Abstract: An IV catheter introducer having a retractable needle holder and a tubular plunger that are held by a detent structure in a preferred positional relationship prior to and during insertion of the catheter. Following insertion, the plunger is pushed past the detent structure, permitting a compressed spring to force the needle holder upwardly into the plunger. A vented end cap in the plunger permits rapid venting of air displaced during retraction of the needle holder. The needle holder includes a flash chamber that is easily viewable through a clear plastic housing. Wings are provided on the housing to facilitate one-handed operation of the device. A method for assembling the subject catheter introducer is also disclosed.

Abstract: An implementation of a technology, described herein, for relevance-feedback, content-based facilitating accurate and efficient image retrieval minimizes the number of iterations for user feedback regarding the semantic relevance of exemplary images while maximizing the resulting relevance of each iteration. One technique for accomplishing this is to use a Bayesian classifier to treat positive and negative feedback examples with different strategies. In addition, query refinement techniques are applied to pinpoint the users' intended queries with respect to their feedbacks. These techniques further enhance the accuracy and usability of relevance feedback. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods for dynamically adjusting carrier sensing threshold levels in a wireless, such as CSMA, system. A station may use the carrier sensing measurement made in normal CSMA operation to determine a threshold level for the local station, and transmit the determined level to other stations in the system. The station also receives similar information from other stations in the system and determines, based at least in part on the information received and the local determined threshold level, an optimal carrier sensing threshold level.

Abstract: The present invention provides novel hydroxy piperidine (HP) derivatives having (i) a positive charge at the position corresponding to the anomeric position of a pyranose ring; (ii) a short, flexible linker emanating from the corresponding position of the ring oxygen in a pyranose; and (iii) a lipophilic moiety connected to the linker and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The linker can be absent if the lipophilic moiety corresponds to a hydrocarbon chain with a linear length of 6 or more carbons. The present invention further provides a method for treating individuals having Gaucher disease by administering the novel HP derivative as “active-site specific chaperones” for the mutant glucocerebrosidase associated with the disease.

Abstract: A carrying apparatus for holding an optical scanning module is provided to allow the optical scanning module against the platen. The carrying apparatus at least comprises the first carriage, the second carriage and a carriage control means. The second carriage is pivotably connected to the first carriage. The carriage control means provides an upward force to lift one or both of the first carriage and the second carriage up, thereby allowing the optical scanning module loaded on the carriages against the platen.

Abstract: The present invention introduces a novel route toward microstructural orientation into organic films, using multiple hydrogen-bonding to self-assemble chromophore molecules into electro-optic films in a net polar orientation. High-quality, thick films (up to micrometers) with molecular net dipole orientations can be fabricated under vacuum in hours. The film microstructure is intrinsically acentric; and the orientation is robust.

Abstract: This feature of the present invention comprises a system and method of controlling exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) based on a measure combustion stability measure. The combustion stability measure is obtained by determining the integration duration of the engine ionization signal, i.e., the crank angle at which the integral of the ionization signal reaches a specified percentage of its total. The present invention uses the integration duration to control the maximum EGR rate of the engine in a closed loop while maintaining the combustion stability of an internal combustion engine.

Abstract: The present invention relates to PWE3-based communication and discloses a method of implementing PWE3 protocol, with the aim to implement PWE3 architecture over RPR-based MPLS PSN, provide protection and bandwidth sharing capability, and improve quality and efficiency of PWE3 architecture. Said method of implementing PWE3 protocol comprises the following steps: A. Encapsulate data frame on said PWE3 PSN layer into RPR data frame; B. Transmit said RPR data frame to the destination node through RPR; C. Decapsulate said RPR data frame into PSN layer data frame at said destination node.

Abstract: A framework and method for quality of service (QoS) aware resource discovery in mobile ad hoc networks are presented. Self-organized discovery agents manage the directory information that describes the network resources available for use by clients. In one embodiment, hash indexing of available resources is utilized. The discovery agents also partition the network into domains and collect intra- and inter-domain QoS information. This information is used to allow clients to select appropriate resource providers. This framework and method has low discovery latency and cost in terms of the number of packets for each resource discovery query.

Abstract: The regulatory sequences (i.e., promoter regions, introns and enhancers) associated with the Yarrowia lipolytica gene encoding fructose bis-phospate aldolase (FBA1) have been found to be particularly effective for the expression of heterologus genes in oleaginous yeast. The promoter regions of the invention have been shown to drive high-level expression of genes involved in the production of ?-3 and ?-6 fatty acids.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for processing electronic ink receive an electronic ink input; convert the electronic ink input to a first machine-generated object using handwriting recognition; display the first machine-generated object on a display; receive speech input; convert the speech input to a second machine-generated object using speech recognition; generate a list of machine-generated objects based on the electronic ink input, the list including the first machine-generated object and alternative machine-generated objects and functioning as a dictionary for converting the speech input; and replace the first machine-generated object with the second machine-generated object. The machine-generated objects may correspond to words, lines, and/or other groupings of machine-generated text. A user may confirm that the second machine-generated object should replace the first machine-generated object and the system will perform the replacement.

Abstract: Extracts of vetiver oil were found to be significant repellents and toxicants of ants, ticks, and cockroaches. Nootkatone was shown to significantly decrease ant invasion and increase mortality in fire ants. Nootkatone is an effective repellent and toxicant of ants either by itself or as an addition to other substrates, including mulches made from vetiver grass roots, diatomaceous earth, alumina, silica, clays; building materials made from either aluminum or wood; and other suitable solid substances. Nootkatone was also a repellent and toxicant to ticks; and a repellent to cockroaches. Nootkatone is non-toxic to humans and other mammals and is environmentally safe. In addition, it is believed that other extracts of vetiver oil, specifically ?-cedrene, zizanol and bicyclovetivenol, will be effective against ants, ticks, and cockroaches.

Abstract: A magneto-resistive memory comprising magneto-resistive memory cells is disclosed, comprising a pinned magnetic layer and a free magnetic layer. The two magnetic layers are formed having widened regions at the ends of the layers. As such, the shape made out by the magneto-resisitve memory, from a top-view perspective, is wide at the ends and narrower at the mid-, forming an I shape in one preferred embodiment. The end portions of the free magnetic layer are allowed to magnetically couple to the end portions of the pinned magnetic layer such that magnetic coupling is shifted to these widened regions and coupling in the mid-portion between the widened regions is minimized. Thus, the influence of the pinned magnetic layer on the magnetization orientation of the mid-portion of the free magnetic layer is substantially eliminated, allowing for increased predictability in switching behavior and increased write selectivity of memory cells.

Abstract: An optical fiber connector (3) includes an insert body (31), a door (33), a housing (35), a spring member (36) an optical element (37) and a spacer (39). The door includes a protuberance (332) and defines a through hole (331) for receiving a shaft (34). The shaft is held between the insert body and the housing. The door can rotate inwardly into an inserting hole (351) defined by the housing when a fiber plug (4) is inserted the inserting hole. When the fiber plug is pulled out from the housing, the door is rotated to cover the inlet side of the inserting hole due to a spring force applied by the spring member against the door.

Abstract: The invention relates to isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding MutS homologues (MSHs). Such MSH proteins are involved in DNA mismatch-repair processes in organisms. The invention provides isolated nucleic acid molecules comprising MSH2 nucleotide sequences which encode MSH2 proteins and MSH2 nucleotide sequences which encode dominant-negative MSH2 variants. Such MSH2 nucleotide sequences find use in altering mismatch repair, mutation rates and recombination frequencies in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. The invention also provides isolated nucleic acid molecules comprising MSH2 promoter nucleotide sequences. Such MSH2 promoter nucleotide sequences find use in regulating the expression of genes of interest in plants. Additionally provided are isolated proteins, transformed host cells, and transformed plants, tissues, cells and seeds thereof.

Abstract: Disclosed is an automatically-activated wireless code symbol reading system comprising a bar code symbol reading mechanism contained within a hand-supportable housing having a manually-activatable data transmission switch. During symbol reading operations, the bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically generates a visible laser scanning pattern for repeatedly reading one or more bar code symbols on an object during a bar code symbol reading cycle, and automatically generating a new symbol character data string in response to each bar code symbol read thereby. During system operation, the user visually aligns the visible laser scanning pattern with a particular bar code symbol on an object (e.g. product, bar code menu, etc.) so that the bar code symbol is scanned, detected and decoded in a cyclical manner.

Abstract: Methods are provided for selecting proteins, in particular antibodies, against a wide variety of membrane proteins. In one aspect, a method is provided for eliciting monoclonal antibody in a non-human animal administered with a target membrane protein by using a fusion protein as an immunogen that contains a peptide fragment derived from the target membrane protein. The fusion protein can also be used as a ligand for screening a library of proteins for protein-ligand binding pairs in vitro by using mRNA, ribosome, phage, or cell display. The selected proteins can be used for therapeutics and diagnostics targeting the membrane proteins.

Abstract: Polyurethane prepolymers with reduced amount of unreacted monomeric hexamethylene 1,6-diisocyanate (HDI) are provided. Also provided are polyurethane elastomers obtained by mixing the polyurethane prepolymers having reduced amount of unreacted monomeric HDI with amine and/or hydroxy chain extenders and durable, resilient, colorfast golf ball covers obtained therefrom. Rolls, wheels and tires obtained from the polyurethane elastomers are also provided.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining if a first video segment matches a second video segment is provided herein. Each video segment to be compared has an associated metric (HR), which is a function over time as the conditional entropy between frame fk and previous frame fk?1. A comparison of each video segment's HR vectors determines if the video segments match.

Abstract: A method provides differentiated quality of service (QoS) by providing adaptive updates to media access control (MAC) layer parameters on a distributed basis. The method includes calculating a failure probability for a transmission over the network, determining a target value for determining a contention window according to a mapped function of the failure probability, and altering the contention window according to a scaling function of the target value. The mapped function and the scaling can provide QoS differentiation. A wireless device ensures fairness in a wireless time slotted network and includes a network interface card (NIC), a network driver interface, a network monitor, a statistics engine, and an adaptive parameter engine for determining a target value for determining a contention window according to a mapped function of the one or more probabilities to enable an alteration of the contention window and provide new parameters for the MAC layer.