Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Whitham, Curtis & Christofferson
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Patent number: 8350341Abstract: Adjustment of a switching threshold of a field effect transistor including a gate structure including a Hi-K gate dielectric and a metal gate is achieved and switching thresholds coordinated between NFETs and PFETs by providing fixed charge materials in a thin interfacial layer adjacent to the conduction channel of the transistor that is provided for adhesion of the Hi-K material, preferably hafnium oxide or HfSiON, depending on design, to semiconductor material rather than diffusing fixed charge material into the Hi-K material after it has been applied. The greater proximity of the fixed charge material to the conduction channel of the transistor increases the effectiveness of fixed charge material to adjust the threshold due to the work function of the metal gate, particularly where the same metal or alloy is used for both NFETs and PFETs in an integrated circuit; preventing the thresholds from being properly coordinated.Type: GrantFiled: April 9, 2010Date of Patent: January 8, 2013Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Michael P. Chudzik, William K. Henson, Unoh Kwon
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Patent number: 8343731Abstract: Chemiluminescent detection of metabolic by-products of inosine and hypoxanthine is used to diagnose ischemic events such as early acute cardiac ischemia.Type: GrantFiled: August 1, 2008Date of Patent: January 1, 2013Assignee: Virginia Commonwealth UniversityInventors: Don Farthing, Lei Xi, H. Thomas Karnes, Domenic Sica, Todd Gehr, Lynne Gehr, Martin Unverdorben
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Patent number: 8343741Abstract: Filamentous fungi are grown in pellet form by culturing the filamentous fungi in liquid culture under one or more of the following conditions: 1) with addition of particulate substrates: 2) using spores which have been stored for a period of time prior to inoculation; and 3) using high spore inoculum concentrations.Type: GrantFiled: December 18, 2008Date of Patent: January 1, 2013Assignee: Washington State University Research FoundationInventors: Yan Liu, Wei Liao, Craig Frear, Shulin Chen
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Patent number: 8345894Abstract: Vacuum tubes that receive output signals from microphone units through grids and with which the signals are output as outputs from cathode followers; FETs in cascade connection with the corresponding vacuum tubes and that define currents flowing in the vacuum tubes; and bias circuits that apply a bias voltage to the grids of the corresponding vacuum tubes are included. Pairs of such vacuum tubes, FETs, and fixed bias circuits are each symmetrically connected so that a balanced signal can be output from two cathode followers, and an adjuster is provided between the pair of fixed bias circuits, the adjuster adjusts currents flowing in the pair of vacuum tubes to achieve a balanced output.Type: GrantFiled: May 13, 2010Date of Patent: January 1, 2013Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-TechnicaInventor: Hiroshi Akino
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Patent number: 8340995Abstract: A method and system are described for using business artifacts to identify elements of a component business model. Artifacts operated upon by the business are first identified, and then used to analyze the business into business operations. This is done by identifying every business activity that acts on an artifact, creating directed graphs for the business activities, and decomposing the directed graphs into sub-graphs, each sub-graph representing a business operation and being annotated by a verb expression, the annotated sub-graph representing a business service. The business services are then clustered into non-overlapping components, using common affinities reflected in the verb expressions, and organized by partitioning into internal and external operations, exposing a business service for each external operation. The components are then clustered into non-overlapping business competencies, and arranged by accountability level.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2008Date of Patent: December 25, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: David Bernard Flaxer, Anil Nigam, Guy Jonathan James Rackham, John George Vergo
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Patent number: 8341592Abstract: A system and method is provided for the ontological representation of the meta-models of businesses and their processes, activities, and components in one or more semantic web markup languages to enable reasoning and analyzing of instances of enterprise business models to infer relationships of business entities which are previously unknown or not clear from the original business model instance.Type: GrantFiled: March 25, 2008Date of Patent: December 25, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: RamaKalyani T. Akkiraju, Richard Thomas Goodwin, Anca-Andreea Ivan, Juhnyoung Lee
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Patent number: 8341610Abstract: A method and system for generating problem resolution flowcharts, whereby users do not author flowcharts directly but instead author a dependency matrix of questions and answers related by state or underlying problem cause. After creation of a matrix of questions and answers, a corresponding flowchart is then calculated based on the information in the dependency matrix, and also based on the likelihood of the various problems and their causes. The probabilities of problems and their causes may be estimated or may be calculated from historical data accumulated by use of the flow chart, or some combination of the two. These probabilities are incorporated into the answer cells of the dependency matrix. The resulting flowchart is tested and evaluated, and the results of testing and evaluation are used to make modifications in the matrix of questions and answers.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 2007Date of Patent: December 25, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Alina Beygelzimer, Mark Brodie, Sheng Ma, Jonathan Lenchner, Irina Rish
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Patent number: 8334258Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for inducing and enhancing apoptosis in pathogenic cells. In particular, the present invention relates to the use of GnRH II antagonists for inducing and enhancing apoptosis of specific types of tumor cells, i.e. breast cancer and malignant melanoma as well as gynaecological cancers like endometrial or ovarian cancer, expressing the GnRH II receptor as well as to methods relating thereto. In addition, new GnRH II antagonists are provided.Type: GrantFiled: July 20, 2006Date of Patent: December 18, 2012Assignee: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Stiftung Öffentlichen Rechts (Universitätsmedizin)Inventors: Carsten Gruendker, Andreas R. Guenthert, Guenter Emons
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Patent number: 8331854Abstract: An ultrawideband radio transceiver/repeater provides a low cost infrastructure solution that merges wireless and wired network devices while providing connection to the plant, flexible repeater capabilities, network security, traffic monitoring and provisioning, and traffic flow control for wired and wireless connectivity of devices or networks. The ultrawidebande radio transceiver/repeater can be implemented in discrete, integrated, distributed or embedded forms.Type: GrantFiled: June 10, 2011Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Inventor: Theodore S. Rappaport
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Patent number: 8328586Abstract: Actuating device for an electrical connection terminal, wherein the electrical connection terminal comprises a contact frame, arranged in a housing made of insulating material, with a conductor terminal connection for an electrical conductor, and the actuating device comprises an actuating element in the form of a pusher which is integrally connected to the housing made of insulating material, and wherein the conductor terminal connection is formed on the contact frame by at least one spring element, the free end of which forms a clamping edge which is directed toward the electrical conductor and to which a clamping force is applied, and the conductor terminal connection can be opened by action of the pusher on the at least one spring element by a force being applied to the spring element by the pusher counter to the clamping force.Type: GrantFiled: March 30, 2011Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Assignee: WAGO Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbHInventors: Henryk Bies, Stephan Gassauer
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Patent number: 8331588Abstract: A ribbon microphone unit includes a permanent magnet that forms a magnetic field and a ribbon diaphragm that is disposed in the magnetic field and vibrates upon receiving a sound wave. An elastic layer made of synthetic resin is formed at least at a portion of the ribbon diaphragm, the portion vibrating upon receiving the sound wave. Preferably, the ribbon diaphragm is formed into triangular waves with the portion vibrating upon receiving sound waves being alternately folded along lines in a width direction across the entire length. The elastic layer may be formed on one or both surfaces of the ribbon diaphragm and may be provided only at both side ends of the ribbon diaphragm.Type: GrantFiled: July 27, 2010Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-TechnicaInventor: Hiroshi Akino
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Patent number: 8332407Abstract: A method and system for customer-choice-based bundling of product options collects data from previous orders about customer component choices, computes a pairwise distance between any pair of components that capture how much the probability of a choice pair P(a.b) deviates from the expected probability under the null hypothesis of independence P(a)*P(b), and clusters the components. The methodology can be implemented as instructions implemented in a computer readable medium. In this way, the need for a method to permit bundles of product options to be configured through the use of business processes reflecting choices based on the preferences of customers rather than the preferences of product designers is fulfilled.Type: GrantFiled: March 21, 2008Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Claudia Reisz
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Patent number: 8328461Abstract: Increased resistance to displacement of a barrier or barrier sections thereof in response to a lateral force without anchoring or bolting barrier sections together is achieved by providing an attachment arrangement near the top of an end of barrier sections which is capable of carrying a tensile force and developing that tensile force using a tightening bolt/nut arrangement located at deflection stops at lower corners of the barrier sections to develop a compressive force. The barrier sections are thus rigidly attached together such that a lateral force applied to one or more barrier sections is partially transferred to additional attached barrier sections effectively increasing the mass against which the lateral force is applied. The tightening bolt/nut arrangements are retained by and are captive to the respective barrier sections when barrier sections are disassembled from each other.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2010Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Inventor: Rodney I. Smith
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Patent number: 8331110Abstract: A power converter topology operates as a switching capacitor (capacitive voltage divider) converter during a first, preferably short portion of a switching cycle to provide excellent dynamic transient response and as a pulse width modulated converter during a second portion of a switching cycle to provide flexibility of voltage regulation and generality of application. This topology can be made self-driven and is capable of zero voltage switching. Therefore the power converter can be used as one of a plurality of branches of a multi-phase converter to enhance transient response. The respective branches can also be independently optimized for particular load levels and can be operated independently in a phase shedding manner to improve efficiency at low load. Further, the power converter or respective branches of a multi-phase power converter are compatible with non-linear control to further improve dynamic response.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2009Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.Inventors: Ming Xu, Ke Jin, Fred C. Lee
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Patent number: 8331600Abstract: A narrow directional microphone includes: a microphone unit; an acoustic tube having an opening on a peripheral wall along an axial direction and incorporating the microphone unit; and, an acoustic resistor that covers the opening of the acoustic tube. The acoustic tube is overlapped with an air-shutoff sheet having a plurality of openings which have various lengths in the axial direction of the acoustic tube. The openings of the air-shutoff sheet overlap the opening of the acoustic tube so that a size of the opening of the acoustic tube is limited.Type: GrantFiled: March 25, 2010Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-TechnicaInventor: Shingo Suzuki
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Patent number: 8331584Abstract: An impedance converter for a capacitor microphone includes: a vacuum tube that receives an output signal from a capacitor microphone unit through a grid and with which the signal is output as an output from a cathode follower; an FET in cascade connection with the vacuum tube and that defines a current flowing in the vacuum tube; and a bias circuit that applies a bias voltage to the grid of the vacuum tube. The bias circuit includes: a first diode and a second diode that apply the bias voltage to the grid of the vacuum tube; the first diode and the second diode being connected in inverse parallel; and a bias resistor for applying the bias voltage at a constant level to the grid of the vacuum tube via the first diode or the second diode.Type: GrantFiled: April 22, 2010Date of Patent: December 11, 2012Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-TechnicaInventor: Hiroshi Akino
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Patent number: 8326670Abstract: In software systems for resource-constrained production planning (RCPP), it is often beneficial to determine a detailed association, or “pegging”, between the resources and the shipments that are enabled by those resources. Presented here is a software-implemented method for constructing a pegging of a production plan for an RCPP problem. The method is called “Pegging By Explosion” (PBE). This method, takes a feasible production plan and reconstructs it, using its own specialized incremental allocation technique. A Pegging By Monitoring technique is applied to this reconstruction in order to produce the pegging. The reconstruction is accomplished by a specialized “explosion” technique related to the explosion technique of Material Requirements Planning (MRP).Type: GrantFiled: April 3, 2008Date of Patent: December 4, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Robert James Wittrock
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Patent number: 8324197Abstract: Trans-platinum compounds comprising carboxylato groups are disclosed, with anti-cancer usefulness. The carboxylato groups participate in solubilizing trans-platinum compounds to which they are attached.Type: GrantFiled: August 11, 2006Date of Patent: December 4, 2012Assignee: Virginia Commonwealth UniversityInventor: Nicholas P. Farrell
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Patent number: D673117Type: GrantFiled: September 8, 2010Date of Patent: December 25, 2012Assignee: WAGO Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbHInventor: Stephan Gassauer
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Patent number: D673521Type: GrantFiled: January 5, 2012Date of Patent: January 1, 2013Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-TechnicaInventors: Daisuke Yoneyama, Shohei Tokoi