Abstract: An end effector can comprise, one, a fastener cartridge including a plurality of fasteners stored therein and, two, an anvil configured to deform the fasteners. The anvil can further comprise extensions extending therefrom which can control the flow of tissue relative to the fastener cartridge and/or support the fasteners as they are ejected from the fastener cartridge. The extensions can having different sizes and/or configurations.

Abstract: A remotely positionable stabilizer wheel arrangement for a towable agricultural implement utilizes an electronic control unit that receives an input signal indicative of a desired position of the stabilizer wheel, and/or a desired depth of penetration of tillage tools operatively attached to the front and rear of the implement frame, to automatically control an electrically powered linear actuator of the remotely positionable stabilizer wheel arrangement to position and hold the stabilizer wheel at the desired position of the stabilizer wheel.

Abstract: A growing system is provided that includes a rotomolded chassis that defines (i) an “interior” where plants are/may be located, and (ii) an “exterior” that at least partially defines a perimeter around the interior. The chassis generally includes stacking elements which allow one chassis to be stacked one upon the other. The disclosed growing system also generally includes (i) means for delivering liquid into the chassis, (ii) means for draining liquid from the chassis, and (iii) means for supporting plants that is conducive to their growing within the chassis.

Abstract: A bone graft delivery system can include an elongate tube and a handle having a trigger and a ratcheting mechanism. The trigger is actuated to deliver bone graft material through the tube. The bone graft delivery system can further include a distal tip at a distal end of the tube. The tip has one or more openings to deliver the bone graft material to a desired location and includes a surface suitable to act as a rasp for decorticating bone. A method for delivering bone graft material to a desired surgical location includes providing a bone graft delivery device, positioning the device adjacent the surgical location, decorticating bone, and delivering bone graft material to the surgical location.

Abstract: Embodiments of a method executable by an adaptive stream concatenation server to deliver a concatenated transport stream to a video distribution system are provided, as are embodiments of adaptive stream concatenation servers. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an adaptive media stream containing television programming in an adaptive packet format at the adaptive stream concatenation server via a digital network. The contents of the adaptive media stream are concatenated by the adaptive stream concatenation server to create a concatenated transport stream containing the television programming in a streaming format different from the adaptive packet format and compatible with the video distribution system. The concatenated transport stream containing the television programming is then transmitted in the streaming format to the video distribution system.

Abstract: A system and method provides for the use of a proprietary platform to predict impressions and to predict and design ad campaigns. Specifically, a proprietary programmatic advertisement platform correlates television programming asset sources with actual viewing behavior of broadcasts associated with the television programming assets and ad content associated with the ad campaign. The correlation produces a predicted performance value used to generate an ad campaign. For instance, the invention enables television programming asset sources and viewership information providers to communicate with the programmatic advertisement platform in a way that adds value to or otherwise facilitates the valuation of the television programming asset sources in context of the particular ad.

Abstract: A low loss high extinction ratio on-chip polarizer is disclosed. The polarizer is formed of a mode convertor followed by a mode squeezer and a dump waveguide, and may be configured to pass a desired waveguide mode and reject undesired modes. An embodiment is described that transmits a TE0 mode while blocking a TM0 mode by converting it into a higher-order TEn mode in a waveguide taper, squeezing out the TEn mode in a second waveguide taper to lessen its confinement, and then dumping the TEn mode in a waveguide bend that is configured to pass the TE0 mode.

Abstract: A vehicle system includes a telematics control unit (TCU) coupled to a plurality of vehicle controllers. The TCU is configured to periodically record in a log wireless activity data relating to an authentication, attachment, signaling, detachment, and handover procedure of the TCU to provide one or more remote vehicle services. The TCU is further configured to, responsive to detecting a cellular malfunction from the logged data, wirelessly transmit at least a portion of the log that corresponds to the cellular malfunction offboard the vehicle for a remote server configured to diagnose operation of the TCU.

Abstract: Presently described are systems and methods for identifying a mute/sound attribute of an audio sample set having first-channel samples and second-channel samples. An embodiment takes the form of a method that includes: (i) receiving the audio sample set; (ii) for each first-channel sample, determining a first max amplitude and a first min amplitude; (iii) calculating a first span based on a first function of the first max amplitude and the first min amplitude; (iv) for each second-channel sample, determining a second max amplitude and a second min amplitude; (v) calculating a second span based on a function of the second max amplitude and the second min amplitude; and (vi) identifying the audio sample set as having a sound attribute if both the first span and the second span are greater than a min-volume threshold.

Abstract: A fuel cell system that includes a component for removing anionic contaminants is provided. The fuel system including a fuel cell stack, a fuel gas feed subsystem in communication with fuel cell anodes in the fuel cell stack, an oxygen-containing gas feed subsystem system in communication with fuel cell cathodes in the fuel cell stack, and an anionic scavenging subsystem in communication with the fuel gas feed subsystem and/or the an oxygen-containing gas feed subsystem.

Abstract: A battery system may include multiple battery cells having different chemistries. To achieve certain performance goals, voltage parameters for the battery system, such as cruising voltages and maximum voltages can be adjusted. These adjustments may, for example, direct charging currents to a lithium-ion battery to increase fuel economy or may direct charging currents away from a lithium-ion battery to increase its longevity. Methods for matching batteries having different chemistries based on their open circuit voltages are also discussed.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a trim arrangement for a ball valve. The trim arrangement includes a first seat assembly having a first seat, a threaded collar, and a biasing element. The first seat is in contact with a first side of a ball element, and the threaded collar is threadably coupled to the first seat and in engagement with the biasing element. The trim arrangement further includes a second seat assembly having a second seat in contact with a second side of the ball element. The biasing element biases the first seat toward the first side of the ball element to provide a contact stress between the first seat and the first side of the ball element and the second seat and the second side of the ball element. The contact stress provided by the biasing element is adjustable by rotating the first seat.

Abstract: In some embodiments, a firearm comprises a lower receiver, a bolt carrier and a weight. The lower receiver is arranged to support a hammer and an auto-sear. The bolt carrier comprises a body and a striker moveable with respect to the body between a first position and a second position. The body defines a first cavity adjacent the striker. A weight is positioned in the first cavity and arranged to move the striker to the second position, wherein the striker is arranged to operate the auto-sear.

Abstract: A virtual reality or augmented reality experience of a scene may be presented to a viewer using layered data retrieval and/or processing. A first layer of a video stream may be retrieved, and a first viewer position and/or orientation may be received. The first layer may be processed to generate first viewpoint video of the scene from a first virtual viewpoint corresponding to the first viewer position and/or orientation. The first viewpoint video may be displayed for the viewer. Then, a second layer of the video stream may be retrieved, and a second viewer position and/or orientation may be received. The second layer may be processed to generate second viewpoint video of the scene from a second virtual viewpoint corresponding to the second viewer position and/or orientation, with higher quality than the first viewpoint video. The second viewpoint video may be displayed for the viewer.

Abstract: Reducing data skew when performing computational jobs (such as responding to complex queries or queries on big data sets). To gather performance information for a vertex in a distributed stage, the distributed stage is processed and the resulting performance information being generated. The system then identifies a performance outlier of the vertices, which varies from a performance norm of other vertices. A trigger instruction is then generated that is structured to trigger the performance outlier vertex to gather data distribution information of the data that the performance outlier vertex previously processed. The trigger instruction may thus be executed to cause the performance outlier vertex to gather the data distribution information for evaluation for data skew.

Abstract: Described herein are systems, methods, and techniques by which a processing unit can build an end-to-end dialogue agent model for end-to-end learning of dialogue agents for information access and apply the end-to-end dialogue agent model with soft attention over knowledge base entries to make the dialogue system differentiable. In various examples the processing unit can apply the end-to-end dialogue agent model to a source of input, fill slots for output from the knowledge base entries, induce a posterior distribution over the entities in a knowledge base or induce a posterior distribution of a target of the requesting user over entities from a knowledge base, develop an end-to-end differentiable model of a dialogue agent, use supervised and/or imitation learning to initialize network parameters, calculate a modified version of an episodic algorithm. e.g., the REINFORCE algorithm, for training an end-to-end differentiable model based on user feedback.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method provide for mapping a set of strings onto an ontology which may be represented as a graph. The method includes receiving a set of strings, each string denoting a respective object. For each of the strings, a pairwise similarity is computed between the string and each of a set of objects in the ontology. For each of a set of candidate subsets (subgraphs) of the set of objects, a global score is computed, which is a function of the pairwise similarities between the strings and the objects in the subset and a tightness score. The tightness score is computed on the objects in the subset with a submodular function. An optimal subset is identified from the set of candidate subsets based on the global scores. Strings in the set of strings are mapped to the objects in the optimal subset, based on the pairwise similarities.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving, at a computing device, an I/O request directed to a compressed data portion of a storage system. It may be determined whether the I/O request includes one of a first portion of information and a second portion of information. An address of the compressed data portion may be obtained via downward mapping if the I/O request includes the first portion of information. The address of the compressed data portion may be obtained via upward mapping if the I/O request includes the second portion of information. The I/O request may be executed at the compressed data portion.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for estimating patient radiation exposure during computerized tomography (CT) scans. More specifically, embodiments of the invention provide efficient approaches for generating a suitable patient model used to make such an estimate, to approaches for estimating patient dose by interpolating the results of multiple simulations, and to approaches for a service provider to host a dose estimation service made available to multiple CT scan providers.

Abstract: Examples relate to identifying shortest paths. In one example, a computing device may: access an edge table that specifies, for each edge of a graph, an edge source, an edge destination, and an edge distance value; access a current path table that specifies paths between nodes of the graph and, for each path, a source node, a destination node, a distance, and a node path; identify each path included in the current path table as a shortest known path; and for each path having a destination node that matches an edge source node, add a new path to the current path table, the new path specifying: the source node as a new source; the edge destination as a new destination; a sum of the edge value and the path distance as a new distance; and the edge destination appended to the node path as a new node path.