Abstract: A spark plug (24) is used in an ignition system (10) of the type for creating a precisely timed spark to ignite an air/fuel mixture in an internal combustion engine. The spark plug (24) is provided with an integrated capacitor feature to increase the intensity of its spark. The capacitor feature is formed by applying metallic film (62, 64) to the inner (30) and outer surfaces of a tubular insulator (26). The insulator (26), made from an alumina ceramic material, forms a dielectric and sustains an electrical charge when an electrical differential is established between the inner (64) and outer (62) metallic films. The stored electrical charge is discharged with the firing of a spark in the spark gap (54). The inner (64) and outer (62) metallic films can be applied as a paint or ink directly to the surfaces of the insulator (26), or can be mixed with a glazing compound to form conductive coatings simultaneous with the glazing operation.

Abstract: A most preferred composition for the mixture, prior to sintering into an article (ideally a valve seat insert), is as follows: 35% hard phase, 65% matrix (excepting incidental impurities), the hard phase component being 2.2% C, 29.1% Cr, 4.9% Co, 5.3% Ni, 20.2% W with the balance being Fe and allowing less than 2% for one or more machinability aids and solid lubricants, and the matrix component being one of a high chrome steel powder (e.g. 18% Cr, 1% Ni, 2.5% Mo, balance Fe), a low alloy steel powder (3% Cu, 1% C, balance Fe; 3% Cr, 0.5% Mo, 1% C, balance Fe; 4% Ni, 1.5% Cu, 0.5% Mo, 1% C, balance Fe; 4% Ni, 2% Cu, 1.4% Mo, 1% C, balance Fe), or a tool steel powder (5% Mo, 6% W, 4% Cr, 2% V, 1% C, balance Fe), or a low-alloy steel powder as above but which issued in conjunction with a copper infiltration process during sintering.

Abstract: An elongated protective textile sleeve for protecting elongate members and methods of constructing a fabric substrate therefore. The fabric substrate has a plurality of filamentary members either woven, knitted or braided with one another. At least some of the filamentary members of the substrate extend to cut edges and are fabricated of a multi-component material that includes a core of a first polymeric material and an outer sheath of a second polymeric material. The outer sheath is heat-fusible and the inner core is heat-settable. The outer sheaths of the filamentary members are heat fused at least in the regions near the cut edges to keep the cut edges from fraying or the filamentary members from pulling out of the substrate. The core is heat set to form the desired shape of the protective sleeve.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and device, which provide an enhanced ability to monitor the navigation of an aircraft during a phase of flight in which the aircraft is close to the ground in which the aircraft uses positional information supplied by a satellite positioning system for the navigation. A display screen is used to display a first characteristic sign representing a selected setpoint value for a height parameter of the aircraft. The display screen also displays a second characteristic sign representing a current auxiliary value expressed in the form of an achievable height parameter. An alert is emitted when the second characteristic sign is determined to be within a predetermined height value of the first characteristic sign, and the alert is shown in visual format on the display screen. An alarm is also emitted following a predetermined time after the alert is emitted, if the setpoint value is not replaced by a new setpoint value.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and device for aiding the piloting on an aircraft during a landing phase. One of the landing runways of an airport onto which the aircraft is to land is determined by a runway determination device. A position determining unit is used to determine a current position of the aircraft in a reference frame. A minimum breaking distance is estimated by an estimation unit, upon the aircraft passing above tje determined landing runway. The minimum braking distance is compared by a distance comparison unit with a length of the determined landing runway, and an alert is emitted by an alert unit, when said minimum braking distance is greater than the length of said determined landing runway.

Abstract: A spark plug (10) includes an intermediate connecting pin (54) disposed in the central passage (28) of an the insulator body (12). The connecting pin (54) seats in an intermediate taper section (72) within the central passage (28), which is generally frustoconical and establishes a transition between a first larger diameter of the central passage (28) and a second smaller diameter. The intermediate tapered section (72) is located longitudinally above a filleted transition (26) feature of the insulator body (12) exterior. A pin head (53) of the connecting pin (54) has a complementary tapered under-cut and seats against the intermediate tapered section (72) to provide self-centering of the connecting pin (54) without trapping gas during the assembly process. The intermediate taper section (72) also provides an increase in insulator wall thickness which improves dielectric capacity and structural integrity of the insulator (12).

Abstract: A spectrum coding apparatus capable of performing coding at a low bit rate and with high quality is disclosed. This apparatus is provided with a section that performs the frequency transformation of a first signal and calculates a first spectrum, a section that converts the frequency of a second signal and calculates a second spectrum, a section that estimates the shape of the second spectrum in a band of FL?k<FH using a filter having the first spectrum in a band of 0?k<FL as an internal state and a section that codes an outline of the second spectrum determined based on a coefficient indicating the characteristic of the filter at this time.

Abstract: Disclosed is a piston ring comprising a supporting material and a wear-resistant coating. The wear-resistant coating is composed of a ternary system A-B—N which is applied using a PVD process and in which A and B each represent an element form the group encompassing Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo W, Al, Si and C, wherein A?B and N represents nitrogen. The thickness of the wear-resistant coating amounts to ?3 ?m.

Abstract: A system for supporting collaborative activity in a network includes a storage component storing data related to the network and a model of the network; a processor that accesses the stored data and the model to process the data according to the model, where the stored data relates to the collaborative activity including user-defined data created by interaction of a user and the model, and context data related to the user, where the user-defined data and the context data, as metadata, are stored in the storage component; and a user interface, provided by the processor, that presents the user-defined data, the context data, and the model in a form readable by the user, the interface permitting the user to define a set of arbitrary domains, relate the user-defined data to the domains, and view relationships between the user-defined data and the context data, and the domains.

Abstract: A transmitting apparatus and method transmits different modulated signals from a plurality of antennas, and employs a configuration that includes a modulation section that obtains a modulated signal by performing signal point mapping of transmit bits using a signal point arrangement that is divided into a plurality of signal point sets on the IQ plane, whereby the minimum distance between signal points within a signal point set is smaller than the minimum signal point distance between signal point sets; and an antenna that transmits a modulated signal obtained by the modulation section. A signal point generating apparatus generates a first and second symbols to be transmitted by first and second antennas, respectively.

Abstract: The coding apparatus, coding processing target sequence forming method and Viterbi decoding apparatus of the present invention can realize low delay processing with a minimum number of repetitive processing and suppress the degradation of the accuracy of decoding at the ends of a decoded sequence due to truncation error. In the coding apparatus mounted on the transmitting apparatus (100), a control information rearranging section (130) receives as input a control information sequence, in which a plurality of control information blocks are arranged in a predetermined order, and forms a coding processing target sequence by rearranging the order of the plurality of control information blocks to form an assembled sequence grouping control information blocks comprised of predictable bit sequences in the plurality of control information blocks, and to allocate the assembled sequence to a predetermined position in the control information sequence.

Abstract: Provided are a wireless communication base station device and a wireless communication method by which overhead is reduced in MBMS of LTE. An MBMS SIB creating section (106) creates an MCCH as an MBMS SIB of notification information, and an MBMS SB creating section (104) creates an MBMS SB, including scheduling information of the MBMS SIB. An MIB creating section (103) creates an MIB, including scheduling information of the MBMS SB, and a transmitting section (107) transmits the created MBMS SIB, MBMS SB AND MIB to a terminal by following the scheduling made by a scheduling section (101).

Abstract: Disclosed are surfactant compounds and compositions that are antimicrobial. Also provided are polymeric compositions incorporating the surfactant compounds. The polymeric compositions may be used to form antibacterial coatings on surfaces.

Abstract: A technology is disclosed for achieving fast and reliable handover. According to this technology, in the network composition where a network coverage area of the cellular base station 105 and network coverage areas of plural WLAN AP (Wireless LAN access point) 110, 115, 120 and 130 overlaps, the roaming mobile node (mobile terminal) 100 stores the listened beacon information from each WLAN AP. The mobile node can promptly perform the handover procedures without waiting for listening to the next beacon by acquiring the beacon information of WLAN AP which is a handover target from the stored information at the instant of determining to do handover to a new WLAN AP. Furthermore, the mobile node can store information on stability of the network connection if it would be connected to each WLAN AP, and determine which WLAN AP is suitable for a handover target by considering the stability.

Abstract: A system and method for installing wireless broadband service at a customer location. A temporary connection between a customer modem and internet service provider network is established such that final configuration of the customer modem can be completed remotely, thus eliminating the need for highly skilled installers. Further, the system and method of the present invention precludes the completion of the installation process in the event that the signal falls outside of the acceptable range.

Abstract: In order to improve reception performance, while reducing the arithmetic amount of a receiver apparatus in a multi-carrier CDMA system, different weightings are performed for the respective spread codes (chips) included in subcarriers in addition to performing weightings for the respective subcarriers.

Abstract: The invention relates to methods for transmitting and receiving a data bit stream in a communication system using 16-QAM constellations. Further, an apparatus for performing the methods is provided. To improve the bit-error rate performance of the communication using the 16-QAM constellations the invention suggests the use 16-QAM constellations with specially selected mapping rules together with a special constellation rearrangement for creating different versions of the 16-QAM constellations. Further, the data stream is transmitted according to a diversity scheme employing different versions of the 16-QAM constellations obtained adhering the mapping rules and rearrangement rules defined by the invention.

Abstract: There is disclosed a scalable encoding device capable of increasing the conversion performance from a narrow-band LSP to a wide-band LSP (prediction accuracy when predicting the wide-band LSP from the narrow-band LSP) and realizing a high-performance band scalable LSP encoding. The device includes a conversion coefficient calculation unit (109) for calculating a conversion coefficient by using a narrow-band quantization LSP which has been outputted from a narrow-band LSP encoding unit (103) and a wide-band quantization LSP which has been outputted from a wide-band LSP encoding unit (107). The wide-band LSP encoding unit (107) multiplies the narrow-band quantization LSP with the conversion coefficient inputted from the conversion coefficient calculation unit (109) so as to convert it into a wide-band LSP. The wide-band LSP is multiplied by a weight coefficient to calculate a prediction wide-band LSP.

Abstract: Modulated signal A is transmitted from a first antenna, and modulated signal B is transmitted from a second antenna. As modulated signal B, modulated symbols S2(i) and S2(i+1) obtained from different data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. In contrast, as modulated signal A, modulated symbols S1(i) and S1(i)? obtained by changing the signal point arrangement of the same data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. As a result the reception quality can be changed intentionally at time i and time i+1, and therefore using the demodulation result of modulated signal A of a time when the reception quality is good enables both modulated signals A and B to be demodulated with good error rate performances.

Abstract: A method for spraying a food product is disclosed herein. The method includes the step of disposing a first sprayer along an axis defining, at least in part, a path of movement for a food product. The method also includes the step of disposing a second sprayer along the axis axially and radially spaced from the first sprayer. The method also includes the step of directly communicating with the first and second sprayers disposed along the axis with a cavity operable to receive edible ink such that the first and second sprayers concurrently spray the edible ink to the axis.