US09330306B2

A non-contact gesture sensor is mounted within a vehicle for vehicle occupants to enter control commands by using hand gestures. The effects of vehicle motion and vibration are stabilized by an electronic circuit that includes an inertial motion sensor (IMU) in rigidly fixed relation to the gesture sensor. An adaptive filter processes the gesture sensor signal and the IMU sensor signal by modeling the arm and hand as a semi-rigid articulated body using a transfer function that relates accelerations measured by the IMU with vehicle motion-induced accelerations of the hand. The filter calculates a noise-reduced gesture signal by subtracting out the motion-induced accelerations and measurement noise. The filter also outputs a confidence measure that controls a threshold circuit that inhibits use of the filtered gesture signal when confidence in the filter's system estimation is low.
US09330301B1

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for providing suggestions based on object recognition. In operation, a plurality of suggested identifiers is displayed based on facial recognition, utilizing a touchscreen of a mobile device. Additionally, a user input is received in connection with at least one of the suggested identifiers, utilizing the touchscreen of the mobile device. Further, after receiving the user input in connection with the at least one suggested identifier, a correspondence is created between the at least one suggested identifier and at least one aspect of a face, utilizing the at least one processor of the mobile device.
US09330292B2

A two-dimensional code scanning method and device is provided, the method including: displaying a scanning window; obtaining a window adjustment instruction, and moving and/or scaling the scanning window based on the window adjustment instruction; obtaining coordinate information of the scanning window; creating a target image according to the coordinate information; recognizing the target image, and extracting data information corresponding to the target image. By the method and device, the hardware costs are reduced.
US09330291B2

According to an example, a method for parsing an image may be provided. An image on a device may be processed by the device. Key characteristics of the image may be obtained by the device. The image may be parsed by the device with a two-dimension decoding mode. Content information of the image may be obtained by the device.
US09330290B2

A barcode reader comprises a first lens assembly with a first field of view and a first optical path for first illumination from the first field of view to project to a first image sensor section. The barcode reader further comprises a second lens assembly with a second field of view and a second optical path for second illumination from the second field of view to project to a second image sensor section. The barcode reader further comprises a first illumination system positioned outside of the first field of view projecting the first illumination into the first field of view at a first angle from the first optical path. The barcode reader further comprises a second illumination system positioned between the second lens assembly and a point from which the first illumination system projects the first illumination into the first field of view.
US09330288B2

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or method that creates, manages, or maintains multiple device versions in a network of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices. The system can include components that detect whether a device has joined the network and based at least in part on such indication creates a device profile the first time that the device is detected, establishes a version trail containing configuration settings specific to the detected device, and thereafter builds and maintains the version trail when the device joins and/or leaves the network.
US09330285B2

A device management system includes a device management apparatus and a device managed by the device management apparatus. The device management apparatus includes a positional-information acquiring module configured to acquire positional information on a location of the device; a device-setting information acquiring module configured to acquire device setting information indicative of device setting corresponding to the location indicated in the acquired positional information; and a transmitter configured to transmit the acquired device setting information. The device includes a device control module configured to perform control based on the device setting indicated in the device setting information transmitted from the device management apparatus.
US09330277B2

A method intercepts correlation instructions related to a plurality of meta-content elements associated with a primary content. The primary content or the meta-content elements may have associated privacy rules. At least one meta-content element of the group is selected as having privacy protected information specified in the privacy rules. A set of meta-content items, of meta-content element, are determined that are subject to a correlation restriction based on evaluation of the privacy rules with respect to each meta-content item contained in the meta-content element, and the privacy rules for the set of meta-content items are enforced. The privacy rule enforcement may involve preventing execution of the correlation instructions, excluding the selected at least one meta-content element from a correlation based on the correlation instructions, excluding the set of meta-content items from a correlation based on the correlation instructions, or restricting access to a correlation result based on the correlation instructions.
US09330276B2

Methods, systems and computer-readable storage mediums encoded with computer programs executed by one or more processors for conditional role activation in a database are disclosed. In an embodiment, a request to activate a role for a user of a database system is received, and a predicate for conditional activation of the role is determined. The conditions of the predicate are evaluated, and if the conditions of the predicate are satisfied, the role is activated for the user. If, however, one or more of the conditions of the predicate are not satisfied, the role is not activated for the user.
US09330257B2

Methods, devices and systems for detecting suspicious or performance-degrading mobile device behaviors intelligently, dynamically, and/or adaptively determine computing device behaviors that are to be observed, the number of behaviors that are to be observed, and the level of detail or granularity at which the mobile device behaviors are to be observed. The various aspects efficiently identify suspicious or performance-degrading mobile device behaviors without requiring an excessive amount of processing, memory, or energy resources.
US09330256B2

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, devices, methods, computer program products, and other implementations, including a method that includes determining location of a device, and controlling monitoring of behavior of one or more processes executing on the device based on the determined location of the device to identify potential one or more security-risky processes from the monitored one or more executing processes. In some embodiments, controlling the monitoring of the behavior of the one or more processes may include one or more of, for example, adjusting frequency of the monitoring of the one or more processes based on the determined location of the device, adjusting level of detail obtained for the monitored behavior of the one or more processes based on the determined location of the device, and/or adjusting features being observed for the monitored one or more processes based on the determined location of the device.
US09330254B1

The disclosed computer-implemented method for preventing the installation of unapproved applications may include (1) determining that the computing device is pre-configured with a set of approved applications and (2) preventing the installation of unapproved applications onto the computing device by (a) monitoring processes running on the computing device via a daemon executing in the background of the computing device, (b) detecting, by monitoring the processes running on the computing device, an attempt to launch a process that facilitates the installation of applications onto the computing device, and (c) in response to detecting the attempt to launch the process, terminating the process before the process can facilitate the installation of an application onto the computing device. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09330253B2

An apparatus and method for improving the security of an application package from a user abnormally acquiring a system supreme authority in a portable terminal are provided. The apparatus includes an application manager for, at application package generation, collecting data for package generation, performing a compiling process for the collected data, encrypting an execution file of the application package among the compiled data, and packaging the compiled data comprising the encrypted execution file.
US09330246B2

A computer security system which prevents an unauthorized user from accessing the computer system when an authorized user has already logged onto the computer system and has temporarily left the workstation. The computer security system generally includes a sensor which is configured to detect the presence of a person in the region around a workstation and a processing unit which logs out of the computer when a person is no longer present in the region. An optional calibration tool may be provided to set the sensitivity of the sensor and prevent accidental logging out when the authorized user is still present in the region around the workstation.
US09330242B2

An electronic media distribution/play system includes a service facility that has a communications network interface and maintains a data file catalog. The catalog is sent over the network to requesting users, and the system processes payments from customers in establishing file access authorizations. Encrypted user-selected files and a player program are transmitted to each customer for metered access to received data files as limited by the authorization, and customers can make additional selections and play the encrypted files freely while the authorization remains established. The system can transmit the data files from local storage, and also provide links to encrypted files that are stored at remote vendor facilities. Authorizations can be for selected portions or class levels of the catalog, and for terms measured as calendar time, play time, and collective number of plays. Also disclosed is a method for facilitating the distribution and accessing of electronic files.
US09330240B2

In one embodiment, a method of identifying bodily imbalances comprises presenting a mind map to a subject; asking the subject a question based on the mind map; performing muscle response testing; and, identifying the imbalance. The mind map may be presented in printed form, using an electronic means, or presented verbally. The mind map further comprises six (6) categories: pathogenic imbalances, structural imbalances, nutritional imbalances, circuitry imbalances, toxic imbalances, and energetic imbalances; and a series of subcategories within each category.
US09330229B2

The optical proximity correction verification method includes loading a layout data to be verified to a processor, loading a reference layout data to the processor. The processor performs a first stage Boolean operation on the layout data to be verified to generate a first verified data. The processor performs a layout versus layout verification on the first verified data by using a user-defined verification tool of optical proximity correction data in a database to generate second verified data according to the reference layout data. The processor performs a second stage Boolean operation on the second verified data to generate a third verified data if the layout versus layout verification is successfully performed. The processor performs a Boolean check on the third verified data to generate fourth verified data using the reference layout data.
US09330227B1

A testbench for testing a device under test (DUT), wherein the testbench has a verification environment including a reference model, a scoreboard and a customized agent for each interface that the DUT needs to receive input from and/or transmit output on. The testbench system is able to be generated by a testbench builder that automatically creates a scoreboard, a reference model, a dispatcher and generic agents including generic drivers, loopback ports, sequencers and/or generic monitors for each interface and then automatically customize the generic agents based on their corresponding interface such that the agents meet the requirements of the interface for the DUT.
US09330224B2

A method for manipulating a circuit design includes receiving multiple dummy cell modification parameters, selecting, by a computer processor and based on the dummy cell modification parameters, a dummy cell insertion region on a circuit design, and generating, in the dummy cell insertion region, multiple dummy cells. The method further includes selecting a first dummy cell from the dummy cells, determining, by the computer processor and based on a location of the first dummy cell, an illegal overlap with the first dummy cell, and removing, by the computer processor and from the dummy cells, the first dummy cell. The method further includes inserting, by the computer processor, on the circuit design, and after removing the first dummy cell, the dummy cells to obtain a modified circuit design, and presenting the modified circuit design.
US09330215B2

A method for verifying the design of an IC having a plurality of tiers includes conducting a layout versus schematic (“LVS”) check to separate a plurality of devices of a plurality of design layouts, wherein each design layout corresponds to a respectively different tier having the respective devices. A plurality of adjacent tier connections are generated between one of the devices in respectively different tiers from each other, using a computing device. A first RC extraction for each of the tiers is performed to compute couplings between each of the plurality of devices of the corresponding design layout. A second RC extraction for each of the adjacent tier connections is performed.
US09330213B2

A computer-implemented structure for optimizing a route for power supply and heat dissipation in a multilayer chip. The method includes: setting a heat conductive thermal value for the multilayer chip by way of density, preparing a substrate that contains silicon where a wiring layer is formed facing the upper surface side of the multilayer chip, setting the power from the wiring layer of the substrate that uses silicon, manipulating the value of the power supply, and manipulating the heat conductive thermal value based on density. Both apparatuses include an organic substrate, a multilayer chip, a substrate containing silicon, a wiring layer, and a heat dissipater, wherein the components are configured to perform the steps of the above method. The method of configuring an apparatus ensures that all the multilayer chips are stored in the concave part of the organic substrate.
US09330204B2

Methods for use in a CAD system. One method includes loading CAD data, the CAD data including a first 2D wireframe geometry and a first 3D feature. The method also includes maintaining a first bi-directional logical relationship between the first 2D wireframe geometry and the first 3D feature and receiving an input of a change to the first 3D feature by the CAD system. The method also includes making the change to the first 3D feature and a corresponding change to the first 2D wireframe geometry by the CAD system using the first bi-directional logical relationship, in response to the input, and storing the changes. CAD systems and computer-readable mediums are also discussed.
US09330198B1

Disclosed are various embodiments that employ metadata to map stored client data to form fields and other data consumers. Data items are requested by a data consumer, such as a form. Metadata is obtained that includes a mapping of stored data items to the requested data items, and the mapping is associated with an identification of the data consumer. The requested data items are provided to the data consumer based at least in part on the mapping and the stored data items.
US09330190B2

A method for providing data handling information for use by a client of a pub/sub service to handle data published by the pub/sub service includes receiving a subscription request to a data tuple that includes source data from a client of the pub/sub service. When the request is received, a first subscription is provided for the client to the data tuple and a second subscription, distinct from the first subscription, is automatically provided for the client to a data handling tuple that is associated with the data tuple and that includes data handling information defining how the source data of the data tuple is to be handled by the client. A first notification message including the source data is generated and a second notification message, distinct from the first notification message, is generated that includes the data handling information.
US09330182B2

This invention is generally directed to one or more systems or methods relating to social network analysis. More specifically, this invention is generally directed to one or more systems or methods relating to personal communication networks and the analysis of personal-communication-network data.
US09330181B2

Briefly, the disclosure describes embodiments of methods or apparatuses for document processing at distributed processing nodes.
US09330175B2

Techniques for identifying knowledge use a graphical user interface for inputting one or more terms to be explored for additional knowledge. Then a search is conducted across one or more sources of information to identify resources containing information about or information associated with said terms. The resources are decomposed into elemental units of information and stored in a data structures called nodes. A group of nodes are stored in a node pool and, from the node pool, correlations of nodes are constructed that represent knowledge using information about relation types. Information about relations types is determined using a relation classifier.
US09330168B1

Systems and methods for the categorization of websites are presented. A website is categorized using one or a combination of its domain name and its web page content. The domain name is tokenized, and the tokens compared to categories in a category structure to determine probabilities that the token belongs to each category. Combinations of tokens are similarly compared to the categories. A category may be determined with reference to a vector space in which a training set of websites having known categories is converted according to a methodology into reference vectors containing keyword frequencies. A target website is converted to a target vector using the same methodology, and a distance score of the target vector to each reference vector is calculated. The website represented by the target vector is assigned the category of the reference vector having the lowest distance score.
US09330156B2

An example method is provided in one example embodiment and includes establishing software defined network (SDN) awareness for a data replication application; establishing data replication awareness for a SDN controller; managing a plurality of logical networks in a wide area network (WAN) between each of a plurality of source filers and each of a plurality of destination filers for each of a plurality of data types by the SDN controller having data replication awareness, wherein each logical network is associated with a replication policy for a corresponding source filer and is connected to the corresponding source filer through a logical interface; and transmitting replication data between each of the plurality of source filers and each of the plurality of destination filers using each of the plurality of logical networks.
US09330149B2

In one embodiment, a database server receives a request from a spreadsheet application to open a file with spreadsheet data. The spreadsheet data is stored in one or more relational tables in one or more relational databases that are managed by the database server. In response to the request, the database server generates the file, where generating the file comprises retrieving the spreadsheet data from an XML view that is defined by an XQuery query. When executed, the XQuery query returns the spreadsheet data in an XML spreadsheet format that is understood by the spreadsheet application. The database server provides the generated file with the spreadsheet data directly to the spreadsheet application, where the spreadsheet data as retrieved from the XML view is formatted according to the XML spreadsheet format.
US09330147B2

Systems and methods for managing distributed data using any of a plurality of data models are disclosed. One method includes receiving a data request from one of a plurality of database interfaces, each database interface associated with a different data model type. The method further includes translating the data request to a second data request based at least in part on a data model neutral description of a data model in the data store that is associated with data and the database interface, wherein the data store maintains descriptions of each of a plurality of different data models corresponding to the different data model types. The method also includes executing the second data request, thereby reflecting the data request in data storage such that data is managed consistently across each of the plurality of database interfaces.
US09330145B2

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, and methods for context-aware messaging. In various implementations, a conversation between two or more users may be hosted by a communications tool, where the conversation generates text included in a conversation thread. Context attributes may be extracted from the generated text. The context attributes may describe interactions and data objects associated with one or more entities. One or more scores may be assigned to the extracted context attributes based on the contents of the conversation thread. The scores may provide a rank for each of the extracted context attributes. A presentation of a user interface of a communication tool may be modified based on the one or more scored context attributes.
US09330143B2

Disclosed herein are data storage device embodiments for accelerating database operations and associated methods. In one embodiment, the data storage device includes a controller; an array of one or more solid-state memory storage devices; a first memory for storing processor executable instructions associated with database operations; and a second memory for storing data related to the database operations; wherein the controller is configured to execute the instructions to: cause data to be read from the solid-state memory storage devices into the second memory; determine whether the data match a query specified by the instructions; and perform a database operation based on the query match determination.
US09330138B1

In order to facilitate the requesting of desired information from a graph database that stores a graph, a system may translate an initial query into a query that can be executed against the graph database. In particular, using primitives, the system may translate a query associated with a type of database (such as a relational database) into the query. The graph may include nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data with index-free adjacency. Moreover, the primitives may include: a rule based on edges in the graph that expresses a relational schema in the type of database, and information associated with a compound key that specifies a relationship between nodes, edges and predicates in the graph corresponding to a table in the type of database. Then, the system may execute the query against the graph database, and may receive a result that includes a subset of the graph.
US09330134B2

An identity mapping system includes an identity mapping database and a master user table (MUT) communicatively coupled with the identity mapping database. The MUT includes a record having at least one record data field, a unique user identification (ID) field and at least one user data field. The at least one user data field contains data from a software application.
US09330121B2

According to an example, an operation on a version of an electronic content may be performed and a determination as to whether the operation is an editing operation may be made. In response to the operation being an editing operation, a new version may be created and information pertaining to the performance of the operation on the new version may be recorded. In addition, for each significant version, information pertaining to the significant version may be displayed, in which the information may include an identification of the significant version, available operations on the significant version, and a last operation performed on the significant version, in which a significant version may include a version in which no editing operations have been applied or a version in which an operation that is visible to another user has been performed on the version and the operation is outstanding.
US09330106B2

Described herein are methods and systems for selectively synchronizing locally stored data with data stored in a cloud storage repository. A client application can synchronize a portion of the locally or remotely stored content by choosing to synchronize data that is frequently used, data that is marked as priority data or data that was modified or otherwise accessed during a predetermined period of time. Other selective synchronization optimizations include predictively synchronizing data or content associated with frequently use or priority data and synchronizing data according to a priority score.
US09330105B1

Systems, methods, and computer readable media for lazy compression of data incoming to a data storage entity are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method for lazy compression of data incoming to a data storage entity includes defining at least a portion of the data storage area within the data storage entity as a compressed logical unit for storing at least some data in compressed form; receiving a command to write data to the compressed logical unit, and, in response to receiving the command to write data to the compressed logical unit, writing the data in uncompressed form; and monitoring for a trigger condition, wherein, upon detection of a trigger condition, at least a portion of the uncompressed data within the compressed logical unit is compressed.
US09330101B2

A processor that processes encoded media is configured so as to apply constraints to the encoded bitstream. Such constraints are not those required by a specification of a standard with which the encoded media is compliant; instead such constraints reflect portions of the standard that are insufficiently constrained and are applied by the processor to ensure that the processor does not experience performance degradation or errors. The constraints can be applied, for example, as a preprocessing step before reading, writing or decoding the bitstream, or while the bitstream is being decoded, or while the bitstream is being received from a transmission.
US09330091B1

Some embodiments provide a system that provisions multidimensional data storage (MDDS) cubes. The system includes a data management module for (1) accessing data from a plurality of data storages and (2) providing the data from the plurality of data storages through a unified data source for a set of MDDS cubes. The system also includes a cube provisioning module to (1) access the data from the plurality of data storages through the unified data source and (2) based on the unified data source, provision the set of MDDS cubes to a set of MDDS clients for viewing the set of MDDS cubes' data.
US09330090B2

A system and method to translate natural language descriptions to programs in a domain-specific language for spreadsheets. The method includes generating a model of a spreadsheet. The model includes a column description for each column, and one or more types associated with each column. The method also includes normalizing the description by removing stop words, and replacing parts that match column names or data values by parameterized place-holders. The method involves applying rule-based translation along with keyword or type-based program synthesis in an inter-leaved, bottom-up manner and dynamic programming style, where phrases are mapped to sub-programs in increasing order of their length. The rules describe how to map a specific partial natural language phrase into a partial sub-program. Also, the method includes generating a number of potential programs and ranking the programs to sequence them according to their intended likelihood.
US09330089B2

Automated user-machine interaction is gaining attraction in many applications and services. However, implementing and offering smart automated user-machine interaction services still present technical challenges. According to at least one example embodiment, a dialogue manager is configured to handle multiple dialogue applications independent of the language, the input modalities, or output modalities used. The dialogue manager employs generic semantic representation of user-input data. At a step of a dialogue, the dialogue manager determines whether the user-input data is indicative of a new request or a refinement request based on the generic semantic representation and at least one of a maintained state of the dialogue, general knowledge data representing one or more concepts, and data representing history of the dialogue. The dialogue manager then responds to determined user-request with multi-facet output data to a client dialogue application indicating action(s) to be performed.
US09330084B1

During ingestion of non-natural language text content into a knowledge base, a question answering computing system (QA system) converts the content into natural language text. The QA system identifies natural language sentences in the content and converts the sentences into well-formed simple sentences by resolving grammatical ambiguities in the sentences. The QA system then generates question-answer pairs (QA pairs) from the well-formed simple sentence and stores the QA pairs in a persistent store.
US09330083B2

In one embodiment, collecting a plurality of words from texts submitted by one or more users; for each of a plurality of communication categories, determining a usage frequency of each of one or more of the words within the communication category based on the texts; and constructing one or more customized dictionaries that each comprise a different blending of selected words.
US09330077B2

A system and method to define icon color of an icon image for program themes. At a server having a processor and storage, an icon definition file that includes a color handle and a shape definition of a first icon are stored. A plurality of cascading style sheets, each corresponding to a respective program theme, are also stored at the server. Each of the cascading style sheets corresponds to a respective program theme and includes a color definition mapped to the color handle. At the server, an active theme from among the program themes and an icon color, using the color definition associated with the active theme, are determined. An icon image for the first icon is then created based on the shape definition and the icon color.
US09330075B2

Method and apparatus for identifying garbage template articles in network communication field are disclosed. The method includes: extracting a feature from an eligible microblog article to generate an article feature including a punctuation feature, a topic feature, a bracket feature, a link feature and an account name feature; acquiring a garbage template list including garbage template feature, i.e. an article feature whose frequency reaches a preset threshold, wherein they are extracted in a same way; identifying the microblog article as a garbage template article when the article feature is the same as the garbage template feature. The apparatus includes: a feature extracting module, an acquiring module, and an identifying module. Features of a microblog article are extracted to determine whether the microblog article is a garbage template article, so that garbage template articles in the present microblog platform can be identified effectively and search engine resources are saved.
US09330068B2

A system and method for converting website content is presented. Design elements in a graphical representation of a web page are identified. The design elements are ordered according to a position of each of the design elements with respect to a top of the graphical representation of the web page. One or more of the ordered design elements are grouped into one or more groups of design elements, and the design elements are stacked by rearranging each group of design elements into a single column. The single column of the groups of design elements are rendered into a converted web page for display on a device. In one implementation, the device is a mobile device.
US09330064B2

Systems and methods for generating updates of large scale 3D geological models with multi-model facies, permeability or porosity distribution.
US09330055B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a new data center architecture that provides for efficient processing in distributed analytics applications. In one embodiment, a distributed processing node is provided. The node comprises a plurality of subnodes. Each subnode includes at least one processor core operatively connected to a memory. A first interconnect operatively connects each of the plurality of subnodes within the node. A second interconnect operably connects each of the plurality of subnodes to a storage. A process runs on a first of the plurality of subnodes, the process being operative to retrieve data from the memory of the first subnode. The process interrogates the memory of the first subnode for requested data. If the requested data is not found in the memory of the first subnode, the process interrogates the memory of at least one other subnode of the plurality of subnodes via the first interconnect. If the requested data is found in the memory of the other subnode, the process copies the requested data to the memory of the first subnode. If the requested data is not found in the memory of the first subnode or the memories of at least one subnode of the plurality of subnodes, the process interrogates the storage via the second interconnect.
US09330038B2

The bandwidth allocation apparatus includes a high bandwidth arbitration module, a low bandwidth arbitration module and a multiplexer. The high bandwidth arbitration module is used to select one downstream device from the high bandwidth downstream device group for allowing uplink. The low bandwidth arbitration module is used to select one downstream device from the low bandwidth downstream device group for allowing uplink. The multiplexer selects the one of the access requests from the high bandwidth arbitration module or the low bandwidth arbitration module for allowing to uplink the access request to an upstream device. The access transmission times of the high bandwidth arbitration module and the low bandwidth arbitration module are counted respectively by a counting circuit.
US09330037B2

A dynamic DMA window mechanism can resize DMA windows dynamically by increasing one DMA window at the expense of reducing a neighboring DMA window. The dynamic DMA window mechanism can decide to dynamically resize DMA windows based on a request from a system administrator, based on a request by an operating system device driver for an I/O adapter, or based on a performance monitor determining such a resizing would benefit system performance. Once one DMA window has been increased by allocating a portion of a donor DMA window, device drivers for the I/O devices corresponding to the two windows are updated to reflect the new DMA window sizes.
US09330017B2

A translation lookaside buffer coherency unit with Emulated Purge (TCUEP) translates a first virtual address for a first instruction into a first physical address. The TCUEP detects a multi-processor coherency operation that will cause hit suppression for certain entries in a TLB and purging of certain entries in the TLB. The TCUEP translates a second virtual address for a second instruction into a second physical address and stores the second physical address in a second entry in the TLB. The TCUEP configures a second marker in the second entry to indicate that the hit suppression is not allowed for the second entry, and that the purging is not allowed for the second entry. The TCUEP receives a first address translation request that indicates a hit in the second entry. The TCUEP resolves the first address translation request by returning the second physical address.
US09330015B2

Large pages that may impede memory performance in computer systems are identified. In operation, mappings to selected large pages are temporarily demoted to mappings to small pages and accesses to these small pages are then tracked. For each selected large page, an activity level is determined based on the tracked accesses to the small pages included in the large page. By strategically selecting relatively low activity large pages for decomposition into small pages and subsequent memory reclamation while restoring the mappings to relatively high activity large pages, memory consumption is improved, while limiting performance impact attributable to using small pages.
US09330012B2

Cache optimization. Cache access rates for tenants sharing the same cache are monitored to determine an expected cache usage. Factors related to cache efficiency or performance dictate occupancy constraints. A request to increase cache space allocated to a first tenant is received. If there is a second cache tenant for which reducing its cache size by the requested amount will not violate the occupancy constraints for the second cache tenant, its cache is decreased by the requested amount and allocated to satisfy the request. Otherwise, the first cache size is increased by allocating the amount of data storage space to the first cache tenant without deallocating the same amount of data storage space allocated to another cache tenant from among the plurality of cache tenants.
US09330009B1

A method and system for use in managing data storage is disclosed. Data storage in a data storage system is managed. The data storage system comprises a first data storage tier and a second data storage tier configured such that the performance characteristics associated with one of the data storage tiers is superior to the other data storage tier. I/O activity is determined in connection with a data group stored on one of the first and second data storage tiers. It is determined whether to migrate the data group stored on the one of the first and second data storage tiers to the other data storage tier based on the performance characteristics associated with the other data storage tier and the determined I/O activity. The data group is migrated to the other data storage tier in response to determining to migrate the data group to the other data storage tier. The data group is processed in response to determining to migrate the data group to the other data storage tier such that fragmentation in connection with the data group is substantially reduced.
US09329998B2

An information processing apparatus includes: at least one access unit that issues a memory access request for a memory; an arbitration unit that arbitrates the memory access request issued from the access unit; a management unit that allows the access unit that is an issuance source of the memory access request according to a result of the arbitration made by the arbitration unit to perform a memory access to the memory; a processor that accesses the memory through at least one cache memory; and a timing adjusting unit that holds a process relating to the memory access request issued by the access unit for a holding time set in advance and cancels the holding of the process relating to the memory access request in a case where power of the at least one cache memory is turned off in the processor before the holding time expires.
US09329994B2

According to one embodiment, a memory system includes a first memory, a second memory, a third memory, and a memory controller. The first memory includes a plurality of blocks. The second memory stores a first table having a plurality of first correspondences between a logical address and a physical address. The third memory has a higher processing speed than the second memory and stores a second table having second correspondences which are parts of the first correspondences. The memory controller determines whether data in a written block is first data to be copied, using the first table, not the second table. The memory controller copies the first data from the written block to a writable block to copy all data in a first state in the second block to the writable block. The memory controller sets all data in the written block to a second state.
US09329984B2

Methods and systems monitor and log software and hardware failures (i.e. errors) over a communication network. In one embodiment, the method includes detecting an event caused by an error, and generating a log of the event in response to the detection. The method further includes generating a first message prompting if a user consents to allowing a third party provider track the error and transmitting the log to the third party provider over the communication network if the user consents to allowing the third party provider track the error. The method yet further includes generating a second message prompting if the user wants to provide additional information relating to the error. The method still further includes providing a user interface including an error reporting portal to the user if the user wants to provide additional information and transmitting the portal to the third party provider.
US09329983B2

To centrally manage execution of tests of software in an event oriented manner, a test execution engine reads a first test case from a test case component, where the test case represents tasks that have to be run to test a first procedure of a software program under evaluation. Further, the test execution engine identifies a participant node configured for sending events to an event queue and obtains events from the event queue. With those obtained events, the test execution engine evaluates whether the first procedure of the software program executed successfully and indicates whether the first procedure executed properly. The participant node has a node agent transmits events about the procedure and the first test case to the event queue.
US09329982B2

A computer system can detect a request for status information relating to a particular deployment pattern; query, in response to the request, a deployment pattern registry for deployment configuration information about the particular deployment pattern; test deployment capabilities for the particular deployment pattern by: verifying installation files for the particular deployment pattern are accessible; identifying one or more candidate deployment components for a hypothetical deployment of the particular deployment pattern; installing, on the one or more candidate deployment components, a virtual machine that is configured to test computing resources of the one or more candidate deployment components; and deleting the virtual machine in response to receiving test results regarding the resources of the one or more candidate deployment components. The system can generate a notification in response to detecting a failure in the testing.
US09329981B2

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored therein a test program that causes a computer to execute a process comprising: starting a test of a test-target program containing a plurality of modules by executing a plurality of individual tests, the plurality of individual tests being associated with the plurality of modules, respectively; generating test-relationships information that includes relationships between the plurality of individual tests based on module-relationships information including relationships of the plurality of modules; and in cases in which results of the plurality of individual tests include one or a plurality of specific results fulfilling a specific condition, specifying one or a plurality of additionally executing tests based on the one or plurality of specific results and the test-relationships information.
US09329978B2

The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for measuring strength of a unit test. One computer-implemented method includes receiving software unit source code associated with a unit test, analyzing a line of the software unit source code for removability, initiating, by operation of a computer, modification of the software unit source code to remove the line of the software unit source code and create a modified software unit, initiating execution of the modified software unit using the unit test, determining success or failure of a unit test execution, and analyzing a next line of the software unit source code for removability.
US09329977B2

Provided are techniques for receiving an error inject script that describes one or more error inject scenarios that define under which conditions at least one error inject is to be executed and compiling the error inject script to output an error inject data structure. While executing code that includes the error inject, an indication that an event has been triggered is received, conditions defined in the one or more error inject scenarios are evaluated using the error inject data structure, and, for each of the conditions that evaluates to true, one or more actions defined in the error inject script for the condition are performed.
US09329976B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for systems and methods to provide access to a plurality of processor units accessible across a network. A system may include multiple stripped down mobile device processor units which may share access to multiple peripheral devices. The processor units may be selected for testing applications, debugging code, and/or any other job that may need processing. The processor units may be monitored and any data generated may be reported to the client.
US09329970B2

First and second simulated processing of a stream-based computing application using respective first and second simulation conditions may be performed. The first and second simulation conditions may specify first and second operator graph configurations. Each simulated processing may include inputting a stream of test tuples to the stream-based computing application, which may operate on one or more compute nodes. Each compute node may have one or more computer processors and a memory to store one or more processing elements. Each simulated processing may be monitored to determine one or more performance metrics. The first and second simulated processings may be sorted based on a first performance metric to identify a simulated processing having a first rank. An operator graph configuration associated with the simulated processing having the first rank may be selected if the first performance metric for the simulated processing having the first rank is within a processing constraint.
US09329965B2

A storage system to communicate with a plurality of storage devices. The storage system includes a processor to execute system software that includes machine readable instructions configured to add system-level information regarding the storage system to log files stored in a reserved area of the storage device, extract the log file from each of the storage devices automatically at a predetermined interval, and transmit the log files from the storage system for analysis.
US09329962B2

A system for automated testing of functionally complex systems prior to placing them into production, comprising a test manager module operating on a server computer, a test data storage subsystem coupled to the test manager module and adapted to store at least test results, a test execution module operating on a server computer, and a test analysis module operating on a server computer and adapted to receive test data from the test data storage subsystem. The test manager module causes tests to be executed by the test execution engine, and on detection of an anomalous test result, the test manager module at least causes additional testing to be performed and causes the test analysis module to analyze the results of at least some of the additional testing in order to isolate at least one component exhibiting anomalous behavior.
US09329960B2

Methods, systems and computer readable media for utilizing abstracted user-defined data to conduct network protocol testing are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein comprises a method that includes receiving, by a test system abstraction (TSA) module from a device under test (DUT), a packet containing a command that is associated with a native protocol and converting the command included in the received packet into a TSA protocol command. The method further includes processing the TSA protocol command at a TSA engine module that is provisioned with at least one instruction sequence enabling the TSA engine module to emulate a network test device and generating, by the TSA engine module, a TSA protocol command response in accordance with protocol behavior specified by the at least one instruction sequence.
US09329959B2

A basic input/output system (BIOS) storage unit stores therein a BIOS. An operating system (OS) storage unit stores therein a plurality of OSs. A boot control unit sequentially starts the OSs stored in the OS storage unit. When each of the OSs booted by the boot control unit starts up, a boot information acquisition unit acquires boot information transferred between the OS and the BIOS. A regression analysis processing unit compares the boot information acquired by the boot information acquisition unit with expected values which are predetermined values for the boot information to determine whether the boot information coincides with the expected values.
US09329949B2

Techniques are described for providing error management capabilities for disaster recovery operations. In an embodiment, first user input is received that identifies a first error mode to assign to a particular step of a disaster recovery plan that includes a set of steps for performing a disaster recovery operation. In response to receiving the first user input, the particular step is associated with the first error mode. In response to determining that an error occurred while processing the particular step of the disaster recovery plan, the error mode that is associated with the particular step is determined. Error handling is performed for the particular step based, at least in part, on the error mode that is associated with the particular step of the disaster recovery plan.
US09329947B2

A computing device executing a virtualization manager detects that a virtual machine running on a host has been paused. While the virtual machine is paused, no processor cycles are assigned to the virtual machine. The computing device determines whether a condition that caused the virtual machine to be paused has been resolved. If the condition has been resolved, the computing device causes the virtual machine to be resumed. Resuming the virtual machine includes assigning processor cycles to the virtual machine and performing a last input/output operation that was attempted prior to the virtual machine being paused.
US09329943B2

Techniques are disclosed for restoring a system volume on a computing system without requiring the system volume to be fully restored prior to being used or requiring the use of a dedicated recovery environment (e.g., the WinPE or BartPE environments). Instead, the computing system is booted directly from the restore image or by redirecting I/O interrupts to the restore image. That is, when user initiates a restore process, the system boots from the backup itself. Once booted, a background process can complete the restore process.
US09329942B2

A computer identifies a plurality of data retrieval requests that may be serviced using a plurality of unique data chunks. The computer services the data retrieval requests by utilizing at least one of the unique data chunks. At least one of the unique data chunks is utilized for servicing two or more of the data retrieval requests. The computer determines a servicing sequence for the plurality of data retrieval requests such that the two or more of the data retrieval requests that are serviced utilizing the at least one of the unique data chunks are serviced consecutively. The computer services the plurality of data retrieval requests according to the servicing sequence.
US09329941B2

Facility for using images created by backup software to recreate an entire machine as it was at the point in time in the past when the backup was taken. The facility can be extended so as to bring up a set of machines which together serve some logical business function as in a cluster or federated servers, and further extended so that an entire data center may be virtualized from backup images. The virtualized servers provided may serve as an alternate data center standing in case of disaster or to meet maintenance windows achieving low cost Instant Disaster Recovery. A set of virtual machines may stand in for physical machines for a period of time and then resynchronized or re-seeded to physical machines via a combination of bare metal recovery and re-synchronizing from live LUNs that form the virtual machine disks.
US09329937B1

A system for executing tasks in a computing resource environment is disclosed. Variations of a system may include two or more scheduler partitions associated with respective schedulers, scheduler state information, and respective plurality of computing resources. Variations of a system may include a task distributor that distributes tasks to the scheduler partitions. In some variations, one scheduler is configured such that, responsive to the scheduler partition receiving a task from the distributor, that scheduler allocates a computing resource for execution of that task and updates its scheduler state information accordingly. In some variations, the task distributor is configured such that, if one scheduler is in a failed or corrupted state, the task distributor stops distributing tasks to that scheduler partition and prevents that scheduler state information from propagation to, or access by, other scheduler partitions.
US09329920B2

Embodiments herein relate to a computing device (100) including a supervisor system (112) and an operating system (122). In an embodiment, the supervisor system is to launch and monitor the operating system. The supervisor system is to resume control of the computing device when a crash occurs in the operating system of the computing device.
US09329918B2

The disclosed system and method detect and correct register file read path errors that may occur as a result of reducing or eliminating supply voltage guardbands and/or frequency guardbands for a CPU, thereby increasing overall energy efficiency of the system.
US09329917B2

Devices, systems and methods for replacing a factory installed or similar air suspension controller in a vehicle with an augmentor, which sends correct status messages to the vehicle main computer when the air suspension is replaced with coil springs or shocks. The augmentor can includes a voltage regulator, an indicator and bus interface. At power on, the program initializes the microcontroller registers, timer registers, and control registers, then loop until an inquiry or command is received, then responds with status messages that are the same as the status messages sent by the original factory installed air suspension controller until power is removed.
US09329915B1

A network-based production service is configured to process client requests for the production service via a network, capture production request data defining the requests and store the production request data in a data store. A test system comprising one or more controllers creates test jobs according to a test plan for testing the production service. The test plan creates a test profile for using specified production request data to simulate a load on the production service. Each job created by the test plan specifies a portion of production request data. A job queue receives and queues test jobs from one or more controllers configured to add test jobs to the job queue according to the test plan. Workers access jobs from the job queue and the production request data from the data store as specified in each job and replay the production request data to the production service.
US09329909B1

Techniques are described for managing distributed execution of programs. In some situations, the techniques include dynamically modifying the distributed program execution in various manners, such as based on monitored status information. The dynamic modifying of the distributed program execution may include adding and/or removing computing nodes from a cluster that is executing the program, modifying the amount of computing resources that are available for the distributed program execution, terminating or temporarily suspending execution of the program (e.g., if an insufficient quantity of computing nodes of the cluster are available to perform execution), etc.
US09329907B1

At least one application in a distributed computing environment is deployed. At least one resource of a virtual machine is provided to the at least one application in the distributed computing environment. The at least one resource of the virtual machine provided is recorded in metadata and the at least one application receives the metadata and using the metadata the at least one application determines how much of the at least one resource of the virtual machine to utilize. A change to the at least one resource of the virtual machine is determined. Responsive to determining the change to the at least one resource of the virtual machine, the metadata is modified. The at least one application uses the modified metadata to determine how much of the changed at least one resource of the virtual machine to use.
US09329900B2

A heterogeneous processor architecture is described. For example, a processor according to one embodiment of the invention comprises: a first set of one or more physical processor cores having first processing characteristics; a second set of one or more physical processor cores having second processing characteristics different from the first processing characteristics; virtual-to-physical (V-P) mapping logic to expose a plurality of virtual processors to software, the plurality of virtual processors to appear to the software as a plurality of homogeneous processor cores, the software to allocate threads to the virtual processors as if the virtual processors were homogeneous processor cores; wherein the V-P mapping logic is to map each virtual processor to a physical processor within the first set of physical processor cores or the second set of physical processor cores such that a thread allocated to a first virtual processor by software is executed by a physical processor mapped to the first virtual processor from the first set or the second set of physical processors.
US09329895B2

A method and system for implementing a reader-writer lock having a write lock requested by a thread is disclosed. The reader-writer lock is structured to have counters and a flag. The counters use an atomic process to count read locks held or outstanding read lock requests. The flag identifies a counter and is configured to distinguish between counters. A read lock is prepared, acquired, and released. The atomic process is used and the flag or flagged counter is polled. A write lock is prepared, acquired, and released.
US09329893B2

A method resumes an accelerated processing device (APD) wavefront in which a subset of elements have faulted. A restore command for a job including a wavefront is received. A list of context states for the wavefront is read from a memory associated with a APD. An empty shell wavefront is created for restoring the list of context states. A portion of not acknowledged data is masked over a portion of acknowledged data within the restored wavefronts.
US09329882B2

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system for logical partition migration. Responsive to a virtual machine monitor initiating a logical partition migration operation to move a logical partition from a source system to a destination system, the mechanism reallocates a portion of processing resources from the logical partition to the virtual machine monitor. The virtual machine monitor uses the portion of processing resources to effect the logical partition migration operation. Responsive to completion of the logical partition migration operation, the mechanism returns the portion of processing resources to the logical partition.
US09329879B2

A computing device adapted to receive at least one JavaScript, the computing device comprising a processor type and one or more architectural features. The at least one JavaScript comprises one or more first sections of the JavaScript and one or more second sections of the JavaScript. The one or more first sections of the JavaScript may be pre-compiled using the processor type or the one or more architectural features. The one or more second sections of the JavaScript may be sent to a JavaScript Compiler in source format. A JavaScript Engine may be adapted to execute the one or more first sections of the JavaScript and the subsequently compiled one or more second sections of the JavaScript, keeping elements of the scripting code proprietary, with the pre-compilation of the one or more first sections of the JavaScript eliminating run-time compilation and therefore providing performance benefits.
US09329871B2

System and method for decoding digital video data. The decoding system employs hardware accelerators that assist a core processor in performing selected decoding tasks. The hardware accelerators are configurable to support a plurality of existing and future encoding/decoding formats. The accelerators are configurable to support substantially any existing or future encoding/decoding formats that fall into the general class of DCT-based, entropy decoded, block-motion-compensated compression algorithms. The hardware accelerators illustratively comprise a programmable entropy decoder, an inverse quantization module, a inverse discrete cosine transform module, a pixel filter, a motion compensation module and a de-blocking filter. The hardware accelerators function in a decoding pipeline wherein at any given stage in the pipeline, while a given function is being performed on a given macroblock, the next macroblock in the data stream is being worked on by the previous function in the pipeline.
US09329868B2

Embodiments relate to reducing a number of read ports for register pairs. An aspect includes executing an instruction. The instruction identifies a pair of registers as containing a wide operand which spans the pair of registers. It is determined if a pairing indicator associated with the pair of registers has a first value or a second value. The first value indicates that the wide operand is stored in a wide register, and the second value indicates that the wide operand is not stored in the wide register. Based on the pairing indicator having the first value, the wide operand is read from the wide register. Based on the pairing indicator having the second value, the wide operand is read from the pair of registers. An operation is performed using the wide operand.
US09329867B2

This disclosure describes techniques for allocating registers in a computing system that supports vector physical registers. The techniques for allocating registers may allocate physical registers to vector virtual registers based on priority information that is indicative of a relative importance of allocating respective vector virtual registers as vectors rather than scalars. The techniques for allocating registers may involve allocating physical registers to the vector virtual registers in an order that is determined based on the priority information. The techniques for allocating registers may further involve, in response to determining that no vector physical registers are available to assign to a vector virtual register, determining whether to perform vector-scalar live interval splitting for the vector virtual register, spill other register live intervals into a memory in order to allocate the vector virtual register as a vector, or assign scalar physical registers to the vector virtual register based on the priority information.
US09329866B2

Processor pipeline controlling techniques are described which take advantage of the variation in critical path lengths of different instructions to achieve increased performance. By examining a processor's instruction set and execution unit implementation's critical timing paths, instructions are classified into speed classes. Based on these speed classes, one pipeline is presented where hold signals are used to dynamically control the pipeline based on the instruction class in execution. An alternative pipeline supporting multiple classes of instructions is presented where the pipeline clocking is dynamically changed as a result of decoded instruction class signals. A single pass synthesis methodology for multi-class execution stage logic is also described. For dynamic class variable pipeline processors, the mix of instructions can have a great effect on processor performance and power utilization since both can vary by the program mix of instruction classes. Application code can be given new degrees of optimization freedom where instruction class and the mix of instructions can be chosen based on performance and power requirements.
US09329865B2

A processor includes a microcode storage to store a first microcode subroutine and a microcode caller of the first microcode subroutine. The processor further includes a first microcode alias storage comprising a first plurality of microcode alias locations and a second microcode alias storage comprising a second plurality of microcode alias locations. The processor further includes a first logic, coupled to the first microcode alias storage and to the second microcode alias storage, wherein the first logic is configured to select a first one of a) the first microcode alias storage for storage of a parameter location in one of the first plurality of microcode alias locations or b) the second microcode alias storage for storage of the parameter location in one of the second plurality of microcode alias locations.
US09329854B2

An upgrade campaign is generated for software deployment configuration, based on a source configuration and a target configuration for a software subsystem. A delta between the source configuration and the target configuration is determined. The delta includes a first set, a second set and a third set of the entities to be removed, added and upgraded, respectively, in the software subsystem. Based on dependencies among the entities, a sequence of stages is generated for removing, adding and upgrading the first, second and third sets of the entities, such that the entities are removed, added and upgraded according to a temporal order defined by the sequence of stages.
US09329851B2

Various embodiments enable a web browser to promote the availability of an installable application that is associated with a website to which the web browser has been navigated. The web browser is configured to discover the availability of these applications and, responsively, provide a user experience through which the user can acquire and install such applications, as well as switch to applications that have previously been installed. Thus, through the various embodiments, a user is relieved of the burden of having to navigate to a particular application store and periodically search for applications associated with sites to which they browse.
US09329848B2

A mechanism is described for facilitating dynamic and efficient fusion of computing instructions according to one embodiment. A method of embodiments, as described herein, includes monitoring a software program for a program region having fusion candidate instructions for a fusion operation at a computing system; evaluating whether the macro operation of the candidate instructions is valuable to the software program; and performing the fusion operation if it is evaluated to be valuable.
US09329843B2

A communication stack for software-hardware co-execution on heterogeneous computing systems with processors and reconfigurable logic, in one aspect, may comprise a crossbar operable to connect hardware user code and functioning as a platform independent communication layer. A physical interface interfaces to the reconfigurable logic. A physical interface bridge is connected to the cross and the physical interface. The physical interface bridge connects the crossbar and the physical interface via a platform specific translation layer specific to the reconfigurable logic. The crossbar, the physical interface, and the physical interface bridge may be instantiated in response to the hardware user code being generated, the crossbar instantiated with associated parameters comprising one or more routes and associated data widths. The hardware user code is assigned a unique virtual route in the crossbar.
US09329840B1

The present invention provides a set of blocks for creating device drivers. Since, for most computational devices, device driver code to configure and control an I/O interface may be decomposed into a small finite number of common software functions, by providing a block set comprising blocks representing the finite number of common software functions, custom device drivers can be created for any number of devices. Thus, by providing a set of generalized device driver blocks that can be parameterized by the user, specific instances of custom device drivers can be created as needed. Processor and device specific driver code can then be generated from the custom device driver.
US09329837B2

A method includes performing operations as follows on a processor: receiving an architecture description for a software application that identifies a plurality of generic services, receiving a requirement description for the software application that comprises respective values for a plurality of priority parameters for the software application, and generating a proposal that, for each of the plurality of generic services, identifies a specific cloud service for the respective generic service based on the requirement description.
US09329836B2

Generating a pool of random numbers for use by computer applications. Vibration sensors are placed throughout a machine and collect entropy data from the measurements of the vibration sensors. The data is then filtered and sent via secure connection to a second machine to be added to the second machine's entropy pool. Applications needing a random number may acquire a number from the pool. A method, computer program product and system to generate the pool are provided.
US09329825B2

A printer driver includes an assigning unit that assigns a setting value based on storage location information specifying a storage location for each setting value; a compressing unit that converts each of the setting values thus assigned to have a format identifying each storage location, and generates compressed data therefrom; a storage unit that stores each piece of the compressed data compressed by the compressing unit in a storage location specified by the storage location information; a first decompressing unit and a second decompressing unit that decompress the compressed data stored in the storage location; a setting window displaying unit that displays a print setting window using each of the setting values obtained by decompression performed by the first decompressing unit; and a print data generating unit that generates print data using each of the setting values obtained by decompression performed by the second decompressing unit.
US09329823B2

An approach is provided for a service provider to identify documents to include in a client's repository and for the client to print the documents from the client's repository. In an embodiment, a computing device receives authentication information identifying a first user, receives first user information identifying a second user, receives information indicating selection of a one or more particular documents, from a set of one or more documents, and sends document information that at least identifies the one or more particular documents to a repository associated with the second user. A printing device receives second user information identifying the second user, and, in response to receiving the second user information, retrieves the one or more particular documents from the repository based, at least in part, on the second user information. The printing device processes at least one document of the one or more particular documents for printing.
US09329819B2

An improved method implemented in a print job management apparatus for processing print jobs in a multiple-printer print shop environment is described. When an operator manually assigns a print job to a printer, the job ticket settings of print job are compared with capabilities of the printer to detect any constraints (i.e. incompatibilities). Messages including textual descriptions of the detected constraints are displayed in a UI, and job ticket settings that caused each constraint are displayed adjacent the corresponding message. The job ticket settings display allows the operator to change values of the job ticket settings and then re-evaluate the job assignment to detect any further constraints. The display and input steps are performed using a single UI. The changed job ticket settings are kept in a temporary version of the job ticket, and the original job ticket is updated with the changed values when the job is finally printed.
US09329818B2

An image forming device includes a communicator which performs communication with a user terminal apparatus, user account database (DB), a controller which creates a temporary account regarding the user terminal apparatus and registers the account on the user account DB, and an image former which performs the image forming job in response to a request for an image forming job received from the user terminal apparatus while the temporary account is valid, in which the controller records job performing results information on the temporary account in response to the image forming job being performed, and inactivate the temporary account when an inactivating condition is met.
US09329815B2

Communication systems and methods for enhancing communications between users featuring a central service which formats messages into a printer-friendly format. The format of the delivered message is based on preference settings established by the recipient or an authorized agent of the recipient. The messages are delivered to a device, such as a printer. Messages can be sent to the service in any format and can include text, photographs, URLs, and/or a variety of file types. The messages are then parsed by the service and formatted for delivery to the device.
US09329803B1

A data storage system includes storage devices and a processing subsystem executing software forming a lower-deck file system and an upper-deck file system. The lower-deck file system presents a volume file from which storage is provided to the upper-deck file system, and units of storage of the storage devices are allocable to the upper-deck file system but are not reserved to it. The volume file is thinly provisioned, and additional units of storage are added dynamically to increase its allocated size in response to demand from the upper-deck file system. The lower-deck file system operates in a mapped mode in which a block address in the lower-deck file system is obtained by a generally arbitrary mapping (e.g., an Inode/IB tree) of a block address in the volume file.
US09329798B1

The flow of data in an integrated circuit is controlled. The integrated circuit comprising a plurality of tiles, each tile comprising a processor, a switch including switching circuitry to forward data over data paths from other tiles to the processor and to switches of other tiles, and a receive buffer to store data from the switch. At a first tile, a count is maintained of data that has been sent to a second tile without receiving an acknowledgement up to a credit limit. At the second tile, data that arrives from the first tile when the receive buffer is full is sent to a memory outside of the tile.
US09329795B2

The present invention transfers replication logical volumes between and among storage control units in a storage system comprising storage control units. To transfer replication logical volumes from a storage control unit to a storage control unit, a virtualization device sets a path to the storage control unit. The storage control unit prepares a differential bitmap in order to receive access requests. When the preparation completes, the virtualization device makes access requests to the storage control unit. The storage control unit hands over the access requests to the storage control unit. The storage control unit performs a process so that the access requests are reflected in a disk device and performs an emergency destage of storing data in a cache memory into disk device. When the emergency destage ends, the storage control unit connects to an external storage control unit and hands over access requests to the external storage control unit.
US09329788B2

In a storage system, a real page is allocated from a pool to a write destination virtual page in a virtual volume. The real page includes multiple real regions. The storage system moves all valid data stored in two or more move-source real pages respectively allocated to two or more virtual pages, to move-destination real pages the number of which is less than the number of move-source real pages in units of real regions. Each piece of valid data can be used by any one of the access sources. The storage system writes the predetermined data to all move-source real regions in each of move-source real pages, so that each of the move-source real pages is set as a recovery target real page which is a real page storing only the predetermined data, and performs real capacity recovery for making each recovery target real page into an unallocated state.
US09329786B2

A method for transferring and storing a data set associated with an in-memory data grid (IMDG) is provided. The method may include identifying at least two data object instances associated with the data set based on a determined relationship between the at least two data object instances. The method may also include performing a field relation analysis on the identified at least two data object instances and recording the field relation analysis. The method may include receiving a request for a data object associated with the data set. The method may include determining if an optimization can be performed on the data object. The method may include omitting a field value associated with the data object based on the determined optimization. The method may include inflating the omitted field value into the data set associated with the data object request and returning the data set with the inflated field value.
US09329785B2

A method of interleaving comprising: generating a combined data by combining, a plurality of columns of input data to be inputted to a plurality of adjacent sub-interleavers into a column, wherein data within same rows among the plurality of columns of input data have same delay time; writing the combined data row by row into an off-chip memory; delaying the combined data, by the off-chip memory; and splitting data outputted by the off-chip memory into the plurality of columns such that each split column includes data corresponding to one of the plurality of adjacent sub-interleavers.
US09329784B2

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to managing policies. In aspects, a staging store is used to store policies that are not applied to a computer system unless and until they are copied to or otherwise imported into a production store. A configuration entity is allowed read/write access to the staging store, but is not allowed write access to the production store. A policy manager is granted read access to the staging store and write access to the production store. The policy manager may approve or deny staging policies. If the policy manger approves a staging policy, the policy manager may derive a production policy from the staging policy and store the production policy in the production store. Once a policy is in the production store, the policy may be applied to one or more entities as appropriate.
US09329779B2

According to an aspect, a device includes a touch screen display and a controller. The touch screen display displays a home screen. The controller displays information for specifying a person in a first area of the home screen, and displays a list of information for specifying communication services used by a person specified by the information displayed in the first area in a second area of the home screen.
US09329778B2

Supplementing a virtual input keyboard is provided. A form and a virtual input keyboard are displayed in a display of a data processing system. An input is received selecting a particular field within the form. One or more character key sets are retrieved corresponding to previous data entries of the particular field selected. A delta set of character keys is determined based on character keys in the one or more character key sets that do not match displayed character keys on the virtual input keyboard. A set of delta character supplemental virtual input keyboards is generated based on the delta set of character keys. Then, the set of delta character supplemental virtual input keyboards are displayed in the display.
US09329775B2

When a user touches positions on a touch panel display unit which correspond to a plurality of characteristic points of a user's desired figure, the user moves the touched positions in accordance with a shape of the figure and leaves his or her touches from the touched positions and touches an additional touch position, characteristic conditions of different figures (a circle, parallel lines, an equilateral triangle, a triangle, a square, a rectangle, a quadrangle, a straight line, a concentric circle, an ellipse, etc.) are determined in accordance with the touched positions, a locus of the movement of the touched positions and the additional touch position and a type of the figure and a drawing-position thereof are determined.
US09329768B2

Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and computer systems for intuitively invoking a panning action (e.g., moving content within a content region of a display area) by applying a user-initiated input at the content region rendered at a touchscreen interface are provided. Initially, aspects of the user-initiated input include a location of actuation (e.g., touch point on the touchscreen interface) and a gesture. Upon ascertaining that the actuation location occurred within the content region and that the gesture is a drag operation, based on a distance of uninterrupted tactile contact with the touchscreen interface, a panning mode may be initiated. When in the panning mode, and if the application rendering the content at the display area supports scrolling functionality, the gesture will control movement of the content within the content region. In particular, the drag operation of the gesture will pan the content within the display area when surfaced at the touchscreen interface.
US09329765B2

A method and an electronic apparatus for scrolling frame content and a recording medium using the same, adapted to an electronic apparatus having a touch screen, are provided. In the method, a page including at least one content scrollable frame is displayed on the touch screen. Next, a scrolling operation performed on a content scrollable frame of the at least one content scrollable frame on the touch screen is detected. Then, whether the content scrollable frame is entirely shown or partially shown on the touch screen is determined. Finally, the content in the content scrollable frame or the page and the content scrollable frame are scrolled according to the scrolling operation based on the determination.
US09329763B2

A method for determining a type of a measurement includes receiving touch data via a touchscreen; automatically identifying a plurality of cursor points in the touch data using a processor; and automatically determining a measurement type based on the touch data using the processor. A method for determining a geometric property of an object further includes displaying an image of the object on the touchscreen and automatically determining the geometric property corresponding to the plurality of cursor points and the determined measurement type using the processor. A device for determining the geometric property includes an imager for obtaining the image; the touchscreen; and the processor for identifying a plurality of cursor points in the touch data, determining a measurement type of the geometric property using the touch data, and automatically determining the geometric property corresponding to the plurality of cursor points and the determined measurement type.
US09329761B2

Methods and systems are provided for an improved user interface for displaying and scaling selectable software commands and controls in at least one of a first ribbon and a second ribbon. Underneath a first ribbon of top-level command tabs, selectable controls associated with a selected command tab are presented in logical subgroups or chunks. The selectable controls within the chunks are granularly scaled to accommodate different screen sizes or changes in window size. The scaling includes moving a subset of the selectable controls within at least one of the chunks between an overflow pane and the second ribbon.
US09329760B2

An information processing apparatus capable of displaying information about a plurality of content data pieces recorded in a recording medium by a display unit includes a first display control unit configured to control the display unit such that information about content data is displayed in an arrangement based on attribute information of the content data, and a second display control unit configured to control the display unit such that information about content data is displayed in an arrangement based on other attribute information, wherein the second display control unit controls the display unit to display information indicating existence of the content data of which information is displayed by the first display control unit and information indicating existence of content data of which information is not displayed by the first control unit in a distinguishable manner.
US09329754B2

A method for operating a menu of a multimedia disk is provided. The method includes first selecting an item in the menu as a focus point and using a cursor controller for moving a cursor in the menu. An input event issued by the cursor controller is then translated into an input event of a key on a keyboard based on a relative position between the cursor and the focus point, so as to shift or select a target title. Consequently, a user can operate the menu of the multimedia disk in a computer system by using the cursor controller, and the convenience of operating the menu can be improved.
US09329747B2

A mobile terminal and controlling method thereof are disclosed. According to the present invention, after a search for informations related to an inputted search word have been performed, while the found informations are displayed, partial informations respectively representing the displayed informations by including the search word are extracted from the displayed informations. Finally, the extracted informations are enlarged and displayed as a list.
US09329738B2

Embodiments described herein generally take the form of methods and systems for identifying and/or reducing a parasitic capacitance variation in a capacitive integrated touch-sensing module that may arise from proximity to a nearby electronic display.
US09329737B2

A touch panel comprises multiple first sensing electrodes constituting multiple rows, wherein the first sensing electrodes in each of the rows are electrically connected to each other, multiple second sensing electrodes constituting multiple columns crossing the rows, wherein the second sensing electrodes in each of the columns are electrically connected to each other, and multiple conductive patterns disposed between the first and second sensing electrodes. Each of the first and second sensing electrodes comprises multiple protrusions protruding outward from a corresponding boundary and multiple concave portions extending inward between the protrusions in a plan view. Pairs of protrusions extending from opposite sides of each of the first and second sensing electrodes are disposed opposite each other and are symmetrical to each other.
US09329736B2

An input device includes a selection circuit to which a plurality of electrodes disposed in a capacitive touch panel are connected, a line connected to the selection circuit and having a same internal resistance as that between the plurality of electrodes and the selection circuit, an A/D conversion part connected to the selection circuit so as to measure a voltage of the electrodes or a measurement value when the line is connected thereto, wherein the electrodes and the line are each connected selectively to the A/D conversion part by the selection circuit, and a control part configured to control the selection circuit so as to allow the A/D conversion part to measure a voltage of one of the electrodes and the measurement value, and to calculate an electrostatic capacitance of one of the electrodes based on the voltage of one of the electrodes and the measurement value.
US09329734B2

The present invention relates to touch screen technology, and provide a weight pressure process method and system of the self capacitive touch screen. In the weight pressure process method and system of the self capacitive touch screen provided by the invention, a threshold relationship is used to modify the existing touch threshold, the threshold relationship uses the touch threshold and the minor change of the changes of two channels adjacent to the channel corresponding to the maximum value as variables, if the maximum value is not greater than the value of the threshold relationship, identify the point causing the current change as a fake point and filter out the fake point. In the method, the change of the self capacitor caused by the deformation due to pressure, so the actual touch point can be identified more accurately, a touch application can be performed correctly, and the user experience is improved greatly.
US09329725B2

A display device comprises a timing controller and a touch sensing unit. The timing controller drives a display panel such that a display mode for displaying an image in the display panel and a touch mode for sensing a user' s touch are alternately driven. The touch sensing unit differentially applies DTX (display touch crosstalk) compensation values by compensation area to sense the user' s touch in the touch mode, each of touch sensing block being a sensing unit for a user' s touch. Each compensation area is set based on a distance between a data driver and the compensation area. Each DTX compensation value is a value for compensating for an error of touch data caused by changes in respective grayscale values applied to pixels corresponding to a specific touch sensing block. The touch sensing blocks are divided in a column direction depending on arrangement of multiplexers in the data driver.
US09329722B2

The present invention is directed to a capacitive touch system and method with auto-calibration. A driving signal generator provides driving signals to first electrodes, thereby resulting in induced signals on second electrodes. An induced signal receiver receives and processes the induced signals. The induced signals associated with at least some no-touch points are measured and pre-stored in an initial value generator, which, at the beginning of a measuring period, generates initial induced signals of the second electrodes according to the pre-stored induced signals for initializing the induced signal generator.
US09329720B2

A system for receiving, storing, and displaying biometric input has a case, a touchpad, and a digitizer. The case has an open position and a closed position, wherein the case protects the touchpad in the closed position, the case including a digitizer comprising a substantially transparent touch activatable overlay placed over the touchscreen, and a plurality of sensors supported by the overlay to detect input to the overlay. The digitizer includes a data outlet for transferring the detected input as overlay data so the touchpad can visually display the detected input on its touchscreen. The digitizer has sufficient sensors that the overlay data contains more information than the touchpad data would if the touchscreen were contacted directly without the digitizer present.
US09329716B2

A system having a finger-wearable sleeve having an IR light-emitting diode (LED), an IR camera; and a controller associated with the IR camera. The controller is configured to communicate with a host computer that utilizes a visual content projector to project visual content onto the screen. And based on signals received from the IR camera (1) trigger a first input functionality in the host computer, wherein the first input functionality is based on a location on the screen where an IR beam from the IR laser impinges, and (2) trigger a second input functionality in the host computer, wherein the second input functionality is based on a location on the screen near where an IR beam from the IR LED is emitted.
US09329704B2

The present invention achieves an information input apparatus for inputting position location information by an input using a pen-type input device configured to acquire handwriting data expressed as a trace of coordinate positions. The information input apparatus includes: an input format presenting unit for presenting an input format for interpreting the handwriting data, the input format having a location input field used to input a figure or a symbol in such a manner that a location in a drawing is identifiable; a location information acquisition unit for recognizing the figure or the symbol inputted in the location input field and for acquiring information on the location of the figure or the symbol inputted in the location input field, on the basis of the handwriting data of the figure or symbol inputted in the location input field.
US09329700B2

An illumination assembly for an interactive input system (20), comprises at least one imaging device (60) capturing image frames of a region of interest; a plurality of illumination sources (84a, 84b, 84c) associated with the imaging device and being located at different positions relative to the imaging device, the illumination sources providing illumination to the region of interest; and a controller (72) communicating with the illumination sources, the controller conditioning the illumination sources so that the illumination sources provide illumination to the region of interest in succession, the timing of image frame capture by the imaging device being coordinated with the illumination pattern of the illumination sources.
US09329699B2

The present invention provides a device and method for classifying a user using pattern recognition of an input device. A series of the keystroke objects are received via the user input interface. A typing signature is determined for the series of keystroke objects using the processor by analyzing the key attributes of the series of keystroke objects using a pattern recognition algorithm. The typing signature is compared to one or more user typing signatures stored in the memory using the processor. The user is classified based on whether or not the typing signature is statistically similar to one of the stored typing signatures.
US09329698B2

A key input control apparatus includes a gesture recognizing unit which detects whether or not an input of a touch event generated on a screen corresponds to a predetermined gesture. A gesture area identifying unit which identifies a predetermined area where the input of the touch event corresponding to the predetermined gesture is generated. A key input recognizing unit which recognizes a hardware key allotted to the predetermined area and performs an operation corresponding to an input of the recognized hardware key.
US09329697B2

A host electronic device may be coupled to an accessory electronic device. During normal operation, the host device may supply the accessory device with power over a power supply line. Back-powering events in which the accessory device delivers power to the host device may be prevented by interposing a protection transistor in the power supply line. A current mirror may be formed using the protection transistor and an additional transistor that produces a sense current proportional to the amount of current that is flowing through the power supply line. A current-to-voltage amplifier may produce a sense voltage that is proportional to the sense current. A bias circuit may be used to bias the sense current through the current mirror. A control circuit may compare the sense voltage to one or more reference voltages and turn off the protection transistor when appropriate to prevent back-powering of the host device.
US09329696B2

Optimized digital operational encoding and input method of world character information and information processing system thereof are directed to digital operational encoding of the world character information with ten numerals 0-9 unifiedly by means of the encoding method operated with addition and subtraction by areas and positions. The method and device takes these number codes as the index codes of retrieving the literatures of world characters and the computer input codes of world characters, so as to build up a complete set of method and systems capable of using world character to design the operating system, computer language, chip instruction, wireless interface protocol, and wireless internet protocol, used widely for computer, communications, network system, and the sorting and retrieving system of world character codes.
US09329681B2

A locomotion system for use with a virtual environment technology includes a platform configured to support a user, a harness support assembly coupled to the platform and extending upwardly from the platform, and a safety harness configured to be worn by the user. The harness support assembly includes a support halo positioned above the platform and extending about a vertical central axis. The safety harness includes an interface structure moveably coupled to the support halo.
US09329668B2

A disable module may be coupled to an analog circuit of an electronic circuit. The disable module may detect an input voltage that is supplied to the analog circuit, and may disable (such as by powering off) the analog circuit if the input voltage is below a reference value. The reference value may be set at a voltage level at or below a maximum voltage that may be present across a transistor in the analog circuit. Accordingly, the analog circuit may be disabled without damage to the transistors of the analog circuit. The disable module may detect whether the input voltage is below the reference value level by comparing the input voltage to a reference voltage. The electronic circuit may include a voltage regulator, and the voltage regulator may include the analog circuit.
US09329663B2

Techniques are provided for managing the power consumption and performance of a processing device. Power consumption and utilization ratios for a processing device may be continuously measured. The measured power consumption and utilization ratios may be compared to target power consumption and utilization ratios to adjust an operating frequency of the processing device. In one implementation a power controller may take the target and measured power consumption as inputs to generate a power output and a utilization controller may take the target and measured utilization ratios as inputs to generate a utilization output. The lower of the power output and the utilization output may be selected and used to adjust the operating frequency of the processing device. The power and utilization controllers may implement a proportional-integral control scheme.
US09329662B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for power savings. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include sending, by a user equipment, an indication to a network, wherein the indication represents whether there is a preference for power savings at the user equipment; and performing, at the user equipment when the indication is sent, one or more actions to implement power savings at the user equipment. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09329652B2

Power-backup capabilities are provided by implementing a variety of different methods, systems and devices. According to one such implementation, an energy storage device such as a capacitive storage circuit is powered relative to the powering of one or more additional circuits from a common power supply to limit the draw upon the power supply. Certain applications involve delaying or otherwise modifying the powering of the capacitive storage circuit, which may involve an initial startup of the capacitive storage circuit.
US09329645B2

A server system includes a rack, multiple servers, an electrically conductive component, a switch, a rack management controller and a power supply. The rack has a first storage area, a middle storage area and a second storage area. The servers are positioned in the first storage area and the second storage area. The electrically conductive component is installed inside the rack and includes a first power supply part disposed in the first storage area and a second power supply part disposed in the second storage area. The switch is installed in the middle storage area. The rack management controller is installed in the middle storage area. The power supply, installed in the middle storage area, is electrically connected to the rack management controller and the switch which is disposed farther away from the electrically conductive component than the power supply.
US09329641B2

A securing structure for securing a magnetic element in a housing of an electronic device includes a receiving portion and a limiting portion. The receiving portion is to be disposed on a housing wall of the housing, and has a receiving space for receiving the magnetic element therein and a first opening in spatial communication with the receiving space for permitting extension of the magnetic element into the receiving space. The first opening faces a plane perpendicular to the housing wall. The limiting portion is connected to the receiving portion and is operable between a limiting state, where the first limiting portion prevents the magnetic element from entering and exiting the receiving space through the first opening, and a non-limiting state, where the first limiting portion permits entering and exiting of the magnetic element into and from the receiving space through the first opening.
US09329620B2

A circuit for generating a peripheral clock for USB, provided on a USB major structure, comprises an internal oscillator, a receiver, a transmitter, a clock counter, and a clock processor; wherein the internal oscillator generates a clock having a settled frequency; the receiver is connected with the internal oscillator and a system unit, and receives a packet transmitted by the system unit; the transmitter is connected with the internal oscillator and the system unit, and transmits a packet of the USB major structure to the system unit; the clock counter is connected with the receiver and the internal oscillator, and counts a length of the packet received; and the clock processor is connected with the clock counter, the internal oscillator, and the transmitter, and controls and adjusts a length of the packet transmitted by the transmitter according to the length of the packet counted by the clock counter.
US09329617B2

An active control method of varying a pedal effort for an accelerator through which the current pedal effort for an accelerator can be varied actively to increase when an engine-off signal for a vehicle in which an accelerator a pedal effort of which is controllable is generated respectively.
US09329608B1

Programmable integrated circuits with configurable logic circuitry and routing resources are provided. Portions of the routing resources on a programmable integrated circuit may be used in implementing a desired user-specified custom logic function, whereas other portions of the routing resources on the programmable integrated circuit may be unused. The unused routing resources may include adjacent pairs of routing paths. These paths may be coupled to control circuitry configured to drive the routing paths to desired voltage levels to provide an optimal amount of decoupling capacitance. In one suitable arrangement, two adjacent routing paths may both be driven to a positive power supply voltage level. In another suitable arrangement, the two adjacent routing paths may be driven to the positive power supply voltage level and a ground power supply voltage level, respectively.
US09329600B2

Example embodiments may facilitate altitude control by a balloon in a balloon network. An example method involves: (a) causing a balloon to operate in a first mode, wherein the balloon comprises an envelope, a high-pressure storage chamber, and a solar power system, (b) while the balloon is operating in the first mode: (i) operating the solar power system to generate power for the balloon and (ii) using at least some of the power generated by the solar power system to move gas from the envelope to the high-pressure storage chamber such that the buoyancy of the balloon decreases; (c) causing the balloon to operate in a second mode; and while the balloon is operating in the second mode, moving gas from the high-pressure storage chamber to the envelope such that the buoyancy of the balloon increases.
US09329591B2

Various disclosed embodiments include methods, systems, and computer-readable media for managing feature geometry-aspect machining using a PLM data processing system. According to one embodiment, a method includes identifying a feature geometry in a graphical design. The method also includes identifying an aspect of the feature geometry. The aspect includes a subset of the feature geometry. The method further includes defining the feature geometry aspect based on a user-defined name. The method also includes associating one or more machining operations with the feature geometry aspect. Additionally, the method includes storing the one or more machining operations and the user-defined name in association with the feature geometry aspect.
US09329588B2

A method and system for managing a fleet of vehicles including a reservation system for generating a reservation code; a key cabinet including user-entry means for entering said reservation code and one or more key compartments storing keys for each vehicle in the fleet; a control module in communication with the reservation system and the key cabinet for assigning an unlocked condition to at least one of the key compartments based on entry of a reservation code.
US09329566B2

An image forming device including a casing having a front wall formed with a first opening and an upper wall continuous to the front wall and formed with a second opening. The first and second openings together form a single opening. The device further includes a door for covering the single opening, a belt unit, and a guide member. The belt unit includes first and second rollers, and a conveyer belt. The drawer is configured to accommodate a plurality of cartridges. The guide member is configured to movably guide the drawer. The first roller is disposed nearer to the single opening than the second roller to the single opening. In a state where the door is opened and the drawer is inside the casing, one of the plurality of cartridges closest to the door is detachably attachable to the drawer through the single opening.
US09329561B2

The power supply apparatus includes a transformer having a primary and secondary sides, a first line and a second line to which an AC voltage is input from an AC power supply, a rectifying and smoothing unit that rectifies and smoothes the AC voltage, a shut-off unit provided between the first line and the rectifying and smoothing unit, a switching element that switches a current from the rectifying and smoothing unit to the primary side of the transformer, a first overvoltage detection unit that outputs a voltage corresponding to the AC voltage, a second overvoltage detection unit that outputs an overvoltage detection signal; and a control unit that controls the shut-off unit to shut off the input of the AC voltage.
US09329560B2

An image forming apparatus for performing job processing includes a power supplying unit configured to supply power to a heating unit, a cooling unit configured to cool an inside of an enclosure of the image forming apparatus, a power generating unit configured to generate power by heat dissipated from the heating unit, a power storage unit configured to store the power generated by the power generating unit, and a power supply control unit configured to, after driving the cooling unit by the power from one of the power supplying unit and the power generating unit, switch a power source of the cooling unit from one of the power supplying unit and the power storage unit to the power generating unit.
US09329554B2

A sheet conveying apparatus includes first and second conveyance roller pairs, a width-direction shifting unit, first and second drive units, and a control unit. The second conveyance roller pair is arranged downstream of the first conveyance roller pair to nip and convey the sheet conveyed by the first conveyance roller pair, and to bend the sheet. The width-direction shifting unit shifts the sheet nipped by the second conveyance roller pair in a width direction by shifting the second conveyance roller pair in the width direction. The control unit controls the first and second drive units so that a circumferential speed of the first conveyance roller pair is made higher than that of the second conveyance roller pair between when the second conveyance roller pair starts conveying the sheet and when the width-direction shifting unit completes shifting the second conveyance roller pair in the width direction.
US09329550B2

An image forming apparatus includes an operation panel including a display section that displays buttons, a touch panel section, and piezoelectric elements. The image forming apparatus also includes a vibration control section and a determination section. The vibration control section outputs a drive signal to the piezoelectric elements that causes vibration of the piezoelectric elements and the touch panel section. The determination section determines for each maintenance target whether the maintenance target is an inspection target that preferably undergoes maintenance within a preset period of a current time. Upon operation of a button while no inspection target is present, the vibration control section causes the touch panel and the piezoelectric elements to vibrate under a normal vibration condition. Upon operation of a preset button while an inspection target is present, the vibration control section causes vibration of the touch panel section and the piezoelectric elements under a different vibration condition.
US09329544B2

Exemplary embodiments provide materials and methods for polymer-based fixing members that have a textured surface with reduced surface energy and increased surface hydrophobicity.
US09329539B2

A fixing device includes an endless belt that supplies heat to a medium, a heating body that heats the endless belt, a protector that senses a temperature of the heating body; and a support member that is positioned between the heating body and the protector. The support member has a recess.
US09329536B1

In accordance with one embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a fixing device configured to include a heating roller heated by a heating section and a pressing roller for pressing the heating roller; and a cleaning sheet configured to be stretched between a first reel and a second reel and wound on at least one of the first reel and the second reel to clean the heating roller; wherein the cleaning sheet is separated from or contacted with the heating roller by a movable member.
US09329535B2

A fixing apparatus includes a fixing belt, a pressure roller, a heater, a stay holder, and a scraper. The fixing belt is configured to heat an image on a sheet at a nip portion and has an inner surface with a grease applied thereon. The pressure roller drives and rotates the fixing belt and forms the nip portion between the pressure roller and the fixing belt. The heater and the stay holder press the fixing belt toward the pressure roller from the inner surface of the fixing belt. The scraper scrapes the lubricant transferred to the pressure roller in an area that can come into contact with the fixing belt and that does not come into contact with a maximum width sheet introducible into the fixing apparatus on one end side in a rotational axis direction of the pressure roller.
US09329531B2

A developing device includes an applying portion for applying a bias at a first voltage value and a first frequency, to a toner bearing member during a development period in which toner particles are supplied to an image bearing member. A controller executes a removal control to remove attached matter adhering to a bearing surface of the toner bearing member during a non-development period. Upon executing the removal control, the controller first causes residual toner particles to separate from the bearing surface. Subsequently, the controller controls the applying portion to cause a second bias at a second voltage value higher than the first voltage value or at a second frequency higher than the first frequency to be applied to the toner bearing member while bringing a developer layer on a developer bearing member into contact with the bearing surface.
US09329516B2

A deinkable liquid toner is disclosed herein. The deinkable liquid toner includes a non-polar carrier fluid, a styrene-alkyl acrylate, and a colorant. The styrene-alkyl acrylate has a glass transition temperature ranging from about 65 C to about 100 C. A method for making the deinkable liquid toner and a printing system are also disclosed herein.
US09329508B2

The method of manufacturing toners disclosed herein includes a continuous temperature ramp and coalescence process that involves continuously passing toner slurry, such as an aggregated toner slurry, through at least one heat exchanger before being subjected to a cooling step. The heat exchanger is pressurized, so the temperature of the slurry may be increased above the atmospheric boiling point of water without boiling the water component of the slurry. Because of these higher temperatures, the coalescence step can be completed more quickly than in conventional batch processes. More than two heat exchangers may be connected in the coalescence step, yielding multiple ramping/cooling temperature steps, ability to inject components, or recycling heat from the process to reduce energy consumption.
US09329506B2

An intermediate transfer member that contains a composition of an alcohol phosphate and carbon black, and where there is formed a chemical attachment between the carbon black and the alcohol phosphate, and processes thereof.
US09329502B2

A lithographic apparatus can include a component and a positioning system operatively coupled and configured to move the component along a first axis. The positioning system can be configured to measure a position of the component along a second axis or a third axis. The positioning system can also be configured to control movement of the component so as to compensate for an effect of eigenmode coupling between the movement of the component along the first axis and the measured position of the component along the second axis or the third axis. In some embodiments, the component is a reticle stage or a wafer stage.
US09329493B2

An immersion exposure apparatus and method exposes a substrate with a light beam via an optical element and immersion liquid. A first stage mounts the substrate and is movable relative to the optical element. A second stage is independently movable relative to the first stage and is positionable away from below the optical element. While the first stage is positioned below the optical element, the second stage is movable relative to the first stage so that the second stage is positioned adjacent to the first stage, and when the second stage is positioned adjacent to the first stage, the adjacent first and second stages are movable to locate the second stage opposed to the optical element in place of the first stage such that the immersion liquid is maintained below the optical element during the movement.
US09329482B2

A conductive pattern can be formed using a polymeric layer that contains a reactive composition that comprises a reactive polymer that is metal ion-complexing, water-soluble, and crosslinkable. This reactive polymer comprises pendant thiosulfate groups as well as metal ion-complexing and water solubilizing groups. The reactive composition can be patternwise exposed to suitable radiation to induce crosslinking within the reactive polymer. The reactive composition and reactive polymer in the non-exposed regions can be removed due to their aqueous solubility, but the exposed regions of the polymeric layer are contacted with electroless seed metal ions, which are then reduced. The resulting electroless seed metal nuclei are electrolessly plated with a suitable metal to form the desired conductive pattern. Various articles can be prepared during this process, and the product article can be incorporated into various electronic devices.
US09329467B2

A projector including a discharge tube as a light source includes a light source driver that supplies the discharge tube with electric power and an electric power control portion that controls the level of the electric power with which the light source driver supplies the discharge tube to perform a normal mode in which the light source driver supplies electric power of a predetermined electric power level and a power saving mode in which the light source driver supplies electric power of a power saving level lower than the predetermined electric power level. The power saving mode is a mode in which light emission from the discharge tube can be maintained.
US09329463B2

An image projection apparatus includes a light source, light from which is used to form an image to be projected, a first flow path, a control unit configured to control a light emission from the light source, an electrical power stabilizing unit configured to stabilize an electrical power to be supplied to the light source, and an electrical power source unit configured to supply the electrical power to at least one of the control unit and the electrical power stabilizing unit. One or both of the electrical power source unit and the electrical power stabilizing unit is/are divided into a plurality of boards. The light source is arranged on a normal line of a surface of any of the plurality of boards. The plurality of boards configure surfaces of the first flow path except a surface nearest to the light source.
US09329459B2

The present invention is generally directed to camera stabilizers with quick-release mounts and related methods. It is more specifically directed to such stablizers with quick-release mounts that are capable of being attached to straps (e.g., backpack straps), and related methods. In one aspect, the present invention provides a camera stabilizer. The camera stabilizer comprises: a grip that is attached to a first module, wherein the first module comprises a quick-release plate, and wherein a second module is removably attached to the first module, and wherein the second module comprises a camera mount and a section that allows removable introduction of camera add-ons.
US09329455B2

A light flux controlling member has an incidence region and an emission region. The incidence region is assumed to have a plurality of virtual quadrangles that are disposed in such a manner that one fits into another, and have the same number of apexes as one another, and includes a plurality of convex parts each of which has a ridge line along a first virtual straight line that connects two adjacent apexes of the virtual quadrangle, and a plurality of wall portions each of which is disposed along a second virtual straight line that connects respective corresponding apexes of the virtual quadrangles. The wall portion is disposed continuously between a connection portion of the convex parts at an innermost side and a connection portion of the convex parts at an outermost side in the second virtual straight line.
US09329445B2

The present disclosure discloses a mask plate and processes for manufacturing an ultraviolet mask plate and an array substrate. The present disclosure relates to the field of display technology and can reduce costs for manufacturing ultraviolent mask plates. The mask plate comprises a transparent area, a semi-transparent area, and a non-transparent area, wherein the transparent area and the non-transparent area correspond to a frame glue area and a layer pattern area of a liquid crystal display panel, respectively, and other regions of the mask plate constitute said semi-transparent area. The present disclosure can be used in the manufacture of display devices of liquid crystal display televisions, liquid crystal displays, mobile phones, tablet computers, etc.
US09329443B2

In a liquid crystal device according to the embodiment of the invention, a high potential and a low potential relative to the counter electrode potential are alternately applied to the pixel electrode through the switching element. Here, the counter electrode potential is set to be lower than a reference potential, when the reference potential is an electric potential which is obtained by shifting an average electric potential between the high potential and the low potential by an average value between an amount of change in an electric potential of the pixel electrode, caused by a parasitic capacitance of the switching element when the high potential is being applied to the pixel electrode, and an amount of change in the electric potential of the pixel electrode caused by the parasitic capacitance when the low potential is being applied to the pixel electrode.
US09329442B2

A liquid crystal including: a first substrate; a pixel electrode disposed on the first substrate and including a first subpixel electrode and a second subpixel electrode disposed in one pixel area; a second substrate facing the first substrate; and a common electrode disposed on the second substrate, wherein an area of a region occupied by the first subpixel electrode is less than an area of a region occupied by the second subpixel electrode. Each of the first and second subpixels has a cross-shaped stem and minute branches extending from it to improve side visibility quality and gray scale uniformity.
US09329433B2

A metal line 731 is formed in a linear area S of an insulative substrate 720, and moreover a metal line 732 is formed generally parallel to the metal line 731 with a specified distance thereto. The metal line 731 is connected to an n-type semiconductor core 701 of bar-like structure light-emitting elements 710A to 710D, and the metal line 732 is connected to a p-type semiconductor layer 702. By dividing the insulative substrate 720 into a plurality of divisional substrates, a plurality of light-emitting devices in each of which a plurality of bar-like structure light-emitting elements 710 are placed on the divisional substrates are formed.
US09329429B2

A polarizer and a display device are disclosed. The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of display, through which the utilization ratio of the backlight emitted by the backlight module can be improved. The polarizer can be used in a display device and is provided with through holes, and a location of each through hole corresponds to a gate of a corresponding Thin Film Transistor of said display device. The polarizer of the present disclosure can be used in liquid crystal TV, liquid crystal display, mobile phone, tablet personal computer, and other display devices.
US09329426B2

The present application relates to an optical device. The optical device according to one embodiment may be a light-dividing device, for example, a device that can divide incident light into at least two kinds of light having different polarization states. For example, the optical device can be used to realize a stereoscopic image.
US09329418B2

A tray having limiting structures for packaging an open cell LCD panel comprises a main body of tray having a recess for positioning the open cell LCD panel. The main body of tray further comprises limiting assemblies. The limiting assembly is connected to a bottom plate of the main body of tray in the gap between a PCB and a liquid crystal box of the open cell LCD panel. The limiting assembly is connected to the main body of tray. The limiting assembly can be mounted when it is used and removed when not used. The compatibility of the tray is thus expanded to fulfill the packaging requirements for the open cell LCD panel A and the open cell LCD panel B. The position of the limiting stopper of the limiting assembly is adjustable to effectively avoid the pull of the open cell LCD panel by the limiting assembly.
US09329415B2

According to embodiments of the present invention, a method for forming an optical modulator is provided. The method includes providing a substrate, implanting dopants of a first conductivity type into the substrate to form a first doped region, implanting dopants of a second conductivity type into the substrate to form a second doped region, wherein a portion of the second doped region is formed over and overlaps with a portion of the first doped region to form a junction between the respective portions of the first doped region and the second doped region, and wherein a remaining portion of the second doped region is located outside of the junction, and forming a ridge waveguide, wherein the ridge waveguide overlaps with at least a part of the junction.
US09329414B2

An all-photonic method to cause a WGM resonator to self-tune to a given wavelength is described. Such all photonic approaches include simply superimposing intense light of a wavelength in a range different from that of a signal wave. The wavelength of the pass band for the signal wavelength can be tuned by adjusting the wavelength (and/or the intensity) of the intense light.
US09329413B1

In a new optical intensity modulator, a nonlinear change in refractive index is used to balance the nonlinearities in the optical transfer function in a way that leads to highly linear optical intensity modulation.
US09329411B2

A mounting interface system is provided and is adapted for the engagement of any of a plurality of electronic components with eyewear such as eyeglasses and goggles. The system employs a mounting component on the eyewear which is engageable and adjustable with a complimentary mount on any of a plurality of said electronic components.
US09329404B1

A U-shaped resilient jewelry band configured with a pair of legs to be retained around a wearer's neck, wrist or the like and including a pair of lenses in the closed extremity of the band, the band further being constructed so the legs will act as temples to retain the band on the wearer's head with the lenses in confronting relationship with the wearer's eyes. A pair visors carried from the respective legs to be selectively shifted between covering relationship over the lenses and retracted uncovering relationship to the wearer can view through the lenses.
US09329403B2

Spectacles having a lens frame and arms connected thereto and a retaining strap which can be fastened to the spectacles. A receiving device is provided on the free end of at least one arm, which receiving device interacts with a connecting element to which a retaining strap is undetachably fastened, e.g. moulded on. A plurality of receiving devices can be disposed at predetermined positions between the front end of each arm and the free end thereof. This has the advantage that the retaining strap can be adapted individually to the shape of the head, the hair length and possible individual preferences of the wearer of the spectacles. Thus the retaining strap can be immovably fastened not only to the free end of the arm but also to a front end of the arm, that is to say where the arm adjoins the hinge, and all intermediate positions.
US09329396B2

An image displaying sheet includes a lens array composed of plural lenticular lenses, wherein the lenticular lens has curvatures along two different directions. A composite image has image periods along the two different directions. The application of the image displaying sheet on the composite image can generate the morphing effect, the dynamic effect, the 3D effect, the depth effect or the zooming effect of the composite image.
US09329393B2

An emergency vision apparatus comprises an inflatable first enclosure, the first enclosure being made of airtight material and having an expanded form when deployed and a deflated form when not in use; and first and second clear members disposed at respective first and second ends of the first enclosure to enable a user to see through the first enclosure when expanded and observe a source of information at a distal end of the first enclosure while smoke or other particulate matter is in the environment. A touch sensitive screen is viewable through the first clear member. The first enclosure includes a closable opening configured for insertion of a user's hand to allow the user to operate the touch sensitive screen viewable through the first clear member; and a sealable closure for closing the opening and sealing the opening around the user's hand.
US09329390B2

An image display apparatus includes an original image forming unit configured to form an identical image in each of image forming regions, and an optical system including optical elements corresponding to the respective image forming regions and configured to form exit pupils corresponding to the image forming regions each displaying the identical image.
US09329385B2

According to an embodiment, an exposure device has first and second eccentric cams. The first eccentric cam has an eccentric shape that supports a first mirror support point located near the center on one end side in a longitudinal direction of a mirror and varies a distance between a first rotary shaft and the first mirror support point in correspondence to rotation around the first rotary shaft. The second eccentric cam has an eccentric shape that supports a second mirror support point of two support points located on the other end side in the longitudinal direction of the mirror and varies a distance between a rotary shaft and the second mirror support point in correspondence to rotation around the rotary shaft.
US09329381B1

An Integrated Laser Field and Amplifier Compensation System (ILFACS) for end-to-end compensation of high-energy laser for propagation through turbulence with non-cooperative target are described. ILFACS using interferometric slaving technique and stand-alone adaptive optical systems to effect pre-compensation of amplitude and phase aberrations in turbulent medium, providing pre-compensation for aberrations in a laser amplifier is presented. ILFACS enables integration with a short pulse mode locked laser for use in Target Feature Adaptive Optics (TFAO) or with a mode locked ultra short pulse laser with carrier envelope phase stabilization for use in Broadband Coherent Adaptive Optics (BCAO).
US09329377B2

A boroscope has a first end and a second end, and the first end of the boroscope has an optical fiber and light source. A working head is attached to the first end of the boroscope. The working head has an electrical motor, and a tool is attached to and is arranged to be driven by the electrical motor. The boroscope carries a cable extending from the electrical motor to the second end of the boroscope.
US09329372B2

A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side: a negative first lens unit which does not move for zooming; a positive second lens unit which moves during the zooming; a negative third lens unit which moves during the zooming; and a positive fourth lens unit, wherein the following expressions are satisfied: −0.80
US09329371B2

A zoom lens having, in order from an object: a first lens group G1 having positive refractive power; a second lens G2 group having negative refractive power; a third lens group G3 having positive refractive power; and a fourth lens group G4 having positive refractive power, wherein the first lens group moves toward an image once then moves toward the object upon zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state, and the following conditional expressions are satisfied: 0.050
US09329370B2

A zoom lens exhibits a reduction in size, increased magnification, a reduction in variation of angle of view during zooming, and an increased focusing speed, said zoom lens being suitable for an imaging apparatus using a solid-state imaging device such as an interchangeable lens, a digital still camera, a digital video camera, or the like. The zoom lens has, in the lens system, at least: a first negative lens group having negative refractive power; a second negative lens group disposed further towards the image side than the first negative lens group, and which has negative refractive power; and a lens group (A) disposed so as to be adjacent to the image side of the second negative lens group. In the zoom lens, focusing from an infinite distance to a near object is performed by moving only the second negative lens group towards the image side, and prescribed conditions are satisfied.
US09329369B2

An optical system which forms an optical image on an image pickup element, comprising in order from an object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, which includes a plurality of lenses, a stop, and a second lens unit which includes a plurality of lenses, wherein the first lens unit includes a first object-side lens which is disposed nearest to an object, and the second lens unit includes a second image-side lens which is disposed nearest to an image, and the first lens unit includes a negative lens, and a positive lens which is disposed on the object side of the negative lens, and the following conditional expressions are satisfied: β≦−1.1  (15) 0.08
US09329367B2

A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, first, second, third, and fourth lens groups with positive, negative, negative, and positive refractive powers, respectively. When varying magnification from a short focal length end to a long focal length end, the second lens group is moved to the image side, the third lens group is moved, and the first and fourth lens groups are fixed. The fourth lens group is constituted of a lens group on the object side and a lens group on the image side with a largest distance in the fourth lens group between them. Each of a refractive index, Abbe number, a partial dispersion ratio, and the like of each of at least one positive lens of the lens group on the object side and two positive lenses of the first lens group is regulated to be in a predetermined range.
US09329359B2

A mirror housing is configured to retain a mirror unit including (i) a mirror having a perimeter, and (ii) a resilient member that contacts the perimeter of the mirror. The mirror housing comprises a first housing member including a member back and a first member edge, and a second housing member including a second member edge that is removably secured to the member back of the first housing member. The first housing member selectively receives the mirror unit substantially adjacent to the member back, with the first member edge contacting at least approximately 25% of an outer surface of the resilient member. The second housing member also contacts at least approximately 25% of the outer surface of the resilient member to impart a force on the resilient member against the first member edge to inhibit movement of the mirror unit relative to the mirror housing.
US09329358B2

The present invention discloses a lens stopper mechanism comprising a case and a lens holder. The lens holder holds a lens and has at least one stopper portion; the stopper portion presses against the case after the lens holder moves toward the case for a predetermined distance.
US09329357B2

An imaging unit is provided with a cylindrical lens barrel, and an object-side lens which is disposed in the lens barrel and is fixed to the lens barrel using an adhesive. The lens barrel includes three abutting portions and three adhesive portions. The object-side lens abuts the three abutting portions in an optical axis direction of the object-side lens, and the adhesive portions are formed between an outer circumferential surface of the object-side lens and an inner circumferential surface of the lens barrel, and the adhesive is injected therein. The three adhesive portions are formed at an interval in a circumferential direction. The three adhesive portions and the three abutting portions do not overlap each other in plan view as seen from a vertical direction.
US09329354B2

An optic fiber branch distribution cable and system is provided. The branch distribution cable is pre-connectorized. The pre-connectorized branch distribution cable is configured for use in outdoor optical network installations. The branch distribution cable includes a pre-formed, head-end connectorized access point and a pre-formed, rear-end connectorized access point. Each access point includes one or more optical fiber tethers optically coupled at one end to an optical fiber of branch distribution cable and each includes an optical connector at the other end of the tether.
US09329349B2

An apparatus includes one or more optoelectronic transducers, driving circuitry, one or more cooling elements, and a light coupling module. The optoelectronic transducers are configured to convert between optical signals conveyed over optical fibers and respective electrical signals. The driving circuitry is configured to process the electrical signals. The cooling elements are configured to remove heat that is produced at least by the driving circuitry. The light coupling module is configured to couple the optical signals between the optical fibers and the optoelectronic transducers, and additionally serves as a baseplate for the cooling elements.
US09329344B2

An optical waveguide structure includes a rotator having a dual-layer core. A first layer of the dual-layer core may include a tapering portion. A second layer of the dual-layer core may include a rib portion disposed on the tapering portion. The combination of the rib portion and the tapering portion may receive a pair of optical signals, one being polarized in a TE mode and the other being polarized in a TM mode, and convert them to a pair of TE mode optical signals.
US09329341B2

Optical waveguide coupling ratios can be modified for a package by providing a substrate with a photonic circuit disposed on a first section of the substrate and a plurality of optical waveguides formed in glass disposed on a second section of the substrate, the waveguides being connected to the photonic circuit, adjacent ones of the waveguides having a fixed coupling ratio. A three-dimensional region of the glass abutting an end of one or more of the waveguides is lased to change a refractive index of the glass in each three-dimensional region, and thereby extend a length of each waveguide abutting one of the three-dimensional regions so that the coupling ratio between that waveguide and an adjacent waveguide is changed as a function of the extended length. The lasing is controlled based on feedback so that each coupling ratio changed by the lasing varies by less than a target amount.
US09329332B2

Systems and methods provide for illuminating a subject using a light pipe that transmits light from a source. A method includes providing a light pipe, the light pipe defining an inner lumen through which the image sensor views the subject; providing a light source in alignment with a proximal portion of the light pipe; and using the light source, projecting a light into the light pipe and through the light pipe, the light pipe including a distal portion for providing a high-angle bright field illumination pattern on the subject with a first portion of the light and for reflecting a second portion of the light for providing a low-angle dark field illumination pattern on the subject.
US09329331B2

The present disclosure discloses a mold frame, a backlight module and a display device. The mold frame includes sidewalls for limiting a periphery of a light guide plate and optical films in the backlight module, and a boss for limiting the light guide plate and the optical films in a direction perpendicular to an output surface of the light guide plate. The boss is provide with a recess opening towards the light guide plate. The recess is provided with a number of rollers therein in a lengthwise direction thereof. A diameter of the rollers is greater than a depth of the recess. The mold frame is applied to the backlight module. In assembly, the light guide plate, the light source and the optical films are placed in the mold frame. An outside surface of the roller provided in the boss of the mold frame abuts against the light guide plate, limiting the light guide plate in the direction of the thickness of the backlight module, thereby preventing the light guide plate from warping upward after expansion due to heat. Hence, the mold frame according to the present disclosure may reduce occurrence of phenomena such a slow light incidence efficiency of the backlight module, light leakage of the backlight module and wrinkling of the optical films.
US09329328B2

A backlight module includes a light guide plate (LGP), a light source, and at least one prism sheet. The LGP includes a light emitting surface, a bottom surface, a light incident surface, and a plurality of first microstructures on the bottom surface. Each of the first microstructure is a recessed structure and includes a first surface and a second surface. An included angle between the first surface and the bottom surface ranges from 15 degrees to 27 degrees. An included angle between the second surface and the bottom surface ranges from 50 degrees to 90 degrees. The light source provides a light beam, and an included angle between a light emitting direction of the light beam emitted from the light emitting surface of the LGP and a normal direction of the light emitting surface is greater than 30 degrees. The prism sheet is disposed above the light emitting surface.
US09329317B2

An LCD having a backlight module is proposed. The backlight module includes an ambient light collector for collecting ambient light; a back plate; a diffuser plate on the back plate; a plurality of optical fibers straightly fixed between the diffuser plate and the back plate and coupled to the ambient light collector. Microstructure is formed on the surface of the optical fibers straightly fixed between the diffuser plate and the back plate, and the microstructure makes light from the optical fibers evenly being emitted. The backlight module utilizes microstructure formed on a surface of optical fibers for evenly distributing light from the surface of the optical fibers. In hence, it effectively guides ambient light into the backlight module via the optical fibers and ensures at the same time that the light is evenly distributed to the backlight module.
US09329314B2

A polarizer includes a polarizer component having a top surface and an opposite bottom surface. The bottom surface is configured to couple to a color filter layer for a liquid crystal display. The polarizer also includes a transparent conducting layer disposed over the top surface. The transparent conducting layer being configured to electrically shield the LCD from a touch panel. The polarizer further includes a coating layer disposed over the transparent conducting layer.
US09329313B2

A system including an imaging device with a line of sight to an object, capable of producing a glare, which is to be captured in an image, a light source configured to illuminate a surface of the object, and an optical barrier positioned along the line of sight between the imaging device and the object, said optical barrier being sized and positioned to reduce reflected light off the surface of the object directed along the line of sight from being captured in the image. Methods are also disclosed.
US09329303B2

An apparatus for detecting thermal and epithermal neutrons. The apparatus includes a first radiation responsive element configured to absorb substantially all incident thermal neutrons and produce first light scintillations indicative of the absorbed thermal neutrons and a second radiation responsive element configured to produce second light scintillations indicative of at least epithermal neutrons that traverse the first radiation responsive element. Also disclosed are borehole logging methods and apparatuses for estimating formation properties using nuclear radiation, particularly an apparatus and method for estimating parameters of a formation. The method may include using neutron count rate information from a detector to model porosity or salinity. The apparatus includes a processor and storage subsystem with a program that, when executed, implements the method.
US09329302B2

A method is for detecting gamma rays using a gamma ray detector, and includes determining a first count of gamma rays having an energy in a first energy interval, using a controller coupled to the gamma ray detector. A second count of gamma rays having an energy in a second energy interval is determined, the second energy interval having a higher energy than the first energy interval, using the controller. A third count of gamma rays having an energy in a third energy interval is determined, the third energy interval having a higher energy than the second energy interval, using the controller. The second count of gamma rays is compensated for noise based upon a ratio of the second count and the third count, using the controller.
US09329299B2

A detection system of geological formations, particularly but not exclusively used for oil exploration, and for characterization and monitoring of hydrocarbon reservoirs. The detection system includes an electromagnetic transmission device positioned on a surface of a geological formation close to a first well having a vertical development direction, the first well being covered by a metal casing, and an electromagnetic reception device positioned deep inside the first well, the electromagnetic reception device including an electromagnetic detector. The electromagnetic transmission device includes a primary electromagnetic field generator configured to generate a primary electromagnetic field focalized in a direction of the metal casing, the metal casing irradiating the primary electromagnetic field into the geological formation.
US09329298B2

Disclosed herein are electromagnetic resistivity logging systems and methods that employ an antenna configuration having at most two transmitter or receiver antenna orientations that rotate relative to the borehole. The measurements made by this reduced-complexity antenna configuration enable the determination of at least seven components of a coupling matrix, which may be determined using a linear system of equations that express the azimuthal dependence of the measurements. For increased reliability, measurement averaging may be performed in azimuthally spaced bins. The coupling matrix components can then be used as the basis for determining logs of various formation parameters, including vertical resistivity and anisotropy.
US09329292B2

There is provided herein a method of seismic acquisition that utilizes an arrangement of marine sources where each source is positioned at a water depth shallow enough for the surface ghost notch to fall at a frequency greater than or equal to the maximum radiated frequency of interest. If the marine seismic source has a ratio of signal bandwidth to maximum frequency that is less than one half, then it is possible to deploy it at a greater depth at which ghost notches fall below and above its frequency band but not in it. Further, by placing two or more sources at different depths for the same frequency, any undesired nulls in the radiation pattern caused by the deeper tow can be filled in.
US09329290B2

Computing device and method for processing seismic traces to produce an image of a subsurface area. The method includes receiving a series of seismic traces related to the subsurface area and recorded by one or more seismic receivers, wherein the one or more seismic sources are originally generated by a source; applying a phase encoding function to the series of seismic traces, at least a portion of said seismic traces comprise signals reflected by geological interfaces of the subsurface area; applying a 3 dimensional (3D) harmonic-source reverse time migration of the series of seismic traces encoded with the phase encoding function; computing a forward wavefield by solving a first wave equation; computing a backward wavefield by solving a second wave equation; and cross-correlating the forward wavefield with the backward wavefield to generate an image of the subsurface.
US09329288B2

Seismic visibility analysis of selected subsurface structures is employed to determine surface locations offering high visibility of target events. These locations can then be used as a basis for acquiring additional seismic survey data and/or selecting existing traces for re-migration with more sophisticated migration methods. With either usage, the newly migrated data is expected to offer enhanced images of the target event. In some embodiments, the visibility determination includes using a wave equation based propagator to find, for each of multiple simulated shots, a reflection wavefield from the target event in a seismic model; and to calculate, for each of multiple receiver positions, a contribution signal from each reflection wavefield. The visibility determination further includes converting each contribution signal into a source-receiver visibility value. Because data acquisition and/or re-migration is limited to the selected region, the imaging effort for the target event is significantly reduced.
US09329271B2

In a method for optically scanning and measuring an environment, a laser scanner emits an emission light beam, receives a reception light beam reflected from an object, and determines for a multiplicity of measurement points at least the distance from the object to a center of the laser scanner, and in which at least some of the measurement points are displayed on a display device, the measurement points are assigned to pixels of a plane and their distances to the plane are assigned to respective depths, at least the pixels between the pixels which are assigned to the measurement points are filled with values in dependence on the depth, by selecting pixels, by searching for pixels which are adjacent to the selected pixels and have a smaller depth, and by filling the selected pixels depending on the values of the adjacent pixels and on their depths.
US09329263B2

An imaging system and method in which the system carries out the method which includes the steps of: (a) determining an incident field, (b) using the incident field and a volume integral equation (VIE) to determine a total field, (c) predicting voltage ratio measurement at a receiving antenna by using the volume integral equation (VIE), wherein the VIE includes a vector Green's function, (d) collecting voltage ratio measurements from one or more receiving antennas, and (e) comparing the predicted voltage ratio measurements to the collected voltage ratio measurements to determine one or more properties of the object being evaluated. An S-parameter based inverse scattering method using the vector Green's function and VIE as its core is also described.
US09329259B2

The invention refers to an RF front-end (100) adapted to receive or transmit signals located in at least two separated frequency bands (100) comprising an input and an output and further comprising a first phase shifter (5) coupled to the input of the RF front-end (100); a second phase shifter (6) coupled to the output of the RF front-end (100); the first phase shifter (1) being coupled to the second phase shifter (2) via a first amplifier (3) and second amplifier (4), respectively.
US09329257B2

A system and corresponding method using a cooperative localization technique for self identifying a location of a wireless device in a wireless network is presented. The system may estimate an arbitrary signal metric as a function of a signal received by the wireless device from the at least one other wireless device in the wireless network. The system may also convert at least one belief representing a distribution of at least one possible location of the at least one other wireless device to generate at least one converted belief. The system may further determine a self-belief as a function of the at least one converted belief and identify a self location, as a function of the self-belief, within the wireless network.
US09329251B2

This invention provides a multi-dimensional encoded (MDE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scheme to map a q-dimensional object with p spatial encoding magnetic fields (SEMs) onto a p-dimensional space where p is equal to or larger than q. The provided MDE MRI scheme links imaging schemes using linear and nonlinear gradients. The present invention also provides a system and method of optimizing the spatial bases in MDE MRI. With a higher dimension encoding space in MDE MRI, the image can be reconstructed in a more efficiency and accurate manner.
US09329249B2

A shim coil for use in magnetic resonance imaging spectroscopy (MRIS) is formed by cutting or punching in a sheet of electrically conductive material the required coil pattern. The pattern can be punched using a CNC punching or stamping machine.
US09329245B2

A method for producing hyperpolarized sample material for use in magnetic resonance investigations involves preparing a target material containing high γ nuclei with a short T1, a polarizing agent with a broad EPR line, and low γ nuclei with a long T1. The polarizing agent in the target material is irradiated with microwave radiation, wherein the target material is at a cryogenic temperature and exposed to a static magnetic field B0≧4.0 T, thus polarizing the high γ nuclei by DNP, and the polarization is transferred from the high γ nuclei to the low γ nuclei by Cross Polarization. A dissolved sample material is prepared containing the hyperpolarized low γ nuclei from the target material. Nuclei with a long longitudinal relaxation time T1 can thereby be quickly hyperpolarized to a high polarization level.
US09329243B2

An apparatus and method for detecting a status of at least one of a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs), is disclosed in embodiments of the invention. The apparatus includes a first node, a second node, a voltage generator, a current source and a first comparator. The voltage generator generates an output voltage to the first external circuit via the second node. The current source provides a current to the first external circuit via the first node to generate a first node voltage. The first comparator generates a first comparison result according to the first node voltage and a reference voltage, wherein the first comparison result indicates whether the status of at least one of the LEDs is short or not.
US09329232B2

The disclosure describes a novel method and apparatus for allowing response data output from the scan outputs of a circuit under test to be formatted and applied as stimulus data input to the scan inputs of the circuit under test. Also the disclosure described a novel method and apparatus for allowing the response data output from the scan outputs of a circuit under test to be formatted and used as expected data to compare against the response data output from the circuit under test. Additional embodiments are also provided and described in the disclosure.
US09329223B2

A method for detecting surface and bulk deep states in semiconductor materials is provided. In various embodiments, the method comprises configuring a detection circuit of charge based deep level transient spectrometer in one of a parallel mode and a series mode by controlling the configuration of a switching circuit of the detection circuit. The method additionally comprises generating digitized voltage charge outputs of a device under test utilizing the detection circuit as controlled via execution of an analog-to-digital conversion and timing program by a control system of the charge based deep level transient spectrometer. Furthermore, the method comprises obtaining desired information about deep level transients of the device under test based on the digitized voltage charge outputs via execution of a control system operable to execute a Q-DLTS data analysis program by the control system.
US09329222B2

A test device of a semiconductor device for testing a semiconductor device including a plurality of interface pads includes a plurality of coupling units, each configured to be coupled to a corresponding one of the plurality of interface pads, a channel configured to be coupled to the plurality of coupling units, a voltage generating unit configured to generate a test voltage applied to the channel, and a current measuring unit configured to measure a current that flows on the channel in response to the test voltage.
US09329216B2

A method and circuit for determining a circuit element parameter in a ground fault circuit interrupter circuit. An electrical signal provided to a first node is used to generate another electrical signal at a second node. The electrical signal at the second node is multiplexed with a modulation signal to generate a modulated signal that is then filtered and converted into a digital representation of a portion of the circuit element parameter. The electrical signal at the second node is multiplexed with the modulation signal after it has been phase shifted to produce a modulated signal that is filter and converted into a digital representation of another portion of the circuit element parameter. In another aspect, a slope based solenoid self-test method is used for self-testing in a GFCI circuit. Alternatively, a method for determining a wiring fault is provided using a digital filter.
US09329200B2

A method of processing signals from an accelerometer/gyroscopic-based input device includes providing the input device within a vehicle. An accelerometer/gyroscopic-based second device is also provided within the vehicle. The input device is manually actuated while the vehicle is in motion. First signals are transmitted from the input device in response to the manually actuating step. Second signals are transmitted from the second device in response to the motion of the vehicle. The first signals are adjusted dependent upon the second signals.
US09329198B2

A computer-implemented method for determining the direction of a moving object across a sensor having a plurality of inputs is disclosed. The invention determines the direction of a moving object, such as a vehicle on a roadway, based on inputs provided by sensors along the object's path. The methods involve monitoring state changes of the inputs as the object passes the sensor and comparing the magnitude of state changes in the order in which a forward-moving object would cause inputs to switch to a particular state. For each state change comparison, a direction variable is adjusted to indicate forward or reverse movement. After passage of the object, a direction of movement is assigned to the moving object on the basis of the final value of the direction variable. The invention provides a high degree of accuracy, is simple to reconfigure, and more economical than other methods.
US09329195B2

Disclosed is a container cleaning device which cleans a container for holding a sample. The device comprises: a container holding section for holding the container which has a substantially spherical inner bottom; a discharge section which is inserted into the container; and a cleaning nozzle which discharges a cleaning liquid into the container. The discharge section comprises an aperture at the bottom, and comprises a discharge flow path which is connected to the aperture and discharges the sample or the cleaning liquid in the container, and the discharge section is insertable to the deepest part of the container, and the bottom part of the discharge section conforms to the shape of the substantially spherical inner bottom of the container.
US09329192B2

The present invention is directed to a simple process for the modification of the specificity of a peptidase of the hemostatic system by coupling polymers to the peptidase causing it to lose its reactivity in the hemostatic system, but enabling it to continue to react with certain inhibitors, effectors and substrates. The invention is furthermore directed to processes for the detection or quantitative determination of inhibitors of the peptidase in bodily fluids or other samples as well as to processes for their neutralization and/or removal from liquids. Finally, the invention allows the use of a polymer-coupled peptidase as drug and furthermore provides a device which makes use of such a peptidase in the removal of peptidase inhibitors from samples or from the bloodstream of a patient.
US09329190B2

Described herein are assays directed to determining the level of bioavailable or free vitamin D in a blood sample in a subject. The values determined for bioavailable or free vitamin D indicate whether the subject suffers from insufficient levels of vitamin D. Also described herein are methods of treatment for vitamin D insufficiency.
US09329189B2

This invention relates to antibodies, including specified portions or variants, specific for at least the human Amyloid-beta 11 N-terminal site, i.e. Aβ11-x peptides. It further provides methods of making and using said antibodies, including therapeutic formulations, administration and devices.
US09329184B2

A compound represented by the formula (I) (R1 represents a substituent on the benzene ring; R2 represents a monovalent substituent; R3 and R4 represent hydrogen atom, or an alkyl group; R5 and R6 represent an alkyl group, or an aryl group; R7 and R8 represent hydrogen atom, or an alkyl group; R9 and R10 represent hydrogen atom, or a monovalent substituent; and X represents silicon atom, germanium atom, or tin atom), or a salt thereof.
US09329180B2

The present invention provides a method for preparing an isolated eukaryotic cell which presents an anti-polyethylene glycol (PEG) antibody on a cell membrane. The present invention also provides a method for a quantitative analysis of a polyethylene glycol (PEG) by said anti-PEG antibody expressing cell. The cell-based quantitative analysis of the present prevention could sensitively quantify free PEG and PEG-modified macromolecules (proteins, nanoparticles and liposomes) as sensitive as nano-gram level.
US09329179B2

The invention provides devices and methods for surface patterning the substrate of a microfluidic device, and for detection and analysis of interactions between molecules by mechanically trapping a molecular complex while substantially expelling solvent and unbound solute molecules. Examples of molecular complexes include protein-protein complexes and protein-nucleic acid complexes.
US09329177B2

A method for manufacturing a test paper is disclosed in the present invention, and at least comprises the following steps. First, a chemical precursor comprising at least a reducing agent is coated onto a substrate. The substrate is then dipped into a metal salt solution comprising a plurality of metal ions for a predetermined time to reduce the metal ions to form metal particles on the substrate. Finally, the substrate is taken out and dried to complete a manufacture of at least a test paper. In the meantime a method for using the test paper, and a chemical composition used in the abovementioned for manufacturing the test paper are also disclosed in the present invention.
US09329168B2

Electrophysiology culture plates are provided and are formed from a transparent microelectrode array (MEA) plate. The MEA plate comprises a substrate, a first layer and a first insulating layer. The substrate has a plurality of vias extending from an upper to a lower surface, each via being in electrical contact with each of a plurality of contact pads disposed on the lower surface. The first layer is disposed on the upper surface of the substrate and has a plurality of MEA arrays in electrical communication with at least a first routing layer. Each MEA array comprises a plurality of reference electrodes and a plurality of microelectrodes and the first routing layer is in electrical communication with a select number of the plurality of vias. A first insulating layer is disposed on the first layer. The MEA plate is joined to a biologic culture plate having a plurality of culture wells such that each culture well defines an interior cavity having a bottom surface that is at least partially transparent and in positioned in registration with a select optical port. The MEA plate is coupled to the biologic culture well plate such that each MEA array is operatively coupled to one culture well wherein each microelectrode and each reference electrode are in electrical communication with the interior cavity through the bottom surface of the culture well.
US09329159B2

Methods and systems for colorimetrically analyzing a liquid medium by analyzing chemical test strip images are provided. The liquid medium can be industrial water in an industrial water system. Image analyzing software carries out the analysis. The results of the analysis can be used to diagnosing a chemical treatment regimen of the industrial water system. A chemical test strip holder can be used to enhance reliability and repeatability of the imaging process and/or subsequent analysis.
US09329143B2

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for studying the X-ray properties of samples (3c), wherein X-ray radiation scattered by a sample (3c) is recorded by a detector (5) positioned at a distance from the sample (3c) and is evaluated with respect to the characteristics of the sample. According to the invention, it is provided that at a predetermined distance between the X-ray beam source (1) and the detector (5) or between the starting point (2b) of the X-ray beam (10) directed at the sample (3c) and the detector (5), for a predetermined number of successive measurements the distance (S1, S2) between the sample (3c) and the detector (5) is changed and is set at a predetermined different value.
US09329139B2

A complex inspection device provided with an optical image pickup unit, an X-ray camera, and an X-ray irradiation unit is provided. An arrival path is defined as a route of an X-ray that arrives at the X-ray camera from the X-ray irradiation unit. The arrival path is shortened for a close-up in a close-up position. In a non-close-up position, the arrival path is longer than that in the close-up position. When the X-ray irradiation unit and/or the X-ray camera needs to move toward the close-up position, the optical pickup unit is moved out in advance so that the X-ray irradiation unit and the X-ray camera relatively move toward the close-up position.
US09329136B2

To detect an infinitesimal defect, highly precisely measure the dimensions of the detect, a detect inspection device is configured to comprise: a irradiation unit which irradiate light in a linear region on a surface of a sample; a detection unit which detect light from the linear region; and a signal processing unit which processes a signal obtained by detecting light and detecting a defect. The detection unit includes: an optical assembly which diffuses the light from the sample in one direction and forms an image in a direction orthogonal to the one direction; and a detection assembly having an array sensor in which detection pixels are positioned two-dimensionally, which detects the light diffused in the one direction and imaged in the direction orthogonal to the one direction, adds output signals of each of the detection pixels aligned in the direction in which the light is diffused, and outputs same.
US09329134B2

A reflection type optical sensor that detect a surface condition of a moving body and that is used for an image generation apparatus which forms images on a recording media includes a light-emitting device which has a plurality of light emitter systems including at least two light-emitting members and a light-emitting optical system having a plurality of light-emitting lenses corresponding to a plurality of the light emitter systems and guiding light emitted from the light emitter systems to the moving body and a light-receiving device which has a light receiver system including at least two light-receiving members and a light-receiving optical system having light-receiving lenses corresponding to the at least two light-receiving members and guiding light reflected by the moving body to the light receiver system. The image generation apparatus has further a surface condition judging device in addition to the reflection type optical sensor.
US09329133B2

An apparatus, intended for use in analyzing particles in urine is disclosed, that comprising: a sample distribution section for distributing urine samples to a first aliquot and a second aliquot; a first specimen preparing section for preparing a first specimen for measuring urinary particles, containing at least erythrocytes, by mixing a first stain reagent and the first aliquot; a second specimen preparing section for preparing a second specimen for measuring bacteria by mixing a second stain reagent and the second aliquot; and an optical detecting section comprising a light source for irradiating a light to a specimen being supplied, a scattered light receiving element for detecting scattered light emitted from the specimen, and a fluorescence receiving element for detecting fluorescence emitted from the specimen. A method intended for use in analyzing particles in urine is also disclosed.
US09329126B2

A detector suitable for mass spectroscopy uses a thin membrane that converts the kinetic energy of impinging molecules into corresponding photons, the latter detected with a suitable photosensor. The arrival of molecules at the membrane is detected by detection of the corresponding photons.
US09329114B2

An instrument (10) for gravimetrically determining moisture content has a housing (20), with a weighing device (40) arranged inside. The weighing device (40) has a load receiver (60) onto which a sample (62) is placed. The housing has a lower, stationary housing part (21) and an upper, movable housing part (22), the movable housing part alternately occupying a measuring position and a loading position. In the loading position, the respective housing parts are spaced apart from each other, allowing a sample to be put on the load receiver. In the measuring position, the respective housing parts form an essentially enclosed testing compartment (30) that surrounds the load receiver. A temperature sensor (80) is arranged so that the temperature sensor is above the load receiver in the measuring position and is essentially to the side of the load receiver in the loading position.
US09329110B2

The present disclosure relates to a distribution apparatus for a sample exposition arrangement comprising at least two sample containers and a fluid source for fluid to be supplied to the sample containers. The distribution apparatus includes a distribution device including a distribution device inlet for supplying fluid to the distribution device, one distribution device outlet each per sample container, and a distribution chamber between the distribution device inlet and the distribution device outlets. The distribution apparatus further includes at least one fluid outlet device per distribution device outlet. The at least one fluid outlet device includes one fluid-outlet device inlet in fluid communication with the corresponding distribution device outlet, a first fluid-outlet device outlet for discharging fluid into the corresponding sample container, and a second fluid-outlet device outlet for discharging excess fluid. The present disclosure also relates and to a sample exposition arrangement that includes the distribution apparatus.
US09329109B2

A cell processing apparatus includes a storage container that contains liquid L including a biological sample; a filter that prevents a first cell C1 in the biological sample from passing and allows a second cell C2 having a smaller diameter than that of the first cell C1 to pass; and a filtration cylinder for separating, in the storage container and via the filter, the liquid L into a first liquid L1 mainly including the first cell C1 and a second liquid L2 mainly including the second cell C2. A measurement target cell filtered by the filter among other cells can be easily collected.
US09329107B2

The present invention provides microfabricated substrates and methods of conducting reactions within these substrates. The reactions occur in plugs transported in the flow of a carrier-fluid.
US09329104B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an inside drum-type tire testing device, which can significantly improve operability and test precision, reliably has strength high enough to eliminate any concern about strength thereof, and has relatively small size and significantly small floor-occupied area. Specifically, the present invention provides a tire testing device, comprising: an inside drum-type cylindrical rotating drum 1; a fixed support member 2 for surrounding the rotating drum 1 from the outer peripheral side of the drum via rotation guide means 3; and a linear motor 4 provided between the rotating drum 1 and the fixed support member 2, for rotationally driving the rotating drum 1.
US09329097B2

A method is disclosed for determining off-temperature behavior of a solenoid fluid control valve. The method comprises performing a current sweep at a first temperature. The method further comprises choosing a first and second characterization control pressure for characterizing the solenoid fluid control valve. A first current may be determined that corresponds to the first characterization control pressure based on the current sweep, and a first metric may be assigned to the solenoid fluid control valve based on the first current. A second current corresponding to the second characterization control pressure may be determined based on the current sweep, and a second metric may be assigned to the solenoid fluid control valve based on the second current. Information regarding the behavior of the solenoid fluid control valve at a second temperature may be determined based on the first and second metrics.
US09329095B2

There is provided a method for evaluating prestressing force of a bonded tendon. The method includes: striking a prestressing strand of a bonded tendon with an impact hammer; measuring an acceleration response signal from the prestressing strand using an accelerometer, and receiving the acceleration response signal with a data logger; and calculating stress wave velocity based on the acceleration response signal received by the data logger, and evaluating prestressing force of the bonded tendon, based on the calculated stress wave velocity, using a controller.
US09329087B2

A pyroelectric-type infrared sensor is provided with: a sensor element; a shield case for covering the sensor element; an infrared transmission filter; an output circuit, which performs impedance conversion to output signals of the sensor element and outputs the signals; and at least one reflecting film. In the pyroelectric-type infrared sensor, the at least one reflecting film, which reflects infrared, is provided between the infrared transmission filter attached to the shield case and surface electrodes, and the infrared transmission filter is disposed extremely close to the surface electrodes.
US09329068B2

An apparatus, system, and method for measuring, in accordance with a standard measure, any of a fractional part, whole and multiple of a quantity of chopped wood, such as firewood, for delivery to a customer are provided. The apparatus may be a bucket having one or more markers disposed thereon, using one or more measurement scales adapted to at least one of the bucket size, chopped wood size, and measurement system, where the markers indicate the quantity of chopped wood contained in the bucket. The apparatus may further comprise an attachment section to allow the apparatus to be attached to a vehicle to transport the apparatus. The method may include filling the apparatus to the markers with a plurality of pieces of chopped wood, delivering the chopped wood to a customer, and providing the customer with an assurance that the quantity of chopped wood is accurate.
US09329055B2

An inductive sensor device for a motor vehicle includes a coil, wherein the coil is arranged on a carrier element and the coil is connected electrically to an electronics unit and wherein an induced voltage can be registered by the coil (10). The carrier element has a first side and the coil is formed by at least one planar coil on the first side of the carrier element.
US09329054B2

One aspect provides a system including a sensor adjustment component comprising: a memory device having adjustment information stored therein; signal source capable of producing a signal detectable by a sensor to be adjusted; and one or more processors; wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute program instructions to operate the signal source to produce a predetermined signal pattern detectable by a measurement component of the sensor to be adjusted; and wherein the predetermined signal pattern comprises the adjustment information. Other aspects are disclosed.
US09329046B2

A method of determining data indicative of an individual driver workload is disclosed. The method involves obtaining a generic driver workload parameter, the generic driver workload data being based on data indicative of the behavior of multiple drivers when performing a maneuver at a node or traversing a set of one or more segments of an electronic map. An individual modifier representative of the behavior of an individual driver is generated and used to determine an individual driver workload parameter indicative of the workload of the individual driver when performing the maneuver at a node or traversing the one or more segments of an electronic map based on the generic driver workload data for performing the maneuver at the node or traversing the one or more segments of the electronic map.
US09329031B2

A testing device includes a positioning mechanism, a testing mechanism, and a controller. The testing device is used for testing lengths, widths, straightness, verticality, flatness, position of the testing points, and other dimensions of a workpiece. The positioning mechanism is used for positioning the workpiece. The testing mechanism is fixed on the positioning mechanism for testing dimensions of the workpiece at one time. The controller is electrically coupled to the testing mechanism for controlling the testing mechanism in use.
US09329030B2

A non-contact method of inspecting the topography of an area of an object via analysis of the phase of a pattern projected on the object. The method includes taking a first image of the object, obtained from a first perspective, on which an optical pattern is projected, and taking a second image of the object, obtained from a second perspective, on which an optical pattern is projected but in which the optical pattern, as it falls on the object, in the second image differs to that in the first image. The method further includes determining data describing the topography of at least a region of the object based on phase data relating to the phase of at least a region of the optical pattern as imaged in the first image. Phase data obtained from a corresponding region of the object as imaged in the second image is used to resolve any ambiguity in the phase or topography data obtained from the first image.
US09329026B2

A chromatic confocal point sensor (CPS) system and associated methods are provided for measuring holes. A CPS optical pen includes a beam dividing deflecting element that directs measurement light simultaneously along at least three directions to the interior surface of the hole. A CPS electronics portion comprises a light generator, a spectrometer, and a signal processor. In operation, the CPS pen directs measurement light to the interior surface along the at least three directions, and the spectrometer receives measurement light reflected from those directions back through the pen and provides a spectral intensity profile comprising spectral peak components corresponding to distances to the interior surface along those directions. The hole characteristic may be determined based at least partially on those distances. The CPS pen may be used as a probe on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). The CPS pen does not require rotation in a hole to measure the hole.
US09329025B2

Provided is a measuring device including a photoelectric conversion unit that receives a light beam emitted from a position measurement object by different optical path lengths and that outputs an electrical signal corresponding to intensity of the received light beam for each optical path length, and a measuring unit that measures a position of the position measurement object based on a ratio of two electrical signals out of the electrical signals by optical path lengths acquired from the photoelectric conversion unit.
US09329021B1

A system for use in monitoring a structure is provided. The system includes a strip of piezoresistive material including nano-elements, electrodes coupled to the strip, and a resistance detector configured to measure a resistance of the strip.
US09329013B2

The present invention is related to a reel ruler structure that includes a casing, a push element pivotally installed therein with an edge extended outside, a compressing element pivotally positioned inside the casing, a linkage pivotally connected with both the push element and the compressing element for a linked movement, and an elastic element installed in between the push element and the casing so as to enable the compressing element to secure a ruler. A pressing to the push element will release the ruler for a short period of time and a relief to the push element will reset the compressing element and the push element by the elastic element. An enhancement of both convenience and safety in operating the reel ruler is thus achieved.
US09329005B2

Embodiments of the Expandable Arrow Nock are comprised of a nock tip, expandable fins, an internal spring, a high tensile strength wire and a pass-through module. When the arrow is fired, the fins are in the stowed position and remain in the stowed position as the arrow travels up to the point where the arrow hits the target animal. At the point where the arrow hits the target animal, the deceleration of the arrow at that instant actuates the compressed internal spring that in turn force the fins into the deployed or open position. The deployed fins prevent the nock from travelling through the body of the animal. However, the shaft portion of the arrow detaches from the nock and pass-through module.
US09328996B1

A sight for a projectile launching device, such as an archery bow, that enables a viewing line of sight which closely matches a portion of a curved projectile path of flight to attain an extended accuracy range. The sight includes a set of mirrors arranged periscopically and mounted to the launching device. For example, the sight can be provided integrally or through mounting to an archery bow in the location and manner of traditional aiming point pin sights.
US09328994B2

A handgun mounted laser sight that is combined with a trigger-guard mountable switch with flexible connections that accommodate various different geometries of handgun frames. A flush surface-mounted switch secured to the underside of the handgun trigger guard contacts mating the laser sight are located on the downward facing surface of the gun frame forward of the trigger guard. The switch is designed and located to provide passive user switching in use without separate movement or applied force of the user's hand or fingers.
US09328986B1

A turret assembly includes a mounting plate and a ring rotatably engaged with the mounting plate. The ring includes a first arm extending radially outward relative to a central axis of the ring. The turret assembly further includes a second arm pivotally coupled to the first arm and a telescoping member. The telescoping member has a first end pivotally coupled to the ring and a second end pivotally coupled to the second arm. The second arm is selectively repositionable between a storage orientation and an operating orientation.
US09328983B2

A tool device for easy cleaning of an automatic Pistol such as a Ruger Mark Series. It relates to a method and tool for disassembling and reassembling automatic pistol components including removing a mainspring assembly, bolt, spring assembly, barrel and grips. It is useful for cleaning, inspection and replacement of parts for handguns. It is a one piece handgun disassembly and reassembling tool made of a durable material and configured for use with a handgun, the tool having a guide rod/rib with a key and an aperture, an angled section of a rib, and other features to facilitate disassembly, cleaning, reassembly of the automatic weapon and reloading magazines.
US09328976B1

A body comprising at least two components having one or more different properties and a method of producing the same are disclosed. One of the body components is in the form of particles with optional adhesive interlayers. A second of the components has a surface locally melted in a predetermined pattern and only to a predetermined depth by scanning an electron beam there across to incorporate the particles and form a metal composite film. Thereby, a predetermined volumetric concentration of the incorporated particles varies continuously from the locally melted surface so as to provide two surfaces in the body having different coefficients of thermal expansion.
US09328967B2

A design and manufacturing technique for a “Long Heat Exchanger”, a counter-flow heat exchanger transfer up to 100% of heat and temperature between two fluids (gas or liquid). Inner “Core” of heat conductive material capable of manufacture in continuous lengths, may be coiled, cut and formed to shape. 100% of conductive material making up core is a heat transfer surface, allowing minimum material design for chosen transfer efficiency. “Core” has integral fins allowing overall device to be bent in a radius without deforming. Outer channel volume and core fins surface area may be sized to match different density fluids.
US09328961B2

The present invention provides a crucible of a coating machine The crucible includes a heat conduction device installed inside the crucible. The heat conduction device includes one or multiple radial metal wires or metal strips disposed along a radial direction of the crucible, and one or multiple axial metal wires or metal strips disposed along an axial direction of the crucible. By the heat conduction device formed by metal wires or metal strips, it can achieve a better heat conduction such that the heating temperature of the organic material placed in the crucible is uniform to achieve the steady state of thermal equilibrium. And the crucible can fill more material, increase evaporation rate, decrease the number of refilling the material, and improve production efficiency.
US09328950B2

Device and method for making ice cubes, comprising a supplying device for supplying a liquid substance to at least one elongated mold (1) and a refrigerating device for freezing said liquid substance, which at least one mold defines a space for an ice column which is at least substantially closed at least while said liquid substance is being refrigerated. The at least one mold comprises two mold halves (Ia, Ib) which are movable relative to each other, so that the mold halves can be moved apart once the ice column has been formed. Method for making ice cubes, comprising the steps of a) supplying a liquid substance to a mold, b) freezing the liquid substance in the mold, and c) removing the ice cubes thus formed from the mold, wherein the liquid substance is supplied in step a) to a mold comprising an at least substantially closed space. Metering device for ice cubes.
US09328949B2

A system and method for controlling gas surges in compressors powered by electric motors. An adjustable speed drive (ASD) incorporating a microprocessor powered by a three-phase source of electricity controls the electric motor which drives the compressor. A bypass valve is inserted between the gas input of the compressor and the gas discharge. The bypass valve opens in response to signals from the ASD which detects gas surges by analyzing a stored surge map which plots a surge line and a related discretionary control line based on the power and speed of the motor. When the operating point of the motor crosses the control line, the ASD causes the bypass valve to open.
US09328947B2

Plate evaporator (14), in particular for a refrigerant circuit, having a pre-evaporator (18), a low temperature evaporator (28), and a post-evaporator (24) for refrigerant, all of which are integrated into a singular component, and furthermore having an inlet and an outlet for a heat transfer medium.
US09328945B2

An air conditioner for a vehicle includes: a compressor (21); an internal heat exchanger (22, 24) which exchanges heat between the refrigerant and air in an interior space; an external heat exchanger (23) which exchanges heat between the refrigerant and outside air; a battery (5); a battery heat exchanger (29) which exchanges heat between the refrigerant and the battery by causing the refrigerant, which travels to the compressor from the external heat exchanger, to go through the battery heat exchanger; a throttle adjusting part (30) which is arranged in a refrigerant flow passage on an upstream side of the battery heat exchanger; and a control unit (40). The control unit (40) controls the flow of the refrigerant through the throttle adjusting part based on an extra heat exchange capacity that is an extra capacity of the external heat exchanger with respect to the internal heat exchanger.
US09328941B2

A service water heating unit (2) provided for use in a heating installation includes at least one heat exchanger (6), having a first flow path (10) in which a heating medium flows and a second flow path (12) in which service water to be heated flows, and a first circulation pump (46) which pumps the heating medium. The first circulation pump (46) is connected to the first flow path (10) of the heat exchanger (6) and mounted onto the heat exchanger (6). The service water heating unit (2) can also include a second circulation pump (76) mounted to on the heat exchanger (6), that pumps the heated service water.
US09328936B2

Methods and systems for a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system for an enclosed environment may be configured to at least one of heat and cool air and include an air circulation system configured to circulate air at least within the enclosed environment. The air within the enclosed environment may comprise at least the indoor air. The system may further include an outdoor air inlet for introducing at least a portion of outdoor air into the enclosed environment, where the outdoor air comprises air from outside the enclosed environment. The system may further include a scrubbing system having an adsorbent material to reduce presence of at least one gas contaminant in the indoor air. A controller system may be included for controlling the operation of at least one of the circulation system and the scrubbing system.
US09328925B2

A cross-fire tube purging arrangement includes a cross-fire tube extending from proximate a combustor chamber to proximate an adjacent combustor chamber for fluidly coupling the combustor chamber and the adjacent combustor chamber. Also included is a compressed air supply arrangement for selectively delivering a compressed air to the cross-fire tube, the compressed air supply arrangement comprising a regulating component for controlling delivery of the compressed air to the cross-fire tube.
US09328917B2

A flow control device for partitioning a fluid flow from a common supply stream into at least two delivery streams by means of a common reciprocating damper such as a cylindrical sleeve damper. A combustion device using such a flow control device to partition a gas supply thereto and a combustion apparatus such as a boiler incorporating such combustion devices are also described.
US09328916B2

Described herein are embodiments of systems and methods for oxidizing gases. In some embodiments, a reaction chamber is configured to receive a fuel gas and maintain the gas at a temperature within the reaction chamber that is above an autoignition temperature of the gas. The reaction chamber may also be configured to maintain a reaction temperature within the reaction chamber below a flameout temperature. In some embodiments, heat and product gases from the oxidation process can be used, for example, to drive a turbine, reciprocating engine, and injected back into the reaction chamber.
US09328915B2

A power tool system includes a tool body with a motor having an output member that drives an accessory. The output member defines an output member axis. An end effector is coupled for rotation with the output member relative to the tool body. The end effector is configured to retain the accessory. A light source is disposed on the end effector. A consumable tool, such as a holesaw, is removably attachable to the end effector, and has an illumination opening configured to be substantially aligned with the light source. The holesaw may have a generally cylindrical side wall and a base wall that defines a central opening for receiving an arbor, an aperture spaced radially outward by a first distance for receiving a projection on an arbor and an illumination opening spaced radially a second greater distance.
US09328910B2

An electronic implement replacement structure includes a housing body (102) and an electronic module (300). The housing body (102) has a base (110) and a connecting ring (120) connected to the base (110). The connecting ring (120) includes press portions (124) and notches (122) spaced apart from one another and respectively disposed between each two adjacent press portion (124). A guiding groove (126) is formed on an outer surface of each of the press portions (124). The electronic module (300) is disposed on the base (110) and corresponding to the connecting ring (120). The electronic module (300) includes an electronic unit (310) and a rotatable ring (330) enclosing the electronic unit (310). An inner wall of the rotatable ring (330) has a sliding block (332) correspondingly and rotatably engaged with the guiding groove (126). Therefore, assembling and disassembling can be achieved without any tools.
US09328907B2

A light unit includes a light transmitting portion and a body. A detecting member and a light source unit are located in the light transmitting portion. The detecting member detects the environment brightness and the light source unit emits light to compensate light difference between the expected brightness and the environment brightness. A control member is located in the body and electrically connected with the detecting member and the light source unit. The control member includes a signal magnifying unit, a switching unit and a control unit. The signal magnifying unit receives and magnifies the light signal from the detecting member, and the switching unit switches the light signal from analog signal into digital signal and sends the digital signal to the control unit. The control unit controls the light source to compensate the light difference between the expected brightness and the environment brightness.
US09328903B2

Resin-based lighting fixtures provide both light and a desirable aesthetic. The resin-based lighting fixtures include a plurality of propellers having curved resin strips that at least partially conceal a light source. The resin strips can form any number of aesthetically pleasing configurations, such as, for example, a blossom. The resin strips can be transparent or translucent. When lit, the light source can illuminate the resin strips.
US09328894B2

A light engine has a pillar with first and second ends; a circuit board on the first end of the pillar, a light source mounted on the circuit board encircling the pillar and facing towards the second end of the pillar, and a surface extending from the second end of the pillar, that surface and the exterior of the pillar between that surface and the circuit board being coated with a reflective remote phosphor that is excited by light from the light source. The light engine may be used in a light bulb, with a frosted globe enclosing the circuit board and mounted round the outer edge of the phosphor-coated surface, and an Edison screw or other standard base connected to the second end of the pillar.
US09328888B2

A lens for a motor vehicle optical module, wherein it comprises a series of patterns on an optical surface, said patterns extending in a preferred direction.
US09328887B2

Techniques related to generating daylight-like light from green laser and magenta phosphor are disclosed. Such light may be used in headlights of vehicles. The daylight-like light generated from green laser and filtered through magenta phosphor is almost white or substantially white. The white laser is generated from green laser that is filtered through magenta phosphor. The green laser is well known for producing the highest perceived intensity among all colored lasers with equal or similarly provided energy and is low to obtain in cost.
US09328885B2

A vehicle lighting unit includes LEDs mounted on a substrate, and an elongated inner lens configured to receive light from the LEDs and guide the light along its lengthwise direction so as to emit light from its front surface. The inner lens includes a first light guiding section extending in the left-to-right direction and a second light guiding section extending in the vertical direction, and a bending section between the first and second light guiding sections. The bending section includes a first reflection surface and a second reflection surface. The first and second reflection surfaces internally reflect light toward the first and second light guiding sections, respectively. The LEDs include a first LED and a second LED, disposed in the rear of the first reflection surface and the second reflection surface, respectively.
US09328884B2

An aqua-lamp-based candle-like lighting device includes a stand, an aqua-lamp and a seat. The stand and seat are positioned at a bottom and a top of the aqua-lamp respectively. A control circuit, installed inside the stand, has a heating element by resistance from electricity and an illuminator. The aqua-lamp is in a three-dimensional hollow shape of transparent appearance containing a low boiling temperature fluid in a dense state with a bottom adhered to the heating element. The seat is provided with a receiving port for accommodating a candle. Thereby the low boiling temperature fluid is in a flowing state by contacting a heat source and under lighting by the illuminator when electricity is applied to the stand and the heating element is operating by resistance so as to enhance the decorating effectiveness.
US09328882B2

Methods and apparatus for ceiling suspended systems according to various aspects of the present invention include a modular platform for supporting and supplying multiple devices. A wire way bar may facilitate connection and support for the devices, such as light sources and other systems.
US09328881B2

A rapidly deployable portable lighting system includes a low voltage rechargeable power source, lights, and a wiring harness configured for being coupled to the lights with quick-release connectors. Each light includes a housing, LEDs receiving power from the power source and transmitting light of at least two colors, and a power port for connecting to the wiring harness. A controller is configured to selectively switch individual LEDs on and off, independently of one another, to control illumination. A smart case houses the power source and controller integrally therein, and is sized and shaped to receive the lights and wiring harness for storage and transport. The lights and wiring harness may be removed from the case for deployment.
US09328876B2

A LED lamp includes a plurality of red LEDs and a plurality of blue LEDs, a phosphor covering at least the plurality of blue LEDs, where the lamp has an LPW of at least 200 in a steady state operation.
US09328869B2

A vortex breaker fits over an outlet of a vessel. The breaker has a basket disposed on a base with an opening communicating with the vessel's outlet. The basket has a cylindrical sidewall screen with profiled wires arranged around bars that extend from the base. The basket also has a top screen attached to the sidewall screen. The top screen has wires arranged across a plurality of bars. Fluid flow passing through the screens is directed by the profiled wires and the bars. Below the top screen, a baffle plate diverts the fluid flow passing through the top screen to the periphery of the top plate. Inside the basket, a flow modifier has a vanes attached to the base and disposed radially around the base's opening. At least some of the vanes have cross-tees extending from the vane's sides to break the radially directed flow inside the basket.
US09328866B2

A treadmill includes a tread deck supported on a tread base for rotatably supporting an endless belt, a motor driving device coupled to the endless belt for driving the endless belt to move around the tread deck, a lubricant supplying device having a container for containing a lubricant, a pump device attached to the container for pumping the lubricant out of the container, a motor coupled to an actuating rod for actuating the actuating rod toward and away from the pump device and to force the lubricant to flow out through the pump device, and a pipe is coupled to the pump device for receiving the lubricant from the container and for supplying the lubricant to lubricate the endless belt.
US09328863B2

This invention is a panel mount for non penetrative fastening of a panel (such as a glass pane). The panel mount has clamp jaws defining an elongate slot in which an edge of a panel can be received. A foot is provided for mounting and fastening the clamp jaws to a structure. At least one of the clamp jaws carries at least one threaded fastener that can be actuated by a user, including when the foot is fastened to the structure. The threaded fastener(s) of the at least one clamp jaw, in cooperation with the other clamping jaw, is capable of operatively clamping the panel to hold it in the slot, irrespective of any non-parallel disposition of the plane of the panel to the elongate direction of the slot.
US09328856B2

A system and method for improving oil-and-water separation in a blended fluid stream are presented. The system includes a pressure reduction device that causes cyclonic flow in the stream. The pressure reduction device may be a wafer-based hydrocyclone or a modified hydrocyclone having an underflow outlet but no overflow outlet. The system may also include a valve that is located upstream or downstream of the pressure reduction device. Both the valve and the pressure reduction device reduce the pressure of the fluid stream while reducing the shearing of oil and water droplets within the stream. As a result, the droplets are more likely to coalesce and less likely to form emulsions, thus improving oil-and-water separation in downstream treatment processes.
US09328848B2

The vacuum isolation valve includes a housing installed between a chamber and a chamber cleaning gas supply and including a tube connecting the chamber to the chamber cleaning gas supply, a tube isolator formed at a predetermined position of the tube, a first blocking unit installed to the housing, and a second blocking unit installed to the housing, for, when the first blocking unit moves in the first direction, maintaining communication between the chamber and the chamber cleaning gas supply by moving in a second direction and pressing the first blocking unit and for, when the first blocking unit moves in an opposite direction to the first direction, blocking communication between the chamber and the chamber cleaning gas supply.
US09328845B1

Valve stem locks include a plug element and a sliding latch disposed in a hole of the plug element. The latch includes a hole and is biased toward the locked position. A key inserted in a hole in the plug element moves the latch from the locked position until the hole of the latch is in alignment with the key. The key is then inserted into the hole of the latch until a notch on the key engages a lower portion of the latch. As a result, the latch is prevented from returning to its locked position. To allow the latch to return to its locked position, the key is removed by rotating the key to disengage the notch from the lower portion of the latch and sliding the key from the hole in the latch. Removal of the key frees the latch to return to its locked position.
US09328843B2

The valve bonnet assembly (1) includes a bonnet stem and a valve member supported on the stem. Rotation of the stem (16) axially moves the valve member (12) along the stem axis into and out of sealing engagement with a seat (11). The bonnet stem includes multiple start threads, and the thread pitch divided by a number of starting threads is greater than or equal to 6 and less than or equal to 9.
US09328838B2

A drain plug assembly that has particular application for sealing a drain hole in a battery compartment on a vehicle. The plug assembly includes a plug that inserted into the drain hole and a cover covering the plug. The plug assembly also includes a first shape memory alloy (SMA) wire having ends attached to the cover and a middle portion attached to the plug and a second SMA wire having ends attached to the cover and a middle portion attached to the plug. The plug assembly also includes a mechanical hinge attached to the plug and the cover, wherein the first SMA wire is actuated to flip the hinge to position the plug in a closed position to close the drain hole and the second SMA wire is actuated to flip the hinge to position the plug in an open position to open the drain hole.
US09328836B2

A pressure regulator valve has a housing that defines a fluid passage and a flat seat disposed around an opening of the fluid passage and exit ports. A pin with a raised conforming elastomeric embossment that contacts the seat when the valve is closed is axially disposed in the housing. The pin is biased to maintain the elastomeric embossment in contact with the seat to maintain the valve closed and control an opening pressure of the valve. Flow of fluid through and out of the pressure regulator valve housing is controlled through adjustment of a level of this biasing. The fluid flows across the flat seat and between the flat seat and the embossment when the valve is open in such a manner that the flow is generally laminar and such that the valve minimizes pressure gain at the onset of flow.
US09328816B2

An isolating decoupler comprising a pulley having a pulley inner surface, a hub having a radially extending arm, the radially extending arm having a frictional surface slidingly engaged with the pulley inner surface, a spring fixed to the pulley, the spring intermittently engageable with the radially extending arm, an elastomeric member disposed between the spring and the radially extending arm; and the radially extending arm intermittently engageable with a pulley stop.
US09328812B2

A method of manufacturing an impeller and turbine assembly of a transmission includes providing an impeller housing and a turbine housing. An impeller blade defining an impeller receptor and a turbine blade defining a turbine receptor are provided. The impeller blade is mated to the impeller housing by deforming a portion of said impeller housing into the impeller receptor. The turbine blade is mated to the turbine housing by deforming a portion of the turbine housing into the turbine receptor. In this manner, the impeller blade is secured to the impeller housing and the turbine blade is secured to the turbine housing.
US09328808B2

An actuator for a lever that is connected, with a valve or a wastegate or a variable turbine geometry of an exhaust gas turbocharger. The actuator includes a connecting rod between a drive and the lever. The connecting rod is rotatably supported at a location some distance from the lever. The connecting rod is further guided between the support and the lever on a circular arc.
US09328805B2

A chain-tensioning device comprises at least one main chain-tensioning sprocket wheel on which a chain engages, a main spring that urges a shaft of the main chain-tensioning sprocket wheel in a direction of tensioning of the chain, and an auxiliary cam element that engages a cam-follower element operatively connected to the shaft of the main chain-tensioning sprocket wheel so as to tend to push this shaft in the tensioning direction under the action of auxiliary elastic means. The auxiliary cam element automatically recovers any play that is generated owing to wear of the chain and prevents a movement of the chain-tensioning sprocket wheel in a direction opposite to the tensioning direction. In a variant, two main chain-tensioning sprocket wheels are provided, each having a respective auxiliary cam element. The two auxiliary cam elements may form part of a single pivoted lever.
US09328797B2

A module flexible ligament damper includes an cylindrical inner structure with a central axis and an outer cylindrical surface. An outer casing with an inner cylindrical surface is positioned around the inner structure. A modular ligament with an inner flange and an outer flange connected by a web is positioned between the inner structure and the casing. The inner flange is connected to the inner structure and the outer flange is connected to the casing to support the inner structure within the casing, and to permit free orbital movement of the inner structure on a plane perpendicular to the axis of the inner structure. In one embodiment, the web is straight but does not intersect the axis of the inner structure for flexing in a radial direction. In other embodiments, the web is curved for radial flexing.
US09328794B2

A hydraulically drive train mount (1), in particular for a motor vehicle, includes a mount housing (2) in which an elastic mount body (3) is arranged in a partially movable manner. The elastic mount body at least partially encloses a first fluid chamber (4) and has a fluid-filled equalization chamber (6) sealed by a sealing element (5) that can be moved in the mount housing (2). A membrane (7) arranged in the mount housing (2) separates the first fluid chamber (4) from the equalization chamber (6). The pressure in the equalization chamber (6) can be adjusted by the sealing element (5) that is formed as an axially movable piston (8).
US09328789B2

A vibration damping device for railway vehicle includes an actuator and a damper circuit that causes the actuator to function as a damper. The actuator includes a cylinder coupled to a truck of a railway vehicle, a piston, a rod coupled to the piston and a body, a rod-side chamber and a piston-side chamber inside the cylinder, a first on-off valve for a first passage that communicates between a rod-side chamber and a piston-side chamber, a second on-off valve for a second passage that communicates between the piston-side chamber and a tank, and a pump that supplies a hydraulic fluid into the rod-side chamber. The hydraulic fluid has such kinematic viscosity-temperature characteristics that a kinematic viscosity of the hydraulic fluid ranges from 7 mm2/s to 50 mm2/s in a temperature range of from 20° C. to 60° C.
US09328788B2

A shock wave attenuating material (100) includes a substrate layer (104). A plurality (110) of shock attenuating layers is disposed on the substrate layer (104). Each of the plurality (110) of shock attenuating layers includes a gradient nanoparticle layer (114) including a plurality of nanoparticles (120) of different diameters that are arranged in a gradient from smallest diameter to largest diameter and a graphitic layer (118) disposed adjacent to the gradient nanoparticle layer. The graphitic layer (118) includes a plurality of carbon allotrope members (128) suspended in a matrix (124).
US09328781B2

Provided is an external-control type fan clutch device that can suppress unnecessary rotation of a cooling fan at the time of activating a rotary shaft effectively regardless of stop positions of an oil supply port and an oil recover port at a stop time of the fan. The fan clutch device includes a valve member for opening/closing an oil circulating flow passage hole provided on a side wall face of the annular oil reserving chamber, wherein opening/closing of the oil circulating flow passage hole is controlled by the valve member, wherein an oil supply chamber, that is formed of a partition wall composed of an arc-like wall and a plate-like partition wall for shielding one end of the arc-like partition wall, is provided in the annular oil reserving chamber, and the oil circulating flow passage hole and an oil recovery port are arranged in the oil supply chamber.
US09328771B2

An assembly providing a first annular shield including a sleeve portion integral with a rotating member and with a flange portion, which radially extends to protrude from the first sleeve portion; a second annular shield having a sleeve portion integral with a stationary member and with a flange portion that radially extends to protrude on the opposite side of the sleeve portion of the first shield and facing the flange portion; and an annular seal, which the flange portion of the first shield ends with an L-shaped annular portion that protrudingly radially and axially extends out of an annular gap delimited between the rotating and stationary members to define an L-shaped channel in radial section having constant width and forming a first labyrinth seal; the channel leads into an annular recess, delimited between the second shield and a first lip of the annular seal without contacting the first shield.
US09328764B2

A fastening system includes a removable stud and a retaining plate. The removable stud includes a threaded portion configured to be removably threaded into a threaded bore of a housing, a shank portion arranged coaxially with the threaded portion and configured to be inserted through a bore of a housing of a line replaceable component, and an anti-rotation portion disposed between the threaded portion and the shank portion. The retaining plate is configured to be mounted between the housing and the line replaceable component. The retaining plate includes a mating hole configured to mate with the anti-rotation portion of the removable stud.
US09328753B2

A device for captivating a variety of fasteners relative to a first member. A captivator includes a body adapted to be secured to the first member and a retainer received within the body and having a surface engaging a captured fastener. Together the body and retainer maintain the captivated fastener in place relative to the first member. Keyway surfaces can be provided upon the body or retainer or both and an external or internal key can engage the keyway surfaces to selectively lock the body and retainer together, such as during installation or replacement of the captured fastener. Upon removal of the key, the retainer is free to rotate and translate relative to the body. A two-part base includes a snap base and base retainer together secured on a panel. The snap base may include one or more grooves for engaging one or more protrusions on the base retainer. In some embodiments a fastener retainer is not required as the base retainer functions to secure the fastener to the assembly.
US09328745B2

A pressure accumulator system, and a method of operating a pressure accumulator system. The method includes operatively connecting a tank neck to at least two pressure accumulator vessels having different admissible operating pressures, in which at least one of the pressure accumulator vessels has an admissible operating pressure lower than a maximum applicable pressure at the tank neck, simultaneously filling via the tank neck the at least two pressure accumulator vessels with a fluid medium, and preventing an inadmissible pressure rise in the pressure accumulator vessels with the lower admissible operating pressure during the simultaneous filling.
US09328736B2

A bearing that is used in a motor pump in which a liquid is, not only pumped by means of an impeller driven by the pump, but also is used to lubricate components of the motor pump including the motor pump shaft. The bearing is for supporting the shaft at at least one location of the shaft. The bearing is constructed of a bronze material having added thereto a small amount of graphite, preferably around 2.5%.
US09328732B2

Disclosed is an automatic compensation mechanism for a hinge seal gap in a spherical compressor. A cylindrical hinge formed around a central pin (1), a rotating disk pin seat (81), and a piston pin seat (16) of the spherical compressor. A fan-shaped insert (14) thicker at both sides and thinner in the center thereof is disposed at the bottom of a sump (161) on the pin seat of the cylindrical hinge. The shape of the insert (14) marches the shapes of the sump (161) and of the external cylindrical surface of a semi-cylinder (811) on the pin seat of the cylindrical hinge respectively, forming a dynamic seal fit, thus improving the reliability of the seal, adapting to mass production, and enhancing overall performance.
US09328728B2

A hydrostatic positive displacement machine (2) is operated in a closed circuit and delivers hydraulic fluid into a working circuit. The displacement volume is varied by a control device (6) having a variable displacement piston device (7). The machine (2) has a swivel-back device (40) which, in the event of a decrease of the feed pressure from the feed pressure source (11), guarantees actuation of the machine (2) toward a reduction of the displacement volume. The swivel-back device (40) includes at least one pressure sequence valve (41), which is in communication on the input side with the working circuit of the machine (2). In the event of a decrease in the feed pressure from the feed pressure source (11) below a limit pressure, the pressure sequence valve (41) makes it possible to supply the control device (6) of the machine (2) with hydraulic fluid from the working circuit.
US09328718B2

The invention relates to a method of calculating an electrical output of a wind power plant comprising a plurality of wind turbines. Instead of calculating the electrical output of the wind power plant as a simple aggregation of the outputs of each wind turbine, the method takes into account parameters which may vary stochastically throughout the wind power plant, e.g. pitch angle, stiffness in drive train, different possible production with regard to reactive and active effect, mechanical component properties as well as variability in relation to communication times between a power plant controller and the individual wind turbines. The method proposes to make adjustment to a simple aggregation calculation method based on analysis of such stochastic varying parameters.
US09328713B2

Turbines and methods for their use, for generating power utilizing the flow of water or other fluids. In certain embodiments, turbines with helical blades oriented to efficiently intercept off axis or angular fluid flow, such as presented by whirlpool water flow patterns. In certain preferred embodiments, turbines having helical blades with major blade surfaces oriented to take advantage of whirlpool or circular-angle flow patterns, depending on geographic location of installation in the northern or southern hemisphere. In still other embodiments, turbines in which the pitch of rotor and/or helical blade surfaces is variable.
US09328711B2

In a control unit for a vehicle, a redundancy circuit includes a main power source line, a back-up power source line, and a diode. The back-up power source line performs a voltage compensation operation when a voltage of the main power source line is lower than a predetermined voltage. The back-up power source line is turned on when a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the main power source line is turned on. The back-up power source line is turned off when a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the main power source line is turned off. The diode is disposed on the back-up power source line. The fault detector detects an open fault of the diode when a voltage of a cathode of the diode is lower than a predetermined threshold within the predetermined period of time after the main power source line is turned off.
US09328706B2

A fuel injector has a cylindrical nozzle body, a nozzle needle, a pressure chamber and an injection passage. The injection passage includes a first hole and a second hole. A minimum vertical distance between an outer periphery of a first nozzle hole outlet and a contact point relative to an axial center line of the first hole is defined as a vertical distance R. A minimum axial distance between the first nozzle hole outlet and the contact point relative to an axial center line of the first hole is defined as an axial distance L. An angle between the axial center line of the first nozzle hole and the outer periphery line of the fuel spray is defined as an injection angle θ. The vertical distance R, the axial distance L and the injection angle θ satisfy a formula: R/(L×tan θ)>6.0.
US09328705B2

Fuel gelling determination methods and systems are provided for identifying and displaying to a vehicle operator a message conveying that the conditions are suitable for the formation of a fuel gel. In one particular example, at a fuel refill event the average ambient air temperature is calculated over the last fifty miles and used to characterize the grade of fuel as a summer or winter grade of fuel. Then, when the ambient temperature next drops near the cloud point of a summer fuel grade while driving, a message is displayed to a vehicle operator indicating that the conditions are suitable for fuel gelling to occur.
US09328697B2

Various methods and systems are provided for blocking backflow of exhaust through an exhaust gas recirculation system. In one embodiment, a method comprises flowing exhaust gas through an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) passage in a first direction from at least a first cylinder group of an engine to an intake manifold of the engine, the exhaust gas flowing in the first direction through a filter arranged in the EGR passage prior to reaching the intake manifold, and blocking flow of gas through the filter in a second, opposite direction with a mechanical one-way valve positioned in the EGR passage between the filter and the intake manifold.
US09328693B2

A piston for reduced production of particulate matter during combustion of a fuel directly injected after a top dead center position includes a piston body defining a piston body diameter of about 263 mm, and a combustion face upon the first axial body end. The combustion face includes a combustion bowl, and an annular piston rim extending circumferentially around the combustion bowl. Inner and outer rim surfaces together comprise a horizontal width of the rim in a ratio of about 1:1 to about 2:1. The inner rim surface includes a chamfer sloping from about 9° to about 11°, such that a profile of the rim is relieved to limit deflection by the piston of the directly injected fuel toward a cylinder wall.
US09328687B2

Various embodiments relating to air-fuel ratio control are described herein. In one embodiment a method includes adjusting fuel injection to an engine responsive to air-fuel ratio sensor feedback with a first control structure, and in response to an air-fuel ratio sensor asymmetric degradation, adjusting fuel injection to the engine responsive to air-fuel ratio sensor feedback with a second, different, control structure.
US09328684B2

Methods and systems are provided for adjusting a reference voltage for an intake manifold oxygen sensor based on ingestion of hydrocarbons from a fuel system canister and/or an engine crankcase. During conditions when purge or crankcase ventilation hydrocarbons are ingested in the intake aircharge, the intake oxygen sensor is transitioned from operating at a lower reference voltage to a higher reference voltage where the effects of the ingested hydrocarbons on the sensor output are nullified. An EGR dilution of the intake aircharge is estimated based on the output of the sensor at the higher reference voltage while an amount of hydrocarbons ingested is estimated based on a difference between sensor outputs at the higher and lower reference voltages.
US09328683B2

An object is to provide an electronically controlled diesel engine capable of inhibiting the drastic increase of the fuel injection quantity from the fuel injection quantity before acceleration without the measurement of the relation between the number of revolutions of an engine, boost pressure, and the upper smoke limit of the fuel injection quantity. An electronically controlled diesel engine includes an judge part of an acceleration (64) that judges whether a control of acceleration is finished or not based on a difference between a target number of revolutions of the engine (Nset) and an actual number of revolutions of the engine (Ne). The electronically controlled diesel engine includes that the calculate part of a third upper limit of a fuel injection quantity (73) that is included in the calculate part of the upper limit of the fuel injection quantity (65) that sets an initial upper limit of a fuel injection quantity (Q0) to a bigger injection quantity either of an injection quantity at the time of the judgment and a limit of a injection quantity based on the actual number of revolutions of the engine (Ne) at the time of the judgment when the judge part of an acceleration (64) determines that the condition of acceleration in the low speed area are satisfied and recover the limit value to the normal limit value until the judgment means of cancel of acceleration in the low speed area determines that the condition of cancel of acceleration in the low speed area are satisfied.
US09328677B2

A method for an engine, comprising: responsive to a pressure in a fuel tank being below a pressure threshold, injecting only a liquid fuel into an engine cylinder, the fuel tank storing the liquid fuel and a pressurized gaseous fuel partially dissolved in the liquid fuel. In this way, the pressurized gaseous fuel may be conserved, thus maintaining a pressure gradient within the fuel system and allowing for judicious use of the pressurized gaseous fuel, for example during cold start conditions.
US09328671B2

A torque requesting module generates a first torque request for a spark ignition engine based on driver input. A torque conversion module converts the first torque request into a second torque request. A setpoint control module generates setpoints for the spark ignition engine based on the second torque request. A vacuum requesting module requests an amount of vacuum within an intake manifold of the engine. The setpoint module selectively adjusts at least one of the setpoints based on the amount of vacuum requested. A model predictive control (MPC) module: identifies sets of possible target values based on the setpoints; generates predicted parameters based on a model of the spark ignition engine and the sets of possible target values, respectively; selects one of the sets of possible target values based on the predicted parameters; and sets target values based on the possible target values of the selected one of the sets.
US09328667B2

Systems and methods for changing a speed ratio between a compressor boost stage (12) and at least one power turbine (16) of a gas turbine engine (10) are described. Such a system may comprise a coupling device (20) configured to selectively transmit energy from the at least one power turbine (16) to the boost stage (12) according to at least a first speed ratio and a second speed ratio. The system may also comprise an auxiliary power device (22, 26) configured to cause a rotational speed of the boost stage (12) to change from a first speed corresponding substantially to the first speed ratio to a second speed corresponding substantially to the second speed ratio when the boost stage (12) is decoupled from the at least one power turbine (16).
US09328660B2

Described herein are embodiments of systems and methods for oxidizing gases. In some embodiments, a reaction chamber is configured to receive a fuel gas and maintain the gas at a temperature within the reaction chamber that is above an autoignition temperature of the gas. The reaction chamber may also be configured to maintain a reaction temperature within the reaction chamber below a flameout temperature. In some embodiments, heat and product gases from the oxidation process can be used, for example, to drive a turbine, reciprocating engine, and injected back into the reaction chamber.
US09328658B2

The invention relates to a fuel distributor block for an internal combustion engine. Said fuel distributor block having a belt arrangement, wherein the belt arrangement comprises a belt, which is operatively connected to a belt pulley coupled to a shaft, for the purpose of driving an assembly, in particular an assembly of an engine, via a further belt pulley which is operatively connected to the belt, wherein a belt diverting device for diverting the belt is arranged on the fuel distributor block in order to minimize the spatial extent of the belt arrangement.
US09328651B2

The tank main body of a header tank of a condenser has slits formed in a circumferential wall thereof at positions between opposite end surfaces of the circumferential wall and heat exchange tubes at the opposite ends. Plate-shaped closure members are inserted into the slits from the outside of the tank main body and joined to the circumferential wall of the tank main body. Drain openings are formed in the circumferential wall of the tank main body at positions on the outer sides of the closure members as viewed in the longitudinal direction of the tank main body. A portion of a surface of each closure member which faces outward in the longitudinal direction of the tank main body forms a portion of a peripheral edge of the corresponding drain opening.
US09328648B2

An exhaust assembly is provided that includes an exhaust pipe extending rearward from a vehicle into an exhaust passage, and a fascia coupled to the vehicle defining the exhaust passage. The exhaust assembly further includes a bezel defining an exhaust opening substantially aligned with the pipe, and a sleeve configured within the exhaust opening. The sleeve extends rearward to at least the rearmost portion of the exhaust opening and substantially parallel to an exit portion of the pipe. The exhaust opening may further define an exhaust plane tangent to rearmost portion of the bezel, and the sleeve may extend at least to this plane. An upper sleeve may also be configured to extend at least to a line tangent to the rearmost surfaces of an upper bezel and perpendicular to the upper sleeve.
US09328643B2

A selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system that can prevent fixation of urea solution to an interior of a dosing valve when the urea solution is not injected through the dosing valve. An SCR system closes a dosing valve when the exhaust gas temperature is lower than a temperature at which an SCR catalyst becomes active and is provided with a fixation prevention system that opens the dosing valve and controls a supply module to feed the urea solution in the dosing valve back to a urea tank to prevent fixation of the urea solution to the interior of the dosing valve, when the exhaust gas temperature is equal to or higher than a temperature at which the urea solution crystallizes and lower than the temperature at which the SCR catalyst becomes active.
US09328637B2

A camshaft adjuster having a pot-like stator drivable by a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine; and a rotor rotationally fixedly connected to a camshaft of the internal combustion engine; having an outer ring and an inner ring arranged concentrically with respect to the outer ring; and radially oriented webs connecting the outer ring and the inner ring to each other, which subdivide the annular space formed between the outer ring and the inner ring into working chambers, wherein the working chambers are subdivided into oppositely acting pressure chambers by stator webs connected to the stator and projecting laterally into the working chambers; and the rotor is mounted by the outer ring in the radial direction on a cylindrical wall of the pot-like stator, wherein at least one depression forming a pocket to receive hydraulic oil is provided on the radial outer side of the outer ring and/or on the radial inner side of the cylindrical wall of the pot-like stator.
US09328632B2

A Rankine cycle includes an waste-heat recovery device that is configured to exchange heat between cooling water coming out from an engine and exhaust gas exhausted from the engine, a heat exchanger including an evaporator through which the cooling water coming out from the engine flows to recover waste-heat of the engine to refrigerant, and a superheater through which the cooling water coming out from the waste-heat recovery device flows to recover the waste-heat of the engine to the refrigerant, an expander that is configured to generate power using the refrigerant coming out from the heat exchanger, a condenser that is configured to condense the refrigerant coming out from the expander, and a refrigerant pump that is configured to supply the refrigerant coming out from the condenser to the heat exchanger by being driven by the expander. The cooling water coming out from the superheater is returned to the engine after being joined with the cooling water coming out from the evaporator.
US09328619B2

A rotating blade for use in a turbomachine is disclosed. In an embodiment, the rotating blade includes an airfoil portion, a root section affixed to a first end of the airfoil portion, and a tip section affixed to a second end of the airfoil portion, the second end being opposite the first end. A part span shroud is affixed to the airfoil portion between the tip section and the root section, wherein the part span shroud further comprises a hollow portion.
US09328618B2

A high temperature turbine nozzle with automatic regulation of flow of cooling air passing therethrough. Each of vanes includes a first sleeve drilled with holes and a second sleeve that is engaged in the first sleeve, drilled with corresponding holes, and made of a material possessing a coefficient of expansion different from that of the first sleeve.
US09328609B2

An apparatus for estimating a bubble point of a fluid in an earth formation penetrated by a borehole includes: a pump configured to pump fluid from the earth formation through an extendable probe into a volume; and a processor. The processor is configured to perform a pressure-volume test on the fluid sample. The test includes: increasing the pressure of the fluid sample above formation pressure and logging the pressure and volume of the fluid sample; calculating a reference compressibility of the fluid sample; decreasing the pressure of the fluid sample and logging the pressure and volume; calculating a compressibility of the fluid sample using the logged pressure and volume obtained from during the decreasing; comparing the calculated compressibility to a threshold; and estimating the bubble point as the current fluid sample pressure when the calculated compressibility first meets or exceeds the threshold factor.
US09328599B2

Compact and transportable preparation center which can be used for fracturing operations on gas or oil fields, capable of metering out and dissolving two different polymers in the powder form, and including: two pneumatic mechanisms respectively supplying two storage hoppers for two separate polymers; two mechanisms for supplying and metering the polymer originating respectively from the two storage hoppers to a device for dispersing by grinding, also denoted PSU; two series of tanks for hydration and dissolution of the polymers connected to the dispersing and grinding device; two positive displacement vacuum pumps for metering the two solutions each originating from the two series of hydration and dissolution tanks and intended to supply a mixer itself connected to a high-pressure injection pump. Fracturing process employing the preparation center.
US09328597B2

An electrically stimulated electrode system comprises injection and return electrodes and a power supply for causing electrical current to flow through a subterranean formation. An electronic system for the injection electrode includes: a power harvester extracting electrical power from current flowing in the injection electrode, a control for the injection electrode current, a sensor of the injection electrode and/or formation, or a telemetry for the injection electrode and/or formation, or any combination thereof. A sensor comprises: a pair of spaced apart electrodes, a power conversion device connected to the spaced apart electrodes for providing electrical power, and a processor providing a representation of a current. The electronic system may include: a power harvester, a commandable and/or programmable current control; and a control system for commanding and/or programming the current control, whereby the current flowing in the injection electrodes may be independently controlled and/or sequenced in time.
US09328592B2

A cyclic remediation process to restore oil recovery from a primary oil production well that has watered off from bottom water encroachment (cone or crest) whereby: (a) the primary oil production well has a produced water cut in excess of 95% (v/v); (b) the oil is heavy oil, with in-situ viscosity >1000 cp; wherein the process includes: (c) injecting a steam slug with a volume of 0.5 to 5.0 times the cumulative primary oil production, with steam volumes measured as water volumes; (d) shutting in the well for a soak period, after the steam injection is complete; and (e) producing the well until the water cut exceeds 95%.
US09328590B2

Well treatment agents containing a particulate substrate are coated with a polyelectrolyte bilayer to provide a well treatment composite for use in well treatment operations. Each layer of the polyelectrolyte bilayer is composed of oppositely charged polyionic material. The well treatment composite may further contain a succession of polyelectrolyte bilayers, each polyelectrolyte bilayer containing layers of oppositely charged polyionic materials.
US09328583B2

Disclosed herein are cement compositions and methods of using set-delayed cement compositions in subterranean formations. An embodiment includes a method of cementing in a subterranean formation comprising: providing a cement composition comprising water, pumice, hydrated lime, a set retarder, and a strength enhancer, wherein the strength enhancer comprises at least one material selected from the group consisting of cement kiln dust, slag, amorphous silica, a pozzolan, and any combination thereof; introducing the cement composition into the subterranean formation; and allowing the cement composition to set in the subterranean formation.
US09328572B2

A guide funnel for guiding a subsea infrastructure for connection with a subsea wellhead or mandrel profile is provided. The guide funnel comprises a plurality of sections, wherein the sections are collapsible such that the guide funnel can be in an extended state or a collapsed state.
US09328570B2

A guiding assembly for a riser piping system (2) in an opening in the bottom (8) of a floating structure, said assembly permitting limited axial and angular displacement of the riser piping system (2) in said opening. The assembly comprises a prismatic anchor (1) surrounding a portion of the riser piping system (2) and being connected thereto, an outer prismatic guide tube (4) receiving the prismatic anchor (1), the outer prismatic guide tube (4) having inner surfaces that are parallel to and equally spaced from outer surfaces on the prismatic anchor (1), and rollers (3) arranged in at least two different levels and confined in spaces (2) formed between said inner and outer surfaces, the rollers (3) permitting relative axial movement between the prismatic anchor (1) and the outer prismatic tube (4).
US09328569B2

A gooseneck conduit system for use with a telescoping joint of a subsea riser. In one embodiment, a riser telescoping joint includes a tube and a gooseneck conduit assembly affixed to the tube. The gooseneck conduit assembly includes a gooseneck conduit extending radially from the tube, and a tenon projecting from a rear face of the gooseneck conduit. The width of the tenon increases with distance from the rear face. The riser telescoping joint also includes a mortise channel extending along the length of the tube. The mortise channel is interlocks with the tenon and laterally secures the gooseneck conduit assembly to the tube.
US09328565B1

Embodiments for diamond-enhanced carbide cutting elements and drilling apparatuses that include a diamond-enhanced carbide material are disclosed. Embodiments of methods for manufacturing such articles are also disclosed. The diamond-enhanced carbide cutting elements disclosed are at least partially enclosed by a refractory metal structure from a refractory metal can assembly used in the fabrication of the diamond-enhanced carbide cutting element. The diamond-enhanced carbide cutting elements disclosed herein have greater abrasion resistance than tungsten carbide, and a greater toughness than polycrystalline diamond cutters.
US09328564B2

A cutter assembly may include a sleeve; and at least one cutting element having a lower spindle portion retained in the sleeve and a portion of the cutting element interfacing an axial bearing surface of the sleeve, wherein an outer diameter D of the cutting element and a radial length T of a substantially planar portion of the axial bearing surface of the sleeve have the following relationship: (1/25)D≦T≦(1/4)D.
US09328551B2

A safety gate is composed of a U-shaped frame and a door spanning the interior of the frame. One side of the door is pivotally connected to one side of the frame to permit pivotal movement of the door with respect to the frame. The frame's width is adjusted by a ratchet mechanism composed of a spring-loaded pawl having a sloping side and a vertical side so that the width of the frame can be adjusted in one direction only.
US09328550B1

An improved insulated door panel having an outer and inner spaced apart skins and an internal foam core includes a first spacer disposed between a top end of the outer skin and a top end of the inner skin and a second spacer disposed between a bottom end of the outer skin and a bottom end of the inner skin. The first and second spacers include first and second protrusions, respectively, on an inner face of the first and second spacers. The first and second protrusions secure the first and second spacers to the foam core.
US09328547B2

A door hoist includes a bracket, drive sprocket, ring gear, hub assembly, set of planetary gears, and governor shaft. The drive sprocket has a drive sprocket axis. The ring gear is fastened to the drive sprocket. The ring gear has a ring gear axis that is in alignment with the drive sprocket axis. The hub assembly includes a connector to receive a door drive shaft and secure the door drive shaft in a fixed rotational alignment with the hub assembly. The set of planetary gears is rotationally mounted to the hub assembly. The set of planetary gears is configured to mate with the ring gear. The governor shaft includes a sun gear, brake assembly, and link. The sun gear is configured to mate with the set of planetary gears. The brake assembly has an engaged position and a disengaged position. The sun gear is rotationally fixed relative to the bracket in response to the brake assembly being in the engaged position. In response to the brake assembly being in the disengaged position, rotation of the sun gear is unfixed relative to the bracket. The link secures the brake assembly in the engaged position. The link is configured to melt in response to an ambient temperature exceeding a predetermined temperature.
US09328545B1

A blind hinge structure used for furniture, comprising a movable cup holder provided on the furniture door body, an adjusting base provided on the furniture body, a rotary arm connected between the movable cup holder and the adjusting base as well as an elastic element designed to generate opening/closing acting force on the movable cup holder; wherein the adjusting base is designed to realize three-dimensional or two-dimensional adjustment to the hinge; a convex step used to support the elastic member is integrally formed on the bottom wall of the movable cup holder; the elastic member is a torsion spring, with its section on at least one of its end parts being square or circular. The present utility model enables the structure among the rotary arm, the adjusting base and the adjusting components to have higher firmness and even compact assembly, improves strength and extends the service life.
US09328539B1

In a restraining device for releasably securing a person's wrists or legs in which a pair of manacles are made of flexible loops or straps with ratchet teeth at one end of each strap and a lock housing at the opposite end of each strap, each housing is characterized by being of hollow generally triangular configuration with a channel for extension of the free end of each strap through the housing beneath a pawl arm in the housing which is controlled by a specially designed key. The key is guided into engagement with the pawl arm by an extension wall on a cover plate which is permanently attached to the outer side walls of the housing by a combination of notched ends on the cover plate and ultrasonic molding together of the cover plate with the outer side walls and an inner support wall in the housing.
US09328538B2

A security container for holding a product. The container includes a jacket having a cavity, a sleeve receivable in the cavity, and a chamber in the sleeve for holding the product. The sleeve moves within the cavity between a position where a user can access the chamber and a position where they cannot access the chamber. A locking mechanism secures the sleeve against movement when in the locked condition and permits movement thereof when unlocked. An alarm mechanism is provided that is simultaneously activated when the locking mechanism is locked and deactivated when the locking mechanism is unlocked. The locking mechanism includes a magnetic locking member movable by a dedicated magnetic key to unlock the mechanism. The security container is adjustable in length to accommodate products of different sizes. The container is of a diminutive size in that it is capable of fitting into a man's dress shirt pocket.
US09328525B2

A pool cleaning apparatus that may include a filter; a entrapment cell; a first impeller; a first pump motor arranged to rotate the first impeller; a driving unit arranged to move the pool cleaning robot; a structural element; and an external housing that comprises a first inlet and a first outlet; wherein the filter and the structural element define a first space that has a spiral portion; wherein the first impeller is arranged to rotate along a first rotational direction; wherein rotation of the first impeller along a first rotational direction causes fluid be drawn through the first inlet and to follow a spiral path within the first space during which a first portion of the fluid is filtered by the filter to provide filtered fluid that exits through the first outlet of the housing; and a second portion of the fluid follows the spiral path until entering the entrapment cell.
US09328515B2

A device (20) for bonding or welding a membrane, including an undercarriage (30) for supporting the device on the membrane at least at one contact point, which is formed by a pressing element (40) for pressing the membrane onto a metal plate to be bonded or welded thereto, and at least at two further contact points, which are formed by castors (31, 32). A frame (42) extends upwards from the undercarriage (30), wherein the device (20) can be manoeuvred using the frame. The pressing element (40) includes a heating device (46), which is designed as an induction coil, by which the metal plate, which is provided with an adhesive or weldable coating, can be heated. An induction generator and a control and cooling device thereof are mounted in or on a housing (50), which is fixed to the frame (42) at a distance (A) above the undercarriage (30). The device (20), which is formed as one part, can be tilted for moving around a castor axis (28) and can then be lowered via the metal plate onto the membrane.
US09328510B1

A ceiling system in one embodiment includes ceiling panels configured for attachment to an overhead support grid. The ceiling panel includes profiled first and second edges that engage parallel first and second grid support members respectively. At least one intermediate channel is formed in the top surface between the first and second edges. The channel defines a seating surface that engages a third grid support member arranged parallel to and between the first and second grid support members. The central portion of the ceiling panel is supported in a manner which allows the panel to span across and cover at least two grid openings, thereby providing a ceiling system that utilizes large format panels exceeding the size of the openings.
US09328508B2

Process for manufacturing a thermally insulating material comprising the following steps: a) preparing an aqueous mixture of a solid mineral substance in suspension having a specific surface area S of greater than 5 m2/g; b) adding to the mixture at least one pore-forming agent; c) stirring so as to obtain a homogeneous mixture; d) preforming a substrate from the homogeneous mixture; e) optionally drying the substrate at least partially; f) removing, at least partially, the pore-forming agent; and such that said specific surface area S, expressed in m2/g and measured by BET, and the mean particle diameter Dpm of the pore-forming agents, expressed in micrometers and measured by dynamic light scattering, obey the relation: 1/S
US09328506B2

A construction system includes an insulation member. A metal support member is coupled to a side surface of the insulation member. The metal support member is a substantially C-shaped configuration. The metal support member is inserted over an upper side of the wall panel within processed portions of the insulation member to align with the side surface of the insulation member. An extension member portion of the insulation member provides an extension of the insulation member over an exterior side of the wall panel. An exterior sheath is disposed over the extension member portion of the insulation member and over an exterior side of the wall panel. An interior sheath is disposed over an interior side of the wall panel. The exterior sheath and the interior sheath include magnesium oxide.
US09328501B1

An improved mechanically secured block building system generally for concrete masonry structures comprising a masonry block unit with a height and width essentially one-half the length of the unit, with multiple cavities through the block and with a recessed channel; an anchor bar with a plurality of threaded and non-threaded apertures in a special configuration to match the cavities in the block unit and able to lay in the recessed channel of the block; and a fastener wherein the mechanical secured block building system can be assembled in unique ways due to a cube effect of the masonry block to construct multiple width walls, grade beams, and horizontal decks. An alternative embodiment includes the preferred mechanical secured block building system further comprised of (d) a footer block and (e) a footer plate.
US09328495B2

A flush toilet apparatus includes a tank and a jet pump unit. A throat pipe of the jet pump unit includes a linear portion formed to linearly extend obliquely upward from a suction port that is an inlet of water. The suction port is formed so that the entire edge is along a horizontal surface.
US09328486B2

A faucet that permits an installer to select any of a plurality of desired spout rotational ranges of the spout with respect to the faucet base. The faucet can include adjustable components that allow the installer to select a degree of rotation of the spout with respect to the base. The degree of rotation can be any suitable range between 0° and 360°, inclusive, in either the clockwise or counterclockwise direction. When the degree of rotation is 360°, the spout may rotate through multiple rotations of 360°. In some embodiments, the installer can choose between a preselected number of rotational ranges. In other embodiments, the selectable range of rotation is variable and the installer can select between a desired suitable range.
US09328484B2

Disclosed are various exemplary embodiments of a retainer system for a ground engaging tool. In one exemplary embodiment, the retainer system may include a lock having a C-shaped portion defining a lock slot between two circumferential ends for receiving a portion of a support member to be locked with the ground engaging tool. The retainer system may also include a retainer bushing having an inner surface configured to receive the lock, where the lock may be rotatable relative to the retainer bushing and about a retainer axis between an unlocked position and a locked position. The retainer system may further include a cover piece configured to be attached to the retainer bushing for covering the lock slot of the lock when the lock is in the locked position.
US09328478B2

A method for controlling a working machine provided with a bucket as a work implement by which a lifting force can be exerted on an object such as a gravel pile, and at least one ground engaging element by which a traction force can be exerted on the same object is provided. A state input indicative of a current bucket state is received, the bucket height being a parameter of the current bucket state, determining a lifting force eliminating speed of the power source (“LFES”) at the current bucket state, the LFES being the speed at and above which no lifting force could be achieved considering a reaction force acting on the bucket caused by the traction force, and the speed of the power source is controlled not to reach the LFES in order that at least some lifting force could be achieved.
US09328474B2

The present invitation relates to a soil anchor footing supporting system within the ground surface to support steel or concrete column, brick or block wall, light post, sign post, substation equipment, pre-cast panel, retaining wall etc. It comprises of a footing slab (2) made of concrete; plurality of deformed steel bars (1) or fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars embedded in the lower surface of the concrete slab (2) and plurality of anchor bolts (4) or reinforcing starter bars which are embedded into upper surface of concrete slab (2) to suit steel or concrete column. The bars, which act as mini piles, are configured for ground penetration and a concrete slab is cast on top to encase all the bars and is capable of holding desired loads. These footings can be cast-in-situ type where the bars are pushed into ground (3) individually or in groups and concrete is cast on top, or it can be pre-cast type where, the whole footing is pushed into ground using pile driving equipment or mobile press.
US09328469B2

A form for receiving a filler material to create an island is provided. The form is made essentially entirely out of galvannealed steel that is easily paintable. The form has a substantially continuous wall having an outer surface and an inner surface. The wall is made out of a plurality of galvannealed steel wall sections. The wall has a first side and a second side opposite the first side. The inner surface forms an enclosed chamber for receiving the filler material. A first support made out of galvannealed steel is attached to the inner surface of the first side of the wall and a second support made out of galvannealed steel is attached to the inner surface of the second side of the wall. A brace made out of galvannealed steel is disposed between the supports, wherein the brace removably engages the supports.
US09328464B2

A railroad rail includes a body defining a first section and a tapered second section with the body defining a head section, a web section depending from the head section, and a base section depending from the web section. The head section, the web section, and the base section define an end surface configured to mate with a corresponding end surface of a complementary railroad rail when joined together. The railroad rail is formed from a single bent railroad rail having only a single bend defined by the head section, web section, and base section of the body of the railroad rail.
US09328459B2

Carboxylated, mercerized cellulose fiber having at least 12 meq/100 g of carboxyl substitution at the C-6 position of the anhydroglucose units, which includes at least 20% cellulose II, may be produced by catalytically carboxylating mercerized cellulose fiber in at least two catalytic carboxylation stages in a continuous series in which the pH is adjusted, and a primary oxoammonium salt catalyst (or precursor thereof) and secondary oxidant is added, at the beginning of each stage. Optionally, the carboxylated, mercerized cellulose may be made substantially free of aldehyde groups by means of a stabilizing step following the final carboxylation stage, in which aldehyde groups present in the fibers are converted to carboxyl groups.
US09328453B2

An automatic ironing system and method comprise a volumetric enclosure configured to receive an article to be steamed, and a base configured to support, power, and provide steamed water to the volumetric enclosure. The system also comprises a rotary engine configured to rotate the article when activated, and at least one steam nozzle configured to direct steam towards the article. The system also comprises a receptacle configured to receive condensed steam from the volumetric enclosure and to recirculate the condensed steam for re-use, and a controller configured to monitor one or more variables of the automatic ironing system and adjust parameters according to instructions.
US09328447B2

A washing machine includes a main body defining an outer appearance, a tub disposed within the main body, a main drum rotatably mounted in the tub, a sub drum mounted in the main drum to be relatively rotatable with respect to the main drum, an outer shaft for rotating the main drum, an inner shaft for rotating the sub drum, being disposed inside the outer shaft, and a driving motor having a stator, an outer rotor connected to the inner shaft that is rotatable outside the stator, and an inner rotor connected to the outer shaft that is rotatable inside the stator, wherein the driving motor independently drives the main drum and the sub drum.
US09328429B2

When a plate-like sample 20 extracted from a polycrystalline rod is evaluated, peaks can appear in a φ-scanning chart. The smaller the number of such peaks, and the narrower the half-value width of the peak, the more suitable the polycrystalline silicon rod is as a raw material for producing single-crystal silicon. It is preferable that the number of peaks in the φ-scanning chart is, for both the Miller index planes <111> and <220>, equal to or smaller than 24/cm2 when converted into unit per area of the plate-like sample. It is also preferable that the value obtained by multiplying the peak half-value width by δL=21/2πR0/360, where R0 is the radius of the sample, is defined as an inhomogeneous crystal grain size, and that a polycrystalline silicon rod of which all the inhomogeneous crystal grain sizes are smaller than 0.5 mm is selected as a raw material for producing single-crystal silicon.
US09328415B2

Methods and precursors are provided for deposition of films comprising manganese on surfaces using metal coordination complexes comprising a diazabutadiene-based ligand. Certain methods comprise exposing a substrate surface to a manganese precursor, and exposing the substrate surface to a tertiary amine.
US09328413B2

A method for growing a graphene nanoribbon on an insulating substrate having a cleavage plane with atomic level flatness is provided, and belongs to the field of low-dimensional materials and new materials. The method includes the following steps. Step 1: Cleave an insulating substrate to obtain a cleavage plane with atomic level flatness, and prepare a single atomic layer step. Step 2: Directly grow a graphene nanoribbon on the insulating substrate having regular single atomic steps. In the method, a characteristic that nucleation energy of graphene on the atomic step is different from that on the flat cleavage plane is used, and conditions, such as the temperature, intensity of pressure and supersaturation degree of activated carbon atoms, are adjusted, so that the graphene grows only along a step edge into a graphene nanoribbon of an adjustable size. The method is mainly applied to the field of new-type graphene optoelectronic devices.
US09328411B2

Provided is a method of producing an ytterbium sputtering target, wherein an ytterbium target material having Vickers hardness (Hv) of the material surface of 15 or more and 40 or less is prepared in advance, and a surface of the ytterbium target material having the foregoing surface hardness is subject to final finish processing by way of machining. With the ytterbium sputtering target, present invention aims to remarkably reduce the irregularities (gouges) on the target surface after the final finish processing of the target material, and to inhibit the generation of particles during sputtering.
US09328403B2

A Ni-based heat resistant alloy as pipe, plate, rod, forgings and the like consists of C≦0.15%, Si≦2%, Mn≦3%, P≦0.03%, S≦0.01%, Cr: 15% or more and less than 28%, Mo: 3 to 15%, Co: more than 5% and not more than 25%, Al: 0.2 to 2%, Ti: 0.2% to 3%, Nd: fn to 0.08%, and O≦0.4Nd, further containing, as necessary, at least one kind of Nb, W, B, Zr, Hf, Mg, Ca, Y, La, Ce, Ta, Re and Fe of specific amounts, the balance being Ni and impurities, wherein, fn=1.7×10−5d+0.05{(Al/26.98)+(Ti/47.88)+(Nb/92.91)}. In the formula, d denotes an average grain size (μm), and each element symbol denotes the content (mass %) of that element. If the alloy contains W, Mo+(W/2)≦15% holds. The alloy has improved ductility after long-term use at high temperatures, and cracking due to welding can be avoided.
US09328401B2

A copper alloy casting with excellent machinability, strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance contains Sn: 0.5 to 15 mass %; Zr: 0.001 to 0.049 mass %; P: 0.01 to 0.35 mass %; one or more elements selected from Pb: 0.01 to 15 mass %, Bi: 0.01 to 15 mass %, Se: 0.01 to 1.2 mass %, and Te: 0.05 to 1.2 mass %; and Cu: 73 mass % or more serving as a remainder. In this case, f1=[P]/[Zr]=0.5 to 100, f2=3[Sn]/[Zr]=300 to 15000, and f3=3[Sn]/[P]=40 to 2500 (the content of an element ‘a’ is expressed as [a] mass %). The total content of α, γ and δ-phases is 95% or more, and the mean grain size is 300 μm or less.
US09328400B2

An improved method for treating manganese-containing materials, such as seafloor manganese nodules, by leaching such materials with aqueous HNO3 and polymerized nitric oxide (N2O3)x, and more particularly to methods for recovering valuable constituents from such nodules, especially manganese, cobalt, nickel, iron, and copper. It also provides a method to leach manganese-containing material to release any titanium, vanadium, cerium, molybdenum and other metals from the manganese oxides and to make them available to be recovered, as well as providing a method of producing a fertilizer grade nitrate product.
US09328392B2

Nucleic acid oligonucleotide sequences are disclosed which include amplification oligomers and probe oligomers which are useful for detecting multiple types of human papillomaviruses (HPV) associated with cervical cancer. Methods for detecting multiple HPV types in biological specimens by amplifying HPV nucleic acid sequences in vitro and detecting the amplified products are disclosed.
US09328389B2

The inventive method and associated reagents relate to a molecular approach to determining Campylobacter jejuni capsule/Penner types. The invention also relates to a method of identifying Campylobacter jejuni types using primers in a multiplex PCR assay.
US09328374B2

The present invention relates to a culture medium comprising a carbapenem, a carbapenemase activator and a M-type penicillin. It also relates to a method for detecting carbapenem-resistant bacteria in a test sample using said culture medium.
US09328370B2

The present invention relates to a recombinant protein comprising SEQ ID NO: 1 and a bacteria recognizing lectin. The present invention also relates to uses of the recombinant protein comprising detecting pathogens, removing endotoxins, determining the presence of an endotoxin or endotoxin-like material, and determining the presence of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) comprising rhamnose-rhamnose (Rha-Rha), rhamnose-N-acetyl-mannosamine (Rha-ManNAc), N-acetyl-mannosamine-rhamnose (ManNAc-Rha), rhamnose-galatose (Rha-Gal), or galatose-rhamnose (Gal-Rha) in a sample, and use as a medicament, a disinfectant, a decontaminant, a surfactant or a diagnostic means. The present invention further relates to a method for prevention and/or treatment of conditions related to pathogen related infections in a patient in need thereof comprising: administering to said patient a pharmaceutically effective amount of composition comprising the recombinant protein, wherein the recombinant protein functions as an antagonist of PAMP comprising Rha-Rha, Rha-ManNAc, ManNAc-Rha, Rha-Gal, or Gal-Rha.
US09328364B2

Sugar mixtures containing nonfermentable oligomers are fermented in the presence of certain enzymes that depolymerize the oligomers simultaneously with the fermentation process.
US09328359B2

The invention refers to a method of biotransforming a carbohydrate of a raw material into a chemical, by cultivating Lactobacillus diolivorans in the presence of the raw material to produce a chemical substance, and isolating the chemical substance in the purified form, and the use of L. diolivorans in one of a series of biotransformation methods, wherein carbohydrates from at least two different carbohydrate sources of low purity are transformed into chemicals.
US09328347B2

Pharmaceutical compositions that comprise an siRNA molecule used in the treatment of diseases caused by flavivirus infection and methods of their use are disclosed. The pharmaceutical compositions treat diseases caused by yellow fever virus, West Nile virus, and dengue virus and include a single pharmaceutical composition active against all four dengue virus serotypes.
US09328336B2

The present invention provides diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) genes, including genes encoding localization peptides. The present invention also provides recombinant cells, such as algae, transformed with DGAT genes and methods of using such recombinant cells to produce triglyceride.
US09328330B2

The present invention discloses the potential of Calebin A in inhibiting adipogenesis and applications thereof in obesity management. The present invention elucidates the potential of Calebin A to favorably modulate biochemical markers associated with obesity. Notable biomodulatory properties of Calebin A include inhibiting leptin production, increasing adiponectin expression and inhibiting local (adipocyte) and systemic inflammation caused by pro-inflammatory cytokines Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α), Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Interleukin-1 (IL-1β).
US09328328B2

Methods for producing substantially pure cultures of human neural retinal progenitor cells, forebrain progenitor cells, and retinal pigment epithelial cells are disclosed. In addition, the successful differentiation of human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells through the major developmental stages of human retinogenesis is disclosed.
US09328323B2

This invention relates generally to systems and methods for digestion of solid waste that simplify solids handling. In certain embodiments, anaerobic methane extraction takes place for a period of time (e.g., from 1 to 4 weeks), after which an aerobic composting process begins in the same chamber. The organic waste remains in place and oxygen (e.g., in air) is forced into the chamber for an additional period of time (e.g., from 2 to 4 weeks). At the conclusion of the aerobic phase, the process yields a rough compost product that is stable and pathogen free. The rough compost can be further processed and blended to create high value engineered soils.
US09328321B2

A density measuring device is described having: a housing, internally defining a first chamber, designed to contain a fluid the density of which it is desired to measure, and housing, in a measurement operating condition, a float, designed to be immersed in the fluid; and an electronic circuit that detects a value of the density as a function of a thrust sustained by the float due to the effect of the fluid; the housing further defines a second chamber, designed to contain a filling gas and to house the float in a cleaning operating condition of the float, distinct from the measurement operating condition, for removing gas bubbles and/or solid particles that have adhered to an outer surface of the float during the measurement operating condition.
US09328316B2

Compositions having a mixture of functional perfume components are provided. In one embodiment, the functional perfume components comprise iso-nonyl acetate, dihydro myrcenol, linalool, and benzyl acetate. In one embodiment, the functional perfume component may be present in an amount from about 75% to about 100%, by weight of said mixture, wherein said composition is substantially free of a VOC.
US09328299B2

A process for increasing the yields of light olefins and the yields of aromatics from a hydrocarbon stream is presented. The process includes a first separation to direct the light components that are not reformable to a cracking unit, with the remainder passed to a second separation unit. The second separation unit extracts normal components from the hydrocarbon stream to pass to the cracking unit. The resulting hydrocarbon stream with reduced light ends and reduced normals is passed to a reforming unit.
US09328297B1

Integrated systems are provided for the production of higher hydrocarbon compositions, for example liquid hydrocarbon compositions, from methane using an oxidative coupling of methane system to convert methane to ethylene, followed by conversion of ethylene to selectable higher hydrocarbon products. Integrated systems and processes are provided that process methane through to these higher hydrocarbon products.
US09328290B2

Multiple catalytic processing stations enable a method for producing volatile gas streams from biomass decomposition at discrete increasing temperatures. These catalytic processing stations can be programmed to maximize conversion of biomass to useful renewable fuel components based on input feedstock and desired outputs.
US09328285B2

Methods for reducing settling rates of proppants in fracturing fluids include injecting sufficient gas into the fluid to form bubbles that reduce proppant settling rates. Compositions including proppants made buoyant with gas bubbles.
US09328284B2

Compositions of plant oil-based biodegradable crude oil thinning fluids are described having a performance especially suitable to reducing crude oil viscosity in extraction and retrieval operations. A method to recover oil from an oil well is described, comprising the steps of: a) providing a formulation comprising one or more terpenoid compounds, soy methyl esters, and glycol ether esters; b) introducing a first portion of the formulation into an oil well; and c) recovering a mixture from the oil well, where the mixture comprises at least a portion of the formulation together with oil from the oil well.
US09328280B2

An additive for a wellbore treatment fluid comprising a sulfonated asphalt compound comprising particles having a D90 particle size of less than about 215 μm. A wellbore treatment fluid comprising (i) an oleaginous component and (ii) a sulfonated asphalt wherein the sulfonated asphalt comprises particles having a D90 of less than about 215 μm.
US09328278B2

The invention relates to an engine coolant composition, and a method of increasing the operational life of a coolant composition in an engine, wherein an isononanoic acid is incorporated into the generally glycol based coolant fluid in place of nitrous acid or its salt to reduce pitting corrosion on iron containing surfaces.
US09328273B2

A laminating adhesive is prepared from a water-borne resin obtained by allowing an isocyanate group-terminated prepolymer having an anionic group to react with a chain extender; a swellable inorganic layer compound; and a water dispersible polyisocyanate curing agent.
US09328272B2

The present invention aims to provide a curable composition that is usable in fast curing adhesives and the like and has excellent curability and excellent initial adhesion. The aim is accomplished by use of a curable composition that contains a polyoxyalkylene polymer (a1) having a reactive silyl group (e.g., trimethoxysilyl group) equivalent of 0.15 mmol/g to 1.5 mmol/g and a polyoxyalkylene polymer (a2) having a reactive silyl group equivalent of 0.010 to 0.14 mmol/g. Preferably, the polymers (a1) and (a2) both have a backbone with at least one branch.
US09328267B2

The invention provides for an adhesive composition that can both be used as melt adhesive composition and as drying adhesive composition. Such an adhesive composition comprises a thermoreversible gelling starch, a bonding starch and a plasticizer.
US09328259B1

Emulsions of silicone terminated polyethers are used to modify paints and coatings over masonry, plaster, cellulous, and EIFS substrates to increase flexibility, water repellency, and elastomeric properties of the paints and coatings to protect the paint and coating substrates from cracking due to moisture penetration. The modified paints and coatings are also used as anti-graffiti paint.
US09328251B2

An in situ process for preparing a phase change magnetic ink including heating a phase change ink composition to a first temperature sufficient to provide a melt composition; wherein the phase change ink composition comprises a carrier, an optional colorant, and an optional dispersant; placing the melt composition under inert atmosphere; heating the melt composition to a second temperature sufficient to effect decomposition of a metal carbonyl; adding the metal carbonyl to the melt composition under inert atmosphere at this second temperature to form metal nanoparticles thus forming in situ a phase change magnetic ink including the metal nanoparticles; optionally, filtering the phase change magnetic ink while in a liquid state; and cooling the phase change magnetic ink to a solid state.
US09328248B2

The disclosure provides a curable ink including a bis-urea gelator having the structure of Formula I. wherein R and R′ each, independently of the other, is a saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon group selected from the group consisting of (1) linear aliphatic groups, (2) branched aliphatic groups, (3) cyclic aliphatic groups, (4) aliphatic groups containing both cyclic and acyclic portions, any carbon atom of the saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon group may be optionally substituted with an alkyl group (cyclic or acyclic), wherein (1) and (2) groups have a carbon number of from about 1 to about 22 carbons, and wherein (3) and (4) groups have a carbon number of from about 4 to about 10 carbons; and X is selected from the group consisting of: (i) an alkylene group, (ii) an arylene group, (iii) an arylalkylene group, and (iv) an alkylarylene group.
US09328245B2

A compositional kit for forming a composition includes a first composition and a second composition which are separate. The first composition includes a filler, a cross-linking agent and an emissivity agent; and the second composition includes a silicate binder. Methods for making a compositional kit and for making a coated overhead conductor are also provided.
US09328241B2

Disclosed herein are compositions comprising polyamides, thermoplastic polyimides, and inorganic fillers. The compositions can also comprise a flame retardant additive. Also disclosed are materials and devices made thereof. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.
US09328239B2

Compositions of polymer blends of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoate are described. In certain embodiments, the PHA is a multiphase copolymer blend having one phase a fully amorphous phase with a glass transition temperature of below 20° C. and is between about 5 to about 45% of the total PHA. Methods of making the compositions of the invention are also described. The invention also includes articles, films and laminates comprising the compositions.
US09328226B2

A rubber mixture is disclosed which is suitable in particular for vehicle pneumatic tires, belts, drive belts and hoses. The rubber mixture includes the following: at least one polar or nonpolar rubber, at least one pale- and/or dark-colored filler, at least one sulfur, which is mixed with at least one terpenoid and/or at least one high-viscosity oil, and optionally other additional substances.
US09328221B2

A method for preparing a graphene oxide/white carbon black/rubber nanocomposite material is described. The prepared graphene oxide/white carbon black/rubber nanocomposite material contains nanoscale graphene oxide and white carbon black that are highly dispersed. The nanocomposite material has a relatively high modulus, excellent wear resistance and tear resistance, a relatively low rolling resistance, and at the same time has a low air-permeability and excellent self-healing capability.
US09328217B2

An epoxy resin composition for optical sheets, the composition comprising a polyvalent carboxylic acid (A) represented by formula (I): wherein R1's each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 15 carbon atoms, or a carboxyl group; q represents the number of substituent R1's, and represents an integer from 1 to 4; and P represents the following X: wherein there may be a plural number of R2's per ring, and R2's each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; and * represents a bonding site linked to the oxygen atom; and an epoxy resin (B) having an aliphatic cyclic structure in the molecule.
US09328215B2

The invention provides a resin composition whose dyeability is improved. The composition comprises a resin, and a hydrotalcite type material in an amount of 0.1 to 30 parts relative to 100 parts of the resin, wherein the hydrotalcite type material is represented by formula (1): (M2+)1-x(M3+)x(OH)2(A−)x.mH2O  (1) wherein M2+ is at least one species of divalent metal ions, M3+ is at least one species of trivalent metal ions, A− is at least one species of alkylbenzenesulfonic acid ions with the alkyl group having at least 8 carbon atoms, x is the number satisfying the inequality: 0
US09328213B2

A rubber composition excellent in air permeation resistance and improved in flexure failure resistance, and a weight-saving pneumatic tire excellent in air permeation resistance and improved in flexure failure resistance in which the rubber composition is used as the inner liner therein is provided. The rubber composition contains, relative to 100 parts by mass of the rubber ingredient (A) therein, from 1 to 9 parts by mass of carbon black (B) and from 80 to 150 parts by mass of a layered or platy clay mineral (C).
US09328203B2

The present invention relates to a benzodithiophene based copolymer containing pyridino[2,1,3]thiadiazole units and a preparing method and applications thereof. The polymer has a structural formula (I), wherein R1 and R2 are respectively selected from H or alkyl groups of C1 to C16; R3 and R4 are respectively selected from H, alkyl groups of C1 to C16, alkoxy groups of C1 to C16, or thiophene groups substituted by alkyl groups of C1 to C16; X is N and Y is CH, or X is CH and Y is N; and n is a natural number of 7 to 80. Applications of the benzodithiophene based copolymer containing pyridino[2,1,3]thiadiazole units in polymer solar cells, polymer organic light-emitting, polymer organic field effect transistors, polymer organic optical storage, polymer organic nonlinear materials or polymer organic laser are also provided.
US09328194B2

The present invention relates to a benzodithiophene based copolymer containing isoindoline-1,3-diketone units and a preparing method and applications thereof. The polymer has a structural formula (I), wherein R1 and R2 are respectively selected from H or alkyl groups of C1 to C16; R3 and R4 are respectively selected from H, alkyl groups of C1 to C16, alkoxy groups of C1 to C16, or thiophene groups substituted by alkyl groups of C1 to C16; R5 is selected from alkyl groups of C1 to C16; n is a natural number from 7 to 80. Applications of the benzodithiophene based copolymer containing isoindoline-1,3-diketone units in polymer solar cells, polymer organic light-emitting, polymer organic field effect transistors, polymer organic optical storage, polymer organic nonlinear materials or polymer organic laser are also provided.
US09328191B2

A coating system comprises a substrate and a cured film disposed on the substrate and formed from a coating composition. The coating composition comprises a solvent component and a resin. The resin comprises a reaction product of a polyolefin and an oligomer or polymer. The polyolefin, different from the oligomer or polymer, has a functional group that is reactive with the oligomer or polymer and the functional group is selected from acrylate, methacrylate, carboxyl, hydroxyl, epoxide, anhydride and isocyanate functional groups. The oligomer or polymer and the polyolefin are at least partially immiscible in solution at ambient temperature. The oligomer or polymer is grafted with the polyolefin to form the resin.
US09328188B2

A method for preparing a phenol-formaldehyde resin is provided. The method includes extracting a biomass pyrolysis oil to obtain a first phenolic mixture, mixing the first phenolic mixture, furfural and an alkaline catalyst to proceed to a first polymerization reaction to form a phenol-formaldehyde resin precursor solution, and adding the alkaline catalyst to the phenol-formaldehyde resin precursor solution to proceed to a second polymerization reaction to form a phenol-formaldehyde resin solution. The disclosure also provides a resin material prepared from the phenol-formaldehyde resin. The disclosure further provides a method for preparing a resin molding material.
US09328183B2

Polymerization process including polymerizing a monomer and a comonomer in a polymerization reaction, withdrawing an effluent stream containing solid polymer and a mixture of unreacted monomer and unreacted comonomer, and passing the effluent to a high pressure recovery system having (a) a high pressure separation step for separating vapor containing unreacted monomer and unreacted comonomer from the solids, and (b) a high pressure recycle system for recycling a portion of the vapor to the polymerization reaction, passing the solids from the high pressure recovery system to a low pressure recovery system having (a) a low pressure separation step for separating further unreacted monomer and unreacted comonomer from the solids, and (b) a low pressure recycle system for recycling at least a portion of the unreacted monomer and unreacted comonomer to the polymerization reaction. A portion of the vapor separated in step 2(a) is passed to the low pressure recovery system.
US09328164B2

A method of preparing an antibody suitable for use in a feline is provided. Also provided are chimeric and felinized antibodies which specifically bind to feline neuronal growth factor (NGF) and neutralize the ability of feline NGF to bind to the p75 or TrkA feline NGF receptor. The invention extends to nucleic acids encoding same and to methods of treating pain and arthritis in a feline using said antibodies and/or nucleic acids.
US09328162B2

Described herein are materials and methods of treating dry eye disease in a subject.
US09328160B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide an anti-cadherin antibody having a high internalization capacity and provide an anti-cadherin antibody-drug conjugate that effectively kills cadherin-expressing cancer cells with the use of such antibody. The present invention provides an anti-cadherin antibody which recognizes a cadherin domain 1 (EC1) of cadherin and exhibits a high internalization capacity.
US09328157B2

The present disclosure relates to novel vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-binding polypeptides and methods for using these polypeptides to inhibit biological activities mediated by vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs). The present disclosure also provides various improvements relating to single domain binding polypeptides.
US09328154B2

The present invention provides therapeutic agents and compositions comprising elastic peptides and therapeutic proteins. Such peptides exhibit a flexible, extended conformation. In some embodiments, the therapeutic protein is a GLP-1 receptor agonist (e.g., GLP-1, exendin), insulin, or Factor VII/VIIa, including functional analogs. The present invention further provides encoding polynucleotides, as well as methods of making and using the therapeutic agents. The therapeutic agents have improvements in relation to their use as therapeutics, including, inter alia, one or more of half-life, clearance and/or persistance in the body, solubility, and bioavailability.
US09328144B2

The invention provides HSV antigens and epitopes that are useful for the prevention and treatment of HSV infection. T-cells having specificity for antigens of the invention have demonstrated cytotoxic activity against cells loaded with virally-encoded peptide epitopes, and in many cases, against cells infected with HSV. The identification of immunogenic antigens responsible for T-cell specificity provides improved anti-viral therapeutic and prophylactic strategies. Compositions containing antigens or polynucleotides encoding antigens of the invention provide effectively targeted vaccines for prevention and treatment of HSV infection.
US09328142B2

The invention provides a peptide or peptidomimetic that is derived from or based upon the amino acid sequence of the C-terminal α-helix or hypervariable region (HVR) or a Ras protein, a nucleic acid encoding the peptide or peptidomimetic, and methods employing the same.
US09328130B2

This invention relates to biology and medicine and, in particular, can be used in medicine to make a pharmaceutical composition for targeted delivery of biologically active substances into mitochondria, driven by proton electro-chemical potential in the mitochondria. This invention also relates to the method to affect an organism by the targeted delivery of biologically active compounds to mitochondria. The invention can be useful in treatment of diseases or disorders associated with not normal functioning of mitochondria, in particular diseases associated with increased production of free radicals and reactive oxygen species.
US09328119B2

Disclosed herein are aza-pyridone compounds, pharmaceutical compositions that include one or more aza-pyridone compounds, and methods of synthesizing the same. Also disclosed herein are methods of ameliorating and/or treating a disease and/or a condition, including an orthomyxovirus infection, with an aza-pyridone compounds. Examples of an orthomyxovirus viral infection include an influenza infection.
US09328113B2

This invention relates to novel compounds that are substituted xanthine derivatives and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. For example, this invention relates to novel substituted xanthine derivatives that are derivatives of pentifylline. This invention also provides compositions comprising one or more compounds of this invention and a carrier and the use of the disclosed compounds and compositions in methods of treating diseases and conditions for which pentifylline and related compounds are beneficial.
US09328111B2

The present invention provides a compound of Formula (I): wherein the variables Z, n, Y and p are as defined herein, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, which can inhibit the activity of poly (ADP-ribose)polymerases, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the same.
US09328096B2

The present invention relates to compounds of Formula I and their pharmaceutically acceptable salts, wherein the substituents are as described herein, and their use in medicine, in particular as TrkA antagonists.
US09328093B2

The present invention concerns the discovery of new selective inhibitors of ubiquitin specific proteases, their process of preparation and their therapeutic use.
US09328091B2

Compounds of Formula I are useful for inhibiting AKT protein kinases. Methods of using compounds of Formula I and stereoisomers and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, for in vitro, in situ, and in vivo diagnosis, prevention or treatment of such disorders in mammalian cells, or associated pathological conditions are disclosed.
US09328084B2

Nitrogen-containing biphenyl compounds as represented by formula (I), pharmaceutically acceptable salts or derivatives thereof, pharmaceutical compositions, and preparation methods therefore, and anti-HIV-1 use of the compound. Each substituent group in formula (I) is as defined in the description.
US09328079B2

A process for producing an optically active amine compound, characterized by asymmetrically hydrogenating a prochiral carbon-nitrogen double bond in the presence of a ruthenium complex represented by general formula (1) or (2) (wherein P represents an optically active diphosphine, X represents an anionic group, and Ar represents an optionally substituted arylene group).
US09328077B2

Compounds and compositions comprising compounds that activate pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) are described herein. Also described herein are methods of using the compounds that activate PKM2 in the treatment of cancer.
US09328074B2

A process for producing isoxazoline derivatives by ring-opening and cyclization of the corresponding cyclopropane derivatives with electrophilic nitrosylation reagents.
US09328066B2

The present invention relates to a novel enantioselective method of preparing (S)- and (R)-enantiomers of N-{3,4-difluoro-2-[(2-fluoro-4-iodophenyl)amino]-6-5 methoxyphenyl}-1-[2,3-dihydroxy-propyl]cyclopropanesulfonamide, to novel intermediate compounds, and to the use of said novel intermediate compounds for the preparation of said (S)- and (R)-enantiomers of N-{3,4-difluoro-2-[(2-fluoro-4-iodophenyl)amino]-6-methoxyphenyl}-1-[2,3-dihydroxy-propyl]cyclopropanesulfonamide.
US09328064B2

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of isocyanates by reaction of the corresponding amines with phosgene in the gas phase, wherein a diluent containing between 90.0000% by weight and 99.9999% by weight of substances which are inert in the phosgenation process and between 0.0001% by weight and 10.0000% by weight of oxygen is present during the conversion of the amine into the gas phase and the molar ratio of amine to oxygen (O2) is ≧1,000:1.
US09328055B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for refining natural oil feedstocks. In some embodiments, the methods comprise transesterifying glycerides in a natural oil feedstock to provide a transesterified product comprising monounsaturated fatty acid esters and polyunsaturated fatty acid esters. In some embodiments, the methods comprise separating the polyunsaturated fatty acid esters from the monounsaturated fatty acid esters (or vice versa), to provide a separated monounsaturated fatty acid ester composition having a ratio of at least 10 parts by weight of monounsaturated fatty acid esters for every 1 part by weight of polyunsaturated fatty acid esters.
US09328050B1

This invention relates to hydrogenation processes for making hydroxymethylbenzoic acid compounds. More specifically, this invention relates to hydrogenation processes in the presence of tertiary amide solvent compounds, as well as compositions that can result from such processes. The invention thus provides processes for making hydroxymethylbenzoic acid compounds.
US09328025B2

Effective use of dispersants in wallboard containing foam results from a method where stucco is mixed with a first dispersant and a first quantity of water to form a gypsum slurry. A soap is blended with a second dispersant and a second quantity of water to make a foam. Subsequently, the foam is combined with the slurry. Choice of different first and second dispersants and their relative amounts allows control of the size distribution of the foam bubbles in the slurry and the resulting voids in the gypsum core. Melamine sulfonate condensate and polycarboxylate dispersants are preferred dispersants.
US09328023B2

A drying type joint compound composition is provided, including: at least one binder, a filler and water, the water having a weight percentage in the range of 12-18% of the total weight of the composition.
US09328022B2

A copolymer that has sufficient dispersibility to various kinds of cements, including those having low fluidity (difficult cement). The copolymer is obtained by polymerizing monomer components including an unsaturated (poly)alkylene glycol ether monomer (a), an unsaturated carboxylic acid monomer (b), and an unsaturated cross-linkable monomer (c) or an unsaturated cross-linkable monomer (d). The unsaturated cross-linkable monomer (c) is allyl itaconate or allyl citraconate, or ester thereof. The unsaturated cross-linkable monomer (d) is an ester obtained by reaction of at least one acid, selected from the group consisting of (meth)acrylic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, itaconic acid, and citraconic acid and ester derived from the acids, with a (poly)alkylene glycol or a (poly)alkylene glycol ether.
US09328017B2

A coated article including a coating having first and second infrared (IR) reflecting layers comprising silver. A first absorption layer including Zr is located such that the first absorption layer is located between the glass substrate and the first IR reflecting layer, and a second absorption layer including Zr is located such that both the first and second IR reflecting layers are located between the glass substrate and the second absorption layer. The first absorption layer and the second absorption layer are each sandwiched between and contacting dielectric layers. The first absorption layer may be from about 120-200 angstroms (Å) thick, and may be at least 40 angstroms thicker than the second absorption layer.
US09328013B2

Described herein are alkali-free, boroalumino silicate glasses exhibiting desirable physical and chemical properties for use as substrates in flat panel display devices, such as, active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) and active matrix organic light emitting diode displays (AMOLEDs). In accordance with certain of its aspects, the glasses possess excellent compaction and stress relaxation properties.
US09328009B2

Provided is a vitreous silica crucible for pulling a silicon single crystal, which stably suppresses surface vibration of a silicon melted solution filled therein and has a long life, and a method for manufacturing the same. The vitreous silica crucible for pulling a silicon single crystal includes a peripheral wall portion, a curved portion, and a bottom portion, wherein a plurality of minute concave portions are formed on a certain area of an inner surface of the peripheral wall portion, and a plurality of bubbles are formed on a lower position of the minute concave portions.
US09328008B2

A supercritical water oxidation treatment system for organic wastewater with a high salinity crystallizes high-salinity wastewater by a low temperature of liquid oxygen, and decreases an inorganic salt content in the wastewater. Under supercritical water conditions, a hydrocyclone (4) separates most precipitated solid salts in the wastewater, so effectively prevents pipes and the tubular reactor (22) after the hydrocyclone (4) from plugging. Inorganic salts are able to be continuously separated from the system by the hydrocyclone (4) at the bottom of a desalination device, In addition, excess oxygen and gaseous products CO2 are recovered by a separation recovery part. The reaction time and the reaction temperature of supercritical water oxidation reaction are lowered due to the installation of a simple post-treatment unit (37). Moreover, the heat of the reactor effluent with a high temperature is recovered in the system, so operation cost of the system is reduced evidently.
US09328001B2

A method and system for fluid treatment that provides fluid release cycles within the regeneration sequence of a fluid treatment device. The fluid release or backwash air cycle permits the slow, controlled and metered release of air or gases from a treatment tank.
US09327998B2

A method for providing a dose of visible light in covered drinking water storage facilities to control nitrification. In one embodiment, the method includes irradiating the water with a dose of visible light sufficient to inhibit microbial nitrification of the water. In one embodiment, the dose of visible light has a wavelength from approximately 400 Hz to approximately 700 Hz. In another embodiment, the dose of visible light has a wavelength from approximately 550 Hz to approximately 700 Hz. In a further embodiment, the dose of visible light has a wavelength from approximately 380 Hz to approximately 430 Hz.
US09327997B1

A water treatment system for treating viscous sludge containing entrained solids in water by evaporating the water from the viscous sludge to produce water and dehydrated solids including a tank with an internal agitator with an associated rotary meter to dispense metered quantities of the sludge into a subsequent dehydrator for heating the sludge to evaporate the water therefrom to produce dehydrated solids exiting through a meter and a gas containing evaporated water going to a condenser connected to the dehydrator to receive gas therefrom for condensing it into a liquid that is discharged from the system and provide dehydrated gas to a subsequent vacuum pump that maintains a relatively static vacuum.
US09327991B2

The present invention provides an aluminum hydroxide powder having a predetermined cumulative pore volume which falls within a range suited for the production of a high purity alumina, and a method for producing the same. It is possible to produce an aluminum hydroxide powder having high bulk density and high firing efficiency, and an aluminum hydroxide having high shape retention.
US09327972B2

In various implementations, feed streams that include methane are reacted to produce synthesis gas. The synthesis gas may be further processed to produce ultrapure, high-pressure hydrogen streams.
US09327967B2

A capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (cMUT) and fabrication method of the same are provided. The cMUT has a substrate, a curved membrane disposed on top of the substrate, and a flexible membrane disposed on top of the curved membrane. The curved membrane has a raised portion which is higher than a recessed portion relative to the substrate, and is supported by a support standing on a major surface of the substrate. The flexible membrane includes a first region mounted to the raised portion of the curved membrane, and a second region extending over the recessed portion of the curved member. Methods for fabricating the cMUT are also disclosed.
US09327965B2

A transportation device is provided having multiple sensors configured to detect and measure different parameters of interest. The transportation device includes at least one monolithic integrated multi-sensor (MIMS) device. The MIMS device comprises at least two sensors of different types formed on a common semiconductor substrate. For example, the MIMS device can comprise an indirect sensor and a direct sensor. The transportation device couples a first parameter to be measured directly to the direct sensor. Conversely, the transportation device can couple a second parameter to be measured to the indirect sensor indirectly. Other sensors can be added to the transportation device by stacking a sensor to the MIMS device or to another substrate coupled to the MIMS device. This supports integrating multiple sensors such as a microphone, an accelerometer, and a temperature sensor to reduce cost, complexity, simplify assembly, while increasing performance.
US09327964B2

A method for manufacturing a die assembly, including the steps of: bonding a first wafer of semiconductor material to a second wafer, the second wafer including a respective semiconductor body having a respective initial thickness and forming an integrated electronic circuit; and subsequently reducing the initial thickness of the semiconductor body of the second wafer; and subsequently bonding the second wafer to a third wafer, the third wafer forming a micro-electromechanical sensing structure.
US09327959B2

A water dispenser includes a raw water container which can be slid into and out of a loading space, while being placed on a slide table. The slide table has a container holder adapted to restrain the peripheral side wall of the raw water container. The minimum height and the shape of the container holder are determined such that when the peripheral side wall of the raw water container is collapsed, the raw water container is never pulled up by the container holder as a result of the peripheral side wall getting caught on the container holder, and such that when the raw water container becomes empty, the raw water container is received within the container holder. This prevents portions of the peripheral side wall from protruding into spaces behind front distal ends of side plates defining the loading space.
US09327951B2

A hydraulic drive system readily adapted for either manual actuation or motor-driven actuation due to the unique design of the hydraulic drive and its coupling to either a hand crank or to a motorized drive to provide hydraulic pressure to lift cylinders that can be attached to table legs for vertical adjustment. The hydraulic drive includes a screw jack having an end extending from one end of a housing and splined or otherwise keyed. A manual crank arm or motorized drive assembly includes a coupling which mates with the end of the screw jack to provide a drive force for the hydraulic cylinder drive. The motorized drive assembly includes a pair of toothed hubs and an intermediate flexible sleeve allowing alignment of the motorized drive to the drive assembly as well as providing sound dampening, a cushioned coupling, and facilitates overcurrent detection.
US09327947B2

An all-terrain vehicle lifting crane apparatus is provided, having a pivotable and telescoping lifting boom and a tethered lifting hook that is powered by hand crank or by electric motor. The apparatus includes a base plate supporting an upstanding post, within which the vertical member of the lifting boom is pivotably supported therein. The lifting boom includes a telescoping structure to allow for extending its length over an article to be lifted. Both the telescoping aspect and the pivotable aspect are securable to lock the apparatus into a static configuration. The device is ideally suited for connection to an all-terrain vehicle and for lifting large game animals onto the vehicle cargo area after a hunt.
US09327945B2

A device for handling a load provided with a thread includes a screw assembly equipped with a gripper and capable of connecting to the load, a first screwing indicator secured to the screw assembly, a second screwing indicator movable in translation relative to the first screwing indicator, and a spring. In particular, the spring is inserted between the first screwing indicator and the second screwing indicator and has an effect of returning the second screwing indicator such that the second screwing indicator abuts against the load, so that a coincidence between the first and second screwing indicator indicates a sufficient screwing of the device onto the load.
US09327926B2

A sheet feeding apparatus includes an apparatus body, a sheet feed portion, a sheet storage portion, and a resistance unit. The resistance unit includes a link member that is pivoted by coming in contact with the apparatus body when the sheet storage portion is mounted on the apparatus body toward a feed position, and is configured such that a distance between a normal line, in an contact surface with the apparatus body, and a pivot center becomes longer as the sheet storage portion approaches the feed position, a linear type oil damper generating a resistance force through a linear operation in accordance with pivoting of the link member, and a transmitting portion that is provided between the link member and the linear type oil damper, linearly moves due to the pivoting of the link member, and transmits the pivoting of the link member to the linear type oil damper.
US09327925B2

An image forming apparatus includes a body, a paper feed cassette, a rotary operating member, an engaging portion, engaged portions, and a size detection switch. The rotational operating member is rotatable. The engaging portion engages the rotary operating member with the paper feed cassette. Any one of the engaged portions is engaged by the engaging portion. The size detection switch is used to detect the size of a recording medium stored in the paper feed cassette. The rotational operating member includes a pressure portion that activates the size detection switch. The rotational force in the first direction necessary for causing the engagement to be released is greater than the rotational force in the second direction necessary for causing the engagement to be released.
US09327923B1

A heated portable cargo ramp and method of making the same is provided. The ramp has an elongated base comprising a length that is longer than a width of the base. A first ceramic insulating layer is provided above the elongated base. A heating element is provided above the first ceramic insulating layer. The heating element comprises an elongated flexible mat. A first rubber layer is provided above the heating element. A second ceramic insulating layer is provided above at least the portion of the rubber layer which extends over the heating element. A second rubber layer is provided above at least the portion of the second ceramic insulating layer which extends over the laminated paper-enclosed heating element.
US09327916B2

A conveyor having an article-diverting device with left-handed and right-handed spirals rotated in the same direction to transport articles in a first direction or in opposite directions to transport articles in a different second direction. The left-handed spirals are arranged alternately and parallel to the right-handed spirals. Rotating all the spirals at the same speed in the same direction in one version of the conveyor passes articles straight across the spirals perpendicular to the axes of rotation of the spirals. Rotating the left-handed spirals opposite to the right-handed spirals diverts the articles atop the spirals parallel to their axes of rotation. In other versions, one set of spirals is constantly rotated and the other set is actuated by geared engagement into and out of rotation in the opposite direction or by raising and lowering into and out of position in contact with articles.
US09327913B2

The invention pertains to a stocking system and collection device consisting of a linear conveyor system and a second linear conveyor system parallel to the first and placed in alignment with it so that an object placed on the first conveyor system may be transferred to the second conveyor system. In accordance with the invention, the means are anticipated to move the second conveyor system perpendicularly to the direction of the conveyance so that the second conveyor system can be move from a position situated in alignment with the first conveyor system to a position for distribution. It is preferable that the first conveyor system (100) consist of three parallel belts (110, 120, 130) placed side by side; the first (110) and the third (130) belts extend farther in advance in the direction of the second conveyor system (200) at a distance (d) than the second belt (120). Similarly, the second conveyor system (200) consists of three parallel conveyor belts (210, 220, 230) placed side by side; the first (210) and the third (230) belts extend less in behind, in extension, one after the other, and the second belts (120, 220) at least partially extend one after the other; the first drivers are anticipated to drive the three belts of the first conveyor system and the second drivers are anticipated to drive the two belts of the second conveyor system in the same movement.
US09327906B2

A conveyor apparatus has a pivot frame pivotally mounted to a lower portion thereof and an actuator that pivot the pivot frame from a rear frame transport position to a forward frame operating position. A feed conveyor has a rear discharge end movably attached to an upper frame portion of the pivot frame such that the rear discharge end of the feed conveyor is above the main conveyor. The feed discharge is above the main intake and the feed conveyor extends away from the main intake and the front intake end of the feed conveyor is movable laterally when the pivot frame and feed conveyor are in the operating position, and the feed conveyor is above the main conveyor when the pivot frame and feed conveyor are in the transport position. A hopper on the feed conveyor intake has flexible panels that fold down when in the transport position.
US09327903B2

An autonomous transport robot for transporting a payload, the autonomous transport robot including a drive section assembly having at least one motor and a pair of drive wheels coupled to the motor, a frame configured to support a payload, a transfer arm connected to the frame and configured for the autonomous transfer of payload to and from the frame, and a suspension system movably connecting the drive section assembly and the frame allowing relative movement between the frame and the drive section assembly.
US09327902B2

A transfer vehicle includes a lateral pair of extendable and retractable arms, openable and closable hooks at front and rear ends of the arms, an arm opening and closing mechanism configured to change spacing between the arms, and a controller configured and programmed to control the arms and the arm opening and closing mechanism as well as the hooks. During article pickup, the controller pulls in an article onto the transfer vehicle by causing the arms to protrude to a position beyond the article in a state in which the hooks at a distal end in a pickup direction as viewed from the transfer vehicle are opened, thereafter closing the hooks to clamp the article, opening the arms after the clamping to provide a gap between the article and at least one of the arms, and retracting the arms in a state in which the hooks are closed.
US09327901B2

A mounting assembly to support a refuse container and mount the refuse container to a variety of objects. The mounting assembly includes a body portion extending along a first plane between a first end and a second end of the mounting assembly, a mounting portion extending along a second plane outwardly from the first plane, the mounting portion configured to be secured to a fixture, one or more support members at the first end of the mounting assembly, each of the one or more support members configured to couple to a corresponding portion of the container; and a retaining member at the second end of the mounting assembly, the retaining member configured to retain a fastening member that is to extend around at least a portion of an exterior perimeter of the container.
US09327897B2

A combination includes a container having a body with a first end and a second end. The body defines a cavity for holding contents to be dispensed from the container. An actuator is positioned proximate to the first end of the body. The actuator is operatively connected to the cavity to allow the contents to be dispensed therefrom. At least two diametrically opposed first fastening members are positioned on or in the body. A device has a generally open first end, a generally open second end, and a sidewall extending therebetween. The device is removably mountable onto the body of the container. At least two diametrically opposed second fastening members are positioned on or in an interior surface of the sidewall. Each second fastening member engages at least a portion of one of the first fastening members of the container when the device is mounted onto the container.
US09327896B2

A dispensing apparatus includes an output shaft having screw grooves on an outer circumferential surface, a rotary actuator including a reduction gear and configured to rotate the output shaft around an axis thereof, a piston screwed into the screw grooves and configured to move back and forth along an axial direction of the output shaft by drive of the rotary actuator, a nozzle disposed at a leading end of the dispensing apparatus and configured to suck and spout liquid along with the piston, and an actuator case configured to cover the reduction gear, and configured to support a proximal end portion of the output shaft by a leading end portion of the actuator case such that the proximal end portion of the output shaft is engaged with a leading end portion of the reduction gear in a state capable of transmitting the drive.
US09327889B2

The present invention provides a beverage carrier for holding, storing, and carrying one or more beverages. Advantageously, the carrier comprises detachable sleeves that each hold a beverage container. When a sleeve is detached from the remainder of the beverage carrier, with the beverage remaining within the sleeve, the sleeve serves as an insulating device to reduce the transfer of heat to or from the beverage during consumption.
US09327888B2

Sanitary tissue products, for example toilet tissue products, and arrays thereof associated with non-textual indicia, such as character representations exhibiting active poses, that are psychologically matched to intensive properties of the sanitary tissue products; processes for making such an array of sanitary tissue products are provided, and marketing articles associated with displaying and/or advertising an array of sanitary tissue products.
US09327867B2

Non-durable self-supporting flexible containers having gradients where at least one of a plurality of physical characteristics that are perceptible via tactile interaction with an exterior surface of the container are varied across the exterior of the container. The flexible containers may permit users to perceive viscosity or relative thermal condition of contained product in discrete zones or regions of the container through one or more outer surface of the container without direct interaction with the product, or vary hardness or softness of the container.
US09327866B2

Systems and apparatuses directed to cartons with user selectable dispensing configurations. An example carton for dispensing a plurality of products stored therein includes a first removable feature configured to be selectively removed from a top surface to enable removal of a portion of a first end; a second removable feature configured to be selectively removed from the top surface to enable removal of a portion of a second end; and a third removable feature configured to be selectively removed from the top surface to enable removal of a portion of the top surface. The carton defines a closed configuration and a dispensing configuration that is defined by at least one of the portion of the first end being removed, the portion of the second end being removed, or the portion of the top surface being removed. Methods for manufacturing a carton with user selectable dispensing configurations are also contemplated.
US09327859B1

A container is disclosed that has a drawn and ironed aluminum container body. The container body includes a body portion with a relatively constant outer diameter and a varying diameter neck portion integrally connected to the body portion and terminating in an opening. The container body is constructed and arranged to receive, without crushing deformation, a metal crown applied by conventional glass bottle crowning equipment.
US09327858B2

A label manufacturing apparatus manufactures a label L having a sub-label Lb bonded to a predetermined position on a main label La. A main label conveyance mechanism 10 conveys a main continuous label strip Ta in a first direction Da. A sub-label conveyance mechanism 20 conveys a sub-continuous label strip Tb in a second direction which crosses the first direction. The sub-labels Lb arranged in series on a backing strip Db, are separated from their backing strip and are each bonded to the surface of a respective main label La by a bonding mechanism. The completed display label L is separated from its backing strip Db of the main continuous label strip Ta. The label manufacturing apparatus can adjust the relative bonding position between the sub-label and the main label La so as to allow the sub-label bonding mechanism 20 to bond the sub-label Lb to the main label La at a predetermined position.
US09327854B2

A vacuum sealing machine contains a sealing unit including a first connecting rod, two first electromagnets, and a first press member, the first connecting rod having two fixing pieces and two first apertures, and the first press member having a first adhering face; a pressing unit including a second connecting rod, two second electromagnets, a second press member, and two connection mounts, the second connecting rod having two pull bars, a plurality of second apertures, and two support tabs to support the first connecting rod, and the second press member having a second adhering face; an air exhausting unit including a transmission device and a drawing device; the body having a holder in which a receiving room is formed so as to receive the sealing unit, the pressing unit, and the air exhausting unit; the receiving room having a seat, the seat having the barrier strip and a heating strip.
US09327853B2

Automated systems and methods for constructing card multipacks. An automated system for constructing card multipacks includes: a movable conveyor; a first carrier placing station configured to place a first carrier portion of a carrier on the conveyor; at least one card placing station configured to place a plurality of stored value cards on the first carrier portion; a data capture station configured to read a card bar code of each of the plurality of stored value cards in-line in the automated system; and a software system adapted to create a data file including the card bar codes.
US09327849B2

The invention primarily is directed to an orienting holder for a container that is being filled with a product on a container filling line. The container holder (10) has at least two rollers (18) and a base portion (12). The rollers are made of an elastic material which can be an elastomer inclusive of polymeric foams. The rollers are on arms (15, 16) that project above the base portion and usually will contact the container (30) at an upper part of the container. The arms which support the rollers can pivot. The elastic material of the rollers provide for a positive gripping of the container on the filling line, including a positive grip onto containers which may be partially out of the specified tolerances. The compressibility of the elastic material of the rollers can be enhanced through forming channels (27) in the roller structure.
US09327845B2

An offshore airborne wind turbine system including an aerial vehicle, an electrically conductive tether having a first end secured to the aerial vehicle and a second end secured to a platform, a rotatable drum positioned on the platform, an aerial vehicle perch extending from the platform, wherein the platform is positioned on a top of a spar buoy.
US09327842B2

A method for sensing a takeoff of an aircraft includes receiving a rate of change in vertical motion of the aircraft, determining whether the rate of change in vertical motion of the aircraft exceeds a first threshold, integrating the rate of change in vertical motion of the aircraft and outputting a virtual altitude signal, responsive to receiving the indication that a portion of the aircraft is contacting a surface, delaying the virtual altitude signal through a discrete low pass filter and outputting a delayed virtual altitude signal, subtracting the delayed virtual altitude signal from the virtual altitude signal to output an altitude perturbation signal, determining whether the altitude perturbation signal exceeds a second threshold value, and outputting an indication that the portion of the aircraft is not contacting the surface responsive to the rate of change in the vertical motion of the aircraft and the altitude perturbation signal.
US09327839B2

Methods and systems are generally described that inhibit debris (such as ice) accretions and/or remove debris (such as ice) accretions from the exterior surface of an aircraft. In some embodiments, the invention is a system for an aircraft comprising: a component of the aircraft having a surface; a plurality of piezo-kinetic actuators each positioned proximate to a portion of the surface; and a control unit coupled to the plurality of actuators, the control unit configured to actuate one or more of the actuators at one or more frequencies between about 1 Hz and about 1 kHz; wherein the actuators are each configured to introduce a displacement of the surface in three dimensions to inhibit a formation of ice on at least the portion of the surface and to break up existing ice formations on at least the portion of the surface.
US09327837B2

The invention is a Modular Airplane Seat Unit (1), where the seat can be lowered into the floor of a passenger cabin (9) via telescopic structure (14) and covered by sliding covers (12). The modular seat unit is to be utilized in passenger airplanes providing a more comfortable and healthy flight to the passengers, and more than one additional options like Coffee Table and Leg Rest.
US09327830B2

This application describes the software invented to control a dual electric motor system. The dual electric motor system is a Chorus Motor system applied to electric drive for aircraft taxi. The software uses closed-loop control together with several other control laws to operate the motors. Knowledge of the current operating state of the motors, together with knowledge of the commands given to taxi forward, taxi in reverse, or brake in reverse, is used to configure the motors to optimal operating parameters. The software architecture is described along with the pilot interface and many details of software implementation.
US09327825B2

An actuator control system for coupling to one or more flight control computers (FCCs); comprising: apparatus for controlling an aerodynamic control surface in response to commands received from one or more FCCs, and, integrated with the controlling apparatus, a failure protection system comprising apparatus arranged to provide at least one of the following functionalities: a servo monitor functionality, a command monitor functionality, and a loop closure functionality. Thus, in the overall flight control system, some or all of the elements of the failure protection system are located in the actuator control stage.
US09327824B2

An aircraft wing system for differentially adjusting a first deployable lift device and a second deployable lift device on a wing during take-off and landing, the system having a controller, which is programmed to determine desired positions for the first and second deployable lift devices, based on a desired position signal, and to activate high and low horsepower motors to move the first deployable lift devices to desired positions. The system has a controller which determines an adjustment amount for each motor, based on the system architecture.
US09327818B1

A self-stabilizing bladder or ballonet is provided within an envelope of a balloon. The bladder includes a spheroid body comprising an equator, a top pole, a bottom pole, and an axis crossing through the top pole and the bottom pole. The distance between two poles may be less than the equatorial distance. The bladder is sized and shaped for insertion into an envelope of a balloon and is inflatable to provide altitude control for the balloon.
US09327817B1

A self-stabilizing bladder or ballonet is provided within an envelope of a balloon. The bladder includes a spheroid body comprising an equator, a top pole, a bottom pole, and an axis crossing through the top pole and the bottom pole. The distance between two poles may be less than the equatorial distance. The bladder is sized and shaped for insertion into an envelope of a balloon and is inflatable to provide altitude control for the balloon.
US09327805B2

A vertical oil storage system is disclosed, having an oil tank for storing oil and water, an oil caisson coupled to the top of the oil tank, a water caisson coupled to the bottom of the oil tank, and a containment saucer at the interface between the oil and the water stored in the oil tank. Additionally, there is a water pipe extending from an upper water sump in the center well to the water caisson, a water passageway extending from the center well to the water caisson, and an oil pipe extending from the topside facility to the oil caisson.
US09327804B2

Disclosed is an apparatus having: a pressure chamber and a gas-producing microorganism within the chamber. The pressure chamber is capable of maintaining a gas pressure of at least 0.5 psi above atmospheric pressure.
US09327787B1

A bicycle handlebar stem is a hollow tube which has a slot defined therein. The hollow tube has a reinforcement portion to reinforce the structural strength of the hollow tube. A receiving space is defined between the reinforcement portion and the hollow tube. A display unit is located in the receiving space and has at least one Liquid Crystal Display screen, an operation button and an enter button. The display unit has a room to receive a power source therein. The display unit protrudes beyond the outer surface of the hollow tube.
US09327786B2

A guard for a chain and chain ring of a bicycle includes a bracket and a bracket extension. The bracket extension has a first end and a second end, and at least the second end is integrally formed. The second end includes a U-shaped configuration configured to house a chain retainer. The bracket and the bracket extension may be secured to one another using two fasteners. The bracket and the bracket extension may rotate relative to one another when only one of the fasteners is attached and may be fixed relative to one another when both of the fasteners are attached.
US09327785B2

The invention relates to a humanoid robot comprising two elements connected by a spherical joint with three degrees of freedom in rotation, the joint being moved by three actuators each acting in one of the three degrees of freedom. The invention is of particular use in the production of humanoid robots coming as close as possible to the human anatomy. According to the invention, the first and the second of the actuators act in parallel and the third of the actuators acts in series with the first and the second of the actuators.
US09327784B2

A mast-climbing robot has first and load-bearing assemblies, at least one linear actuator connected between the assemblies for changing their vertical spacing, and a respective clamp on each load-bearing assembly that can secure the respective load-bearing assembly on the mast and release the respective load-bearing assembly therefrom. Each clamp has two bearing points on the respective load-bearing assembly, at least one flexible belt that extends between the two bearing or attachment points and circumferentially around the mast, and at least one clamping actuator with which the length of the at least one belt can be increased and decreased between the bearing or attachment points to tighten lock the respective belt about the mast and thereby lock the respective assembly on the mast.
US09327783B1

A cartridge joint comprises a pin, a first collar circumferentially surrounding the pin and fixed thereto, a second collar circumferentially surrounding the pin and fixed thereto, and a bushing positioned axially between the first collar and the second collar and circumferentially surrounding the pin for relative rotation between the bushing and the pin. The cartridge joint has an annular first seal unit and an annular second seal unit. A method of assembling a cartridge joint is disclosed.
US09327770B2

A center pillar reinforcement unit for a vehicle may include: a plurality of reinforcement beams disposed on an exterior circumference of a center pillar inner panel in a height direction; an upper bracket disposed on an upper end portion of the center pillar inner panel and a roof rail, and fixing an end portion of the plurality of reinforcement beams; a center bracket disposed on a center portion of the center pillar inner panel, and fixing a center of the plurality of reinforcement beams; a lower bracket disposed on a lower portion of the center pillar inner panel, and fixing a lower portion of the plurality of reinforcement beams; and a gusset bracket formed inside of a side sill seal so that the lower portion of the plurality of reinforcement beams is assembled.
US09327769B2

Vehicles having internal body cavity seals and methods of assembling the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a vehicle includes a vehicle structural member, an exterior vehicle body panel that is coupled to the vehicle structural member and is spaced apart from the vehicle structural member at an internal body cavity, and a compressible sealing member that is positioned in the internal body cavity such that the compressible sealing member is concealed from an exterior of the vehicle. The compressible sealing member is coupled to at least one of the vehicle structural member or the exterior vehicle body panel and is compressed from an uninstalled thickness such that the compressible sealing member contacts both the vehicle structural member and the exterior vehicle body panel.
US09327763B2

A safety device on a vehicle includes a cable system provided for each one of front wheels of the vehicle, the cable system including a traction cable fastened on a first fastening point on a component of the vehicle body and on a second fastening point on one of the front wheels, at least one deflector arranged between the first and second fastening points, and a self-inhibiting device which includes a cable slack and a lock, wherein in a deactivated state of the cable system the lock releases the cable slack to permit a steering movement of the front wheel, and in an activated state locks the cable slack so that in case of a frontal collision a penetrating obstacle actuates the traction cable in dependence on an overlap of the frontal collision, thereby pivoting the affected front wheel from a starting position into a protective position in which the front wheel is turned with its outside in the direction of the obstacle and with its inside in the direction of an end wall of the vehicle body.
US09327757B2

An energy-absorbing deformable tube having a first end, a second end, and a reduced portion there between, a proximate tube portion between the reduced portion and the first end and a distal tube portion between the reduced portion and the second end, where a first cross section dimension in the reduced portion is smaller than a corresponding second cross section dimension in the proximal tube portion, distal tube portion, or both, and a cover spanning the reduced portion connected to the proximal tube portion and the distal tube portion, the cover provided over at least a portion of the reduced portion, the distal tube portion or the proximal tube portion or both moves relative to the cover after the deformable tube receives an axial force exceeding a predetermined threshold value.
US09327752B2

The object of this patent is a device for fitting seats to the chassis of baby carriages. It comprises an anchoring mechanism at each side of the seat for securing the seat in corresponding recipient elements on the chassis of the baby carriage, characterized in that the recipient element is composed of a junction box into which the anchoring mechanism fits. This box rotates around a transverse shaft and has means to limit said rotation. The device can incorporate seats requiring a specific inclination for correct folding.
US09327750B2

The present invention provides a stroller frame adapted for a stroller and the stroller with the stroller frame. The stroller frame includes a handle, a front foot pivoted to the handle, a bottom pipe pivoted to the front foot, and a linking mechanism pivoted with the handle, the front foot and the bottom pipe. Thus, the present invention provides the stroller frame and the stroller therewith capable of being folded easily and with simple structure.
US09327749B2

A foldable wagon is provided having a collapsible frame that converts the wagon from a use configuration to a folded configuration for storage and transportation. The foldable wagon has a collapsible frame positonable in an open position and a collapsed position, a plurality of wheels coupled to the collapsible frame, a plurality of substantially rigid seats pivotally coupled to the collapsible frame, and a flexible housing about the collapsible frame to form a sidewall for the wagon. The substantially rigid seats each having a substantially rigid seat back and a substantially rigid seat bottom hingedly coupled to the seat back.
US09327748B2

A supporting bracket is suitable for standing on a working platform and adapted to hold an electronic device having a screen and provide illumination. The supporting bracket includes a base, a supporting arm apparatus, and a lighting device. The base is suitable for being fixed to the working platform. The supporting arm apparatus has a first segment and a second segment. One end portion of the first segment is connected to the base. The first segment is able to rotate relative to the base. One end portion of the second segment is connected to the other end portion of the first segment. The other end portion of the second segment serves to hold the electronic device. The second segment is able to rotate relative to the first segment. The lighting device is fixed to the supporting arm apparatus to provide illumination.
US09327742B2

An in-vehicle information display system includes a plurality of display devices each of which operates by receiving supply of alternating-current power obtained by converting power from a wiring or of direct-current power output from a power storage device and each of which performs guidance display to passengers, and a terminal device that operates by receiving supply of direct-current power from the power storage device and that distributes guidance display information used for the guidance display toward the display devices. The terminal device directly transmits the guidance display information to a part of the display devices, each of the display devices acquires the guidance display information from the terminal device either directly or via another display device, and the display device that acquires the guidance display information directly from the terminal device among the display devices operates by receiving supply of direct-current power from the power storage device.
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