Abstract: A grease and food particle trap for use with an oven shooter tube cleaning system that provides improved resistance to clogging and improved maintenance better matching the ability of the shooter tube cleaning system to provide complete cleaning and removal of grease and food particles is provided. An auxiliary heating system may provide improved energy efficiency and temperature control for cleaning operation by separately heating the cleaning solution upstream from the shooter tube prior to delivering a cleaning spray to the cooking volume.

Abstract: The presence of unmitigated metal ions in a drilling fluid can prevent acceptable rheological and fluid loss control performance from being realized during a drilling operation. Softening of a hard water source containing alkaline earth metal ions may allow the resultant treated water source to be used in formulating a drilling fluid with acceptable properties. Not all softening agents perform equivalently in this regard, and some softening agents may not be readily available. Methods for formulating a drilling fluid may comprise: providing a hard water source comprising one or more metal ions; introducing an alkali metal silicate into the hard water source to form a treated water source; and after forming the treated water source, adding a viscosifying agent to the treated water source to form a drilling fluid. The methods may further comprise drilling a borehole with the drilling fluid.

Abstract: An error reduction apparatus includes a combing absence detector to detect absence of combing from a luminance signal, a combing presence detector to detect presence of combing from a color-difference signal, a vertical low-pass filter to receive the color-difference signal, and a selector to select one of the color-difference signal and a color-difference signal to which the vertical low-pass filter is applied based on detection results of the combing absence detector and the combing presence detector, and if combing is absent in the luminance signal and combing is present in the color-difference signal, the error reduction apparatus applies the vertical low-pass filter to the color-difference signal and outputs the signal.

Abstract: Disclosed is a tuned channel detector which includes a cable path between a radio frequency source and a receiver such as a TV, wherein the radio frequency source passes first through an attenuator and second through a signal selection module comprising two opposing directional couplers and a single-pole/double-throw switch. The channel to which the TV is tuned is determined by measuring the TV's local oscillator signal from the cable which feeds the radio frequency signal to the TV and, additionally or alternatively, by comparing the signal strength of the input and reflected TV carrier signals at and around the channels under test. Signal detection is further enhanced by modulating the signal mixed with the local oscillator with a tone and/or testing only during certain intervals such as the vertical synchronization interval or the power line cycle. A tone detector having a synchronous rectifier is used to detect low level local oscillator signals.