Document Document Title
US07941866B2 Semiconductor apparatus and signal processing system
A semiconductor apparatus of the present invention includes a first to a fourth external terminals and a decoding circuit. The semiconductor apparatus in a first mode inputs a first encoded data from the first external terminal, decodes the first encoded data by the decoding circuit to generate a first decoded data, outputs the first decoded data from the fourth external terminal, and the semiconductor apparatus in a second mode, inputs a second encoded data from the first external terminal, outputs the second encoded data input from the first external terminal from the second external terminal, inputs the second encoded data output from the second external terminal from the third external terminal, decodes the second encoded data input from the third external terminal by the decoding circuit to generate a second decoded data and outputs the second decoded data from the fourth external terminal.
US07941864B2 Audio-video output apparatus, authentication processing method, and audio-video processing system
An audio-video output apparatus of the present invention outputs at least one of audio data and video data to a receiving apparatus using High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) communications. The audio-video output apparatus includes a list holding unit, an authenticating unit, a list acquiring unit, an updating unit, and an apparatus verifying unit. The list holding unit holds an unauthorized apparatus list which shows information about unauthorized apparatuses. The authenticating unit performs first apparatus authentication to verify whether or not the receiving apparatus is an authorized apparatus using the unauthorized apparatus list held by the list holding unit, and performs second apparatus authentication at regular intervals to verify the receiving apparatus is an authorized apparatus. The list acquiring unit acquires another unauthorized apparatus list. When the unauthorized apparatus list acquired by the list acquiring unit is newer than the unauthorized apparatus list held by the list holding unit, the updating unit updates the unauthorized apparatus list held by the list holding unit to the unauthorized apparatus list acquired by the list acquiring unit. When the unauthorized apparatus list is updated by the updating unit, the apparatus verifying unit verifies whether or not the receiving apparatus is an authorized apparatus using the updated unauthorized apparatus list, the verification being performed in parallel with the second apparatus authentication performed by the authenticating unit.
US07941858B2 Access licensing for an automation device
The invention relates to a method and a system for access licensing for an automation device. In order to simplify access licensing for an automation device it is proposed to use client-side licenses. Thus the license is no longer linked to the automation device.
US07941857B2 Data network and method for checking nodes of a data network
The invention provides a data network, systems and methods for checking nodes of a data network that are used for detecting whether a privacy policy concerning an information is maintained. The information comprises a mark corresponding to the privacy policy. The mark defines the storage place or the accessing paths or the transferring paths of the information. The mark is automatically searchable. The mark is searched, analyzed and checked as to whether the privacy policy is maintained. The advantage of the system is that vulnerabilities of systems for protecting confidential information may be detected a long time before an attack on the confidential information occurs.
US07941853B2 Distributed system and method for the detection of eThreats
The invention relates to a distributed system for detecting eThreats that propagate in a network, which comprises: (a) graphs database storing at least one propagation graph, each graph describing the typical propagation over time of one eThreat class or a legitimate executable class within the network; (b) plurality of agents that are distributed in corresponding plurality of hosts within the network, each of said agents continuously monitoring the corresponding host and reporting to a Central Decision Maker (CDM) the identity of any new suspected executable, and the time in which said suspected executable has been first detected by said agent; (c) a CDM for: (c.1) receiving all said reports from said plurality of agents; (c.2) creating from said reports for each suspected executable a corresponding propagation graph which reflects the propagation characteristics over time of said suspected executable within the network, and (c.3) comparing each of said created graphs with said stored at least one propagation graph; (c.4) upon finding a similarity above a predefined threshold between a created graph and one of the stored graphs, concluding respectively that said executable belongs to the class as defined by said stored graph; and (c.5) conveying said conclusion to said agents, for optionally taking an appropriate action.
US07941849B2 System and method for audit tracking
User activities in various applications are audited using a client-resident agent. An alias for an individual is associated with a user profile for the individual user. The user profile may contain data pertaining to the user's activities within one or more applications. Data in the user profile may be used to determine which actions are audited, and how the audit data is used.
US07941848B2 Elevating rights
System(s), techniques, and/or method(s) (“tools”) are described that enable a user to elevate his or her rights. The tools may do so by switching a user to an account having higher rights or a different, higher-rights context of a same account. The tools may elevate a user's rights after a user enters a secure access sequence, such as Control+Alt+Delete, clicks on a button, or enters credentials. The tools may also enable a user to identify tasks that need higher rights to be performed by visually correlating graphic indicia with these tasks.
US07941839B2 Countermeasures to automated methods and processes for establishing media streaming connections through firewalls and proxy servers
A streaming media application attempting to establish a streaming media connection first attempts to establish the connection directly using a format such as UDP. If no direct connection can be established, the media application attempts to establish a connection through a proxy server using proxy server information obtained from installed software components such as browsers that manage Internet connections. If necessary, an auto configuration web page is utilized to obtain the proxy server address. The invention also includes methods for blocking streaming media connections.
US07941834B2 Secure web-based user authentication
Techniques for authenticating a user are described. In one implementation, a user requests access to protected information or resources by providing a user name and a password to a web server that controls access to the information or resources. If the user name and password match a known user profile, the web server retrieves a user identifier (e.g., a personal identification number) and constructs a translation table around the user identifier. The translation table includes the values that constitute the user identifier, random representations of each value, visual images that represent each value, and random image names for each visual image. The information in the translation table is then used to generate a user interface that allows the user to enter his or her user identifier via the user's computing device without exposing the actual user identifier values to the computing device.
US07941832B2 Authentication device, authentication system, and verification method for authentication device
At startup, divided data blocks are received from other authentication devices and are assembled together with the local divided data block to reconstitute first authentication data. After a prescribed time interval, divided data blocks are again received from other authentication devices and are assembled together with the local divided data block to reconstitute second authentication data. The first authentication data and the second authentication data are cross-checked, and the legitimacy of the other authentication devices is decided; in the event that the other authentication devices are legitimate devices, one authentication device among the multiplicity of authentication devices re-divides the second authentication data into a multiplicity of divided data blocks for re-distribution, and a process of reconstituting the authentication data from the divided data, cross-checking the reconstituted data with the first authentication data, and deciding whether the other authentication devices are legitimate devices is repeated at prescribed intervals.
US07941828B2 Method and apparatus for simultaneous viewing of two isolated data sources
A method and apparatus for simultaneously displaying data from different sources. A data processing system includes a display unit, data processing units, and data diodes. The display unit has controls that are capable of generating control signals and the display unit is capable of simultaneously displaying the data from the different sources. The data processing units are arranged in a hierarchy of rankings. Each data processing unit is capable of accessing one of the sources. The data diodes are in the connections carrying control signals from the controls to data processing units and are in connections from one data processing unit to another data processing unit. Data is capable of moving only from a lower ranked data processing unit to a higher ranked data processing unit. Data is prevented from moving from a higher ranked data processing unit from a lower ranked data processing unit.
US07941826B2 Enforcing access control on multicast transmissions
Systems, apparatus, methods, and computer program products for multicast access control are provided to analyze incoming data based on a source zone and a destination zone of the incoming data. Appropriate access control rules are applied to incoming data based on the results of the analysis. Additional implementations of a multicast access control include using a proxy rendezvous point operable to function as a rendezvous point in place of a physical rendezvous point.
US07941821B2 Control system and user interface for home theater network
Apparatus, methods, and systems for centrally and uniformly controlling the operation of a variety of devices, such as communication, consumer electronic, audio-video, analog, digital, 1394, and the like, over a variety of protocols within a network system and, more particularly, a control system and uniform user interface for centrally controlling these devices in a manner that appears seamless and transparent to the user. In a preferred embodiment, a command center or hub of a network system includes a context and connection permutation sensitive control system that enables centralized and seamless integrated control of all types of input devices. The control system preferably includes a versatile icon based graphical user interface that provides a uniform, on-screen centralized control system for the network system. The user interface, which includes a visual recognition system, enables the user to transparently control multiple input devices over a variety of protocols while operating on a single control layer of an input command device. In an alternative embodiment, the control system also enables gated signal pass-through control while avoiding signal jamming.
US07941812B2 Input/output virtualization through offload techniques
A computer apparatus provides support multiple virtual computing machines. In accordance with one embodiment, the computer apparatus includes a platform manager, a virtual machine manager (VMM) driver of the platform manager, a TCP/IP stack of the platform manager, a guest operating system supported by the platform manager, and a TCP offload pseudo driver module of the guest operating system. The VMM driver is configured to transfer data between a top of the TCP/IP stack and the TCP offload pseudo driver module without changing a level of abstraction of the data. In accordance with another embodiment, the VMM driver is configured to transfer data between a top of a SCSI services stack and a SCSI offload pseudo driver module without changing a level of abstraction of the data. Other embodiments, aspects, and features are also disclosed.
US07941810B2 Extensible and flexible firmware architecture for reliability, availability, serviceability features
Improved reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) is provided by an extensible and flexible firmware architecture. The architecture provides management for events, where an event is a response to an imminent failure of or capacity change requirement applicable to a component of the system. In response to an event, control of a system is transferred from an operating system to the firmware manager. The manager identifies an action that is specified by the event. Based on the action, the firmware manager selects a firmware handler from a plurality of firmware handlers. The firmware manager dispatches the selected firmware handler to perform the specified action. The firmware manager and the dispatched firmware handler exchange system-independent information regarding the event. The firmware manager also manages time-slices for the performance of the specified action by the dispatched firmware handler.
US07941806B2 Method, system and program product for optimizing communication and processing functions between disparate applications
A method of optimizing communication and processing functions between disparate applications includes sending, from a first application to a disparate second application, a request message. The request message, which has a reduced data size for optimizing communication, is formatted in a first request-format to provide unique data elements relevant to processing the request message. The received request message is reformatted into a second request format, and is then forwarded to a third application. The third application creates a response message that is in a first response format, and sends the response message to the second application. Each received response message is queued, by a messaging application, into a response message collection corresponding to a message type, before sending the response group to the first application.
US07941804B1 Allocating resources among tiered partitions of different types
In one embodiment, a system comprises a plurality of partitions that provide isolated operating environments for execution of software processes, wherein the plurality of partitions are arranged in a tiered manner with different partition types at different tiers, a data structure for representing the plurality of partitions, wherein the data structure comprises multiple nodes corresponding to the plurality of partitions and links between the nodes representing how the plurality of partitions are arranged in the tiers, and an arbiter software module for allocating resources between the plurality of partitions, wherein the arbiter software module receives requests to allocate resources to the plurality of partitions and traverses the data structure to determine which requests to satisfy.
US07941801B2 Method and system for provisioning a virtual computer and scheduling resources of the provisioned virtual computer
A method for virtual computing that includes receiving a virtual computer specification, wherein the virtual computer specification defines a plurality of hardware and software configuration requirements for a virtual computer and a duration requirement for use of the virtual computer, requisitioning a plurality of computing resources based on the plurality of hardware and software configuration requirements, provisioning the plurality of computing resources from a pool of computing resources to obtain a provisioned virtual computer, and scheduling the plurality of computing resources of the provisioned virtual computer for use based on the duration requirement.
US07941793B2 Class initialization method semantics
A system and method for mitigating problems associated with automatic execution of initialization code is provided. The system includes an initialization method activator that can call a class initialization method at a pre-determined execution point. The system also includes a deadlock analyzer that can determine whether calling the initialization method will create a deadlock, and, if a deadlock is detected that can resolve such a deadlock. The system also includes a semantic analyzing component that can analyze a semantic type associated with the initialization method and a domain uniqueness analyzer that can analyze the uniqueness of the domain with which the class will interact, to facilitate determining where to place code that will check whether a class is initialized, and if the class is not initialized that will invoke the class initializing method.
US07941791B2 Programming environment for heterogeneous processor resource integration
Compiling a source code program for a heterogeneous multi-core processor having a first instruction sequencer, having a first instruction set architecture, an accelerator to the first instruction sequencer, wherein the accelerator comprises a heterogeneous resource with respect to the first instruction sequencer having a second instruction set architecture, the source code program having specified therein a region of source code for the first instruction set architecture of the processor and a region of source code for the second instruction set architecture of the processor.
US07941788B2 Operating system support for thread-level breakpoints
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for processing breakpoints. A breakpoint is detected during execution of a process. A thread that is currently executing is identified as an identified thread. A determination is made as to whether the breakpoint is applicable to the identified thread. In response to the determination that the breakpoint is applicable to the identified thread, the execution of the process is halted. Execution of the process continues without halting execution of the process if the breakpoint is inapplicable to the identified thread.
US07941787B2 Performance tuning method and apparatus, computer-readable program and computer-readable storage medium
A performance tuning method tune a running performance of a program, by managing a measuring condition that is set when the running performance of the program was measured under an arbitrary measuring environment and performance information of the program acquired as a result of the measurement, in a linkable manner with respect to candidates of a measuring environment of the next measurement that is different from the arbitrary measuring environment, automatically setting the measuring condition to be used to measure the running performance of the program using a measuring environment that is different from the arbitrary measuring environment, based on the information that is managed in the linkable manner, and tuning the running performance of the program depending on the performance information.
US07941784B2 System and method for generating component based applications
A system and method for generating an application based on a first component having definitions expressed in a structured definition language and a second component having a series of instructions. The component applications comprise data components, presentation components, and message components, which are written in XML code. The component applications further comprise workflow components which are written in a subset of ECMAScript, and are augmented with the XML code. The components define the processing on a device runtime environment of messages communicated over a network between the device and a datasource. The system and method have a data model for providing a persistent state of the application including the component definitions and the series of instructions. The system and method also have a code module for obtaining the components from the data model and for generating a first application element including code representing the component definitions. The system and method also have a mappings module for obtaining datasource mapping information from the data model and for generating a second application element including mapping file descriptors corresponding to the datasource mapping information, the mapping information for use in communication of the messages between the device runtime environment and the datasource. The system and method also have a resource module for collecting application resources and for generating a third application element including the resources, wherein the application elements are subsequently packaged as a deployable form of the application.
US07941781B1 On-chip test circuit and method for testing of system-on-chip (SOC) integrated circuits
A system and method of testing IP cores contained in a system-on-chip integrated circuit is disclosed. An operation command is received on an input/output port of the circuit. The operation command includes an operation code component, data component(s), and expected time component. The received operation command is processed to supply test data to each of the IP cores being tested. Result data is received in response to the supplied test data from each of the IP cores being tested. The result data is processed and from the processed result data is generated a status data packet. The status data packet includes the operation code component and a status flag component and is provided on the input/output port.
US07941780B2 Intersect area based ground rule for semiconductor design
A design rule that determines a degree of overlap between two design elements in two adjoining levels by estimating a physical overlap area, or an “intersect area,” of corresponding structures in a semiconductor chip is provided. The estimation of the physical intersect area may factor in line edge biasing, critical dimension tolerance, overlay tolerance, and corner rounding to provide an accurate estimate of a physical area for each of the structures corresponding to the two design elements. The intersect area is employed as a metric to determine compliance with a ground rule, i.e., the ground rule is specified in terms of the intersect region. Other derived quantities such as electrical resistance, electromigration resistance, expected yield may be calculated from the intersect area, and may be advantageously employed to optimize the design data.
US07941779B2 Methods and apparatuses for thermal analysis based circuit design
Methods and apparatuses for circuit design to reduce power usage, such as reducing temperature dependent power usage, and/or to improve timing, such as reducing temperature dependent delay or transition time. At least one embodiment of the present invention reduces the power dissipation and improves the timing of an integrated circuit to optimize the design. A thermal analysis is used to determine the temperature dependent power dissipation of a circuit and the temperature distribution of the circuit resulting from dissipating the heat created by the temperature dependent power dissipation. Then, the components of the design are selectively transformed to reduce the power dissipation and to improve timing based on the temperature solution. The transformation may include placement changes and netlist changes, such as the change of transistor threshold voltages for cells or for blocks of the circuit chip.
US07941777B1 Generating a module interface for partial reconfiguration design flows
A method of processing a logical netlist for implementing a circuit design within a programmable logic device includes identifying a dynamically reconfigurable module (DRM) including at least one port from the logical netlist and determining whether the port connects with function logic for a function of the DRM. If the port connects with function logic, logic is inferred that connects the function logic with logic that is external to the DRM. If the port does not connect with function logic, logic is inferred that connects the port of the DRM with logic that is external to the DRM according to an attribute associated with the port. The logical netlist is updated to specify the inferred logic.
US07941775B2 Arbitrary waveform propagation through a logic gate using timing analysis results
An approach for performing arbitrary waveform propagation through a logic gate using timing analysis results is described. In one embodiment, there is an arbitrary waveform propagation tool for determining an effect of noise on a digital integrated circuit having at least one logic gate. A timing analysis component is configured to perform a timing analysis on the at least one logic gate and a noise analysis component is configured to perform a noise analysis. A waveform propagation model synthesizer component is configured to dynamically synthesize a waveform propagation model as a function of the timing analysis. The waveform propagation model synthesizer component is further configured to apply an arbitrary voltage waveform comprising one of a noisy waveform or noise glitch waveform and determine an effect of the arbitrary voltage waveform on the at least one logic gate from the dynamically synthesized waveform propagation model.
US07941770B2 System and method for implementing an online design platform for integrated circuits
One embodiment is a method of designing an integrated circuit (“IC”) using an online design platform system comprising a design platform provider, at least one electronic design automation (“EDA”) tool and at least one intellectual property (“IP”) library. The method comprises accessing the design platform provider using a computer remote from the design platform provider, wherein the remote computer is connected to the design platform provider and the accessing occurs via an Internet connection; providing access via the remote computer to the at least one EDA tool and the at least one IP library for enabling a user at the remote computer to design an IC; and providing at least one file comprising a final design of the IC directly from the online design platform system to a designated foundry.
US07941769B1 Method and apparatus for integrated circuits design security
An embodiment of the present invention provides a design specification to provide both design and manufacture security without increasing the chip area or reducing the chip performance. The invention employs “free” encryption and uses flash memory or anti-fuse technology for the security implementation. This secure methodology could be embedded into any RTL synthesis tool, or be created in a stand-alone tool. For a RTL netlist, some registers are selected as the candidates for the “secure cells”, and all “secure cells” must have only one output. A random key will be generated (we call it the “real key”) to decide whether each register is to be inverted or not. All “secure cells” will be mapped to the special registers in the technology library.
US07941759B2 Interactive analysis of network adjustment results
A method of improving workflow while performing a network adjustment associated with surveying data is disclosed. A first window containing a plan view which graphically displays at least one input is provided. The input is associated with surveying data. A second window contains a report which displays the input in text form is provided. In sync with each other, the plan view and the report are arranged within a GUI to present at least one network adjustment result utilizing the input. A status of at least one network adjustment result is indicated within the plan view and the report, wherein the status may include an error associated with the input. Additionally, interactive analysis capabilities and interactive modification capabilities are provided, wherein a change in the plan view is reflected in the report and a change in the report is reflected in the plan view.
US07941755B2 Method and apparatus for web page co-browsing
A method and apparatus for extracting information from a web page on a standard end user browser without plug-ins, includes the steps of dynamically creating an element on a web page being viewed by an end user, copying at least a portion of the contents of the web page or form field values, and uploading the data to a target domain, wherein the target domain may be different from the domain of the web page. In co-browsing applications, the data uploaded is used to create a copy of the website for display to a third party.
US07941753B2 Communicating appointment and/or mapping information among a calendar application and a navigation application
According to one general aspect, a method for providing directions to an appointment location appearing in a calendar application includes identifying an appointment in a calendar application, determining a geographic location of the appointment, identifying another geographic location associated with a user of the calendar application, generating directions between the geographic location of the appointment and the geographic location of the other location, and providing the directions generated to the user.
US07941750B2 Method and system for defining separate print quality regions within a print job
A user defines regions within each page of a print job and independently specifies a desired print quality setting for each such region. The printer driver running on the host computer that will submit the print job to a printer or printing device has a user interface through which a representation of the print job is displayed for the user. Using the user input device of the host computer, the user can then define or specify multiple elements or regions within each page of the print job. The user can then further set a desired print quality for each of the specified elements or regions. In this way, those elements of a print job that require a high print quality for a satisfactory appearance, such as photographs, can be identified and printed an appropriate quality levels, while other elements, such as text, that do not require a high print quality for a satisfactory appearance can be printed at a lesser print quality level. Alternatively, the printer driver can be set to automatically identify elements of a print job, such a photographs or other graphics, which typically require a high print quality setting for a satisfactory appearance. The printer driver may then automatically specify a higher print quality for those identified elements than is used for the other, less demanding elements of the print job.
US07941749B2 Composition of electronic document layout
Resolution and composition of electronic document layout are provided. An intermediate text data structure may be generated to hold a “resolved” rich text state for a given document. Properties contained in the “resolved” rich text state are a composite of all relevant properties including user defined and entered properties and including properties associated with the document according to a pre-built document context. This text body resolution process then may be utilized for generating a composite text layout for the text streams associated with a plurality of document components for generating a single rich text stream for presentation to and editing by a user.
US07941748B1 Systems and methods for web site editing interfaces
A system and method for maintaining a Web site is disclosed that includes browsing to a Web page to be edited, automatically downloading a source file for the Web page including related files associated with display of the Web page, editing the source file, and automatically publishing the edited source file to a file transfer server associated with the Web site including the related files associated with the display of the Web page.
US07941747B2 Automated generation of OLTP message source code
Systems, architectures and methods of processing messages provide for automatic generation of source code in a program language. The source code is compiled and used to transform messages between the program language and an online transaction processing (OLTP) language. In one approach, markup language documents are compiled.
US07941745B2 Method and system for tagging electronic documents
A document processing system and method are disclosed which are capable of performing inverse retrieval in response to a request issued by a user and providing retrieved document data to the user. Characteristic information indicating a specified electronic document or category is transmitted from a terminal device to a document providing device. The document providing device retrieves electronic documents related to the characteristic information from electronic documents stored in a database. Information about the retrieved electronic documents, such as electronic documents themselves or a list of the retrieved electronic documents, is transmitted from the document providing device to the terminal device.
US07941743B2 Methods and systems for imaging device form field management
Aspects of the present invention relate to systems, methods and devices for modifying and managing form documents with an application that receives input from an imaging device user interface and from other sources. Some aspects relate to a input field definition file that is transmitted to the imaging device and which comprises display parameters and UI options for prompting a user for field input and as well as instructions for obtaining field data from other sources.
US07941742B1 Visualizing growing time series data in a single view
To visualize growing time series data, first data values of a time series are presented for display in a single view, where the data values are for display in cells according to a first density in the view. Additional data values of the time series are received, and a density of the view is modified in response to receiving the additional data values. The first data values and additional data values are presented for display in cells arranged according to the modified density in the view.
US07941740B2 Automatically fetching web content with user assistance
A method for performing activities on a web site is disclosed. A user's browsing activities on a web site are captured. The user's browsing activities includes affixing labels to web pages and filling out forms. The captured activities are analyzed for patterns. Rules for performing activities on a web site are generated based on the patterns. Further activities are performed on the web site according to the rules and content from the web site is fetched. The fetched content is used in various web service applications, including crawlers.
US07941737B2 Low density parity check code decoder
An error correction system for decoding transmitted data in multichannels is disclosed. The system uses low density parity check nodes. A method of error correction using LDPC is also disclosed.
US07941728B2 Method and system for providing an improved store-in cache
A system and method of providing a cache system having a store-in policy and affording the advantages of store-in cache operation, while simultaneously providing protection against soft-errors in locally modified data, which would normally preclude the use of a store-in cache when reliability is paramount. The improved store-in cache mechanism includes a store-in L1 cache, at least one higher-level storage hierarchy; an ancillary store-only cache (ASOC) that holds most recently stored-to lines of the store-in L1 cache, and a cache controller that controls storing of data to the ancillary store-only cache (ASOC) and recovering of data from the ancillary store-only cache (ASOC) such that the data from the ancillary store-only cache (ASOC) is used only if parity errors are encountered in the store-in L1 cache.
US07941719B2 IC testing methods and apparatus
A shift register circuit is provided for storing instruction data for the testing of an integrated circuit core. The shift register circuit comprises a plurality of stages, each stage comprising a serial input (si) and a serial output (so) and a parallel output (wir_output) comprising one terminal of a parallel output of the shift register circuit. A first shift register storage element (32) is for storing a signal received from the serial input (si) and providing it to the serial output (so) in a scan chain mode of operation. A second parallel register storage element (38) is for storing a signal from the first shift register storage element (32) and providing it to the parallel output (wir_output) in an update mode of operation. The stage further comprises a feedback path (40) for providing an inverted version of the parallel output (wir_output) to the first shift register storage element (32) in a test mode of operation.This configuration enables testing of each shift register stage using the existing control lines. In particular, the inverted signal can be clocked to propagate through the shift register storage element and the parallel register storage element, and the eventual inversion of the output is monitored to indicate that the inverted signal has propagated through the circuitry.
US07941712B2 Method for error test, recordation and repair
In a memory device, an on-die register is provided that is configured to store a row address as well as a column address of a memory cell that fails a test. Storing the row address frees testing from being limited to activating at one time only rows related to a common redundant segment. Storing the row address also guides repair using segmented redundancy. As an addition or alternative, information may be stored in an anti-fuse bank that is designed to provide access to a redundant cell but has not yet enabled access to that cell. If the information stored in the anti-fuse bank relates to the failure of the redundant cell, such information may be used to avoid repairing with that redundant cell.
US07941699B2 Determining a set of processor cores to boot
Techniques that determine a strict subset of multiple processor cores from a set of multiple functional processor cores integrated within a single integrated circuit package. The determined strict subset of multiple processor cores differs from a previously determined strict subset of multiple processor cores from the set of multiple functional processor cores used to initiate an immediately previous core booting. In response to a processor reset, booting of the strict subset of multiple processor cores is initiated. Also, support for selecting multiple modes of operations, either supporting fault tolerance or extended life.
US07941697B2 Failure handling using overlay objects on a file system using object based storage devices
A system and method for data storage in an array. A system includes a client coupled to a storage subsystem including data storage locations addressable as rows and columns in an array. Each column comprises a separate storage device. Each row includes redundant data. For a given row, a coordinating storage device coordinates the computation and storage of redundant data. The system detects a failure of a storage region and in response, configures an overlay storage device to temporarily overlay the failed region, maintains an association between the overlay device and the failed region, and maintains a record of changes made to the overlay device while the region is in a failed state. In response to detecting that the failed region has been restored, the system uses the association to identify the overlay device and uses the record of changes made to the overlay device to resynchronize the failed region.
US07941694B1 Asymmetric data mirroring
An asymmetric data mirroring method with a local storage device and a remote storage device being separated by large distances is disclosed. A server determines a predetermined time period associated with a round trip latency between the server and a remote storage device. The server submits a request to a local storage device, a remote storage device and a memory device disposed between the server and the remote storage device. The server submits additional requests to the local and remote storage devices during the predetermined time period. The server stores a copy of each request submitted by the server to the remote storage device in a memory disposed between the server and the remote storage device while the server waits for whether an acknowledgement associated with the request has been received from the remote storage device during the predetermined time period. The server resubmits the request and the additional requests to the remote storage device if the acknowledgement is not received. If an acknowledgement is received, the server continues submission of additional new requests to the local and remote storage devices.
US07941690B2 Reliable fault resolution in a cluster
A method and system for localizing and resolving a fault in a cluster environment. The cluster is configured with at least one multi-homed node, and at least one gateway for each network interface. Heartbeat messages are sent between peer nodes and the gateway in predefined periodic intervals. In the event of loss of a heartbeat message by any node or gateway, an ICMP echo is issued to each node and gateway in the cluster for each network interface. If neither a node loss not a network loss is validated in response to the ICMP echo, an application level ping is issued to determine if the fault associated with the absence of the heartbeat message is a transient error condition or an application software fault.
US07941688B2 Managing timers in a multiprocessor environment
Timers are managed in a multiprocessing environment. Some timers are local to a given logical processor; such a local timer is inserted on and will be canceled only from that logical processor. Other timers are global to a logical processor. A global timer which was inserted on a given logical processor may be canceled from that logical processor or from another logical processor. Global timers are serviced in response to expiration of an associated local timer.
US07941685B2 Delay locked loop for an FPGA architecture
A DLL provides a deskew mode for aligning a reference clock that passes through a clock distribution tree to a feedback by adding additional delay to the feedback clock to align the feedback clock with reference clock at one cycle later. A 0 ns clock-to-out mode is provided by adding additional delay to account for an input buffer into a feedback path. The feedback clock can be doubled by a clock doubler with 50% duty cycle adjustment disposed in the feedback path. Flexible timing is aligning the reference clock to the feedback clock is obtained with additional delay elements disposed in the feedback and reference clock paths.
US07941680B2 Distributing integrated circuit net power accurately in power and thermal analysis
A method, system, and computer program product are provided for distributing net power accurately. A workload is simulated operating on an integrated circuit. Net switching activity is determined for a set of nets and a set of subnets in the integrated circuit. Net switching data is generated based on the net switching activity. A net power value is calculated for each individual net and each individual subnet using the net switching data and a net capacitance for each individual net or subnet. Each calculated net power value is assigned to one of a set of source devices that drives the individual net or subnet, wherein the net power is distributed accurately. A net power assignment list is generated based on the assigning of each net power value to one of the set of source devices that drives the individual net or subnet.
US07941676B2 Processor array having a multiplicity of processor elements and method of transmitting electricity between processor elements
Disclosed is a processor element including a plurality of power supply interfaces, a plurality of power supply switches, and a fault-testing unit for testing whether a short-circuit to a connected adjacent processor element has occurred at a power supply interface. The respective power supply switch is closed in case no short-circuit has occurred such that electricity can be fed to the respective power supply interface.
US07941672B2 Regeneration of a secret quantity from an intergrated circuit identifier
A method and a circuit for generating a secret quantity based on an identifier of an integrated circuit, including combining a first digital word derived from a physical parameter network with a second word stored in a non-volatile memory element.
US07941660B2 System and method for data communications allowing slave device to be network peers
A system and method for peer-to-peer communication between a slave device and network resources wherein the slave device, for example, a smart card, communicates using a protocol designed to allow the smart card to communicate over a half-duplex serial communications link while appearing to applications and network nodes as being a full-fledged network node in a manner that conserves power so as to be suitable for deployment on small portable devices.
US07941659B2 External memory enabling a user to select an application program to be launched before launching an operating system
An application program is provided to work with two operating systems of a computer. A first mode of the application program is configured to work with the computer before the primary operating system is booted. The second mode of the application program is provided to work under the environment provide by the primary operation system.
US07941654B2 Local and global branch prediction information storage
Embodiments of the invention provide an apparatus of storing branch prediction information. In one embodiment, an integrated circuit device includes a first table for storing local branch prediction information, a second table for storing global branch prediction information, and circuitry. The circuitry is configured to receive a branch instruction and store local branch prediction information for the branch instruction in the first table. The local branch prediction information includes a local predictability value for the local branch prediction information. The circuitry is further configured to store global branch prediction information for the branch instruction in the second table only if the local predictability value is below a threshold value of predictability.
US07941644B2 Simultaneous multi-thread instructions issue to execution units while substitute injecting sequence of instructions for long latency sequencer instruction via multiplexer
A processing unit includes multiple execution units and sequencer logic that is disposed downstream of instruction buffer logic, and that is responsive to a sequencer instruction present in an instruction stream. In response to such an instruction, the sequencer logic issues a plurality of instructions associated with a long latency operation to one execution unit, while blocking instructions from the instruction buffer logic from being issued to that execution unit. In addition, the blocking of instructions from being issued to the execution unit does not affect the issuance of instructions to any other execution unit, and as such, other instructions from the instruction buffer logic are still capable of being issued to and executed by other execution units even while the sequencer logic is issuing the plurality of instructions associated with the long latency operation.
US07941642B1 Method for selecting between divide instructions associated with respective threads in a multi-threaded processor
In one embodiment, a multithreaded processor includes a multithreaded instruction source that may provide a plurality of instructions each corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of threads. The multithreaded processor also includes a pick unit coupled to the multithreaded instruction source. The pick unit may select in a given cycle, a first divide instruction corresponding to one thread of the plurality of threads and a second divide instruction corresponding to another thread of the plurality of threads based upon a thread selection algorithm. Further, the multithreaded processor includes a storage coupled to a functional unit including a divider configured to execute the first divide instruction and the second divide instruction. The storage may store one of the first and the second divide instructions during execution of the other of the first and the second divide instructions.
US07941639B2 Protection of the execution of a program
A method for protecting the execution of a main program against possible traps, including, on occurrence of an instruction from the main program, starting a time counter of a given count according to next instructions of the main program, and executing, once the counter has reached its count, at least one instruction of a secondary program from which the result of the main program depends.
US07941637B2 Groups of serially coupled processor cores propagating memory write packet while maintaining coherency within each group towards a switch coupled to memory partitions
A system has a first plurality of cores in a first coherency group. Each core transfers data in packets. The cores are directly coupled serially to form a serial path. The data packets are transferred along the serial path. The serial path is coupled at one end to a packet switch. The packet switch is coupled to a memory. The first plurality of cores and the packet switch are on an integrated circuit. The memory may or may not be on the integrated circuit. In another aspect a second plurality of cores in a second coherency group is coupled to the packet switch. The cores of the first and second pluralities may be reconfigured to form or become part of coherency groups different from the first and second coherency groups.
US07941634B2 Array of processing elements with local registers
Specialized image processing circuitry is usually implemented in hardware in a massively parallel way as a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) architecture. The invention prevents long and complicated connection paths between a processing element and the memory subsystem, and improves maximum operating frequency. An optimized architecture for image processing has processing elements that are arranged in a two-dimensional structure, and each processing element has a local storage containing a plurality of reference pixels that are not neighbors in the reference image. Instead, the reference pixels belong to different blocks of the reference image, which may vary for different encoding schemes. Each processing element has a plurality of local first registers for holding the reference image data: one of the first registers holds reference input data of a first search block, and some of the remaining first registers holding reference input data of further search blocks that have specified positions relative to the first search block.
US07941627B2 Specialized memory move barrier operations
An instruction set architecture (ISA) includes an asynchronous memory move (AMM) synchronization (SYNC) instruction. When processor of a data processing system executes the AMM SYNC instruction, the processor prevents an AMM operation generated by a subsequently received/executed AMM ST instruction from proceeding with the data move portion of the AMM operation within the memory subsystem until completion of all ongoing memory access operations within the memory subsystem and fabric. The AMM operation does not wait for a normal barrier operation. The processor forwards the information relevant to initiate the AMM operation to an asynchronous memory mover logic, and signals the logic to not proceed with the AMM operation until signaled of the completion of the AMM SYNC.
US07941619B1 Space-optimized backup set conversion
A system for space-optimized backup set conversion may include a backup converter and a first sequence of backup images of a data source. Each backup image may be of a particular backup image type, such as a full image, a differential image, or an incremental image. The backup converter may be configured to convert the first sequence of backup images into a second sequence of backup images by converting a particular backup image of the first sequence into a transformed backup image of a different backup type. For example, a full image may be converted into either a differential image or an incremental image, and a differential image may be converted into an incremental image.
US07941604B2 Distributed memory usage for a system having multiple integrated circuits each including processors
A plurality of integrated circuits in a system, each having a program memory loaded with different sections of a program, and a second memory. The integrated circuits perform the program, such that, when one of the integrated circuits requires a portion of the program, which is contained in its own program memory, it extracts it from the program memory and uses it, but when it requires a portion of the program, which is not contained in its own program memory, it reads it from the program memory of one of the other integrated circuits into its second memory and runs that portion of the program from there. In one example, the system is a line card, and the program is specific to one DSL protocol.
US07941601B2 Storage device using nonvolatile cache memory and control method thereof
A data process can be performed without lowering the data processing efficiency even when the sector length of the host device side is different from the sector length of the hard disk side. Partial data or whole data of a second data block which is based on a long sector defined on the hard disk side and surrounds the starting end and terminating end addresses of a first data block based on a host-defined sector is read from the hard disk and written to a flash memory before the data process using the flash memory as a cache is performed based on the command.
US07941598B2 Method and apparatus for capacity on demand dynamic chunk allocation
The system is composed of the storage apparatuses with dynamic chunk allocation capabilities, the centralized management computer. Some storage apparatuses have the extra HDDs or volumes for providing extra capacity (extra chunks), which are concealed by a secret key. The storage apparatus with the closed segment has the key management program and key management table. The centralized management computer has the storage on demand management program, the pending request table, the priority table and the master key table. The storage apparatus may connect to the other storage apparatuses for sharing the extra capacities in the closed segment. The storage apparatus issues the chunk addition request to the centralized management computer. The centralized management computer provides a key according to the priority table and the master key table. The centralized management computer may provide the key according to the chunk consumption rate reported by the storage apparatus and/or remaining capacity in the other storage apparatuses.
US07941597B2 System and method for controlling access to media libraries
Embodiments of the present invention provide a media library controller that can communicate with multiple physical libraries that are physically separate from each other. The media library controller can maintain a virtualized aggregate media library representing the physical media libraries with which it is in communication. From the physical media libraries, the media library controller can establish a virtual media library and associate a host with the virtual media library. The virtual media library can represent the portions of a physical media library to which the host is allowed access.
US07941592B2 Method and apparatus for high reliability data storage and retrieval operations in multi-level flash cells
One or more multi-level NAND flash cells are operated so as to store only single-level data, and these operations achieve an increased level of charge separation between the data states of the single-level operation by requiring a write to both the upper and lower pages, even though only one bit of data is being stored. That is, the second write operation increases the difference in floating gate charge between the erased state and the programmed state of the first write operation without changing the data in the flash memory cell. In one embodiment, a controller instructs the flash memory to perform two write operations for storing a single bit of data in an MLC flash cell. In another embodiment, the flash memory recognizes that a single write operation is directed a high reliability memory area and internally generates the required plurality of programming steps to place at least a predetermined amount of charge on the specified floating gate.
US07941591B2 Flash DIMM in a standalone cache appliance system and methodology
A method, system and program are disclosed for accelerating data storage in a cache appliance cluster that transparently monitors NFS and CIFS traffic between clients and NAS subsystems and caches files in a multi-rank flash DIMM cache memory by pipelining multiple page write and page program operations to different flash memory ranks, thereby improving write speeds to the flash DIMM cache memory.
US07941589B2 Semiconductor memory and information processing system
A semiconductor memory (2) comprises a controller (21) and a memory array (22). The memory array (22) is controlled for each of block areas (221, 221 . . . ). The information processing apparatus (1) can not generate a data erase command for each block area (221). A data erase command (30) for a specified block area “G” is encoded and stored in a block area “A”. When a request for data erasing is issued, a CPU (11) of the information processing apparatus (1) reads an erase command (30) out from the semiconductor memory (2) and outputs the erase command (30) to the controller (21). The controller (21) decodes the erase command (30) and performs a data erasing process for the block area “G”.
US07941585B2 Local scratchpad and data caching system
A RISC-type processor includes a main register file and a data cache. The data cache can be partitioned to include a local memory, the size of which can be dynamically changed on a cache block basis while the processor is executing instructions that use the main register file. The local memory can emulate as an additional register file to the processor and can reside at a virtual address. The local memory can be further partitioned for prefetching data from a non-cacheable address to be stored/loaded into the main register file.
US07941583B2 Controlled frequency core processor and method for starting-up said core processor in a programmed manner
Embodiments of the invention relate to a driven-frequency processor core. It comprises at least one processor, a non-volatile memory comprising a startup program, a bridge interconnecting buses linking the various components of said processor core, an interface component. The non-volatile memory comprises at least two frequency-related configurations each corresponding to an operating mode of the buses and/or of the components of said processor core. The non-volatile memory comprises an item of information which makes it possible to determine which operating mode should be used, said item of information being read by the interface component so as to determine the chosen mode. The interface component generates one or more clock signals, the frequency of said generated clock signals corresponding substantially to that described by the configuration of the chosen mode. The clock signals drive the buses and/or the components of said processor core. Embodiments of the invention also relate to a method for starting-up said processor core in a programmed mode. In particular, the invention is applied to processor cores embedded in aircraft.
US07941582B2 Method and apparatus for mediating among media applications
In a device that can execute multiple media applications, but only one at a time, a media server coordinates among applications, but neither the media server nor the individual applications maintain rules regarding all of the different applications. Each connection used by an application is assigned a priority and communicates that priority to the media server when the connection is established. When an application requests to begin playback, the request is granted if no other application is playing, or if another application is playing on a connection having a priority at most equal to that of the connection used by the requesting application, but is denied if the connection already in use has a higher priority. Resumption of an application that was interrupted by another application on a connection with higher priority is determined by the interrupted application after the interruption ends, based on information communicated by the media server.
US07941578B2 Managing command request time-outs in QOS priority queues
In one embodiment a storage controller comprises a processor, a computer readable storage medium coupled to the processor, and logic instructions in the memory module which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to receive, in a quality of service module, a first command request from a host initiator port, associate a time-out threshold with the first command request, determine, in the quality of service module, whether an available priority queue can release the first command request for execution by a scheduling module within the time-out threshold; and in response to a determination that an available priority queue can release the first command request for execution within the time-out threshold, assign the first command request to the available priority queue.
US07941573B2 Semiconductor memory device
Data transfer bus charging/discharging current is reduced in a semiconductor memory device. In a data transfer device that sequentially transfers bit sequences in parallel through a plurality of buses from a transmit unit 10 to a receive unit 20, the transmit circuit 10 includes a flag generation circuit 11 and an encoding circuit 12. The flag generation circuit 11 generates a flag indicating whether bit inversion has occurred in consecutive bits in each of the bit sequences to be transferred through the buses and transmits the generated flag to the receive unit 20. The encoding circuit 12 encodes the bit sequences based on the flag, for transmission to the receive unit 20. The receive unit includes a decoding circuit 21 that decodes the bit sequences based on the bit sequences and the flag.
US07941571B2 Peripheral device control system
An accurate, highly reliable peripheral device control system is realized by issuing notifications related to a print job having the correct content from a printer driver with accurate timing and in the correct order, and conveying correct information to an application with accurate timing and in the correct order in a peripheral device control system that uses a low-performance printer. In an peripheral device control system composed of an information processing apparatus and a peripheral device, the information processing apparatus acquires peripheral device information related to the peripheral device from the peripheral device, generates job information from the peripheral device information, and notifies the job information. At this time, a notification not yet issued is created based on notified printing and printed page numbers and a current printing page number, and issued.
US07941569B2 Input/output tracing in a protocol offload system
I/O tracing is implemented in a system in which an I/O device is configured for protocol offload. A data unit having headers and payload is replicated and the replicated unit sent to the end node along with the payload data. In an alternative embodiment, the I/O device keeps track of the one or more protocol headers layers separately from the application payload. Information defining the relationship between the headers and payload is sent to the end node to enable it to reconstruct the data unit.
US07941568B2 Mapping a virtual address to PCI bus address
Registering memory space within a data processing system is performed. One or more open calls are received from an application to access one or more input/output (I/O) devices. Responsive to receiving the one or more open calls, one or more I/O map and pin calls are sent in order to register memory space for the one or more I/O devices within at least one storage area that will be accessed by the application. At least one virtual I/O bus address is received for each registered memory space of the one or more I/O devices. At least one I/O command is executed using the at least one virtual I/O bus address without intervention by an operating system or operating system image.
US07941567B2 Modular computer system and I/O module
A modular computer system formed by connecting a processing module having a processor mounted thereon and a plurality of I/O modules in a stacked form via connectors, where differing ones of the plurality of I/O modules being differing types of I/O modules from one another, which operate with mutually differing types of bus-layout configurations. In accordance with the association of I/O modules with identification information, for each differing type of I/O module stacked via the connectors, said processing module selects from differing preset bus-layout configurations and device drivers from a memory, to dynamically reconfigure the reconfigurable generic bus for accessing the differing type of I/O module.
US07941554B2 Sparse caching for streaming media
Systems, methods, and data structures are described which allow or caching streaming media file in a manner that allows for storage and retrieval of portions of the streaming media file that are temporally non-contiguous and/or encoded at differing bit rates.
US07941553B2 Method and device for streaming a media file over a distributed information system
A method, device, and program product are provided for streaming a media file over a distributed information system to a client computer running a browser application. First, a server receives a request for a particular media file from the client computer. Then, the server dynamically generates a metafile, whereby said metafile contains information about the identification, location and format of the media file, and returns it back to the client computer. Advantageously, the server intercepts a download request for the actual media file and reinterprets the download request in into a request for receiving a corresponding metafile. Thus, instead of returning the requested media file, a metafile is returned that allows immediate streaming of the requested media file without the need of waiting for the download to be finished.
US07941552B1 System and method for providing services for offline servers using the same network address
A system, method and computer program product for controlling virtual servers includes a plurality of virtual servers running on a host computer. An address and a unique identifier can be associated with each virtual server. A control procedure(s) is within each corresponding virtual server, and can be used to control that virtual server in response to control commands. A control interface is outside the virtual servers and can be used for control of the virtual servers in response to control commands. The virtual server can be a Virtual server. The control command can be executable by both the control procedure(s) and the control interface, or can be executable by the control interface if the control procedure(s) is unreachable, or can be executable by the control interface if the virtual server has failed, or can be executable even if the virtual server is inaccessible. The control interface can be accessible by using multiple addresses and identifiers.
US07941550B1 Multiple cookie handling
A method, system, and computer readable media are provided for managing multiple HTTP cookies that are present in a wireless communication system. When a secure or non-secure HTTP cookie is formed, a time of creation for that HTTP cookie is also created as part of the cookie header. Therefore, when a wireless device makes a subsequent communication to a web based server, the gateway compares the creation time for multiple HTTP cookies that are present, and only forwards the most recently created HTTP cookie to the web based server. This avoids invalidating a session as a result of receiving multiple conflicting HTTP cookies from the same wireless device.
US07941544B2 Session manager for web-based applications
A communication manager for web-based applications receives indications of application time outs via a callback mechanism. During session initiation, the communication manager provides a termination address to an application along with a session ID. If the session times out due to inactivity, the application may signal the communication manager that the session ID is invalid by sending a message to the termination address. Alternatively, when a communication manager establishes communication sessions for several applications with a common external terminal, the communication manager may receive messages identifying terminal activity at one of the applications and may signal to the other applications to keep their sessions active.
US07941505B2 System and method for associating a user with a user profile in a computer network environment
A computer apparatus and a method is described for establishing a global interest profile of a user. At least one local server and an enterprise server communicate with the user via a communication channel. The local server assigns a local ID to the user The enterprise server assigns to the user a global ID and links the local ID and local user information with the global ID to form a global interest profile of the user. The identity of the users is not shared between servers, thereby maintaining the privacy of the user.
US07941500B2 Method and device for managing content, storage medium, and adaptive content playing method using the same
A content management method includes transmitting content from a content provider device to a client device over a predetermined network; and adding additional information comprising original content location information of the content transmitted to the client device and elapsed playing time information of the content. A content management device includes a communication module which transmits content to, receives content from, or transmits content to and receives content from a device connected over a predetermined network; an additional information edit processing unit which generates additional information comprising original content location information of the content transmitted by the communication module and elapsed playing time information of the content, and inserts the additional information into the transmitted content; and a storage unit which stores the content into which the additional information has been inserted.
US07941499B2 Interprocessor message transmission via coherency-based interconnect
A method includes communicating a first message between processors of a multiprocessor system via a coherency interconnect, whereby the first message includes coherency information. The method further includes communicating a second message between processors of the multiprocessor system via the coherency interconnect, whereby the second message includes interprocessor message information. A system includes a coherency interconnect and a processor. The processor includes an interface configured to receive messages from the coherency interconnect, each message including one of coherency information or interprocessor message information. The processor further includes a coherency management module configured to process coherency information obtained from at least one of the messages and an interrupt controller configured to generate an interrupt based on interprocessor message information obtained from at least one of the messages.
US07941498B2 Method and system for internet transport acceleration without protocol offload
A packet classifier within a network adapter detects an application packet header belonging to a packet in a data stream associated with an application that uses a network protocol, such as TCP/IP, SNA or IPX. Offsets included within the application header are identified and a plurality of registers is loaded with the identified offsets. Each of a plurality direct data placement patterns are masked with contents of the loaded registers. Each direct data placement pattern is associated with an application packet header and includes a corresponding I/O context. Additionally, each direct data placement pattern includes a corresponding connection path for direct placement of a payload corresponding to the detected application header in a memory that is utilized by the application.
US07941479B2 Parallel processing systems and method
Methods and systems for parallel computation of an algorithm using a plurality of nodes configured as a Howard Cascade. A home node of a Howard Cascade receives a request from a host system to compute an algorithm identified in the request. The request is distributed to processing nodes of the Howard Cascade in a time sequence order in a manner to minimize the time to so expand the Howard Cascade. The participating nodes then perform the designated portion of the algorithm in parallel. Partial results from each node are agglomerated upstream to higher nodes of the structure and then returned to the host system. The nodes each include a library of stored algorithms accompanied by data template information defining partitioning of the data used in the algorithm among the number of participating nodes.
US07941478B2 Method and apparatus for distributed application execution
This invention provides methods and apparatus for executing applications in a distributed manner employing one or more proxy servers and one origin server. The invention allows the applications to be executed primarily at the proxy servers rather than at the origin servers, thereby gaining in scalability and improved user response time. A redirection mechanism is used to direct requests to one of the proxy servers. The proxy server uses caching techniques to bring information records needed for application execution to the proxy servers. The code required for application execution is also obtained from the origin server. The invention discusses applying this technique to three Web-based applications, namely Web-based auctions, generating personalized content for Web-users, and creating advertisements for users accessing a Web page.
US07941473B2 Calculation apparatus and storage medium in which calculation program is stored
In a graphing calculator, a decimal calculation unit obtains a calculation result of an arithmetic expression input by an input device to an n-th digit and an (n+m)-th digit. When the values from the most significant digit to an (n+1)-th digit in the (n+m)-digit calculation result are zero, with respect to an addition or subtraction, the CPU corrects an n-digit calculation result of the addition or subtraction to zero.
US07941461B2 System and method for developing and enabling model-driven XML transformation framework for e-business
A system and method for developing and enabling model-driven extensible Markup Language (XML) transformation to XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) format incorporate a strong built-in validation capability. A platform independent framework applies multiple passes of transformation, where each pass performs specific operations on internal models. Different source models are then merged into a target model.
US07941459B1 Selectable use of single-instance store backup methodology in combination with other methods
System and method for exporting single-instance data. A computer system includes a host configured to select a dataset having a first attribute and convey a request to a catalog to export the dataset. The first attribute is a data selection identifying a source of the dataset and a point in time at which data objects were sent from the data selection to the single-instance storage pool. The catalog identifies data objects whose attributes match the first attribute and conveys a request to a single-instance storage pool to retrieve the data objects. In response, the single-instance storage pool associates data segments with each of the data objects, re-assembles each of the data objects from its associated data segments, and conveys the re-assembled data objects to the catalog. The catalog converts the received re-assembled data objects into the dataset.
US07941448B2 System and method for event driven publish-subscribe communications
The present invention provides a system and a method for delivering an event from an event publisher to an event subscriber via an event broker. The event broker is a web server infrastructure which performs several functions such as receiving the published event on a server, authenticating the publisher with the published event, validating the event with XML schema definition, processing the event based on a set of predefined rules and further delivering the processed event to an authorized event subscriber.
US07941447B2 Human relationships registering system and device for registering human relationships, program for registering human relationships, and medium storing human relationships registering program and readable by computer
To provide a human relationships registering system, a method and a server for registering human relationships, a program for registering human relationships, and a medium storing human relationships registering program and readable by a computer, all of which are used to establish wide and close relationships with members having a variety of occupations or engaged in various technical fields and to obtain expert knowledge or information. The human relationships registering system comprises first data processing units 2 and 3 including sections for receiving personal data of a new member, and a second data processing unit including a section for storing the received personal data. The second data processing unit stores the personal data of the new member in correlation to an existing member when the existing member confirms the new member.
US07941446B2 System with user directed enrichment
A system for enriching document content using enrichment themes includes a directed search service and an import-export service. The directed search service allows users to author documents while querying information providers using the directed searches that are inserted as part of the authored documents. The import-export service enables meta-document exchanges between systems that provide document enrichment by binding imported meta-documents to identical or similar information providers.
US07941441B2 Media data access system and method
In a solution for accessing digital media files, in which each file is associated with a tag characterizing information in the file, a data storage stores the media files. An input interface receives commands and forwards them to a data processor. An output interface presents graphical representations of the media files on a user comprehensible format. The data processor causes the output interface to present an adjusted graphical representation of the media files, organizes the media files according to a hierarchical and layered structure, and causes the output interface to present information reflecting the structure. A bottom layer comprises a graphic representation of an individual file. A top layer contains a two-dimensional layout of at least two category segments that are each associated with one or more of the media files. Edges between segments designate that media files associated with one segment are different from media files associated with the other segment regarding at least one disparity criterion.
US07941439B1 Methods and systems for information capture
Systems and methods for information capture from articles are described. In one embodiment, a plurality of keystrokes associated with an application is received, each keystroke is processed to determine an associated action forming a plurality of associated actions, and an event is determined based at least in part on the plurality of associated actions.
US07941434B2 Efficiently compiling co-associating bioattributes
A bioinformatics method, software, database and system are presented in which attribute profiles of query-attribute-positive individuals and query-attribute-negative individuals are compared, and combinations of pangenetic and non-pangenetic attributes that occur at a higher frequency in the group of query-attribute-positive individuals are identified and stored to generate a compilation of bioattribute combinations that co-associate with the query attribute (i.e., an attribute of interest). Several computationally efficient approaches for identifying the bioattribute combinations are incorporated.
US07941426B2 Optimizing database queries
Techniques for optimizing database queries for energy efficiency. A query optimizer is configured to compare energy requirements of query plans, and to select a query plan requiring minimal energy to execute. The query optimizer may also compare time performance of the query plans, and may select a query plan by matching to a user preference for a relative priority between energy requirements and time performance.
US07941417B2 Processing structured electronic document streams using look-ahead automata
In an embodiment, an XPath automaton with state look-ahead capability can efficiently determine whether XML documents, received in a stream in serialized form in a network element, match any of a set of XPath expressions. A token processor receives a structured electronic document in serialized format and identifies entities. A name recognition engine recognizes names of elements of the document and recognizes names of attributes of the elements. A finite state automaton comprises states and transitions representing structural relationships among elements and attributes of structured path expressions and state look-ahead logic that is configured to output a final state when an entity matches one or more of the structured path expressions. The automaton performs state transitions resulting in reaching a specified final state if a match to an expression occurs.
US07941412B2 Presenting evidentiary information
The invention concerns the presentation of evidentiary information on computer generated interfaces within secure user groups. For example presenting evidence a courtroom to the judge, witness and legal representatives of the plaintiff and defendant simultaneously on computer display screens. All presenting of evidence is done using a website interface where each user logs in and their log in provides them with functionalities that reflect their role in the legal proceedings. The invention makes presenting evidence easier by allowing evidence to be ordered, facilitating private data, being able to hold on to evidence or to cause evidence to be presented to a particular user or team of users. Aspects of the invention include a set of interfaces, computer systems, methods and application software.
US07941408B2 System, structure, interface, and semantics for implementing row versions: accessing past versions of a data item
Disclosed is a mechanism, system, interface, and process to allow specification of a new table decoration clause to obtain one or more past version of one or more data items. The version query provides for a direct interface to get multiple versions of the row(s). In addition, information about the past versions can be retrieved and displayed along with the past versions. Also disclosed are algorithms, mechanisms, and processes that are employed to implement a query upon past versions. In one approach, the version query can be defined as either “rowid”-based access or non-rowid based access. With rowid based access, a given rowid is used to identify the data for which past versions are desired. Also disclosed is a process for determining one or more life intervals when given a key.
US07941397B2 Dynamically capturing data warehouse population activities for analysis, archival, and mining
A system comprised of trigger mechanisms, a staging area, and an archived warehouse metadata table is used to extract, store, and archive extract, transform, and load (ETL) tasks from operational metadata in a data-warehousing environment. Operational metadata is comprised of ETL information; ETL task execution statuses, run number, definitions, control flow, and execution schedules. Specified ETL information is monitored and captured so that it may be extracted from operational metadata and transformed every time a trigger mechanism activates an update of stored data. Administrator-specified ETL task information is then stored in staging table. At specified intervals a staging table is refreshed with changes in operational data for each of the administrator-specified monitored and captured ETL tasks. Overwritten data, or outdated ETL task information, is then moved and stored in an archived warehouse metadata table. In one embodiment, archives are queried to generate reports analyzing the status of ETL tasks.
US07941380B2 Electronic data vault providing biometrically protected electronic signatures
An eVault system securely stores personal data and documents for citizens and allows controlled access by citizens and optionally by service providers. The eVault may be adapted to allow processes involving the documents to be carried out in a secure and paperless fashion. Documents are certified, and biometric matching is used for security. On effecting a match with a biometric identifier presented by a user, the user is allowed access to his personal eVault and to access a personal cryptographic key stored therein. One or more of these personal keys may be securely applied within the eVault to generate an electronic signature, amongst other functions.
US07941377B2 Method and apparatus for metering usage of software products with automatic catalog population
A method and a corresponding apparatus for metering usage of software products on a computer are proposed. The metering system is based on the use of a software catalogue. The software catalogue lists all the known products to be metered; each product is identified by one or more executable modules indicative of its running. A licensing agent detects the executable modules that have been launched. For each executable module, the system checks if a corresponding product is listed in the catalogue, and can decide an appropriate action, or simply meter the usage of the product for future reporting and invoicing activity. If no corresponding product is found in the catalogue, the method according to the present invention performs a similarity check between the unknown detected module and the product identifiers existing on the catalogue. Sometimes the difference between a new product and a catalogued one is very limited. If such difference is evaluated to be within a predetermined threshold, than the unknown module is added to the catalogue.
US07941364B2 Price improvement processor for electronic trading of financial instruments
A price improvement processor to effectuate more rapid matching of bids and offers of financial instruments by conducting a rapid automated auction in which certain market participants may provide price improvement in increments that are finer than the prevailing standard minimum price variation and are provided a certain allocation as an incentive for such price improvements.
US07941362B2 System and method for dynamic quantity orders in an electronic trading environment
A system and method for dynamic quantity orders in an electronic trading environment are described. According to one method, a dynamic quantity order includes a price, a desired order quantity and a percentage associated with an estimated order quantity that will be filled in an order queue. When the order is received at an electronic exchange, the order is sorted into a pro-rata order queue, and the exchange may estimate a potential order quantity that will be filled in the order queue at the price based on the defined percentage. Subsequently, the exchange may then increase the order quantity of the dynamic quantity order so that if the estimated number of fills occurs, the order quantity of the dynamic quantity order will be filled.
US07941361B2 System and method for quantitative competition and recording medium having recorded thereon program for implementing the method
A bid-opening device 20 receives from each bidding device 10m a bidding price index γm=g(hk(IVm)) (where IVm is an initial value, hk indicates k-times processing with a one-way function h and g is a one-way function) and its identifier IDm. The received information is stored on a common bulletin board 25. Dm=hk(IVm) (where Dm=g(Dm) is generated with k set as the upper limit value K of the bidding price. The bulletin board 25 is checked for γm which matches this Dm. If no match is found, m is incremented by one, and the check for γm−Dm matching is made for each of m bidding devices. Upon completion of the matching for all the bidding devices, k is decremented by one, and a check is made for γm which matches Dm=g(hk(IVm)), and the index k for which they match is determined as the highest price bid. The bid-opening device 20 outputs that k and the identifier IDm of γm.
US07941353B2 Impacted financial statements
A system for displaying financial information includes a financial statement having a set of financial accounts, a set of business processes associated with the set of financial accounts, and an financial statement manager for displaying the financial statement and the associated set of business processes. The financial statement manager is further adapted to display the financial statement and the set of risks associated with the set of financial accounts, the financial statement and a set of risk controls associated with the set of financial accounts, and/or the financial statement and a set of sample transactions associated with the set of financial accounts. The financial statement manager is further adapted to import the financial statement, which can be encoded in XML format. The system includes a web server for displaying the financial statement and the associated set of business processes as a web page on a user's web browser.
US07941346B2 Wide area network person-to-person payment
According to the invention, transferring money using a computer network is disclosed. In one step, information is saved on credit received for a first user (110) in a stored value account on a server computer system (170). At the server computer system (170), a request from the first user (110) to send money to a second user (130) based on the stored value account is received. An electronic notification is sent from the server computer (170) to the second user (130) to notify the second user (130) of the request. A debit in the stored value account of the first user (110) is created. The requested money is sent to the second user (130) upon a receipt of a request at the server computer (170) from the second user (130).
US07941343B1 Method and system for enhancing product sales in network transactions
A method and system for enhancing the sales potential of transactions conducted over the Internet or other networks though selectively offered promotions functionally related to an initial order.
US07941336B1 Segregation-of-duties analysis apparatus and method
A method and user interface for performing and displaying a segregation of duties analysis on an enterprise resource planning system or back office software system displays potential segregation of duty violations using selectable Venn, Euler, or Veitch diagrams.
US07941333B2 Method and system for identifying and categorizing past due telecommunication service orders
The present invention provides a system and method for the automated routing and processing of telecommunication service orders. A system and method in accordance with the present invention may further prioritize the analysis and processing of telecommunication service orders, identify and classify past due telecommunication service orders for analysis and processing, and manage the order of completion of components of a telecommunication service order. A system and process in accordance with the present invention receives a service order and parses it to find messages on the service order that are included on a message table. Analysis rules provide actions to be taken with a service order based on the messages found in the service order.
US07941325B2 System and method of using a non-retail central filling facility to process pharmacy product prescriptions in a pharmacy retail network
The claimed method and system implements an algorithm for routing electronic prescriptions to one of a pharmacy retail store or a non-retail central filling facility for physical preparation of pharmacy products corresponding to the electronic prescriptions.
US07941322B2 System and methods for providing a healthcare industry trade show via internet
A system or method for providing a 3-D virtual healthcare industry trade show via internet including at least one server computer for collecting, assembling, storing, correlating, or otherwise processing information desired by a participant of the healthcare industry, and at least one other computer used by the participant of the healthcare industry connected via internet or intranet to conduct transactions with other participants or exhibitors of the healthcare industry trade show. Other embodiments include means for leaving any facility or any activity in progress and then return to at the same location, timing to continue without starting from the beginning of the visit or activity, means for creating a 3-D virtual Continuing Education facility, and means for disseminating FDA permitted off-label product promotions which are scientific and educational in nature to medical community as delivered by independent third parties in the formats of clinical trials, special studies, and grand rounds.
US07941317B1 Low latency real-time speech transcription
Systems and methods for low-latency real-time speech recognition/transcription. A discriminative feature extraction, such as a heteroscedastic discriminant analysis transform, in combination with a maximum likelihood linear transform is applied during front-end processing of a digital speech signal. The extracted features reduce the word error rate. A discriminative acoustic model is applied by generating state-level lattices using Maximum Mutual Information Estimation. Recognition networks of language models are replaced by their closure. Latency is reduced by eliminating segmentation such that a number of words/sentences can be recognized as a single utterance. Latency is further reduced by performing front-end normalization in a causal fashion.
US07941311B2 System and method for linguistic collation
A system and method is provided for handling the collation of linguistic symbols of different languages that may have various types of compressions (e.g., from 2-to-1 to 8-to-1). A symbol table of the symbols identified as Unicode code points is generated, with each symbol tagged with a highest compression type of that symbol by sorting the compression tables of the various languages. During a sorting operation with respect to a given string, the tag of a symbol in the string is checked to identify the highest compression type of compressions beginning with that symbol, and the compression tables for the language with compression types equal or lower than the highest compression type of the symbol are searched using a binary search method to find a matching compression for the symbols in the string. A common search module is used to perform binary searches through compression tables of different compression types.
US07941297B2 Noise measurement in video images
Methods and apparatus are described for measuring noise in video image processing. The described methods use horizontal and vertical variances of pixels of an image to extract noise information from the image. Silent regions in an image are considered to determine amplitude variations in the image. A smallest silent region in the image is searched by performing measurements over various block sizes. A least sum of absolute differences approach is used on both horizontal and vertical directions for finding the minimum energy of a received image signal. Using the disclosed method and processor, with a Gaussian distribution for the measured channel noise, both silent image regions, as well as edges, are equally covered.
US07941290B2 Method for error containment and diagnosis in a fluid power system
In a method for error containment and diagnosis in a fluid power system the fluid volumetric flow in the overall system or at least a part thereof and the fluid pressure (P) is detected as a measurement quantity in each case during a duty cycle and is compared with stored references. In each case at the point in time of a deviation or a change in the deviation from the reference it is determined at which component or at which components (10 through 14) of the system an event has occurred influencing fluid consumption in order to recognize same as subject to error. Guide value quantities (Q/P) are derived from the respective volumetric flow values (Q) and the measured pressure (P) and are integrated or summated over the duty cycle to form guide values (KD), a corresponding guide value reference curve (KDref) as a reference being chosen from a stored selection matrix, which has the guide value reference curves (KDref) or time dependent guide values for different operating conditions.
US07941288B2 Chemical agent detection
A chemical agent detector with a a lesser demand sensor, a greater demand sensor, an inlet; and a manifold; and methods associated therewith. The manifold is positioned between the inlet and the sensors, and includes a first intake associated with the lesser demand sensor, a second intake associated with a greater demand sensor, and at least one restrictor. The first intake is placed closer to the inlet than the second intake, and the second intake is isolated from the inlet by at least one restrictor within the manifold. The intakes and restrictor are sized and positioned such that the ratio between: the conductance of the path from the inlet to the greater demand sensor to the conductance of the path between the sensors effectively isolates the lesser demand sensor from the effects of the greater demand sensor.
US07941284B1 Systems, apparatuses, and methods for measuring a fluid characteristic using a coriolis flow meter
According to an illustrative embodiment, a system for calculating an average phase difference in a Coriolis flow meter includes a conduit for transferring a fluid. The conduit is caused to vibrate when the fluid flows through the conduit. The system also includes a first and a second detector operable to detect vibrations at first and second portions of the conduit, respectively. The first and second detectors measure the phase of the first and second vibrations, respectively. The system may also include a timer operable to measure a phase difference between the phases of the first and second vibrations, and a memory operable to store one or more values associated with a plurality of phase differences. The plurality of phase differences may include the phase difference measured by the timer. The system may also include a processor operable to calculate an average phase difference using the one or more values.
US07941282B2 Estimating worst case corrosion in a pipeline
A method and system for estimating the worst case corrosion in a pipeline for which pipeline wall thickness measurements are limited to sampled ultrasonic or radiography (UT/RT) measurements. A data library contains distributions of in-line inspection (IL) measurements for other pipelines, calibrated to correspond to UT/RT measurements as needed. These ILI datasets are randomly sampled multiple times, to obtain multiple sample sets from each ILI dataset. Candidate statistical distributions are evaluated for each sample set to determine which of the candidate statistical distributions most accurately estimates the worst case corrosion measured by ILI. A discriminant function is then derived from sample statistics and pipeline descriptors associated with the sample sets, along with the best candidate statistical distribution for that sample set. Sample statistics and pipeline descriptors for the pipeline with sampled UT/RT measurements are then applied to the discriminant function to determine the best one of the candidate statistical distributions for extreme value estimation, and the worst case corrosion is then determined using that best statistical distribution.
US07941270B2 Navigation system
A method and system for providing navigational instructions. A signal is received from a first device. The signal specifies a destination location, a second device, and a request for at least one route leading to the destination location such that the at least one route is to be sent to the second device. During or after the signal is received from the first device, a device type of the second device is determined. At least one set of images is sent to the second device. Each set of images defines a unique route leading to the destination location. A total number of the sets of images and a content of each set of images are a function of the determined device type.
US07941269B2 Network-based navigation system having virtual drive-thru advertisements integrated with actual imagery from along a physical route
A network-based navigation system includes a user interface and a computer server system that can access a map database, an actual imagery database and an advertisement database in order to provide visual route guidance information having virtual drive-thru advertisements integrated with actual imagery from along a physical route. The user interface permits a user to submit a request for navigation information, receive visual route guidance information in response to the request and initiate a drive-thru presentation of at least a portion of a route. The computer server determines at least one route from the map database based on the request from the user and provides route guidance information to the user interface in response. The computer server also identifies actual imagery from the image database associated with the at least one route and selectively replaces at least one polygon region identified in the actual imagery associated with the at least one route with at least one advertisement from the ad database to create a drive-thru presentation with at least one virtual advertisement. At least a portion of the drive-thru presentation is presented to the user interface. In one embodiment, the computer server records a drive-thru charge for the virtual advertisements present in the portion of the drive-thru presentation provided to the user interface.
US07941258B1 Automobile monitoring for operation analysis
An automobile monitoring arrangement tracks and records automobile operation for post-use automobile operation analysis and in a manner with default-operation modes that facilitate use by automobile owners/supervisors and by those supervised by the automobile owners/supervisors. In one specific embodiment, a record of automobile-operation data contains periodic recordings of speed and direction of an automobile while it was being driven, as such data is provided by a conventional electronic compass and the automobile's electronic speed indicating signal. A processor performs calculations using speed and directional data to calculate acceleration and rate of directional change. Automobile operation data from the recording devices and the calculations performed is compared to stored reference data to determine if the vehicle was abused or driven in an unsafe manner by the operator. The data is output to a display showing automobile operating data and instances where the automobile was abused or driven in an unsafe manner.
US07941253B1 Marine propulsion drive-by-wire control system with shared isolated bus
A marine propulsion drive-by-wire control system controls multiple marine engines, each one or more PCMs, propulsion control modules for controlling engine functions which may include steering or vessel vectoring. A helm has multiple ECUs, electronic control units, for controlling the multiple marine engines. A CAN, controller area network, bus connects the ECUs and PCMs with multiple PCM and ECU buses. The ECU buses are connected through respective isolation circuits isolating the respective ECU bus from spurious signals in another ECU bus.
US07941243B2 Storage system
A very high density storage system comprising a storage grid having a number of storage cells and individual cargo carriers where a cargo carrier is stored in a storage cell. The storage system uses a unique set of individually actuatable gear drives on both the top and bottom of each storage cell, but installed at 90 degrees to each other, to move the cargo carrier to a specific storage cell. Software controls and manages the location of each cargo carrier such that when a specific cargo carrier is desired, software instructions cause the cargo carriers to be shuffled within the storage grid until the desired cargo carrier is located at the desired position, such as an unloading position.
US07941235B2 Playback apparatus, playback method, playback system and recording medium
In a playback apparatus, when a transmission finished notification for kth decompressed digital data is received via a communication portion, a control portion detects a silence start position in the kth decompressed digital data that is stored in the first buffer, transfers a section of the kth decompressed digital data that is before the silence start position to the second buffer, temporarily stores (k+1)th decompressed digital data that is received via the communication portion in the first buffer following the transfer of the section of the kth decompressed digital data, detects a silence end position in the (k+1)th decompressed digital data that is stored in the first buffer, and transfers a section of the (k+1)th decompressed digital data that is after the silence end position to the second buffer.
US07941228B2 Cochlear implant electrode and method of making same
A cochlear stimulation lead and method of making a curved electrode array are provided. In one embodiment of the lead, while the curved section of the lead is curled further beyond its originally molded curvature and held in this position, a filling channel is filled with a filling material that is hardened or cured in this held position. The resulting lead has a tip curvature that is more curved than the originally molded curvature.
US07941217B1 Techniques for promoting biventricular synchrony and stimulation device efficiency using intentional fusion
An exemplary method includes providing an optimal interventricular interval, determining an atrio-ventricular conduction delay for the ventricle having faster atrio-ventricular conduction, determining an interventricular conduction delay and determining an advance atrio-ventricular pacing interval, for use in pacing the ventricle having slower atrio-ventricular conduction, based at least in part on the optimal interventricular interval and the interventricular conduction delay. Other exemplary methods, devices, systems, etc., are also disclosed.
US07941214B2 Method and apparatus for detecting arrhythmias in a subcutaneous medical device
A method and apparatus for detecting a cardiac event in a medical device that includes sensing cardiac signals from a plurality of electrodes, charging an energy storage device in response to the sensed cardiac signals, determining whether the charging of the energy storage device is completed, and determining whether the cardiac event is confirmed in response to an asynchronous look back.
US07941213B2 System and method to evaluate electrode position and spacing
An IMD can be implanted into a patient to address various conditions. The IMD case and leads can have various electrodes and other portions to measure various physiological conditions. For example, a selected current can be generated between two electrodes, either external or internal in the patient, and a voltage can be measured by one or more electrodes of the IMD. A voltage can be measured at two or more locations to determine a relative motion of different electrodes. If the electrodes are in different portions of the heart, a determination can be made of a relative motion or position of the heart or portions of the heart.
US07941207B2 Cardiac monitoring
Systems and techniques for monitoring cardiac activity. In one aspect, a method includes collecting information describing the variability in heart rate over a series of beats, designating variability at a lower end of physiological values as being largely irrelevant to atrial fibrillation, designating variability in a midrange of physiological values as being indicative of atrial fibrillation, designating variability in an upper range of physiological values as being negatively indicative of atrial fibrillation, and determining a relevance of the variability described in the collection to atrial fibrillation.
US07941206B2 Automatic orientation determination for ECG measurements using multiple electrodes
Cardiac monitoring and/or stimulation methods and systems provide monitoring, defibrillation and/or pacing therapies. A signal processor receives a plurality of composite signals associated with a plurality of sources, separates a signal using a source separation algorithm, and identifies a cardiac signal using a selected vector. The signal processor may iteratively separate signals from the plurality of composite signals until the cardiac signal is identified. The selected vector may be updated if desired or necessary. A method of signal separation involves detecting a plurality of composite signals at a plurality of locations, separating a signal using source separation, and selecting a vector that provides a cardiac signal. The separation may include a principal component analysis and/or an independent component analysis. Vectors may be selected and updated based on changes of position and/or orientation of implanted components and changes in patient parameters such as patient condition, cardiac signal-to-noise ratio, and disease progression.
US07941205B2 System and method for separating cardiac signals
EKG sensors ((150) are placed on a patient (140) to receive electrocardiogram (EKG) recording signals, which are typically combinations of original signals from different sources, such as pacemaker signals, QRS complex signals, and irregular oscillatory signals that suggest an arrhythmia condition. A computing module (120) uses independent component analysis to separate the recorded EKG signals. The separated signals are displayed to help physicians to analyze heart conditions and to identify probably locations of abnormal heart conditions. At least a portion of the separated signals can be further displayed in a chaos phase space portrait to help detect abnormality in heart conditions.
US07941203B2 Multimodality imaging system
A multimodality imaging system, comprising: a first imaging system for forming a first image; a second imaging system for forming a second image; and a rotating device on which the first imaging system and the second imaging system are fixed so that the first imaging system and the second imaging system are selectively rotated to a scanning position.
US07941199B2 Sepsis monitor
Sensors are attached to a living being so as to generate corresponding sensor signals. A monitor is in communications with the sensors so as to derive physiological parameters responsive to the sensor signals. Predetermined limits are applied to the physiological parameters. At least one indicator responsive to the physiological parameters and the predetermined limits signal the onset of a sepsis condition in the living being.
US07941195B2 Protective mask of mobile phone
The present invention relates to a protective mask of mobile phone comprising an upper cover body and a lower cover body. The upper and lower cover bodies can be joined with a front and a tear phone housings of a mobile phone, respectively, to effectively prevent abrasion of the mobile phone due to carelessness of a user, thereby preventing ill-favored scars on the mobile phone. Therefore, the deterioration of the quality of the mobile phone and the fall of its value can be avoided. Moreover, trend and fashion of the mobile phone can be achieved without the need of replacing the mobile phone. Therefore, waste of money can be avoided, and economic burden to the user can be lessened.
US07941193B2 Mobile wireless communications device with reduced interfering energy into audio circuit and related methods
A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board carried by the housing. RF circuitry and a processor are operative with each other and carried by the circuit board. A receiver speaker and microphone are carried by the housing. Audio circuitry is carried by the circuit board and operative with the RF circuitry and processor. A microphone audio switch and receiver speaker audio switch are carried by the circuit board and are connected with audio connection lines that interconnect the processor. A filter is operative with the audio connection lines and operatively connected to at least one of the microphone audio switch or receiver speaker audio switch to reduce conducted and radiated interfering RF energy from coupling into the audio circuitry.
US07941191B2 Magnetic hinge mechanism for wireless communication devices
A hinge mechanism movably connects two housings of a wireless communication device such that the housing move relative to each other between open and closed positions. The hinge mechanism include a magnetic detent that initially resists the housing moving between the open and closed positions. However, the magnetic detent yields to move the housing between the open and closed positions whenever a user applies an amount of force that is sufficient to overcome the initial resistance.
US07941189B2 Communicating road noise control system, in-vehicle road noise controller, and server
Road noise is reduced without locally storing noise spectrum patterns for determination or without detecting the present position of a vehicle from the device. An in-vehicle hands-free device causes a cellular phone to detect the present position of the vehicle and transmit the position to a server. The server determines a noise spectrum pattern corresponding to the road surface on which the vehicle is presently running. The noise spectrum pattern is based on the present position of the vehicle received from the in-vehicle hands-free device and road information. The server transmits the noise spectrum pattern to the in-vehicle hands-free device whereupon a noise canceling signal is superimposed on a received signal. The noise canceling signal is based on an inverted noise spectrum pattern that is obtained by inverting the phase of the noise spectrum pattern. The resulting composite signal is output from a speaker.
US07941181B2 Method and apparatus for facilitating the rendering of human communication content
A device (200) that is presently rendering human communications content (202) via a corresponding human communication interface (203) will also passively wirelessly transmit information (103) regarding an existing native capability regarding also wirelessly transmitting the human communication content. Upon receiving (in response to that passive transmission) information (105) regarding an existing other device's (205) capability of also rendering that human communication content, this device can then switch (106) present rendering of the human communication content from the first device to the second device.
US07941177B2 Wireless terminal apparatus for automatically changing WLAN standard and method thereof
A wireless terminal apparatus having a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard automatic change function and method thereof are provided. The wireless terminal apparatus comprises a memory for storing information of a condition change, a wireless communication module for communicating with a predetermined correspondent node according to a first WLAN standard, a communication status detection unit for detecting a communication status of the wireless communication module and determining whether an event occurs satisfying the condition for change, and a central processing unit, changing the first WLAN standard to a second WLAN standard and establishing a communication link. An optimum WLAN standard can be established and a communication is performed according to the WLAN standard.
US07941172B2 History based measured power control response
Frames received on a first link of a channel are grouped or queued for later processing in a batch or batch mode. Power control instructions included with the frames are examined, and a history of predetermined length is kept. Frames to be transmitted on a second link of the channel are also batched for later handling in batch. Power control bits are generated for the frames, based at least in part on the history kept, in a manner that effectuates a slowing of responding to the incoming power control instructions.
US07941171B2 Activating a push-to-talk group feature using an unstructured supplementary service data message
Techniques for implementing a push-to-talk feature in a mobile telecommunications environment (100) involve receiving an indication to activate a push-to-talk service for a first mobile device (130(2)) and identifying a group of mobile devices (130) associated with the push to-talk service for the first mobile device in response to the indication. The indication is received in an unstructured supplementary service data message. A notification relating to the indication to activate the push-to-talk service for the first mobile device is sent to one or more mobile devices from the identified group of mobile devices.
US07941165B2 System and method for providing a proxy in a short message service (SMS) environment
According to a particular embodiment, a method for distributing messages is provided that includes receiving one or more short message service (SMS) messages. The method also includes distributing one or more of the messages to a selected one or a plurality of short message service center (SMSC) servers.
US07941160B2 Location-aware fitness training device, methods, and program products that support real-time interactive communication and automated route generation
In at least one embodiment, a server receives a description of an activity of interest to a user. In response to receiving the description, a route corresponding to the activity of interest is identified and a graphical element corresponding to the route is presented. The route is stored for future reference by the user.
US07941156B2 System of wireless base stations employing shadow prices for power load balancing
In one aspect, a system is provided. In one embodiment, the system includes a plurality of wireless base stations that are located in a contiguous spatial coverage region of a cellular communication system. Each wireless base station that is configured to generate a coverage pilot beam to enable wireless mobile devices to set up spread spectrum wireless communication links with the generating wireless base station. The wireless base stations are configured to transmit data to the wireless mobile devices to cause a portion of the wireless mobile devices to reselect ones of wireless base stations for wireless communication links in a manner that reduces power load imbalances between the wireless base stations. The transmitted data is indicative of a set of shadow prices, wherein each of the wireless base stations is associated with a corresponding one of the shadow prices.
US07941143B2 Method and system for leveraging an authentication on one network to obtain an authentication on another network
The present invention relates to a method and system of a method and system for leveraging a 3G authentication to obtain a 2G authentication for a mobile station (135) using a provisional authentication agent (140). The mobile station (135) first establishes a provisional authentication (210, 215) in the 2G wireless communication system (105) using a second set of authentication parameters and based on the provisional authentication, negotiates a 3G authentication (220) with a 3G wireless communication system (115) that the mobile station was previously operating in and had authenticated to. Using the first set of authentication parameters received from the 3G wireless communication network (115), the mobile station (135) completes a true 2G authentication (230) in the 2G wireless communication system (105).
US07941140B2 UMA/GAN integration within a legacy location based system
In one embodiment, techniques for authorizing a mobile device are provided. A registration request is received for the mobile device. The registration request may include location identifier information. For example, a cell ID may be provided. Static location information is then determined based on the location identifier information. The static location information may be spatial coordinates. The registration request is then authorized based on the static location information. For example, a cell ID may be received and then spatial coordinates may be determined based on the cell ID. The registration request is then authorized based on the spatial coordinates. A response to the registration request is then sent.
US07941139B2 Method and apparatus for the transmission of data
The invention provides a method of and an apparatus for transmitting data, in particular in aircraft, with wireless transmitting and receiving units which are operated on an operating frequency of more than 30 GHz and preferably in a frequency range of between 56 GHz and 64 GHz. Adverse health effects on people and signal interference phenomena are reduced and the method and the apparatus allows broadband data transmission independently of spatial configurations.
US07941135B2 Methods of performing live monitoring of a wireless communication network
In a method of performing live monitoring of a wireless communication network, the network may be divided into a plurality of neighborhoods. A neighborhood may be represented by a given cell of interest and one or more neighbor cells of the cell of interest. A desired neighborhood is selected, and one or more given parameters of the selected neighborhood are monitored to evaluate network performance.
US07941130B2 System and method for using location information to execute an action
A system and method is provided for using location information associated with wireless devices. The system includes a wireless device, a location system, and a feature server. The wireless device includes any wireless apparatus having wireless communications capabilities. The location system can generate location information pinpointing the location of the wireless device. The feature server can use the location information to determine whether to execute an action in accordance with subscriber rules. A large number of applications may be implemented to execute the action via a number of communications channels, including without limitation, a wireless communications network, a computer network, and a public switched telephone system, for example.
US07941125B2 Mobile telephone-based system and method for automated data input
A system for, and method of automated data input that employs a mobile telephone as an input device. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a mobile telephone having a camera configured to generate an image of a document that contains the data, (2) a processing server adapted to receive the document via a wireless communication network, extract the data from the image and arrange the data according to a format and (3) a database, associated with the interpreter, that receives and stores the data according to the format.
US07941117B2 Digital approach for image rejection correction in low intermediate frequency conversion tuner
A method of processing an in-phase signal component and a quadrature signal component of a low intermediate frequency (LIF) signal includes estimating and correcting an amplitude imbalance between a digitized in-phase signal component and a digitized quadrature signal component at a first point in time, and estimating and correcting a phase imbalance between the digitized in-phase signal component and the digitized quadrature signal component at a second point in time in response to the correcting process. The digitized in-phase signal component corresponds to the in-phase signal component at the first point in time and the digitized quadrature signal component corresponds to the quadrature signal component at the first point in time. The second point in the time is subsequent to the first point in time.
US07941110B2 RF circuit with control unit to reduce signal power under appropriate conditions
A disclosed RF circuit includes a power amplifier that produces an RF output signal, a detector to generate a detector signal indicative of a power of the RF output signal, and an offset unit to produce an offset signal that indicates low supply voltage conditions. The power of the RF output signal is reduced, at least in part, by a control signal reflecting a combination of the detector signal and the offset signal. The circuit may include a transmitter to provide an RF input signal to the power amplifier. The transmitter may receive the control signal and adjust a power of the RF input signal based on the control signal. The detector may produce a control current indicative of the RF output signal power. The offset unit produces the offset signal based on a difference between the supply voltage and a nominal supply voltage value.
US07941109B2 Polar modulation transmission apparatus and transmission power control method
As explained above, according to embodiments of the present invention, by providing averaging section 111 that detects an average power value of amplitude component signals, and controlling transmission power based on the amount of drift in the average output power value of PA 103 and the amount of drift in the average power value of amplitude component signals, when residual drift components are included in the average output power value of PA 103, the influence of residual drift components can be eliminated and transmission power can be controlled, so that it is possible to improve the accuracy of transmission power control. That is, deterioration of power estimation accuracy resulting from residual drift components can be reduced, so that it is possible to satisfy the restrictive requirement that the difference between transmission power be within, for example, the range of +/−0.5 dB.
US07941104B2 Diversity transmission method and transmitter of a base station using the same in a mobile communication system
A diversity transmission method and a transmitter of a base station using the same is provided in a mobile communication system. For this purpose, the diversity transmission method for controlling power of transmit antennas when the transmitter transmits a signal to a mobile terminal using a plurality of antennas includes (a) receiving feedback information concerning the antenna having the best channel status from the mobile terminal, (b) increasing power allocation of a selected antenna according to the feedback information by a predetermined amount and decreasing power allocation of a non-selected antenna by a predetermined amount, and (c) transmitting the signal to the mobile terminal using the power allocation controlled in (b).
US07941102B2 Partitioned radio-frequency apparatus and associated methods
Radio-frequency (RF) apparatus includes receiver analog circuitry that receives an RF signal and provides at least one digital signal to receiver digital circuitry that functions in cooperation with the receiver analog circuitry. The receiver analog circuitry and the receiver digital circuitry are partitioned so that interference effects between the receiver analog circuitry and the receiver digital circuitry tend to be reduced.
US07941094B2 Apparatus and method of wireless communication at a plurality of performance levels
An apparatus, comprising at least one wireless receiver, the at least one wireless receiver may be capable of operating at a plurality of performance levels, and the apparatus may be capable of communicating a performance level that the at least one wireless receiver is operating at to at least one wireless device in communication with the apparatus. The at least one wireless receiver may be capable of transitioning from a first performance level to a second performance level and further may be capable of communicating the transition to the second performance level that the at least one wireless receiver is operating at to at least one wireless device in communication with the apparatus. The first performance level may be an enhanced receive capability level and the second performance level may be a reduced receive capability level.
US07941090B2 Interactive book reading system using RF scanning circuit
An interactive book reading system (600) responsive to a human finger presence. The system (600) includes a radio frequency (RF) scanning circuit (675), a control circuit (610), a memory (615) and an audible output device (650). The RF scanning circuit (675) is configured to detect the presence of the human finger when the finger enters an RF field generated by the RF scanning circuit (675). The control circuit (610) and the memory (615) are in communication with the RF scanning circuit (675). The memory (615) stores a plurality of audible messages. The audible output device (650) is also in communication with the control circuit (610). The audible output device (650) outputs at least one of the audible messages based on an analysis of the RF field performed by the control circuit (610) when the finger enters the RF field.
US07941084B2 Apparatuses useful for printing and methods of mitigating edge wear effects in apparatuses useful for printing
Apparatuses useful for printing and methods of mitigating media edge wear effects in apparatuses useful for printing are provided. An exemplary apparatus useful for printing includes a first roll including a first outer surface; a second member including a conformable second outer surface forming a nip with the first outer surface; and a registration distribution system including a motor for translating at least the second member, relative to a medium passing through the nip, in at least a first zig-zag motion pattern from a first home position to a second home position.
US07941079B2 Image forming apparatus
A developing apparatus includes first and second developer bearing members configured to bear developer and a connecting member configured to connect the first and second developer bearing members to each other such that the second developer bearing member is swingable relative to the first developer bearing member. A first adjusting member which adjusts the positions of magnetic poles of a first magnetic member disposed in the first developer bearing member is fixed to the developing apparatus. A second adjusting member which adjusts the positions of magnetic poles of a second magnetic member disposed in the second developer bearing member is fixed to the connecting member.
US07941073B2 Toner cartridge
The toner cartridge is provided with: a toner storing container of a rectangular shape having a toner feeding opening in an angular portion of the toner storing container; a stirring conveying member that is disposed so as to rotate in a predetermined rotation direction in the toner storing container and stirs and conveys toner in the toner storing container toward the toner feeding opening; a waste toner storing container that stores reclaimed toner; and a partition member that is held by the toner storing container, partitions between the toner storing container and the waste toner storing containers and has a bearing portion axially supporting a rotating shaft of the stirring conveying member and extending into inside of the waste toner storing container. The toner stored in the toner storing container has an average value of a shape factor (SF1) of about 130 or less.
US07941071B2 Lubricant application device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus using the lubricant application device
A lubricant application device includes a lubricant, a lubricant supplier, a lubricant smoother, and a sealing member. The lubricant is supplied to a surface of an image carrier for carrying a toner image. The lubricant supplier is provided downstream from a cleaning blade for removing residual toner after the toner image is transferred from the image carrier in a direction of movement of the image carrier and supplies the lubricant onto the surface of the image carrier. The lubricant smoother is provided downstream from the lubricant supplier in the direction of movement of the image carrier and slidably contacts the image carrier to smooth the supplied lubricant. The sealing member seals a space between the cleaning blade and the lubricant smoother at both ends of the lubricant supplier in an axial direction of the image carrier.
US07941069B2 Process cartridge having air inlets and outlets for cooling gears disposed in the process cartridge
A process cartridge includes a photoconductor driven by gears, a developing roller, an agitator. The process cartridge is mounted on an image forming apparatus that forms an image with toner. The process cartridge includes an air inlet and an air outlet on a side plate thereof. The gears are arranged along a path between the air inlet and the air outlet.
US07941054B2 System for extracting a clock signal from optical signal including plural clock frequencies and a method therefor
In a clock signal extraction system, an optical modulator modulates an input optical signal having its clock frequency equal to a first or second frequency with a modulation electrical signal having its frequency equal to the average of the first and second frequencies to output a modulated optical pulse signal to a phase comparator, which receives a reference electrical signal generated by a reference signal generator and having its frequency half as high as a difference between the first and second frequencies to compare in phase the modulated optical pulse signal with the reference electrical signal to output a resultant phase comparison signal to a modulation electrical signal generator, which in turn outputs a modulation electrical signal to the optical modulator and clock signal generator, which generates a signal with the modulation and reference electrical signals mixed, and outputs the signal at first or second frequency as a clock signal.
US07941044B2 Image capturing device
This image capturing device includes a fitting member, a lens attached by adhesive to the fitting member, and a light reception element. The light reception element is disposed so as to face the lens attached to the fitting member, and an image of a photographic subject is projected upon this light reception element by the lens. An image output unit is also provided which outputs this image of the photographic subject projected upon the light reception element by the lens. And an application aperture for adhesive is provided in the fitting member at a position facing a region of the lens which does not contribute to the image of the photographic subject outputted by the image output unit. Desirably, a plurality of such admission apertures are provided.
US07941041B2 Image pickup apparatus
An image pickup apparatus includes an imaging optical system; a display unit; a detecting unit performing focus detection in phase difference detection; a focusing unit performing focus control of a lens in the imaging optical system on the basis of the focus detection result; an imaging unit generating an image signal concerning an optical image of a subject; an electronic zoom unit zooming in or out the image of the subject displayed in the display unit on the basis of the image signal by performing signal processing; and a switching unit switching between an electronic zoom active state and an electronic zoom inactive state. The detecting unit includes a sensor unit including a first licensor and a second licensor; a setting unit that sets detection sections having the same section length in the first and second licensors; a focus detecting unit; and a section length controlling unit.
US07941040B2 Systems and methods for smart deicers
Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a deicer system for heating water within a fluid receptacle to prevent ice from forming, the system including a main body configured to be positioned within the fluid receptacle, a heating element adapted to heat the water, a temperature sensor adapted to detect a temperature of the water, a switch adapted to activate and deactivate the heating element, and a control unit in communication with the heating element, the temperature sensor, and the switch. The heating element is supported by the main body. The control unit is adapted to control the heating element using the switch based at least in part on a temperature detected by the temperature sensor.
US07941022B1 Single fiber optical links for simultaneous data and power transmission
In one embodiment, a fiber optic link includes a combined optical link for transmitting high optical power and wide bandwidth signal through a single optical fiber. In one embodiment, a means is provided for combining a high power optical signal and a low power data signal with wavelength selective directional couplers so as to inhibit the low power data transmitter and the low power data receiver from being overloaded with too much power. In one implementation, a method of using double clad fiber is provided, which includes transmitting an optical data signal at an optical data wavelength along an inner core, the inner core being single mode at the optical data wavelength and simultaneously transmitting an optical power signal at a optical power wavelength through a cladding, the cladding serving as a multimode core for a power optical link at the optical power wavelength.
US07941019B1 Monolithic pump block for optical amplifiers and associated method
A method and apparatus use a photonic-crystal fiber having a very large core while maintaining a single transverse mode. In some fiber lasers and amplifiers having large cores problems exist related to energy being generated at multiple-modes (i.e., polygamy), and of mode hopping (i.e., promiscuity) due to limited control of energy levels and fluctuations. The problems of multiple-modes and mode hopping result from the use of large-diameter waveguides, and are addressed by the invention. This is especially true in lasers using large amounts of energy (i.e., lasers in the one-megawatt or more range). By using multiple small waveguides in parallel, large amounts of energy can be passed through a laser, but with better control such that the aforementioned problems can be reduced. An additional advantage is that the polarization of the light can be maintained better than by using a single fiber core.
US07940998B2 System and method for re-locating an object in a sample on a slide with a microscope imaging device
A method of re-locating an object in a sample is provided for a previously-scanned slide having determined objects each with corresponding stored coordinates and a stored image, the objects being mapped relative to each other. The slide is positioned on a microscope stage, stored images of the objects are visually displayed, and a target object is selected. The slide is moved to an estimated coordinate position, corresponding to the coordinates of the target object, and a field-of-view image of the sample is captured for comparison to the stored image of the target. If the target is in the image, an offset between actual coordinates of the located target and the stored coordinates of the corresponding object is determined. The slide is then moved, via the stage, from the estimated coordinate position, according to the offset, to center the target in the image. Associated systems and methods are also provided.
US07940994B2 Multi-scale image fusion
A multi-scale filter pyramid is applied to one or more components of a multi-component input image to produce a fused and enhanced image that can be mapped to a display, such as a color display.
US07940993B2 Learning device, learning method, and learning program
A motion-setting section (61) sets a motion amount and a motion direction for obtaining processing coefficients. A student-image-generating section (62) generates student images obtained by adding a motion blur to a teacher image not only based on the set motion amount and the set motion direction but also by changing at least one of the motion amount and motion direction in a specific ratio and student images obtained by adding no motion blur to the teacher image. A prediction-tap-extracting section (64) extracts, in order to extract a main term that mainly contains component of the target pixel, at least a pixel value of pixel in the student image whose space position roughly agrees with space position of the target pixel in the teacher image. A processing-coefficient-generating section (65) generates processing coefficients for predicting the target pixels in the teacher images from the pixel values of extracted pixels based on a relationship between the pixels thus extracted and the target pixels in the teacher images. The processing coefficients that are suitable for any motion blur removing which is robust against any shift of the motion vector can be generated through learning.
US07940992B2 Visual discrimination model for single image applications
A computer implemented method for applying a visual discrimination model for single image applications includes receiving an image, defining a plurality of regions of interest in the image including a first region located to contain a feature or object to be detected and a second region located to encompass a background, determining metrics for visibility of the feature or object, wherein the metrics are determined by generating channel Just-Noticeable Difference (JND) maps for the single image determining JND summary metrics for the plurality of regions, and determining a difference in JND metrics between the plurality of regions, and adjusting parameters of the JND metrics to increase a visibility of the feature or object in the image.
US07940985B2 Salient object detection
Methods for detecting a salient object in an input image are described. For this, the salient object in an image may be defined using a set of local, regional, and global features including multi-scale contrast, center-surround histogram, and color spatial distribution. These features are optimally combined through conditional random field learning. The learned conditional random field is then used to locate the salient object in the image. The methods can also use image segmentation, where the salient object is separated from the image background.
US07940984B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer program product
A determining unit extracts similar-characteristic areas in image data and determines a type of the characteristics of image data of each of the similar-characteristic areas, a first correcting unit corrects a characteristic of image data in each of the similar-characteristic areas to a predetermined data characteristic according to the type of the characteristics of image data of that similar-characteristic area thereby obtaining characteristics-corrected image data, a storage unit stores therein the image data and the characteristics-corrected image data, a second correcting unit corrects a characteristic of the image data and the characteristics-corrected image data stored in the storage unit to a destination-specific characteristic that corresponds to a destination to which image data is to be output, and an output unit outputs the image data having the destination-specific characteristic to the destination.
US07940980B2 Systems and methods for determining position and velocity of a handheld device
Embodiments of the present invention provide a handheld device that comprises an information module for obtaining and/or receiving information pertaining to a surface adjacent to the device, and a position determination arrangement for determining at least one of a position and/or velocity of the handheld device. The position determination arrangement comprises a determination module configured to determine at least one of a relative position of the handheld device and/or a velocity of the handheld device based upon at least one of surface markings located on the surface adjacent the device and/or apparatus markings located on an input apparatus. The surface markings and the apparatus markings are configured to provide absolute position information.
US07940975B2 Medical image diagnosing support method and apparatus, and image processing program configured to extract and correct lesion candidate region
A medical image diagnosing support method is provided that includes a site region extracting step for obtaining a tomographic image which is picked up by a medical diagnostic imaging apparatus and extracting a predetermined site region from the obtained tomographic image, a first region extracting step for extracting a first lesion candidate region from the site region based on pixel values of the site region extracted in the predetermined site region extracting step, a second region extracting step for extracting a second lesion candidate region from the site region based on a distribution of the pixel values of the site region extracted in the predetermined site region extracting step, and a region correcting step for correcting the first lesion candidate region extracted in the first region extracting step by using the second lesion candidate region extracted in the second region extracting step.
US07940974B2 Method and system for adjusting 3D CT vessel segmentation
Method and system for processing an object within a diagnostic image comprises segmenting a three dimensional (3D) object within a diagnostic image. A contour of the object is fitted with a 3D mesh comprising splines in at least first and second directions. The splines provide a plurality of editable control points, and the splines in the first direction intersect with the splines in the second direction at intersection points. A position of at least one control point on the 3D mesh is adjusted based on a user input.
US07940956B2 Tracking apparatus that tracks a face position in a dynamic picture image using ambient information excluding the face
A tracking apparatus and method in which the possible position of a current face is estimated based on the face positions previously determined as well as plural pieces of ambient information corresponding to the possible positions obtained. The current face position is estimated based on the position of the ambient information that is most similar to the ambient information obtained from previous detections.
US07940951B2 Silent heat dissipation device
A heat dissipation device includes a hollow housing and a speaker. The hollow housing has a first opening and a second opening. The speaker is disposed at the first opening, wherein the speaker includes a diaphragm oscillating within a frequency scope the human ear cannot or hardly hear so as to generate airflow through the second opening.
US07940950B2 Electromagnetically-shielded speaker systems and methods
The present invention relates to electromagnetically-shielded speaker (or microphone) systems for generating acoustic sounds (or electric signals) based upon electric signals (or acoustic sounds) supplied thereto while minimizing irradiation of undesirable electromagnetic waves. More particularly, the present invention relates to various speaker systems each of which has at least one source for emitting the undesirable waves and at least one counter member for emitting counter electromagnetic waves capable of canceling at least a substantial portion of the undesirable waves due to their phase characteristics. The present invention instead relates to various speaker systems each of which has at least one electric and/or magnetic shields capable of shielding and/or terminating electric waves and magnetic waves of the undesirable waves, respectively. The present invention also relates to various methods of minimizing irradiation of the undesirable waves by such counter members, various methods of shielding the undesirable waves by the electric and/or magnetic shields, and the like. The present invention further relates to various processes for providing such systems, counter members thereof, electric and/or magnetic shields therefor, and the like.
US07940941B2 Effect adding method and effect adding apparatus
An effect adding method, includes: applying different gains to a positive side waveform portion and a negative side waveform portion of an audio signal respectively when absolute values of input levels of the positive side waveform portion and the negative side waveform portion are smaller than a predetermined value; producing a higher range component of the audio signal based on a high range component of the audio signal to which the gain is applied, the higher range component being higher in frequency than the high range component; producing a lower range component of the audio signal based on a low range component of the audio signal to which the gain is applied, the lower range component being lower in the frequency than the low range component; and synthesizing an audio signal having an effect sound by adding the audio signal to which the different gains are applied, the higher range component, and the lower range component with each other.
US07940929B1 Method for processing documents containing restricted information
A method, system and computer program product for processing documents containing restricted information. The method for processing the documents includes the step of identifying data fields in the document. The method further includes the steps of identifying a critical section containing data fields corresponding to restricted information, and dividing the document into a critical section and a non-critical section. Further, the method includes the step of processing the non-critical section at a minimally secure location.
US07940928B2 Systems and methods for protecting data secrecy and integrity
A technique for integrating message authentication with encryption and decryption is disclosed. Intermediate internal states of the decryption operation are used to generate a validation code that can be used to detect manipulation of the encrypted data. The technique is optimized with respect to processing time, execution space for code and runtime data, and buffer usage. The technique is generally applicable to a variety of block ciphers, including TEA, Rijndael, DES, RC5, and RC6.
US07940926B2 Cooperative encoding of data by pluralities of parties
Methods and apparatus include cooperatively encoding digital data between collaborating parties. By prior agreement, the parties take turns encoding portions of a given payload (e.g., document), until all portions have been encoded, thereby transforming the payload from a native encoding to a new, composite encoding. Choreography rules facilitate the process. Each party is free to use its own processing scheme. The use of a lookback or chaining step enables each party to impart a quality of informational entanglement to the output during its construction. By virtue of these features and attendant synergies, the resultant jointly encoded digital data enjoys certain novel cryptographic properties in addition to serving as a record of interaction between parties. To decode the data, the process is reversed. Third parties are optionally employed to mediate aspects of the process. Noise and padding, such as watermarks or copyrights, may be added variously to the encoded digital data. Encoding schemes include encryption or compression algorithms.
US07940925B2 Clip mount for cellular phone attachment
The clip-mount operates with a button mount and includes a body defining a locking cavity for the button and a resilient locking tongue therein. The tongue biases the button into a locking position. The tongue includes at least one cam surface. A movable cam actuator on the body includes another cam surface which coacts with the first cam permitting the tongue to flex from a locking to an unlocking position. An enhancement includes one cam and cam follower, to flex the tongue from the locking to the unlocking position, and a second cam and cam follower to flex the tongue to a button locking position. The method includes biasing the button to a locking position, providing a sloped cam surface on the resilient locking tongue and moving a second cam surface over the tongue cam surface thereby flexing the tongue from a locked to a button release position.
US07940923B2 Speakerphone with a novel loudspeaker placement
A new speakerphone wherein a loudspeaker is oriented to face the listeners of an audio conference is disclosed. New speakerphones which have a bass loudspeaker and at least one tweeter loudspeaker wherein the tweeter loudspeaker is oriented towards listeners of an audio conference are also disclosed.
US07940918B1 Unified method and apparatus to simplify telephone area code dialing
A computerized method and related system and software for simplifying telephonic calling, comprising: designating a destination area code; the user specifying a destination telephone number; and causing the call to be signaled using the designated destination area code in combination with the specified destination telephone number, without the user entering the designated destination area code when specifying the destination telephone number.
US07940912B2 System and method for virtual wireless calling
A system and method is provided for call routing from a wired telephone switch. A virtual number may be registered with a database of the wired telephone switch for call routing. Outgoing calls are routed from a standard telephone utilizing the virtual number. The virtual number is unregistered to disable the call routing from the standard telephone.
US07940911B2 Method and apparatus for providing a specialized resource function in a telephone network
To provide a specialized resource function within the telephone network, server apparatus is described having a first interface for communication with a signalling network of a telephone network and a second interface for communication with a media gateway that has at least one bearer channel to the telephone network. The apparatus has a control arrangement for enabling the apparatus to provide, through the second interface, a document, such as a VoiceXML document, for rendering by the media gateway, the document being provided at least partly under the control of information received from a service control subsystem of the telephone network in an interaction through the first interface. An associated media gateway and method are also described.
US07940907B2 Method, system, and article for placing a telephone call to a previously-called party
Upon receiving a service code from a calling party, a list of parties previously called by the calling party is retrieved. An audio message is generated based on the list, and communicated to the calling party. A dialed input indicating a selected party from the list is received from the calling party. Based on the dialed input, a call between the calling party and the selected party is initiated.
US07940890B1 Digital mammography scanning system
An apparatus for use in imaging an area of interest within a patient's body, including a stationary frame; a rotating assembly mounted on the stationary frame, the rotating assembly including an axle assembly having a substantially horizontal axis of rotation, an X-ray source having a focal spot that coincides with the horizontal axis of rotation; a collimator from which a fan-shaped X-ray beam exits towards a detector assembly, and a rotating frame mechanically coupled to the detector assembly and pivoting about the horizontal axis of rotation. The detector assembly includes a linear X-ray detector for detecting radiation of the fan-shaped X-ray beam after the beam passes through the area of interest, and is mechanically coupled to a motor that enables arcuate movement of the detector assembly in a transverse direction. The motor is mechanically coupled to the rotating assembly to enable rotational movement of the rotating assembly.
US07940888B2 X-ray imaging apparatus, method of controlling the same, and computer program
An X-ray imaging apparatus includes an X-ray source including a plurality of X-ray focuses, an X-ray detector which detects X-rays emitted from the X-ray focuses and transmitted through an object, and a control unit which controls the X-ray source and the X-ray detector. The X-ray imaging apparatus selects a pair of X-ray focuses, of X-ray focuses of the plurality of X-ray focuses which project images on the X-ray detector through a region of interest which is an imaging region of the object, from which emitted X-rays define an intersecting angle coinciding with a predetermined angle in the region of interest, and decides an X-ray focus to be used for imaging from X-ray focuses between the selected pair of X-ray focuses. An X-ray image is captured by emitting X-rays from the decided X-ray focus and causing the X-ray detector to detect the X-rays.
US07940884B2 Method and image reconstruction device for reconstructing image data
A method and an image reconstruction device are disclosed for reconstructing image data on the basis of input projection data obtained via an X-ray computerized tomography system. A target convolutional kernel is selected, which, when reconstructing image data from the input projection data using simple filtered back projection, would lead to target image characteristics. Image data is then reconstructed using an iterative reconstruction method of at least one embodiment. In at least one embodiment, the method includes a) reconstructing image data of a first iterative stage from the input projection data, b) generating synthetic projection data on the basis of the image data of the current iterative stage, c) forming difference projection data on the basis of the input projection data and the synthetic projection data, d) generating residue image data from the difference projection data, e) combining the residue image data with the image data of the current iterative stage to form image data of an additional iterative stage, wherein the image data of the current iterative stage is subjected to filtering before or during combination with the residue image data by using a regularization convolutional kernel which is determined on the basis of the selected target convolutional kernel, and f) repeating b) to e) until a termination condition occurs.
US07940881B2 Device and method for producing radioisotopes
The present invention is related to a device and a method for producing a radioisotope of interest from a target fluid irradiated with a beam of accelerated charged particles, the device includes in a circulation circuit (17): an irradiation cell (1) having a metallic insert (2) able to form a cavity (8) designed to house the target fluid and closed by an irradiation window (7), the cavity (8) including at least one inlet (4) and at least one outlet (5); a pump (16) for circulating the target fluid inside the circulation circuit (17); an external heat exchanger (15); the pump (16) and the external heat exchanger (15) forming external cooling means of the target fluid; the device means for pressurizing (14) of the circulation circuit (17) and the external cooling means of the target fluid are arranged in such a way that the target fluid remains inside the cavity (8) essentially in the liquid state during the irradiation.
US07940878B2 Unlock mode in source synchronous receivers
A phase locked loop generates an output corresponding to a source synchronous input and an input link clock signal. A phase locking feedback system receives the input and an input link clock signal and detects phase deviations between the output and the input. The phase locking feedback system also adjusts an adjusted clock signal based on the phase deviations thereby causing the phase locking feedback system to generate the output so that the output has a steady phase relationship with the input. A first mechanism causes the phase locking feedback system not to track phase deviations between the output and the input upon occurrence of a first predefined event, thereby maintaining the adjusted clock signal at a current state.
US07940877B1 Signal edge detection circuitry and methods
Double data rate (“DDR”) circuitry or the like is modified or enhanced to include edge detection capability. During edge detection mode the circuitry is supplied with serial training data that includes successive pairs of equal-valued bits. Several, differently-phased, candidate clock signals are used one after another in order of increasing phase to clock the DDR circuitry. Adjacent bits in the training data that should be equal-valued are captured by the DDR circuitry and compared. Any candidate clock signal that causes the bits thus compared to be unequal is flagged as having phase close to edges in the data. The approximate phase of data edges is thereby indicated by the phase (or phases) of the candidate clock signal (or signals) causing the bits compared as described above to be unequal.
US07940875B2 System and method for coordinating the actions of a plurality of devices via scheduling the actions based on synchronized local clocks
A system and method are provided which coordinate the actions of a plurality of devices via scheduling occurrence of the actions based on synchronized local clocks of the devices. Thus, a plurality of devices are communicatively coupled via a communication network, and the devices have their local clocks synchronized to a high degree of precision, using IEEE 1588, NTP, or some other technique for synchronizing their local clocks. “Time bombs” can be scheduled on the devices to coordinate the occurrence of actions between the devices in accordance with the detonation times set for the respective time bombs. In certain embodiments, not only the detonation time, but also the respective action to be triggered upon detonation is programmable for each device. The time bombs implemented on the various devices can be used to coordinate the operations of the various devices with a high degree of temporal precision.
US07940867B1 Scattered pilot correlation in DVB-H systems
A method for correlating scattered pilot locations in a sequence of OFDM symbols in a multi-carrier transmission system, and includes mapping pilot locations comprising pilot symbols having predetermined known values, wherein the pilot symbols are positioned among data subcarriers in time and frequency dimensions consisting of received pilot symbols and having a predetermined position pattern in the time and frequency dimensions, wherein the predetermined position pattern comprises a finite number of sub-position patterns each corresponding to positions of the pilot symbols; estimating a Doppler spread in a frequency spectrum between the transmitter and the receiver in the multi-carrier transmission system; estimating a channel length of a set of channel paths received at the receiver; and the receiver automatically selecting one of a plurality of predetermined methods of correlating the scattered pilot locations in the sequence of OFDM symbols based only on the estimating processes.
US07940865B2 Re-acquisition of symbol index in the presence of sleep timer errors for mobile multimedia multicast systems
A technique for re-acquiring a symbol index in the presence of sleep timer errors in a MediaFLO™ (Forward Link Only) mobile multimedia multicast system comprising a receiver and a transmitter, wherein the method comprises receiving a digital signal comprising a superframe comprising one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in the receiver comprising a timer; waking up the receiver from a sleep mode of operation by an amount of time equal to a maximum error introduced by the timer plus a time to reacquire a beginning of each OFDM symbol plus a time to reacquire a symbol index; and reacquiring the symbol index.
US07940863B2 Radio receiving apparatus and radio receiving method
A radio receiving apparatus of the present invention is for receiving a radio signal having pulsating signals occurring at specific periods, wherein the radio receiving apparatus corrects signal levels received during communication in individual regions into which each of the aforementioned periods is divided based on signal levels received in the individual regions under conditions where the radio signal is not received. As a result of this correction, the radio receiving apparatus of the present invention can decrease the influence of noise having periodicity and improve reliability of communication.
US07940859B2 Transmission circuit and communication device
A transmission circuit is capable of precisely compensating for an offset characteristic of an amplitude modulation section, and operating with low distortion and high efficiency over a wide output electric power range. A signal generation section outputs an amplitude signal and an angle modulation signal. An amplitude amplifying section inputs, to the amplitude modulation section, a signal corresponding to a magnitude of the amplitude signal having been inputted. The amplitude modulation section amplitude-modulates the angle modulation signal with the signal inputted from the amplitude amplifying section, and outputs a resultant signal as a modulation signal. The power measuring section measures an output power of the amplitude modulation section. An offset compensation section reads an offset compensation value from a memory in accordance with the output power of the amplitude modulation section, and adds the read offset compensation value to the amplitude signal.
US07940849B1 Method and apparatus for estimation of carrier frequency offset and/or sampling frequency offset
In a method for determining timing information in a receiver, a first signal is analyzed to determine a first phase difference with respect to different portions of the first signal, and a second signal is analyzed to determine a second phase difference with respect to different portions of the second signal. The second signal is a frequency domain representation of at least a portion of the first signal. An indication of a carrier frequency offset and a sampling period offset are generated based on the first phase difference and the second phase difference.
US07940845B2 Motion vector calculating method
When a block (MB22) of which motion vector is referred to in the direct mode contains a plurality of motion vectors, 2 motion vectors MV23 and MV24, which are used for inter picture prediction of a current picture (P23) to be coded, are determined by scaling a value obtained from averaging the plurality of motion vectors or selecting one of the plurality of the motion vectors.
US07940844B2 Video encoding and decoding techniques
This disclosure describes video encoding techniques capable of reducing the number of processing cycles and memory transfers necessary to encode a video sequence. In this manner, the disclosed video encoding techniques may increase video encoding speed and reduce power consumption. In general, the video encoding techniques make use of a candidate memory that stores video blocks in columns corresponding to a search space for a motion estimation routine. A memory control unit addresses the candidate memory to retrieve multiple pixels in parallel for simultaneous comparison to pixels in a video block to be encoded, e.g., using Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD) or Sum of Squared Difference (SSD) techniques. A difference processor performs the parallel calculations. In addition, for subsequent video blocks to be encoded, the candidate memory can be incrementally updated by loading a new column of video blocks, rather than reloading the entire search space.
US07940826B2 Surface emitting laser
When configuring a surface emitting laser by a semiconductor material not capable of largely extracting a refractive-index difference, the surface emitting laser using a photonic crystal capable of forming a waveguide is provided.
US07940825B2 Surface-emission laser diode and surface-emission laser array, optical interconnection system, optical communication system, electrophotographic system, and optical disk system
A surface-emission laser diode includes an active layer, a pair of cavity spacer layers formed at both sides of the active layer, a current confinement structure defining a current injection region into the active layer, and a pair of distributed Bragg reflectors opposing with each other across a structure formed of the active layer and the cavity spacer layers, the current confinement structure being formed by a selective oxidation process of a semiconductor layer, the pair of distributed Bragg reflectors being formed of semiconductor materials, wherein there is provided a region containing an oxide of Al and having a relatively low refractive index as compared with a surrounding region in any of the semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector or the cavity spacer layer in correspondence to a part spatially overlapping with the current injection region in a laser cavity direction.
US07940818B2 Passively mode locked quantum cascade lasers
This invention relates to a self-induced transparency mode-locked quantum cascade laser having an active section comprising a plurality of quantum well layers deposited in alternating layers on a plurality of quantum barrier layers and form a sequence of alternating gain and absorbing periods, said alternating gain and absorbing periods interleaved along the growth axis of the active section.
US07940803B2 Method for data transmission via data networks
A method for data transmission via data networks, in particular via ethernet-based data networks, having at least two participants; the data networks have at least one topological real-time field and one topological non-real-time field, and data telegrams sent via the data networks have at least one real-time part and at least one non-real-time part. By a coupling unit, data telegrams from the non-real-time field which arrive inside the real-time part are delayed and transmitted to the non-real-time part.
US07940787B2 Low-power ethernet device
In accordance with the teachings of this disclosure, an Ethernet device is provided that draws current below a predetermined voltage, and as the voltage across the device exceeds the threshold, the device transforms into a high-impedance state, appearing as a high impedance device. Once in the high-impedance state, the discovery process proceeds normally as the current drawn through the high-impedance device is no more than normally occurs due to leakage or other typical conditions. Thus, the IEEE discovery now proceeds normally in the higher voltage ranges (6V to 9V) where the device of this disclosure is effectively out of the circuit, causing no interference.
US07940772B2 Methods, systems, and computer program products for transporting ATM cells in a device having an ethernet switching fabric
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer program products for transporting ATM cells in a device having an Ethernet switching fabric. According to one method, at least one ingress ATM cell is received at an ATM network interface of a device having an Ethernet switching fabric. Next, the connection associated with which the ingress ATM cell is identified. The ATM cell is encapsulated in Ethernet frame addressed to a media processing resource associated with the connection. The Ethernet frame is forwarded to the media processing resource across an Ethernet switching fabric.
US07940767B2 Method and system of routing a communication within a network
A method can be used to route a communication within a network. The method can include receiving a first communication at a first edge router, wherein the first communication is a Layer 2 communication. The method can also include determining that the first communication has a destination that includes a first multicast group and a second multicast group different from the first multicast group. The method can also include encapsulating the first communication within a second communication, wherein the second communication is a Layer 3 communication, and wherein the second communication is a single communication. The method can further include sending the second communication towards the first multicast group and the second multicast group. A system can be configured to carry out the method.
US07940764B2 Method and system for processing multicast packets
Provided are a method, system, and program for processing multicast packets. A multicast packet is received to transmit to destination addresses. A payload of the multicast packet is written to at least one packet entry in a packet memory. Headers are generated for the destination addresses and at least one descriptor is generated addressing the at least one packet entry in the packet memory including the payload to transmit to the destination addresses. For each destination address, at least one indicator is generated including information on the generated header for the destination address and the at least one descriptor, wherein indicators for the destination addresses address the at least one descriptor.
US07940761B2 Communication connection method, authentication method, server computer, client computer and program
Communication connection method for connecting server computer to client computer via network, comprises storing group identification information items for identifying groups, in relation to information indicating number of connection request packets uniquely and secretly allocated to each group of groups, each group including users allowed to access server computer, counting connection request packets received from client computer within preset period to obtain counted number, determining whether information corresponds to counted number, acquiring one group of groups to which connection request packets corresponding to counted number are allocated, if information corresponds to counted number, determining whether resources of server computer are allocated to group indicated by acquired group identification item, generating connection request acknowledgement packet in response to at least one of received connection request packets, and transmitting generated connection request acknowledgement packet to network.
US07940759B2 Robust technique for frame synchronization in DAB-IP systems
FEC frame synchronization in a DAB-IP system comprising FEC frames includes receiving FEC packets each comprising a FEC packet header and a FEC data field comprising padding bytes at an end of a last FEC packet received; comparing a received FEC packet header with a known FEC packet header until a number of bit errors in the received FEC packet header is less than or equal to a predetermined amount; and matching the received FEC packet header and the padding bytes until at least one of the following actions occur thereby resulting in receiver locking: a number of successive FEC packet headers mismatches in the received FEC packet header; a predetermined number of FEC packets end without padding matching; and FEC packet header and padding matching occurs. The received FEC packets are tracked after receiver locking has occurred to ensure FEC parity packets are positioned properly in the FEC frames.
US07940757B2 Systems and methods for access port ICMP analysis
Systems and methods perform analysis of ICMP packets received at a network device port to determine if the ICMP packet is valid and thus should be forwarded. One aspect of the systems and methods includes configuring a port to be a trusted port in which any type of ICMP message may be considered valid. For untrusted ports, the system analyzes the ICMP packet to determine if the packet is one that should be received on an untrusted port. A further aspect of the systems and methods includes analyzing the ICMP packet data to determine if packet addresses have been spoofed or altered.
US07940743B2 Method and device for the synchronization of radio stations and a time-synchronous radio bus system
A method and device for synchronizing a transmitter and a receiver with each other over a radio interface. A transmission signal is produced with a signal source in the transmitter and is transmitted via the radio interface. A corresponding receiver signal is received in the receiver from the radio interface and is evaluated using a receiver signal source signal from a signal source of the receiver adapted to the signal source of the transmitter. The same frequency modulation is applied to the receiver signal source signal, whereby the receiver signal received in the receiver is mixed with the receiver signal source signal to form a mixed signal and the mixed signal is analyzed with respect to frequency unbalance.
US07940737B2 Method and apparatus for multiplexing multiple reverse feedback channels in multi-carrier wireless networks
A method and apparatus is provided for multiplexing multiple Reverse feedback Channels in integrated multi-carrier systems in multi-carrier wireless networks. Assignment of a MAC Index for Reverse Link feedback channels to any Forward Link carrier using the Traffic Channel Assignment (TCA) message is facilitated.
US07940734B2 Mobile communication system having radio access network and method controlling call processing load thereof
A mobile communication system structured in a radio access network having a base station, a control station, and a switch network for matching a mobile station and a core network, the control station comprising a traffic signal process; a control signal processor; a call process load controller; and a call processor, wherein the call process load controller refers to information on call process volume included in a call process volume request message sent from the call processor and the traffic signal processor, selects the corresponding call processor and traffic signal processor according to weight estimated based on software and hardware performance, and sends the call control service request message containing information on the selected traffic signal processor to the selected call processor.
US07940721B2 Power overload control method useful with enhanced dedicated channel traffic
An exemplary method of controlling communications that may include enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) traffic includes setting a total uplink power limit below an allowable power limit. A minimum amount of uplink resources is allocated to each user requesting E-DCH service on an individual user basis such that a cumulative E-DCH power allocation satisfies a selected minimum E-DCH power allocation threshold. A determination whether to grant a non-E-DCH service request is made based upon a relationship between the current total uplink power and the total uplink power limit and a relationship between the selected minimum E-DCH power allocation threshold and a current cumulative E-DCH power.
US07940720B2 Reverse link channel architecture for a wireless communication system
A channel structure and mechanisms that support effective and efficient allocation and utilization of the reverse link resources. In one aspect, mechanisms are provided to quickly assign resources (e.g., a supplemental channel) as needed, and to quickly de-assign the resources when not needed or to maintain system stability. The reverse link resources may be quickly assigned and de-assigned via short messages exchanged on control channels on the forward and reverse links. In another aspect, mechanisms are provided to facilitate efficient and reliable data transmission. A reliable acknowledgment/negative acknowledgment scheme and an efficient retransmission scheme are provided. Mechanisms are also provided to control the transmit power and/or data rate of the remote terminals to achieve high performance and avoid instability.
US07940716B2 Maintaining information facilitating deterministic network routing
In a wireless network that includes a plurality of nodes, a method of maintaining, by a first node, information regarding communications links between nodes in the wireless network includes: for each communications link that is established with another node, recording an identification of the other node; and for each message received by the first node from the other node through the communications link with the other node, recording a network pathway by which the message has been sent in the wireless network, the network pathway identifying the nodes and the communications links therebetween by which the message has been sent. Another method includes recording, by a server, for each message that is received by the server from the wireless network, a network pathway by which the message has been sent, the network pathway identifying the nodes and the communications links therebetween by which the message has been sent.
US07940713B2 Apparatus and method for traffic performance improvement and traffic security in interactive satellite communication system
There are provided an apparatus and method for traffic performance improvement and traffic security in an interactive satellite communication system. The method for traffic performance improvement of an interactive satellite communication system includes the steps of: a) storing an Internet protocol (IP) packet that is received from a user terminal connected to a satellite mobile terminal of the interactive satellite communication system and is to be transmitted to a central station through a satellite; b) transmitting acknowledgement for the stored IP packet to the user terminal by acting for the central station, before the stored IP packet is transmitted to the central station; and c) transmitting the stored IP packet through the satellite to the central station, and retransmitting an unacknowledged IP packet according to a retransmission request of the central station.
US07940712B2 Method and arrangement for coding and scheduling in packet data communication systems
The method and arrangement according to the present invention relates to scheduling and coding in communication systems utilizing automatic repeat request (ARQ) and/or multihop scheduling and forwarding. According to the inventive method the receiving nodes selectively stores received information, also overheard information, as a priori information and feed back information about their respective stored a priori information to a sending node. The sending node forms composite data packets by jointly encoding and scheduling multiple multicast data packets, and subsequently transmits the composite data packets to the receiving nodes. Upon receiving a composite data packet the receiving nodes uses their stored a priori information, comprising of regular multicast packets, or full or partly decoded composite packets comprised of regular multicast packets, in the process of extracting multicast data packets from the composite data packets.
US07940709B2 Service provision at a network access point
A system for providing one or more services at a network access point is described. The system comprises a controller, a wireless interface coupled with the controller, a network interface coupled with the controller, at least one of an internal interface coupled with the controller and an external interface coupled with the controller, and at least one of one or more internal modules coupled with the internal interface and one or more external modules coupled with the external interface.
US07940702B1 Method and apparatus for allowing communication within a group
A method and apparatus exchange information within a predefined group of telecommunication terminals with each of the group being utilized by a user by forming a voice message by one of the group; communicating the voice message to the remainder of the group via instant message communication; and converting the instant message communication to a voice conferencing communication that includes all members of the group that remained part of the instant message communication.
US07940700B2 Method of distributing multiple spanning tree protocol configuration
A system and method of distributing a Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) configuration to at least one Ethernet switch. The method comprises assigning an Ethernet switch as a server switch. Based upon a configurable operation mode of the server switch and a configurable operational mode of at least one Ethernet switch configured as a client switch, the server switch is operable to transmit a MSTP configuration to the at least one client switch.
US07940698B1 Point to multi-point label switched paths with label distribution protocol
The label distribution protocol (LDP) is extended to set up a point to multi-point (P2MP) label switched path (LSP) across a computer network from a source network device to one or more destination network devices. LDP is extended to create a P2MP label map message containing a label and a P2MP forwarding equivalence class (FEC) element having a root node address and an identifier. The P2MP FEC element may, for example, associate an address of the root node of the P2MP LSP with an opaque identifier. The P2MP FEC element uniquely identifies the P2MP LSP. The P2MP FEC element may be advertised with a label in a P2MP label map message. A source network device or the destination network devices may initiate setup and teardown of the P2MP LSP. The P2MP label map messages may be propagated from the destination network devices to the source network device.
US07940696B2 Remotely booting computing nodes in a switching domain
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for remotely booting computing nodes in a switching domain, the switching domain capable of connecting to other switching domains through a network switch, that include: receiving, in the switch, a wakeup request packet that requests activation of one or more computing nodes in the switching domain, the wakeup request packet having a process port value specifying physical ports on the switch to which the one or more computing nodes are physically connected; identifying, by the switch, a network address for each computing node in dependence upon the physical port on the switch to which each computing node to be activated is physically connected; generating, by the switch, a wakeup packet for each computing node in dependence upon the identified network address for that computing node; and transmitting, by the switch to each computing node to be activated, the wakeup packet for that computing node.
US07940689B2 Apparatus for administrating communication among on-vehicle electronic control units
An apparatus is provided for managing communication among a plurality of process means respectively operating on given control programs realizing functions necessary for a vehicle. The plural process means includes a first process means issuing requesting messages for requesting a function and a second process means receiving the requesting message, performing a process requested by each requesting massage, and sending back a response indicating results of the process to the first process means. In the apparatus, storage means stores therein, of the requesting massages issued, only response-waiting messages issued by the first process means and received by the second process means. A measuring component measures an elapse of time from a time when the request stored in the storage is received by the second process means. A determining component determines whether or not the elapse of time measured by the measuring component reaches a preset value.
US07940688B1 Method and apparatus for canceling channel reservations in a wireless network
A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing collision avoidance and/or channel capture is presented. A timer (NAV) for a channel which, if set, prevents the node from transmitting on the channel is maintained at a station. A determination is made whether a duration of a transmission response (CTS) has expired. The NAV is cleared when the channel is idle for a predetermined time interval and the flag is clear, and the NAV is not cleared when the flag is set.
US07940687B2 Efficient partitioning of control and data fields
Embodiments describe efficient tradeoff of latencies with processing times. A single control field can be placed within a frame to tradeoff encoding time with decoding time. Alternatively, a control field can be split into two portions to achieve good latency performance while maintaining sufficient processing time for scheduling, encoding and decoding. In accordance with some embodiments, a ACK/NACK field on one hop can serve the dual purpose of being a request for resources on the next hop in a multi-hop system. Also described is implicit acknowledgment monitoring that can improve latency performance.
US07940675B2 Method of communication between reduced functionality devices in an IEEE 802.15.4 network
In a 802.15.4 network, each reduced functionality device (RFD) is permitted to communicate with only an assigned full function device (FFD). The present invention allows each of the RFDs to communicate with another RFD upon the RFD determining that the local FFD assigned to the RFD is inoperable or unable to communicate. Under emergency conditions, the RFD is able to communicate with a closely located RFDs such that the closely located RFDs can receive and respond to an emergency situation and/or repeat the message. To satisfy the 802.15.4 standards, communication between the RFDs is allowed only during emergency conditions and when the FFD is inoperative. A comprehensive test procedure is included to insure the integrity of the system is preserved at all times.
US07940671B2 Systems and methods for multiplexing network alarm signals
A method of monitoring a plurality of network elements relating to a network includes receiving a X bit signal indicative of an alarm condition relating to one of the plurality of network elements and generating a Y bit signal representative of the alarm condition relating to the one of the plurality of network elements. The method further includes transmitting the Y bit signal over the network to a network monitoring location in an overhead portion of a data frame. According to the method, Y is greater than X.
US07940666B2 Communication node architecture in a globally asynchronous network on chip system
A network and a data transmission method between elements in such a network using an asynchronous communication protocol of the “send/accept” type. At least one node in the network operations without an internal clock, this node determining a transfer hierarchy between two data packets to be routed to the same output, at least as a function of a priority channel information associated with each data packet.
US07940658B2 ERSPAN dynamic session negotiation
A method and network device to generate a remote traffic monitoring session using an automated technique to configure the source and destination devices of the monitoring system is disclosed. The method includes discovering a Layer 3 (L3) source device and an L3 destination device and automatically configuring the devices. The L3 source device passes target traffic that will be monitored via the L3 destination device in a remote traffic monitoring session. The method verifies configurations of the L3 source device and the L3 destination device, and determines remote monitoring capabilities common to the L3 source device and the L3 destination device. The method negotiates relevant parameters for the remote traffic monitoring session and establishes the remote traffic monitoring session between the L3 source device and the L3 destination device.
US07940657B2 Identifying attackers on a network
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for identifying attackers on a network. A data packet is filtered by a multi-tiered filtering and transmission system. Data packets matching the first tier filter are discarded. Data packets matching the second tier filter are transmitted to an output module based on a criterion. Data packets in the third tier filter are hashed into bins and data packets matching an entry in the bin are transmitted to the output module based on a criterion for the bin. Data packets in the fourth tier transmission system are transmitted to the output module based on a criterion. Data packets that do not meet the criterion for transmission to the output module are transmitted to an attack identification module which analyzes the data packets to identify attacks.
US07940655B2 Cross-layer optimization of VoIP services in advanced wireless networks
A cross-layer optimization is presented between the MAC and Network layers to enhance the performance of VoIP services in advanced wireless networks. Among the factors considered in the optimization are the characteristics of the originating source and the network path. This information is relayed using the Network layer to provide feedback to the MAC layer in order to improve the end-to-end performance of VoIP services.
US07940645B2 Protection switching method based on change in link status in ethernet link aggregation sublayer
An Ethernet protection switching method based on a change in link status in a link aggregation sublayer is disclosed. If an Ethernet link aggregation sublayer is present on an Ethernet connection path, a link aggregation sublayer Management Entity Group (MEG) end point is assigned to the Ethernet link aggregation sublayer to generate a link aggregation message for Ethernet connection management and protection switching. When a change in link status is detected in the Ethernet link aggregation sublayer, the link-aggregation-sublayer MEG end point generates and sends the link aggregation message to an MEG end point performing Ethernet connection management and protection switching. Adequate Ethernet protection switching may be performed even in the presence of the link aggregation sublayer.
US07940643B2 Method of transmitting reference signal and transmitter using the same
A method and apparatus of transmitting a reference signal in a wireless communication system is provided. A reference signal sequence is generated by using a pseudo-random sequence. A portion or entirety of the reference signal sequence is mapped to at least one resource block and is transmitted. The pseudo-random sequence is generated by a gold sequence generator which is initialized with initial values obtained by using cell identifier. The reference signal provides low PAPR and high cross correlation characteristic.
US07940637B2 Optical recording medium having super-resolution structure for improvement of reproducing stability and noise characteristic in low frequency band
A super-resolution optical recording medium includes a reflective layer formed on a substrate, a recording layer for recording information thereon, a super-resolution layer made of a chalcogenide semiconductor material, and a first and a second dielectric layers laminated on upper and lower surfaces of the super-resolution layer. The recording layer is made of a material that has a decomposition temperature higher than an information reproduction temperature and does not form bubble recording marks during recording, and the super-resolution layer contains one or more elements selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and boron.
US07940634B2 Multilayer optical recording medium and recording method on multilayer optical recording medium
In a multilayer optical recording medium having three or more recording layers, when data is recorded on a recording layer far away from an incident surface of laser light, and especially on a recording layer farthest away from the incident surface of the laser light, by applying the laser light, the recording power margin of the farthest recording layer allows for a variation in the optimal recording sensitivity even if the transmittance of the recording layers located between the laser light incident surface side and the target recording layer is varied due to existing recordings and the amount of the laser light passing therethrough is also varied. In this case, the recording layer which is the farthest from an incident surface of laser light has a phase change recording film, and the recording layer which is the nearest from the incident surface of the laser light has a write-once read-multiple recording film.
US07940628B2 Multilayer optical information recording medium, optical head, and optical drive
A disclosed optical recording medium includes multiple recording layer units in each of which one or more recording layers and one or more middle layers are stacked alternately; and one or more spacer layers. In the disclosed optical recording medium, the recording layer units and the spacer layers are stacked alternately in a depth direction of the optical recording medium.
US07940626B2 Recording device and recording method, and computer program
A recording apparatus includes: a recording device for recording record information onto at least one of (i) a recording medium including: a first recording layer and a second recording layer in which the record information is recorded by irradiating laser light thereon, each of the first and second recording layers including a buffer area and a calibration area, and (ii) a recording medium including: the first recording layer and the second recording layer, each of the first and second recording layers including the calibration area; a setting device for setting a reserved area having a predetermined size for extending or generating the buffer area, by each recording unit in the calibration area; a calibrating device for calibrating the power by using the calibration area other than the set reserved area; and a controlling device for controlling the recording device to record the record information into at least the reserved area.
US07940612B2 Optical disc apparatus and control method thereof
The present invention provides an optical disc apparatus that reduces access time while suppressing the emanation of heat from a beam expander. A microcomputer manages the operation time and pause time of a stepping motor constructed to move the movable lens of the beam expander, and in accordance with the duration of an immediately previous pause, limits the number of successive stepping-motor driving actions following the pause time, below a maximum permissible count. When the pause duration is shorter than a threshold value or when the number of successive stepping-motor driving actions reaches the maximum permissible count, the microcomputer starts next driving of the stepping motor after a required waiting time.
US07940611B2 Optical disc apparatus
An optical disc apparatus comprises an overcurrent detector and when the overcurrent detector detects an overcurrent during a recording operation or a reproduction operation and during an operation for controlling a focus of an objective lens, a rotation speed of an optical disc is reduced and an actuator is controlled to cause the objective lens to be in a retracted state under the condition that a disc motor exerts brake force. The objective lens is in the retracted state until the rotation speed of the optical disc becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined value and when the rotation speed of the optical disc is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value, the objective lens is released from the retracted state.
US07940599B2 Dual port memory device
A multi-port memory device having a storage node, a precharge node, a first, second, third, and fourth transistor, and a control module. The first transistor includes a current electrode connected to the storage node, another current electrode connected to a first bit line, and a gate connected to a first wordline. The second transistor includes a current electrode connected to the storage node, another current electrode connected to a second bit line, and a gate connected to a second wordline. The third transistor includes a current electrode connected to the reference node, another current electrode connected to the first bit line, and a gate. The fourth transistor includes a current electrode connected to the precharge node, another current electrode connected to the second bit line, and a gate. The control module deactivates the fourth transistor in response to a dummy access of the first storage module at the second transistor.
US07940577B2 Semiconductor integrated circuit device minimizing leakage current
The semiconductor integrated circuit device includes a voltage control circuit that generates a control voltage for deactivating a field effect transistor by a gate voltage. The voltage control circuit controls a voltage so as to substantially minimize the leakage current which flows when the field effect transistor is inactive with respect to a device temperature.
US07940572B2 NAND flash memory having multiple cell substrates
A NAND flash memory bank having a plurality of bitlines of a memory array connected to a page buffer, where NAND cell strings connected to the same bitline are formed in at least two well sectors. At least one well sector can be selectively coupled to an erase voltage during an erase operation, such that unselected well sectors are inhibited from receiving the erase voltage. When the area of the well sectors decrease, a corresponding decrease in the capacitance of each well sector results. Accordingly, higher speed erasing of the NAND flash memory cells relative to a single well memory bank is obtained when the charge pump circuit drive capacity remains unchanged. Alternately, a constant erase speed corresponding to a single well memory bank is obtained by matching a well segment having a specific area to a charge pump with reduced drive capacity. A reduced drive capacity charge pump will occupy less semiconductor chip area, thereby reducing cost.
US07940555B2 Row decoder for non-volatile memory devices, in particular of the phase-change type
A hierarchical row decoder is for a phase-change memory device provided with an array of memory cells organized according to a plurality of array wordlines and array bitlines. The row decoder has a global decoder that addresses first and a second global wordlines according to first address signals; and a local decoder, which is operatively coupled to the global decoder and addresses a respective array wordline according to the value the first and second global wordline and second address signals. The local decoder has a first circuit branch providing, when the first global wordline is addressed, a first current path between the array wordline and a first biasing source during a reading operation; and a second circuit branch providing, when the second global wordline is addressed, a second current path, distinct from the first current path, between the array wordline and a second biasing source during a programming operation.
US07940552B2 Multiple level cell phase-change memory device having pre-reading operation resistance drift recovery, memory systems employing such devices and methods of reading memory devices
A memory device comprises a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell comprising a memory cell material that has an initial resistance that is determined in response to an applied programming current in a programming operation, the resistance of the memory cell varying from the initial resistance over a time period following the programming operation, and each memory cell being connected to a conduction line of the memory device that is used to apply the programming current to program the resistance of the corresponding memory cell in the programming operation and that is used to apply a read current to read the resistance of the corresponding memory cell in a read operation. A modification circuit modifies the resistance of a memory cell of the plurality of memory cells selected for a read operation to return its resistance to near the initial resistance prior to a read operation of the memory cell.
US07940546B2 ROM array
A ROM array is provided, comprising a plurality of columns of memory cells, wherein each column of memory cells is coupled to a shared bit line which is shared by that column of memory cells and an adjacent column of memory cells. Each column of memory cells has its own associated reference line, which is selectively coupled to a reference potential. Each reference line is coupled to the reference potential when a read operation is performed on a memory cell of the associated column of memory cells. Each reference line is decoupled from the reference potential when a read operation is performed on a memory cell of the adjacent column of memory cells. Both reference lines associated, via their columns of memory cells, to a shared bit line are decoupled from the reference potential when the shared bit line is being pre-charged prior to the read operation. The present invention thus provides a ROM array in which both leakage reduction and speed increase benefits result, whilst providing a high density design.
US07940543B2 Low power synchronous memory command address scheme
A method for dynamically enabling address receivers in a synchronous memory array includes: controlling all address receivers to initially be in an off state; generating a command signal and generating an address signal; delaying the address signal so there is a latency between the command signal and the address signal; and selectively turning on an address receiver corresponding to the address signal when the command signal is received by the synchronous memory array.
US07940540B2 Universal AC adaptor
A method and apparatus for adaptively configuring an array of voltage transformation modules is disclosed. The aggregate voltage transformation ratio of the adaptive array is adjusted to digitally regulate the output voltage for a wide range of input voltages. An integrated adaptive array having a plurality of input cells, a plurality of output cells, or a plurality of both is also disclosed. The input and output cells may be adaptively configured to provide an adjustable transformer turns ratio for the adaptive array or in the case of an integrated VTM, an adjustable voltage transformation ratio for the integrated VTM. A controller is used to configure the cells and provide digital regulation of the output. A converter having input cells configured as a complementary pair, which are switched out of phase, reduces common mode current and noise. Series connected input cells are used for reducing primary switch voltage ratings in a converter and enabling increased operating frequency or efficiency.
US07940537B2 Partial regeneration in a multi-level power inverter
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a medium voltage drive system having multiple power cells each to couple between a transformer and a load. A first subset of the power cells are configured to provide power to the load and to perform partial regeneration from the load, and a second subset of the power cells are configured to provide power to the load but not perform partial regeneration. A controller may be included in the system to simultaneously control a DC bus voltage of at least one of the first subset of the power cells, correct a power factor of the system, and provide harmonic current compensation for the system.
US07940531B2 DC-DC converter
A DC-DC converter comprising a soft-magnetic, multi-layer substrate provided with a laminated coil constituted by connecting pluralities of conductor lines, and a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising a switching device and a control circuit, which are mounted on the soft-magnetic, multi-layer substrate; the semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising an input terminal, an output terminal, a first control terminal for controlling the ON/OFF of the switching device, a second control terminal for variably controlling output voltage, and pluralities of ground terminals; the soft-magnetic, multi-layer substrate comprising first external terminals formed on a first main surface, first connecting wires formed on the first main surface and/or on nearby layers, second connecting wires formed between the side surface of the multi-layer substrate and a periphery of the laminated coil, and second external terminals formed on a second main surface; and terminals of the semiconductor integrated circuit device being connected to the first external terminals on the multi-layer substrate, at least part of the first external terminals being electrically connected to the second external terminals through the first and second connecting wires, and the input or output terminal being connected to the second external terminals via the laminated coil.
US07940524B2 Remote cooling of a phased array antenna
A self-contained cooling system for a phased array antenna includes a cooling structure, a heat exchanger, and a pump for circulating a fluid coolant around a coolant loop. The cooling system receives power from a remote power source. The cooling structure includes a plurality of coolant inlet pipes, a plurality of coolant outlet pipes, and a plurality of cooling platforms. Each of the cooling platforms has a coolant channel that begins at one of the plurality of coolant inlet pipes, terminates at one of the plurality of coolant outlet pipes, and provides a flow path for a fluid coolant. The cooling structure further includes at least one base plate releasably mounted to at least one of the plurality of cooling platforms. One or more antenna elements associated with the phased array antenna are mounted on the base plate releasably mounted to at least one of the plurality of cooling platforms. The flow of the fluid coolant through the coolant channel dissipates thermal energy produced by the one or more antenna elements.
US07940514B2 MEMS device using an actuator
A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) includes a first electrode interposed between a first fixed end and a second fixed end, the first electrode being movable by an actuator element. The MEMS also includes a substrate on which the first and second fixed ends are located. The MEMS further includes a second electrode formed on the substrate to face the first electrode. A shape from the first electrode to the first fixed end and a shape from the first electrode to the second fixed end are asymmetrical, the first electrode to be lowered to the second electrode.
US07940508B2 Inherently safe modular control system
A modular system for transmitting power and data between a control processor that receives and transmits signals along a trunk of a distributed control network, and one or more field devices located in a hazardous area includes a backplane bus and a trunk module connected to the backplane and interconnecting the trunk and backplane. Intrinsically safe spur modules are removably attached to the backplane.
US07940506B2 Automated AC line filter and surge suppression apparatus and method
An automated AC line filter and surge suppression apparatus 100 having an inductive current sense loop (ICSL) circuit 10 for sensing inductive current at a load and controlling the application of AC line filter 112 to an AC power line to the load. Current sensor 12 in series with the input line senses inductive load current. A first bridge rectifier 14 rectifies the sensed load current to a proportionate DC voltage, which triggers a switch 24. The output of switch 24 is fed into an opto-isolator 26, which in turn controls second switch 28. Switch 28 connects or disconnects AC line filter 112 from the system according to a predetermined sensed inductive current at the load. MOVs 102 and capacitive elements 104 provide continuous surge suppression protection to the load.
US07940505B1 Low power load switch with protection circuitry
Load switches are relatively common and in use with a variety of applications, and conventional load switches have been designed to have continually operating protection circuitry, which can consume a great deal of power. Here, a load switch integrated circuit (IC) is provided where a controller within the IC activates and deactivates various protection circuits in a sequence, allowing the protection circuit to protect the IC while also reducing power consumption.
US07940504B2 Apparatus and method for scalable power distribution
According to one aspect of the invention, a plug-in module is provided for installing in a power distribution assembly. In one embodiment, the plug-in module may include an overcurrent protection device, a power cable, which may include a first end coupled to the overcurrent protection device, and a second end coupled to the first end, one or more receptacle outlets attached to the second end and electrical contacts coupled to the overcurrent protection device and configured to couple the plug-in module to a plurality of stationary electrical conductors of the power distribution assembly.
US07940498B2 Circuit interrupting device with high voltage surge protection
The present invention provides a circuit interrupting device which is capable of providing protection against electrical surge through its innovative electrical discharge design; establishing or discontinuing electrical continuity among the input power source, output load, and user accessible load through its innovative contacts connection/disconnection design; automatic or manual testing of the condition of the key components in the circuit interrupting device by way of a simulated leakage current; and testing whether the device is properly wired by way of a reset switch.
US07940497B2 Magnetic head device having rear positive pressure surface and rear side positive pressure surface
A magnetic head device is provided. A slider of a magnetic head device has a side that faces a recording medium and on which a first positive pressure is exerted on the leading side and a second positive pressure is exerted on the trailing side. In the area between the first positive pressure area and the second positive pressure area, a small second negative pressure is created at the front. A first negative pressure larger than the second negative pressure is created at the rear. A third positive pressure is exerted on both sides of the first negative pressure area. When air density decreases, the small second negative pressure in a middle area and the large first negative pressure at the rear of the second negative pressure area stabilize the pitch angle of the slider and prevent an excessive decrease in the flying distance of a trailing end portion.
US07940492B2 Hydrodynamic bearing device, spindle motor, and recording and reproducing apparatus
In order to prevent oil leakage in a hydrodynamic bearing device comprising an opening section in close proximity to a radial bearing and a lubricating fluid reservoir, a shaft 10, thrust flange 16, sleeve 11, seal plate 21, and stopper plate 20 are provided, a radial dynamic pressure bearing is formed in a radial clearance between the shaft 10 and sleeve 11, and a thrust dynamic pressure bearing is formed in a thrust direction clearance between the sleeve 11 and thrust flange 16. A connecting hole 11d is formed that connects a gap between the sleeve 11 and seal plate 21 and a thrust direction gap between the sleeve 11 and thrust flange 16. The relationship A
US07940491B2 Information storage device having a disk drive and a bridge controller PCB within a monolithic conductive nest
An information storage device includes a disk drive and a disk drive printed circuit board (PCB) with a disk drive interface connector. A bridge controller PCB is connected to the disk drive interface connector, and includes a host interface connector. An electrically conductive nest of monolithic construction receives the disk drive housing and the bridge controller PCB. The electrically conductive nest includes an enclosure portion enclosing the bridge controller PCB with a conductive grounding tab in contact with the host interface connector. The enclosure portion includes a first plurality of conductive fingers each in contact with the disk drive housing. The electrically conductive nest also includes an extended shield portion adjacent the second side of the disk drive base and overlying the disk drive controller PCB. The extended shield portion includes a second plurality of conductive fingers each in contact with the disk drive housing.
US07940486B2 Thermally assisted magnetic head, head gimbal assembly, and hard disk drive
A laser diode is fixed to a light source support substrate and a first surface of a slider substrate is fixed to a second surface of the light source support substrate; therefore, the slider substrate and the laser diode are kept in a fixed positional relation. Since the laser diode faces a light entrance face of a core, long-distance propagation of light as in the conventional technology does not occur, and light emitted from a light emitting element is guided well to a medium-facing surface while permitting some mounting error and coupling loss of light. A spot size w of a light intensity distribution along the X-axis in the XY plane including an incident-light centroid position on the light entrance face is set larger than a thickness of the core, whereby variation in incidence efficiency is well suppressed against positional deviation.
US07940482B2 Lens drive apparatus and image pickup apparatus including lens drive apparatus
A lens drive apparatus that can prevent a propulsion force generated in a direction other than an optical axis direction without a second yoke, reduce a size of the entire apparatus, and high-accurately drive a lens holding frame in the optical axis direction. The apparatus including: a member to be driven that holds a lens, is movable in the optical axis direction, and is guided and supported in a lens barrel; a movable coil wound with at least two sides in parallel to the optical axis direction, and mounted to a part of the member to be driven; and a magnet placed to face the movable coil in parallel to the optical axis direction, and provided in the lens barrel, wherein the movable coil is configured so that at least one side of the two sides and one side other than the two sides face surfaces of the magnet.
US07940479B2 Positioners and microscopes incorporating the same
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a positioning device comprises a microscope assembly and a lens positioning assembly. The lens positioning assembly comprises a lens support subassembly and a bi-directional positioning guide. The lens support subassembly comprises a translating rod, while the positioning guide comprises a coiled spring. The coiled spring is canted relative to a longitudinal axis of the rod. The inner periphery of the coiled spring engages in a spring loaded state an outer periphery of the rod such that the coiled spring provides a frictional force about the outer periphery of the rod. This frictional force provided by the coiled spring about the outer periphery of the rod is sufficient to hold the rod within the inner periphery, but permit infinitely variable bi-directional movement of the rod through the inner periphery under an applied force. Additional embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US07940468B2 Variable-focus lens assembly
A variable-focus lens assembly is provided. The lens assembly includes a microfluidic device that defines a chamber for receiving a fluid therein. A slip having an aperture therethrough is disposed in the chamber. A first fluid is disposed on the first side of the slip and a second fluid is disposed on the second side of the slip. A lens is formed from the interface of the first and second fluids. The outer periphery is pinned to the slip about the aperture. A turning structure fabricated from a hydrogel material engages the slip and tunes the focal length of the lens in response to a predetermined stimulus.
US07940464B2 Optical system and corresponding optical element
The invention relates to an optical system comprising: at least one source of illumination designed to produce an illuminating beam; and at least one imager able to produce an imaging beam when illuminated by the said illuminating beam; the said system being characterized in that it further comprises: collimating means for collimating the said illuminating beam; and at least one optical element comprising, on a first surface, means for redirecting part of the said illuminating beam towards the said imager, so as to illuminate the said imager and for adapting the shape of the said beam to suit the said imager.
US07940463B2 Fabricating and using hidden features in an image
Some implementations of the invention provide hidden static images. Some such images can only be perceived when viewed from an angle to the normal to a surface. Such images may appear as a solid color when viewed along an axis perpendicular to a surface, but may reveal a hidden image when viewed from an angle relative to that axis. The hidden image may be defined according to interfaces between areas that pass substantially the same wavelength when viewed along the axis, but which pass noticeably different wavelengths when viewed from an angle relative to that axis. The hidden images may or may not be discernable to a human observer. The hidden image may comprise a code that is not readable by an optical scanner positioned to read along an axis normal to a surface, but that is readable by an optical scanner positioned to read along another axis.
US07940459B2 Formable fused polymer panels containing light refracting films
A dichroic, light refracting resin panel comprises one or more dichroic/refracting films that have been embedded and/or laminated between a plurality of resin substrates, such as copolyester, polycarbonate, and/or acrylic substrates. The dichroic resin panel can be manufactured with a variety of different materials, and with autoclave or hot press methods in a manner that ensures structural and aesthetic integrity. Specifically, a dichroic resin panel in accordance with the present invention can be created in such a way as to avoid delamination despite a variety of end-uses and formations (e.g., curved panel, embossed/textured surfaces). In addition, the dichroic resin panels can be handled, transported, and installed in a variety of exterior or interior applications, even where certain building code requirements may be relatively stringent. The dichroic resin panels can be used in a variety of structural and/or aesthetic applications.
US07940456B2 Three-dimensional image recording medium
An object of the present invention is to provide a three-dimensional image recording medium in which three-dimensional information of a recorded material is recorded precisely and observed more naturally. The linear images of plural parallel-projection images from different directions A to E divided into rectangles are recorded sequentially to divisional recording units of the linear image recording units M1 to M8 and in addition, the linear images of divided parallel-projection images from the same direction are recorded sequentially to each divisional recording unit arranged in the same position relative to a lens width direction of each lenticular lens unit L1 to L8 corresponding to each linear image recording unit M1 to M8 to thereby reproduce a three-dimensional image by combining the linear images of plural parallel-projection images.
US07940453B2 Fiber amplifiers and fiber lasers with reduced out-of-band gain
A method of operating a fiber amplifier characterized by a spectral gain curve includes providing an input signal at a signal wavelength. The signal wavelength lies within an in-band portion of the spectral gain curve extending from a first in-band wavelength to a second in-band wavelength, the in-band portion being characterized by a first amplitude range. The method also includes providing pump radiation at a pump wavelength. The pump wavelength is less than the signal wavelength. The method further includes coupling the pump radiation to the fiber amplifier and amplifying the input signal to generate an output signal. All portions of the spectral gain curve at wavelengths less than the first in-band wavelength and greater than the pump wavelength are characterized by a second amplitude less than or equal to 10 dB greater than the first amplitude range.
US07940441B2 Manufacturing method of memory element, laser irradiation apparatus, and laser irradiation method
A method for rapidly performing laser irradiation in a desired position as laser irradiation patterns are switched is proposed. A laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator is entered into a deflector, and a laser beam which has passed through the deflector is entered into a diffractive optical element to be diverged into a plurality of laser beams. Then, a photoresist formed over an insulating film is irradiated with the laser beam which is made to diverge into the plurality of laser beams, and the photoresist irradiated with the laser beam is developed so as to selectively etch the insulating film.
US07940436B2 Authenticity indicator
An authenticity indicator is difficult to be forged and has an authenticity that can be confirmed easily and accurately. The authenticity of the authenticity indicator can be checked by making light enter the authenticity indicator from front side and observing the light emerging from the front side or rear side. The authenticity indicator includes a polarized-light selectively reflecting layer that reflects a specified polarized component of incident light, and a transmission volume hologram layer disposed on the front side of the polarized-light selectively reflecting layer. According to this authenticity indicator, its authenticity can be checked accurately by making use of its first authenticity recognition function attributed to the diffracting action of the transmission volume hologram layer and its second authenticity recognition function attributed to the polarized-light selectivity of the polarized-light selectively reflecting layer.
US07940421B2 Color image forming apparatus
A tandem type color image forming apparatus, which can continuously form color images each containing two or more colors, including: a signal creating section having, for each color, two or more image area setting counters for generating an image valid area signal to set a starting position and a width of an image formation area in a sub-scanning direction; and a control section for executing color image formation control on a predetermined face of paper, based on an image top signal for controlling writing of an image on an image carrier and the image valid area signal for each color, wherein the control section sets each of the outputs of the image area setting counters independently according to a preset image formation mode, and selects and controls one of the image area setting counters for each image formation of each color.
US07940418B2 Image control device for printer and method of compensating for light amount drift of photosensor used in the image control device
A method of compensating for a light amount drift of a photosensor used in an image control device, wherein the photosensor includes a light emitting portion and a light receiving portion which projects light onto an image control mark formed on an intermediate transfer medium of a printer and detects an optical signal reflected by the image control mark, thereby controlling the quality of an image. In the compensation method, the light amount drift is calculated by projecting light on the intermediate transfer medium, detecting an amount of light reflected by the intermediate transfer medium, and comparing the detected light amount with a pre-set reference light amount. The detected light amount is then corrected to be substantially equal to the reference light amount.
US07940409B2 Data exchange in an exchange infrastructure
An exchange infrastructure (XI) system provides for the receipt, storage and transmission of limited data to uniform user interfaces to provide an improved exchange of data thereacross. In operation with corresponding processing systems, there is a reduced amount of data received by the XI system as well as a reduced amount of data transmitted from the XI system to a recipient processing system. Furthermore, inclusion of operations for utilizing an associated database for storing data and extracting documents therefrom allows the XI system to operate with the reduction of data being transmitted to and received from the external processing systems. In this technique, the XI system is improved by reducing data transmission requirements, reducing amounts of data processing and conversion overhead and eliminating excess data storage outside of the XI system itself.
US07940407B2 Image forming apparatus, terminal apparatus and management apparatus
An image forming apparatus that is connected to a terminal apparatus via a network is disclosed. The image forming apparatus includes: a receiving unit configured to receive a request for a plug-in list from the terminal apparatus, wherein the terminal apparatus sends the request in order to check consistency of a driver; and a transfer unit configured to transfer the plug-in list in the image forming apparatus to the terminal apparatus when receiving the request for the plug-in list.
US07940405B2 Image processing system for preventing forgery
Conventionally, it is impossible to securely and efficiently implement the judgment of specific images. In order to solve this task, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in including an input unit (in these embodiments, this corresponds to, for example, the interface unit in FIG. 1) for inputting color image data, an judging unit (this corresponds to, or example, the forgery judging unit in FIG. 1) for judging whether the judgment of whether a color image composed of the color image data is a specific image has been already performed, and an image judging unit (this corresponds to, for example, the forgery judging unit in FIG. 1) for judging whether the color image include the specific image if the judgment has not been performed yet.
US07940398B2 Optical coherence tomography apparatus
An optical coherence tomography apparatus constructs a tomographic image of a measurement object on the basis of a spectral characteristic obtained by spectrally dividing interference light, which combines signal light composed of the measurement light reflected by the measurement object and reference light, using an optical demultiplexer.
US07940393B2 Method and system for approximating the spectrum of a plurality of color samples
Method for approximating the spectrum of a plurality of color samples, the method including the procedures of measuring the color of a reference color sample in a color space, determining a reference sample estimated spectrum from the measured color, measuring the actual spectrum of the reference color sample, determining a spectral delta from the difference between the reference sample estimated spectrum and the actual spectrum, measuring the color of each of the color samples, for each of the color samples, determining a sample estimated spectrum from the measured color, and for each of the color samples, determining a sample approximated spectrum by adding the spectral delta to the respective sample estimated spectrum.
US07940388B2 Spectrophotometer
When the apparatus is energized or a validation check is performed, a deuterium lamp 10 is turned on, and an output value resulting from an A/D conversion of the detection signal for light with a wavelength of 235 nm is obtained. A data processor 22 compares the output value with an upper limit value, which was determined and stored beforehand in a memory 24 (normally, in the manufacturing stage of the apparatus). If the output value is not less than the upper limit, a controller 25 operates an aperture driver 31 to reduce the light quantity by means of an adjustable aperture 30. This operation prevents an excessive quantity of light from reaching a photodetector 19, so that the measurement without absorption by a sample solution 18 can be correctly performed, and the absorbance by the sample solution 18 can be correctly calculated.
US07940379B2 Finger identification apparatus
An identification apparatus that keeps the conditions for imaging uniform among successive identifications and requires a user to perform only a series of simple maneuvers. An identification apparatus comprising a guide member, a light source, and an imaging unit. The guide member includes a pattern or a structure that inspires a user to position his/her finger thereon or to approach his/her specific finger region thereto. A contact member such as a button switch is preferably located at a position in the guide member at which a fingertip is to be positioned. An optical opening is formed at a position coincident with a position at which a portion of a finger to be imaged for identification should be placed. The light source radiates near-infrared light through the portion of the finger to be imaged. The imaging means acquires an image of the finger, and the apparatus compares the image to previously registered images. The apparatus may also include dual light sources power saving functionality, and means for limiting the interference of external light sources.
US07940364B2 Device with flexible circuits having protector and manufacturing method thereof
A device includes a module, a flexible unit fixed on a fixing part of which relative position to a position of the module is variable, a casing covering the module and the flexible unit, and a protector which is made of material having less scratch hardness than material of the casing. The protector has a fixing part, a protruding part and a protecting part. The fixing part, which is a part of a first surface of the protector, is fixed on the casing. The protruding part, which is a part of the protector, protrudes from an edge of the casing. The protecting part, which is a part of a second surface behind the first surface excluding the protruding part, contacts with the flexible unit.
US07940351B2 Image display apparatus
An image display apparatus includes: a plurality of light sources for emitting light; an optical uniformizing portion for uniformizing light emitted from the plurality of light sources; a total reflection portion disposed above the plurality of light sources, the total reflection portion totally reflecting light from the optical uniformizing portion; an optical guide portion for guiding light totally reflected at the total reflection portion; an optical diffusion unit for diffusing light from the total reflection portion and outputting the diffused light; an optical parallelizing unit for parallelizing light from the optical diffusion unit; and a liquid crystal panel for modulating light from the optical parallelizing unit into an optical image in accordance with an image signal and displaying the optical image.
US07940349B2 Light source device and liquid crystal display device having the same
A light source device, including a substrate, a plurality of light emitting diode chips mounted on the substrate, and an encapsulant covering the plurality of light emitting diode chips. The encapsulant has a plurality of lenses connected to each other and each lens corresponds to one of the plurality of light emitting diode chips.
US07940344B2 Display substrate, method of manufacturing the same and display apparatus having the same
A display substrate includes a plurality of pixels. Each of the pixels includes a switching element, a storage capacitor, a storage line and a pixel electrode. The switching element includes a polycrystalline silicon layer having a channel portion and a doped portion, a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode. The gate electrode is formed on the channel portion and has a lower layer and an upper layer. The source electrode and the drain electrode make contact with the doped portion. The storage capacitor includes a first storage electrode formed from a layer substantially same as the polycrystalline silicon layer and a second storage electrode formed from a layer substantially same as the lower layer of the gate electrode.
US07940330B2 Edge adaptive de-interlacing apparatus and method thereof
An edge adaptive de-interlacing apparatus and method are disclosed. The edge adaptive de-interlacing apparatus includes a complexity detection module, a qualifier, a comparator and a mixer. The complexity detection module detects complexity associated with a target pixel. The qualifier is coupled to the complexity detection module for generating similarity of at least one possible edge angle in response to the complexity. The comparator is coupled to the qualifier for comparing the similarity of the at least one possible edge to select a preferred edge angle. The mixer is coupled to the comparator for generating pixel data of the target pixel according to the preferred edge angle.
US07940328B2 Solid state imaging device having wirings with lateral extensions
A solid-state imaging device is provided. The solid-state imaging device includes an imaging area that includes arrayed pixels having photoelectric converting units and transistor elements; and a peripheral circuit, in which a wiring line in the imaging area that is shifted based on pupil correction amount and a wiring line in the peripheral circuit that is not shifted are connected through a connection expanded portion integrally formed with one or both of the wiring lines.
US07940321B2 Display control apparatus, image pickup apparatus, control method therefor, computer readable medium, and program
An image pickup apparatus allows a user to select and set a desired item to be displayed together with an image with a few operations. The user selects a desired item to be displayed together with an image, and stores the selected item as a setting for a display mode. The user can arbitrarily change a plurality of display modes. Further, the user can disable one or a plurality of display modes among the display modes. Therefore, the user does not need to change the display mode to an undesired display mode during changing between the display modes.
US07940318B2 Solid-state imaging device and driving method for a solid-state imaging device for high-speed photography and enabling multiple exposure photography
A solid-state imaging device that enables more images to be photographed and a reading time to be shortened by effectively using storage cells is provided. By combining pieces of information which correspond to signal charges output from a photoelectric converter and are sequentially stored in storage cells, it is possible to store more pieces of information than the number of storage cells. Also, by reading the combined information stored in one storage cell, it is possible to read more pieces of information by a single reading operation.
US07940317B2 Image sensor having a pixel array with serial readout
The image sensor includes an array of pixels, each pixel having a photo-diode, for providing a pixel voltage, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operable to convert the pixel voltage to a digital value and a memory for storing the digital value. Read circuitry is included for reading out the digital values from the pixels of the array in a predetermined order. The image sensor may be configured such that a counter incorporates the memory, and the counter may be adapted to operate as a shift register. The counters of two or more pixels may be connected to form one or more chains such that digital values can be read out in a bit-serial manner.
US07940301B2 Vehicle driving assist system
In a vehicle driving assist system, an external environment recognition unit detects a 3-D obstacle inhibiting the driving direction of the vehicle based on an image captured by a stereo camera and determines whether the image ahead of the vehicle is in a condition that makes visual perception of the 3-D obstacle difficult. A controller calculates a required alarm working distance between the vehicle and the 3D obstacle, at which an alarm unit is worked when the vehicle approaches the 3D obstacle, and a required brake operating distance, at which a brake is operated by a brake applying unit, based on a vehicle traveling speed. If it is determined that an external environment is in a condition that makes visual perception difficult, the required working and operating distances are extended by predetermined values to set the working and operating timings earlier.
US07940292B2 Optical scanning device and image forming apparatus
An optical scanning device includes a lens having a negative optical power at least in a sub-scanning direction and a lens having a positive optical power at least in the sub-scanning direction between a light source and a deflecting unit. The optical scanning device further includes a coupling lens and an adjusting lens whose positions can be adjusted in an optical axis direction and then bonded with ultraviolet curing resin. Therefore, the magnification of an optical system can be adjusted and consequently a desired scan-line interval can be obtained.
US07940288B2 Print control device for a thermal printer
A print control device for a thermal printer for detecting a failure in a component of the thermal printer to prevent an incorrect printing of an item to be printed which provides for a thermal resistor associated with each component of the printer to render the printer inoperative when the component becomes defective, and a MOSFET for each thermal resistor associated with a feeder, a driver and a group detector which prevents the printer from printing when the thermal resistor changes the effective resistance in the circuit with the MOSFET and the group detector and driver.
US07940285B2 Method and system for re-arranging a display
A method and system are described for re-arranging a display in a viewable area. The method comprises dividing the viewable area into units; determining the contents of units of the viewable area; prioritizing the availability of the units by content; and allocating one or more display items in the prioritized available units. A plurality of display items is provided and the display items are allocated according to a determined order which may depend on one or more of a user preference, the contents of the viewable area, the activity of the user, and environmental parameters.
US07940283B2 Method and apparatus for pixel sampling
A method and a device for generating a pixel value from a plurality of sample values being generated from a plurality of sample points. The method comprises generating a plurality of sample values; and weighting said plurality of sample values for determining said pixel value. Each sample value is generated from one of a plurality of candidate sample points within a sample region. The sample region is positioned at a corner of two intersecting borders of the pixel. The size of the sample region is smaller than the size of the pixel. The device is arranged to carry out the method according to the invention.
US07940277B2 Processor for executing extract controlled by a register instruction
A programmable processor and method for improving the performance of processors by expanding at least two source operands, or a source and a result operand, to a width greater than the width of either the general purpose register or the data path width. The present invention provides operands which are substantially larger than the data path width of the processor by using the contents of a general purpose register to specify a memory address at which a plurality of data path widths of data can be read or written, as well as the size and shape of the operand. In addition, several instructions and apparatus for implementing these instructions are described which obtain performance advantages if the operands are not limited to the width and accessible number of general purpose registers.
US07940273B2 Determination of unicode points from glyph elements
Systems, methods, and/or techniques (“tools”) for determining Unicode points from glyph elements are provided. The tools may receive indications of commands that relate to text containing glyphs. Responding to the commands, the tools may convert the glyphs to corresponding Unicode representations. The tools may also provide glyph substitution tables that include Unicode fields for storing Unicode representations of characters, along with first and second glyph fields for storing glyphs of the characters. The glyph substitution tables may include links pointing from the second glyph fields to the first glyph fields, and may also include links pointing from the first glyph fields to the Unicode fields. The tools may provide character mapping tables that include Unicode fields for storing Unicode representations of characters. The character mapping tables may also include glyph fields for storing glyphs of the characters, and may include links pointing from the glyph fields to the Unicode fields.
US07940268B2 Real-time rendering of light-scattering media
A real-time algorithm for rendering an inhomogeneous scattering medium such as fog is described. An input media animation is represented as a sequence of density fields, each of which is decomposed into a weighted sum of a set of radial basis functions (RBFs) such as Gaussians. The algorithm computes airlight and surface reflectance of the inhomogeneous scattering medium. Several approximations are taken which lead to analytical solutions of quantities such as an optical depth integrations and single scattering integrations, and a reduced number of integrations that need to be calculated. The resultant algorithm is able to render inhomogeneous media including their shadowing and scattering effects in real time. The algorithm may be adopted for a variety of light sources including point lights and environmental lights.
US07940256B2 Liquid crystal display driver including a voltage selection circuit having optimally sized transistors, and a liquid crystal display apparatus using the liquid crystal display driver
A liquid crystal display driver includes a first selecting circuit configured to select a voltage from a first voltage range based on a digital signal; and a second selecting circuit configured to select a voltage from a second voltage range based on the digital signal. A voltage which is applied between a diffusion layer and a back gate of a first MOS transistor contained in the first selecting circuit is smaller than a voltage which is applied between a diffusion layer and a back gate of a second MOS transistor contained in the second selecting circuit. Also, an offset length of the first MOS transistor is shorter than that of the second MOS transistor. The liquid crystal display driver may further include a voltage generating circuit configured to supply gradation voltages of the first voltage range and the second voltage range to the first and second selecting circuits. One of the first and second selecting circuits outputs one of the gradation voltages based on the digital signal.
US07940247B2 Reducing dust contamination in optical mice
Reduction of dust contamination in optical mice. Trapped charged particles within an optical element result in a surface charge on the optical element, the surface charge reducing the attraction of dust to the optical surface. Charged particles may be trapped in the optical element, or in a coating on the element. Irradiation from an alpha source or ion implantation techniques may be used.
US07940242B2 Driving circuit for driving liquid crystal display device and method thereof
In a driving circuit and its driving method for driving a liquid crystal display device without using a pre-processor, the driving circuit includes a first timing controller for receiving a first part of digital image data, a second timing controller for receiving a second part of the digital image data, and a plurality of data drivers, each of which is electrically connected to both the first timing controller and the second timing controller to receive the first part or the second part of the digital image data through the first timing controller or the second timing controller, respectively, for driving the liquid crystal display device.
US07940235B2 Signal line driving circuit and light emitting device
Dispersion occurs in the characteristics of the transistors. The invention is a signal line driving circuit having a first and a second current source circuits corresponding to each of a plurality of signal lines, a shift register, and a constant current source for video signal, in which the first current source circuit is disposed in a first latch and the second current source circuit is disposed in a second latch. The first current source circuit includes capacitive means for converting the current supplied from the constant current source for video signal into a voltage, according to a sampling pulse supplied from the shift register, and supplying means for supplying the current corresponding to the converted voltage. The second current source circuit includes capacitive means for converting the current supplied from the first latch into a voltage, according to a latch pulse, and supplying means for supplying the current corresponding to the converted voltage.
US07940234B2 Pixel circuit, display device, and method of manufacturing pixel circuit
A pixel circuit including: a driving transistor; a light emitting element; and a power supply line; wherein the driving transistor is connected between the power supply line and a predetermined electrode of the light emitting element, and the power supply line is formed as multilayer wiring, and an interpolating capacitance is formed such that the power supply line formed as the multilayer wiring and another conductive layer are opposed to each other at a distance.
US07940227B2 Passive wireless transmit and receive terminator
A MIMO passive wireless transmit and receive terminator system includes a base for providing a signal source and two terminators fixed substantially perpendicular to the base and parallel with each other. Each terminator includes four radiating fins spaced at approximately 90 degree intervals and has radiator plates located near the top and bottom of an outer edge of each radiating fin, a central, non-radiating portion of the outer edge separating the top and bottom radiating plates from each other and from a central metallic layer. A control circuit may be disposed within the base or the metallic layer for selectively supplying the signal source to the radiating plates of only one of the radiating fins of each terminator.
US07940212B2 Method of processing a digital signal derived from an analog input signal of a GNSS receiver, a GNSS receiver base band circuit for carrying out the method and a GNSS receiver
An acquisition unit of a GNSS receiver base band circuit includes an integrator with a number of preprocessors where an incoming digital signal is mixed with different frequency signals to compensate at least in part for clock drift and Doppler shifts. The resulting digital signals are, after an accumulation step reducing sample frequency, integrated over an integration period extending over several basic intervals of the length of a basic sequence characteristic for a GNSS satellite, so that samples separated by a multiple of the basic interval are superposed. The resulting data sequence of 1,023 digital values is stored in one of two memories and then, in mixers, sequentially shifted by post-integration frequencies which are multiples of the inverse of the length of the basic interval, The pre-integration frequencies employed in the preprocessors deviate, with one possible exception, from the post-integration frequencies and are usually smaller.
US07940211B2 Land survey system
A method and system obtains precise survey-grade position data of target points in zones where precise GPS data cannot be obtained, due to natural or man-made objects such as foliage and buildings. The system comprises position measurement components such as a GPS receiver, together with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and an electronic distance meter (EDM) or an image capture device all mounted on a survey pole. The system and method obtains GPS data when outside the zone and uses the other position measurement systems, such as the IMU, inside the zone to traverse to a target point. The EDM or the image capture device may be used within or without the zone to obtain data to reduce accumulated position errors.
US07940209B2 Pseudorange calculation method, position calculation method, computer-readable recording medium, and position calculation device
A pseudorange calculation method for calculating a pseudorange in a position calculation device includes: passing a received signal received from a satellite for position calculation through a first filter; passing the received signal through a second filter having a different phase characteristic from that of the first filter; calculating a first pseudorange on the basis of a signal acquired by passing through the first filter; calculating a second pseudorange on the basis of a signal acquired by passing through the second filter; and calculating a third pseudorange to be used for position calculation, on the basis of the first pseudorange and the second pseudorange.
US07940204B1 Absorber assembly for an anechoic chamber
An electromagnetic absorber assembly capable of minimizing reflectivity caused by reflected and diffracted waves within a test chamber is presented. The absorber assembly includes a plurality of first wedges and a plurality of second wedges disposed in a symmetrical arrangement so as to form a continuous and smoothly changing v-shaped pattern along one or more walls of an anechoic test chamber. Each wedge has a triangular-shaped first end and second end formed by a pair of side walls and a base wall. One second end of each first wedge contacts and covers one first end of each second wedge along a contact plane. First and second wedges are disposed at a first angle and a second angle, respectively, about the contact plane in a symmetrical arrangement. The assemblies described could be installed on a flat or shaped absorber base or wall to divert reflected and refracted fields away from a quiet zone. Interplay between the shaped absorber base or wall and intersecting wedges facilitates minimization of clutter and secondary scattering.
US07940198B1 Amplifier linearizer
The present invention provides an advanced adaptive predistortion linearization technique to dramatically reduce nonlinear distortion in power amplifiers over a very wide instantaneous bandwidth (up to 2 GHz) and over a wide range of amplifier types, input frequencies, signal types, amplitudes, temperature, and other environmental and signal conditions. In an embodiment of the invention, the predistortion linearization circuitry comprises (1) a higher-order polynomial model of an amplifier's gain and phase characteristics—higher than a third-order polynomial model; (2) an adaptive calibration technique; and (3) a heuristic calibration technique. The higher-order polynomial model is generated by introducing, for example, a plurality of multi-tone test signals with varying center frequency and spacing into the power amplifier. From the power amplifier's corresponding output, the nonlinearities are modeled by employing a higher-order curve fit to capture the irregularities in the nonlinear transfer function. Different distortion transfer functions can be implemented for different operating conditions. The adaptive calibration technique is based on a feedback analysis technique, which updates the applicable distortion transfer function by analyzing the error signal between the introduced input signal and the output signal in real-time. The heuristic calibration technique implements different distortion transfer functions based on historical operating conditions and optimal configurations of the power amplifier.
US07940195B2 Process and system for modifying the content of an alarm message onboard an aircraft
A method for updating a content of a given warning message emitted in an aircraft by a monitoring system in case of detection of a particular state of at least one monitored system of the aircraft, the method including a step of delivery of a plurality of modification information items to a selection tool, each modification information item defining a modification of a content of a warning message capable of being emitted by the monitoring system, the selection tool being capable of selecting at least one information item among the plurality of modification information items in such a way as to permit modification of the content of the given warning message.
US07940193B2 Parking assist apparatus
A parking assist apparatus assisting a parking operation of a vehicle includes an image capturing portion capturing an image of a backward view of the vehicle, a displaying portion displaying the captured image at an inside of the vehicle, a guiding portion guiding the vehicle to a target parking space when the vehicle reverses with a turning movement based on a predetermined steering angle held by an operator of the vehicle, and a superimposing portion superimposing a first assist line arranged in the target parking space to be in parallel to a front-rear direction of the target parking space and a second assist line extending to a backward area of the vehicle to be in parallel to a front-rear direction of the vehicle on the captured image. The first and second assist lines are possibly overlapped each other when a vehicle reverse movement with the turning movement is completed.
US07940191B2 Movement controlled luminaire and luminaire arrangement
A luminaire includes at least one main illuminant and at least one auxiliary illuminant. The main illuminant is provided for a continuous operation. The auxiliary illuminant is controlled by a motion sensor, which activates it when movement is detected. Preferably, the motion sensor is embedded in the luminaire. Furthermore, it is preferred that the at least one auxiliary illuminant is designed as a LED-luminaire.
US07940190B2 Smoke detector
A self-monitoring smoke detector comprising a housing (11) defining an internal chamber (12). An optical transmitter (13) is mounted within the housing (11) so as to direct light into the optical chamber (12). An optical receiver (14) is mounted in the housing (11) and in optical communication with the optical chamber (12). The optical transmitter (13) and the optical receiver (14) are so positioned that light from the transmitter cannot directly reach the receiver. Monitoring means is provided, comprising first and second light-scattering means (13a and 14a) positioned respectively in alignment with the transmitter (13) and the receiver (14). The arrangement is such that, in the absence of reflector particles in the optical chamber, light from the transmitter (13) can reach the receiver (14) only after scattering at the first light-scattering means (13a) and then after scattering at the second light-scattering means (14a).
US07940188B2 Air sampling system having a plurality of air sampling devices with their own flow switches
A system for sampling air in a controlled environment that includes air sampling devices at different locations within the controlled environment. A controller is provided at a location outside of the controlled environment and in separate air flow communication with the air sampling devices via separate first vacuum tubes, the controller having a manifold configured to separately control a rate of air flow from the air sampling devices to the controller via each of the separate first vacuum tubes and to selectively direct the air flow from each of the separate first vacuum tubes to one or more second vacuum tubes. An alarm is automatically activated at a location inside the controlled environment by one or more of the flow switches when the rate of air flow measured at one or more of the flow switches deviates from a desired value by a predetermined amount.
US07940186B2 Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for estimating a mood of a user, using a mood of a user for network/service control, and presenting suggestions for interacting with a user based on the user's mood
A mood of a user is estimated based on a user's profile, data indicative of a user's mood received from a communication device associated with the user and from sources other than the user, and environmental data with a potential impact on the user's mood. Data indicative of the user's mood and the environmental data are processed to filter out data that is not relevant to the user's mood. The filtered data is cross-correlated with the user profile, and the mood of the user is estimated based on the cross-correlated filtered data. A network and services may be controlled based on a user's mood. Suggestions for interacting with the user may be generated based on the user's mood.
US07940184B2 Integrated circuit and method to secure a RFID tag
A method to secure RFID card information consisting of a piezo electric element coupled to a transistor which is coupled across the antenna leads of a RFID tag, the transistor provides a short circuit or and open circuit across the antenna leads or antenna input leads of a the RFID chip. The transistor when not energized provides a short circuit on the RFID antenna. When the transistor is energized by a piezo electric element the short circuit is removed and the RFID chip can transfer data normally. Furthermore, the present invention includes a single integrated circuit package, being a single integrated transistor RFID chip package based on the transistor circuit design to operate specifically with a piezo electric element when used with a RFID tag.
US07940175B2 Device with a detectably designed water trap and process for detecting a water trap
A device with a water trap. The device has a gas sensor and is designed to send a gas sample flow through the water trap (2) and to feed it to the gas sensor (3). The water trap (2) is designed to be separably connected to the device. The device has a mount for connection to the water trap. The water trap (2) has a radio frequency marking (5). The device has a radio frequency detection device (6) with a detection area (7) for the radio frequency marking, which is designed to detect the radio frequency marking in the detection area and to generate a marking signal, which represents marking information of the radio frequency marking. The device is designed to be controlled as a function of the marking signal.
US07940170B2 Tracking system with user-definable private ID for improved privacy protection
A location tracking service includes a location tracking server and individual tracking modules. An individual tracking module can be attached or embedded in a consumer product. Each tracking module is programmable by an end-user to include a private ID that is sent along with tracking data to the location tracking server. The end-user can define and edit the private ID in the tracking module independent of the location tracking service to improve privacy protection. The tracking data may include raw (unprocessed) location data to reduce processing requirements at the tracking module.
US07940159B2 Identification system
The invention relates to a security element in the form of a flexible, multilayer film body and to an identification system comprising a security element of this type. The security element has a receiving unit (61) for receiving an electromagnetic verification signal (7) containing a specific coding from a verification device, an output unit (66) for outputting an enable signal, and an electronic release system (63, 64, 65) having active and/or passive organic components. The electronic release system (63, 64, 65) checks whether or not a signal received by the receiving unit contains the specific coding, and drives the output unit (66) for outputting the enable signal if the signal received by the receiving unit (61) contains the specific coding.
US07940155B2 Varistor and electronic component module using same
A varistor includes a ceramic substrate having an insulating property, a varistor layer provided on the ceramic substrate and mainly containing zinc oxide, a first glass ceramic layer provided on the second surface of the varistor layer, first and second internal electrodes provided in the varistor layer and facing each other. The varistor has a small, thin size, and has sufficient varistor characteristics against surge voltages. The varistor provides a small electronic component module with resistance to static electricity and surge voltages.
US07940154B2 Choke module having improved terminal arrangement
A choke module (100) for an insulative housing (2) includes a first and a second walls (23, 24) defining a first and a second receiving cavities (28, 29); a first set of contact terminals (4) arranged in the first wall, a second set of contact terminals (4) arranged in the second wall, a third set of contact terminals (5) disposed in the partition, a paddle board (6) having a number of conductive traces and attached to the insulative housing to interconnect the first and third set of contact terminals, a number of chokes (8) wound with wires which interconnects the first and second sets of contact terminals. The first and second contact terminal has a first and a second soldering portion (42) extending out of the housing and a first and a second mating portion (41) at the first wall.
US07940150B2 Six-degree-of-freedom precision positioning system
In a six-degree-of-freedom precision positioning system, magnetic force and fluid buoyancy are used to levitate a platform, and the non-contact magnetic force between electromagnets and magnets forms a main driving force for the platform. Therefore, no friction is present in the system and no lubricating mechanism is needed for the system. Moreover, in the system, electric current is converted by electromagnets and magnets into a magnetic driving force without using any transmission gears. Therefore, the backlash phenomenon that is not easily controllable in the conventional servo positioning systems is avoided. The system has simplified structure without the need of complicated fabrication, and utilizes the properties of fluid to achieve low power consumption, high precision positioning, and fast response.
US07940149B2 Magnetic chuck
The present invention is a magnetic chuck that is chiefly used for machining tools. The magnetic chuck has a structure in which an accommodation hole (110a) is formed to pass through a chuck main body (110), a first magnetic element (141) is exposed in the direction of the top surface of the chuck main body (110), and an AlNiCo magnet (120) is exposed in the direction of the bottom surface of the chuck main body (110), so that respective objects (200 and 300) to be attached can be attached to two opposite surfaces of the magnetic chuck (100), with the result that the magnetic chuck (100) can be used in various ways. Furthermore, the lateral part (112) of the chuck main body (110) is not unnecessary, so that the weight of the magnetic chuck (100) itself is greatly reduced and thus the product cost is reduced, the thickness of the magnetic chuck (100) is reduced, and convenience of use can be greatly improved.
US07940143B2 Vertical transmission line structure that includes bump elements for flip-chip mounting
A vertical transmission structure for high frequency transmission lines includes a conductive axial core and a conductive structure surrounding the conductive axial core. The vertical transmission structure is applied to a high-frequency flip chip package for reducing the possibility of underfill from coming in contact with the conductive axial core.
US07940141B2 PWM signal generation circuit, class-D amplifier and method for driving the same
A first situation indicating that the system is in a power-on situation or an un-mute situation, or a second situation indicating that the system is in a power-off situation or in a mute situation, is detected. When the first situation is detected, a differential PWM signal including a plurality of pulses each having a gradually increased or reduced width and the subsequent pulse train of 50% duty cycle pulses is generated and, if the output of an audio processor is in a stable situation, sent to the amplifier via a multiplexer. When the second situation is detected, the differential PWM signal including a plurality of pulses each having a gradually reduced width and the subsequent pulse train of no signal is generated and, at the same time, the generated pulses are sent to the amplifier via the multiplexer.
US07940139B2 Voltage-controlled oscillator, frequency synthesizer, and oscillation frequency control method
In a voltage-controlled oscillator capable of broadening a variable frequency range while suppressing increase of conversion gain, a converter (12) converts an input voltage to a first physical quantity, a variable converter (13) supplies a second physical quantity that accords with the status of each switch of a switch group (13a). another variable converter (14), when the input voltage is contained within a prescribed voltage range, supplies a third physical quantity that accords with the input voltage and the status of each switch of another switch group (14a), and a variable-frequency oscillator (15) supplies a signal of a frequency that accords with the first physical quantity, the second physical quantity, and the third physical quantity.
US07940127B2 All digital phase lock loop and method for controlling phase lock loop
An all digital phase lock loop is disclosed, including a digitally controlled oscillator, a phase detector, and a loop filter. The digitally controlled oscillator is controlled by an oscillator tuning word to generate a variable signal. The oscillator tuning word includes a first tuning word and a second tuning word, where the frequency range of the digitally controlled oscillator, capable to be adjusted by the second tuning word, is broader than that capable to be adjusted by the first tuning word. The phase detector detects a phase error between the variable signal and a reference signal. The phase error is received by the loop filter to output the oscillator tuning word. The loop filter has several stages of the low pass filters and a modification circuit. The modification circuit detects two filter outputs from two low pass filters among the filters and accordingly adjusts the second tuning word.
US07940118B1 Dying gasp charge controller
In many applications, “dying gasp” periods following power down are used. Conventional circuits supply energy for the “dying gasp” periods generally by use of large external capacitors that are bulky and expensive. Here, a dying gasp charge controller is employed that allows for the use of smaller capacitors at higher voltages, which maintains or exceeds the energy storage capacities of conventional circuits.
US07940116B2 Fuse circuit and semiconductor device including the same
A fuse circuit may include a fuse section which generates a fuse control signal at an output terminal of the fuse circuit in response to a power-up signal according to a status of a fuse in the fuse section; and a current path break section which detects the status of the fuse in the fuse section prior to a trip period of the power-up signal and breaks an inrush current path created in the fuse section during the trip period based on the detected status.
US07940115B2 Fuse circuit for semiconductor integrated circuit and control method of the same
A fuse circuit for a semiconductor integrated circuit includes a control unit configured to activate a fuse set control signal in response to an external command signal, and a plurality of fuse sets, each configured so that power is supplied to internal fuses in response to the activation of the fuse set control signal.
US07940112B2 Semiconductor device
To include a first X decoder constituted by a transistor whose off-leakage current has a first temperature characteristic, a pre-decoder circuit and a peripheral circuit constituted by a transistor whose off-leakage current has a second temperature characteristic, a power supply control circuit that inactivates the X decoder when a temperature exceeds a first threshold during a standby state, and a power supply control circuit that inactivates the pre-decoder and the peripheral circuit when a temperature exceeds a second threshold during the standby state. According to the present invention, whether power supply control is performed on a plurality of circuit blocks is determined based on different temperatures, therefore optimum power supply control can be performed on each of circuit blocks.
US07940105B2 High-resolution parametric signal restoration
Provided are high-resolution parametric signal restoration systems, and applications thereof. Such systems include a multi-output module and a parametric compensator. The multi-output module provides a reference gain output signal and one or more higher gain output signals based on a single input signal. The parametric compensator independently responds to functional parameters of the one or more higher gain output signals to provide a compensation error signal. The single input signal is modified based on the compensation error signal.
US07940103B2 Duty cycle correction systems and methods
Duty cycle correction systems and methods of adjusting duty cycles are provided. One such duty cycle correction system includes a duty cycle adjustor and a variable delay line coupled to the output of the duty cycle adjustor. First and second phase detectors have first inputs coupled to the output of the duty cycle adjustor through an inverter and second inputs coupled to the output of the variable delay line. The phase detectors cause the delay line to align rising or falling edges of signals at the output of the delay line with rising or falling edges, respectively, of signals at the output of the inverter. The controller simultaneously causes the duty cycle adjustor to adjust the duty cycle of the output clock signal until the rising and falling edges of signals at the output of the delay line are aligned with rising and falling edges, respectively, of signals at the output of the inverter.
US07940097B2 All digital phase locked loop circuit
An all digital phase locked loop circuit includes a reference frequency indicator for receiving a reference signal with a reference frequency and generating a frequency indicating value; a phase frequency detector for comparing the reference signal with a frequency divided signal and generating a phase difference pulse; a time-to-digital circuit for receiving the phase difference pulse and a plurality of output signals and generating a phase difference value; a digital controller for receiving the frequency indicating value and the phase difference value and generating a control value; a delta-sigma modulator for modulating the control value and generating a modulated control value; a DCO for receiving the modulated control value and generating an output oscillating signal with a digital controlled frequency; a frequency divider for dividing the digital controlled frequency to generate the frequency divided signal; and a multi-phase generator for receiving the output oscillating signal and generating the output signals.
US07940096B2 Register controlled delay locked loop circuit
A register controlled DLL circuit occupies a relatively small area in a semiconductor device by reducing the number of flip-flops for generating timing pulses that are used to control a DLL operation and sequentially toggled. The registered controlled DLL circuit for generating a DLL clock by delaying internal clocks includes a timing pre-pulse generating unit configured to generate a plurality of timing pre-pulses activated sequentially in response to a source clock, the plurality of pre-pulses being repeated two or more times in each delay shifting update period, a mask signal generating unit configured to generating a mask signal having a logic level varied according to toggling of a predetermined one of the timing pre-pulses, and a timing pulse outputting unit configured to output the plurality of timing pre-pulses as a plurality of timing pulses in response to the mask signal.
US07940094B2 Semiconductor start control device, method, and system
A semiconductor device provided which includes: an external power supply detection circuit which detects that an external power supply is turned on and outputs a first detection signal; an internal power supply voltage generation circuit which generates an internal power supply voltage based on the external power supply; a reference voltage generation circuit which generates a first reference voltage in response to the first detection signal; a reference voltage detection circuit which detects that the first reference voltage reaches a given level and outputs a second detection signal; a bias voltage generation circuit which, in response to the second detection signal, generates a bias voltage based on a second reference voltage dependent on the first reference voltage; and a power supply voltage detection circuit which, in response to the second detection signal, compares the bias voltage with a third reference voltage and outputs a start signal.
US07940070B2 Singulated bare die testing fixture
A flexible redistribution membrane and a piece of silicon rubber is used in a testing fixture for testing a singulated bare die. The silicon rubber is used as a cushion under the flexible redistribution membrane against the downward pressure from the bare die during testing so that the top pads of the flexible redistribution membrane can be electrically tight coupling to bottom pads of the bared die to be tested.
US07940068B2 Test board
A test board is provided. The test board includes a power connecting interface, diode modules, a power module a detecting module, and a processor. The power connecting interface includes power pins, wherein each of the power pins is electrically connected to a motherboard power socket to receive a power signal. Each of the diode modules is electrically connected to one of the power pins and includes at least one diode. The power module is electrically connected to the diode modules to receive the power signal through each of the diode modules. The detection module is electrically connected to points between the diode modules and the power connecting interface to generate a detection result according to the voltage between each diode module and the power connecting interface. The processor is used to determine the connecting state between the power pin and the corresponding motherboard power socket according to the detection result.
US07940065B2 Probe apparatus and method for measuring electrical characteristics of chips
A probe apparatus includes a first stage, a second stage, a third stage and an image pickup. A Z position measuring unit measures a Z direction position of the mounting table and has a Z scale extending in the Z direction and a reading unit for reading the Z scale. A computation unit obtains a calculated contact position between the probes and the electrode pads of the substrate to be inspected based on images picked up by the image pickup with respect to a coordinate position on coordinates of a driving system which includes a Z direction position and X and Y direction positions measured by a measuring unit for measuring X and Y direction positions of the mounting table. A correcting unit corrects the Z direction position of the contact position based on the change amount thereof for a next contact operation.
US07940064B2 Method and apparatus for wafer level burn-in
A temperature regulation plate 106 is divided into at least two areas, a heater 408 for applying a temperature load in correspondence with such areas and its control system are divided and controlled independently to set temperatures, and a cooling source is controlled by comparing the measurements from temperature sensors 409 arranged in respective areas for controlling the heater 408 and switching the measurement for calculating the control output sequentially thus reducing variation in in-plane temperature of a wafer due to heating when an electric load is applied. Since consumption and burning of a probe are prevented, highly reliable wafer level burn-in method and apparatus can be provided.
US07940052B2 Electronic battery test based upon battery requirements
An electronic battery tester for testing a storage battery includes test circuitry configured to provide an output based upon a selected test criteria. Additionally, circuitry is provided to assist in balancing batteries used in a string of multiple batteries.
US07940051B2 Method for testing circuit breakers
A method for testing low voltage power circuit breakers having an electronic trip unit which includes a display and a microprocessor for controlling various protective functions and storing settings for such functions which can be selected and performed. Entering into the test mode disables functions not necessary for the testing to be performed. A current is injected into one of the phases of the breaker. The technician observes whether the breaker performs within the specifications for the selected protective function. Upon exiting the test mode, the breaker is automatically restored to the settings prior to the testing.
US07940048B2 Locating device
A locating device, in particular a hand-held locating device, for detecting objects enclosed in a medium, having a housing and at least one sensor system provided in a housing, as well as an opening penetrating the device. The opening in the measuring device and penetrating the device is illuminable by at least one light source provided in the measuring device.
US07940036B2 Voltage comparison circuit, and semiconductor integrated circuit and electronic device having the same
A disclosed voltage comparison circuit for detecting a voltage difference of two input signals includes one or more differential amplifier circuits, each of which has a differential pair of first and second input transistors each having an electrode to which a corresponding one of the input signals is input, a constant current circuit configured to generate constant current according to a control signal and supply the constant current to the first and second input transistors, and a first resistor connected between the constant current circuit and the first input transistor; and a current control circuit configured to control a value of the first constant current. The current control circuit controls the value so that a voltage difference between both ends of the first resistor becomes equal to a predetermined value.
US07940027B2 Battery and methods with real time charge and discharge management
A method to manage charge and/or discharge of a rechargeable battery comprising at least one electrochemical cell having predetermined maximum continuous charge current (IMR_C) and/or discharge current (IMD_C) allowed, the method comprising the steps of: measuring an instantaneous charge current (I); defining an overcharge capacity (Cap); determining an instantaneous maximum current allowed in charge (IMR) as a function of the overcharge capacity; and/or defining an over thermal capacity (CapTh); determining an instantaneous maximum pulse current allowed in discharge (IMD_max) as a function of the over thermal capacity.
US07940026B2 Methods and apparatus for charging a battery in a peripheral device
A power manager for managing power delivered to a battery operated peripheral device is disclosed. The power manager includes an input current limiter arranged to suppress a power surge associated with an insertion event by a power cable arranged to provide an external voltage. A voltage converter unit coupled to the input current limiter converts the received external voltage to a supply voltage that is transmitted by way of a main bus to a voltage sensor unit coupled thereto. During the insertion event, a comparator unit coupled to the voltage sensor, sends a first switching signal to a switchover circuit that responds by connecting the peripheral device and an uncharged battery to the main bus such that the supply voltage is provided thereto. When the battery is substantially fully charged, the switchover circuit responds by electrically disconnecting the battery so as to not overcharge the battery.
US07940020B2 Brushless DC motor with reduced current ripple
A commutation circuit for driving a brushless DC motor is controlled according to a commutation cycle composed of alternating primary steps and transitional steps. The commutation circuit includes pairs of field effect transistors coupled in series between the high voltage and low voltage terminals of a DC power supply. Output terminals between each pair of transistors are individually coupled to the phases of a DC motor. A controller operates the commutation circuit to selectively set the phases at active and inactive states. The controller further employs a plurality of voltage control functions individually associated with the motor phases to selectively modulate the voltage applied to one of the phases during the active states, to provide transitional steps in the commutation cycle during which the applied voltage is modulated to reduce its magnitude with respect to the high voltage or the low voltage.
US07940014B2 Apparatus for driving light emitting element
Provided is an apparatus for driving a light emitting element. The apparatus includes a power unit, a light emitting element array, a constant-current circuit unit, and a voltage limiting circuit unit. The power unit supplies driving power. The light emitting element array includes a plurality of light emitting elements connected in series between an anode terminal connected to the power unit and a cathode terminal. The constant-current circuit unit maintains a constant current flowing through the light emitting element array according to a first tuning voltage. The voltage limiting circuit unit is connected between the cathode terminal of the light emitting element array and the constant-current circuit unit, and divides a total voltage applied between the cathode terminal of the light emitting element array and a ground according to a second tuning voltage to limit a voltage applied to the constant-current circuit unit below a predetermined voltage.
US07940012B2 Flicker preventing apparatus of fluorescent lamp
A fluorescent lamp controlling circuit reduces and/or prevents a fluorescent lamp from suddenly flickering when a power switch is turned on and/or off. Switching operation of a switch that supplies a direct current voltage to the fluorescent lamp is restricted during a transient period to delay a reset signal so that undesired flicker of the fluorescent lamp can be reduced and/or prevented.
US07940008B2 Inductively-coupled RF power source
A system and method are disclosed for implementing a power source including a power amplifier that generates a radio-frequency power signal with an adjustable operating frequency. The power amplifier also generates a reference phase signal that is derived from the radio-frequency power signal. An impedance match provides the radio-frequency power signal to a plasma coil that has a variable resonance condition. A phase probe is positioned adjacent to the plasma coil to generate a coil phase signal corresponding to the adjustable operating frequency. A phase-locked loop then generates an RF drive signal that is based upon a phase relationship between the reference phase signal and the coil phase signal. The phase-locked loop provides the RF drive signal to the power amplifier to control the adjustable operating frequency, so that the adjustable operating frequency then tracks the variable resonance condition.
US07939999B2 Electroluminescence device and functional device
The present invention provides an electroluminescence device which can overcome a drawback that a light emitting layer deteriorates when a cathode layer is formed on the light emitting layer and has no decline in the original function; and a production method which is suitable for producing such an electroluminescence device. An electroluminescence device has a laminated structure wherein an anode layer, a light emitting layer, a charge transporting protection layer, and a cathode layer are successively formed on a substrate, in which the charge transporting protection layer comprises a transparent insulating material, or a transparent insulating material and a metal.
US07939991B2 Piezoelectric gas ejecting device
A piezoelectric gas jet generator includes a piezoelectric vibrator and upper and lower volume-varying chambers formed above and below the piezoelectric vibrator. In order to effectively use the movement of air supplied with the vibration of the piezoelectric vibrator, plural upper supply pipes and lower supply pipes communicating with the upper and lower volume-varying chambers and protruding from an upper housing and a lower housing are made to protrude in a direction parallel to the plane of the piezoelectric vibrator so as to be parallel to each other. Here, the upper supply pipes and the lower supply pipes are located at different planar positions.
US07939985B2 Motor and method for manufacturing rotor unit of the motor
In a rotor unit of a motor, field magnets are inserted into respective magnet holding holes of a rotor core. End plates are arranged on the upper and lower end surfaces of the rotor core to cover the magnets holding holes. Each of the end plates preferably has three bent portions extending perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the radial direction, the three bent portions being arranged circumferentially. The bent portions are preferably formed through press working such that they are protruded toward the rotor core. The rotor core includes end plate fixing holes. End plates are preferably fixed to the rotor core by press-fitting the bent portions into the respective end plate fixing holes while allowing side surfaces of the bent portions to make contact with inner surfaces of the end plate fixing holes. Accordingly, the end plates can easily be fixed to the rotor core without increasing the axial size of the rotor unit.
US07939984B2 Lamination having tapered tooth geometry which is suitable for use in electric motor
An electric motor has a stator, and a rotor disposed within the stator. The stator has a set of stator laminations and a set of windings held in position by the set of stator laminations. The rotor is arranged to rotate about an axis. The set of stator laminations is arranged into a stack. Each stator lamination includes an outer section, and a set of teeth coupled to the outer section. Each tooth of the set of teeth extends from that outer section toward the axis. Each tooth has (i) a first end which is proximate to the outer section and distal to the axis, and (ii) a second end which is proximate to the axis and distal to the outer section. A width of the first end of each tooth is substantially greater than a width of the second end of each tooth.
US07939971B2 Method for generating intensive high-voltage pulses for industrial use and associated circuit
High-voltage pulses are generated and injected in a parallel-capacitative manner into the first stage of a multistage Marx generator at suitable intervals. The high-voltage pulses result in a longitudinal overvoltage triggering of the first spark gap of the Marx generator. As a result, industrial applications are able to generate, in a fault-free manner, high-voltage pulses having a predetermined repetition rate over a prolonged period of time.
US07939964B2 Modularized power supply switch control structure
A modularized power supply switch control structure aims to control a main power system of a power supply. The main power system includes at least one high voltage output unit at a high voltage output end and one low voltage output unit at a rear low voltage output end. A control unit is connected to the high voltage output unit and the low voltage output unit to control start/stop time series of the high voltage output unit and the low voltage output unit so that the high voltage output unit and the low voltage output unit can be started asynchronously. Thus the power supply can output a start voltage at the start instant to meet load requirement. A plurality of power output modules deliver output asynchronously. Hence output current or voltage surge at the start instant can be improved.
US07939962B2 System and method for supplying power to user systems onboard an aircraft
The invention relates to a power supply system for several user systems onboard an aircraft. This system comprises at least two power supply electronics (10, 11) and means of connecting these at least two power supply electronics to at least two user systems (12, 13, 14, 15), characterised in that these connecting means comprise a network of connecting contactors (16, 17; 32, 33) from each power supply electronics with at least two user systems not performing similar functions but technologically compatible such that these power supply electronics supply these user systems at different times.
US07939955B2 Method for operating a wind energy installation and a wind energy installation
The invention relates to a method for operating a wind energy installation (10), in which the wind energy installation (10) has a rotor (12, 13, 22), at least one rotor blade (14) with an adjustable angle, a mechanical brake device (19) for braking the rotor (14), an operational control device (15, 15′) and a safety system (16, 20). The invention also relates to a corresponding wind energy installation (10). The method according to the invention is defined by the following method steps: braking of the rotor (12, 13, 22) by means of an angular adjustment (28) with an average angular adjustment rate of less than 8.5°/s of the at least one rotor blade (14) after a fault signal (30) occurs, braking of the rotor (12, 13, 22) by means of the mechanical brake device (19) as soon as the rotational speed of the rotor (12, 13, 22) exceeds a predefinable first rotational speed limit, and triggering of the safety system (16, 20) as soon as the rotational speed of the rotor (12, 13, 22) exceeds a predefinable second rotational speed limit.
US07939953B2 Micro scale fischer-tropsch and oxygenate synthesis process startup unit
A mobile system for providing start-up electrical power to a micro scale liquid hydrocarbon and/or oxygenate synthesis plant is provided including a portable gas or liquid fueled electrical generator, a steam turbine, a plant generator mechanically coupled to the steam turbine, a plant power load; and means for synchronizing electrical power generated by the portable electrical generator with electrical power generated by the plant generator is provided. Also provided is a process for synchronizing electrical power generated by the portable electrical generator with electrical power generated by the plant generator.
US07939948B2 Interconnect structures with bond-pads and methods of forming bump sites on bond-pads
Microelectronic workpieces that have bump sites over bond-pads and methods of fabricating such bump sites. One embodiment of such a workpiece, for example, includes a substrate having a plurality of microelectronic dies comprising integrated circuitry and bond-pads, such as copper bond-pads, electrically coupled to the integrated circuitry. The workpiece further includes (a) a dielectric structure having a plurality of openings with sidewalls projecting from corresponding bond-pads, and (b) a plurality of caps over corresponding bond-pads. The individual caps can include a discrete portion of a barrier layer attached to the bond-pads and the sidewalls of the openings, and a discrete portion of a cap layer on the barrier layer. The caps are electrically isolated from each other and self-aligned with corresponding bond-pads without forming a mask layer over the cap layer.
US07939945B2 Electrically conductive fluid interconnects for integrated circuit devices
Disclosed are embodiments of an electrically conductive fluid interconnect for coupling an integrated circuit (IC) device to a substrate. The IC device may be coupled to the substrate in a socketless manner or using a socket. The electrically conductive fluid interconnect may include, for example, a metal, an electrically conductive paste, or an electrically conductive polymer material. The fluid may be in a liquid or paste state over at least part of an operating temperature range of the IC device, and in other embodiments the fluid may be in the liquid or paste state at room temperature. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07939938B2 Functional device package with metallization arrangement for improved bondability of two substrates
A packaging structure for hermetically sealing a functional device by solder connection at a wafer level in which a first Si substrate having a concave portion metallized on its internal surface and a second Si substrate metallized at a position opposed to said concave portion are used, the metallization applied to the internal surface of the concave portion of the first Si substrate and the metallization applied to the second Si substrate at the position opposed to the concave portion are connected by molten solder to hermetically seal the functional device between the first Si substrate and the second Si substrate, whereby the wettability of the solder for the two Si substrates is improved, the bondability between the Si substrates is enhanced, and the yield at which the package is manufactured is improved.
US07939937B2 Chip housing having reduced induced vibration
A premold housing for accommodating a chip structure includes a first part of the housing which is connected to the chip structure as well as connected in an elastically deflectable manner to an additional part of the housing which is fastened to the support structure bearing the entire housing. A mechanism is provided for damping the deflection of the first part of the housing which is connected to the chip structure.
US07939932B2 Packaged chip devices with atomic layer deposition protective films
A low-temperature inorganic dielectric ALD film (e.g., Al2O3 and TiO2) is deposited on a packaged or unpackaged chip device so as to coat the device including any exposed electrical contacts. Such a low-temperature ALD film generally can be deposited without damaging the packaged chip device. The ALD film is typically deposited at a sufficient thickness to provide desired qualities (e.g., hermeticity for the entire packaged chip device, passivation for the electrical contacts, biocompatibility, etc.) but still allow for electrical connections to be made to the electrical contacts (e.g., by soldering or otherwise) directly through the ALD film without having to expose the electrical contacts.
US07939931B2 Semiconductor device
There is provided a semiconductor device whose cost is low and whose case is restrained from breaking. In the semiconductor device having a semiconductor sensor chip, a signal processing circuit for processing signals output from the semiconductor sensor chip and a hollow case for mounting the semiconductor sensor chip and the signal processing circuit therein, the case is constructed by bonding a concave bottom member whose one end is opened with a plate-like lid member that covers the opening of the bottom member. Then, the bottom and lid members are both made of a semiconductor material and are bonded by means of anode bonding or metal bonding for example.
US07939927B2 Semiconductor memory apparatus
The semiconductor memory apparatus related to an embodiment of the present invention includes a wiring substrate arranged with a device mounting part and connection pads aligned along one exterior side of the wiring substrate, a plurality of semiconductor memory devices including electrode pads which are arranged along one external side of the wiring substrate, a semiconductor memory device group in which the plurality of semiconductor memory devices are stacked on the device mounting part of the wiring substrate so that pad arrangement sides all face in the same direction, and a controller device including the electrode pads arranged along at least one external side of the wiring substrate, wherein the electrode pads of the plurality of semiconductor memory devices and the electrode pads of the controller device are arranged parallel to an arrangement position of the connection pads of the wiring substrate.
US07939926B2 Via first plus via last technique for IC interconnects
A multi-tiered IC device contains a first die including a substrate with a first and second set of vias. The first set of vias extends from one side of the substrate, and the second set of vias extend from an opposite side of the substrate. Both sets of vias are coupled together. The first set of vias are physically smaller than the second set of vias. The first set of vias are produced prior to circuitry on the die, and the second set of vias are produced after circuitry on the die. A second die having a set of interconnects is stacked relative to the first die in which the interconnects couple to the first set of vias.
US07939919B2 LED-packaging arrangement and light bar employing the same
An LED-packaging arrangement, comprising: a first connection block with an enclosure groove at the bottom thereof; a second connection block with an enclosure groove at the bottom thereof; a light-emitting chip positioned at the top of the first connection block and via connection wires electrically coupled to the first and second connection blocks; a positioning/packaging body, and a transparent packaging body. Alternatively, a third connection block is provided with an enclosure groove at the bottom thereof. In this case, the electrical connection originally to the first connection block via the connection wire is changed to the third connection block. The first and second connection blocks are enclosed by the lower part of the positioning/packaging body in position such that the bottom surfaces of the first and second connection blocks are exposed. The upper part of the positioning/packaging body encloses the light-emitting chip so as to create a reflection cap. The transparent packaging body is employed to seal and fix the light-emitting chip and the connection wires in position for an optimal protection. In this way, the problem of the prior art is resolved that the heat generated by the light-emitting chip is not easily dissipated. Moreover, the heat-dissipating efficiency and the structural strength can be considerably enhanced.
US07939918B2 Chip packages with covers
This invention discloses a crystalline substrate based device including a crystalline substrate having formed thereon a microstructure; and at least one packaging layer which is sealed over the microstructure by means of an adhesive and defines therewith at least one gap between the crystalline substrate and the at least one packaging layer. A method of producing a crystalline substrate based device is also disclosed.
US07939916B2 Wafer level CSP packaging concept
An electronics package includes a wafer die substrate containing electronic circuits and having a top surface and a bottom surface. A top protective layer is substantially thinner than the substrate and covers the top surface. A bottom protective layer is substantially thinner than the substrate and covers the bottom surface. Circuit contacts are distributed about the bottom protective layer for electrically coupling the substrate electronic circuits to external electronic circuits.
US07939914B2 Dual wired integrated circuit chips
A semiconductor device having wiring levels on opposite sides and a method of fabricating a semiconductor structure having contacts to devices and wiring levels on opposite sides. The method including fabricating a device on a silicon-on-insulator substrate with first contacts to the devices and wiring levels on a first side to the first contacts, removing a lower silicon layer to expose the buried oxide layer, forming second contacts to the devices through the buried oxide layer and forming wiring levels over the buried oxide layer to the second contacts.
US07939913B2 Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a substrate; a layered body formed on the substrate and including a multilayer interconnection structure, the layered body including multiple interlayer insulating films stacked in layers, the interlayer insulating films being lower in dielectric constant than a SiO2 film; a moisture resistant ring extending continuously in the layered body so as to surround a device region where an active element is formed; a protection groove part formed continuously along and outside the moisture resistant ring in the layered body so as to expose the surface of the substrate; a protection film continuously covering the upper surface of the layered body except an electrode pad on the multilayer interconnection structure, and the sidewall and bottom surfaces of the protection groove part; and an interface film including Si and C as principal components and formed between the protection film and the sidewall surfaces of the protection groove part.
US07939908B2 High-voltage transistor having shielding gate
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of high-voltage insulated-gate field-effect transistors arranged in a matrix form on the main surface of a semiconductor substrate and each having a gate electrode, a gate electrode contact formed on the gate electrode, and a wiring layer which is formed on the gate electrode contacts adjacent in a gate-width direction to electrically connect the gate electrodes arranged in the gate-width direction. And the device includes shielding gates provided on portions of an element isolation region which lie between the transistors adjacent in the gate-width direction and gate-length direction and used to apply reference potential or potential of a polarity different from that of potential applied to the gate of the transistor to turn on the current path of the transistor to the element isolation region.
US07939907B2 Semiconductor device including a digital semiconductor element and an analog semiconductor element in a common semiconductor device
High density mounting and power source sharing are achieved by a digital semiconductor element and an analog semiconductor element provided in a common semiconductor device. A power layer for analog operation is connected to one end of an EBG (Electromagnetic Band Gap) layer, a power layer for digital operation is connected to the other end of the EBG layer, ground terminals for the respective elements are connected to a common ground layer, and a ground layer for separating the power layer for analog operation and the EBG layer from each other is disposed between the power layer for analog operation and the EBG layer. Thereby, high density mounting is achieved along with reducing interference of the power source to an analog chip.
US07939905B2 Electrostatic discharge protection method and device for semiconductor device including an electrostatic discharge protection element providing a discharge path of a surge current
According to an embodiment of the present invention, an electrostatic breakdown protection method protects a semiconductor device from a surge current impressed between a first terminal and a second terminal, the semiconductor device including: a diode impressing a forward-bias current from the first terminal to the second terminal; and a bipolar transistor impressing a current in a direction from the second terminal to the first terminal under an ON state, a continuity between a collector terminal and an emitter terminal of the bipolar transistor being attained before a potential difference between the first terminal and the second terminal reaches such a level that the diode is broken down.
US07939900B2 Materials for the formation of polymer junction diodes
Polymerizable anions and/or cations can be used as the ionically conductive species for the formation of a p-i-n junction in conjugated polymer thin films. After the junction is formed, the ions are polymerized in situ, and the junction is locked thereafter. The resulting polymer p-i-n junction diodes could have a high current rectification ratio. Electroluminescence with high quantum efficiency and low operating voltage may be produced from this locked junction. The diodes may also be used for photovoltaic energy conversion. In a photovoltaic cell, the built-in potential helps separate electron-hole pairs and increases the open-circuit voltage.
US07939898B2 Diffusion variability control and transistor device sizing using threshold voltage implant
A transistor is defined to include a substrate portion and a diffusion region defined in the substrate portion so as to provide an operable transistor threshold voltage. An implant region is defined within a portion of the diffusion region so as to transform the operable transistor threshold voltage of the diffusion region portion into an inoperably high transistor threshold voltage. A gate electrode is defined to extend over both the diffusion region and the implant region. A first portion of the gate electrode defined over the diffusion region forms a first transistor segment having the operable transistor threshold voltage. A second portion of the gate electrode defined over the implant region forms a second transistor segment having the inoperably high transistor threshold voltage. Therefore, a boundary of the implant region defines a boundary of the operable first transistor segment.
US07939894B2 Isolated high performance FET with a controllable body resistance
The present invention provides a method of controlling bias in an electrical device including providing semiconductor devices on a bulk semiconductor substrate each including an active body region that is isolated from the active body region of adjacent devices, and providing a body resistor in electrical contact with the active body region of the bulk semiconductor substrate, wherein the body resistor provides for adjustability of the body potential of the semiconductor devices. In another aspect the present invention provides a semiconductor device including a bulk semiconductor substrate, at least one field effect transistor formed on the bulk semiconductor substrate including an isolated active body region, and a resistor in electrical communication with the isolated active body region.
US07939889B2 Reducing resistance in source and drain regions of FinFETs
A semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor fin on a top surface of a substrate, wherein the semiconductor fin includes a middle section having a first width; and a first and a second end section connected to opposite ends of the middle section, wherein the first and the second end sections each comprises at least a top portion having a second width greater than the first width. The semiconductor structure further includes a gate dielectric layer on a top surface and sidewalls of the middle section of the semiconductor fin; and a gate electrode on the gate dielectric layer.
US07939880B2 Split gate non-volatile memory cell
A non-volatile memory (NVM) cell comprising a layer of discrete charge storing elements, a control gate, and a select gate is provided. The control gate has a first sidewall with a lower portion being at least a first angle 10 degrees away from 90 degrees with respect to substrate. Further, the select gate has a second sidewall with a lower portion being at least a second angle at least 10 degrees away from 90 degrees with respect to the substrate. The NVM cell further comprises a layer of dielectric material located between the first sidewall and the second sidewall.
US07939876B2 Metallized conductive strap spacer for SOI deep trench capacitor
A conductive strap spacer is formed within a buried strap cavity above an inner electrode recessed below a top surface of a buried insulator layer of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. A portion of the conductive strap spacer is metallized by reacting with a metal to form a strap metal semiconductor alloy region, which is contiguous over the conductive strap spacer and a source region, and may extend to a top surface of the buried insulator layer along a substantially vertical sidewall of the conductive strap spacer. The conductive strap spacer and the strap metal semiconductor alloy region provide a stable electrical connection between the inner electrode of the deep trench capacitor and the source region of the access transistor.
US07939873B2 Capacitor element and semiconductor device
An object of the present invention is that the capacitance of MOS capacitors is changed without varying the kind of an impurity (a donor or an acceptor) in a channel formation region, and an n-type MOS capacitor and a p-type MOS capacitor are formed over a same substrate. By changing the offset length between a contact region and a channel formation region, the capacitance of a MOS capacitor can be changed without increasing the number of manufacturing process. Also, an n-type MOS capacitor and a p-type MOS capacitor can be formed over a same substrate only by changing the offset length. In addition, an n-type MOS capacitor and a p-type MOS capacitor can be formed over a same substrate by changing the dose amount of impurity with respect to a channel formation region while fixing the offset length.
US07939868B2 Image pickup device and camera
An object is to provide a solid state image pickup device and a camera which do not worsen a sensor performance in terms of an optical property, a saturated charge amount and the like. A solid state image sensor including a pixel region having a plurality of pixels includes at least a photodiode and an amplifying portion amplifying photocharges outputted from the photodiode in the pixel region, and further includes a well electrode for taking well potential of a well region in which the amplifying portion is arranged. Between the well electrode and the photodiode, no element isolation regions by an insulation film are arranged. Moreover, on the surface of a first semiconductor region in which the photodiode stores the charges, a second semiconductor layer of a conductivity type reverse to that of the first semiconductor region is arranged.
US07939855B2 Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, first, second, and third gate lines disposed over the substrate, the first and second gate lines defining a first trench with a first aspect ratio, the second and third gate lines defining a second trench with a second aspect ratio, a first insulating layer formed to decrease the first and second aspect ratios, and a second insulating layer disposed over the first insulating layer to fill the first and second trenches.
US07939844B2 Light-emitting-diode chip comprising a sequence of GAN-based epitaxial layers which emit radiation and a method for producing the same
A light-emitting diode chip (1) comprises a GaN-based, radiation-emitting epitaxial layer sequence (3), an active region (19), an n-doped layer (4) and a p-doped layer (5). The p-doped layer (5) is provided, on its main surface (9) facing away from the active region (19), with a reflective contact metallization (6) comprising a radioparent contact layer (15) and a reflective layer (16). Methods for fabricating LED chips of this type by thin-film technology are provided, as are LED components containing such LED chips.
US07939843B2 Light emitting device and high refractive index layer
A light emitting device has a light emitting element, and a high-refractive index layer that contacts an emission surface of the light emitting element. The high-refractive index layer has transparent fine particles uniformly arranged along the emission surface. The fine particles has a refractive index high than that of a material composing the emission surface of the light emitting element. Otherwise, a light emitting device has a light emitting element, a sealing material for sealing the light emitting element, and a high-refractive index layer that contacts an emission surface of the light emitting element. The fine particles has a refractive index high than that of a material composing the emission surface of the light emitting element and that of the sealing material. A phosphor may be included in the sealing material which is adapted to emit a wavelength-converted light by being excited by a light emitted from the light emitting element. The phosphor may have a same matrix as the fine particles, and it may be formed spherical. The light emitting element may be a face-up type light emitting element or a flip-chip type light emitting element.
US07939835B2 Light emitting apparatus and method for manufacturing the same
The purpose of the invention is to improve reliability of a light emitting apparatus comprising TFTs and organic light emitting elements. The light emitting apparatus according to the invention having thin film transistors and light emitting elements, comprises; a second inorganic insulation layer on a gate electrode, a first organic insulation layer on the second inorganic insulation layer, a third inorganic insulation layer on the first organic insulation layer, an anode layer formed on the third inorganic insulation layer, a second organic insulation layer overlapping with the end of the anode layer and having an inclination angle of 35 to 45 degrees, a fourth inorganic insulation layer formed on the upper surface and side surface of the second organic insulation layer and having an opening over the anode layer, an organic compound layer formed in contact with the anode layer and the fourth inorganic insulation layer and containing light emitting material, and a cathode layer formed in contact with the organic compound layer containing the light emitting material, wherein the third inorganic insulation layer and the fourth inorganic insulation layer are formed with silicon nitride or aluminum nitride.
US07939834B2 Light- emitting device
A light-emitting device includes a substrate having an epitaxial-forming surface and a back surface opposite to the epitaxial-forming surface, the substrate being formed with a recess indented from the back surface, the back surface having a recessed portion that defines the recess, and a planar portion extending outwardly from the recessed portion; an epitaxy layer; a continuous heat-dissipating layer formed on the planar portion and the recessed portion of the back surface of the substrate; and first and second electrodes coupled electrically to the epitaxy layer.
US07939825B2 Solid-state image pickup device
A solid-state image pickup device 1 includes a semiconductor substrate 10, light receiving unit 14 and light shielding film 20. The solid-state image pickup device 1 is back surface incident type and photoelectrically converts light indent on the back surface S2 of the semiconductor substrate 10 from an object into electrical charges and receives electrical charges produced by photoelectric conversion at the light receiving unit 14 to image the object. The light receiving unit 14 forms a PN junction diode with the semiconductor substrate 10. The light shielding film 20 is provided over a front surface S1 of the semiconductor substrate 10 so as to cover the light receiving unit 14. The light shielding film 20 serves to shield light incident on the front surface S1 from the outside of the solid-state image pickup device 1.
US07939810B2 Mass spectrometer
An electrically conductive heat-blocking plate 11 with an opening 12 for allowing thermions to pass through is provided between a filament 3, whose temperature can be as high as 2000° to 3000° C., and an ionization chamber 2. The heat-blocking plate 11 is thermally connected via an aluminum block 10 to a heater for maintaining the ionization chamber 2 within a range temperature from 200° to 300° C., and also electrically set at a ground potential, which is approximately equal to the potential of the ionization chamber 2. The heat-blocking plate 11 blocks the radiation heat that the filament 3 emits when energized. Thus, the wall of the ionization chamber 2 is prevented from being locally heated to an abnormally high temperature. As a result, the inner space of the ionization chamber 2 is maintained at an approximately uniform temperature, and the noise due to the decomposition of a metallic material by abnormal heating is prevented. The heat-blocking plate 11 also prevents a thermion-accelerating electric field from penetrating through an electron injection port 5 into the ionization chamber 2 and impeding the extraction of ions produced within the ionization chamber 2. Thus, the ion extraction efficiency is also improved.
US07939807B2 Scintigraphic device with spatial super-resolution
A scintigraphic device includes: a collimator for receiving and directing electromagnetic radiation from a source; a scintillation structure associated with the collimator for receiving the electromagnetic radiation from the collimator and converting it into visible radiation; an electro-optical converter combined with a suitable electronics and associated with the scintillation structure for receiving the visible radiation and converting it into electric signals; a processing unit connected to the electro-optical converter for receiving the electric signals and rebuilding, as a function of the electric signals, images of the source; an actuating system for mutually moving the source and the collimator to enable the collimator to detect the electromagnetic radiation at different mutual positioning locations of the source and the collimator, the processing unit being adapted to rebuild a plurality of auxiliary images representative of the source, each auxiliary image corresponding to a respective mutual positioning of the source and the collimator.
US07939804B2 System and method for detecting gas leaks
A gas detection system is disclosed that uses an infrared illumination source and an infrared imaging detector. The infrared source is selected to emit at wavelengths corresponding to an absorption band of a gas to be detected. The region to be analyzed for the gas is illuminated, and the infrared radiation reflects off of local surfaces back to the imaging detector. At locations where the gas is present, the infrared radiation is absorbed which reduces the back reflection to the detector.
US07939791B1 Optical data pipe
An optical interconnect system having a first optical sub-system and a second optical sub-system, each optical sub-system having a first end and a second end, and further having a preselected length, and a preselected width. Means are fixedly secured to the first end of the optical sub-system for emitting electromagnetic radiation and means are fixedly secured to said second end of said optical sub-system for receiving the emitted electromagnetic radiation.
US07939763B2 Horizontal cable manager
Embodiments of the invention provide a horizontal cable manager. A horizontal base can include a first molded section and an identical second molded section adapted to be coupled together. The horizontal cable manager can include a plurality of fingers extending from each one of the first molded section and the second molded section. The fingers can include a shaft and an arrow-shaped end. The arrow-shaped end can include a first triangular member and a second triangular member each coupled to opposite sides of the shaft at a first distance away from a distal end of the shaft. The horizontal cable manager can include hinge supports with a cover removably coupled to the hinge supports. The horizontal base can include an attachment hole, a first extension, and a second wing extension for temporary attachment to an electronic equipment rack.
US07939754B2 Connection box for solar panel
A box for connecting an output conductor of a solar panel with a feed cable has a base mountable on the solar panel and having a generally planar floor from whose outer periphery a side wall projects perpendicularly. A cover engageable with the side wall forms with the floor and side wall a substantially closed compartment. At least one holder in the compartment on the floor grips and positions an end of the feed cable such that it extends in a predetermined first direction. The side wall is formed with a cutout through which the feed cable passes. The cutout and holder are relatively spaced and oriented such that the cable extends in a predetermined second direction that forms an acute angle with the first direction between the holder and the cutout.
US07939745B2 Compound thin-film solar cell and process for producing the same
A method of fabricating a thin-film compound solar cell having an n-type buffer layer formed therein for providing a heterojunction with a p-type compound semiconductor light absorbing layer formed on a back electrode by applying a chemical bath deposition (CBD) process using an aqueous solution for dipping the light absorbing layer to deposit particles on the surface thereof. In this process, the temperature of the solution is controlled from low to high to increase sizes of the particles to be deposited on the light absorbing layer so as to form the buffer layer which possesses a high optical transmittance, tight adherence to the light absorbing layer and conformity with the transparent electrode formed thereon even if it would be made of InS material generally possessing a small bandgap and hard to pass light of short wavelengths.
US07939737B2 Body support for a guitar or similar musical instruments
The body support (2) for a guitar (1) or similar musical instruments can be removed and is shaped like a frame. It comprises a single bass clef-shaped body, the two ends (3,4) of which are attached to the guitar body (5) at a distance from each other. The body support (2) protrudes on both sides and at the end of the guitar body (5), thus facilitating the handling of the guitar (1) and accessibility to the tuning elements (6). An elastic padding (12) is provided in the holding region of the body support (2). The body support can be removed and folded for transporting the guitar (1).
US07939728B2 Tomato line FIR10-8086
The invention provides seed and plants of tomato hybrid PS02450650 and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of tomato hybrid PS02450650 and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a tomato plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another tomato plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US07939725B2 Soybean cultivar 7311153
A soybean cultivar designated 7311153 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar 7311153, to the plants of soybean 7311153, to plant parts of soybean cultivar 7311153 and to methods for producing a soybean plant produced by crossing soybean cultivar 7311153 with itself or with another soybean variety. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. This invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars and plant parts derived from soybean variety 7311153, to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 7311153 and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants and plant parts produced by crossing the cultivar 7311153 with another soybean cultivar.
US07939718B2 Spinach line OMB66-1101M
The invention provides seed and plants of the spinach line designated OMB66-1101M. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of spinach line OMB66-1101M, and to methods for producing a spinach plant produced by crossing a plant of spinach line OMB66-1101M with itself or with another spinach plant, such as a plant of another line. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of a plant of spinach line OMB66-1101M, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US07939717B2 Spinach line SSB66-1083F
The invention provides seed and plants of the spinach line designated SSB66-1083F. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of spinach line SSB66-1083F, and to methods for producing a spinach plant produced by crossing a plant of spinach line SSB66-1083F with itself or with another spinach plant, such as a plant of another line. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of a plant of spinach line SSB66-1083F, including the fruit and gametes of such plants.
US07939714B2 Diacylglycerol acyltransferase nucleic acid sequences and associated products
The present invention is directed to polypeptides and nucleic acid sequences related thereto, and methods to purify, obtain, and use such molecules in genetic engineering applications. More specifically, the present invention relates to polypeptides associated with the production of triacylglycerols in plants and fungi.
US07939712B2 Method to alleviate abiotic stress in plants by expression of mitochondrial-targeted purple acid phosphatase
Methods to alleviate abiotic stress by modifying plants or plant cells to contain a heterologous nucleic acid that comprises a nucleotide sequence encoding the purple acid phosphatase activity of soybean GmPAP3 fused to a mitochondrion-targeting transit peptide are disclosed. Such abiotic stress can include enhanced salinity, dehydration and oxidative stress.
US07939707B2 Method of evaluating plant protection
A method is provided for evaluating a protected plant having a protection mechanism. A population of immature insects (i.e., larvae or nymphs) belonging to an insect species having a plurality of instars is first exposed to the protected plant such that the protected plant is at least contacted thereby. The insect exposure extends for a selected time period corresponding to a sublethal exposure of the insect population to the protected plant. The exposure of the insect population to the protected plant is then halted following the selected time period and insects collected. A physical characteristic of at least some collected insects is measured and the immature insects are then sorted into instars. The measured physical characteristics are then statistically analyzed across the instars so as to determine an efficacy of the protection mechanism of the protected plant with respect to the insect population. Associated methods are also provided.
US07939703B2 Method for photocatalytic isomerization of 1,2-diphenylethylene analogues
The present invention relates to methods for accelerating the trans-cis isomerization of 1,2-diphenylethylene analogues by using photocatalyst. According to this invention, in the presence of polypyridyl platinum(II) complex with catalytic dosage, a solution containing trans-1,2-diphenylethylene analogues or mixture of cis- and trans-1,2-diphenylethylene analogues is irradiated by visible light to prepare product of cis-1,2-diphenylethylene analogues or product predominantly being cis-1,2-diphenylethylene analogues under inert gas atmosphere. This method has the advantages of fast reaction, high performance, easy separation of reaction system and recycle of the polypyridyl platinum (II) complexes.
US07939699B2 Cobalt catalysts
Catalysts comprising cobalt on a titania support are produced by mixing together particles of a solid titania support and an aqueous solution of cobalt amine carbonate, and heating to an elevated temperature sufficient to effect decomposition of the cobalt amine carbonate and precipitation of a cobalt species onto said support. The catalysts are useful in hydrogenation and Fischer-Tropsch reactions.
US07939694B2 Method for the hydroformylation of olefins and apparatus using the same
The present invention relates to a method for preparing aldehydes by reacting olefins with a synthesis gas including carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and to an apparatus therefore. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for preparing aldehydes, characterized by spraying and supplying olefins, synthesis gas including carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and a catalyst composition into an oxo reactor through a nozzle, and to an apparatus therefore. According to the present invention, the hydroformylation efficiency can be improved, thereby obtaining desirable aldehydes with a high yield.
US07939681B2 Methods for conversion of carbohydrates in ionic liquids to value-added chemicals
Methods are described for converting carbohydrates including, e.g., monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides in ionic liquids to value-added chemicals including furans, useful as chemical intermediates and/or feedstocks. Fructose is converted to 5-hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF) in the presence of metal halide and acid catalysts. Glucose is effectively converted to HMF in the presence of chromium chloride catalysts. Yields of up to about 70% are achieved with low levels of impurities such as levulinic acid.
US07939677B2 Oligomeric compounds comprising 4′-thionucleosides for use in gene modulation
The present invention provides modified oligomeric compounds and compositions of oligomeric compounds for use in the RNA interference pathway of gene modulation. The modified oligomeric compounds include siRNA and asRNA having at least one affinity modification.
US07939668B2 Ruthenium complexes as catalysts for metathesis reactions
The invention relates to novel metathesis catalysts of the formula a process for making the same and their use in metathesis reactions such as ring closing or cross metathesis. The invention further relates to a process for the manufacture of a macrocyclic compound of formula VII which have the potential to be useful as HCV protease inhibitors.
US07939666B2 Enzyme inhibitors
Compounds of formula (I) are inhibitors of histone deacetylase activity, and are useful in the treatment of, for example, cancers.
US07939664B2 Pyridinium boronic acid quenchers for use in analyte sensors
Novel pyridinium salts functionalized with boronic acid and methods of making them are disclosed. When combined with a fluorescent dye, the compounds are useful in the detection of polyhydroxyl-substituted organic molecules.
US07939663B2 Metallic compound and organic electroluminescence device comprising the same
The present invention relates to a light emitting transition metal compound represented by the Chemical Formula 1 and Chemical Formula 2 and an organic electroluminescence device including the same. In the above Chemical Formulae 1 and 2, M is Ir, Pt, Rh, Re, Os, or the like, m is 2 or 3 and n is 0 or 1, where the sum of m and n is 3, provided that the sum of m and n is 2 when M is Pt, X and Z are the same or different and may be N or P, and Y is O, S, or Se.
US07939658B2 Enantiomeric pure beta agonists, manufacturing and use as a medicaments thereof
The present invention relates to enantiomerically pure compounds of formula 1 wherein the groups m, n, B, X, R1, m and Ym− may have the meanings given in the claims and specification, methods for preparing them and their use as pharmaceutical compositions, particularly as pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment of respiratory complaints.
US07939652B2 Oligoribonucleotides and methods of use thereof for treatment of fibrotic conditions and other diseases
The invention relates to a double-stranded compound, preferably an oligoribonucleotide (siRNA), which down-regulates the expression of a human TGaseII gene at the post-transcriptional level. The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound, or a vector capable of expressing the oligoribonucleotide compound, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The present invention also contemplates a method of treating a patient suffering from a fibrotic disease such as pulmonary, kidney and liver fibrosis or ocular, scarring comprising administering to the patient the pharmaceutical composition in a therapeutically effective dose so as to thereby treat the patient. The invention also relates to treatment of fibrotic and other diseases by use of antibodies to TGaseII polypeptide.
US07939637B2 Insulin-like growth factor antibodies and uses thereof
Binding proteins, such as antibodies directed to IGF-II with cross-reactivity to IGF-I and uses of such antibodies are described. In particular, fully human monoclonal antibodies directed to the IGF-II with cross-reactivity to IGF-I are disclosed. Also discussed are nucleotide sequences encoding, and amino acid sequences comprising, heavy and light chain immunoglobulin molecules, particularly sequences corresponding to contiguous heavy and light chain sequences spanning the framework regions and/or complementarity determining regions (CDR's), specifically from FR1 through FR4 or CDR1 through CDR3.
US07939635B2 Autotaxin: motility stimulating protein useful in cancer diagnosis and therapy
The present invention relates, in general, to autotaxin. In particular, the present invention relates to a DNA segment encoding autotaxin; recombinant DNA molecules containing the DNA segment; cells containing the recombinant DNA molecule; a method of producing autotaxin; antibodies to autotaxin; and identification of functional domains in autotaxin.
US07939629B2 Method for solid phase peptide synthesis
A novel method for synthesizing a Hirulog peptide is devised.
US07939627B2 Peptides comprising an epitope of the wilms tumor gene product
A compound of formula (1): wherein X is a tyrosine residue or a methionine residue; Y and Z each are a single bond; R1 is a hydrogen atom; R2 is a hydroxy group; R3 is a hydrogen atom, alkyl group, amino group substituted alkylcarbonylamino; R4 is a hydrogen atom, alkyl group, carboxy group a group of formula (2): wherein W is an amino acid residue; m is 1 or 2; and n is an integer of 0 to 2, with the proviso that when n is 0, R3 is a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and its use in cancer immunotherapy.
US07939625B2 Somatostatin analogues
The invention provides cyclo[{4-(NH2—C2H4—NH—CO—O—)Pro}-Phg-DTrp-Lys-Tyr(4-Benzyl)-Phe], optionally in protected form, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or complex thereof, which has interesting pharmaceutical properties.
US07939623B2 Composition containing flavan compound
A composition comprising: a flavan compound that is at least one of a proanthocyanidin and catechins; a protein degradation peptide having an average molecular weight of less than 7,000; and a peptide or protein having an average molecular weight of not less than 7,000. The composition does not impair effects of the flavan compound to the body. Furthermore, when the composition is formulated in a liquid preparation, neither coagulation-precipitation attributable to the nature of the flavan compound, nor coagulation-precipitation with the high molecular weight peptide or protein which is attributable to the protein-constricting property of the flavan compound is caused.
US07939622B2 Polymer compound and organic light-emitting device using the same
Provided are a polymer compound which has a pyrrole derivative compound and a phenoxazine derivative compound as a repeating unit, and an organic electroluminescent (EL) device using the same for forming a hole injection layer and/or a hole transport layer. The polymer compound according to the present invention has superior electric features and a high hole-transporting capability. Thus the organic EL device using the polymer compound for forming a hole injection layer and/or a hole transport layer has superior features such as low voltage and high efficiency compared to using conventional materials.
US07939610B2 Polymerization processes for broadened molecular weight distribution
Provided are methods of producing polymers with broadened molecular weight and/or composition distribution in a continuous homogeneous polymerization system utilizing reactor temperature gradients, reactor polymer concentration gradients, monomer concentration gradients, catalyst concentration gradients, and combinations thereof in the polymerization reactor. Such methods are particularly suitable when utilizing metallocene catalysts and other single-site catalysts, which generally produce polymers with narrow molecular weight and composition distribution.
US07939609B2 Redispersing agents for redispersible polymer powders and redispersible polymer powders including same
A redispersible polymer powder including: a polymer to be redispersed; and an ortho-cresol based condensation product or salt thereof; wherein the ortho-cresol based condensation product or salt thereof includes N-containing units derived from a N-based component incorporated into the ortho-cresol based condensation product or salt thereof during polymerization.
US07939608B2 Composition curable with actinic energy ray and use thereof
In a cured product having a thickness of 60 μm obtained from an actinic energy ray-curable composition of the present invention, when a scratch mark is made at a vertical load of 235 mN using a diamond indenter with a tip diameter of 15 μm, the scratch mark is repaired by a self-repairing ability under an atmosphere at 25° C. and at a relative humidity of 50%. Therefore, the actinic energy ray-curable composition is useful as coating agents or paints for products where scratch resistance is required.
US07939603B2 Polylactide composites and methods of producing the same
Embodiments of polylactide composites comprise a polylactide, and a polymerized natural oil dispersed inside the polylactide.
US07939599B2 Substantially completely biodegradable high starch polymer
This invention is a substantially completely biodegradable high starch polymer using completely biodegradable high polymer polyvinyl alcohol [PVOH] that is made to be compatible with starch. The two ingredients are mixed with the optional addition of elasticity enhancer and supplement agent to better the stability and durability of the products. During the mixing and heating process the starch molecular structures are randomized. The randomized starch molecules, the PVOH, the elasticity enhancer and the supplement then under go the process of co-polymerization. The mixture is then extruded, at a temperature that is above the crystallization temperature of the starch molecules, to form the first stage product, the pellets. The pellets can then be extruded into films using a traditional plastic film extruder.
US07939593B2 Method and apparatus for producing an aqueous paint composition from a plurality of premixed compositions
The present invention is directed to the provision of premixed aqueous compositions which are used to provide a paint composition of varying finish characteristics at the point of sale. Thus, the merchant distributing the paint composition made from the subject premixed compositions need only maintain inventory of four compositions. The particular compositions which are the subject of the invention exhibit stable characteristics during storage in their respective reservoirs. The compositions include a pigment composition, a dispersant thickening agent, a high resin content binder, and a low resin content binder. The compositions are combined in differing amounts to produce paint compositions being suitable for either interior or exterior use and having differing sheens, quality levels, and color bases.
US07939591B2 Polycarbonate resin composition
The present disclosure relates to a resin composition having excellent thermal stability, light reflectivity and color, and, preferably, flame retardancy. The present disclosure also relates to a method for producing a resin composition which comprises mixing 60 to 99.9 parts by weight of polycarbonate resin (component A) with 0.1 to 40 parts by weight of titanium dioxide pigment (component B), wherein component B (i) satisfies 0.05≦(b)−(a)≦0.6, when weight. reduction at 23 to 100° C. by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is (a) wt % and weight reduction at 23 to 300° C. by TGA is (b) wt %, and (ii) satisfies 0.001≦(d)/(c)≦0.01 and 0.001≦(e)/(c)≦0.02, when weight percentages derived from Ti, Al and Si elements in X-ray fluorescence analysis are (c) wt %, (d) wt % and (e) wt %, respectively.
US07939587B2 Pigment preparations comprising polyisobutene derivatives and nonionic surface-active additives
Solid pigment preparations comprise as essential constituents (A) at least one organic pigment, (B) at least one polyisobutene derivative having at least one nitrogenous end group and (C) at least one nonionic surface-active additive.
US07939585B2 Flame retardant resinous compositions and process
Disclosed is a flame-retardant composition comprising (i) 40-66 wt. % alkenyl aromatic resin, (ii) 9-33 wt. % ammonium polyphosphate and (iii) 14-40 wt. % cellulosic material, wherein all weights are based on the total weight of the composition and wherein ammonium polyphosphate and cellulosic material are present in a weight % ratio effective to provide molded articles exhibiting at least V-1 flame rating as determined according to the UL-94 protocol. A process to prepare the composition and articles comprising a composition of the invention and/or made by the process of the invention described herein are also disclosed.
US07939583B2 Liquid printing inks for flexographic and/or gravure printing using hyperbranched polymers as binders
Liquid printing inks for flexographic and/or gravure printing comprise solvents, colorants, if required additives, and, as a binder, at least one hyperbranched polymer having functional groups. Printing lacquers for priming unprinted print media or overcoating printed print media comprise solvents, if required additives, and, as a binder, at least one hyperbranched polymer having functional groups. Such hyperbranched polymers are used for the preparation of printing inks and of printing lacquers.
US07939582B2 Compostable vinyl acetate polymer compositions, composites and landfill biodegradation
Compositions of vinyl acetate polymers such as polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) are rendered compostable by a monomeric adduct of an organotitanate or zirconate as a prodegradant. PVAc sheets and composites are compostable in landfills.
US07939579B1 Hydrogels and methods of manufacture
Hydrogels, methods of preparing hydrogels, and ophthalmic lenses comprising hydrogels are described. Fully hydrated embodiments of the hydrogels have relatively high water content and oxygen permeability, along with relatively low modulus of elasticity. Embodiments of the hydrogels in substantially dehydrated condition are adapted to lathe cutting at or above room temperature. Embodiments of contact lenses made with the silicone hydrogels have low on-eye water loss.
US07939573B2 Modified blowing agent surface-treated with metallic siloxylated compound and polymer resin composition including the same
Provided is a modified blowing agent, wherein the surface of a blowing agent powder is coated with a metallic siloxylated compound. When the modified blowing agent is included in a polymer resin, dispersibility of the modified blowing agent is excellent in the polymer resin and fluidity of the polymer resin is improved in an extrusion molding machine and an injection molding machine, and thus productivity and processability can be improved. In addition, the foam that is formed using the polymer resin composition including the modified blowing agent has excellent tear strength, durability, and masking sound properties due to fine and uniform size of foam cells and increased number of foam cells per unit surface area.
US07939570B2 Controlled-release composition for topical application and a method of delivering an active agent to a substrate
A controlled-release composition for topical application to a substrate includes an oil-in-water emulsion and an active agent incorporated into the oil-in-water emulsion. The oil-in-water emulsion is substantially free of lipophilic solvent and is formed by mechanical inversion of a water-in-oil emulsion. The water-in-oil emulsion includes a silicone component, a surfactant, and water. A method of delivering the active agent to the substrate provides the oil-in-water emulsion and incorporates the active agent into the oil-in-water emulsion for delivery of the active agent to the substrate upon application of the oil-in-water emulsion to the substrate.
US07939566B2 Crystalline form III of agomelatine, a process for its preparation and pharmaceutical compositions containing it
Crystalline form III of the compound of formula (I): characterised by its powder X-ray diffraction diagram. Medicinal products containing the same which are useful in the treatment of melatoninergic disorders.
US07939564B2 Combination with bis(thiohydrazide amides) for treating cancer
Disclosed herein are methods of treating a proliferative disease, such as cancer, with bis(thio-hydrazide amides) or a tautomer, pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, clathrate, or prodrug thereof, in combination with hyperthermia treatment. Also disclosed are methods of treating a proliferative disease, such as cancer, with bis(thio-hydrazide amides) or a tautomer, pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, clathrate, or prodrug thereof, in combination with radiotherapy.
US07939558B2 Compounds having activity in increasing ion transport by mutant-CFTR and uses thereof
The invention provides compositions, pharmaceutical preparations and methods for increasing activity (e.g., ion transport) of the mutant cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein (mutant-CFTR), e.g., ΔF508 CFTR, G551D-CFTR, G1349D-CFTR, or D1152H-CFTR, that are useful for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF). The compositions and pharmaceutical preparations of the invention may comprise one or more phenylglycine-containing compounds or sulfonamide-containing compounds of the invention, or an analog or derivative thereof.
US07939555B2 Method of preparing a pharmaceutical cream and minimizing imiquimod impurity formation
Pharmaceutical formulations and methods including an immune response modifier (IRM) compound and an oleic acid component are provided where stability is improved by using oleic acid have low polar impurities such as peroxides.
US07939552B2 Benzyloxypropylamine derivative
Disclosed is a novel benzyloxypropylamine derivative having an excellent tachykinin receptor antagonistic effect. This compound shows a good transfer into the blood and a long blood half-life in the blood kinetic test using a guinea pig orally administered with the compound and is stable in an animal plasma. The compound also shows a high transfer to the central nervous system when it is orally administered to a guinea pig at a certain dose. Accordingly, the benzyloxypropylamine derivative is quite useful as a novel anti-tachykinin agent.
US07939538B2 Compounds, compositions and methods for prevention and treatment of inflammatory and immunoregulatory disorders and diseases
Compounds are provided having the formula: wherein variables Ra, R1, R2, R3, R4, A1, A4, L, Q, X and subscript n as described herein. The subject compounds are useful for treatment of inflammatory and immune conditions and diseases. Compositions and methods of treatment using the subject compounds are also provided. For example, the subject methods are useful for treatment of inflammatory and immune disorders and disease such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
US07939535B2 Benzo[D]isoxazol-3-yl-piperazin derivatives useful as modulators of dopamine D3 receptors
The present invention provides compounds of the general formula (I), having affinity and selectivity for the dopamine D3 receptors, their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use for the therapeutic and/or prophylactic treatment of cognitive disorders.
US07939530B2 Treatment of lymphoma using 10-propargyl-10-deazaaminopterin and gemcitabine
Lymphoma is treated using therapeutic combinations of PDX and gemcitabine by administering to a patient suffering from lymphoma a therapeutically effective amount of PDX in combination with a therapeutically effective amount of gemcitabine. The two agents can be administered together or in either order, although administration of PDX followed by gemcitabine is preferred. As in the case of MTX and Ara-C, synergism is observed, but the extent of the synergism is greater. Further, test results indicate that mechanism of action for combinations of PDX and Gem is different than for MTX and Ara-C, with more emphasis on induction of apoptosis.
US07939517B2 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (“ATD”) for therapeutic uses
A composition having at least one modified or derivative of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (“ATD”) will improve the health of mammalian subjects. The improvement of health is achieved with the administration of an effective amount of at least one modified or derivative of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione. Particularly, health is improved for a subject suffering with a gynecomastia and/or estrogen-dependent cancer. Also, subjects recovering from steroid misuse/abuse will benefit from treatment in accordance with the present invention.
US07939516B2 Topical skin care composition
A cream base for the topical application of skin care therapeutics and a process for making the cream base. In one embodiment, the therapeutic is tretinoin, hydroquinone and fluocinolone acetonide for the treatment of hyperpigmented skin conditions, such as melasma.
US07939515B2 Administration of fluocinolone acetonide, tretinoin and hydroquinone cream in melasma maintenance therapy
Topical application of a triple combination immixture of fluocinolone acetonide, tretinoin and hydroquinone is useful for the maintenance therapy of melasma to prevent hyperpigmentation recurrence or reduce the severity of the hyperpigmentation recurrence.
US07939512B2 Multistep process for the physical depolymerization of heparin and products obtained therefrom
The present invention is directed to a multistep process for the physical depolymerization of heparin wherein heparin is subjected to at least two γ-ray irradiations and wherein between two irradiation steps the depolymerised heparin is subjected to a separation step and only a fraction of the depolymerised heparin obtained from the first irradiation is subjected to the second irradiation step. It is also directed to heparin-derived oligosaccharide fractions obtainable by the process of the invention.
US07939510B2 Di(uridine 5′-)tetraphosphate and salts thereof
The present invention are directed to P1,P4-di(uridine 5′-)tetraphosphate, tetra-alkali metal salts such as tetrasodium, tetralithium, tetrapotassium, and mixed tetra-alkali metal cations thereof. The tetra alkali metal salts of P1,P4-di(uridine 5′-)tetraphosphate are water-soluble, nontoxic, and easy to handle during manufacture. These tetra-monovalent alkali metal salts are more resistant to hydrolysis than the mono-, di-, or tri-acid salts, therefore, they provide an improved stability and a longer shelf life for storage. The present invention also provides methods for the synthesis of P1,P4-di(uridine 5′-)tetraphosphate, and its pharmaceutically acceptably acceptable salts thereof, and demonstrates the applicability to the production of large quantities. The methods substantially reduce the time required to synthesize diuridine tetraphosphate, for example, to three days or less.
US07939503B2 Reduction of cell-cell communication in prostate cancer using STEAP-1 siRNA
Antibodies and molecules derived therefrom that bind to novel STEAP-1 protein, and variants thereof, are described wherein STEAP-1 exhibits tissue specific expression in normal adult tissue, and is aberrantly expressed in the cancers listed in Table I. Consequently, STEAP-1 provides a diagnostic, prognostic, prophylactic and/or therapeutic target for cancer. The STEAP-1 gene or fragment thereof, or its encoded protein, or variants thereof, or a fragment thereof, can be used to elicit a humoral or cellular immune response; antibodies or T cells reactive with STEAP-1 can be used in active or passive immunization.
US07939495B2 Method for improving skin conditions
Provided is a method for improving a skin condition or treating a periodontal disease, which includes administering to a subject a composition including a basic fibroblast growth factor-derived peptide as an active ingredient. The present method effectively improves skin conditions and treats periodontal diseases. In addition, the present peptides can be applied to pharmaceutical compositions, cosmetics, toothpaste and compositions for mouth cleaning and care.
US07939491B2 Method for reducing the likelihood of implantation failure during assisted reproduction in a subject
Compositions, kits and methods for the prevention of, for example, spontaneous abortion, preeclampsia, preterm labor or implantation failure during assisted reproduction are provided. The compositions, kits and methods provide an effective amount of granulocyte colony stimulating factor to prevent, for example, spontaneous abortion, preeclampsia, preterm labor or implantation failure of an embryo.
US07939487B2 Natural cleaners
A cleaning composition with a limited number of natural ingredients contains an anionic surfactant, a hydrophilic syndetic, nonionic surfactant and a hydrophobic syndetic. The cleaning composition can be used to clean laundry, soft surfaces, and hard surfaces and cleans as well or better than commercial compositions containing synthetically derived cleaning agents.
US07939483B2 Water-soluble glass as corrosion protector in dishwashing machines
Water-soluble glass as corrosion protector in dishwashing machines A zinc-containing, water-soluble glass composition comprising from 41 to 54 mole % of P2O5, 10 to 30 mole % of alkali oxides, up to 5 mole % of SO3 and up to 25 mole % of ZnO.
US07939481B2 Color changing bar soap
A color changing bar soap includes a small toy or figurine located inside a color changing layer such as a bicarbonate shell. The bicarbonate shell is housed within a body of soap. The bicarbonate surrounds and encapsulates the small toy. The soap fully surrounds and encapsulates the bicarbonate layer. The body of soap can be shaped like an egg or other various shapes to be determined, depending on the type of toy to be used with the soaps. In one embodiment, the egg-shaped soap is packaged onto a “nest-like” bail of hay or straw. This is placed inside a wooden or plastic crate for storage and use in a display.
US07939480B2 Cleaning composition
A post-foaming personal cleaning composition in the form of a gel for use in an aerosol container. This composition includes a base material of a surfactant in an amount not less than 7 % by weight and a thickener that is a blend of at least one of glyceryl ester, and a glyceryl ester derivative with at least one of a betaine and a gum. The base material preferably has a viscosity greater than 9,500 cps. The composition also includes a foam forming material, above 9 % by weight of the composition with at least a part of the foam forming material being maintained in suspension in the composition until after the composition is dispensed from the aerosol container. The foam forming material is preferably a saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon having from 4 to 5 carbons and the composition is in the form of a gel prior to inclusion of the foam forming material.
US07939472B2 Metal-mediated viscosity reduction of fluids gelled with viscoelastic surfactants
Fluids viscosified with viscoelastic surfactants (VESs) may have their viscosities reduced (gels broken) by the direct or indirect action of a composition that contains at least one metal ion source and optionally at least one second source. An optional second source may be a chelating agent where at least one reducing agent source may be additionally optionally used. Another optional component with the metal ion source includes a second, different metal ion source. The breaking composition is believed to directly attack the VES itself, possibly by disaggregating or otherwise attacking the micellar structure of the VES-gelled fluid, and/or possibly by changing the chemical structure of the VES to give two or more products.
US07939471B2 Subterranean treatment fluids comprising viscoelastic surfactant gels
Among many things, in some embodiments, improved viscoelastic surfactant gels that comprise non-aqueous tackifying agents, and their associated methods of use, are provided. In one embodiment, the methods comprise: providing a treatment fluid that comprises an aqueous base fluid, a non-aqueous tackifying agent, and a viscoelastic surfactant; and introducing the treatment fluid into a subterranean formation.
US07939463B1 Preparation of iron oxides
A process for producing a high surface area iron material, comprising predominantly low crystalline iron oxides, starting with a low surface area iron metal is disclosed. The iron material of the present invention has a surface area of at least about 200 m2/g, and is prepared via a method which comprises reacting a low surface area iron metal with oxygen and an organic acid. The high surface area iron material formed via this method is essentially free of contaminants.
US07939462B2 Composition based on cerium and zirconium oxides having a specific surface which is stable between 900° c and 1000° c method for the production and use thereof as a catalyst
The inventive composition, according to a first embodiment, consists essentially of a cerium oxide and a zirconium oxide. According to a second embodiment, said composition is based on cerium oxide, zirconium oxide and at least one rare earth oxide other than cerium. After a first 4-hour period of calcination at 900 .C followed by a second 10-hour period of at 1000 .C, the specific surface variation thereof is 20% maximum in the first embodiment and 15% maximum in the second embodiment. The inventive composition can be used as a catalyst, i.e. in the treatment of waste gases from internal combustion engines.
US07939456B2 Method and apparatus for uniform microwave treatment of semiconductor wafers
A microwave heating system comprises a microwave applicator cavity; a microwave power supply to deliver power to the applicator cavity; a dielectric support to support a generally planar workpiece; a dielectric gas manifold to supply a controlled flow of inert gas proximate to the periphery of the workpiece to provide differential cooling to the edge relative to the center; a first temperature measuring device configured to measure the temperature near the center of the workpiece; and, a second temperature measuring device configured to measure the temperature near the edge of the workpiece. The gas flow is controlled to minimize the temperature difference from center to edge, and may be recipe driven or controlled in real time, based on the two temperature measurements. The method is particularly useful for monolithic semiconductor wafers, various semiconducting films on substrates, and dielectric films on semiconducting wafers.
US07939452B2 Method of manufacturing transistor having metal silicide and method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the same
In a method of manufacturing a transistor and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the same, the method may include forming a preliminary metal silicide pattern on a single-crystalline silicon substrate and on a polysilicon pattern, and partially etching the preliminary metal silicide pattern to form a first metal silicide pattern on the substrate and a second metal silicide pattern on the polysilicon pattern, the second metal silicide pattern having a line width the same as or smaller than that of the polysilicon pattern. The method may include the transistor having no metal silicide residue on the spacer. Accordingly, an operation failure due to the residue may be prevented or reduced.
US07939447B2 Inhibitors for selective deposition of silicon containing films
A method for depositing a single crystalline silicon film comprises: providing a substrate disposed within a chamber; introducing to the chamber under chemical vapor deposition conditions a silicon precursor, a chlorine-containing etchant and an inhibitor source for decelerating reactions between the silicon precursor and the chlorine-containing etchant; and selectively depositing a doped crystalline Si-containing film onto the substrate.
US07939443B2 Methods for multi-wire routing and apparatus implementing same
A rectangular interlevel connector array (RICA) is defined in a semiconductor chip. To define the RICA, a virtual grid for interlevel connector placement is defined to include a first set of parallel virtual lines that extend across the layout in a first direction, and a second set of parallel virtual lines that extend across the layout in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. A first plurality of interlevel connector structures are placed at respective gridpoints in the virtual grid to form a first RICA. The first plurality of interlevel connector structures of the first RICA are placed to collaboratively connect a first conductor channel in a first chip level with a second conductor channel in a second chip level. A second RICA can be interleaved with the first RICA to collaboratively connect third and fourth conductor channels that are respectively interleaved with the first and second conductor channels.
US07939438B2 Method of inhibiting background plating
Methods of inhibiting background plating on semiconductor substrates using oxidizing agents are disclosed.
US07939420B2 Processes for forming isolation structures for integrated circuit devices
Processes for forming isolation structures for semiconductor devices include forming a submerged floor isolation region and a filed trench which together enclose an isolated pocket of the substrate. One process aligns the trench to the floor isolation region. In another process a second, narrower trench is formed in the isolated pocket and filled with a dielectric material while the dielectric material is deposited so as to line the walls and floor of the first trench. The substrate does not contain an epitaxial layer, thereby overcoming the many problems associated with fabricating the same.
US07939413B2 Embedded stressor structure and process
An example embodiments are structures and methods for forming an FET with embedded stressor S/D regions (e.g., SiGe), a doped layer below the embedded S/D region adjacent to the isolation regions, and a stressor liner over reduced spacers of the FET gate. An example method comprising the following. We provide a gate structure over a first region in a substrate. The gate structure is comprised of gate dielectric, a gate, and sidewall spacers. We provide isolation regions in the first region spaced from the gate structure; and a channel region in the substrate under the gate structure. We form S/D recesses in the first region in the substrate adjacent to the sidewall spacers. We form S/D stressor regions filling the S/D recesses. The S/D stressor regions can be thicker adjacent to the gate structure than adjacent to the isolation regions; We implant dopant ions into the S/D stressor regions and into the substrate below the S/D stressor regions adjacent to the isolation regions to form upper stressor doped regions.
US07939412B2 Process for forming an electronic device including a fin-type transistor structure
An electronic device can include an insulating layer and a fin-type transistor structure. The fin-type structure can have a semiconductor fin and a gate electrode spaced apart from each other. A dielectric layer and a spacer structure can lie between the semiconductor fin and the gate electrode. The semiconductor fin can include channel region including a portion associated with a relatively higher VT lying between a portion associated with a relatively lower VT and the insulating layer. In one embodiment, the supply voltage is lower than the relatively higher VT of the channel region. A process for forming the electronic device is also disclosed.
US07939395B2 High-voltage SOI MOS device structure and method of fabrication
Structures and methods for integrating a thick oxide high-voltage metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) device into a thin oxide silicon-on-insulator (SOI). A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming first source and drain regions of a first device below a buried oxide layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, forming a gate of the first device in a layer of semiconductor material above the buried oxide layer; and forming second source and drain regions of a second device in the layer of semiconductor material above the buried oxide layer.
US07939381B2 Method of semiconductor packaging and/or a semiconductor package
The method includes forming a leadframe. The leadframe is directly bonded to the semiconductor chip. The leadframe is flexed and/or compressed in a mold cavity. The compressed leadframe and the chip are molded into a package.
US07939377B1 Method of manufacturing semiconductor element mounted wiring board
A semiconductor element sealed substrate including a semiconductor element covered by an insulating layer is fabricated while a wiring substrate formed by stacking wiring layers is fabricated by a process different from the process of fabricating the semiconductor element sealed substrate. Next, the semiconductor element sealed substrate and the wiring substrate are stacked on each other in such a way that electrode terminals of the semiconductor element and corresponding conductive bumps on the outermost wiring layer face each other. The electrode terminals and the conductive bumps are thus connected to each other.
US07939374B2 Supply mechanism for the chuck of an integrated circuit dicing device
A system for dicing substrates to singulate integrated circuit units within in them includes a dicing machine (Z) which operates with a chuck table (4). A lifting assembly (Ax,Ay) deposits substrates to be singulated onto the chuck table (4) at substantially the same time as it removes previously singulated units from the chuck table (4).
US07939373B2 Manufacturing method for semiconductor device containing stacked semiconductor chips
An adhesive film is formed on an electrode film, and a coating film is formed thereon. Nickel, chrome, molybdenum, tungsten, aluminum or an alloy of them is used as a constituent material of the adhesive film. Gold, silver, platinum or an alloy of them is used as a constituent material of the coating film.
US07939369B2 3D integration structure and method using bonded metal planes
A method of making 3D integrated circuits and a 3D integrated circuit structure. There is a first semiconductor structure joined to a second semiconductor structure. Each semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor wafer, a front end of the line (FEOL) wiring on the semiconductor wafer, a back end of the line (BEOL) wiring on the FEOL wiring, an insulator layer on the BEOL wiring and a metallic layer on the insulator layer. The first semiconductor structure is aligned with the second semiconductor structure such that the metallic layers of each of the semiconductor structures face each other. The metallic layers of each of the semiconductor structures are in contact with and bonded to each other by a metal to metal bond wherein the bonded metallic layers form an electrically isolated layer.
US07939365B2 Phase change memory device, manufacturing method thereof and operating method thereof
A phase change memory (PCM) device, a manufacturing technique of making the PCM device, and a way of operating the PCM device is presented. The PCM device is structured to have a silicon on insulator type substrate that provides an advantage of thermally insulating the active area of the PCM device without the need for an additional insulation layer. The PCM device has a phase change resistor PCR that has one terminal connected to a word line and the other terminal connected in common to the N-terminals of two PN diodes in which the P-terminals are connected in common to the bit line. As a result, a current flowing through the phase change resistor PCR is doubled which results in doubling the cell driving capacity.
US07939363B1 Systems and methods of intermixing cadmium sulfide layers and cadmium telluride layers for thin film photovoltaic devices
A process for manufacturing a cadmium telluride based thin film photovoltaic device having an intermixed layer is provided. The process can include introducing a substrate into a deposition chamber, wherein a window layer (e.g., a cadmium sulfide layer) is on a surface of the substrate. A sulfur-containing gas can be supplied to the deposition chamber. In addition, a source vapor can be supplied to the deposition chamber, wherein the source material comprises cadmium telluride. The sulfur-containing gas and the source vapor can be present within the deposition chamber to form an intermixed layer on the window layer. In one particular embodiment, for example, the intermixed layer generally can have an increasing tellurium concentration and decreasing sulfur concentration extending away from the window layer.An apparatus for sequential deposition of an intermixed thin film layer and a sublimated source material on a photovoltaic (PV) module substrate is also provided.
US07939361B2 Semiconductor device and method for fabricating semiconductor device
Gold bumps are located over electrode pads of a solid imaging device and an adhesive is formed over the gold bumps. A transparent plate is supported by the gold bumps and is made to adhere over the solid imaging device by the adhesive. The gold bumps and an electrode and wiring pattern formed over a circuit board are connected by gold wires. At this time the gold wires are approximately parallel to the circuit board near portions where the gold wires and the gold bumps are connected. As a result, it is easy to locate the transparent plate over the portions where the gold wires and the gold bumps are connected. By locating the adhesive over the portions where the gold wires and the gold bumps are connected, the solid imaging device can be made small and light. As a result, a smaller lighter semiconductor device is fabricated.
US07939353B1 Methods of forming integrated circuits
A method of forming an integrated circuit includes forming a fluorine-passivated surface of a substrate. A device quality silicon oxide layer is formed by causing the fluorine-passivated surface to interact with an oxygen-containing gas. Hydroxyl groups are substantially formed on a surface of the device quality silicon oxide layer. A high dielectric constant (high-k) gate dielectric layer is formed on the surface of the device quality silicon oxide layer.
US07939346B2 Nanomembranes for remote sensing
The present invention provides sensors for use in detecting the presence or absence of analytes, systems incorporating the sensors, and methods for using the sensors. The sensors include thin membranes that undergo a detectable geometry change upon exposure to an analyte. In one exemplary embodiment, the sensors are small, thin-film membranes that include a stained semiconductor bilayer, wherein an interaction between the membrane and an analyte induces a detectable change in a strain-induced curvature of the membrane.
US07939343B2 Method for detecting an unknown contaminant concentration in a substance
A method for determining a concentration of a contaminant in a first sample, the method including producing the first sample, including adding a plurality of immuno-beads to a test substance; exposing a crystal microbalance immunosensor to the first sample; determining a change in a first motional resistance of the crystal microbalance immunosensor following exposure to the first sample (ΔR1); and determining the concentration of the contaminant in the first sample according to ΔR1.
US07939336B2 Compositions and methods using substances containing carbon
Methods of characterizing and producing compositions with negative δ13C values are provided. Aspects of the invention include characterizing source materials and process products. Aspects of the invention also include compositions that contain carbon with negative δ13C values. Methods and techniques are provided for confirming that a given composition contains substances sequestered from a particular source e.g., fossil fuels.
US07939312B2 Rapid thermocycler with movable cooling assembly
Methods and apparatus for effecting rapid thermocycling in connection with the polymerase chain reaction are disclosed. A sample assembly having a relatively small thermal mass is heated to desired PCR operating temperatures, and a separate cooling assembly is used to rapidly lower the temperature as required. In one embodiment, a sample assembly with an integrated heating element is isolated from a relatively large thermal mass cold sink when the temperature of a sample is to be raised or maintained, and brought in contact with the cold sink when the temperature is desired to be lowered.
US07939305B2 PUFA-PKS genes from Ulkenia
The invention relates to genes which are coded for sequences specific to polyketide synthases (PKS). The thus synthesized PKS is characterized by the enzymatic capacity thereof to produce PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids). The invention also relates to the identification of the corresponding DNA-sequences, in addition to the use of said nucleotide sequences for the production of recombined and/or transgenic organisms.
US07939298B2 Fermentation process using specific oxygen uptake rates as a process control
Specific oxygen uptake (OUR) is used as a process control parameter in fermentation processes. OUR is determined during at least the production phase of a fermentation process, and process parameters are adjusted to maintain the OUR within desired ranges. The invention is particularly applicable when the fermentation is conducted using a microorganism having a natural PDC pathway that has been disrupted so that it no longer functions. Microorganisms of this sort often produce poorly under strictly anaerobic conditions. Microaeration controlled by monitoring OUR allows the performance of the microorganism to be optimized.
US07939294B2 DNA encoding proteins having dipeptide-synthesizing activity and methods of using the same
The present invention provides a protein having dipeptide-synthesizing activity, a DNA encoding the protein, a recombinant DNA containing the DNA, a transformant obtained via transformation with the recombinant DNA, a process for producing a protein having dipeptide-synthesizing activity using the transformant, a process for producing a dipeptide using a protein having dipeptide-synthesizing activity, and a process for producing a dipeptide using a culture or the like of a transformant or a microorganism that produces a protein having dipeptide-synthesizing activity as an enzyme source.
US07939290B2 Method for analyzing the activity of lipoxygenase using a water-soluble substrate
The present invention discloses methods for analyzing the activity of lipoxygenase by using polyunsaturated lysophosphatidylcholine as a water-soluble substrate. In these methods, lipoxygenase activity can be analyzed without using detergents in reaction solution.
US07939288B2 Method for differentiating between factor XIII deficiency states and fibrinogen deficiency states by means of thrombelastographic techniques
The invention relates to a method for determining a factor XIII deficiency, a method for determining a fibrinogen deficiency, and a method for differentiating between a factor XIII deficiency and a fibrinogen deficiency by means of thrombelastographic techniques. On the basis of the evaluation of the thrombelastographic parameters, a rapid and a selective substitution of factor XIII and/or of fibrinogen in deficiency states is possible.
US07939286B2 Enhancing a luminescent signal
Methods and compositions are described for assaying luciferase bioluminescence in vitro and in vivo cells. The compositions provide at least one of enhanced stability of signal or magnitude of signal by varying the composition of the buffer. One or more of the following parameters have been varied: the presence or absence of EDTA, the concentration of NaCI, the concentration of coelenterazine, the evaluation of ionic and non-ionic detergent, the amount of detergent, how the detergent has been added and the time over which the signal has been recorded. Also disclosed are dual reporter systems.
US07939277B2 Methods and assays for distinguishing between different forms of diseases and disorders characterized by thrombocytopenia and/or by spontaneous interaction between Von Willebrand Factor (vWF) and platelets
The invention relates to a method for distinguishing between different states or forms of diseases and disorders characterized by thrombocytopenia and/or by spontaneous interaction between Von Willebrand Factor (vWF) and platelets, and/or to predict the progression of such a disease or disorder, said method comprising the steps of providing at least one biological sample obtained from a patient suffering from, or suspected to suffer from, at least one disease or disorder characterized by thrombocytopenia and/or by spontaneous interaction between Von Willebrand Factor (vWF) and platelets and of determining the amount of activated vWF in said biological sample, in which the amount of activated vWF in the sample is representative for the different states or forms of the disease or disorder. The invention further relates to a kit-of-parts for determining the amount of activated vWF in a sample and to the use of an antibody that is capable of specifically binding activated vWF in the presence of non-activated vWF; of a part or fragment of an antibody.
US07939274B2 Prostate cancer-related compositions, methods and kits based on DNA macroarray proteomics platforms
The invention relates to novel nucleic acids encoding a mammalian PCADM-1 gene, and proteins encoded thereby, whose expression is increased in certain diseases, disorders, or conditions, including, but not limited to, prostate cancer. The invention further relates to methods of detecting and treating prostate cancer, comprising modulating or detecting PCADM-1 expression and/or production and activity of PCADM-1 polypeptide. Further, the invention relates to novel assays for the identification of DNA-binding proteins and the double-stranded oligonucleotide sequences that specifically bind with them. Finally, the invention relates to DNAZYMs or DNA enzymes which specifically bind PCADM-1 mRNA to inhibit PCADM-1 gene expression and thereby destroy tumor cells and tumor tissue.