Strand coating methods and systems having an applicator head pivotally mounted adjacent a substrate, a coating material dispenser mounted on the applicator head, a strand guide mounted on the applicator head, wherein the strand guide and th e coating material dispenser are adjustably positionable in unison relative to the substrate by pivoting the applicator head to vary the spacing of the strands...

An umbrella device which has a shank, an umbrella-like cap formed as a membrane and a driver. The membrane is connected to the shank and is caused by the driver to move from a position of rest where it droops limply around the shank to an open position where it is essentially horizontal due to the centrifugal forces of the membrane produced by the rotation of the membrane by the driver.

An accessory cartridge for removable reception in a specialized lighting fixture. A circular cartridge ring is provided with an internal lower flange, for supporting one or more flat, circular, disc-like accessory elements, such as filters. Retainer clips are positioned to engage at least the uppermost one of the disc-like accessory elements, such that one or more of the disc-like accessory elemen...

A small volume sensor, and methods of making, for determining the concentration of an analyte, such as glucose or lactate, in a biological fluid, such as blood or serum, using techniques such as coulometry, amperometry, and potentiometry. The sensor includes a working electrode and a counter electrode, and can include an insertion monitoring trace to determine correct positioning of the sensor in ...

The electrode test strip is used with an electrochemical sensor for measuring an analyte in an aqueous sample, e.g., glucose in blood. The electrode strip includes an elongated electrode support, a first and second electrode on the support, a slotted dielectric layer, a screen and a slotted cover layer, all disposed atop each and atop the electrodes in the support. The dielectric layer and the cov...

A disposable electrode strip for testing a fluid sample including a laminated strip with a first and second end, a vent, an open path for receiving a fluid sample of less than one microliter beginning from the first end and connecting to the vent, a working electrode, a reference electrode and a pseudo-working electrode embedded in the laminated strip within the open path and proximate to the firs...

An apparatus, a sample cuvette and a method for optical measurements on samples which show variable levels of scattering are provided. The apparatus, sample cuvette and method may be used for optical measurements on biological, physiological and chemical samples, however, are especially applicable for optical measurements on whole blood.

A functional unit of a processor may be configured to operate on instructions as either a single, wide functional unit or as multiple, independent narrower units. For example, an execution unit may be scheduled to execute an instruction as a single double-wide execution unit or as two independently schedulable single-wide execution units. Functional unit portions may be independently schedulable f...

A drive axle assembly for an all-wheel drive vehicle includes an adaptively controlled first hydraulic coupling for providing front-to-rear torque transfer control to a first wheel and an adaptively controlled second hydraulic coupling for providing front-to-rear torque control to a second wheel. The drive axle assembly is contained with a common housing and communicates with a traction control sy...

A brake system according to the present invention comprises an eccentric rotor and a brake effecter module. The brake effecter module has a pair of hydraulically interconnected actuators, a brake control valve and a brake exciter. Each of the pair of actuators can engage a different point on the eccentric rotor. The brake control valve effects braking by restricting the flow of a working fluid tha...

A drum brake system adapted to transmit force to left and right levers for evenly contacting the left and right shoes to the drum when the driver depresses the brake pedal. The force is transmitted from a wheel cylinder, thereby resulting in an effective braking action due to the even contact between the drum and the shoes, and an improvement of the durability of components by preventing a partial...

A method comprises linking a plurality of units with a central server, operating a virtual game on the server, and offering purchasing options to users of the units to purchase virtual non-monetary assets for use in the virtual game. Also described is a system comprising a central server, and a plurality of units linked to the server via a communication link, wherein a unit of the system includes ...

The present invention relates to a fiber-reinforced cement based or cementitious material, and process for making, where the reinforcing fiber is a chemically treated cellulose or non-cellulose fiber. The fiber reinforced cementitious material includes (i) cement, (ii) optionally, sand, aggregate, or sand and aggregate, and (iii) chemically treated fibers having a polyvalent cation content of from...

A low crystallizability polypropylene sheet which has an average spherulite radius between 0.1 mum and 4 mum, an average number of spherulites of 600/mm² or less in a sheet cross section, a solid density of 0.895 g/cm³ or less, a fusion enthalpy H of less than 90 J/g at the highest endothermic peak of the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve, a degree of gloss of 90%...

A magnetooptic read device in which the figure of merit is optimized mainly by the setting of the incident light polarizer. The component of the incident wave pumps the magnetooptic transducer. The component of the incident wave amplifies the variations in the magnetooptic wave and generates a reflected wave of approximately linear polarization.

An information recording medium includes a data recording area for recording data; and a parameter calibration area for recording recording condition information. The parameter calibration area includes a used area having the recording condition information recorded therein, an unused area having no recording condition information, and a border area for recording distinguishing information for dis...

An information display system including an input device that inputs a scheduled event, a schedule storage in which the schedule is stored, a display device that displays a map, a memory that stores map information and the scheduled event, and a controller that displays a schedule reminder message on the map at a specified time before the scheduled event is to occur.

Disclosed is a method for addressing a person or organization via electronic means, wherein the addresses of people and/or organizations are stored in a database, wherein the addresses from the database are linked to publicly accessible data such as name, telephone numbers, fax number and/or postal codes, and a method for processing and/or sending in electronic manner one or more e-mail messages w...

Methods for controlling and storing data in a cache buffer in a storage apparatus having a nonvolatile memory medium are disclosed. Memory cells are logically divided into a plurality of pages. An open status is registered in a counter for each page that has at least some (and usually all) memory cells available to store new data. A full status is registered in the counter for each page that does ...

A method ( 300 ) and system for scheduling execution of activities, such as jobs of a batch processing. An estimated duration of each job is predicted ( 365-367 ) as a running average of the measured durations of completed instances of the job executed previously. The method of the invention uses historical data to identify ( 375-385 ) repeatable patterns for the job duration; for example, a decis...