Abstract: Objects that are managed within a run-time environment are stored on N-bit aligned addresses. Due to the alignment restriction, the N least significant bits of a reference to an object are available for storing information about the storage properties of the object. This information is extractable by fast register operations. The storage properties can include the lifetime, format, and contiguity of the object, or a combination of these properties. If the run-time environment implements a generational garbage collector, the reference tags are used to encode whether or not the object is recently allocated.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for allowing access to one or more previously generated rows of data. A server receives a statement that requires delivery of one or more rows of data to a client, and designates a particular row of data as a current row within a generation sequence. As the rows of data are being delivered to the client, the server accesses select previously generated rows of data that has already been delivered to the client without designating a new particular row of data as the current row. Once the previously generated row is accessed, data is retrieved from predetermined columns. The data retrieved may be used to perform various calculations that will insert values into the current row prior to delivery of the current row to the client. The statement transmitted by the client may include various parameters, including a default parameter, that specifies a default value to be used by the server.

Abstract: A zipper including two stringers, each stringer having a row of coupling elements having a plurality of coupling element spacings, and at least one stringer having a plurality of coupling element widths.

Abstract: A compact lubricant reservoir for a bearing housing is provided whereby visual inspection of the reservoir indicates the level of lubricant reserve.

Abstract: A query containing an outer join of a view based on a join of two tables is transformed by pushing one or more predicates of the outer join into the view. The pushed predicates provide new access paths and join methods that are used by a database server in generating an access plan to evaluate the view. In one embodiment, costs for processing the original and transformed queries are estimated and the lower cost query is processed.

Abstract: In a paged memory system, memory is allocated as pages and aligned on 2N-byte boundaries that are at least as large as the largest page size. Memory management information about the page is stored in a page header at the beginning of the page, while the remaining space of the page is devoted for storing objects. The page header for the page on which at least some of the object is stored is located by masking off the lower N-bits of the machine pointer. These operation can be applied to converting machine pointers into and out of page-offset numeric references.

Abstract: The main rotor of a helicopter is driven by an epicyclic gearbox comprising a rotor sun gear coaxial and co-rotational with the rotor, a stationary sun gear coaxial with the rotor sun gear, at least one planet having an axis parallel to and rotating about the sun gear axis, and making contact with both sun gears. The planet comprises first and second planetary coaxial gears mechanically constrained to rotate together. The first planetary gear is in meshing engagement with the stationary sun gear and the second planetary gear is in meshing engagement with the rotor sun gear. The first planetary gear is also in meshing engagement with the internal teeth of a first ring gear and the second planetary gear is also in meshing engagement with the internal teeth of a second ring gear. The first and second ring gears are separately driven, and torque is combined by the planets.

Abstract: A fast division technique is provided to calculate the address of a slot in a paged object, when the slot is located on a different page than the beginning of the object. The fast division technique employs arithmetical-logical operations of shifting and masking, that are faster than most hardware implementations of integer division and modulus, respectively. In one aspect, the use of these operations is facilitated by requiring the page size and the size of the page header to be a power of two.

Abstract: Multiple initial orderings of tables are used a multiple starting point in a cost-base, cut-off search for a good ordering of tables in processing a database query that specifies multiple join operations. Multiple heuristics may be used to generate the multiple initial orderings of the tables. The database query is executed with the good ordering of tables.

Abstract: An index is built upon on one more columns of a database table. In order to retrieve values from the database table, a block-order scan is performed on the index by sequentially reading one or more units of contiguous blocks of the index. For a B-tree index, branch nodes in the blocks are ignored, but column values from within leaf nodes are retrieved. The column whose values are read can be determined from processing a query that references the column. The index can be partitioned so that the block-order index can be performed on only some of the index. Moreover, the block-order index scan is suitable for a table organized as an index.

Abstract: Queries having a outer query block enclosing an inner query block, such as a reference to a view or a subquery, with a grouping operator, such as GROUP or DISTINCT, are transformed by merging the inner query block into the outer query block. The FROM clause of the transformed query includes the tables referenced in the FROM clauses of the outer query block and the inner query block. A new GROUP BY clause is created for the outer query block that contains the rowids of tables referenced in the FROM list of the original query and the expressions in the GROUP BY clause of the inner query block. The outer query block can be split if the outer query block also contains a GROUP BY or HAVING clause.

Abstract: Concurrency control for maintenance of materialized view defined as a join on a plurality of base tables is provided by obtaining different types of locks. The base table being updated is locked with one type of lock, and the other base tables of the materialized view is locked with a different type of lock. These lock types are defined so that another process attempting to update another base table simultaneously is blocked until the update on the base table is committed. On the other hand, another process attempting to update the same base table is allowed to perform that update concurrently.

Abstract: The various embodiments of the invention are directed to a golf club head having an adjustable loft, wherein the loft angle is hydrodynamically locked during impact of the club head with the ball.

Abstract: A method and computer-readable medium for managing memory for complex objects returned from procedure calls are described. Memory for complex objects returned from procedure calls is allotted from memory pools, which are allocated on a “per-call” basis for complex objects. Complex objects allotted from different memory pools can have overlapping lifetimes. The memory used by the complex object is straightforwardly released by deallocating the memory pool. In one aspect, the memory management of complex objects is located in the called procedures, which may be an automatically generated client stub routine for a remote procedure call.