Abstract: A friction element is made out of a composite material comprising carbon fiber reinforcement and a matrix which, at least in the vicinity of the or each friction face, comprises: a first phase in the vicinity of the reinforcing fibers and containing pyrolytic carbon obtained by chemical vapor infiltration; a refractory second phase of carbon or ceramic obtained at least in part by pyrolysis of a liquid precursor; and a silicon carbide phase obtained by siliciding, for example. At least in the vicinity of the or each friction face, the composite material is preferably constituted, by volume, at least as follows: 15% to 35% carbon fibers; 10% to 55% first matrix phase containing pyrolytic carbon; 2% to 30% second matrix phase of refractory material; and 10% to 35% silicon carbide. The invention is applicable in particular to braking for rail or road vehicles.

Abstract: An electrical interconnect includes a woven mesh in which an array of parallel wires is retained in spaced relation by a transverse array of nonconducting strands, the mesh being enclosed or encased within a resilient matrix. The conductive wires are on a close pitch to yield greater current carrying capacity and achieve a lower more stable resistance. With this construction a great number of wires are in contact with each contact pad to yield greater current carrying capacity and corresponding lower resistance. The closer pitch wires also provide greater redundancy of contact points. This structure can be custom configured in as many layers or in a variety of shapes as is desirable to achieve a given electrical performance. The woven mesh can be wrapped around a shaped substrate to provide electrical connections in a desired shape.

Abstract: A system for providing a double compare and swap operation is disclosed. In the disclosed system, a first single compare and swap operation is performed. If a contents of a first variable is equal to an old value for the first variable, then the first compare and swap operation writes a value to the first variable indicating that the variable is not accessible and indicates success. A second single compare and swap operation is executed in the event that the first single compare and swap operation indicates success. If a contents of a second variable is equal to an old value for the second variable, then the second single compare and swap operation writes a new value for the second variable into the second variable and indicates success. If the second single compare and swap operation indicates success, a new value for the first variable is written to the first variable.

Abstract: An air conditioning system comprises a heat source side machine, a plurality of user side machines more than half of which are disposed below the heat source side machine, and liquid phase and gas phase pipes connecting the heat source side machine with the user side machines to form a closed circuit. A phase-changeable fluid included in the closed circuit circulates by utilizing its own specific gravity difference between the liquid and gas phases, so that each of the user side machines can perform cooling and heating operations. The liquid phase pipe and the gas phase pipe can communicate with each other via a gas bypass circuit and/or a liquid bypass circuit including a open-close valve and liquid level detection means, so that bubbles or condensed liquid generated in the closed circuit can be exhausted quickly.

Abstract: A cutting apparatus having a chuck table for holding a workpiece and cutting means for cutting the workpiece held by the chuck table. The cutting means includes a spindle unit, a blade to be attached to a rotating spindle of the spindle unit, a cutting-water supplying nozzle for supplying cutting water to the blade and the workpiece, and an air-blowing nozzle provided adjacent to the blade, for supplying air to a peripheral portion of the blade. The cutting-water supplying nozzle and the air-blowing nozzle are provided on a blade cover for covering the blade. Air-blowing piping for feeding air to the air-blowing nozzle is arranged within the spindle unit. Air forced through the air-blowing piping is fed into the air-blowing nozzle, and is blown against the cutting edge of the blade, eliminating cutting water clinging to the cutting edge to carry out setup for adjusting the blade surely and precisely.

Abstract: A software development tool permits capture, modification and recording of transactional messages that are transmitted between a client and a server in a computer network. A proxy is employed to capture messages such as requests and responses that are in transit between the client and the server. The captured requests and responses can be displayed and modified before being retransmitted via the proxy. Further, transaction records can be selectively provided to at least one software application for analysis.

Abstract: A method of performing analysis of samples having turbidity and/or high absorbance is disclosed. The analysis utilizes information from multiple factors, which affect transmittance or absorbance. These factors include: absorbance as measured in a non-turbid sample, scattering losses due to particles and limitations of the measurement device as measured in a non-absorbing sample, additional scattering losses due to sample absorbance, variable path length effects due to the sample, variable path length effects due to the measurement device, and additional nonlinear effects. By taking into account additional factors that affect transmittance or absorbance, a more accurate analysis is achieved.

Abstract: The method serves to place a space vehicle, such as a satellite, on a target orbit such as the orbit adapted to normal operation of the space vehicle and starting from an elliptical initial orbit that is significantly different from, and in particular more eccentric than the target orbit.

Abstract: A dry-cleaning process for cleaning articles disposed in a cleaning chamber having jet inflow ports, using carbon dioxide (CO2) from first and second storage tanks, the process including the steps of compressing gaseous CO2 into the first storage tank to cause a positive pressure differential between the first storage tank and the cleaning chamber, filling the cleaning chamber with liquid carbon dioxide by enabling CO2 flow from the first storage tank to the cleaning chamber in response to the positive pressure differential, alternately compressing gaseous CO2 into the first or second storage tanks to cause a pressure differential between the first and second storage tanks, and flowing liquid CO2 between the first and second storage tanks, via the jet ports and through the cleaning chamber, in response to the pressure differential between the first and second storage tanks, to provide jet agitation in the cleaning chamber and a periodically continuous flow of liquid CO2 through the cleaning chamber.

Abstract: The present invention relates to thick film coating compositions which adhere particularly well to silicon nitride substrates and accordingly may be used in the manufacture of heater apparatus using such substrates. Such thick film coating materials comprise a borosilicate glass matrix containing an amount of a metal oxide sufficient to enable said thick film coating material to react with a silicon nitride substrate to promote adherence thereto; and desirably further contains ceramic powders and/or metal or metal-containing compound powders and/or flakes.

Abstract: A regenerative circuit structure is built up by implementing the following steps in particular: an intermediate layer is made on a support core representing the inner profile of the structure; a series of channels regularly distributed around the core is made with the channels opening to face the intermediate layer, each of the channels being provided with a soluble insert; the support core is preheated and the body of the structure is made by thermal spraying under a vacuum; channels are machined in the body from the outside, and said channels are filled by means of soluble inserts; a closure layer is formed to close the channels in the body, and an outer envelope is formed by thermal spraying under a vacuum, after preheating; and all of the soluble inserts and the intermediate layer are eliminated.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a device permitting the utilization of a remote procedure call of open systems employing the socket process in a proprietary application, utilizing primitives which do not exist in the proprietary system and running on a computer system which makes use of an open subsystem utilizing the socket, comprising: means for communicating between the proprietary application and an application of the open subsystem; means for coding the primitives of the proprietary application into a special format and storage of the primitives; means for launching an application under the open system (UNIX) to decode and execute the function called by the primitive and to return the result; means for decoding the result; means for ensuring the synchronization of the accesses to the shared memory.

Abstract: A software development tool utilizes an intermediate object modeling language. The structure of the desired program is first described graphically by generating rule diagrams, state diagrams, and object diagrams such as user interface diagrams, event diagrams and other object diagrams. The development tool employs the diagrams to generate a working model of the program expressed in the object modeling language. The working model of the program can be executed without lengthy compiling, and hence program behavior can be quickly observed and tested. Further, the behavior of the working model can be quickly and easily changed by modifying the diagrams until the desired result is achieved. Source code is then generated from the object modeling language and compiled to create the final program.

Abstract: The invention provides a catalyst; a method for making the catalyst and a method for using the catalyst to promote the selective oxidation of hydrogen sulfide into elemental sulfur. The catalyst may be prepared by contacting a catalyst support, such as silica, with a solution containing ammonium metal salts, such as ammonium iron citrate and ammonium zinc citrate, and an amount of chloride (e.g., ammonium chloride) that is between about 0.1 and about 20 weight percent of the metal ions in the solution, to produce a support material impregnated with ammonium metal citrate salts and ammonium chloride. This impregnated catalyst support is then dried and calcined to produce a catalyst, such as iron and zinc oxide mixture supported on silica. It has been found that by adding chloride to the impregnated catalyst support prior to calcination and drying, that the sintering of the metal oxides can be controlled and the formation of a mixed metal oxide is promoted.

Abstract: The tank is made up of a plurality of elementary tanks such as tubes (20) connected in parallel to at least one manifold device (30, 32), and it includes closure valves enabling any one of the elementary tanks to be isolated in response to a drop in the pressure contained therein.

Abstract: A constant phase crossbar switch system which avoids phase discontinuities at the outputs of the crossbar switch. The crossbar switch system includes input logic, a crossbar switch, output logic and a phase locked loop. The phase locked loop is used to generate a high speed internal clock from a system clock. High speed serial data streams transmitted at the internal clock frequency are received from corresponding transmitters and are coupled to the input logic. The input logic generates multiple versions of each serial data stream, one of the versions being undelayed and the other versions delayed by some fraction of a bit time. State machines are employed to selects the version of the serial data stream which results in the data stream data window being generally centered with respect to the high speed internal clock. The selected version of the data stream is employed as the active input to the crossbar switch.

Abstract: The deployable diverging part comprises a first portion (20) having an upstream end connected to the end wall (14) of the thruster, a ring-shaped second portion (22) that is movable between a retracted position and a deployed position in which it connects to the downstream end of the first portion (20) to extend it, and a deployment mechanism comprising a plurality of hinged arms (30). Means (50, 52) are provided in distributed manner at the periphery of the downstream end of the first portion and at the periphery of the upstream end of the ring to enable the ring (22) to be locked onto the downstream end of the first portion (20) when the ring is in its deployed position, and the deployment mechanism comprises at least four arms (30) co-operating with the ring (22) to form a hyperstatic assembly so that the ring can be displaced without significant deformation so as to be brought into the desired position to lock automatically and completely on the first portion (20) when it is deployed.

Abstract: An elongate supporting element has a cross section with a web (9) and two side flanges (10, 11) for the supporting of building panels or the like. The web (9) has an elongate, stress-equalising zone (4) which extends wholly or partly between the two outer ends (8a, 8b) of the supporting element and by means of which the supporting element (8) is reinforced.