Abstract: Disclosed is a method for preparing a magnetic microsphere for the separation of biological proteins. A magnetic microsphere matrix is treated by formulating and using an appropriate emulsified liquid, and modification of the surface of the magnetic microsphere matrix is realized by emulsion polymerization, thereby obtaining a magnetic microsphere coated with a polyacrylate polymer layer. Said emulsified liquid comprises the following components therein: acyclic acid monoester compounds, acyclic acid glycol compounds, initiators and optionally anionic surface active agents and water. The magnetic microsphere significantly reduces the non-specific adsorption of other proteins, without affecting the joining ability for a specific protein, when used in the separation of biological proteins. A new selection is provided to realize the separation engineering of high protein specificity adsorption.

Abstract: A tension applying member of an inkjet printer can apply tension on a printing medium by pushing a portion of the printing medium that is not wound by a winding mechanism by its own weight in a rotating direction indicated with an arrow having an axis line as a center; a transport controller causes a motor to generate a power for winding the printing medium when a predetermined tension is no longer applied on the printing medium by the tension applying member; and the winding mechanism limits a torque with a torque limiter and applies a predetermined tension on the printing medium when the motor is caused to generate the power for winding the printing medium when the predetermined tension is no longer applied on the printing medium by the tension applying member.

Abstract: An arc-ion-plated hard coating having a composition represented by (AlxTiyWz)aN(1-a-b)Ob, wherein x, y, z, a and b are numbers meeting by atomic ratio 0.6?x?0.8, 0.05?y?0.38, 0.02?z?0.2, x+y+z=1, 0.2?a?0.8, and 0.02?b?0.10), and having W—O bonds with substantially no Al—O bonds when identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and having only a NaCl-type structure in an X-ray diffraction pattern.

Abstract: Systems, methods and vehicles for generating cues to drivers of vehicles are disclosed. A system for generating a cue to a driver of a vehicle including at least one processor, at least one memory module communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, at least one stop (S) stored in the at least one memory module and at least one object sensor communicatively coupled to the at least one processor. When executed by the at least one processor, the machine readable instructions cause the cue generating system to detect a presence of an object in front of the vehicle, determine a cue position (Pcue) for generating a cue based on the detected presence of the object and the stop (S), and generate the cue to a driver of the vehicle based on the first position and the cue position (Pcue).

Abstract: A method for charging a modular multilevel converter includes: firstly, electrifying DC side of a converter; after voltages of submodules are stabilized, deblocking the converter, turning on all the submodules, then reducing the number of turned on submodules in phase unit; when over-current occurs on a bridge arm, temporarily increasing the number of turned on submodules to suppress the over-current; after the voltages of the sub-modules are stabilized, continuously reducing the number of the turned on submodules until the number of the turned on submodules in the phase unit is finally equal to the number of working submodules of the bridge arm, so as to smoothly transit to a normal operation state. The DC side is charged, such that the voltages of the submodules reach a working voltage before the converter normally operates, and an impacting current is avoided in the charging process by using a proper control strategy.

Abstract: A system for charging a capacitor used to power measurement-while-drilling equipment includes a power bus, which is electrically connected to the capacitor; a first pair of battery terminals; switching circuitry for electrically connecting the power bus to and disconnecting the power bus from the first pair of battery terminals; and a controller, for controlling the switching circuitry, which is configured to charge the capacitor by applying a first pulse width modulated control signal to control the switching circuitry. The first pulse width modulated control signal has a duty cycle selected such that the voltage of the first battery remains above a first minimum operating voltage while the capacitor is being charged.

Abstract: The method and apparatus segment parts from a main target image, represent each part as a vertex in a spanning tree, use a detector to generate a confidence map of a location of each part in a succeeding video frame and apply scale change to detector sliding windows centered about each pixel in the part location image. In the succeeding video frame, the target location is sampled and a tracking probability is generated for each part bounding box, with the tracking probability having the maximum value being selected as the location of the target in the succeeding video frame.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for sequential slurry hydroconversion of heavy oil feedstocks. One or more low pressure slurry hydroconversion stages can be used to perform a majority of the conversion of a heavy oil feedstock. The bottoms from the low pressure stages can then be slurry hydroconverted in one or more high pressure stages to further convert the feedstock.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides an ethylene cracking furnace, comprising at least one radiant section provided with a bottom burner and/or a side burner, and at least one set of radiant coil arranged along a longitudinal direction of the radiant section. The radiant coil is an at least two-pass coil having an N?1 structure, wherein N is preferably a natural number from 2 to 8. A manifold is arranged at an inlet end of a downstream tube of said at least two-pass coil, and an outlet end of each upstream tube of said at least two-pass coil is connected to the manifold through a curved connector. The arrangement according to the present disclosure can effectively reduce the expansion differences between the upstream tubes and the downstream tubes, and therefore reduce the stress caused thereby. Consequently, bending of the radiant coil can be avoided, thereby extending the service life of the radiant coil.

Abstract: A light assembly comprises an LED light source, a reflector, and an optical element assembly. The LED light source comprises a light emitting die and has an optical axis which extends from the light emitting die and perpendicular to a first plane. The reflector defines an optical cavity and has a reflective surface oriented to reflect light emitted by the light source incident to the reflective surface along a range of reflected angles. The optical element assembly comprises an optical element disposed in the path of the light emitted from the light source. The optical element is supported within the optical cavity by a connector arm, which has first and second ends. The first end is connected to the optical element and the second end supports the optical element assembly from behind the reflector.

Abstract: A combination air cannon and sonic horn for dislodging accumulated bulk material comprises an air cannon, a sonic horn, and a shared portion. The air cannon is configured to store pressurized gas and to periodically abruptly discharge the pressurized gas through a gas outlet. The sonic horn is configured to generate sound waves that that are emitted from the gas outlet. The outlet is formed on a nozzle having a unique configuration. The outlet can be oriented such that blasts of air from the air cannon pass over the accumulated bulk material and lift the bulk material into suspension via Bernoulli's law.

Abstract: A method of determining a timing of an occurrence of a signal includes: propagating the signal (such as an electrical signal) along a series of digital delay elements, or a delay line. Each delay element can have at least two states, each indicative of presence or absence of a signal. The distribution of states of at least a portion of the delay elements along the delay line are recorded multiple times during the time it takes a point (such as an edge) in the signal to propagate through the portion of the delay elements. The multiple recorded distributions are combined to determine the timing of occurrence of the signal to a greater resolution than the minimum system clock period and the minimum delay of each delay element.

Abstract: A system for powering an active grille shutter assembly comprising a linkage system connected to a shutter, a generator connected to the shutter, an energy storage device connected to the generator, an electric motor connected to and powered by the energy storage device, and connected to the linkage system, and a controller connected to the energy storage device and the electric motor. The position of the shutter is adjusted by the linkage system, the position of the linkage system is adjusted by the electric motor, the operation of the electric motor is controlled by the controller, the electric motor is powered by energy stored in the energy storage device, and the energy storage device receives energy from the operation of the generator.

Abstract: Improved yields of fuels and/or lubricants from a resid or other heavy oil feed can be achieved using slurry hydroconversion to convert at least about 90 wt % of the feed. The converted portion of the feed can then be passed into one or more hydroprocessing stages. An initial processing stage can be a hydrotreatment stage for additional removal of contaminants and for passivation of high activity functional groups that may be created during slurry hydroconversion. The hydrotreatment effluent can then be fractionated to separate naphtha boiling range fractions from distillate fuel boiling range fractions and lubricant boiling range fractions. At least the lubricant boiling range fraction can then be hydrocracked to improve the viscosity properties. The hydrocracking effluent can also be dewaxed to improve the cold flow properties. The hydrocracked and/or dewaxed product can then be optionally hydrofinished.

Abstract: A winding device includes a wire cutting mechanism for cutting the wire wound around the winding target member in the vicinity of the terminal, and a wire binding mechanism for winding, around the terminal, the end portion of the wire wound around the winding target member and cut by the wire cutting mechanism. The wire binding mechanism includes a cylindrical member through which the terminal is insertable, and a rotating mechanism for rotating the cylindrical member about the terminal. A protrusion is formed at a distal end of the cylindrical member so as to protrude in an axial direction of the cylindrical member.

Abstract: An air motor has a source of pressurized air, two air chambers, a pilot valve and a directional control valve. The spool of the directional control valve is of the unbalanced type and includes a piston surface in continuous communication with atmosphere through an exhaust port and a pressurized restricted port in alternating communication with the large end of the spool and the piston surface. The alternating communication of the source of pressurized air through the restricted port is restricted relative to the continuous communication of the piston surface with atmosphere. At the point of shift of the directional control valve, the piston surface is in communication with the source of pressurized air through the restricted port.

Abstract: A system and method for warning a third party about a temperature condition for a forgotten occupant based upon an estimated temperature. The system and method include retrieving a weather forecast for an area in which the vehicle is located and estimating a future temperature of the passenger compartment in response to determining that the drive system of the vehicle has been shut off and that the driver has exited the vehicle, the method determines whether an occupant remains in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The future temperature of the passenger compartment is a temperature of the passenger compartment of the vehicle after a lapse of a predetermined time period. In response to determining that the estimated future temperature is outside of the predetermined temperature range send a warning to the computing device.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed at a method and system for determining relative depth of an acoustic event within a wellbore. The method includes obtaining two acoustic signals at two different and known depths in the wellbore, in which each of the acoustic signals includes the acoustic event; dividing each of the acoustic signals into windows; determining cross-correlations of pairs of the windows, in which each of the pairs includes one window from one of the acoustic signals and another window from the other of the acoustic signals that at least partially overlap each other in time; and determining the relative depth of the acoustic event relative to the two known depths from the cross-correlations. The acoustic event may represent, for example, fluid flowing from formation into the wellbore (or vice-versa) or fluid flowing across any casing or tubing located within the wellbore.

Abstract: A computer system may seek to identify at least one contraction metric that satisfies contraction conditions for a design of a dynamical system. The computer system may do so by formulating a search for a candidate contraction metric that is suspected of satisfying the contraction conditions for the design of the dynamical system from a set of simulation traces that describe the behavior of the dynamical system for a specific set of operating conditions. The search for the candidate contraction metric may then be performed. The computer system may seek to verify that a candidate contraction metric for a design of a dynamical system satisfies contraction conditions by performing a process that uses solvers based on decision procedures.

Abstract: A fishing reel having a line type marker. The fishing reel includes a frame, a spool fitted on the frame, and a handle fitted on a side of the frame to turn the spool, and further includes a line type marker including: a rotary member coupled to a mounting portion, which is provided at some or all of the frame, the spool, and the handle; a scale indication section on the rotary member; and a scale section around the rotary member.