592results about How to "Reduced area" patented technology

Devices, systems, and method for treating urinary incontinence generally rely on energy delivered to a patient's own pelvic support tissue to selectively contract or shrink at least a portion of that pelvic support tissue so as to reposition the bladder. The energy will preferably be applied to the endopelvic fascia and / or an arcus tendineus fascia pelvis. The invention provides a variety of devices and methods for applying gentle resistive heating of these and other tissues to cause them to contract without imposing significant injury on the surrounding tissue structures. Alternatively, heat-applying probes are configured to heat tissue structures which comprise or support a patient's urethra. By applying sufficient energy over a predetermined time, the tissue can be raised to a temperature which results in contraction without significant necrosis or other tissue damage. By selectively contracting the support tissues, the bladder neck, sphincter, and other components of the urinary tract responsible for the control of urinary flow can be reconfigured or supported in a manner which reduces urinary leakage.

An apparatus for sealing a passage through tissue includes a plug including external threads, a lumen extending between its proximal and distal ends, and an annular collet slidably disposed within the lumen. The plug is carried on a distal end of a handle device that includes an inner member with a distal end that is slidable axially within the lumen of the body for moving the collet into a reduced cross-sectional region of the lumen, thereby compressing the collet to seal the lumen, and for deploying the plug from the handle device. During use, the plug is threaded into a passage through tissue over a guide wire. Once a desired location is reached, the plug is deployed from the handle device, thereby compressing the collet and sealing the lumen. The guide wire and handle device are removed, leaving the plug to seal the passage.

An apparatus for sealing a passage through tissue includes a bioabsorbable, threaded plug carried by a delivery device. A guide wire is receivable through lumens in the plug and delivery device that includes wings on a bioabsorbable distal portion. With the wings collapsed, the guide wire is advanced through the passage into a blood vessel, the wings expanding once located within the vessel, and the guide wire is withdrawn until the wings contact the vessel wall. The plug is threaded into the passage over the guide wire until the plug is disposed adjacent the wings. The distal portion of the guide wire is secured to the plug, e.g., by compressing a collet within the plug lumen that seals the lumen, and is severed from a proximal portion thereof. Thus, the plug and distal portion are deployed with the plug sealing the passage.

An apparatus for sealing a passage through tissue includes a threaded plug detachably carried on a distal end of a delivery device. A guide wire element is receivable through the lumens extending through the plug and delivery device that includes expandable wings adjacent its distal end, and markers adjacent its proximal end. During use, the guide wire element is advanced through a passage through tissue into a blood vessel. The wings on the distal end are expanded within the vessel, and the guide wire element withdrawn until the wings contact a wall of the vessel. The plug is threaded into the passage over the guide wire element until the markers appear from the delivery device, and released from the delivery device, thereby deploying the plug member adjacent the vessel to seal the passage.

Methods and devices for improving contact between tissue and a probe. In exemplary embodiments, methods of the present invention include a deploying a needle into a target tissue and retracting the needle so that tenting around the needle is reduced. The retracting of the needle can increase the amount of tissue contact between a surface of the tissue and a surface contacting portion of a probe body.

A melter apparatus includes a floor, a ceiling, and a substantially vertical wall connecting the floor and ceiling at a perimeter of the floor and ceiling, a melting zone being defined by the floor, ceiling and wall, the melting zone having a feed inlet and a molten glass outlet positioned at opposing ends of the melting zone. The melting zone includes an expanding zone beginning at the inlet and extending to an intermediate location relative to the opposing ends, and a narrowing zone extending from the intermediate location to the outlet. One or more burners, at least some of which are positioned to direct combustion products into the melting zone under a level of molten glass in the zone, are also provided.

A custom-fabricated golf club device comprising a golf club head with a recessed portion located at the front heel portion of the head and machined therein, the recessed portion comprising a substantially semi-spherical aperture. A hosel assembly has a lower portion, having a substantially semi-spherical aperture that aligns with the aperture of the head recessed portion, the hosel assembly further having a recessed portion at an upper portion thereof. A steel ball is located securely within the aperture of head recessed portion and the aperture of the hosel assembly lower portion, functioning to provide positive location of the club head and hosel assembly. In the preferred mode, a permanent weldment functions to securely affix the lower portion of the hosel assembly to the club head at the heel portion of the club head. The device is utilized in conjunction with golf clubs of both the iron and wedge variety to provide a cost-effective and convenient way to custom-fabricate golf clubs to the unique physical characteristics of individual players. By taking advantage of machining, rather than forging or casting the components, a wide range of lie angles with precise resolution can be achieved. In addition, the manufacturing techniques of the present invention diligently conform to the USGA rule that clubs other than putters shall not be designed to be adjustable except for weight.

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for detecting an object in an image. The techniques include scanning a sequence of pixels in the image, each pixel having one or more property values associated with properties of the pixel, and generating a dynamic probability value for each of one or more pixels in the sequence. The dynamic probability value for a given pixel represents a probability that the given pixel has neighboring pixels in the sequence that correspond to one or more features of the object. The dynamic probability value is generated by identifying a dynamic probability value associated with a pixel that immediately precedes the given pixel in the sequence; updating the identified dynamic probability value based on the property values of the immediately preceding pixel; and associating the updated probability value with the given pixel.

A laser beam having homogeneous intensity distribution is delivered without causing interference stripes of a laser to appear on an irradiation surface. A laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator passes through a diffractive optical element so that the intensity distribution thereof is homogenized. The beam emitted from the diffractive optical element then passes through a slit so that low-intensity end portions in a major-axis direction of the beam are blocked. Subsequently, the beam passes through a projecting lens and a condensing lens, so that an image of the slit is projected onto the irradiation surface. The projecting lens is provided so that the slit and the irradiation surface are conjugated. Thus, the irradiation surface can be irradiated with the laser having homogeneous intensity while preventing the diffraction by the slit.

The present invention relates to new and improved seats for bicycles, which is specially designed to conformingly support the perineal / genital regions of the rider in order to improve rider comfort, and permit improvements in a rider's pedaling efficiency, and power output while remaining seated, and at the same time allows the rider to remain in contact with the seat in all positions to assure constant control of the bicycle.

An air-guiding assembly for reducing the wind drag is provided at a tail end of a vehicle body and has a hollow frame. The frame is constituted of a plurality of air-guiding plates. These air-guiding plates are each formed into a curved shape. An airflow path is formed between the air-guiding plates. The front end surface of the frame is formed with an intake port, and the rear end surface thereof is formed with an exhaust port. The intake port and the exhaust port are in fluid communication with the airflow path. The area of the intake port is larger than that of the exhaust port, so that the exhaust port acts as a nozzle. When the airflow generated in driving is compulsively guided into the intake port of the frame to pass through the airflow path and then is guided out via the exhaust port, an invisible wind wall is formed in the rear of the vehicle, thereby reducing a whirlwind region in the rear of the vehicle. Therefore, the airflow is smoother and thus the driving efficiency is improved.

The present invention suppresses the spreading by wetting of an orientation film material in a liquid form toward a sealing agent applied region positioned on an outer periphery of a display region in forming an orientation film thus ensuring the uniformity of a film thickness in the display region. A pair of substrates includes orientation films on surfaces thereof which face opposing substrates. Out of the pair of substrates, the substrate on which the signal lines are formed, on a side thereof which is disposed between a region on which the sealing material is arranged and the display region and along which the signal lines extend to the outside of the sealing material from the display region, includes a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer and an insulation layer which is interposed between the first and second conductive layers between the orientation film and the substrate, the insulation layer extends in the direction at least along an outer periphery of the display region, and includes groove portion having a recessed groove which opens on the orientation film side, the first conductive layer is formed along a shape of the recessed groove, and the signal lines are formed in a state that the signal lines go around the recessed groove.

A technique for reconstructing phase currents based on measurements of a DC bus current. Non-observable regions of DC bus current samples to reconstruct phase currents are reduced in size by using two phase space vector modulation. The non-observable regions can be further reduced by omitting deadtime insertions for switch actuations when output current is higher than a given threshold. Voltage command vectors in non-observable areas can be constructed by two time averaged vectors one of which is constructed to obtain an observable DC bus current reflecting motor phase current. The additive vectors have the same combined time average value as that of the voltage command vector in order to preserve volt-seconds. Current samples may also be averaged to provide a more accurate reconstruction of phase current. Current samples are time delayed to avoid transients for more accurate readings. When three phase PWM inverter modulation results in inability to determine the motor phase current from the DC bus measurement, the technique includes dynamically switching to two phase PWM modulation to reduce the time interval when the motor phase current is not determinable through the DC bus current measurement.

First, a self-guided cleaning robot performs map cleaning in which the self-guided cleaning robot refers to cleaning region information (map) and travels. Then, upon performing the map cleaning, it is determined whether or not a traveling state based on results of detection by rotary encoders and a gyro sensor falls within predetermined a permissible range. If it is determined that the traveling state deviates from the permissible range, the map cleaning is finished, and is switched to random cleaning.

The semiconductor device comprises an inter-layer insulating film 18 formed over a substrate 10, a fuse 26 buried in the inter-layer insulating film 18, and a cover film 30 formed over the inter-layer insulating film 18 and having an opening formed therein down to the fuse 26. The inter-layer insulating film 18 is formed in contact with the side wall of the fuse 26 in the opening, whereby the fuse 26 is supported with the inter-layer insulating film 18 to thereby prevent the pattern collapse and pattern scatter. The wide scatter of the fuses can be prevented, and the fuses can be arranged in a small pitch.

When the CW laser oscillator is employed in the manufacturing process of the semiconductor device, it is expected to obtain the device of high performance. However, the CW oscillator provides only a small beam spot and forms an inferior crystalline region when it is scanned on the semiconductor film. It is necessary to minimize such an inferior crystalline region because it gives a problem in terms of high integration of the semiconductor element. In view of the problem, the present invention is to form a long crystalline region as suppressing the formation of the inferior crystalline region by irradiating the fundamental wave with the harmonic supplementarily (refer to FIG. 1). The present invention also includes a constitution in which a part having high energy density in the fundamental wave is irradiated to a part having low energy density in the harmonic.

A hybrid vehicle is provided with means for setting a four-wheel drive condition which is a condition for switching from two-wheel drive to four-wheel drive, and an EV switch which, when turned on by an occupant of the vehicle, places the vehicle in an EV driving mode in which only an electric motor is used as the power source. The four-wheel drive condition setting means changes the four-wheel drive condition to reduce a region in which the vehicle operates in four-wheel drive when the EV switch is on as compared to when the EV switch is off. As a result, the vehicle operates in two-wheel drive more frequently, thus reducing power consumption.

A spatio-temporal joint filter and a spatial joint filter for noise reduction are disclosed. The spatio-temporal joint filter includes a spatial joint filter including the first and second sub filters having different characteristics and includes a temporal joint filter. When the present invention is adequately used, an edge / detail region of an image is well preserved, an aggressive noise reduction is performed on a flat region, and the temporal flicker problems are eliminated. Additionally, it has an intrinsic motion compensation effect by using the spatio-temporal correlation between the adjacent frames.

A shoe having an upper and a curved sole member, the sole member may be comprised of one unitary piece or a separate midsole and a separate outsole. The curvature results from the sole member tilting along a center of mass axis that extends through a point in the vicinity of the lateral side of the heel region of the sole member to a point in the vicinity of the medial side of forefoot region of the sole member. The center of mass axis runs diagonally along the entire length of the shoe. Due to the curvature, the sole member has a non-uniform thickness. The curvature of the sole member allows the user's foot to be guided in a more natural motion providing more movement efficiency and comfort.

A method and apparatus are described to increase the efficiency with which a sample vapor is ionized prior to being introduced into an analyzer. Excellent contact between the vapor and the charging agent is achieved in the ionization chamber by separating it from the analyzer by means of a perforated impaction plate. As a result, some desired fraction of the gas going into the analyzer or coming out of the analyzer can be controlled independently from the flow of sample through the ionization chamber. Furthermore, penetration into said ionization chamber of said desired fraction of the gas going into or out of the analyzer is minimized by controlling the dimensions of said perforated impaction plate. Ions formed in the ionization chamber are driven partly by electric fields through said hole in said perforated impaction plate into the inlet to the analyzer. As a result, most of the gas sampled into the analyzer carries ionized vapors, even when the sample flow of vapor is very small, and even when the analyzer uses counterflow gas.

A liquid crystal display device has a plurality of pixel elements, the optical transmissivity of which is varied by suitable electrical signals. The liquid crystal display device has electrodes which apply electric fields to a liquid crystal layer, the electric fields having components in a direction generally parallel to the liquid crystal layer. Each pixel element has at least one pixel electrode which extends in a common direction as a signal electrode and common electrodes which extend over several pixel elements. The common electrodes may be on the same side of the liquid crystal layer as the pixel and signal electrodes, or they may be on opposite sides. Each pixel may have two pixel electrodes with the signal electrode disposed therebetween, and there are then a pair of common electrodes with the pixel electrodes therebetween. The common electrodes may be common to adjacent pixel elements. The pixel electrodes and the common electrodes may be separated by an insulating film.

A multi-layer wiring board without a core substrate includes: a multi-layer laminated structure; first terminals provided on a front surface of the multi-layer laminated structure; second terminals provided on a rear surface of the multi-layer laminated structure; terminal pins bonded to a corresponding one of the second terminals, wherein each of the terminal pins is formed in a nailhead shape that includes a shaft portion and a head portion, and a diameter of the head portion is larger than that of the shaft portion; and a reinforcing plate which has pin insertion openings formed at positions corresponding to the terminal pins and which is fixed to the rear surface, wherein the diameter of the pin insertion openings is smaller than the diameter of the head portion and is larger than the diameter of the shaft portion.

Abstract A tooth and adaptor assembly (11) for use on earthmoving machinery, the assembly comprising an adaptor (21) adapted to be secured to a bucket or like component on the earthmoving machinery. The adaptor (21) comprising a nose (27) having an at least one sidewall (35) incorporating a first channel (37) and a second channel (39) angled relative to each other. The assembly (11) also a tooth (41) adapted to be received on the adaptor (41) and releasably secured thereto. The tooth comprises a socket (43) having sidewalls (53). At least one sidewall (53) incorporates a third channel (55) at an angle complementary to the second channel (39), such that when assembled the two channels (39, 55) co-operate to define an enclosure (91). An upper wall (49 of the socket (43) has at least one aperture (57) therethrough, and which is aligned with the third channel (55). The assembly (11) further comprises at least one locking mechanism (71) for locking the tooth (41) to the adaptor (21). The locking mechanism (71) having at least one projection (77) and adapted to be received through the aperture (57). During assembly the projection (77) moves inwardly with respect to the locking mechanism (71) as it enters the enclosure, the locking mechanism (71) moving towards its normal extended position when the projection (77) aligns with the first channel (37) wherein the assembly (11) is in its locked condition.