1867 results about "Cost effectiveness" patented technology

An illuminating device coupled with sensors or an image acquisition device and a logical controller allows illumination intensity and spectrum to be varied according to changing user needs. The system provides illumination to areas according to the principles of correct lighting practice for the optimal performance of visual tasks in the most efficient, cost effective manner. Aspects of the invention include: lighting fixtures which adapt to ambient lighting, movement, visual tasks being performed, and environmental and personal conditions affecting illumination requirements at any given instant. Lighting fixtures having spatial distribution of spectrum and intensity, providing both “background” room lighting, and “task” lighting.

An informatics system permits data entities from a wide range of data sources to be accessed and evaluated. The sources of the data entities may be simply data sources, such as for articles and other non-patient or population specific information, as well as controllable and prescribable sources, such diagnostic imaging, clinical and other sources forming part of the patient care path. The entities are organized, analyzed in accordance with a domain framework, which may be altered by a user to focus on factors and informational components of interest. Holistic and integrated understanding of such factors are there fore available, and refinement of healthcare processes can be made to provide improved care in a more time and cost effective manner.

An inductive powering device provides power to a portable device via inductive coupling between primary coils in the surface of the powering device and a secondary coil in the portable device. The portable device includes a passive locator device, such as an RFID device, to allow the primary coils of the inductive powering surface to detect the presence and location of the secondary coil, and only primary coils adjacent the secondary coil are energized for power transfer. A cost-effective driving configuration that arranges the primary coils into a matrix with drive circuits switchably connected to the row and columns is used to energize the primary coils.

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.

The invention relates to an impulse chamber which can be used for expelling an amount of a fluid compound at a high pressure. The impulse chamber comprises a variable-volume impulse chamber adapted for containing a volume of a flowable drug, an outlet nozzle in fluid communication with the impulse chamber and being adapted to be arranged against the skin of a subject, and a fluid inlet in fluid communication with the impulse chamber. The impulse chamber is defined substantially by a deformable chamber portion, such that deformation thereof reduces the volume of the cavity. In an exemplary embodiment the compressible chamber portion is in the form of an elastomeric tube, this providing a simple, yet reliable and cost-effective impulse chamber unit.

The present invention provides a solution (e.g., rules, techniques, etc.) for enabling the dynamic provisioning (e.g., movement) of Cloud-based jobs and resources. Such provisioning may be within a Cloud infrastructure, from Cloud to Cloud, from non-Cloud to Cloud, and from Cloud to non-Cloud. Each movement scenario is assigned a specific technique based on rules, profiles, SLA and / or other such criteria and agreements. Such dynamic adjustments may be especially advantageous in order to balance real-time workload to avoid over-provisioning, to manage Cloud performance, to attain a more efficient or cost-effective execution environment, to off-load a Cloud or specific Cloud resources for maintenance / service, and the like.

A method for large-scale manufacturing of gallium nitride boules. Large-area single crystal seed plates are suspended in a rack, placed in a large diameter autoclave or internally-heated high pressure apparatus along with ammonia and a mineralizer, and grown ammonothermally. The seed orientation and mounting geometry are chosen to provide efficient utilization of the seed plates and of the volume inside the autoclave or high pressure apparatus. The method is scalable up to very large volumes and is cost effective.

The present invention is a system, method and apparatus for autonomic request routing policy selection. The system of the invention can include a multiplicity of pre-configured request routing policies and a data store of cache metrics for the pre-configured request routing policies. A routing policy selector can be configured for communicative linkage to a server cluster having one or more servers and programmed to select a particular one of the request routing policies for use in routing content requests in the server cluster based upon the cache metrics. In this regard, the routing policy selector further can include a coupling to the routing policies and the data store of cache metrics.

This invention describes a method of stacking, bonding, and electrically interconnecting a plurality of thin integrated circuit wafers to form an interconnected stack of integrated circuit layers. The first integrated circuit layer is formed by conventional processing on a silicon wafer to the stage where bond pads are patterned on a wiring layer interconnecting the subjacent semiconductive devices. The remaining integrated circuit layers are formed by first processing a standard wafer to form integrated circuit devices and wiring levels up to but not including bond pads. Each of these wafers is mounted onto a handler wafer by its upper face with a sacrificial bonding agent. The wafer is thinned, permanently fastened to the top surface of the first base wafer by a non-conductive adhesive applied to the thinned under face, and dismounted from the handler. Vertical openings are etched through the thinned layer to the bond pads on the subjacent wafer. Robust conductive pass-through plugs with integrated upper bond pads are formed in the openings. Additional thinned integrated circuit layers may be prepared, thinned, cemented onto the stack. Wiring interconnections can be made between any two or more layers. The process is unique in that it can be used to further stack and interconnect any number of thinned wafer layers to form a three dimensional integrated circuits, including MEMS devices. This approach provides a low temperature wafer bonding method using an adhesive which results in process simplicity and cost effectiveness by eliminating an additional masking and patterning process for under bump metal thereby enabling standard wafers to be integrated into a 3D stack with existing wire bonded wafers.

A medical device is provided comprising a transcutaneous device unit and a reservoir unit. The transcutaneous device unit comprises a transcutaneous device for transporting a fluid through a skin portion of a subject, and a mounting surface adapted for application to the skin of the subject. The reservoir unit comprises a reservoir adapted to contain a fluid drug, the reservoir comprising an outlet means allowing the transcutaneous device to be arranged in fluid communication with an interior of the reservoir, and an expelling assembly for expelling a fluid drug out of the reservoir and through the skin of the subject via the transcutaneous device. The transcutaneous device unit and the reservoir unit further comprise coupling means allowing the reservoir unit to be secured to the transcutaneous device unit in the situation of use. By this arrangement a two-unit system is provided which can be used in a convenient and cost-effective manner.

A system and method for the correction of credit information and for submitting loan documents. A borrower and / or loan facilitator completes loan documents in an electronic fashion and submits the information over the internet to the systems server of the present invention. The server then acquires credit information and parses the information into a database for subsequent manipulation by the user in any desired fashion. The system also allows for electronic versions of supporting documentation to be assembled electronically with the loan documents so that the loan pack can be a complete electronic version with supporting documents, for presentations to a plurality of lenders. The lenders then respond to the server with their offers and the server presents the offers to the borrower. Thus by bidding on the borrower's loan requirements the lenders provide the most cost effective package to the borrower.

The present invention relates to particulate compositions of a lower ash type petroleum coke containing at least two preselected components (alkali metal and calcium) that exhibit an efficient, enhanced-yielding gasification to value added gaseous products, particularly when used in a steady-state integrated gasification process. The compositions of the present invention are particularly useful for catalytic gasification of petroleum coke at moderate temperatures ranging from about 450° C. to about 900° C. Advantageously, the compositions can be readily incorporated into fluidized bed gasification units, and can result in a cost-effective, high-yielding production of methane gas from petroleum coke.

A cost-benefit metric for load balancing virtual machines is used to estimate a net gain in resource availability achieved by a proposed virtual machine migration. The cost-benefit metric can be used together with any other known metrics to evaluate candidate migrations. The metric takes into account stability of loads as well as migration cost, hence can protect a system from thrashing, i.e., frequently migrating virtual machines without gaining resource availability.

Miniaturized, five and six degrees-of-freedom magnetic sensors, responsive to pulsed DC magnetic fields waveforms generated by multiple transmitter options, provide an improved and cost-effective means of guiding medical instruments to targets inside the human body. The end result is achieved by integrating DC tracking, 3D reconstructions of pre-acquired patient scans and imaging software into a system enabling a physician to internally guide an instrument with real-time 3D vision for diagnostic and interventional purposes. The integration allows physicians to navigate within the human body by following 3D sensor tip locations superimposed on anatomical images reconstructed into 3D volumetric computer models. Sensor data can also be integrated with real-time imaging modalities, such as endoscopes, for intrabody navigation of instruments with instantaneous feedback through critical anatomy to locate and remove tissue. To meet stringent medical requirements, the system generates and senses pulsed DC magnetic fields embodied in an assemblage of miniaturized, disposable and reposable sensors functional with both dipole and co-planar transmitters.

A multi-level automation control architecture, methods, and systems are disclosed, which provide enhanced scalability, functionality, and cost effectiveness for energy, access, and control. The systems include various combinations of automation controllers, remote controllers and peripheral devices that are used to provide monitoring and control functionality over the various systems in a structure, such as HVAC, water, lighting, etc. In various embodiments, the automation controller and various peripheral devices are implemented to provide an integrated energy management system for the structure. The system allows the user to manage energy based on the day, time, the presence of people, and the availability of natural lighting and heating, as well as prioritize and participate in demand-response program. The system can be implemented using a remote controller and expanded through the addition of automation controllers, remote controllers, and peripheral devices to enable the system to be tailored to specific user requirements.

A database system with methodology for automated determination and selection of optimal indexes is described. In one embodiment, for example, in a database system, a method of the present invention is described for recommending database indexes to be created for optimizing system performance, the method comprises steps of: capturing a workload representative of database queries employed during system use; creating virtual indexes for optimizing system performance during execution of the database queries captured in the workload; computing cost benefits for different combinations of the virtual indexes; and recommending physical indexes to be created based on virtual indexes that have favorable cost benefits for the captured workload.

A platform independent model for exchanging information among numerous entities in a justice system with diverse system components is implemented in a hub and spoke arrangement. Each spoke includes a software agent that communicates with a system component of an entity of the justice system, translates from a common communication format to a communication format of the system component, and manages the timing of the flow of information to / from the system component. The hub includes an information broker that communicates with each agent in the common communication format, determines what information is needed by which entity, and routes the needed information to / from respective agents for the entities that need the information. The platform independent model includes a plurality of traceable and linked UML models that define the information broker from a business use case model through to a platform independent solution model for implementation on a given solution platform. Since these UML models are readily modifiable and traceable for changes to the justice system, they facilitate implementation of the system in a cost-effective manner from one customer to the next without requiring system redesign.

A network based trading system and method are provided which combine economies-of-scale enjoyed by institutional investors and mutual funds with direct ownership of securities to permit individual investors to participate in the bond market in a cost effective manner. Through team investing, institutional economies-of-scale are created for individuals by allowing groupings of individuals to buy and sell bonds as a “team,” thereby executing one cost-efficient trade in the institutional market rather than many smaller trades in the inefficient retail market. Also, through customer-to-customer (C2C) trading, customers are allowed to negotiate a trade directly with one another as an alternative to selling in the inter-dealer market. The system and method also incorporate an automatic risk assessment and trade approval routine for evaluating a proposed trade of a financial instrument which was received from a customer in an electronic form.

The invention relates to network based content inspection (NBCI). More specifically, the invention provides systems and methods for improved NBCI in complex networks that are typical for enterprises and service providers. These networks are shared by large numbers of concurrent users who send and retrieve application content of various sizes via a variety of communication protocols. This invention improves the efficiency of the NBCI of an individual communication session by learning from the processing results of other communication sessions which may be carried via different network protocols. In addition, the invention provides methods that do not weaken the overall security for the network and that improve the stability of NBCI systems by minimizing the risk of system resource exhaustion if subjected to a burst of large payloads. The invention also improves perceived network stability by preventing the system resources from being “live-locked” by a few large content inspection tasks. Further still, the invention improves the cost-effectiveness of NBCI by allowing the optimization knowledge gained by one NBCI node be shared with other nodes.

Fabrication methods and processes are described, the methods and processes occurring at a low-temperature and involving passivation. The methods and processes easily incorporate annealing, deposition, patterning, lithography, etching, oxidation, epitaxy and chemical mechanical polishing for forming suitable devices, such as diodes and MOSFETs. Such fabrication is a suitable and more cost-effective alternative to a process of diffusion or doping, typical for forming p-n junctions. The process flow does not require temperatures above 700 degrees Centigrade. Formation of p-n junctions in discrete silicon diodes and MOSFETs are also provided, fabricated at low temperatures in the absence of diffusion or doping.

A system and method for providing cost-effective broadband mobile services using a hybrid wireless network consisting of wide-area cellular (“3G”) supplemented by hotspot caches are provided. The proposed architecture uses opportunistic access of high-bandwidth wireless hotspot to dramatically reduce the cost per MB of media delivered to mobile end-users. The system also uses a “semantic multicast routing” approach to caching and delivering media based on individual user profiles.

Nonlinear generalized dynamic regression analysis system and method of the present invention preferably uses all available data at all time points and their measured time relationship to each other to predict responses of a single output variable or multiple output variables simultaneously. The present invention, in one aspect, is a system and method for predicting whether an intervention administered to a patient changes the physiological, pharmacological, pathophysiological, or pathopsychological state of the patient with respect to a specific medical condition. The present invention uses the theory of martingales to derive the probabilistic properties for statistical evaluations. The approach uniquely models information in the following domains: (1) analysis of clinical trials and medical records including efficacy, safety, and diagnostic patterns in humans and animals, (2) analysis and prediction of medical treatment cost-effectiveness, (3) the analysis of financial data, (4) the prediction of protein structure, (5) analysis of time dependent physiological, psychological, and pharmacological data, and any other field where ensembles of sampled stochastic processes or their generalizations are accessible. A quantitative medical condition evaluation or medical score provides a statistical determination of the existence or onset of a medical condition.

This invention relates to a system and method to generate a private, auditable, evidentiary quality record of the location-history of an asset or person. This invention addresses ten critical improvements over existing systems that are proposed or used for metering for payment services for tolling roads, parking or pay-as-you-drive insurance, namely, cost-effective location accuracy in harsh signal environments, evidentiary assurance of location estimation, handling of dynamic and stationary positioning in a single device, high-ratio compression for a set of stationary positions in urban canyon, high-ratio compression for a dynamic tracklog in urban canyon, high-ratio compression for a set of asset motion behaviors, a method of remote device health check, including anti-tampering, removal of residual price assignment errors, anonymous use without on-board maps, and a method of deconsolidating payments to multiple payees with multiple payment regimes. This system can be applied to road-pricing, congestion-pricing, metered-by-the-minute parking and pay-as-you-drive insurance, incorporating privacy management, and legal admissibility of the evidentiary record. This same device can also be applied to vehicular fleets, military ordinance, or other location audits for assets whether motorized or not, as might be needed in evidence of contract fulfillment or other forms of non-realtime geofencing audits.

One-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional negative refractive index (NRI) and / or opto-magnetic materials operating in spectral ranges spanning from the visible to far IR wavelength ranges is disclosed. Said materials are comprised of metal or metal / dielectric wire pairs arranged in a number of sublattices (one for one dimensional material, two for two-dimensional and three or more for three dimensional material), such that in each lattice, said wire pairs are essentially parallel to each other. Such a materials are useful and practical in obtaining previously unachievable important optical functions in these spectral ranges. Such optical properties are highly desired for many applications. A practical means of manufacture that is compatible with cost-effective and large-scale production methods is also provided.

A facility comprising integrated systems for the extraction, and optionally upgrading and / or refinement, of unconventional oil sources, using fossil fuels as a primary source of energy. In particular, this facility provides a means to gasify one or more fossil fuels in an efficient manner, converting it into intermediate products such as heat, steam and electricity, which are then used by the system to obtain useful fuel products from unconventional oil sources such as tar sands and oil shale. The design of the components of this facility is optimized such that the overall costs are competitive with an equivalent unconventional oil source processing facility that uses natural gas as a source of processing energy. The facility can be used on its own, may use supplemental natural gas energy sources, or may be used in conjunction with an existing facility that uses natural gas as an energy source in order to improve the overall cost effectiveness of the processing and / or reduce the requirement for other energy sources, such as natural gas.

Embodiments of the invention relate to omni-tomographic imaging or grand fusion imaging, i.e., large scale fusion of simultaneous data acquisition from multiple imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, US, and optical imaging. A preferred omni-tomography system of the invention comprises two or more imaging modalities operably configured for concurrent signal acquisition for performing ROI-targeted reconstruction and contained in a single gantry with a first inner ring as a permanent magnet; a second middle ring containing an x-ray tube, detector array, and a pair of SPECT detectors; and a third outer ring for containing PET crystals and electronics. Omni-tomography offers great synergy in vivo for diagnosis, intervention, and drug development, and can be made versatile and cost-effective, and as such is expected to become an unprecedented imaging platform for development of systems biology and modern medicine.

Methods and apparatus that allow a device to migrate wireless service across multiple wireless networks. In one exemplary embodiment, the present invention enables storing and switching between multiple Electronic Subscriber Identity Modules (eSIM), where each eSIM is specific to a different carrier network. By loading the appropriate eSIM, the user device can authenticate itself with the selected carrier, rather than roaming. During roaming operation, the user equipment can load one or more of the previously stored eSIMs. Selection of the eSIM can be done manually by the user or can be driven by the user equipment based on desired context; for example, based on carrier signal strength, cost-effectiveness, etc. Support for multiple radio technologies also allows universal connectivity for wireless devices, even spanning previously incompatible technologies such as GSM (Global Standard for Mobile Communications), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), etc.