Abstract: A mine seal or wall capable of retaining its integrity under a transverse load. The mine seal is constructed of a plurality of interlocking masonry blocks. The interlocking blocks include a body with a top surface, planar sides, planar ends, and a bottom surface. A top shear lug extends longitudinally along the top of the block. An end shear lug extends vertically along each end of the block. The bottom surface and each end of the block includes a groove therein. When stacked end to end in successive rows, the top and end shear lugs of each interlocking block engage the complimentary grooves in the adjacent blocks thereby enabling the blocks to self-align vertically and lock together as they are stacked. The resulting mine seal exhibits a high resistance to transverse loads.

Abstract: An image processor merges images from a plurality of cameras including applying spatially-varying gains over images from individual cameras to obtain a consistent effective where the images are stitched together despite the cameras possibly having different camera exposures. The image processor can adjust the camera exposures to improve stitching results. In addition to gain modification, the image processor can also modify the images for other artifacts, such as veiling glare and make those less visible at the seams of images. The image processor also can take into account constraints on gain changes and optimize camera parameters to minimize stitching artifacts. Using a cost function, the image processor can optimize for constraints on camera exposure that would otherwise result in camera exposure differences that would themselves cause visible artifacts.

Abstract: A mine seal or wall capable of retaining its integrity under a transverse load. The mine seal is constructed of a plurality of interlocking masonry blocks. The interlocking blocks include a body with a top surface, planar sides, planar ends, and a bottom surface. A top shear lug extends longitudinally along the top of the block. An end shear lug extends vertically along each end of the block. The bottom surface and each end of the block includes a groove therein. When stacked end to end in successive rows, the top and end shear lugs of each interlocking block engage the complimentary grooves in the adjacent blocks thereby enabling the blocks to self-align vertically and lock together as they are stacked. The resulting mine seal exhibits a high resistance to transverse loads.

Abstract: A lightweight concrete masonry unit for veneering the face of a building. The veneer block includes a body with planar front, top, bottom, and side surfaces with the top, bottom, and sides perpendicular to the front surface. One or more channels are formed in the rear surface. The depth of the channels are restricted to maintain no less than one inch of remaining wall thickness between the channel bottoms and the opposite front surface. The novel shape and larger minimum wall thickness of the lightweight veneer block enables production on a commercial block machine within the standard cycle time, provides weight and raw material cost savings up to 50%, and allows block heights that are not attainable with conventional hollow core veneer blocks.

Abstract: A method for forming a masonry unit that includes joining a pallet to a bottom surface of a mold, inserting a filler plug into the side of the mold between a partition plate and a pallet, dispensing mix into the mold, and compressing the mix with a shoe to form a masonry unit with a filler plug effect.

Abstract: An adaptive filter is implemented by a computer (10) processing an input signal using a recursive least squares lattice (RLSL) algorithm (12) to obtain forward and backward least squares prediction residuals. A prediction residual is the difference between a data element in a sequence of elements and a prediction of that element from other sequence elements. Forward and backward residuals are converted at (14) to interpolation residuals which are unnormalized Kalman gain vector coefficients. Interpolation residuals are normalized to produce the Kalman gain vector at (16). The Kalman gain vector is combined at (18) with input and reference signals x(t) and y(t), which provides updates for the filter coefficients or weights to reflect these signals as required to provide adaptive filtering.

Abstract: A prefabricated cribbing column for supporting a mine roof. The column includes a plurality of concrete cribbing elements the majority of which are interleaved with load transfer disks. Two of the cribbing elements are interleaved with a handle element. The column assembly of cribbing elements, load transfer disks, and handle element are secured together in an integral unit by a steel strap. The handle element extends substantially beyond the outer periphery of the cribbing elements enabling access and lifting by a forklift or similar machinery. The handle element enables the integral column to be easily moved from one location to another. The cribbing elements are preferably constructed of steel fiber reinforced concrete. A column consisting of five cribbing elements has shown to be capable of supporting a load of 575 tons with a deflection of 2.5 inches or less.

Abstract: A masonry unit for use in mortared wall structures includes a first surface and a mortar buffer that at least partially surrounds the first surface.

Abstract: A method for forming a masonry unit that includes joining a pallet to a bottom surface of a mold, inserting a filler plug into the side of the mold between a partition plate and a pallet, dispensing mix into the mold, and compressing the mix with a shoe to form a masonry unit with a filler plug effect.

Abstract: An adaptive filter is implemented by a computer (10) processing an input signal using a recursive least squares lattice (RLSL) algorithm (12) to obtain forward and backward least squares prediction residuals. A prediction residual is the difference between a data element in a sequence of elements and a prediction of that element from other sequence elements. Forward and backward residuals are converted at (14) to interpolation residuals which are unnormalised Kalman gain vector coefficients. Interpolation residuals are normalised to produce the Kalman gain vector at (16). The Kalman gain vector is combined at (18) with input and reference signals x(t) and y(t), which provides updates for the filter coefficients or weights to reflect these signals as required to provide adaptive filtering.

Abstract: A combined duplexer/mixer (2) for use with FMCW radar systems has a waveguide section (12,13) containing a fin-line structure (17,18) for responding to the linearly polarized radar return signal while permitting passage of the orthogonally polarized transmitted signal (T). A portion of the transmitted signal is extracted by a patch antenna (22), this extracted signal forming a local oscillator signal for mixing with the return.