Abstract: An impactor apparatus and method for assembling modular orthopedic prosthesis parts includes a base member that can be for example an instrument from a tray or an instrument tray lid. The base member defines a plane and provides a plurality of components extending away from the plane. The tray components include a pair of spaced apart supports. An impactor tool can be removably supported upon the supports in a fixed position relative to the base member, preferably generally parallel thereto. The components include an impact driver tool actuator that pivotally attaches to the base member. A pair of prosthesis parts or components are connectable at a taper lock connection defined by respective tapered annular portions of the prosthesis parts. The components and impact driver tool support the prosthesis parts adjacent the base and axial alignment with the impact driver tool, the prosthesis parts being generally positioned in between the pair of spaced apart supports.

Abstract: A vehicular apparatus which is adapted for removing fluids including snow and/or ice and de-icing or anti-icing liquids from a surface as the apparatus traverses the surface. The apparatus comprises: a first container for receiving a first portion of the fluids removed from a zone of the surface; apparatus for collecting and transferring the first portion of the fluids from the zone to the first container; a second container for collecting residual fluids remaining on the zone of the surface after the first portion is removed; a tank for containing water and a diaphragm pump for pumping water from the tank through nozzles at high pressure on the zone of the surface to loosen the residual fluids or make them airborne; and an air sweep connected in fluid communication with the second container for drawing or sweeping the loosened residual fluids and water into the second container concurrently with impinging high pressure water on the surface.

Abstract: A convertible folding gooseneck trailer hitch apparatus for towing a conventional A-frame trailer behind a vehicle, the apparatus including a gooseneck assembly having a forward vertical member and an aft vertical member connected by a horizontal member, the forward vertical member rigidly affixing at one end to the horizontal member and connecting to a fifth-wheel towing base platform at the other end, and the aft vertical member pivotally connecting to the horizontal member. A mounting plate assembly rigidly attached to the aft vertical member, the mounting plate assembly having a conventional hitch ball attached thereon. A plurality of adjustable anti-sway braces, each with a fore and aft end, the aft end connecting to the trailer A-frame and the fore end connecting to the aft vertical member of the gooseneck.

Abstract: A downhole oil well pulling and running tool provides a releasable tool body that can be used to release a workstring such as a coiled tubing string from a tool assembly and to reattach if desired. To reestablish circulations (the ability to pump fluid down the workstring and up the annulus of the well) after detachment by increasing the pressure across a seated ball to a predetermined pressure that forces the ball through the seat into a ball cage. The cage is sized and shaped to carry a plurality of the ball valving members so that the unlatching and relatching procedure may be repeated as many times as desired until the ball cage is filled. Also providing a delay or timing system that will allow debris to pass thru the tool without a release.

Abstract: An elevating unit for a jack-up rig provides a pinion gear that rotates upon a support frame for engaging a toothed rack of each leg of the jack-up rig. Each pinion gear is mounted on a gear shaft that extends in opposite directions from a plane of rotation of the gear. First and second roller bearings are mounted upon the frame for supporting the pinion gear at first and second pinion gear shaft end portions. On one shaft end portion, a planetary gear box engages the shaft, the gear box being motor driven. On the opposite side of the shaft end portion a brake hub is attached to the pinion gear shaft and carries a brake drum. A brake band extends about the drum, the band being operable to frictionally engage the brake drum to retard movement of the drum, hub and pinion gear shaft relative to the frame.

Abstract: Circuitry for tristating the address and data outputs of a processor to prevent a deadlock condition when the processor and another bus master is accessing a shared resource. The processor is located on a local bus and the other bus master is located on a PCI bus. Bi-directional tristate buffers are placed between the address and data output pins of the processor and the address and data portions of the first bus. If the processor is requesting a local-bus-to-PCI-bus cycle, and the PCI bus master is asserting a request for a local bus shared resource, the processor address and data output pins are tristated by the tristate buffers to allow the PCI bus master cycle to proceed. After the PCI bus master cycle completes, the tristate buffers are reenabled to allow the processor cycle to complete.

Abstract: A nonabsorbent holding member adapted for use within an abdominal cavity of a patient defined by an anterior wall, a posterior wall and two lateral walls to keep the patient's bowels out of the operative field during open pelvic surgery. The holding member has a peripheral edge formed of a resiliently deformable material sized to be received within the abdominal cavity. The resilient deformation of at least a portion of the peripheral edge of the holding member results in a residual reactive force against the abdominal cavity to assist in positioning the holding member in the abdominal cavity.

Abstract: A power management circuit for managing low power modes in a computer system, which implements four power modes, from highest power consumption to lowest power consumption: RUN mode, SLEEP mode, IDLE mode, and STANDBY mode. The computer system includes a PCI bus and an ISA bus, with a CPU-PCI bridge to connect the host bus and the PCI bus and a PCI-ISA bridge to connect the PCI bus and the ISA bus. The power management circuit transitions from SLEEP mode to IDLE mode by first determining if the CPU-PCI bridge is parked on the PCI bus and if it is in SLEEP mode. The power management circuit then waits for one refresh period and for all internal queues to empty before checking again to determine if the CPU-PCI bridge is still parked on the PCI bus and if it is still in SLEEP mode. If true, the CPU-PCI bridge transitions to IDLE mode. The power management circuit also performs low power refresh cycles when it is in IDLE or STANDBY mode.

Abstract: A hybrid heater vaporization system (280, 380) including hybrid heaters (250, 350) can be used to vaporize liquid oxygen as it enters a motor (200, 300) to improve the combustion characteristics of a hybrid rocket (11). The motor (200, 300) preferably includes hybrid fuel both in a substantially cylindrical portion (216, 316) in the substantially cylindrical portion of the motor and a substantially multi-toroidal shaped portion (217, 316) in the forward end of the motor (200, 300). The vaporization system (280, 380) of the present invention finally makes hybrid rockets (11) practical for aerospace applications.

Abstract: A stand-mounted game feeder apparatus for dispensing feed. The game feeder apparatus including a container or drum for storing feed. The container has a bottom panel with a center opening through the bottom panel. A support assembly for supporting the container includes a vertical tube which extends through the center opening. A plurality of legs are connected to a lower portion of the vertical tube. A winch having a rotatable spool is attached to the support assembly. A cable has a first end attached to the rotatable spool and a second end attached to the container. A first pulley is rotatably connected to the lower portion of the tube and a second pulley is rotatably connected to the upper portion of the tube. The cable is guided by the first and second pulleys to the container and the container is raised and lowered along the post via the winch and cable.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for cleaning the inner wall of a pipeline, which includes providing a pig component, of the type having a pig body, a plurality of spacers around the pig body, the spacers making contact with an inner surface of the pipeline wall, a forward end of the pig having a plurality of pressure nozzles positioned thereon for allowing fluid under pressure to flow therefrom onto the inner wall of the pipeline; a bore through the pig body extending from an opening in a rear end of the pig, to the forward end of the pig; a valving member on the forward end of the pig for moving to the open position to allow the fluid to flow to the pressure nozzles when sufficient fluid pressure is placed on the valving member; providing a fluid under pressure, such as water or chemicals, to the rear and front of the pig, the fluid forcing the pig to move forward under pressure; encountering an obstruction, such as paraffin, formed along the inner wall of the pipeline fo such amount to hinder the forward movement

Abstract: A method of assembling a chair back onto a chair bottom by providing a back portion of material having first and second end portions insertable into the chair bottom, boring a hole longitudinally into the ends of the back members, providing a bore transverse to the longitudinal bore on each of the end portions of the chair back, inserting peg member into the transverse bore, the peg member further including a threaded bore which aligns with the longitudinal bore when the member is positioned therein, providing a bolt member insertable into the longitudinal bore from the underside of the chair bottom and threadably engaging the peg member inserted therein, and threadably tightening the bolt member so that as the bolt member is tightened the chair back end portions are fulled in engagement with the chair bottom.

Abstract: An arbiter which allows retried requests to have high priority in subsequent arbitrations by not changing priority on a granted, but aborted, access to the bus and yet prevents the aborted requestor from thrashing the bus by masking its bus request signal until the data is available. Further, should an access to main memory be retried, all bus requests except the one from the memory system are masked to provide the memory system the highest effective priority to allow any flushing operations to occur. The masking of the various bus requests allows the arbiter to control access to a PCI standard bus without requiring that specific signals be added. The arbiter further includes modified priority LRU techniques and provides a locking requestor with an additional, highest priority position if retried.

Abstract: In accordance with the invention, a computer system is provided with a processor, a flash ROM, a microcontroller and an arbiter for selectively assigning the ownership of the flash ROM to either the microprocessor or the microcontroller. The arbiter assigns the flash ROM initially to the microcontroller when it boots up. After checking the integrity of the flash ROM and updating the content of the flash ROM with valid software if necessary, the microcontroller releases the flash ROM to the microprocessor to enable the computer system to proceed with the normal boot-up process. In this process, various system self tests are performed. Next, the microprocessor shadows one or more portions of the flash ROM BIOS into a main memory array. After the processor successfully boots up, the processor releases the flash ROM back to the microcontroller by writing a command to a mailbox register in the arbiter which places the microcontroller in an idle mode and by restarting the clock generator of the microcontroller.

Abstract: An audio power management system for a computer to eliminate noise signals associated with the power-down and power-up operations of the computer during power management operations. The audio power management system asserts a speaker mute signal before power is removed from the amplifier to reduce transient conditions. During power up, the speaker mute signal is applied to the amplifier for a period after power is applied to the amplifier. This control is done from a single digital output.

Abstract: A cache memory system utilizing asynchronous/synchronous burst counter circuitry which lessens the need for expensive, high speed data SRAM to achieve zero wait-state operation. The burst counter circuitry takes advantage of the fact that a read address is present on the address bus approximately one-halfway through the initial bus cycle (T1) during a burst read. Unlike synchronous prior art burst counters, burst counter circuitry according to the invention is configured to forward the address to asynchronous address decoders as soon as it is present, rather than waiting for the next rising edge of the processor clock. For accesses to the first cache line, the timing budget therefore includes the first complete clock cycle of a burst read (T2) plus an extra half-clock cycle from T1. The extra time is utilized to retrieve data from the data SRAM core for provision to the processor data bus at the end of the bus cycle T2.

Abstract: Magnetostrictive powder composite and method for the manufacturing of the magnetostrictive powder composite. The composite comprises magnetostrictive powder grains with chemical composition (RE).sub.x T.sub.1-x, where RE represents one or a mixture of several rare earth metals, T represents iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese or a mixture of these metals and x represents atomic fraction assuming a value between 0 and 1, whereby the grains are held together by a binder. The magnetostrictive grains constitute greater than 60 percent by volume of the composite. The composite is produced by pressing together magnetostrictive powder grains and the binder. Isostatic pressure may be used in the pressing step.

Abstract: A decorative illuminating mobile apparatus includes a support member that has an engaging surface that fits a generally flat adjacent anchoring surface such as a ceiling, floor, wall or the like. A first swivel member extends away from the support member. A plurality of separately rotatable appendages are connection sequentially together by a series of addition swivel members that space each appendage a part from another adjacent appendage and away from the support member engaging surface. This arrangement stacks the rotatable appendages vertically so there is a highest appendage and a lowest appendage with a plurality of appendages therebetween for example. At least some of the appendages include a light source that is powered by electricity. An electrical supply is provided for illuminating each light source, the electrical supply including rotational light electrical supply connection at the swivels.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and method for shadowing data of a first register and a second register of a computer system that share a common address. When a bus agent runs a write operation to the register address, retry logic of a first bridge circuit retries the write operation and masks access by the bus agent to the bus. Retry bus master logic reruns the write operation, in response to which the second bridge circuit subtractively decodes the rerun write operation and transfers the data to the second register. The bus agent is then allowed to retry the initial write operation, in response to which the first bridge circuit positively decodes the retried write operation and transfers the data to the first register. Thus, coherency is preserved between the first and second registers.