7984 results about "Subject matter" patented technology

A dispensing device for granule bone graft of varying and / or irregular shape is characterized by a body defining a handle / hopper portion, a dispensing portion, and a feed system. The subject device permits reloading or refilling of bone graft at the time of use of the device. The bone graft dispensing device also accepts vials of bone graft. The vials are loaded onto and releasably retained by the dispensing device. In both forms, the feed system allows a controlled and / or variable rate of flow of bone graft during dispensing. The subject device may be made disposable as well as re-usable. The subject device is also modular in design allowing easy assembly / disassembly. The is subject bone graft dispenser is particularly suited for the dispensing of dry, particulate and / or granule bone graft. Particularly, the bone graft dispensing device is especially suited for the dispensing of particulate or granule bone graft having particulates or granules of various and / or irregular size, shape and combinations thereof.

Automatic configuration management of a network is provided by determining an inventory of resources at a virtualization layer of a node of the network, assigning prioritization to members of a set of network configuration elements, allocating virtual resources among the set of network configuration elements, establishing a network configuration. The configuration is managed by determining real time performance metrics for the configuration, producing a reallocation of the virtual resources based on the performance metrics that are estimated to change the established configuration, change the performance metrics, and initiating the reallocation of the virtual resources. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement that allows a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.

Methods are provided for treating a subject for a condition caused by an abnormality in the subject's autonomic nervous system. In accordance with the subject methods, at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system is modulated to increase the parasympathetic activity / sympathetic activity ratio in a manner that is effective to treat the subject for the condition. Certain embodiments include modulating at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system by inhibiting and / or increasing activity in at least a portion of the subject's autonomic nervous system. The subject methods find use in the treatment of a variety of different conditions, where such conditions include various disease conditions. Also provided are systems and kits for use in practicing the subject methods.

A term-by-document matrix is compiled from a corpus of documents representative of a particular subject matter that represents the frequency of occurrence of each term per document. A weighted term dictionary is created using a global weighting algorithm and then applied to the term-by-document matrix forming a weighted term-by-document matrix. A term vector matrix and a singular value concept matrix are computed by singular value decomposition of the weighted term-document index. The k largest singular concept values are kept and all others are set to zero thereby reducing to the concept dimensions in the term vector matrix and a singular value concept matrix. The reduced term vector matrix, reduced singular value concept matrix and weighted term-document dictionary can be used to project pseudo-document vectors representing documents not appearing in the original document corpus in a representative semantic space. The similarities of those documents can be ascertained from the position of their respective pseudo-document vectors in the representative semantic space.

The present invention relates to an enhanced sequential atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique suitable for deposition of barrier layers, adhesion layers, seed layers, low dielectric constant (low-k) films, high dielectric constant (high-k) films, and other conductive, semi-conductive, and non-conductive films. This is accomplished by 1) providing a non-thermal or non-pyrolytic means of triggering the deposition reaction; 2) providing a means of depositing a purer film of higher density at lower temperatures; and, 3) providing a faster and more efficient means of modulating the deposition sequence and hence the overall process rate resulting in an improved deposition method. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that 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 system, method and apparatus for eliminating image tearing effects and other visual artifacts perceived when scanning moving subject matter with a scanned beam imaging device. The system, method and apparatus uses a motion detection means in conjunction with an image processor to alter the native image to one without image tearing or other visual artifacts. The image processor monitors the motion detection means and reduces the image resolution or translates portions of the imaged subject matter in response to the detected motion.

Methods are provided for treating a subject for a condition caused by an abnormality in the subject's autonomic nervous system. In accordance with the subject methods, at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system is electrically modulated to increase the parasympathetic activity / sympathetic activity ratio in a manner that is effective to treat the subject for the condition. Certain embodiments include electrically modulating at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system by inhibiting and / or increasing activity in at least a portion of the subject's autonomic nervous system. The subject methods find use in the treatment of a variety of different conditions, where such conditions include various disease conditions. Also provided are systems and kits for use in practicing the subject methods.

Methods are provided for treating a subject for a condition caused by an abnormality in the subject's autonomic nervous system. In accordance with the subject methods, at least a portion of a subject's autonomic nervous system is pharmacologically modulated with at least one aldosterone antagonist in a manner that is effective to treat the subject for the condition. Also provided are systems and kits for use in practicing the subject methods.

A system and method use computer image processing for setting the parameters for an image acquisition device of a camera. The image parameters are set automatically by analyzing the image to be taken, and setting the controls according to the subject matter, in the same manner as an expert photographer would be able to. The system can run in a fully automatic mode choosing the best image parameters, or a "guided mode" where the user is prompted with choices where a number of alternate settings would be reasonable.

A method and apparatus for automatically gathering, summarizing, and indexing real-time information derived from real-time communication on the Internet, such as Internet chat sessions, or any other comparable form of real-time communication on the Internet. The present invention provides live information selection and analysis and provides basic functionality of crawling, indexing and summarizing chat room data, as well as generating messages, such as advertisements, responsive to the subject matter of the communication.

The present invention relates to an enhanced sequential or non-sequential atomic layer deposition (ALD) apparatus and technique suitable for deposition of barrier layers, adhesion layers, seed layers, low dielectric constant (low-k) films, high dielectric constant (high-k) films, and other conductive, semi-conductive, and non-conductive films. This is accomplished by 1) providing a non-thermal or non-pyrolytic means of triggering the deposition reaction; 2) providing a means of depositing a purer film of higher density at lower temperatures; 3) providing a faster and more efficient means of modulating the deposition sequence and hence the overall process rate resulting in an improved deposition method; and, 4) providing a means of improved radical generation and delivery. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that 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. [37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b)].

At least one aspect is directed to a wearable treatment device that includes a cardiac sensing electrode, a treatment electrode, a user interface, and a sensor. The cardiac sensing electrode detects cardiac information, and the treatment electrode applies treatment to the subject. The user interface receives quality of life information from the subject, and the sensor detects subject activity and wellness information. A controller coupled with the cardiac sensing electrode, the treatment electrode, the user interface, and the sensor receives the detected cardiac information, the quality of life information, and the detected subject activity and wellness information, and determines that treatment is to be applied to the body of the subject based upon the detected cardiac information. The controller can also adjust the treatment based on at least one of the detected subject activity and wellness information and the quality of life information, and an alarm module provides an alarm after the cardiac information is detected and before the treatment is applied to the body of the subject.

A social media analytics platform including methods, apparatuses and computer-readable media for providing analytic measurements of online social media content by harvesting and aggregating unstructured qualitative online social media conversations relevant to subject matter of interest in a category from one or more online social media sources, quantifying the aggregated online social media conversations, and providing actionable information based on the quantified aggregated online social media conversations, the actionable information including sentiment expressed among online social media participants concerning subject matter of interest in the category.

Microchannels having at least an acrylic inner surface and methods of their use in electrophoretic applications are provided. The subject microchannels may be in the form of a variety of configurations suitable for holding an electrophoretic medium. The subject microchannels give rise to substantially reduced EOF and / or adsorption as compared to fused silica under conditions of electrophoresis and find use in a variety of electrophoretic applications in which charged entities are moved through a medium under the influence of the an applied electric field.

A method for disseminating emergency notification content from an emergency originating source. The method comprising: delivering the emergency notification content from the emergency originating source to at least one transmitting party; selecting a subset of users from among a set of users for dissemination of the emergency notification content based on the subject matter of the emergency notification content; and delivering the emergency notification content from the at least one transmitting party to a device corresponding to each user from the selected subset of users.

Methods and apparatus are described by which one or more input words may be predicted based on partial input from a user using a predictive model that employs contextual metadata which characterizes the user in a multi-dimensional space in which the dimensions are defined by one or more of a spatial aspect, a temporal aspect, a social aspect, or a topical aspect.

A communication system is provided that uses loosely-coupled client-server architectures to improve the efficiency of communications. The communication system includes client and facilitator applications. The client application is a component of processor-based mobile communication devices. The facilitator application is hosted on one or more servers or other processor-based devices, and communicates with the client application via one or more couplings. The facilitator application can also be distributed among one or more portable processor-based devices including the communication devices hosting the client application. The communication system improves efficiency of voice communications by allowing communication device users to dynamically manage how and when mobile calls take place, intelligently screen calls based on caller identity, urgency, and subject matter, determine which contacts in a directory are available to talk and which ones choose not to be disturbed, and increase accessibility of enterprise and personal contact information from mobile phones.

A method and system for providing efficient menu services for an information processing system that uses a telephone or other form of audio user interface. In one embodiment, the menu services provide effective support for novice users by providing a full listing of available keywords and rotating house advertisements which inform novice users of potential features and information. For experienced users, cues are rendered so that at any time the user can say a desired keyword to invoke the corresponding application. The menu is flat to facilitate its usage. Full keyword listings are rendered after the user is given a brief cue to say a keyword. Service messages rotate words and word prosody. When listening to receive information from the user, after the user has been cued, soft background music or other audible signals are rendered to inform the user that a response may now be spoken to the service. Other embodiments determine default cities, on which to report information, based on characteristics of the caller or based on cities that were previously selected by the caller. Other embodiments provide speech concatenation processes that have co-articulation and real-time subject-matter-based word selection which generate human sounding speech. Other embodiments reduce the occurrences of falsely triggered barge-ins during content delivery by only allowing interruption for certain special words. Other embodiments offer special services and modes for calls having voice recognition trouble. The special services are entered after predetermined criterion have been met by the call. Other embodiments provide special mechanisms for automatically recovering the address of a caller.

A search and recommendation system employs the preferences and profiles of individual users and groups within a community of users, as well as information derived from categorically organized content pointers, to augment electronic commerce related searches, re-rank search results, and provide recommendations for commerce related objects based on an initial subject-matter query and an interaction history of a user. The search and recommendation system operates in the context of a content pointer manager, which stores individual users' content pointers (some of which may be published or shared for group use) on a centralized content pointer database connected to a network. The shared content pointer manager is implemented as a distributed program, portions of which operate on users' terminals and other portions of which operate on the centralized content pointer database. A user's content pointers are organized in accordance with a local topical categorical hierarchy. The hierarchical organization is used to define a relevance context within which returned objects are evaluated and ordered.

Honey pots are used to attract computer attacks to a virtual operating system that is a virtual instantiation of a typical deployed operational system. Honey nets are a collection of these virtual systems assembled to create a virtual network. The subject system uses a forward deployed honey net combined with a parallel monitoring system collecting data into and from the honey net, leveraging the controlled environment to identify malicious behavior and new attacks. This honey net / monitoring pair is placed ahead of the real deployed operational network and the data it uncovers is used to reconfigure network protective devices in real time to prevent zero-day based attacks from entering the real network. The forward network protection system analyzes the data gathered by the honey pots and generates signatures and new rules for protection that are coupled to both advanced perimeter network security devices and to the real network itself so that these devices can be reconfigured with threat data and new rules to prevent infected packets from entering the real network and from propagating to other machines. Note the subject system applies to both zero-day exploit-based worms and also manual attacks conducted by an individual who is leveraging novel attack methods.

In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and programs for providing location-based information. A geographical location of a mobile computing device is received at a server system. A request for content is received at the server system and from the mobile computing device. A search area that corresponds to the geographical location is selected by the sever system. The search area is selected from among a collection of search areas that correspond to the geographical location. At least one of the search areas in the collection is geographically nested within at least one other of the search areas. A search result that is most-relevantly ranked for the selected search area is determined by the server system. Content that represents the determined search result is provided by the server system and for receipt by the mobile computing device.

Compositions, apparatus incorporating a composition, and methods of use are described, one composition embodiment consisting essentially of one or more reactive metals in major proportion, and one or more alloying elements in minor proportion, with the provisos that the composition is high-strength, controllably reactive, and degradable under defined conditions. Compositions of the invention may exist in a variety of morphologies, including a reactive metal or degradable alloy processed into an alloy of crystalline, amorphous or mixed structure that may constitute the matrix of other composition, for instance a composite. Methods of using apparatus comprising a composition, particularly in oilfield operations are also described (e.g. flow and displacement control, sensors, actuators). This abstract allows a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure. It will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b).

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions about subjects, particularly exceptional experiences. Described is an Internet system assisting / motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings about which natural-language terms best describe a particular subject, enabling user searches of the subject database to be by way of preferred such descriptive natural-language terms, which terms are further preferred to be evaluative and approving.

A vehicle headlight including a common light distribution unit and a variable light distribution unit and a headlight system including the headlight can form a common light distribution pattern and a variable light distribution pattern using the common and the variable light distribution units. The variable distribution unit can include a light source, a phosphor panel, a mirror reflecting / scanning light emitted from the light source onto the phosphor panel and a projector lens projecting the scanning light adjacent the common light distribution pattern. The headlight system can include a front sensor detecting a surrounding condition, and can control the common and the variable light distribution units to form an optimum light distribution pattern in accordance with surrounding conditions. Thus, the disclosed subject matter can provide a headlight system including a headlight that can form an optimum light distribution pattern in accordance with surrounding conditions and can have a simple structure.

This invention relates to intelligent video surveillance fuzzy logic neural networks, camera systems with local and network-shared communications for facial, physical condition and intoxication recognition. The device we reveal helps reduce underage drinking by detecting and refusing entrance or service to subjects under legal drinking age. The device we reveal can estimate attention of viewers of advertising, entertainment, displays and the like. The invention also relates to method, and Vision, Image and related-data, database-systems to reduce the volume of surveillance data through automatically recognizing and recording only occurrences of exceptions and elimination of non-events thereby achieving a reduction factor of up to 60,000. This invention permits members of the LastCall™ Network to share their databases of the facial recognition and identification of subjects recorded in the exception occurrences with participating members' databases: locally, citywide, nationally and internationally, depending upon level of sharing permission.

A mechanism of ranking weblog or “blog” items is provided. More particularly, the subject ranking mechanisms can facilitate ranking blog feeds and blog items contained therein thus focusing and intelligently delivering content (e.g., blog items) to users. The subject innovation facilitates ranking the blog feeds and blog items by creating a context rank around each blog feed. The context rank represents a sum of a context weight, a track-back weight and a comment weight. Accordingly, this context rank can allow readers to sort blog items in the order of popularity or importance thus effectively reducing content noise.

There is provided a computer-implemented method for targeted delivery of content. The method includes (i) receiving first data that indicates (a) an identity of a person, (b) a subject location, and (c) a subject time at which the person is expected to be at the subject location, (ii) querying a database, based on the identity, to obtain second data about the person, (iii) matching content to the second data, and (iv) initiating a delivery of the content to a delivery location at a delivery time based on the subject location and the subject time.

The subject invention pertains to a method and apparatus for placing a minimally-invasive access with respect to a patient's bone or other non-soft tissue. The subject invention can use a drilling machine incorporating an ultrasound motor. The subject drilling machine can be applied to sample, for example, bone biopsies under MRI control. In a specific embodiment, the subject ultrasound motor can be completely manufactured of non-magnetic materials, such as plastics, titanium, and titanium alloy, or ceramics and piezoceramics. The subject drilling apparatus can be placed into an MRI near field without influencing the image quality, and without the drilling apparatus itself being disturbed by the MRI magnet, gradient, or high-frequency field. The subject invention can incorporate good shielding with the subject drilling apparatus use of these materials, and can achieve minimal, if any, image distortions or so-called artifacts. Thus, the subject invention can involve the problem by use of non-magnetic materials of low magnetic susceptibility for the design of an actuation unit.

Electronic payment systems and supporting methods and devices are described. For instance, the disclosed subject matter describes aggregated transactional account functionality configured to receive electronic financial transactions associated with one or more of a set of electronic identifying information such as phone ID, email, instant message, etc. for a user and related functionality. The disclosed details enable various refinements and modifications according to system design and tradeoff considerations.