US11250000B2

A memory stores a first and second cache. A processor stores a first query in a transaction log. The processor selects information from the transaction log, uses it to determine that a user will likely access a first portion of the database at a future date, and copies that portion into the first cache prior to the date. The processor further copies a second, frequently accessed portion of the database into the second cache. The processor additionally determines that a portion of data is in both caches and deletes it from the second cache. The processor receives a second query from the user, determines that it is directed at data in the first cache and accesses that cache. The processor also determines that the second query is not directed at data in the first cache but is directed at data in the second cache, and accesses that cache.
US11249999B2

Methods and apparatus for determining if a value is stored in a hash table is provided. The method includes breaking the value into address bits, prefix bits, and signature bits. The method includes determining a container in a compressed index at an address specified by the address bits, the container comprised of a prefix table with bits set corresponding to the prefix bits determined by aggregate values associated with the container and a signature table containing the signature bits determined by the aggregate values associated with the container. The method includes determining a result based on a function of the prefix and signature tables and the determined prefix and signature bits.
US11249995B2

Predictive execution of query flows in an application aware database environment. A repository of previously received and registered database queries along with at least corresponding metadata having information about database query flows generating the database queries is maintained. Application metadata corresponding to a subsequent database query is received. The repository is checked to determine if the application metadata matches one of the previously received and registered database query flows. One or more queries corresponding to the query flow from the repository is/are retrieved if a match is determined. Execution of the retrieved one or more database queries is started prior to receiving the query from outside the repository.
US11249967B1

In an approach for database log management and log access performance improvement, a processor receives an access request for an optimal control file to minimize a database access performance impact. A processor determines the optimal control file based on usage of a plurality of control files for a database. A processor outputs the optimal control file to a user to access the database. A processor provides an incremental sub-control file of the optimal control file to the user. The incremental sub-control file is an incremental view of the optimal control file to query the incremental log data in the database.
US11249964B2

A computing device, including a processor configured to receive a plurality of database entries. The plurality of database entries may include a first portion organized according to a predefined database schema and a second portion not organized according to the predefined database schema. The processor may be further configured to generate an estimated database schema for the second portion and organize the second portion according to the estimated database schema. The processor may be further configured to determine at least one database entry included in the first portion that does not have the estimated data type indicated in the estimated database schema. The processor may be further configured to modify the estimated database schema such that the modified data type matches the estimated data type of the at least one database entry. The processor may be further configured to generate a database analytics model based on the modified database schema.
US11249961B2

A distributed storage system includes table controllers collectively storing partitions of a logical table having multiple rows. For each of the partitions, a corresponding table controller stores a subset of the rows of the logical table across individual pages. A management controller updates a schema of the logical table from a first to a second schema definition by, for each of the partitions, sending an update command indicating the second schema definition to the corresponding table controller. The first table controller corresponds to a first partition that includes a first subset of the rows. The first table controller, prior to receiving the update command, includes an identifier of the first schema definition within each page of data for the first subset. Subsequent to receiving the update command, the first table controller, when writing each new page of data for the first subset, includes an identifier of the second schema definition.
US11249956B2

Techniques are disclosed for providing a file system interface for an object store intended to support simultaneous access to objects stored in the object store by multiple clients. In accordance with one method, an abstraction of a root directory to a hierarchical namespace for the object store is exposed to clients. The object store is backed by a plurality of physical storage devices housed in or directly attached to the plurality of host computers and internally tracks its stored objects using a flat namespace that maps unique identifiers to the stored objects. The creation of top-level objects appearing as subdirectories of the root directory is enabled, wherein each top-level object represents a separate abstraction of a storage device having a separate namespace that can be organized in accordance with any designated file system.
US11249951B2

An interface for enabling a computer device to utilize data property-based data placement inside a nonvolatile memory device comprises: executing a software component at an operating system level in the computer device that monitors update statistics of all data item modifications into the nonvolatile memory device, including one or more of update frequencies for each data item, accumulated update and delete frequencies specific to each file type, and an origin of the data item; storing the update statistics of each of the data items and each of the data item types in a database; and intercepting all operations, including create, write, and update, of performed by applications to all the data items, and automatically assigning a data property identifier to each of the data items based on current update statistics in the database, such that the data items and assigned data property identifiers are transmitted over a memory channel to the non-volatile memory device.
US11249939B2

An Execution Array Memory Array (XarMa©) processor is described for signal processing and internet of things (IoT) applications, (pronounced sharma, that means happiness in Sanskrit). The XarMa© processor uses a 1 to K+1 adjacency network in an array of execution units. The 1 to K+1 adjacency refers to connections separately made in rows and in columns of execution unit and local file nodes, where the number of Rows≥K>1 and of Columns≥K>1 and K is an odd integer. Instead of a large central multi-ported register file, a distributed set of storage files local to each execution unit is used. The instruction set architecture uses instructions that specify forwarding of execution results to execution units associated with destination instructions. This execution array is scalable to support cost effective and low power high-performance application specific processing focused on target product requirements.
US11249938B2

A data processing system and method are provided. A host computing device comprises at least one processor. A network interface device is arranged to couple the host computing device to a network. The network interface device comprises a buffer for receiving data for transmission from the host computing device. The processor is configured to execute instructions to transfer the data for transmission to the buffer. The data processing system further comprises an indicator store configured to store an indication that at least some of the data for transmission has been transferred to the buffer wherein the indication is associated with a descriptor pointing to the buffer.
US11249934B2

In a data access method, a processor of a host converts a first descriptor recognized by a virtual machine interface card of the virtual machine into a second descriptor recognized by a physical interface card of the host. The first descriptor includes a virtual machine physical memory address and a data length of accessible data. The physical interface card of the host obtains, based on the second descriptor, a physical address that is in a memory and to which the virtual machine physical memory address is mapped, and accesses the accessible data according to the physical address in the memory.
US11249933B2

A MIPI D-PHY circuit comprises a main control module, a controlled module, an internal data source generating module, and a configuration register. The main control module and the controlled module are respectively connected to the configuration register, and the main control module is connected to the internal data source generating module. The main control module and the controlled module comprise a clock channel and a data channel respectively. The clock channel and the data channel in the main control module and the data channel and the clock channel in the controlled module both comprise an error detection unit. The MIPI D-PHY circuit provided by the present disclosure adopts the error detection unit to detect the signals of the main control module and the controlled module.
US11249931B2

The present invention provides a pin multiplexer including a multiplexing circuit, a control circuit and a detecting circuit. The multiplexing circuit includes a first port, a second port and a third port, wherein the first port, the second port and the third port are coupled to a first device, a second device and a third device, respectively. The control circuit is configured to control the multiplexing circuit to operate in a first mode or a second mode, wherein when the multiplexing circuit operates in the first mode, the first port is coupled the second port; and when the multiplexing circuit operates in the second mode, the first port is coupled to the third port. When operating in the second mode, the detecting circuit detects a signal of the first port to generate a detection result for dynamically switching the data transmission direction between the third device and the first device.
US11249928B2

In a method for the emergency shutdown of a bus system, and a bus system, having a master module and bus subscribers disposed in series, the master module and the bus subscribers sending data packets to one another with the aid of a data line, the method has the temporally consecutive method steps: in a first method step, a bus subscriber and/or the master module detect(s) an error status, in a second method step, the bus subscriber and/or the master module send(s) an emergency signal to all bus subscribers and to the master module, in a third method step, a further bus subscriber receives the emergency signal, immediately forwards it to an adjacent bus subscriber and simultaneously evaluates it, and in a fourth method step, the further bus subscriber shuts itself down automatically.
US11249925B2

Apparatus identifies a set of M output memory addresses from a larger set of N input memory addresses containing at least one non-unique memory address. A comparator block performs comparisons of memory addresses from a set of N input memory addresses to generate a binary classification dataset that identifies a subset of addresses from the set of input addresses, where each address in the subset identified by the binary classification dataset is unique within that subset. Combination logic units receive a predetermined selection of bits of the binary classification dataset and sort its received predetermined selection of bits into an intermediary binary string in which the bits are ordered into a first group identifying addresses belonging to the identified subset, and a second group identifying addresses not belonging to the identified subset. Output generating logic selects between bits belonging to different intermediary binary strings to generate a binary output identifying a set of output memory addresses containing at least one address in the identified subset.
US11249919B2

A system is used in a data processing system comprising at least one memory system which is operatively engaged and disengaged from a host or from another memory system and the host transmitting commands into the at least one memory system. The system includes a metadata generator configured to generate a map table for an available address range and a reallocation table for indicating an allocable address range in the map table; and a metadata controller configured to allocate the allocable address range to the at least one memory system when the at least one memory system is operatively engaged to the host or to another memory system, or release an allocated range for the at least one memory system such that the allocated range becomes the allocable address range when the at least one memory system is operatively disengaged from the host or the another memory system.
US11249916B2

A method for execution by a virtual machine core includes retrieving a first pointer by accessing a first buffer of a plurality of buffers stored in allocated memory of a main memory based on assignment of the virtual machine core as a single consumer of the first buffer. First intermediate data in the allocated memory is accessed by utilizing the first pointer. Second intermediate data is generated by executing one of an ordered set of operations on the first intermediate data. The second intermediate data is written to the allocated memory. A second pointer is written to a second buffer of the plurality of buffers based on assignment of the virtual machine core as a single producer of the second buffer.
US11249914B2

An in-memory cache for a computer system having a first storage and a second storage where the first storage is a cache for the second storage, tracks priority levels of block attributes stored therein. If a data item is cached in the first storage, the block attribute corresponding to the data item is stored in the in-memory cache as a high priority block attribute. If a data item evicted from the first storage, the block attribute corresponding to the data item is stored in the in-memory cache as a low priority block attribute. When the cache becomes full, the low priority block attributes are evicted before the high priority block attributes.
US11249913B2

A memory device includes a data register operatively coupled to the memory array, a cache operatively coupled to the data register, and an input/output interface operatively coupled to the cache. A controller executes a continuous page read operation to sequentially load pages to the data register and move the pages to the cache, in response to a page read command, executes the cache read operation in response to a cache read command to move data from the cache to the input/output interface, and to stall moving of the data from the cache until a next cache read command, and terminates the continuous page read operation in response to a terminate command.
US11249907B1

Systems, apparatuses, and methods related to a write-back cache policy to limit data transfer time to a memory device are described. A controller can orchestrate performance of operations to write data to a cache according to a write-back policy and write addresses associated with the data to a buffer. The controller can further orchestrate performance of operations to limit an amount of data stored by the buffer and/or a quantity of addresses stored in the buffer. In response to a power failure, the controller can cause the data stored in the cache to be flushed to a persistent memory device in communication with the cache.
US11249900B2

Techniques for efficiently purging non-active blocks in an NVM region of an NVM device using virtblocks are provided. In one set of embodiments, a host system can maintain, in the NVM device, a pointer entry (i.e., virtblock entry) for each allocated data block of the NVM region, where page table entries of the NVM region that refer to the allocated data block include pointers to the pointer entry, and where the pointer entry includes a pointer to the allocated data block. The host system can further determine that a subset of the allocated data blocks of the NVM region are non-active blocks and can purge the non-active blocks from the NVM device to a mass storage device, where the purging comprises updating the pointer entry for each non-active block to point to a storage location of the non-active block on the mass storage device.
US11249898B1

A data merge method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module including a plurality of physical units is provided. The method includes: selecting at least one first physical unit and at least one second physical unit from the physical units; reading first mapping information from the rewritable non-volatile memory module, and the first mapping information includes mapping information of the first physical unit and mapping information of the second physical unit; copying valid data collected from the first physical unit and valid data collected from the second physical unit to at least one third physical unit of the physical units according to the first mapping information; and when a data volume of valid data copied from the second physical unit to the third physical unit reaches a data volume threshold, stopping collecting valid data from the second physical unit, and continuing collecting valid data from the first physical unit.
US11249887B2

Systems and methods for automated software test design and implementation. The system and method being able to establish an initial pool of test cases for testing computer code; apply the initial pool of test cases to the computer code in a testing environment to generate test results; preprocess the test results into a predetermined format; extract metadata from the test results; generate a training sequence; calculate a reward value for the pool of test cases; input the training sequence and reward value into a reinforcement learning agent; utilizing the value output from the reinforcement learning agent to produce a ranking list; prioritizing the initial pool of test cases and one or more new test cases based on the ranking list; and applying the prioritized initial pool of test cases and one or more new test cases to the computer code in a testing environment to generate test results.
US11249883B2

An apparatus includes a memory and a hardware processor. The memory stores a plurality of previous software errors and a plurality of solutions to the plurality of previous software errors. The processor receives a video of a user describing an error in a software application and tracks a facial feature of the user to determine an emotional intensity. The processor converts an audio portion of the video to a text file and analyzes the text file to determine the error. In response to the emotional intensity exceeding a threshold, the processor determines, based on the plurality of previous software errors, a series of steps that, when performed, replicate the error, determines, based on the series of steps and the plurality of solutions, a change to the source code of the application that fixes the error, and implements the change to the software code.
US11249882B2

Described are a system, method, and computer program product for operating dynamic shadow testing environments for machine-learning models. The method includes storing a testing policy including an identifier of a machine-learning model and an identifier of a transaction service. The method includes generating a shadow testing environment operating the transaction service using the machine-learning model. The method also includes receiving, at a transaction service provider system, a transaction authorization request including transaction data of a transaction associated with a payment device. The method further includes identifying the machine-learning model associated with the transaction based on a parameter of the transaction data. The method further includes determining, based on the identifier of the machine-learning model, the testing policy and the shadow testing environment. The method further includes replicating the transaction data in the shadow testing environment as input for testing the transaction service using the machine-learning model.
US11249879B2

A digital software recorder (DSR) leverages the functionality of a container management software platform, such as Docker, to permit time-travel debugging of a containerized software application, including pausing, playing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding execution of the application, by using snapshots taken by a snapshot manager service as the basis for setting the application state at points in the application's execution, thus saving debugging time that would otherwise be incurred by restarting an application. Snapshots can be triggered manually or automatically based on time or resource utilization threshold criteria. If source code is available to the DSR, the DSR can also enable hot code replacement, wherein modifications to the source code of the application do not require application restart, but instead the application state can be restored to just prior to the execution of the source code modifications. Machine-learning-based anomaly prediction can be used to take snapshots or set debugging information.
US11249878B2

Test case data is received for individual test cases. The test case data includes sets of test case specific elements. A test case base object is generated to represent a generic test case. The test case base object includes a set of test case specific properties. The test case base object is expanded into individual test case specific objects that represent the individual test cases. Each individual test case specific object is generated by setting the set of test case specific properties to a respective set of test case specific values as indicated in the sets of test case specific elements. The individual test case objects are used to execute the individual test cases against one or more systems under test.
US11249872B1

An integrated circuit can include a processor configured to execute program code and a plurality of peripheral circuit blocks coupled to the processor. The plurality of peripheral circuit blocks are controlled by the processor as a master. The integrated circuit also can include a governor circuit coupled to the plurality of peripheral circuit blocks. The governor circuit is configured to monitor operation of the plurality of peripheral circuit blocks for known error states and, in response to detecting an occurrence of a selected known error state of the known error states in a selected peripheral circuit block of the plurality of peripheral circuit blocks, perform a predetermined action on the selected peripheral circuit block.
US11249871B2

Provided are a device for providing a response operation corresponding to a device usage inquiry and a method of controlling the device. The method of controlling a device for providing a response operation corresponding to a device usage inquiry may include: receiving a user input corresponding to the device usage inquiry; classifying the device usage inquiry by analyzing the received user input corresponding to the device usage inquiry; extracting operation scenario information corresponding to a result of the classifying the device usage inquiry; and executing preset response operations of the device based on the operation scenario information, wherein the classifying includes classifying the device usage inquiry by inputting the user input of the device usage inquiry to a learning model that is a pre-generated.
US11249867B2

Described herein is a method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium for helping customers in accessing data through an application from a replica database, detecting whether the replica database, zone of availability of the replica database, or geographical region encompassing the zone of availability is experiencing an outage or other failure, and re-routing traffic to a backup replica database accordingly. To assess the status of the database, metrics are pushed in a secure manner from a private subnet to a public-facing monitoring agent, achieving a clear segregation of private subnet and public facing components. Further, circuit-breaker logic is included for preventing failure during updating DNS addresses during the re-routing process.
US11249865B1

In some examples, a data management and storage (DMS) cluster comprises peer DMS nodes and a distributed data store implemented across the peer DMS nodes. The peer DMS nodes are configured to collectively implement operations in a method of remote linking of snappables for data transfer between a first node cluster and a second node cluster among the peer DMS nodes.
US11249858B2

The present enhancement leaves production systems undisturbed while a remote application (“testbed application”) executes elsewhere (“testbed host”). An intermediary computing device hosts an enhanced pseudo-disk driver, pseudo-disks, and an enhanced media agent. The enhanced pseudo-disk driver creates the pseudo-disks, each one representing an associated point-in-time backup image residing in secondary storage. A network, e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) network or a Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Network (SAN), connects the intermediary device with the testbed host, and the enhanced media agent exposes pseudo-disks over the network using iSCSI or FC protocol, respectively. The testbed application uses an exposed pseudo-disk as its recovery data source, such that pseudo-disk resources provide data on an as-needed basis sufficient for the testbed application to operate, yet (a) without restoring the entire associated backup image from secondary storage and (b) without impacting the production environment.
US11249856B2

Systems and methods for performing data protection operations in a containerized application. A sidecar application is associated with or attached to a main application. The sidecar application has access to the resources of the main application. Backup requests are handled by the sidecar so that the application, which may be stateful, can be placed in a consistent state prior to performing the backup operation. The backup operation is then performed on the consistent application or on the data that is quiesced.
US11249853B2

A system for creating a snapshot of a subset of a database stored as a plurality of segments in an address space, where the system includes a processor configured to determine from the segments, one or more source segments of the snapshot, and allocate, using a virtual memory creation unit for the snapshot, one or more snapshot segments within the address space, where the one or more snapshot segments are mapped to same physical memory addresses as the one or more source segments, and where the one or more source segments and/or the one or more snapshot segments are set to copy-on-write.
US11249852B2

Copy-on-Write (CoW) snapshots share data on disk for extents that have not been overwritten, which allows for efficient use of disk space. A chain of snapshots may be created, where each snapshot corresponds to a point in time. A sequence of snapshots may be copied by rebuilding each snapshot for the destination volume based on the source volume, resulting in memory usage at the destination volume substantially similar to the memory usage of the snapshot sequence at the source volume.
US11249851B2

A new snapshot of a storage volume is created by instructing computing nodes to suppress write requests. Storage nodes create a new snapshot for the storage volume by allocating a new segment to the new snapshot and finalizes and performs garbage collection with respect to segments allocated to the previous snapshot. Subsequent write requests to the storage volume are then performed on the segments allocated to the new snapshot. A segment maps segments to a particular snapshot and metadata stored in the segment indicates storage volume addresses of data written to the segment. The snapshots may be represented by a storage manager in a hierarchy that identifies an ordering of snapshots and branches to clone snapshots. A non-snapshot volume may be converted to a snapshot volume at any point after creation.
US11249850B1

A shared database platform can interface with a cluster computing platform over a network through a database connector and one or more cluster connectors. The data transferred over the network can include telemetry metadata that can be distributed to execution nodes of the cluster computing platform for generation and transmission of cluster data to the shared database platform.
US11249849B2

A memory controller configured to control a memory device may include: a metadata storage configured to store a plurality of metadata segments; a metadata updater configured to sequentially update the metadata segments; a backup data storage configured to store at least one original metadata segment (a metadata segment existing before being updated) among the metadata segments; a metadata backup circuit configured to store, before a selected metadata segment among the metadata segments is updated, an original metadata segment of the selected metadata segment in the backup data storage; and a metadata restorer configured to generate storage inhibit information indicating whether storing data in the memory device is inhibited based on a residual storage capacity of the memory device, and store, in the metadata storage, the original metadata segment stored in the backup data storage in response to the storage inhibit information while the metadata segments are updated.
US11249847B2

Methods, systems, and devices for targeted command/address parity low lift are described. A memory device may receive a command (e.g., a write command or a read command) from a host device over a first set of pins and may perform data transfer over a second set of pins with the host device during a set of time intervals according to the command. The memory device may exchange a parity bit associated with the command with the host device over a third set of pins during a first time intervals of the set of time intervals. In some cases, the third memory device may exchange at least one additional bit associated with the command with the host device during at least one time interval of the set of time intervals.
US11249844B2

A memory system includes: an error correction code generation circuit suitable for generating an error correction code including one or more symbols for write data including a plurality of symbols, to output a codeword including the write data and the error correction code; a first data mapping circuit suitable for mapping the symbols of the codeword to a dataword; and a memory suitable for storing the dataword.
US11249838B2

Embodiments relate to a memory system, a memory controller, and a method of operating the same, wherein a plurality of super memory blocks are set, a parity for data stored in the first super memory block is calculated, the calculated parity is stored in a parity buffer, and the parity stored in the parity buffer is written to one of a plurality of parity blocks included in a memory device. Thus, it is possible to solve the problem that the time for writing data to the memory device is delayed due to the time for calculating the parity, and to efficiently manage the parities stored in the memory device.
US11249834B2

An apparatus includes at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory, with the processing device being configured to maintain at least first and second journals for respective first and second different types of input-output requests, to move one or more entries between the first journal and the second journal under one or more specified conditions, to perform a clean-up operation for at least one of the first and second journals in conjunction with the moving of the one or more entries, and responsive to a failure occurring during the clean-up operation, to execute a contention resolution algorithm to resolve logical address range lock contentions between different entries of the first and second journals. The processing device illustratively comprises a storage controller of a storage system. The storage system may be, for example, a source storage system configured to carry out a synchronous replication process with a target storage system.
US11249832B2

A computer system is provided. The computer system includes a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory. The at least one processor is configured to scan session data representative of operation of a user interface comprising a plurality of user interface elements; detect, at a point in the session data, at least one changed element within the plurality of user interface elements; classify, in response to detecting the at least one changed element, the at least one changed element as either indicating or not indicating an error; store an association between the error and the point in the session data; and provide access to the point in the session data via the association.
US11249831B2

Data associated with a write request is stored at a storage device of multiple solid-state storage devices. A determination as to whether the data stored at the storage device is readable is made by determining whether a number of subsequent programming operations have been performed since the data was stored at the storage device. A notification that the stored data is readable from the storage device is generated upon determining that the data is readable.
US11249829B2

A query referencing a function associated with a remote software component is received by a network-based data warehouse system. Temporary security credentials corresponding to a role at a cloud computing service platform are obtained. The role has permission to send calls to a web endpoint corresponding to the remote software component. A request comprising input data and electronically signed using the temporary security credentials is sent to a web Application Programming Interface (API) management system of the cloud computing service platform. The request, when received by the web API management system, causes the web API management system to invoke external functionality provided by the remote software component at the web endpoint with respect to the input data. A response comprising a result of invoking the external functionality is received from the web API management system, and the result data is processed according to the query.
US11249812B2

Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for determining, by an application instance, that first data is to be requested, transmitting, by a total outage compensator of the application instance, one or more requests for the first data to one or more peer application instances, receiving, by the total outage compensator, a response to a request for the first data, the response including the data, and executing, by the instance of the application instance, at least one function based on the first data.
US11249809B1

In an approach to limiting container CPU usage based on network traffic, a packet CPU usage for each packet type of one or more packet types is determined. A network CPU usage is calculated for a specific container based on the network CPU usage for each packet type. A container process CPU usage and a total container CPU usage are calculated for the specific container, where the total container CPU usage is the sum of the network CPU usage and the container process CPU usage. Responsive to determining that the total container CPU usage exceeds a threshold, the container CPU consumption quota and the container network bandwidth setting for the specific container are adjusted to reduce the total container CPU usage, using a set of pre-configured parameters.
US11249800B2

A method, computer program product, and computing system for determining a block application execution utilization on a central processing unit (CPU) of the computing device. A non-block application execution utilization on the CPU may be determined. A CPU execution release interval and CPU execution release duration for the block application may be generated based upon, at least in part, the block application execution utilization and the non-block application execution utilization.
US11249798B1

A computer-implemented method includes: determining, by a computer device, user behavior with an application; determining, by the computer device, a criticality of the application to a user; and changing, by the computer device, a hardcoded timeout parameter of the application into a dynamic timeout parameter based on the determined user behavior and the determined criticality of the application.
US11249793B2

Described are systems and methods for executing a pipeline command sequence designed for execution on a single node across a fleet of nodes. An example method may commence with receiving the pipeline command sequence. Based on a type of the pipeline command sequence, a subset of available nodes for optimal execution of the pipeline command sequence across the fleet of nodes may be determined. The method may continue with defining a plurality of tasks for the subset of available nodes. The method may further include translating the pipeline command sequence into the plurality of tasks and executing the plurality of tasks on the subset of available nodes.
US11249792B1

Systems and methods for managing peripheral devices associated with host computer systems running virtual machines. An example method comprises: detecting, by a host computer system, a plug-in event associated with a peripheral device; identifying a type of a file system of the peripheral device; selecting, among a group of execution environments comprising the host computer system and one or more virtual machines, an execution environment having a highest compatibility metric value associated with the type of the file system; and responsive to determining that the execution environment is provided by a virtual machine, causing a guest agent running on the virtual machine to mount the peripheral device to the virtual machine.
US11249790B1

Generally described, one or more aspects of the present application relate to an instance resource oversubscription service for scheduling a burst period for a running virtual machine instance based on a time window specified by a user of the virtual machine instance. For example, the instance resource oversubscription service can predict future resource usage and identify the appropriate timing and physical host machine for letting the user burst (e.g., temporarily use the virtual machine instance in a manner than consumes a higher amount of computing resources such as CPU cycles, memory, network bandwidth, etc.). In doing so, the instance resource oversubscription service may consider, for example, the historical and current resource utilization levels of the virtual machine instances running on a set of available physical host machines and the burst period scheduling requests from other users of the instance resource oversubscription service.
US11249789B2

A computer-implemented hypervisor system and method comprises utilizing the hypervisor system, which comprises a privileged domain (PD) and a guest domain (GD). The PD is an instance of a virtual machine that has direct access to hardware devices. The PD comprises a back-end interface for communicating with other GDs. The GD is an instance of a virtual machine that does not have direct access to hardware devices, and comprises a front-end interface for communicating with the PD and communicates only packets with the PD. On the GD, and in an initialization stage of the front-end interface, the system allocates a predefined number of packet data entries for storing packet data, allocates the predefined number of grant table entries, each comprising a grant table id. During the initialization stage, each grant table entry is bound with a packet data entry.
US11249787B2

Methods, systems, and computing platforms for data collection are disclosed. The system may include one or more hardware and virtual processors configured by machine-readable instructions. The processor(s) may be configured to electronically launch at least one virtual machine operatively connected to a virtualization layer. The processor(s) may be configured to electronically create a virtual disk for the at least one virtual machine connected to the virtualization layer so as to receive a plurality of artifact data.
US11249786B2

A computing environment can include a host system that maintains a guest system, and a hardware component configured to implement artificial intelligence (“AI”) methods of processing and analyzing date. The guest system can provide a virtual computing environment that receives a request to implement an AI application, and utilize a framework and a guest library to convert data from the AI application into an intermediate representation (“IR”). The host system can receive the IR with a virtual device (“VD”), and utilize an IR backend to translate the IR into hardware operations for the hardware component. Translated hardware operations can be provided to, and carried out by, the hardware component to provide an implementation of the AI application. Results of the hardware operations can be transmitted from the VD of the host system to a VD driver of the guest system, virtualizing the hardware component relative to the guest system.
US11249780B2

Described embodiments provide systems and methods for running virtual machines based by probing installation media. A media probe executing on one or more processors may identify an installation media for configuring a virtual machine on a type of operating system. The media probe may detect the type of operating system from the installation media. A virtualization manager executing on the one or more processors may determine a virtualization mode for configuration of the virtual machine based on the type of operating system detected from the installation media. The virtualization manager may create the virtual machine in accordance with the virtualization mode determined based on the type of operating system.
US11249771B2

In a method for invoking an input method, when an application on the server enters an editing state, a desktop serving end in the server monitors an operating system to determine that the application is in the editing state, and then the desktop serving end sends, to the terminal, a message indicating that the application is in the editing state, where the message triggers the terminal to invoke an input method of the terminal. In this way, when the application is in the editing state, a user may enter a text by using the input method of the terminal.
US11249770B2

Disclosed are various embodiments for provisioning client devices. A configuration file previously installed on the computing device can be read. The configuration file can contain a provisioning address. Then, a user account is automatically created using a predefined username and credential stored in the configuration file. Next, an enrollment request can be sent to the provisioning address to enroll the computing device with a provisioning service using the user account. In response, an enrollment response can be received from the provisioning service. The computing device can then be configured based upon the enrollment response.
US11249768B2

A communication device includes a first communicator, a second communicator, an identifier acquirer, an identifier transmitter, a communication program acquirer, and a communication program executor. The first communicator communicates with a device. The second communicator communicates with a server. The identifier acquirer acquires from the device via the first communicator an identifier for identifying the device. The identifier transmitter transmits to the server the identifier acquired by the identifier acquirer. The communication program acquirer acquires from the server via the second communicator the communication program associated with the identifier transmitted by the identifier transmitter. The communication program executor executes the communication program acquired by the communication program acquirer.
US11249764B2

A microprocessor is shown, in which a branch predictor and an instruction cache are decoupled by a fetch-target queue (FTQ). The FTQ stores at least an instruction address whose branch prediction has been finished by the branch predictor. The instruction addresses queued in the FTQ is to be read out later as an instruction-fetching address for the instruction cache. The instruction address that is input into the branch predictor and used for branch prediction leads the instruction-fetching address.
US11249760B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products for parameter management between programs with different addressing modes are described. A request may be received from a first program with a first addressing mode in a first runtime environment for calling a second program with a second addressing mode different from the first addressing mode, where at least one parameter included in the request is for calling the second program. A parameter area may be allocated in the first runtime environment for the at least one parameter. The at least one parameter may be stored in the allocated parameter area. The second program may be invoked based at least in part on the at least one parameter in the allocated parameter area. In this manner, parameter(s) may be communicated between the first program and the second program in an easy and effective way.
US11249756B2

A processor implemented natural language processing method and apparatus are provided. The natural language processing method includes converting a natural language phrase into a token vector, calculating a repetition count of the token vector, and generating an input vector by encoding the token vector based on the calculated repetition count and a position of the token vector.
US11249750B2

A distributed register/ledger in a distributed trust computing network is the basis for determining the stability of a computing environment. Based on the whether the determined computing environment stability meets predetermined thresholds decisions are made on whether to allow for computing code to be tested within the computing environment or allow for edits/changes to computing code to be checked-in to the code repository.
US11249748B2

An embodiment of a semiconductor package apparatus may include technology to determine version information for a new firmware component, read dependency information corresponding to the firmware component, and determine if dependency is satisfied between the new firmware component and one or more other firmware components based on the version information and the dependency information of the new firmware component. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US11249747B2

A method and apparatus of a device that performs a hitless update a boot image of a network element. In this embodiment, the device identifies the network element to update and determines if the network element has redundant paths. If this network element has redundant paths, the device configures the network element to drain data processing of the network element. In addition, the device updates the network element to a new boot image when the data processing of the network element is drained.
US11249744B2

An application deployment method, an apparatus, and a system related to the application deployment field and include obtaining application blueprints and resource indexes of a to-be-deployed application that are allocated to a deployment apparatus, establishing n correspondences among the application blueprints, the resource indexes, and agent identifiers based on the application blueprints and the resource indexes of the to-be-deployed application, and sending a deployment command to the deployment apparatus.
US11249740B1

Systems and methods for automatically managing and increasing the efficiency of non-authorized software installation such as on mobile devices having restricted operating systems.
US11249739B2

At least one application may include instructions comprising application instructions and a plurality of separate pipeline definition instructions. The application instructions may be within a virtual container including at least one program that is generically executable in a plurality of different continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) environments. Each of the plurality of separate pipeline definition instructions may be configured for each of the plurality of different CI/CD environments such that each pipeline definition may operate only in the CI/CD environment for which it is created. Each pipeline definition may be configured to cause the CI/CD environment for which it is created to execute the at least one program.
US11249731B2

The present disclosure relates to digital experience development platforms and, more particularly, one or more components, systems and methods thereof of an intelligent digital experience development platform (IDXDP) configured to assist different users in the development, design and deployment of digital applications. A computer-implemented method comprises: receiving, by a computing device of a cloud-based campaign system, a campaign for products or services from a marketing system via a network; providing, by the computing device, the campaign to one or more participants on the network; obtaining, by the computing device, feedback from the one or more participants regarding the campaign; analyzing, by an artificial intelligence tool of the computing device, the feedback to generate marketing analytics information; and providing, by the computing device, the marketing analytics information to the marketing system via the network.
US11249708B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a print engine to perform printing; a memory that stores a plurality of print conditions set for each of a plurality of direct printing methods; and circuitry to: receive print information on printing to be performed, the print information at least indicating image data to be printed; identify a direct printing method from the print information; acquire from the memory at least one print condition corresponding to the identified direct printing method; and control the print engine to perform printing based on image data according to the acquired print condition.
US11249703B2

A printing apparatus executes a set of instructions to receive a print job from an external apparatus, store in a storage device the received print job in association with user identification information, perform a user authentication, and specify print jobs which are stored in the storage device and are associated with user identification information of the authenticated user. At least one of the print jobs specified in accordance with success of the user authentication is executed. In a case where a total number of pages of the specified print jobs exceeds an upper limit number, one or more print jobs from among the specified print jobs are executed, wherein a total number of pages of the one or more print jobs falls within the upper limit number, and wherein the upper limit number is a fixed value used for a one-time process executed in accordance with success of the user authentication.
US11249697B2

A printing system and a printing method are provided. The user terminal includes a print content processing unit and a sliding print content conversion unit, and the handheld printer includes an inkjet printing unit that performs inkjet printing at a predetermined inkjet width in a sliding direction when performing sliding print. The print content processing unit determines the number of sliding print motions and sequentially generates bitmaps corresponding to the respective sliding print motions based on the respective print content mode and the inkjet width, and generates bitmap format instructions corresponding to the respective bitmaps. The sliding print content conversion unit converts pixels in the bitmaps into binary data to form sliding print content. The handheld printer sequentially prints the respective sliding print content based on the respective bitmap format instructions and the print content mode.
US11249691B2

This disclosure discloses a data judging method applied in a distributed storage system and the distributed storage system. The distributed storage system includes a plurality of processing units and a plurality of storage units corresponding to each processing unit. The data judging method prescribes that a processing unit corresponding to a storage unit that stores preset data is a first processing unit, the storage unit that stores the preset data corresponding to the first processing unit is a first storage unit, other storage units corresponding to the first processing unit except for the first storage unit are second storage units. The data judging method provided by this disclosure may judge whether the preset data needs to be encrypted. Thus, privacy protection may be performed to preset data that needs to be encrypted, without performing encryption protection to all data, thereby being capable of utilizing data reasonably.
US11249685B2

The present invention provides a method for accessing a flash memory module, wherein the flash memory module includes at least one flash memory chip, each flash memory chip includes a plurality of blocks, each clock includes a plurality of pages, and the method includes the steps of: providing a read-retry table, wherein the read-retry table includes a plurality of read setting levels, each read setting level corresponds to at least one read voltage, and no two read setting levels have the same read voltage; establishing a read success recording table, which records at least one specific read setting level that was previously used to successfully read the flash memory module; and when it is required to the read the flash memory module, using the at least one specific read setting level recorded in the read success recording table to read the flash memory module.
US11249683B2

Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for technology that determines a plurality of memory operations associated with a data-flow graph that represents a computer code, where a spatial architecture executes the data-flow graph and the spatial architecture includes a plurality of memory controllers, randomly assigns one or more of the plurality of memory operations to one or more of the plurality of memory controllers to generate a first allocation of the plurality of memory operations to the memory controllers, and determines that the first allocation is to be stored as a permanent memory allocation based on a first performance metric associated with the first allocation.
US11249680B2

A semiconductor system includes a semiconductor device and a controller. The semiconductor device includes a first memory rank and is configured to perform, in response to receiving a first write command, a first write operation of writing first data to the first memory rank. The semiconductor device includes a second memory rank and is configured to perform, in response to receiving a second write command, a second write operation of writing second data to the second memory rank. The controller is configured to receive at least one write request and responsively generate the first and second write commands separated in time so that a transition time interval between generation of the first write command and generation of the second write command is based on the second memory rank being different from the first memory rank and based on a comparison of a write preamble period to a write post-amble period.
US11249674B2

Systems, apparatus and methods are provided for electrical mirroring implemented by a storage controller in a non-volatile storage system. In one embodiment, a non-volatile storage system may comprise a plurality of non-volatile storage devices and a storage controller. The storage controller may be configured to perform an electrical mirroring configuration process comprising: determining a system topology of the non-volatile storage system and which targets are in mirrored non-volatile storage devices and setting respective register bits in the storage controller for all targets in all mirrored non-volatile storage devices of the plurality of non-volatile storage devices.
US11249670B2

The present invention provides a sever which includes a network interface, a processor and a first storage device, wherein the processor is arranged for communicating with an electronic device via the network interface, and the first storage device stores data. In the operations of the server, the processor determines whether the data is cold data; and when the data is determined as the cold data, the processor moves a second portion of the data to a second storage device, and a first portion of the data is remained in the first storage device, wherein the data amount of the first portion is less than data amount of the second portion, and the access speed of the first storage device is higher than the access speed of the second storage device.
US11249669B1

Systems and methods for handling input/output operations during a space crunch are described herein. An example method includes striping a volume across a plurality of storage nodes, and maintaining a cluster volume table (CVT) storing information regarding distribution of the logical blocks. Additionally, the CVT includes a plurality of entries, where each of the entries includes information identifying a respective owner storage node of a respective logical block. The method also includes receiving a write I/O operation directed to an unallocated logical block owned by a landing storage node, where the landing storage node lacks free storage capacity, and locking the unallocated logical block. The method further includes updating the CVT to identify a storage node having free storage capacity as owner storage node of the unallocated logical block, and unlocking the unallocated logical block, wherein the write I/O operation proceeds at the storage node having free storage capacity.
US11249668B2

Some examples relate generally to a data management platform comprising a storage device configured to store secondary data and one or more processors in communication with the storage device and configured to perform certain operations. The operations may include identifying an aspect of the secondary data stored in the storage device, the secondary data including a backup of respective primary data stored in a primary data source; identifying or receiving an indication of a target to receive data associated with the identified aspect of the secondary data; and transmitting the data associated with the aspect of the secondary data to the target as a push transmission.
US11249666B2

A storage control apparatus includes a processor that creates a snapshot of a first volume of a storage device. The processor deduplicates unupdated data among data of the first volume. The processor compresses the deduplicated data to create compressed data. The processor stores the compressed data in a second volume of the storage device. The processor selects, when the snapshot is created for two or more generations, the second volume corresponding to each of a plurality of snapshots of generations earlier than a predetermined generation. The processor detects unpopular data from the compressed data existing in the selected second volume based on a reference count. The processor collects and decompresses detected pieces of the unpopular data when the number of the detected pieces of the unpopular data is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold value. The processor combines and recompresses the decompressed data to create recompressed data.
US11249664B2

Methods, apparatus and systems for data storage devices that include non-volatile memory (NVM) are described. One such apparatus includes a non-volatile memory, a data storage device controller configured to receive a command from a host device, and wherein the data storage device controller comprises a file system analyzer comprising a determination circuit configured to determine based on the command from the host device whether a logical block address (LBA) referenced in the command is part of a known file extent, and a selection circuit configured to select a flash translation layer (FTL) workflow for the file extent in response to the determination that the LBA referenced in the command is part of the known file extent.
US11249661B2

An information processing apparatus includes: a processing unit configured to write setting data to be used for boot processing by BIOS (Basic Input Output System) in a predetermined area of a non-volatile memory in an order of changing, and execute the boot processing based on the setting data; a writing unit configured to write at least one tag in the predetermined area of the non-volatile memory at a predetermined timing during the boot processing, the tag corresponding to the timing; and an instruction unit configured to instruct the processing unit to execute the boot processing using setting data written before the tag in the predetermined area of the non-volatile memory.
US11249652B1

This disclosure provides techniques for managing memory which match per-data metrics to those of other data or to memory destination. In one embodiment, wear data is tracked for at least one tier of nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory) and a measure of data persistence (e.g., age, write frequency, etc.) is generated or tracked for each data item. Memory wear management based on these individually-generated or tracked metrics is enhanced by storing or migrating data in a manner where persistent data is stored in relatively worn memory locations (e.g., relatively more-worn flash memory) while temporary data is stored in memory that is less worn or is less susceptible to wear. Other data placement or migration techniques are also disclosed.
US11249646B1

A plurality of pieces of write data are aggregated on a buffer to obtain a segment where the segment exceeds a smallest write size supported by storage. An address on the storage is determined for the segment. Location information and identifier(s) associated with the segment are recorded where the location information points to the storage, as opposed to the buffer, while the write data is being aggregated. When the write data has been aggregated into the segment, the segment is written to the storage wherein the location information remains unchanged in response to the writing to the storage.
US11249643B2

A method and electronic device are provided for displaying a list of executable applications on a split screen. The electronic device includes a display, a memory, and a processor. The memory stores a history including information indicating split-screen areas in which scenes associated with executed applications are respectively displayed in a split-screen mode. In response to execution of an application, the processor displays a first scene associated with the executed application on the display. In response to receiving a signal for entry into the split-screen mode, the processor identifies a first split-screen area for displaying a reduced scene of the first scene, and identifies second and third split-screen areas obtained by dividing a remaining area of the display, other than the first split-screen area, generates a first list of applications, based on the history, and displays the first list in the second split-screen area.
US11249636B2

A method of controlling a repeat rate of a button displayed on a touch-sensitive display of a portable electronic device is described. In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided a method of operating a touch-sensitive display, comprising: displaying on the touch-sensitive display a user interface screen including a user interface element, the user interface element being activatable by first control input to perform a single instance of an action; when a variable repeat control mode is activated: in response to receipt of a second control input, repeating the action associated with the user interface element at a rate dependent on the second control input; and when the variable repeat control mode is not activated: disabling ability of the second control input to cause the repeating of the action and enabling the first control input to cause a single instance of the action.
US11249618B2

Provided is a system and method for popping out a menu that is embedded within a user interface. The popped-out menu can be moved independently of a window in the user interface from which the menu is dislodged from and can have it size adjusted. In one example, the method may include displaying a menu with a plurality of selectable actions which are embedded within a user interface window, receiving a predetermined command with respect to the user interface, and in response to receipt of the predetermined command, outputting a pop-out menu that corresponds to the menu embedded within the user interface window, where the pop-out window includes the plurality of selectable actions and is configured to move independently of the user interface window.
US11249605B2

The touch panel includes the substrate, the first touch sensing electrode, the second touch sensing electrode, and the insulating layer. A first peripheral wire and a second peripheral wire are located at a peripheral area of the substrate. A first touch sensing electrode layer includes a first portion of a patterned first metal nanowire layer. The peripheral area includes a co-etched conductive layer and a second portion of the patterned first metal nanowire layer. The conductive layer and the second portion of the patterned first metal nanowire layer have a co-etched surface. The second touch sensing electrode is formed above the insulating layer and is connected with the second peripheral wire. The insulating layer may be made of a low dielectric constant material.
US11249602B2

A pen detection system is provided which does not require an integrated circuit dedicated to a large display panel. A pen detection system 1 includes an integrated circuit 3a and an integrated circuit 3b. The integrated circuit 3a is connected to a first partial column electrode group 2xGa to acquire a first column level distribution indicating a level distribution of a pen signal in the first partial column electrode group 2xGa and is connected to a first partial row electrode group 2yGa to acquire a first row level distribution indicating a level distribution of the pen signal in the first partial row electrode group 2yGa. The integrated circuit 3b is connected to a second partial column electrode group 2xGb to acquire a second column level distribution indicating a level distribution of the pen signal in the second partial column electrode group 2xGb and is connected to a second partial row electrode group 2yGb to acquire a second row level distribution indicating a level distribution of the pen signal in the second partial row electrode group 2yGb. The pen detection system 1 derives a column direction position of a pen based on the first and second column level distributions and derives a row direction position based on the first and second row level distributions.
US11249596B2

A computer-implemented method for providing an output signal by a touch-sensitive input unit includes detecting a sensor signal, wherein the sensor signal is time-resolved and spatially resolved with respect to a surface of the touch-sensitive input unit, and wherein the sensor signal includes unwanted-signal components. The method also includes determining the output signal by applying a trained function to input data, wherein the input data is based on the sensor signal, wherein the output signal is time-resolved and spatially resolved with respect to the surface of the touch-sensitive input unit, wherein at least one parameter of the trained function is based on a comparison with a sensor signal in the absence of unwanted-signal components. The method also includes providing the output signal.
US11249594B2

A projector can include a projection section that projects an image on a projection surface, a detection light radiation section that radiates detection light in a direction corresponding to the projection surface. The projector can also include an adjuster that adjusts the direction of the detection light relative to the projection surface, and an imager and a controller that can detect reflected light resulting from the detection light to detect operation performed on the projection surface. The controller can evaluate whether or not the detection state of the reflected light corresponds to a specific state. If the detection is in the specific state, the adjuster can adjust the direction of the detection light based on a result of the evaluation.
US11249591B2

A shift register unit, a driving method for driving the shift register unit, a gate driver, a touch display panel, and a touch display device are disclosed. The shift register unit includes an input circuit being configured to control a level of a first node in response to an input pulse received at an input terminal; a first control circuit being configured to, under control of the input pulse received at the input terminal and a touch enable signal received a touch enable signal terminal, connect a first scan voltage terminal to the first node to control the level of the first node; an output circuit being configured to connect a clock terminal to an output terminal in response to a potential of the first node, to output a clock signal received by the clock terminal at the output terminal.
US11249581B2

Provided are a touch control structure, a touch control method and a touch control device. The touch control structure includes: a touch control layer; an electrode layer disposed on the touch control layer; and a dielectric material layer disposed on a side of the electrode layer away from the touch control layer, wherein the dielectric material layer has a lipophilicity variable with a voltage applied by the electrode layer.
US11249575B2

A method of processing a number of force values is described. Each force value corresponds to a sensor location. The sensor locations are spaced apart along a direction. The method includes receiving the force values (S11). The method also includes determining whether the force values include one or more candidate peaks (S12). Each candidate peak corresponds to a local maximum of the force values. The method also includes, in response to at least one candidate peak exceeds a minimum force threshold (S13), interpolating the force values and estimating a number of peak coordinates and corresponding peak force values based on the interpolated force values and the candidate peaks (S14) which exceed the minimum force threshold.
US11249571B2

A display device includes a display panel and an input sensing panel which includes sensing electrodes disposed on the display panel and which sense an input, sensing lines electrically connected to the sensing electrodes and which include a transparent conductive line disposed on the display panel and a metal line disposed on the transparent conductive line, and an insulating layer disposed between the transparent conductive line and the metal line. A plurality of contact holes are formed which penetrate through the insulating layer and expose the transparent conductive line, and some of the plurality of contact holes are arranged in a widthwise direction of the transparent conductive line.
US11249569B2

Disclosed is a flexible display panel, comprising a flexible substrate; an organic light emitting diode layer, disposed on the flexible substrate, wherein the organic light emitting diode layer comprises a plurality of sub pixels arranged at intervals; a metal mesh, disposed on the organic light emitting diode layer, wherein metal traces of the metal mesh are correspondingly arranged in gaps among the plurality of sub pixels disposed at intervals, and the metal traces of the metal mesh surround to form a plurality of touch electrodes, and at least one of the touch electrodes comprises at least one first touch area, and the first touch area is correspondingly arranged with at least two of the sub pixels. The flexible display panel can improve the display effect of the flexible display panel by reducing the arrangement density of the metal traces of the metal mesh.
US11249567B2

A pad connection structure includes a substrate, a lower insulation layer formed on a top surface of the substrate, a pad electrode disposed on the lower insulation layer, and an upper insulation layer including an opening through which a top surface of the pad electrode. A step height via the opening is reduced by the lower insulation layer so that connecting reliability with a conductive connection structure is improved.
US11249534B2

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for reduced computing device power consumption. Example methods disclosed herein includes detecting frame updates corresponding to input frames to be presented by a display, and causing a programmable timer to generate second interrupts corresponding to first interrupts generated by a display engine, the second interrupts to be generated when there are no frame updates detected for at least a first duration of time defined by a first threshold. Example methods further include causing the display engine to transition to a low power state when (1) the programmable timer is configured to generate the second interrupts and (2) no frame updates have been detected for at least a second duration of time following the first duration of time, the second duration of time defined by a second threshold.
US11249529B2

Examples described herein include a removable power inlet, a removable power supply, and an electrical connection between the removable power inlet and the removable power supply. The removable power inlet may send a signal to the removable power supply to indicate an ampere rating of the removable power inlet. The removable power supply may set a current limit on a power supplied from the removable power supply based on the signal.
US11249527B2

A system for controlling electrical power supply of an aircraft includes at least two control boards and at least two switching members. Each switching member is connected to each control board. Each control board includes a processor. Each processor is configured to determine a command for switching states of switch contacts of each switching member and to determine information relating to validity of each switching command. Each switching member includes a transmitter to determine a command to be transmitted to a detector to detect parallelization, a power actuator configured to transmit a power signal to the switch contacts depending on the command received from the detector, and switch contacts configured to selectively open or close an electrical power supply line. The command is selected from the switching commands and the information relating to the validity of each switching command.
US11249520B2

A foldable device may include a foldable layer and a hinge system that is positioned between a first body and a second body of the foldable device. The hinge device may include a first hinge section and a second hinge section. The first hinge section and the second hinge section may include a rigid, planar body. A third hinge section may be positioned in a space between the first hinge section and the second hinge section. The third hinge section may include a rigid, contoured body.
US11249517B2

An electronic apparatus and its screen control method adapted to an electronic apparatus are provided. The electronic apparatus includes a first display screen, a second display screen, and a body. The first display screen is pivotally connected to the body along a first rotation axis, and the second display screen is disposed on an upper surface of the body. The method includes following steps. A sight of a user is detected by a sight sensor. In response to the sight projected on the second display screen at a default position, a screen rotation degree is determined according to a direction of the sight. According to the screen rotation degree, the second display screen is controlled to rotate from the default position along the second rotation axis to a display position, so that a view angle at which the user watches the second display screen satisfies a predetermined condition.
US11249488B2

A system and method for offloading scalable robotic tasks in a mobile robotics framework. The system comprises a cluster of mobile robots and they are connected with a back-end cluster infrastructure. It receives scalable robotic tasks at a mobile robot of the cluster. The scalable robotics tasks include building a map of an unknown environment by using the mobile robot, navigating the environment using the map and localizing the mobile robot on the map. Therefore, the system estimate the map of an unknown environment and at the same time it localizes the mobile robot on the map. Further, the system analyzes the scalable robotics tasks based on computation, communication load and energy usage of each scalable robotic task. And finally the system priorities the scalable robotic tasks to minimize the execution time of the tasks and partitioning the SLAM with computation offloading in edge network and mobile cloud server setup.
US11249478B2

Systems and methods for addressing a user-reported vehicle condition are provided. In one example embodiment, a method includes receiving a service request for a vehicle service for a user. The service request is indicative of a location associated with the user. The method includes sending first control signal(s) to an autonomous vehicle that is configured to provide the vehicle service. The first control signal(s) indicate that the autonomous vehicle is to travel to the location associated with the user. The method includes receiving a communication indicative of an existence of a condition that reduces a suitability of the autonomous vehicle to provide the vehicle service. The condition is identified by the user. The method includes determining action(s) to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based, at least in part, on the existence of the condition. The method includes sending second control signal(s) to the autonomous vehicle to perform the action(s).
US11249474B2

A virtual support element may be activated when it is beneficial to assist an autonomous drive system of the vehicle through a physical environment having one or more hazards. A remote support system generates the virtual support element (e.g., a virtual vehicle) that can be controlled through a simulated environment that corresponds to a physical environment of a vehicle. The autonomous drive system of the vehicle follows a path through the physical environment corresponding to the path of the virtual support element through the simulated environment corresponding to the physical environment.
US11249467B2

Systems and methods for data collection in an industrial environment are disclosed. A system can include a plurality of analog sensors, wherein each of the plurality of analog sensors is operationally coupled to a respective data collection point of a machine component, and generates a respective stream of detection values. A data acquisition and analysis circuit can receive the respective stream of detection values and analyze the respective stream of detection values using an expert system analysis circuit, wherein the expert system analysis circuit determines an occurrence of an anomalous condition based on an analysis of the respective stream of detection values, wherein the expert system analysis circuit utilizes a neural network including one of a probabilistic, a time delay, and a convolutional neural network.
US11249466B2

Systems and methods for data collection in an industrial environment are disclosed. An expert graphical user interface showing representations of components of an industrial machine to which sensors are attach is disclosed. The user interface may enable a user to select at least one of the components resulting in a search of a database of industrial machine failure modes for modes that correspond to the selected component. The corresponding failure mode may be presented to the user. The selection of the component may cause a controller to reference and implement a data collection template for configuring the system to automatically collect data from sensors associated with the selected component to detect at least one of the corresponding failure modes.
US11249465B2

Provided is a computer-implemented method for checking a route in a building for a mobile technical system, wherein a computer-aided spatial model of the building, a route for the mobile technical system in the building and parameters of the mobile technical system are read in, a boundary condition for the route is derived depending on the parameters, for a predefined point of the route on the basis of the model of the building a check is made to ascertain whether the building data satisfy the boundary condition at the predefined point of the route, and a result of the check is output. Also provided is a device, a management system, a computer program product and a computer-readable data carrier.
US11249463B2

The present disclosure describes system and method to virtualize a plant facility with remote sites that are separated from a central site. The method includes: receiving, at a remote site of the plant facility and from a transport vehicle of a transport network, an engineering package assembled by a server computer located at the central site of the plant facility and addressed to the remote site of the plant facility, the engineering package comprising a command script and a data component; and extracting, by one or more computing devices at the remote site, the command script from the engineering package such that the command script is executed to cause the one or more computing devices to perform tasks of managing site operations at the remote site of the plant facility as if a human control systems engineer is present to perform such tasks on-site.
US11249461B2

The present invention allows a communication mode in which to communicate with a detection section to be easily and conveniently changed in a motor control device. A slave device (90) includes: a network communication section (120) configured to communicate with a PLC (100) via a communication network; an FB signal obtaining section configured to obtain an FB signal from a detection section; and a setting communication section (140) configured to receive communication mode information of an FB through another communication path different from the communication network. The FB signal obtaining section includes a reconfigurable device and is capable of changing a communication mode of the FB signal obtaining section by reconfiguring the reconfigurable device. The slave device (90) reconfigures the reconfigurable device in accordance with the communication mode information in a case where the setting communication section (140) receives the communication mode information.
US11249454B2

Provided is a thermal displacement correction device capable of continuing a thermal displacement correction with high accuracy even when some of a plurality of sensors fail. The thermal displacement correction device includes a sensor information acquisition unit that acquires machine tool temperatures detected by the sensor and a state of the sensors, a thermal displacement estimating method storage unit that stores a plurality of thermal displacement estimating methods, a thermal displacement estimating method selection unit that selects a thermal displacement estimating method to be used for estimating the thermal displacement amount of the machine tool based on the state of the sensors, and a thermal displacement estimating unit that estimates the thermal displacement amount of the machine tool based on the machine tool temperature according to the thermal displacement estimating method selected by the thermal displacement estimating method selection unit.
US11249447B2

A system, method, and computer readable medium are provided that monitors at least one of an input and output stream for at least one of a presence of a material of interest and a concentration of the material of interest; when the material of interest is present and/or has at least a threshold concentration, directs the at least one of an input and output stream to a waste location or path to discard the material of interest; and when the material of interest is either not present or does not have at least a threshold concentration, directs the at least one of an input and output stream to a byproduct location or path to recover the material of interest.
US11249445B2

An electronic device is communicatively connected to an electronic terminal configured to display an output value of a sensor. The electronic device includes a storage unit and a processor. The storage unit is stores a first city to be set in the electronic terminal. The processor fixes or changes a display-unit of the output value of the sensor to be displayed on the electronic terminal, based on the first city and a display language set in an OS of the electronic device.
US11249444B2

The present invention concerns a display assembly comprising an organic light-emitting diode display device comprising at least one OLED comprising an emitting stack placed on a transparent substrate, whose back face is placed on the emitting surface of the OLED, and a secondary object to be illuminated, said transparent substrate comprising a front face and at least one side face arranged to light a secondary object.
US11249441B2

Provided are a timepiece having a temperature compensator drivable by a low voltage with low current consumption, and a control method of a timepiece. The timepiece includes an arithmetic circuit, a first switch that controls connection of a temperature compensation table storage to a power supply circuit, and a second switch that controls connection of a device-difference compensation data storage to the power supply circuit. The arithmetic circuit calculates a compensation amount based on a temperature measured by a temperature detector, a temperature compensation data, a device-difference compensation data, and outputs to a frequency adjustment control circuit and a theoretical regulation circuit. The first switch is controlled to the connect state during a first power supply connection period including a temperature compensation data read period. The second switch is controlled to the connect state during a second power supply connection period including a device-difference compensation data read period.
US11249439B2

An interface drive coupler for a replaceable unit of an electrophotographic image forming device according to one example embodiment includes a first component and a second component coaxial with the first component along a rotational axis of the interface drive coupler. A force receiving portion is positioned on the first component and a force transmitting portion is positioned on the second component. One of the first component and the second component includes a male connector and the other of the first component and the second component includes a female connector that matably receives the male connector. Each of the male connector and the female connector includes a helical thread that extends circumferentially around the rotational axis of the interface drive coupler and that is angled in an operative rotational direction of the interface drive coupler in a direction from the force receiving portion toward the force transmitting portion.
US11249438B2

An image forming apparatus includes a main casing, a drum cartridge and a developing cartridge. The drum cartridge may include a first handle positioned at a first end of a frame of the drum cartridge. The developing cartridge may include a second handle positioned at a first end of a developing casing the developing cartridge. The main casing may include a first edge surface in the axial direction and a second edge surface opposite the first edge surface in the axial direction. The second handle may extend farther from the second edge surface than the first handle extends from the second edge surface in the axial direction in a state where the drum cartridge and the developing cartridge are attached to the main casing.
US11249435B2

An example cleaning station for a liquid electrophotographic printer is described. The cleaning station has a first cleaning member, a second cleaning member, and a biasing member. The cleaning station is configured to move between a first position and a second position with respect to a photo imaging member of the printer. In the first position, the first cleaning member is arranged to remove particles from the photo imaging member of the printer and the second cleaning member is arranged to apply a force to a layer of liquid applied to the photo imaging member. In the second position, the biasing member is configured to cause the second cleaning member to contact the first cleaning member to clean the second cleaning member.
US11249429B2

A first light guide guides first light in a first light guiding path. The first light is of light irradiated from the light source to a sheet. A first detection unit receives reflected light from the sheet and outputs an image signal indicating an image of a surface of the sheet. A second light guide guides second light in a second light guiding path different from the first light guiding path. The second light is of the light irradiated from the light source and is different from the first light. A second detection unit receives the second light and output a detection signal corresponding to a light amount of the second light. A control unit controls a light emission amount of the light source based on the detection signal.
US11249427B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming part, a canceling processing part, a first switching processing part and a second switching processing part. The canceling processing part is performable an image canceling operation where a toner image formed on an intermediate transferring member is removed from the intermediate transferring member without transferred to a sheet. The first switching processing part is capable of switching a printing mode in the image forming part between a plurality of printing modes having different printing conditions in the image forming part, based on an image data under waiting for printing and a predetermined first switching condition. The second switching processing part is capable of switching the printing mode based on the image data under waiting for printing and a predetermined second switching condition when the image canceling operation is performed.
US11249412B2

Toner comprising a toner particle, the toner particle includes a toner core particle and an organosilicon polymer covering the toner core particle surface, the organosilicon polymer has a structure represented by R4—SiO3/2 (R4 each independently represents an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms or a phenyl group), the toner core particle includes a resin A having a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group in a molecule thereof, a substituent of the substituted silyl group is at least one selected from the group consisting of an alkyl group having 1 or more carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 or more carbon atoms, a hydroxy group, a halogen atom, and an aryl group having 6 or more carbon atoms, a content of silicon atoms in the resin A is 0.02 to 10.00% by mass, and a content of silicon atoms in the organosilicon polymer is 30 to 50% by mass.
US11249403B2

A vibration isolation system including a support, a forward actuator and a return device. The support is for supporting the body on a base. The support has a body engaging surface and a base engaging surface. The base engaging surface is arranged to couple to the base. The support couples the body engaging surface to the body in a coupled state. The support uncouples the body engaging surface from the body in an uncoupled state. The forward actuator moves the body and the body engaging surface together relatively to the base in a first direction from a first initial position to an end position in the coupled state. The return device is configured to move the body engaging surface relatively to the body opposite to the first direction from the end position to a second initial position in the uncoupled state.
US11249401B2

A position detection apparatus configured to detect a pattern including a plurality of pattern elements formed on an object includes a control unit configured to detect the pattern by performing pattern matching between a template including a plurality of feature points and the plurality of pattern elements. While, performing pattern matching, the control unit changes positions of the plurality of feature points such that a correlation between an image and the template is within a predetermined allowable range.
US11249396B2

A resist underlayer composition includes a polymer including a structural unit represented by Chemical Formula 1; and a solvent and a method of forming patterns using the resist underlayer composition: In Chemical Formula 1, at least one of A1 and A2 is a group represented by Chemical Formula A:
US11249393B2

A method is described for modifying the mechanical properties of NIL materials. The method includes applying an imprint mask to a nano-imprint lithography (NIL) material layer to create an imprinted NIL material layer, with the NIL material layer comprised of a NIL material. The method further includes detaching the imprinted NIL material layer from the imprint mask, with the modulus level of the NIL material below a flexibility threshold to cause a shape of the imprinted NIL material layer to remain unchanged after detachment. The modulus level of the NIL material of the imprinted NIL material layer is increased beyond a strength threshold to create a first imprint layer, with the imprint layer having a structure that remains unaffected by a subsequent process to form a second imprint layer matching a master mold pattern.
US11249388B2

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask blanks, methods for their manufacture and production systems therefor are disclosed. The EUV mask blanks comprise a substrate; a multilayer stack of reflective layers on the substrate; a capping layer on the multilayer stack of reflecting layers; and an absorber layer on the capping layer, the absorber layer made from carbon and antimony.
US11249385B2

Provided are a reflective mask blank and a reflective mask that are capable of reducing the shadowing effect of EUV lithography and forming a fine pattern. As a result, a semiconductor device can be stably manufactured with high transfer accuracy. The reflective mask blank has a multilayer reflective film and a phase shift film that causes a shift in the phase of EUV light on a substrate in that order, wherein the phase shift film comprises a single layer film or multilayer film of two or more layers and is made of a material comprising tantalum (Ta) and titanium (Ti).
US11249383B2

A camera mount system for a filming through an optic on a real or simulated gun while also allowing for accurate aiming is disclosed. The camera mount may have a gun engagement surface, a vertical positioning portion, camera housing, and a secondary sight and/or screen to film through the optic while the gun is aimed using the screen or secondary sight. Additionally, the camera mount may be adjustable along the horizontal, lateral, and vertical axes. The camera mount may utilize accessory rails to assist with attaching a secondary sight or incorporate a prism to use the optic being filmed through.
US11249378B2

An optical engine module comprises a casing, a light valve, a heat dissipating module, and at least three fixtures. The casing comprises at least three fixing structures. The light valve is disposed in the casing and is connected to the casing. The light valve comprises a heat interface. The heat dissipating module comprises a heat dissipating surface in contact with the heat interface of the light valve. The number of the at least three fixing structures and positions of the same correspond respectively to the number of the at least three fixtures and positions of the same. The heat dissipating module is connected to the casing by matching the at least three fixing structures and the at least three fixtures. In the optical engine module, improved stability of the heat dissipating module, preferable heat dissipating efficiency for the light valve, and thus good optical effect are provided.
US11249374B2

A mobile device camera filter assembly having a holder and a mounting plate adapted to be adhesively attached to a surface of a mobile phone case with holder adapted to be received on the mounting plate. A filter frame is rotatably mounted to the holder with a hinge and a light filter is received in the filter frame.
US11249367B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for pressure-sensitive, electrophoretic displays, which may optionally include haptic feedback. A display may comprise a first conductive layer having a pressure-sensitive conductivity and an electrophoretic layer positioned adjacent to the first conductive layer, wherein the electrophoretic layer is in electrical communication with the first conductive layer and is configured to locally change state based on a pressure applied to the first conductive layer. Local and global writing and erasing of the display can also be achieved.
US11249366B2

An electrochemical device is disclosed. The electrochemical device includes a first transparent conductive layer, an electrochromic layer overlying the first transparent conductive layer, a counter electrode layer overlying the electrochromic layer, a second transparent conductive layer, and a switching speed parameter of not greater than 0.68 s/mm at 23° C.
US11249364B2

The present application discloses a display panel and a method for manufacturing a first substrate thereof. The display panel includes a first substrate which is provided with a thin film transistor. The thin film transistor includes a gate, a source and a drain. Light shielding layers are disposed on the outer side of the source and the outer side of the drain.
US11249353B2

A liquid crystal display includes a first substrate, a gate line disposed on the first substrate and extending parallel to a major horizontal reference line of the display, and a plurality of pixel unit cells disposed on and tesslating a display area of the first substrate where each unit cell includes a first field generating electrode and a second field generating electrode with an insulating layer interposed therebetween, wherein a first one of the first and second field generating electrodes has a plurality of cutouts defined therein for producing corresponding liquid crystal domains, the plurality of cutouts each including a first inclined edge portion forming a first angle with the vertical reference line and a second inclined edge portion forming a second angle with the vertical reference line that is different from the first angle.
US11249351B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an array substrate and a display device. The array substrate includes a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines, the plurality of gate lines and the plurality of data lines crossing one another to bound pixel units and the pixel unites each including a pixel electrode and a thin film transistor, which includes a drain electrode, the array substrate further includes a common electrode line, the drain electrode includes an extension portion and the common electrode line and the extension portion form a light blocking structure together such that an orthographic projection of the light blocking structure on a plane where the pixel electrode is located is located near an edge of the pixel electrode. The array substrate provided by the present disclosure is applied to a display device.
US11249344B2

A display device including a lower cover; a circuit substrate on the lower cover; a plurality of light sources disposed on the circuit substrate; a reflection layer disposed on the lower cover; a light regulating pattern disposed close to an edge of the reflection layer; and an optical sheet disposed on the light sources. Further, the light regulating pattern changes in size as a distance from the light source changes.
US11249341B2

Based on information about a vehicle, the information can be projected and displayed onto a road surface or the like. An image projection apparatus, which projects an image, includes an acquisition unit that acquires the information about the vehicle, and an image projection unit that projects the image based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit.
US11249340B2

A display substrate, a display panel, and a display device are provided. The display substrate includes a transparent region and a pixel display region surrounding at least a portion of the transparent region. The display substrate includes a base substrate and a first optical layer located on the base substrate, the first optical layer is located within the pixel display region. A portion of the first optical layer close to the transparent region includes a first light ray deflection part configured to deflect image light of the pixel display region around the transparent region toward the transparent region for displaying in the transparent region.
US11249333B2

The present disclosure provides an optical processing apparatus, including at least one optical lens group, light transmittance of which is adjustable; a photodetector configured to detect an intensity of light emitted to the optical lens group; and a controller configured to adjust the light transmittance of the optical lens group according to the light intensity detected by the photodetector.
US11249332B2

A liquid crystal display device and a drive method thereof are disclosed. The liquid crystal display device includes a display panel and a controller. The display panel includes a display region, a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix are provided in the display region, each of the plurality of pixels includes a red sub-pixel, a blue sub-pixel and a green sub-pixel, and the display region includes a middle portion and a peripheral portion outside the middle portion, and at least one first pixel is provided in the peripheral portion, the controller is configured to relatively increase a luminous intensity of a blue sub-pixel in the first pixel.
US11249319B2

A reduced footprint collimator device to focus light beam over length of optical path for use in an optical cytometry device or other optical instrument where a focused beam of light is passed through a test medium and then sampled by a photomultiplier or multiple photomultipliers for analysis. This device provides alignment and focus of that beam and collimation along the entire beam path. In addition in order to reduce the overall footprint of the beam path this device uses a precision coated prism to redirect the optical path perpendicular to the entering optical beam. The reduced footprint collimator device to focus light beam over length of optical path generally includes a reduced footprint 90 degree collimator which allows light beam collimation, beam path alignment, selectable beam focal distance, and reduces stray light reflections all in a minimal footprint.an These features allows for a smaller overall instrument design.
US11249316B2

A vehicle display device includes a housing to be mounted on a vehicle and having an opening, a display unit disposed inside the housing and configured to project a display image toward a reflection unit arranged in front of a driver seat through the opening, and a controller configured to cause the display unit to exhibit a range display that defines a maximum range for a display image, upon detection of information indicating a change in the viewpoint of a driver on the vehicle.
US11249312B2

An optical device includes a display that emits light toward a lightguide. Display light reflects from lightguide surfaces by total internal reflection (TIR). The display is mounted proximate to the lightguide. The optical device includes a first surface at an eye-side of the optical device and a second surface at a world-side. The optical device includes a first material having a first Abbe number and a second material having a second Abbe number different from the first Abbe number. The first material and the second material cause a color correction to light from the display or alters a chromatic aberration of the light from the display. A head mountable frame supports the display and the lightguide including the first and second materials.
US11249304B2

An apparatus such as a head-mounted display (HMD) may have a camera for capturing a visual scene for presentation via the HMD. A user of the apparatus may be operating a second, physical camera for capturing video or still images within the visual scene. The HMD may generate an augmented reality (AR) experience by presenting an AR view frustum representative of the actual view frustum of the physical camera. The field of view of the user viewing the captured visual scene via the AR experience is generally larger that the AR view frustum, allowing the user to avoid unnatural tracking movements and/or hunting for subjects.
US11249300B1

A modular assembly of an endoscope light source and an image-capturing module includes: a circuit board having a lower plate and an elevation support platform located on the top surface of the lower plate and having a predefined height, a bottom surface of the lower plate having a plurality of bottom electrode sheets disposed thereon, a top end of the elevation support platform having a plurality of light source electrode sheets disposed thereon, the plurality of light source electrode sheets using a plurality of lead wires to penetrate through the elevation support platform and the lower plate in order to be electrically connected to the plurality of bottom electrode sheets; a plurality of light emitting diode chips having a florescent powder gel covered thereon; an image-capturing module; and a fixation glue cured and attached onto the image-capturing module, the elevation support platform and the fluorescent powder gel.
US11249285B2

An imaging lens may include a first lens L1 having negative power, a second lens L2 having negative power, a third lens L3 having positive power, a fourth lens L4 having negative power, and a fifth lens L5 having positive power, arranged in order from the object side. At least one of the third lens L3 and the fifth lens L5 may be formed of glass having a negative temperature coefficient of refractive index. A focal length of an entire system of the imaging lens is represented by f, the temperature coefficient of refractive index of the at least one of the third lens and the fifth lens formed of glass having a negative temperature coefficient of refractive index is represented by dn/dt, and the following conditions may be satisfied: dn/dt<−0.5 and −2.90
US11249284B2

An optical system includes: a first lens having refractive power; a second lens having refractive power; a third lens having refractive power and comprising an image-side surface which is convex in a paraxial region; a fourth lens having refractive power; a fifth lens having refractive power and comprising an image-side surface which is concave in the paraxial region; a sixth lens having refractive power; and a stop disposed in front of an object-side surface of the first lens. The first to sixth lenses are sequentially disposed from an object side. A radius of the stop SD and an overall focal length of the optical system f satisfy: 0.2
US11249272B2

An optical fiber cable includes: a plurality of ribs formed along a longitudinal direction of a cable; and a slot core in which a slot grove for housing an optical fiber ribbon is formed between the ribs. In the slot groove, a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are bundled and a plurality of subunits whose periphery is wound with a bundle material are provided, and the bundle materials between the plurality of subunits are bonded to each other.
US11249252B2

A fiber optic cable splice assembly includes: a first fiber optic cable having a first optical fiber with an exposed first exposed splice region, a first ribbon portion adjacent the first optical fiber and a first jacket; a second fiber optic cable having a second optical fiber with an exposed second splice region, a second ribbon portion adjacent the second optical fiber and a second jacket, the second optical fiber fusion-spliced to the first optical fiber; a splice protector that overlies the first and second exposed splice regions; and a first fiber boot attached to the splice protector that overlies the first ribbon portion.
US11249235B2

A light guide module and an augmented reality (AR) apparatus are disclosed. The AR apparatus includes a display module and the light guide module. The light guide module includes a first light guide plate and a second light guide plate. The first light guide plate has a light receiving area for receiving optical input light with a predetermined incident angle and a light outputting area for outputting optical input light. The second light guide plate is disposed on the first light guide plate, and has dichroic surfaces for selectively transmitting or reflecting the optical input light.
US11249222B2

An optical film, a manufacturing method thereof and a display device are provided. The optical film includes a photonic crystal film substrate and a plurality of linear defective portions penetrating the photonic crystal film substrate in a thickness direction in the photonic crystal film substrate. A lattice period of each of the linear defective portions is different from a lattice period of the photonic crystal film substrate, and the photonic crystal film substrate includes a plurality of first regions and a plurality of second regions. The first regions and the second regions are alternately distributed along at least one direction in a plane where the photonic crystal thin film is located. The linear defective portion located in each of the first regions has a first light exiting direction. The linear defective portion in each of the second regions has a second light exiting direction.
US11249221B2

A weather forecasting system has a data processing system that receives weather data from one or more sources and processes such data in conjunction with a weather forecasting algorithm in order to forecast weather for one or more geographic regions. In this regard, the weather data is input into a machine learning algorithm, which applies learned weights and relationships to the inputs in order to calculate at least one score indicating a probability that precipitation or other weather event will occur in the future within a certain time period (e.g., within the next 1 hour or some other unit of time) in one or more geographic regions. For each such geographic region, the weather forecasting logic may also predict the extent to which rain or other precipitation, lightning, or other weather event will occur during the time period.
US11249216B2

The present invention provides a methodology and system for determining formation resistivity beyond a casing. Using devices to generate, direct, and measure electric signals, the travel speed, travel time, attenuation and phase shift of an electric signal traveling through the casing can be measured. Applying a relationship between the travel speed or travel time of an electric signal and the formation resistivity beyond a casing, it is then possible to determine the formation resistivity beyond a casing by measuring the travel speed or travel time or phase shift or attenuation of an electric signal.
US11249209B1

A method includes generating a seismic shot by a seismic source, the seismic shot directed at a geological subsurface, and receiving, by one or more receivers, a plurality of reflected seismic traces from the seismic shot. The method further includes generating a correlogram of each reflected seismic trace to generate a plurality of correlograms, isolating a coda wave train of each correlogram of the plurality of correlograms, and computing an energy ratio between an energy of the coda wave train of each correlogram and a total energy of a corresponding correlogram of the plurality of correlograms to generate a plurality of energy ratios. The method further includes determining an average of the plurality of energy ratios to generate an average energy ratio of the seismic shot and determining a likelihood of striking a subsurface geohazard when drilling into the geological subsurface based on the average energy ratio.
US11249206B2

A method of normalizing detector elements in an imaging system is described herein. The method includes a line source that is easier to handle for a user, and decouples the normalization of the detector elements into a transaxial domain and an axial domain in order to isolate errors due to positioning of the line source. Additional simulations are performed to augment the real scanner normalization. A simulation of a simulated line source closely matching the real line source can be performed to isolate errors due to physical properties of the crystals and position of the crystals in the system, wherein the simulated detector crystals are otherwise modeled uniformly. A simulation of a simulated cylinder source can be performed to determine errors due to other effects stemming from gaps between the detector crystals.
US11249196B2

Improved methods and systems for position acquisition and/or monitoring are disclosed. The position acquisition and/or monitoring can be performed with improved intelligence so that data acquisition, transmission and/or processing is reduced. As a result, the position acquisition and/or monitoring is able to be performed in a power efficient manner.
US11249190B2

The laser radar device includes: a modulated light generator configured to generate modulated laser light using frequency modulation based on a control parameter; an optical combiner configured to combine the received light and the local light to generate interference light; a photodetector configured to detect the interference light and output an electrical signal; a frequency-to-voltage converter configured to convert the electrical signal into a voltage signal; a characteristic calculator configured to measure a characteristic value of the voltage signal; an evaluator configured to evaluate, on a basis of the characteristic value, whether a center frequency of a spectrum of a return signal component is within a range of a demodulation band of a demodulation circuit; and a parameter setting unit configured to change the control parameter when it is evaluated that the center frequency is not within the range of the demodulation band.
US11249188B2

Systems and methods for filtering an analog waveform before it is sampled by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in an ultrasound system are provided. The waveform can be filtered by delaying the same waveform by two different time delays and combining the delayed waveforms to effectively cancel out the fundamental components, thereby providing more sensitive detection of harmonic components in received echo signals. This filtering approach leverages an architecture that can also be used for multiline beamforming to perform the temporal filtering, in which a single acoustic signal can be read out of the ARAM twice, separated by time, taking advantage of the fact that the ARAM allows for non-destructive read operations.
US11249164B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure include methods, apparatuses, systems, and computer program product for enabling multi-point shunt calibration of a sensor device. Multi-point shunt calibration provides at least a first, second, and third simulated calibration output, each simulated calibration output corresponding to an actual reading value and an expected reading value. The simulated calibration outputs are associated with a predefined output sequence, where each simulated calibration output is separated from an adjacent simulated calibration output by an output step size. Some embodiments are configured for automatically outputting each simulated calibration output for a particular period of time before outputting an adjacent simulated calibration output in the predefined output sequence. The various simulated calibration outputs, actual reading values, and/or expected values may be used in determining calibrated reading values for the sensor device.
US11249163B2

An eddy-current correction method and apparatus, a mobile terminal and a readable storage medium are provided. The method includes: step S1: reading gradient-recalled echo sequence by means of bipolarity, so as to acquire a multi-echo image; step S2: estimating a first-order term coefficient of an extra phase term introduced by an eddy-current in the acquired multi-echo image; step S3: removing the estimated first-order term coefficient, and estimating a zero-order term coefficient of the extra phase term introduced by the eddy-current in the collected multi-echo image; step S4: removing, according to the estimated first-order term coefficient and the zero-order term coefficient, an error of the extra phase term introduced by the eddy-current. The eddy-current correction method removes the phase error caused by the eddy-current in the acquired image, thereby ensuring the correctness of the subsequent water-fat separation algorithm result.
US11249156B2

The present invention provides a radiation shield (204), in particular for shielding main coils (202) of a magnetic resonance imaging system (110), whereby the radiation shield (204) comprises a cavity (214) for housing at least one main coil (202), whereby the cavity (214) is formed between an inner cylindrical wall (206), an outer cylindrical wall (208), which are arranged essentially concentrically to each other, and two ring-shaped base walls (212), which interconnect the inner cylindrical wall (206) and the outer cylindrical wall (208), wherein at least one out of the inner cylindrical wall (206), the outer cylindrical wall (208), and the two ring-shaped base walls (212) is provided at least partially with an inner layer (216), which faces the cavity (214), and an outer layer (218), wherein the inner layer (216) is a layer comprising carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and the outer layer (218) comprises a metal, which is paramagnetic or diamagnetic. The present invention also provides a shielded main magnet (200) comprising at least one main coil (200) for generating a static main magnetic field in a magnetic resonance imaging system (110), and a radiation shield (204) as specified above, wherein the at least one main coil (202) is housed in a cavity (214) of the radiation shield (204).
US11249137B2

A diagnostic method of switchgear and a device of switchgear that allow regularly grasping a state with high accuracy with a simple configuration is provided. The diagnostic method of switchgear includes: obtaining signals from an acceleration sensor mounted to a switchgear and a load current flowing through the switchgear; determining a frequency to be focused from a spectrum analysis result of the signals from the acceleration sensor in an advance preparation phase of diagnosis of the switchgear, generating learning data using at least the frequency and the load current as feature values; and regularly diagnosing the state of the switchgear from the feature values obtained during diagnosis and the learning data during the diagnosis of the switchgear.
US11249132B2

There is provided a prober including inspection rooms. Each of the inspection rooms includes: a probe card having probes; a chuck top configured to mount a wafer; and a temperature adjuster configured to adjust a temperature of the chuck top. At least one of the probe card and the chuck top includes a gap adjustment member configured to maintain a constant gap between the probe card and the chuck top. The probe card is preheated by heat of the chuck top whose temperature is adjusted by the temperature adjuster, in a state in which the wafer is not mounted on the chuck top and in a state in which the probe card and the chuck top are connected with each other via the gap adjustment member.
US11249130B2

A system comprises a noise generator circuit and a noise envelope detector circuit. The noise generator circuit comprises a first amplifier including a single transistor pair that is operable to generate 1/f noise, an output amplifier coupled to the first amplifier and configured to generate a 1/f noise signal as a function of the 1/f noise. The noise envelope detector circuit comprises a low pass filter operable to pass low frequency signals of the 1/f noise signal as a filtered 1/f noise signal, and a second amplifier or a comparator coupled to the low pass filter and operable to output a direct current (DC) voltage signal according to an envelope of the filtered 1/f noise signal, where the DC voltage signal is a function of an envelope of the filtered 1/f noise signal.
US11249129B2

Disclosed are an IGBT-module condition monitoring equipment and method. The IGBT-module condition monitoring equipment includes an IGBT module, a gate turning-on voltage overshoot monitoring module, a driving circuit, a bond wire state judging module, and a signal acquisition module. The breakage condition of bond wires is obtained by comparing a monitored actual gate turning-on voltage overshoot with a preset reference gate turning-on voltage overshoot threshold. The present invention solves the problem encountered in monitoring the aging of IGBT bond wires in power electronic converters. By characterizing the bond wire detachment with the gate turning-on voltage overshoot, the slight aging of the detached bond wires can be monitored without disturbing the operation, which is high in resolution and free of invasiveness and enables real-time online monitoring at high sampling rate and low cost, showing great significance in the monitoring of the IGBT and the reliability evaluation of power electronic converters.
US11249124B2

Various embodiments are described herein for measuring the impedance properties of a load using load analysis signals. In one example embodiment, a transformer is provided which includes at least one primary winding, and at least one secondary winding. The at least one primary winding is coupled in series between a direct-current (DC) power supply and the load. A variable alternating-current (AC) voltage generator is coupled in-series to the at least one secondary winding, and is configured generate at least one load analysis signal for injection into the load. The impedance properties of the load may be determined for different frequencies in the load analysis signals.
US11249123B2

Provided is a method and device for obtaining internal side and external side insulation resistances of a relay. The method includes: controlling an insulation resistance obtaining circuit to output an AC signal; when both a main relay and a pre-charge relay are switched off, obtaining a first phase shift of the AC signal between two sampling points according to first collected electrical signals; obtaining an internal side insulation resistance of the main relay according to the first collected electrical signals and the first phase shift; controlling the pre-charge relay to be switched on; when the main relay is switched off and the pre-charge relay is switched on, obtaining a second phase shift of the AC signal between the two sampling points according to second collected electrical signals; and obtaining an external side insulation resistance of the main relay according to the second collected electrical signals and the second phase shift.
US11249111B2

A test system can include a probe suitable to be coupled between a test measurement device and a device under test (DUT). The probe can include a signal input to receive an active signal from the DUT and a signal output to provide the active signal to the test measurement device. The probe can also include an input ground to connect to the DUT ground and an output ground to connect to the test measurement device ground. A probe ground connection checking device can automatically determine whether the probe ground connections to the DUT ground and test measurement device ground are solid.
US11249102B2

A system and method for measuring motion properties of a movable object, such as a sporting device, wherein the movable object has an embedded magnetized unit creating a magnetic field. A measurement device, having a first magnetic field sensor positioned a known distance away from a second magnetic field sensor, is positioned in the vicinity of the movable object's trajectory, whereby the first and second magnetic field sensors output signals when the movable object passes within their respective proximities. A control module, that is responsive to the output signals created by the magnetic field sensors, is configured to record the times of output signal events. The control module is further configured to calculate motion properties, such as the speed and rate of spin, of the movable object based upon the recorded times of various sensor output events and the known distance between the first and second magnetic field sensors.
US11249098B2

The present teachings relate to methods, systems, and kits for the preparation, purification and/or analysis of a glycan or glycoconjugate, and specifically to a magnetic bead based sample preparation protocol. In some aspects, the sample preparation protocol can provide for glycoconjugate capture, glycan release, fluorescent derivatization, and glycan purification for subsequent capillary electrophoresis, liquid chromatography, or other glycoanalytical method using magnetic beads containing negatively charged carboxyl groups extending from the surface of the magnetic beads.
US11249097B2

The present invention relates to systems and methods of determining quality compliance for a set of biological sample testing devices used with one or more test instruments at the point-of-care in a hospital or other location that delivers medical care. In particular, the systems and methods ensure that only biological sample testing devices that pass a quality assurance protocol are used for point-of-care testing.
US11249090B2

The invention relates to a method of predicting therapeutic responses to TNF blockers before anti-TNF therapy comprising analyzing immune parameters to selected stimuli in patients before therapy and its use for anti-TNF therapy. The invention relates also to a method of determining a predictive biomarker of response to anti-TNF therapy and to the use of the predictive biomarker obtained by the method.
US11249078B2

The invention relates to a method for detecting various analytes, characterized by the following steps: a) providing separation particles containing, on their surface, firstly means of binding the analyte to be identified and secondly means of separating the analyte bound to the particles; b) providing identification particles firstly having, on their surface, means for binding the analyte to be identified and secondly containing on their surface or enclosed therein, means which are capable, after they have been detached or released from the particles, by virtue of their labeling, of generating a signal which serves for identification of the analyte; c) combining analyte, separation particles and identification particles; d) removing and washing the identification particles bound via the analyte by means of the separation particles; e) releasing the means which serve to identify the analyte, characterized in that the means which serve to identify the analyte are coupled reversibly to the identification particles and in that the identification molecules serve simultaneously for identification of the analyte and for detection.
US11249073B2

The present disclosure provides metal-containing (MC) semiconducting (SC) Pdots (MC-SC-Pdots) with beneficial functionalities in both cellular imaging and manipulation, among other applications. The Pdots comprise at least one nanoparticle comprising at least one metal, and a semiconducting polymer associated with the nanoparticle.
US11249071B2

Methods of prohibiting Xist-dependent silencing of X chromosome genes include targeting the required Xist silencing complex components including SHARP, SMRT, HDAC3, SAF-A, LBR, and the respective binding sites of SHARP, LBR, and SAF-A on Xist, thereby prohibiting Xist repression, allowing for reactivation of the silenced X chromosome genes.
US11249061B2

A system includes: a NOx sensor; and a controller configured to: increase an amount of O2 in a chamber of the NOx sensor; interpret one or more values of a parameter indicative an amount of O2 and/or NOx measured by the NOx sensor; determine if the one or more values of the parameter exceed a threshold value; and indicate a failure of the NOx sensor responsive to the one or more values of the parameter do not exceed the threshold value.
US11249057B2

Systems and methods are described to provide speciation of silicon species present in a remote sample for analysis. A method embodiment includes, but is not limited to, receiving a fluid sample containing inorganic silicon in the presence of bound silicon from a remote sampling system via a fluid transfer line; transferring the fluid sample to an inline chromatographic separation system; separating the inorganic silicon from the bound silicon via the inline chromatographic separation system; transferring the separated inorganic silicon and bound silicon to a silicon detector in fluid communication with the inline chromatographic separation system; and determining an amount of one or more of the inorganic silicon or the bound silicon in the fluid sample via the silicon detector.
US11249052B2

A detection system 1 contains a sensing device 10 including a vibration unit 11 for applying vibration to the inspection target 100, the vibration unit 11 attached to the inspection target 100, a driving circuit 12 for supplying an electric signal to the vibration unit 11 for driving the vibration unit 11 and a sensor 13 for detecting vibration of the inspection target 100 caused by the vibration applied from the vibration unit 11; and a detection processing device 20 for receiving vibration information related to the vibration of the inspection target 100 detected by the sensor 13 from the sensing device 10 and detecting the state change of the inspection target 100 based on the vibration information. The vibration unit 11 includes a coil 112, a spring 113, and a magnet 114b.
US11249044B2

A first leading-end protective layer surrounding a first range at least including a leading end surface of an element base is included on a side of one end portion. A single heat insulating space is interposed between the first layer and the element base in the first range. The element base further includes a second leading-end protective layer having a larger porosity than the first layer, and located on a whole side surface at least in the first range. An end portion of the first layer opposite the one end portion is a fixed portion to the second layer. A portion where the fixed portion is in contact with the second layer is 10% to 50%, in area, of the first range. The fixed portion and the second layer make an end portion angle of 5° to 15° in an end portion of the heat insulating space.
US11249036B2

A local area cosmogenic neutron sensor is used for detecting moisture within a measurement surface. A neutron detector is positioned on a stand structure holding the detector above a measurement surface. A moderator material and neutron shield are positioned around at least a portion of the neutron detector. The neutron shield substantially covers lateral sides and an entirety of a top of the neutron detector and is not positioned on a bottom side of the neutron detector. A thermal neutron shield is positioned below the neutron detector and in a path of neutron travel between the measurement surface and the neutron detector to substantially block environmental thermal neutrons from reaching the neutron detector, which improves the signal-to-noise ratio and signal contrast of the local area cosmogenic neutron sensor.
US11249035B2

A method and a system for providing calibration for a photon counting detector forward model for material decomposition. The flux independent weighted bin response function is estimated using the expectation maximization method, and then used to estimate the pileup correction terms at each tube voltage setting for each detector pixel.
US11249031B2

The invention relates to a method for analysing defects in transformer laminations using an inspection system, and to an inspection system (24), wherein the inspection system comprises a detection unit (26), a conveyance device (27) and a processing device, wherein the detection unit includes an optical detecting device (31), wherein the conveyance device is used to continuously transport a plurality of transformer laminations (25) relative to the detecting device, wherein the detecting device is arranged transversely, preferably orthogonally, to a direction of movement of a transformer lamination, wherein a velocity of movement of a transformer lamination relative to the detecting device is measured via a measurement device (40) of the detection unit, wherein an image of a contour of a transformer lamination is captured with the detecting device, wherein images of a transformer lamination are assembled into a combined image of the transformer lamination via the processing device while considering the velocity of movement of the transformer lamination, wherein a shape of the transformer lamination is determined on the basis of the combined image via the processing device.
US11249023B2

Provided are a rapid detection method for a condition of landfill leachate polluting groundwater and an application thereof. The rapid detection method includes: carrying out fluorescence detection on groundwater in a specific region of a landfill, and determining whether the groundwater is polluted according to a ratio of fluorescence intensities at specific excitation/emission wavelengths in a specific fluorescence region. The rapid detection method provided by the solution establishes characteristic fluorescence spectrum regions, fluorescence intensities and regular characteristics thereof of organic matters in leachate-polluted groundwater of a landfill in a fluorescence spectrum region, and can achieve the rapid detection of a condition of landfill leachate polluting groundwater by means of a portable fluorescence detector on site. The detection method provided by the solution is characterized by rapid detection, no need of chemical reagents, simple operation, high detection sensitivity and lower cost.
US11249020B2

An apparatus for determining a type of a recording medium is provided. A detection unit detects a characteristic value indicating a physical characteristic of a recording medium. A measurement unit measures a moisture content correlated with a moisture content of the recording medium. A determination unit determines the type of the recording medium based on the moisture content and the characteristic value. The determination unit may correct the characteristic value using the moisture content or correct a rule for determining the type of the recording medium using the moisture content unit, and determines the type of the recording medium in accordance with the corrected characteristic value or the corrected rule.
US11249013B2

A device for holding and testing plant material includes a sample container including a sample fixation member for affixing thereto a plant sample such that the plant sample is held vertically in the sample container, a test and calibration reference, a spectrometer arranged to perform spectrometric analysis of the plant sample with respect to spectrometric analysis of the test and calibration reference, and a multiple-degree-of-freedom positioning device configured to cause relative movement between the sample container and the spectrometer.
US11249001B2

A primary drainage process, a core aging process, a spontaneous water imbibition process, a forced water imbibition process, a spontaneous hydrocarbon imbibition process, and a secondary drainage process is conducted on a rock sample. For each of the primary drainage process, the spontaneous water imbibition process, the forced water imbibition process, the spontaneous hydrocarbon imbibition process, and the secondary drainage process, a pressure distribution and a fluid saturation distribution are measured across multiple locations along the rock sample. For each of the locations, the pressure distribution and the fluid saturation distribution are combined to produce a capillary pressure bounding curve and scanning loop for the rock sample, and a relative permeability bounding curve and scanning loop are determined at least based on the measured fluid saturation and pressure distributions at the respective location. A wettability distribution along the rock sample is determined based on the bounding curves and scanning loops.
US11249000B2

The present invention provides autoradiography methods and systems for imaging via the detection of alpha particles, beta particles, or other charged particles. Embodiments of the methods and systems provide high-resolution 3D imaging of the distribution of a radioactive probe, such as a radiopharmaceutical, on a tissue sample. Embodiments of the present methods and systems provide imaging of tissue samples by reconstruction of a 3D distribution of a source of particles, such as a radiopharmaceutical. Embodiments of the methods and systems provide tomographic methods including microtomography, macrotomography, cryomicrotomography and cryomacrotomography.
US11248999B2

Methods and systems for determining slip velocity of drill cuttings obtained from subsurface formations are disclosed. The system includes a first cylindrical tube having a first diameter and a first length, wherein the first tube is attached to a base plate, a second cylindrical tube having a second dimeter smaller than the first diameter and a second length larger than the first length, the second tube attached to a lower portion of the first tube and running substantially parallel to the first tube, and an ultrasonic device operatively connected to an opening of the second tube for measuring a level of a fluid in the second tube, and a computer operatively connected to the ultrasonic device, the computer configured to store and analyze data received from the ultrasonic device.
US11248992B2

Systems and methods for accessing and monitoring a fluid within a pressurized pipe include a nozzle coupled to a section of the pressurized pipe and defining an open proximal end fluidly communicating with the pressurized pipe through an access hole formed in the pressurized pipe, an open distal end, and an interior passage extending from the open proximal end to the open distal end. A cover plate is coupled to the open distal end of the nozzle. A valve element is disposed in the interior passage and movable between an open position, in which the valve element is entirely disposed within the nozzle, and a closed position, in which a proximal section of the valve element is disposed in the pressurized pipe. A sensor port extends through a proximal end of the nozzle and positioned to fluidly communicate with the interior passage when the valve element is in the open position.
US11248991B2

A thin-section preparation method and device includes, in a one-blade set state where an entire first cutting blade is held by a holder, performing a first rough cutting step of rough cutting an embedded block using a first end region of the first cutting blade, and a first main cutting step of main cutting the embedded block using a second end region of the first cutting blade; and further includes, in a two-blade set state where the second end region of the first cutting blade and a first end region of a second cutting blade are held by the holder, performing a second rough cutting step of rough cutting the embedded block using the second end region of the first cutting blade, and a second main cutting step of main cutting the embedded block using the first end region of the second cutting blade.
US11248979B2

An appliance includes a metallic liner and an outer metallic wrapper. An insulating cavity is defined between the metallic liner and outer metallic wrapper. The appliance further includes a pressure sensing device disposed within the cavity. The pressure sensing device is located to detect a pressure status and transmit the pressure status through at least one of the metallic liner and outer metallic wrapper.
US11248977B2

The present invention relates to a method for cancelling effects of changes in interconnection capacitances on capacitive sensor readings, and an apparatus configure to perform such method. The sensor readings are provided by a capacitive sensor connected with an interface circuitry. The interface circuitry has at least two interconnections comprising a sensor interconnection and a compensating interconnection. The method comprises obtaining a total sensor capacitance value from the capacitive sensor, and obtaining a total compensating interconnection capacitance value from the compensating interconnection, calculating a compensated sensor capacitance value by reducing the obtained total compensating interconnection capacitance value multiplied with a weight coefficient from the obtained total sensor capacitance value and providing at an output of the interface circuitry an electrical signal corresponding to the compensated sensor capacitance value. The weight coefficient is independent of changes of relative permittivity in the immediate environment of the capacitive sensor and its interconnections.
US11248976B2

Capacitive pressure sensors and other devices are disclosed. In an embodiment a semiconductor device includes a first electrode, a cavity over the first electrode and a second electrode including a suspended membrane over the cavity and electrically conductive anchor trenches laterally surrounding the cavity, wherein the anchor trenches include an inner anchor trench and an outer anchor trench, the outer anchor trench having rounded corners.
US11248973B2

A force measuring system for devices comprising: (a) a tortuous conduit operatively coupled to a transducer; and, (b) a computer communicatively coupled to the transducer, the computer programmed to utilize signals output from the transducer to calculate forces acting on the transducer, the computer programmed to support a graphical user interface for displaying the calculated forces.
US11248967B2

By combining at least two strain sensors in a symmetric configuration, a dual use sensor may be realized. This may reduce the footprint, cost, and complexity of employing two different sensors. It may also improve the accuracy of the measurements as two different parameters i.e., strain and environmental information are measured at the same physical location. This dual use sensor may be deployed in an array over a large area or space, providing systemic information of the subject that is previously difficult to detect.
US11248960B2

A high resolution inspection apparatus using a terahertz Bessel beam. The high resolution inspection apparatus comprises a terahertz wave generating unit for generating a terahertz wave; a Bessel beam forming unit for generating a terahertz Bessel beam using the terahertz wave incident from the terahertz wave generating unit; a ring beam forming unit for forming a ring beam using the terahertz Bessel beam and concentrating the formed ring beam to an inspection target object; a scattered light detecting unit for detecting scattered light generated from the inspection target object; and a ring beam detecting unit for detecting a ring beam transmitted through the inspection target object.
US11248955B2

The present inventive concepts relate to an inspection apparatus that snapshots an interference image pattern having a high spatial carrier frequency produced from a one-piece off-axis polarimetric interferometer and that precisely and promptly measures a Stokes vector including spatial polarimetric information. The inspection apparatus dynamically measure in real-time a two-dimensional polarization information without employing a two-dimensional scanner.
US11248952B2

The present application discloses a fiber distributed acoustic sensing system, including a forward pump source, a wavelength division multiplexer, an active phase-shifted grating array, a backward pump source, and a data demodulation and processing device. The active phase-shifted grating array includes several active phase-shifted gratings engraved on a same fiber, each active phase-shifted grating having a same excitation light wavelength. The active phase-shifted grating array is configured to receive a forward pump pulse and a backward pump light pulse incident from the backward pump source, so that a forward excitation light and a backward excitation light are generated in each active phase-shifted grating, and two adjacent active phase-shifted gratings are enabled to generate excitation light self interference within a same pulse duration. The data demodulation and processing device is configured to perform interference detection on a fiber phase between two adjacent active phase-shifted gratings to detect an acoustic signal acted on the fiber. According to the system in the present application, the passive reflected light interference is replaced with active excitation light interference, thus the excitation light signal has great strength and high stability, and environmental adaptability is high.
US11248951B2

A sensor device, including a sensor having a sound transducer to emit sonic waves and convert received sonic waves to electrical signals. A sensor evaluation unit carries out surrounding-area monitoring during a normal operation of the sensor, by evaluating electrical signals of the sound transducer. During a monitoring mode of the sensor, a monitoring unit of the sensor device measures an impedance of the sound transducer for different excitation frequencies of excitation signals produced with a signal generator of the sensor device. The sensor device includes a first and a second signal path, which are each connected to the sound transducer and are connectable to the signal generator. To reset the sensor from normal operation to the monitoring mode, a first control unit of the sensor device is configured to decouple the signal generator from the first signal path and to connect it to the second signal path.
US11248946B1

Disclosed herein are devices, systems, and methods for accurately determining fluid level using Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) positioning or localization. UWB utilizes a radio frequency (RF) technology to enable the accurate measurement of the time-of-flight of a radio signal and UWB positioning can operate in Time-Difference-of-Arrival (TDoA) mode, Two-Way-Ranging (TWR) mode, and Phase-Difference-of-Arrival (PDoA) mode. The systems disclosed herein include multiple anchor devices having a UWB antenna(s) and positioned in fixed location(s) over the fluid to be measured. The anchor devices serve as reference points for UWB communication with a remote float device, which emits RF signals and floats on the surface of the fluid to be measured. The anchor devices may include, or be in communication with, a processor which receives and/or measures RF signals, generates timestamps, calculates distance(s) between the remote float device and an anchor device, calculates fluid level, calculates an angle-of-arrival (AoA), or any combination thereof.
US11248945B2

A fuel storage system has a tank access chamber with improved monitoring, servicing and maintenance capabilities. In particular, the chamber includes a sump monitored by a liquid sensor whose proper function can be automatically checked remotely, e.g., via an electronic controller or remote manual operation. In cases where such a check indicates a need for physical inspection of the sump sensor, the present system provides for sensor removal and installation by service personnel from a location outside the tank access chamber. Thus, the present system facilitates regular inspection and routine or unplanned maintenance without the need for a person to physically enter the tank access chamber.
US11248934B2

A magnetic sensor device includes a three-dimensional (3D) magnetic sensor and a magnet that produces a magnetic field. The 3D magnetic sensor is arranged within the magnetic field and is configured to measure three different magnetic field components of the magnetic field and generate sensor signals in response to the measured three different magnetic field components. The magnet is arranged in a default spatial position in an absence of any applied spatial force, where the magnet is configured to rotate about a rotation axis based on an applied rotational force. The magnetic field varies inhomogeneously with regards to at least one of the three magnetic field components upon rotation of the magnet about the rotation axis.
US11248932B2

The present invention relates to a method for calibrating magnetometers (20) of an object (1) moving in an ambient magnetic field, the method being characterised in that it comprises the steps of: (a) Acquisition by the magnetometers (20), of at least three measured components of the magnetic field around the magnetometers (20), and by inertial measurement means (11) which are secured to the object (1), of an angular velocity of the object (1); (c) Determination, by data processing means (21), of values of at least one calibration parameter of the magnetometers (20) minimising an expression defined by estimated components of the magnetic field and at least one magnetic equation relating to the angular velocity of the object (1), the estimated components of the magnetic field being a function of the measured components of the magnetic field as well as of calibration parameters of the magnetometers (20), and the at least one magnetic equation assuming that the magnetic field is uniform and stationary around the magnetic measurement means (20).
US11248930B2

A wind forecasting system configured to generate forecasted wind conditions for a time interval based on wind data derived from flight log data collected from a plurality of aerial vehicles operating in a first area. The forecasted wind conditions can be used by an aerial route management system to generate a flight plan for an aerial vehicle from a start location to an end location in the first area during the time interval.
US11248926B2

A display control device for controlling a display device displaying a driver support image to have an overlap with a view from a driver seat in a vehicle or a live-action video in front of the vehicle, the display control device includes: a video signal generation unit generating a video signal for displaying a driver support image to have an overlap with the travelable traffic lane, and a video signal output unit. The driver support image having the overlap with the travelable traffic lane has a width in a width direction of the traffic lane and extends in a direction in which the traffic lane extends. The driver support image having the overlap with the region other than the travelable traffic lane is an image in which the travelable traffic lane can be distinguished according to a width and a length.
US11248920B1

Techniques are disclosed for objectively assessing the driving performance of rideshare drivers and/or vehicles. The techniques include collecting data from various sources to aggregate trip data for several drivers and passengers over several ridesharing trips. This data may include telematics data collected from several passengers and/or drivers during each of their respective ridesharing trips, which indicates various aspects associated with operation of the vehicle. Each driver may then be correlated to his own set of trip data, such that a driving assessment may be made for each individual driver. When a new user subsequently requests a ride via a ridesharing provider, this driver assessment may be made available to the user, thereby providing the user with an objective assessment of the driver prior to the start of the scheduled ride.
US11248919B2

A driving support apparatus includes a communication device configured to be able to communicate with a vehicle-mounted device installed in a vehicle that is under automatic driving control and a mobile terminal of a user of the vehicle; and a processor configured to send, upon receiving a return request for moving the vehicle to an exit location at which the user has exited the vehicle, from the mobile terminal through the communication device, a return command for moving the vehicle to the exit location to the vehicle-mounted device through the communication device, when a return time required to move the vehicle to the exit location is less than an available return time.
US11248909B2

A rotation-rate sensor having a substrate, the rotation-rate sensor having a drive structure that is movable in relation to the substrate, the drive structure being attached to the substrate by a spring system, the spring system having a first spring component that connects the drive structure and the substrate, and a second spring component that connects the drive structure and the substrate, the first spring component and the second spring component being connected by an intermediate piece, wherein the intermediate piece includes a first edge bar and a second edge bar, a group of connecting bars being configured between the first and second edge bar, the connecting bars of the group of connecting bars each being disposed at an opening angle of between 1° and 89° on the first and/or second edge bar.
US11248907B2

A test block is formed of at least one profile block and one mating block, wherein the two blocks lying one on top of the other with varying thickness combinations are radiographed together, in order to ascertain, for the pairings of the materials in the respective thickness, in each case a reference value relating to their common radiographic properties.
US11248906B2

The invention relates to achieve a rapid, reproducible and reliable characterization of the quality of ply-by-ply machining of multilayer materials. This method for inspecting ply-by-ply machining of a part (10) made of multilayer composite material under repair by machining a ply-by-ply staggered or continuously sloped cut out in a stack of plies of various successive orientations includes taking images (IA to ID), under lighting of different orientations (12), of a surface area (10a) of the machined part (10) to be inspected; performing an analysis by comparing the images (IA to ID) pixel by pixel (P0) in order to define the orientation of each pixel (P0) as corresponding to that of the image in which this pixel has a higher brightness; if the pixel has a similar brightness in all the images (IA à ID), this pixel (Pr) is attributed to a resin; constructing a map (5) in units of ply of the surface area to be inspected (10a) by applying the preceding analysis to all of the pixels; estimating a machining quality level from the map (5) produced, and archiving (2m) each map (5) thus produced as a machining result.
US11248891B2

An electronics ordnance delivery system that has an electronics component encased within a potting material, which itself is within a housing exoskeleton. A deceleration sleeve receives the exoskeleton, and is designed to shear away during a bullet's entry into a target body such that the electronics component is successfully deployed and remains in the target even if a part of the bullet exits the target. The system also includes an outer jacket that is also designed to shear away. The system can include a core that assists in the deployment of the electronics ordnance within the target.
US11248885B2

The present invention provides a subsonic ammunition cartridge including a polymeric casing body comprising a generally cylindrical hollow polymer body having a body base at a first end thereof and a mouth at a second end to define a propellant chamber; a propellant insert positioned in the propellant chamber to reduce the internal volume of the propellant chamber, wherein the propellant chamber has an internal volume that is between 25 and 80% less than the open internal volume of a standard casing of equivalent caliber; and a primer insert positioned at the body base and in communication with the propellant chamber.
US11248883B2

A cartridge casing of a cartridge for a lever action firearm, the cartridge casing comprising a rim comprising a flat front face configured to provide a gripping surface for an extractor of the lever action firearm to remove the cartridge casing of the cartridge after firing of the lever action firearm, the rim having a radial gradient that decreases from a maximum radius at a first location on the rim that is prior to the flat front face to a minimum radius value at a second location on the rim corresponding to the flat front face.
US11248882B2

A shooting target assembly includes a balance bar having a center portion that is rotatably connected to a support, a first target assembly rotatably connected to a first end of the balance bar at a first pivot point, and a second target assembly rotatably connected to a second end of the balance bar at a second pivot point. The first target assembly includes a plurality of first target zones, the second target assembly includes a plurality of second target zones, each of the first target zones and each of the second target zones is configured to engage one or more targets, and the balance bar is configured to rotate about the center portion in response to one or more of the targets being broken.
US11248878B2

A protective hood for individuals positioned in hazard areas is provided that comprises a constant hood structure having an opening, wherein the hood structure is configured to accommodate a portion of a bed that partially protrudes through the opening; a closing board outwardly connected to the hood structure and positioned opposite the opening; and a movable portion sleeved juxtaposed to the constant structure, wherein the movable portion is configured to move relative to the constant structure so as to elongate the constant structure from a first position in which the movable portion is fully adjacent to the constant structure and a second position in which the movable portion is extended outwardly beyond the opening so as to cling to the closing board and form a protected and secure inner space.
US11248873B2

A machine gun top cover assembly includes a top cover door attached to a main housing. The top cover assembly defines a rear transverse track section and a front transverse track section for guiding bolt assemblies of the gun. As the machine gun rotor assembly rotates, the rear track section prevents the bolt assemblies from moving into position for firing, and the front track section guides the bolt assemblies into position for firing. A selector switch on the top cover door selects between: (i) a safe position wherein, each of the bolt assemblies are sequentially directed into the rear track section; and (ii) a fire position wherein the bolt assemblies are directed into the front track section. The top cover assembly can include a solenoid for moving the selector switch between the safe position and the fire position in response to an electrical control signal.
US11248866B2

Systems and methods are provided for firearm monitoring, including a server device running application software that receives signals from firearms regarding usage thereof and a controller running application software configured to communicate with a connected device via a communication interface, detect a jamming signal that inhibits communication with the connected device, stop, in response to detecting the jamming signal, communication with the connected device, and harvest, in response to detecting the jamming signal, power from the jamming signal via a wireless-energy harvesting mechanism having a receiving antenna configured to receive the jamming signal, a rectifier configured to convert the received signal to direct current, and a DC-DC converter configured to alter voltage of the direct current to a desired voltage.
US11248861B2

In one aspect the invention provides a firearm assembly comprising a barrel, receiver and stock, wherein the assembly comprises a first fastener operable to fasten a first section of the receiver so as to locate the receiver in the stock and so as to align the receiver with the stock, wherein the assembly further comprises a second fastener operable to fix a second section of the receiver in place relative to the stock and wherein the second fastener is adjustable to fix the second section of the receiver in place without applying stress to the receiver. Embodiments of this invention may allow fixing a second section in place relative to the stock which place the second section of the receiver assumes naturally when the first part of the receiver is located and aligned by the first fastener.
US11248859B2

An improved water management system with improved airflow distribution for counterflow evaporative heat exchangers is provided. Such heat exchangers include open cooling towers, closed circuit cooling towers, and evaporative condensers. The improved water management system eliminates water splash out and the noise associated with water splashing. Further when the fan assemblies are located below the evaporative heat exchanger, the improved water management system keeps the fans dry and prevents freezing in subzero climates.
US11248857B2

Devices configured to direct heat flow are disclosed, as well as methods of forming thereof. A device may include a self-assembling heat flow object. The self-assembling heat flow object may include a material having one or more self-assembling properties that cause the material to react to an environmental stimulus and one or more thermal pathways. An application of the environmental stimulus causes the self-assembling heat flow object to deploy and arrange the one or more thermal pathways for directing thermal energy to one or more locations.
US11248844B2

A plant curing and drying hanger apparatus for use with harvested plant material which includes a primary frame, a plant support bar and one or more separators arranged to space from one another plant sections positioned on the support bar. The plant support bar is hingedly coupled to the primary frame. A latch releasably joins the plant support bar to one end of the primary frame so that an end of the plant support bar can be dropped away from the primary frame to enable the insertion and removal of plant sections into the spaces between adjacent separators to allow for effective plant drying and efficient loading and unloading of plant material without damaging the product.
US11248839B2

This specification relates to operating industrial facilities, for example, crude oil refining facilities or other industrial facilities that include operating plants that process natural gas or recover natural gas liquids.
US11248834B2

A refrigerator that may include a cabinet to define a storage space, a door to open and close the storage space, a dispenser provided in the door to dispense hot water, a hot water tank through which water flows so as to heat water introduced into the door, a heater provided in the door to heat the hot water tank, a water inflow passage through which water is supplied to the hot water tank, a water discharge passage guiding hot water discharged from the hot water tank to the dispenser, a flow rate sensor provided in the water inflow passage to measure a flow rate of water flowing through the water inflow passage, a water inflow valve provided in the water inflow passage to adjust a flow of water in the water inflow passage, a water discharge valve provided in the water outlet passage, an input provided in the door to input a temperature of the hot water to be dispensed and a hot water dispensing command, and a controller to control the water inflow valve and the water discharge valve.
US11248833B2

A vacuum adiabatic body according to the present invention includes at least one reinforcing frame which is installed along a corner of at least one of a first plate member and a second plate member constituting an inner wall and an outer wall of the vacuum adiabatic body and is provided as one body for reinforcing the strength, thereby being capable of reinforcing the strength of the vacuum adiabatic body which is applied to the three-dimensional structure.
US11248831B2

Method and apparatus for thermally protecting a product, when storing and/or shipping a product, to control temperatures products are exposed to. Embodiments increase the amount of time portions of the product experience a desired temperature range and/or reduce the amount of time portions of the product experience temperatures outside a desired temperature range and/or experience an undesirable temperature range. Embodiments incorporate thermally conductive materials, referred to as conductive equalizers, positioned around and/or near the product positioned inside a packaging container, where the conductive materials conduct heat from locations in the package interior to other locations in the package interior. The conductive equalizers conductively transfer heat from hotter portions of the interior of the container to cooler portions of the interior of the container and/or from portions of the interior desired to be cooled to the cold bank, resulting in a more uniform temperature distribution around the product.
US11248828B2

A refrigeration system includes a valve and a controller. The valve is configured to control the flow of refrigerant into an evaporator, the refrigerant having an associated liquid setting comprising a temperature and a pressure at which the refrigerant flows through the valve. The controller is operable to adjust the liquid setting, the adjusted liquid setting comprising a temperature and a pressure selected to improve energy efficiency under conditions currently being experienced by the refrigeration system, wherein the controller is operable to adjust the temperature and the pressure simultaneously such that the adjustment does not interfere with operation of the valve.
US11248827B2

A refrigerant recovery management system includes a first generation unit and a second generation unit. The first generation unit generates first information to send a refrigerant recovered from refrigerant-use equipment to a refrigerant treatment practitioner that conducts refrigerant treatment on the refrigerant. The second generation unit generates second information on the refrigerant treatment, to report the refrigerant treatment to a manager that manages refrigerant recovery.
US11248825B2

A sensor device, system, and method for monitoring the internal pressure and temperature of a refrigerant tank during a recovery operation to control a purge operation of the tank based on the conditions thereof during the recovery operation. The sensor device, system, and method further utilize an external temperature sensor, the external temperature sensor operable to indicate that it is properly positioned on the surface of the tank.
US11248823B2

Systems, apparatus and methods for operating a chiller plant while minimizing or eliminating the occurrence of centrifugal compressor surge. Taking into account chiller design specifications and current operating conditions, a compressor lift point at which surge is predicted to occur is established. Minima and maxima for various chiller setpoints that avoid or eliminate the occurrence of compressor surge are imposed on setpoints provided by a conventional optimizing chiller controller. The chiller system is operated in accordance with the resultant anti-surge setpoints. Coolant tower flow is modulated to enable the compressor to operate at near-surge conditions while preventing the onset of actual surge.
US11248820B2

An air conditioning control device includes a control unit, a skin temperature measurement unit, an information acquisition unit, and a determination unit. The control unit controls an air conditioner that performs air conditioning of a room where a user is present. The skin temperature measurement unit measures a skin temperature of the user. The information acquisition unit acquires thermal sensation information of the user regarding the space where the user is present. The determination unit determines a comfortable skin temperature range in which the user feels comfortable, based on a skin temperature of the user obtained at the time of acquiring of the thermal sensation information. The control unit controls the air conditioner based on the comfortable skin temperature range determined by the determination unit.
US11248819B2

An approach for measuring health of a system using benchmarks. The approach may incorporate defining benchmarks with sensors providing data of selected conditions of a system, collecting a predetermined amount of most recent data from the sensors for one or more modes of the system, training a model that represents the system, the model having a response variable that is a function of the predetermined amount of the most recent data from the sensors, applying the model trained, to the benchmarks to get a response of the model in a form of the response variable that is the function of the predetermined amount of the most recent data from the sensors, and comparing the response of the model of the most recent time window with a response of the model of a previous time windows to determine health of the system.
US11248818B2

Provided is a server that communicates, via a network, with at least one air conditioner that executes a normal operation or a loosening operation includes a determination unit that determines a heat exposure period for each air conditioning target space, the indoor solar irradiance information indicating a transition of solar irradiance, and the heat exposure period being a time duration in which an environment in the air conditioning target space is likely to be influenced by solar radiation, a generation unit that generates operation plan information of designating a loosening operation period, the loosening operation period being a time duration in which the air conditioner is caused to execute the loosening operation, and a supply unit that supplies the operation plan information to the air conditioner via the network to cause the air conditioner to execute the loosening operation in the loosening operation period.
US11248816B2

An air conditioner which continues driving with a deteriorated gas leakage sensor is provided. An air conditioner of the present invention includes an outdoor unit including a compressor and an indoor unit connected with the outdoor unit and uses flammable refrigerant. The air conditioner includes: a refrigerant gas sensor; and a controlling unit configured to stop the compressor at occurrence of abnormality, when the refrigerant gas sensor detects refrigerant gas while the compressor is being driven. After the compressor is stopped as the refrigerant gas sensor detects the refrigerant gas, the controlling unit does not start driving of the compressor until an operation to cancel the abnormality is performed.
US11248813B2

A natural ventilator is herein disclosed that is free of moving parts, wind-activated, rain-proof, and free of dust or smog infiltration. It is not only suitable to be a standalone natural ventilator, but is also advantageous to be used as an enhanced exhaust exit in a forced-air ventilation system, for such enclosed spaces or objects as buildings and vehicles needing air relief. The ventilator assembly has rainwater-proof shapes or fixtures that serve to defend the vent system, and the interior space being vented, against rainwater invasion, even if raindrop trajectory becomes highly oblique from vertical as driven by strong winds. It also includes shapes or fixtures to prevent fume condensation from drifting outward and staining the exterior of a building or vehicle, or the like, that is being vented.
US11248812B2

A filter arrangement for a humidifying device. The filter arrangement has: a rotatable body; a humidifying filter member arranged to be wetted with water; a guiding arrangement configured to guide water to a discharge region; and at least one discharge bucket arranged on the rotatable body. The at least one discharge bucket is configured to lift water from a tray and to discharge the water to the guiding arrangement as the rotatable body rotates in a first direction about a rotational axis. A humidifying device comprising a filter arrangement and a method for cleaning a humidifying filter member of a humidifying device are also provided.
US11248810B2

A carrying case utilizes a layer of phase change materials and a thermal insulation layer in order to provide a temperature-stabilized environment for enclosed payloads such as musical instruments during transport through an environment in which temperatures differ greatly from those to which they are normally exposed. In one aspect, the phase change materials and thermal insulation provide an extended period of temperature constancy, without the addition of either active thermal control or excessively bulky insulation.
US11248804B2

The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of the combustion heating stove, and disclosed is a stove including a stove body, an air inlet channel and an exhaust channel. When the stove body is used in an enclosed space, an air inlet end of the air inlet channel is in communication with an outside of the enclosed space, a connection end of the air inlet channel is in communication with an air inlet of the stove body, the air inlet channel is operative to introduce air into the stove body from the outside of the enclosed space; and a connection end of an exhaust channel is in communication with an exhaust port of the stove body, an exhaust end of the exhaust channel is in communication with the outside of the enclosed space, whereby the exhaust channel is operative to discharge exhaust gas in the stove body out of the enclosed space.
US11248802B2

An orifice holder includes a body that defines an inner chamber and inner wall portions. The inner wall portions each have a first width that is defined relative to the upper portion of the body. A first cup extends outwardly from the inner wall portions. A second cup extends outwardly from the inner wall portions and interconnects with the first cup through the inner wall portions. An airflow path is defined to the inner chamber from the first and second cups.
US11248800B2

Pellet grills and associated methods of operation are disclosed. An example pellet grill includes a main body defining a cooking chamber. The main body includes a first end, a second end located opposite the first end, and an outer wall extending between the first and second ends. The main body has a lateral extent defined by the first and second ends. The example pellet grill further includes a hopper mounted to a rear portion of the outer wall of the main body. The hopper includes a fuel intake opening extending from a first location within the lateral extent of the main body to a second location outside of the lateral extent of the main body.
US11248794B2

A fluid mixing apparatus includes mixing conduits that extend through a fluid plenum. The fluid plenum, which surrounds a first wall defining a main passage fluidly coupled to a low-pressure fluid source, is surrounded itself by a second wall defining a high-pressure plenum fluidly coupled to a high-pressure fluid source. An insulated tube disposed at the inlet of the first wall delivers a third fluid. The mixing conduits fluidly couple the high-pressure plenum to the main passage, where the high-pressure fluid is mixed with low-pressure fluid and the third fluid. Optionally, the fluid plenum may house a fourth fluid that is injected through injection holes in the mixing conduits. The fluid mixing apparatus may be used to mix one or more fuels with high- and low-pressure air in a gas turbine combustor. Alternately, the fluid mixing apparatus may mix a fluid with high- and low-pressure water streams.
US11248788B2

A burner assembly including a housing and an airflow restrictor plate for selectively restricting an amount of airflow passing out of the housing in order to reduce a heat output of the burner assembly. The housing has an air inlet and an air outlet and is configured to guide an airflow from the air inlet and out of the housing via the air outlet. The airflow restrictor plate has a single opening through which all airflow flowing through the housing from the air inlet must pass in order to exit the housing via the air outlet.
US11248783B2

The lighting apparatus has a wire box, a driver module, a light source and a light housing. The wire box is made of a heat dissipation material. The wire box is for placing a portion of an external wire. The driver module electrically connects to an electrode of the portion of the external wire. The light housing has a top cover and a surrounding wall. The top cover and the surrounding wall form a container space. The top cover has an inner side and an exterior side. The light source is thermally and structurally connected to the inner side for emitting a light via a light opening of the container space. The wire box is connected to the top cover of the light housing. Heat of the light source is transmitted to the wire box for heat dissipation via the back cover.
US11248782B2

The invention relates to an explosion-proof housing and to a method for connecting a housing part and a cover part, wherein the housing is formed at least from a metal housing part with at least one housing opening and/or receiving surface and a support edge which borders said housing opening and/or receiving surface and with a cover part which covers the housing opening or receiving surface and comprises a peripheral cover edge. The cover part and the housing part are connected together in an explosion-proof manner. In order to improve such a housing such that a corresponding connection of the housing part and cover part can be produced in a simple and secure manner without the use of adhesive in order to form an explosion-proof housing and such that the housing part and the cover part have a high degree of connection stability, a plurality of connection points between the support edge and the cover edge is formed as interlocking depressions and protrusions, the protrusions being formed by partial melting the cover edge.
US11248780B2

A LED driver comprises two output contacts (310, 311) and an additional contact (312) which enables detection of connection of the LED driver to a LED module (301). The LED driver has a normal current regulating mode and an open circuit protection voltage regulating mode. The LED driver is switched from the voltage regulating mode to the current regulating mode in response to the detection of connection of the LED module. This enables a LED module to be connected to the LED driver while it remains powered, in particular because the LED driver is placed in a voltage regulating mode prior to connection to the LED module.
US11248772B2

A color mixing light system comprises a pyramidal mirror assembly comprising three or more mirrors constructed and arranged in a pyramid structure and three or more color light sources. The pyramidal mirror assembly divides the light beams from the color light sources so that a first portion is reflected by the mirrors and a second portion extends beyond the mirrors to collectively form a multicolor pattern comprising plurality of overlapping color regions on a surface.
US11248770B2

An illumination optical system having a light source and a single convex lens with a diffractive structure, wherein the phase function of the diffractive structure is represented by ϕ ⁡ ( r ) = ∑ i = 1 N ⁢ ⁢ β 2 ⁢ i ⁢ r 2 ⁢ i where r represents distance from the central axis of the lens, the relationship |β2|·(0.3R)2<|β4|·(0.3R)4 is satisfied where R represents effective radius of the lens, the second derivative of the phase function has at least one extreme value and at least one point of inflection where r is greater than 30% of R, and the area of a surface of the light source is equal to or greater than 3% of the area of the entrance pupil when the light source side of the lens is defined as the image side.
US11248766B2

A headlight for vehicles having a projection module containing a low beam primary lens and a first light source, a high beam primary lens and a second light source, a secondary lens arranged in the main beam direction in front of the low beam primary lens and the high beam primary lens, a secondary lens by means of which, in a low beam mode, in which only the first light source is activated, a first light bundle emitted from the low beam primary lens is mapped according to a specified low beam distribution and, in a high beam mode, in which the first light source and the second light source are activated, the first light bundle is mapped together with the second light bundle emitted from the high beam primary lens in order to produce the high beam distribution, wherein the high beam primary lens has compensator.
US11248764B2

Provided is a lighting device, comprising: a light source module comprising: at least one light source disposed on a printed circuit board; and a resin layer disposed on the printed circuit board so that the light source is embedded; a light reflection member formed on at least any one of one side surface and another side surface of the resin layer; and a diffusion plate having an upper surface formed on the light source module, and a side wall which is integrally formed with the upper surface and formed to extend in a lower side direction and which is adhered onto the light reflection member, wherein a first separated space is formed between the light source module and the upper surface of the diffusion plate, whereby flexibility of the product itself can be secured, and durability and reliability of the product can be also improved.
US11248757B2

The invention refers to a lighting device. The object to provide a lighting device in particular with flexible properties, wherein the mechanical robustness with respect to thermomechanical stresses is improved, is solved in that the lighting device comprises: at least one light-emitting element, wherein the at least one light-emitting element is arranged on connection elements for an electronic connection to the at least one light-emitting element, at least one encapsulating material surrounding at least part of the connection elements, wherein at least one connection element comprises at least one spring section. The invention further refers to a method for producing a lighting device and a use of a lighting device.
US11248746B2

A system that can eliminate engine combustion emissions in addition to raw and fugitive methane emissions associated with a gas compressor package. The system may comprise an air system for starting and instrumentation air supply; electrically operated engine pre/post-lube pump, compressor pre-lube pump, and cooler louver actuators; compressor distance piece and pressure packing recovery system; blow-down recovery system; engine crankcase vent recovery system; a methane leak detection system; and an overall remote monitoring system.
US11248743B2

In some examples, a drain pan comprises a composite material forming a reservoir and a drain. The composite material comprises a polymeric resin and a reinforcing fiber. The reservoir is to catch a liquid from an engine and to support a step load. The drain is to drain the liquid from the reservoir. In some examples, a method comprises attaching a drain pan to an aircraft proximate an engine. The drain pan comprises a composite material forming a reservoir and a drain. The method further comprises catching a liquid from the engine in the reservoir of the drain pan and draining the liquid from the reservoir through the drain. In addition, the method comprises supporting a step load on the reservoir of the drain pan.
US11248738B2

An arm-type support device includes a first frame, a second frame, a first arm member, a second arm member, and an actuator. The actuator includes a driving unit, an actuating rod, and a link member. The first arm member, the second arm member, the first frame, and the second frame form a parallel link. The first arm member is hollow and accommodates the actuator and the second arm member.
US11248737B2

A clamp for releasably clamping onto a sphere of an adapter includes a body having a sidewall and a cavity, a pivot member coupled to the body and defining a pivot axis, a cam cylinder positioned around the pivot member, a plunger coupled to the cam cylinder, and a lever coupled to the cam cylinder and being pivotable about the pivot axis. When the lever is pivoted in a first pivot direction from a unlocked position to a locked position, a cam surface cams the plunger in a first plunger direction such that the plunger engages the sphere and the sphere is held between the plunger and the sidewall thereby securing the sphere in the cavity. When the lever is pivoted in a second pivot direction from the locked position to the unlocked position, the cam surface cams the plunger in a second plunger direction such that the sphere is freely removable from the cavity.
US11248730B2

A pipe support device for a transformer is proposed. A brace having a grid shape and serving as a reinforcing member is provided on the surface of an outer housing constituting the exterior of the transformer. Supports are installed at predetermined intervals on the brace to be orthogonal thereto. A support base is positioned on each of the supports, and a pipe holder is coupled to the support base to support a pipe. An elastic supporting pad is positioned between the support base and the pipe and opposite flange portions of the pipe holder are seated on and coupled to the elastic supporting pad. An elastic close-contact pad is positioned between the pipe and an arched portion of the pipe holder and is brought into close contact with the pipe.
US11248727B2

A duct coupling system includes a first and second duct, a vibration attenuation system, a rigid ring, and a fastening system. The first duct has a first flange aligned with a second flange of the second duct. The vibration attenuating system abuts a first side and a second side of the first flange and abuts a first side of the second flange. A portion of the vibration attenuating system encircles the first duct. The vibration attenuating system is configured to attenuate vibrations passing between the first and second ducts. The rigid ring encircles the first duct and abuts the vibration attenuation system. The fastening system couples the first duct to the second duct and compresses the vibration attenuating system. The rigid ring does not contact the first duct and the first duct does not contact the second duct.
US11248726B2

A joint structure connecting a first and second double pipe, includes a male bayonet at an end portion of one of the pipes, the male bayonet including a first flange; a female bayonet at an end portion of the other of the pipes, the female bayonet including a second flange fastened to the first; a first positioning member mounted on the first double pipe; a second positioning member mounted on the second double pipe, the second positioning member being positioned with respect to the first so that a center axis of the male bayonet and the female bayonet conform to each other; and a slide mechanism which supports the first positioning member so the first positioning member is slidable in an axial direction of the first double pipe or supports the second positioning member so the second positioning member is slidable in an axial direction of the second double pipe.
US11248725B2

A threaded connection connecting a pair of pipes includes a pin and a box. The pin has a male thread on its outer diameter. The box has a female thread on its inner diameter, the female thread corresponding to the male thread. The male thread includes constant-thread-width and varying-thread-width portions. The constant-thread-width portion has a constant thread-groove width. The varying-thread-width portion has a thread-groove width equal to or larger than the groove width of the constant-thread-width portion and gradually increasing, from the constant-thread-width portion toward the tip of the pin. The female thread includes constant-thread-width and varying-thread-width portions. The constant-thread-width portion has a constant thread-ridge width. The varying-thread-width portion has a thread-ridge width equal to or larger than the thread-ridge width of the constant-thread-width portion and gradually increasing from the constant-thread-width portion toward the center of the box.
US11248724B2

A hose assembly includes an inner core tube, a connector including a stem portion inserted into a distal end of the inner core tube, an outer metal tube substantially coaxial with and surrounding the inner core tube, and a collar substantially coaxial with and surrounding the distal end of the inner core tube. The outer metal tube terminates at a distal end axially inward of the distal end of the inner core tube. The collar includes a flared first end welded to the distal end of the outer metal tube and a second end welded to the connector.
US11248723B2

A cable management arm basket clip, comprising: a latch to secure the cable management arm basket clip to a cable management arm basket; a connection to pivotally connect the cable management arm basket clip to the cable management arm basket; and guards disposed on both sides of the cable management arm basket clip to allow for passage of cables and to protect cables.
US11248721B2

A support device can have an opening to receive electrical cable or conduit and a gate that is configured to bend between an open configuration and a closed configuration relative to the opening. A locking tab can be provided configured to be selectively engaged with the gate to secure the gate in the closed configuration.
US11248709B2

A fast blind plate switching device, comprising a sealing structure, a clamping structure, a support structure and an execution mechanism. The blind plate has an open-state structure and a blind-state structure. The support structure is used for connecting pipelines at two sides and providing support for the whole device. The clamping structure and the sealing structure are located inside the support structure. The clamping structure is driven by the execution mechanism, and under the drive of the execution mechanism, the clamping structure presses on the blind plate (1) to eliminate a gap between two sides of the blind plate, so that a seal is formed by means of the sealing structure. When a gap is formed away from the blind plate (1), the open/blind state of the blind plate (1) is switched.
US11248696B2

A planetary gear device may include: a carrier plate having a perforated central portion, a plurality of pinion gears rotatably mounted on the carrier plate, a sun gear inserted into the carrier plate and engaged with the pinion gears, a support ring mounted around an outer surface of the sun gear, and a rotation support mounted on the carrier plate and supporting the support ring such that the support ring is rotatable.
US11248693B2

A vehicle gear includes: a disk portion having a disk shape and a plurality of through holes formed in a circumference direction thereof; and an outer circumference portion having outer circumference teeth formed on an outer circumference side of the disk portion. Further, each of the through holes includes first and second holes (82A, 82B) formed on one and another ends, respectively, thereof in the circumference direction, and a width of the first hole is larger than a width of the second hole in a radial direction of the disk portion.
US11248690B2

The invention relates to a roller screw mechanism comprising a screw (110) provided with an external thread; a nut (130) coaxially surrounding the screw (130) and provided with an internal thread; and rollers (120), each of which is provided with an external thread, each roller (120) being interposed between the screw (110) and the nut (130) so that the threads of the rollers mesh with the threads of the screw and of the nut; said roller screw mechanism being characterized in that the threads of the rollers are complementary to the threads of the screw and of the nut so that, at zero load, the threads of the rollers co-operate on both of their flanks with the threads of the screw and of the nut in a contact geometry having curvilinear segments.
US11248686B2

A force transmission transmits forces received by three levers to an input gimbal plate having three support points. The input gimbal play may in turn transmit the force to a wrist assembly coupled to a surgical tool. The three axes of rotation for the three levers are parallel. Two of the levers may have half-cylinder surfaces at an end of the lever to receive a support point of the input gimbal plate. Two of the levers may be supported with one degree of rotational freedom orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the fulcrum. A spring may draw the second and third levers toward one another. Two levers may have stops that bear against the support points. The force transmission may include a parallelogram linkage that includes a rocker link pivotally coupled to the first lever and having a flat surface that supports the first gimbal support point.
US11248683B2

A transmission includes a first shaft which is rotatably supported by a first radial bearing, a ring member which is connected to an end portion of the first shaft, a sun roller which is disposed inside the ring member in a radial direction, a second shaft which extends from the sun roller, a plurality of planetary rollers which are disposed in a state of being in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the ring member and an outer peripheral surface of the sun roller, and a planetary roller supporting member which rotatably supports the planetary roller and restrains a movement of the planetary roller in the circumferential direction, in which the ring member is in contact with the plurality of planetary rollers in a state of pressing the plurality of planetary rollers inward in the radial direction so that the plurality of planetary rollers face the sun roller.
US11248680B2

A hydraulic power module for a crop harvester, and in particular a cotton harvester, having an engine. The hydraulic power module includes a main drive gear, a drive shaft extending through the main drive gear, and a clutch operatively connected to the drive shaft, wherein the clutch has an engaged position and a disengaged position. The engaged position of the clutch fixedly connects the main drive gear to the drive shaft and the disengaged position of the clutch disconnects the main drive gear drive from the drive shaft. The hydraulic power module further includes a first pump device directly coupled to the drive shaft, wherein the first pump device is driven by the drive shaft during rotation of the drive shaft. A second pump device is indirectly connected to the drive shaft through the clutch, and is driven by the drive shaft when the clutch is in the engaged position.
US11248671B2

In order to achieve lightness and improve hardness of a brake disk, and minimize weight and improve productivity through an improvement of a coupling structure of a disk plate and a hub, provided is a method of manufacturing a brake disk including a disk plate, which provides a friction surface and is formed with a hole at a center, and a hub, which is coupled to the hole formed at the center of the disk plate, the method including: preparing a disk plate; preparing a hub in the form of a flat plate; positioning the hub in the form of the flat plate on one surface of the disk plate; and bonding the disk plate and the hub by an interference fit.
US11248661B2

A rolling boot that has improved stability especially at increased rotational speeds comprises a first fastening region, a second fastening region, a transition region adjacent to the first fastening region, as well as a diaphragm region adjoining the transition region, and at least on peripheral reinforcement fin is arranged on an external side of the transition region.
US11248656B2

A cage and roller assembly includes a plurality of rollers to be brought into rolling contact with a raceway surface provided on the outer periphery of a shaft, and an annular cage that retains the rollers. Lubricating oil is supplied through an oil supply hole that is provided inside the shaft and is open at the raceway surface. The cage includes a pair of annular portions, and a plurality of cage bars that couple the annular portions together and are arranged with intervals in a circumferential direction. The rollers are housed in pockets each formed between the pair of annular portions and between the cage bars that are adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction. The cage has an inner recessed groove that is provided on a radially inner surface of the cage bar and extends through the annular portions in an axial direction.
US11248652B2

A half bearing has a concave portion, a concave portion, and a concave portion penetrating from the outer circumferential surface to the inner circumferential surface, and the washer has a convex portion, a convex portion, and a convex portion on the inner circumferential surface side. The washer is moved to the outer circumferential surface side of the half bearing in a bent state, the convex portion is inserted into the concave portion, the convex portion is aligned with the position of the concave portion, and the convex portion is aligned with the position of the convex portion. Next, when the half bearing returns to its shape before being bent, the convex portion is accommodated in the concave portion, and the convex portion is also accommodated in the concave portion. Even if an axial force acts on the sliding bearing, the protrusion, the protrusion, and the protrusion engages with the concave portion, the concave portion, and the concave portion, so that the washer and the washer are not detached from the half bearing.
US11248650B2

A rolling bearing cage includes at least one cage side ring and a plurality of cage bars extending from the cage side ring so as to form a plurality of pockets, each pocket being defined between a separate pair of adjacent bars, for receiving rolling bodies of the rolling bearing. A cage breakage detection unit includes at least one conductive track and a module for wireless cage breakage monitoring. The cage has at least one recess, in which at least a prefabricated part of the cage breakage detection unit is inserted and fixed.
US11248642B2

A connector for connecting a first component to a locking pin of a second component having a head is disclosed. The connector has a base body with a receiving space for receiving the head. A retaining spring is held by the base body is provided, which has a relative position, referred to as the holding position, relative to the base body and which has a protrusion in this holding position protruding into the receiving space. The protrusion in the holding position can be moved in a release direction and projects less far into the receiving space after moving from the holding position in the release direction than in the holding position. Moving the protrusion from the holding position in the releasing direction tensions the retaining spring. When the retaining spring is in the holding position, the base body can be moved relative to the retaining spring along a locking direction.
US11248636B2

An interference fit fastener (FIG. 1) and method of fabricating same is described.
US11248626B2

A handheld blower includes a fan for generating an air flow, a motor for driving the fan to rotate about a central axis, a battery pack for supplying power to the motor, an air duct portion including an air duct, the air duct extending long the central axis, a coupling portion for coupling with the battery pack, and a connection portion for connecting the air duct portion with the coupling portion. The fan is received in the air duct. The air duct includes an air duct inlet and an air duct outlet which are respectively located at the two ends of the air duct. The air duct inlet is located between the air duct outlet and the coupling portion. The connection portion is provided with an air intake space located between the air duct inlet and the coupling portion. The air intake space is opened in a radial direction of the central axis.
US11248616B2

An illumination fan includes a first frame, a second frame, a fan blade, a light guide and a light source. The first frame includes an accommodation space. The second frame is assembled with the first frame, and an inner surface of the second frame is substantially flat. The fan blade is rotatably disposed in the accommodation space. The light source is disposed on either the first frame or the second frame. The light guide is disposed on the first frame and surrounds the fan blade.
US11248613B2

A centrifugal compressor is provided with a return vane including a suction surface facing a front side in a rotation direction of a rotation shaft and a pressure surface facing a rear side. A casing includes a hub side wall surface and a shroud side wall surface that form a placement region of the return vane in the straight flow path, and an intermediate suction port formed on the shroud side wall surface, the intermediate suction port ejecting fluid guided from outside toward the straight flow path; and inside the return vane, an internal flow path is formed in which one end communicates with the intermediate suction port and another end is an outlet port that opens to the suction surface of the return vane.
US11248612B2

A centrifugal compressor includes a motor that rotates a rotary shaft of a compressor impeller, a motor housing that houses the motor, a compressor housing that houses the compressor impeller and includes an intake port and a discharge port, an gas bleed port that is provided closer to the discharge port than the compressor impeller in a flow direction in the compressor housing, a cooling gas line which is connected to the gas bleed port and through which a part of compressed gas compressed by the compressor impeller passes, a cooling liquid line of which at least a part is provided in the motor housing and through which cooling liquid of which the temperature is lower than the temperature of the compressed gas passes, and a heat exchanger that is disposed on the cooling gas line and the cooling liquid line.
US11248608B2

A scroll compressor is provided capable of supplying oil stored in an oil storage chamber upward through a rotary shaft to supply the oil to a compression device and to lubricate a bearing portion. The scroll compressor may include a casing, a drive motor, a rotary shaft, a main frame, a fixed scroll, and an orbiting scroll. A medium pressure chamber may be formed in or at a middle of the main frame, the fixed scroll, and the orbiting scroll. A pocket groove configured to guide oil discharged through the oil hole to the medium pressure chamber may be formed in an upper surface of the orbiting scroll, and a differential pressure path configured to guide the oil guided to the medium pressure chamber to the compression chamber may be provided in the fixed scroll.
US11248606B2

A rotor pair for a compressor block of a screw machine includes a secondary rotor that rotates about a first axis and a main rotor that rotates about a second axis. The number of teeth of the main rotor is 3 and the number of teeth of the secondary rotor is 4. The relative profile depth of the secondary rotor is at least 0.5 rk1 is an addendum circle radius drawn around the outer circumference of the secondary rotor and rf1 is a dedendum circle radius starting at the profile base of the secondary rotor. The ratio of the axis distance of the first axis from the second axis and the addendum circle radius rk1 is at least 1.636.
US11248605B1

A compressor includes a shell, a compression mechanism and a fitting. The shell includes an opening and defines a chamber. The compression mechanism is disposed within the chamber of the shell. The fitting is attached to the shell at the opening. Working fluid flowing through the fitting flows to the compression mechanism. The opening is partially defined by a first edge and a second edge. The first edge includes a first planar surface and the second edge includes a second planar surface that faces the first planar surface. A first portion of the fitting extends at least partially into the opening and a second portion of the fitting abuts against the first and second edges.
US11248601B2

A pendulum pump includes a housing, a cover positioned on the housing and forming a cavity therebetween, an inner rotor and an outer rotor positioned within the cavity, wherein the inner rotor is connected via a plurality of pendulums to the outer rotor, and the pendulums are mounted to the outer rotor in an articulated manner such that a rotational eccentricity can be imparted between the inner rotor and the outer rotor to control a flow rate of the pendulum pump, and a protective plate positioned within the cavity and against a surface of one of the housing and the cover.
US11248600B2

A piston pump assembly for a hydraulic power vehicle braking system including an electric motor, a planetary gear, a worm gear, and a piston displaceable in a cylinder. For an anti-rotation protection of the piston in the cylinder, the piston includes a ring rotationally-fixed thereto by a form fit and connected thereto by forming, including semicircular grooves at its outer circumference, in which cylinder pins engage, which are situated fixed axially-parallel in the cylinder.
US11248593B2

A swash plate bearing is disclosed. The swash plate bearing may have an arcuate cage member having at least one flange and a plurality of rolling elements rotatably coupled to the at least one flange. A coupling seat extends laterally from the at least one flange, the coupling seat may have an insertion hole. A link member may be rotatably coupled to the cage member, the link member having a central portion positioned between a first terminal portion and a second terminal portion. A first stem connects the central portion to the first terminal portion and a second stem connects the central portion to the second terminal portion. The central portion is positioned in the insertion hole.
US11248591B2

A textile contractible band for use in a wearable garment for applying pressure to a subject body part includes a shape memory material, in particular a shape memory alloy, or shape memory polymer, part and a textile part, said parts being successively coupled to form said contractible band, wherein the shape memory material part has an electrically-contractible shape memory material and a spring arranged to reverse the contraction of the shape memory material, and wherein the textile part has an elastic fabric band and an optical fiber strain sensor arranged to sense the fabric band strain. The sensor can be a lossy optical fiber arranged in meandering layout such that variation of band extension causes variation of transmitted light. The contractual band can be used for lymphedema or venous return.
US11248590B2

Provided is a bearing arrangement for a wind turbine including a bearing housing and a drive shaft, whereby the drive shaft is arranged within the bearing housing in an axial direction along a longitudinal axis of the bearing housing. The bearing arrangement further includes a downwind bearing and an upwind bearing, whereby the downwind bearing and the upwind bearing are arranged between the bearing housing and the drive shaft. The bearing housing includes a drain outlet arranged in a bottom part of the bearing housing, the bottom part of the bearing housing being located underneath the drive shaft in a direction of gravity, whereby at least one inner side of the bottom part of the bearing housing is arranged so as to form a funnel, whereby the drain outlet is an opening of the formed funnel.
US11248582B2

Rotor blade panels, along with methods of their formation, are provided. The rotor blade panel may include one or more fiber-reinforced outer skins having an inner surface; and, a plurality of reinforcement structures on the inner surface of the one or more fiber-reinforced outer skins, where the reinforcement structure bonds to the one or more fiber-reinforced outer skins as the reinforcement structure is being deposited. The reinforcement structure includes, at least, a first composition and a second composition, with the first composition being different than the second composition.
US11248581B2

An encased wind turbine has a casing, rotationally symmetrical in relation to the longitudinal axis and has the cross-section of an airfoil. The radially inner upper side delimits a flow channel. A guide element is rotationally symmetrical in relation to the longitudinal axis projects by part of its length, contrary to the direction of flow, over the casing. The propeller drives a generator, arranged in the housing, for generating electrical energy. The propeller viewed in the direction of flow, is located at least approximately at the guide-element trailing edge. Impinged on by the main flow of the wind, while a bypass flow, owing to the airfoil profile, generates a negative pressure downstream from the guide element and thus accelerates the main flow, is generated between the casing and the guide element. The propeller may be located downstream from the guide element and arranged to be adjustable in its longitudinal position.
US11248579B2

The present invention provides a booster apparatus (10) for entraining gas in a flowing second fluid. The booster apparatus comprises a booster housing (116) for receiving a fluid. The booster apparatus has at least one inlet (123) through which a first fluid passes to be entrained in the second fluid when the second fluid is flowing through the booster housing. The present invention also provides a booster assembly (12) comprising a booster apparatus (10) and a fluid motive mechanism such as a turbine unit (11).
US11248578B2

This installation for converting a hydraulic energy into electrical energy comprises a hydraulic adapted to be operated either in a pump mode or in a turbine mode. It further comprises means (25) for applying an electric torque to the rotor to control the rotation speed of the machine during transitions between the pump mode and the turbine mode.
US11248577B2

A vehicle power supply apparatus includes first and second power supply systems, an electrical conduction path, a switch, and a switch controller. The first power supply system includes a first electrical energy accumulator and an electric load. The second power supply system includes a generator and a second electrical energy accumulator. The switch is configured to be controlled to a turn-on state and a turn-off state. The turn-on state includes coupling the electric load and the second electrical energy accumulator to each other, and the turn-off state includes isolating them from each other. The switch controller controls the switch to the turn-on state on the condition that the generator has an abnormality, and afterwards controls the switch to the turn-off state.
US11248576B2

In accordance with one aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus is provided that includes a database configured to store one or more vehicle status parameters of a vehicle and one or more secured space status parameters of a secured space. The apparatus further includes a server-based processor operatively coupled or connected to the database and configured to receive one or more of the one or more vehicle status parameters and one or more of the one or more secured space status parameters. The server-based processor is further configured to determine, based on at least one of the one or more vehicle status parameters and at least one of the one or more secured space status parameters whether to change a state of the vehicle.
US11248565B2

A purge control solenoid valve includes a gas access body including an evaporation gas inlet, an evaporation gas outlet, and a path that connects the evaporation gas inlet and the evaporation gas outlet; a valve operation body including an armature coupled to the gas access body and performing a reciprocating motion in a direction in which the armature is brought into close contact with or separated from the path by a core that generates a magnetic force; and an armature top member being in close contact with or separated from the path due to the reciprocating motion of the armature to open or close the path. The armature top member has a non-adhesion coating formed on a top surface of a body thereof, and the non-adhesion coating includes a binder, graphite, polytetrafluoroethylene, and a crosslinking agent.
US11248560B2

Disclosed is a linkage assembly for a gas turbine engine having a link having a first end, a second end, and a rod extending therebetween, the first end having a first sliding bearing disposed within a first sliding bearing housing, a fastener comprising a first flange and a second flange, a pin extending between the first flange and the second flange, wherein the first sliding bearing is pivotally connected to the pin; and a biasing member secured between the first flange and the sliding bearing housing, the biasing member contacting the sliding bearing housing and biasing the link against rotation about a center axis for the rod of the link.
US11248558B2

An engine includes an output shaft, a cylinder block, a cylinder head, a cap portion, and head bolts. The cylinder block, the cylinder head, and the cap portion are fastened together with the head bolts. The cylinder block includes a cylinder portion and a plurality of output shaft supporting portions. When an outer wall face of at least one of the plurality of output shaft supporting portions is viewed along an output shaft axial direction, the outer wall face includes a first rib diagonally extending from a supporting portion of the output shaft toward one of two head bolt holes.
US11248553B2

A vehicle control device includes a storage device and a processor. The storage device is configured to store relationship prescription data that prescribe a relationship between a state of a vehicle and an action variable that is a variable related to an operation of an electronic device in the vehicle. The processor is configured to calculate a reward corresponding to the operation of the electronic device. The processor is configured to update the relationship prescription data using, as inputs to updated mapping determined in advance, the state of the vehicle that is based on a detection value that is acquired, a value of the action variable that is used to operate the electronic device, and the reward corresponding to the operation of the electronic device when a computation load on the processor is equal to or less than a predetermined load.
US11248552B2

Embodiments are directed to boosting aircraft engine performance for takeoff and critical mission segments by reducing airflow used for cooling exhaust gases. The airflow is reduced by stopping an accessory blower or by closing an external air vent. Eliminating the cooling airflow to the exhaust has the effect of lowering the backpressure on the engine, which thereby increases maximum engine power.
US11248549B2

A vehicle which can improve fuel consumption without a driver feeling uncomfortable is provided. The vehicle includes: a hydraulic pressure sensor for acquiring a brake torque value which increases in accordance with a stepping-in amount of a brake pedal by the driver, and an ECU which automatically stops an engine after a basic time has elapsed since a basic condition is satisfied and then automatically restarts the engine. The ECU automatically stops the engine before the basic time elapses, when an increment of the brake torque value from a reference value after the basic condition is satisfied is equal to or greater than an additional stepping judgment value, and a shortened time shorter than the basic time has elapsed.
US11248546B1

Engine controllers and control schemes are provided for managing engine state transitions requiring increased compressor pressure ratios in turbocharged engines operating in a cylinder output level modulation mode (e.g., skip fire, multi-level skip fire, or firing level modulation modes). In some circumstances, turbo lag can be mitigated by initially transitioning the engine to an intermediate effective firing density that is higher than both the initial and target effective firing density to increase the flow of gases through the engine and the turbocharger while maintaining a compressor ratio the same as or close to the initial compressor pressure ratio. After reaching a point where the desired torque is actually generated at the intermediate effective firing density, the operational effective firing density is gradually reduced to the target effective firing density while increasing the operational compressor pressure ratio to the target compressor ratio.
US11248545B2

Systems and methods for operating an engine with deactivating and non-deactivating valves are presented. In one example, estimates of engine fuel consumption for operating the engine with a plurality of cylinder modes or patterns while a transmission is engaged in different gears are determined and are used as a basis for deactivating engine cylinders.
US11248544B2

Proposed is a gas heat-pump system capable of supplying recirculation exhaust gas using a motor-driven turbocharger and thus actively controlling an amount of flowing recirculation exhaust gas and pressure thereof.
US11248543B2

A vaporized-fuel treating apparatus is configured to perform purge control in which a purge valve is placed in an open state while a purge pump is being driven to introduce purge gas from a canister to an intake passage through a purge passage. When an actual value of a flow rate of the purge gas during execution of the purge control is defined as an actual purge flow rate, and an upper-limit value of the purge flow rate to prevent the occurrence of A/F disturbance where A/F in a combustion chamber of an engine excessively fluctuates, as an upper-limit purge flow rate, the number of rotations of the purge pump is controlled during execution of the purge control to adjust the actual purge flow rate to a value equal to or lower than the upper-limit purge flow rate.
US11248542B2

Methods and systems are provided for a hydrogen combustion engine. In one example, a method may include operating the hydrogen combustion engine at one of two combustion air ratios, wherein a combustion air ratio between the two is avoided via adjusting one or more operating parameters.
US11248541B2

An engine including a main fuel injection valve, a pilot fuel injection valve, a liquid fuel supply rail pipe, and a pilot fuel supply rail pipe. The main fuel injection valve supplies liquid fuel from the liquid fuel supply rail pipe to a combustion chamber during combustion in a diffusion combustion system. The pilot fuel injection valve supplies pilot fuel from the pilot fuel supply rail pipe to the combustion chamber in order to ignite gaseous fuel during combustion in a premixed combustion system. The liquid fuel supply rail pipe is disposed at one side of an imaginary vertical plane (P1) including an axis of a crank shaft. The pilot fuel supply rail pipe is disposed at the side of the imaginary vertical plane at which the liquid fuel supply rail pipe is disposed.
US11248540B2

An internal combustion engine-based system includes an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine-based system includes an engine interrupt connected to the engine. The engine interrupt is configured to selectively stop the operation of the engine. The internal combustion engine-based system includes a controller in communication with the engine interrupt. The internal combustion engine-based system includes a carbon monoxide detector in communication with the controller. The controller uses the engine interrupt to stop the operation of the engine when the carbon monoxide detector provides the controller with signals that are representative of a carbon monoxide level proximate the internal combustion engine that together form a trend of building carbon monoxide amounts over a set time interval.
US11248539B2

Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for controlling an internal combustion that comprises a cylinder having a space arranged to receive air and fuel, a piston disposed in the cylinder, and a crankcase being in fluid communication with the cylinder. The method comprises determining an uncontrolled behavior due to fluid flow between said crankcase and said cylinder space and combustion of such fluid, which entails: determining whether a powertrain of the vehicle is disengaged; determining whether the engine speed is increasing; and determining whether said cylinder space is receiving fuel. The method further comprises determining that an uncontrolled behavior is occurring if the conditions that: said powertrain is disengaged, the engine speed is increasing and said cylinder space is not receiving any fuel, are fulfilled.
US11248536B2

In an embodiment, a system includes a gas turbine controller. The gas turbine controller is configured to receive a plurality of sensor signals from a fuel composition sensor, a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a flow sensor, or a combination thereof, included in a gas turbine engine system. The controller is further configured to execute a gas turbine model by applying the plurality of sensor signals as input to derive a plurality of estimated gas turbine engine parameters. The controller is also configured to execute a flame holding model by applying the plurality of sensor signals and the plurality of estimated gas turbine engine parameters as input to derive a steam flow to fuel flow ratio that minimizes or eliminates flame holding in a fuel nozzle of the gas turbine engine system.
US11248532B2

A turbofan engine includes a first spool including a first turbine and a second spool including a second turbine. A superposition gear system includes a plurality of intermediate gears engaged to a sun gear and supported in a carrier and a ring gear circumscribing the intermediate gears. A second tower shaft is engaged to drive the sun gear. A starter is selectively coupled to the sun gear through a starter clutch. A first electric motor and a second electric motor are coupled to the superposition gear system and are operable to input power into a corresponding one of the first and second spools.
US11248531B1

A sealing arrangement includes a stationary component, a first slot is defined between an outer wall and a first inner wall, a second slot is defined between the outer wall and a second inner wall. A rotating component moves in a circumferential direction relative to the stationary component. The rotating component includes a tip rail. A floating seal positioned between the stationary component and the rotating component. The floating seal includes an axial member having a first arm extending into the first slot and a second arm extending into the second slot. The floating seal includes a first radial member and a second radial member that extends from the axial member. A plurality of magnets coupled to the stationary component, the rotating component, and the floating seal. The plurality of magnets is arranged such that the floating seal is contained between the stationary component and the rotating component.
US11248519B2

A vehicle heating/cooling system has first and second fluid circulation loops for circulating engine coolant and automotive fluid. A first heat exchanger transfers heat from the coolant to air for the passenger compartment. A second heat exchanger transfers heat between the coolant and automotive fluid. A first valve has first and second inlets for receiving coolant from hot and cold coolant sources, and an outlet for discharging coolant to the second heat exchanger. A second valve has an inlet for receiving coolant from the first coolant source, and an outlet for discharging coolant to the first inlet of the first valve. The valve positions change with temperature of the coolant and the automotive fluid, providing preferential heating of the passenger compartment during cold start-up of the vehicle. The second heat exchanger and valves may be provided in a temperature control module.
US11248512B2

Methods, systems, and vehicles that control the temperature of a device included in the vehicle are presented herein. The temperature of the device is controlled by ventilating the device with drivetrain air, such as transmission cooling air. In some embodiments, the device is at a greater temperature than the drivetrain air, which cools the device. In other embodiments, the device is at a lesser temperature than the drivetrain air, which heats the device. The drivetrain air is provided to the device through an exhaust duct coupled to the vehicle's transmission. The drivetrain exhaust air is preferably circulated by the transmission. The transmission may be a continuously variable transmission. The device may be an oxygen sensor that is coupled to an engine exhaust pipe. The oxygen sensor is thermally coupled to the engine exhaust and the engine exhaust pipe, which are at greater temperatures than the transmission exhaust air.
US11248498B2

A support system for assembling and shipping a steam turbine is provided that includes an annular support fixture configured to be coupled to a longitudinal end of a casing of the steam turbine. The annular support fixture includes a first protrusion that extends in an axial direction relative to a longitudinal axis of a rotor of the steam turbine between the rotor and the casing and that is configured to support the rotor in the radial direction. The annular support fixture includes a second protrusion, which extends in the radial direction toward a lateral surface of the rotor and which includes a surface configured to face the rotor in the axial direction. The support system includes a block configured to be disposed between the surface of the second protrusion and the rotor, such that the block blocks movement of the rotor in the axial direction during shipping of the steam turbine.
US11248493B2

A gas turbine engine for an aircraft has an engine core including a turbine, a compressor, and a core shaft connecting the turbine to the compressor, the turbine being the lowest pressure turbine of the engine and the compressor being the lowest pressure compressor of the engine; a fan located upstream of the engine core; and a gearbox that receives an input from the core shaft and outputs drive to the fan. The engine core further has three bearings arranged to support the core shaft, and two rearward bearings, and wherein the forward most rearward bearing has a bearing stiffness defined by the radial displacement caused by the application of a radial force at the axial centerpoint of the bearing, and wherein a stiffness ratio of the bearing stiffness at the forward most rearward bearing to the minor span is in the range from 0.08 to 0.5 kN/mm2.
US11248465B2

A reconfigurable maintenance apparatus includes a body configured to operate within a cavity. The body has a first shape in a first configuration and a second shape in a second configuration. The first configuration facilitates the body entering the cavity. The reconfigurable apparatus also includes at least one maintenance device operably coupled to the body. The second configuration facilitates the at least one maintenance device of the reconfigurable apparatus performing a maintenance operation.
US11248462B2

A method of electrically logging a section of a wellbore includes circulating an oil-based wellbore fluid within the wellbore and allowing filtration of the oil-based wellbore fluid to form a conductive filtercake on a wall of the wellbore; placing within the wellbore a wellbore logging tool with at least one pad capable of applying a current to a portion of the conductive filtercake and wellbore wall; applying electrical current from the at least one pad; and collecting an electrical log of the portion of the wellbore that has had electrical current applied thereto.
US11248460B2

A method of detecting a flood front through a subterranean formation, comprising, measuring a distance to the flood front, processing the measured distance using a predictor-corrector filter to determine a corrected distance to the flood front, and adjusting a formation device based on the corrected distance to control a flow of the flood front.
US11248459B2

Selectively automating the powering of downhole equipment during run-in-hole (RIH) operations provides a means of safely installing and monitoring downhole equipment. Selective automation comprises monitoring lowering of a pump assembly into a borehole as part of an installation process. In response to determining that the lowering of the pump assembly into the borehole has stopped, an output of power from a power source to a cable coupled to the pump assembly is allowed. A data transmission is communicated from a downhole gauge in the pump assembly to a communication device at a surface of the borehole via the cable. In response to not receiving a valid data transmission at the communication device, it is determined that the cable may be damaged, and that further cable testing should occur.
US11248458B2

A method of filtering measured responses of downhole pipes, obtained by electromagnetic (EM) logging tools, to correct for natural variations in downhole pipes during downhole pipe defect characterization. A further method of directly characterizing downhole pipe defects by obtaining measured responses at known pipe features, such as casing collars. An apparatus and system for characterizing downhole pipe corrosion is also disclosed.
US11248457B2

A method includes deploying a logging tool in a borehole formed in a subsurface formation. The logging tool has a transmitter and a receiver. The method includes emitting, by the transmitter, a signal into subsurface formation. The method includes detecting, by the receiver, a response to the signal being propagated through the subsurface formation. The method includes creating, from the response, a borehole image that includes distorted features representing bedding dips in the subsurface formation. The method includes correcting the distorted features, wherein correcting the distorted features comprises mapping points of a non-circular shape in the borehole image to points on a circular shape.
US11248446B2

One method includes position an antenna inside a wellbore in a location corresponding to a formation where near wellbore damage occurs; wherein the wellbore extends from a surface of a hydrocarbon reservoir downward into the subterranean structure of the hydrocarbon reservoir; transmitting an electromagnetic (EM) wave to the antenna; and irradiating, from the antenna, at least a portion of the EM wave at the formation, wherein the portion of the EM wave removes the near wellbore damage at the formation.
US11248441B2

A safety valve may include: an outer housing comprising a central bore extending axially through the outer housing; a flow tube including: a translating sleeve; and a flow tube main body disposed within the translating sleeve, wherein the flow tube main body has an upper end and a lower end; a piston operable to transmit a force to the translating sleeve; a flapper valve disposed on a distal end of the outer housing; and an electromagnet assembly operable to maintain the safety valve in an open state.
US11248440B2

A valve seat for a valve is disclosed, the valve seat facilitating cutting of a body located within the seat. The valve seat includes a sealing surface for sealing with a valve member and an annular cutting component having a plurality of cutting teeth. The cutting teeth are circumferentially spaced and each defines an elongate crest. A valve is disclosed having a housing with a bore), a valve member and the valve seat. The valve seat is arranged within the housing in communication with the housing bore. The valve member is movable relative to the housing between an open position and a closed position.
US11248439B2

A method of performing a completion operation at a wellbore includes flowing a plug downhole within fluid through a pipe disposed within the wellbore, landing the plug on a platform carried on the pipe to close the pipe to fluid flow, flowing fluid downhole through the pipe against the plug positioned on the platform, and rupturing a disk of the plug with a pressure of the fluid to open the pipe to fluid flow through a channel of the plug.
US11248432B2

A method is for suspending flow in a well. The method includes placing a first plug in a production tubular in an upper wellhead section, above a downhole safety valve. The first plug is adapted to fit into the production tubular to form a fluid seal in the production tubular to form a barrier for containing well fluid; equipped with instrumentation for obtaining information by measuring physical characteristics below the plug; and equipped with means for transmitting said obtained information to an operator. There is also described an apparatus for suspending flow in the well.
US11248431B1

A method of removing a target fish from a wellbore includes preparing a fishing assembly having a magnetized pipe coupled to an end of a work string. The fishing assembly is run into the wellbore, and the magnetized pipe is positioned at an effective position in which a threaded end of the target fish is aligned with a threaded end of the magnetized pipe by magnetic attraction between the magnetized pipe and the target fish. A threaded connection is made up between the threaded end of the target fish and the threaded end of the magnetized pipe. The fishing assembly with the attached target fish is then retrieved from the wellbore to a surface location.
US11248430B2

A multi-string section milling tool has a longitudinally extending tubular body with mill carriers carrying hardened cutters that pivotally extend from a mill window in the tubular body by upward movement of a drive plunger. A downwardly biased piston mounted to the upper end of a flow tube is slidably inserted through a stationary thimble below the piston. The lower end of the flow tube is attached to a drive plunger which is pivotally attached to drive yoke links pivotally attached the mill carriers. The piston and thimble creates a pressure chamber in the milling tool. Fluid pressure in the pressure chamber moves the piston, flow tube and drive plunger upward to pivotally extend the drive yoke links and mill carriers radially outward through the mill window. Cessation of fluid pressure in the pressure chamber retracts the mill carriers.
US11248428B2

A method and apparatus for a locking system for a downhole tool. The locking system includes a first portion having a plurality of displaceable members, a second portion disposed around the first portion; a locked position wherein axial movement between the members is prevented; and an unlocked position wherein axial movement between the members is permitted.
US11248407B2

A refrigerator door assembly includes a refrigerator door having a recess. An alignment mechanism includes a plate and a door hinge. The plate is fixedly attached to the door hinge and positioned at least partially within the recess of the refrigerator door. The refrigerator door is movably positionable between at least a first position and a second position relative to the plate to permit adjustment of a location of the refrigerator door relative to the door hinge.
US11248398B2

A patch lock assembly releasably secures a glass door to an adjacent glass panel in a locked orientation. The patch lock assembly comprises a latch adapter housing, a strike adapter housing, and first and second power supply adapter housings. The latch adapter housing may interchangeably receive one of any number of various latch mechanisms without requiring further modification of the door. The strike adapter housing may interchangeably receive one of any number of various strikes, including electric strikes, without requiring further modification of the door. Respective power supply adapter housings may be coupled to each latch adapter housing and strike adapter housing. The power supply adapters include a power source and control unit to provide the necessary power to operate the latch and strike. Various interlocking features may be incorporated in the design to resist unwanted movement of the patch lock assembly relative to the glass panel.
US11248394B2

A laminated padlock comprises a laminated padlock body formed by laminating a plurality of lock sheets, a lock core assembly, and a lock beam connected with the top of the laminated padlock body. The lock core assembly comprises a first lock tongue, a second lock tongue, a large frame, a small frame, a lock core shaft and cipher wheels; the large frame is provided with a positioning resilient piece, and the lower end of the large frame is provided with a limiting plate with a limiting chuck; shaft holes; the small frame is provided with a small resilient piece, and a branch plate is arranged below. The laminated padlock achieves dual guarantee, perfectly solves the defect that the ciphers can be changed by a cipher adjusting rod under the condition of not knowing the ciphers when the lock beam is opened and greatly enhances the safety performance of the laminated padlock.
US11248386B2

A pool cleaning system is provided. The system includes a pool pole. The system also includes an angled attachment device configured to connect to an end of the pool pole. The system additionally includes specialty tools structured to connect to an end of the angled attachment device. The angled attachment device is structured to connect to pool poles and to specialty devices in such a way to provide a plurality of angles to allow cleaning of pool surfaces and pool surface areas in an effective, efficient, and ergonomically friendly fashion for pool cleaning personnel. The pool cleaning system is arranged to change the angles at which the surfaces are being cleaned without having to change out components.
US11248367B2

Example aspects of a nozzle cap spacer for a hydrant nozzle cap, a spaced nozzle cap assembly, and a method for adjusting a rotational indexing of a nozzle cap are disclosed. The nozzle cap spacer for a hydrant nozzle cap can comprise a spacer body defining an outer body edge; and a resilient first spacer spring arm extending from the outer body edge, wherein the first spacer spring arm is biased away from the spacer body in an extended orientation.
US11248358B2

A geogrid and a manufacturing method thereof. The geogrid comprises multiple ribs, and the multiple ribs are connected to each other at multiple junctions to form multiple cells. At each junction, two or more adjacent ribs of the multiple ribs are inserted into each other via inserts, and each junction is covered by a plastic material. The geogrid can easily be extended to a present state at a construction site, prevent tearing of apertures, prevent soil from leaking from the apertures, and prevent the inserts from rusting or corroding. Since the plastic material, the ribs, and the inserts are bonded to each other, separation strength at the junction is markedly increased. Preferably, an end portion of the insert is completely covered by the plastic material to form an end cap, and the plastic material and the ribs and the inserts are bonded to each other to form columns.
US11248355B2

This application relates to a multifunctional recovery apparatus of shore adhesion oils. The multifunctional recovery apparatus of shore adhesion oils removing and recovering oil spilling and sticking at a shore is mounted on a four-wheel vehicle. A skimmer assembly separating oil sticking to the surface of rocks at a shore, and absorbing and recovering an oil spill at the shore is installed at the front of the four-wheel vehicle. The skimmer assembly includes a rotary skimmer having a rotary roller separating oil, and a vacuum suction skimmer suctioning oil floating on a water surface. The rotary skimmer and the vacuum suction skimmer may be selectively or simultaneously used, if necessary.
US11248345B2

Tissue papers and methods of making are disclosed herein. In one aspect, a tissue paper is substantially free of a chemical debonder and has a geometric mean tensile (GMT) in a range between about 500 and about 5,000 g/3 inches (g/3 in.) and a caliper in a range between about 50 and about 350 mils/8 sheets.
US11248334B2

A method for measuring the humidity of a laundry mass contained in a laundry treatment chamber of a laundry appliance. The method includes: providing a capacitor in the laundry appliance, the capacitor having, as part of the capacitor dielectric, the laundry mass; measuring a capacitance of the capacitor by means of an electronic circuitry electrically supplied by a supply voltage and a reference voltage. Providing a capacitor comprises: providing in the laundry appliance at least one conductive plate which forms a plate of the capacitor, and exploiting, as a second plate of the capacitor, routing lines distributing inside the laundry drying appliance the reference voltage.
US11248321B2

A perforated non-woven fabric having at least one fiber layer that has a plurality of through holes. The total area of the through holes accounts for 10˜80% of the total area of the perforated non-woven fabric; the opening of the through holes is flat with the surface of the perforated non-woven fabric; and the density of through holes on the perforated non-woven fabric is 3/cm2˜100/cm2. The fiber density at the edge of each through hole is similar to or the same as the fiber density in other areas of the perforated non-woven fabric. The fiber surrounds the through hole, and only the surface of the fiber is bonded to each other.
US11248318B2

An article and method of manufacturing an authenticatable finished fabric and article comprising the steps of: obtaining an original fabric article comprising authentic fiber, the original fabric article being possessed at some time by at least one person; breaking the original fabric article into authentic fiber components; blending the authentic fiber components with virgin fiber to make a authentic fiber blend; generating a authentic fiber blend yarn; weaving or knitting a finished fabric that is configured to form a binary code from a mixture of the authentic fiber blend yarn and a filling yarn; and creating a first level authentication and an second level authentication of the finished fabric with the first and second level authentication being non-interacting or independent.
US11248310B2

A Group III nitride substrate contains a base material part of a Group III nitride having a front surface and a back surface, the front surface of the base material part and the back surface of the base material part having different Mg concentrations from each other.
US11248306B2

An anodic-oxidation equipment for forming a porous layer on a substrate to be treated, including: an electrolytic bath filled with an electrolytic solution; an anode and a cathode disposed in the electrolytic solution; and a power supply for applying current between the anode and the cathode in the electrolytic solution, wherein the anode is the substrate to be treated, and the cathode is a silicon substrate having a surface on which a nitride film is formed. This provides a cathode material in anodic-oxidation for forming porous silicon by an electrochemical reaction in an HF solution, the cathode material having a resistance to electrochemical reaction in an HF solution and no metallic contamination, etc., and furthermore, being less expensive than a conventional cathode material. Furthermore, high-quality porous silicon is provided at a lower cost than has been conventional.
US11248289B2

A multilayered corrosion and anti-galling coating for threads and wearable materials is a liner that can be superimposed onto the surface of a device in order to protect the surface from environmental hazards. To accomplish this, the coating has a base adhesive layer, an intermediary insulation layer, an interstitial adhesive layer, and a lubricating material layer. The base adhesive layer adheres to the device's surface thus enabling the coating to form a sealing liner. The intermediary insulation layer is positioned in between the base adhesive layer and the interstitial adhesive layer. As a result, the intermediary insulation layer prevents negative chemical interactions between the base adhesive layer and the interstitial adhesive layer. The lubricating material layer is super imposed onto the interstitial adhesive layer to provide a friction-reducing coating for the device's surface.
US11248287B2

Zn alloy plated steel material having excellent weldability and processed-part corrosion resistance and a method for production of Zn alloy plated steel material are provided. In the Zn alloy plated steel material comprising base steel material and a Zn alloy plating layer, the Zn alloy plating layer includes, by wt %, Al: 0.1-5.0%, Mg: 0.1-5.0%, as well as a remainder of Zn and inevitable impurities. The Zn alloy plated steel material includes a lower interface layer and an upper interface layer between the base steel material and the Zn alloy plating layer, wherein the lower interface layer is formed on the base steel material and has a dense structure, and the upper interface layer is formed on the lower interface layer and has a network-type or island-type structure.
US11248280B2

The invention relates to a vacuum chamber element obtained by machining and surface treatment of a plate of thickness at least equal to 10 mm made of aluminium alloy composed as follows (as percentages by weight), Si: 0.4-0.7, Mg: 0.4-1.0; the Mg/Si ratio as a percentage by weight being less than 1.8; Ti: 0.01-0.15, Fe 0.08-0.25; Cu <0.35; Mn <0.4; Cr: <0.25; Zn <0.04; other elements <0.05 each and <0.15 in total, the rest aluminium, characterized in that the grain size of said plate is such that the mean linear intercept length , measured in plane L/TC according to standard ASTM E112, is at least equal to 350 μm between surface and ½ thickness. The invention also relates to the method of manufacturing of such a vacuum chamber element. The products according to the invention are particularly advantageous, particularly in terms of resistance to creep deformation at high temperature, while having high properties of corrosion resistance, homogeneity of properties in thickness and machinability.
US11248278B1

The present disclosure is related to the recovery of metal(s) using molten salt and related systems.
US11248277B2

A method for manufacturing a high-strength galvanized steel sheet having excellent strength-elongation balance, coating adhesiveness, and surface appearance. The method includes: (i) a first heating process of heating a steel sheet having a predetermined chemical composition, (ii) a first pickling process of pickling the steel sheet which was subjected to the first heating process in an oxidizing acidic aqueous solution, (iii) a second pickling process of pickling the steel sheet which was subjected to the first pickling process in a non-oxidizing acidic aqueous solution, (iv) a second heating process of holding the steel sheet, which was subjected to the second pickling process, at a temperature range of 700° C. or higher and 900° C. or lower in a hydrogen-containing atmosphere for 20 seconds or more and 300 seconds or less, and (v) performing a galvanizing treatment on the steel sheet which was subjected to the second heating process.
US11248276B2

The present invention relates to a hot stamped component, a precoated steel sheet used for hot stamping, and a hot stamping process. The hot stamped component of the present invention is provided with a coating of aluminium or an aluminium alloy on at least one surface of the base steel, the coating is produced by interdiffusion between the base steel and a precoating of aluminium or aluminium alloy, and the coating has a thickness of 6 to 26 μm.
US11248275B2

A warm-workable high-strength steel sheet having superior warm workability and residual ductility after warm working, and a method for manufacturing such steel sheets. The warm-workable high-strength steel sheet has a chemical composition including, in mass %, C: 0.05 to 0.20%, Si: not more than 3.0%, Mn: 3.5 to 8.0%, P: not more than 0.100%, S: not more than 0.02%, Al: 0.01 to 3.0% and N: not more than 0.010%, the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities. The steel sheet has a microstructure that includes, in area fractions, 10 to 60% retained austenite, 10 to 80% ferrite, 5 to 50% martensite and 0 to 5% bainite, the C content in the retained austenite being less than 0.40 mass %.
US11248272B2

Disclosed herein are methods for detecting presence of a target nucleic acid (such as an influenza virus nucleic acid) in a sample. In some embodiments, the methods include contacting the sample with a first probe capable of hybridizing to the target nucleic acid and a second probe capable of hybridizing to the target nucleic acid, contacting the resulting complex with one or more gap filling reagents, thereby producing a gap-filled target nucleic acid, isolating and amplifying the gap-filled target nucleic acid. The amplified gap-filled target nucleic acid covalently linked to the substrate is then detected, for example with a detectably labeled probe. Also disclosed herein are probes capable of hybridizing to influenza virus nucleic acids. The disclosure also includes kits for detecting and/or discriminating influenza virus nucleic acids in a sample. In some examples, the kits include two or more of the disclosed probes.
US11248269B2

The invention relates, in part, to methods to identify the presence and/or level of a pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus bacterium in a subject or in or on a substrate. Methods are provided that, in part, permit detection of infection of a subject, or contamination of a substrate by pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus bacteria.
US11248261B2

The present invention relates to the identification of a novel allele of the RHD gene associated with a weak D phenotype and the kits and methods for detecting this allele.
US11248255B2

An automated multiplex detector system includes: (a) a nucleic acid amplification compartment for amplifying nucleic acid of one or more targets in a sample, and (b) an analysis compartment in fluid communication with the amplification compartment, the analysis compartment housing a nanoparticle-based multiplex detector capable of using the amplified nucleic acid of the amplification compartment and producing a signal that correlates with the presence of the one or more targets in the sample.
US11248254B2

Method of identifying a cognate nucleotide (i.e., the “next correct nucleotide”) for a primed template nucleic acid molecule. In some embodiments, an ordered or random array of primed target nucleic acids characterized by different cognate nucleotides can be evaluated using a single imaging step to identify different cognate nucleotides for a collection of different primed template nucleic acid molecules. An optional incorporation step can follow the identifying step. A polymerase different from the ones used in the binding and examination steps can be used to incorporate a nucleotide, such as a reversible terminator nucleotide, preliminary to identification of the next cognate nucleotide.
US11248243B2

A process of producing methacrylic acid and/or derivatives thereof including the following steps: (a) biologically converting isobutyryl-CoA into methacrylyl-CoA by the action of an oxidase; and (b) converting methacrylyl-CoA into methacrylic acid and/or derivatives thereof. The invention also extends to microorganisms adapted to conduct the steps of the process.
US11248240B2

The present invention relates to a fusion protein comprising a Cas9 domain and a Spo11 domain, as well as the use of this protein to induce targeted meiotic recombinations in a eukaryotic cell.
US11248237B2

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for maggot debridement therapy. More specifically, the invention relates to recombinant nucleic acid constructs, transgenic maggots comprising the recombinant nucleic acids, methods for making the maggots, and methods for the use of the maggots, including debridement and promoting of wound healing.
US11248235B2

The invention relates to methods and compositions for modifying naturally non-mycorrhizal plants to produce modified plants that can be colonized by a mycorrhizal fungus having increased nitrogen and phosphorus uptake, increased drought tolerance/resistance, increased resistance to fungal and/or bacterial pathogens, and/or increased growth rate, yield and/or biomass production of a naturally non-mycorrhizal plant. The invention further relates to plants, plant parts, and/or plant cells produced by the methods of the invention as well as harvested and processed products from the plants, plant parts, and/or plant cells.
US11248232B2

A method of modifying the genome of an organism, wherein the modification method includes modifying the genome of the organism by using in a cell of the organism a protein having an optimal temperature for double-stranded DNA breakage activity in an ordinary temperature region.
US11248231B2

The present disclosure provides compositions, methods and systems for generating nucleic acid agents having a desired property, such as a property for specifically binding to a target. More specifically, the present disclosure provides compositions, methods and systems for generating a pool of modified members comprising modified nucleic acid agents with an unlimited range of chemical diversity.
US11248229B2

The presently disclosed subject matter relates to the administration of a KMT2D inhibitor for the treatment of a cancer. The present invention is based on the discovery that upon PI3K inhibition, KMT2D activity is upregulated, resulting in an increase in the expression of genes involved in breast cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth. Accordingly, the present invention provides methods for treating a subject that has cancer by administering a therapeutically effective amount of an KMT2D inhibitor.
US11248225B2

Gene knockout method based on base editing and its application is provided. The gene knockout method comprises: selecting a 20 bp-NGG target sequence of the coding region of the gene to be knocked out, so that it contains a complete target codon CAA, CAG or CGA; and using sgRNA sequence to locate BE3 to the target sequence, to convert the target single-base C of the target codon into T and thus introduce a corresponding termination codon TAA, TAG orTGA in order to realize the knockout, wherein the target single-base C is located preferably on site 4-8 in the target sequence, the interval between the target codon and NGG is 12 to 14 bp, and the upstream base (H) near the target codon cannot be G; and the sgRNA sequence is a 20 bp sequence complementary to the target sequence.
US11248213B2

Provided herein are cytoplasts, compositions comprising cytoplasts, methods of using cytoplasts, and methods of treating a subject, such as providing benefits to a healthy or unhealthy subject, or treating or diagnosing a disease or condition in a subject. In some embodiments, methods of treating a subject include: administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising a cytoplast. Also, provided herein are compositions (e.g., pharmaceutical compositions) that include a cytoplast. Also, provided herein are kits comprising instructions for using the compositions or methods.
US11248206B2

The present invention discloses a bacterium and an obtaining method and application thereof. The bacterium has a property of coproducing 1,3-propanediol and D-lactic acid. Further, the bacterium is Klebsiella oxytoca, including Klebsiella oxytoca PDL-5 CCTCC M 2016185. The obtaining method of the bacterium may be to obtain the bacterium by directly screening wild bacteria that satisfy conditions from the environment or performing gene engineering modification to wild bacteria. The present invention has the advantages that the bacteria can coproduce 1,3-propanediol and D-lactic acid through fermentation, the molar conversion rate and the concentration of the two products are very high, the types of byproducts are few, the concentration is low, the product extraction process is simplified, the high-efficiency biological production of 1,3-propanediol and D-lactic acid can be realized, and the industrial application prospect is very great.
US11248204B2

Entomopathogenic fungal strains, compositions, and methods and compositions of producing and using the strains for reducing overall insect damage.
US11248200B2

A cell culture device includes a main body and a plug element. The main body includes a slot, an open groove and a fluid chamber. The open groove is connected with one side of the slot. The fluid chamber is disposed inside the main body and connected with another side of the slot. The plug element includes a first cell culture chamber and a first porous membrane. The first porous membrane is disposed at one side of the first cell culture chamber. The plug element is detachably plugged into the slot. When the plug element is plugged into the slot, the first cell culture chamber is communicated with the open groove to form an open space, and the open space and the fluid chamber are separated by the first porous membrane.
US11248199B2

The presently disclosed subject matter provides a microfluidic device that can simulate capillary blood flow on a fetal side of the device and pooled blood on a maternal side of the device (i.e., intervillous space). The microfluidic device can reconstitute the maternal-fetal interface, can expand the capabilities of cell culture models, and can provide an alternative to current maternal-fetal transfer models.
US11248197B2

Processes and systems for recovering products from a corn fermentation mash. In one example, a process for recovering products from a corn fermentation mash can include separating ethanol from a fermentation mash to produce a whole stillage. The fermentation mash can be derived from a ground corn product milled from a plurality of corn pieces. The plurality of corn pieces can include whole corn kernels, fragmented corn kernels, size-reduced corn kernels, milled corn kernels, or a mixture thereof. Greater than 25 wt % of the ground corn product can have a particle size of greater than 105 μm and greater than 80 wt % of the ground corn product can have a particle size of 425 μm or less, as measured according to AOAC 965.22-1966. The process can also include separating the whole stillage to produce a fiber rich portion and a filtrate.
US11248196B2

An effervescent detergent tablet comprising sodium laureth sulfate, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, fragrance, Stepantex VT 90 (Methyl bis[ethyl (tallowate)]-2-hydroxyethyl ammonium methyl sulfate), polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB), silicon dioxide, enzymes mix, Long Brite (Disodium Distyrylbiphenyl Disulfonate), Stearic Acid, Nabion 15 (Carbon-Disilicate co-granulate) and Polyethylene glycol 4000.
US11248187B2

A lubricating composition including: a base oil, a lubricant additive composition including, as a component (A), an organic molybdenum compound of the formula (1) described in the specification, and as a component (B), an amine compound of the formula (2) described in the specification, and a specific metal-based cleaner, wherein a content of the component (B) is 2.9 to 18.6 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of molybdenum atoms of the component (A), and a content of the metal-based cleaner is 0.1% to 10% by mass relative to a total amount of the lubricating composition, wherein the lubricating composition does not include tetraalkyl thiuram disulphide, and wherein the component (A) in terms of the amount of molybdenum atoms is 400 to 1200 ppm by mass relative to a total amount of the lubricating composition.
US11248176B2

Refinery processes, systems, and compositions for making an aromatic blending component for fuel oil, and a fuel oil blend using the same. Valuable hydrocarbons like kerosene can be reduced or eliminated from fuel oil blends by adding certain aromatic blending components derived from the aromatic bottoms stream of an aromatic recovery complex. The aromatic blending component can be used in lieu of more costly hydrocarbon streams to decrease the overall viscosity of the fuel oil blend without adding sulfur.
US11248174B2

Embodiments of the disclosure produce a method and system for deasphalting a hydrocarbon feed. The hydrocarbon feed and a first solvent is combined using a Taylor-Couette mixer to form a mixed stream. The mixed stream and a second solvent are introduced to an extractor to produce a first deasphalted oil stream and a pitch stream. The first deasphalted oil stream is introduced to a solvent recovery unit to recover the first solvent and the second solvent via a recovered solvent stream and to produce a second deasphalted oil stream.
US11248168B2

Disclosed is an inorganic-organic hybrid core-shell nanorod (200) and a light valve having the nanorod (200). The nanorod (200) comprises a nanorod inner core composed of a metal oxide and a nanorod shell composed of an inorganic-organic complex containing carbon and nitrogen atoms. The nanorod inner core is titanium dioxide TiO2. The core-shell nanorod employs the metal oxide as a core body and the inorganic-organic complex as a shell to account for the many advantages of inorganic-organic hybrid materials, nanomaterials, and the core-shell structure. The synergistic effect of multiple characteristics allows the material to have unique properties. The light valve made of the material has excellent performance, can adjust the light transmittance in a wider range, and has excellent application prospects.
US11248167B2

A method for treating a subterranean formation that includes preparing a treatment fluid comprising a base fluid, a relative permeability modifier (RPM) and a particulate and performing a treatment operation by injecting the treatment fluid into a portion of the subterranean formation.
US11248164B2

A fracturing fluid including a mixture of an aqueous terpolymer composition including a terpolymer, an additive, and crosslinker. The terpolymer includes 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid, acrylamide, and acrylic acid monomer units, or a salt thereof. The additive includes a sugar alcohol or a derivative thereof, and the crosslinker includes a metal. The weight ratio of the metal to the terpolymer is in a range of 0.01 to 0.16, and a concentration of the additive is in a range of 0.001 wt. % to 10 wt. % of the fracturing fluid. Treating a subterranean formation includes introducing the fracturing fluid into a subterranean formation, and crosslinking the fracturing fluid in the subterranean formation to yield a crosslinked fracturing fluid. The crosslinked fracturing fluid mitigates damage caused by substantial amounts of total dissolved solids or significant water hardness.
US11248160B2

Disclosed are compositions and methods for use in oil and gas operations.
US11248154B2

A thermoconductive silicone composition which has (A) an organopolysiloxane as a base polymer and includes (B) a thermoconductive filler, wherein the thermoconductive filler is 60-85 vol % of the thermoconductive silicone composition, and 40-60 vol % of the thermoconductive filler is aluminum nitride having an average particle diameter of at least 50 μm.
US11248149B2

The present invention aims to provide a polyvinyl acetal resin composition that is moldable by an extrusion method and capable of exhibiting excellent heat resistance after molding, an adhesive sheet containing the polyvinyl acetal resin composition, and a method for producing the adhesive sheet. The present invention relates to a polyvinyl acetal resin composition including: a polyvinyl acetal; a reactive diluent; and a photopolymerization initiator, the polyvinyl acetal resin composition having a storage modulus G′ at 200° C. before irradiation with light of 8×104 Pa or lower and a storage modulus G′ at 200° C. after irradiation with light of 8×103 Pa or higher, with the storage modulus G′ at 200° C. after irradiation with light being higher than the storage modulus G′ at 200° C. before irradiation with light.
US11248148B2

Methods for securely transferring and attaching electrically conductive particles filled in openings to a binder resin layer. The methods include a step of filling a solvent and electrically conductive particles in a plurality of openings formed on a surface of a substrate in a predetermined pattern, a step of pasting a surface on which a binder resin layer is formed of an adhesive film having the binder resin layer formed on a base film on a surface on which the openings are formed of the substrate, and a step of peeling off the adhesive film from the surface of the substrate and transferring and attaching the electrically conductive particles filled in the openings to the binder resin layer while heating the substrate.
US11248142B2

The present application relates to an encapsulating composition and an organic electronic device comprising the same, and provides an encapsulating composition which can effectively block moisture or oxygen introduced into an organic electronic device from the outside to secure the lifetime of the organic electronic device, is possible to realize a top emission type organic electronic device, is applicable to an inkjet method and can provide a thin display.
US11248137B2

A digital notepad is disclosed that includes an onboard computer, a base having retainers, a writing instrument having a tip that is configured to deliver ink, a plurality of sheets of paper, and a plurality of touch sensors communicatively connected to the onboard computer. The onboard computer includes one or more computer processors and a program loaded thereon configured to read information from at least one of the plurality of touch sensors. At least one of the touch sensors of the plurality of touch sensors may be integrated into the base. At least one of the plurality of sheets of paper may be retained on the base and in close proximity to the at least one of the touch sensors. The digital notepad may further include a display screen communicatively connected to the onboard computer and configured to display markings read by at least one of the plurality of touch sensors. In another embodiment, the digital notepad's writing instrument includes thermally reactive ink. In another embodiment, the digital notepad includes an eraser movably and detachably connected to the base. The eraser may include a thermal unit that is configured to change the temperature of the thermally reactive ink on at least one of the plurality of sheets of paper, such that a reaction is induced.
US11248134B2

Aqueous inkjet ink compositions are useful in inkjet printing processes and can be used individually or as part of an inkjet ink set. Each aqueous inkjet ink composition has a dynamic viscosity of 5 centipoise (5 mPa-sec) or less at 25° C., and consists essentially of: (a) a polymer-dispersed pigment colorant at 0.9-6 weight %; (b) a composition consisting of compounds represented by the following Structure (I): HO—CH2—CH2—R   (I) wherein R is a substituted or unsubstituted phenyl group or a substituted or unsubstituted phenoxy group, at 0.5-2 weight %; (c) a water-soluble humectant, co-solvent, or both, at than or equal to 20 weight %. Each polymer-dispersed pigment colorant has a 50th percentile particle diameter of less than 70 nm and a 95th percentile particle diameter of less than 150 nm, as measured using a dynamic light scattering particle size analyzer.
US11248132B2

The present invention relates to radiation curable coating composition (I) consisting essentially of: —from 20 to 95 wt % of one or more (meth)acrylated compounds (a), from 5 to 80 wt % of one or more metal salts of a C10 to C22 fatty acid (b), and—optionally, from 0 to 10 wt % of one or more additives (c), wherein the wt % of compounds (a) to (c) add up to at least 95%, preferably add up to 100%. Compositions of the invention are compatible with a whole range of radiation curable materials and with the standard additives like the standard matting agents. Compositions of the invention permit to obtain a dead matt effect using lower amounts of matting agents like silica and/or waxes. Dead matt effects can be obtained over a wide range of coating thicknesses.
US11248125B2

A coating system may be configured to be applied to an aluminum-magnesium substrate of an object. The coating system may include a primer configured to reduce the corrosion rate of the aluminum-magnesium substrate and a topcoat configured to resist water and improve solar reflectance of the coating system. The primer may include a silicate and a first additive configured to increase corrosion resistance of the coating system The topcoat may include a siloxane and a second additive configured to reduce solar absorptance of the coating system.
US11248123B2

The present invention concerns an organic dye comprising a photochromic entity, a segment -eD representing an electron donor segment and a segment -L-A with -L- representing a covalent bond or a spacer segment and particularly a pi-conjugated spacer segment, and -A representing an electron attractor segment able to form a covalent bond with a semi-conductor. The present invention concerns the use thereof as photosensitizer in a photovoltaic device and said photovoltaic device.
US11248120B2

The present invention provides methods for producing a silk protein spinning dope solution suitable for producing high toughness fibres, the thus produced silk protein spinning dope solution, methods for producing fibres using said silk protein spinning dope solution.
US11248119B2

An emulsion is disclosed which comprises a non-aqueous phase comprising a solid silicone resin and a siloxane carrier vehicle having an average of at least one silicon-bonded functional group per molecule and capable of carrying the solid silicone resin, an aqueous phase comprising water, and a surfactant, wherein the emulsion is substantially free from organic solvents. Various methods relating to the emulsion and end uses thereof are also disclosed. A composition comprising the emulsion and an organic binder, as well as related methods, are further disclosed.
US11248116B2

A composition comprises: (A) a polypropylene polymer; (B) a polyolefin elastomer; (C) a compound having the formula (I) defined herein; and (D) an additive component. And an article made from the composition.
US11248102B2

A roll excellent in abrasion resistance, which contains: a resin layer containing a first atom group having a plurality of sulfur atoms, a plurality of second atom groups having a carbon chain that has a plurality of carbon atoms arranged in a line and has an end bonded to any one of the plurality of sulfur atoms, and a plurality of third atom groups each of which has a urethane bond and is bonded to any one of the plurality of second atom groups; and a cylindrical foamed resin having an outer surface covered with the resin layer.
US11248100B2

A substrate is described having a treated contact surface comprising a carbon or silicon compound comprising from 1 to 30 atomic percent oxygen, from 0.1 to 30 atomic percent nitrogen, or both, each as measured by XPS. The treated contact surface has a biomolecule recovery percentage greater than the biomolecule recovery percentage of the surface before treatment according to the method.
US11248094B2

The present invention relates to methods of providing biocompatible/biodegradable hydrogels obtained by crosslinking of biopolymers (for example polysaccharides or proteins) in the semi-solid (modelling-clay like) state at water content below 70% by weight. The resulting materials can be applied in medicine, pharmacy and/or in cosmetics.
US11248089B2

The present disclosure provides polyanilines, articles thereof, and methods of forming polyanilines. In at least one aspect, a polyaniline has a thermal stability of about 100° C. or greater, a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of from about 50,000 g/mol to about 150,000 g/mol and a molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) of from about 1 to about 5. In at least one aspect, a film includes a polyaniline, the film having a hydrocarbon content of about 1 wt % or less, based on the total weight of the film. In at least one aspect, a method includes introducing an emulsion of an aqueous solution of an aniline and an alkyl-substituted aryl sulfonic acid having 1 wt % or less of hydrocarbon content into a flow reactor, the flow reactor having a length of tubing having an inner diameter. The method includes polymerizing the monomer within the tube to form a polyaniline.
US11248082B2

A surface protecting resin member includes a cured product of a composition containing an acrylic resin having a hydroxyl value within the range of 40 mgKOH/g to 280 mgKOH/g, a polyol having a hydroxyl value within the range of 40 mgKOH/g to 300 mgKOH/g, a multifunctional isocyanate, and a fluorotelomer alcohol represented by the following general formula CF3(CF2)n—(CH2)m—OH, where n is an integer of 1 or more and m is an integer within the range of 1 to 4.
US11248077B2

A polymerizable composition for an optical material of the present invention includes (A) an allyl carbonate compound represented by General Formula (1) and including two or more allyloxycarbonyl groups; (B) a (meth)acrylate compound represented by General Formula (2) and including two or more (meth)acryl groups; and (C) a photochromic compound, in which, in 100% by weight in a total of the compound (A) and the compound (B), the compound (A) is included in an amount of more than 0% by weight and 30% by weight or less and the compound (B) is included in an amount of 70% by weight or more and less than 100% by weight.
US11248065B2

An active energy ray-curable resin composition which contains (A) inorganic oxide particles each having an organic functional group on the surface, (B) a siloxane oligomer which has at least one functional group selected from the group consisting of a (meth)acryloyl group, an epoxy group and a vinyl group, while having a weight average molecular weight of 200-3,000, (C) a polyfunctional (meth)acrylate having a specific structure, (D) a urethane (meth)acrylate having two or more (meth)acryloyl groups in each molecule, and (E) an ultraviolet absorbent.
US11248056B1

Aspects of the disclosure relate to complexes comprising a muscle-targeting agent covalently linked to a molecular payload. In some embodiments, the muscle-targeting agent specifically binds to an internalizing cell surface receptor on muscle cells. In some embodiments, the molecular payload promotes the expression or activity of a functional dystrophin protein. In some embodiments, the molecular payload is an oligonucleotide, such as an antisense oligonucleotide, e.g., an oligonucleotide that causes exon skipping in a mRNA expressed from a mutant DMD allele.
US11248052B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods relating to or derived from antigen binding proteins capable of inducing β-Klotho, and or FGF21-like mediated signaling. In embodiments, the antigen binding proteins specifically bind to a complex comprising β-Klotho and at least one of (i) FGFR1c, (ii) FGFR2c and (iii) FGFR3c.
US11248039B2

The present invention relates to immunoglobulin single variable domains (ISVDs) that are directed against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). More specifically, it relates to ISVDs that bind to the prefusion form of the fusion (F) protein of RSV. The invention relates further to the use of these ISVDs for prevention and/or treatment of RSV infections, and to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these ISVDs.
US11248030B2

Dual receptor binding compounds comprising IL-2Rβ, IL-7Rα, and Rγc ligands, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the dual receptor binding compounds are disclosed. The dual receptor binding compounds can act as IL-2R and IL-7R agonists and are useful in treating cancer, viral diseases, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory diseases.
US11248023B2

The present invention relates to spexin-based agonists specific for galanin receptor type 2 and use thereof. More specifically, the present invention provides peptide-based agonists with high specificity for galanin receptor type 2 and improved stability. The peptide-based agonists are involved in the regulation of in vivo physiological functions, such as food intake, anxiety, emotion, and addiction, for which galanin receptors type 2 is responsible, to effectively suppress appetite, help recover from anxiety disorder, and reduce pleasure addiction. Therefore, the peptide-based agonists can be used to prevent or treat galanin receptor type 2-mediated diseases.
US11248018B2

Disclosed herein is a process for preparing nicotinamide riboside (NR) from an NR precursor and a phosphate-binding agent in a solvent. The reaction-derived mixture comprising NR may be further used without further processing in a variety of products, particularly in a cosmetic product.
US11248008B2

The present application relates to a hetero-cyclic compound represented by Chemical Formula 1, and an organic light emitting device comprising the same.
US11248005B2

Provided herein is a process for the intermediates used for preparation of HIV Integrase Inhibitor such as Bictegravir, Dolutegravir, Cabotegravir or their pharmaceutically acceptable salts.
US11248003B2

A novel pyrimidine derivative compound and a salt thereof are disclosed. The pyrimidine derivative compound effectively inhibits the growth of C797S mutant EGFR-expressed and MET-amplified cancer cells, which are the main resistance mechanisms of third generation EGFR anticancer agents, and thus may be effectively used in the treatment of lung cancer.
US11247999B1

There are provided methods of making an N-demethylated derivative of morphine namely, normorphine. The normorphine can be substituted at the N—H position with various ligands that may result in new useful morphine derivatives. These derivatives may have increased analgesic efficacy, have less addictive properties, and/or have effective anti-opiate properties capable of rescuing overdosed persons or lead to recovery from conditions caused by opiate drug abuse.
US11247996B2

The present disclosure provides compounds of Formula (I) and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. Related pharmaceutical compositions are disclosed. Methods of treatment with the disclosed compounds and compositions are also disclosed. Related kits are further disclosed.
US11247993B2

The present disclosure belongs to the field of medicinal chemistry, and relates to a novel pyridone derivative represented by Formula (I) or a stereoisomer, a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, a solvate or a crystal thereof, and use thereof in the preparation of a drug for preventing or treating diseases such as influenza type A viral infection and/or influenza type B viral infection, particularly use thereof as a PA subunit cap-dependent endonuclease inhibitor for preventing or treating diseases such as influenza type A viral infection and/or influenza type B viral infection. The compounds of the present disclosure have significant activity in inhibiting influenza endonuclease and influenza DNA, can be used either alone or in combination with a neuraminidase inhibitor, a nucleoside drug, a PB2 inhibitor, a PB1 inhibitor, an M2 inhibitor or other anti-influenza drugs, significantly shorten the time of influenza infection and reduces mortality, and have excellent clinical application prospects.
US11247992B2

The present invention is directed to cyclopropylamine derivatives which are LSD1 inhibitors useful in the treatment of diseases such as cancer.
US11247980B2

The present invention relates to uracilpyridines of formula (I) or their agriculturally acceptable salts or derivatives, wherein the variables are defined according to the description, processes and intermediates for preparing the uracilpyryidines of the formula (I), compositions comprising them and their use as herbicides, i.e. for controlling harmful plants, and also a method for controlling unwanted vegetation which comprises allowing a herbicidal effective amount of at least one urycilpyridine of the formula (I) to act on plants, their seed and/or their habitat.
US11247972B2

Compositions and methods for the treatment of toxoplasmosis, caused by the infectious eukaryotic parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) and for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis, caused by the infectious eukaryotic parasites Cryptosporidium parvum (C. parvum) and Cryptosporidium hominus (C. hominus) are described. In particular, the present disclosure is directed to compositions and methods for inhibiting either T. gondii calcium dependent protein kinases (TgCDPKs) or C. parvum and C. hominus calcium dependent protein kinases (CpCDPKs) using pyrazolopyrimidine and/or imidazo[1,5-a]pyrazine inhibitors, of the formula, wherein the variables X, Y, Z, L, R1, and R3 are defined herein.
US11247968B2

Modular dendrimers with cationic groups and lipophilic groups are provided herein. In some aspects, the dendrimers provided herein may be formulated in compositions which contain a nucleic acid and one or more helper excipients. In some aspects, these compositions may also be used to treat diseases or disorders with a therapeutic nucleic acid.
US11247967B2

A process for manufacturing of an alkanesulfonic acid, and an alkanesulfonic acid manufactured by the process. Aspects of the process may involve manufacturing an alkanesulfonic acid by reaction of an initiator composition with an alkane and sulfur trioxide by preparing an initiator composition by reacting aqueous hydrogen peroxide with alkanesulfonic acid and/or H2SO4; and reacting the initiator composition with sulfur trioxide and alkane to form an alkanesulfonic acid, wherein an alkane with a purity of at least 98.0 mol-% is used.
US11247964B2

The present invention provides methods of processing lipid materials such as soapstock, wet gums and dry gums. Enzymes are utilized to catalyze hydrolysis of the lipids materials to recover fatty acids. Addition of organic acids and/or polyols improved yield of fatty acids and reduced formation of emulsion. Lipid materials can be formulated with other agricultural products as new value-added animal feed products. Further, a process for concentrating nitrogenous compounds such as choline, inositol, ethanolamine and serine from phospholipid materials obtained as byproducts from vegetable oil refining is provided. The process involves performing hydrolysis of the gum based products in the presence of an alcoholic solvent and acid catalyst. Post hydrolysis, gums breakdown to oil and water phases which are further separated and concentrated. These concentrated products may be further fractionated to concentrate individual nitrogenous compounds.
US11247962B2

Methods and systems for recovering materials from streams from processes for the co-production of propylene oxide and styrene monomer. The processes may permit the recovery of products, such a mono-propylene glycol, or the recycling of products, such as α-methyl benzyl alcohol.
US11247957B2

Proposed is a process for producing methanol from synthesis gas by means of multi-stage, for example 2-stage, heterogeneously catalyzed methanol synthesis, wherein the methanol product formed in every synthesis stage is removed by condensation and the remaining residual gas is applied to the downstream synthesis stage or after removal of a purge stream recycled to the first synthesis stage as a recycle stream. According to the invention a substream is removed from the synthesis gas fresh gas and introduced into the second methanol synthesis reactor as a bypass stream.
US11247940B2

A manufacturing process of a concrete product includes: (1) extracting calcium from solids as portlandite; (2) forming a cementitious slurry including the portlandite; (3) shaping the cementitious slurry into a structural component; and (4) exposing the structural component to carbon dioxide sourced from a flue gas stream, thereby forming the concrete product.
US11247931B2

The present invention relates to a device for bending at least one glass pane, having a lower bending mould with a working surface that is suitable for influencing the shape of at least one glass pane, an upper shaping tool arranged opposite the working surface that is suitable for generating a positive pressure on the surface of the at least one glass pane facing away from the working surface, where the upper shaping tool has a hollow space with at least one opening oriented toward the lower bending mould and a membrane closing the opening and is equipped with means for introducing a gas into the hollow space in order to deform the membrane in the direction of the lower bending mould and to thus generate the positive pressure.
US11247918B2

A media clarifier may have a passageway, an inlet, an outlet above the inlet, a screen, and a media bed with both compressible and incompressible media. The screen may span the passageway. The media bed may be adjacent to the screen when the media clarifier is in an operational state. Particulate matter is removed from a water stream as it passes through the media bed.
US11247916B2

The disclosure relates to a system for separating waste. The waste separating system includes a compacting assembly, a liquid diverting assembly, and a controller configured to control aspects of the compacting assembly and the liquid diverting assembly. The waste separating system can divert waste liquid from a manufacturing assembly to a liquid diverting assembly, where a controller is configured to selectively control a flow of the waste liquid to a drain or to a storage tank.
US11247908B2

A nanomaterial ribbon patterning method includes: forming a first nanomaterial layer having a first threshold strain on an upper surface of a substrate; forming a second nanomaterial layer on an upper surface of the first nanomaterial layer; forming a thin layer having a second threshold strain smaller than the first threshold strain on an upper surface of the second nanomaterial layer; generating plural cracks on the thin layer and the second nanomaterial layer by applying tensile force to the substrate; placing a mask on an upper surface of the thin layer; removing the mask and peeling off the sacrificial layer on the upper surface of the thin layer; and removing the sacrificial layer to form a nanomaterial ribbon pattern.
US11247901B2

In an embodiment, a method includes liberating feed atoms and forming at least one nanotube from the liberated feed atoms. Feed atoms disposed over a front side of a substrate are liberated in response to electromagnetic radiation that propagates from the back side of the substrate, through the substrate, to the front side of the substrate. And, from the liberated feed atoms, at least one nanotube is formed over the front side of the substrate in response to at least one catalyst separate from the substrate and disposed over the front side of the substrate and over the feed atoms.
US11247900B2

An electrical discharge ozone generation cell has first and second electrode base plates which are separated by a nonconductive flat spacer plate. Within a central opening in the spacer plate is fitted an electrode plate in close contact with the first electrode base plate. A dielectric plate in close contact with the second electrode base plate and with the spacer plate helps define a gas discharge chamber with the interior edges of the spacer plate and the electrode plate. Gaskets on the two sides of the spacer plate around the central opening displaced away from the interior edges of the spacer plate ensure a gas seal for the electrical discharge chamber.
US11247897B2

A system and method for converting (dry reforming) natural gas (methane) and carbon dioxide via reformer catalyst in a dry reformer into syngas including carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and discharging the syngas to a Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor. Supplemental hydrogen is generated via water electrolysis and added to the syngas in route to the FT reactor to increase the molar ratio of hydrogen to carbon monoxide in the syngas. The syngas may be converted via FT catalyst in the FT reactor into FT waxes.
US11247895B2

A semiconductor device includes a first region; a second region that is peripheral to the first region; a substrate having a first surface and a second surface arranged opposite to the first surface; a stress-sensitive sensor disposed in the first region at the first surface of the substrate; a back end of line (BEOL) stack disposed on the first surface of the semiconductor chip that extends laterally from the MEMS element, in the first region, into the second region; a first cavity formed in the BEOL stack that exposes the sensitive area of the stress-sensitive sensor, wherein the first cavity extends entirely through the BEOL stack over the first region thereby exposing a sensitive area of the stress-sensitive sensor; and at least one stress-decoupling trench laterally spaced from the stress-sensitive sensor and laterally spaced from the first cavity with a portion of the BEOL stack interposed between.
US11247891B1

An automated liquid dispensing attachment monitors and controls preparation of drinks poured from bottles. The automated liquid dispensing attachment attaches to a bottle and senses multiple aspects of the pouring of the drink, and based on the sensor outputs, monitors and controls the flow of fluids from the bottle through the attachment. The automated liquid dispensing attachment communicates with other electronic devices to enable individualized control and monitoring, and data aggregation and analysis.
US11247878B2

The present disclosure discloses an operating method of a wind power jib of a crane and a crane, and relates to the field of engineering machinery. The method includes the following steps: rotatably connecting a main boom and a wind power jib; overturning the wind power jib to a first preset position by using a traction means of the crane; contacting a cushioning member with the wind power jib provided at the first preset position; further drawing the wind power jib to overturn to a second preset position; releasing the traction means, such that the wind power jib overturns automatically under the effect of self gravity and a cushioning member until the wind power jib is overturned in position.
US11247875B2

An STS crane (Ship-to Shore) includes a portal frame structure; a boom which has a portion extending on a ship's side as well as a portion extending on a quay side; a trolley moving along the boom; a hoisting mechanism which has a rope drum for hoisting ropes, whereby the hoisting ropes are routed from the rope drum through boom ends to the trolley; auxiliary trolleys which move along the boom on both sides of the trolley to support and/or tighten the hoisting ropes; and a folding joint on the boom portion extending on the ship's side for folding up the folding portion of the boom extending to the direction of the ship from the folding joint; whereby there are auxiliary trolley rails arranged for the auxiliary trolleys, these auxiliary trolley rails being separate from the trolley rails; and whereby the drive roping of the auxiliary trolleys is divided into two separate and independent drive ropings which have separate and independent drive mechanisms and which are on different sides of the folding joint on the boom.
US11247869B2

Elevator systems having an elevator car located within an elevator shaft, the elevator car moveable between a plurality of floors of a building, a car operating panel located within the elevator car and having a plurality of buttons operable for selection of a destination floor of the plurality of floors, a digital readable marker located within the elevator car that is at least one of scannable and readable by a user device, and a digital storage system having information stored thereon, the information including directory information, wherein the directory information includes information associated with the floors selectable by operation of the plurality of buttons. When a user device scans or reads the digital readable marker, the digital storage system transmits the directory information to the user device so that the user device can display the directory information to a passenger.
US11247864B1

An improved fabric tension control apparatus and method consisting of a fabric handler with a feed roller, an idler roller and a take up roller and where fabric on the feed roller is transferred from the feed roller past the idler roller to the take up roller. A feed roller motor is connected with the feed roller and a take up roller motor is connected with the take up roller. A motion sensor tracks speed of rotation of the idler roller. A feed roller driver is connected with the feed roller motor and a take up roller driver is connected with the take up roller motor. A controller is connected with the feed roller driver, the take up roller driver and the motion sensor where the controller receives the speed of rotation of the idler roller from the motion sensor and where the controller sends speed adjustment instructions to the take up roller driver and the feed roller driver and where the speed adjustment instructions are sent to the feed roller motor and the take up roller motor such that the speed of the take up roller and the feed roller are adjusted such that the speed of the idler roller is constant so as to maintain a desired tension on the fabric as it is transferred.
US11247861B2

A medium conveying apparatus includes a conveyance roller to convey a medium, a motor to drive the conveyance roller, a signal generator to output a pulse signal, a pulse width of which changes according to a rotation speed of the motor, and a processor to rotate the conveyance roller by controlling the motor, and detect a fluctuation of the pulse width caused by a load fluctuation when the conveyance roller conveys a medium to determine a thickness of the medium according to the pulse width.
US11247860B2

A sheet conveying apparatus includes a sheet conveyance section, a roller pair unit, first and second guides, and a movable guide including an upstream portion extending upstream in the sheet conveying direction with respect to the nip portion and a downstream portion extending downstream in the sheet conveying direction with respect to the nip portion. The roller pair unit nips the sheet, warps the sheet in a case where a leading end of the sheet conveyed by the sheet conveyance section comes into contact with the roller pair unit, and conveys the sheet. The first guide opposes a first side of the sheet and guides the sheet. The second guide opposes a second side of the sheet. The movable guide opposes the first side of the sheet and moves in such a manner that the downstream portion of the movable guide moves closer to or away from the second guide.
US11247846B2

A conveyor controller for being implemented into a conveyor system includes control circuitry and one or more network interfaces for coupling with other conveyor controllers. In one embodiment, the control circuitry configured for detecting whether another conveyor controller is connected and to determine which network interface is used in order to set the direction of the conveyor system. In another embodiment, the control circuitry is configured, to receive configuration data from a conveyor controller connected to a network interface, and to detect if another conveyor controller is and to transmit configuration message to another conveyor controller that includes additional configuration data associated with the conveyor controller. In still another embodiment, the control circuitry transmits configuration data to a replacement conveyor controller upon getting a request from the replacement conveyor controller that has been connected to a network interface.
US11247843B2

Warehouse automation and methods of controlling material flow can be used to streamline order fulfillment processes. For example, according to some embodiments described herein, the inventory capacity of a mobile robot field is enhanced by vertically expanding the storage space that is readily accessible by mobile robots that facilitate an order sortation process. In result, the handling of inventoried items is reduced, and the efficiency of order fulfillment processes is increased.
US11247838B2

The present invention relates to a coupling device (1) for connection to a flexible container (3) comprising a plastic foil for dispense of food product (2) in fluid form out of the same, comprising an outlet valve (10) with a first end comprising at least one hole-creating part (11) for penetration of the container on connection to the same and a through-flow channel (20) which merges into a second end for further transfer of food product.
US11247837B1

A dispenser actuator assembly (100) actuates a dispenser (10). The dispenser (10) is a plastic ampoule (10) having a container (48) having an outer wall (50) and membrane (52) collectively defining a first chamber (54) containing a flowable material (M). The membrane (52) has a weld seam (56). The actuator assembly (100) has a base member (102) configured to mount on the container (48). A fracturing mechanism (116) is operably connected to the base member (102). The fracturing mechanism (116) has a first extending member (132a) and a second extending member (132b), the first extending member (132a) and the second extending member (132b) positioned on the base member (102) in opposed relation. Each extending member (132a,132b) has a projection (150a,150b) positioned proximate the membrane (52). In response to deflection of the extending members (132a,132b) towards one another, the projections (150a,150b) are configured to deflect the outer wall (50) proximate the membrane (52) wherein the weld seam (56) fractures to create an opening through the membrane (56) to allow the flowable material (M) to pass therethrough.
US11247833B2

A storage box includes a wall including: a packaging member; and a heat transfer body and a cold storage agent that are stored in the packaging member. The cold storage agent is disposed closer to an outer surface of the storage box than the heat transfer body is. Consequently, a chill from the cold storage agent spreads over the heat transfer body, and the chill is transferred to an inside of the storage box through the heat transfer body. Thus, a temperature can be more homogeneously maintained in the storage box.
US11247830B2

A bottom surface member of a container defines an xy plane, and a side surface member defines an xz plane and a yz plane. A protection member includes a receiving portion having a receiving surface parallel to the xz plane and a support portion integrally formed with the receiving portion. The receiving portion includes a first flat plate portion that includes the receiving surface and is parallel to the xz plane. The support portion includes a contact portion that is in contact with a side surface of the side surface member and a second flat plate portion parallel to the yz plane.
US11247829B2

An inflatable pouch includes a bladder formed from an inflatable web and an outer skin formed from a film. The bladder includes a bladder pouch that includes a bottom portion at a folded edge of the inflatable web, front and back portions on either side of the folded edge, and sides where the front and back portions are sealed to each other. The outer skin includes an outer skin pouch that includes a bottom portion at a folded edge of the film, front and back portions on either side of the folded edge, and sides where the front and back portions are attached to each other. The bladder is attached to the outer skin at a tack area such that the sides of the bladder pouch and the outer skin pouch are not directly attached to the sides of the outer skin pouch.
US11247818B1

A lid of a container, particularly beverage container, comprising an opening for emptying the container, fitted with guides formed on two opposite walls and with a slide piece for opening and reclosing the said opening, where there are two catches formed on the top surface of the slide piece, the catches fitted slidingly in the opening on the said guides, and where the slide piece is fitted with technical means for shifting the slide piece from the closed position to the open position and backwards, is characterised in that the surfaces (2a) of the catches (2) of the slide piece (1) which cooperate with the guides (4) are inclined at an acute angle (α) with respect to the top surface of the slide piece (1) positioned under the said surfaces (2a) of the catches (2).
US11247814B2

The disclosure provides a transportation bag particularly suitable for carrying articles that can be rolled-up such as yoga-pilates mats, elongated articles such as instruments, toys, or bottles as well as, blueprints or garments such as suits or shirts. The bag may be used as a foam roller when not being used for transportation. The disclosure further relates to methods of storing, packing, and displaying rolled yoga mats and garments.
US11247813B2

A container assembly comprised of a sleeve can be provided so as to circumscribe an underlying container and fixedly coupled to the underlying container at one or more portions of the underlying container. The container can have sidewalls with a surface geometry or geometries that prevent or make difficult the application of either a pre-printed pressure sensitive label or direct printing. Thus, the sleeve can have a decoration of label provided therein, while as the same time optionally allowing viewing access to the underlying container. The sleeve can be supported by the underlying container and may have a rigidity less than a rigidity of the sidewall(s) with the surface geometry of the underlying container.
US11247812B2

Separation members are described herein that prevent two stacked storage containers from sticking to each other. In some embodiments, the separation member can have a slot in a first body portion configured to receive a handle of one storage container and have a second body portion that is configured to rest on a top edge of a another storage container. Thus, the separation member is readily positioned between two storage containers to limit the distance that the top storage container can descend into the bottom storage container to prevent a detrimental suction forming between the two storage containers. The separation member can be integrated with a storage container during the manufacturing process or can retrofit existing storage containers.
US11247807B2

A healthcare product package (10) comprises a container (2) for containing a healthcare product and an information unit (1) which is located inside the container. The information unit (1) comprises a carrier (3), for instance a base card, and at least one information article (4, 6, 8) attached to the carrier (3).
US11247799B2

A container for a food product generally includes a tray and a cover attached to the tray by ultrasonic bonds. The tray includes a bottom having a perimeter and a sidewall extending along the perimeter of the bottom to form a cavity sized to receive the food product. The sidewall defines an opening for the food product to be placed into the cavity. The tray also includes a flange extending from an edge of the sidewall and around the opening. The flange has a single layer first area with a first thickness and a second area comprised of at least two layers with a second thickness. The second thickness is at least twice as thick as the first thickness. The ultrasonic bonds extend along the entire sidewall of the container to form a continuous, hermetic seal between the cover and the tray around the opening.
US11247788B2

A connecting-separating device is for separating satellites from launchers or satellite dispensers. Circumferentially aligned clamps can be coupled on their inner face on rings of separable elements constituting the union interface between the two separable elements. A release mechanism connects two of the clamps through one of the ends of the clamps. The two clamps are connected by the release mechanism include a protrusion protruding from their outer faces at the end opposite the end connecting with the release mechanism. The rest of the clamps include a protrusion protruding from their outer faces at each of their ends adjacent the adjacent clamps, so that each pair of clamps adjacent and not connected to one another by the release mechanism are connected to one another by connectors connecting the protrusions.
US11247784B2

Gas-flammability sensing systems and methods may be used to determine the flammability of gas mixtures in measurement volumes such as a fuel tank (e.g., an aircraft fuel tank). Gas-flammability sensing systems include a test cell structured to receive a gas sample, a heater in thermal communication with the test cell, and a gas meter configured to measure a physical property of the gas sample within the test cell related to the combustion state of the gas sample. The heater is configured to heat the gas sample to an elevated temperature less than the autoignition temperature of the gas sample. Methods of determining the flammability of a gas sample include collecting the gas sample, heating the gas sample to the elevated temperature, measuring the physical property of the gas sample after heating, and determining the flammability of a gas sample based upon the measured physical property.
US11247766B2

A leading edge structure for providing an aerodynamic surface of an aircraft is disclosed having a skin structure, the skin structure providing an outer aerodynamic surface and an inner surface, both surfaces extending in a chordwise and spanwise direction of the structure, and a plurality of structural members, each structural member being connected to the inner surface of the skin structure and extending in the chordwise direction along the inner surface, wherein the structural members are integrally formed with the inner surface of the skin structure. The disclosure is also related to an aircraft wing, aircraft tailplane, wing box structure, wing or wing structure and an aircraft including the leading edge structure.
US11247765B2

A method for energy generation includes receiving, at a carbon negative energy generation system, input including calcium oxide and water and reacting, within a reaction chamber of the carbon negative energy generation system, the calcium oxide and water to release energy and generate calcium hydroxide. The method further includes directing, by the carbon negative energy generation system, the released energy to facilitate propulsion or onboard electricity generation and dispensing, by the carbon negative energy generation system, the calcium hydroxide into the ocean to sequester atmospheric CO2.
US11247749B2

A drive assemblage is described for a vehicle drivable by muscle energy and/or—in particular additionally—by motor energy, to an electric bicycle, e-bike, or pedelec, having: a crank spindle rotatable around a rotation axis for receiving a first torque that is generated in particular by muscle energy; and a transfer device that is embodied to transfer the first torque from the crank spindle to an output drive element couplable to a drive wheel of the vehicle, and is embodied, by way of an—in particular automatically—shiftable spur gear transmission, for a variable conversion ratio, in which: the spur gear transmission has a first shiftable spur gear transmission and a second shiftable spur gear transmission separate therefrom; the first shiftable spur gear transmission and the second shiftable spur gear transmission have a common transmission output to the couplable output drive element; and the first shiftable spur gear transmission and the second shiftable spur gear transmission are couplable alternatingly and alternatively into the power and torque flow of the transfer device.
US11247748B1

A pedal includes a pedal body and a shaft. The pedal body has a shaft hole and a ball bearing disposed in the shaft hole. The ball bearing has an inner sleeve and an outer sleeve. The shaft has a locking end with a large diameter and a pivoting end with a small diameter. The pivoting end has a thread section screwed by a fixing nut which presses the inner sleeve of the ball bearing. The outer sleeve is fixed by a cap mounted in an opening of the shaft hole. The shaft is received in the shaft hole and fixed by the fixing nut. The shaft axially passes through the ball bearing. An end of the fixing nut is integrally formed with a flange to press the inner sleeve.
US11247745B2

The electric vehicle includes a moving base in which a front base with front wheels and a rear base with rear wheels are coupled to be extendable in a front-rear direction of a vehicle, an upper frame in which upper ends of a right and left pair of frames provided upward from both right and left side portions of the rear base are coupled by an upper end frame extending in a vehicle width direction, a seat configured to be movable between a seating position and a folded position, a seat operating part operated by a user seated at the seat, a rear operating part operated by the user in a standing and walking attitude from behind the seat, a rear cover frame extending in the vehicle width direction, wherein an article accommodation portion is formed between the upper end frame and the rear cover frame.
US11247741B2

The authentication device for saddled vehicle applied to a saddled vehicle including a FOB key that transmits an authentication signal, a control unit that receives and authenticates the authentication signal, a kick starter that starts an engine, and a generator that rotates in conjunction with an operation on the kick starter is configured such that, due to operating the kick starter, the engine is started, and electric power generated by the generator is supplied to the control unit, wherein the control unit stops the engine when the authentication signal is not authenticated before a lapse of a first predetermined time after the control unit is started.
US11247730B2

A vehicle body front structure includes a front glass, a front pillar having a subsidiary glass provided at further outward in a vehicle width direction of a vehicle body than the front glass, a front pillar upper part provided between a roof and an upper member of the vehicle body and forming a load path of a front collision together with the upper member, and a stud provided in front of the front pillar upper part and configured to support an end portion of the front glass and an end portion of the subsidiary glass, and a garnish configured to cover the stud from an outer side of a passenger compartment.
US11247728B2

A vehicle body structure including: a pair of left and right first vehicle body frame members manufactured by die casting, and are provided at vehicle transverse direction outer sides of a vehicle, and are provided so as to extend in a vehicle longitudinal direction; a pair of left and right second vehicle body frame members that are made of steel plates, and are joined to front end portions of the first vehicle body frame members from substantially vehicle transverse direction inner sides, and are provided so as to extend in the vehicle longitudinal direction; and projecting portions that are provided at the first vehicle body frame members at further toward a vehicle rear side than positions where the second vehicle body frame members are joined to the first vehicle body frame members, and that project-out toward a vehicle cabin inner side with respect to the first vehicle body frame members.
US11247723B2

A traveling vehicle includes a left drive wheel and a right drive wheel which are driven independently by a left driving section and a right driving section, a manual operation unit configured to provide a left speed instruction for adjusting a rotational speed of the left drive wheel and a right speed instruction for adjusting a rotational speed of the right drive wheel and a drive control unit configured to control driving of the left driving section and the right driving section based on the left speed instruction and the right speed instruction, with using a first control method and a second control method which are provided with different control properties from each other. The drive control unit includes a single mode employing either one of the first control method and the second control method and a composite mode employing the first control mode and the second control mode in time-differentiated combination. In the composite mode, based on a difference between the left speed instruction and the right speed instruction, a combination ratio between the first control method and the second control method is determined.
US11247721B2

Determining a sealing integrity of a steering assembly determining when the steering assembly is performing a steering event, determining an expected pressure change associated with the steering event, and receiving data from the pressure sensing member. During performance of the steering event, the controller analyzes the data from the pressure sensing member and determines when the pressure sensing member detects the expected pressure change and reduces an incident counter. When the pressure sensing member does not detect the expected pressure change, the incident counter is increased.
US11247714B2

A motor-adjustable steering column for a motor vehicle has an outer casing which is held by a support unit that is attachable to a vehicle body. An actuator unit is received in the outer casing to adjust in the longitudinal direction. A steering spindle is coaxially and rotatably mounted in a casing tube in the actuator unit. An adjustment drive and an energy absorbing installation are disposed between the outer casing and the actuator unit. The adjustment drive has a spindle mechanism with a threaded spindle which is rotatably drivable by an electric servomotor engaged in a spindle nut. The energy absorbing installation has at least one energy absorbing element at least indirectly disposed between the spindle nut and the actuator unit. The spindle nut or the threaded spindle has at least one forming element which operatively engages with the energy absorbing element and is plastically deformable.
US11247711B2

A collapsible stroller comprising a handle assembly, a front leg assembly and a rear leg assembly pivotably connected to one another such that the stroller is able to be moved between a folded configuration, where the front leg and handle assemblies are folded to positions substantially adjacent to the rear leg assembly, and an unfolded configuration, where the front leg and handle assemblies are unfolded to positions away from the rear leg assembly, and a link assembly comprising a front member and a rear member pivotally connected to one another, wherein the front member is pivotally connected to an intermediate portion of the front leg assembly and the rear member is pivotally connected to an intermediate portion of the rear leg assembly, such that when the stroller is moved to its folded configuration the front and rear members are folded toward each other to lie substantially adjacent to one another and the front and rear leg assemblies, and when the stroller is moved to its unfolded configuration the front and rear members are folded away from each other and the front and rear leg assemblies such that they are substantially coplanar with one another, and wherein the link assembly further comprises a biasing means for biasing the front and rear link members toward their unfolded positions.
US11247698B2

A system for a vehicle includes one or more processors, one or more memory modules, and machine readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules. The machine readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive one or more images from one or more imaging sensors in the vehicle; identify a first object in a rear seat of the vehicle based on the one or more images; identify a second object attached to the first object based on the one or more images; determine whether the second object is in a set of objects; and output an alert in response to determining that the second object is in the set of objects.
US11247697B2

The disclosure relates to a processing module and associated method for calibrating an object-detection system for a vehicle comprising a plurality of object-detection sensors. The method comprises receiving, from each of a plurality of the object-detection sensors, a value associated with the detection of a marker; and determining a position of each of the object-detection sensors with respect to the vehicle based on the received values associated with the detection of the marker.
US11247696B2

An information processing device collects information used for analyzing communication performed in an in-vehicle network by ECUs including an ECU which performs predetermined control related to a function of an ADAS. The information processing device includes a receiver, a determiner, and a processor. The receiver receives a plurality of items of communication data sequentially transmitted over the in-vehicle network. The determiner detects a control end time which is a time at which the predetermined control ends, and determine an analysis target period including the control end time. The processor classifies the plurality of items of communication data received by the receiver into analysis target communication data received within the analysis target period and non-analysis target communication data received outside the analysis target period. The processor further performs predetermined processing for analysis of the analysis target communication data based on the classification result.
US11247690B2

A driving force control apparatus for controlling a driving force to be transmitted to a wheel includes a processor. The processor is configured to set, when the wheel is idled, a control amount of the driving force to be transmitted to the wheel based on a vehicle acceleration.
US11247688B2

The efficiency of commercial vehicle operations can be facilitated by using a blockchain. The blockchain can be used to track commercial operators and provide a logistical network for swapping operators. An operator identity for an initial operator of a vehicle and a route limitation indicating operator restrictions with respect to a route can be recorded in a blockchain database. Using a vehicle operation history retrieved from the blockchain database for the initial operator, a time frame for operation of the vehicle by the initial operator can be determined based on the route limitation and the vehicle operation history. An operator swap event at a swap location can be coordinated so that control of the vehicle can be transferred from the initial operator to a subsequent operator based on the time frame. The operator swap event and a subsequent operator identity can be recorded in the blockchain database.
US11247686B2

A road surface friction coefficient estimation apparatus for a vehicle includes: a first estimator; a second estimator; and a third estimator. The first estimator estimates a first road surface friction coefficient on a basis of a vehicle information acquired from the vehicle. The second estimator estimates a second road surface friction coefficient on a basis of an external information acquired from an outside of the vehicle. The third estimator estimates a road surface friction coefficient from the first road surface friction coefficient and the second road surface friction coefficient on a basis of a first reliability degree and a second reliability degree, the first reliability degree indicating a reliability of the first road surface friction coefficient, the second reliability degree indicating a reliability of the second road surface friction coefficient.
US11247679B2

A method for the provisional determination of the mass of a motor vehicle, for controlling a starting operation when the motor vehicle is at rest. The method determines the mass of the motor vehicle as a function of inclination information about the motor vehicle or the road on which the motor vehicle is located, and as a function of a force required for releasing an engaged parking lock while the motor vehicle is at rest.
US11247669B2

A method and a system for collision avoidance in a hazardous area (4) of a logistics facility (2) that includes determining a first distance (14) between a stationary hazardous area monitoring apparatus (30) disposed inside the hazardous area, and a first sending and receiving apparatus (13) that disposed on an industrial truck (10, 11, 12) and connected to a control system of the industrial truck, and determining a second distance (24) between the stationary hazardous area monitoring apparatus and a second sending and receiving apparatus disposed on a movable object. A determination is made as to whether the first distance and the second distance are less than or equal to a predeterminable intervention area distance (6), and a collision avoidance action is carried out if both the first distance and the second distance are less than or equal to the predeterminable intervention area distance.
US11247664B2

An HV-ECU performs processing including controlling an engine to be in a non-forced induction operation state when an engine has been on and when an engine stop request has been issued, performing processing for stopping the engine when a predetermined first period has elapsed, restricting forced induction and output when the engine stop request has not been issued and when a current time point is immediately after start of the engine, canceling restriction when a predetermined second period has elapsed, and controlling the engine with a position on a higher rotation speed side than a current operating point along an equal power line being set as an operating point when the current time point is not immediately after start of the engine and when a negative pressure is insufficient.
US11247662B2

An electric drive direction confirmation system and method for a vehicle are provided. The system and method include receiving a gear selector input signal corresponding to a gear selection from an electronic gear selector on the vehicle, and sending a drive command to temporarily urge the vehicle in a direction corresponding to the gear selection.
US11247661B2

It is provided a control device for a hybrid vehicle including a controller configured to control an engine, a first motor, and an automatic transmission and a control method of the hybrid vehicle. The controller is configured to determine whether or not an operation state of the engine is changeable, when an upshift of the hybrid vehicle is performed, decrease torque of an input shaft of the automatic transmission by outputting negative torque acting to decrease the torque of the input shaft of the automatic transmission from the first motor when a prohibition condition that the operation state of the engine is not changeable is established, and decrease engine torque output from the engine to decrease the torque of the input shaft of the automatic transmission to be decreased accompanied by the upshift when the prohibition condition is not established and the operation state of the engine is changeable.
US11247655B2

A hybrid powertrain system includes an electric machine, a torque converter, a transmission, a hydraulic pump, and a controller, and it is arranged to transfer mechanical power to a driveline. The torque converter includes a clutch, a pump, and a turbine, and the electric machine is rotatably coupled to the hydraulic pump and to the torque converter pump. The hydraulic pump is fluidly connected to the transmission, and the controller is operably connected to the electric machine and the torque converter clutch. The controller is executable to determine an operator command, and control the electric machine to spin the hydraulic pump in a speed control mode and control the torque converter clutch in an open state. Upon achieving a desired minimum pump speed, the torque converter clutch is applied in a slip state and the electric machine is controlled in response to the operator command.
US11247649B2

A method for decelerating a vehicle combination including a towing vehicle having a towing vehicle brake system and at least one trailer vehicle having a trailer brake system with an anti-lock brake system includes applying, by the towing vehicle brake system, a brake pressure to pneumatically operable wheel brakes of the towing vehicle according to a desired deceleration specified by a driver, and providing, by the towing vehicle brake system, a trailer brake pressure for the trailer brake system of the at least one trailer vehicle. An electronic brake control unit of the towing vehicle brake system: detects a current actual vehicle deceleration value continuously compares the current actual vehicle deceleration actual value with a maximum deceleration, and, when the current actual vehicle deceleration value reaches or exceeds the maximum deceleration, limits the brake pressure and provides an information signal.
US11247641B2

A wiper blade connector including a body member having a first side wall, a second wall, and a top surface extending between the first and second side walls and a connector securing structure, which may include a rivet passage and an arcuate rivet clip, the arcuate rivet clip extending substantially perpendicular to the rivet passage, and a wiper blade incorporating same.
US11247640B2

A wiper apparatus having an improved structure between a wiper arm tip and a vertebra includes a vertebra having a rod shape and providing elastic resilience to a wiper strip, a connector fixed to the vertebra; and a wiper arm detachably coupled to the connector. The position of the vertebra is above a lower end of an arm tip formed on a free end portion of the wiper arm.
US11247633B1

An occupant restraint system for a seat of a vehicle. The occupant restraint system includes at least a first airbag deployable and at least a first tensioning member. The first airbag is deployable from the seat. The first tensioning member has a first portion for receiving inflation gases and a second portion attachable to the seat at a mounting location. The tensioning member including a least a first webbing elongated between the first portion and the second portion. The first webbing is at least partially constructed of a first inflatable tubular webbing adapted to receive inflation gases for tensioning the tensioning member and delivering inflation gases to the airbag upon airbag deployment.
US11247626B2

A method for ascertaining a state value representing a condition of a surface, in particular, of a road, traveled upon by a vehicle. The vehicle includes at least one inertial sensor. The method is characterized in that the state value is increased or decreased as a function of at least one first signal acquired by the inertial sensor.
US11247623B2

Provided herewith is a customizable bumper system for a vehicle and a related method of customizing. The customizable bumper system includes a central weldment that bolts onto a frame of the vehicle. The central weldment includes a height adjustable hitch receiver attachment structure in the form of an array of parallel holes for attaching a hitch receiver at a selected hitch height position along the central weldment. The central weldment also includes a pair of height adjustable extension attachment structures in the form of arrays of parallel holes for selectively attaching a respective pair of lateral bumper extension members upon which one or more selected light components are optionally installed. These lateral bumper extension members are also attached at a selected extension height position. Additional component attachment structures enable one aftermarket components to be optionally installed upon the central weldment.
US11247619B2

A slide door harness includes a wiring material, a vehicle body-side fixing portion provided in a vehicle body to rotatably hold an end of the wiring material below a lower end of an inner surface member of a slide door, and a door-side fixing portion provided on the slide door to rotatably hold another end of the wiring material, and the door-side fixing portion includes a holding portion configured to hold the another end of the wiring material toward the lower end side of the inner surface member, a first rotating shaft configured to allow the holding portion to rotate around a first rotation axis, and a second rotating shaft configured to allow the holding portion and the first rotating shaft to integrally rotate around a second rotation axis intersecting the first rotation axis.
US11247618B2

A thermal radiation shield for the floors of an RV unit, and for the various floor, ceiling, sidewalls of a slide out for said RV unit. The shield includes a low-emissivity, heat reflecting film that includes a metal coating layer, preferably vapor deposited, further protected by a layer of durable PET film.
US11247614B2

A detachable footrest assembly is provided. The assembly includes a frame having a first portion and a second portion. A footrest extends from the first portion of the frame. A first mount positioned such that the first mount is adapted to be received into a lower door hinge of a vehicle with a first pin that extends from a first mating portion which is threaded and which extends in a direction away from the first portion of the frame. A second mount is spaced apart from the first mount and positioned such that the second mount is adapted to be received into an upper door hinge of a vehicle with a second pin that extends from a second mating portion which is threaded and which extends in a direction away from the first portion of the frame. The first and second pins are substantially aligned.
US11247605B2

Information related to a vehicle can be displayed by projecting an image based on the information on a road surface or the like. An image projection apparatus that projects an image includes: an acquisition unit that acquires information to be displayed; and an image projection unit that projects the image based on the information to be displayed acquired by the acquisition unit.
US11247602B2

A light assembly includes a fixture housing, a gesture sensor assembly, a light source supported by the fixture housing, and a reflector supported by the fixture housing and operative to control direction of light emitted from the light source. The gesture sensor assembly includes a gesture sensor operable to provide a sensing electrical field sensitive to gestures executed a predetermined distance from the gesture sensor.
US11247600B2

A vehicle carrier mountable to a vehicle frame, and a method for using same, including a tiltable subframe pivotally attached to a rear end of the vehicle frame, and a slidable bed with a transverse hinge mounted on and slidably attached to the subframe. The subframe is tiltable, enabling a rear portion of the bed to lay generally horizontally flat along the ground, and thereby provide an essentially zero-degree loading angle for a vehicle to be transported, while the front portion of the bed remains slidably attached to the inclined subframe.
US11247589B2

A vehicle seat includes: a chamber in which at least a seat-front-surface side is covered with a pad and which circulates the air blown from a front surface of a seat through the pad; a fan configured to send air into the chamber; and a support body which supports the chamber so as to be able to sink in an acting direction of a load applied to the surface of the seat. The chamber includes a first region and a second region, and the first region and the second region are configured to allow subduction of the chamber independently of each other.
US11247587B2

A vehicle seat and an angle adjustment device are provided. The angle adjustment device includes an unlock cam, a ratchet wheel provided with internal teeth, and a plurality of slide blocks disposed circumferentially and provided with external teeth. The angle adjustment device further includes a plurality of extension and retraction blocks corresponding to the slide blocks, wherein the extension and retraction block is capable of driving the slide block to move outwards in a radial direction so as to engage the internal teeth with the external teeth. A second elastic member is provided between two adjacent extension and retraction blocks, and two ends of the second elastic member in a deformation direction are respectively connected to the unlock cam and the extension and retraction block.
US11247579B2

A system and a method for managing a charging station allow charging a battery of a connected autonomous electric vehicle for carrying passengers in a controlled environment. A controller connected to the charging station determines and modulates a charging rate with which the charging station charges the battery based on a duration between a start of charging the vehicle and a forecasted time of start of duty mode of the vehicle. The duration is determined by the controller based on a forecasted passenger load as a function of time.
US11247574B2

A vehicle lower section structure includes, a suspension member; a contactless charging module attached to the suspension member and configured to receive power from a power supply module without contact; and an electrically conductive under-cover disposed adjacent to the contactless charging module in a vehicle front-rear direction at a vehicle lower side of the suspension member, and covering the suspension member from the vehicle lower side.
US11247563B2

Methods and systems for a vehicle transmission are provided. In one example, a vehicle transmission system is provided that includes a first planetary gear set rotationally coupled to a second planetary gear set, a first electrical machine rotationally coupled to a sun gear in the first planetary gear set, and a second electrical machine rotationally coupled to a sun gear in the second planetary gear set. The transmission system also includes an inter-axle differential including a third planetary gear set rotationally coupled to a first axle and a second axle and selectively rotationally coupled to the first planetary gear set and the second planetary gear set, wherein the inter-axle differential is configured to selectively enable and disable speed differentiation between the first and the second axles.
US11247551B2

A hydraulic engine system includes a first hydraulic pump-motor coupled to an engine and a second hydraulic pump-motor coupled to an electric machine. A hydraulic link fluidly connects the first and the second hydraulic pump-motors. During a cranking operation mode, the electric machine operates as a motor and transfers power via the second hydraulic pump-motor, the hydraulic link and the first hydraulic pump-motor to provide cranking torque to the engine. During a generator operation mode, the power generated by the engine is transferred via the first hydraulic pump-motor, the hydraulic link, and the second hydraulic pump-motor to the electric machine, operating as a generator, to generate electricity.
US11247544B2

A folding top for a convertible vehicle, is provided having a top linkage and a top cover which may have a first fabric cut and a second fabric cut connected to the first fabric cut. The two fabric cuts may be connected via a stretchable portion which is made of an elastically stretchable fabric whose stretchability is greater than that of the two fabric cuts.
US11247543B1

A fully-embedded vehicle cover includes at least two mounting rods and a vehicle cover. The mounting rods are parallel to each other. The vehicle cover is laid on the mounting rods. The fully-embedded vehicle cover further includes a front railing and a depressor. The front railing is fixed on the vehicle cover and perpendicular to the mounting rods. The front railing is detachably matched with the mounting rods. The depressor is rotatably mounted on the mounting rods, is parallel to the mounting rod, and cooperates with the mounting rod to clamp the vehicle cover.
US11247534B2

The present disclosure relates to a method of controlling a compressor, and may include: pilot driving which drives a compressor of an air conditioner by receiving a start signal; determining whether oil is short which compares the oil amount of the compressor, driven in the pilot driving, with a predetermined reference oil amount; normal driving which maintains the driving of the compressor when it is determined that the oil amount is the reference oil amount or more; and stopping which stops the driving of the compressor when it is determined that the oil amount is smaller than the reference oil amount. Accordingly, by stopping the compressor when the oil is short, it is possible to prevent damage to the compressor.
US11247523B2

Systems and methods for controlling wheel motion during a collision are provided. A retaining member may be connectable between a vehicle frame and a wheel assembly to control motion of the wheel assembly during a collision of a vehicle with an object. The retaining member may include one or more of a first attachment point connecting the retaining member to the vehicle frame, a second attachment point connecting the retaining member to the wheel assembly, a retaining member routing, and/or one or more break-away connections attaching the retaining member to the vehicle frame and/or to the wheel assembly. The first and second attachment points, retaining member routing, and/or break-away connections may be selected to control motion of the wheel assembly within a preferred path to control loading between the object and the vehicle.
US11247520B2

A vehicle maneuvering apparatus includes an imaging device configured to capture image data and a controller in communication with a vehicle maneuvering system. The controller is configured to identify a coupler position of a trailer in the image data and compare a coupler height of the coupler position with a hitch height of a hitch ball. In response to the coupler height being insufficient to clear the hitch height, the controller is further configured to calculate a target position laterally offset from the coupler position and communicate the target position to the vehicle maneuvering system.
US11247518B1

A weight distributing hitch assembly for towing a trailer behind a towing vehicle is disclosed having spring arms pivotally mounted to a hitch head so that the distal ends of the spring arms may be rotated downward relative to a spring arm support mounted on a side of the trailer for loading the spring arm on the spring arm support. The spring arms are preferably rotated using an actuator connected between the hitch head and at least one of the spring arms for applying a downward rotational force on the spring arm relative to said spring arm support.
US11247513B2

A groove bottom is formed symmetrically about a center line of a circumferential groove in a tread plan view and includes groove bottom protruding portions protruding radially outwardly from a groove bottom reference surface parallel to a tread surface at a deepest position of a groove depth. Groove bottom protruding portions have a first groove bottom surface extending radially and a second groove bottom surface having an angle larger than the first groove bottom surface. Groove walls include groove wall protruding portions protruding toward an inner side of the circumferential groove from a groove wall reference surface as a circumferential surface at a widest position of a groove width. The groove wall protruding portions each has a first groove wall width surface and a second groove wall surface having an angle larger than the first groove wall width surface.
US11247505B2

There is provided an optical structure having a quantization phase difference structure on one surface of a quantization phase difference structure layer, wherein in the quantization phase difference structure, a plurality of quantization projecting portions in a constant size and a plurality of quantization recessed portions in a constant size are aligned, wherein a multiple diffraction region has the quantization phase difference structure where ribbed projecting portions, in which the quantization projecting portions are aligned in one direction, are arranged adjacent to and alternately with groove-like recessed portions, in which the quantization recessed portions are aligned parallel to the ribbed projecting portions, and wherein the multiple diffraction region is a quantization phase difference structure configured to reproduce a plurality of reproduction points discrete in one direction and arranged regularly.
US11247503B2

A decoloring apparatus includes a sheet conveying unit, a scanner, a decoloring unit, and a controller. The decoloring unit decolors the image on the sheet conveyed through the sheet conveying unit. The decoloring unit is positioned downstream of the scanner in a sheet conveying direction. A distance along the sheet conveying direction between the scanner and the decoloring unit is shorter than a length of a first predetermined sheet size and longer than a length of a second predetermined sheet size. A controller determines whether the sheet conveyed by the sheet conveying unit is the first predetermined sheet size or the second predetermined sheet size. The controller performs a mode limiting process if the sheet size is determined to be the first predetermined sheet size.
US11247500B2

Turning device for a self-inking stamp includes a housing and an actuating bracket. The housing has, on each of two opposite side walls, one control cam curved at least in sections for a turning shaft. The bracket is connected and displaceable relative to the housing. On each of two limbs arranged parallel to the housing side walls, the bracket has one turning shaft guide arranged transversely to a displacement direction of the bracket relative to the housing. The guide and the control cam overlap partially at least on a first side and in at least one position of the bracket relative to the housing and configure an opening which is continuous from an outer side, so that a turning shaft is introduceable in the longitudinal direction from the outside into the turning device. The guides have in each case one displaceably mounted sliding bush with a turning shaft bearing.
US11247492B2

A first light emitter emits light toward a sheet. A first light receiver receives first reflected light from the sheet. A second light emitter is arranged downstream of the first light emitter in a conveyance direction of the sheet and emits light toward the sheet. A second light receiver receives second reflected light from the sheet. A measuring section measures first and second received light quantities of the first reflected light and the second reflected light. A moisture content calculator calculates a change in a moisture content of the ink in the sheet based on a difference between first and second moisture contents. The first moisture content is based on the first received light quantity and the second moisture content is based on the second received light quantity. A curling amount calculator calculates a curling amount of the sheet based on the change in the moisture content.
US11247485B2

A method for printing a three-dimensional object includes printing a structural layer onto a three-dimensional object, printing a first color layer onto a first region of the structural layer, and printing a second color layer onto a second region of the structural layer. The first region includes a first structural thickness, and the second region includes a second structural thickness, which is different than the first structural thickness. The first color layer includes a first color and a first color thickness, and the first color thickness and the first structural thickness in combination form a target thickness. The second color layer includes a second color and a second color thickness, and the second color thickness and the second structural thickness in combination form the target thickness.
US11247483B2

Provided is an image forming apparatus and a method, an abnormal nozzle detection method, and a printed matter manufacturing method that can suppress the consumption of an extra medium and can efficiently specify an abnormal nozzle. The image forming apparatus (10) includes a print head (16) that has a plurality of nozzles, an association unit (40) that associates the nozzle with a partial region in a user image, a first correction unit that performs a first correction assuming that the associated nozzle is abnormal in at least one of the partial regions, a streak detection unit (44) that detects streak information from a print result of the user image including the partial region subjected to the first correction, and a nozzle state estimation unit (46) that estimates a state of the nozzle on the basis of the streak information of two or more partial regions in a single user image.
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