50results about How to "Avoids need" patented technology

The present invention discloses a self-contained miniature DNA biosensor designed to detect specific molecular targets, particularly suitable for detection of nucleic acids. For example, hybridized DNA may be detected without external monitoring or signal transmission. The miniaturized biosensor is a biochip comprising multiple biological sensing elements such as DNA probes, excitation microlasers, a sampling waveguide equipped with optical detectors (fluorescence and Raman), integrated electro-optics, and a biotelemetric radio frequency signal generator. The novel integrated circuit biochip microsystem (ICBM) is suitable for gene analysis and will allow rapid, large-scale, and cost-effective production of gene biochips.

Methods for the treatment of a cell proliferation disorder in a subject, involving:

• • (1) administering to the subject at least one activatable pharmaceutical agent that is capable of effecting a predetermined cellular change when activated, either alone or in combination with at least one energy modulation agent; and
  • (2) applying an initiation energy from an initiation energy source to the subject,

wherein the applying activates the activatable agent in situ,

thus causing the predetermined cellular change to occur, wherein the predetermined cellular change treats the cell proliferation disorder, preferably by causing an increase or decrease in rate of cell proliferation,

and a kit for performing the method, a computer implemented system for performing the method, a pharmaceutical composition useful in the method and a method for causing an autovaccine effect in a subject using the method.

Provided are a system, method, and program for grouping backup objects stored in backup storage. A backup group is created and a plurality of backup objects are added as members of the backup group in separate backup transactions. The backup objects added to the backup group are stored to backup storage.

A system, method and program product for creating a searchable personal browsing history. In response to a user request to obtain a web page from the Internet, metadata and textual data are automatically extracted from the web page. Then, the extracted metadata and textual data are indexed and stored. Subsequently, the stored metadata and textual data are displayed in categories based on the indexing, to enable searching of the displayed categories of metadata and textual data.

An ion spectrometer apparatus is disclosed having an ion source, an ion mobility spectrometry device such as a FAIMS cell, and a capillary for transporting ions from the ion source to the entrance of the FAIMS cell. The capillary is heated to promote evaporation of solvent from incompletely desolvated droplets entering the capillary inlet, thereby preventing or minimizing operational problems associated with the presence of wet material in the FAIMS cell. The FAIMS cell may be used to selectively transmit ions to a mass analyzer.

A password authentication mechanism is capable of determining whether a password has expired without referring to a database or other information repository. Additional information can be encoded in the password without unduly lengthening the password, so that the additional information can be extracted from the password when the user provides the password for authentication purposes. Thus, the password serves as an information-carrying data item as well as acting as an authentication mechanism. Such a password can be used, for example, to provide time-limited access to a vehicle in response to receipt of timely payment, and to disable the vehicle if payment is not made.

A tissue retracting apparatus for use in cardiac surgery having a first tissue retracting member configured and sized to retract a cardiac tissue of the patient's heart in a manner to obtain surgical access to a target heart valve located within an internal heart cavity, and a second tissue retracting member configured and sized to retract, depress or displace a valve cusp tissue of the target heart valve in a manner to obtain surgical access beyond the target heart valve. In use, the second tissue retracting member is operatively couplable to the first retracting member, so that the first and second retracting members cooperate together to collectively allow the simultaneous retraction of both (i) a cardiac tissue of the patient's heart, and (ii) a valve cusp of the target valve while a surgical intervention can be carried out on either the target heart valve or a subvalvular structure of said target heart valve.

A network-based system and method for providing anonymous voice communications using the telephone network and data communications links under the direction of a Call Broker and associated network elements. A user (the call initiator) present in a text chat room session establishes a data connection to Call Broker and, after qualifying for access (e.g., using credit card information) and providing a callback number, receives voice session information and participant access codes for each desired participant in a voice call. The initiator causes session information and participant codes to be passed to one or more selected chat participants in the current text chat room. When a selected participant uses the received session information, and enters the received participant code and a callback number, the Call Broker in cooperation with a Network Adjunct Processor (NAP) completes voice links to the initiator and the selected participant(s). The need for each party to have a second subscriber line is advantageously avoided by having the Call Broker arrange to have one or more voice links completed through a VoIP link, and further reduces the need for second lines for participants by forwarding a Call Broker—placed call to a busy participant line to the participant's Internet Service Provider (ISP), which then sends a message to the participant announcing one or more options for receiving the incoming call, including receiving the incoming call through a VoIP link.

An electronic device including a continuity sensor and electrical circuitry configured to detect and report the continuity state of an article, container or product packaging is disclosed. The continuity sensor includes a first substrate with first and second coils thereon, and a second substrate with a third coil thereon. The first coil has an integrated circuit electrically connected thereto. The first substrate is part of, or is attached or secured to a part of the article, container or packaging. The second substrate is another part of, or is attached or secured to another part of the article, container or packaging. One of the article, container or packaging parts is (re)movable with respect to the other part. The first and second coils have one coupling when the article, container or packaging is closed or sealed, and a different coupling when the article, container or packaging is open or unsealed.

Structures are provided which improve performance in integrated circuits. The structures include a diffusion barrier and a seed layer in an integrated circuit both formed using a low energy ion implantation followed by a selective deposition of metal lines for the integrated circuit. The low energy ion implantation allows for the distinct placement of both the diffusion barrier and the seed layer. Structures are formed with a barrier/adhesion layer deposited in the number of trenches using a low energy ion implantation, e.g. a 100 to 800 electron volt (eV) ion implantation. A seed layer is deposited on the barrier/adhesion layer in the number of trenches also using the low energy ion implantation. Such structures include aluminum, copper, gold, and silver metal interconnects.

A magnetic resonance imaging system is provided with a fixture which can be mounted to the static field magnet within the patient-receiving space of the magnet. The fixture can support and stabilize the patient.

A ceramic article resulting from a chemical interaction between a particulate ceramic material and a ceramic matrix material is described. The ceramic matrix results from at least partial chemical transformation of a precursor material. A chemical bond between the ceramic matrix and the particulate ceramic material is developed during manufacture. The configuration of the ceramic article is developed through use of a rapid prototyping process. A ceramic article comprising different compositions in two or more regions of the article is described. A manufacturing process comprising the steps employed to produce such a ceramic article is also described. The ceramic article described herein is particularly suited for use as a mold for metal casting. The manufacturing process disclosed herein enables production of such a mold within a matter of hours, rather than days, as required by prior art casting technologies.

A method and system is provided for creating a tap controller in a slice for use during custom instance creation to avoid the need of a boundary scan synthesis tool. Aspects of the present invention include during slice creation, using a software tool to create a test access port (TAP) from slice resources; during instance creation, allowing a customer to design a custom chip using the software tool to select which structures to use on the slice; and based on the customer selections, reconfiguring at the instance level connections between the tap controller and the selected structures.

A sensing assembly (10), including a body (12) and one or more first indicating electrodes disposed on the body (26). The first indicating electrodes include an electrochemically active layer (32) and a layer (38) of an active functioning enzyme of a first enzyme type on top of the electrochemically active layer. Also, one or more second indicating electrodes (24) are disposed on the body and include an electrochemically active layer (32) and a layer (36) of an inactivated enzyme of the first enzyme type on top of the electrochemically active layer. A reference electrode (22) is also disposed on the body. Finally, an electrical and data processing system (18) is adapted to bias the electrodes and measure electrical signals from the electrodes, and uses said signals to determine an analyte concentration and communicates the analyte concentration to a location apart from the first and second indicating electrodes.

An externally programmable shunt valve assembly that includes a motor having a rotor that is operable in response to an externally applied magnetic field and configured to increase or decrease the working pressure of the shunt valve assembly. The motor may further include a position sensing mechanism that allows a position of the rotor, and associated pressure setting of the valve, to be determined using an external magnetic sensor. In certain examples the motor further includes a mechanical brake that is magnetically operable between a locked position and an unlocked position and which, in the locked position, prevents rotation of the rotor.

A method and system are provided for delivering content items to online users. The content items are to be displayed on user operated devices in response to a specified query. Subsets of items are generated from a set of content items responsive to the specified query. The subsets are selected to generally satisfy delivery requirements associated with each item. A different one of the subsets is delivered to each user making the query.

Described are optical sensing systems. The systems may perform reliably in explosive environments and provide eye protection should breakage of an optical fiber be detected. Sensors of the systems additionally may be self-managing, acquiring and transmitting sensed data as available electrical power permits.

An upconverter has a two port parametric amplifier that has a first port to receive an input, signal to be amplified and upconverted and a second port to receive a local oscillator signal and to output the amplified, upconverted signal at upper and lower sideband frequencies. The upconverter further has an antenna coupled to the second port and a power splitter inserted between the second port of the parametric amplifier and the antenna.

A system and a method for a mobile lottery for providing the service of participation in a lottery draw at the push of a single button, by sending a SMS message from a mobile phone.

An active weather system includes a main weather station unit, a humidifier unit and a remote sensor. The main weather station unit has a main housing with a humidity sensor that detects a level of humidity in an area surrounding the main weather station unit. The humidifier unit includes a housing with a nest for removably mounting the main housing. The humidifier unit also includes a water tank and a humidifier. The humidifier vaporizes water from the water tank when the humidity sensor detects a level of humidity lower than a preset level. Electrical contacts in the nest of the humidifier housing and the main weather station electrically connect the units when the main housing is mounted in the nest. The remote sensor may be placed away from the main unit, such as outdoors, to sense temperature and/or humidity in its environment. The remote sensor includes a transmitter, which sends the temperature and/or humidity information it detects to the main weather station unit.

A combined processor, such as might be used in a mobile handset or hands-free communication device, provides residual echo suppression and noise reduction while eliminating the need for explicit comfort noise generation. Operating within a near-end communication device, the processor receives an echo-canceled signal that is derived from a near-end input signal, and generates an output signal for subsequent transmission to a far-end communication device by applying a noise attenuation factor to the echo-canceled signal or to an average of that signal. The processor maintains the average signal across periods of speech and non-speech. During far-end-modes of operation, where only incoming audio from the far-end is active, the processor substitutes the average signal for the echo-canceled signal, such that a far-end listener receives the natural sounding average signal without receiving the objectionable, residual echo that may be in the echo-canceled signal.

Errors induced by noise pulses in digital electronic circuits clocked with a clock signal are detected by providing at least one additional clock signal offset in time with respect to the clock signal by a given interval, and performing for at least one component of the circuit a comparison of correspondence between two versions of one and the same signal. The comparison is clocked by the additional clock signal and the absence of correspondence between the two versions of said signal identifies an error induced in the circuit by a noise pulse.

Method and apparatus for facilitating a sales transaction between one or more sellers and potential buyers in relation to large numbers of similar units. A seller offers the units to buyers, starting at an initial price. The potential buyers make offers to buy a given number of units at that price. The price is incrementally reduced, with buyers being given the opportunity to bid with each reduction. In other embodiments, the buyer makes an offer to multiple sellers at a given price, specifying the number of units the buyer wants. Sellers offer to fulfil some or the entire offer, and the buyer subsequently reduces the price and makes additional offers until the buyer's requirements are met.

A liquid flow-restriction device has a plurality of flow-restriction passages connected to a common outlet. Each flow-restriction passage has a magnetically operable valve having a valve member movable between an open position and a closed position. The valves are operated by a common actuating element selectively positionable with respect to the valve members to open the valves. The actuating element is a permanent magnet. The device is simple and allows easy selection of a flow rate to a dilution dispenser.

A method of delivering a digital receipt relating to a transaction to a user, the method comprising, at a server: receiving transaction related data from a point of sale system, the transaction related data having been intercepted in a data communications path between a point of sale terminal and a peripheral device; analysing transaction related data to extract user identification data; querying a user data module using extracted user identification data to determine user preferences relating to delivery of digital receipts; generating the digital receipt in dependence on the determined user preferences and the received transaction related data; outputting the digital receipt.

A method for retrieving data from a network having network elements in a multi-level hierarchical tree includes providing a data exchange interface defining formats for requesting and delivery of types of data to be retrieved, generating a request at the data exchange interface to define the data to be retrieved, using the request to define a canonical name and a depth indicator, implementing, at one or more levels in the network, a data retrieval routine that uses the canonical name to generate a command that is issued to the element or elements from which data are to be retrieved to cause the element or elements to return data including a description and a value, and communicating the returned data to the data exchange interface in the defined data format.

There is provided a fall detector for detecting falls of a user or an object to which the fall detector is attached, characterized in that the fall detector comprises an air flow sensor for providing measurements indicative of vertical velocity and/or changes in altitude of the fall detector.

Disclosed is a breathable heater element for a garment or for the lining of a garment such as an outdoor jacket, e.g. a waterproof jacket. The heater element is formed from porous metallised fabric such a nickel plated woven polyester fabric by photochemical etching of a suitable track pattern onto the metallised fabric. The formed heater element is then laminated into a lining. The material of the lining may be impregnated with microencapsulated functional chemicals such as fragrances, perfumes, antimicrobials or insect repellents. The microcapsules release their contents on activation due to heat generated by the heater element.

Methods and devices for detecting cell loss in telecommunication devices, such as ATM switches, attach cell loss detection information to cells in cell streams passing through the telecommunications devices. The cell loss detection information can trigger counters at up stream and down stream locations thereby avoiding the problem of synchronizing counters and ensuring that all cells to be counted have been flushed through the telecommunications device. The cell loss detection information can include a sequence number in a sequence of n sequence numbers where n is not a power of 2. Preferably n=2-1, where P is an integer. Such series of sequence numbers allow the detection of lost cells in bursts consisting of a number of lost cells which is a power of 2. The methods and apparatus of the invention permit detection of unintentionally dropped cells in a call without the need to tear down the call.

A memory controller, such as a SDRAM controller, controls the way in which data is retrieved, in order to make more efficient use of the bandwidth of the memory data bus. More specifically, when a memory access request requires multiple data bursts on the memory bus, the SDRAM controller stores the data from the multiple data bursts in respective buffers. Data is then retrieved from the buffers such that data is read from a part of the first buffer, then from the other buffers, and finally from the remaining part of the first buffer. Storing the required data in the remaining part of the first buffer avoids the need to occupy the memory bus with a new data burst.