Abstract: A vibration dampening system includes a vibration dampening element for a turbine nozzle or blade. A body opening extends through the turbine nozzle or blade, e.g., through the airfoil among potentially other parts of the nozzle or blade. A vibration dampening element includes a plurality of stacked damper pins within the body opening. The damper pins include an outer body having an inner opening, a first end surface and an opposing second end surface; and an inner body nested and movable within the inner opening of the outer body. The end surfaces frictionally engage to dampen vibration. The inner body has a first central opening including a first portion configured to engage an elongated body therein and an outer surface configured to frictionally engage a portion of the inner opening of the outer body to dampen vibration.

Abstract: Apparatus, systems and methods are provided for performing distributed network billing in a datacenter environment. The method includes receiving a network packet including a destination identifier in a virtual switch from a virtual machine of a server of a datacenter associated with a customer of the datacenter, determining if the destination identifier is present in an accounting list of the virtual switch that includes destination identifiers each associated with a first billing rate, and if so, updating a counter associated with the accounting list according to a size of the network packet.