Abstract: Systems and methods for determining material properties of elastomers for the Mullins effect are described. In one aspect of the present invention, material properties of an elastomer membrane specimen are obtained using a system comprising a bi-axial test device, a pump, a fluid reservoir, a linear variable differential transformer, a pressure transducer and a computer. The bi-axial test device comprises a top plate and a bottom plate. The top plate has a circular hole configured to allow the specimen to be expanded up by pressures of the inflating fluids. The circular hole is so dimensioned that the specimen can be expanded with a substantially low pressure. The bottom plate is a solid plate configured with a fluid intake at one side and a fluid outlet at the other end. The fluid intake is connected to the fluid reservoir. Fluids stored in the fluid reservoir are pumped into the bi-axial test device by the pump. The fluid outlet is connected to the pressure transducer.

Abstract: A color wheel including a motor body, a housing, a spacer and a color filter. In this case, the housing is set to a side of the central axis of the motor body. The spacer is placed over the housing. The color filter is set on one side of the spacer, which is opposite the housing, so that there is a recess between the color filter and the housing.

Abstract: A device for keeping the D# (D Sharp) tone hole open hence corresponding pad cup of a saxophone drier is described. According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the device is a key clamp for holding down the D# key such that the D# pad cup can be kept open when the saxophone is not being played. The device is made of a continuous wire having a first segment having a first end, and a second segment having a second end, said first segment and said second segment are oriented substantially perpendicular to each other but non-coplanar, wherein said first segment has a form of an unsymmetrical S-shape, and said second segment has a form of a substantially closed loop.

Abstract: A system, method, and software product for an accelerated design optimization is described. Engineers/designers/users define an initial design with a set of responses and constraints on the responses in a design optimization process. A plurality of approximations to the responses around the initial design is created to represent an engineering design space. A current optimal design is determined from the approximations subject to the set of constraints. Actual structural response of the current optimal design is calculated. As a result, the residual between the actual response and the approximated response can be established. When the optimization process has not reached convergence, another set of approximations is created around the current optimal design. Instead of using the original set of constraints, the new set of constraints is adjusted with the calculated residual, so that the design optimization process can achieve convergence much faster.

Abstract: Improved techniques for managing image data associating with asset records in an electronic media programs catalog list between a media server (e.g., a video-on-demand server) and a terminal device or a client system (e.g., a set-top box) is disclosed. The catalog list is created by a module and displayed on a terminal device. Each of the asset records represents a media program that the user can browse. Each of these media programs may associate with a graphical image data, which is also displayed, when the user browses at that particular record. The image data are stored on the media server with a portion duplicated in an image windowing cache on the terminal device. The image windowing cache is intelligently filled by a predictive pre-fetch operation in the background while the user browses a particular record. The predictive operation ensures additional n images are pre-fetched in user scroll direction.

Abstract: A system, method and software product to simulate guided cable contacts is disclosed. The guided cable contact includes a slave node and an associated beam. A normal vector is established between the slave node's projection point and the slave node. Each of the slave node and two end nodes of the beam has three translational degrees-of-freedom. A spring is placed between the slave node's projection point and the slave node. The spring constant is assigned such that the spring is substantially stiffer than that of the beam. The guided cable contact stiffness matrix is then calculated using the spring constant, the normal vector, the length of the beam, and the distance between the first end node of the beam and the projection point. According to one aspect, the guided cable contact may be used for modeling human spinal column.

Abstract: A method and system for transferring state variables between an old and new model in an adaptive mesh-free analysis is described. The old and the new model are associated with a set of old and new integration points, respectively. A third set of nodes is formed to include old boundary nodes and the set of old integration points. For each of the new integration points, a sub-set of the third set is defined. The support of each node of the sub-set covers the new integration point to be evaluated. A local interpolant with a desirable consistency condition and interpolation properties is constructed to interpolate state variables at the new integration points. All of the non-interpolated approximation can be transformed into the interpolated approximation with the desired consistency condition and smoothness using this procedure.

Abstract: Devices for removing and separating moisture from interior passage of woodwind musical instruments are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, 1) a de-moisturizing device includes a pocket sewed onto one side of the device to provide storage for the device hanging outside of an instrument carrying case, thus keeping the moisture absorbed by the swab re-moisturize the instrument; 2) a de-moisturizing device contains a closed loop affixed at one end of the device for holding a moisture absorbent fabric for removing moisture from the interior passage of woodwind instruments; and 3) a de-moisturizing device contains a plurality of moisture absorbent desiccant gels in an elongated hollow porous tube for removing moisture from the musical instruments.

Abstract: Improved approaches for delivering media programs to viewers (e.g., subscribers) are disclosed. The media programs are typically broadcast in accordance with a schedule. The media program can be delivered to viewers through multicast or unicast. According to one aspect, the media programs are buffered (e.g., cached) in a data packet format such that producing unicasts for particular viewers requires less computation and resources such that more concurrent unicasts are able to be effectively supported.