Document	Document Title
US08232315B2	Methods for treating drug addiction and improving addiction-related behavior The invention is directed to a method of treating addiction to drugs of abuse in a subject, comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of a cabamoyl compound, or pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester thereof.
US08232314B2	Compounds that protect against sensory hair cell death The present invention provides methods of identifying compounds that protect against ototoxicity induced by one or more noxious stimuli, and methods of treating an individual with compounds identified using the present screening methods. Also provided are compounds demonstrated to have otoprotective effects.
US08232311B2	Tricyclic indeno-pyrrole derivatives as serotonin receptor modulators The present invention generally relates to a series of compounds, to pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds, and to use of the compounds and compositions as therapeutic agents. More specifically, compounds of the present invention are tricyclic indeno-pyrrole compounds. These compounds are serotonin receptor (5-HT) ligands and are useful for treating diseases, disorders, and conditions wherein modulation of the activity of serotonin receptors (5-HT) is desired (e.g. anxiety, depression and obesity).
US08232307B2	Indane-amine derivatives, their preparation and use as medicaments The present invention relates to indane-amine compounds of general formula (I) and compositions thereof, methods for their preparation, and the use of said compounds for the treatment of humans or animals.
US08232306B2	Methods for detecting sulfhydryl-containing compounds in a biological test sample The invention relates to methods for detecting the presence of a compound of formula I in a biological test sample: where R2, R3, and R4 are as defined in the specification; or a salt thereof.
US08232301B2	Pesticidal compositions A pesticidal composition comprising a pesticide, an ammonium salt, and a nonionic surfactant, is provided.
US08232295B2	Treating vascular events with statins by inhibiting PAR-1 and PAR-4 The present invention relates to new methods for treating and/or preventing vascular events by inhibiting G-coupled Protease Activating Receptor (PAR)-1 and/or PAR-4 with the administration of statins. In one embodiment, individuals who are at risk for vascular events, but have cholesterol levels (e.g., total cholesterol or Low Density Lipoprotein) in normal ranges, are treated with statins.
US08232292B2	Sulfonamide compound and crystal thereof (S)-1-(4-Chloro-5-isoquinolinesulfonyl)-3-(methylamino)pyrrolidine monohydrochloride and a crystal thereof, and a crystal of the aforementioned monohydrochloride having a major peak or peaks at one or more positions selected from the group consisting of positions where 2θs are about 13.9°, 21.5°, 21.7°, 22.4°, 22.8°, 24.5° and 35.0° in a powder X-ray diffraction spectrum, which have excellent properties as active ingredient of a medicament for prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment of glaucoma and the like.
US08232284B2	Heteroaryloxy quinazoline derivative Disclosed are compounds of the following formula and their pharmaceutically-acceptable salts, which have an effect of glucokinase activation and are useful in the field of medicines for treatment for diabetes, obesity, etc. (wherein ring A represents a pyrazolyl group optionally having a lower alkyl group, etc.; ring B represents a heteroaryl group; R represents a lower alkyl group, etc.; R1 represents a group of a formula: (wherein R11 and R12 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, etc.; m indicates an integer of from 2 to 6), etc.; R2 represents a lower alkyl group, etc.; r indicates an integer of from 0 to 3; k indicates an integer of from 0 to 4).
US08232280B2	Inhibitors of bruton'S tyrosine kinase Disclosed herein are pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines that form covalent bonds with Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk). Also described are irreversible inhibitors of Btk. Methods for the preparation of the compounds are disclosed. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions that include the compounds. Methods of using the Btk inhibitors are disclosed, alone or in combination with other therapeutic agents, for the treatment of autoimmune diseases or conditions, heteroimmune diseases or conditions, cancer, including lymphoma, and inflammatory diseases or conditions.
US08232277B2	Tetra-O-substituted butane-bridge modified NDGA derivatives, their synthesis and pharmaceutical use The present invention relates to nordihydroguaiaretic acid derivative compounds, namely, butane bridge modified nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) compounds and butane bridge modified tetra-O-substituted NDGA compounds, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, methods of making them, and methods of using them and kits including them for the treatment of diseases and disorders, in particular, diseases resulting from or associated with a virus infection, such as HIV infection, HPV infection, or HSV infection, an inflammatory disease, such as various types of arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases, metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, or a proliferative disease, such as diverse types of cancers.
US08232259B2	Multiple CpG oligodeoxynucleotide and their use to induce an immune response Compositions including multiple oligodeoxynucleotides with a CpG motif are disclosed herein. The compositions can include either D or K type oligodeoxynucleotides. These compositions are of use in inducing an immune response in a large percentage of the individuals in a population.
US08232255B2	Methods for vaccinating against malaria The invention pertains to methods for protecting against malaria infection by vaccination. The method of the invention involves priming an anti-malaria immune response with a DNA-based vaccine and boosting that response with a protein-based a vaccine. The method of the invention also relates to broadening the resulting immune response by boosting with a protein-based vaccine.
US08232251B2	Compounds for delivery of therapeutic and imaging moieties to nerve cells The invention features compounds of the general formula: B-L-M where B is a binding agent capable of selectively binding to a nerve cell surface receptor and mediating absorption of the compound by the nerve cell; M is a moiety which performs a useful non-cytotoxic function when absorbed by a nerve cell, and can be a therapeutic moiety or an imaging moiety; and L is a linker coupling B to M. The invention also features methods of use of the compounds in, for example, treating conditions such as viral infections and pain, as well as in labeling nerve cells.
US08232250B2	Low frequency glatiramer acetate therapy A method of alleviating a symptom of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in a human patient suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis or a patient who has experienced a first clinical episode and is determined to be at high risk of developing clinically definite multiple sclerosis comprising administering to the human patient three subcutaneous injections of a therapeutically effective dose of glatiramer acetate over a period of seven days with at least one day between every subcutaneous injection so as to thereby alleviate the symptom of the patient.
US08232249B2	Medicament for treating parkinson's disease The invention relates to the manufacture of a unit dose of a medicament for relieving the symptoms and/or restoring and/or protecting the neurons of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. According to the invention, bee's venom is used in an amount of between 33 and 330 micrograms inclusive, for the manufacture of a unit dose for subcutaneous injection, every one to six weeks, of a medicament for relieving the symptoms and/or restoring and/or protecting the neurons of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. The invention finds use in particular in the field of pharmacy.
US08232245B2	Caspofungin formulations The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising a pharmaceutically acceptable salt of caspofungin as active ingredient being useful for the prevention and/or treatment of fungal infections. The compositions additionally comprise specific bulking agents and small amounts or no amounts of an additional pH modifier and may be in a liquid or solid form, e.g. may be lyophilized compositions. The compositions show good stability and reduced amounts of sub-visible particulate matter formed in solutions which are reconstituted from the lyophilized product.
US08232243B2	Tyrosine- and tryptophan-containing peptides as antioxidants The invention relates to the use of tryptophan-containing, in particular tryptophan- and tyrosine-containing, peptides as antioxidants. The compounds can be used for the therapy or prophylaxis of syndromes and disorders associated with unwanted oxidative processes in the extracellular space.
US08232238B2	Concentrated film delivery systems A water soluble strip that includes a carrier film that include water soluble polymer, one or more actives and one or more agents such as heat forming agent and/or degrading accelerator. The water soluble strip can optionally include other additives. The actives includes antimicrobial agent, cleaning agent and/or surfactant. The water soluble strip can include other materials. The heat forming agent and/or degrading accelerator, when used, are designed facilitate in degrading or dissolving the water soluble strip and/or increase the activity of the one or more actives. The water soluble film can be used for a variety of applications such as a hard surface cleaning strip, dishwashing strip, laundry cleaning strip, stop removing strip, drain unclogging strip, toilet bowl cleaning strip and the like. The water soluble strip eliminates the need to purchase and store numerous containers and/or heavy containers of cleaner that take up large amounts of shelf space.
US08232233B2	Lubricating oil composition for machine tools The present invention provides a refrigerating machine oil, a compressor oil composition, a hydraulic oil composition, a metalworking oil composition, a heat treating oil composition, a lubricating oil composition for machine tools and a lubricating oil composition which comprise a lubricating oil base oil having % CA of not more than 2, % CP/% CN of not less than 6 and an iodine value of not more than 2.5.
US08232232B2	Oxide target for laser vapor deposition and method of manufacturing the same An oxide target for laser vapor deposition, which is used when an oxide film is formed in a laser vapor deposition system, including: a fixed plate, an Ag-soldering layer bonded onto the fixed plate, an oxide-Ag mixed layer bonded onto the Ag-soldering layer; and an oxide layer bonded onto the oxide-Ag mixed layer.
US08232226B2	Method for producing spherical activated carbon The invention relates to a method for producing activated carbon, in particular spherical activated carbon, wherein particles are carbonized from an organic precursor substance, wherein the activated carbon obtained from the particles is shock-chilled after carbonization, the temperature gradient being more than 100 K/min.
US08232224B2	Methods for making catalysts for methacrolein oxidation Methods for preparing catalysts for oxidation of unsaturated and/or saturated aldehydes to unsaturated acids is disclosed where the catalyst includes at least molybdenum (Mo), phosphorus (P), vanadium (V), bismuth (Bi), where the bismuth component was dissolved in an organic acid solution prior to adding the bismuth containing solution to a solution of the other components.
US08232223B2	Separation of N,N,N′-trimethylbisamino-ethylether from mixtures comprising tertiary amines or tertiary aminoalkylethers The present invention relates to a method for recovering N,N,N′-trimethylbisaminoethylether from a mixture with its amide and a method for separating N,N,N′-trimethylbisaminoethylether from mixtures comprising tertiary amines or tertiary aminoalkylether as well as a composition comprising a mixture of N,N,N′-trimethylbisaminoethylether and a transamidation agent.
US08232215B2	Spacer linewidth control A method for forming a plurality of variable linewidth spacers adjoining a plurality of uniformly spaced topographic features uses a conformal resist layer upon a spacer material layer located over the plurality of uniformly spaced topographic features. The conformal resist layer is differentially exposed and developed to provide a differential thickness resist layer that is used as a sacrificial mask when forming the variable linewidth spacers. A method for forming uniform linewidth spacers adjoining narrowly spaced topographic features and widely spaced topographic features over the same substrate uses a masked isotropic etching of a variable thickness spacer material layer to provide a more uniform partially etched spacer material layer, followed by an unmasked anisotropic etching of the partially etched spacer material layer. A related method for forming the uniform linewidth spacers uses a two-step anisotropic etch method that includes at least one masking process step.
US08232209B2	Processes for forming electronic devices including polishing metal-containing layers A process of forming an electronic device can include providing a workpiece. The workpiece can include a substrate, an interlevel dielectric overlying the substrate, a refractory-metal-containing layer over the interlevel dielectric, and a first metal-containing layer over the refractory-metal-containing layer. The first metal-containing layer can include a metal element other than a refractory metal element. The process further includes polishing the first metal-containing layer and the refractory-metal-containing layer as a continuous action to expose the interlevel dielectric. In one embodiment, the metal element can include copper, nickel, or a noble metal. In another embodiment, polishing can be performed using a selectivity agent to reduce the amount of the interlevel dielectric removed.
US08232205B2	Methods of manufacturing a honeycomb extrusion die Methods of manufacturing a honeycomb extrusion die comprise the steps of coating at least a portion of a die body with a layer of conductive material and modifying the die body with an electrical discharge machining technique. The method then further includes the step of chemically removing the layer of conductive material, wherein the residual material from the electrical discharge machining technique is released from the die body.
US08232200B1	Methods of forming integrated circuit devices having damascene interconnects therein with metal diffusion barrier layers and devices formed thereby Methods of forming integrated circuit devices include forming an interlayer insulating layer having a trench therein, on a substrate and forming an electrical interconnect (e.g., Cu damascene interconnect) in the trench. An upper surface of the interlayer insulating layer is recessed to expose sidewalls of the electrical interconnect. An electrically insulating first capping pattern is formed on the recessed upper surface of the interlayer insulating layer and on the exposed sidewalls of the electrical interconnect, but is removed from an upper surface of the electrical interconnect. A metal diffusion barrier layer is formed on an upper surface of the electrical interconnect, however, the first capping pattern is used to block formation of the metal diffusion barrier layer on the sidewalls of the electrical interconnect. This metal diffusion barrier layer may be formed using an electroless plating technique.
US08232194B2	Process for chip capacitive coupling A method of creating a semiconductor chip having a substrate, a doped semiconductor material abutting the substrate and a device pad at an outer side of the doped semiconductor material involves creating a via through at least a portion of the substrate, the via having a periphery and a bottom at a location and depth sufficient to bring the via into proximity with the device pad but be physically spaced apart from the device pad, introducing an electrically conductive material into the via, and connecting the electrically conductive material to a signal source so the signal will deliberately be propagated from the electrically conductive material to the device pad without any direct electrical connection existing between the electrically conductive material and the device pad.
US08232182B2	Fabrication of electronic and photonic systems on flexible substrates by layer transfer method A transfer layer includes a transparent substrate. A buffer layer is formed on the transparent substrate that comprises PbO, GaN, PbTiO3, La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 (LSCO), or LaxPb1-xCoO3 (LPCO) so that separation between the buffer layer and the transparent substrate occurs at substantially high temperatures.
US08232179B2	Method to improve wet etch budget in FEOL integration A method of forming a semiconductor device is provided where in one embodiment an STI fill is recessed below the pad nitride and pad oxide layers, to a level substantially coplanar with the top surface of the substrate. A thin (having a thickness in the range of about 10 Å-100 Å) wet etch resistant layer is formed in contact with and completely covering at least the top surface of the recessed STI fill material. The thin wet etch resistant layer is more resistant to a wet etch process than at least the pad oxide layer. The thin wet etch resistant layer may be a refractory dielectric material, or a dielectric such as HfOx, AlyOx, ZrOx, HfZrOx, and HfSiOx. The inventive wet etch resistant layer improves the wet etch budget of subsequent wet etch processing steps.
US08232176B2	Dielectric deposition and etch back processes for bottom up gapfill Methods to reduce film cracking in a dielectric layer are described. The methods may include the steps of depositing a first dielectric film on a substrate and removing a top portion of the first dielectric film by performing an etch on the film. The methods may also include depositing a second dielectric film over the etched first film, and removing a top portion of the second dielectric film. In addition, the methods may include annealing the first and second dielectric films to form the dielectric layer, where the removal of the top portions from the first and the second dielectric films reduces a stress level in the dielectric layer.
US08232166B2	Method for fabricating semiconductor device with recess gate A semiconductor device includes a substrate with a recess pattern, a gate electrode filling the recess pattern, a threshold voltage adjusting layer formed in the substrate under the recess pattern, a source/drain region formed in the substrate on both sides of the gate electrode and a gate insulation layer, with the recess pattern being disposed between the gate electrode and the substrate, wherein the thickness of the gate insulation layer formed in a region adjacent to the source/drain region is greater than the thickness of the gate insulation layer formed in a region adjacent to the threshold voltage adjusting layer.
US08232160B2	Phase change memory device and method of manufacturing the same A phase change memory device having a strain transistor and a method of making the same are presented. The phase change memory device includes a semiconductor substrate, a junction word line, switching diodes, and a strain transistor. The semiconductor substrate includes a cell area and a core/peri area. The junction word line is formed in the cell area of the semiconductor substrate and includes a strain stress supplying layer doped with impurities. The switching diodes are electrically coupled to the junction word line. The strain transistor is formed in the core/peri area of the substrate and acts as a driving transistor.
US08232158B2	Compensated isolated p-well DENMOS devices An integrated circuit with a core PMOS transistor formed in a first n-well and an isolated DENMOS (iso-DENMOS) transistor formed in a second n-well where the depth and doping of the first and second n-wells are the same. A method of forming an integrated circuit with a core PMOS transistor formed in a first n-well and an iso-DENMOS transistor formed in a second n-well where the depth and doping of the first and second n-wells are the same.
US08232146B2	Semiconductor device with resistor and fuse and method of manufacturing the same A fuse element is laminated on a resistor and the resistor is formed in a concave shape below a region in which cutting of the fuse element is carried out with a laser. Accordingly, there can be provided a semiconductor device which occupies a small area, causes no damage on the resistor in the cutting of the fuse element, has a small contact resistance occurred between elements, and has stable characteristics, and a method of manufacturing the same.
US08232145B2	Methods of promoting adhesion between transfer molded IC packages and injection molded plastics for creating over-molded memory cards A flash memory card and methods of manufacturing same are disclosed. The card includes a semiconductor package fabricated to receive a single-sided or double-sided lid. A surface of the semiconductor package may be formed with holes, trenches and/or pockmarks. After the holes, trenches and/or pockmarks are formed, a lid may be attached to the package surface in an injection molding process. During the injection molding process, the molten plastic flows into the holes, trenches and/or pockmarks to interconnect with the surface of the semiconductor package. Thus, when the molten plastic hardens, the holes, trenches and/or pockmarks ensure that the lid remains firmly attached to semiconductor package.
US08232141B2	Integrated circuit packaging system with conductive pillars and method of manufacture thereof A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: providing a substrate; forming a conductive pillar, having substantially parallel vertical sides, in direct contact with the substrate; mounting an integrated circuit to the substrate beside a conductive pillar location; and encapsulating the integrated circuit with an encapsulation having a top surface formed for the conductive pillar to extend beyond.
US08232140B2	Method for ultra thin wafer handling and processing A method for thin wafer handling and processing is provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing a wafer having a plurality of semiconductor chips, the wafer having a first side and a second side. A plurality of dies are attached to the first side of the wafer, at least one of the dies are bonded to at least one of the plurality of semiconductor chips. A wafer carrier is provided, wherein the wafer carrier is attached to the second side of the wafer. The first side of the wafer and the plurality of dies are encapsulated with a planar support layer. A first adhesion tape is attached to the planar support layer. The wafer carrier is then removed from the wafer and the wafer is diced into individual semiconductor packages.
US08232135B2	Organic transistor An organic transistor comprising source and drain electrodes; a gate electrode; an organic insulating layer between the gate electrode and the source and drain electrodes; and an organic semiconductive region between the insulating layer and the source and drain electrodes; wherein the organic semiconductive region comprises (a) a high mobility layer of an organic semiconductor and (b) a blocking layer of organic material positioned between the high mobility layer and the source and drain electrodes, in which the ionization potential of the organic material of the blocking layer exceeds the workfunction of the source and drain electrodes so as to inhibit charge injection from the source electrode into the blocking layer in the off-state.
US08232133B2	Image sensor with backside passivation and metal layer An image sensor includes a semiconductor layer that filters light of different wavelengths. For example, the semiconductor layer absorbs photons of shorter wavelengths and passes more photons of longer wavelengths such that the longer wavelength photons often pass through without being absorbed. An imaging pixel having a photodiode is formed near a front side of the semiconductor layer. A dopant layer is formed below the photodiode near a back side of the semiconductor layer. A mirror that primarily reflects photons of longer visible wavelengths is disposed on the back side of the semiconductor layer.
US08232132B2	Image sensor array with conformal color filters An image sensor pixel includes a photo-sensor region, a microlens, a first color filter layer, and a second color filter layer. The photo-sensor region is disposed within a semiconductor die. The microlens is disposed on the semiconductor die in optical alignment with the photo-sensor region. The first color filter layer is disposed between the photo-sensor region and the microlens. The second color filter layer is disposed on an opposite side of the microlens as the first color filter layer.
US08232128B2	Method of texturing solar cell and method of manufacturing solar cell Methods of texturing and manufacturing a solar cell are provided. The method of texturing the solar includes texturing a surface of a substrate of the solar cell using a wet etchant, and the wet etchant includes a surfactant.
US08232124B2	Thin-film transistor array, method of fabricating the same, and liquid crystal display device including the same A thin-film transistor array includes an electrically insulating substrate, a plurality of thin-film transistors arranged in a matrix on the substrate, and each including a channel, a source, and a drain each comprised of an oxide-semiconductor film, a pixel electrode integrally formed with the drain, a source signal line through which a source signal is transmitted to a group of thin-film transistors, a gate signal line through which a gate signal is transmitted to a group of thin-film transistors, a source terminal formed at an end of the source signal line, and a gate terminal formed at an end of the gate signal line. The source terminal and the gate terminal are formed in the same layer as a layer in which the channel is formed. The source terminal and the gate terminal have the same electric conductivity as that of the pixel electrode.
US08232121B2	Zinc oxide-based semiconductor device and method for producing same A semiconductor device that has excellent characteristics and mass productivity wherein the introduction of defects thereinto at the time of device separation is prevented, and a method for producing the semiconductor device. In particular, there is provided a high-performance semiconductor device having excellent luminous efficiency, longevity and mass productivity; and a method for producing this semiconductor device. The method for producing the semiconductor device has a step of forming, between a substrate comprising zinc oxide (ZnO) and a device operating layer, a defect-blocking layer having a crystal composition that is different from that of the substrate, and a step of forming device dividing grooves to a depth that goes beyond the defect-blocking layer, relative to the device operating layer side surface of the substrate on which the device operating layer is formed.
US08232115B2	Test structure for determination of TSV depth A test structure for a through-silicon-via (TSV) in a semiconductor chip includes a first contact, the first contact being electrically connected to a first TSV; and a second contact, wherein the first contact, second contact, and the first TSV form a first channel, and a depth of the first TSV is determined based on a resistance of the first channel. A method of determining a depth of a through-silicon-via (TSV) in a semiconductor chip includes etching a first TSV into the semiconductor chip; forming a first channel, the first channel comprising the first TSV, a first contact electrically connected to the first TSV, and a second contact; connecting a current source to the second contact; determining a resistance across the first channel; and determining a depth of the first TSV based on the resistance of the first channel.
US08232113B2	Method for manufacturing and testing an integrated electronic circuit A method for manufacturing and for testing an integrated circuit, including the steps of forming, on the upper portion of the integrated circuit, a passivation layer including openings at the level of metal tracks of the last interconnect stack of the integrated circuit; forming, in the openings, first pads connected to second pads formed on the passivation layer by conductive track sections, the first pads being intended for the connection of the integrated circuit; testing the integrated circuit by bringing test tips in contact with the second pads; and eliminating at least a portion of at least one of the conductive track sections.
US08232108B2	Method of making micro-pixelated fluid-assay structure A method for producing an active-matrix, fluid-assay micro-structure including, utilizing low-temperature TFT and Si technology, establishing preferably on a glass or plastic substrate a matrix array of digitally-addressable, assay-material-specific-functionalizable pixels, and employing pixel-specific digital addressing for selected, array-established pixels, individually functionalizing these pixels.
US08232106B2	Detection methods of proteins on polyacrylamide gels using gel background staining and organic dye compositions for the same Disclosed are a method for detecting proteins on a polyacrylamide gel by background staining method using an organic dye composition containing eosin Y or phloxine B, and the organic dye composition for use in the method, which enables the rapid and simple detection of the protein on the polyacrylamide gel with a high sensitivity.
US08232102B2	Gene delivery The present invention relates to a method of delivery of a therapeutic agent to a target cell the method comprising targeting particles comprising the therapeutic agent to the cell using magnetic means to apply a magnetic force to said particles so as to tend to move said particles towards said magnetic means and at the same time moving said magnetic means.
US08232085B2	Isoform of bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) protein The use of compounds is described which are capable of functionally blocking at least one of the genes chosen from the group composed of EphA1, EphA2, EphA8, EphB2, CSF1R, VEGFR2, RAMP2, RAMP3, CLRN1, MAPK4, PIK3C2A, PIK3CG, GSK3alpha, GSK3beta, IRAK3, DAPK1, JAK1, PIM1, TRB3, BTG1, LATS1, LIMK2, MYLK, PAK1, PAK2, CDC2, BTK, PNRC2, NCOA4, NR2C1, TPR, RBBP8, TRPC7, FXYD1, ERN1, PRSS16, RPS3, CCL23 and SERPINE1, for the manufacture of a medicament destined to diminish the resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs in the therapeutic treatment of epithelial tumor pathologies. Also described is a method for the determination of the drug resistance in tumor cells, as well as a method for the identification of tumor stem cells.
US08232083B2	Method of producing lycopene using recombinant Escherichia coli A method of producing lycopene with high productivity by means of a recombinant bacterial strain includes preparing the recombinant vector containing genes encoding proteins, which are required for lycopene biosynthesis. The genes involved in lycopene biosynthesis are crtE, crtB and crtI, and at least one of the said three genes (crtE, crtB and crtI) is selected from the group consisting of crtE with the nucleotide Sequence 1, crtB with the nucleotide Sequence 3 and crtI with the nucleotide Sequence 5, of the Sequence List. The said recombinant vector is transformed into Escherichia coli.
US08232080B2	Variant Hyprocrea jecorina CBH1 cellulases Described herein are variants of H. jecorina CBH I, a Cel7 enzyme. The present invention provides novel cellobiohydrolases that have improved thermostability and reversibility.
US08232077B2	Oocytes derived from ovarian culture initially containing no oocytes Ovarian germ-line-competent embryonic stem cells (GLC-ESC) are cultured, either in the presence or absence of a compound having estrogenic activity. The GLC-ESC are either collected prior to specific commitment or are permitted to remain in the culture medium for a time sufficient to develop into oocytes, and the oocytes may be fertilized by adding sperm to the culture medium. The fertilized oocytes may be permitted to develop into embryos, which may be transferred into the uterus of an adult human female or frozen for later use. The invention provides a method for obtaining by in vitro fertilization an embryo that is genetically related to a human female who is not producing oocytes.
US08232074B2	Nanoelectrodes and nanotips for recording transmembrane currents in a plurality of cells The present invention relates to methods of measuring electrical properties of a cell using electrode devices comprising tapered nanotips having submicrometer dimensions (“nanoelectrodes”) for insertion into a cell. The devices are used to measure electrical properties of the cell and, optionally, may be used to electroporate, the cell or subcellular structures within the cell. The invention also provides arrays of electrode devices having nanotips for simultaneously or sequentially measuring the electrical properties of cells (e.g., such as surface immobilized cells). The electrodes can be used to measure properties of ion channels and in HTS assays to identify drugs which affect the properties of ion channels. The invention additionally provides microfluidic systems adapted for use with the electrode devices having nanotips. In combination with the electrodes, the microfluidic systems provide cell-based biosensors for monitoring cellular responses to conditions, such as exposure to candidate drugs.
US08232072B2	Smoking cessation kit and method Described are smoking cessation devices and kits for determining an advantageous time for a subject to quit smoking, and/or for extending the duration of smoking abstinence, based on serum levels of anti-nicotine antibodies. Related methods are also described.
US08232071B2	In vitro depletion of acute myeloid leukemia stem cells Acute myeloid leukemia stem cells (AMLSC) are identified. The cells can be prospectively isolated or identified from patient samples, and are shown to possess the unique properties of cancer stem cells in functional assays for cancer stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, and in cancer diagnosis.
US08232064B2	Detection and quantitation of cyclodextrins The invention relates to the detection and quantitation of cyclodextrins and cyclodextrin derivatives in solutions comprising a protein. The invention further relates to methods of evaluating pharmaceutical preparations for the presence of residual cyclodextrins.
US08232062B2	EGFR mutations The present invention relates to mutations in Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and methods of detecting such mutations as well as prognostic methods method for identifying a tumors that are susceptible to anticancer therapy such as chemotherapy and/or kinase inhibitor treatment. The methods involve determining the presence of a mutated EGFR gene or mutated EGFR protein in a tumor sample whereby the presence of a mutated EGFR gene or protein indicates the tumor is susceptible to treatment.
US08232058B2	Multiplex detection of respiratory pathogens Described are kits and methods useful for detection of respiratory pathogens (influenza A (including subtyping capability for H1, H3, H5 and H7 subtypes) influenza B, parainfluenza (type 2), respiratory syncytial virus, and adenovirus) in a sample. Genomic sequence information from the respiratory pathogens was analyzed to identify signature sequences, e.g., polynucleotide sequences useful for confirming the presence or absence of a pathogen in a sample. Primer and probe sets were designed and optimized for use in a PCR based, multiplexed Luminex assay to successfully identify the presence or absence of pathogens in a sample.
US08232056B2	Methods for detecting neovascular age-related macular degeneration The invention provides methods and compositions for determining whether a subject is at risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, for example, the wet or neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration. The method involves determining whether the subject has a protective variant and/or a risk variant at a polymorphic site in the HTRA1 gene. In addition, the invention provides a method of treating or slowing the progression of age-related macular degeneration by reducing the expression of the HTRA1 gene, or reducing the biological activity of the HTRA1 gene product.
US08232052B2	Methods of selecting a dopaminergic neuron proliferative progenitor cells using Lrp4/Corin markers In neuron transplantation therapy, in terms of safety, it is preferable to use a cell population consisting only of a desired type of cells, and to use postmitotic neurons in consideration to avoid the risk of tumorigenesis. Moreover, greater therapeutic effects would be expected through the use of earlier progenitor cells in consideration of post-transplantation viability, proper network formation ability, and such.According to the present invention, Lrp4, a gene that is specifically expressed in dopaminergic neuron proliferative progenitor cells prior to cell cycle exit, was identified. The use of Lrp4 expression in cells as an index allows for the isolation. of cells suitable for transplantation therapy of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease in terms of safety, survival rate, and network formation ability.
US08232051B2	Primer set for gene amplification, reagent for gene amplification including the same, and uses thereof Primer sets for amplifying two genes (the CYP2C9 gene and the VKORC1 gene) by a gene amplification method are provided, wherein the primer sets can amplify respective target regions of the two genes specifically and efficiently in the same reaction system simultaneously. Two pairs of primer sets are used including forward primers consisting of the base sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 5 and 29 as well as reverse primers consisting of the base sequences of SEQ ID NOs: 18 and 38, respectively. The use of these primer sets makes it possible to specifically amplify target regions including sites where polymorphisms to be detected are generated in the CYP2C9 gene and the VKORC1 gene, in the same reaction solution simultaneously.
US08232050B2	Methods of using dyes in association with nucleic acid staining or detection and associated technology Methods of using dyes and associated technology are provided. A dye, such as a monomeric dye or a dimeric dye, may be used in a nucleic acid gel staining application and/or a nucleic acid detection application. Such a dye and a salt that comprises an anion that is associated with a strong acid and a cation that is associated with a strong base may be used in such an application. A dimeric dye, such as a dimeric dye capable of forming a hairpin-like structure, may be used to stain and/or detect nucleic acids via a release-on-demand mechanism. A dimeric dye having low background fluorescence in the absence of nucleic acids and high fluorescence in the presence of nucleic acids, upon binding therewith, may be used to stain and/or detect nucleic acids.
US08232049B2	Method for detecting small oligonucleotides A method for detecting small oligonucleotides includes providing a biological isolate containing at least one small oligonucleotide. The biological isolate may be contacted with at least one detection oligonucleotide having a label moiety and at least one bridge oligonucleotide under conditions such that the at least one small oligonucleotide and the at least one detection oligonucleotide are preferentially added to the bridge oligonucleotide to produce at least one labeled small oligonucleotide. At least one ligating reagent may be added to preferentially join the at least one small oligonucleotide and the at least one detection oligonucleotide. The at least one labeled small oligonucleotide may then be detected.
US08232046B2	Distinction between bacterial meningitis and viral meningitis The present invention relates to the field of the distinction between bacterial meningitis and viral meningitis. It relates in particular to an in vitro method for detecting the presence of bacterial meningitis, which comprises determining the concentration of procalcitonin present in a test blood sample and of proteins present in a test cerebrospinal fluid sample, and comparing the concentrations thus determined to the concentration of procalcitonin and of proteins present in a reference sample or to a reference value. It also relates to a kit comprising means for detecting procalcitonin and proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid, and to the use thereof for the production of a diagnostic tool for bacterial meningitis.
US08232040B2	Positive resist composition and method of forming resist pattern A positive resist composition including a base material component (A) that exhibits increased solubility in an alkali developing solution under action of an acid; and an acid generator component (B) that generates an acid upon exposure, wherein the base material component (A) includes a polymeric compound (A1) having a structural unit (a10) derived from hydroxystyrene and a structural unit (a11) represented by general formula (a11-1) shown below: wherein R represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group of 1 to 5 carbon atoms, or a halogenated alkyl group of 1 to 5 carbon atoms; R21 represents an alkyl group; and R22 represents a group that forms an aliphatic monocyclic group of 7 to 10-membered ring together with the carbon atom to which this R22 group is bonded.
US08232037B2	Liquid developers with UV curable additives and methods for their preparation A method for printing a substrate by liquid developer electrography, the method comprising: (a) developing a latent image with liquid developer comprising toner particles dispersed in a carrier liquid, said toner particles comprising UV-curable additive; (b) transferring the developed image to the substrate; (c) at least partially fixing the image to the substrate; and (d) irradiating the at least partially fixed image with UV radiation to cure the UV-curable additive.
US08232035B2	Methods for making customized black toners According to embodiments illustrated herein, there is provided a black toner having a resin, an optional additive, and at least two or more colored pigments, and the at least two or more colored pigments are selected from the group consisting of a blue pigment, a green pigment, a red pigment, a magenta pigment, a cyan pigment, a yellow pigment, a white pigment, and mixtures thereof, and the black toner has a colorimetric value L* of about less than 30.
US08232032B2	Low friction electrostatographic imaging member Present embodiments pertain to an improved electrostatographic imaging member having low contact friction surfaces to ease sliding mechanical interaction and suppressing abrasion/wear failure and methods of preparing thereof. The improved imaging member has layers comprising one or two low surface energy polymeric materials that enhance the physical and mechanical functions and reduce the layers surface contact friction of the imaging member to extend service life.
US08232021B2	Stack for fuel cell A fuel cell stack including an electricity generating unit for generating electrical energy by electrochemically reacting a fuel and an oxidizing agent, the electricity generating unit including: a first separator; a second separator; a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) between the first separator and the second separator, each of the first and second separators including a channel on a surface facing the MEA and a manifold in the surface facing the MEA, the manifold communicating with the channel; and a gasket, positioned at an outer circumference portion of an area where the MEA is positioned, for sealing a space between the first and second separators and for covering an open area of a channel extension area of at least one of the first and second separators where the manifold communicates with the channel.
US08232010B2	Process and corresponding apparatus for continuously producing gaseous hydrogen to be supplied to micro fuel cells and integrated system for producing electric energy A process for the production of hydrogen for micro fuel cells, comprises the successive steps of: continuously supplying a catalytic bed with an aqueous solution of sodium borohydride, the catalytic bed being made of at least one metal chosen among cobalt, nickel, platinum, ruthenium with obtainment of hydrogen and of a by-product comprising sodium metaborate, continuously recovering the hydrogen thus obtained and supplying, with said hydrogen as it is as obtained, a micro fuel cell which transforms hydrogen into electric energy. An apparatus provides continuous supply of hydrogen to a micro fuel cell. An integrated system structured for continuously producing and supplying hydrogen to a micro fuel cell and for converting the continuously supplied hydrogen into electric energy.
US08232006B2	High performance energy storage devices A lead-acid battery comprising: at least one lead-based negative electrode; at least one lead dioxide-based positive electrode; at least one capacitor electrode; and electrolyte in contact with the electrodes; wherein a battery part is formed by the lead based negative electrode and the lead dioxide-based positive electrode; and an asymmetric capacitor part is formed by the capacitor electrode and one electrode selected from the lead based negative electrode and the lead-dioxide based positive electrode; and wherein all negative electrodes are connected to a negative busbar, and all positive electrodes are connected to a positive busbar. The capacitor electrode may be a capacitor negative electrode comprising carbon and an additive mixture selected from oxides, hydroxides or sulfates of lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and bismuth, or a capacitor negative electrode comprising carbon, red lead, antimony in oxide, hydroxide or sulfate form, and optionally other additives. The capacitor electrode may be used in asymmetric capacitors and batteries of other types.
US08232000B2	Rechargeable battery with terminal junction and prong A rechargeable battery 100 includes a plurality of electrode assemblies 10; a case 34 housing the electrode assemblies 10; at least one electrode terminal 21, 22, electrically connected to the electrode assemblies 10 by a lead tab 40, 50, the lead tab 50 including a terminal junction part 51; and a prong portion extending from the terminal junction plate, the prong portion comprising a plurality of prongs 53, 54, each of the prongs having a main body 53a electrically connected to one of the electrode assemblies 10 and an angled body 53b bent at one angle from the main body 53a.
US08231997B2	Electrolyte membrane-electrode membrane assembly for solid polymer fuel cell and production method thereof, and fuel cell equipped therewith An object of the present invention is to provide an electrolyte membrane-electrode membrane assembly for a solid polymer fuel cell having superior characteristics, wherein a gas diffusion electrode membrane and a solid electrolyte membrane are well bonded, and electrode catalysts are uniformly-dispersed to obtain high electrode activity, a production method thereof and a fuel cell equipped therewith.The electrolyte membrane-electrode membrane assembly of the present invention is produced by jointing a molded membrane for forming a gas diffusion electrode membrane formed by a paste composition including a polymeric organic compound having a quaternary base forming functional group and an electrode catalyst, with a quaternary base anion-exchange resin precursor membrane for forming a solid electrolyte membrane having a quaternary base forming functional group; forming of a quaternary base anion-exchange group by bonding a polyfunctional quaternarizing agent to the quaternary base forming functional group included in each of said molded membrane and said precursor membrane via each functional group of the polyfunctional quaternarizing agent which is present around the bonded interface of both membranes to thereby crosslink the formed anion-exchange resins in both membranes via the polyfunctional quaternarizing agent simultaneously; and subjecting the non-quaternarized residue of the quaternary base forming functional groups in thus-obtained assembly to a quaternary base forming treatment.A fuel cell comprising thus-produced electrolyte membrane-electrode membrane assembly is excellent in bonding property, durability and output voltage.
US08231993B2	Flexible multi-walled tubing assembly A multi-walled tubing assembly includes an outer corrugated tube and an inner tube received in the outer tube, and may receive an insert. The inner tube is made from a resilient material. The outer tube is structurally rigid. The insert may be plain and used in conjunction with one or more adhesives. The insert may include a section with barbs or teeth which, once inserted into the inner tube, engage with the corrugations of the outer tube. Some embodiments result in a good seal and mechanically fix the tubing assembly.
US08231991B2	Process for making fill hole in a wall of an energy storage device A method of forming an energy storage device includes forming a fill hole in a wall of the energy storage device. The method also includes deforming the wall of the energy storage device to reduce a width of the fill hole. Moreover, the method includes sealing the fill hole.
US08231989B2	Method for improving FCS reliability after end cell heater failure A method for improving fuel cell system reliability in the event of end cell heater failure in a fuel cell stack. The method includes detecting that an end cell heater has failed. If an end cell heater failure is detected, then the method performs one or more of setting a cooling fluid pump to a predetermined speed that drives a cooling fluid through cooling fluid flow channels in the fuel cell stack, limiting the output power of the fuel cell stack or the net power of the fuel cell system, limiting the maximum temperature of the cooling fluid flowing out of the stack, turning off stack anti-flooding algorithms that may be used to remove water from reactant gas flow channels in the stack, and turning off cathode stoichiometry adjustments for relative humidity control in response to water accumulating in cathode flow channels in the fuel cell stack.
US08231982B2	Composite of metal and resin, and method for manufacturing same A composite of a metal and a resin, in which a shaped metal and a shaped thermoplastic resin are integrally joined by injection molding, and in which the perpendicular precision of the thermoplastic shaped body with respect to the shaped metal is improved, as well as a method for manufacturing the composite. A composite 40 of a metal and a resin is composed of a shaped metal 20 and a shaped thermoplastic resin that is integrally joined to this shaped metal 20 by injection molding. The shaped thermoplastic resin comprises a seat 42 and a boss 41 that protrudes from the seat 42. A runner 43 is provided which communicates with the seat 42 via two sprues and through which a molten thermoplastic resin that has been injected through an injection gate 45 flows into the boss 41 and the thermoplastic resin injected through the injection gate 45 flows through the sprues 47 to opposite locations of the boss 41 substantially uniformly, thereby filling the locations. As a result, the boss 41 can be joined perpendicularly to the shaped metal 20 by injection joining.
US08231977B2	Sun blocking stack A multilayer sunshield lamination structure foamed on a sheet of vitreous material which includes at least one functional layer composed of a silver-based material that reflects infrared radiation and at least two dielectric coatings, each function layer being surrounded by dielectric coatings. The lamination structure, when deposited on an ordinary clear soda-lime float glass sheet 6 mm thick, has a solar factor SF of less than 45% and a light transmission LT of less than 70%. The lamination structure is composed of an essentially metal absorbent material based on the following elements: Pd, Pt, Au, Tr, Rh, Ru, Os, Co, Ni, Cu, Cr, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, W, Si, Zn, Mo, Mn, Ti, V, Nb, Hf, Ta and alloys thereof arranged in the immediate vicinity of the functional layer or included in this functional layer.
US08231976B2	Block-resistant, radiation-curable coating systems based on high molecular mass, aqueous polyurethane dispersions The present invention describes block-resistant, radiation-curable coating systems based on high molecular mass, aqueous polyurethane dispersions, a process for preparing them, the use of the coating systems as paints and/or adhesives, and also articles and substrates provided with these paints and/or adhesives.
US08231975B2	Fluoropolymer compositions and treated substrates A polymer having at least one urea linkage prepared by: (i) reacting (a) at least one diisocyanate, polyisocyanate, or mixture thereof, having isocyanate groups, and (b) at least one fluorinated compound selected from the formula (I): Rf(CH2CF2)p(CH2CH2)q(R1)r—XH Formula (I) wherein p and q are each independently an integer of 1 to 3; r is 0 or 1; X is —O—, —NH— or —S—; R1 is a divalent radical selected from the group consisting of —S(CH2)n—, n is an integer of 2 to 4; s is an integer of 1 to 50; R2, R3, and R4 are each independently hydrogen or an alkyl group containing 1 to 6 carbon atoms; and Rf is a perfluoroalkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms; and (i) reacting with (c) water, a linking agent, or a mixture thereof and methods for treating substrates therewith.
US08231971B2	Process for producing anti-fog coating The invention relates to an anti-fog coating for a surface of a substrate comprising: a first polymer layer resulting from covalently bonding a polyanhydride polymer to said surface; and a second polymer layer resulting from covalently bonding a polymer selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl alcohol, partially hydrolyzed polyester, polyether and cellulose derivative; said surface having nucleophilic groups. A substrate having an anti-fog coating, as well as a process for preparing said anti-fog coating to the surface of a substrate is also provided.
US08231967B2	Surface-treated ceramic member, method for producing the same and vacuum processing apparatus Disclosed is a surface-treated ceramic member which has a coating film-formed surface comprising a ceramic sintered body with a porosity of 1% or less and a sol-gel coating film of a silicon alkoxide compound polymer formed on at least a part of a ceramic sintered body, wherein the coating film and the surface of the body are coexistent in the coating film-formed surface. Specifically the area of the sol-gel coating film accounts for 5 to 80% of the total area of the coating film-formed surface. The surface-treated ceramic member has excellent corrosion resistance and is free from scattering of particles.
US08231966B2	Anti-reflection coating and its production method An anti-reflection coating comprising a mesoporous silica coating composed of mesoporous silica nano-particles formed on a substrate or a dense coating formed on the substrate, the mesoporous silica coating having a refractive index of more than 1.10 and 1.35 or less.
US08231965B2	Resin complex containing carbon nanotube and method for production thereof A carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-containing resin composite comprised of a synthetic resin-impregnated aligned CNTs aggregate to have a specific surface area of at least 600 m2/g. Its production method comprises a step of laying down an aligned CNTs aggregate having grown perpendicularly from a substrate, a step of impregnating the laid-down aligned CNTs aggregate with a resin, and a step of shaping the resin-impregnated aligned CNTs aggregate into a sheet. Accordingly, there are provided a CNTs-containing resin composite having a high CNT content and a high degree of alignment and having a desired shape capable of fully taking the advantages of anisotropy intrinsic to CNTs, and a production method capable of producing it with ease.
US08231959B2	Photosensitive polymer composition, method of producing pattern and electronic parts A photosensitive polymer composition includes (a) a polyamide having a repeating unit represented by the following general formula (I): wherein U represents a tetravalent organic group, V represents a bivalent organic group and p is an integer representing a number of the repeating unit; (b) a compound which generates an acid upon receiving light; and (c) a compound represented by the following general formula (II): wherein m and n are each independently integer of 1 or 2, Rs are each independently hydrogen, alkyl group or acyl group, and R1 and R2 each independently represents fluoroalkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms.
US08231955B2	Material for adhesive-free clinging to smooth surfaces A material for clinging to smooth, impervious surfaces and supporting other objects thereon. The material includes a body of foamed polyvinyl chloride, having a foam cellular structure of about 80% closed cell foam and up to about 20% open cell foam. A flexible skin is formed on one side, the skin being unfoamed polyvinyl chloride, and having surface imperfections comprising small cavities. An adhesive layer may be formed on the opposite side to secure the body to objects mounted by the material on a smooth surface. The material bears a load in addition to the weight of the material itself when the flexible skin adheres to a vertical surface, such as a mirror or stainless steel refrigerator door.
US08231947B2	Oilfield elements having controlled solubility and methods of use Oilfield elements are described, one embodiment comprising a combination of a normally insoluble metal with an element selected from a second metal, a semi-metallic material, and non-metallic materials; and one or more solubility-modified high strength and/or high-toughness polymeric materials selected from polyamides, polyethers, and liquid crystal polymers. Methods of using the oilfield elements in oilfield operations are also described. This abstract allows a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure. It will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08231939B2	Device and method for wet treating plate-like-articles A method and device for wet treatment of plate-like articles includes, a chuck for holding a single plate-like article having an upwardly facing surface for receiving liquid running off a plate-like article when being treated with liquid, wherein the chuck is outwardly bordered by a circumferential annular lip. The chuck has an outer diameter greater than the greatest diameter of the plate-like article to be treated, and a rotatable part with an upwardly facing ring-shaped surface for receiving liquid running off the circumferential lip of the chuck. The rotatable part is rotatable with respect to the chuck, the ring-shaped surface is coaxially arranged with respect to the circumferential annular lip, the inner diameter of the ring-shaped surface is smaller than the outer diameter of the chuck, and the distance d between the lip and the upwardly facing ring-shaped surface is in a range from 0.1 mm to 5 mm.
US08231938B2	Method for production of enzyme granules and enzyme granules produced thus A method of producing enzyme granulates, enzyme granulates produced By the method, and the use thereof in formulations is provided, for example, for animal feed, foodstuffs, washing agents, rinsing agents or for pharmaceutical uses. The enzyme granulates have a high relative proportion of active enzyme, particular particle size, good shelf life, particularly small rounding factors and/or low residual moisture proportion, and further specific properties. The production of the enzyme granulates is achieved by linking of the thermal conditions in the injection zone and temperature conditions in the remainder of the apparatus. This is achieved by introduction of heated process gasses for drying exclusively in the injection zone. The secure introduction of articles into the injection zone is achieved by the specific geometric arrangement of the apparatus using gravity. The absolute value for enzyme activity of the enzyme granulates can be controlled by the addition of particles as seed material for the granules.
US08231935B2	Thermal transfer printing method and apparatus Thermal transfer printing method and apparatus are provided to make initial character image data left on a spent ink ribbon illegible. In the method, after forming an initial character image FGi1 on an ink layer 11b in black of the ink ribbon 11, a forefront position S1 of the ink layer 11b is aligned with a forefront position S2 of an intermediate transfer film 25. Then, overwrite character image data UGD1 is applied on a thermal head 19 to produce a first superimpose character image KG1i1 on the ribbon 11 and a first superimpose character image KG1m1 on the film 25. After that, the forefront position S1 of the ink layer 11b is shifted from the forefront position S2 of the film 25 by a predetermined distance and further, the overwrite character image data UGD1 is applied on the thermal head 19 to produce a second superimpose character image KG2i1 on the ribbon 11 and a second superimpose character image KG2m1 on the film 25. In this way, the initial character image data left on the ribbon 11 and the film 25 can be together brought into illegible condition.
US08231934B2	Conductive paste for solar cell electrode To obtain low resistance and high adhesion at the same time in a solar cell electrode, a conductive paste is offered. A conductive paste for solar cell electrode contains conductive powder, organic medium and glass frit which is mixture of more than one kind of glass frit such as a mixture of glass frit containing at least PbO and glass frit containing at least Bi2O3.
US08231929B2	Medical device coating process Methods for coating medical devices for implantation within a body vessel are provided comprising providing a cylindrical container, placing a medical device inside the cylindrical container, and applying a polymer in liquid form inside the container.
US08231922B2	Phosphatidylserine enriched milk fractions for the formulation of functional foods Disclosed is a bovine milk derived phosphatidylserine source of natural composition having excellent dispersibility and organoleptic as well as physical stability. The source is useful in neutraceutical in powder, liquid or dispersion form. The source can be prepared from serum from butter oil production or from the retentate from microfiltration of whey for defatting purposes.
US08231920B2	Direct melt processing of resins The present invention relates to an animal chew including a resin and a method of direct injection molding the animal chew using a modified screw. The screw may incorporate, for example, additional flights or a larger transition zone. The formed resin may exhibit voids of about 1-100 μm in diameter.
US08231917B2	Antimicrobial peracid compositions with selected catalase enzymes and methods of use in aseptic packaging The present invention relates to specially selected catalase enzymes and their use in reducing hydrogen peroxide in applications, and particularly in aseptic packaging applications.
US08231911B2	Serum uric acid level-decreasing agent and food and drink with label telling that food and drink decrease serum uric acid level The invention is a composition consisting essentially of a component from barley which has been subjected to alcohol fermentation using Aspergillus kawachii and which is a residue from a distillation of distilled spirits of the barley and wherein the component from barley is a fraction produced by ion exchange treatment using an aromatic series or methacryl series wherein the component from barley is separated into a solid fraction and a liquid fraction and wherein the liquid fraction is separated out by the ion exchange treatment and wherein the liquid fraction contains the component from barley which decreases a serum uric acid level and wherein the liquid fraction contains crude proteins at 40-60% by weight, polyphenols at 7-12% by weight, polysaccharides at 5-10% by weight, and organic acids at 4-10% by weight.
US08231909B2	Injectable composite material suitable for use as a bone substitute The invention relates to a new injectable composite material suitable for use as a bone substitute. The composite material according to the invention comprises a reactive ceramic phase based on tricalcium phosphate and an organic phase comprising a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel. By varying the concentration of the two phases it is possible to modulate the mechanical and injectability properties of the material.
US08231904B2	Extended release formulation for pralnacasan This invention relates to a sustained release tablet comprising at least two layers, wherein at least one layer rapidly releases pralnacasan and the other layer releases pralnacasan in a delayed manner. This tablet is particularly suitable for the treatment of a condition such as autoimmune diseases, type I and type II diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis or psoriasis.
US08231903B2	Controlled release system The invention relates to a system for controlled release of medicinally active substances, which comprises sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB) and a further solvent.
US08231898B2	Controlled release hydrocodone formulations A solid oral controlled-release dosage form of hydrocodone is disclosed, the dosage form comprising an analgesically effective amount of hydrocodone or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and controlled release material.
US08231886B2	Cosmetic powder coated with alkoxy silicones A cosmetic powder, endowed with a hydrophobic coating based on alkoxy silicones, comprising a powder phase and a hydrophobic coating phase, said hydrophobic coating phase completely coats said powder phase and said coating phase consists of a compound of general formula (RO)3—Si—(CH2)3—NHCOR′, where R and R′ have the meanings described in the disclosure. A cosmetic composition comprising said powder and to its uses in pressed powder foundations, pressed powder eye shadows, lipsticks or fluid foundations.
US08231881B2	Fusion proteins and their use in the diagnosis and treatment of leishmaniasis The present invention relates generally to a fusion protein made from a synthetic gene construct comprising of elements derived from the Leishmania antigens K26, K39, and K9. The fusion protein is particularly useful in the diagnosis of leishmaniasis, particularly visceral leishmaniasis in animals such as humans and dogs.
US08231879B2	Treatment of diseases caused by viral infection A method of prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment of a mammal for a disease that is caused by a Ljungan virus infection, such as Myocarditis, Cardiomyopathia, Guillain Barre Syndrome, and Diabetes Mellitus, Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Myasthenia Gravis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Dermatomyositis, Polymyositis, Spontaneous Abortion, Intrauterine Death, Preeclampsia, Sudden infant Death Syndrome, Bell's (facial) paralysis, Addison's disease, and Pernicious anemia, is described. An antiviral compound effective against a Ljungan virus, such as a compound effective against a picornavirus, e.g. Pleconaril or a derivative thereof, is used for the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of a disease in a mammal that is caused by a Ljungan virus infection, to eliminate or inhibit proliferation of the virus in the mammal and at the same time prevent and/or treat the disease in the mammal. A composition for treatment of a mammal for a disease caused by Ljungan virus infection including an antiviral compound, antiserum, and an interferon. A method of treatment of a mammal for a disease caused by a Ljungan virus infection.
US08231876B2	Purified antibody composition The invention provides a method for producing a host cell protein-(HCP) reduced antibody preparation from a mixture comprising an antibody and at least one HCP, comprising an ion exchange separation step wherein the mixture is subjected to a first ion exchange material, such that the HCP-reduced antibody preparation is obtained.
US08231874B2	Use of IL-12 and IL-12 antagonists in the treatment of autoimmune diseases Method of treating autoimmune conditions are disclosed comprising administering to a mammalian subject IL-12 or an IL-12 antagonist. In certain preferred embodiments the autoimmune condition is one which is promoted by an increase in levels of IFN-γ or TNF-α. Suitable conditions for treatment include multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune pulmonary inflammation, Guillain-Barre syndrome, autoimmune thyroiditis, insulin dependent diabetes melitis and autoimmune inflammatory eye disease.
US08231868B2	Method for suppressing immune system response to transplanted tissue or cells Methods are provided for suppressing the immune system response in recipients of transplanted organs, tissues or cells. An extracorporeal quantity of blood from the intended transplant recipient is treated to induce monocytes contained in the blood to differentiate and form dendritic cells. The maturation of the dendritic cells is truncated at a stage where the dendritic cells can inactivate T cell clones which would otherwise generate an undesired immune system response. The immature dendritic cells can be directly administered to the transplant recipient, or the dendritic cells can be co-incubated with the bone marrow or stem cell preparation, prior to transplantation, in order to suppress or eliminate anti-recipient donor T cells contaminating the bone marrow or stem cell preparation. The methods can be used to suppress graft versus host disease in recipients of transplanted bone marrow or stem cells, or to suppress rejection of transplanted organs or tissue.
US08231864B2	Oligomeric amidoamines or amidoquats for fabric or hair treatment compositions Provided are oligomeric amidoamines, an oligomeric amidoamine salt of the oligomeric amidoamine, and/or an oligomeric amidoquat of the oligomeric amidoamine. These materials can be used as fabric softeners in fabric softener compositions or as a hair treatment in hair treatment compositions.
US08231862B2	RBP4 in insulin sensitivity/resistance, diabetes, and obesity Methods for screening molecules that modulate the activity of Retinol Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) and their use in treatment of insulin resistance are described. Also described are methods of diagnosing insulin resistance and related conditions by detecting modulation of RBP4 activity.
US08231856B2	Chlorite formulations and methods of preparation and use thereof Described herein are chlorite formulations having a pH between about 7 and about 8.5, wherein the chlorite formulations are substantially free of deleterious non-chlorite components. Described herein are chlorite formulations, including pharmaceutical formulations, which are formulated for systemic, parenteral, or intravenous administration. Described herein are methods of preparing and methods of using the chlorite formulations described herein.
US08231850B2	Economical sequestration of carbon dioxide by the mixed gas Provided is a fixation method of carbon dioxide. The method includes a) grinding waste gypsum to become 200˜300 mesh; b) performing reaction by supplying mixed gas while mixing the ground waste gypsum with aqueous ammonia, and c) separating solid from liquid in the manufactured slurry by centrifugation and drying separated solid and liquid portions with calcite and ammonium sulfate, wherein the mixed gas is formed of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and the carbon dioxide provides carbon dioxide fixation method containing 5˜25 wt %. When carbon dioxide is fixed by using waste gypsum, reaction efficiency is remarkably high. The fixation method makes more than 95% of supplied carbon dioxide fixed. Also, provided is an economical method that disposes carbon dioxide as a disposal target without its separation, refinement and liquefaction processes, to thereby remarkably reduce the entire process and costs for processes.
US08231848B1	One-pot synthesis of chalcopyrite-based semi-conductor nanoparticles Ternary and quaternary Chalcopyrite CuInxGa1-xSySe2-y (CIGS, where 0≦x and y≦1) nanoparticles were synthesized from molecular single source precursors (SSPs) by a one-pot reaction in a high boiling solvent using salt(s) (i.e. NaCl as by-product) as heat transfer agent via conventional convective heating method. The nanoparticles sizes were 1.8 nm to 5.2 nm as reaction temperatures were varied from 150° C. to 190° C. with very high-yield. Tunable nanoparticle size is achieved through manipulation of reaction temperature, reaction time, and precursor concentrations. In addition, the method developed in this study was scalable to achieve ultra-large quantities production of tetragonal and quaternary Chalcopyrite CIGS nanoparticles.
US08231847B2	Apparatus for recovering FCC product An apparatus is disclosed for recovering product from catalytically converted product streams. Gaseous unstabilized naphtha from an overhead receiver from a main fractionation column is compressed in a compressor. Liquid unstabilized naphtha from the overhead receiver and liquid naphtha fraction from the compressor are sent to a naphtha splitter column upstream of a primary absorber. Consequently, less naphtha is circulated in the gas recovery system.
US08231845B2	Structures for uniform capillary flow The present invention relates to devices for efficient transport, transfer and movement of fluids. In particular, the invention provides fluidic micro-structures for controlled transport and movement of liquids in devices for analytical and other purposes. Devices of the invention include one or more features that can enhance performance of the fluid transfer, referred to as a pre-shooter stop, a butterfly structure, a cascade structure, a waste chamber inlet, a capillary driven sample inlet chamber, a capillary stop structure, a bifurcation flow-through structure, and a hydrophobic vent.
US08231844B2	Method and device for manipulating liquids in microfluidic systems The present invention relates to microfluidic systems having components with specially designed and fabricated areas of enhanced and/or reduced capillarity (flow guides). The methods and devices of the present invention permit the bubble-less dispensing and mixing of small volumes of different liquids for subsequent incubation and/or detection of products of various biological reactions. Thus present invention is well-suited to applications such as polymerase chain reaction and capillary electrophoresis.
US08231820B2	Epoxy resin composition A process for making a molded composite comprising the following steps: reacting a reaction mass containing a polyepoxide, in the proportion of about 20% to 50% with respect to the reaction mass, a diol, in the proportion of about 10% to 20% with respect to the reaction mass, a hardener, in the proportion of about 20% to 50% with respect to the reaction mass, in the presence of an accelerator in the proportion of about 0.5 to 10.0% with respect to the reaction mass either alone or in solution with compatible diluents, to obtain an epoxy resin mix having intrinsic viscosity in the range of 100 to 850 cPs, pouring the resin mix in a mold having an in-situ glass fiber scaffold at a mold temperature in the range of 45 to 50 C. and applying pressure to the resin mix in the mold to form a compressed green composition: partially curing the compressed green composition at a temperature in the range of 60 to 80 C. to obtain a partially cured composite; and further curing the partially cured composite at a temperature in the range of 80 to 90 C. to obtain a fully cured composite. The composite is used for structural applications like windmill blades, yachts, domes, ships made from a composite made in accordance with the process as mentioned herein.
US08231804B2	Even carbon number paraffin composition and method of manufacturing same Paraffin compositions including mainly even carbon number paraffins, and a method for manufacturing the same, is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the method involves contacting naturally occurring fatty acid/glycerides with hydrogen in a slurry bubble column reactor containing bimetallic catalysts with equivalent particle diameters from about 10 to about 400 micron. The even carbon number compositions are particularly useful as phase change material.
US08231802B2	Preparations for making planar structures oil-repellent and water-repellent, and use thereof The invention concerns preparations based on water and/or organic solvents and their use as a finish on flat materials. An exemplary preparation includes: (1) 10-90 percent by weight of a fluorine containing oil- and water-repellent agent, (2) 10-80 percent by weight of a hydrophobic reaction product(S) obtainable by reacting a component (A) with a partially blocked or non-blocked di-, tri- or polyisocyanate (IC), and (3) 0-45 percent by weight of a blocked or non-blocked di-, tri- or polyisocyanate.
US08231799B2	Plasma reactor apparatus with multiple gas injection zones having time-changing separate configurable gas compositions for each zone A plasma reactor for processing a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer has a housing defining a process chamber, a workpiece support configured to support a workpiece within the chamber during processing and comprising a plasma bias power electrode. The reactor further includes plural gas sources containing different gas species, plural process gas inlets and an array of valves capable of coupling any of said plural gas sources to any of said plural process gas inlets. The reactor also includes a controller governing said array of valves and is programmed to change the flow rates of gases through said inlets over time. A ceiling plasma source power electrode of the reactor has plural gas injection zones coupled to the respective process gas inlets. In a preferred embodiment, the plural gas sources comprise supplies containing, respectively, fluorocarbon or fluorohydrocarbon species with respectively different ratios of carbon and fluorine chemistries. They further include an oxygen or nitrogen supply and a diluent gas supply. The controller is programmed to produce flow of different process gas species or mixtures thereof through different ones of said plural gas injection zones. The controller is further programmed to change over time the species content of the gases flowing through different ones of said plural gas injection zones.
US08231796B1	Method and system for providing a magnetic recording transducer having side shields A method and system provide a magnetic transducer that includes an underlayer and a nonmagnetic layer on the underlayer. The method and system include providing a trench in the nonmagnetic layer. The trench has a plurality of sides. The method and system also include providing a separation layer in the trench. A portion of the separation layer resides on the sides of the trench. The method and system include providing the main pole. At least part of the main pole resides in the trench on the portion of the separation layer and has a plurality of pole sides. The method and system further include removing at least a portion of the second nonmagnetic layer, thereby exposing the portion of the separation layer. The method and system also include providing a side shield. The separation layer magnetically separates the pole sides from the side shield.
US08231789B2	Cross-flow filtration method and cross-flow filtration device A method of cross-flow filtration using a membrane filter has a feeding a fluid to be filtered across a membrane surface of a porous alumina membrane filter serving as the membrane filter so that the fluid flows parallel to the membrane surface to separate material to be filtered with the porous alumina membrane filter. The porous alumina membrane filter is made of an aluminum anodized film and includes micropores having a degree of ordering as defined by formula (1): Degree of ordering (%)=B/A×100 (1) of at least 50%, a porosity as defined by formula (2): Porosity (%)=C/D×100 (2) of at least 40%, and a percentage of a pore size standard deviation to an average pore size of up to 10%.
US08231784B2	Continuous process batch-operated reverse osmosis system with in-tank membranes and circulation A reverse osmosis system and method for operating the same includes a pressure tank having a first end and a second end, the pressure tank has a first volume adjacent to the first end and a second volume adjacent to the second end and a third volume between the first volume and the second volume and a fluid passage fluidically coupling the second volume to the first volume. The reverse osmosis system also includes a plurality of membranes disposed within the third volume generating permeate and a permeate manifold receiving permeate from the membranes and fluidically communicating permeate out of the pressure tank. A feed line couples feed fluid into the pressure tank. A first pump pressurizes the feed line. A second pump is disposed within the tank and circulates brine fluid from the second volume through the fluid passage.
US08231778B2	Hydrocracking processes yielding a hydroisomerized product for lube base stocks Methods are disclosed for hydrocracking processes that convert a significant portion of a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock such as vacuum gas oil (VGO) to lower molecular weight, lower boiling hydrocarbons. In addition to molecular weight reduction, the processes also substantially reduce the pour point of a recovered higher boiling fraction or unconverted oil, all or a portion of which may be used as a lube base stock, optionally after one or more further treatment steps such as hydrofinishing. The ability to reduce the pour point, through hydroisomerization, of the higher boiling fraction greatly improves the quality of this fraction, or unconverted oil, for use in lube base stock preparation. Advantageously, separate, conventional hydroisomerization and/or dewaxing steps, often requiring a noble metal catalyst, may be avoided in particular embodiments disclosed herein.
US08231777B2	Catalytic cracking process for production of diesel from seeds of oleaginous plants The present invention comprises a thermocatalytic cracking process for the production of diesel oil from a charge of vegetable origin made from seeds of oleaginous plants in refineries possessing at least two FCC reactors. At least one of such reactors processes heavy gas oil or residue under conventional conditions while at least one of such reactors processes the charge of vegetable origin made from seeds of oleaginous plants under conditions suitable, for production of diesel oil. Said process employs the same catalyst utilized in the fluid catalytic cracking process which, simultaneously, processes a conventional charge.The diesel, or biodiesel, oil produced by means of said process is of superior quality having a cetane number exceeding 40 given that the cracking reactions occur at low temperatures and the products obtained are less oxidized and consequently purer than products obtained by means of existing technology.
US08231776B2	Hydrotreating processes for fabricating petroleum distillates from light fischer-tropsch liquids A method for obtaining a petroleum distillate product is provided, the method includes subjecting an untreated light Fischer-Tropsch liquid to a two-step hydrogenation process, each step to be carried in the presence of a catalyst comprising an amorphous substrate having a metallic composition embedded therein. After the first step of hydrogenation, an intermediate hydrotreated light Fischer-Tropsch liquid is obtained, followed by the second step of hydrogenation thereof, obtaining the petroleum distillate product as a result. An apparatus for carrying out the method is also provided.
US08231772B2	Power feeding method, continuous electrolytic plating apparatus for web and method for manufacturing plastic film with plated coating film Two rotating members placed to face each other and nipping a web such that only an end of the web provided with conductivity is pressed are provided, at least one of the rotating members serves as a feeding electrode, and these rotating members are rotated about the same velocity to a transportation velocity of the web.
US08231768B2	Biosensor, biosensor chip and biosensor device A biosensor includes a working electrode 101, a counter electrode 102 opposing the working electrode 101, a working electrode terminal 103 and a working electrode reference terminal 10 connected to the working electrode 101 by wires, and a counter electrode terminal 104 connected to the counter electrode 102 by a wire. By employing a structure with at least three electrodes, it is possible to assay a target substance without being influenced by the line resistance on the working electrode side.
US08231753B2	Intravaginal device with fluid transport plates An intravaginal device has a fluid storage element and at least one fluid transport element in fluid communication with the fluid storage element. The at least one fluid transport element has a first plate and a second plate coupled to the first plate. The second plate is capable of separating from the first plate sufficiently to provide inter-plate capillary action. The at least one fluid transport element is bendable about an axis substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fluid storage element. The invention also includes methods and apparatus useful in the production of an intravaginal device.
US08231752B2	Method and apparatus for making filter element, including multi-characteristic filter element Method and apparatus are provided for making a filter element by spinning fibers from one or more dies onto a collector, including designated combinations providing designated filter characteristics.
US08231749B2	Apparatus and methods for dispensing pre-filled containers with precisely-applied patient-specific information Apparatus and methods for fulfillment of patient prescription orders by adapting a standard or stock container pre-filled with medication or the like for use as a patient-specific container through precise application of patient-specific information to the pre-filled container. Precise placement of the patient-specific information to the pre-filled container enables pharmacy management to fully utilize valuable information provided with the pre-filled container, thereby improving the quality of service to the patient while making the process of prescription order fulfillment more efficient. In general, preferred embodiments comprise control apparatus and information-application apparatus. In embodiments, the information-application apparatus is adapted to place a patient-specific label on the container. Preferred forms of the information-application apparatus include a label printer and a positioner. The preferred printer applies patient-specific information on a label. The preferred positioner orients the pre-filled container to receive the label from the printer such that information provided with the container is available for use.
US08231746B1	Method and device for detection of a nitroaromatic explosive Detecting a nitroaromatic explosive via an exothermic chemical reaction of the nitroaromatic explosive with a polyamine or polyamine functional group is accomplished by depositing a polyamine or polyamine-functionalized coating on a microelectrode array and a semiconductor substrate, introducing a nitroaromatic explosive to an exposed surface of the polyamine or polyamine-functionalized coating, and measuring changes in electrical properties of the polyamine or polyamine-functionalized coating associated with the introducing of the nitroaromatic explosive. The nitroaromatic explosive detector comprises a microelectrode array formed on a semiconductor substrate, a polyamine or polyamine-functionalized coating deposited on and contiguous with the microelectrode array and the semiconductor substrate, and a measuring device for measuring any of resistance, conductance, and capacitance across the microelectrode array.
US08231741B2	Method for surface treatment of an internal combustion pistion and an internal combustion piston An internal combustion piston comprises a modified layer produced by a surface treatment including injecting injection powders having a diameter of 20 μm to 400 μm and containing a reinforcing element to be collided with a surface of the internal combustion piston obtained by casting and forging by injecting at an injection speed of 80 m/s or more or at an injection pressure of 0.3 MPa or more, the reinforcing element improving a strength of an alloy comprising the piston when being diffused and penetrated in the alloy, wherein by the surface treatment, oxides generated on the surface of the piston by the casting and forging are removed, and surface flaws generated on the surface are repaired, whereby the modified layer is formed to have a uniformly fine-grained metal microstructure which contains the reinforcing element in the injection powders diffused and penetrated in the vicinity of the surface of the piston and an alloy element of the alloy comprising the piston.
US08231737B2	Dish washer/dryer A dish washer/dryer includes a washing tub for accommodating an object to be washed, a washing section for washing the object to be washed, a heater for heating washing water, an exhaust port for discharging moisture inside the washing tub, an air blower for blowing outside-air, a mixing section disposed at an upstream side of the exhaust port and mixing the outside-air with washing-tub-inside-air, and an air volume distribution section for changing the feeding ratio of outside-air into the washing tub and the mixing section. This configuration provides a dish washer/dryer, in which a sufficient amount of outside-air is mixed with exhaust air in the washing tub so as to promote the temperature reduction of the exhaust air and the reduction of the moisture content in the exhaust air during drying operation, thereby enhancing the comfort of the exhaust air.
US08231730B2	Combustion deposition burner and/or related methods Certain example embodiments relate to a burner for use in combustion deposition depositing a coating on a substrate. First and second spaced-apart combustion gas manifolds are configured to respectively produce first and second flames (which may effectively combine to form a single flame front beyond the outer face of the burner in certain example embodiments). The first and second combustion gas manifolds form a precursor reaction zone therebetween. An adjustable precursor delivery manifold located between the first and second combustion gas manifolds is configured to receive a precursor used in forming the coating. The precursor delivery manifold is positioned so as to substantially directly provide the precursor to a desired or predetermined portion of the precursor reaction zone. The precursor delivery manifold includes first and second cooled walls arranged to reduce the occurrence of precursor pre-reactions upstream of the precursor reaction zone. The burners of certain example embodiments may be used to combustion deposition deposit metal oxide coatings onto glass substrates.
US08231725B2	Semiconductor wafers of silicon and method for their production Semiconductor wafers of silicon are produced by pulling a single crystal growing on a phase boundary from a melt contained in a crucible and cutting of semiconductor wafers therefrom, wherein during pulling of the single crystal, heat is delivered to a center of the phase boundary and a radial profile of a ratio V/G from the center to an edge of the phase boundary is controlled, G being the temperature gradient perpendicular to the phase boundary and V being the pull rate. The radial profile of the ratio V/G is controlled so that the effect of thermomechanical stress in the single crystal adjoining the phase boundary, is compensated with respect to creation of intrinsic point defects. The invention also relates to defect-free semiconductor wafers of silicon, which can be produced economically by this method.
US08231721B2	Antifungal liquid formulations The invention relates to stable antifungal liquid formulations for protecting material, containing 3-iodopropynyl butyl carbamate (IPBC) and n-octylisothiazolinone (n-OIT).
US08231720B2	Moldwash formulation The formulations and methods disclosed herein are useful for cleaning materials. In particular, the formulations and methods are useful for removing microbial organisms, including in particular, fungi, molds, mildews, and other microbes, from the treated materials. Further, the formulations and methods are adapted to suppress and/or eliminate the growth of microbes, particularly molds, associated with the treated materials.
US08231718B2	Sealed air purifier A sealed air purifier is disclosed. A housing is formed by connecting a first shell and a second shell. The first shell and the second shell communicate via separable connecting base and connector. A retractable bag encloses the connecting base and the connector. A sealing structure is provided between both ends of the bag. The first shell has an air inlet connecting the inside and the outside and a gate to control the airflow. A compression assembly is disposed in the first shell. The second shell has an air outlet connecting the inside and the outside and a blocking element to control the air outlet. The second shell has a sterilizing device and a super ULPA filter. When the gate closes the air inlet, the compression assembly, sterilizing device, and the air outlet close correspondingly, so that the inside of the housing is isolated. Thus, the viruses remaining therein do not spread with air.
US08231716B2	Self-alarming air cleaner A self-alarming air cleaner is disclosed. The air cleaner includes an air filter element (1), a light emitting element (2) and a light sensor (3). The light emitting element (2) and the light sensor (3) are both faced to the air filter element (1). The light emitted from the light emitting element (2) is reflected by the air filter element (1) or permeated to the air filter element (1), then forms an area of light attenuation where the light sensor (3) is located. The light emitting element (2) and the light sensor (3) connect with a circuit which has an alarming device. When much dust is accumulated on the air filter element (1), the intensity of the light reaching the light sensor (3) is weakened and the alarming device (4) can give an alarm automatically.
US08231715B2	Filter arrangement for cleaning process gases contaminated with particles and process for cleaning filter units of such a filter arrangement A filter arrangement, for cleaning gases contaminated with particles, has at least one filter unit with an exterior and an interior filter (3.1, 3.2), wherein the exterior and interior filters can be moved relative to each other, thereby exposing an opening (3.4) in the bottom regions thereof. This allows cleaning of filter units at the site of the filter units without disassembly of the same (cleaning in place—CIP). A method for cleaning is provided in that the region of the filter unit on the clean gas side including introducing a fluid sprayed via a cleaning lance protruding into the clean gas region while exposing a gap (3.4) in the bottom region of the exterior and interior filters.
US08231707B2	Gas separation using ultrasound and light absorption An apparatus and method for separating a chosen gas from a mixture of gases having no moving parts and utilizing no chemical processing is described. The separation of particulates from fluid carriers thereof has been observed using ultrasound. In a similar manner, molecular species may be separated from carrier species. It is also known that light-induced drift may separate light-absorbing species from carrier species. Therefore, the combination of temporally pulsed absorption of light with ultrasonic concentration is expected to significantly increase the efficiency of separation by ultrasonic concentration alone. Additionally, breaking the spatial symmetry of a cylindrical acoustic concentrator decreases the spatial distribution of the concentrated particles, and increases the concentration efficiency.
US08231701B2	Particulate filters and methods for regenerating particulate filters A particulate filter may comprise an inlet end, an outlet end, and a plurality of channels disposed and configured to flow fluid from the inlet end to the outlet end, wherein the channels are defined by porous walls configured to trap particulate matter. The porous walls may have a cell density less than about 200 cpsi, a wall thickness of less than about 14 mils, a median pore size that ranges from about 13 micrometers to about 20 micrometers, a total porosity greater than about 45%, and a pore size distribution such that pores less than 10 micrometers contribute less than about 10% porosity.
US08231697B2	Rapid start fuel reforming systems and techniques An on-board fuel processor includes a microchannel steam reforming reactor (30) and a water vaporizer (40) heated in series with a combustion gas. The reformer (30) and the vaporizer (40) are both of a cross-flow panel configuration that allows for low combustion side pressure drop. Fuel is directly injected into the steam, and during a rapid cold start, both the combustion gas flow rate and the steam to carbon ratio are substantially increased relative to their steady state operating values. A rapid cold start can be achieved in under 30 seconds with a manageable amount of electric power consumption, removing impediments to use in automotive fuel cell applications.
US08231690B2	Composition comprising derivatives of phenoxazinones for hair colouring The present invention relates to a composition for the coloring of keratin fibres, notably hair, that comprises a phenoxazinone dye of formula (I) as well as the use of this dye for hair coloring. The invention thus makes it possible to obtain coloration that respects the nature of the hair and offers strong shades, which are resistant and have low selectivity.
US08231686B2	Stent A bioabsorable stent is disclosed. The stent is made of a bioabsorable material and has an elongated body having a proximate end, a distal end, and at least one open channel formed on the exterior surface of the elongated body to provide fluid communication between the proximal end and the distal end. Also disclosed is a bioabsorable stent having an elongated center rod having a proximate end and a distal end and a plurality of leaflets extending outward from the center rod and forming channels between two neighboring leaflets to provide fluid communication between the proximal end and the distal end.
US08231685B2	Cartilage replacement implant and method for producing a cartilage replacement implant To improve a cartilage replacement implant for the biological regeneration of a damaged cartilage area of articular cartilage in the human body, comprising a cell carrier which has a defect-contacting surface for placement on the damaged cartilage area and is formed and designed for colonization with human cells, so that after implantation of the cartilage replacement implant, formation of a gap between adjacent contact surfaces of the implant and surrounding recipient tissue is minimized, it is proposed that the cell carrier rest with surface-to-surface contact on a carrier and be joined to the carrier at a cell carrier surface that faces away from the defect-contacting surface. A method for producing a cartilage replacement implant is also proposed.
US08231683B2	Shoulder prosthesis assembly having glenoid rim replacement structure A prosthesis assembly for use with a scapula is disclosed. The prosthesis assembly includes a glenoid bearing support and a bearing. The glenoid bearing support includes a glenoid vault-occupying portion configured to occupy at least a portion of a glenoid vault of the scapula, the glenoid-vault occupying portion having a first coupling component. The glenoid bearing support further includes a glenoid rim replacement portion attached to the glenoid vault-occupying portion. The bearing defines a bearing surface and has a second coupling component configured to cooperate with the first coupling component to couple the bearing to the glenoid vault-occupying portion. The glenoid vault-occupying portion defines a bearing-side end portion and an opposite-side end portion. The glenoid rim replacement portion projects outwardly from the bearing-side end portion of the glenoid vault-occupying portion. The glenoid bearing support defines a bone graft receptacle.
US08231673B2	Non-invasive power adjustable intraocular lens An improved multifocal design for an ocular implant is provided. This ocular implant includes an intraocular lens (IOL) and a number of haptics. The IOL passes optical energy. A microstructure within the IOL places the IOL under tension. The microstructure is operable to be broken in a controlled manner to release tension in the IOL and reshape the IOL. This may be done at any time post operatively and in conjunction with wavefront aberrometry to provide improved results. The haptics mechanically couple to the IOL in order to position and secure the IOL within the eye.
US08231671B2	Mitral cerclage annuloplasty apparatus A mitral cerclage annuloplasty apparatus comprises a tissue protective device and a knot delivery device. The tissue protective device comprises a first protective tube and a second protective tube. The knot delivery device comprises a tube wherein a loose knot is looped around its distal end through a hole and wherein tight knot is formed when the distal end of the tube is cut open. Alternatively, the knot delivery device comprises an inner tube and outer tube. The inner tube is insertable and rotatable inside the outer tube. When the tubes are in a closed position by rotating either the outer tube or the inner tube, a hole is created near its distal end. When the tubes are in open position by rotating either the outer tube or the inner tube, the hole joins the opening of the outer tube and lengthens.
US08231661B2	Systems and methods for minimally invasive facet fusion Apparatus and methods for facet fusion include an insertion tool and a guide tool coupled to one another. The insertion tool has a proximal end portion and an opposite distal end portion. The distal end portion of the insertion tool is configured to retain an interbody implant, such as, for example, an inter-facet implant configured for placement between a superior facet and inferior facet of a facet joint. The proximal end portion of the insertion tool includes a handle. The guide tool includes an elongated body with a passage extending between and opening at its distal and proximal ends. A linking member extends between and adjustably connects the guide tool to the insertion tool so that the passage of the guide tool is alignable with the interbody implant retained on the insertion tool while the insertion tool and guide tool are in substantially orthogonal relation to one another.
US08231660B2	System and method for facet fixation A spinal fixation element includes a screw and a washer. The screw comprises an elongated body of a first diameter and the body includes a threaded portion at a distal end and a semispherical head of a second diameter at a proximal end. The second diameter is larger than the first diameter. The washer comprises a semispherical through opening of a third diameter at the top, of a fourth diameter in the middle and of a fifth diameter at the bottom. The third diameter is slightly smaller than the second diameter, the fourth diameter is slightly larger than the second diameter and the fifth diameter is smaller than the second diameter. The washer surrounds the semispherical head, is non-removably attached to the semispherical head and is rotatable and positionable at an angle relative to the elongated body.
US08231645B2	Lancet device The present invention relates to lancet device by which a lancet is displaceable along a piercing path to generate a piercing wound in a skin surface, in particular to obtain body fluid for diagnostic purposes. To achieve performance of a piercing movement which is low in noise and shock, the lancet drive may include a control unit for regulating the piercing depth of the lancet and the lancet may be implemented to oscillate freely out in the piercing direction without delimitation by a mechanical piercing depth stop.
US08231641B2	Method and devices for modifying the function of a body organ Methods and devices for partitioning or plicating a region of a hollow body organ are described herein. These methods and devices relate generally to medical apparatus and methods and more particularly to devices and methods for affecting a change in the function of a hollow body organ, particularly a stomach, intestine or gastrointestinal tract. These changes can include reducing the volume capacity of the hollow body organ, disrupting or altering the normal function of the organ, functionally excluding certain sections of the organ either by affixing adjacent tissue or excising certain regions, or affecting or correcting the response of the organ to naturally occurring stimuli, such as ingestion.
US08231639B2	Systems and methods for attaching a prosthesis within a body lumen or hollow organ Systems and methods introduce and deploy prosthesis into a blood vessel or hollow body organ by intra-vascular access. The prosthesis is secured in place by fasteners which are implanted by an applier that is also deployed by intra-vascular access. The applier is configured to permit controlled, selective release of the fastener in a step that is independent of the step of implantation.
US08231637B2	Surgical tool for electrode implantation The present invention is a surgical tool for implanting an electrode array and its connected cable within an orbital socket. The insertion tool is used to aid the surgeon in pulling the electrode wire and array through the scull, four-rectus muscles of the eye, and the sclera. The insertion tool consists of a medical grade ABS material that is commonly used in various medical products.
US08231630B2	Humeral rotating burr guide A bone cutting assembly includes a guide pin that may be securely inserted into a bone to define a cutting axis. The bone cutting assembly also includes a housing having a cam surface and features for temporarily fastening the housing to the bone. The bone cutting assembly also includes a burr mounting arm that rotatably and slidably fits onto the guide pin so that the arm can swing around the cutting axis and also translate up and down the guide pin. A user may move the burr mounting arm about the cutting axis so that the arm follows along the cam surface of the housing.
US08231612B2	Method of making sub-surface photoalterations in a material A method of photoaltering a material using a pulsed laser beam includes selecting a first pulse energy and a first focal point separation based on a relationship of pulse energy and focal point separation combinations enabling layer separation of the material by photoalteration, and scanning the pulsed laser beam along a scan region at the first pulse energy and the first focal point separation. The relationship has a slope and has a distinct change in the slope. The distinct change in the slope is associated with a second pulse energy of the relationships and the first pulse energy is equal to or less than the second pulse energy.
US08231611B2	Shaft rotating device A shaft rotating device for rotating a shaft of a medical instrument about its longitudinal axis relative to a handle of the medical instrument comprises an operating element for rotating the shaft. The operating element is arranged at a proximal portion of the shaft and it is in driving connection with the shaft such that the shaft is rotatable relative to the handle against frictional forces. The shaft rotating device further comprises a frictional element with a surface. The surface of the frictional element is in frictional contact with the surface of a counterpart for keeping the shaft and the handle rotationally stationary with respect to each other and movable against the frictional forces. The operating element and the frictional element are in operational connection with respect to one another such that a torque applied to the operating element decreases the frictional forces. The shaft and the frictional element are in operational connection with one another such that a torque applied to a distal portion of the shaft increases the frictional forces.
US08231604B2	Air embolization prevention system The invention generally relates to an intravascular catheter that includes a proximal hub and a distal elongated tubular member. In one embodiment, the hub is designed to mitigate the introduction of air into a patient's vasculature during the delivery of a second device through the catheter into the patient's body.
US08231603B2	Irreversible electroporation and tissue regeneration A method and device are herein described to treat a target region of tissue, using at least one energy delivery device coupled to a power source and positioned in a treatment position so as to irreversibly electroporate tissue to ablate a target region, and introduce regenerative materials into a treated region.
US08231602B2	Method of cleaning and covering an access site A syringe assembly including: (1) a syringe barrel defining a chamber; (2) a plunger mounted in the chamber and moveable with respect to the barrel; and (3) a cap assembly containing a cap and an absorbent material is removably attached to the plunger.
US08231591B2	Absorbent article with lengthwise, compact-fold A personal care article (20) has a longitudinal-direction (22), a lateral cross-direction (24), a first end-section (72), a second end-section (72a), and an intermediate-section (76) interposed between the first end-section (72) and the second end-section (72a). At least a portion of the first end-section has been folded along or otherwise includes a first end-fold-region (64) which is substantially convex along a backsheet-side of the article. At least a portion of the second end-section has been folded along or otherwise includes a second end-fold-region (66) which is substantially convex along the backsheet-side of the article. In other aspects, the article can include a first, lengthwise-fold-region (58) in the first end-section, a second, lengthwise-fold-region (62) in the second end-section, and a third, lengthwise-fold-region (68) in the intermediate section. Additionally, the first lengthwise-fold-region can have a first, fold-direction that is opposite a third, fold-direction of the third lengthwise-fold-region.
US08231590B2	Visually coordinated absorbent product A visually coordinated absorbent product includes a article component having a body side liner, a garment side outer cover and an absorbent core disposed between the body side liner and the garment side outer cover. The article component has at least a first and second visual characteristic, wherein the first visual characteristic is different than the second visual characteristic. The article component is disposed in a packaging component having at least the first and second visual characteristics. In one embodiment, the packaging component is an individual pouch sized and configured to hold a single, individual article component. In various embodiments, the visual characteristics can include color, embossment, printing, and/or side sealing.
US08231588B2	Methods for ameliorating pain and devices for delivering a medicament A method for delivering medicament such as for ameliorating pain in a patient includes introducing an injector through a nasal passage of the patient into a region substantially medial and/or posterior and/or inferior to a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) of the patient; and delivering a medicament from the injector superiorly and/or laterally and/or anteriorly towards the SPG. A device for delivering a medicament to a patient in need thereof includes (a) an injector containing a first end configured to remain outside a nasal passage of the patient and a second end configured for entry into the nasal passage of the patient; and (b) an introducer configured for engagement with a nostril of the patient and containing a passageway configured for slidably receiving the injector. The injector is moveable between a storage position preceding the engagement and an engaging position pursuant to the engagement.
US08231580B2	Access port An access port for enabling passage of a conduit through a partition wall, said port comprising three portions, a sleeve portion surrounding an aperture for receiving a conduit there through, a flange portion for attachment to the partition wall, said flange portion encircles the sleeve portion and has a greater diameter than the sleeve portion, and a membrane portion connecting the flange portion and the sleeve portion. The port may be suitable for, in a leak-proof manner, passing a catheter or drain tube through the wall of a medical device such as a wound care device or a drainage bag.
US08231579B2	Cannula sealing apparatus A cannula sealing apparatus includes a housing having a central axially facing aperture. A surgical instrument of 10.5 mm may seal with that aperture. Alternatively, a sealing member having an aperture that will seal with a 12 mm surgical instrument can be swung up to be aligned with the aperture. If a 10.5 mm instrument is required then a seal member can be swung up to have its seal aperture located over the central aperture. Each seal member is pivotal about a common axis.
US08231576B2	Single-dose syringe driver Various methods and devices for driving fluid from a syringe are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, a syringe driver is provided having a frame that is adapted to seat a syringe, a driver that is slidably disposed within the frame and that is adapted to seat a plunger of a syringe, and a puller that is slidably disposed within the frame and that has a latch formed thereon for mating to an engagement element on the frame. The device can also include a force-delivery element, such as a constant force spring, that is coupled to and extends between the driver and the puller. In use, the puller is movable between a first position, in which the force-delivery element is in a resting position, and a second position, in which the latch on the puller mates to the engagement element on the frame to expand the force-delivery element thereby causing the force-delivery element to pull the driver and drive a plunger into a barrel of a syringe seated within the frame to deliver fluid from the syringe to a patient at a constant rate.
US08231571B2	Safety assembly for a syringe A safety support device for a syringe comprises a support sheath (16) for the body (10) of the syringe and an inner sheath (18) suitable for sliding relative to the support sheath between a waiting, retracted position and the extended position for protecting the needle (14) of the syringe. The device has means for holding the syringe body (10) relative to the support sheath (16) and retaining means (30, 32, 22) suitable for being activated to retain g the inner sheath in the waiting, retracted position inside the support sheath and for being deactivated by the piston (12) of the syringe to allow the inner sheath (18) to extend into its protective, extended position.
US08231559B2	Pneumatic massage device A light-weight pneumatic massage apparatus with low operation noise is provided. This apparatus includes a pneumatic massage device and a pump separated from the massage device. The apparatus further includes electromagnetic valves for controlling supply and discharge of pressurized air to and from air chambers of the pneumatic massage device, respectively. Each of the electromagnetic valves includes a displaceable valve member having an armature, and a solenoid for attracting the armature to move the displaceable valve member when a voltage is applied to the solenoid. The apparatus further includes an electromagnetic valve control unit which controls a voltage supplied to the solenoid to open the electromagnetic valves such that the voltage increases from gradually with the passage of time. The armature is attracted onto the end surface of the solenoid within the time period. Then, in a state in which the voltage is reduced to, the armature is maintained attracted onto the solenoid to keep the open state. After that, voltage supply is stopped to close the valve.
US08231556B2	Obtaining baseline patient information The disclosure relates to a method and system for obtaining baseline patient information. In some examples, a method may include acquiring first patient data, wherein the first patient data comprises at least one of first posture state data indicative of a plurality of posture states of a patient during a first time period or first therapy adjustment data indicative of a plurality of patient therapy adjustments made during the first time period; generating baseline patient information based at least in part on the first patient data; and comparing the baseline patient information to patient information generated based on second patient data. Therapy is not delivered to the patient according to a detected posture state of the patient during the first time period, and therapy is delivered to the patient according to the detected posture state of the patient during the second time period.
US08231552B2	Urethral blockage diagnosis A system and method are provided for the determination of urethral blockage. The system comprises a transducer arrangement for locating in the vicinity of the patient's urine flow, and a control unit in communication with the transducer arrangement. The transducer arrangement has at least one acoustic transducer capable of at least receiving acoustic waves, generated by the patient's urine flow, and producing an output signal indicative thereof. The control unit receives and processes the output signal and determines a change in the output signal indicative of the urethral blockage.
US08231549B2	Methods and apparatus for sampling and analyzing body fluid A sampling device for sampling body fluid includes a lancet for making an incision, a capillary tube for drawing-up body fluid from the incision, and a test strip affixed to an upper end of the capillary tube for receiving the fluid. An absorbent pad can be disposed between the test strip and capillary tube for spreading-out the fluid being transferred to the test strip. An on-site analyzer such as an optical analyzer and/or an electrochemical analyzer can be mounted in the device for analyzing the fluid. Alternatively, a test strip can be slid through a slot formed in the bottom end of the device so that by passing the device against the skin after an incision has been formed, the test strip will directly contact body fluid emanating from the incision.
US08231543B2	Methods and systems for screening and treatment of young infants demonstrating deficits in auditory processing The present invention provides a method and apparatus for screening infants at high risk for central auditory processing deficits and then remediating less efficient processing behaviorally using an adaptive training algorithm that gradually increases sensitivity to rapidly occurring stimuli streams.
US08231541B2	Asthma status scoring method and system with confidence ratings A method and system for assessing the health status of a patient, such as the asthma status of a patient, provides an asthma status score and a confidence rating indicative of the score's reliability using continuous real-time data. In some embodiments, the assessment comprises a multidimensional analysis in which asthma status scores and respective confidence ratings are generated for multiple individual asthma health dimensions as well as a summary asthma health dimension indicative of overall asthma health. In some embodiments, the individual dimensions include an environmental trigger dimension based on sensor-based environmental data, a physiological burden dimension based on sensor-based physiological data, a medication adherence dimension based on patient diary data and a perceived symptom dimension based on patient diary data.
US08231540B2	System and method for managing respiratory insufficiency in conjunction with heart failure assessment A system and method for evaluating a patient status from sampled physiometry for use in respiratory insufficiency management and heart failure assessment is presented. Physiological measures are stored and include direct measures regularly recorded on a substantially continuous basis by a medical device for a patient or measures derived from the direct measures. The physiological measures are sampled, which each relate to a same type of physiometry, and those of the physiological measures, which each relate to a different type of physiometry. A status is determined through analysis of those sampled physiological measures assembled from a plurality of recordation points. The sampled physiological measures are evaluated. Any trends are identified and include one of a status quo and a change, which might affect cardiac performance or respiratory performance. Each such trend is compared to applicable indications of worsening heart failure and respiratory insufficiency to generate a notification of parameter violations.
US08231539B2	Automated patient care system and method for diagnosing and monitoring respiratory insufficiency An automated patient care system and method for diagnosing and monitoring respiratory insufficiency is presented. A plurality of monitoring sets are stored into a database. Each monitoring set includes recorded measures, which each relate to patient information and contain medical device measures recorded on a substantially continuous basis or derived measures calculable therefrom. The monitoring sets are retrieved from the database. A set of indicator thresholds are defined. Each indicator threshold corresponds to a quantifiable physiological measure of a pathophysiology indicative of respiratory insufficiency. A respiratory insufficiency finding is diagnosed. A change in patient status is determined by comparing at least one recorded measure to at least one other recorded measure with both recorded measures relating to the same type of patient information. Each patient status change is compared to the indicator threshold corresponding to the same type of patient information as the recorded measures.
US08231527B2	Roll-up wound protector with asymmetric ring A roll-up wound protector has a distal ring, a proximal ring, and a flexible sleeve extending between the proximal and distal rings. The proximal ring is rollable to gather the flexible sleeve around the proximal ring and shorten the length of the flexible sleeve. The cross-sectional geometry of the proximal ring may be generally s-shaped. The cross-sectional geometry may be asymmetric about the longitudinal axis and asymmetric about the lateral axis. The height along the longitudinal axis may be greater than the width along the lateral axis. The proximal ring may comprise a medial surface having a circumferential recess and a lateral surface having a circumferential recess, the two recesses being longitudinally staggered relative one another.
US08231523B2	Endoscopic system equipped with gas supply apparatus An endoscopic system includes an endoscope having a delivery member available to supply a body cavity of a specimen and, in addition thereto, a gas supply apparatus from which predetermined gas is supplied to a body cavity via a delivery member. The endoscopic system further includes a determination unit that determines whether or not there is a status in which, the gas supply device needs to supply gas to the body cavity, and a control unit that selectively and automatically control a permit and stop for the gas supply to be implemented by the gas supply apparatus depending on a determined result of the determination unit, which are formed in a unitary structure with, for instance, the gas supply unit.
US08231519B2	Multi-lumen cannula This document relates to methods and materials for providing blood flow for a blood pump recipient. For example, cannulae that can be connected to the circulatory system of a mammal and can be used in conjunction with a blood pump (e.g., an assist device) are provided.
US08231516B2	Device for applying and monitoring of endovascular brachytherapy Device for implementing endovascular brachytherapy, whereby in the region of the catheter tip, a beta or gamma radiator used to prevent restenosis after the removal of plaque from vessel walls emits radioactive radiation in order to suppress the structural vessel alteration, with simultaneous OCT-monitoring, whereby a brachytherapy is combined with an OCT catheter in an integrated unit.
US08231515B2	Liquid-liquid separation device This invention involves a liquid-liquid separation device, which includes a centrifugal cylinder. The centrifugal cylinder maintains a liquid inlet/outlet, and centripetal float valve inside, which is mounted on the wall of a cylinder that produces the centrifugal force. Liquids of various densities enter the centrifugal cylinder; under the action of centrifugal force, the liquid medium of the highest density moves to the cylinder wall first, while the liquids of lower densities follow in sequence; when the inward buoyant force that the float bears in the liquids of various densities is greater than the outward centrifugal force generated due to its own mass, the float will move inwards to open the passageway and discharge the heavy medium deposited on the cylinder wall, thus achieving the automatic separation.
US08231514B2	Folding assembly and method for producing a gable portion of a sealed package of a pourable food product A folding assembly for producing a gable portion of a sealed package of pourable product, wherein the gable portion has first and second walls sloping with respect to each other and joined at a seal, and a flap connecting lateral edges of the first and second walls. The folding assembly is supplied with packs, each having an axis and, at one end and on opposite sides of the axis, two end portions which are folded to form the gable portion, with the end portions having, respectively, a first and a second portion to be folded, which are joined by a lateral face of the pack. The folding assembly includes a folding mechanism which interacts, on opposite sides of the axis, with the first and second portion of the pack to fold the second portion onto the lateral face, and the first portion onto the second portion to form the flap.
US08231513B2	Fully enclosed carton A fully enclosed paperboard carton having a top, a base, a pair of oppositely disposed sides and a pair of oppositely disposed end panels. Each end panel being substantially planar and perpendicular to the base and top. Each side having a lower portion that is substantially planar and perpendicular to the base and an upper portion that is substantially planar and tapers inwardly towards its edge connection with the top.
US08231512B2	Tool magazine for storing driver bits and/or drill bits that includes a magazine, a driver head, a bit locking device, and sliders for moving the driver bits and/or drill bits from a storage position to a use position Retractable chuck for drill bits, screw bits and other tools for any chuck size operated by hand or power source which operates without the user touching the bits to move into operating position.
US08231499B2	Eight speed automatic transmission An eight speed automatic transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets and five torque transmitting devices. Three of the planetary gear sets are simple and one planetary gear set is compound. Each of the plurality of planetary gear sets has first, second and third members: a sun gear, a ring gear and a planet carrier having a plurality of planet gears rotatably disposed thereon. Three of the torque transmitting devices are clutches and two of the devices are brakes. Eight embodiments of the transmission having different arrangements of the planetary gear sets, clutches and brakes are disclosed.
US08231494B2	Active control center differential with front output A coupling device (16) for use in a motor vehicle has an input member (45), a first and a second output member (46, 47), and a planetary gear set (54, 56, 58, 62) having gears (56, 58, 62) and a planetary gear carrier (54). Each of the input member (45) and the first and second output members (46, 47) are coupled to one of the planetary gear carrier (54) and a gear (56, 58, 62) of the planetary gear set (54, 56, 58, 62). A modulating biasing clutch assembly (70) selectively applies a biasing force to two of the three members. The modulating biasing clutch assembly (70) has an electrical clutch operator (72, 78, 84), a first clutch plate (92) coupled to one of the three members and a second clutch plate (94) coupled to another of the three members.
US08231492B2	Torque transmitting device A torque transmitting device includes a plurality of clutch plates, a ramp member that is selectively rotatable about an axis and that defines a ramp surface, a worm gear that is operatively connected to the ramp member for rotation therewith about the axis, and a roller element contacting the ramp surface. The ramp surface is configured such that, when the ramp member is rotated about the axis, the roller element exerts a reaction force on the ramp surface that urges the ramp member to move in a first axial direction and thereby transmit the reaction force to the clutch plates.
US08231491B2	Power output apparatus and hybrid vehicle A hybrid vehicle includes an engine, motors configured to input and output power, a power distribution integration mechanism, and a transmission. The power distribution integration mechanism has a sun gear connected with one of the motors, a carrier connected with the other motor, and a ring gear connected with the engine. The transmission includes a first speed change mechanism and a second speed change mechanism. The first speed change mechanism has a first speed gear train and a third speed gear train arranged to connect the carrier of the power distribution integration mechanism with a driveshaft. The second speed change mechanism has a parallel shaft-type gear train that is not used alone to set the speed ratio.
US08231488B2	Transmission joint pulley assembly A pulley assembly comprising a hub with an axis and adapted to be rigidly connected to a rotating shaft of an engine assembly, a turning annular pulley of ferromagnetic material supported at least indirectly on the hub, a ring of electrically conducting material rotationally connected to the hub, and at least a pair of magnets rigidly connected to the pulley and facing the ring. The pulley defines a cavity accomodating accommodating said ring.
US08231485B2	Dampening system for a stringed-racquet A method of changing vibration characteristics of a stringed racquet having strings includes providing an article of apparel with a mount thereon. The method also includes providing a slotted vibration dampener. Moreover, the method includes increasing dampening of the stringed raquet by moving the slotted vibration dampener from a first position to a second position. The slotted vibration dampener is removably attached to the mount in the first position. The slotted vibration dampener is removably attached to the strings of the stringed racquet in the second position. The method further includes decreasing dampening of the stringed raquet by moving the slotted vibration dampener from the second position to the first position.
US08231481B2	Golf club head A golf club head of this invention is a hollow golf club head which includes a face portion, a crown portion, a sole portion, and a side portion. The wall thickness of a face/crown bending portion, which is molded by casting and forms the boundary between the face portion and the crown portion, is smaller on the toe side than on the heel side.
US08231476B2	Yoke for universal joint A yoke 1 for universal joint of the present invention comprises: an insertion portion 11 which is formed in cylindrical shape opening along an axial direction of a rotating shaft and into which the one end side of the rotating shaft is inserted; a first tightening portion 13 and the second tightening portion 14 being a pair of tightening portions 12 which is extended from the insertion portion 11 so as to face each other with the opening of the insertion portion 11 between them; and a bolt 16 and nut 17 for tightening the pair of tightening portions 12 from either outside thereof, and the pair of tightening portions 12 is tightened, thereby the rotating shaft inserted into the insertion portion 11 is held and fixed. The bolt 16 is inserted into a through hole 13a of the first tightening portion 13. The nut 17 is fitted into a through hole 14a of the second tightening portion 14 so as to engage with the second tightening portion 14, and is formed so that at least a part of the end surface on the side facing the first tightening portion 13 is extended toward the first tightening portion 13 side and a gap S between them is a predetermined gap.
US08231474B2	Multi-stimulus personal defense device A baton includes an elongate housing with a first compartment and a second compartment. A power source is located in the first compartment. An interchangeable operative component is located in the second compartment and may be removable/replaceable. The interchangeable operative component may be a training module, a light source, a laser generator, a sound generator, an incapacitation waveform generator, and combinations thereof.
US08231473B2	Distribution of benefits in a multiuser game Systems and methods to distribute benefits and detriments in a multiuser game are described. In some embodiments, a method accesses social network information associated with a player of a game. The player controls a first player character in the game where the first player character has certain attributes. The method accesses profile information associated with a friend of the player, who controls a second player character. A proxy based on the second player is created and includes multiple proxy attributes based on the profile information associated with the friend of the player. A game event outcome associated with the first player character is determined based on the first player character attributes and at least one proxy attribute. The game event outcome includes an in-game benefit or detriment that is distributed to the first and second player characters based on the proxy.
US08231468B2	Game control program, game machine, and game control method The present invention provides a game device with enhanced entertainment capabilities.In a game device, a slope controller controls the inclination of the ground on which a character is placed, based on an operation instruction input by a player via a controller. An independent mode controller controls the character so that the character performs an action determined by an artificial intelligence unit, when the inclination of the ground is smaller than a certain value. A dependent mode controller controls the character so that the character rolls on the ground, when the inclination of the ground is greater than a certain value. The player tilts the ground to roll the character in a desired direction so as to lead the character to the goal.
US08231467B2	Wagering game machine with scalable fidelity audio A computerized wagering game system includes a gaming module comprising gaming code which is operable to present a wagering game on which monetary value can be wagered, and an audio module. The audio module is operable selectively reduce the information content of a digital audio signal based on available audio resources.
US08231458B2	Gaming system having multiple player simultaneous display/input device A game table having a multiplayer interactive display/input device which enables multiple players to simultaneously play primary or base wagering games and/or secondary or bonus games using the display/input device. The display/input device enables multiple players to simultaneously interact with the game table and the various games using the same display/input device. The game table enables multiple players to manipulate displayed objects (such as virtual cards or other game symbols) displayed by the display/input device at the same time. This enables the display/input device to simultaneously display the same game to multiple players in an integrated seamless manner without the need for multiple different sets of display devices and input devices for each of the players.
US08231457B2	Financial trading game A game, and more particularly to an electronic game that simulates trading securities on an exchange. The game is preferably played as a video gaming machine for gambling purposes. A computing device is provided having, among other things, a video screen display on which a line chart is displayed. The computing device also includes a selection device, which provides a means by which the player interacts with the computing device to “buy” or “sell”. The line chart includes a vertical axis that corresponds to the value or price of one or more securities, and a horizontal axis that corresponds to time. A segmented line is plotted on the line chart during a round of play. A random number generator randomly determines the vertical axis value for each point plotted along the segmented line.
US08231456B2	Gaming device and method providing side bet for winning free activations A gaming device and method is disclosed which enables a player to win one or more free spins in a primary game after placing an optional side wager. The primary game has a plurality of symbols including at least one free spin symbol on a plurality of reels. If the player places the side wager, the free spin symbol is associated with a quantity of free spins. If the player places the side wager, the gaming device provides the player with the quantity of free spins for each free spin symbol that occurs on the reels in the primary game. The gaming device accumulates any free spins won during the primary game as additional free spins for a bonus or secondary game. The player can selectively (i) use the additional or accumulated free spins in the bonus or secondary game, (ii) store the additional or accumulated free spins, or (iii) convert the additional or accumulated free spins to an award.
US08231440B2	Expansible sanding block exhibiting oblique extending surfaces A sanding block for supporting an exteriorly mounted looped sanding belt having an elongated and planar shaped base. A planar shaped cover exhibits first and second oblique extending surfaces and, upon engaging with the base by a plurality of mating tabs and slots, collectively defines a three-dimensional article for supporting thereupon the looped sanding belt. A trigger exhibits a three-dimensional rectangular shape and extends laterally across a widthwise defined opening in the base in communicating fashion with an end surface associated with the cover, such that the trigger is positioned between the base and cover. The trigger is displaced in a first lateral direction to lengthwise displace the cover away from the base, the trigger displacing in a second and opposite lateral direction to reverse displace the cover inwardly towards the base.
US08231435B2	Sanitizing dental model trimmer The dental model trimmer includes a wheel having an abrasive surface, a motor for rotating the wheel, and ultraviolet light source powerful enough to inactivate bacteria. The components are located in an enclosure that has an opening to permit access to the abrasive surface of the wheel. The light source is mounted within the enclosure to illuminate a section of the abrasive surface of the wheel that is spaced from the access opening. The enclosure includes wall means interposed between the light source and the access opening for preventing direct light emitted from the UV light source from exiting the access opening. The enclosure is provided with an interlock switch that will automatically turn off the light source when the enclosure is opened. The same switch can be used to deactivate the motor and a source of water provided to the abrasive surface, if desired.
US08231433B2	Polishing method and polishing apparatus The polishing method of a disk-shaped substrate for polishing an outer circumference 13 of a disk-shaped substrate using slurry is provided with in this sequence: a first polishing process for polishing the outer circumference 13 using an abrasive-grain inclusion brush 50 made of a resin in which polishing abrasive grains are included; and a second polishing process for polishing the outer circumference 13 using a resin brush 60 made of a resin in which the polishing abrasive grains are not included.
US08231427B2	Trim adjustment for toy vehicle steering A toy vehicle includes a chassis, a right turning member that supports a right steerable road wheel and a left turning member that supports a left steerable road wheel. A rigid steering link extends across the chassis and has right and left ends that are operably connected to the right and left turning members. An actuator provides a pivoting motion on a horizontal axis extending longitudinally forward and rearward in the vehicle. The motion provided by the actuator moves the steering link side to side across the vehicle. The right and left road wheels are pivoted by the motion of the steering link. An adjustable trim mechanism includes a bias member that helps to maintain a neutral position of the steering link and a trim adjustment that modifies a position on the chassis at which the steering link and road wheels are maintained in the neutral position.
US08231425B1	Toy construction set and method A toy construction set has interconnectable objects, each with multiple faces. Some faces have a connector, while others lack a connector but may have a fibrous or pierceable material. The connector includes a pair of concentrically nested hubs. The two hubs have spiral prongs that spiral in opposite directions. A manually operable link connected between the two hubs can relatively rotate them in opposite directions. The play activity proceeds by adjoining a pair of the objects with a prominent, connector-bearing face of one of the pair touching a prominent connector-free face of the other one of the pair. The player will counter-rotate the hubs in the connector of the prominent connector-bearing face to embed their spiral prongs in the fibrous or pierceable material of the prominent connector-free face.
US08231422B2	Plasma display panel and manufacturing method thereof A plasma display panel includes a substrate, a plurality of metal electrodes, and a dielectric layer. The plurality of metal electrodes are formed on the substrate in a predetermined direction. The dielectric layer is formed on the metal electrodes by firing a glass material. The metal electrodes are formed with a film thickness of 6 μm or less. The dielectric layer is formed with a film thickness of 25 μm or less.
US08231408B2	Connector A connector that has a high waterproof property, and can be easily assembled. A housing is formed with a through hole for accommodating a contact which is connected to a cable. An elastic sealing member that has a hollow cylindrical shape and is fitted on an outer peripheral surface of the cable is accommodated in a rear portion of the through hole, and an urging member having a hollow cylindrical shape is fitted on an outer peripheral surface of the housing. The urging member is formed with a tapered surface for urging a rear end of the elastic sealing member against the outer peripheral surface of the cable when the urging member is fitted on the outer peripheral surface of the housing.
US08231397B2	Hybrid universal distribution system comprising electrical, fluid, and communication functions A distributor for supplying consumers of an industrial plant with electricity and with fluid and for transmitting communication signals from and to the consumers has separate feed connections for supplying electricity and fluid as well as a collective line for communication signals. It further has a plurality of identical hybrid plug connectors which include plug connector elements for electric power supply, for fluid supply, and for communication signals and which are in communication with the corresponding feed connections and with the collective line, respectively.
US08231396B2	Plug-in-unit assembly with an off-center pivotal connection between a handle and an actuating member A plug-in unit assembly is disclosed which includes a case and a plug-in unit arranged to be removably connected to the case. The plug-in unit includes a unit body, a handle and an actuating member. The handle is pivotally connected to the unit body and operationally connected to the actuating member, the actuating member being movably connected to the unit body. The case includes a locking counterpart element and a releasing counterpart element, each of which is adapted to co-operate with the actuating member for moving the plug-in unit. The locking counterpart element is adapted to move the plug-in unit to a plugged-in position, and the releasing counterpart element is adapted to move the plug-in unit to an outer releasing position.
US08231393B2	Connection receptacle lock and security structure A lock and security structure for a connection receptacle includes a connection port, a pawl portion, and a lock and security portion. The connection port forms a receiving space and a slide channel in the receiving space. The pawl portion includes a fixed end and the pawl portion is located adjacent to an end surface of the connection port. The pawl portion forms at least one barb. The lock and security portion includes a bar portion and a board portion. The bar portion is formed on one end of the board portion. The lock and security portion is movable along the slide channel in the slide channel. When the lock and security portion is moved to a first position, the bar portion engages the pawl portion and when moved to a second position the bar portion disengages from the pawl portion.
US08231390B2	System and method for controlling impedance in a flexible circuit A flexible circuit is provided. The flexible circuit includes a circuit board mating end and a flexible body extending from the circuit board mating end. A conductive pathway extends through the flexible body to electrically couple circuit boards. A connector pad is positioned on the circuit board mating end. The conductive pathway electrically engages the connector pad. The connector pad is configured to electrically couple the flexible circuit to one of the circuit boards. A layer of uncured material extends between the connector pad and the conductive pathway. The layer of uncured material increases an impedance of the connector pad.
US08231389B1	Real-time observation assessment with phoneme segment capturing and scoring A real-time observation assessment system includes an assessment application that enables an assessor to administer a probe to a student, and to capture responses of the student, and to automatically score the captured responses. The assessment system includes a user interface of the assessment application. The user interface includes a first area of the user interface that displays a character sequence that is divided into multiple segments, where at least two of the multiple segments of the character sequence are separately selectable and a second area of the user interface that is divided into multiple segments corresponding to each segment of the character sequence in the first area, where each segment in the second area is separately selectable to enable capturing of different combinations of student responses reflecting selection of one or more of the segments in the second area. A scoring module enables a score to be calculated based on the selected segments according to scoring rules for the probe.
US08231387B2	Porous implant with non-porous threads An implant which includes a shaft made of a first material and having an exterior surface, and at least one thread made of a second material different from the first material, engaging the exterior surface, and extending outwardly from the exterior surface for engaging bone. After implantation of the implant, bone tissue may osseointegrate into the porous shaft to anchor the implant within the surrounding bone. The first material may be a porous metal and include tantalum while the second material is non-porous.
US08231384B2	Dental evacuation tool Devices for connection to a dental evacuation system and methods of manufacturing the same. In one example, a dental evacuation device for connection to a dental evacuation system includes an elongated body having a central passageway extending through the body, a protective tip disposed over and extending from an end of the body member, and a screening device positioned within the central passageway. The protective tip can define an aperture configured to provide access to the central passageway and can include a blunt ridge circumscribing the defined aperture. In one example, the screening device is offset from the protective tip to form a receiving space within the central passageway therebetween.
US08231364B2	Electric heating and temperature control for process pumps Electrically heated pumps are disclosed that include electric heating elements that are linked to a process controller. In a magnetic drive pump, the external jacketing on the pump head, pressure relief valve and casing can be replaced with electric heating elements attached to the pump through the use of adhesive or mechanical fastening devices. For the bracket portion of the magnetic drive pump, the external jacketing can be removed and the heating element is attached to the canister that contains the liquid and that is located between the inner and outer magnetic drive assemblies. Through the use of appropriately placed thermocouples in the head, pressure relief valve, casing, bracket, canister, etc., and a single or multi-channel on/off, proportional or PID controller, the heating zones may be linked together, monitored and controlled to the application requirements. The disclosed pump designs may also be applied to auxiliary equipment such as strainers.
US08231363B2	Screw compressor A screw compressor comprising: a low pressure stage compressor body; a high pressure stage compressor body that further compresses a compressed air compressed by the low pressure stage compressor body; pinion gears for example, respectively, provided on, for example, a male rotor of the low pressure stage compressor body and, for example, a male rotor of the high pressure stage compressor body; a motor; a bull gear for example, provided on a rotating shaft of the motor; and an intermediate shaft supported rotatably and provided with a pinion gear, which meshes with the bull gear, and a bull gear, which meshes with the pinion gears. Thereby, it is possible to make the motor relatively low in rotating speed while inhibiting the gears from being increased in diameter, thus enabling achieving reduction in cost.
US08231360B2	Hydrostatic pump with a mechanical displacement volume control A hydrostatic pump (1) has a mechanical displacement volume control with a mechanical control element (4), which for generation of an actuator pressure that acts on a positioning piston (5) which is functionally connected with a displacement setting device (3), has a position-controlled control valve (6) functionally connected with a control lever (30) and with the displacement setting device (3) of the pump (1). A pump with a mechanical displacement volume control with a pressure limiting function can be accomplished by mechanically decoupling the control lever (30) from the displacement setting device (3) whereby a pressure cutoff function is provided, with which, by respective pilot valves (21a, 21b), a pressure signal can be generated from a delivery line (2a, 2b) of the pump (1), which signal is transmitted via the control valve (6) to the positioning piston (5) and counteracts the control pressure.
US08231353B2	Methods and apparatus relating to improved turbine blade platform contours A flow directing assembly for use in a turbine engine comprising: a plurality of circumferentially spaced blades, each of the blades including a radial projecting airfoil with a concave pressure side and a convex suction side that extend from a platform; and a plurality of flow passages, each flow passage defined by the airfoils of neighboring blades and an inner wall formed by abutting platforms of neighboring blades, the inner wall forming the inner radial boundary of the flow passage; wherein the inner wall of one or more of the flow passages comprises means for reducing frictional losses between the flow through the turbine engine and the inner wall. The means for reducing frictional losses may comprise a non-axisymmetrical trough positioned between neighboring airfoils that is configured to reduce frictional losses.
US08231346B2	CF bearing with steady pitching moment A centrifugal force bearing having a means for providing a steady pitching moment is disclosed. The centrifugal force bearing may optionally comprise a coning means. A rotor system having the centrifugal force bearing is disclosed. A rotary-wing aircraft having the centrifugal force bearing is disclosed.
US08231345B2	Fan blade pitch change assembly An assembly for changing the pitch of fan blades rotatably attached to a hub includes a main drive shaft configured to rotate the hub. The main drive shaft is rotated by a first motor. A secondary drive shaft is coupled to the main drive shaft via a gearing system located within the hub. The secondary drive shaft is also driven by a second motor. When driven by the second motor, the secondary drive shaft manipulates the gearing system to alter the pitch of the fan blades.
US08231338B2	Turbine shell with pin support A turbine is provided and includes a turbine shell including shrouds at multiple stages thereof, and constraining elements, disposed at least at first through fourth substantially regularly spaced perimetrical locations around the turbine shell, which are configured to concentrically constrain the shrouds of the turbine shell.
US08231336B2	Fluid deflector for fluid separator devices A fluid deflector is for a fluid separator including a central axis and an enclosed wall having an open end and an inner circumferential separation surface extending about the axis to define an interior separation chamber. The fluid deflector includes a base disposable proximal to the wall open end and having a central axis collinear with the separator axis. A plurality of vanes are connected with the base so as to be spaced circumferentially about the central axis. The vanes define a plurality of flow channels each bounded by a separate pair of adjacent vanes and having an inlet and an outlet. Each vane directs flow through a bounded channel generally radially inwardly from the channel inlet toward the channel outlet and generally circumferentially and radially outwardly from the channel outlet.
US08231334B2	Secondary inlet cone for a plenum fan A plenum fan comprising a fan wheel disposed within a box-like enclosure includes a secondary inlet cone, a primary inlet cone, and a flexible duct. The two inlet cones convey air to the mouth of the fan wheel. A frame supports the fan wheel and the primary inlet cone such that the frame, the fan wheel and the primary inlet cone comprise a fan assembly. If the fan assembly shifts due to fan thrust or vibration, the fan assembly moves as a unit. The flexible duct connects the primary inlet cone to an inlet of the enclosure while isolating the fan assembly's vibration from the enclosure. The secondary inlet cone extends from the inlet of the enclosure, protrudes into or toward the primary inlet cone and provides a smooth airflow path over the abrupt shape of the flexible duct.
US08231329B2	Turbine blade cooling with a hollow airfoil configured to minimize a distance between a pin array section and the trailing edge of the air foil A turbine blade with a generally hollow airfoil having an outer wall that defines a chamber for receiving cooling air, the airfoil comprising a leading edge that resides in an upstream direction, a trailing edge that resides in a downstream direction, a convex suction side, a concave pressure side, and an insert disposed within the chamber that is configured to initially receive at least a portion of the cooling air entering the chamber and direct the cooling air through a plurality of insert apertures to cool the inner surface of the outer wall, the insert further comprising a configuration that generally conforms to the contour of the outer wall of the chamber but in spaced relation thereto, wherein the chamber and insert narrow as they extend toward the trailing edge, the insert eventually terminating and the chamber eventually terminating at a pin array section, wherein a first distance exists that comprises the generally axial distance between the position of downstream termination point of the insert and the position of an upstream beginning point of the pin array section, wherein the pin array section, at a downstream end, comprises a plurality of openings that define an inlet to a plurality of trailing edge cooling apertures, and wherein the chamber, the insert, and the pin array section are configured such that the first distance is approximately minimized.
US08231328B2	Fan casing for a gas turbine engine A fan casing for a gas turbine engine has a fan track liner extending only over an upstream part of the fan blades, and the local stiffness and internal shape of the casing are arranged to promote the break-up of a released fan blade while permitting the leading edge region of the blade to pass through the fan track liner and be contained by the fan casing. This arrangement is particularly suitable for fan blades in which the stiffness and compressive strength are significantly higher in the leading edge region than in the remainder of the blade; for example, hollow metal fan blades or composite fan blades having a metal leading edge cap.
US08231318B2	Push and turn nut for quick faucet installation A nut and an assembly including such a nut are described herein, wherein the nut includes an outer shell having an outer surface, an inner circumferential surface having a inwardly extending flange, and an upper rim portion; and an insert piece having an upper outwardly extending portion and a plurality of downwardly extending projections, wherein each of the projections has an outer surface and an inner surface, a portion of the inner surfaces of the projections is configured to engage a nut-receiving surface and the outer portion of the projections is configured to engage the inner circumferential surface of the first outer shell such that upon a pushing action of a user the inwardly extending flange on the outer shell presses upwardly on the upper outwardly extending portion of the insert piece so that the portion of the inner surfaces of the projections configured to receive a nut-receiving surface moves outwardly and upon removal of the pushing action, portion of the inner surfaces of the projections configured to receive a nut-receiving surface moves inwardly.
US08231315B2	Stackable armored vehicle Embodiments comprise a stackable vehicle which may be supported from, or serve as support to, another like vehicle. The vehicle includes a frame and a body supported from the frame. The body includes a weight bearing roof. Wheel assemblies are mounted for rotation on the frame. The body includes recesses from the roof of the body to accommodate location of wheel assemblies of a like vehicle supported on the roof. Support and mounting points are located on the roof and on the frame respectively to fix location of a vehicle to be carried on top of a supporting vehicle.
US08231314B2	Cutting insert, cutting tool, and method of machining A cutting insert includes a body having a first surface, a second surface, and an intermediate surface. The intermediate surface includes a generally cylindrical main surface and at least one recess surface extending radially inwardly from the main surface, the main surface and the recess surface extending between the first surface and the second surface. Cutting edges are defined by intersections between the main surface and the recess surface.
US08231311B2	Cutting insert A cutting insert having a pentagonal prismatic shape. A cutting region is associated with each polygonal side and is elevated with respect to a central tangential abutment surface. A primary cutting edge associated with a polygonal side is formed at the intersection of a primary rake surface and a primary relief surface. A secondary cutting edge associated with a rounded corner is formed at the intersection of a secondary rake surface and a secondary relief surface and merges with the primary cutting edge. The primary relief surface forms with the associated side abutment surface a primary relief surface angle that varies from a maximal value adjacent an upper end of the primary cutting edge to a minimal value. The secondary relief surface forms with the associated rounded corner a secondary relief surface angle that varies from a maximal value adjacent the primary cutting edge to a minimal value.
US08231309B2	Pier bracket A pier bracket comprises a metal bar having a plurality of bolt holes formed through a top half of the metal bar and a plurality of opposingly faced barbs extending from planar side surfaces in a lower half of the metal bar. The barbs are configured to provide asymmetrical resistance force to movement of the pier bracket when received within an aperture formed in a concrete pier or footing.
US08231307B2	System and method for tightening string sections to form a string A tensioning device in particular for bracing string sections of a string includes a traction element, which extends between an abutment and an adapter on the rear end of the string. A linear tensioning device is arranged in parallel relationship to the string for applying the tension force. A sliding brake engages the traction element in a self-locking manner in sole response to a tensile load applied by the linear tensioning drive to thereby allow the tensioning device to move on its own in a direction on the traction element.
US08231306B2	Advancement of pipe elements in the ground The aim of the invention is to advance pipe elements (18) for constructing an elongate structure in a soft, stony, rocky, and/or monolithic ground. Said aim is achieved by determining the force of advancement (40), the eccentricity (52) thereof in relation to the neutral axis (N), and/or the direction of advancement (28) with the aid of a pressing device (24) and extension elements (44) which are filled with fluid and are disposed on the face of the joints (70) of the tubing (14). The fluid pressure (p) is measured in at least one portion of the extension elements (44) which extends along the entire length of the tubing (14), and/or the deformation is measured in some of the joints (70). The force of advancement (40) and the eccentricity (52) are calculated from said parameters, and the values are stored and/or are compared to stored standard values. According to a variant, the eccentricity (52) is calculated, and the values are converted into control commands for the pressing device (24) and/or the individual fluid supply to or the individual fluid discharge from the extension elements (44).
US08231284B2	Ultra-high bandwidth, multiple-channel full-duplex, single-chip CMOS optical transceiver A novel parallel optical module having combined optical signal transmit and receive function for high-speed performance. The optical module includes a plurality, e.g., sixteen 10-Gb/s transmitter and receiver channels for a 160-Gb/s bidirectional aggregate data rate. The module utilizes a single-chip CMOS optical transceiver containing both transmitter and receiver circuits. 16-channel high-speed photodiode (PD) and VCSEL arrays are flip-chip attached to the low-power CMOS IC. The substrate emitting/illuminated VCSEL and PD arrays operate at 985 nm and include collimating lenses integrated into the backside of the substrate. The IC-OE assembly is then flip-chip attached to a high density organic package forming the transceiver optical module. The exclusive use of flip-chip packaging for both the IC-to-optoelectronic (OE) devices and for the IC-to-organic package minimizes the module footprint and associated packaging parasitics.
US08231273B2	Flow channel profile and a complementary groove for a pouch A pouch includes first and second pouch walls that define an interior of the pouch, and an opening to the interior of the pouch is provided in at least one of the first and second pouch walls. A flow channel profile is disposed on an inner surface of the first pouch wall, and a complementary groove is disposed on an inner surface of the second pouch wall. The complementary groove releasably engages the flow channel profile so as to define a flow channel between the first and second pouch walls. The flow channel profile extends between the opening and a portion of an interior of the pouch that is spaced from the opening. When the flow channel profile is releasably engaged with the complementary groove, a tip of the flow channel profile contacts a surface the complementary groove, and a surface of the flow channel profile that is adjacent to the tip also contacts a surface of the complementary groove.
US08231271B2	IR thermometry probe cover A removable protective cover for an insertion probe of a medical instrument. The cover contains a flexible tubular body that compliments the probe geometry and a radially disposed flange that surrounds the proximal end of the body. A series of snap-on fasteners removably connect the cover to the instrument. A camming surface is located on the outer face of the flange which coacts with a cam follower that is movably mounted upon the instrument to flex the cover sufficiently to open the fastener and release the cover from the instrument and move the cover axially toward the distal end of the tip.
US08231269B2	Culinary article that allows the detection of its temperature via a cooking plate The invention relates to a culinary article (100) having a bottom (101) in which heat-sensitive means (130) made of electrically conductive materials are placed. According to the invention, the heat-sensitive means (130) are made of non-ferromagnetic materials having a temperature-variable resistivity (p).
US08231267B2	Calorimeter and methods of using it and control systems therefor Control systems and calorimeters using them are provided. In certain examples, a calorimeter comprising a thin film sample sensor, a thin film reference sensor, a first controller configured to receive a temperature signal from only the reference sensor and to generate a first control signal, based on the received temperature signal, to provide average power to the sample sensor and to the reference sensor, and a second controller configured to receive temperature signals from both the sample sensor and the reference sensor and to generate a second control signal, based on the temperature signals received from both the sample sensor and the reference sensor, to provide differential power to only the sample sensor is described. Methods using the control systems and calorimeters are also described.
US08231258B2	Lighting module and lighting apparatus including the same A lighting module includes a case including an opening where a light emits from, a base portion corresponding to the opening, and a seat on at least one side of the base portion. The lighting module further includes a light source unit disposed on the seat, a light guide plate placed within the case and optically connected with the light source unit, and a diffusing plate placed within the case and placed below the light guide plate.
US08231257B2	Large area light panel and screen Embodiments of a panel lighting apparatus and methods of its manufacture are described. In one embodiment, the apparatus can include a light source, an at least partially transparent panel comprising a planar front surface and a planar back surface, the panel disposed in conjunction with the light source such that light from the light source is input into at least one edge of the panel and guided therein, and a plurality of light extraction dots disposed on the planar back surface, the plurality of light extraction dots configured to reflect light incident on the planar back surface and extract light from the light source propagating in the panel through the planar front surface.
US08231252B2	Lamp unit and projector employing same A projector includes a light source, a pump which supplies a compressed gas to cool the light source, and an ejector member having a hole, in which, a tube connects the pump to the ejector member, the compressed gas is discharged from the hole, and a diameter of the hole is in a range from 0.2 mm to 0.4 mm.
US08231250B2	Warm white lighting device The present invention relates to warm white light engines including combinations of blue, cyan, and red, red-orange, or amber emitters and one or more phosphors that produce a white light pleasing to the human eye through the use of improved color uniformity and improved collimation of light. Specifically, a micro-lenslet array having an optimized surface is used to disperse light from the light emitter; an innercollimation lens having an optimized cross-sectional shape and micro-ridges is used to disperse light; a TIR reflector having an optimized cross-sectional shape and micro-ridges is used to disperse and redistribute phase as well as provide collimation; and a final micro-lenslet layer includes optimized lenslet design placement and randomization factor to homogenize light to produce a uniform warm white light.
US08231245B2	LED lighting fixture The present invention relates generally to a light emitting diode lighting fixture. In one embodiment, the light fixture includes an extrusion, a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a lens coupled to the extrusion. The plurality of LEDs has a uniform spacing between each one of the plurality of LEDs along the extrusion.
US08231243B1	Vertical luminaire A luminaire is provided with a housing having an attachment element and a LED mounting element. A plurality of LEDs are also provided and are supported by the LED mounting element of the housing. A plurality of reflectors are positioned proximal to the plurality of LEDs and reflect light emitted by the LEDs toward an illumination surface.
US08231240B1	Surface lighting devices having a thermoelectric power source Surface lighting devices including at least one light source, at least one energy storage device, and a thermoelectric power generation unit electrically coupled to the at least one energy storage device are disclosed herein. The at least one energy storage device is charged by the thermoelectric power generation unit, and the stored energy is used to illuminate the at least one light source. The surface lighting devices include a voltage step-up circuit that converts a DC voltage produced by the thermoelectric power generation unit into a higher-level DC voltage. Methods for illuminating a surface utilizing the surface lighting devices are also disclosed.
US08231236B2	Input apparatus and light guiding plate thereof The invention provides a light guiding plate. The light guiding plate is transparent and applied to an input apparatus. A surface of the light guiding plate comprises a first region and a second region. The first region is covered by a non-transparent material. If a light is emitted into the light guiding plate, the light can be emitted out from the second region.
US08231231B2	Image display device and portable terminal device An image display device includes a light source which emits laser light; an optical element which is operable to switch between a first state for reducing a coherence of the laser light and a second state for substantially maintaining the coherence of the laser light; a switching control circuit which controls the optical element; an imager which modulates the laser light transmitted through the optical element; and a modulation control circuit which controls the imager based on an image signal. The modulation control circuit causes the imager to render an image pattern for generating an image by changing alight amount at each pixel position when the optical element is in the first state, and causes the imager to render a hologram pattern for generating an image by diffraction when the optical element is in the second state.
US08231225B2	High dynamic range scenographic image projection A high dynamic range scenographic image and video projection system and method involving the projection of an image of an object or collection of objects onto the object, 2D or 3D, in such a manner than projected image elements are positioned substantially on the actual image of the object. The projection enhances or otherwise alters the hue, contrast, brightness, saturation, luminance, and/or other visible features of the object. Visual and not-visual features may be projected onto the object or the area around the object to enhance or disguise the object as well as the surroundings of the object.
US08231224B2	Apparent speckle reduction via beam offset diversity in pupil space Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, beam position diversity or beam offset diversity in pupil space performs the complement to angular diversity by maintaining angular content of a beam while changing its position and/or polarization properties in pupil space over time.
US08231216B2	Printing apparatus A printing apparatus comprises a conveyance belt configured to convey a printing medium while attracting the printing medium to a conveyance surface thereof using an electrostatic force, a printhead configured to discharge a printing material onto the printing medium conveyed by the conveyance belt, a blade configured to scrape the printing material adhering on the conveyance belt; a support unit configured to bring the blade into press contact with the conveyance belt, and a recovery unit configured to recover the printing material which is scraped by the blade and free-falls, wherein a pressure applied from the blade to the conveyance belt decreases from one end to the other end in an orthogonal direction perpendicular to a conveyance direction of the printing medium on the conveyance surface of the conveyance belt.
US08231208B2	Liquid ejection head A liquid ejection head which does not stop a printing action even if mist of ink adheres onto the orifice plate, particularly between ejection port arrays, and suppresses deposition of continuously-adhered mist of ink. On the printing head part, there is formed a recovery hole which communicates with the common liquid chamber and recovers the ink adhered onto the orifice plate in the printing head part into the common liquid chamber. A face is provided with function of an ink guide in the printing head part so as the ink adhered to the printing head part to be guided to the recovery hole.
US08231205B2	Fluid ejecting head and fluid ejecting apparatus A fluid ejecting head includes a fluid storage chamber that temporarily stores a fluid, which is supplied from a fluid supply port, a plurality of pressure chambers, to which the fluid stored in the fluid storage chamber is supplied through a plurality of fluid supply paths, respectively, a plurality of driving elements that change pressure in the pressure chambers, respectively, and a plurality of nozzle openings, from which the fluids contained in the pressure chambers are ejected when the driving elements are driven, respectively. A specific driving element most distant from the fluid supply port among the driving elements has a maximum capability to discharge the air bubbles in the fluid from the nozzle opening among the driving elements.
US08231189B2	Undermount drawer slide An undermount drawer slide includes a first rail and a second rail slidable linearly with respect to the first rail. The first rail has a first wall perpendicular to a reference level, and includes a first and a second installation sections. The first installation section has a first vertical distance with respect to the reference level. The second installation section has a second vertical distance with respect to the reference level. The first vertical distance is different from the second vertical distance to form a height difference. The second rail includes a top wall and a protrusion protruding from the top wall. The protrusion has a height measured from the top wall which is substantially equal to the height difference. The protrusion is adapted to hold against a bottom of a drawer for keeping a front panel of the drawer in a level status with respect to a cabinet.
US08231188B1	Support mechanism for slide assembly A slide assembly includes a first rail, a second rail, an engaging member and a resilient member. The first rail includes an extension wall and the second rail is slidably connected to the first rail, and has a passage. The engaging member is pivotably connected to the second rail, and has a first end and a second end. The first end includes a stop. The resilient member is connected between the second end of the engaging member and the second rail so as to provide a resilient force to the engaging member so that the stop of the first end of the engaging member is inserted into the passage of the second rail by the resilient force from the resilient member. The stop is longitudinally located corresponding to the extension wall of the first rail. When the second rail is slid to a pre-set position relative to the first rail, the stop of the engaging member contacts the extension wall of the first rail to form a stop point.
US08231187B2	Hinge bracket for a pocket door A hinge bracket attachable to a pocket door slide system wherein the pocket door slide system comprises components capable of achieving a full inset or partial overlay pocket door position without the hinge bracket, and wherein use of the hinge bracket enables the pocket door slide system to achieve a substantially full overlay pocket door position.
US08231184B2	Crawler track roller with internal spherical spacers An endless track support roller is mounted for rotation about a shaft adapted for being fixed between parallel rails of a track support frame. The roller comprises mirror image halves, with a pair of thrust bushings being received on the shaft and respectively disposed in supporting relationship to the roller halves. Each thrust bushing includes an axially outwardly facing thrust face. Mounting brackets fixed to opposite ends of the shaft are adapted to be fixed to the pair of frame rails. Non-uniform edge loading of the bushings resulting from shaft deformations caused by flexure of the frame rails is minimized by providing axially inwardly facing ends of the brackets with spherically contoured surfaces, and by locating an annular spacer between each bracket and bushing thrust face, the annular spacer having outer and inner axially facing surfaces respectively shaped complimentary to the spherically contoured bracket surface and to the bushing thrust face.
US08231178B2	Mobile base for reducing lateral pressure of the body lift cylinder of a dump body Disclosed is an equipment of the type comprising a frame on which is mounted a dump body liftable by means of a body lift cylinder having two opposite ends, a first one of these ends being connected to the frame and the other one to the dump body in order to lift it up when the cylinder is extended. This equipment is characterized in that the first end of the cylinder connected to the frame is mounted on a mobile base which is fixed onto the frame in such a manner as to have some liberty of transversal inclination and thus to allow the cylinder to extend in a constant straight line even if a lateral torsion is applied onto the cylinder by the dump body when said dump body is lifted up.
US08231177B2	Folding head restraint mechanism A foldable head restraint assembly includes a mounting subassembly, a structural shell, and a locking plate. The mounting subassembly supports the structural shell and includes a first support post, a second support post, a cross member, and a latch rigidly. The cross member is attached to the first and second support posts and to the latch. The folding motion of the head restraint is initiated by movement of the locking plate which is positionable at a first plate position for engaging the latch and at a second plate position for releasing the latch. The structural shell is pivotable about the mounting subassembly when the latch plate is in the second plate position.
US08231173B2	Armrest with cup holder An armrest with cup holder is disclosed, in which the cup holder is secured in the upper surface thereof, and that upper surface is covered with an upper cover section of trim cover assembly. Localized portions of the afore-said upper cover section, which lie between a flange of the cup holder and a lateral wall of the armrest, are each formed with an extension in the free end thereof. That extension is folded together with the corresponding end of the upper cover section and retained between the flange of cup holder and a support member provided around the flange of cup holder, thereby making protrudent the localized portions to compensate for and eliminate an objectionable recessed areas between those localized portions and cup holder flange.
US08231169B2	Rocker panel for a motor vehicle A rocker panel is provided for a motor vehicle, having a first oblong rocker panel part, on which a second oblong rocker panel part, having longitudinal axis (A) parallel thereto, is fastened so it is movable in relation thereto.
US08231164B2	Removable in-floor storage device A removable in-floor storage device for a vehicle floorpan well, including a lid assembly have a frame mounted on a floorpan surface about the periphery of the floorpan well so as to define a frame opening, and a lid pivotally mounted on the frame to move from a closed position to an open position allowing access to the frame opening. The storage device further includes a removable storage bin adapted to be received within the frame opening and supported within the frame opening by the frame, to thereby define a storage chamber within the vehicle generally beneath the floorpan surface.
US08231152B2	Hatch latch A latch extension device for lockedly securing a hinged hatch panel or liftgate of a vehicle in a rigid, partially open position, the device having a pair of arms, each arm having a jaw end, a handle end, and a pivotable coupling interconnecting the arms between the jaw end and the handle end for imparting a scissors action. By clamping the jaws of the device around a striker bolt of the vehicle and inserting the opposite end into the lock, the hinged hatch or door is locked in a partially open position, thereby providing a fixed air gap for ventilation and cooling, as is useful when children, pets or groceries are in the vehicle, while preventing the hatch or door from being opened further or shut. In a preferred embodiment, both arms of the device are joined by a pivot pin and are identical, simplifying manufacture.
US08231140B2	Airbag module with deployment control flap An airbag module includes a bag wrap, a retainer, an airbag, and an inflator to inflate the airbag. The airbag includes at least one vent hole, and a deployment control flap to change trajectory of the airbag such that the airbag will deploy upwards and laterally to left and right sides. The deployment control flap is fixed at both ends to the retainer, airbag, or bag wrap.
US08231136B2	System and method for mounting different types of infant carriers on a support structure A system and method are provided for detachably mounting different types of infant carriers on a support structure. The system includes a mounting platform provided on a frame of the support structure. The mounting platform includes a first and second coupling structure. The first coupling structure is adapted to engage with a first fastener structure of a first infant carrier, whereas the second coupling structure is adapted to engage with a second fastener structure of a second infant carrier. The mounting platform also includes a rotary support base that can be rotated relative to the frame between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the support base enables engagement of the first coupling structure with the first fastener structure. In the second position, the support structure enables engagement of the second coupling structure with the second fastener structure.
US08231132B2	Heavy duty wheelbarrow A heavy duty wheelbarrow/yard cart with two vertical fixed front wheels and one or two rear caster wheels for steering. An ergonomic pushbar handle is bolted to the frame and allows it to be pushed or lifted to dump the material. A brake keeps the wheelbarrow from moving on sloped terrain.
US08231115B2	Very high damping body mount, subframe mount or engine mount with bolt-through construction A hydraulic mount has an upper support member and a lower support member. An upper elastomeric spring and a lower elastomeric spring are disposed between the upper support member and the lower support member to define an upper fluid chamber and a lower fluid chamber. A channel extends between the upper and lower chambers. During compression and extension of the hydraulic mount, fluid transfers between the upper and lower chamber to provide a damping force for the hydraulic mount.
US08231112B2	Humidifier with field reconfigurable bypass feature A humidifier for adding humidity to an air stream of an HVAC system includes a housing configured to be mounted to a surface of an HVAC duct. A back side of the housing may be positioned adjacent to an opening in the surface of the HVAC duct, and the housing may be configured to hold a humidifier pad in an operating position. The housing may define a first air flow path from a first side of the humidifier pad to the opening in the surface of the HVAC duct when the housing is mounted to the surface of the HVAC duct. The housing may further define a second air flow path from a second side of the humidifier pad to a bypass aperture. At least part of the second air flow path may be defined by a bypass duct member. The bypass duct member may be field-reconfigurable between at least a first position resulting in the bypass aperture being located at a first location, and a second position resulting in the bypass aperture being located at a second location. In some cases, the first and second locations are on the left and right sides, respectively, of the humidifier housing.
US08231110B2	Retrofit roll-over valve for carburetor float bowl vent tube A roll-over valve attaches over an existing carburetor float bowl vent tube and closes when a car is involved in a crash to prevent or reduce fuel from escaping from a tilted or inverted carburetor and starting a fire. Carburetors are used in many special interest cars and race cars. The carburetors include float bowls containing fuel and the float bowls are vented to outside air by the carburetor vent tubes. The carburetor vent tubes are generally vertical tubes reaching upward from the carburetor into an air cleaner or the volume above the carburetor. The roll-over valve includes a compression fitting or other connector and is easily fitted to the carburetor.
US08231107B2	Hand tool A hand tool for lifting and separating objects. The hand tool includes a body member and a handle member. The body member includes a shaft member having a linear configuration, a neck member, and an elongated member. The shaft member includes a first end portion and a second end portion. The first end portion of the shaft member is tapered into a planar surface. The neck member extends obtusely from the second end portion of the shaft member. The neck member includes a proximal end portion and a distal end portion such that the proximal end portion of the neck member merges with the second end portion of the shaft member. The elongated member extends from the distal end portion of the neck member, such that, the elongated member is substantially parallel to the shaft member. The handle member is configured on the elongated member.
US08231103B2	Flow control valve A flow control valve controls the flow rate of heated water supplied from a boiler. The valve can normally/reversely turn and control the flow rate in a pipeline using first and second one-way motors, and stops power for one motor when the other motor is rotated. The valve includes a motor assembly including the first and second motors that have power transmission shafts which rotate in opposite directions, a gear assembly including first and second planetary gears that receive power from the motors and a sun gear disposed between and engaged with the planetary gears, a clutch structure between the first planetary gear and motor, and the second planetary gear and motor, that transmits or stops power, and a valve actuator including a shaft that reciprocates up/down by rotation of the sun gear and a valve unit fitted on the lower portion of the shaft that opens/closes the valve.
US08231099B2	Protective cover support rack for portable electronic devices A protective cover support rack for electronic devices includes at least a protective cover body, a support lid and a hinge assembly. The protective cover body has an inner rim with an annular U-shaped trough formed thereon to hold and encase the body of an electronic device, and a lower half portion to cover the back side of the electronic device. The support lid can be adjusted at an angle smaller than 360 degrees to allow users to swivel to the front side as required to protect the screen of the electronic device, or adjust to a standing position to facilitate viewing, or fold it to fully in contact with back side of the protective cover body at a storing position, or swivel to facilitate hand grasping in use.
US08231095B2	Swingarm bow support The disclose describes an improved holder for an archery bow which includes two arms pivotally attached to one another and a sliding support arm for resisting bending moments due to the weight of the bow being held at a distance away from a tree. The support arm and one of the arms each feature a separate fastener for securing the holder to a tree.
US08231090B2	Apparatus for mounting a wheelchair amputee pad The apparatus for mounting a wheelchair pad provides a high degree of support and adjustability such that it can be used with wheelchairs from a wide variety of different manufacturers. This adjustability is also beneficial to the occupant of the wheelchair, as the adjustability can provide a wide variety of people with a more custom fit. In order to provide this custom fit, the claimed invention provides for depth adjustability, height adjustability and angle adjustability in both the vertical and horizontal planes of the amputee pad. Additionally the claimed invention can be installed on either side of the wheelchair.
US08231089B2	Suction plate or bowl holder A plate holder can include: a skirt having a top member and one or more side walls forming a cavity therebetween when the one or more side walls are resting on a substrate with the top member oriented away from the substrate; a base coupled with the skirt and located within the cavity, the base having one or more top suction device receptacles and one or more bottom suction device receptacles; one or more top suction devices coupled with the one or more top suction device receptacles such that the top suction device is oriented away from the substrate; and one or more bottom suction devices coupled with the one or more top suction device receptacles such that the bottom suction device is oriented toward the substrate.
US08231086B1	Lightweight portable laptop computer stand A lightweight portable laptop computer stand which lifts the back of the laptop keyboard and the bottom of the display screen for improved ergonomics and increased cooling airflow.
US08231062B1	Formable RFID tag A formable RFID tag includes a tag inlay including a composite polymer material having a pliant and flexible pre-cured state and a hardened cured state, non-rigid RFID circuitry embedded in the tag inlay and a non-rigid RFID antenna embedded in the tag inlay and interfacing with the RFID circuitry.
US08231044B2	Solar substrate ribbon bonding system An ultrasonic solar substrate bonding system is provided. The system includes a bond head assembly including a bonding tool for bonding a ribbon material to a plurality of solar substrates. The system also includes a ribbon feeding system successively supplying portions of a continuous length of the ribbon material to the bonding tool such that the bonding tool forms ultrasonic bonds between the portions of the continuous length of the ribbon material and a plurality of solar substrates.
US08231042B2	Surgical stapler A surgical stapler comprising a handle assembly, an elongated body portion extending distally from the handle assembly, and a head portion disposed adjacent a distal portion of the elongated body portion and including an anvil assembly and a shell assembly. The anvil assembly is movable in relation to the shell assembly between spaced and approximated positions. The anvil assembly has an anvil head and a plurality of projections extending proximally of the anvil head, the projections engageable with a portion of the shell assembly.
US08231038B2	Ammunition pouch A wearable item carrier includes a first container having a first side including a belt receiver and a second side opposite the first side including a container receiver. An generally inverted J-shaped paddle can be attached to the item carrier and engaged with a waistline of a garment or a belt of an individual wearing the item carrier to prevent the item carrier from flopping around if the individual makes a sudden movement or change in direction.
US08231037B2	Multi-mode strap apparatus for carrying bags This invention discloses strap apparatus that is attached to a carrying bag such as a purse, briefcase or message bag. The strap apparatus is constructed from a single flat strap configured as a closed loop. The loop is constrained to each side of the bag at the bottom; the outside first side and inside second side of the strap are also constrained to lie against the sides of the bag near the top; and the inside first side and outside second side are releasably constrained at the sides of the bag at the top. When fully constrained, the bag appears to a casual observer as having a standard single strap. However, when the constraints are released, the two strap segments may be separated and the bag can be put over the shoulder as a backpack. Two other modes, a dual strap and a long strap, are also disclosed.
US08231036B2	Portable recreation system for motorized vehicles A portable recreation and entertainment system for use with a motorized vehicle is provided. The system includes a housing having a generally horizontal base portion and a top portion oriented vertically distal therefrom. A plurality of walls extends between the base and top, connecting the two portions and thereby defining an opening facing away from the vehicle. A first door extends laterally across a lower portion of the opening, and connects to a wall portion to selectively rotate from a closed position to an open position. A second door extends laterally across an upper portion of the opening, and connects to another wall portion to selectively rotate from a closed position to an open position. A support platform is connected to the housing and supportably attached to a rearward end of the vehicle by a support arm that preferably includes a mating member configured to mate with a trailer hitch.
US08231032B2	Dispenser for pressurized beverage bottle A beverage release cap over a bottle cap of a plastic carbonated beverage bottle for dispensing a beverage, without losing gasses inside the bottle, when the bottle is inverted or partially inverted for pouring. The beverage release cap has three distinct functional and physical sections. A lower section engaging a bottle rim below the bottle cap and snapping over the bottle rim, thereby retaining the beverage release cap to the bottle while providing a seal and permitting a twisting rotation of the beverage release cap. A middle section gripping the bottle cap with vertical, equally spaced ribs, a space between the ribs allowing beverage to flow between the bottle cap and the beverage release cap. An upper section providing a path for the beverage to flow from the middle section. The beverage release cap may alternatively be a replacement to the standard bottle cap.
US08231031B2	Lotion pump and one-way valve incorporated therein A lotion pump may include an upper one-way valve. The one-way valve may include an elastic tube and a valve seat. The valve seat is disposed on the connecting/guiding member or the nozzle head and has a closed top end and at least one opening provided on a side surface, and the elastic tube elastically covers the side surface of the valve seat. The one way valve may include an open state and a closed state. In the open state, the elastic tube expands to open the opening; and in the closed state, the elastic tube closes the opening. The lotion pump may be connected to a liquid container that is fixed to a fixture.
US08231029B2	Flexible container having flexible handles A flexible container has flexible top and bottom handles for facilitating dispensing of a flowable substance stored therein. The container includes a flexible panels enclosing an interior of the container and forming a top segment, an opposite bottom segment, a front side segment, a rear side segment, and a pair of side segments bounding the interior. A rigid fitment provides an access opening through either the top segment or a front side segment. A flexible bottom handle structure surrounds a handle opening. It is defined by at least one of the flexible panels, the bottom handle structure being positioned along a center portion of the bottom segment between the front side and rear side segments. The bottom handle has a folded portion at the opening to provide a smooth gripping surface.
US08231008B2	Column flotation cell for enhanced recovery of minerals such as phosphates by froth flotation An apparatus for separating a mineral from a slurry of mineral and impurities, including a fluid vessel having a first, open end and a second end and a feed well disposed near the first end. The feed well has a first, open end, for receiving the slurry, and a second end. At least one first member is received through the first ends of the vessel and the feed well for providing aerated water, creating a froth in the feed well including substantially the mineral. The mineral froth substantially separates from the impurities and floats out of the feed well towards the first end of the vessel, and a collection unit receives the mineral froth. The impurities and any remaining mineral fall toward the second end of the vessel. A measurement unit is placed within the vessel for measuring at least one of density and pressure of the fluid in the vessel. A related process includes introducing the slurry into the first, open end of the feed well, providing aerated water to the feed well and the vessel in a direction from the first ends to the second ends, respectively, creating a froth in the feed well including substantially the mineral, substantially separating the mineral froth from the impurities, collecting the mineral froth, and allowing the impurities and any un-separated mineral to fall towards the second end of the vessel. Further, the process includes measuring at least one of density and pressure of the fluid in the vessel.
US08231007B2	Static classifier cage A static classifier cage is formed in upper and lower tiers of circumferentially spaced bar-shaped vanes of wear-resistant material. The lower tier is formed by and between a bottom ring and an intermediate ring. The top tier is formed by and between the intermediate ring and a topmost ring. In each tier, the lowermost ring is provided with slots to receive and act as a seat for the vertically oriented vanes while the upper ring in the tier is provided with radially outwardly opening notches into which the vanes are moved in a radial fashion. After the vanes are installed, a retainer is fastened into position to prevent the vanes from backing out of the notches.
US08231000B2	Contents indicators and container system A container indicator system having an internal surface and internal area for storage of materials and an external surface; and an indicator (swiveling arm, reflector, textile material, rubber, plastic, metal flag, sign) attached to the container. The indicator described is optionally a flexible material, a swiveling arm integrated with an axis and a swiveling arm without an axis, a reflector or combinations of the foregoing and even multiple combinations of the foregoing to indicate various states of the container. The indicator is attached to the internal or external surface of the container or in the case of the swiveling arm (using a mounting plate) that acts itself as an indicator a further indicator like a reflector, or flag is attached near its extreme external end. The indicator is moveable from the internal area of the container to an external area.
US08230992B2	Tablet computer case for multiple viewing orientations A case or cover for an electronic device such as a tablet computer is disclosed. This case allows the user to protect and personalize their tablet computer. The case allows the user to position the device for viewing in either portrait or landscape mode and does not require the user to hold the device in the desired orientation. The case may have a distinct hinge, with a stop that limits its rotational travel allowing the user to prop the electronic device up, at a desired viewing angle.
US08230989B2	Shuttle machine for machine tool A shuttle machine for transporting work pieces for a sealing press or other machine tool is disclosed. It has two conveyers for transporting work pieces. The two conveyers are supported by a frame to move back and forth in opposite directions. When the two conveyers are in a first position, a second section of the first conveyer and a first section of the second conveyer are located near the tool, while the first second of the first conveyer and the second section of the section conveyer are accessible to first and second operators, respectively. Both operators can unload and reload work pieces simultaneously while the tool operates on the already loaded work pieces. When the conveyers are moved to a second position, the sections previously operated on are accessible for unloading and reloading, and the sections just loaded are operated on. A related operating method is also disclosed.
US08230979B2	Transportation method associating an access story with a destination story The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for transporting people in a building using an elevator installation (10) having at least one elevator cage (11). The elevator cage (11) is entered by people on at least one first or one second access floor (S1, S2). In order to increase the transport efficiency, at least one target floor (S3, S4, S5, S6, S7) is associated with each access floor (S1, S2) in a fixed manner, in such a way that the elevator cage (11) travels from the first access floor (S1) to the associated first target floor (S4, S5) and from the second access floor (S2) to the associated second target floor (S5, S6, S7).
US08230976B2	Pallet truck with calculated fork carriage height A pallet truck including a controller that calculates the height of the fork carriage without the use of mechanical devices such as switches or sensors. A calculated carriage height is derived by adding the amount of time that a carriage is commanded to be raised and offsetting that by the amount of time that the carriage lower button is depressed. The calculated carriage height is essentially an accumulated lift time where the time that the carriage is lifting is a positive value and the time that the carriage is lowering is a negative value. When these values are combined, the result is the present calculated carriage height. The controller further monitors the calculated carriage height such that if the carriage is too close to the ground, the maximum speed of the pallet truck is limited to prevent damage to the forks or ground due to striking or scraping between them.
US08230966B2	Diaphragm for speaker, frame for speaker, dust cap for speaker, speaker and apparatus using them, and method for manufacturing component for speaker A speaker diaphragm is configured by a compound mixed with resin and bamboo fiber. The diaphragm satisfying the advantage of the bamboo fiber of high sound quality and a large degree of freedom in the setting of the characteristic value of the diaphragm and the advantage of the diaphragm made of a resin with improved humidity resistance reliability and strength, excellent external appearance, and enhanced productivity and dimension stability is obtained.
US08230962B2	Vehicle with a semi-automatic transmission having a reverse gear A vehicle (1) having a frame, at least two wheels (14, 16), a straddle seat (28), a handlebar (18) with first (20) and second (22) handles, an engine (30), and a semi-automatic transmission (32). A reverse actuator (152) is electronically connected to a control unit (46) of the semi-automatic transmission. At least one shifter (108) is electronically connected to the control unit such that moving the at least one shifter to an up-shift position causes the control unit to send a signal to the semi-automatic transmission to shift up and moving the at least one shifter to the down-shift position causes the control unit to send a signal to the semi-automatic transmission to shift down. The control unit sends a signal to the semi-automatic transmission to select the at least one reverse gear (34) only when the reverse actuator is actuated while the at least one shifter is moved. A method of controlling a semi-automatic transmission is also disclosed.
US08230960B2	Hood structure of work vehicle A hood structure of a work vehicle comprise, a hood supported to open and close relative to a vehicle body, the hood having a rear end portion bent toward an interior space of the hood to form a bent edge portion, an open-position retainer bracket attached to the rear end portion of the hood, and an open-position retainer member attached to the open-position retainer bracket to maintain the hood in an open position. The open-position retainer bracket extends cantileverwise forwardly of the hood from an attaching portion of the open-position retainer bracket that is attached to the rear end portion of the hood with a gap being defined between the open-position retainer bracket and a top surface of the hood. The open-position retainer member is attached to an extending end of the open-position retainer bracket.
US08230956B2	Arrangement of an electrical machine A drive train for a vehicle provided with an internal combustion engine including a first housing mounted on said engine, a second housing mounted in said first housing, a transmission mounted on the second housing operatively connected to the engine, a transversely disposed shaft disposed in the first housing drivingly connected to the transmission, an electrical motor disposed in one of the housings and operating interconnecting the engine and transmission and a clutch operatively interconnecting a rotor of the electric motor and the transmission.
US08230939B1	Cookstove fire extinguishing system An improved fire protection system that is of fail safe design for kitchen stoves with or without a range hood and other applications utilizing electrical power for generating heat and in which a fire condition such as a skillet of grease becomes ignited. Said system is activated thermally to release a quantity of fire suppressant material while simultaneously cutting off the electrical power. The system utilizes a reservoir containing the fire suppressant under pressure with a hose or pipe connected to one or a plurality of thermally activated nozzles. A second hose or pipe is connected to a pneumatically operated electrical interruption device.
US08230935B2	Sand control screen assembly with flow control capability A flow control screen (100) includes a base pipe (102) having a blank pipe section (104) and a perforated section (106). A filter medium (112) is positioned around a portion of the blank pipe section (104). A housing (114, 118, 120, 122, 124) is positioned around another portion of the blank pipe section (104) and the perforated section (106). A deformable element (150) is positioned between the housing and a portion of the perforated section including at least one production port (108) but not including at least one closure port (110) to define a production path (154) between the production port (108) and the filter medium (112) such that application of a sufficient pressure to the closure port (110) acts on the deformable element (150) to deform the deformable element (150) to substantially close the production path (154).
US08230934B2	Apparatus and method for directionally disposing a flexible member in a pressurized conduit An apparatus and method for directionally disposing an elongated flexible member in a pressurized conduit. The method includes inserting a bent end portion of an elongated hollow body through an opening in fluid communication with a well valve and defined by a pressurized conduit, the bent end portion being disposed in a pre-determined direction and location within the pressurized conduit; inserting a lead portion of an elongated flexible member into a fluid passageway defined by a primary valve, the fluid passageway of the primary valve being in sealed fluid relationship with the elongated hollow body which, in turn, is in sealed fluid relationship with the pressurized conduit, so that the lead portion of the elongated flexible member is inserted through the bend end portion and into the pressurized conduit by a pre-determined distance; and thereafter retaining in place the inserted elongated flexible member, whereby the elongated flexible member is directionally disposed in the pressurized conduit.
US08230932B2	Multifunction downhole release tool mechanism with lost motion Presented is a system and method for disconnecting a plurality of wireline tools from a string of wireline tools while maintaining operation of the wireline tools remaining with the string of wireline tools. The disconnection is non-destructive and allows a reconnection of the disconnected tools after retrieval from the well. The system also enables testing of the disconnection mechanism before deploying the wireline tool string into the well.
US08230923B2	Controlling coal fines in coal bed operations The migration of coal fines within a bed is reduced, inhibited or constrained by contacting the fines with nanoparticles, such as magnesium oxide crystals having an average particle size of about 30 nm. These nanoparticles may coat a proppant during the fracturing of a subterranean formation to produce methane from a coal bed therein. The nanoparticles may also treat a proppant pack in a fractured coal bed. The nanoparticles cause the coal fines to thus bind to or associate with the proppants. Thus, most of the coal fines entering fractures away from the near-wellbore region will be restrained or controlled near their origin or source and the production of methane at a desired level will be maintained much longer than a similar situation than where the nanoparticles are not used.
US08230912B1	Hydraulic bidirectional jar A bidirectional jarring tool that allows repetitive firing in one direction without firing the tool in the opposite direction. One of the tubular members provides up and down anvil surfaces, and the other member provides up and down hammer surfaces. Inner and outer tubular members define a hydraulic chamber with a restricted section that divides the chamber into an upper section and a lower section. Upper and lower pistons, each with a valved flow channel, reciprocate through the restricted section to produce up and down jarring impacts. When the restricted section is disposed between the upper and lower pistons, the tool is in a neutral position and can be jarred repetitively in either direction.
US08230906B2	Dual-chamber fluid pump for a multi-fluid electronics cooling system and method A dual-chamber fluid pump is provided for a multi-fluid electronics cooling system and method. The pump has a first fluid path for pumping a first fluid coolant and a second fluid path for pumping a second fluid coolant, with the first fluid path including a first pumping chamber and the second fluid path including a second pumping chamber. The first and second pumping chambers are separated by at least one diaphragm, and an actuator is coupled to the diaphragm for transitioning the diaphragm between a first position and a second position. Transitioning of the diaphragm to the first position pumps first fluid coolant from the first pumping chamber while concurrently drawing second fluid coolant into the second pumping chamber, and transitioning of the diaphragm to the second position pumps second fluid coolant from the second pumping chamber while concurrently drawing first fluid coolant into the first pumping chamber.
US08230905B2	Heat dissipation device having a fan holder A heat dissipation device includes a fin group, a fan and two fan holders fixing the fan onto a front side of the fin group. The fin group defines two elongated slots in two opposite lateral side thereof and two receiving grooves in two opposing inner faces of each elongated slot. The receiving grooves have openings defined at a top of the fin group. Each fan holder has a main plate attached to a lateral side of the fin group and a locking plate connected to an inner side of the main plate and being inserted into the two receiving grooves of a corresponding elongated slot from the openings at the top of the fin group.
US08230892B1	Thermoplastic welding apparatus and method A welding device includes a heated wedge having a top surface and a bottom surface, the top and bottom surfaces each including a generally planar portion and a curved potion. The curved portions of the top and bottom surfaces meet at a point. A first pressure plate includes a generally planar contact surface that contacts and covers substantially the entire planar portion of the top surface. A second pressure plate includes a generally planar contact surface that contacts and covers substantially the entire planar portion of the bottom surface.
US08230886B2	Sweatband and cap having the same A cap includes a bill portion, a body formed by a plurality of gores, and a sweatband sewn on a lower edge of the body. The sweatband is substantially sewing-free among different sections and includes a third section connected to the bill portion, a second section connected to the first section which is made of uniaxial elastic fabric, and a first section connected to a portion of the body other than the bill portion. The second section is connected between the first section and the third section without a sewing portion.
US08230885B2	Fluid duct, and flexible pipe for a fluid duct The invention relates to a fluid duct (10), especially for use in motor vehicles to feed liquid in order to wipe windows or headlights of said motor vehicle. Said fluid duct (10) comprises a flexible pipe (12) with at least one corrugated pipe section (22) and at least one plain pipe section (24) that adjoins the corrugated pipe section (22), at least one pipe joint (16, 20) with a pipe connecting section (26) which is inserted into a plain pipe section (24), and a support sleeve (36) for each pipe joint (16, 20). The support sleeve (36) surrounds the plain pipe section (24) receiving the pipe connecting section (26) and presses the plain pipe section (24) against the pipe connecting section (26).
US08230884B2	Control valve with profiled packing element Control valve with profiled packing element for making bidirectional flow-through with asymmetric intensity possible in a flow area. The packing element (1) has a first surface which can be abutted against a second surface in the valve housing (2). The packing element (1) has a first position in which said first surface (3) and said second surface (4) abut against one another, and a second position in which said first surface (3) and said second surface (4) are distant from one another. At least one of the surfaces (3, 4) is provided with a damage (5) by means of which when said packing element (1) is in its first position a first cross-section of flow is ensured between said abutting first and second surfaces (3, 4), which is smaller than a second cross-section of flow ensured by said packing element (1) when it is in its second position.
US08230883B2	Gas piping system for fuel cell There is provided a gas piping system for a fuel cell in which a gas pipe is made of stainless steel containing no nickel and is fixed at normal room temperature to a suspension member or a fixing portion through a fixing tool by means of bolts/nuts. The fixing tool is constituted to include a bracket member and an elastic member, and this elastic member is arranged between the bracket member and the gas pipe. Moreover, the fixing tool is equipped with a notched portion such that the fixing tool may be self-ruptured when an excessive external force is applied to a fuel cell stack constituting a fuel cell system.
US08230877B2	Mass flow rate control system A dosage system for feeding a fluid (A) to a static mixer (1), said system comprising a tank (2) containing said fluid (A) at a predetermined pressure, a fluid passage (3) connecting said container (1) and tank (2), a control valve (4) provided within said fluid passage (3) to control the flow of said fluid (A) from said tank into said container; and a controller (6) for receiving a target flow rate (SP_Q) of said fluid (A), and an actual flow rate (PV_Q) of said fluid (A), and for outputting a control signal (MV_L) to said control valve (4) indicating a valve position to adjust the flow rate. Further provided is a method for controlling said dosage system.
US08230876B2	Apparatus for handling a hose An apparatus for handling a hose arranged in a hose housing. The hose is in successive order connected to a fuel supply connection, passes a first roll, passes a second roll and extends through an opening in the hose housing, towards a nozzle end of the hose. The first roll is attached to the housing by at least one resilient element and a first carrier part having the form of a swing lever, and the second roll is attached to the housing by at least a second carrier part, to allow extracting and retracting of the hose through the opening. Moreover, a method for handling a hose as well as a fuel dispensing unit are described.
US08230863B2	Platform for fixing surgical instruments during surgery A medical assembly includes a platform which is securely mountable to an operating room fixture, and a plurality of arms or arm modules coupled to the platform and each with a grasper for holding a surgical instrument or port. The medical assembly is particularly applicable for laparoscopic surgery although it is not limited thereto.
US08230862B2	Tracheal tube support apparatus A flexible support for holding endotracheal and nasotracheal tubes in place on the face of a patient includes a pair of oppositely disposed adhesively mountable flanges for releasable mounting to the face of the patient, wherein the flanges are interconnected by a single narrow adhesive-backed elongate bridge-piece spanning between the opposite flanges, and wherein the bridge-piece is shaped so as to be mountable on either the filtrum or mandible of a patient, and wherein a pair of adhesive-backed wings are pivotally mounted by a flexible hinge to the bridge-piece for releasable adhesive mounting of the wings to a portion of the tracheal tube once intubated.
US08230860B2	Filter for a breathing device A filter for a breathing device is flexible and can be manufactured in a simple manner. The filter includes a flexible frame (5) with a filter port (8) and with an end piece (9). The flexible frame (5) is provided between two filter mats (2, 3). The flexible frame (5) can be folded over along a bent edge (7) such that the filter port (8) and the second end piece (9) are arranged opposite each other.
US08230858B2	Controlling the operation of a respiratory gas monitor A method for controlling a respiratory gas monitor device, which includes at least one respiratory gas analyzer, a gas sampling line, a gas pump for sucking sample(s) of respiratory gas from the gas sampling line. Also included are a power supply and a processing unit, and a pressure sensor connected to the gas sampling line and electrically connected to the processing unit. A minimum value and a maximum value in a signal from the patient are detected by the processing unit, and a difference between the minimum value and the maximum value is calculated. The value of this difference is compared with a predetermined threshold value. If the calculated difference is below the threshold value, the pump is switched off or kept non-operating by the processing unit. If the calculated difference is over the threshold value, the pump is switched on or kept operating by the processing unit.
US08230849B2	Wall thimble with outside air inlet An improved wall thimble as part of a venting apparatus for a heating appliance. Dual functionality is provided in a single wall thimble device by having a vent path for exhausting combustion by-products, and a separate air inlet path to draw in combustion air for use by the heating appliance. The wall thimble is preferably formed as a two-cylindrical part housing such that a first portion can be inserted into a second portion. When a smaller exhaust pipe is routed through the two-part housing, an annular region is formed between the exhaust pipe and the walls of the housing. A first air vent is formed in the first portion to draw combustion air into the annular region from outside. A second air vent is formed in the second portion to route the combustion air from the annular region out through the second air vent to be coupled with the combustion air inlet. A baffle is disposed in the first portion to preheat the combustion air. A duct assembly with an adjustable extension may be coupled to the second air vent to provide a below-grade installation.
US08230840B2	Fluid injection device The invention relates to an injector including a needle mounted in a nozzle and having an end defining a valve, the needle being connected at the other end to an actuator including first, second and third portions, the first and third portions being provided on either side of the second portion, the three portions being tightened together in order to form a block having two axially opposite limits, the first portion being connected with the needle at one of said limits, and an excitation means for vibrating the second portion according to setpoint period τ. According to the invention, the length between the two limits of the block is such that the propagation time T of the acoustic waves generated by the vibrations of the second portion of the actuator and running along that length meets the equation: T=n*[τ/2], where n is an integer positive multiplication coefficient different from zero.
US08230833B2	Valve train for internal combustion engines for actuating gas exchange valves A valve train for an internal combustion engine for actuating gas exchange valves includes a camshaft in the form of a camshaft tube driven by a crankshaft of the internal combustion engine. A selector shaft is disposed in the camshaft tube. A surface of the selector shaft includes a shifting contour having an axial gradient. At least one cam carrier is disposed on the camshaft and axially displaceable but rotationally fixed with respect to the camshaft. Each cam carrier includes an identical base-circle portion and a plurality of cam profiles. A rotationally fixed but axially displaceable shifting sleeve is disposed between the camshaft tube and the rotatable selector shaft of each cam carrier. Each shifting sleeve includes a hole. A shilling ball is disposed in the hole of each shifting sleeve. The shifting ball is coupled with the shifting contour of the selector shaft so as to be guided by the selector shaft so as to axially displace the shifting sleeve by rotation of the selector shaft. The shifting sleeve is operatively connected to the cam carrier via at least a driver for axial displacement of the cam carrier.
US08230832B2	Vane-type camshaft adjuster A vane-type camshaft adjuster has a side plane that is arranged perpendicular to the center axis of the camshaft adjuster. A coil spring abuts the side plane and is connected between a rotor and stator to maintain the rotor at a certain angular position relative to the stator.In order to create a vane-type camshaft adjuster, the righting moments of which are adjusted in a particularly accurate manner, the coil spring has a rectangular profile, wherein a spring section is angled through the side plane such that the coil spring is supported relative to the stator or the rotor in a pivot-proof positive fitting manner.
US08230830B2	Electronically controlled hydraulic system for variable actuation of the valves of an internal combustion engine, with fast filling of the high pressure side of the system An electronically controlled hydraulic system for variable actuation of the valves of an internal combustion engine is constructed for fast filling of the high pressure side of the system.
US08230826B2	Selectively storing reformate Systems and methods are provided for selectively storing gaseous reformate output by a fuel reformer for fueling an engine. Carbon monoxide produced by a fuel reformer may be continuously combusted in the engine and/or engine exhaust rather than being stored. In one example, reformate components produced by a fuel reformer, e.g., H2 and CH4, may be stored and buffered for use by an engine.
US08230822B2	Pet collar having retractable leash A pet collar assembly is removably attached to a pet collar and carries a leash. The assembly allows for extending and retracting the leash and includes a housing, an actuator assembly for actuating retraction of the leash upon receiving force higher than a threshold retraction force, and a spool communicating with the actuator assembly and biased for coiling the leash. The actuator assembly has a button and a button shaft that mechanically communicates with a hook shaft attached to a hook. The hook engages a plurality of teeth disposed on the circumference of a rim of the spool. An elastic band applies force against the hook so that the actuator assembly remains in a locked configuration unless a force higher than the threshold retraction force is received by the button.
US08230818B2	Portable, bedside-mountable, pet bed apparatus A portable pet bed apparatus is provided that can be selectively side mountable to a bed assembly. The pet bed apparatus includes a carrier device that defines a bedding space thereof sized and dimensioned to accommodate a domestic pet therein. The pet bed apparatus further includes a mounting assembly having a support platform configured to vertically support the of the carrier device thereatop, and a frame assembly coupled to the support platform. The frame assembly can be moved between a stowed position and a deployed position. In the deployed position, portions of the frame assembly cooperate with the bed assembly for side mounting thereto. The carrier device can be removed from the mounting assembly, which enable independent functionality as a pet carrier.
US08230817B2	Poultry coop An improved poultry coop that facilitates the prevention of entry of predators and the transmission of pathogens to and between the housed birds. In a preferred embodiment, the coop, which advantageously meets bird flu guidelines, includes an insulated house, a covered run coupled to the house, and a covered feed house. All openings are preferably covered with ½ inch hardware cloth or mesh wire. The same cloth or mesh wire is preferably buried beneath the earth below the coop and coupled to the coop.
US08230809B2	Adjustable squirrel proof bird feeder A bird feeder comprising a seed container, a seed tray situated below the seed container, a shroud extending about the seed tray and having an opening therein to permit access thereto, a perch proximate the opening, a center tube mounted internally of the feed container and a non rotatable nut mounted within the center tube, a post being screwthreadedly engaged with the non rotatable nut to adjust spring tension, a cover about an upper end of the feed container, the arrangement being such that pressure from an animal such as a squirrel on either the cover or perch will cause the shroud to block the opening and deny access to the seed.
US08230808B2	Pet food dispenser A pet food dispenser has a container, a bottom lid and a receiving plate. The bottom lid is covered on a bottom opening of the container and has multiple through holes. The receiving plate is connected to the bottom lid. A gap is formed between the receiving plate and the bottom lid. The pet foods in the container drop out from the through holes of the bottom lid. Because the receiving plate collects dropped pet food, only some pet food is released for the pets to eat. The pets need to push the pet food dispenser to topple and roll so that more and more pet food is released. Therefore, the pet food dispenser efficiently leads the pets to move more by using food to attract the pets.
US08230805B2	Method and apparatus for dispensing material on a substrate A dispensing apparatus includes a frame, a support coupled to the frame, a gantry coupled to the frame, a first dispensing unit coupled to the gantry, a second dispensing unit coupled to the gantry, and an imaging system coupled to one of the frame and the gantry. The imaging system may be configured to capture at least one image of a first pattern and a second pattern, with the second pattern being identical to the first pattern. The dispensing apparatus further includes a controller configured to verify whether the first pattern and the second pattern are properly positioned on the support with respect to one another based on the at least one captured image to permit simultaneous dispense operations of the first dispensing unit on the first pattern and the second dispensing unit on the second pattern. Other embodiments and methods of dispensing are further disclosed.
US08230803B2	Runway selector A runway selector is provided for selecting a runway at an airport which does not have traffic control and which has one or more numbered runways. The runway selector includes a first circular scale having azimuth indicia thereon. The runway selector also includes a second circular scale positioned on the first scale and which has runway number indicia thereon. One or more flat strips, which resemble runways, are selectively rotatably mounted over the scales. A wind direction pointer is selectively rotatably mounted over the scales. The runway selector enables a pilot to visually determine the proper runway to use so that the aircraft may land into the wind as closely as possible.
US08230802B2	Method for transporting, erecting and replacing a nacelle including the rotor of an offshore wind turbine and watercraft for carrying out the method Method for installing (or replacing) a unit on the tower of an offshore wind turbine, which unit comprises a rotor including a hub and one or two rotor blades, and a nacelle receiving a gearbox and a generator. The method is characterized by pre-assembling the substantially functional unit ashore or on a platform, placing the functional unit on a watercraft in such a manner that the center of gravitation of the unit lies in the region of the longitudinal axis of the watercraft and the rotor blades extend in the longitudinal direction of the watercraft, transporting the functional unit to the site of the offshore wind turbine, lifting the functional unit from the watercraft using a crane aboard the watercraft, placing the functional unit on the tower of the offshore wind turbine, and fastening the functional unit on the tower of the offshore wind turbine.
US08230799B2	Shackle apparatus and system for the lifting of subsea objects The present invention is a shackle apparatus used for the lifting of subsea objects. The shackle apparatus includes a shackle body having a first leg and a second leg in which each of the legs has an eyelet formed therein. A pin is mounted through the eyelets of the legs of the shackle body. At least one latch extends radially outwardly of the pin and resides adjacent the first leg of the shackle body. A stop surface extends from the pin and is positioned adjacent the second leg of the shackle body. The pin has a generally pointed end so that a remotely operated vehicle can suitably guide the pin through the eyelets of the shackle body. A gripping member extends outwardly from an end of the pin so as to provide a surface whereby an ROV can grip the pin for installation into the shackle body.
US08230796B2	Air-fired CO2 capture ready circulating fluidized bed steam generators A combustor 110 is operative to effect therewith the combustion of fossil fuel 114′ in order to thereby both heat to a working fluid 102 and generate a flue gas 104. An air preheater 144 receives the flue gas 104 generated in the combustor 110. A blower 180 causes air 188 to flow to the air preheater 144 when operating in an air fired mode, and causes both O2 and recycled flue gas 188′ to flow when operating in the O2 firing mode. The air preheater 144 is operative to transfer heat from the flue gas 150 received thereby to the air 188 that is received when operating in an air fired mode or to both the received O2 and the recycled flue gas 188′ that is received when operating in the O2 firing mode in order to thereby effect a preheating of the air 188 or of both the O2 and recycled flue gas, 188′ depending upon the specific nature of the mode of operation thereof, and to thereby effect therewith a cooling of the flue gas received thereby. The preheated air 142 or both the preheated O2 and the recycled flue gas 142′, depending upon the specific nature of the mode of operation, is caused to flow from the air preheater 144 to the combustor 110 in order to thereby effect therewith a fluidization of the fossil fuel 114′.
US08230793B2	Nestable pallet A nestable pallet includes an upper deck from which a plurality of feet extend downwardly. The upper deck includes an upper planar member and cross-ribs extending downwardly therefrom. The pallet is sturdy yet light weight and can be optionally provided with a reinforcement sheet secured to the lower ends of the ribs to provide a stronger, stiffer pallet.
US08230791B2	Device for lateral covering of the spacing between two vehicles coupled to each other, particularly rail cars A device is provided for covering the sides of a spacing (4) between two vehicles coupled with each other, in particular rail cars (1, 2). The device has two side walls (10) running parallel to each other that deform at least in the longitudinal direction of travel. The side walls (10) are connected to each other in the upper and lower regions by braces (12). The braces (12) are connected to each other, so that they can move relative to each other, in the longitudinal direction of the travel by at least one accordion-like material strip (20).
US08230790B2	Remote setting for electronic systems in a projectile for chambered ammunition A fuze setting circuit in an artillery or tank shell having a case with a press-fitted head assembly is provided with an electromechanical fuze-wiring link that is completed electrically by mechanical assembly of a tracer-carrying projectile on the shell casing, and by the rotational attachment of a programmable fuze onto the projectile.
US08230788B2	Method of fabrication and use of integrated detonators A detonator assembly is provided for use in oilfield operations to detonate an explosive downhole including a capacitor discharge unit and initiator electrically connected together to form a single unit. Further, provided is a method of fabricating an integrated detonator. Additionally, a method of use for an integrated detonating unit is provided.
US08230780B2	Method and process of collecting and processing recyclable waste Recyclable plastic film is efficiently collected for recycling at stores or other locations by compacting the plastic film as layers in plastic/cardboard bales. The plastic/cardboard bales can be formed using existing cardboard balers that stores typically already have for baling recyclable cardboard. In one embodiment, the plastic/cardboard bales are preferably formed with a bottom layer of cardboard, a middle layer of the recyclable plastic film, and a top layer of cardboard. The layered structure can be modified to omit one of the cardboard layers or to add additional plastic film and cardboard layers.
US08230764B1	Ratchet wrench The present invention discloses a ratchet wrench, which includes a body, a driving head, a fixing disk and a rotatable member. The body has a ring-shaped head with internal teeth therein. The driving head is located in the ring-shaped head and has a top portion which has a reception recess and a pawl is located in the reception recess. The pawl has engaging teeth on two ends of the front thereof and two curved surfaces are formed on the back of the pawl. A spring is located in the reception recess so as to bias the back of the pawl. The rotatable member is located on the top of the ring-shaped head and has two driving pins which shift the spring to pivot the pawl such that the engaging teeth in one of the two ends of the pawl are engaged with the internal teeth to control the driving head to rotate in one direction.
US08230757B2	Lever lockout assembly A lever lockout assembly includes a pair of lever supports and a pair of slide supports mounted on a housing. A lever member is rotatably supported by the lever supports. The lever member has a pair of arms separated by a notch. A lockout slide is slidably supported by the slide supports. The lockout slide has a ridge portion and a recess portion. The lockout slide is slidable to a lockout position wherein the ridge portion is received by the notch and the ridge is engagable with the arms to prevent rotation of the lever member. The lockout slide is also slidable to an unlocked position wherein the recess portion is aligned with the notch and the arms are rotatable through the recess portion. A handle projects from an end of the lockout slide. The lockout slide is a rigid bar with a polygonal cross-sectional shape. An edge of the bar forming the ridge portion. The lockout slide includes a pair of detent recess formed in a surface thereof. A detent roller engages the lockout slide, and is releasably received by the detent recess to releasably hold the lockout slide in a selected positions.
US08230754B2	Safety unit and safety device with the same The present invention provides a safety unit comprising: a case; a rotary linkage disposed at one end thereof at the outside of the case and rotatably mounted at the other end thereof to the case; a force transfer shaft mounted to one side of the rotary linkage in such a fashion as to be oriented perpendicular to the rotating plane of the rotary linkage; a crank linkage rotatably mounted at one end thereof to the inner side of the case and adapted to abut against the force transfer shaft at the outer circumferential edge thereof so as to be transferred with an external force to be rotatably moved; and a support means rotatably connected to the other end of the crank linkage and adapted to allow for the rotation of the crank linkage when an external force having a value larger than a predetermined threshold value is exerted to the rotary linkage.
US08230752B2	Automatic group transmission An automated group transmission having a multi-stage main transmission (HG), a splitter group (VG) connected upstream from the main transmission (HG) and a two-stage range-change group (BG) connected downstream of the main transmission (HG), such that the splitter group (VG) is connected, via a controllable separator clutch, to a drive motor. The main transmission (HG) and the range-change group (BG) are of either a synchronized or an unsynchronized design and the shifting clutches of two respective transmission ratio steps, in at least one of the partial-transmissions (VG, HG, BG), are respectively combined in a common shifting packet with two shift positions and a neutral position. To speed up most range shifts, it is provided that in the main transmission (HG) the shifting clutches associated with the lowest transmission ratio step (G1) and with the highest transmission ratio step (G4 or G3) are combined in a common shifting packet (S1/4 or S1/3).
US08230751B2	Dual clutch transmission A double clutch transmission with two clutches connected to a drive shaft and to one of two transmission input shafts. Fixed gears are coupled to the input shafts and engage idler gears. Several coupling devices connect the idler gears to a countershaft which have an output gear that couple gears of an output shaft such power shift forward gears and a reverse gear can be shifted. Two dual gear planes each comprising one fixed gear which is supported by an input shaft and two idler gears which are supported by a respective countershaft. In each dual gear plane at least one idler gear wheel can be used for at least two gears. Two single gear planes each comprise an idler gear wheel and a fixed gear wheel, so that at least one winding-path gear can be shifted via the shifting device and one winding-path gear via another shifting device.
US08230745B2	Wet/wet differential pressure sensor based on microelectronic packaging process Method and system for a wet/wet differential pressure sensor based on microelectronic packaging process. A top cap with a hole can be attached to a topside of a MEMS-configured pressure sense die with a pressure sensing diaphragm in order to allow sensed media to come in contact with the topside of the pressure sensing diaphragm. An optional constraint with a hole for stress relief can be attached to a backside of the pressure sense die. Adhesive and/or elastomeric seals and/or solder can be utilized to seal the pressure sense die allowing sensed media to come in contact with both sides of the pressure sensing diaphragm without coming into contact with wirebonds and other metallized surfaces. The MEMS-configured pressure sense die can also be bonded to a substrate with standard die attach materials. Such microelectronic packaging processes yield a high performance and cost effective solution thereby providing wet-wet pressure sensing capability.
US08230744B2	Low-dead volume microfluidic circuit and methods A method is described for reducing a dead volume of a microfluidic circuit that includes, in one embodiment, a reservoir, an outlet, and a microfluidic flowpath fluidly connecting the reservoir and the outlet. The method includes providing a microfluidic flow component between the reservoir and the outlet for performing a function and in fluidic communication with the microfluidic flowpath, wherein the microfluidic flow component includes a total volume including a working volume and a dead volume. The working volume is a volume necessary for the microfluidic flow component to perform the function and the dead volume is a volume unnecessary for the microfluidic flow component to perform the function. The method includes configuring at least one of the reservoir, the microfluidic flowpath, and the microfluidic flow component to reduce the dead volume, such that the working volume of the component is substantially the same as the total volume.
US08230740B2	Angular speed sensor and electronic apparatus An angular speed sensor includes two oscillating portions arranged to oscillate in X-axis direction and Y-axis direction, where the oscillating portions are spaced from each other in X-axis direction. The sensor also includes two coupling beams capable of producing a standing wave oscillation, elongated in X-axis direction and spaced from each other in Y-axis direction, with the oscillating portions located therebetween. The coupling beams are connected to a supporting substrate via fixing posts. The coupling beams are bridged by first and second link portions, the first link portion being also connected to one of the oscillating portions and the second link portion to the other. The fixing posts are connected to the coupling beams at fixed points of the standing wave oscillation. The link portions include widened portions connected to the coupling beams at the fixed points of the standing wave oscillation.
US08230735B2	Method of dynamically correcting flow rate measurements A flow rate of a fluid flowing in a tubing is determined using a flow meter. The flow meter measures a value related to the flow rate. The tubing has a valve for controlling the fluid flowing through the flow meter. The method of determination of the flow rate includes closing the valve and measuring a first zero flow rate value at a first time and a second zero flow rate value at a second time, estimating an error of the value measurement based on the first and second zero flow rate values, opening the valve and measuring value of the flowing fluid, applying an error correction to the measured value of the flowing fluid, and calculating a corrected flow rate based on the corrected value of flowing fluid.
US08230734B2	Leaf spring load measuring device and program A leaf spring load measuring device of the present invention comprises a weighing mechanism, a measuring mechanism, a metering mechanism, and a control mechanism. The weighing mechanism applies a load heavier than a working load to a leaf spring, thereby bending the leaf spring in its thickness direction, and maintains the resulting state for a predetermined hold time. The measuring mechanism measures a load value of the leaf spring in a manner such that the spring is subjected to a load within a range of the working load. The metering mechanism meters a displacement of the spring when the load value is measured. The control mechanism controls the weighing mechanism, the metering mechanism, and the measuring mechanism, and has a timer function to meter the hold time.
US08230729B2	Fluid condition and level sensor A fluid condition and level sensor is provided that includes a solenoid body, a coil, and an armature surrounded by the coil. The solenoid body defines an armature chamber in which the armature is movable in response to energizing of the coil. The sensor is mounted to a reservoir such that a first portion of the solenoid body extends into a cavity defined by the reservoir, and so that movement of the armature is substantially transverse to a direction of fluid level change in the reservoir. The first portion of the solenoid body defines an opening permitting fluid communication between the cavity and the armature chamber, such that fluid enters and is displaced from the armature chamber through the opening as the armature moves, movement of the armature within the armature chamber thereby being affected by fluid level in the reservoir.
US08230724B2	Measurement chamber and resonator The invention relates to an apparatus comprising a measurement chamber and a resonator, which can be integrated in the measurement chamber via a quick-action closure, for the liquid sensor system and for verification and measurement of the concentration of materials, substances, particles and/or microorganisms in liquids. The invention is characterized in that the resonator is held only on its outer circumference by a thin elastomer ring, and in that at the radial distance of the external diameter of the resonator, the elastomer ring on the one hand rests on an upper sealing ring of the measurement chamber, forming a seal, and on the other hand rests on a holding ring.
US08230719B2	Method for identifying the composition of a sample The present invention is directed to a method for multidimensional gas chromatography for separating the analytes of a complex sample. The method comprises the steps of introducing the sample onto a first column whereby the sample is separated into at least two segments, introducing at least one segment into a heartcut device whereby the segments are selectively separated into at least two heartcut fractions, introducing at least one of the fractions onto a second column whereby at least one fraction is further separated into at least two analytes, introducing at least one analyte from the second column to a gas chromatography connector, introducing the analyte from the connector to a third column, and introducing the analyte from the third column into a detector whereby the analyte is analyzed and identified.
US08230716B2	Method and system for diagnostics of a particulate matter sensor A diagnostic method and system is described for diagnosing an operating condition of a conductive particulate matter sensor. The sensor has a substrate and two electrodes on the substrate adapted to collect particulate matter between the electrodes, thereby establishing an electrically conductive path through collected particulate matter between the electrodes that can be detected by measuring electrical resistance between the electrodes, Relect. The diagnosis is performed by detecting whether water vapor condensate may be present between the electrodes and if it is, then measuring resistance between the electrodes while subjecting the sensor to conditions sufficient to evaporate any water vapor condensate and diagnosing a validation that the sensor is in proper operating condition if resistance increases in a manner consistent with evaporation of condensate.
US08230713B2	Elevated temperature forming die apparatus An elevated temperature forming die apparatus comprising a lower die part having a first upper surface positioned to engage a lower surface of a first region of such a workpiece, an upper die part supported for reciprocal motion relative to the lower die part, the upper die part having a lower surface that engages an upper surface of a second region of a sheet material workpiece, heaters in thermal communication with the die parts, and a third die part having an upper surface that engages a lower surface of the second region of a sheet material workpiece whose first portion is positioned between the upper and lower die parts, the third die part being supported for reciprocal motion relative to the upper die part such that closure of the upper die part along the first stroke portion against the third die part will clamp the first portion of the workpiece between the upper and third die parts, and the third die part being supported for reciprocal motion relative to the lower die part such that, once the first portion of a workpiece has been clamped between the upper and third die parts a draw region of the workpiece extending adjacent an interface between the first and second portions of the workpiece can be drawn by displacing the lower die part relative to the clamped-together upper and third die parts along a second portion of the die set stroke.
US08230711B2	Rolling mill for rolling metallic material A rolling mill (1) for rolling a metal workpiece (2) that is provided with at least one roll stand (3) as well as with a conveyor (4) for the material to be rolled (2) extending on both sides of the roll stand (3) for a predetermined length (L) is based on the object that in the area of the longitudinal extent of the conveyor (4) at least one holder (5) for a coil (6) of the metal workpiece (2) is provided that can be positioned in a first position (A) in which it does not disturb the transport of the metal workpiece (2) along the conveyor (4) and that can be positioned in a second position (B) in which the coil (6) is positioned close to the roll stand (3) on the conveyor (4) for unwinding or winding up the coil (6).
US08230710B2	Method for forming a slip joint assembly with coated splines A method includes providing a shaft having a coupling section. The coupling section has a generally cylindrical exterior surface. The method includes applying a coating to the coupling section to form an engaging surface. The method further includes cold-forming the shaft and the coating such that a plurality of protrusions is formed in the engaging surface. The cold-forming of the shaft and the coating is performed contemporaneously.
US08230709B2	Measuring straightness of an elongated rolled workpiece An elongated workpiece is treated, e.g. rolled, in a production system where treatment devices move the workpiece longitudinally in a horizontal travel direction and at a generally constant travel speed along a horizontal longitudinal path and a control computer is connected to the treatment devices. Straightness of the workpiece is measured by gripping the workpiece at a pair of longitudinally spaced supports, applying tension to a longitudinally extending horizontal portion of the workpiece between the supports, and continuously moving the workpiece in the travel direction at the travel speed with a lower surface of the portion substantially unsupported. At least periodically a vertical spacing is measured between the portion and a straight longitudinal reference line extending in the direction between the supports parallel to the workpiece at the supports. The vertical-spacing measurement are fed to the computer for use controlling the devices.
US08230706B1	Handcuff coupling assembly A coupling assembly for coupling a first handcuff bracelet and a second handcuff bracelet together, each bracelet including a locking mechanism for opening and closing the bracelet, the coupling assembly comprising: a swivel assembly for permitting angular rotation of at least one of the bracelets in a predetermined first rotational direction relative to a longitudinal axis extending through the swivel assembly and the first and second bracelets, the swivel assembly preventing the bracelets from being rotated in a second rotational direction opposite from said first rotational direction.
US08230703B2	Method for making SPME fibers It is disclosed a method for making SPME fibers. The SPME fibers consist of metal-oxide coatings on fused-silica fibers. The coatings are prepared from a water-based solution containing a predetermined amount of metal ion and a predetermined amount of a reactant. The water based solution and the fused-silica fibers are kept at the temperatures below 100° C. for a predetermined time to obtain SPME fibers. The SPME fibers are applied for extraction of pesticides and other organic compounds such as 1,4-dichloro-2-nitrobenzene; Biphenyl; and Acenaphthene in the water based solution and cooling gas of a power generator respectively.
US08230696B2	Device equipped with cooling mechanism To prevent incorrect operation of an operating member provided in an electric component box without giving complicated processing on a front panel. An opening formed in the front portion of a housing (11) to correspond to a machine room (14) is closed with a front panel (20). A suction louver (25) and a delivery louver (26) are formed in the front panel (20). An inserting/withdrawing opening (28) used for inserting/withdrawing a filter (34) is opened above the position for forming the suction louver (25) in the front panel (20). A base portion (38) being fitted in the inserting/withdrawing opening (28) to close the opening (28) is formed above the filter (34). A power switch (43) and a service switch (44) are provided on the front of the electric component box (42) arranged in the machine room (14). The portion for arranging the power switch (43) and the service switch (44) in the electric component box (42) opposes the rear of the inserting/withdrawing opening (28). When the filter (34) is fixed to the front panel (20), the front side of the power switch (43) and the service switch (44) is covered with the base portion (38).
US08230695B2	Air conditioner Provided is an indoor unit of an air conditioner. The structures of the indoor unit, such as the relationship between an inlet and an outlet, the shape of a rear guide, and the relationship between the outlet and a vane, are improved. Therefore, the airflow of the indoor unit is stable, and the noise level of the indoor unit is low.
US08230689B2	Preliminary vehicle heating and cooling by peltier effect A climate control system includes the interim heating/cooling component that operates in the interim duration prior to the heating and cooling systems reaching a desired state of readiness. The interim heating/cooling device uses the Peltier effect to transfer heat between first and second sides depending on a polarity of current. Controlling which of the two sides is heated provides the desired heating or cooling of the air. Once the heating or cooling system reaches the desired state of readiness, the interim heating/cooling device is turned off.
US08230683B2	Turbocharger including variable geometry turbine with improved guide element and operating fork In an exhaust gas turbocharger turbine for an internal combustion engine having a housing including a turbine wheel rotatably supported in the housing, wherein the housing has an exhaust gas flow guide section including an exhaust gas flow control arrangement with a guide vane structure for directing exhaust gas onto the turbine rotor, an adjustment mechanism with an axially movable control slide is provided which is movable by an operating fork which is slidably supported on a guide element and engages the control slide at opposite sides so as to prevent cogging of the movable control slide during movement into, and out of, the exhaust gas flow guide section.
US08230676B2	Exhaust system for an internal combustion engine An exhaust system for an internal combustion engine, includes an exhaust line, an exhaust gas treatment device, an injection device arranged upstream from the exhaust gas treatment device for injecting a liquid educt into the exhaust line and a mixing and/or evaporation device for the sprayed educt situated downstream from the injection device and upstream from the exhaust gas treatment device. At least one section of the exhaust line carrying exhaust gas is formed by an exhaust pipe that has an end section arranged downstream from the injection device and upstream from the exhaust gas treatment device. The mixing and/or evaporation device is integrally formed on the end section of the exhaust pipe.
US08230665B2	Apparatus and methods for producing embossed promotional cards Apparatus and methods of producing embossed promotional cards which minimize nesting of adjacently embossed cards in a stack, the apparatus and method provide for offsetting the embossed indicia between adjacently stacked cards or for varying the embossed indicia between adjacently stacked cards.
US08230657B2	Composite joist floor system The composite joist floor system includes joists supported by supporting members. Corrugated steel decking is positioned over the joists such that the corrugations are substantially perpendicular to the joists. Self-drilling, self-tapping, stand-off screws are spaced along the length of the joist, aligned with the deck corrugations. These stand-off screws provide the required shear transfer between the joist and concrete slab to form a composite floor system. The placed concrete encapsulates the upper non-threaded shank portions of the stand-off screws and the end of the joists. After the concrete has cured, the resultant system comprised of steel joists, steel decking, stand-off screws, and concrete, act together to form a composite system with greater load carrying capacity and less vertical deflection. The stand-off screws connect the joist upper chords to the concrete slab allowing the joist and concrete slab to act as a unit, by transferring shear between the two joined components.
US08230656B2	Roof membrane and roof system using the membrane to stimulate a standing seam metal roof A roof membrane is disclosed, for use in simulating a standing seam metal roof when applied to a roof surface and a roof system is also provided, that employs the roof membrane, disposed between longitudinal, but spaced-apart, generally parallel roof battens. Underlayments of various constructions are also provided, beneath the membrane, as an option. Caps are provided for upstanding legs of the roof battens.
US08230655B2	Under rafter insulation system for a high pitched roof The invention relates to an under rafters insulation system for a steep roof, comprising at least two mutually parallel extending building elements (3) which are spaced from each other, and insulation elements (4), in particular mineral fiber insulation elements, are arranged in a space between the building elements (3). The building elements (3) are mountable to rafters (2) of the steep roof by means of holding elements (5). For further developing an under rafters insulation system of the described type to the effect that the insulation elements (4) are easily supported between the building elements (3) at least over a period of time in which the under rafters insulation system (1) is not yet completed with a final cover, it is proposed that the holding elements (5) additionally secure the insulation elements (4) against falling out of the space between the building elements (3).
US08230654B2	Medallion insert for modular flooring assemblies A tray substrate for a modular tile flooring system is disclosed that allows installation of medallion floating tiles into the flooring system. This tray substrate is designed to be a smaller medallion type tray substrate installed amongst larger tray substrates in a shape that is twisted at an angle to the grout lines of the other tiles. This is known as a medallion which is inserted in the layout.
US08230649B2	Solar wall apparatus and method A construction panel includes a pane, a construction substrate, and a frame that form an air gap there between. An electrical generator, a water circulator, and an air venting system are in the air gap. First and second reflective coatings are respectively on first surfaces of the pane and the construction substrate. The first surfaces face the air gap. The reflective coatings reflect IR to heat water in the water circulator and heat air in the air gap. First and second antireflective coatings are respectively on a second surface of the pane and on the first reflective coating. The second surface faces away from the air gap. The antireflective coatings transmit electromagnetic radiation to the electrical generator for electricity generation. The heated water, heated air, and electricity may be used in a building to which the construction panel is attached. The solar-construction panel includes a multiple-pane window integrally formed therein.
US08230642B2	Raccoon trap The animal trap of the present invention includes a tubular body with an open forward end and a closed rear end. A spring loaded restraint is pivotally mounted on the body so as to be movable between open and closed positions. A latch on the body engages the restraint to set the restraint in the open position. A trigger on the body engages the latch to set the trap. The trigger is movable in opposite forward and rearward directions by an animal, such as a raccoon, reaching its paw into the housing and pushing or pulling the trigger leg, such that the latch is disengaged and releases the restraint, which is forced by a spring to the closed position to catch the animal's paw in the tubular body.
US08230638B1	Motion decoy and decoy mounting system A novel and improved turkey motion decoy and decoy mounting system is disclosed. The mounting system comprises a plurality of movable frames to support a decoy body and tail, to thereby provide a decoy capable of moving its body parts to imitate the realistic mating behavior of a turkey.
US08230634B1	Two piece upper receiver for firearms A two piece upper receiver for a firearm including a first piece having a front end, a rear end, a top, and a bottom, the first piece constructed to operatively carry a bolt carrier and bolt, and to have a barrel coupled to the front end. The bottom is constructed to have a lower receiver coupled thereto. The first piece includes a backbone extending along the top between the front end and the rear end, the back bone having upwardly directed indexing surfaces. A second piece overlies the backbone and includes mating surfaces engaging the indexing surfaces, aligning the second piece with the first piece. A receiving structure is opposite the mating surfaces for receiving accessory devices mounted thereon. Fasteners fixedly attach the second piece to the first piece to form a complete upper receiver.
US08230620B2	Foot pad for relieving pain A foot pad for relieving pain while engaging in weight bearing activity is provided. A pad can include an arch portion fitting under and adjacent to the medial longitudinal arch of the foot, offsetting the soft tissue of the medial longitudinal arch thereby supporting the calcaneo-navicular ligament structure, wherein the arch portion extends from front to rear, of the longitudinal medial arch, and the arch portion extends from the medial side towards the lateral side, of the longitudinal medial arch. Furthermore, the pad can provide a heel portion of the pad fitting under the heel of the foot, the heel portion connecting a medial side portion of the pad to a lateral side portion of the pad, cushioning and reduces soreness and pressure from the sole of the foot by offsetting the soft tissue of the medial longitudinal arch, thereby supporting the calcaneo-navicular ligament structure reducing over-pronation and increasing supination of the foot during weight bearing activity, offsetting and cushioning the soft tissue of the outer portions of sole of the heel and offsetting the central portion of the heel from the surface immediately below the pad at a distance of approximately the thickness of the pad, during weight bearing activity.
US08230615B1	Hair dryer drape and associated method A combined hair dryer and hair dryer drape includes a hair dryer which has a semi-spherical dome provided with a cavity for receiving a user head therein during hair drying procedures. The hair dryer drape includes a plurality of sleeves contiguously and respectively formed along an entire perimeter of the hair dryer drape. The drape further includes a plurality of L-shaped spools situated at opposed corners of the hair dryer drape and partially extending along the corresponding sleeves. The drape further includes a plurality of hair dryer drape extensions wound about the corresponding spools and housed within the sleeves respectively. The hair dryer drape is made from water impermeable top and bottom layers pinched together along respective outer edges thereof and a plurality of insulating layers contiguously intercalated between the top and bottom layers for defining a core section.
US08230613B2	Clothes treating apparatus A clothes treating apparatus is disclosed. The clothes treating apparatus includes a cabinet in which an accommodating space for receiving clothes is defined, a steam generator for generating steam to be supplied into the accommodating space, and a supply unit for supplying the steam, generated in the steam generator, into the receiving space and collecting water condensed from the steam.
US08230610B2	Orientation-sensitive signal output Orientation-sensitive signal output, in which a neutral position of a device is automatically determined in relation to at least a first axis, an angular displacement of the device is measured about at least the first axis, and shaking of the device is detected. A selection of the first control is received, and an output signal is output based at least upon the selection and the angular displacement or based upon detecting the shaking of the device.
US08230609B1	Survey pole positioning system Embodiments of the present invention comprise devices, systems, and components for use with a survey pole positioning system. For example, embodiments of the invention provide a survey pole positioning system that efficiently, easily, and safely allows a surveyor to position a survey pole, and thus position a surveying device on a surface where a surveyor cannot directly stand. In one embodiment, a hinged member couples a survey pole to a positioning rod such that the positioning rod can rotate with respect to the survey pole. A surveyor can then use the positioning rod to position the survey pole on a surface where the surveyor cannot directly stand.
US08230606B2	Electric tool The electric tool includes a base having an opening portion and a bottom face; a blade being projected downward from the bottom face of the base through the opening portion of the base, the blade being capable of cutting while sliding the bottom face of the base on an upper face of a work piece; a motor driving the blade; a housing accommodating the motor. The bottom face of the base is at least partially coated with a resin including fluorine.
US08230599B2	Method of manufacturing hydrodynamic bearing Disclosed herein is a method of manufacturing a hydrodynamic bearing in which a metal bearing made of sintered metal powder is internally subjected to chemical etching, to form hydrodynamic pressure grooves thereon, thus assuring a high-precision and reliable hydrodynamic bearing. The method includes: compressing metal powder that is a raw material of the bearing in a press unit, and sintering the compressed metal powder at a predetermined temperature, thus preparing a sintered bearing; removing foreign substances adhering to the sintered bearing through a deburring process, and pressing the sintered bearing into a desired shape; forming a hydrodynamic groove, configured to generate hydrodynamic pressure, on an internal surface of the shaped bearing using chemical etching; and conducting a post treatment of cleaning the bearing including the hydrodynamic grooves thereon and drying the bearing.
US08230597B2	Forming preforms and parts therefrom A method for forming a component includes forming a workpiece into a hollow preform cylinder concentric with an axis and including an inner surface that extends along the axis, placing within the preform cylinder a mandrel having an outer surface, flow-forming the inner surface and the outer surface of the preform cylinder such that the inner surface of the cylinder conforms to at least a portion of the outer surface of the mandrel, and cutting the flow formed cylinder transversely with respect to the axis into segments, each segment having an axial length.
US08230594B1	System and method for welding small diameter tubes into a high-density matrix A tube matrix and the corresponding method of joining a plurality of tubes to a base plate to create the tube matrix. The tube matrix has a base plate from which a plurality of parallel tubes extend. The base plate has holes formed though it to receive the tubes. The tubes are placed into the holes on the base plate. The tubes may have end flares that abut against the base plate and prevent the tubes from completely passing through the base plate. Once the tubes are in place in the holes of the base plate, the tubes and base plate are welded together with individual laser welds. The laser welds enable a very dense matrix of tubes to be welded to the base plate without damaging or obstructing the tubes.
US08230593B2	Probe bonding method having improved control of bonding material In assembly of probe arrays for electrical test, a problem can arise where a bonding agent undesirably wicks between probes. According to embodiments of the invention, this wicking problem is alleviated by disposing an anti-wicking agent on a surface of the probe assembly such that wicking of the bonding agent along the probes toward the probe tips is hindered. The anti-wicking agent can be a solid powder, a liquid, or a gel. Once probe assembly fabrication is complete, the anti-wicking agent is removed. In preferred embodiments, a template plate is employed to hold the probe tips in proper position during fabrication. In this manner, undesirable bending of probes caused by introduction or removal of the anti-wicking agent can be reduced or eliminated.
US08230587B2	Carrier for aligning electronic components with slidably arranged plates A carrier adapted to receive and align multiple electronic components, the carrier having receptacles each being adapted to receive an assigned one of the multiple electronic components, a first plate comprising a plurality of first abutting sections, the first abutting sections form one of boundaries of the respective assigned receptacles, a second plate comprising a plurality of second abutting sections, the second abutting sections form another of the boundaries of the respective assigned receptacles, and the first plate and the second plate are arranged slidably relative to each other.
US08230585B2	Method and apparatus for wire termination on outwardly spooled multi-pole stators A method and device for wire termination on stators (1) wherein the wire (15) is wound about poles (6) distributed by a flyer (10), guided by shrouds (16) that move radially with respect to the stator (1) overlapping the respective pole (6). Wire termination operations are provided on the wire ends (15) into the terminals (4) with the aid of the flyer (10), carried out by an apparatus equipped with a termination device (20), comprising a first deflector (21), a second deflector (22), a blade (23), and a clamp formed by a movable gripper (24) and a fixed gripper (25). The movable gripper is suitable for closing onto the fixed gripper for gripping the wire (15). The device (20) can carry out the steps of catching, moving, introducing and cutting the wire (15) with movements parallel to its own axis (27), or to the axis (7) of the stator (1).
US08230577B2	Method of making a sensing unit In a sensing unit according to the present invention, a spring portion having a support portion and a movable portion is conductive. A signal of a sensor portion provided on the movable portion of the spring portion is transmitted via the spring portion. Hence, the sensing unit according to the present invention has a simple constitution with a small number of components, and a wire does not necessarily have to be provided for each sensor portion. As a result, a reduction in manufacturing cost, simplification of the manufacturing process, and so on are achieved.
US08230571B2	Self-attaching fastener and panel assembly, method of installation and die member A self-attaching fastener and panel assembly wherein the free open end of the tubular barrel portion is coined, collapsed axially, flattened and deformed radially inwardly and outwardly and axially against a panel surrounding the panel opening. The method of installation includes driving the free end of the tubular barrel portion against a substantially planar die surface, deforming an end portion radially, then collapsing an intermediate portion over the radially deformed end portion, flattening the end portion, substantially thickening the tubular barrel portion and forming an annular surface engaging and supporting the panel surrounding the opening. The die member includes an annular moat surrounding a central die post and a planar die surface extending generally perpendicular to the axis of the die button.
US08230569B2	Repair of case flange with bolt holes A method for repairing damaged bolt holes in a flange having a plurality of circumferentially spaced bolt holes therein, with each bolt hole defining a center axis and the flange defining an outer diameter edge. The method includes removing parent material of the flange in a first pattern, and metallurgically joining a replacement detail to the parent material of the flange a location where the parent material of the flange was removed in the first pattern. The first pattern is bounded by first, second, third and fourth points. The first point corresponds to the center axis of a first of the plurality of bolt holes, the second point corresponds to center axis of a second of the plurality of bolt holes, and the third and fourth points are defined at the outer diameter edge of the flange circumferentially spaced from each other.
US08230556B2	Dismountable clamp A clamp includes a flat strip whose ends coil onto themselves in the shape of a ring and are fastened by a retaining pawl and a hook that are coupled in a retaining bridge and an orifice, respectively, for a further constriction of the clamp, that is brought to its optimal tightening position by pliers or other appropriate tools through tightening and deformation of the clamp bridge, which bridge is provided with a deformation that imparts said bridge greater inertial resistance and that in such tightening and advance movement of one end underneath the other an engagement has been provided for both ends by a tongue located at one end and a recess at the other end of the strip.
US08230554B2	Hinge with spacers A hinge has a pintle, a spacer assembly, a stationary bracket and a rotating bracket. The pintle is mounted through the spacer assembly and is connected to the stationary and rotating brackets. The spacer assembly has multiple spacers stacked with each other. Each spacer has a ring segment and a bearing segment. The ring segment is mounted around the pintle. The bearing segment has an absorbing space to absorb the stress acting on the ring segment. Therefore, the spacer sustains less stress to prevent breakage easily and a lifespan of the spacer is extended. Therefore, the hinge has a longer lifespan.
US08230552B2	Novelty gliders for walkers A glider that attaches to the bottom of the legs of a walker is disclosed. The glider, preferably a ball made from wood, provides the walker with additional stability and mobility. The glider includes a hole with a rubber stopper that secures the glider to the leg of a walker. A screw is first inserted into the glider and then a design is created on the glider. The screw is removed and then a hole is drilled over the same spot, large enough to fit the leg of a walker. A rubber stopper is inserted into the hole to help secure the leg of the walker to the glider. A scribe line can be included around the opposite end of the glider to inform users of when to replace the glider.
US08230538B2	Mattress innerspring inserts and supports Innerspring dampening foam inserts are disclosed in various combinations with mattress innersprings having a plurality of helical form coils interconnected in an array in which the coils are generally aligned in rows and columns, each of the coils having a generally cylindrical coil body formed by helical turns of wire with openings between each of the helical turns of wire, and first and second ends to the coil body also formed by the wire, each of the coil bodies being spaced apart in the array. At least one innerspring insert is inserted into an innerspring in spaces or channels between the spaced apart coils. The innerspring dampening inserts, which are preferably made of foam, may have a generally H-shaped configuration with upper and lower parallel lateral members and a transverse member that extends between and bisects the upper and lower lateral members. In another embodiment, the innerspring inserts may be generally T-shaped having a lower lateral member, a vertical member which is perpendicular to and bisects the lower lateral member and a lateral extension which extends outward from one side of the vertical member. The innerspring inserts may create or define zones or regions of the innerspring which have different support characteristics from other zones or regions by dampening or altering the spring rates and support characteristics of the innerspring in the areas or regions where the insert are located. The innerspring inserts may also be placed at or near the border or edges of the innerspring to provide increased stability in the perimeter or edge areas of the support surface of a mattress.
US08230530B2	Protective cover for preventing spilled liquids from flowing into drains or holes A protective cover for drains and other holes is provided which prevents spills and unwanted liquids from flowing therein. The protective cover includes a durable backing layer and a pliable, tacky sealing layer adjacent a portion of the durable backing layer which conforms and adheres to a surface surrounding the drain to reduce or eliminate the flow of liquids into the drain. The pliable, tacky sealing layer can have a periphery inside the periphery of the durable backing layer.
US08230525B2	Sock This invention relates to a sock for use in sports activities. The sock, includes cushioning in the area of the Achilles tendon for absorbing frictional and impact stresses without force being applied to the Achilles tendon. In one embodiment, the cushioning comprises elongated vertically spaced apart cushions that are in a bent shape. In another embodiment the cushioning comprises vertically spaced apart cushions that are divided by a vertically oriented ridge.
US08230522B1	Gloves with attached illumination means A pair of work gloves with an attached directional illumination device is disclosed. A miniature illumination device is affixed thereto the back of the hand area of the work glove via hook-and-loop fasteners. The lighting device takes the form of a small enclosure that houses batteries and a lens with a reflected array of forward facing high-intensity light emitting diodes (LED's). A pushbutton switch is located on top of the case for on/off operation. In use, the apparatus provides a high level of illumination directly in front of the person's hands allowing use while working at night, when light levels are low, as well as in cramped areas where nearby objects restrict the effectiveness of remote lighting devices. The invention is especially valuable in situations where it is impossible to hold a flashlight such as when one needs both hands to perform work.
US08234709B2	Streaming malware definition updates A method, system and apparatus for assembling and publishing frequent malware signature definition updates through the use of additive or “streaming” definition packages is provided. Embodiments of the present invention provide such functionality by publishing not only full malware signature definition updates on a long periodicity but also streaming malware signature definition updates containing newly certified signature definitions on a short periodicity. As newly-certified malware signature definitions are received, those newly-certified signature definitions are incorporated not only in the full signature definition file but also in a streaming signature definition update that contains only newly-certified signature definitions received during a streaming update period. At the end of the streaming update period, a streaming signature definition file is made available by publication to anti-malware clients. A streaming signature definition file only contains those signature definitions received during the assembly period for that streaming definition file. Embodiments of the present invention replace a previous streaming signature definition file with a new streaming signature definition file at the time of publication of the new streaming signature definition file.
US08234707B2	Overlay network for tracking denial-of-service floods in unreliable datagram delivery networks An approach for tracking denial-of-service (DoS) flood attacks using an overlay IP (Internet Protocol) network is disclosed. One or more tracking routers form an overlay tracking network over the network of an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP network includes numerous transit routers and edge routers. The tracking routers communicate directly with all the edge routers using IP tunnels. The edge routers within the ISP network perform security diagnostic functions, in part, to identify a DoS flood attack that has been launched by one or more attackers. To track down an attacker, an egress edge router identifies the DoS flood attack datagrams, rerouting these datagrams to the overlay tracking network. The tracking routers perform hop-by-hop input debugging to identify the ingress edge router associated with the source of the DoS flood attack.
US08234703B2	Network firewall host application identification and authentication Systems for providing information on network firewall host application identification and authentication include an identifying and transmitting agent on a host computer, configured to identify each application in use, tag the application identity with a host identity, combine these and other information into a data packet, and securely transmit the data packet to the network based firewall. The embodiment also includes an application identity listener on the network based firewall, configured to receive the information data packet, decode the data packet and provide to the network based firewall the identity of the application. The network based firewall is provided with an application-awareness via an extension of firewall filtering or security policy rules via the addition of a new application identity parameter upon which filtering can be based. Other systems and methods are also provided.
US08234697B2	Method, apparatus, and system for sending credentials securely A software application executing in a first local operating environment may be used to connect to a remote server that requires a credential of a user to complete a transaction. In a second local operating environment that operates external to the first local environment a user may be authenticated based on a user input received in the second local operating environment. The credential of the user may be securely communicated to the remote server from the second local operating environment. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08234694B2	Method and apparatus for re-establishing communication between a client and a server One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that re-establishes communication between a client and a server after an unexpected termination of communication. During operation, the system receives a request from the client at the server to re-establish communication between the client and the server, wherein the request includes a temporary credential. If the temporary credential is valid, the system temporarily re-establishes communication between the client and the server, until the client can be re-authenticated with a permanent credential.
US08234684B2	Digital detector for ATSC digital television signals A Wireless Regional Area Network (WRAN) receiver comprises a transceiver for communicating with a wireless network over one of a number of channels, and an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) signal detector for use in forming a supported channel list comprising those ones of the number of channels upon which an ATSC signal was not detected, wherein the ATSC signal detector is a threshold-based detector and detects an ATSC signal as a function of at least one threshold, and wherein the ATSC signal detector is responsive to at least one of a carrier tracking loop lock signal, a symbol timing recovery lock signal and a synchronization (sync) lock signal.
US08234680B2	Creation and use of test cases for automated testing of media-based applications A method for testing an automated interactive media system. The method can include establishing a communication session with the automated interactive media system. In response to receiving control and/or media information from the automated interactive media system, pre-recorded control and/or media information can be propagated to the automated interactive media system. The pre-recorded control and/or media information can be recorded in real time.
US08234679B2	Technique for selecting multiple entertainment programs to be provided over a communication network In an entertainment service providing on-demand programs over a broadband communications network, a user is allowed to view multiple programs in a continuous manner. The user's enjoyment of the entertainment service is enhanced especially when the on-demand programs are short, e.g., on-demand music videos which typically are a few minutes long. The user is provided with graphical user interfaces for selecting the desired programs to watch, and also allowed to determine the order in which the selected programs are to be played, which may be random.
US08234674B2	Method of constructing information on associate meanings between segments of multimedia stream and method of browsing video using the same Disclosed are a method of constructing information on associate meanings between segments of a multimedia stream, which can describe the cause/effect or abstract/detail relationship between segments of the video streams to efficiently browse the video stream and a method of browsing a video using the same. The present invention defines the cause/effect or abstract/detail relationship between the segments, event intervals, scenes, shots, etc. existing within one video stream or between the video streams, and provides a method of describing the relationship in a data region based on the content of a video stream as well as a method of browsing a video by using the information on the cause/effect or abstract/detail relationship obtained by the aforementioned method. Accordingly, a video browsing on associate meanings is available with easy manipulation and easy access to a desired part, thereby providing an effective video browsing interface for easy browsing of desired segments in a short period of time.
US08234668B2	Content access Techniques are described to provide content access. In an implementation, a determination is made at a client that a high-definition channel has content that matches content provided by a standard-definition channel. Access is provided to the content via the high-definition channel and access is restricted to the content via the standard-definition channel up the client is capable of outputting the content and high definition.
US08234658B2	Device for coordinating displays on a security system The inventive system and method for enabling external applications to display data in the security system has a table with a plurality of rules and an interface for processing the external application data for display, such that when an alert occurs in the security system, one of the rules defines a response to the alert and the device performs the response. This system and method protects the integrity of the security system as well as allows the display of data by external applications on the security system.
US08234650B1	Approach for allocating resources to an apparatus An approach for allocating resources to an apparatus generally involves a resource allocator receiving a request that specifies one or more characteristics for the apparatus. A resource allocator determines the logical devices to be included in the apparatus so that the apparatus has the specified characteristics. For at least one logical device, the resource allocator determines whether a physical device is available that corresponds to the logical device. If a physical device is available, the resource allocator allocates the physical device to the apparatus. If a physical device is not available, the resource allocator does not allocate the physical device to the apparatus.
US08234649B2	Composite system to integrate process systems using secondarily created process objects for local database operations and inter process system communications Systems and methods are provided for enabling communication between a composite system providing additional functionality not contained in existing legacy systems and other existing systems using different commands, variables, protocols, methods, or instructions, when data may be located on more than one system. In an embodiment, multiple software layers are used to independently manage different aspects of an application. A business logic layer may be used in an embodiment to facilitate reading/writing operations on data that may be stored locally and/or on external systems using different commands, variables, protocols, methods, or instructions. A backend abstraction layer may be used in an embodiment in conjunction with the business logic layer to facilitate communication with the external systems. A user interface layer may be used in an embodiment to manage a user interface, a portal layer to manage a user context, and a process logic layer to manage a workflow.
US08234644B2	Selecting a system management product for performance of system management tasks A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing a system. The process stores information regarding performance of a system management task to form a task execution history in response to performing a system management task. After receiving a request to perform to subsequent system management task, the process determines whether a task execution history is present for the subsequent system management task. The process then presents the task execution history for the subsequent task to a user for use in selecting a system management product from a plurality of system management products in response to the task execution history being present.
US08234633B2	Incident simulation support environment and business objects associated with the incident This disclosure describes software for supporting an application. In one aspect, software for supporting a business application receives error and dynamic context information from a remote business application in response to an incident. The dynamic context information at least partially identifies one or more business objects (BOs) associated with the incident. The software is further operable to clone at least one of the BOs associated with the incident. The software can then start a transaction simulating the incident. Conversely, the business application (or other supported software) can transmit error and dynamic context information to support software related to an incident within having a particular execution environment. In response to an automated request from the support software executing a simulated transaction simulating the incident, the supported software communicates a clone of one of the associated BOs to the support software. Alternatively, the software re-directs service calls instead of cloning BOs.
US08234632B1	Adaptive website optimization experiment Systems and methods for adaptive website optimization experiments. Adaptive website optimization can include collecting statistics associated with a number of landing page configurations and identifying a preferred group of landing page configurations during the pendency of an experiment based upon the collected statistics and preferentially selecting a landing page configuration from the preferred group of options for display by an instrumented web page associated with the experiment.
US08234625B2	Optimized look-up table calculations in block diagram software Pre-lookup index search blocks and multidimensional interpolation blocks that use the results of the pre-lookup index search blocks in a block diagram to graphically specify (and perform) multidimensional interpolation calculations. The pre-lookup index search and interpolation blocks are defined so as to provide for a separation of breakpoint set data and table data, thus enabling a user to explicitly manage the use of common breakpoint set data. A block diagram created using pre-lookup index search blocks and interpolation using pre-lookup index search blocks shows all tables that use a particular breakpoint set via graphical connections on the block diagram between the pre-lookup index search blocks and the interpolation using pre-lookup index search blocks.
US08234614B1	Multi-threaded global routing A method is described for routing a semiconductor chip's global nets. The method includes identifying a subset of the global nets and routing the subset of global nets using multiple threads, where, each of the global nets within the subset are routed by one of the threads in isolation of the subset's other global nets. The method further includes identifying a second subset of the global nets and routing the second subset of global nets using the multiple threads, where, each of the global nets within the second subset are routed by one of the threads in isolation of the second subset's other global nets but in respect of the routes of first subset of global nets.
US08234612B2	Cone-aware spare cell placement using hypergraph connectivity analysis Spare cells are placed in an IC design by assigning different spare utilization rates to logic cones, applying the rates to corresponding spare cell regions surrounding cells in the cones, identifying any overlap of regions from different logic cones, and inserting a spare cell at the overlapping region having the highest spare utilization rate. The best location for the spare cell is computed using a hypergraph wherein the cells are edges and the regions are nodes. Any node that is dominated by another node is removed and its edge is extended to the dominating node. The spare cell is inserted in the region having the most edges (the edges can be weighted). The process is repeated iteratively, updating the hypergraph by removing nodes connected to spare cell location, and inserting the next spare cell at a region corresponding to the node which then has the greatest number of connected edges.
US08234598B2	Inverse mask design and correction for electronic design Various implementations of the invention provide for the generation of “smooth” mask contours by inverse mask transmission derivation and by subsequently “smoothing” the derived mask contours by proximity correction.
US08234586B2	User interface framework and techniques A set of declarative language instructions (“DEIs”) defines three hierarchically-related data structures (“DSs”) to provide a naming taxonomy for use with a user interface (“UT”) framework. A first DS stores references to user-selectable objects (“USOs”) that are presentable via a UI of a software application. The USOs provide access to other USOs or to resources. A second DS stores references to actions to be taken upon user selection of particular USOs. A third DS stores information for indirectly accessing resources or USO configuration data during runtime of the software application. Another set of DEIs defines sets of computer-executable instructions (“CEIs”) corresponding to actions referred to via the second DS, which are triggered for execution upon user selection of particular USOs. Information from the third DS associated with a selected USO is passed to a particular set of CEIs. Runtime indirection and decoupling of content/functionality from UI components is achieved.
US08234581B2	User interface for processing data by utilizing attribute information on data A data processing apparatus including a data file storing section storing data files; a user interface section assigning first objects to respective data units, displaying the first objects on-screen, and accepting an operation on the data files in the form of an operation on the first objects, the data units each being a data file or a group of a plurality of data files stored in the data file storing section; a condition acquisition section acquiring a condition on attribute information attached to the data units, pertaining to contents of the data units; and a judgment section displaying on-screen a second object to which a function of searching for a data unit conforming to the condition is assigned, moving the second object within the screen according to an instruction from a user.
US08234580B2	System and method for dynamic space management of a display space A method for space management of a workspace provided on a display includes defining a first data structure of full-space rectangles present on the workspace, wherein at least a portion of the full-space rectangles are permitted to overlap. A second data structure of largest empty-space rectangles available on the workspace is also defined to complete the representation of the workspace. The methods include performing an operation on at least one full-space rectangle on the workspace and redefining the first data structure and the second data structure in accordance with the workspace resulting from the operation performed. The operations can include adding a new full-space rectangle, moving an existing full-space rectangle and deleting an existing full full-space rectangle from the workspace. Generally, the workspace is a display device coupled to an electronic device such as a personal computer, personal digital assistant, electronic book viewer and the like.
US08234579B2	Aging and elimination of avatars and associated objects from computer simulated displayed virtual universes Aging of avatars and objects toward eventual removal or removal from the displayed virtual universe through enabling the setting of defined parameters for the aging of said avatars and objects toward eventual removal of said avatars and objects from said virtual universe space; and predetermining a set of events, the occurrence of any one of which events would modify the aging of selected avatars and objects.
US08234576B2	Interaction data display apparatus, processing apparatus and method for displaying the interaction data Disclosed herein is a system for keeping sensing of mass data of members of an organization with respect to states of their meeting and activities and analyzing and evaluating their interactions according to those sensor data. Interaction data includes first information denoting whether or not a terminal unit has faced a different terminal unit and second information denoting a state of the terminal unit and excluding information denoting positions of the terminal unit and the first information. An interaction data display apparatus includes a receiving unit for receiving interaction data from the terminal unit and a display unit for displaying the received interaction data. The display unit displays the first and second information items included in the interaction data received by the receiving unit so as to be related to each other according to times at which those first and second information items are obtained respectively.
US08234567B2	Document display device, word arrangement method, and document display method A method and device for displaying a document written in a Western language in a readable form without decreasing the utilization efficiency of a display screen. When a tail of a word to be displayed goes beyond an end of a line on the screen and the number of characters contained in the word does not exceeds a reference value, a line feed is inserted immediately before the word to perform word-wrapping, and when the number of characters contained in the word exceeds the reference value, a line feed is inserted halfway within the word to display divided parts of the word on different lines.
US08234563B1	Editing of customised documents A method of generating a second customised document incorporating amendments made to a previously generated first document, where the customised documents include one or more selected predetermined portions of document content, comprises the steps of: determining which portions of document content are comprised in the first document but which are not comprised in the second document; deleting the portions of document content determined in the preceding step from the first document; determining which portions of document content are comprised in the second document but which are not comprised in the first document; and copying the portions of document content determined in the preceding step from the second document to the first document.
US08234561B1	Autocompleting form fields based on previously entered values Systems and techniques for autocompleting form fields based on observed values. In general, in one implementation, the techniques include observing values entered in form field objects, generating likelihood assessments for possible values to be entered in a current form field object based on the observed values, the likelihood assessments indicating relative probability of the possible values being entered in the current form field object, and predicting a value for the current form field object based on the generated likelihood assessments. The techniques also include generating at least two likelihood assessments for each of the possible values, and aggregating the at least two likelihood assessments for each of the possible values. Generation of likelihood assessments can involve determining semantic similarity between form fields, including comparing field names with a semantic category, and generation of likelihood assessments can also involve comparing entered value ordering information. Value prediction display techniques are also provided.
US08234557B2	Transmission device A transmission device in a communication system where a systematic code obtained by systematic encoding of information bits into which dummy bits are inserted and by deletion of the dummy bits from the results of the systematic encoding is transmitted. The transmission device inserts dummy bits into information bits based on an interleaving pattern of an interleaving portion in a turbo encoder; performs systematic encoding of the information bits into which the dummy bits are inserted, and then deletes the dummy bits from the results of the systematic encoding to generate a systematic code; and transmits the systematic code. By considering the interleaving pattern, original bit positions, which, after interleaving, exists within the ranges of stipulated numbers of bits at the beginning and at the end, are determined in advance, and the dummy bit insertion portion executes control so as not to insert dummy bits into the original bit positions.
US08234554B2	Soft error correction in sleeping processors An error-correction code is generated on a line-by-line basis of the physical logic register and latch contents that store encoded words within a processor just before the processor is put into sleep mode, and later-generated syndrome bits are checked for any soft errors when the processor wakes back up, e.g., as part of the power-up sequence.
US08234548B2	Packet transmission apparatus, communication system and program A packet transmission apparatus is provided. The packet transmission apparatus transmits a packet having a limited arrival deadline through a best-effort network. The packet transmission apparatus includes an automatic packet retransmission section to control retransmission of an undelivered packet, a forward error correction coding section to add a redundant packet to a data packet block, and a redundancy determining section to dynamically determine redundancy of the redundant packet based on observed network state information, so that a loss rate after error correction at a receiver achieved by only the retransmission of the undelivered packet satisfies an allowable loss rate after error correction.
US08234537B2	Layered decoder and method for performing layered decoding Embodiments of a decoder and method of decoding blocks of soft bits in a wireless receiver are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. In some embodiments, a memory is initialized with encoded input data and updated with sums of extrinsic reliabilities. Decoded output data is provided from the memory after a predetermined number of iterations.
US08234531B2	System-on-chip with master/slave debug interface A System-on-Chip (SOC) integrated circuit (IC) debugging system includes a plurality of SOC ICs connected to a shared debug bus. One of the plurality of SOC ICs is a master SOC IC having a master/slave debug interface. The master/slave debug interface on the master SOC IC is a bidirectional debug interface operable to send and receive debug data between the SOC ICs and an external host system.
US08234518B2	Method for voting with secret shares in a distributed system A replicated decentralized storage system comprises a plurality of servers that locally store disk images for locally running virtual machines as well as disk images, for failover purposes, for remotely running virtual machines. To ensure that disk images stored for failover purposes are properly replicated upon an update of the disk image on the server running the virtual machine, a hash of a unique value known only to the server running the virtual machine is used to verify the origin of update operations that have been transmitted by the server to the other servers storing replications of the disk image for failover purposes. If verified, the update operations are added to such failover disk images. To enable the replicated decentralized system to recover from a failure of the primary server, the master secret is subdivided into parts and distributed to other servers in the cluster. Upon a failure of the primary server, a secondary server receives a threshold number of the parts and is able to recreate the master secret and failover virtual machines that were running in the failed primary server.
US08234507B2	Electronic-ink display device employing a power switching mechanism automatically responsive to predefined states of device configuration A wireless electronic-ink display device supported in packaging, and employing a power switching mechanism which operates to prevent leakage, drainage or discharge of the electro-chemical battery until a change in predetermined state of configuration occurs. The wireless electronic-ink based display device comprises (i) a power source module with an electro-chemical battery, (ii) a power management module for managing the power levels within the wireless electronic-ink display device, and (iii) a power switching module, arranged between the power source module and the power management module, and automatically responsive to a change in at least one predefined state of device configuration, to prevent leakage, drainage or discharge of the electro-chemical battery until a change in predetermined state of configuration occurs. In the illustrative embodiment, wherein the power switching module comprises a reed switch arranged in such a manner to cause the power switching module to be configured into an electrically conductive arrangement, and capable of conducting electricity from the power source module to the power management module, when the wireless electronic-ink display device is removed from its packaging.
US08234506B2	Switching between unsecure system software and secure system software Unsecure system software and secure system software on the same computer system is switched between. A computer system includes one or more processors, which may not have any built-in security features, memory, and firmware. The memory stores secure system software and unsecure system software. In response to receiving a user signal, the firmware switches from the unsecure system software running on the processors to the secure system software running on the processors (and back again). While the unsecure system software is running, the secure system software is protected from tampering by the unsecure system software.
US08234504B2	Method and system for data encryption and decryption Certain embodiments of the invention provide a method and system for memory to bus interface data encryption and decryption. A method for memory to bus interface data encryption and decryption may include encrypting data by a encryption/decryption engine or processor and transferring the encrypted data across a first bus interface to a data processing and/or storage device coupled to the first bus interface. The encryption engine may receive encrypted data from a device coupled to the first bus interface and decrypt the received encrypted data. In this regard, unencrypted data never traverses across the first bus interface, and is thereby not accessible to devices coupled to the first bus interface. An encryption function and a decryption function associated with the encryption/decryption engine may be integrated within a bus adapter, for example, an IDE bus adapter.
US08234502B2	Automated password authentication A method of automated password authentication by pattern matching regions of screen pixels against a repository of previously captured regions, and submitting a username and a password stored with the regions of the screen pixels for authentication includes triggering an autorunnable application to startup by inserting a memory stick by a user, challenging the user for a master password to access an encrypted database held on the memory stick, running the autorunnable application as a background task following a successful authorization of the user, and checking whether the user has triggered the autorunnable application by a pre-defined key sequence. If the user has triggered the autorunnable application, then the method proceeds with prompting the user to highlight at least one rectangle around a text or an image which uniquely identifies a login panel, capturing a username and a password when entered by the user, and returning the autorunnable application to a background task. If the user has not triggered the autorunnable application, then the method proceeds with monitoring a screen buffer for a matching signature based on the rectangle drawn by the user.
US08234496B1	Image leak prevention using digital watermark Unique digital signatures of sensitive or restricted image files are calculated and stored in a database. A hook routine hooks an open or read command when an application opens an image file in order to check for a restricted digital signature of that image file. If present, a digital watermark is added to the image before the application edits that image. A user may then modify the image. A hook routine also hooks a close or write command in order to check for a digital watermark. If present, the digital watermark is removed and a new digital signature for the revised image is calculated. The digital signature for the revised image is then uploaded to a database associated with a DLP server software product, and then pushed periodically down to endpoint DLP client products.
US08234494B1	Speaker-verification digital signatures A speaker-verification digital signature system is disclosed that provides greater confidence in communications having digital signatures because a signing party may be prompted to speak a text-phrase that may be different for each digital signature, thus making it difficult for anyone other than the legitimate signing party to provide a valid signature.
US08234492B2	Method, client and system for reversed access to management server using one-time password Provided are a method, client and system for reservation access to a management server using a one-time password. A generated personal identification number (PIN) is transmitted to the management server when a reservation time comes. The management server generates a random number encrypted using the PIN and transmits the random number to the client. The random number encrypted using the PIN is received, the received random number is encrypted by a symmetric-key algorithm using a client secret key and is transmitted to the management server. The management server receives the random number encrypted using the client secret key, and decrypts the received random number using a server secret key and the PIN. A random number before the encryption using the PIN is compared with a decrypted random number, and access of the client is accepted if the two numbers are identical. Automatic access to a system employing a one-time password authentication method can be made through an arbitrary route according to previously reserved settings to perform information collection and to process specific functions in the case where a system manager is unable to directly access the system through a determined route because of temporal and spatial limitations.
US08234488B1	System and method for controlling mode switches in hardware One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for controlling mode switches in hardware. The resource manager includes an “is mode possible” function that evaluates a given mode in conjunction with the limitations of the hardware to determine if the given mode is feasible. The display driver is configured to call this function to validate a proposed mode before generating commands specifying the state changes for the display heads. The display software interface hardware module within the GPU processes these commands and follows a standard sequence of steps to implement the mode switch. The steps may include interrupts to the resource manager to re-validate the proposed mode, again calling the “is mode possible” function, or perform operations that are not yet supported in the hardware. Advantageously, controlling mode switches in hardware enables less error-prone, more efficient, and more discerning mode switches relative to controlling mode switches in software.
US08234487B2	Server apparatus and startup control method According to one embodiment, a server apparatus includes a communication processor, a database and a controller. The communication processor starts up based on a startup program recorded in a processing memory, and performs a communication processing based on a service program recorded in the processing memory, after startup. The database stores the startup program in association with a first directory for specifying a first memory area, and stores the service program in association with a second directory for specifying a second memory area different from the first directory, The controller refers to the second directory stored in the database after the startup program starts, and reads the service program from the database based on the referred result, and further, records the read program in second memory area of the processing memory.
US08234485B2	Method relating to rule-regulated software configuration A method relating to rule-regulated configuration of software includes receiving an unsuccessful configuration that a sender computer system sends to a recipient computer system upon software being unsuccessfully configured in the sender computer system. Validation rules for configuring the software allowed the unsuccessful configuration. The validation rules are modified in the recipient computer system using the using the unsuccessful configuration. The modified validation rules are provided to the sender computer system. Several sender systems may routinely report new configurations to the recipient computer system. The rules may be modified upon creating a variation of the configuration and determining whether it successfully configures the software. The variation may involve using a probabilistic distribution.
US08234484B2	Quantifying completion stalls using instruction sampling A method, computer program product, and data processing system for collecting metrics regarding completion stalls in an out-of-order superscalar processor with branch prediction is disclosed. A preferred embodiment of the present invention selectively samples particular instructions (or classes of instructions). Each selected instruction, as it passes through the processor datapath, is marked (tagged) for monitoring by a performance monitoring unit. The progress of marked instructions is monitored by the performance monitoring unit, and various stall counters are triggered by the progress of the marked instructions and the instruction groups they form a part of. The stall counters count cycles to give an indication of when certain delays associated with particular instructions occur and how serious the delays are.
US08234474B2	Method of constructing replication environment and storage system A management computer collects a usage condition of a volume from a host computer and a storage apparatus at each site, consolidates management thereof, and prevents a volume from duplicating among applications as a copy source. This makes it possible to select a used volume in an application as a copy source without excess or deficiency and to create a copy pair configuration definition without duplication or incompatibility. If a replication environment is constructed in a large-scale storage system, the consolidated management of a usage condition of a volume collected from the host computer and the storage apparatus at each site makes it possible to create a copy pair configuration definition by a task constituted by a plurality of applications.
US08234470B2	Data repository selection within a storage environment Described is a method, system, and computer program product for selecting a data repository within a computing environment. The data repository can exist on multiple target computing systems as a logical entity called a volume or a file system. When selecting at least one data repository, a data protection system of the computing environment analyzes the incoming data from a source computing system, in conjunction with information describing the data repositories. The data repository information, or repository characteristic information, can be stored on a repository volume table (RVT) of the data protection system. By determining a weighted selection score from the analysis of all the information available to the data protection system, the data protection system can intelligently select a data repository for storing data from the source computing system. Further, by tracking repository characteristic information on a continuous or periodic basis, the data protection system can enable emulated views of data that has been stored on the data repositories of the computing environment.
US08234454B2	Method and system of numerical analysis for continuous data A method of numerical analysis for continuous data includes: providing a temporary storage block, fetching a plurality of data units sequentially from continuous data to store in the temporary storage block, conducting an analysis step wherein each data unit is analyzed sequentially based on all the data units stored in the temporary storage block, recording the analysis result, performing an OR operation on the analysis result of each of the data units and the corresponding previous analysis result, and determining whether the end of the continuous data has been reached. If so, the method terminates. If not, the first of the data units is removed, the next data unit from the continuous data is fetched, and the analysis step is returned to. The method can be implemented in hardware with less temporary storage space and read/write overheads. A system of numerical analysis for continuous data is also provided.
US08234453B2	Processor having a cache memory which is comprised of a plurality of large scale integration To provide an easy way to constitute a processor from a plurality of LSIs, the processor includes: a first LSI containing a processor; a second LSI having a cache memory; and information transmission paths connecting the first LSI to a plurality of the second LSIs, in which the first LSI contains an address information issuing unit which broadcasts, to the second LSIs, via the information transmission paths, address information of data, the second LSI includes: a partial address information storing unit which stores a part of address information; a partial data storing unit which stores data that is associated with the address information; and a comparison unit which compares the address information broadcast with the address information stored in the partial address information storing unit to judge whether a cache hit occurs, and the comparison units of the plurality of the second LSIs are connected to the information transmission paths.
US08234449B2	Storage subsystem that connects fibre channel and supports online backup The storage system includes first and second disk arrays. The first disk array has a first port coupled to a second port of the second disk array, a port controller controlling the first port, a plurality of disk devices to store data, and a controller managing a plurality of logical units on the plurality of disk drives. The first port controller controls the first port so as to execute, in a time-sharing manner, data transfer corresponding to a initiator task and data transfer corresponding to a target task. The initiator task is generated to execute the data transfer from a first logical unit on the plurality of disk drives of the first disk array to a second logical unit on a plurality of disk drives of the second disk array. The target task is generated to execute the data transfer to receive data from the second disk array.
US08234443B2	Controlling writing to magnetic tape A method for controlling writing for a tape recorder that is connected to a host and sequentially records, as a transaction, a plurality of records that are transferred from the host and stored in a buffer is provided, including receiving a synchronous command for a first transaction from the host; in response to the synchronous command, sequentially writing the plurality of records stored in the buffer to a tape as the first transaction; receiving the size of a second transaction following the first transaction from the host; calculating time for a backhitch associated with an operation of the synchronous command for the first transaction on the basis of the size; and performing the backhitch on the basis of the time for the backhitch.
US08234437B2	Disk subsystem The storage system includes a plurality of disk drives; a plurality of disk array controllers, each disk array controller controlling Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) processes on said disk drives; and a plurality of switches external of said disk array controllers. The switches are coupled to the disk array controllers and to the disk drives, whereby each of the disk drives is coupled to each of the disk array controllers via the switches. Connections between disk array controllers and disk drives can be made independently via the switches.
US08234430B2	Apparatus and method with controlled switch method An embedded microcontroller system comprises a central processing unit, a system controller for receiving and handling an interrupt, a register having storage locations containing sets of predefined system data for different operating conditions of the system assigned to the interrupts coupled to set a system configuration. The system data in the register is defined and stored before receipt of an interrupt. On receipt of an interrupt the system controller transmits a selection signal to the register. The register selects a predefined storage location assigned to the received interrupt. The corresponding system configuration data is used to control system configuration of the embedded microcontroller system, such as allocation of CPU time to virtual CPUs and selection of clock frequency or power voltage for modules.
US08234427B2	Communication system having a master/slave structure A communication system comprising a master unit and a plurality of slave units. In error mode, e.g. when a path error or a complete failure of a subscriber occurs, data transmission is carried out in a loop, starting from the master unit, via a first communication path and a second communication path.
US08234426B2	Switching interface method for a multi-interface storage device The present invention discloses a switching interface method for multi-interface storage device having a transmission interfaces and a predetermining list that stores different priority weights for the transmission interfaces. When the storage device connects to a computer, the switching interface method is executed and one of the transmission interfaces is selected to communicate with the computer according to the priority weight in sequence. In addition, a user's interface is also provided for the user, and the user can switch other transmission interface of the multi-interface storage device to link to the computer. Therefore, the multi-interface storage device may link to most of the computers and successfully communicate with the computer.
US08234420B2	Method, system, and apparatus for communicating using multiple controllers Operating a control system includes repeatedly transmitting a first interrupt to at least one interface unit by a first controller of a plurality of controllers, wherein the first interrupt is transmitted at a first frequency. A first response is received at the first controller from the at least one interface unit responsive to the first interrupt, and a second response is received at a second controller of the plurality of controllers from the at least one interface unit, wherein the second response is aperiodic with respect to the first frequency.
US08234418B1	Periodic and conditional execution of DMA operations Scheduling Direct Memory Access (DMA) operations. Blocks are provided in a first DMA chain, with each block in the first DMA chain corresponding to an operation and comprising a pair of pointers, a first pointer pointing to a command structure to be executed or a data structure to be moved, and a second pointer pointing to a next block in the first DMA chain. A DMA engine processes successive operations in the first DMA chain. Time remaining in an interval for processing the first DMA chain is tracked. A second DMA chain of conditional blocks are maintained, with each conditional block corresponding to a conditional operation and containing an estimate of time needed to complete the conditional operation. A conditional operation is executed from the second DMA chain if the remaining time in the interval is greater than the estimated time to complete processing of the conditional operation.
US08234413B2	Partitioning a data stream using embedded anchors Selecting a segment boundary within block b is disclosed. A first anchor location j\|j+1 is identified wherein a value of f(b[j−A+1 . . . j+B]) satisfies a constraint and wherein A and B are non-negative integers. A segment boundary location k\|k+1 is determined wherein k is greater than minimum distance from j.
US08234408B2	Differentiating unique systems sharing a common address A system for differentiating unique systems and/or users sharing a common address may include an interface, a device identifier, a communication interceptor and a communication processor. The interface may be operative to receive a designation of a plurality of devices and/or users and a specification of corresponding services to be provisioned. The device identifier may be operative to cause the devices to provide a unique identifier with each communication originated by the device and store the unique identifier and the associated specification in a memory. The communication interceptor may be operative to intercept a communication originated by one of the devices and determine the unique identifier associated with the communication. The communication processor may be operative to determine the associated device and/or user specific service to be provisioned based on the unique identifier and process the communication in accordance with the associated device and/or user specific service to be provisioned.
US08234407B2	Network use of virtual addresses without pinning or registration A system comprising a compute node and coupled network adapter (NA) that allows the NA to directly use CPU virtual addresses without pinning pages in system memory. The NA performs memory accesses in response to requests from various sources. Each request source is assigned to context. Each context has a descriptor that controls the address translation performed by the NA. When the CPU wants to update translation information it sends a synchronization request to the NA that causes the NA to stop fetching a category of requests associated with the information update. The category may be requests associated with a context or a page address. Once the NA determines that all the fetched requests in the category have completed it notifies the CPU and the CPU performs the information update. Once the update is complete, the CPU clears the synchronization request and the NA starts fetching requests in the category.
US08234403B2	Updating routing information based on client location A system, method, and computer-readable medium for updating request routing information associated with client location information are provided. A content delivery network service provider receives a DNS query from a client computing device. The DNS query corresponds to a resource identifier for requested content from the client computing device. The content delivery network service provider obtains a query IP address corresponding to the client computing device. Based on routing information associated with the query IP address, the content delivery network service provider routes the DNS query. The process further includes monitoring performance data associated with the transmission of the requested resource and updating routing information associated with the query IP address based on the performance data for use in processing subsequent requests from the client computing device.
US08234401B2	Adaptive policers responsive to utilization levels of a resource Policers receive packets of flows of packet traffic, which are to be communicated to monitored resource. The utilization levels of the monitored resource are induced by these flows of packet traffic. Based on the observed utilization levels (including possibly measured durations in one or more of these utilization levels), a determination is made if, and how to adjust policers for policing their respective flow, with policers being adjusted accordingly. In this manner, adaptive policers (typically located remotely from the monitored resource) are adjusted in response to one or more utilization levels (including possible durations at these utilization levels—i.e., a persistence of the congestion for the resource) of one or more monitored resources, with these identified utilization levels (and possibly durations) used in determining how much to modify a policing rate.
US08234399B2	Method and apparatus for automatic phy calibration based on negotiated link speed A serial ATA interface calibrates serially connected components of a computer system linked by the interface to a negotiated data transmission speed. The interface negotiates the fastest data transmission speed supported by the serially connected components. Link parameters associated with the negotiated data transmission speed are calibrated and implemented in a Phy layer of the interface before data is transmitted across the interface. The calibrated link parameters include signal transmission settings for amplitude, pre-emphasis, equalization and timing. Default settings of the link parameters correspond to the slowest data transmission speed supported by the serially connected components. The serially connected components are calibrated each time system power is initialized. The serially connected components can be a host computer linked to a data storage device such as a backplane-based storage subsystem.
US08234396B2	Switching media streams in a client system based on environmental changes A process for switching media streams of a video in a client system. The media streams are made available to the client system by a content providing system. A first media stream received from the content providing system is played in a SHOW mode in the client system. An environmental change in an environment within or adjacent to the client system is detected, resulting in executing a procedure for deciding whether to switch from playing the first media stream to playing a second media stream differing from the first media stream. The executed procedure decides to make the switch. The switch is made to playing the second media stream in the SHOW mode as the second media stream is being received from the content providing system in response having been requested from the content providing system. The switching preserves content continuity of the video.
US08234395B2	System and method for synchronizing operations among a plurality of independently clocked digital data processing devices A system maintains synchrony of operations among devices that have independent clocking arrangements. The system includes a task distribution device that distributes tasks to a synchrony group of devices that perform the tasks distributed by the task distribution device in synchrony. The task distribution device distributes each task to the members of the synchrony group over a network. Each task is associated with a time stamp that indicates a time, relative to a clock maintained by the task distribution device, at which the members of the synchrony group are to execute the task. Each member of the synchrony group periodically obtains an indication of the current time indicated by its clock, determines a time differential between the task distribution device's clock and its respective clock and determines a time at which, according to its respective clock, the time stamp indicates that it is to execute the task.
US08234392B2	Methods and apparatuses for providing a hardware accelerated web engine Methods and apparatuses for providing hardware acceleration of a web browser are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of operating a web browser on a computer system includes analyzing a data stream having a plurality of fragments. The method further includes determining what fragments of the data stream should be rendered for storage into separate backing stores. The method further includes rendering the fragments into raster images intended for hardware acceleration. The method further includes storing the raster images in the backing stores located in a graphics processing unit.
US08234385B2	Format negotiation for media remoting scenarios Format negotiation for media remoting involves at least one media data format. In an example embodiment, a media format negotiation for playing media data is begun between a server and a client. The media data format is transferred from the server to the client. A notification that indicates if an attempt at the client to construct a media topology responsive to the media data format was a success or a failure is transferred from the client to the server. Whether and/or how the media data is to be transferred from the server to the client may be impacted by the notification.
US08234369B2	Web page response monitoring A device receives a list of uniform resource locators (URLs), selects a web page URL from the list of URLs, and requests, via a browser application, content corresponding to the selected web page URL. The device also receives, via a packet capture, a web page associated with the selected web page URL, derives performance information associated with the packet capture, parses the packet capture to extract page level statistics, connection level statistics, and inline object level statistics, and stores the page level statistics, the connection level statistics, and the inline object level statistics to output files.
US08234365B2	Method and system of alert notification Method and system for alert notification is provided. A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) based alert notification is sent from one or more agents, and the SOAP based alert notification(s) is received at a manager.
US08234362B2	System and method for generating and reporting cookie values at a client node A method and apparatus for tracking and reporting traffic activity on a web site whereby cookie data is compiled at the visitor computer using cookie processing script embedded within the web page downloaded over the Internet and operable on the visitor computer. Data mining code within the downloaded web page is operable on the visitor computer to obtain web browsing data. The cookie processing script operates in consideration of this web browsing data and an old cookie previously stored on the visitor computer and associated with the visited web page to obtain new cookie values. These new cookie values are then stored on the visitor computer and also attached to an image request sent to a data collection server where they are processed and posted for viewing by the web page owner. As cookie processing and writing occurs completely within the visitor computer, cookie-blocking technologies are circumvented.
US08234361B2	Computerized system and method for handling network traffic A computerized system and method for processing network content associated with multiple virtual domains. The processing may include anti-malware scanning and/or content filtering. The content associated with multiple domains may be processed in the same daemon process. In response to connection requests from virtual domains, the service process creates separate sockets to communicate with each virtual domain. A global configuration management module is used to provide configuration parameters for each session to the service process. A logging manager processes both the global logs and the logs from each virtual domain. Alternatively, the service process may initiate other service processes to handle incoming connections from one or more virtual domains, in order to better utilize resources in a multiple-CPU environment. Different service processes may be used to handle various aspects of content processes, for example one process may handle anti-malware scanning, while another process may handle content filtering.
US08234351B2	Systems for generating and registering enhanced domain names Systems of the present inventions allow for generating and providing an enhanced domain name. An exemplary system may comprise a domain name stored in a network storage device, a web space associated with the domain name, at least one application associated with the domain name and stored on at least one applications server, and a network communicatively coupling the network storage device, web space, and at least one application server, wherein the web space and application may be automatically enabled upon association with the domain name.
US08234348B1	Determining if an application is cached In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for determining if a web application is cached. A source web application that is executed by a web browser that is installed on a computing device determines that the web browser is to navigate to a target web application. The source web application determines whether resources for the target web application are cached at the computing device. The source web application performs actions to request resources for the target web application based on the determination whether resources for the target web application are cached, wherein the actions comprise requesting resources for the target web application using a first address if the target web application is determined to be cached and using a second address if the target web application is determined to not be cached.
US08234342B2	Chat system, chat device and control method of chat server, and information storage medium for advancing an end timing of a message reception stopping period Provided are a chat system for achieving good communication among users, a control method for a chat device and devices in a chat server, and an information storage medium. A message transfer unit (11a) transfers a message to a transmission destination game terminal upon receipt of the message, and a stop restriction unit (11e) transmits an instruction to restrict chat function stop processing to a transmission source game terminal. Also, a stop restricting time calculation unit (11b) calculates a stop restricting time T depending on the count of characters in the message, and a timer unit (11d) activates a timer to measure an elapsed time E. When the elapsed time E reaches or exceeds the stop restricting time T, the stop restriction unit (11e) transmits an instruction to release the restriction of the chat function stop processing to the transmission source game terminal. Further, an advanced time calculating unit (11c) calculates an advanced stop restricting time T−t upon receiving the message directed to the game terminal before the elapsed time E reaches or exceeds the stop restricting time T.
US08234340B2	Outsourcing of instant messaging hosting services A system, a method and computer-readable media for initiating the hosting of instant messaging services for an Internet domain name. A request is received from an entity requesting initiation of instant message hosting services for a domain name, and a secure communication channel is established with this entity. After verifying that the requesting entity is authorized to control the domain name, information describing user accounts having the domain name is received, and instant messaging services are provided for the user accounts.
US08234337B2	Methods and systems for determining quantitative benefits of travel avoidance through online web conferencing and tracking thereof Online web conferencing methods implemented in an information handling system are provided that determine and display various savings that result from The methods herein determine and display, among other variables, the total air emissions saved by being able to forego physical transportation of the users on account of being able to meet by an online web conference. Other types of savings that may be determined and displayed include cost savings, productivity savings, environmental savings, and any other type of saving or benefit that results from foregoing transportation of users to a hypothetical meeting location. Users may override default assumptions or estimates to more accurately model the estimated savings. Various transportation modalities may be included as desired. Reports may be generated that summarize the quantities determined by the models of the embodiments disclosed herein.
US08234329B2	Event processing A method, a system and a computer program for parallel event processing in an event processing network (EPN) are disclosed. The EPN has at least one event processing agent (EPA). The method includes assigning an execution mode for the at least one EPA, the execution mode including a concurrent mode and a sequential mode. The execution mode for the at least one EPA is stored in the EPN metadata. The method also includes loading and initializing the EPN. The method further includes routing the event in the EPN and, when an EPA is encountered, depending on the execution mode of the encountered EPA, further processing of the event. Also disclosed are a system and a computer program for parallel event processing in an event processing network (EPN).
US08234326B2	Processor core and multiplier that support both vector and single value multiplication The present invention provides processing systems, apparatuses, and methods that support both general processing processor (GPP) and digital signal processor (DSP) features, such as vector and single value multiplication. In an embodiment, fractional arithmetic, integer arithmetic, saturation, and single instruction multiple data (SIMD) operations such as vector multiply, multiply accumulate, dot-product accumulate, and multiply-subtract accumulate are supported. In an embodiment, the process core and/or multiplier multiplies vector values or single values by creating partial products for each desired product. These partial products are added to produce intermediate results, which are combined in different ways to support various GPP and DSP operations.
US08234320B1	Bitwise comparator for selecting two smallest numbers from a set of numbers A group of numbers from which the smallest and second-smallest are to be selected are compared in a cascaded tree. Each comparison stage will select the smallest number from two numbers output by the previous stage, into which four numbers are input. The second-smallest number is one of the other three inputs to the previous stage and, as before, all bits of the second-smallest number will not be known until the smallest number is determined. However, because at each stage of the determination, the next stage is reached because the bit values being examined are the same, those bit values of the second-smallest number (and indeed of the smallest number) are known ahead of the final determination of the smallest number. Accordingly, one can begin to output bits of the second-smallest number (as well as of the smallest number) even before that final determination.
US08234314B2	Method and system for facilitating migration of a computing environment Systems and methods are described which facilitate the integration of data into a content management system. Legacy data is inspected, and content types are generated based on a data model. From these content types, content type objects may be generated. The data may then be examined to acquire a key set, and a content instance object generated for each datum found which matches a content type. This content instance object can then be associated with the datum using one or more key values, saved, and subsequently used to manage the data. These methods and systems allow data to be migrated to a content management system without any modification to the existing data repository or its associated structures.
US08234300B2	Access to electronic social networks A method comprising, defining a social network U={u, u′, . . . }, defining a set of relationships between users O⊂U×U, defining a set of attributes of the social network A={a1, a2, . . . }, defining a set of contacts of the user u, defining a user profile of the user u Iu=Au∪Uu, defining a metric M={m1, m2, . . . }, receiving a rating of a metric of user u′ from the user u, defining a condition cεC, defining a set of elements Z={z1, z2, . . . }, receiving a request for access to Iu from user u′, determining authorization for user u′ to access a subset of Iu by an access control function U×U×Pow(R)×C→Pow(Iu×Z), and outputting a subset of Iu to user u′ as determined by the access control function.
US08234299B2	Method and system for using fine-grained access control (FGAC) to control access to data in a database A method and system for controlling access to data stored in a table of a database are provided. The method includes marking the table of the database as being protected with fine-grained access control (FGAC), creating a system authorization class for the table of the database, the system authorization class having a default row authorization that prevents access to all rows in the table, the system authorization class being unmodifiable, creating a user authorization class for the table of the database, the user authorization class having a default row authorization that prevents access to all rows in the table, the user authorization class being modifiable, and associating the system authorization class and the user authorization class with the table of the database.
US08234298B2	System and method for determining driving factor in a data cube Method and system for determining a driving factor for a data value of interest in a multidimensional database, by collecting a context for the data value of interest in the multidimensional database. The data value of interest has dimensional levels with dimensional members outside the drill path of the data value of interest. The dimensional levels are enumerated in a list. A query using the dimensional members of the dimensional level is executed. A variance is calculated for the set of query results. A driving factor for the data value of interest is determined based on the variance. The driving factor is added to the context of the data value of interest.
US08234296B1	Method for distributed RDSMS Methods for processing streaming data records are provided that include facilities for defining and naming multiple input and output data streams using relational processing definitions and abstractions similar to those found in relational database management systems (RDBMS) and embodied as a set of communicating stream processing nodes. The result is a Distributed Data Stream Management System (DDSMS) which is also a kind of Relational Data Stream Management System (RDSMS). The former comprises a set of Relational Data Stream Management System (RDSMS) nodes, whereas the latter might contain only a single RDSMS node.
US08234285B1	Context-dependent similarity measurements Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining similarity measures for objects in a dataset that include contextual associations of the objects with contexts. In one aspect, a method includes calculating a similarity measure for any two objects that include a common feature f based, in part, on the likelihood that the two object representations in the dataset that both include f will we associated with distinct contexts, and the likelihood that the two objects in the dataset that both include f will be associated with the same context.
US08234283B2	Search reporting apparatus, method and system A method of reporting search results of a collection of data is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a hash function and a pattern of data for which to search within the collection of data and searching the collection of data for one or more strings of data that match the pattern. In response to finding one or more strings of data that match the pattern, the method further includes hashing each string that matches the pattern of data with the hash function and creating one or more rows of a results table. Each row of the results table corresponds to one string of data that matches the pattern of data and includes the corresponding hashed string of data.
US08234278B2	Information processing device, information processing method, and program therefor An information processing device processes content according to an identified category for the content, the category being identified by first extracting characteristic data from the content. An extractor extracts characteristic data from the content. An identifying component identifies a category for the content on the basis of the characteristic data extracted by the extracting means. An executing component executes set processing of the content using a method according to the category identified by the identifying component. In so doing, the optimal content category for the set processing is identified.
US08234274B2	Systems and methods for characterizing linked documents using a latent topic model Systems and methods are disclosed for extracting characteristics from a corpus of linked documents by deriving a content link model that explicitly captures direct and indirect relations represented by the links, and extracting document topics and the topic distributions for all the documents in the corpus using the content-link model.
US08234272B2	Searching and ranking contacts in contact database In one aspect, a method may include receiving a request from a first mobile device for a search for contacts meeting a criterion; searching a database of contacts for the contacts meeting the criterion and including the contacts meeting the criterion in search results; determining whether a second mobile device associated with one of the contacts meeting the criterion is within a vicinity of the first mobile device; and ranking the search results based on the determination. In another aspect, the method may further include determining a database distance between a reference contact and each of one or more of the search results, where the request is associated with a reference contact in the database of contacts; and ranking the search results based on the determined database distance; where the database of contacts may include a plurality of subsets of contacts, where contacts in the subsets are linked to another contact in the database of contacts; where determining a database distance between the reference contact and each of the one or more of the search results may include determining the number of links between the reference contact and each of one or more of the search results.
US08234269B2	Searching a database including prioritizing results based on historical data Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided that include techniques for searching a database. One method includes receiving one or more input search terms and providing a database. The database maps at least one search term to at least one coupon. The method further includes identifying one or more coupons in the database based on the received input search terms. The method further includes selecting one or more coupons from the identified coupons. A given coupon can be selected based on a number of times the given coupon has been previously printed. A given coupon can also be selected based on a number of times the given coupon has been previously redeemed. The method further includes presenting one or more coupons to the user where the presented one or more coupons include the selected one or more coupons.
US08234267B2	Hardware accelerated reconfigurable processor for accelerating database operations and queries Embodiments of the present invention provide a hardware accelerator that assists a host database system in processing its queries. The hardware accelerator comprises special purpose processing elements that are capable of receiving database query/operation tasks in the form of machine code database instructions, execute them in hardware without software, and return the query/operation result back to the host system. For example, table and column descriptors are embedded in the machine code database instructions. For ease of installation, the hardware accelerators employ a standard interconnect, such as a PCle or HT interconnect. The processing elements implement a novel dataflow design and Inter Macro-Op Communication (IMC) data structures to execute the machine code database instructions. The hardware accelerator may also comprise a relatively large memory to enhance the hardware execution of the query/operation tasks requested. The hardware accelerator utilizes hardware-friendly memory addressing, which allows for arithmetic derivation of a physical address from a global database virtual address simply based on a row identifier. The hardware accelerator minimizes memory reads/writes by keeping most intermediate results flowing through IMCs in pipelined and parallel fashion. Furthermore, the hardware accelerator may employ task pipelining and pre-fetch pipelining to enhance its performance.
US08234264B2	System and method for preferred services in nomadic environments A method of locating preferred services includes searching an augmented spatial index, which is based on a user's determined preferred services. Additionally, the method includes indicating a location of a currently-sought preferred service.
US08234253B1	Systems and methods for performing recovery of directory data Systems and methods are disclosed for recovering data following a directory service malfunction, such as a forest-wide disaster in Microsoft® Active Directory. In certain examples, a single management console can be used for remotely recovering selected domain controllers in the forest without necessitating direct operator intervention. Multiple domain controllers can be concurrently restored from one or more backup files. Configurations of the system can advantageously eliminate manual intervention with each domain controller, thereby saving significant amounts of recovery time and effort. Also, certain systems and methods can be used to automatically and remotely quarantine corrupt domain controllers so that those individual domain controllers do not replicate with the newly restored environment, while allowing the domain controllers to remain online and in communication with the attached network. Certain disclosed methods further modify recovery procedures based at least in part on the type, and availability of, one or more DNS servers.
US08234247B2	Content management system and method for portable device The present invention relates to a content management system and method of content management on a portable device. The content management system of the present invention includes a storage unit which stores at least one content file, a content list manager which creates a content list of contents files satisfying at least one monitoring condition and manages the content list on the basis of events occurring in the storage unit, and a monitoring unit which monitors the events occurring in the storage unit and transmits information on the events to the content list manager.
US08234238B2	Computer hardware and software diagnostic and report system The present invention tests computer systems for defects that are able to cause performance and functional problems. An agent application is first installed on a user's system. The agent application then retrieves problem data from the expert system library pertinent to the user's operating environment. The agent application tests the user's system for each problem description within a downloaded data structure from the expert system library. If a problem is discovered, a script attempts to remediate the problem and/or notifies the user, describing the issue. If an unknown problem arises, a feedback mechanism expands the expert system library by sending a notification that a problem was discovered. The feedback is then utilized to increase the total knowledge in the expert system library. Then when another user with a similar or the same setup is tested, the agent application will recognize the issue and will take the appropriate remedial actions.
US08234236B2	System and method for efficient allocation of resources in virtualized desktop environments A system and method for managing responsiveness of virtual desktops using passive monitoring includes monitoring interactive desktop events for a computer device and measuring a time between the interactive desktop event and a result of the interactive desktop event. Based on the time, desktop responsiveness is evaluated. System resources are reallocated to improve the responsiveness.
US08234235B2	Security and remote support apparatus, system and method Systems and methods for the security and remote monitoring of computers are described. A computer monitoring system is provided which includes a computer hard drive, a thin client communicatively connecting a plurality of software associated with the computer hard drive with at least one remote virtual server, a central monitoring station communicatively connected to the thin client, and at least one BIOS monitor, at least partially resident locally to the computer hard drive, wherein the central monitoring station enforces at least one action upon execution of at least one alert from the at least one BIOS monitor.
US08234230B2	Data classification tool using dynamic allocation of attribute weights An analysis tool for causing a computer to use information gain of attributes and a classification algorithm to classify new records in a set of data by taking into account the predictive value of the attributes and the effect of the new record.
US08234223B1	Method and system for calculating cost of an asset using a data model Systems and methods for calculating dependencies and costs of assets which take into account the costs of the infrastructure and resources needed to support that asset are disclosed. A data model of an arbitrary system may be used to create a dependency map for one or more of the components within the data model, taking into account the dependency chain of the component. Utilizing the costs of various components in this dependency chain, the cost of the original component may then be calculated.
US08234221B2	Recruitment vendor management system and method A computer system and method for identifying a matching resume for a job description. The system receives and stores the job description that includes job requirements, each including a required skill or experience-related phrase and a required term of experience. The system receives and stores resumes that include skill or experience-related phrases. When the skill or experience-related phrases include the required skill or experience-related phrase for a job requirement, the system computes a term of experience for the required skill or experience-related phrase. To compute the term of experience, the system associates a contextual use and an experience range with each skill or experience-related phrase. A resume is a match when it includes the required skill or experience-related phrase for each job requirement and the term of experience for the required skill or experience-related phrase in the resume is greater than or equal to the required term of experience.
US08234215B2	Method for prepaid debit card with overdraft capabilities Disclosed is a method for implementing a prepaid debit card with overdraft capabilities. The system utilizes a real-time overdraft privilege risk analysis scoring module to calculate scores based on several criteria. The customer accounts are established within an aggregated general ledger account and are monitored and managed by a core processor. The overdraft privilege risk analysis scoring module operates in real time per card, per transaction.
US08234213B2	System and method for processing retrieval requests A system for processing transaction data is provided. The system includes a substitute draft system that receives a retrieval request and generates a substitute draft in response to the retrieval request. The system also includes a merchant interface that is connected to the retrieval system. The merchant interface generates a merchant request in response to the retrieval request. The system thus allows a substitute draft to be generated in response to the retrieval request that may eliminate the need for a merchant response with a sales draft to the request. The system provides for higher and more efficient completion of retrieval requests by ensuring that such retrieval requests receive at least a substitute draft response. By providing at least a substitute draft response to the card user, a chargeback for no response is avoided.
US08234208B2	System and method for spectrum management Transferring spectrum use rights may include ascertaining information regarding available spectrum for use in wireless communications. A request for spectrum use from a spectrum user system may be matched with available spectrum. A spectrum certificate may be issued to the spectrum user system, where the spectrum certificate contains at least one spectrum-related variable under which the spectrum user system is to engage in wireless communications.
US08234201B1	System and method for determining a liquidity-adjusted value at risk (LA-VaR) Computer-based systems and methods for calculating a liquidity-adjusted VaR for a portfolio. The liquidity-adjusted VaR accounts for the different liquidities of the risks. The process for calculating the liquidity-adjusted VaR may include adding to the standard 1-day VaR only the losses produced by illiquid risks that are orthogonal to the space of liquid risks.
US08234198B2	Distribution of electronic market data A system and method are provided that, among other things, can reduce the burden on receiving computers, increase data throughput, reduce system failure, and provide components of a scalable and flexible network architecture. Specifically, the system and method provide a multichannel-multicast network environment for use in dynamically assigning data to channels. This configuration is particularly useful in a trading network environment, as it effectively performs channel reassignments in a way not to disturb the receipt of the underlying data. While the example embodiments described herein pertain to electronic trading, the principles of the present invention may be equally applied in other environments where the advantages presented herein are beneficial.
US08234196B2	Systems and associated methods for implementing electronic property bond payments A system, associated methods, computer readable storage medium encoded with programming, and computer program product are disclosed for simultaneously collating information from available public, private, and government databases for provision to corrections facilities, authorized bond administrators, stakeholders, or the like for electronic transmission of secured and confirmed data to effectuate implementation of obligation on a property bond as security for court appearances for an accused.
US08234195B1	Generating and distributing a financial quiz using a personal financial management application and a social network service A method for distributing a quiz on a social network service, including: extracting, from a personal financial management application (PFMA), a spending history of a user of the PFMA, where the spending history includes a plurality of categories defined in the PFMA and a plurality of transactions performed by the user; selecting a category of the plurality of categories; selecting a question from a plurality of questions based on the category; generating an answer to the question based on the plurality of transactions within the category; adding, to the quiz describing a financial behavior of the user, the question and a plurality of response choices including the answer to the question; and distributing the quiz to a plurality of contacts of the user in the social network service.
US08234189B2	Metered delivery of wireless power A system is disclosed for charging or billing for access to wireless power. The device requiring power communicates with the power provider and the billing method is determined. A consumer may be required to provide billing information, or if the billing information is already associated with an existing account, the consumer account is automatically charged for the wireless power. The account may include prepaid charging minutes that are debited as wireless power is provided, or the account may be billed for the wireless power that is provided. The charging/billing for the wireless power may be used to receive value for the power that is provided, while remaining consumer friendly.
US08234177B2	Automated gifting Systems and methods provide a facility for automated gifting. The facility receives from a gifter an identification of a gift recipient, an indication of an occasion, and selection criteria. The facility automatically selects a proposed gift for the indicated occasion based on at least the received selection criteria and, in the absence of further direction from the gifter, sends the gift to the recipient.
US08234176B2	Identifier-based charge on delivery transaction Guaranteed funds from a buyer are held until a delivery to the buyer is confirmed by a payment provider. The funds are then released to the seller immediately upon confirmation. Confirmation may be accomplished by the buyer entering an identifier upon delivery or some other confirmation by the shipper, where the identifier was provided to the buyer during the transaction with the seller. In other embodiments, the identifier generated by the payment provider is provided partially to the buyer and partially to the seller. Upon receiving a match of the identifier from the buyer and seller on delivery, buyer funds are released to the seller.

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