431results about How to "Improve nature" patented technology

The present disclosure provides components useful in heating, particularly heating of an aerosol precursor solution so as to vaporize the solution and form an aerosol. The disclosure particularly provides an electrically conductive, porous carbon heater. The heater may be combined with an aerosol precursor transport element that also is formed of carbon. The heater and transport element may form an atomizer that can be useful in an electronic smoking article, such as in a cartridge that is adapted for attachment to a control body. In some embodiments, the disclosure provides a cartridge of an electronic smoking article, the cartridge being formed substantially completely of carbon.

A speech synthesizer is provided that concatenates stored samples of speech units without modifying the prosody of the samples. The present invention is able to achieve a high level of naturalness in synthesized speech with a carefully designed training speech corpus by storing samples based on the prosodic and phonetic context in which they occur. In particular, some embodiments of the present invention limit the training text to those sentences that will produce the most frequent sets of prosodic contexts for each speech unit. Further embodiments of the present invention also provide a multi-tier selection mechanism for selecting a set of samples that will produce the most natural sounding speech.

Assemblies, systems, and methods convey fluid from an internal wound site or body cavity by applying negative pressure from a source outside the internal wound site or body cavity through a wound drain assembly that is placed directly inside the internal wound site or body cavity.

Biological samples of mammary fluid or components thereof are obtained using a breast pump device coupled with a solid phase sample collection medium, alternatively facilitated by administering oxytocin to the subject. The breast pump device stimulates expression of mammary fluid and provides for collection of diagnostic samples to evaluate breast disease, including cancer. The biological sample may include whole cells or cellular components, purified or bulk proteins, glycoproteins, peptides, nucleotides or other desired constituents comprising a breast disease marker. Methods, kits and adapter devices relating to the breast pump device are also provided. Yet additional methods, devices, accessories, and materials are provided for laboratory handling and processing of breast fluid samples and for related diagnostic methods.

Assemblies, systems, and methods convey fluid from an internal wound site or body cavity by applying negative pressure from a source outside the internal wound site or body cavity through a wound drain assembly that is placed directly inside the internal wound site or body cavity.

The present invention relates to a building block of ecological slope protection vegetation, a fabrication method and a construction technique. The building block is composed of a growing bed body, a lath crib, planting troughs, a vegetation layer and a plant, the lath crib wraps the circumference of the growing bed body, the upper plane of the growing bed body is lower than the upper plane of the lath crib and concave, the vegetation layer is formed on the growing bed body, which matches the inner walls of the sectional area of the lath crib to form an integral building block, and more than one planting troughs are arranged on and run through the growing bed body. The design of the present invention is scientific, the structure is reasonable, the restoration of water ecology can reduce the operating cost, environment is improved, ecology is reinstated, harmonious natural beauty is enhanced, and the present invention is suitable for the nidification of small living creatures and the habitation and the survival of aquatic fishes, so that the cutting-off continuity of water and land regions is restored. The present invention is widely applied to channel slope protection, levee slopes, roadsides, airports, parks, public lands, household lawns, sports grounds, etc. The present invention is suitable for cold regions, damp regions, warm and damp intermediate zone, etc.

The invention discloses a method for producing lube base oil, which is characterized in that low-pressure hydroisomerization and adsorption treatment are adopted and organically combined, and the lube base oil meeting the standard of HVIW is obtained; the raw material firstly enters a low-pressure hydroisomerizing reactor, and the pour point is lowered; after gas-liquid separation of the heterogeneous product, adsorption treatment is done to the separated lube fraction for color enhancement and stability improvement. The invention has the advantages that adaptability of the raw oil is strong; operating condition is mild; investment and operating cost is low; and the prepared lube base oil meeting the standard of HVIW can be applied to blinding with various brands of high-grade lube.

Nicotine in base or salt form combined with cosmetic ingredients to form a lip balm or similar stick. The stick is readily dispensed not only onto a person's lips but also may be used on the skin, for example on the wrist. Packaging the nicotine this way enables a smoker to obtain nicotine discretely anywhere in public, without offending others by smoking. Furthermore, the dosage is readily controlled, and the person's hands and mouth are active, similar to the lighting and smoking of a cigarette.

The invention consists of a method, apparatus, and data structure that allows a player remotely located from wagering devices, such as slot machines, video lottery terminals (VLTs), etc., to make wagers on the wagering devices using funds on deposit in an account. The remote player may establish a communication link to the location where the wagering devices are housed through a remote-access service. After authentication of the player's identity, the player may be provided with a menu of available wagering devices. A wagering device computer network server, preferably coupled to video cameras, may transmit the image of the selected wagering device, or as appropriate, the video output of the wagering device, through telecommunications media, to the player. A pop-up control panel on the player's remote viewing system may provide graphical representations of the game play inputs of the actual wagering device, as well as a graphical display of current funds on account. The player may deposit money from an account directly into the wagering device via software controlled by icons in the pop-up control panel. The player then operates the selected device remotely through the graphical representations of the game play inputs in the pop-up control panel. Game play proceeds as per the attributes of the wagering device. Game play records and accounting may be kept on the wagering device, and the wagering device network server. The status of the player's current amount of money on deposit in the wagering device may be displayed on the device and transmitted to the player's remote viewing system in the video broadcast process. Upon conclusion of the gaming session, any money remaining on deposit in the wagering device may be transferred to the player's account. The invention also discloses a method, apparatus, and data structure for remote gaming. This may include a video display, a control device, a video / audio distribution amplifier, a video graphic overlay board, and apparatus for linking the video display and control device.

Techniques described herein relate to systems and methods of data storage, and more particularly to providing layering of file system functionality on an object interface. In certain embodiments, file system functionality may be layered on cloud object interfaces to provide cloud-based storage while allowing for functionality expected from a legacy applications. For instance, POSIX interfaces and semantics may be layered on cloud-based storage, while providing access to data in a manner consistent with file-based access with data organization in name hierarchies. Various embodiments also may provide for memory mapping of data so that memory map changes are reflected in persistent storage while ensuring consistency between memory map changes and writes. For example, by transforming a ZFS file system disk-based storage into ZFS cloud-based storage, the ZFS file system gains the elastic nature of cloud storage.

The present invention is one process of hydrofining coked full fraction oil. Based on available process of hydrofining coked full fraction oil, new hydrogen of the system is used in further refining of diesel oil, so that diesel oil is refined under ideal thermodynamic and dynamic conditions. This results in high product quality, flexible, economic and practical technological process, less investment increment, fully utilization of heat energy and low operation cost. The present invention is suitable for reforming and constructing coked full fraction oil hydrofining apapratus.

The invention discloses the coal oil hydrocracking method. The method comprises the following steps: mixing the coal oil and hydrogen gas, adding them into hydrogenation reaction chamber, getting the generating oil, putting the generating oil into heat-high pressure separator, getting light-end products and water from upper logistics, putting lower logistics and hydrogen gas into hydrocracker reaction chamber, getting hydrocracking product, putting the product into high pressure separator, getting hydrogen gas to be used again, and putting the liquid into fractionating tower to get gas, petrol, diesel, light-end products and tail oil. The invention uses low grade coal oil to produce premium grade gasoline and diesel.

Assemblies, systems, and methods convey fluid from an internal wound site or body cavity by applying negative pressure from a source outside the internal wound site or body cavity through a wound drain assembly that is placed directly inside the internal wound site or body cavity.

A bottle is provided with a cap. The cap includes a container that may be externally opened while the cap seals material inside the bottle. Thus, a user may retrieve items from inside the cap (e.g., dietary supplements or candy such as mini M&Ms) before opening the bottle (by removing the cap) and using the material inside of the bottle (e.g., a water or a soft drink).

Systems and methods of creating talking books that employ photo-electronics to realize autonomous page recognition, are provided. More particularly, systems and methods are provided for employing one or more light sensing components (e.g., photoresistors, phototransistors, and photodiodes) on the pages of a book in order to recognize when a user is reading a particular page, or a pair of pages such that an audio segment associated to that page, or pair of pages, may be played. This invention also provides light sensing components that can recognize, and react to, user interactions with a talking book. Examples included playing a media segment or turning a particular LED ON for a particular action (e.g., covering an interacting light sensing component).

Techniques described herein relate to systems and methods of data storage, and more particularly to providing layering of file system functionality on an object interface. In certain embodiments, file system functionality may be layered on cloud object interfaces to provide cloud-based storage while allowing for functionality expected from a legacy applications. For instance, POSIX interfaces and semantics may be layered on cloud-based storage, while providing access to data in a manner consistent with file-based access with data organization in name hierarchies. Various embodiments also may provide for memory mapping of data so that memory map changes are reflected in persistent storage while ensuring consistency between memory map changes and writes. For example, by transforming a ZFS file system disk-based storage into ZFS cloud-based storage, the ZFS file system gains the elastic nature of cloud storage.

The present invention concerns a connection handler (1) for providing at least one application (2) with at least one of a plurality of heterogeneous connection objects (300, 301), wherein the connection handler (1) comprises:a. one or more heterogeneous internal connection pools (30, 31), wherein each internal connection pool (30, 31) is adapted for providing homogeneous connection objects (300, 301) of a specific configuration other than those of the other internal connection pools (30, 31); andb. an interface (10) adapted for receiving at least one request from the at least one application (2), wherein the at least one request comprises an identification of a specifically configured connection object (300, 301), and wherein the interface (10) is further adapted for providing the at least one application (2) in response with a connection object (300, 301) from the respective internal connection pool (30, 31).

Hybrid Insulating Reinforced Concrete according to the present disclosure may be designed to create insulating reinforced concrete large-scale construction components for use in commercial, industrial and residential structures. Hybrid Insulating Reinforced Concrete meets those needs by providing an insulating reinforced concrete component that can either be: (1) cast-in-place at the job site, (2) pre-cast at a plant and shipped to the jobsite, or (3) a combination of the two techniques—utilize pre-cast insulating element trucked to the construction site and complete fabrication of the large-scale construction components on-site. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

A gas sensing mechanism and a gas sensor based on a semiconducting carbon nanotube diode structure are disclosed. The gas sensor operates by detecting the change in conductivity characteristic of the current vs. voltage behavior of an I—N, or I—P junction, in the carbon nanotube. In the presence of electrophilic gas species at the I—N junction, or nucleophilic gas species at the I—P junction, a P—N, or N—P, junction is created by doping of the carbon nanotube by the respective gas species. The resulting change from the undoped, instrinsic i-type to p-type, or n-type, creates a diode structure whose conductivity characteristics can be measured with high accuracy and selectivity.

A speech synthesizer includes a periodic component fusing unit and an aperiodic component fusing unit, and fuses periodic components and aperiodic components of a plurality of speech units for each segment, which are selected by a unit selector, by a periodic component fusing unit and an aperiodic component fusing unit, respectively. The speech synthesizer is further provided with an adder, so that the adder adds, edits, and concatenates the periodic components and the aperiodic components of the fused speech units to generate a speech waveform.

An echo processor includes an echo suppression amount decider which compares a state of an outgoing input signal to be sent including an echo with a state of an incoming input signal and calculates an echo suppression amount based on the comparison, a time-frequency transformer which transforms the outgoing input signal in the time domain into the frequency domain, thereby generating an amplitude spectrum and a phase spectrum, a noise-spectrum estimator which estimates a noise spectrum from the amplitude spectrum, a mixer which mixes an amount of the noise spectrum based on the echo suppression amount with the amplitude spectrum, and a frequency-time transformer which generates an outgoing output signal including a noise in the time domain on the basis of the amplitude spectrum, with which an amount of the noise spectrum is mixed by the mixer, and the phase spectrum, and outputs the outgoing output signal.

In the honeycomb rotor recovery concentration apparatus which collects gas, such as carbon dioxide, from stack gas etc., it collects by the highest possible recovery rate, and condenses to the highest possible concentration, and lessens the amount of energy for recovery concentration as much as possible. Adsorption zone 4, preheating zone 12, low concentration gas purge zone 15, desorption zone 5, high concentration gas purge zone 16, pre-cooling zone 13, and cooling zone 7 are provided to the hand of cut of a rotor. Low concentration gas is prevented from mixing in desorption zone 5, and high concentration gas is prevented from being spilt out from desorption zone 5. Pre-heating zone 12 and pre-cooling zone 13 constitute a circulation circuit, and it raises energy-saving nature by pre-cooling and carrying out preheating heat exchange by gas which circulates through a circuit.

An apparatus for providing software application invitations may comprise a processor. The processor may be configured to receive an achievement in a software application and formulate at least one invitation to execute the software application. The processor may further be configured to send at least one invitation to at least one invitee. The invitation may include a means to access at least a portion of the software application. Associated methods and computer program products may also be provided. Also, apparatus, methods, and computer program products for processing received software applications invitation may be provided.

An aircraft (1) having an airframe (4) extending from a rear end (4″) to a front end (4′), a rotary wing (2), and a tail rotor (10). The aircraft (1) also includes a power plant (20) driving said rotary wing (2) via a main power gearbox (30) secured to a mast (31) of said rotary wing (2), said power plant (20) driving said tail rotor (10) via a tail power gearbox (40). The aircraft possesses pivot means (43) for causing the tail rotor (10) to swivel in a reversible manner from a stationary first position (POS1) towards a second position (POS2). The aircraft also includes tilt means (50) for tilting said mast (31) in a reversible manner.

An assembly for monitoring physiological parameters of a living subject at a sensing station, the assembly comprising: a plurality of sensors arranged about the subject to create at least one sensor field in which said sensors are capable of sensing one or more said parameters of the subject in each said at least one sensor fields; electronic means to transmit data sensed by each said sensors of said at lest one sensor field to at least one data receiving station; a controller for controlling transmission of said data from said sensor fields to said receiving station; means for an operator to optimise signals received from the sensor fields; wherein the data includes sensed movements and sounds within the range of 0.5 Hz-20000 Hz; and wherein data obtained from the sensor fields includes data capable of interpretation by the use of the sense of touch.

This invention pertains generally to a device for retaining a medically relevant tube into a proper registration for application of medical treatment to a patient, and more particularly to a flexible holder for positioning of an endotracheal tube wherein said holder has integrated therein circumferential guard projections for maintaining optimal flow characteristics of the restrained endotracheal tube. Circumferential guard projections extend both outwardly and inwardly from said endotracheal tube holder and are integral to and monolithically formed with the endotracheal tube holder. The endotracheal tube holder is adaptable to receiving tubes of varying diameters and includes a capture means for allowing insertion and removal of an endotracheal tube through a transverse access port in a side aspect of the holder. The monolithic nature of the endotracheal tube holder design is further enhanced through incorporation of access portals about the holder for allowing routine patient maintenance.

Techniques described herein relate to systems and methods of data storage, and more particularly to providing layering of file system functionality on an object interface. In certain embodiments, file system functionality may be layered on cloud object interfaces to provide cloud-based storage while allowing for functionality expected from a legacy applications. For instance, POSIX interfaces and semantics may be layered on cloud-based storage, while providing access to data in a manner consistent with file-based access with data organization in name hierarchies. Various embodiments also may provide for memory mapping of data so that memory map changes are reflected in persistent storage while ensuring consistency between memory map changes and writes. For example, by transforming a ZFS file system disk-based storage into ZFS cloud-based storage, the ZFS file system gains the elastic nature of cloud storage.