrate contains an intrinsic additive that absorbs the photo-curing radiation. Combinations of these embodiments are also within the scope of this invention. The methods of the present invention may be advantageously applied to the fabrication of optical waveguides comprising a photo-curable polymer supported on a plastic substrate, but are applicable to the fabrication of any device or object comprising a photo-curable polymer supported on a plastic substrate.
US09176377B2
Stabilized precursor solutions can be used to form radiation inorganic coating materials. The precursor solutions generally comprise metal suboxide cations, peroxide-based ligands and polyatomic anions. Design of the precursor solutions can be performed to achieve a high level of stability of the precursor solutions. The resulting coating materials can be designed for patterning with a selected radiation, such as ultraviolet light, x-ray radiation or electron beam radiation. The radiation patterned coating material can have a high contrast with respect to material properties, such that development of a latent image can be successful to form lines with very low line-width roughness and adjacent structures with a very small pitch.
US09176374B2
A pellicle is proposed in which the frame is composed of a detachable double structure of an inner frame and an outer frame, and the pellicle membrane is adhered only to the inner frame and the photomask-agglutination layer is laid only to the inner frame, and the outer frame is removed from the inner frame after the pellicle is agglutinated to the photomask.
US09176366B2
A projector according to an embodiment of the invention can measure the temperature of an object to be cooled accurately with a simple configuration and perform accurate cooling control. The projector includes a power-supply unit, a ballast unit having a ballast control circuit and a photocoupler, and a control unit. The power-supply unit includes a temperature detection element generating temperature information indicating the temperature inside the power-supply unit. The ballast control circuit controls a constant-current control circuit and the like based on the control information transmitted from the control unit via the photocoupler and transmits temperature data based on the temperature information to the control unit via the photocoupler. The control unit includes a projector control circuit performing cooling control on the power-supply unit based on the temperature data.
US09176356B2
The present invention discloses a pixel unit, a pixel array structure and a display device, to solve the problem that horizontal stripes may occur between adjacent rows in a conventional pseudo dual-domain pixel display. The pixel unit of the present invention comprises a first pixel unit and a second pixel unit arranged adjacent to each other and have a shape of a parallelogram. A long edge direction of the first pixel unit is consistent with a short edge direction of the second pixel unit, or a short edge direction of the first pixel unit is consistent with a long edge direction of the second pixel unit. The first pixel unit and the second pixel unit are driven by different thin film transistors, so that electrode domain inclination directions of the pixel units in adjacent rows are alternate to avoid the occurrence of horizontal stripes when the pseudo dual-domain display is performed.
US09176345B2
A system for displaying images including a display panel is provided. The display panel has a display area and a peripheral area. The display panel includes a metal layer disposed on a first substrate. A patterned planarization layer is disposed on the metal layer, having at least one opening corresponding to the peripheral area, wherein a portion of the metal layer is exposed through the opening. A second substrate is disposed opposite to the first substrate. A seal is disposed at the peripheral area and between the first and the second substrates, wherein the seal covers the metal layer through the opening of the patterned planarization layer.
US09176343B2
According to one embodiment, a liquid crystal display apparatus includes an array substrate, a counter-substrate and a liquid crystal layer formed by a negative liquid crystal material. The array substrate includes a common electrode, an insulating film, pixel electrodes each including a slit and a first alignment film. The liquid crystal layer includes liquid crystal molecules which form a bias angle in a direction substantially orthogonal to a direction of extension of the slit and which are initially aligned. The first alignment film, the liquid crystal layer and the bias angle have a relationship of −1.11≧−0.0353×C—PI/C—LC−0.0523×θ.
US09176339B2
A liquid crystal display device is discussed, which includes a first substrate and a second substrate, which face each other; a liquid crystal layer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate; and a column spacer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein the column spacer is formed within a light-shielding region on the first substrate or the second substrate, and a width of the light-shielding region in the periphery of the column spacer is greater than that of the light-shielding region where the column spacer is not formed. Since the width of the light-shielding region in the periphery of the column spacer is greater than that of the light-shielding region where the column spacer is not formed, even though an alignment film is damaged by the column spacer, light leakage can be prevented from occurring at the damaged portion.
US09176338B2
An LCD panel and a method for manufacturing the LCD panel are disclosed. The LCD panel comprises: an array substrate, a color filter substrate, and a liquid crystal layer filled between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. The color filter substrate comprises: a transparent conductive metal oxide film, and first and second conductive metal strips electrically connected with the transparent conductive metal oxide film. The first and second conductive metal strips are configured to conduct a current, which flows through the transparent conductive metal oxide film, causing the transparent conductive metal oxide film to heat the liquid crystal layer.
US09176336B2
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal light valve comprising: a first substrate where a first polymer layer is formed thereon; a second substrate where a second polymer layer is formed thereon, the first polymer layer is opposite to the second polymer; and a liquid crystal material layer filled in between the first polymer layer and the second polymer layer, wherein the first polymer layer and the second polymer layer have a roughened surface, and the roughened surface is disposed between the first polymer layer and the liquid crystal material layer, or between the second polymer layer and the liquid crystal material layer.
US09176321B2
A continuous scanning module is described, comprising: a polygonal scanning drum (9) rotating at substantially constant speed (f9) and provided with a plurality of first reflecting side faces (9.1-9.7) and at least one polygonal forward motion compensation-forward motion compensation drum (15) rotating synchronously with the scanning drum (9). The forward motion compensation drum (15) is provided with second reflecting side faces (15.1-15.7)) each of which receives an image from a corresponding first reflecting face of the scanning drum, and reflects it towards a scanning path.
US09176315B2
According to the method for controlling optical transmissions according to the present invention, in a state where particles formed of a light-blocking material, a first solvent with electro-wetting properties in which the particles are dispersed, and a second solvent which is not mixed with the first solvent are present in a space covered by an optical incident surface, the particles are mixed with the first solvent but not mixed with the second solvent, and an electric field applied to the first solvent is controlled so as to control the blocking area of the first solvent with respect to the optical incident surface and control optical transmittance.
US09176314B1
A system and methods for automatically setting light intensity for covert operations are presented. Infra-red light is transmitted from at least one infra-red light source, and external ambient light is sensed substantially continually from at least one ambient light sensor coupled to a vehicle exterior to provide sensed ambient light. A sensed intensity of the sensed ambient light is compared to a sensitivity of a night vision goggles to provide a power adjustment value. An intensity level of the at least one infra-red light is controlled based on the power adjustment value such that the external ambient light is provided at a substantially optimal light level for the night vision goggles.
US09176313B2
A method for manipulating one or more particles comprising exposing the particle(s) to a beam of radiation that is able to lift and or impart an acceleration to the particle(s) to cause it to move in a curved trajectory.
US09176312B2
A fast modular port switching device is described. The device can be used with an optical microscope to facilitate using multiple devices with the microscope. The port switching is done with a galvanometer for switching very fast. The device is modular so it can be combined with any number of similar devices for building a complex, multi-modal imaging system. Also described is the combination of a port switcher with automated spherical aberration correction. Even further described is a similar device where the outputs are recombined, thus making the device a fast filter switcher.
US09176310B2
One embodiment of techniques for confocal microscopy includes illuminating a spot on a surface of a biological sample. A first emission intensity from the spot is detected in a first range of optical properties; and a second emission intensity in a second range. A pixel that corresponds to the spot is colored using a linear combination of the first and second emission intensities. Sometimes, the pixel is colored to approximate a color produced by histology. In some embodiments, a surface of a sample is contacted with a solution of acridine orange. Then, a spot is illuminated with a laser beam of wavelength about 488 nanometers (nm). Fluorescence emission intensity is detected above about 500 nm. Sometimes, a certain illumination correction is applied. In some embodiments, a sample holder that compresses a sample is removable from a stage that is fixed with respect to a focal plane of the microscope.
US09176301B1
An imaging lens includes first to fifth lens elements arranged from an object side to an image side in the given order. Through designs of surfaces of the lens elements and relevant lens parameters, a short system length of the imaging lens may be achieved while maintaining good optical performance.
US09176299B2
An optical element includes a monolithic body portion, the monolithic body portion having an inner body portion, an outer body portion extending at least partially around the inner body portion, and exactly three flexural hinges connecting the inner body portion to the outer body portion. One of the inner body portion and the outer body portion defines an optical active portion configured to reflect, refract, or diffract light, and the other of the inner body portion and outer body portion defines a mount portion.
US09176298B1
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a springless athermal lens assembly. In one embodiment, a spacer of a springless athermal lens assembly may compensate for defocus of the camera system due to thermal expansion of the lens assembly through micro wedge mechanisms coupling the spacer to an inner and outer barrel. The inner barrel comprises a lens cell assembly and a body having a micro wedge slot. The outer barrel comprises a body having a micro wedge slot. The spacer comprises an inner barrel micro wedge and an outer barrel micro wedge. The spacer is configured to be physically coupled to the inner barrel through engagement of the inner barrel micro wedge and the inner barrel micro wedge slot. Further, the spacer is configured to be physically coupled to the outer barrel through the engagement of the outer barrel micro wedge and the outer barrel micro wedge slot.
US09176293B2
Buffered optical fibers are formed by extruding discontinuities in the buffer layer. The discontinuities allow the buffer layer to be torn to provide access to the buffered optical fiber. The discontinuities can be longitudinally extending strips of material in the buffer layer, and can be introduced into the extrudate material flow used to form the first section of the buffer layer in the extrusion head.
US09176292B2
A fiber optic distribution cable includes a jacket defining an exterior of the fiber optic distribution cable and a plurality of optical fibers extending through a cavity of the jacket. The jacket has an access location with a single opening formed in the jacket that extends to the cavity. A distribution optical fiber of the plurality of optical fibers extends through and protrudes from the single opening in the jacket at the access location. The length of the distribution optical fiber is at least 5/4 times the length of the single opening.
US09176281B2
A microresonator structure comprises a waveguide and a microsphere. The waveguide is of elongated cylindrical shape and includes a first section of optical transmission material and a cavity section axially aligned with the first section. The cavity section includes a first cavity and a second cavity. The first cavity is adjacent to the first section and includes a first sidewall of optical transmission material with an inner surface that tapers inward to an apex positioned adjacent to the first section. The second cavity is positioned adjacent to the first cavity of hollow cylindrical shape and includes a circumferential second sidewall of optical transmission material that abuts the first sidewall. The microsphere has a spherical outer surface and is positioned within the cavity section such that the outer surface contacts a portion of the first sidewall and a portion of the second sidewall.
US09176273B2
A display device includes at least two display panels and a frame for supporting the display panels. The frame includes a partition wall configured for supporting at least an end portion of the display panels. A backlight unit is located at one side of the display panels and provides light to the display panels. The backlight unit includes a strip light source, a longitudinal edge of which is extended along a longitudinal edge of the partition wall for emitting light to the display panels disposed at opposite side of the partition wall and two light-guiding plates disposed at opposite sides of the strip light source for guiding the light emitted from the strip light source into the display panels.
US09176272B2
A backlight keyboard structure includes a light guide plate, a base plate and a keyboard frame. The keyboard frame comprising a fixing portion. The base plate is adjacent to one side of the light guide plate and disposed between the keyboard frame and the light guide plate. The base plate has a through hole corresponding to the fixing portion. The base plate has an indentation portion surrounding the through hole and disposed between the light guide plate and the through hole for shielding.
US09176264B2
There is provided a light diffusing element made of a thin film capable of realizing low back scattering and a high haze. A light diffusing element according to an embodiment of the invention includes: a first region having a first refractive index n1; a refractive index modulation region having a substantially spherical shell shape and surrounding the first region; and a second region having a second refractive index n2, the second region being positioned on a side of the refractive index modulation region opposite to the first region. The light diffusing element satisfies the following expressions (1) and (2): 0.0006≦Δn/L (1) 10≦(Δn)2×A×B≦100 (2).
US09176255B2
Permeability prediction systems and methods using quadratic discriminant analysis are presented. At least one disclosed method embodiment includes: acquiring formation property measurements at a plurality of positions along at least one borehole in a study area; identifying clusters in a plurality of points representing the formation property measurements at the plurality of postions; and determining a system permeability value for each cluster. Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (“QDA”) is used to associate one the clusters with each position along the one or more boreholes, thereby determining a system permeability prediction for each position. The total system permeability can then be predicted by aggregating the system permeability predictions.
US09176243B2
This patent deals with methods to selectively excite and analyze the resonance phenomena existing in an enclosed oil, gas and or water reservoir, thereby locating its presence, by doing qualitative and quantitative estimates of its extent via forward modeling. The oil, gas or water reservoir is represented as a fluid filled crack system or as a fluid saturated sponge located in solid rock. This patent covers the actively excited response and details methods to optimize the excitation. Due to interaction between either fluid filled fractures or fluid saturated rock lenses and the surrounding rock, the incident seismic energy is amplified in specific frequency ranges corresponding to the resonance frequencies of such systems. Measurements are made over the survey area, singly or in arrays. These are first used to determine qualitatively the resonance behavior, by relating them to resonance signal sources and possibly their direction. Overall statistical analysis assesses dominant frequencies in the spectrum. H/V analysis excludes resonance effects in rock structures. Time windows are used in the frequency domain to help isolate oscillations in a cursory manner in the noise, which can then be refined to extract oscillation parameters more precisely with the Sompi method. Such found oscillations can then be related to oscillator properties from theoretical and numerical model simulations. A direction analysis with array measurements can be used to locate sources in the earth. Dimensions of the source are estimated via mapping techniques of strong signal areas. The influence of gas bubbles on the fluid velocity, expected to often present, enhances the impedance difference significantly, leading to a stronger resonance effect; to take this into consideration is an important part of this patent. A qualitative method in form of a numerical simulation using one of several specific physical concepts is used for further analysis. For instance the oscillation behavior is known from existing fluid dynamic research for cracks. A single or an assemblage of cracks can be used. For fluid saturated rock pillows with significant over-pressure there is a simplified theoretical model presented. Numerical models using Biot's theory for higher precision results represent a further example. By using a successive forward modeling/investigation with feedback, more details about the fluid saturated area below the surface are gained. It is also possible to determine the type of fluid present with the techniques of this patent. The physical properties of oil, water and gas affect the oscillating characteristics (frequency and Q value) of fluid filled fractures and fluid filled pillows enclosed in rock. These differences in the oscillations allow determining the type of fluid present. Specifically a qualitative survey method and a quantitative method based on a numerical modeling in conjunction with the Monte Carlo method are used to relate the oscillation characteristics to fluid properties. In the Monte Carlo method only fluid parameters are varied, while all other parameters are kept constant. There are specific dependencies on crack length in the case of cracks which needs to be properly estimated to obtain good results. We expect similar constraints for liquid filled pillows. The uniqueness of this method is that it is directly sensitive to the oil or gas itself, because the resonance effect is only present when a fluid is there. Non fluid related oscillations due to impedance differences have shear waves involved and can be excluded using H/V technique. In summary the patent uses techniques to relate the actual measurement with a numerical model based on specific physical concepts, and so arriving at relevant conclusions about the reservoir.
US09176238B2
The invention relates to a detection device (6) for detecting photons emitted by a radiation source (2). A signal generation unit (20) generates a detection signal indicative of the energy of a detected photon while photons strike the detection device (6), and a baseline signal, which is affected by photons that previously struck the detection device (6), while photons are prevented from striking the detection device (6). A baseline shift determination unit (40) determines a baseline shift of the detection signal depending on the baseline signal. An energy determination unit (30) determines the energy of a detected photon depending on the detection signal and the determined baseline shift. Since the baseline shift of the detection signal is determined from a baseline signal that is generated while photons are prevented from striking the detection device (6), the baseline shift can be determined with higher accuracy, resulting in an improved energy determination.
US09176230B2
A mobile computer determines its initial indoor location in a building. The initial indoor location may be associated with probability related accuracy and selectively determined with satellite related positioning information. The mobile computer may track, by utilization of the initial indoor location, data, and estimated accelerometer based motion information, location on a floor of the building. The data may be a combination of Wi-Fi information and sensor information.
US09176224B2
A package, wireless sensor module, wireless sensor node and wireline sensor node are disclosed including a radar configured to embed beneath vehicles in pavements, walkways, parking lot floors and runways referred to herein as in ground usage. An access point interfacing to at least one of the sensors is disclosed to provide traffic reports, parking reports, landing counts, takeoff counts, aircraft traffic reports and/or accident reports based upon the sensor's messages regarding the radar and possibly magnetic sensor readings. A runway sensor network is disclosed of radar sensors embedded in lanes of at least one runway for estimating the landing count and/or takeoff count effect of aircraft.
US09176223B2
A method and apparatus are provided for detecting an object to be detected. The object is associated with a profile, wherein the profile characterizes the reflection of a signal on the object. The method includes, for a device in a telecommunication network, the acts of selecting a first profile corresponding to a first object to be detected; requesting, based on the first profile, a resource allocation to the communication network; receiving the resource allocation from the communication network; transmitting a signal in the direction of a second object using the allocated resource; receiving a reflected signal, corresponding to the reflection of the transmitted signal on the second object; computing a second profile using the received reflected signal; and indicating the detection of the first object to be detected when the second profile matches the first profile.
US09176222B2
A method and apparatus are provided for locating an obstacle between a transmitter and a receiver. The method includes: determining at least one elliptical ring in which the obstacle is situated, the elliptical ring being defined by two confocal ellipses, having their focuses corresponding to the transmitter and to the receiver, each elliptical ring being associated with a physical echo generated by an obstacle; estimating a distance between the obstacle and a focus as a function of the separation between the confocal ellipses at the obstacle in a plane normal to the axis defined by the focuses so as to obtain a set of potential location zones for the obstacle in the elliptical ring; and lifting the ambiguity between the various potential location zones of the obstacle so as to deliver a location zone of the obstacle.
US09176209B2
A gradient pulse generator generates reference current signals for a plurality of gradient coils of a gradient coil system of a magnetic resonance system and supplies each of the reference current signals to a controller assigned to one of the gradient coils. Also supplied to the respective controller is an actual current signal that is characteristic of the current flowing in the respective gradient coil. Each of the controllers generates a control signal and accordingly drives a gradient power amplifier assigned to the respective gradient coil. The gradient power amplifiers apply a current to the gradient coils assigned to the gradient power amplifiers in accordance with the generated control signals. Each of the controllers is also supplied with the reference current signal or the actual current signal of at least one other gradient coil or the time derivative of the reference current signal or the actual current signal.
US09176205B2
The present invention relates to a microfluidic chip for measuring the magnetic susceptibility of a superparamagnetic nanoparticle droplet and a method for measuring magnetic susceptibility using the same. According to the invention, the magnetic susceptibility of a superparamagnetic nanoparticle can be continuously and accurately measured in a flowing fluid using a microfluidic chip including microfluidic channels.
US09176200B2
A power supply test device includes a function generator, a loading circuit, a current detection circuit, and a controller. The function generator outputs a square-wave signal to the loading circuit. The loading circuit is electronically connected to a power supply, the loading circuit regulates an output current of the power supply according to the square-wave signal. The current detection circuit cooperates with the controller in detecting a slope of the output current. The controller compares the detected slope with a preset value, and regulates the square-wave signal according to the comparison to regulate the slope of the output current.
US09176198B2
A battery model and equivalent circuit that includes an ohmic resistance, a first RC-pair that models a battery cell charge transfer reaction and double layer processes and a second RC-pair that models battery cell diffusion. Each of the ohmic resistance, the charge transfer reaction resistance and the diffusion resistance in the model are variable resistances, where each resistance changes in response to a change in voltage potential across the resistance.
US09176189B2
A system for connecting a plurality of plugs to a computer system, such as a simulator, which includes: a plurality of channels that are each connected to a plug and are selectively configurable in a first mode, for acquiring a signal that is present on the plug, or in a second mode for applying a signal to the plug; and a unit that is connected to the computer system by an information system and configured so as to control, in the channels configured in the second mode, application of a signal on the basis of data received from the computer system and so as to send data, representing signals that are measured by the configured channels in the first mode, to the computer system.
US09176179B2
A method of measuring a capacitor value comprises the steps of loading the capacitor up to a given voltage value; obtaining a first measure of a time for discharging the capacitor by a fixed voltage drop, the discharge of the capacitor being caused by a first current; reloading the capacitor up to the given voltage value; obtaining a second measure of a time for discharging the capacitor by the fixed voltage drop, the discharge of the capacitor being caused by the first current and by a second current of known value added to said first current; and determining the capacitor value from the difference between the first measure and the second measure, based on the given voltage drop or the given time, respectively, and based further on the known value of the given second current.
US09176177B2
The present invention provides an antenna control method and an antenna device. The method includes (A1) defining a plurality of rough scanning sectors in a signal region; (A2) rotating the antenna to each rough scanning sector to measure a first evaluation signal; (A3) selecting one of the plurality of rough scanning sectors in accordance with the first evaluation signals; (A4) defining a plurality of fine scanning sectors; (A5) rotating the antenna to the plurality of fine scanning sector corresponding to the selected rough scanning sector to measure a second evaluation signal; (A6) selecting one of the plurality of fine scanning sectors in accordance with the second evaluation signals; (A7) rotating the antenna to the selected fine scanning sector.
US09176171B2
A method for automatically aligning measured power-related data in a power monitoring system to a common reference point. A conductor in a power delivery system is modeled according to an equivalent pi model of a transmission line that is characterized by model parameters. The conductor is monitored on both ends by a reference monitoring device and a second monitoring device. The voltage and current are measured in either the reference monitoring device or the second monitoring device and a phase shift offset between the voltages or currents at the two devices is calculated. The calculated phase shift offset corresponds to a temporal delay between events observed at the pair of devices, and calculating and storing the phase shift offset allows a power monitoring system controller to more accurately align data received from monitoring devices.
US09176169B2
A probe apparatus providing an electrical connection between a device under test and a test apparatus body, comprising a device-side terminal unit including a flexible sheet and device-side connection terminals passing through the sheet and connected to the device under test; an intermediate substrate provided on the test apparatus body side of the device-side terminal unit and including device-side intermediate electrodes electrically connected to the device-side connection terminals and tester-side intermediate electrodes electrically connected to the test apparatus body; a tester-side substrate that is provided on the test apparatus body side of the intermediate substrate and includes, on the intermediate substrate side thereof, tester-side electrodes electrically connected to the test apparatus body; and a contact section provided between the intermediate substrate and the tester-side substrate and including first pins connected to the tester-side intermediate electrodes and second pins connected to the tester-side electrodes.
US09176155B2
A sample processing apparatus includes a sample processing unit for obtaining a sample from a sample container and performing a predetermined process of the sample; a transport unit which includes a transport region for transporting, in a transport operation, a sample rack holding the sample container to the sample processing unit, and a rack removal region where the sample rack is accessible to an operator. A restraining member is also provided, which restrains contact by the operator to the sample rack on the transport region. A transport controller controls the transport unit to transport the sample rack on the transport region to the rack removal region after a predetermined transport suspension event occurs during the transport operation.
US09176149B2
Provided herein are methods and devices for the detection of conditions or disorders by detecting altered levels of stress response pathway biomarkers. Also provided are methods and reagents for identifying panels of biomarkers associated with a condition or disorder.
US09176147B2
The invention relates to methods, compositions, and kits for detection of biomarkers. In one embodiment, the invention relates to a method for detecting AMR biomarkers in a biological sample. In another embodiment, the invention relates to a method for detecting, monitoring, diagnosing and predicting antibody mediated rejection. In yet another embodiment, the invention relates to a method for monitoring a subject for antibody mediated rejection comprising detecting BAFF or a BAFF variant in a biological sample. In still another embodiment, the invention relates to a kit for detecting BAFF in a urine sample.
US09176145B2
A kit for determining for a female subject the implantation potential of embryos obtained or to be obtained by assisted fertilization is described. The kit includes at least one reagent suitable for detection of levels of FF G-CSF or FF G-CSF mRNA, such as anti-G-CSF antibody or a nucleic acid probe for detection of levels of G-CSF mRNA. The kit may also include a set of concentration standards of FF G-CSF and aspirator tips for removing an oocyte and follicular fluid.
US09176141B2
A calibration system is disclosed for calibrating a first physiological monitoring device using a second physiological monitoring device. The first physiological monitor measures a first indication of a physiological parameter. The second physiological monitor measures a second indication of the physiological parameter. The first and second indications are used to calibrate the first physiological monitoring device.
US09176132B2
The following processes are performed to improve the accuracy of the process of estimating the volume of a cell clump from an image including the cell clump. First, the image including the cell clump is acquired, and the optical density of the cell clump in the image is measured. Cross-section information about the cell clump is acquired by observation using a confocal microscope or by physical cutting. Based on the cross-section information, the vertical height of the cell clump is determined. Thereafter, data representing a relationship between the aforementioned optical density and the height is acquired. This improves the accuracy of the process of converting the optical density into the height to thereby achieve the accurate estimation of the volume of the cell clump.
US09176125B2
Disclosed is a method for indirectly coupling a small molecule ligand to a molecule to be labelled with the ligand, the method comprising the step of: contacting a scaffold molecule, to which is attached at least one small molecule ligand, with the molecule to be labelled, the scaffold molecule having at least one group which is reactive towards a receiver moiety present or formed in situ on the molecule to be labelled, so as to forma bond between the scaffold molecule and the molecule to be labelled, thereby indirectly coupling the small molecule ligand to the molecule to be labelled.
US09176124B2
The determination method of the present invention includes steps of measuring equol in a biological sample derived from a subject who has ingested soybean isoflavone by an immunological method using S-equol as at least one antigen selected from the group consisting of the standard antigen and the labeled antigen, and determining an equol-producing ability of the subject based on the measured value of equol obtained in the above step.
US09176122B2
The subject invention concerns methods and materials for assessing a patient's likelihood of responsiveness to an immunosuppressive therapy. The subject invention is contemplated for use with patients having an autoimmune disorder. In an exemplified embodiment, the methods of the invention are used for assessing and/or treating a patient with MDS. In one embodiment, a method of the invention comprises analyzing T cells of a patient for dysregulation of CD4+ and/or CD8+ T cell subsets, and determining the patient's likelihood of responsiveness to IST based on the level of dysregulation of the patient's CD4+ and/or CD8+ T cell subsets. In one embodiment, an increased likelihood of patient responsiveness to IST is associated with an increased percentage of CD4+ and/or CD8+ effector memory T cells and/or terminal effector memory T cells for a patient. The subject invention also concerns methods for treating a patient with an autoimmune disorder, such as MDS. In one embodiment, a method of the invention comprises determining if a patient is likely to respond to IST, wherein said determination is made using a method of the present invention for assessing likelihood of responsiveness to IST; and if the patient is determined to be one likely to respond to IST, administering an effective regimen of IST to the patient.
US09176115B2
Provided is multi-phase systems that may be used to prepare a three-dimension aggregate of cells referred to as a cellular spheroid. The multi-phase system includes a droplet of an aqueous polymer phase within an immersion aqueous polymer phase. The droplet of the droplet aqueous polymer phase contains a three-dimensional aggregate of cells (cellular spheroid). Types of cells that may be used in the multi-phases system include stem cells and cancer cells. The cellular spheroids with the multi-phase system may be used to monitor cell growth in three-dimensional systems, or screen drugs in a three-dimension aggregate of cells.
US09176113B1
In certain embodiments, the invention stems from the discovery that analysis of population distribution curves of metabolite levels in blood can be used to facilitate predicting risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or to differentiate between ASD and non-ASD developmental delay (DD) in a subject. In certain aspects, information from assessment of the presence, absence, and/or direction (upper or lower) of a tail effect in a metabolite distribution curve is utilized to predict risk of ASD and/or to differentiate between ASD and DD.
US09176112B2
Embodiments of the present invention encompass automated systems and methods for analyzing platelet parameters in an individual based on a biological sample obtained from blood of the individual. Exemplary techniques involve correlating aspects of direct current (DC) impedance and/or light measurement data obtained from the biological sample with an evaluation of platelet conditions in the individual.
US09176073B2
The present invention provides an evaluation substrate for evaluating a foreign object defect included in an organic material, a defect examination method and defect detection device. The evaluation substrate of the present invention includes a substrate, a first film arranged on the substrate, and a second film arranged on the first film, wherein a film containing an organic material is formed on the second film; the first film being set lower than an etching rate of the second film with respect to an etchant used in etching the second film, the first film having the same or a smaller detection lower limit value of an optically detectable defect than a detection lower limit value of a defect of the second film; and a thickness of the second film being set to a value near an optically measured lowest or minimum Haze value.
US09176071B2
The invention relates to a device for inspecting the surface of an article having an edge with an end face, said device including: a support for supporting said article, a light source capable of emitting a light in a direction D, and a filter for stopping part of the light of said light source which is emitted or diffused out of direction D, said filter being provided with a hole intended to receive said article when said article is provided on said support, said support being positioned with respect to said light source and said filter so that, when said article is provided on said support, the end face of said edge is substantially perpendicular to said direction D. The invention also relates to a kit comprising such a device and to a method for inspecting the surface of the article.
US09176067B2
An apparatus for determining the effective case-hardening or nitriding depth of a steel component comprises a measuring head, including a laser source generating a variable frequency radiation for the scanning of pre-determined portions of the component to be measured; an infrared detector, configured so as to detect infrared radiation generated by the component to be measured; and computing means of spectra of the infrared radiation received; and an evolventimeter, connected to the measuring head and including first computing means suitable for computing a hardness profile of the component to be measured on the basis of a launch profile and spectra of the infrared radiation received and second computing means suitable for computing the effective case-hardening depth from the hardness profile computed.
US09176066B2
The present invention provides: a method for preserving an aqueous solution containing a leuco chromogen, comprising adding a compound having at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of a nitroso group and an azo group and having an ability to coordinate a metal ion or a salt thereof to the aqueous solution containing a leuco chromogen; a method for stabilizing a leuco chromogen, comprising allowing the leuco chromogen to coexist in an aqueous solution comprising a compound having at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of a nitroso group and an azo group and having an ability to coordinate a metal ion or a salt thereof; and a liquid reagent comprising a leuco chromogen and a compound having at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of a nitroso group and an azo group and having an ability to coordinate a metal ion or a salt thereof.
US09176063B2
Provided is a modified fluorescent protein which enables the detection of a power applied to a liquid where the fluorescent protein exists. A modified fluorescent protein, wherein a peptide linker is inserted into a position homologous to the position between the 144th and 145th amino acids in the amino acid sequence of a wild type fluorescent protein from jellyfish or a fluorescent protein derived from said wild type fluorescent protein, characterized in that the fluorescence properties of said modified fluorescent protein change depending on a change in a pressure that is applied to a liquid where said modified fluorescent protein exists.
US09176059B2
A waveguide sensor capable of direct, real-time detection and monitoring of analytes in the vicinity of the waveguide surface without requiring the tagging or labeling of the analyte, is described. Analytic and numerical calculations have predicted that by locally detecting either changes in the evanescent field or changes in the light coupled out of the waveguide as a result of the presence of the analyte, high detection sensitivity will be able to be achieved.
US09176051B2
A micro-optical element includes a resonator substrate, at least one microresonator includes a rotationally symmetrical body mounted on the resonator substrate, and a light-reflecting element including a ring-shaped mirror that surrounds the rotationally symmetrical body.
US09176050B2
A system and method for nondestructive detection of gas in a sealed container. The system includes a light source housed in a light source housing and configured to emit a light beam for absorption in a substance to be measured, a detector housed in a detector housing and configured to detect the emitted light beam, a zone that accepts one or more of the sealed containers, each container being substantially optically transparent and containing the substance to be measured, the zone located between the detector and the light source, the light source configured to transmit the light beam through the zone, and a light source purging system comprising a light source channel surrounding the light source and positioned between the light source and the housing, the light source channel configured to expel purge gas from a purge gas source into the zone.
US09176046B2
This invention is to distinguish a position of a measurement cell without using a position sensor that is an electric component, and comprises a cell switching mechanism that switches a measurement position where the measurement cell is located on an optical path and an evacuating position where the measurement cell is evacuated from the optical path so as to make a first moving speed from the measurement position to the evacuating position different from a second moving speed from the evacuating position to the measurement position, and a distinguishing mechanism that detects speed information relating to the first moving speed and the second moving speed by the use of a measurement light and distinguishes the measurement position and the evacuating position.
US09176032B2
Methods comprising the use probing multiple targets in a H&E stained biological sample are provided. The methods include the steps of providing a hematoxylin and eosin stained biological sample containing multiple targets, observing the sample, removing the hematoxylin and partially removing the eosin by washing the sample, contacting the sample with a borate salt, and irradiating the sample to remove the residual eosin fluorescence. The method further includes the optionally performing the additional steps of binding at least one probe to one or more targets to the sample, observing a signal from the probe and contacting the sample with a bleaching agent. The process of binding, observing and bleaching may be iteratively repeated.
US09176031B2
The invention provides methods for sequencing and sample preparation for sequencing and amplification.
US09176023B2
A method for obtaining an estimate for a process quantity of a turbomachine comprises measuring (301) first process quantities and calculating (302) an estimate for a second process quantity, for example mass flow, on the basis of the measured first process quantities and a reference table of interrelations between process quantities prevailing in reference inlet conditions corresponding to a pre-defined inlet fluid temperature, a pre-defined inlet fluid pressure, and pre-defined fluid properties at the inlet. The reference table and the measured first process quantities represent such a set of data values that the estimate is obtainable on the basis of different sub-sets of the data values. Hence, the estimation task is over-posed in the sense that there is more data than necessary for obtaining the estimate. In the calculation of the estimate, more weight is given to such a part of the data which has a smaller error contribution.
US09176021B2
The leak detection device using hydrogen as a tracer gas is intended to be connected to an object to be tested. The leak detection device includes a hydrogen sensor placed in a low-pressure enclosure and includes a diode, a resistor, a MOS-type transistor whose gate is covered with a palladium catalyst, a pump connected to the low-pressure enclosure, a pressure gauge configured to measure the pressure in a vacuum line formed by the low-pressure enclosure connected to the pump, and a multiway valve having a first port allowing admission of the gas flow containing the tracer gas into the vacuum line, and a second port allowing the admission of neutral gas. The method makes it possible to stabilize the pressure of the vacuum line in order to avoid fluctuations in the hydrogen measurements.
US09176019B2
The present invention describes systems and methods of providing a pressure switch with temperature enable function. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a pressure sensor for providing a pressure signal having a first voltage level that is proportional to a pressure applied to the pressure sensor; a temperature sensor for providing a temperature signal having a second voltage level where the second voltage level is proportional to a temperature measured by the pressure sensor; and a control circuit for receiving the pressure signal from the pressure sensor and the temperature signal from the temperature sensor and activating a load when the first voltage level exceeds a threshold voltage level.
US09176016B2
The quantity of material remaining in a 3D printing system may be effectively measured through the use of a strain gauge. The strain gauge may be mounted on a support member such as a cantilevered support that holds the weight of a material dispenser. As the material is consumed, the strain gauge may measure the reduction in deformation of the cantilevered support, thereby indicating to a control system and/or a user the quantity of material used. Full and/or empty material dispenser measurements may be taken to provide reference points that indicate how close the material dispenser is to being full and/or empty. The material dispenser may be mounted in a variety of locations relative to the 3D printer, including on a side and on top. A top-mounted material dispenser may be received within a bearing that permits the material dispenser to rotate, allowing the material to unwind during consumption.
US09176008B2
An electromagnetic wave measurement device includes an electromagnetic wave outputter that outputs an electromagnetic wave having a frequency equal to or more than 0.01 THz and equal to or less than 100 THz toward a device under test. An electromagnetic wave detector detects the electromagnetic wave which has transmitted through the device under test. A relative position changer changes a relative position of an intersection of an optical path of the electromagnetic wave transmitting through the device under test and the device under test, with respect to the device under test, so that the intersection is at a predetermined relative position due to the refraction of the electromagnetic wave by the device under test. A characteristic value deriver derives a characteristic value of the electromagnetic wave based on a detection result of the electromagnetic wave detector, the characteristic value being associated with the predetermined relative position.
US09176005B2
A novel sensor unit actuating mechanism that can cause a sensor unit to leave or enter a frame smoothly even when the thickness of the frame is reduced and that has a mechanism for coping with a prank by a child or the like, such as a push-back of the sensor unit. The sensor unit actuating mechanism includes a frame, a sensor unit including an optical sensor, a spring member configured to expand or contract in a Y direction, actuators configured to contract against the resilience of the spring member when energized, and a guide member for moving the sensor unit linearly in an X direction. When the actuator is energized, the sensor unit, is linearly moved from inside the frame to the measurement position; when the actuator is energized, the sensor unit is linearly moved from the measurement position to inside the frame and stored therein.
US09176000B2
A system for measuring component fluid levels in a multi-phase fluid is provided. The system includes a sensing assembly. The sensing assembly includes a primary coil and at least one secondary coil. The primary coil is wound around a sampling container that holds the multi-phase fluid. The secondary coil is disposed proximate to the primary coil and each of the at least one secondary coil is electrically connected to at least one capacitive element. Further, the system includes an analyzer that is inductively coupled to the at least one secondary coil. The analyzer is configured to measure a response of the at least one secondary coil in response to an excitation signal provided to the primary coil.
US09175995B2
An inferential Coriolis mass flowmeter characterized by: a power supply (10); a pressure sensor (11) connected to the power supply (10) and a tube of fluid; a current to voltage converter (13) connected to the pressure sensor (11) for converting a current signal from the pressure sensor (11) to a voltage signal; a controller unit (20) including an analogue to digital converter (21) connected to the current to voltage converter (13) for converting analogue signal from the current to voltage converter (13) to a digital signal, and a microprocessor (22) for processing the digital signal from the analogue to digital converter (21) to determine the mass flowrate of the fluid, wherein the microprocessor (22) is embedded with an algorithm to determine the mass flowrate of a fluid according to equation: y=0.002x4−0.0218x3−0.0865x2−0.8769x−0.0846; a display panel (14) connected to the microprocessor (22); and a transmission circuit (15) connected to the microprocessor (22).
US09175993B2
An industrial process control field device includes a process variable transducer configured to sense or control a process variable. Field device circuitry is configured to couple to the process variable transducer and communicate information related to the process variable to another location. The field device circuitry includes an optical isolator having transmit circuitry on a first side of a galvanic isolation configured to transmit an optical signal which is pulsed on and off across the isolation. Receive circuitry is located on a second side of galvanic isolation and configured to receive the optical signal with an optical sensor. The optical sensor enters an “on” state when it receives a pulse and is otherwise in an “off” state. The receive circuitry provides a secondary side output based upon the received optical signal. The receive circuitry enters in a low power state when the optical sensor is in the “off” state.
US09175992B2
An electromagnetic flow meter provided with a resin lining portion has a lining locking frame composed of a cylindrical plate with openings and a plurality of belt shaped ring plates. The cylindrical plate with openings is provided with not less than two cutout portions from an end which are provided alternately from the both ends in the pipe axis direction and so as to lap in the pipe axis direction. A first gap is provided between the inner face of the measuring pipe and the outer circumference face of the cylindrical plate with openings. The resin to be lined is filled between the measuring pipe and the lining locking frame via gaps formed by the cutout portions.
US09175990B2
An axial-flow type impedance water flow sensor comprises a water wheel (3), a cyclone (4), a metal detection needle (7) and a detection circuit. The cyclone (4) is mounted at a water inlet side (5) of a water pipe (1), a bracket (2) is mounted at a water outlet side (6) of the water pipe (1), and the water wheel (3) is movably mounted between the bracket (2) and the cyclone (4). The water wheel (3) is provided with at least two blades (3-2) that are arranged uniformly. An upper end portion and a lower end portion (3-1, 3-4) of a rotation shaft of the water wheel (3) are fixedly connected to a center of the bracket (2) and a center of the cyclone (4) respectively through a bearing. A metal detection needle (7) is mounted on a wall of the water pipe corresponding to the water wheel (3), and has one end surface located on an inner wall surface of the water pipe (1) and the other end being connected to a signal input end of the detection circuit. The axial-flow type impedance water flow sensor can accurately detect the water flow without being affected by the water quality and impurities in the water. Moreover, less wear occurs between the shaft of the water wheel and the bearing, and the water wheel has low inertia and low cost.
US09175984B2
A system for determining an initial rotor position of an interior permanent magnet (IPM) machine having a rotor and a stator is provided. The system may include a drive circuit in operative and electrical communication with each phase of the IPM machine, and a controller in electrical communication with the drive circuit. The controller may be configured to engage the drive circuit to selectively apply a voltage signal to each phase of the stator of the IPM machine, detect a current signal through each phase corresponding to the applied voltage signal, and calculate the initial rotor position based on a least squares analysis between at least the voltage signal, the current signal and a predefined inductance of the IPM machine.
US09175980B2
Disclosed are an in home display apparatus and methodology for displaying utility consumption and other related information to a consumer. The display device monitors transmissions from a utility consumption endpoint on a meter for user readable display. Messages relevant to the consumer may be sent to the endpoint to be relayed along with bubbled-up data from the endpoint on the meter to the in home display device. Flags related to certain of the messages may be set by the endpoint and cleared by the in home display device as a mechanism for acknowledging receipt of messages. Network readers see that set flags have been cleared and thus confirm message delivery to the network.
US09175977B2
A method for arbitrating between vehicle navigation systems in the event that multiple systems are concurrently activated so that information is provided to a user by only one navigation system at a time. This method of arbitration reduces the possibility of user confusion that could otherwise occur if multiple vehicle navigation systems were simultaneously providing the user with information. According to one embodiment, the arbitration method is used in conjunction with a telematics-based system and a CD-based system that both provide turn-by-turn spoken driving directions. The method can also be used to arbitrate between any vehicle-based sources of electronically-supplied audio speech, particularly where the systems are connected to a common vehicle network that allows software control of the different vehicle systems.
US09175976B2
A display control unit that causes a display unit to display a front image on which a guide line is superimposed, wherein the guide line has a front end point that indicates a position inside a recommended lane and has a rear end point that indicates a position rearward of the front end point, is provided. When the vehicle is in a lane change state, the display control unit sets a position of the rear end point in the front image such that the rear end point indicates a central position in a width direction of the vehicle, and, when the vehicle is not in the lane change state, the display control unit sets a position of the rear end point in the front image such that the rear end point indicates a central position in a width direction in the travelling lane.
US09175975B2
The present invention relates to a navigation device. The navigation device is arranged to dynamically generate multidimensional video signals based on location and directional information of the navigation device from 3D data set. The navigation device is further arranged to superimpose navigation directions and/or environment information about surrounding objects onto the generated multidimensional view.
US09175969B2
A method for determining a path for a user of a mobile device for traveling from an origination location to a destination location, comprising receiving a request for a recommended path from the origination location to the destination location, wherein the request comprises a origination location, a destination location, and a network quality constraint, receiving network access point information for access points between the origination location and the destination location, and generating, with a processor, at least one recommended path from the origination location to the destination location based on the request and the network access point information, wherein the recommended path satisfies the network quality constraint.
US09175956B2
A construction laser system includes a rotation laser and a laser receiver. To determine a direction in which the laser receiver lies in sight of the rotation laser, a digital code respectively assigned uniquely to the respective rotation angle ranges includes a state value sequence based on a defined sequence of states relating to the laser beam. In the respective rotation angle ranges, the corresponding sequence of states is respectively generated by successively occurring crossings of the respective rotation angle range. On the receiver side, an output signal is generated as a function of incidence of the laser beam. With the aid of an output signal sequence of successively generated output signals, which is acquired by the evaluation unit, the state value sequence corresponding to the acquired output signal sequence is identified, permitting final determination of the corresponding rotation angle range in which the laser receiver lies.
US09175953B2
A measurement apparatus comprises: a light source; a first optical system configured to reflect a certain component of a light beam emitted by the light source by a final surface thereof and transmit a remaining component of the light beam; a reflecting surface configured to reflect the remaining component; an optical member configured to generate a first shearing interference fringe formed by the certain component, and a second shearing interference fringe formed by the remaining component; an image sensing unit configured to simultaneously sense the first and second shearing interference fringes generated by the optical member; and an arithmetic unit configured to calculate, a wavefront aberration of the first optical system and a wavefront aberration of the first optical system and an optical system to be measured, using data on the first and second shearing interference fringes, thereby calculating a wavefront aberration of the optical system to be measured.
US09175949B2
A light-projecting unit irradiates a scale with non-parallel light. The non-parallel light having passed through a plurality of slits on the scale is received by a light-receiving unit, and a light reception signal indicating a light-receiving amount distribution is outputted. Based on the light reception signal, a plurality of positions where a light-receiving amount is at maximum or minimum in the light-receiving amount distribution on the light-receiving unit are detected as a plurality of peak positions. Based on correction information and the detected plurality of peak positions, a distance between a reference position and a position of at least one slit corresponding to at least one detected peak position is calculated. The correction information shows a relation of a distance between a plurality of peak positions and a distance between a plurality of slits on the scale which respectively correspond to the plurality of peak positions.
US09175946B2
A measuring method of a hole diameter of a holey optical fiber includes calculating an arithmetical mean value I(x) from two backscattering light intensities at a position x of two backscattering light waveforms of the holey optical fiber, in which the two backscattering light waveforms are obtained by OTDR measurement; and obtaining the hole diameter at the position x, based on a correlation between an arithmetical mean value I(x) and an hole diameter of the holey optical fiber that is obtained in advance.
US09175944B2
A probe for a common path optical coherence tomography system includes a sheath having a proximal end and a distal end and defining a lumen therein, a single mode optical fiber disposed within the lumen of the sheath such that a portion of the single mode optical fiber extends beyond the distal end of the sheath. The single mode optical fiber has an end face for transmitting and receiving light. The probe also includes a layer of hardened epoxy encasing the portion of the single mode optical fiber that extends beyond the distal end of the sheath except for the end face. The single mode optical fiber has an optical axis extending along a longitudinal direction of the single mode optical fiber. The hardened epoxy is polished at a non-orthogonal angle relative to the optical axis at the end face.
US09175942B2
A magnetic sensor system includes a magnetic field generation unit for generating a target magnetic field and a magnetic sensor for detecting the target magnetic field, and is selectable between an operating state and a non-operating state. The magnetic sensor has a magnetic detection element including a magnetic layer whose magnetization direction varies according to the direction of the target magnetic field in a reference position. When in the operating state, the direction of the target magnetic field in the reference position varies when viewed from the magnetic sensor. When in the non-operating state, the direction of the target magnetic field in the reference position does not vary when viewed from the magnetic sensor and the magnetization direction of the magnetic layer is pinned in a first direction. The magnetic layer has an induced magnetic anisotropy that is imparted in advance to the magnetic layer.
US09175940B1
This novel axisymmetric revolved arc explosively formed projectile (REFP) shaped charge design will produce a projectile that is greater than ⅔ the diameter of the device forms a hole larger than the device diameter and removes all of the target material within the hole diameter. The precision of the circular simultaneous initiation of the HE billet is accomplished by the use of a novel Circular Precision Initiation Coupler (CPIC). This CPIC uses a single point initiation to create a simultaneous peripheral detonation of the HE billet that collapses and drives the revolved liner into a large diameter double wall hollow cylindrical explosively formed projectile.
US09175938B2
A breaching device for non-explosively cutting through a substrate, such as the leg of an offshore oil platform or other large cylinder from within the leg or large cylinder. The device includes a ring and a plurality of Reactive Material (RM) feed assemblies. Each RM feed assembly is arranged around the ring and includes an extendible nozzle. Each RM feed assembly includes a cavity that may contain RM that when ignited exits the nozzle. The nozzles are spring loaded and arranged to extend toward the inner surface of the substrate to be cut when the ring is rotated and/or oscillated. This arrangement results in a substantially uniform cut of the substrate from within with much less danger, material, equipment and cost than is currently required to remove large water-based structures.
US09175937B1
A fuze includes a housing having a first end and an opposing second end and defining an elongate channel extending between the first and second ends; and a mechanically activated reactive material comprising at least first and second elements disposed within the channel.
US09175935B2
A shooting target range assembly for use by a trainee marksman using IR night vision imaging equipment to view a target. The range may have at least one target support mechanism for supporting a target and an infrared (IR) light projector associated locally with the base for projecting an IR light locally onto the target to illuminate the target with substantially IR images. The night vision imaging equipment used is chosen to be compatible with the IR light projector chosen. The assembly detects projectile hits on illuminated targets from a projectile fired by a trainee marksman.
US09175932B2
Properly identifying the most vulnerable areas and quantifying the effectiveness of armor at those locations is critical to achieving efficient armor integration. A method for designing protective armor for a vehicle includes the deriving shotlines through an element; computing a probability of kill value for each shotline in each element; calculating a probability of kill intensity for each element; ranking the elements according to highest probability of kill intensity; mapping the elements in a 3D CAD environment to visually depict the elements having the highest probability of kill intensity; and designing armor taking into account the elements having the highest probability of kill intensity.
US09175921B2
A shooting bench is configured to be portable and stable. The shooting bench includes a tabletop mechanically coupled to three leg assembly sockets wherein each assembly socket contains an angled cavity that is angled at 10 to 30 degrees from perpendicular to the tabletop. A catch assembly, a cradle assembly and a handle are mechanically coupled to the tabletop. In a first mode of operation a leg assembly is inserted into each leg assembly socket wherein each angled cavity causes the shooting bench to be stable. In a second mode of operation, each leg assembly is inserted into the catch assembly and the cradle assembly in order store the leg assemblies making the shooting bench portable.
US09175916B2
A trigger assembly prevents the rifle from being damaged and improves the user safety by preventing unintentional firing (rifle's falling down to the ground, hitting any place, etc.) as long as a trigger lever is not pulled by the user.
US09175910B2
The present invention provides a combination reforming/reducing shaft furnace for the production of direct reduced iron that utilizes one or more burden uniformity enhancers, such as one or more rotating/reciprocating mixing shafts, one or more stationary flow aids, one or more wall structures/variations, one or more agitators, or the like for ensuring that reforming and reducing in the shaft furnace take place evenly across the width of and throughout the depth of the burden in the shaft furnace.
US09175906B2
The present invention is a method for preparing micron-sized or submicron-sized drug particles comprising contacting a solution comprising a poorly water soluble drug substance and at least one freezable organic solvent with a cold surface so as to freeze the solution; and removing the organic solvent. The resulting particles are also disclosed, as are several embodiments of an apparatus that can be used in performing the method of the present invention.
US09175905B2
This process comprises using unconventional processing of hydrocarbons, e.g. natural gas, for recovering C2+ and NGL hydrocarbons that meet pipeline specifications, without the core high capital cost requirement of a demethanizer column, which is central to and required by almost 100% of the world's current NGL recovery technologies. It can operate in Ethane Extraction or Ethane Rejection modes. The process uses only heat exchangers, compression and simple separation vessels to achieve specification ready NGL. The process utilizes cooling the natural gas, expansion cooling, separating the gas and liquid streams, recycling the cooled streams to exchange heat and recycling selective composition bearing streams to achieve selective extraction of hydrocarbons, in this instance being NGLs. The compactness and utility of this process makes it feasible in offshore applications as well as to implementation to retrofit/revamp or unload existing NGL facilities. Many disparate processes and derivatives are anticipated for its use.
US09175903B2
A refrigerator includes a cabinet that defines a first storage compartment, a first door that is opened or closed to allow or prevent access to an interior of the first storage compartment, a storing device coupled to the first door to define a second storage compartment, and a second door connected to the first door that is opened or closed to allow or prevent access to an interior of the second storage compartment. The first door includes a plurality of first coupling parts to which the storing device is coupled. The storing device includes a frame and a basket installed on the frame, each including at least one second coupling part interacting with at least one of the plurality of first coupling parts. A front surface of the second door is positioned to be generally coplanar with at least a portion of a front surface of the first door.
US09175902B2
A refrigerator includes a cabinet that defines a first storage compartment, a first door that is opened or closed to allow or prevent access to an interior of the first storage compartment, a storing device coupled to the first door to define a second storage compartment, and a second door connected to the first door that is opened or closed to allow or prevent access to an interior of the second storage compartment. The first door includes a plurality of first coupling parts to which the storing device is coupled. The storing device includes a frame and a basket installed on the frame, each including at least one second coupling part interacting with at least one of the plurality of first coupling parts. A front surface of the second door is positioned to be generally coplanar with at least a portion of a front surface of the first door.
US09175898B2
A refrigerator includes a cabinet comprising a storage compartment An evaporator is positioned at an upper portion of the cabinet and generates cold air supplied to the storage compartment. A unit (e.g., closable damper) controls supply of cold air generated by the evaporator to the storage compartment.
US09175897B2
An outdoor unit for an air conditioning device includes an outdoor unit main body, a heat exchanger, a fan provided in an upper part of the outdoor unit main body, the fan blowing out the air taken in from a side surface of the outdoor unit main body upward, a ventilating member surrounding an outer circumference of the fan and forming a blow-out port, and an electric component unit accommodated in the outdoor unit main body and arranged in an opening portion between one side end portion and the other side end portion of the heat exchanger, wherein the electric component unit is provided so as to cross over a lower end of the ventilating member in the up and down direction, and on the upper side than the lower end of the ventilating member, the electric component unit is arranged on the horizontally outer side than the ventilating member.
US09175892B2
An ice making device may include an ice tray; a drive part which is provided with an output shaft to which the ice tray is attached and in which the ice tray is turned by turning of the output shaft; and a frame body to which the drive part is attached. A twisting operation is applied to the ice tray during a turning operation for separating ice pieces from the ice tray. The drive part may include a drive side attaching part. The frame body may include a frame body side attaching part. The frame body side attaching part and the drive side attaching part are fitted to each other along a direction that is perpendicular to the output shaft, thereby attaching the drive part to the frame body.
US09175888B2
A refrigerator is provided that includes a low energy refrigerator heat source. The refrigerator includes a heat source positioned at a source of latent heat. The heat source harvested heat from the source of latent heat and stores said heat in a fluid within that heat reservoir or heat exchanger. The warmed fluid is then supplied via a fluid pathway to an application requiring a heat output. Thus, the heat reservoir provides heat to the application without use of an energy-consuming device, which reduces the energy consumption of the refrigerator.
US09175884B2
A pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) includes an etched glass substrate bonded to a glass plate and defining one or multiple stages or layers. The PTC includes a plurality of channels etched into a surface of the substrate to define a heat exchanger, a pulse tube, a cold heat exchanger or cold head, a regenerator and an aftercooler. The bonded substrate and plate encloses the plurality of channels to form capillaries operable for conducting and distributing fluid. The pulse tube is disposed between the cold head and the heat exchanger and the regenerator is disposed between the cold head and the aftercooler. The heat exchanger is connected to a valve or inertance tube which, in turn, is connectable to a buffer tank or reservoir that contains fluid. The aftercooler is connectable to an external compressor operable for oscillating movement, which increases and decreases pressure and temperature within the PTC.
US09175880B2
The present invention relates to a panel clamp securable to a variety of mounting mechanisms. The clamp includes first and second members, each having an edge extending beyond at least a portion of its side surface to form an overhang, and each includes a plurality of holes passing therethrough. When the overhang of the first member is fitted over a top surface of a panel and the overhang of the second member is fitted over a bottom surface of the panel, such that the plurality of holes in the first member is substantially aligned with the plurality of holes in the second member, mechanical fasteners can be inserted through the plurality of holes to secure the first and second members to the panel. An additional mechanical fastener is inserted through the clamp to secure the clamp to a mounting mechanism.
US09175879B2
A fastening system including a plurality of fastening modules to mount a solar module having a first longitudinal direction on a roof structure or a façade having a second longitudinal direction. Each fastening module comprises one module carrier mountable on the roof structure or on the façade; a slide block guidable inside the module carrier; a module clamp; and a fastener to connect the module clamp to the slide block to clamp a respective solar module between the module clamp and the slide block. The module clamp is rotatable between two positions on the fastener so that an arrangement of the fastening modules permits the solar module to be mounted on the roof structure or the façade with the first longitudinal axis perpendicular or parallel to the second direction.
US09175869B2
Various embodiments provide an HVAC system that includes first and second controllers. The first controller is configured to control a first demand unit to maintain a setpoint temperature of a first portion of a conditioned space. A second HVAC controller is configured to control a second demand unit to maintain a setpoint temperature of a second portion of the conditioned space. The control provided by the second controller is dependent on a load metric of the first demand unit.
US09175868B2
A user-friendly, network-connected learning thermostat is described. The thermostat is made up of (1) a wall-mountable backplate that includes a low-power consuming microcontroller used for activities such as polling sensors and switching on and off the HVAC functions, and (2) separable head unit that includes a higher-power consuming microprocessor, color LCD backlit display, user input devices, and wireless communications modules. The thermostat also includes a rechargeable battery and power-stealing circuitry adapted to harvest power from HVAC triggering circuits. By maintaining the microprocessor in a “sleep” state often compared to the lower-power microcontroller, high-power consuming activities, such as learning computations, wireless network communications and interfacing with a user, can be temporarily performed by the microprocessor even though the activities use energy at a greater rate than is available from the power stealing circuitry.
US09175854B2
A flameless lighter provides a user with a heat source that is similar to typical lighter. The flameless light comprises an enclosure, a slidable switch, a light assembly, a portable power supply, and a switch retraction mechanism. The enclosure is the primary structural component of the flameless lighter. The light assembly is used to produce the necessary heat to ignite items such as cigarettes and candle wicks. The slidable switch is used to activate and deactivate the light assembly and is used to protrude and retract a light bulb into and out of the enclosure. The portable power supply is used electrically power the light assembly and can be recharged through a universal serial bus charging port. The switch retraction mechanism defaults the slidable switch to the “OFF” position so that the flameless light is not left in the “ON” position. This improves the overall safety of the flameless light.
US09175853B2
Water heating system and method including a boiler, a combustion chamber, and a burner housed inside the chamber. A conduit fluidly coupled to the combustion chamber to channel gas into the chamber wherein the burner causes combustion of gas. An oxygen sensor is coupled to the chamber and positioned within the chamber to detect an amount of oxygen in the products of combustion. The oxygen sensor outputs data representative of the amount to a control unit. The control unit controls the feedback control of the water heating system and wherein the combustion of the gas in the chamber is controllable by the control unit at least based on the data. A heat exchanger system is coupled to the chamber to heat water in the heat exchanger with the products. At least one flue coupled to the heat exchanger system to channel products out of the heat exchanger system.
US09175835B2
A pendant fixture comprising a first body portion having a threaded stud formed thereon, wherein the threaded stud is configured to receive a spider fitting of a lampshade when the lampshade is installed on the pendant fixture. A second body portion having a first half defining a threaded bore therein and a second half defining a second bore therethrough is rotatably coupled to the first body portion by the threaded stud and bore. A power cord having a first end for mounting to a structure, and a second end that is received through the second body portion second bore provides power to the first body portion. A length of power cord adjacent to the power cord second end defines a flexible and adjustable C-shaped cord portion intermediate the first body portion and the second body portion.
US09175832B2
A lens for an LED street lamp has an external curved surface that has a concave surface portion on one side thereof. A back surface of the lens has a micro-prism array and retainer feet. A recess in the back surface receives an LED light source. The outer surface of the lens has facets or windows that provide overlapping projections of light from adjacent facets. The lens is generally cushion shaped with an indentation at one side. The lens directs light in an asymmetrical distribution transverse to the lens and to direct light symmetrically over a wide area in a longitudinal direction of the lens.
US09175831B2
An illumination aperture diaphragm 100A for a light source device for supplying illumination light in an endoscopic device to simultaneously observe a subject image formed by reflected illumination light in the visible light region and a fluorescence image from a fluorescent substance in a subject has a filter region 1 formed in a flat plate-like base material 3 and an aperture region 2 formed inside the filter region 1. The filter region 1 transmits light in the wavelength region of excitation light for allowing the subject to emit fluorescent light and reduces or blocks the transmission of the light in the visible light region that forms the subject image. An illumination aperture diaphragm 200A may include a plurality of diaphragm blade members 20A.
US09175830B2
Disclosed is a method for producing a high-luminance monochromatic light based on optical wavelength conversion, which is used in a light source comprising an excitation light source, and comprises the steps of: setting a first wavelength conversion material and a second wavelength conversion material; using an excitation beam to excite the first wavelength conversion material and the second wavelength conversion material, wherein the first wavelength conversion material absorbs the excitation light to produce a first excited light; the second wavelength conversion material absorbs a first waveband portion of the first excited light to produce a second excited light, where the energy of the absorbed first waveband portion is more than 50% of the total energy of the first excited light; mixing the second excited light and the unabsorbed portion of the first excited light together to form the high-luminance monochromatic light.
US09175826B2
An illuminating unit includes: a light source section including a laser light source; a first uniformizing optical member on which light from the light source section is incident; and a second uniformizing optical member including a plurality of first unit cells and a plurality of second unit cells and on which light from the first uniformizing optical member is incident. The first unit cells are arranged on a light incidence surface of the second uniformizing optical member and each have an anisotropic shape with a major-axis direction as a first direction and a minor-axis direction as a second direction, and the second unit cells are arranged on a light emission surface of the second uniformizing optical member and each have a shape protruding along both the first direction and the second direction.
US09175825B2
An anti-glare light source including a linear light source, at least one sleeve and a light adjusting element is provided. The linear light source is suitable for providing a light. The sleeve covers at least one end of the linear light source. The light adjusting element is disposed between the sleeve and the linear light source, wherein the light adjusting element includes a plurality of prism portions. The prism portions cover a portion of the linear light source and arrange along the extension direction of the linear light source, such that the distribution of the light converges along the extension direction of the linear light source.
US09175824B2
There is provided a vehicle headlamp that can be miniaturized and that can form a synthetic light distribution pattern (for example, a low-beam light distribution pattern) in which a hot zone is brighter. The vehicle headlamp that forms the synthetic light distribution pattern including the hot zone and a diffusion region diffused from the hot zone, includes at least one first lighting fixture unit including a laser light source and a first optical system that forms a first light distribution pattern to irradiate light forward from the laser light source and irradiate the hot zone, and at least one second lighting fixture unit including an LED light source and a second optical system that forms a second light distribution pattern to irradiate light forward from the LED light source and irradiate the diffusion region.
US09175820B2
A dual lighting apparatus includes a principal substrate, a first lighting device and a second lighting device. The first lighting device is integrated into a first plane of the principal substrate, the first lighting device having one or more first light emitting diode (LED) chips embedded therein. The second lighting device is integrated into a second plane of the principal substrate, the second lighting device having one or more second light emitting diode (LED) chips embedded therein. The first LED chip(s) emit light photons having a different wavelength than light photons emitted from the second LED chip(s).
US09175816B2
A linear light source and a method of manufacturing the linear light source are disclosed. The linear light source includes a light emitting diode (LED) array, a light pipe, and a shell with a linear exit slit aperture. Cutouts of the light pipe provides a slanted surface to reflect portions of light rays along the length of the light pipe out of the linear exit slit aperture.
US09175812B2
A lighting apparatus can dissipate heat by conduction and convection. A heat sink is provided with an active cooling device for the lighting apparatus.
US09175806B2
A large volume natural gas storage tank comprises a plurality of rigid tubular walls each having opposing ends and an intermediate segment with a closed tubular cross-section, the plurality of rigid tubular walls arranged in a closely spaced relationship and interconnected at their ends, with each end of a given of the plurality of rigid tubular walls connected with respective ends of two others of the plurality of rigid tubular walls to define a corner of the storage tank, such that the interiors of the plurality of rigid tubular walls define an interior fluid storage chamber.
US09175802B2
A support is provided for use with computer devices. The support is made of a flexible material and incorporates an oval axial cross-section along with curved inner walls to provide a cushion. The support may be placed adjacent to a computer keyboard or mouse to function as a wrist rest. Additionally, the support may be used as supporting legs on a lap desk.
US09175801B2
A mobile support structure for a display device includes a cross bar having a first end and a second end, a display, a first pair of legs, and a second pair of legs. A first coupling defines a first transverse cavity receiving the cross bar and a first pair of axial cavities receiving the first pair of legs. A second coupling defines a second transverse cavity receiving the cross bar and a second pair of axial cavities receiving the second pair of legs. A locking mechanism is disposed in at least one of the cross bar and the first pair of legs. A wheel coupling includes a wheel and is engaged with at least one of the first coupling and the second coupling such that when in a moving position, the wheel contacts a ground surface and rolls the display from a first location to a second location.
US09175794B2
A device for connecting male and female piping or tubing, where the female pipe includes an inner wall portion with a first holding section positioned at the inner periphery of the female pipe. The male pipe includes a sleeve with a second holding section positioned on the outer periphery of the male pipe, The device includes a ring-shaped element arranged between the male/female pipes. The ring-shaped element includes at least one axially protruding resilient tongue with a first device engaging the first holding section of the female pipe, and a second device configured to resiliently snap into a holding position within the second holding section of the male pipe when inserting the male pipe into the ring-shaped element and the female pipe.
US09175790B2
The invention is directed to a combined protector and hose support device for a containment berm including an elongate bracket configured to be removably attached to the rim of the containment berm, and a saddle pivotally mounted to the bracket to engage the hose.
US09175787B2
A linear displacement control valve comprising a valve body having a valve bonnet cooperatively engage thereto. The body and the bonnet collectively accommodate a valve trim which comprises a flow control element and a complementary spindle. The spindle is preferably attached to a reciprocally movable valve stem of the control valve via a stem adaptor. The stem adaptor is adapted to allow for some measure of “float” between the spindle and the flow control element as may be needed to accommodate any misalignment therebetween. The spindle is uniquely configured such that when used in conjunction with the flow control element, the trim is capable of providing low end flow control at a higher level of accuracy and/or wider rangeability.
US09175785B2
A plug includes: a fluid passage in a main body; a valve body biased to close an inlet of the fluid passage; a cover disposed on an upper end of the main body and closing an upper opening section thereof; and a control lever of the cover that can be pushed downward to open and close the valve body. An engagement claw section is formed on an elastic section of the main body. Provided on the cover is a transverse-plate upper surface for engaging the engagement claw section. A protrusion section of the control lever abuts against and shifts the elastic section in a disengagement direction when pushing the control lever downward. The protrusion section can thus disengage the engagement claw section from the transverse-plate upper surface. The control lever biased upward by the valve body allows the cover to be easily and lightly disassembled from the main body.
US09175783B2
Embodiments for vacuum generation are provided. In one example, a method comprises when boost is below a threshold, generating vacuum with an actuator in a first position by flowing air from a compressor outlet to an intake manifold through a first ejector, and when boost is above the threshold, generating vacuum with the actuator in a second position by flowing air from the compressor outlet to a compressor inlet through a second ejector. In this way, vacuum may be generated by more than one ejector via actuation of a common actuator.
US09175775B2
A steam turbine with a shaft seal is provided. The shaft seal steam barrier is supplied with a slight excess pressure. In order to avoid complex additional devices necessary for liquefying the water vapor once again, a condensation chamber, which is sealed from the surrounding air as well as from the steam barrier chamber with brush seals, is provided between the steam barrier chamber and the surrounding air. The condensation chamber is constructed in such a manner that the heat, developing in the interior thereof, is discharged to the outside.
US09175757B2
An automated manual transmission for a vehicle may include a shifting section between an input shaft and an output shaft, and a continuously variable power transfer unit disposed between the output shaft and the power providing device, wherein the continuously variable power transfer unit includes, a driving circular plate engaged to the power providing device, a driven circular plate engaged to the output shaft of the shifting section and arranged in parallel to the driving circular plate, the driven circular plate being rotatable around a first rotation shaft spaced in parallel from a second rotation shaft of the driving circular plate, a driving member disposed between the driven circular plate and the driving circular plate and a driving member adjustment device selectively moving the driving member.
US09175750B2
A multi-stage transmission with nine forward and one reverse gear includes four planetary gearsets, shafts and shifting elements. The sun gear of gearset (P1) couples shaft (5) which can coupled, via brake (05), the housing. The input shaft can couple, via clutch (14), shaft (4) which couples the carriers of gearsets (P1, P2) and can coupled, via brake (04), the housing. The input shaft can couple, via clutch (17), shaft (7) which couples the ring gear of gearset (P1) and the sun gear of gearset (P2) and can couple, via clutch (18), shaft (8), which couples the carrier of gearset (P4) and the ring gear of gearset (P3). Shaft (6) couples the ring gears of gearsets (P2, P4). Shaft (3) couples the sun gears of gearsets (P3, P4) and can couple, via brake (03), the housing. The output shaft couples the carrier of gearset (P3).
US09175749B2
A planetary gear train of an automatic transmission for a vehicle may include an input shaft receiving torque of an engine, an output shaft disposed in parallel with the input shaft, a first planetary gear set including a first sun gear, a first planet carrier, and a first ring gear, a second planetary gear set including a second sun gear, a second planet carrier, and a second ring gear, and a third planetary gear set including a third sun gear, a third planet carrier, and a third ring gear. The planetary gear train may further include first, second, third and fourth clutches and a first brake.
US09175748B2
A transmission gearing arrangement produces eleven forward speed ratios and one reverse speed ratio by selective engagement of three shift elements in various combinations. One embodiment includes four simple planetary gear sets, four clutches, and two brakes. Another embodiment includes two axis transfer gear pairs, three simple planetary gear sets, four clutches, and two brakes. Each of these embodiments may include a one way brake such that the first shift is non-synchronous. A third embodiment includes four simple planetary gear sets, four brakes, and two clutches.
US09175744B2
A cable connector includes a first part for receiving a cable end of a first cable and a connecting element for connecting to a second cable, at least one second part which encompasses the first cable, and at least one joint which connects the first part and the second part to each other.
US09175743B2
The present invention relates to a laundry processing apparatus. In particular, the laundry processing apparatus comprises: a cabinet; an outer chamber provided within the cabinet and in which wash water is filled; an inner chamber rotatably provided within the outer chamber to hold laundry; an upper balancer disposed at an upper portion of the inner chamber; and a lower balancer disposed at a lower portion of the inner chamber, wherein either the upper balancer or the lower balancer is a liquid balancer filled with liquid, and the other balancer is a ball balancer having a ball therein, such that the advantages of maximized balancing results and an effective reduction in vibration may be achieved.
US09175733B2
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle transmission clutch assembly with squawk reduction techniques, having: a clutch component configured to rotate with respect to a transmission shaft; and a plurality of multi-directional mass dampers coupled to the clutch component, configured to alter a mode of vibration for the clutch component during clutch engagement.
US09175729B2
A method for producing a bearing assembly for a vehicle seat, which has a first bearing element (12) and a second bearing element (16) which can be moved in a movement direction (r) relative thereto, wherein the first bearing element first receives the second bearing element, with a large, undefined play in a play direction (p) which is perpendicular to the movement direction, and the first bearing element and/or the second bearing element is later deformed in a plastic manner by pressurizing in a stamping direction (x) until the first bearing element and the second bearing element contact each other without play in the play direction. Before the plastic deformation, the first bearing element elastically deforms under reduction of play and the elastic deformation is reversed after the plastic deformation, so that a defined clearance fit occurs between the first bearing element and the second bearing element.
US09175723B2
In order to improve a surgical instrument comprising a shank and a drive shaft, which is rotatably mounted in the shank and bears or comprises a tool element at its distal end, wherein in the distal end region of the shank a radial bearing is arranged or configured for the rotatable mounting of the drive shaft on the shank, such that a reliable operation is possible even with increasing miniaturisation of the shanks, it is proposed that the radial bearing is configured in the form of a needle bearing.An improved surgical handpiece as well as an improved surgical drive system are additionally proposed.
US09175716B2
A functional element having a functional portion, a generally tubular rivet portion and a ring-like sheet metal contact surface is characterized in that features of shape are provided at the rivet portion for co-movement of the sheet metal part during the formation of the rivet bead, in particular at the free end of the rivet portion and/or at the radially outer side of the rivet portion, at least in the region adjacent the free end of the rivet portion. A component assembly comprising a functional element and a sheet metal part as well as a method for the attachment of a functional element to the sheet metal part are also claimed.
US09175710B2
A ceramic fastener includes a ceramic body portion, and a containment layer disposed around the ceramic body portion. The containment layer retains pieces of the ceramic body portion when the ceramic body portion is subjected to a torque sufficient to fracture the ceramic body portion. The fastener can be a nut, and the containment layer can be disposed around one or more of the top, bottom and side surfaces of the nut. The containment layer can be a metal shroud having a thickness from 0.01 to 0.125 inches. The ceramic body portion can be alumina or zirconia. A thread insert may be disposed within a fastener bore of the ceramic body portion.
US09175706B2
A mounting plate utilized to attach an object to a mounting system. The mounting plate includes a base having a top surface and a bottom surface. The bottom surface of the base is bonded to a membrane of the mounting system. A housing is raised from the top surface of the base, the housing creates a contact surface area to support the object. A first member is raised from the top surface; the first member has a surface at a height flush with the contact surface area of the housing. A hole extends through the thickness of the housing.
US09175702B1
An externally supported foil with reversible camber and variable chord length is described that allows a thin foil of efficient deformed shape to generate lift equally on opposite angles of attack to a fluid flow. The foil is supported at the leading and trailing edges to ribs that are in turn connected to spanwise spars forming an external structure attachable to a body. The foil is held by leading edge hinge(s) and trailing edge elastic membrane(s) along the span or at the ribs. Membrane pretension keeps the foil taut while generating no lift when parallel to a flow. When rotated by an external mechanism to generate an angle of attack, the membrane stretches due to the differential pressures generated on the foil surface; thereby, passively increasing the chord length and camber. Rib cutouts dictate the deformed aerodynamic or hydrodynamic foil shape that then generates lift.
US09175700B2
A method for detecting the position of a piston of a piston cylinder is provided. A microwave transmit signal is emitted in the direction of the piston and microwaves reflected from the piston are detected. The transmit signal is a modulated signal with a base frequency sinusoidally modulated at a modulation frequency. An evaluation of the phase between transmit signals and receive signals is performed. A phase determination at the baseband and a simultaneous phase determination at at least one sideband are also performed. The phase determination at the baseband is used for fine determination of the piston position and the phase determination at the at least one sideband is used for coarse determination of the piston position. Bandpass filtering on receive signals and evaluation transmit signals is performed with respect to the base frequency or an intermediate frequency. Bandpass filtering is performed with respect to the modulation frequency.
US09175698B2
A circuit for driving a hydraulic cylinder of a construction machine includes: a hydraulic pump; a tank; a control valve; a bottom side line; a rod side line; a quick return circuit having a branch line branched off from the bottom side line and led to the tank and a quick return valve which allows hydraulic fluid to be flowed through the branch line only when the control valve is switched to a contraction driving position; and a recycling circuit which supplies a part of return fluid discharged from a bottom side fluid chamber to a rod side fluid chamber of the hydraulic cylinder. The recycling circuit allows the hydraulic fluid to be flowed only from the bottom side fluid chamber into the rod side fluid chamber of the hydraulic cylinder only when the hydraulic cylinder is switched to the contraction driving position.
US09175696B2
A support bracket for a cabin air compressor (CAC) assembly includes a CAC mounting portion with a plurality of CAC mounting holes distributed in an arc configuration along a CAC mounting hole circle radius defined from an origin. A support portion includes a ramped face that transitions to an upper lug portion and a substantially perpendicular face relative to the CAC mounting portion. An upper lug includes a coupling hole offset from a first CAC mounting hole at a first length in a first direction and a second length in a second direction. The first CAC mounting hole is offset from the origin by a third length in the first direction and a fourth length in the second direction. A ratio of the first length to the third length is between 0.48 and 0.50, and a ratio of the second length to the fourth length is between 2.48 and 2.54.
US09175686B2
A priming valve for priming a centrifugal pump includes a valve assembly separating an inlet chamber from an outlet chamber. The inlet chamber is fluidly coupled to an intake for the centrifugal pump and the outlet chamber is fluidly coupled to a priming pump. A control valve is provided to operate the valve assembly in order to fluidly connect the inlet chamber with the outlet chamber. While the valve assembly fluidly connects the inlet chamber with the outlet chamber, the priming pump can operate to replace air in the intake and the centrifugal pump with water.
US09175684B2
A rotary pump device includes a stator chamber with a cylindrical inner wall having intake and exhaust ports and an abutment mounted therein, and a rotor eccentrically mounted on an axial driven shaft for rotation within the chamber. The rotor keeps continuous wiping contact with the chamber wall while repelling magnets exert pressure on an abutment which maintains contact with the rotor to partition the intake and outlet ports. The repelling magnets act as a spring to assure contact of the abutment on the rotor while the pump is running or on standby. The repelling is caused by locating magnets positioned with similar facing poles in a pocket positioned against an abutment. A full intake/exhaust cycle takes place every 360° of rotor travel.
US09175679B2
A piston is slidably provided in a cylinder and partitions a first pump chamber, and a second pump chamber connected to an object to be operated. A first on-off valve is provided between the first pump chamber and the outside. A second on-off valve is provided in a connecting flow passage that connects the first pump chamber and the second pump chamber to each other. When the piston is moved forward by an electromagnetic force of a solenoid portion, a capacity of the first pump chamber decreases, and a capacity of the second pump chamber increases. When the piston is moved backward by a biasing force of a spring, the capacity of the first pump chamber increases, and the capacity of the second pump chamber decreases. A pressure receiving area of the front face of the piston is larger than that of the back face thereof.
US09175677B2
A method for regulating a motor-driven pump of an SCR system, the pump delivering a pressure, being subjected to a hydraulic torque in relation to this pressure and also to a resistive torque and being driven by an electric motor including coils supplied with a current and developing a torque in relation to this current, according to which to regulate the pump, use is made of a mechanism to measure the current in the coils of the motor, of a regulator of overall current consumed by the motor, and of a model of the relation between the current and the pressure using an estimate of part of the resistive torque, namely the dry frictions, obtained by rotating the pump under no-load conditions at different speeds and by measuring the associated current.
US09175673B2
A system and method to amplify displacement includes a housing forming a cylindrical chamber having an elastomeric material disposed therein. The chamber being sealed with a first membrane and a second membrane. The first membrane being attached to a first end having and the second membrane being attached to a second end, the first end having a greater diameter than the second end. The method including producing an input displacement with a driver attached to the first membrane, which in turn results in an amplified output displacement at the second end.
US09175672B2
A valve plate is used in a swash plate type motor including a motor shaft and a cylinder block in a motor housing and includes: a sliding supporting surface contacting a rear end surface of the cylinder block to support the cylinder block; a supporting surface that is a surface corresponding to and opposite to the sliding supporting surface; a central through hole through which the motor shaft penetrates; and a plurality of ports and formed around the central through hole as inlets and outlets of operating oil so as to penetrate the valve plate, and a cooling concave portion into which the operating oil flows is formed in a region except for the ports and on the supporting surface.
US09175670B2
A post-tensioned precast segmental concrete tower has a stack of annular segments with uniform cross-sections which varies over the tower height. The transition between tower segments occurs in stages and is achieved using annular members or segments which support and anchor post-tensioning tendons that transfer loads passing through the tower as a result of a change in tower geometry. The tower segments are match cast against one another in fabrication to create tight matching opposing surfaces when placed into the tower and to create tight joints. The match casting eliminates the need for grout between precast segments, resulting in a faster tower erection time and high durability of the joints. All annular segments have horizontal joints and no vertical joints. The tower geometry simplifies the formwork system used to precast the segments, and the post-tensioning tendons tie all segments together and to the foundation.
US09175669B2
A V-shaped arrangement of turbines adapted to orient in such a manner that crosswind enters the arrangement in a direction that is substantially parallel to the axis bisecting the arrangement is described. The V-shaped arrangement includes clockwise rotating turbines and counterclockwise rotating turbines.
US09175663B2
A linear generator for submerged use in generating electricity has a linearly reciprocating translator which is attached to a wire and a rod arranged to connect the translator to a floating body on the sea surface. The generator has a sealed housing forming a watertight chamber in which the translator is located. The rod is arranged to pass through a sealed opening in a wall portion of the housing. When operated, the wall portion with the sealed opening is located at a level that is below the level of the upper end of the translator at least during a part of the movement of the translator.
US09175660B2
A method for operating a vehicle system is provided. The method includes activating a starter-generator rotationally coupled to a crankshaft output in an internal combustion engine while combustion operation in the internal combustion engine is inhibited, operating the starter-generator to drive the crankshaft in a predetermined speed range while combustion operation in the internal combustion engine is inhibited, and activating combustion operation in a cylinder of the internal combustion engine in response to a combustion activation trigger.
US09175638B2
The invention aims at providing a sufficient air exchange in the engine area without raising the static pressure in the outlet area of the air exchange duct. In order to do this, the invention provides for an outlet section capable of concentrating the outlet of the exchange airflow towards zones with smaller static pressure. A turbojet engine outlet according to the invention provides an engine cowl, which comprises an external wall of a circumferential duct in which circulates an exchange airflow of the turbines, and an airflow mixer. At the outlet, the duct delivers the exchange airflow towards the mixer for the primary and secondary airflows of the turbojet engine. The mixer presents hot and cold lobes. In particular, the engine outlet also includes guiding of the exchange airflow towards the cold lobes.
US09175635B2
A two-stroke spark-ignition engine with through scavenging, exhaust valves (7), an injection nozzle (5) and sparking plug (6) in the cylinder head is characterized by higher volume efficiency and higher volume output with the possibility of gradual change of timing of air inlet into the engine cylinder (2) from the idle run to the full power. The use of a charger or turbocharger is convenient. Higher volume efficiency is achieved by a limitation of flow of exhaust gas back to the suction part through a gradual change of the inlet section to the engine cylinder (2) and by ensuring a higher air pressure before the inlet section. The change of the inlet section is achieved by a rotary bushing (4) on the cylinder (2) or insert of the engine cylinder (2), the bushing (4) being controlled with a control rod (14) from the throttle pedal.
US09175626B2
A method for controlling engine vacuum production is disclosed. In one example, one or more air sources to an engine intake manifold are closed so as to increase an amount of air drawn from another air source. The method may increase a rate of vacuum supplied to a vacuum actuated device so as to improve operation of the vacuum actuated device.
US09175614B2
The present disclosure refers to a gas fuel admission system for a gas fired engine. A gas pressure regulating unit includes a gas pressure regulating unit inlet and a gas pressure regulating unit outlet. The gas pressure regulating unit is configured to receive gas and to discharge the gas at an injection pressure. An engine gas inlet is configured to direct gas into the at least one combustion chamber. A gas admission valve is configured to admit the gas having an injection pressure at a predetermined time for a predetermined duration into the engine gas inlet. A gas pressure relief device is fluidly connected to the gas conduit and it is configured to relieve overpressure of the gas in the gas supply conduit, if a pressure differential between the injection gas pressure and the intake air pressure is above a predetermined threshold. A specific engine control module is configured to control the gas admission valve in response to inputs from various sensing devices.
US09175609B2
An internal combustion engine can be operated in response to a received first throttle control input in a first operating regime that includes delivering a first air-fuel mixture having a first air/fuel ratio to a combustion volume to deliver a first output power in a first output power range between zero and a transition output power level. The engine can be operated in response to a received second throttle control input in a second operating regime that includes delivering a second air/fuel ratio richer than the first air/fuel ratio to the combustion volume to deliver a second output power in a second output power range between the transition output power level and a maximum output power level. The first throttle control input can include activation of a throttle control device against a first control resistance provided by the throttle control device, and the second throttle control input can include activation of the throttle control device against a second control resistance provided by the throttle control device and that is greater than the first control resistance. Related methods, systems, and article of manufacture are described.
US09175608B1
A floating air riding seal for a gas turbine engine with a rotor and a stator, an annular piston chamber with an axial moveable annular piston assembly within the annular piston chamber, an annular cavity formed on the annular piston assembly that faces a seal surface on the rotor, and a central passage connecting the annular cavity to the annular piston chamber to supply compressed air to the seal face, where the annular piston assembly is a split piston assembly to maintain a tight seal as coning of the rotor disk occurs.
US09175598B2
A two-stroke engine has a cylinder with a combustion chamber and a reciprocating piston for driving a crankshaft. Transfer passages connect the crankcase in at least one position of the piston with the combustion chamber and open by piston-controlled transfer ports into the combustion chamber. An inlet opens into the crankcase and an outlet is provided at the combustion chamber. The engine is dividable into four sectors parallel to a longitudinal cylinder axis. The transfer port of a first transfer passage is arranged in the first sector, the outlet is arranged in the second sector, the transfer port of a second transfer passage is provided in the third sector, and the inlet is arranged in the fourth sector. Within the cylinder the first and second transfer passages, at a spacing from a separation plane between cylinder and crankcase, pass together into one of the second and fourth sectors.
US09175587B2
A substrate with a surface-collection-layer includes a honeycomb substrate having a porous partition wall that defines and forms cells, and a plurality of plugging portions. A surface-collection-layer is formed on a surface of the partition wall that forms the remaining cells, and the thickness of the surface-collection-layer on the outlet-side open end is larger than the thickness of the surface-collection-layer in a center area of the substrate. The partition wall has predetermined thickness, porosity, and average pore size. The surface-collection-layer has a predetermined thickness, porosity, and average pore size, and the substrate has a predetermined cell density.
US09175586B2
By raising a temperature of an element portion of a particulate matter sensor (8) that is arranged in an exhaust passage (4) of an internal combustion engine (2), a heat generation amount that results from the combustion of particulate matters is detected, during a removal treatment of removing, through combustion, particulate matters that are deposited on the element portion. Besides, an amount of particulate matters that are deposited on the element portion of the particulate matter sensor (8) is detected on the basis of an output of the particulate matter sensor (8), before the start of this removal treatment. On the other hand, an amount of particulate matters that are deposited on the element portion before the start of the removal treatment is detected in accordance with the heat generation amount. Furthermore, it is determined whether or not there is an abnormality in the particulate matter sensor (8), on the basis of a difference between a first particulate matter amount that is detected on the basis of the output of the particulate matter sensor (8) and a second particulate matter amount that is detected on the basis of the heat generation amount.
US09175584B2
A sintered alloy for a valve seat may be manufactured using a method including: mixing MnS with an alloy powder for a valve seat including C at 0.8-1.2 wt %, Ni at 2.0-4.5 wt %, Cr at 3.0-5.0 wt %, Mo at 16.0-20.0 wt %, Co at 9.0-13.0 wt %, V at 0.05-0.15 wt %, S at 0.2-0.8 wt %, Fe, and additional inevitable impurities; making a first shape by forming the mixed materials; pre-sintering the first formed shape; making a secondary shape by re-pressing the first pre-sintered shape; main-sintering the secondary shape; and tempering the main-sintered secondary shape.
US09175583B2
When a start-up failure occurs wherein an internal combustion engine equipped with a variable valve device does not transition to complete combustion before a first prescribed period α elapses from the start of cranking in conjunction with fuel injection, a control unit for the internal combustion engine executes a start-up failure process addressing a state wherein the valve timing is different from a specific timing.
US09175580B2
The mechanical lash adjuster is arranged between a cam and one end of the stem of a valve urged by a valve spring. The lash adjuster comprises an unrotatable housing having a thread, a plunger subjected to the force of the cam and formed with a thread in engagement with the thread of the housing, and a plunger spring urging the plunger against the action of the valve spring. The lead and flank angles of the engaging threads are set such that the engagement threads can slidably rotate under a given shaft load applied to the plunger unless the frictional torque TB, generated by the friction between the slidable frictional surface F2 of the plunger and a shaft load transmission member to act on the plunger, exceeds the thrust torque TF imparted by the shaft load to the plunger.
US09175575B2
In one aspect, the present subject matter discloses a seal including a substrate material. The substrate material has a first portion having a first abradability and a second portion having a second abradability, the first abradability being different from the second abradability.
US09175570B2
An airfoil includes a body that has a platform, an airfoil extending outwardly from a side of the platform and a root extending outwardly from another side of the platform. A member is connected in an articulated joint to the body.
US09175558B2
A sensor array system includes a sensor array comprising a first sensor disposed underground and a second sensor disposed underground, and a processor communicatively coupled to the sensors of the sensor array, the processor operative to receive signals from the sensors of the sensor array indicative of seismic activity, and identify a position of a portion of a borehole machine operative to induce the seismic activity while disposed in an underground borehole.
US09175554B1
An artificial lift fluid system for use in a wellbore with a casing engaging a well head can include a prime mover in communication with a variable frequency drive controller, or connected with a throttle, sensors, and a programmable logic controller for optimizing production from the wellbore by comparing data with preset production parameters. The artificial lift fluid system can include upper bearings connected to the prime mover, and an on-off tool connected with a shaft. The shaft can be engaged with the upper bearings, prime mover, and the on-off tool. The on-off tool can be connected with the centrifugal pump. A seal can be engaged with the shaft, a bottom bearing can be connected with the centrifugal pump to support loads, and bushings can separate the on-off tool and shaft from tubing in the casing.
US09175549B2
Catastrophic events involving oceanic petroleum oil-wells are threats to ventures in this intriguing avenue. The instant inventions of exemplary models working in synchrony are directed to emergency responsive, reparative, and preventive measures to weather through the adversities of such deep sea explorations, thereby restoring/preserving the functioning of the well structure, involving— (a) An incomplete oil-well with disrupted ‘production casing’, it's dimensions sealed by an ‘Emergency Pneumatic Sealing Ensemble’, further incorporating an oil-outlet, (b) A completed oil-well with fractured ‘production tubing’, it's dimensions sealed by a pneumatic ‘Emergency Plugging Oil-Conduit’, (c) Reparative measures of cement structuring an ‘Emergency Isolation platform’ incorporating functional well-head structures, (d) Methods of designing a ‘Detachable Island-Rig’ on permanent base, (e) A simple yet eminently functional model of ‘Oil-Gas Separator’, structured on the ocean grounds about the well, designed to separate gas from semisolid crude, so preventing entrainment of inflammable gases.
US09175544B2
An assembly to be run within a well tubular includes a first fluid controller in a first section of the tubular and a second fluid controller in a second section of the well tubular. The assembly includes a set of packers for sealing of the space between the well tubular and a well bore surface of the well. The set-of packers are positioned such that a part of the well tubular having both the first fluid controller and the second fluid controller is located between the set of packers. The first fluid controller is configured to selectively block fluid flow from the interior of the well tubular to the space between the well tubular and the well bore surface. The second fluid controller is configured to selectively block fluid flow.
US09175540B2
A control system for a subsea well is provided. The control system comprises a tree comprising a hydraulic control supply line for use in opening a downhole safety valve as a result of hydraulic pressure in the line. A part of the line is carried by a structure which is subject to the pressure of a production fluid from the well used in the control system so that the line is separable in response to a failure of the integrity of the structure.
US09175534B2
A methodology and apparatus for cutting shape(s) or profile(s) through well tubular(s), or for completely circumferentially severing through multiple tubulars, including all tubing, pipe, casing, liners, cement, other material encountered in tubular annuli. This rigless apparatus utilizes a computer-controlled, downhole robotic three-axis rotary mill to effectively generate a shape(s) or profile(s) through, or to completely sever in a 360 degree horizontal plane wells with multiple, nested strings of tubulars whether the tubulars are concentrically aligned or eccentrically aligned. This is useful for well abandonment and decommissioning where complete severance is necessitated and explosives are prohibited, or in situations requiring a precise window or other shape to be cut through a single tubular or plurality of tubulars.
US09175533B2
This invention particularly relates to improving the engagement of the slip elements within a casing or tubing. Particularly, the invention is directed to improving the penetration of anchors on slip elements to better set downhole tools. Generally, in one aspect, the invention relies on decreasing the contact surface of the cutting edge of the anchor during the initial penetration of the anchor into the casing.
US09175531B2
A method of identifying a self-sustained influx of formation fluids into a wellbore includes the steps of closing an annular shut-off device and diverting an annular return flow from the wellbore through a first flow rate measurement device, measuring a flow rate of said annular return flow, measuring an inlet flow rate of fluids entering the well through a second flow rate measurement device in a fluid injection line, and identifying a self-sustained influx of formation fluids if a non-decreasing measured annular return flow rate is greater than said measured inlet flow rate.
US09175529B2
The present invention provides for methods of treating a fluid loss zone in a wellbore in a subterranean formation including providing interlocking notched particulates having an outer face comprising at least one notch therethrough; wherein the at least one notch has a shape and an inner perimeter value; providing interlocking protruding particulates having an outer perimeter portion that protrudes in an approximate equivalent to the shape and value of the inner perimeter of the at least one notch; introducing the interlocking protruding particulates and the interlocking notched particulates into the wellbore in the subterranean formation; interlocking the interlocking protruding particulates and the interlocking notched particulates through the at least one notch to form an interlocking network of at least one interlocking protruding particulate and at least one interlocking notched particulate; sealing at least a portion of the fluid loss zone.
US09175526B2
A system includes a top drive system equipped with a mounted winch configured to draw tubular or well equipment into alignment with a quill of the top drive system. The winch comprises a spool and a flexible line that extends from the spool and through channels in the top drive system, exiting through the quill. An attachment feature at the distal end of the flexible line couples the flexible line with the tubular or drilling equipment. Once this coupling has been established, the winch may rotate such that the flexible line retracts through the quill of the top drive system, drawing the tubular or well equipment into alignment with the quill.
US09175507B2
An adjustable door jamb wrap for use on a door jamb of an exterior door. The adjustable door jamb wrap covers openings next to the door that are commonly found on door jambs with beveled edges. The door jamb wrap includes an outer bracket having an “L” shape. The door jamb wrap also includes an inner bracket having an “L” shape, the inner bracket slidably coupled to the outer bracket. The inner bracket and the outer bracket together form a “C” shape having an adjustable size and configured to surround a bottom edge of the door jamb.
US09175506B2
A lock system for casement or awning windows. The lock system includes a keeper and a tie bar with a rivet assembly rotatably attached thereto. The rivet assembly includes a rivet and a sleeve rotationally fixed to the rivet, the rivet and the sleeve having longitudinal axes parallel to but offset from each other.
US09175505B2
A door handle assembly for a vehicle includes a mount structure, a door handle, and a latch assembly. The door handle includes an interface portion and a mounting portion. The interface portion includes inner and outer surfaces. The mounting portion is pivotally coupled with the mount structure such that the door handle is pivotable about a first axis between first and second positions. The latch assembly includes a latch body and an actuator arm pivotally coupled with the latch body. The latch body is attached to the mount structure. The actuator arm is pivotable between released and actuated positions. The door handle is configured to contact the actuator arm during at least a portion of the pivotal movement of the door handle from the first position to the second position, forcing the actuator arm to pivot from the released position to the actuated position. Vehicles are also provided.
US09175498B2
The present invention provides a sanitary dispensing system including an elongate member configured to be secured to a door, a dispensing device secured to the elongate member, the dispensing device configured for dispensing hand cleansing materials, and a receptacle device secured to the elongate member and configured for receiving hand cleansing materials.
US09175494B2
A method of assembling a tubular building structure 1 comprising a circumferential wall structure formed from a plurality of wall elements 2,20. The method comprises mutually assembling at least some of the wall elements 2,20 by use of screw sockets 4 mounted in holes in the wall elements 2,20 and bolts. The wall elements may be superposed tube sections 2 arranged on top of each other, and these tube sections 2 may be formed by interconnecting axially extending tube segments 20. In some embodiments of the invention, the screw sockets 4 are mounted at the manufacturing site, and the wall elements 2,20 are subsequently transported to the erection site of the tubular building structure 1. Preferably the mutual assembly of the wall elements 2,20 is performable solely by people working inside the tubular building structure 1 fastening the bolts 5 to the pre-mounted screw sockets 4.
US09175491B2
A tower or a tower segment of a wind turbine, having a door for entering the inside of the tower, comprising a door frame, which has a door opening that is preferably closed by a door leaf, and a door frame for a door of a tower of a wind turbine, the frame having a door opening that is preferably closed by a door leaf, and a wind turbine having a tower, a door provided for entering the inside of the tower, and a staircase leading to the door on the outside of the tower, and an air passage opening in at least one advantageous location. The door frame has at least one air passage opening, particularly an air inlet opening.
US09175489B1
A water managing system includes a pool, and a gas generating system which includes first and second electrode assemblies. A reactant gas is formed in response to establishing a potential difference between the first and second electrode assemblies with automatically adjusting electrodes. A pool pump is in fluid communication with the pool, and a pool filter in fluid communication with the pool and pool pump. The reactant gas flows through a strainer drain of the pool pump and to the pool filter.
US09175488B2
An open chamber of predetermined size and shape is positioned within a pool bed so as to contain telescopic modules which occupy the chamber area. Each of the telescopic modules is independently extended and retracted in length by increase or decrease of the volume of water contained within a bellows, establishing in selected telescopic modules a specific reef size, shape, and orientation. When kinetic-energy within the water passes over the predetermined shape, size, and orientation of the reef, a wave is generated having specific features resulting from the properties of the specific reef configuration.
US09175482B2
An interlocking wall panel with machine carved decorative texture is provided. An interlocking wall panel may comprise a body comprising a wooden material. The wooden material may be solid wood or any of a variety of engineered wood product or laminates thereof. The body may have a carved top surface. A first side of the body may have an interlocking groove formed therein, and a second side substantially parallel to the first side may have an interlocking tongue extending therefrom. A pair of opposed ends may form a perimeter of the body with the first and second sides. The carved top surface of the interlocking wall panel may include a texture comprising a plurality of decorative grooves. The decorative grooves may vary in depth along their length and may furthermore vary in width. Each of the ends of the body may include respective matching end profiles.
US09175471B2
An Airloop window wall system for use in modular construction technology. The Airloop window wall system is designed for installation of wall panels from the exterior of a modular unit. Additionally disclosed are horizontal butt joint panels to cover the horizontal butt joints between vertically-adjacent modular units, and Airloop vertical butt joint panels to cover vertical butt joints between horizontally adjacent modular units, while providing a continuous Airloop system for water-tightness performance.
US09175458B2
An electronic faucet including a spout hub and a pullout wand removably coupled to the spout hub. The pullout wand is touch sensitive when docked to the spout hub, and is not touch sensitive when undocked from the spout hub.
US09175457B2
Disclosed are various exemplary embodiments of a lock for a ground engaging tool. The lock may include a head portion having a tool interface configured to receive a tool for applying torque about a lock rotation axis and a C-shaped portion extending from the head portion and defining a lock slot for receiving a portion of a support member to be locked with the ground engaging tool. The C-shaped portion may include an outer surface configured to be rotatably received in an inner surface of a retainer bushing. The head portion may include a wall extending in a plane substantially perpendicular to the lock rotation axis. The wall may include a first surface from which the tool interface extends, a second surface, opposite the first surface, from which the C-shaped portion extends, and a through-hole having a first end opening out to the tool interface and a second end opening out to the lock slot defined by the C-shaped portion.
US09175454B2
A facing element (10) for reinforced soil structure comprising: —first face (12) comprising at least a connecting member (14) configured to connect to said facing element at least one reinforcement member intended to reinforce the reinforced soil, —a second face (16) on which at least a protective membrane is intended to be applied, said second face is opposed to the first face, said second face has an essentially plane surface and comprises at least a fixing portion, the fixing portion comprising: —a contact surface (18) projecting from the plane surface of the second face, —a fastening element (20) anchored in the facing element and—a tightening element (22) engageable with the fastening element so as to fix the protective membrane between said tightening element and said contact surface.
US09175452B2
Systems and methods for filling submerged voids with a foam-fluidized fill material in an efficient and economical manner are disclosed herein. The foam fluidized fill material is a granular solid material fluidized with a foam. The foam-fluidized fill material is pumped or gravity-fed through an insertion tube into the submerged void. The insertion tube terminates at a point lying below a surface of the liquid within the void. Since the foam-fluidized fill material is heavier than the liquid, the foam-fluidized fill material exiting the insertion tube sinks to the bottom of the void and expands laterally at the bottom of the void displacing the liquid. The liquid is forced upward and out of the void where it may be collected. Further, as the fill material fills the void, the foam dissipates and the fill material self compacts, making the filled void sufficiently load bearing.
US09175446B2
Bituminous paving mixtures containing lubricating agents or additives may be prepared at hot mix temperatures and cooled, paved and compacted at temperatures 10-55° C. lower than the hot mix temperatures. The increased temperature range between the hot mix temperatures and the paving and compacting temperatures is facilitated by the improved compacting properties of the paving mixture when it includes the lubricating agents or additives.
US09175444B1
A web product having a machine direction and a cross-machine direction orthogonal thereto and having at least one ply is disclosed. The at least one ply has a first plurality of knuckle regions having a first total area in the machine and cross-machine directions and a second plurality of knuckle regions having a second total area in the machine and cross-machine directions where the first and second total areas have a different value. The web product has a Dry Bulk, DB, value greater than about 15.5 c/g and a Wet Burst, WB, value greater than about 400 g. Alternatively, the web product has a Dry Bulk, DB, value greater than about 15.5 cc/g and a Total Tensile Strength, TT, value greater than about 2000 g/25.4 mm.
US09175443B2
Irradiated lignocellulosic or cellulosic materials are provided which contain carboxylic acid groups and/or other functional groups not present in a naturally occurring cellulosic or lignocellulosic material from which the irradiated material was obtained.
US09175442B2
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing coated substrates by providing a substrate, providing at least one mineral material, providing a polysaccharide material comprising one or more polysaccharides, coating the substrate with the at least one mineral material, and coating the resulting pre-coat layer of mineral material with the gel comprising one or more polysaccharides, as well as the coated substrate obtained by this process and its use.
US09175438B2
The method is for separation of lignin from original black liquor (BLIN) and has the following phases in sequence. A first precipitation phase (PR1) for precipitation of lignin by a first acidification of the original black liquor by adding a first acid or mixture of acids (G1a) followed by a first storage phase wherein precipitated lignin particles are allowed to increase in size, followed by a second precipitation phase (PR2) for precipitation of lignin by a further acidification of the original black liquor by adding a second acid or mixture of acids (G1b). By retaining the acidified black liquor for at least 25 minutes in the storage phase are the precipitated lignin particles allowed to grow in size and the filterability is improved considerably.
US09175437B2
A composite cable or rope is described. The cable or rope has an inner metallic rope or core, consisting of a plurality of metal strands, and a plurality of covering layers formed around the inner metallic core. An innovative anchoring and safety system is also described. The system has one or more anchorages, fixed to the roof, in each of which the rope is stably locked by screwing, so as not to create instability problems for people attached to the rope.
US09175436B2
A flocked article having a resistance to splitting is described. The article has a flock layer adhered to one side of an elastomeric adhesive layer and an inelastic layer adhered to the other side of the elastomeric adhesive layer. The flock layer is adhered to a stretchable and/or elastic substrate by a third adhesive positioned between and in contact with the inelastic layer and the stretchable and/or elastic substrate.
US09175434B1
An apparatus for drying clothes, including a housing having a housing inlet and a housing outlet; a drying chamber mounted for rotation in the housing, having a chamber inlet and a chamber outlet and having a gas pressure; an air flow path through the housing and the drying chamber and having an air flow inlet and an air flow outlet; heating means for heating air flowing through the path and being juxtaposed between the housing inlet and the chamber inlet; fan means having an on condition and, when in the on condition, for moving air through the air flow path and being juxtaposed between the chamber outlet and the housing outlet; and flow impeding means juxtaposed between the chamber inlet and the housing inlet and being for impeding air flow in the air flow path, the flow impeding means configured to impede the air flow in the path whereby, when the fan means is in the on condition, the gas pressure in the chamber is at least 3 inches less than the apparatus for drying clothes without said flow impeding means.
US09175433B2
A control method of a laundry treatment apparatus (100) is disclosed. A control method of a laundry treatment apparatus (100) configured to supply steam and/or heated air to an accommodating space (12) accommodating laundry therein, the control method includes a water supplying step supplying water to water supplying device (130) configured to supply steam, a step supplying steam to the accommodating space (12) by heating of water inside the water supplying device (130), the step applying a horizontal motion to the laundry for a predetermined time period, simultaneously with the steam supplying, a cooling step cooling the laundry, and a drying step supplying heated air having a predetermined temperature to the accommodating space (12).
US09175431B2
The present invention relates to a laundry machine for treating laundry. One embodiment of the laundry machine may include a water supply valve, a drum (30) in which laundry is placed, a tub (20) in which the drum (30) is rotatably placed, the tub (20) having an extended portion (23a) which extends forward and have an opening at a front portion thereof for laundry entrance, and a tub water supply portion (140), and a water supply line to guide water from the water supply valve to the tub water supply portion (140).
US09175428B2
A method of making a double-sided embossed non-woven fabric includes: forming a stack of semi-molten fibers on a screen assembly, the screen assembly including a first layer structure that has a plurality of suction holes arranged into a first pattern, and a second layer structure that is disposed on the first layer structure and that has a plurality of elements arranged into a second pattern; and embossing the stack of the semi-molten fibers on the screen assembly by suctioning the stack of the semi-molten fibers using a suctioning device such that the stack of the semi-molten fibers is drawn into the holes to wrap the elements.
US09175420B2
Disclosed are a method of growing a rare-earth oxyorthosilicate crystal and a crystal grown using the method. A melt is prepared by melting a first substance including at least one rare-earth element and a second substance including at least one element from group 7 of the periodic table. A seed crystal is brought into contact with the surface of the melt and withdrawn to grow the crystal.
US09175417B2
The invention provides a method for manufacturing a nitride semiconductor substrate capable of reducing a cleavage during slicing of the nitride semiconductor single crystal and capable of improving a yield rate of the nitride semiconductor substrate. The method includes growing a nitride semiconductor single crystal on a seed crystal substrate by vapor phase epitaxy; grinding an outer peripheral surface the grown nitride semiconductor single crystal; and slicing the nitride semiconductor single crystal with its outer peripheral surface ground. A grinding amount of the outer peripheral surface of the nitride semiconductor single crystal in the step of grinding is 1.5 mm or more.
US09175413B2
A copper electroplating solution which contains compounds with the structure —X—S—Y— wherein X and Y are, independently atoms selected from a group consisting of hydrogen, carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen, and X and Y can be the same only if they are carbon atoms and ninhydrin. By using this copper electroplating solution, it is possible to form good filled vias without worsening the appearance of the plating.
US09175410B2
The current invention is to provide an oxygen gas diffusion cathode for brine electrolysis which reduces an initial electrolysis voltage and is excellent in the durability against short-circuit, and an electrolytic cell and an electrolytic method using the same. The oxygen gas diffusion cathode for brine electrolysis includes a gas diffusion layer 13 and a reaction layer 14 on one surface of an electro-conductive substrate 12, and an electro-conductive layer 15 on the opposite surface thereof. The present oxygen gas diffusion cathode reduces the resistance of the electro-conductive substrate 12 and supplies uniform current by mounting the electro-conductive layer 15.
US09175408B2
The invention provides systems and methods for generating organic compounds using carbon dioxide as a source of carbon and electrical current as an energy source. In one embodiment, a reaction cell is provided having a cathode electrode and an anode electrode that are connected to a source of electrical power, and which are separated by a permeable membrane. A biological film is provided on the cathode. The biological film comprises a bacterium that can accept electrons and that can convert carbon dioxide to a carbon-bearing compound and water in a cathode half-reaction. At the anode, water is decomposed to free molecular oxygen and solvated protons in an anode half-reaction. The half-reactions are driven by the application of electrical current from an external source. Compounds that have been produced include acetate, butanol, 2-oxobutyrate, propanol, ethanol, and formate.
US09175407B2
The present disclosure is a method and system for production of carboxylic based chemicals, including carboxylic acids and salts. A method for producing at oxalic acid may include receiving an anolyte feed at an anolyte region of an electrochemical cell including an anode and receiving a catholyte feed including carbon dioxide and an alkali metal hydroxide at a catholyte region of the electrochemical cell including a cathode. Method may include applying an electrical potential between the anode and cathode sufficient to reduce the carbon dioxide to at least one reduction product and converting the at least one reduction product and the alkali metal hydroxide to an alkali metal oxalate via a thermal reactor. The method may further include receiving the alkali metal oxalate at an electrochemical acidification electrolyzer and converting the alkali metal oxalate to oxalic acid at the electrochemical acidification electrolyzer.
US09175401B2
There are provided a sliding member that is enhanced in adhesiveness between the surface of a base member formed of aluminum or aluminum alloy and silver coating with a simple construction, and a method of manufacturing the sliding member. In a piston 1 having a sliding face 22 which slides in a cylinder bore 3, a silver coating layer 21 constituting the sliding face 22 is provided on the outer peripheral surface 11 of a main body 10 formed of aluminum alloy, and the silver coating layer 21 is formed by coating slurry having silver particles 23 dispersed in terpineol on the outer peripheral surface 11 of the main body 10 and heating the coated slurry and the main body 10 to remove terpineol in the slurry and fuse the silver particles 23 with one another.
US09175397B2
A method of synthesizing multilayer heterostructures including an inorganic oxide layer residing on a solid substrate is described. Exemplary embodiments include producing an inorganic oxide layer on a solid substrate by a liquid coating process under relatively mild conditions. The relatively mild conditions include temperatures below 225° C. and pressures above 9.4 mb. In an exemplary embodiment, a solution of diethyl aluminum ethoxide in anhydrous diglyme is applied to a flexible solid substrate by slot-die coating at ambient atmospheric pressure, and the diglyme removed by evaporation. An AlOx layer is formed by subjecting material remaining on the solid substrate to a relatively mild oven temperature of approximately 150° C. The resulting AlOx layer exhibits relatively high light transmittance and relatively low vapor transmission rates for water. An exemplary embodiment of a flexible solid substrate is polyethylene napthalate (PEN). The PEN is not substantially adversely affected by exposure to 150° C.
US09175395B2
Disclosed is a substrate processing apparatus including: a processing chamber; plural buffer chambers; a first processing gas supply system that supplies a first processing gas to the processing chamber; a second processing gas supply system that supplies a second processing gas to the buffer chambers; a RF power source; plasma-generating electrodes in the buffer chambers; a heating system; and a controller that controls the first and second processing gas supply systems, the power source, and the heating system to expose the substrate having a metal film thereon to the first processing gas, and the second processing gas that is activated in the plural buffer chambers with an application of RF power to the electrodes and that is supplied from the buffer chambers to the processing chamber to form a film on the metal film while heating the substrate to a self-decomposition temperature of the first processing gas or lower.
US09175392B2
A gas distribution structure for supplying reactant gases and purge gases to independent process cells to deposit thin films on separate regions of a substrate is described. Each process cell has an associated ring purge and exhaust manifold to prevent reactive gases from forming deposits on the surface of the wafer between the isolated regions. Each process cell has an associated showerhead for conveying the reactive gases to the substrate. The showerheads can be independently rotated to simulate the rotation parameter for the deposition process.
US09175391B2
A multi-zone, combinatorial, single wafer showerhead is used to concurrently develop hardware, materials, unit processes, and unit process sequences. The multi-zone, combinatorial, single wafer showerhead utilizes showerhead pucks to perform process sequences on isolated regions of a single substrate. The showerhead pucks are designed so that they are easily interchangeable to allow the characterization of the interaction between hardware characteristics, process parameters, and their influence on the result of the process sequence.
US09175380B2
Provided is an oxide sintered body suitably used for producing an oxide semiconductor film for a display device, the oxide sintered body capable of forming an oxide semiconductor film exerting excellent conductivity, having high relative density and excellent in-plane uniformity, and exhibiting high carrier mobility. This oxide sintered body is obtained by combining and sintering a zinc oxide powder, a tin oxide powder, and an indium oxide powder. The oxide sintered body satisfies the following equation (1) when the oxide sintered body is subjected to X-ray diffraction, Equation (1): [A/(A+B+C+D)]×100≧70. In equation (1), A represents the XRD peak intensity in the vicinity of 2θ=34°, B represents the XRD peak intensity in the vicinity of 2θ=31°, C represents the XRD peak intensity in the vicinity of 2θ=35°, and D represents the XRD peak intensity in the vicinity of 2θ=26.5°.
US09175375B2
Provided is a metal coated steel sheet having a coating layer including a metal having a level of Gibbs free energy equal to that of Fe or above and an oxide thereof. Accordingly, the quality of a plated steel sheet may be improved by preventing the generation of bare spots through inhibition of the formation of Mn oxide, Si oxide, or Al oxide on the surface thereof, and simultaneously, the complexity of a manufacturing facility or an increase in manufacturing costs may be minimized. Economic benefits are thus realized.
US09175371B2
The present invention provides a steel which simultaneously satisfies a plurality of characteristics, specifically, a steel for tubes with excellent sulfide stress cracking resistance, including, C: 0.2 to 0.7%; Si: 0.01 to 0.8%; Mn: 0.1 to 1.5%; S: not more than 0.005%; P: not more than 0.03%; Al: 0.0005 to 0.1%; Ti: 0.005 to 0.05%; Ca: 0.0004 to 0.005%; N: not more than 0.007%; Cr: 0.1 to 1.5%; and Mo: 0.2 to 1.0%; the balance being Fe, Mg and impurities, being characterized in that: the content of Mg is not less than 1.0 ppm and not more than 5.0 ppm; and inclusions of not less than 50% of the total number of those in steel have such a morphology that Mg—Al—O-based oxides exist at the central part of the inclusion, Ca—Al-based oxides enclose the Mg—Al—O-based oxides, and Ti-containing-carbonitrides further exist on a periphery of the Ca—Al-based oxides.
US09175367B2
A process for neutralization is provided which can maintain a high solid content of a bauxite dissolution residual substance slurry even after a neutralization treatment is completed and the stabilize pH within a short time of the neutralization treatment. Such a process for neutralizing a bauxite dissolution residual substance containing a desiliconizing product which is generated in the production process of aluminum hydroxide using Bayer process, includes: mixing a bauxite dissolution residual substance or a bauxite dissolution residual substance slurry with sulfuric acid in an amount ranging from 0.6 to 1.2 equivalence to the total amount of sodium contained in the bauxite dissolution residual substance or a bauxite dissolution residual substance slurry, such that the solid content after mixing becomes 400 to 700 g/l to gelate the mixture, and thereafter obtaining a bauxite dissolution residual substance neutralized slurry.
US09175365B2
A method of suppressing a distribution of PGM into a Cu2O slag in an oxidation smelting of a method of recovering PGM, is provided, including: carrying out reduction smelting to a treatment target member containing PGM, Cu and/or Cu2O, and flux, to thereby generate a molten slag and a Cu alloy containing PGM; and oxidizing and melting the Cu alloy containing the PGM, to thereby generate a Cu2O slag containing PGM and the Cu alloy, with more concentrated PGM concentration than the Cu alloy containing the PGM, wherein when carrying out the oxidation smelting, acidic oxide or basic oxide is added.
US09175363B2
The invention relates to a method for producing an agglomerate, which is used as a blast furnace feed material, by mixing a fine material containing metal and/or metal oxide, a mineral binder, which comprises a mineral raw material and a lime-based material, and optionally other additives to form a mass and solidifying the mass to form an agglomerate, wherein a raw material comprising a silicon oxide fraction of at least 40 wt %, a fine grain fraction of less than 4 μm of at least 20 wt %, and a grain size fraction of less than 1 μm of at least 10 wt % is used as the mineral raw material. The invention further relates to a blast furnace feed material that can be produced by means of the method according to the invention, and to a pre-mixture for producing the blast furnace feed material.
US09175359B2
In a method for operating an arc furnace (2) with at least one electrode (3a, 3b, 3c), a solid material fed to the arc furnace (1) is melted by an arc (1) formed by the at least one electrode (3a, 3b, 3c). A measurement (MM) for the mass of one part of the solid material arranged on a boundary (2) of the arc furnace (1) is determined, and using the determined measurement (MM), a process variable of the arc furnace (1) is controlled and/or regulated. A method which can reduce the risk of electrode damage caused by metal scraps falling into the treated area is provided.
US09175355B2
The present invention provides a method for identifying whether a compound inhibits entry of a virus into a cell which comprises: (a) obtaining nucleic acid encoding a viral envelope protein from a patient infected by the virus; (b) co-transfecting into a first cell (i) the nucleic acid of step (a), and (ii) a viral expression vector which lacks a nucleic acid encoding an envelope protein, and which comprises an indicator nucleic acid which produces a detectable signal, such that the first cell produces viral particles comprising the envelope protein encoded by the nucleic acid obtained from the patient; (c) contacting the viral particles produced in step (b) with a second cell in the presence of the compound, wherein the second cell expresses a cell surface receptor to which the virus binds; (d) measuring the amount of signal produced by the second cell in order to determine the infectivity of the viral particles; and (e) comparing the amount of signal measured in step (d) with the amount of signal produced in the absence of the compound, wherein a reduced amount of signal measured in the presence of the compound indicates that the compound inhibits entry of the virus into the second cell.
US09175354B2
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to compositions of isolated nucleic acid sequences, methods, workflows and kits of use thereof for detection of Salmonella enterica, subspecies enterica, serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) in a sample, particularly in a food (egg, poultry) or environmental sample (including poultry-related environmental samples). Embodiments of the disclosure may also be used to differentially detect S. Enteritidis without cross-reacting with S. Paratyphi C or other closely related Salmonella species. In some embodiments, methods and kits of the disclosure may comprise a TaqMan® assay. Following sample enrichment, methods of detection may be completed in approximately 3 hours.
US09175351B2
The invention relates to a method of typing a sample from a breast cancer patient. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for classification of breast cancer according to the presence or absence of Estrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR) and Human Epidermal growth facto Receptor 2 (ERBB2; HER2). More specifically, the invention Provides methods and means to classify breast cancer as ER positive, triple negative (ER−, PR− and HER2−) and HER2+.
US09175348B2
A method for identifying a 5-MeC in a template nucleic is provided. The method comprises providing a template having 5-MeC, converting the 5-MeC into a further modification selected from 5-caC and 5-FC. The converted template is then sequenced, and a change in sequencing is detected that is indicative of the further modification, allowing for identifying the 5-MeC in the template nucleic acid.
US09175347B2
The present invention relates to the use of genetic markers to identify the response to growth hormone treatment in Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) or Turner Syndrome (TS) patients as well as a method of treating GHD or TS patients and kits for genotyping.
US09175341B2
Methods, compositions, and systems are provided for characterization of modified nucleic acids. In certain preferred embodiments, single molecule sequencing methods are provided for identification of modified nucleotides within nucleic acid sequences. Modifications detectable by the methods provided herein include chemically modified bases, enzymatically modified bases, abasic sites, non-natural bases, secondary structures, and agents bound to a template nucleic acid.
US09175329B2
The present invention relates to methods and systems for determining the antibiotic-resistance status of microorganisms. The invention further provides methods for determining the antibiotic-resistance status of microorganisms in situ within a single system.
US09175328B2
A new ferrous complex capable of being used as an electron transfer mediator for a glucose sensor, a biosensor, and the like, is provided, which measure a glucose concentration in blood, in which the new ferrous complex exchanges rapidly and smoothly an electron between an enzyme and electrode, is strongly absorbed into electrode, and is stable, so that the new ferrous complex allows excellent sensitivity of a glucose sensor to be maintained.
US09175319B2
The present invention provides a method for producing L-amino acids by fermentation using a bacterium of the family Enterobacteriaceae, particularly a bacterium belonging to the genus Escherichia, which has been modified to attenuate expression of the yjjK gene.
US09175316B2
A process for increasing the production of a glycolytic intermediate and/or an organic compound as defined herein by a cell that is able to express a nucleic acid molecule, wherein the expression of the nucleic acid molecule gives the cell the ability to increase the production of a glycolytic intermediate and/or the organic compound and wherein the carbon substrate is sugar and/or protein.
US09175315B2
An alcohol fermentation process and composition that includes production of alcohol esters by esterification of product alcohol in a fermentation medium with a carboxylic acid (e.g., fatty acid) and a catalyst (e.g., lipase) capable of esterifying the product alcohol, such as butanol, with the carboxylic acid to form the alcohol esters. The alcohol esters can be extracted from the fermentation medium, and the product alcohol recovered from the alcohol esters. The carboxylic acid can also serve as an extractant for removal of the alcohol esters from the fermentation medium.
US09175309B2
Disclosed is a recombinant adenovirus with a protein containing a VSV-G epitope derived from vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Also, the present invention discloses a pharmaceutical composition comprising such a recombinant adenovirus and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. Further, the present invention discloses a recombinant plasmid capable of expressing the recombinant adenovirus and a host cell transformed with the recombinant adenovirus.
US09175308B2
Provided are a chimeric antigen receptor comprising an extracellular domain capable of binding to an antigen, a transmembrane domain and at least one intracellular domain, the chimeric antigen receptor being characterized in that an intracellular domain of a glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor (GITR) is contained as the intracellular domain; a nucleic acid encoding the chimeric antigen receptor; a cell expressing the chimeric antigen receptor; and a method for producing the cell.
US09175299B2
The present invention is directed to nucleic acids encoding polypeptides that confer upon a plant tolerance to an imidazolinone and/or other acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) inhibiting herbicide when expressed in the plant. The present invention also provides plants having increased tolerance to an imidazolinone and/or other AHAS-inhibiting herbicide. More particularly, the present invention includes plants containing at least one IMI nucleic acid. The present invention also includes seeds produced by these plants and methods of controlling weeds in the vicinity of these wheat plants.
US09175289B2
The present invention relates to RNAi constructs with minimal double-stranded regions, and their use in gene silencing. RNAi constructs associated with the invention include a double stranded region of 8-14 nucleotides and a variety of chemical modifications, and are highly effective in gene silencing.
US09175280B2
Disclosed herein are methods and compositions for insertion of Factor IX (FIX) sequences into the genome of a cell for treating hemophilia B.
US09175276B2
The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having endoglucanase activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.
US09175273B2
Methods and compositions for use in reducing biotic stress in plants by providing recombinant DNA molecules encoding methkyletone thioesterase into the cells of a plant in order to achieve a reduction in infestation by nematodes, insects and other pests are described. The plant cells in some cases produce one or more of 2-nonanone, 2-undecanone, 2-tridecanone and 2-pentadecanone. Also described are methods for making transgenic plants that express the recombinant DNA molecule for use in protecting plants from pest infestations.
US09175267B2
Mesenchymal precursors cells have been isolated from perivascular niches from a range of tissues utilizing a perivascular marker. A new mesenchymal precursor cell phenotype is described characterized by the presence of the perivascular marker 3G5, and preferably also alpha smooth muscle actin together with early developmental markers such as STRO-1 and CD146/MUC18. The perivascular mesenchymal precursor cell is shown to induce neovascularization and improvement in cardiac function. Suitable administration of preparations of the mesenchymal precursor cells are useful for treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and peripheral vascular diseases.
US09175262B2
Methods for treating conditions by administration of placenta derived adherent stromal cells to a subject in thereof are provided. Such conditions include skeletal muscle defects, neuropathic pain, and myocardial infarction. Also provided are methods wherein the adherent stromal cells administered are cultured under 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional growth conditions. Also provided are methods in which the cells administered are at least 70% adherent cells from a maternal or fetal portion of the placenta.
US09175247B1
The present invention is directed toward an oil dispersant composition useful in treating oil spills, and for cleanup of the shoreline, animals, plants, and equipment. The oil dispersant product is a non-toxic, solvent-free composition which efficiently breaks down grease, grime and crude oil at the molecular level, by breaking down the hydrocarbon chains and preventing the oil molecules from ever reforming again.
US09175244B2
A concentrate for producing a cooling and release agent for reusable casting dies such as a steel casting die, or a cooling and lubricating agent for machining with an active substance dissolved in water. The concentrate comprises 10 to 50 wt.-% of a protein based on the weight of the concentrate.
US09175243B2
A stripping composition, and a method of making the stripping composition. The stripping composition including 100 parts by weight of a base ingredient consisting in epoxy polydimethylsiloxane, 0.5 to 10 parts by weight of a polymerization agent for polymerizing the base ingredient and constituted by a diaryliodonium salt, not more than 30 parts by weight of an anti-adhesion modulator constituted by a silicone polymer; and not more than 40 parts by weight of an anti-stick agent making the composition less tacky prior to polymerization and constituted by at least one vinyl ether compound.
US09175233B2
An improved process for catalytic reformers and their use for the catalytic reforming of petroleum naphthas. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved reformer unit which can be operated at higher throughput relative to compressor size. The invention utilizes pressure swing adsorption to improve the hydrogen content of hydrogen containing streams generated by and utilized in catalytic reforming processes. The invention also has the capability of enabling compressor-limited catalytic reforming units to be operated at increased capacities.
US09175228B2
The present invention relates to a process and an apparatus for purifying a mixture of terpene material and tall oil material for the production of biofuels and components thereof. The present invention relates further to hydroprocessing of the purified material to obtain biofuels and components thereof.
US09175227B2
When processing cellulosic biomass, it may be desirable for a digestion unit to operate without being fully depressurized for process efficiency purposes. A biomass conversion system can comprise a first digestion unit and a second digestion unit that are operatively connected to one another; a valve separating the first digestion unit from the second digestion unit; a fluid circulation loop establishing fluid communication between an outlet of the first digestion unit and an inlet of the second digestion unit; and a bypass line establishing fluid communication between an outlet of the second digestion unit and the fluid circulation loop.
US09175216B2
A ceramic scintillator body includes a polycrystalline ceramic scintillating material having a substantially cubic crystallographic structure. The polycrystalline ceramic scintillating material has a chemical composition represented by a general formula LU(2-x)GdxO3:Ac, where x is greater than zero and less than two, and where Ac is an activator.
US09175210B2
Proppant material for hydraulic fracturing is provided. The particles of the proppant are formed by drip casting. A slurry of finely divided ceramic particles is flowed through nozzles and formed into droplets under the influence of vibration. Uniform sized, smooth surface, spherical green particles are formed. The green particles are dried and sintered to form the proppant. The proppant is used in the process of hydraulic fracturing of wells.
US09175208B2
Breaking compositions are disclosed for controlled breaking of borate cross-linked fracturing fluids, and to method for making and using same, where the composition includes an oxidative component and an ester component.
US09175193B2
The present invention relates to an adhesive sheet, a manufacturing method thereof, an optical filter and a plasma display panel. The present invention provides an adhesive sheet having an excellent base adhesion property through a hydroxyl group applied to a base film and an isocyanate-based compound contained in an adhesive layer through a corona processing. Accordingly, the present invention provides an adhesive sheet having an excellent base adhesion property and improved high temperature stability by using a carboxyl group-containing acryl-based copolymer having a high glass transition temperature. Further, the adhesive sheet of the present invention contains a siloxane-based compound if needed, thus preventing an initial peeling force from being increased. Accordingly, the present invention provides an adhesive sheet with an excellent base adhesion property, high temperature stability, adhesive property and reworkability to glass, and provides a manufacturing method thereof, an optical filter containing the same and a plasma display panel.
US09175192B2
A method for manufacturing a label laminate. A transparent plastic film having a first side and a second side is introduced. The second side of the transparent plastic film is printed. A release liner including a release surface and single layer of a non-tacky adhesive on the release surface is introduced. The non-tacky adhesive on the release surface is activated so that the non-tacky adhesive becomes tacky. The tacky adhesive is attached on the release surface to the second side of the transparent plastic film.
US09175162B2
A coating for implantable medical devices and a method for fabricating thereof are disclosed. The coating includes a mixture of a hydrophobic polymer and a polymeric hydrophilic additive, wherein the hydrophobic polymer and the hydrophilic additive form a physically entangled or interpenetrating system.
US09175155B2
A method of functionalizing reclaimed elastomer material is described. The method involves subjecting particles of the reclaimed elastomer material to shear at temperatures less than 100° C. such that inter-chain bonds of the reclaimed elastomer material are cleaved wherein the particles of the reclaimed elastomer material have a size of 60 mesh or smaller. The reclaimed elastomer material can be subjected to shear in the presence of a modifier which selectively promotes the cleavage of inter-chain bonds in the reclaimed elastomer material. A functionalized reclaimed elastomer material made by a method as described above and an elastomer compound which comprises the functionalized reclaimed elastomer material are also described.
US09175152B2
The present invention relates to an emulsion composition for manufacturing a polyalkylene carbonate molded product and a molded product manufactured by using the same. The emulsion composition according to the present invention provides a resin molded product that has biodegradability and complete combustion decomposability to show environment-friendly feature and rubber-like properties.
US09175142B2
[PROBLEM] Provided is a transportation method for a water-absorbing resin powder substance, which is capable of suppressing property decrease of the water-absorbing resin powder substance while suppressing blocking phenomenon and is suitable for long distance transportation.[SOLUTION] The present invention is a transportation method for a water-absorbing resin powder substance during a production step by pneumatic transportation via a transportation pipeline. In this transportation method, two or more pneumatic transportation apparatuses (A, B, C) are provided in one transportation section, and these pneumatic transportation apparatuses (A, B, C) are connected by the transportation pipelines (P1, P2, P3) in series.
US09175140B2
Curable compositions of “resin-linear” organosiloxane block copolymers comprising a metal ligand complex are disclosed. The addition of a metal ligand complex to compositions of certain resin-linear organosiloxane block copolymers results in curable compositions having faster cure rates, and improved mechanical strength and/or thermal stability over similar compositions without the metal ligand complex.
US09175138B2
Organopolysiloxanes containing units of the formulae O3-a/2RaSi—Y—(SiRaO3-a/2)b and R1cSiO4-c are prepared by catalyzed reaction, in a first step, of a mixture of X3-aRaSi—Y—(SiRaX3-a)b and R1cSiX4-c and siloxanes which have structural units of the formulae O3-a/2RaSi—Y—(SiRaO3-a/2)b and R1cSiO4-c and having weight average molar mass of 100 to 950 g/mol and reacting the mixture obtained therefrom with water or aqueous acid, producing organopolysiloxanes having a weight average molar mass of 1,000 to 100,000 g/mol, wherein R and R1 each are monovalent C1-30 SiC-bonded organic groups optionally containing one or more N and/or O atoms, Y is a 2-12 valent C1-30 organic group optionally containing one or more O atoms, X is a hydrolyzable group, a is 0 or 1, b is 1 to 11, and c is 0, 1, 2, or 3.
US09175131B2
The invention provides novel flame-retardant polymers and materials, their synthesis and use. More particularly, the flame-retardant polymers are deoxybenzoin-derived polymers.
US09175128B2
The invention is directed to a spectacle lens which contains an infrared absorbing agent, and which shows excellent infrared absorbing properties by minimizing deterioration and decomposition of the infrared absorbing agent, and as well as a method of producing such an optical lens. This infrared absorbing spectacle lens is formed by adding an infrared absorbing dye to a polyurethane resin obtained by addition polymerization of a prepolymer produced by reacting a polyisocyanate with a polyhydroxy compound, and an aromatic polyamine. The lens shows excellent infrared absorbing properties with no deterioration or decomposition of the infrared absorbing agent. It is possible to prevent deterioration of the infrared absorbing agent due to additives such as peroxides (including polymerization catalysts and initiators such as benzoyl peroxide), as well as increased absorption of visible light, which was difficult with conventional resin materials for molding. Also, because this lens can be molded at a relatively low temperature and it is not necessary to mold it at a temperature exceeding 250° C. as in the prior art, the infrared absorbing agent is less likely to deteriorate by heating.
US09175125B2
The present invention relates to a process for preparing polyurethanes, which comprise at least three hydrophilic sections, at least four hydrophobic sections, optionally allophanate segments and/or isocyanurate segments and which are prepared in the presence of alkali(ne earth) metal carboxylates. The process may comprise using at least one carboxylic acid salt of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals and mixtures thereof Furthermore, the present invention relates to the polyurethanes per se obtainable in this way, to the use thereof as thickeners for aqueous preparations, and to preparations comprising polyurethanes of this type.
US09175122B2
The present invention provides a preparation method of hyperbranched polycarboxylic acid type copolymer cement dispersant, including: Monomer A, B and C undergo a free radical copolymerization in an aqueous medium. The molar ratio of Monomer A, Monomer B and Monomer C conforms to B/A−A−2−10 and C/(A+B−C)−0.02−0.08. Monomer A is expressed by General Formula (1), where, R1 is H or a methyl; X1═O, CH2O, CH2CH2O; m is an integer from 5 to 200.Monomer B is expressed by General Formula (2), where, R2 is H or COOM; R3 is H or CH3 and M is H, Na, K or NH4;Monomer C is expressed by General Formula (3), where, R4 is H or methyl; X2═O, CH2O, CH2CH2O; Y═CH2, CH2CH2, CH(CH3), CH2CH2CH2, CH(CH3)CH2, C(CH3)2 and n is an integer from 5 to 200.
US09175106B2
Activating supports are prepared by (a) combining (i) fluorine-containing compounds having a reactive group and (ii) an organometallic compound, (b) contacting a porous mineral oxide support material with the mixture from step (a), (c) heating the functionalized support from step (b) under an inert gas and then under an atmosphere comprising oxygen, and (d) recovering the activating support. The fluorine-containing compounds may have the formula R(Fn)-X wherein R is hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, heterohydrocarbyl or substituted heterohydrocarbyl with up to 20 non-hydrogen atoms, n is 1-41, X is OH, SH or NR′2, R′ is hydrogen or hydrocarbyl. The activating supports are useful in combination with transition metal catalysts for polymerization of olefins, e.g., with metallocene complexes. Preparation of the activating supports is easier and more economic than prior methods and provides for supported polymerization catalyst systems having excellent activities. Polymers produced using the activating supports exhibit improved rheology properties.
US09175101B2
The present invention provides titanium based precursor for polyolefin catalyst with desired morphology and high particle strength. The of preparation of the precursor in accordance with the present invention obviates the use of iodine.
US09175082B2
There is disclosed compositions and methods relating to or derived from anti-PD-L1 antibodies. More specifically, there is disclosed fully human antibodies that bind PD-L1, PD-L1-binding fragments and derivatives of such antibodies, and PD-L1-binding polypeptides comprising such fragments. Further still, there is disclosed nucleic acids encoding such antibodies, antibody fragments and derivatives and polypeptides, cells comprising such polynucleotides, methods of making such antibodies, antibody fragments and derivatives and polypeptides, and methods of using such antibodies, antibody fragments and derivatives and polypeptides, including methods of treating or diagnosing subjects having PD-L1 related disorders or conditions, including various inflammatory disorders and various cancers.
US09175081B2
The present invention is directed to antagonists of CS1 that bind to and neutralize at least one biological activity of CS1. The invention also includes a pharmaceutical composition comprising such antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. The present invention also provides for a method of preventing or treating disease states, including autoimmune disorders and cancer, in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering into said subject an effective amount of such antagonists.
US09175080B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide an antibody that binds to a human PGE2 receptor subtype EP4 and inhibits the function of EP4, or a functional fragment thereof. It is another object of the present invention to provide a medicament comprising the aforementioned antibody or a functional fragment thereof. Mice were immunized with the human PGE2 receptor subtype EP4, and a monoclonal antibody that suppresses the intracellular cAMP level increase induced by EP4 was screened. In addition, the CDR sequences of the obtained monoclonal antibody were determined.
US09175072B2
Compositions and methods are disclosed herein for producing one or more immunoglobulins in an isolated B lymphocyte cell line. An isolated cell line includes an isolated B lymphocyte cell line capable of expressing at least one exogenously incorporated membrane immunoglobulin reactive to a first antigen and at least one endogenous secreted immunoglobulin reactive to a second antigen.
US09175066B2
Disclosed herein, in certain embodiments, is an HC•HA complex comprising hyaluronan and a heavy chain of IαI, wherein the transfer of the heavy chain of IαI is catalyzed by TSG-6. Further disclosed herein, in certain embodiments, is an HC•HA complex comprising hyaluronan and a heavy chain of IαI, wherein the transfer of the heavy chain of IαI is catalyzed by the TSG-6 like protein. Additionally, disclosed herein are methods of manufacturing said complex and methods of use thereof.
US09175065B2
Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) extracellular domain (ECD) acidic region muteins that have been engineered to exhibit decreased tissue binding by increasing the number of acidic amino acid residues within the D1-D2 linker region are provided. Polynucleotides encoding FGFR ECD acidic region muteins are also provided. Methods of making FGFR ECD acidic region muteins, and methods of using such molecules to treat proliferative disorders, including cancers, disorders of angiogenesis, and macular degeneration, are also provided.
US09175059B2
A fusion protein comprising domain (a) which is a functional fragment of hTRAIL protein sequence, which fragment begins with an amino acid at a position not lower than hTRAIL95, or a homolog of said functional fragment having at least 70% sequence identity; and domain (b) which is a sequence of an anti-angiogenic effector peptide, wherein the sequence of domain (b) is attached at the C-terminus or N-terminus of domain (a). The fusion protein can be used for the treatment of cancer diseases.
US09175057B2
The PAGE4 gene is expressed in reproductive tissues, and is expressed in reproductive cancers, such as prostate cancer, uterine cancer, and testicular cancer. Immunogenic PAGE4 polypeptides are disclosed herein, as are nucleic acids encoding the immunogenic PAGE4 polypeptides, vectors including these polynucleotides, and host cells transformed with these vectors. These polypeptides, polynucleotides, vectors, and host cells can be used to induce an immune response to PAGE4. Diagnostic methods to detect PAGE4 are also described.
US09175053B2
The present invention discloses latent thioester functionalities attached to the C-terminus of a first polypeptide, or a first fragment thereof having a Cys residue at its N-terminus, and a process using this functionality for the preparation of polypeptide thioesters, in particular of ubiquitin thioesters, this process comprising preparing a polypeptide or a fragment thereof, being attached to a latent thioester functionality, which can then be ligated with a second polypeptide fragment, followed by selective activation of the latent thioester functionality group, to provide the requested polypeptide thioester. There are also provided the polypeptides obtained by this method, specific unnatural amino acids useful to be incorporated within the polypeptide thioesters, and kits for preparing them.
US09175043B2
Control agents for immuno-precipitation assays, methods of using the control agents and kits comprising the control agents are provided.
US09175042B2
Disclosed herein are novel analogs of cyclosporin, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, and methods for their use in the treatment of dry eye and other conditions.
US09175037B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel anorectic agent. Another object of the invention is to provide an NMU derivative which exhibits a high anorectic effect even when administered in a usual manner, for example, peripherally. These objects can be achieved by the compound represented by formula (I) or a salt thereof. In formula (I), Y represents a polypeptide containing an amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO.: 1 wherein 1 to 4 amino acids are substituted; X represents a methoxypolyethylene glycol; X′ is absent or represents a methoxypolyethylene glycol; and a moiety represented by formula: La-Lb-[Lc]j represents a linker.
US09175030B2
Disclosed herein are novel oxetane derivatives of avicin D, including compounds of the formula (I), wherein the variables are defined herein. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions, kits and articles of manufacture comprising these derivative compounds. Methods and intermediates useful for making the derivatives, and methods of using the derivatives and compositions thereof, including for the treatment of cancer, are also provided.
US09175029B2
A new class of pseudo-trisaccharide aminoglycosides having an alkyl group at the 5″ position, exhibiting efficient stop codon mutation readthrough activity, low cytotoxicity and high selectivity towards eukaryotic translation systems are provided. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions containing the same, and uses thereof in the treatment of genetic disorders, as well as processes of preparing these aminoglycosides. The disclosed aminoglycosides can be represented by the general formula I: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein R1 is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, cycloalkyl and aryl; and all other variables and features are as described in the specification.
US09175028B2
Compounds of formula (I″) wherein: R11, R12, R13, R14 and R15 are hydrogen, hydroxyl, C1-6 alkyl, C1-6 alkoxy, C1-6 alkyl-carbonyloxy, or a G-O— group, and at least one of R11, R12, R13, R14 and R15 is a G-O— group, wherein G is a saccharide residue, X1 is a single bond, or a methylene group, an ethylene group, a trimethylene group, a vinylene group or —CH═CH—CH2—, X2 is —CO—O— or —O—CO—, p and q are integer ofs 0 to 7, and p+q=0 to 8, Y1 is methylene, ethylene or an alkenylene group having a carbon number of 2 to 15 and 1 to 3 double bonds, and R16 and R17 are hydrogen, methyl or ethyl, or R16 and R17 form a C3-6 cycloalkyl group, are useful as GLP-1 secretion promoting agents.
US09175024B2
Disclosed are a category of platinum compounds having amino- or alkylamino-containing succinato derivatives as leaving group, or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, preparation method thereof, and medicinal compositions containing the compounds. Also disclosed is a use of the compounds in treating cell proliferative diseases, especially cancers. The platinum compounds of the present invention have high water solubility and small toxic side effect.
US09175013B2
The present invention relates to a fused aminodihydrothiazine derivative of formula (I): wherein X is hydrogen or fluorine; R is monofluoromethyl or difluoromethyl; and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; which compound has an Aβ production inhibitory effect or a BACE1 inhibitory effect and is useful as a prophylactic or therapeutic agent for a neurodegenerative disease caused by Aβ and typified by Alzheimer-type dementia.
US09175008B1
The invention relates to the compounds of formula I, formula II, formula Ia, formula IIb or its pharmaceutical acceptable salts, as well as polymorphs, solvates, enantiomers, stereoisomers and hydrates thereof. The pharmaceutical compositions comprising an effective amount of compounds of formula I, formula II, formula Ia, formula IIb and methods for treating or preventing atherothrombosis may be formulated for oral, buccal, rectal, topical, transdermal, transmucosal, intravenous, parenteral administration, syrup, or injection. Such compositions may be used to treatment or management of ischemia, stroke, cerebral thrombosis, arterial thrombosis, thrombotic cerebrovascular, cardiovascular diseases and blood clots.
US09175005B2
The present invention provides novel crystalline hydrochloride salt of darunavir, process for its preparation and to pharmaceutical composition comprising it. The present invention also provides novel process for preparation of darunavir amorphous form and pharmaceutical composition comprising it.
US09175001B2
The present invention relates generally to [1,3]dioxolo[4,5-g]quinoline-6(5H)thione and [1,3]dioxolo[4,5-g][1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]quinoline derivatives and/or compositions for use in inhibiting, preventing and/or treating cancer, e.g. hepatocellular carcionoma (HCC). In some embodiments, the invention relates to the use of small-molecule compounds to inhibit, prevent and/or treat expression of the transcription factor Late SV40 Factor (LSF) for treatment of HCC or other cancer types.
US09174992B2
Heterobicyclic compounds of Formula (I): or a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt, tautomer, or stereoisomer thereof, as defined in the specification, and compositions containing them, and processes for preparing such compounds. Provided herein also are methods of treating disorders or diseases treatable by inhibition of PDE10, such as obesity, non-insulin dependent diabetes, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Huntington's Disease, and the like.
US09174990B2
Compounds which are active against viruses have the following Formulas: wherein B is 2-aminopurine-9-yl, which may be unsubstituted or substituted in the 6 position with NHR1, OR2, or SR3; R1 is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and C4-18 cycloalkyl, any of which may be optionally substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, halo, amino, acyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl and aryl; R2 is selected from the group consisting of C2-18 alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and cycloalkyl, any of which may be branched or unbranched and optionally substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, halo, amino, acyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl, and aryl; and R3 is selected from the group consisting of alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and cycloalkyl, any of which may be branched or unbranched and optionally substituted with one or more members of the group consisting of hydroxy, halo, amino, acyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl and aryl.
US09174987B2
Insecticidal, acaricidal, nematicidal or molluscicidal compounds of formula (I) wherein Y is a single bond, C═O, C═S or S(O)q where q is 0, 1 or 2; and R1, R2, R3, R4, R8, R9 are R10 are as defined in the claims or salts or N-oxides thereof, processes for preparing them and compositions containing them.
US09174984B2
The invention is directed to substituted heteroaryl derivatives. Specifically, the invention is directed to compounds according to Formula Q: wherein D, L, M, W, X, Y, and Z are defined herein. The compounds of the invention are inhibitors of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) activity—including DNMT1, DNMT3a, or DNMT3b—and are useful in the treatment of cancer and hyperproliferative diseases. Accordingly, the invention is further directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising a compound of the invention. The invention is still further directed to methods of inhibiting DNMT activity and treatment of disorders associated therewith using a compound of the invention or a pharmaceutical composition comprising a compound of the invention.
US09174979B2
A novel compound having an excellent NFκB inhibitory effect is provided and specifically disclosed is a compound represented by the following formula (1) or a salt thereof:wherein, R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyl group, a lower alkyloxy group, or a halogen atom;R2 represents a hydroxyl group, or a lower alkyloxy group;R3 represents a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyl group, or a halogen atom;R4 represents a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyloxy group;R5 represents a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyloxy group, a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, or a methylenedioxy group formed together with R6 or an isopropylidenedioxy group formed together with R6;R6 represents a hydrogen atom, a lower alkyloxy group, or a methylenedioxy group formed together with R5 or an isopropylidenedioxy group formed together with R5;R7 represents a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyl group; andR8 represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxyl group, an amino group, or a lower alkylcarbonyloxy group (excluding the case where R1, R3, R4 and R7 are hydrogen atoms, R2 and R8 are hydroxyl groups, and R5 and R6 are methoxy groups).
US09174978B2
This invention pertains generally to antibacterial compounds of Formula I, as further described herein, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and formulations thereof. In certain aspects, the invention pertains to methods of using such compounds to treat infections such as those caused by Gram-negative bacteria.
US09174971B2
The present invention is directed to a novel process for the preparation of compounds having inhibitory activity against sodium-dependent glucose transporter (SGLT) being present in the intestine or kidney.
US09174959B2
The invention relates to a novel process for preparation of dronedarone (I) and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof where the compound of formula (II) or salt thereof is reacted with a compound of formula L-(CH2)3—CH3 (III), where L is a leaving group, and isolating the obtained product and, if desired, converting it into a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. The invention also relates to some novel intermediary compounds and the preparation thereof.
US09174935B2
The present invention is directed to a compound comprising a bis[thiohydrazide amide] or a deprotonated form thereof, complexed to a transition metal cation, wherein the bis[thiohydrazide amide] is represented by Structural Formula (I), or a prodrug, isomer, ester, salt, hydrate, solvate, polymorph or a deprotonated form thereof. In one embodiment, the compound is represented by Structural Formula (II), or a prodrug, isomer, ester, salt, hydrate, solvate or polymorph thereof. The present invention also provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound of the invention and method of use thereof.
US09174934B2
The invention provides compounds of the Formula (I), methods of making the compounds, and devices comprising the compounds.
US09174933B2
Disclosed herein, in certain embodiments, is a crystalline polymorph form A of N—(S)-(3,4-difluoro-2-(2-fluoro-4-iodophenylamino)-6-methoxyphenyl)-1-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)cyclopropane-1-sulfonamide. Further disclosed herein, in certain embodiments, are pharmaceutical compositions comprising the crystalline polymorph form A of N—(S)-(3,4-difluoro-2-(2-fluoro-4-iodophenylamino)-6-methoxyphenyl)-1-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)cyclopropane-1-sulfonamide.
US09174931B2
The invention relates to the compositions of formula I or its pharmaceutical acceptable polymorphs, solvates, enantiomers, stereoisomers and hydrates thereof. The pharmaceutical compositions comprises a salt of metformin and the methods for treating or preventing metabolic syndrome, prediabetes and diabetes may be formulated for oral, buccal, rectal, topical, transdermal, transmucosal, intravenous, parenteral administration, syrup, or injection. Such compositions may be used to treatment of diabetes mellitus, obesity, lipid disorders, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance.
US09174925B2
The present invention relates to a diterpene compound derived from Aleurites fordii, and a pharmaceutical composition for treating or preventing viral infectious diseases, a health functional food for preventing or ameliorating viral infectious diseases and a composition for enhancing the production of interferon-gamma, which comprise the diterpene compound. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for preventing or treating viral infectious diseases including administering the composition to a subject having a viral infectious disease occurrence or a risk thereof with a therapeutically effective dose.
US09174920B1
An integrated process and system for synthesis of organic-acid esters is provided. The method of synthesizing combines reaction and distillation where an organic acid and alcohol composition are passed through a distillation chamber having a plurality of zones. Side reactors are used for drawing off portions of the composition and then recycling them to the distillation column for further purification. Water is removed from a pre-reactor prior to insertion into the distillation column. An integrated heat integration system is contained within the distillation column for further purification and optimizing efficiency in the obtaining of the final product.
US09174902B2
A method for reducing contaminants in the production of a bio-derived glycol product of polyol hydrogenolysis is described. The method involves subjecting an aqueous, polyol product mixture (from the hydrogenolysis conversion of biologically-derived carbohydrate feedstock) to ion-exclusion chromatography to separate and reduce impurities from an eluant fraction containing a desired product, and distilling the eluant fraction to yield the desired product (e.g., propylene glycol or ethylene glycol). The reaction product mixture can be introduced into a continuous ion-exclusion chromatography system to reduce the impurities and produce in a high-throughput manner a finished otherwise commercially acceptable glycol product.
US09174900B2
The invention relates to a method for production of a methanol-synthesis gas product stream (2), an H2 product stream (3) and a CO product stream (4) from an H2- and CO-containing synthesis gas stream (5).
US09174896B2
A vapor phase process is disclosed for making internal fluorobutenes. The process involves contacting a halobutane starting material selected from the group consisting of CF2HCHClCH2CCl2H, CF2HCHClCH2CCl3, CF3CHClCH2CCl2H, CF3CHClCH2CCl3, CF3CHClCHClCCl2H, CF3CHClCHClCCl3, CF3CCl2CH2CCl2H, CF3CCl2CH2CCl3, CF3CCl2CHClCCl2H, CF3CCl2CHClCCl3, CF3CClFCHClCCl2H, CF3CClFCHClCCl3, CF3CClFCH2CCl2H, CF3CClFCH2CCl3, CF3CClFCHFCCl2H, CF3CClFCHFCCl3, CF3CClHCHFCCl2H and CF3CClHCHFCCl3, with HF in a reaction zone in the presence of a chromium oxyfluoride catalyst to produce a product mixture comprising an internal fluorobutene. Another vapor phase process is disclosed for making internal fluoropentenes. The process involves contacting a halopentane starting material selected from the group consisting of CF2HCHXCH2CX2CX3, CF3CHXCH2CX2CX3, CF3CHXCHXCX2CX3, CF3CX2CH2CX2CX3, CF3CX2CHXCX2CX3 and CF3CHXCHFCX2CX3, with HF in a reaction zone in the presence of a chromium oxyfluoride catalyst to produce a product mixture comprising an internal fluoropentene, wherein each X is independently selected from the group consisting of F, Cl and Br, provided that not all X are fluorines.
US09174894B2
There is provided a method for producing cycloolefin where the nickel which elutes in the liquid-contact portion of the reactor is removed from the reaction system of the partial hydrogenation reaction and cycloolefin can be stably produced from a monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon over a long term. A method for producing a cycloolefin by a partial hydrogenation reaction of a monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in an aqueous phase, which contains a metal salt-containing acidic aqueous solution and a ruthenium catalyst in a reactor with a liquid-contact portion formed of a nickel-containing material, the method comprising a first step of bringing at least a part of the ruthenium catalyst contained in the aqueous phase into contact with oxygen, a second step of separating the aqueous phase containing the ruthenium catalyst that has been processed in the first step into a first phase containing the ruthenium catalyst at a high ratio and a second phase containing the ruthenium catalyst at a lower ratio than the first phase, and a third step of feeding the first phase to a reaction system of a partial hydrogenation reaction.
US09174893B2
A method of making para-xylene or toluene is carried out by: (a) reacting a C5 or C6 linear monoene (itself, or formed from a C5 or C6 linear alkane) with a hydrogen acceptor in the presence of a hydrogen transfer catalyst to produce a C5 or C6 diene; (b) reacting the C5-C6 diene with ethylene to produce a cyclohexene having 1 or 2 methyl groups substituted thereon; and then (c) either (i) dehydrogenating the cyclohexene in the presence of a hydrogen acceptor with a hydrogen transfer catalyst to produce a compound selected from the group consisting of para-xylene and toluene, or (ii) dehydrogenating the cyclohexene in the absence of a hydrogen acceptor with a dehydrogenation catalyst, to produce para-xylene or toluene.
US09174865B2
A flash flocculation tank system having a plurality of tanks and a plurality of settling spheres that are magnetic and treat wastewater and/or landfill leachate and a process for decreasing the amount of time for settling solids in biologically and/or chemically treated wastewater and/or landfill leachate. The plurality of settling spheres each have a rare earth magnet and are calibrated by weight to float, sink, and to be suspending in the treated water or leachate. Insoluble waste solids gain a ferromagnetic quality after attaching to the settling spheres. The flash flocculation tank system with the settling spheres and process improve the settleability rate of the insoluble solids of the treated leachate and also allow for a smaller settling tank.
US09174861B2
A method and apparatus is provided for treating water with already-slaked lime to arrive at a lime slurry that is in a solution or suspension, and delivering the thus treated water to a separating device which separates grit particles therefrom, to recover a high quality lime/water solution or suspension. An automated system controls the addition of lime and water to a lime mixing vessel.An acid wash system is provided which comprises an automated method and apparatus for removing scale buildup, for delivering an acid wash solution to the lime mixing vessel, the lime slurry holding tank and/or the delivery system, or any of them, thereby dissolving the scale buildup.
US09174859B2
A chemical-free and no-microbe method for pre-treating a broad range of waste waters is presented. The said method involves electrocoagulation (EC) operated in synchronization with electrolytic ozone (EO3). In the combinatory method, each technique not only applies its own treatments, they also create synergistic effects from real-time reactions among the reagents generated by electrolysis. Two refractory waste waters, seawater and tannery effluent, are tested by the combinatory method, EC+EO3, to assess the viability of the said method. Without adjustment, each of the said waste waters is remedied by EC+EO3 from its raw state to a clean condition more effectively and more economically than that can be delivered by the respective prevailing processes of pretreatment for each of the said waste waters.
US09174858B2
In one of its aspects, the present invention relates to a fluid treatment system comprising: an inlet; an outlet; a fluid treatment zone disposed between the inlet and the outlet. The fluid treatment zone: (i) comprises a first wall surface and a second wall surface opposed to the first wall surface, and (ii) having disposed therein at least one array of rows of radiation source assemblies. Each radiation source assembly has a longitudinal axis transverse to a direction of fluid flow through the fluid treatment zone and each of the first wall surface and the second wall surface comprises a first fluid deflector element and a second fluid deflector element. The first fluid deflector element projecting into the fluid treatment zone to a greater extent than the second fluid deflector element.
US09174856B2
By storing a liquid to be treated in a treatment tank main body 10 having a bottom portion 10g that narrows downward, with particles of materials to be treated dispersed therein, taking out the liquid to be treated from a position lower than the liquid level of the treatment tank main body 10, and returning the liquid to the bottom portion 10g of the treatment tank main body 10, thereby circulating the liquid to be treated while forming a vortex flow within the treatment tank main body 10, and at the same time supplying air bubbles from the lower part of the treatment main unit 10, a first component contained in froths is separated from a second component, which is less susceptible to floatation, contained in the liquid to be treated.
US09174854B2
In a titanium oxide compound according to the present invention, the titanium oxide compound is obtained by eluating potassium of potassium tetratitanate expressed by a general formula K2Ti4O9 and performing thermal processing, and, in an X-ray diffraction spectrum of the potassium tetratitanate obtained by using a Cu—Kα ray source, between a peak intensity Ia of a (200) plane, a peak intensity Ic of a (004) plane and a peak intensity Ib of a (31-3) plane, a relationship of Ia>Ib>Ic is satisfied.
US09174849B2
Molecular sieves, improved methods for their synthesis, and catalysts, systems and methods of using these molecular sieves as catalysts in a variety of processes such as abating pollutants in exhaust gases and conversion processes are described. The molecular sieves are made using a tailored colloid including an alumina source, a silica source and a structure directing agent.
US09174848B2
Processes and systems for purifying silane-containing streams and, in particular, for purifying silane-containing streams that also contain ethylene are disclosed. The processes and systems may be arranged such that one or more ethylene reactors are downstream of light-end distillation operations.
US09174845B2
A ozonated liquid dispensing unit is described. The unit produces and dispenses an ozonated liquid that may be used to clean and sanitize a variety of articles or used in conjunction with cleaning processes and other apparatus. The unit includes a liquid input port to receive liquid into the unit. The unit includes a first dielectric cell for producing ozone gas from ambient air and a second dielectric cell for producing ozone gas. The first dielectric cell is in supply communication with the second dielectric cell for supplying the second dielectric cell with a supply gas containing the ozone gas generated from the ambient air. The second dielectric cell produces ozone gas from the supply gas. An injector is in fluidic communication with the liquid input port. The injector in supply communication with the second dielectric cell for receiving the ozone gas from the second dielectric cell, and the injector mixes the ozone gas from the second dielectric cell with the liquid from the liquid input port to produce an ozonated liquid. A liquid output port discharges the ozonated liquid from the unit. A faucet or spray may be used to control the discharge of the ozonated liquid from the unit.
US09174841B2
A nanostructured anode of solid oxide fuel cell with high stability and high efficiency and a method for manufacturing the same are revealed. This anode comprising a porous permeable metal substrate, a diffusion barrier layer and a nano-composite film is formed by atmospheric plasma spray. The nano-composite film includes a plurality of metal nanoparticles, a plurality of metal oxide nanoparticles, and a plurality of gas pores that are connected to form nano gas channels. The metal nanoparticles are connected to form a 3-dimensional network that conducts electrons, while the metal oxide nanoparticles are connected to form a 3-dimensional network that conducts oxygen ions. The network formed by metal oxide nanoparticles has certain strength to separate metal nanoparticles and prevent aggregation or agglomeration of the metal nanoparticles. Thus this anode can be applied to a solid oxide fuel cell operating in the intermediate temperatures (600˜800° C.) with high stability and high efficiency.
US09174829B2
In one embodiment, a wheel rack includes a locking frame plate having a first L-shaped plate, a second L-shaped plate, and a stopper plate. A ball seat is fixed to the locking frame plate, and a rod has a first end with a sphere attached thereto. The locking frame plate is configured to be fixed to a jamb of a vehicle lift. In another embodiment, a wheel rack includes a locking frame plate having a first L-shaped plate, a second L-shaped plate, and a stopper plate. A ball seat is fixed to the locking frame plate. The wheel rack also includes a locking seat and a rod that has an end with a sphere attached thereto. The locking frame plate is configured to be fixed to a jamb of a vehicle lift.
US09174824B2
An elevator system includes a group control device controlling a plurality of elevators as a group, a security gate mounted with a personal identification device that identifies a passing user and issues identification information, an access control device that issues validation information based on the information about the user included in the identification information, a communication device transmitting a service floor call registration request for each user to the group control device based on the validation information, an assignment controlling function that is provided on the group control device to determine the elevator assigned pursuant to the service floor call registration request for each user, and issue assigned elevator information for each user, and an assigned elevator notification device installed on the security gate to notify each user of the assigned elevator information.
US09174821B2
A sheet folding device includes a first folding unit, a retreat path, a sheet retaining mechanism, and a second folding unit. The first folding unit forms a first fold in a sheet. The retreat path is entered by the sheet having the first fold formed by the first folding unit, and has a stop portion to be contacted by the first fold. The sheet retaining mechanism moves a movable member with respect to the sheet that enters the retreat path, and regulates movement of the sheet in the retreat path in a direction of thickness of the sheet. The second folding unit forms a second fold in the sheet having the first fold while allowing the sheet that has contacted the stop portion to exit the retreat path.
US09174819B2
A sheet stacking apparatus includes a lowering control unit to lower a sheet stacking portion, a determination unit, an acquisition unit, an identification unit, and a notification unit. The determination unit determines that the sheet stacking portion cannot be lowered by the lowering control unit. The acquisition unit acquires a position of the sheet stacking portion at which the determination unit determines that the sheet stacking portion cannot be lowered. The identification unit identifies an amount of sheets stackable on the sheet stacking portion without removing an obstacle placed under the sheet stacking portion based on the position acquired by the acquisition unit. The notification unit notifies the amount of sheets identified by the identification unit and an amount of sheets stackable on the sheet stacking portion after removal of the obstacle placed under the sheet stacking portion.
US09174813B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet feed section including a plurality of sheet feed cassettes, a designation receiving section configured to receive a designation of a sheet feed cassette for exclusive use from among the plurality of sheet feed cassettes; an exclusive use control section configured to put the sheet feed cassette the designation of which has been received by the designation receiving section into an exclusive use state and, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, switch the sheet feed cassette from the exclusive use state to a non-exclusive use state; and a sheet discharge control section. When the predetermined condition is satisfied, the sheet discharge control section allows the discharge of particular paper sheets remaining in the sheet feed cassette in the exclusive use state before the sheet feed cassette is switched from the exclusive use state to a non-exclusive use state.
US09174811B2
Example vehicle restraints with rotating and translating barriers are disclosed herein. An example vehicle restraint disclosed herein a main body installable at a loading dock and a barrier to be coupled to the main body. The barrier rotates about an axis relative to the main body between an upper blocking position to block the RIG and a stored position to release the RIG, where for a given elevation of the main body the barrier being higher in the upper blocking position than in the stored position. The barrier moves radially with respect to the axis.
US09174807B2
A method for cleaning a conveyor for agricultural products, such as eggs, and a conveyor for agricultural products, in which contaminants that adhere firmly to the conveyor are removed by the use of an ultrasonic cleaning bath into which a section of the conveyor is dipped with the aid of a deflecting unit. During the normal revolution of the conveyor chain, cleaning of the conveyor chain is carried out even during running operation of the conveying system by means of ultrasound and suitable cleaning agent. A conveyor chain having a multiplicity of rods that are connected to one another via chain links is transported in individual conveying segments of the conveyor. Lying on the conveyor chain, the agricultural products are transported. Deposits of contaminants onto the conveyor unavoidably occur during operation, such as, in particular, as a result of litter or feathers.
US09174804B2
A hood assembly is provided for a conveyor having a housing with an inlet opening, a belt or auger for transporting particulate material through the housing from the inlet end to the outlet end. The hood assembly includes a hood pivotally mounted to the housing for movement between a closed position substantially closing the inlet end and an open position substantially exposing the inlet end. When the hood is opened, the inlet end of the conveyor housing can be visually inspected and physically cleaned to remove particulate material remnants remaining in the inlet end after the conveyor is shut off. A hopper is provided on the hood to facilitate introduction of material into the conveyor.
US09174803B2
A conveyor system including a train of carrier plates arranged for movement along a conveyor path which possesses either rightward turns or leftward turns and each carrier plate defines a leading edge and a trailing edge. Each of the leading and trailing edges has an outer portion which is disposed adjacent a side of the carrier plate opposite the direction of turn of the conveyor path and an inner portion. Each carrier plate is pivotally mounted upon an endless drive member at a location along the carrier plate which is disposed between the leading and trailing edges of the plate, and is shaped so that the outer portion of each of its leading and trailing edges is longer than the inner portion of its leading and trailing edges. Gap plates cover any gap between two sequential conveyor plates as the train is moved through non-linear sections of the conveyor path.
