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A collaborative Web browsing session may take place over a network, allowing the presenter on a first computer to direct the audio and visual components of a browser on one or more second computers. The second computer is instructed to log into a control site that downloads an active control, such as an applet, to the second computer. The present invention allows a collaborative Web browsing session ("session"), as created by the presenter and witnessed by one or more users on second computers, to be recorded and archived by the control site. When a user of a computer is connected to the control site through a communication network such as the World Wide Web, that user may log into the control site and request to view an archived session. The session will then be replayed by the control site on the user's computer, directing the audio and visual components of the browser on the user's computer as if the user was attending the live session. The recorded session replays the events of the live session in real time such that the playback experience contains the same audio and visual events that took place when the session was originally being recorded.

The present invention relates to a method for determining a utilization level (UL; ULtot) indicating a degree of utilization of a re-usable cutting accessory (4) for endoscopic surgery, such as an arthroscopic shaver blade, removably connectable to a handpiece (2) comprising a motor (21) driving the cutting accessory (4) during surgical procedures. The method provides a reliable measure of the utilization level of the cutting accessory (4) by determining the utilization level (UL) of the cutting accessory (4) through calculation of at least one utilization factor (UF1, UF2) that is calculated based on a torque (40) measured when said cutting accessory (4) is driven by said motor (21).

A hemorrhoidal ligator and anoscope system used to facilitate ligation of internal hemorrhoids. The ligating device consists of head, shaft and firing handle assemblies and is capable of storing and releasing multiple rubber bands singularly. The ligating device comprises an inner cylinder that is removable for disposal or reloading for reuse. The inner cylinder may also be configured with a disposable sleeve, the sleeve being disposable or capable of reloading. A modified loading cone is provided for facilitating loading of the rubber bands onto the inner cylinder or the inner cylinder sleeve 9. The anoscope is configured with three lateral apertures that coincide with the anatomic locations of the internal hemorrhoids in man and thus, simultaneously expose all three hemorrhoids for ligation and grading.

Efficient sequence specific gene silencing is possible through the use of siRNA technology. By selecting particular siRNAs by rational design, one can maximize the generation of an effective gene silencing reagent, as well as methods for silencing genes. Methods, compositions, and kits generated through rational design of siRNAs are disclosed.

Wireless communication networks for monitoring and controlling a plurality of remote devices are provided. Briefly, one embodiment of a wireless communication network may comprise a plurality of wireless transceivers having unique identifiers. Each of the plurality of wireless transceivers may be configured to receive a sensor data signal from one of the plurality of remote devices and transmit an original data message using a predefined wireless communication protocol. The original data message may comprise the corresponding unique identifier and sensor data signal. Each of the plurality of wireless transceivers may be configured to receive the original data message transmitted by one of the other wireless transceivers and transmit a repeated data message using the predefined communication protocol. The repeated data message may include the sensor data signal and the corresponding unique identifier. Furthermore, at least one of the plurality of wireless transceivers may be further configured to provide the original data messages and the repeated data messages to a site controller connected to a wide area network. The site controller may be configured to manage communications between the wireless communication network and a host computer connected to the wide area network.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing illumination in a manner that is energy efficient and intelligent. In particular, the present invention uses distributed processing across a network of illuminators to control the illumination for a given environment. The network controls the illumination level and pattern in response to light, sound, and motion. The network may also be trained according to uploaded software behavior modules, and subsets of the network may be organized into groups for illumination control and maintenance reporting.

Volume dimensioning employs techniques to reduce multipath reflection or return of illumination, and hence distortion. Volume dimensioning for any given target object includes a sequence of one or more illuminations and respective detections of returned illumination. A sequence typically includes illumination with at least one initial spatial illumination pattern and with one or more refined spatial illumination patterns. Refined spatial illumination patterns are generated based on previous illumination in order to reduce distortion. The number of refined spatial illumination patterns in a sequence may be fixed, or may vary based on results of prior illumination(s) in the sequence. Refined spatial illumination patterns may avoid illuminating background areas that contribute to distortion. Sometimes, illumination with the initial spatial illumination pattern may produce sufficiently acceptable results, and refined spatial illumination patterns in the sequence omitted.

A system for monitoring a location to detect and report a vehicular incident, comprising a transducer for detecting acoustic waves at the location, and having an audio output; a processor for determining a probable occurrence or impending occurrence of a vehicular incident, based at least upon said audio output; an imaging system for capturing images of the location, and having an image output; a buffer, receiving said image output, and storing at least a portion of said images commencing at or before said determination; and a communication link, for selectively communicating said portion of said images stored in said buffer with a remote location and at least information identifying the location, wherein information stored in said buffer is preserved at least until an acknowledgement of receipt is received representing successful transmission through said communication link with the remote location.

Volume dimensioning employs techniques to reduce multipath reflection or return of illumination, and hence distortion. Volume dimensioning for any given target object includes a sequence of one or more illuminations and respective detections of returned illumination. A sequence typically includes illumination with at least one initial spatial illumination pattern and with one or more refined spatial illumination patterns. Refined spatial illumination patterns are generated based on previous illumination in order to reduce distortion. The number of refined spatial illumination patterns in a sequence may be fixed, or may vary based on results of prior illumination(s) in the sequence. Refined spatial illumination patterns may avoid illuminating background areas that contribute to distortion. Sometimes, illumination with the initial spatial illumination pattern may produce sufficiently acceptable results, and refined spatial illumination patterns in the sequence omitted.

Efficient sequence specific gene silencing is possible through the use of siRNA technology. By selecting particular siRNAs by rationale design, one can maximize the generation of an effective gene silencing reagent, as well as methods for silencing genes.

A method and apparatus are provided for automatically preparing a client communication pertaining to a financial product for a client, wherein the client communication is for combined use with a corresponding host vehicle. The method comprises providing a format for the client communication wherein the communication format includes a variable portion; inputting into a computer-accessible storage medium variable information other than a client identification; inputting into the storage medium decision information; and using the decision information to select a subset of the variable information for inclusion in a variable portion of the client communication corresponding to the variable portion of the client communication format. The apparatus comprises an inputting device for inputting into a computer-accessible storage medium variable information comprising other than a client identification and decision information; a processor operatively coupled to the storage medium for using the decision information to automatically select a subset of the variable information for each of the clients; and an output preparing component in operative communication with the processor for preparing the client communications and for automatically inserting into the client communication the subset of variable information for the corresponding and respective client.

This invention is a vehicle data recorder with the capability to continuously record and store selected data on both driver and vehicle performance that will include but not be limited to, miles driven, speed, acceleration / deceleration, brake activation, seatbelt usage, vehicle direction, steering anomalies, global position, impact forces and direction, transmission status, and alcohol usage. Specifically, this recorder will have extended data storage capacity, a drunk driver prevention smart ignition, real-time GPS data, low-power cell phone jamming, and internal wireless communication capabilities. It uses microprocessor controlled electronics to record, store, and transmit both driver and vehicle performance data in a date and time stamped file which can be utilized to establish personalized insurance rates, assess road tax and use fees, locate “Amber alert” victims or stolen vehicles, and with it's on scene access, provide critical mechanism of injury information to emergency responders.

Implantable medical devices with biocompatible coatings and processes for their production are described. The present invention relates in particular to medical implantable devices coated with a carbon-containing layer which devices are produced by at least partially coating the device with a polymer film and heating the polymer film in an atmosphere which is essentially free from oxygen to temperatures in the region of 200° C. to 2500° C., a carbon-containing layer being produced on the implantable medical device.

A golf club (20) having a club head (22) with an interchangeable shaft (40) is disclosed herein. The golf club (20) includes a tube (44, 144) mounted in the club head (22), and a sleeve (46, 146) mounted on a tip end (50) of the shaft (40). The tube (44, 144) includes a tapered portion (60, 160) and a rotation prevention portion (62, 162). The sleeve (46, 146) has a frustoconical portion (72, 172) and a keyed portion (74, 174) that are respectively received in the tapered portion (60, 160) and the rotation prevention portion (62, 162) of the tube (44, 144). The golf club (20) further includes a mechanical fastener (48, 148) for removably securing the shaft (40) to the club head (22).

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to Web-Services-based data backup and data-archiving applications that provide remote data backup and data archiving to private individuals, small businesses, and other organizations that need reliable, secure, geographically remote, and cost-effective data backup, data archiving, and backed-up and archived-data retrieval. In one embodiment of the present invention, a private or small-business client contracts with a service provider for data-backup and data-archiving services. The service provider, in turn, contracts with a remote data-storage facility to provide secure, reliable data backup and data archiving to the personal or small-business client. A client-side application is downloaded to the client computer and configured to allow the client to store locally encrypted data at the remote, data-storage facilities. Neither the service provider nor the data-storage facility can decrypt or otherwise access the information stored by the client. In addition, the encryption key or encryption keys used by the client to encrypt the data for remote storage are securely stored at the remote, data-storage facility for subsequent recovery by the client, should the client suffer damage or loss to a local computer system. However, the client encryption key is stored in a doubly encrypted fashion, preventing access to the client's encryption key by either the service provider or the data-storage facility. Certain embodiments of the present invention also provide local indexing for remotely stored, encrypted data and efficient storage of updates to already remotely stored data.

An atomic layer deposition method is used to deposit a TiN or TiSiN film having a thickness of about 50 nm or less on a substrat. A titanium precursor which is tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium (TDMAT), tetrakis(diethylamido)titanium (TDEAT), or Ti{OCH(CH3)2}4 avoids halide contamination from a titanium halide precursor and is safer to handle than a titanium nitrate. After a monolayer of the titanium precursor is deposited on a substrate, a nitrogen containing reactant is introduced to form a TiN monolayer which is followed by a second purge. For TiSiN, a silicon source gas is fed into the process chamber after the TiN monolayer formation. The process is repeated several times to produce a composite layer comprised of a plurality of monolayers that fills a contact hole. The ALD method is cost effective and affords an interconnect with lower impurity levels and better step coverage than conventional PECVD or CVD processes.

An in-situ hybrid film deposition method for forming a high-k dielectric film on a plurality of substrates in a batch processing system. The method includes loading the plurality of substrates into a process chamber of the batch processing system, depositing by atomic layer deposition (ALD) a first portion of a high-k dielectric film on the plurality of substrates, after depositing the first portion, and without removing the plurality of substrates from the process chamber, depositing by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) a second portion of the high-k dielectric film on the first portion, and removing the plurality of substrates from the process chamber. The method can further include alternatingly repeating the deposition of the first and second portions until the high-k dielectric film has a desired thickness. The method can still further include pre-treating the substrates and post-treating the high-k dielectric film in-situ prior to the removing.

The present invention provides conjugates between erythropoietin and PEG moieties. The conjugates are linked via an intact glycosyl linking group interposed between and covalently attached to the peptide and the modifying group. The conjugates are formed from glycosylated peptides by the action of a glycosyltransferase. The glycosyltransferase ligates a modified sugar moiety onto a glycosyl residue on the peptide. Also provided are methods for preparing the conjugates, methods for treating various disease conditions with the conjugates, and pharmaceutical formulations including the conjugates.

A handheld unit which is capable of emulating a plurality of smartcards or magnetic stripe cards. The unit has the capability of storing a plurality of data sets representing a plurality of accounts. The unit is equipped with an RF interface that can emulate a smartcard interface that is capable of communicating with smartcard readers at POS or ATM terminals, or anywhere else a smartcard may be utilized. The unit is also equipped with a programmable magnetic strip such that it can be used anywhere a magnetic stripe card can be swiped or inserted. The unit is equipped with a biometric sensor to positively verify an authenticated user.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a cost effective electrostatic chuck assembly capable of operating over a wide temperature range in an ultra-high vacuum environment while minimizing thermo-mechanical stresses within the electrostatic chuck assembly. In one embodiment, the electrostatic chuck assembly includes a dielectric body having chucking electrodes which comprise a metal matrix composite material with a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) that is matched to the CTE of the dielectric body.

Efficient sequence specific gene silencing is possible through the use of siRNA technology. By selecting particular siRNAs by rationale design, one can maximize the generation of an effective gene silencing reagent, as well as methods for silencing genes.

A method for generating an interactive profile of a structure, such as a building, employing an interactive profile system that preferably utilizes an Internet web browser to interface with a user. The interactive profile system includes an application engine embodied in a computer program that is preferably based within a server. A plan set, usually in a CAD format, is received into the interactive profile system, typically submitted by the user or client. The building can be any structure, such as a home, office or warehouse, and can also include the property that the structure occupies. The plan set is converted to a profile data set by the profiling engine. In compliance with an enhanced data protocol, which is a specific format for organizing the profile data set in a standardized array. The profiling engine parses, or extracts, the profile data set to develop and link a plurality of potentially interrelated building. The profiling engine performs a systematic enhancement of the plan set, building upon the elemental physical descriptions of the plan set. Each element of the physical description is functionally analyzed for relational attributes and then expanded and tagged. The user directs a profile query to the application engine of the interactive profile system. The profile query is relatable to the enhanced profile and more specifically relatable to at least one of the plurality of interrelated elements of the building. Typical profile requests can include proposed or actual changes to the building, requests for material listings, and project assessments.

A method and system of determining cost of automobile insurance based on safety characteristics of road segments comprising routes expected to be followed on trips insured vehicle and driver have made or are expected to make over the time period the insurance contract is in force. The method comprises steps of identifying the trips, selecting routes expected to be followed on the said trips, determining the probability of each selected route being followed on a trip, evaluating the safety characteristics of roads comprising the routes, consolidating the route safety information with the assigned route probabilities and other risk classifications to produce cost of insurance for the identified trips. The results are further consolidated with the cost of insurance due to risk exposures other than those of the identified trips to produce a final insurance cost.

A system and method for detecting, monitoring and analyzing physiological characteristics. Signals from a subject are acquired from a suite of sensors, such as temperature, carbon dioxide, humidity, light, movement, electromagnetic and vibration sensors, in a passive, non-invasive manner. The signals are processed, and physiological characteristics are isolated for analysis. The system and method are to analyze sleep patterns, as well as to prevent bed sores or detect conditions such as illness, restless leg syndrome, periodic leg movement, sleep walking, or sleep apnea. However, numerous other applications of the invention are also disclosed.

Techniques are disclosed for providing enhanced privacy in an RFID system comprising a plurality of RFID devices, each having an associated identifier, and at least one reader which communicates with one or more of the devices. A blocker device is operative to receive a communication directed from the reader to one or more of the RFID devices, and to generate, possibly based on information in the received communication, an output transmittable to the reader. The output simulates one or more responses from at least one of the RFID devices in a manner which prevents the reader from determining at least a portion of the identifier of at least one of the RFID devices. The blocker device may itself comprise one of the RFID devices. In an illustrative embodiment, the output generated by the blocker device interferes with the normal operation of a singulation algorithm implemented by the reader.

Embodiments of the invention enable minimum latency site independent real-time video transport over packet switched networks. Some examples of real-time video transport are video conferencing and real-time or live video streaming. In one embodiment of the invention, a network node transmits live or real-tine audio and video signals, encapsulated as Internet Protocol (IP) data packets, to one or more nodes on the Internet or other IP network. One embodiment of the invention enables a user to move to different nodes or move nodes to different locations thereby providing site independence. Site independence is achieved by measuring and accounting for the jitter and delay between a transmitter and receiver based on the particular path between the transmitter and receiver independent of site location. The transmitter inserts timestamps and sequence numbers into packets and then transmits them. A receiver uses these timestamps to recover the transmitter's clock. The receiver stores the packets in a buffer that orders them by sequence number. The packets stay in the buffer for a fixed latency to compensate for possible network jitter and / or packet reordering. The combination of timestamp packet-processing, remote clock recovery and synchronization, fixed-latency receiver buffering, and error correction mechanisms help to preserve the quality of the received video, despite the significant network impairments generally encountered throughout the Internet and wireless networks.

An in-situ hybrid film deposition method for forming a high-k dielectric film on a plurality of substrates in a batch processing system. The method includes loading the plurality of substrates into a process chamber of the batch processing system, depositing by atomic layer deposition (ALD) a first portion of a high-k dielectric film on the plurality of substrates, after depositing the first portion, and without removing the plurality of substrates from the process chamber, depositing by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) a second portion of the high-k dielectric film on the first portion, and removing the plurality of substrates from the process chamber. The method can further include alternatingly repeating the deposition of the first and second portions until the high-k dielectric film has a desired thickness. The method can still further include pre-treating the substrates and post-treating the high-k dielectric film in-situ prior to the removing.

A system for monitoring a location to detect and report a vehicular incident, comprising a transducer for detecting acoustic waves at the location, and having an audio output; a processor for determining a probable occurrence or impending occurrence of a vehicular incident, based at least upon said audio output; an imaging system for capturing images of the location, and having an image output; a buffer, receiving said image output, and storing at least a portion of said images commencing at or before said determination; and a communication link, for selectively communicating said portion of said images stored in said buffer with a remote location and at least information identifying the location, wherein information stored in said buffer is preserved at least until an acknowledgement of receipt is received representing successful transmission through said communication link with the remote location.