A service bureau system and method for assisting a user in retaining a service from a service provider selected from a plurality of service provide rs providing a plurality of different services. The system includes a receiving module receiving a service request from the user and identifying the user. T he system also includes a service representative module having an input receivi ng an instructi...

The invention disclosed provides a method of biometric identification of a person based on ultra-sound scan analyses of hand bones. For the purposes of identification/verification, a three dimensional (3D) ultra-sound scan of an individual's hand bones is acquired to compare the scan with those stored in the record carrier that can be placed on the; host or a remote computer

An electric shaver including a main body case provided therein with an inner cutter drive mechanism and a swingable shaver head installed on the main body case and has a plurality of reciprocating cutter units oriented parallel to each other in t he lateral width direction of the main body case, wherein at least one of the reciprocating cutter units is raised or lowered; and by a combination of th...

The present invention includes methods and materials for manipulating the sense of satiety developed from the gastrointestinal transit of a substance in a mammal, whether the substance be a food or drug compound. The method involves administering a therapeutically effective amount, by a direct delivery route, of a pharmaceutically acceptable formulation comprising nutrients and pharmacological age...

A set of interfaces and data structures (i.e., a demultiplexer API) for representing a demultiplexer of multimedia data is presented. The data structure utilizes a number of fields, each containing an element of a command. In one embodiment, at least seven commands are formed for proper operation of the demultiplexer; including Initialize, SetPresentationDescriptor, GetPresentationDescriptor, GetP...

A battery charger that has a first mode that charges the battery and a second mode that maintains a charge on the battery. The battery charger switches from the first mode to the second mode after expiration of a predetermined period of time. The battery charger prevents over charging of the battery.

An ion transport membrane system comprising (a) a pressure vessel having an interior, an exterior; an inlet, and an outlet; (b) a plurality of planar io n transport membrane modules disposed in the interior of the pressure vessel and arrange d in series, each membrane module comprising mixed metal oxide ceramic material a nd having an interior region and an exterior region, wherein any inlet and a...

The present invention provides a novel method for validating computer system s, in particular for validating computer systems for use in the healthcare industry. The meth od is computer based, and in at least one embodiment includes steps of gathering informatio n about project for a particular computer system, generating a validation plan for that system, including a plurality of tests to be cond...

The present invention provides a method for the immuno-diagnosis of diseases with different aetiology (infectious diseases, tumors etc) by measurement of the T cell response J, B and NK lymphocytes) induced by a set of diseasespecific antigens. The method is based on the quantitative determination of antigenspecific T lymphocytes (referred as Ag-Sp), stimulated by using a newly devised pathology-s...

A heating device for heating fuel in a vehicle comprises a body having an inlet and an outlet. Arranged inside the body are electrical heating means (11) in contact with the fluid, means (IP) for controlling the electrical supply of the heating means (11), sensor means (17, 23) for detecting at least one respective characteristic of the fluid, and a circuit arrangement (22) pre-arranged for contro...

A method for operating an inductive electroactuators control device (12) is described including a control circuit (11) for each electroactuator (12), each control circuit (11) including a first pair of input terminals (13, 14) connected, in use, to a first electric energy source (23) supplying a first voltage MATT), a second pair of input terminals (15, 16) connected, in use, to a second electric ...

An illumination arrangement for a vehicle headlight (10) is formed of a plurality of contiguous elementary cells (11), each comprising a light source (12), defined by an emission surface having a horizontal dimension (H) and a vertical dimension (V) and capable of emitting a luminous flux, and an optical system (13) capable of conveying the luminous flux at a predetermined solid angle about a pred...

A reflector (15) for a vehicle headlamp capable of generating a light beam and directing it with respect to an optical axis (Z) in order to illuminate the surrounding space according to a predetermined luminosity distribution is described. The reflector (15) is subdivided into a plurality of reflecting sectors (15a, 15b) capable of reflecting the light emitted from a light source (11) located alon...

A reflector (10) for a vehicle headlight is described, capable of illuminating the surrounding space according to a predetermined light distribution. The reflector (10) is formed of a plurality of sectors (11) capable of reflecting the light beam emitted by a light source (20) of the headlight and directing it into predetermined regions of said light distribution. The major part of the sectors (11...