Abstract: An apparatus for warming a person includes an inflatable cover having two inlet ports and a plug removably received in one of the ports. With the plug received in the one port, the cover can be inflated by way of the port without the plug.

Abstract: In a two-cycle, opposed-piston internal combustion engine, opposed pistons disposed in a cylinder are coupled to a pair of side-mounted crankshafts by connecting rods that are subject to substantially tensile forces acting between the pistons and the crankshafts. This geometry reduces or eliminates side forces between the pistons and the bore of the cylinder. The cylinder and the pistons are independently cooled to reduce cylindrical deformation caused by thermal expansion during engine operation.

Abstract: In a two-stroke, opposed-piston internal combustion engine with optimized cooling and no engine block, the opposed pistons are coupled to a pair of crankshafts by connecting rods that are subject to substantially tensile forces acting between the pistons and the crankshafts.

Abstract: A thermal blanket for warming the limbs includes a surface, an inactive region of the surface adapted to lie against the thoracic and/or abdominal area of a person extending at least from the thighs to the abdomen of the person, active regions of the surface adapted to circulate pressurized air to limbs of the person, and an inflatable pneumatic structure adapted to distribute pressurized air to the active regions. When warmed, pressurized air is introduced into the pneumatic structure, prewarming and/or comfort warming is provided.

Abstract: A tissue treatment device suitable for use on an extremity or a portion of an extremity, such as a hand or foot, includes a cover formed as a bag, sac, or pouch, and a flexible, absorbent support member. Defined sections of the support member may be removed from the support member to form an opening therein. The support member is for being positioned within the cover to support a portion of the cover off of, and out of contact with, tissue to be treated. The cover has an open end with attachment means disposed thereon for attachment to the extremity or extremity portion that is received in the cover. The support member may be impregnated with a medicament. The removable sections allow formation of an opening that may be customized or adapted to the area of tissue that is to receive treatment. This permits the tissue treatment device to be adapted for use with treatment areas that vary in size, shape, contour, and composition.

Abstract: A clinical garment having a lower hem and sleeves includes permeable surfaces inside near peripheral portions, a duct in communication with the permeable surfaces, and at least one inlet port opening into the duct. When worn by a patient, the permeable surfaces are positioned adjacent the patient's limbs. Warmed pressurized air may be introduced into the duct and conducted to the permeable surfaces. The warmed pressurized air circulates through the permeable surfaces to warm the adjacent limbs.

Abstract: Systems and methods for transporting client data received at a first rate over an interconnect at a second, higher rate, wherein the client data is combined with dummy data according to a pattern that minimizes the amount of buffer space required to store the received client data. In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving client data at the first rate, buffering the client data, retrieving the client data, combining the client data with dummy data according to the pattern, and transmitting the combined data at the second rate. The pattern comprises K blocks, of which a first number contain P w-bytes of client data, and of which the remainder contain P+1 w-bytes of client data. The remainder of the space in the blocks is stuffed with dummy data. The pattern may also include a residual slot that contains one or more bytes of client data.

Abstract: A self-servowriting (SSW) method that, with the actuator fully engaged against a compliant structure (e.g., a crashstop), first writes a tightly-spaced open-loop sequence of servo bursts in a segmented spiral path and then continues writing this tightly-spaced sequence under closed-loop servo control while reading back amplitude information from the servo bursts written earlier until the tightly-spaced burst pattern extends over several read-write head (RWH) offset intervals. With the actuator still engaged against the compliant structure, this tightly-spaced startup sequence is then read back by the closed servo control loop to write a number of concentric servo seed tracks, which are then self-propagated across the remainder of the disk surface to produce a final servopattern.

Abstract: A fluid warming cassette for use in a fluid warming system includes a first sheet, a second sheet and a flexible spacer having a serpentine opening. At least one of the first and second sheets is a flexible plastic sheet. The spacer is positioned between the first and second sheets and the first and second sheets are joined together over the spacer to form a fluid container having a fluid channel. The fluid container includes a fluid channel with inlet and outlet ports in fluid communication with the fluid channel. The fluid warming cassette is capable of operating under negative pressure without collapse of the fluid channel in the cassette.

Abstract: Bit and byte synchronization for sampling and decoding a data string is provided a single data field u. The data string x has pre-pended to it a short string of 1s (ones), followed by u to yield a string y= . . . 1111, u, x. The string is pre-coded by convolution with 1/(1?D2). PRML-sampling of y starts at an initial phase, and vectors are obtained from that string by sampling at pre-selected phases following the initial sampling point. The vectors of y are compared with vectors corresponding to PRML samples of an initial set of bits in u obtained at predetermined phases. The pair of y, u vectors exhibiting the minimum Euclidian distance yields a sampling correction value by which the initial sampling phase is corrected and a new initial sampling point preceding x is determined. Here, bit and byte synchronization have been achieved and sampling of x proceeds at the corrected phase, from the new initial sampling point.

Abstract: A warming device includes a clinical garment having an inside surface supporting a convective apparatus with interleaved, separately inflatable sections, each adapted to enable a particular mode of warming.

Abstract: A two-cycle, opposed piston engine with side-mounted crankshafts and cylinders isolated from mechanical stresses of the engine includes tailored cooling of cylinders and symmetrical cooling of the interior surfaces of piston crowns. Each opposed piston includes a compliant member that permits movement of an axially-centered rod mounted in the piston in order to maintain axial alignment with the bore of a cylinder in which the piston is disposed during engine operation. A single wristpin is disposed externally of the piston to connect the piston with connecting rods that run between the piston and the crankshafts.

Abstract: A data communication system includes a rotating deinterleaver that reformats incoming data frames into a plurality of data subframes. The data contained in the incoming data frames is deinterleaved according to a protocol that distributes frame alignment signals periodically within the individual data subframes. The distribution of the frame alignment signals in the data subframes facilitates subframe alignment and subsequent recreation of the data frames from the data contained in the data subframes.

Abstract: In a transmission line, nonlinear impairments resulting from imperfect splices are mitigated by providing a bias current that shifts the operating points of these impairments resulting in improved stability, conductivity and linearity.

Abstract: In a convective system that includes a blower to thermally treat and pressurize air, a convective device to receive and convect the thermally-treated pressurized air, and an air hose to conduct a flow of thermally-treated pressurized air from the blower to an inlet port in the convective device, an interface device is provided to control the flow of air at the interface where the inlet port and an end of the air hose operate to conduct the flow of air out of the air hose into the convective device. The interface device is received at the end of the air hose and operates to support the flow of air out of the end when the end and the inlet port are brought together. The interface device operates to stop, inhibit, or restrict the flow of air out of the end when the end and the inlet port are separated.

Abstract: A fuel injection system for an internal combustion engine includes a common rail, a plurality of accumulator injectors, and at least one accumulator controller separate from the accumulator injectors and connected to the common rail. Each accumulator controller includes a solenoid-controlled valve to control the fuel injection operations of one or more accumulator injectors.

Abstract: A high speed flexible interconnect cable includes a number of conductive layers and a number of dielectric layers. Conductive signal traces, located on the conductive layers, combine with the dielectric layers to form one or more high speed electrical transmission line structures. The transmission line structure may be realized as a grounded coplanar waveguide structure. The cable can be coupled to destination components using a variety of connection techniques. The cable can also be terminated with any number of known or standardized connector packages.

Abstract: Automatic protection switching is implemented by channel devices in a data communication system node. Each channel devices includes input and output ports, a data receive port, a data send port, and a signal routing arrangement controlled by a processor element. The signal routing arrangement routes data between the channel devices such that, in the event of a channel failure, one channel device functions as a protection channel device. In a normal operating mode, each channel device routes data from its data receive port to its data send port, and routes data from its input port to its output port. In a protection mode, the protection channel device (and the protected channel device) routes data from its data receive port to its output port, and routes data from its input port to its data send port, while the remaining working channel devices function in the normal operating mode.

Abstract: A fluid warming cassette useful in a system for warming parenteral fluids is provided. The cassette comprises a thermally conductive, flexible fluid container with a fluid channel. Rails are disposed in the fluid container near its periphery, and a stiffener is disposed in the fluid container, between the rails, near an end of the cassette. Together, the rails and stiffener impart structural rigidity to the fluid container. The fluid container, rails and stiffener are joined into an integrated structure useful as a fluid warming cassette. One or more of the rails has a multilateral shape to key the cassette for insertion into a fluid warming unit.

Abstract: A host device in a data communication system provides a dual-function clock/enable signal at a single output port shared by at least one asynchronous target device and at least one synchronous target device. In the asynchronous operating mode, the host device generates an asynchronous gated-clock signal that facilitates read/write functions of one or more selected asynchronous target devices. In the synchronous operating mode, the host device generates a synchronous clock-gate signal that facilitates read/write functions of one or more selected synchronous target devices. The target devices and the host device share both a common data bus and a common clock bus. The host device supplies the dual-function clock/enable signal on the common clock bus.