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The present invention sets forth a network-centric service distribution architecture and method that integrates a wireless access system/service in the residence, SOHO, business or public environment through the use of a local broadband network, such as a Residential-Business Broadband Network (RBN), to the service provider's broadband transport network and to a service provider's broadband packet network that facilitates end-to-end packet telecommunication services. Access functions for connecting said service provider's broadband packet network to the RBN via said service provider's broadband transport network are provided. Call and service termination functions to a plurality of local RBN devices are also provided. Signals from a plurality of wireless devices are accepted and forwarded to an IEEE 802.11b interface for a wireless modem and/or to an Ethernet interface for a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)/Ethernet Processor, where the forwarded signals comprise intranet telephony and data. Voice signals are also accepted from a plurality of tip/ring interfaces and forwarded to a broadband transport interface for back haul of data and voice packets. A service provider can deploy services in an integrated voice, data and multimedia environment cost-effectively based on one broadband packet network.

The invention relates to methods for storing and accessing user data (48) and configuration data (62) in a mobile device (10) that is connected to a user module (12). According to a first aspect of the invention, the user data (48) is stored in the mobile device (10) at least partially in encrypted form, and is decrypted, in access operations, using a decrypting function (66) of the user module (12). According to a second aspect of the invention, the configuration data (62) is stored in the user module (12). The configuration data (62) indicates whether, or to what extent, an application program (46) is allowed to be executed by the mobile device (10). Security and protection against unauthorised access to user data (48) and application programs (46) in the mobile device (10) are increased by the invention.

A two-mode, compound-split, electro-mechanical transmission utilizes an input member for receiving power from an engine, and an output member for delivering power from the transmission. First and second motor/generators are operatively connected to an energy storage device through a control for interchanging electrical power among the storage device, the first motor/generator and the second motor/generator. The transmission employs three planetary gear sets. Each planetary gear arrangement utilizes first, second and third gear members. At least one of the gear members in the first or second planetary gear sets is connected to the first motor/generator. Another gear member in the second and third planetary gear arrangement is connected to the second motor/generator. One of the gear members of the first or second planetary gear sets is continuously connected to one of the gear members in the third planetary gear set. Another gear member of the first or second planetary gear set is operatively connected to the input member, and one gear member of the third planetary gear set is selectively connected to ground. A lock-up clutch selectively locks two of the planetary gear sets in a 1:1 ratio.

A scalable, cluster-based VoD system implemented with a multi-server, multi-storage architecture to serve large scale real-time ingest and streaming requests for content assets is provided. The scalable, cluster-based VoD system implements sophisticated load balancing algorithms for distributing the load among the servers in the cluster to achieve a cost-effective and high streaming and storage capacity solution capable of serving multiple usage patterns and large scale real-time service demands. The VoD system is designed with a highly-scalable and failure-resistant architecture for streaming content assets in real-time in various network configurations.

A wiper blade is proposed with which to clean windshields, in particular of automobiles. The wiper blade (10) has an elongated belt-shaped, flexible spring support element (12), with a separate first component designed as an elastic rubber wiper strip (14) that can be pressed against the windshield (20) located at the bottom belt surface (13) of the support element and with a separate second component located at the other upper belt surface (11) of the support element (12) that is designed as a wind deflection strip (24) that extends at least along a longitudinal section of the wiper blade (10). A particularly low-disruption wiper blade results if the two components (14, 24) are connected together at their sides facing one another.

A touch sensing apparatus for receiving input from one or more touch stimulating devices employs a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signaling arrangement to transmit signals from the touch stimulating devices for identification and location determination. Active devices are powered by an EM field and generate a touch stimulating signal that is spread spectrum encoded for identification, and signal pickups in a propagation layer receive the touch stimulation signals which are identified by the DSSS encoding and located using received signal strength (RSS) techniques. Semi-active devices are powered by an EM field and receive code instructions to generate specific spread spectrum signals and generate a touch-stimulating signal. Touch stimulating devices are either tethered or tether-free, and powered by batteries or EM fields.

An analytical test element for determining an analyte in a body fluid comprises a detection area in which the analyte is detected and an application site at which the body fluid can be applied to the test element. The application site is spaced apart from the detection area, wherein at least some of the body fluid applied to the application site moves from the application site to the detection area. The test element also comprises a contamination area which at least partially adjoins the application site, wherein an adhesive substance is applied to at least part of the contamination area of the test element. The adhesive substance adheres to the contamination area of the test element and is able to interact with an excess amount of applied body fluid such that at least some of the body fluid adheres to the test element and thereby an excess amount of body fluid remains in the contamination area. An additional embodiment provides for test elements which, after use, can be stored in a storage container. Another embodiment provides for the production of the test elements.

Methods and devices are provided for absorber layers formed on foil substrate. In one embodiment, a method of manufacturing photovoltaic devices may be comprised of providing a substrate comprising of at least one electrically conductive aluminum foil substrate, at least one electrically conductive diffusion barrier layer, and at least one electrically conductive electrode layer above the diffusion barrier layer. The diffusion barrier layer may prevent chemical interaction between the aluminum foil substrate and the electrode layer. An absorber layer may be formed on the substrate. In one embodiment, the absorber layer may be a non-silicon absorber layer. In another embodiment, the absorber layer may be an amorphous silicon (doped or undoped) absorber layer. Optionally, the absorber layer may be based on organic and/or inorganic materials.

The present invention sets forth a network-centric service distribution architecture that integrates a wireless access system in the residence, SOHO, business or public environment through the use of a local broadband network, such as a Residential-Business Broadband Network (RBN), to the service provider's broadband transport network and to a service provider's broadband packet network. The system includes a Media Terminal Adapter coupled via the RBN to the access port(s) and via the service provider's broadband transport network to the service provider's broadband packet network. The access port is coupled to the Media Terminal Adapter via either an RBN (e.g., a Local Area Network—LAN) or simply via a traditional POTS line interface. The access port receives and sends wireless signals to a plurality of RBN devices, allowing the user to control these devices remotely from the residence, business, SOHO or public environments. The integration of an RBN to a service provider's broadband packet network allows a subscriber to communicate at home and at the office with one communication device anytime anywhere.

Tracking forms allow tracking of the completion status and implemented quality standards of a building construction project. A tracking form is prepared for one or more tasks requiring completion at the construction site. Each task is assigned two components on its tracking form: a quality control indicator form, which contains one or more quality control indicators indicating whether certain quality standards are met; and a completion indicator, which indicates the completion status of a task. The completion status may be a discrete binary value, or may instead be a continuous value. Preferably, the workers performing the tasks complete each task's quality control indicator form and completion indicator during design and construction as milestones relating to the task are completed, or at the end of some predetermined time period. The completion indicators relating to the tasks are logged so that the completion status of the project may be monitored, and the information recorded on the quality control indicator forms may be sampled and checked to verify that construction quality standards are being met.

A software-based electronic data discovery tool which accesses multiple electronic archives; copies files and their meta-data into a common repository; vertically de-duplicates and tags the files; horizontally de-duplicates and tags the files; filters and tags the files against a one or more sets of predetermined compliance and privileged criteria identified by one or more parties associated with a specific electronic data discovery procedure; profiles and tags select results; and produces a variety of reports and excerpts. Production is at least one of printing on paper, transferring to magnetic media, or other processes. Files that are selected for profiling and production are then rendered in TIFF or another related format and stored in a common file. All files are identified with a digital “finger print” and complete chain-of-custody information.

An enclosure for the open end of a reflector antenna includes a cylindrical shroud coupled to a distal end of the reflector antenna, the shroud generally coaxial with a longitudinal axis of the reflector antenna. A retaining band is coupled to an inner diameter of the shroud, proximate a distal end of the shroud. The retaining band is provided with a retaining groove open radially inward towards the longitudinal axis. The retaining groove provided with a bottom extending radially outward beyond an outer diameter of the shroud. A radome is seated within the retaining groove.

An aircraft has a flying wing and two wingtip hulls installed on the wingtips of the flying wing. Both of the wingtip hulls contain lighter-than-air gas to generate static lift. These wingtip hulls not only contribute to lift-generating but also help the aircraft achieve roll stability and control. Forward propulsion systems are installed at the upper-front positions of the flying wing. When vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) capability is required, one or more lift-fan propulsion systems can be installed on the flying wing. The lift-fan propulsion systems can either be driven by their own engines or by the power transmitted from the forward propulsion systems. Payload can be carried inside the flying wing or be hung under or held above the flying wing.

An optical system for acquiring fast spectra from spatially channel arrays includes a light source for producing a light beam that passes through the microfluidic chip or the channel to be monitored, one or more lenses or optical fibers for capturing the light from the light source after interaction with the particles or chemicals in the microfluidic channels, and one or more detectors. The detectors, which may include light amplifying elements, detect each light signal and transducer the light signal into an electronic signal. The electronic signals, each representing the intensity of an optical signal, pass from each detector to an electronic data acquisition system for analysis. The light amplifying element or elements may comprise an array of phototubes, a multianode phototube, or a multichannel plate based image intensifier coupled to an array of photodiode detectors.

Steering arrangement for a trailer, with a hitch (8) connected with a chassis (17) of the trailer (2), a trailer coupling (4), by which the hitch (8) can be coupled to a tractor (1) in an articulated fashion by forming a composition (3) comprising the tractor (1) and the trailer (2), a drive (24) which is at least indirectly coupled with the trailer coupling (4), by which the articulation angle (α) of the composition (3) can be varied during reverse travel, and a controller (25) coupled with the drive (24), by which the drive (24) can be controlled, wherein the hitch (8) is supported on the chassis (17) for movement in the transverse direction (16) of the trailer (2) and is movable by the drive (24) in this direction relative to the chassis (17).

A process for producing an epoxidized diene polymer includes: dispersing or suspending a diene polymer (C) having a ball-reduced particle size of 0.05-20 mm in a medium (A) in the presence of powder particles (B) insoluble in the medium (A), or in an aqueous medium in the presence of a phenol-based stabilizer and/or a phosphorus-based stabilizer; and epoxidizing the diene polymer (C) by an epoxidizing agent, therefore, problems associated with epoxidation performed by dissolving diene polymer in a solvent are eliminated; an economical method for epoxidizing, producing, and purifying a diene polymer (C) in a solid form is provided; and the epoxidized diene polymer having an excellent heat stability can be obtained.

A miniaturized laser package is provided comprising a standard semiconductor laser package modified to accept a solid state microchip assembly pumped by the diode laser. Standard packages described in the invention include TO and HHL packages all of which are characterized by small dimensions, well sealed housing, robust mounting features, known characterized materials and economical production and assembly techniques characteristic of the semiconductor processing industry. In particular, the microchip lasers are produced using high density techniques that lend themselves to mass production, resulting in very low unit costs. At the same time, the compact laser devices provide a solution to the problem of providing laser radiation at high beam quality and good reliability features with a variety of wavelengths and operational characteristics and low noise features not available from diode lasers yet relying primarily on standardized designs, materials and techniques common to diode laser manufacturing. The devices constructed according to methods taught by the invention can therefore be readily integrated into numerous applications where power, reliability and performance are at a premium but low cost is essential, eventually replacing diode lasers in many existing systems but also enabling many new commercial, biomedical, scientific and military systems.

An active faceted mirror system is disclosed. The active faceted mirror system includes a set of active facet mirror devices, a base plate and a set of pins for mounting the active facet mirror devices to the base plate. Each of the active facet mirror devices includes a mirror substrate with a reflective surface and a bearing hole on the reverse side for mounting. Additionally, each of the active facet mirror devices includes at least three actuator targets located on the back side of the mirror substrate, a jewel bearing and a flexure for supporting the mirror substrate. The base plate includes a series of bearing holes for mounting the active facet mirror devices and at least three actuators for each of the active facet mirror devices. A set of facet controllers located on the base plate can be used to control the positioning of the active facet mirror devices to produce a desired illumination effect.

A scalable, cluster-based VoD system implemented with a multi-server, multi-storage architecture to serve large scale real-time ingest and streaming requests for content assets is provided. The scalable, cluster-based VoD system implements sophisticated load balancing algorithms for distributing the load among the servers in the cluster to achieve a cost-effective and high streaming and storage capacity solution capable of serving multiple usage patterns and large scale real-time service demands. The VoD system is designed with a highly-scalable and failure-resistant architecture for streaming content assets in real-time in various network configurations.

A blind-mate capacitive coupling interconnection between a main module enclosure one or more sub-module enclosures has coupling surfaces each with a ground portion and an aperture, an inner element provided in the aperture, spaced away from the ground portion. The coupling surfaces may be provided, for example, as traces on a printed circuit board. To accommodate a degree of mis-alignment, one of the inner elements may be provided larger than the other. Capacitive coupling between the coupling surfaces occurs when the coupling surfaces are mated together, retained in position, for example, by a mechanical fixture.

This invention provides an improved process for producing corosolic acid starts from ursolic acid, which occurs in plants in relatively large amounts, the method comprising the steps of oxidizing the hydroxyl group at 3-position and utilizing the carbonyl group at 3-position to introduce a hydroxyl group stereospecifically into the 3-oxoursolic acid at the 2α-position adjacent to the hydroxyl group at 3-position.

A two-mode, compound-split, electromechanical transmission utilizes an input member for receiving power from an engine, and an output member for delivering power from the transmission. First and second motor/generators are operatively connected to an energy storage device through a control for interchanging electrical power among the storage device. The transmission employs three planetary gear sets that cooperate with a plurality of torque transmitting devices to provide two distinct gear trains or power paths corresponding to two modes of electrically variable operation in which the speed ratio between the input member and the output member varies with the speed of at least one of the motor/generators. The torque transmitting devices are selectively engageable to provide six discrete, fixed speed ratios.

A lamp for a vehicle includes a light-conducting element. The light-conducting element has at least one in-coupling element arranged between two adjacent light out-coupling elements. A light source is associated with a light in-coupling surface of the light in-coupling element. At least two light-diverting surfaces of the light in-coupling element are associated with respective ones of the light out-coupling elements. The light-diverting surfaces serve to divert light beams radiated from the light source into the respective light out-coupling elements. The light-diverting surfaces of the light in-coupling elements are convexed, or curved, outwardly and have a common focus position for the light source.