360results about How to "Conserve cost" patented technology

In the invention, the pipe lines around permselective membranes and the surfaces of permselective membranes are intermittently disinfected by adding an inexpensive acid such as sulfuric acid or the like to pre-treated crude water so as to make the water have a pH of 4 or lower. Accordingly, the invention provides a method of surely disinfecting the permselective membranes in membrane separation systems.

A method of authorizing a payment transaction is described. The method comprises receiving data relating to a customer's transaction card, and data relating to an original amount of the payment transaction; presenting the original amount data to the customer such that a gratuity amount can be determined and in response thereto receiving data relating to the gratuity amount; establishing a link with an acquirer via a telecommunications network and seeking online authorization for the payment transaction by transmitting the transaction card data and data relating to a value of the transaction and generating and providing receipt data to the customer. The transaction value comprises the gratuity amount and the original amount and the receipt data confirms authorization of the payment transaction at the transaction value when the transaction has been authorized. A method of authorizing concurrent payment transactions, such as may be generated by multiple mobile handsets and a base terminal, is also described.

A heating element, electronic cigarette and method for forming heating element. The heating element includes a heating part and a connection part extending along both ends of the heating part so as to form a first connection end and a second connection end, which are electrically connected to a drive circuit respectively. The first connection end, the second connection end and the heating part are integrative, and the first connection end and the second connection end both has a coating covered on outer surface of them respectively. The heating element is integrated designed without any complex technique of the welding or riveting, and via electroplating to form a coating on the heating element instead, the production efficiency of the heating element gets highly improved, costs reduced and a stable resistance value gets obtained in the mass-produced heating elements, involving a consistency in mass production.

A method for rendering adjacent polygons. The method includes determining when a first polygon and a second polygon have an abutting edge. If an abutting edge exists, a majority status is assigned to a pixel on the abutting edge. A first color of the first polygon or a second color of the second polygon is then allocated to the pixel in accordance with the majority status.

In a virtual machine environment, a method and apparatus for the use of multiple heaps to retain persistent data and transient data wherein the multiple heaps enables a single virtual machine to be easily resettable, thus avoiding the need to terminate and start a new Virtual Machine as well as enabling a single virtual machine to retain data and objects across multiple applications, thus avoiding the computing resource overhead of relinking, reloading, reverifying, and recompiling classes. The memory hierarchy includes a System Heap, a Middleware Heap and a Transient Heap. The use of three heaps enables garbage collection to be selectively targeted to one heap at a time in between applications, thus avoiding this overhead during the life of an application.

There are methods of temporarily providing digital content to a customer based on a request for a desired digital content. At a point of sale, a writeable optically-readable medium may be provided with a changeable portion that, when activated, is adapted to physically change over a period of time (e.g., 3–5 days) to a degree that at least part of the medium becomes unreadable by an optical media reading machine. The desired digital content is preferably written on the medium at a point of sale based on the request. The written medium is provided to the customer. The customer pick up the medium at the point of sale, or the medium may be delivered to the customer, for example. The customer preferably need not return the medium because it will become unreadable after a period of time upon activating the changeable portion.

A common BGP framework is provided to achieve VPN information discovery in network based VPNs using modifications to existing BGP-4 multiprotocol extension path attributes. The framework allow each VPN to implement different OSI layer-2 or layer-3 protocols, and to implement different OSI layer-2 or layer-3 protocols from those used by the backbone of the shared network. The extensions added to BGP-4 apply both to Virtual Router (VR) models of VPN systems and to non-VR models.

A modular headphone system includes a headband holding an earphone module at each end of two ends thereof, a circuit module formed of an active noise cancelling module, a Bluetooth module, high-frequency module and/or a multi-channel audio controller and detachably mounted in one earphone module, and a power module detachably mounted in the other earphone module. Each earphone module includes an earphone body pivotally connected to one end of the headband, a speaker holder mounted at the earphone body and electrically connected to the earphone body, a speaker mounted in the speaker holder and electrically connected to the speaker holder and an ear cushion covered on the speaker holder over the speaker.

In the field of building energy efficiency, an analysis and control system is provided to design, retrofit and/or manage operation of the HVAC and/or hot water systems in a building, so as to minimize energy usage. The present system is an end-to-end computer software based approach for full time commissioning of mechanical systems in a building. It uses standard and advanced fluid dynamics modeling techniques in terms of air circulation, refrigerating, heating and hot water systems.

The present invention discloses an LCC and MMC series-connected HVDC system with DC fault ride-through capacity, comprising rectifier and inverter linked by DC transmission line; Both the positive pole and the negative pole of the rectifier and the inverter consist of line-commutated converter and modular converter in series-connection; the modular converter adopts one MMC or several parallel-connected MMCs. The present invention has the advantage of low cost, low power loss and high reliability of the LCC, as well as flexible control, low harmonics and AC voltage support of the MMC. Further, the present invention is able to deal with DC fault by itself, hence additional DC fault clearing equipment is not needed. As a result, the present invention is suitable for the field of long-distance large-capacity power transmission and has broad development potential.

A flat panel DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) includes an integrated cathode electrode sheet, a set of membrane electrode assemblies, an intermediate bonding layer, an integrated anode electrode sheet, and a fuel container base. The integrated cathode/anode electrode sheets are manufactured by using PCB compatible processes.

The present invention provides a common framework to determine if machines are patched and automatically applies patches as required. It provides an automated tool to assess patch levels and apply patches on several different UNIX machine types. Further, it provides a centralized, consistent method of providing patches to multiple roles within an organization while automatically managing large quantities of machines. It can manage multiple security standards, machine classifications, and patch security levels and be customized to interface with existing asset management tools. It evaluates the most suitable patch to satisfy the minimal patch requirements and is an early warning system that will tell a user when the user's machine will go out of compliance. The tool is composed of two parts: a server component and client component. The server collects data reported by client machines and stores it in a database; collects patch, machine and owner data from other databases, including internal databases and vendor web sites; downloads vendor patches to a depot area; and evaluates compliance and generates a list of patches that are missing, applied late, and patches that are satisfied. An overall compliance verdict is calculated for each machine. The server sends the client a list of patches to be installed as needed. The server receives installation status from the client, reports it onto the web, and sends the user email. The client gathers machine data and sends it to server; queries the server to see if patches are needed, and receives a patch list. The client downloads patches from APAR depot; and installs patches and reports status back to the server.

A gear wheel is rotatably mounted on a drive shaft. The drive shaft has a plurality of longitudinal splines formed thereon. A drive sleeve surrounds the drive shaft and has a plurality of the inner splines formed on its interior surface. The inner splines slidably intermesh with outer splines of the drive shaft such that the drive sleeve can slide up and down on but cannot rotate relative to the drive shaft. A coil spring biases the drive sleeve downwardly. Drive sleeve teeth are formed around the bottom edge of the drive sleeve. Corresponding gear plate teeth are formed on the upper surface of the gear wheel and are adapted to engage the drive sleeve teeth when the drive sleeve is in its downward most position under the influence of the coil spring. In this position, the gear wheel is operatively coupled to the drive shaft.

The present invention relates to a system and method for enabling customer self-checkout using a portable device. The system allows the customer to walk in to a retail store, check out items at the store, pay for the goods and present a proof of payment at the store exit. Thus the invention asserts the possibility of having unmanned stores and benefits the stores and the customers alike. The store benefits by not having to invest in separate space, terminal and employees for check out process, while the customers benefits by not having to wait in queue to check out their goods and pay for the same.

A trench MOSFET with on-resistance reduction comprises a trenched gate surrounded by a source region encompassed in a body region above a drain region disposed on a bottom surface of a substrate, wherein the said MOSFET further comprises a plurality of source-body contact trenches opened relative to a top surface into said source and body regions and each of the source-body contact trenches is filled with a contact metal plug as a source-body contact; a insulation layer covered over the top of the trenched gate, the body region and the source region; a front metal layer formed on a top surface of the MOSFET; wherein a low-resistivity phosphorus substrate and retrograded P-body formed by medium or high energy Ion Implantation to reduce Rds contribution from substrate and drift region.

A syringe includes in one embodiment a fluid cartridge including a rear sliding member; a syringe barrel; a hypodermic needle assembly releasably secured to the syringe barrel; a nut member releasably secured to the syringe barrel; and a plunger including a rear handle, a front member disposed through the nut member to urge against a rear end of the sliding member, and an arm interconnected the handle and the front member. In response to dispensing fluid disengage the syringe barrel with the hypodermic needle assembly so as to separate the syringe into first and second portions, and wherein the first portion consists of the hypodermic needle assembly and the fluid cartridge and is adapted to discard, and the second portion consists of the nut, the plunger, and the syringe barrel and is adapted to sterilize for a next use.