914results about How to "Reduce strain" patented technology

A method for controlling movement using an active powered device including an actuator, joint position sensor, muscle stress sensor, and control system. The device provides primarily muscle support although it is capable of additionally providing joint support (hence the name “active muscle assistance device”). The device is designed for operation in several modes to provide either assistance or resistance to a muscle for the purpose of enhancing mobility, preventing injury, or building muscle strength. The device is designed to operate autonomously or coupled with other like device(s) to provide simultaneous assistance or resistance to multiple muscles.

Systems and methods for noninvasive assessment of cardiac tissue properties and cardiac parameters using ultrasound techniques are disclosed. Determinations of myocardial tissue stiffness, tension, strain, strain rate, and the like, may be used to assess myocardial contractility, myocardial ischemia and infarction, ventricular filling and atrial pressures, and diastolic functions. Non-invasive systems in which acoustic techniques, such as ultrasound, are employed to acquire data relating to intrinsic tissue displacements are disclosed. Non-invasive systems in which ultrasound techniques are used to acoustically stimulate or palpate target cardiac tissue, or induce a response at a cardiac tissue site that relates to cardiac tissue properties and/or cardiac parameters are also disclosed.

An actuator device (2) includes a piezoelectric or electro-strictive solid state actuator element (6) that is elongated upon application of an electric voltage thereto, and a transmission mechanism (8) that amplifies the stroke displacement of the actuator element. The transmission mechanism (8) includes a plurality of rigid frame members (12), including unitary frame members (12.1, 12.2) and divided frame members (12.3), and elastically flexible joints (10) that respectively interconnect the frame members. Each one of the divided frame members (12.3) is made up of a plurality of separate parallel link rods (16). Each flexible joint (10) is made up of a plurality of individual parallel hinge members (18) that respectively connect an end of each one of the link rods (16) to the adjacent unitary frame member (12.1, 12.2). By this division of the flexible joints and of the divided frame members into parallel sub-components, the cross-sectional thickness of each individual hinge member is reduced, and thereby the bending stiffness and the outer fiber strain of the material of the hinge members is significantly reduced while providing the same total tensile strength and tensile stiffness. The link rods of each divided frame member effectively form a parallelogram linkage for moving and guiding the output members (12.1) in a parallel manner.

A robotic mechanism positions a volume scanning transducer at multiple acoustic windows on a patient. Ultrasound data is acquired from the windows and combined into a wide field-of-view. The robotic mechanism operates without user contact, such as for an automated full or partial torso scan of a patient. Alternatively, the robotic mechanism provides force to reduce strain on a sonographer.

A spoolable composite tube capable of being spooled onto a reel for storage and for use in oil field applications. The spoolable tube exhibits unique anistropic characteristics that provide improved burst and collapse pressures, increased tensile strength, compression strength, and load carrying capacity, while still remaining sufficiently bendable to be spooled onto a reel in an open bore configuration. The spoolable composite tube can include an inner liner, an interface layer, fiber composite layers, a pressure barrier layer, and an outer protective layer. The fiber composite layers can have a unique triaxial braid structure.

Energy devices such as energy conversion devices and energy storage devices and methods for the manufacture of such devices. The devices include a support member having an array of pore channels having a small average pore channel diameter and having a pore channel length. Material layers that may include energy conversion materials and conductive materials are coaxially disposed within the pore channels to form material rods having a relatively small cross-section and a relatively long length. By varying the structure of the materials in the pore channels, various energy devices can be fabricated, such as photovoltaic (PV) devices, radiation detectors, capacitors, batteries and the like.

An abdominal training apparatus designed to be used by a seated exerciser for concentrated training of the abdominal muscles, comprising an upper portion and a lower portion pivotably suspended from a base, the upper portion and lower portion being linked together causing them to rotate in opposite directions from, in a fixed angular proportion to, one another. The apparatus includes weight addition means on the upper and lower portions to respectively increase and decrease the force required to perform the crunch exercise, so as to accommodate both advanced and beginning exercisers as well as those with injured or weak abdominal muscles. The apparatus further includes a pivotably mounted seat portion enabling the apparatus to be used by an exerciser to target both the oblique and the frontal abdominal muscles.

A method of producing a layered semiconductor device comprises the steps of: (a) providing a base comprising a plurality of semiconductor nano-structures, (b) growing a semiconductor material onto the nano-structures using an epitaxial 5 growth process, and (c) growing a layer of the semiconductor material using an epitaxial growth process.

An exercise apparatus for performing simultaneous horizontal and vertical exercise movement has a stationary frame, upper and lower horizontal guides mounted on the stationary frame, and an exercise unit movably mounted on the horizontal guides for horizontal movement relative to the stationary frame. At least one of the horizontal guides is offset from the opposite sides of the frame. The traveling exercise unit has two vertical guides slidably linked with the horizontal guides, at least one traveling cross member linking the two vertical guides, a horizontal slide associated with the traveling cross member and slidably engaged with the offset horizontal guide to slidably link both vertical guides to the horizontal guide, two vertical slides each slidably engaged with a respective vertical guide for vertical linear movement, and a weight bearing exercise bar extending horizontally between the vertical slides. This arrangement allows simultaneous vertical and horizontal movement of the exercise bar.

A real time method and dynamic logic-based system for enhancing the operation of a pipeline network is disclosed. The system and method perform monitoring of the operation of a pipeline network, generate alarms in response to differing levels of destabilized pipeline operations, manage the generation of alarms based upon known operating events and operating conditions, diagnose potential source of the detected destabilized events and manage the operation of the pipeline.

This invention provides methods for fabricating substantially continuous layers of a group III nitride semiconductor material having low defect densities and optionally having a selected crystal polarity. The methods include epitaxial growth nucleating and/or seeding on the upper portions of a plurality of pillars/islands of a group III nitride material that are irregularly arranged on a template structure. The upper portions of the islands have low defect densities and optionally have a selected crystal polarity. The invention also includes template structures having a substantially continuous layer of a masking material through which emerge upper portions of the pillars/islands. The invention also includes such template structures. The invention can be applied to a wide range of semiconductor materials, both elemental semiconductors, e.g., combinations of Si (silicon) with strained Si (sSi) and/or Ge (germanium), and compound semiconductors, e.g., group II-VI and group III-V compound semiconductor materials.

The invention specifies a method and system for leading a person suffering from “sympathetic predominance”, a specific symptom of which is “hypertension”, to breathe according to a certain pattern for the express purpose of positively altering the condition of sympathetic predominance (over activation), having the effect of bringing the autonomic nervous system into the state of balance, with consequent reductions in “tenseness”, blood pressure, muscular tightness, and emotional strain, as well as the alleviation of the myriad of subtle neuro-physiological consequences resulting from sympathetic predominance potentially including headaches, anxiety, sleep disorders, allergies, and other maladies that have yet to be attributed to this condition, thus leading to a general improvement in health, well being, and homeostasis. It accomplishes this by systematically reducing the breathing frequency with consequent increases in breathing depth, the ultimate goal being the realization and ongoing maintenance of 1 complete breathing cycle in 11.76 seconds or 5 complete breathing cycles in 58.8 seconds, the result being improved health, well being, and homeostasis.

An apparatus adapted to angle and space a laptop computer above a surface to facilitate user ease of use, the cooling thereof, and provide high speed connectivity thereto. The apparatus includes an adjustable stand device for mounting a notebook or tablet computer comprising at least a base 100, a first member 200 mounted on the base 100, a second member 300 slidably coupled to the first member 200, and a laptop backboard cradle 400 mounted on the second member 300. The second member 300 is arcuately slidable with respect to the first member 200 to allow backboard cradle 400 to be adjustably angled with respect to base 100 from a fully reclined position to a full height position. Along the sides of base 100 are located a plurality of USB input and output ports, some of which may be powered.

An object of the present invention is to provide a film forming method for forming a film with reduced defect and to provide a film forming method for forming a film with a uniform quality. In addition, another object is to provide a manufacturing method of a light emitting element which can be driven with low voltage. Further, another object is to provide a manufacturing method of a light emitting element with high light emission efficiency. A film with reduced defect and a uniform quality can be formed by fixing a substrate to a substrate holding unit so that at least a part of a surface of the substrate is exposed, evaporating a vapor deposition material from an evaporation source filled with the vapor deposition material, irradiating the vapor deposition material which is evaporated with a laser beam, and depositing the vapor deposition material on the surface of the substrate.

The present invention provides a semiconductor device having a semiconductor multi-layer structure which includes at least an active layer having at least a quantum well, and the active layer further including at least a luminescent layer of InxAlyGa1-x-yN (0<x<1, 0<=y<=0.2), wherein a threshold mode gain of each of the at least quantum well is not more than 12 cm-1, and wherein a standard deviation of a microscopic fluctuation in a band gap energy of the at least luminescent layer is in the range of 75 meV to 200 meV.

To prevent the peeling-off of a drive circuit chip from an insulation substrate of a display device attributed to a residual stress between terminals formed on the insulation substrate and bumps formed on a mounting surface of a drive circuit chip, as well as to stabilize the connection resistance therebetween, the present invention provides an auxiliary bump for one of the bumps on the mounting surface of the drive circuit chip at an end edge side thereof with respect to the one of the bumps and arranges the auxiliary bump electrically in contact with one of the terminals formed on the insulation substrate of the display device with which the one of the bumps also is in electrical contact. Since the one of the bumps is spaced from the end edge side of the mounting surface of the drive circuit chip by the auxiliary bump, electrical contact thereof with the one of the terminals cannot be affected by the atmospheres in which the display device is used, and distortion of a signal waveform caused thereat can be suppressed also.

An instrument for attaching a graft to an aorta includes a first needle assembly for breaching the aorta to provide a hole in a wall thereof, and a carrier portion for insertion of an end of a tubular graft through the hole and into the aorta. Arms are pivotally mounted on the instrument and are moveable from a position extending axially of the carrier to a position extending radially from the carrier to spread the end of the graft radially outwardly from a tubular portion of the graft to form an annular flange extending outwardly from the tubular portion, and to support the flange within the aorta and around the hole therein. A second needle assembly retains the suture material and advances the suture material into engagement with the aorta wall and the graft flange for suturing the graft flange to the aorta wall.

A nitride semiconductor laser device uses a substrate with low defect density, contains reduced strains inside a nitride semiconductor film, and thus offers a satisfactorily long useful life. On a GaN substrate (10) with a defect density as low as 10⁶ cm⁻² or less, a stripe-shaped depressed portion (16) is formed by etching. On this substrate (10), a nitride semiconductor film (11) is grown, and a laser stripe (12) is formed off the area right above the depressed portion (16). With this structure, the laser stripe (12) is free from strains, and the semiconductor laser device offers a long useful life. Moreover, the nitride semiconductor film (11) develops reduced cracks, resulting in a greatly increased yield rate.

A flat or curved photochromic laminate structure and a plastic photochromic lens blank can be produced in a simple and efficient manner from relatively low-cost polymeric sheet materials. These laminates can be used to provide goggles, face shields, windows, window coverings, skylights, and optical lenses having efficient, uniform and high quality photochromic properties. The use of a polyesterurethane as the binder for the photochromic material has been found to improve the performance of the photochromic material. There may be a desire to have a protective exterior layer (e.g., an abrasion resistant layer) in combination with the lens system, but that may be provided in various methods. In the case of using the laminate in a goggle application, the laminate may be hard coated on one or both outer surfaces with an abrasion resistant coating, antireflective coating, and/or an anti-fog hard coating.