Patents by Inventor William A. Armstrong

William A. Armstrong has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20120041559
    Abstract: An implant assembly for a spinal column includes at least a plate and an interbody implant attached to the plate. The interbody implant is positioned in the spinal disc space and the plate extends extradiscally for attachment to the first and second vertebrae outside the disc space. The assembly may include recesses in the bottom surface of the plate, spacers, and spacing portions extending from the bottom surface of the plate that allow the plate to be secured to the interbody implant when the trailing end of the interbody implant is positioned in a recessed, flush or overhanging position relative to the laterally facing surfaces of the vertebrae.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Publication date: February 16, 2012
    Applicant: WARSAW ORTHOPEDIC, INC
    Inventors: Anthony J. Melkent, Brian Thoren, William Armstrong, Rajesh Remesh
  • Publication number: 20110198199
    Abstract: Systems and methods for displaying content in a conveyor system are provided. A content displaying conveyor plate includes a base plate and an upper plate that is configured to be releasably coupled to the base plate. The upper plate can be configured to display content, for example content that is integral to the base plate, content that is disposed between the upper plate and the base plate, or any combination thereof. The upper plate can be coupled to the base plate via one or more connection members defined on the upper plate and/or the base plate. Any, number, such as all of the base plates of an existing conveyor system can be replaced with respective content displaying conveyor plates. The base plate of the content displaying conveyor plate can define one or more recesses, the recesses configured to receive an attachment member and/or other components of a carousel therein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2011
    Publication date: August 18, 2011
    Inventors: Stephen William Armstrong, Michael Samuel Lagana
  • Publication number: 20100189510
    Abstract: A method for treating soil at a site contaminated with organic contaminants, comprises: (a) determining site characteristics, and sampling a volume of soil; (b) determining soil characteristics, and identifying and quantifying contaminants; (c) selecting a treatment composition appropriate to the contaminants and soil and site characteristics; (d) calculating an effective amount of treatment composition appropriate to the contaminants and soil and site characteristics, and in the range of from 2% to 12% by weight, relative to the weight of soil being treated; (e) excavating a volume of contaminated soil from the site; (f) combining the effective amount of treatment composition with the excavated soil; (g) mechanically mixing the excavated soil with the treatment composition; and (h) aerating the treated soil; and optionally: (i) conditioning the treated soil; and at least one of: (j) back-filling the site with the treated soil; (k) storing the treated soil; (1) disposing of the treated soil; and/or (m) transp
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2008
    Publication date: July 29, 2010
    Inventor: Andrew William Armstrong
  • Patent number: 7661907
    Abstract: A method of modifying geotechnically unsuitable soils at a site involving soil stabilization treatment and rolling dynamic compaction. A portion of the site is excavated to a predetermined depth x. Both the excavated site and the soil excavated therefrom are subjected to soils stabilization treatments before the treated excavated soils is backfilled in layers and subjected to both standard compaction and rolling dynamic compaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignee: AQS Holdings Limited
    Inventor: Andrew William Armstrong
  • Patent number: 7654219
    Abstract: Sight glass assemblies, pipe assemblies including the same, and methods for assembling pipe assemblies are disclosed. Sight glass assemblies may include an annular body of a transparent material. The annular body may include a peripheral surface, an interior surface defining at least a portion of a fluid path, first and second parallel planar annular surfaces spaced a first distance apart, and at least one passage extending through the annular body from the first planar annular surface to the second planar annular surface between the peripheral and interior surfaces. In some examples, a sight glass assembly may include at least one spacing element, which may include first and second bearing surfaces. The first and second bearing surfaces may be spaced a second distance at least as large as the first distance. In some examples, the interior surface may be chemically resistant to at least one predetermined fluid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Inventor: William Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20090110489
    Abstract: A method of modifying geotechnically unsuitable soils (21) at a site (20) so as to render the site (20) capable of bearing a load (30) comprises steps involving soil stabilisation treatment and rolling dynamic compaction (42). A portion (40) of the site (20) is excavated down to a pre-determined depth x. Both the excavated site (40) and the soil excavated therefrom are subjected to soils stabilisation treatments, before the treated excavated soils is backfilled in layers (43), and subjected to both standard compaction (45) and rolling dynamic compaction (42). The result is a raft (32) of modified soils capable of supporting bearing pressures associated with traditional housing foundations (33, 35). The need to drive piles (25) into deep strata (24) with load-bearing capabilities, or to use other costly or environmentally unsound techniques to address the issue of geotechnically unsuitable or contaminated soils is thus avoided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Inventor: Andrew William Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20080206860
    Abstract: A vessel includes a gas reservoir. The vessel also includes at least one gas outlet. The gas outlet includes an integral gas permeable membrane. A culture system includes the vessel as a first vessel. The first vessel is coupled to a second vessel that includes or otherwise contains a cell, a plant, an animal or the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2004
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Applicant: THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Jean Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20080108491
    Abstract: Supplemental labels and methods of manufacturing supplemental labels are disclosed herein. A supplemental label according to an embodiment includes a presentation portion having a front face and a coupling portion coupled to the presentation portion. The front face has a printable area and includes a print-receiving medium. The coupling portion is transparent and has opposed front and rear faces. The rear face has an adhesive, and at least a portion of the adhesive is exposed to removably couple the coupling portion to the object. A supplemental label according to an embodiment includes a presentation portion having a front face and a coupling portion coupled to the presentation portion. The front face has a printable area and includes a print-receiving medium. The coupling portion is transparent, has opposed front and rear faces, and extends beyond the presentation portion. The rear face of the coupling portion has a transparent adhesive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2007
    Publication date: May 8, 2008
    Inventors: Mike Wilkinson, William Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20080095964
    Abstract: Supplemental labels and methods of manufacturing supplemental labels are disclosed herein. A supplemental label according to an embodiment includes a presentation portion having a front face and a coupling portion coupled to the presentation portion. The front face has a printable area and includes a print-receiving medium. The coupling portion is transparent and has opposed front and rear faces. The rear face has an adhesive, and at least a portion of the adhesive is exposed to removably couple the coupling portion to the object. A supplemental label according to an embodiment includes a presentation portion having a front face and a coupling portion coupled to the presentation portion. The front face has a printable area and includes a print-receiving medium. The coupling portion is transparent, has opposed front and rear faces, and extends beyond the presentation portion. The rear face of the coupling portion has a transparent adhesive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2007
    Publication date: April 24, 2008
    Inventors: Mike Wilkinson, William Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20080080080
    Abstract: Sight glass assemblies, pipe assemblies including the same, and methods for assembling pipe assemblies are disclosed. Sight glass assemblies may include an annular body of a transparent material. The annular body may include a peripheral surface, an interior surface defining at least a portion of a fluid path, first and second parallel planar annular surfaces spaced a first distance apart, and at least one passage extending through the annular body from the first planar annular surface to the second planar annular surface between the peripheral and interior surfaces. In some examples, a sight glass assembly may include at least one spacing element, which may include first and second bearing surfaces. The first and second bearing surfaces may be spaced a second distance at least as large as the first distance. In some examples, the interior surface may be chemically resistant to at least one predetermined fluid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2007
    Publication date: April 3, 2008
    Inventor: William Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20080077927
    Abstract: An entitlement management system for distributing spare CPU processor resources to a plurality of deployment groups operating in a data processing system, the system comprising: a deployment group entitlement component comprising: an allocation component for allocating a plurality of micro-partitions to a deployment group; a determining component for identifying spare CPU processor cycles from a donor micro-partition and distributing the identified spare CPU processor cycles to a requester micro-partition in the deployment group; the determining component further comprises identifying when there are no further spare CPU processor cycles to be donated to any of the micro-partitions in the deployment group and communicating a request to a management entitlement component; and a management entitlement component receiving requests from at least two deployment group entitlement components and identifying if one of the deployment groups has spare CPU processor cycles to donate to a further deployment group and on a
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2007
    Publication date: March 27, 2008
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Christopher Hales, Naresh Nayar
  • Publication number: 20080046889
    Abstract: An apparatus, program product and method support the deallocation of a data structure in a multithreaded computer without requiring the use of computationally expensive semaphores or spin locks. Specifically, access to a data structure is governed by a shared pointer that, when a request is received to deallocate the data structure, is initially set to a value that indicates to any thread that later accesses the pointer that the data structure is not available. In addition, to address any thread that already holds a copy of the shared pointer, and thus is capable of accessing the data structure via the shared pointer after the initiation of the request, all such threads are monitored to determine whether any thread is still using the shared pointer by determining whether any thread is executing program code that is capable of using the shared pointer to access the data structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2007
    Publication date: February 21, 2008
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Peter Heyrman, Naresh Nayar
  • Publication number: 20080015712
    Abstract: A method, system, and article of manufacture for processing virtual interrupts in a logically partitioned system are provided. An intelligent virtual global interrupt queue (virtual GIQ) that may be associated with a plurality of virtual processors running in a logical partition may be utilized. Upon receiving a virtual interrupt, the virtual GIQ may examine the operating states of the associated virtual processors. In an effort to ensure the virtual interrupt is processed as quickly as possible, the virtual GIQ may present the virtual interrupt to one of the associated virtual processors determined to be in an operating state best suited for processing the virtual interrupt.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2007
    Publication date: January 17, 2008
    Inventors: WILLIAM ARMSTRONG, David Larson, Naresh Nayar
  • Publication number: 20070271425
    Abstract: A logically-partitioned computer, program product and method utilize a flexible and adaptable communication interface between a partition and a partition manager, which permits optimal handling of partition management operations such as state change operations and the like over a wide variety of circumstances. In particular, a partition is permitted to indicate, in connection with a request to perform a partition management operation, whether an asynchronous notification should be generated or suppressed in association with the performance of the partition management operation by a partition manager. As a result, asynchronous notifications are selectively generated in association with the performance of partition management operations based upon indications in the requests made by partitions for such operations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2007
    Publication date: November 22, 2007
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Naresh Nayar, Gregory Nordstrom, Timothy Torzewski
  • Publication number: 20070239804
    Abstract: A method for storing multiple types of information, the method includes: storing information representative of a content of a persistent memory entity at a certain point in time; and storing information representative of a state of a virtual machine at the certain point in time. A computer program product including a computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to: store information representative of a content of a persistent memory entity at a certain point in time; and store information representative of a state of a virtual machine at the certain point in time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Publication date: October 11, 2007
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Alain Azagury, Shmuel Ben-Yehuda, Eliezer Dekel, Michael Factor, Amiram Hayardeny
  • Publication number: 20070209406
    Abstract: A device (10) for retaining and associating an animal with a transport system during transport to and through one or more processing operations along a processing line. The device (10) includes a pivot mechanism (12) for reliably controlling the orientation of the animal during upward and downward travel on the transport system. More specifically, the device includes a lower portion (14) for retaining the animal, and an upper portion (16) for coupling with the transport system. The lower portion (14) is pivotably coupled with the upper portion (16) and movable between a rearward position in which the lower portion (14) and the upper portion (16) are in a substantially straight orientation relative to each other, and a forward position in which the lower portion (14) and the upper portion (16) are in a substantially angled orientation relative to each other in the forward direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2007
    Publication date: September 13, 2007
    Inventors: Frank Criscione, William Armstrong
  • Publication number: 20070177611
    Abstract: An audio application program is isolated from an Internet application program in a cell phone system having a processor. An operating system program, a partition manager process and the audio and Internet application programs are stored in a computer readable memory of the cell phone. The method includes executing the partition manager process, the audio application program and the Internet application program by the cell phone system processor. Executing the partition manager process includes the partition manager process controlling the audio application program executing to be associated with a first executing instance of the cell phone operating system and the Internet application program executing to be associated with a second executing instance of the cell phone operating system, so that the audio application program is isolated from the Internet application program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2006
    Publication date: August 2, 2007
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Richard Arndt, Renato Recio, James Rymarczyk, Jacobo Vargas
  • Publication number: 20070079176
    Abstract: Replacing a failing physical processor in a computer supporting multiple logical partitions, where the logical partitions include dedicated partitions and shared processor partitions, the dedicated partitions are supported by virtual processors having assigned physical processors, and the shared processor partitions are supported by pools of virtual processors. The pools of virtual processors have assigned physical processors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Publication date: April 5, 2007
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Naresh Nayar, Gary Ricard
  • Publication number: 20070079102
    Abstract: Assigning a processor to a logical partition in a computer supporting multiple logical partitions that include assigning priorities to partitions, detecting a checkstop of a failing processor of a partition, retrieving the failing processor's state, replacing by a hypervisor the failing processor with a replacement processor from a partition having a priority lower than the priority of the partition of the failing processor, and assigning the retrieved state of the failing processor as the state of the replacement processor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Publication date: April 5, 2007
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Naresh Nayar, Gary Ricard
  • Publication number: 20070054106
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Preferably, the present invention relates to the substantial recycling of all material forming the WEEE, thus providing substantially zero landfill. In yet another form, the invention relates to an additive and/or method of providing an additive. In still another form, the invention relates to recycling ink, toner, and/or PU foam from imaging consumables, forming part of the WEEE. In another form, the invention relates to the recycling of plastic materials containing flame retardants, including the recycling of plastics materials, such as plastics materials containing brominated flame retardants generally based on styrenics (e.g. PS, HIPS, ABS, PPO/PS, PPE/PS, ABS/PC) and polyamides (Nulon 6, nylon 6,6, nylon 12) and other engineering plastics such as polyacetal, polycarbonate, PET, PBT, liquid crystal polymers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2005
    Publication date: March 8, 2007
    Inventors: William Armstrong, Stephen Morriss, Glen Wilkie, John Scheirs