Abstract: A Ti—Si—C—N coating for a piston ring and a method forming such coating, wherein the deposited coating exhibits a thickness in the range of 10.0 micrometers to 20.0 micrometers and exhibits a coefficient of friction of less than 0.15 and a wear rate of less than 10×10?6 mm3/N/m. The coefficient of friction being measured on a Plint TE77 and the wear rate being measured against an alumina ball of 0.25 inches in diameter at a load of 1 N at 100 rpm in a dry environment. The deposited Ti—Si—C—N coating includes nanocrystalline phases in an amorphous matrix.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system, apparatus or and method to quantify features of relatively small defects or anomalies on a selected surface. Such defects may be associated with localized corrosion, such as pitting, that takes place on the surface of a metal exposed to a metallic environment.

Abstract: A system and method for providing time stamps protected from GPS timing signal attacks. A GPS receiver receives a GPS time data, and a local clock provides local time data. A controller initiates the local clock with the GPS time data. It continuously monitors the GPS time data by calculating any difference error between current GPS time data and local time data, and determining whether the error exceeds a threshold value. If the error does not exceed the threshold value, the GPS time data is used to discipline the local clock data and the disciplined output is used for the time stamp. If the error exceeds the threshold value, the local time data is used for the time stamp.

Abstract: A packet transfer buffer for use in a computer system having multiple source and destination interfaces, as well as packet handling software. The buffer has a source packet FIFO and destination packet FIFO, each with an associated packet length counter. The packet handling software obtains packet lengths from the source packet counter, and provides the packet length to the destination packet counter. The buffer has hardware circuitry that handles transfer of data from the source packet FIFO to the destination packet FIFO without the need for word-by-word reads and writes by the packet handling software.

Abstract: One embodiment provides an apparatus. The apparatus includes a substrate body that includes a top end, an opposing bottom end and a curved outer surface positioned there between, and a clear sight bore aperture centered at a longitudinal axis of the substrate body. The apparatus further includes a trunk line aperture defined in the outer surface of the substrate body. The trunk line aperture has a first end positioned at a top end of the substrate body, off-center from the longitudinal axis. The first end of the trunk line aperture is configured to couple to a detonator. The apparatus further includes a plurality of helical track apertures defined in the outer surface of the substrate body. A respective first end of each helical track aperture is coupled to the trunk line aperture. The apparatus further includes a plurality of termination apertures defined in the outer surface of the substrate body adjacent the bottom end of the substrate body.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed at treatment of reductant urea solutions with water soluble organometallic catalyst precursors which convert to active catalyst compounds in diesel exhaust gas systems. The active catalysts then promote hydrolysis of isocyanic acid into ammonia and/or decomposition of relatively high molecular weight deposits which deposits may otherwise reduce selective catalytic reduction efficiency.

Abstract: There is provided a process and systems for producing fuels via pyrolysis of carbonaceous feedstock under pressure and temperature in an efficient manner using a circulating fluidized bed with catalyst(s). The pressure and temperature are selected to provoke supercritical conditions, and pyrolysis, hydropyrolysis, hydrotreating, and optionally reforming treatment of the carbonaceous feedstock is carried out simultaneously in one reactor on a recirculating fluidized bed containing catalysts.

Abstract: A set of mechanisms, for use with an internal combustion test engine, for testing cylinder offset during operation of the engine. The test engine specifics may vary, but it is assumed to have a crankcase base that supports a cylinder barrel and cylinder head. During engine operation, a transit plate is secured to the top surface of the crankshaft base, and a pair of wedge plates is secured between the transit plate and the bottom of the cylinder barrel. When the engine is not in operation, the transit plate can be slid in a direction normal to the crankshaft axis (for cylinder offset adjustment), and the wedge plates can be moved relative to each other (for cylinder height adjustment).

Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally to the treatment of water using biochar. More specifically, the treatment of flowback water from drilling operations such as hydraulic fracturing or the treatment of tailing water from tar sands production. Such treatment results in the reduction of various constituents such as metal ions, organic compounds and various metals to provide recycled water suitable for reuse or discharge.

Abstract: A digital to analog converter (DAC) that provides an output that is iteratively stepped as the DAC increments or decrements from its digital input to analog output. The DAC has configurable registers to store a timer count value, an iteration value, and the input value. A state machine compares the iteration value to current DAC values, and adds or subtracts the iteration value until the final output is reached.

Abstract: A method to process exhaust gas expelled from at least one cylinder of a plurality of cylinders of an internal combustion engine, the method comprising providing an internal combustion engine, wherein the engine comprises a steam hydrocarbon reformer including a steam reformation catalyst, treating exhaust gas of the engine containing hydrocarbon and water by reacting the hydrocarbon and water in the presence of the steam reformation catalyst in the steam hydrocarbon reformer to provide treated exhaust gas. The treated exhaust gas includes carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen gas produced from the reaction, and mixing the treated exhaust gas, including the carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen gas produced in the steam hydrocarbon reformer with air to provide the mixture of air and treated exhaust gas introduced into the cylinders of the engine.

Abstract: Compositions comprising Type I clathrates of silicon (Si46) or carbon (C46) wherein the framework of the cage structure includes nitrogen and carbon or nitrogen and silicon or nitrogen-silicon-carbon atom type composition, with or without guest atoms in their respective cage structures. The clathrate structures are particularly useful for energy storage applications such as battery electrodes.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for estimation of sensor data confidence based on statistical analysis of different classifier and feature-set (CF) configurations. A method may include: training a classifier of a CF configuration based on a training set of nominal sensor data values; executing the classifier on the training set to generate a first set of confidence values; collecting statistics on the confidence values; calculating a confidence decision threshold based on the collected statistics; executing the classifier on an evaluation set of nominal and degraded sensor data values, to generate a second set of confidence values; deciding whether the sensor data values of the evaluation set are nominal or degraded based on a comparison of the second set of confidence values to the confidence decision threshold; and calculating a score to evaluate the trained classifier based on a verification of the decisions.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides for co-electrophoretic deposition (co-EPD) of organo-functionalized strontium fluoride nanoparticles (SrF2) with a hydrophobic polymer in the presence of non-aqueous aprotic solvents. The co-EPD procedure can be employed to form a coating or self-supporting film for application to a metal implant.

Abstract: A balloon reflector antenna for a satellite, including a spherical balloon with a surface transparent to electromagnetic waves and a reflective surface opposite the transparent surface. The balloon reflector antenna may further include a feed system extending from the center of the balloon that receives electromagnetic waves reflected off the reflective surface and/or outputs electromagnetic waves that are reflected off the reflective surface.

Abstract: A method of providing internal EGR to an engine having at least one dedicated EGR cylinder. The main (non dedicated) cylinders are operated with internal EGR, in addition to external EGR from the dedicated EGR cylinder. The dedicated EGR cylinder has separate valve control so that it need not be operated with internal EGR, thereby allowing it to be operated at a richer air-to-fuel ratio.

Abstract: A method of damping pulsations produced by an engine or other driver, so that gas flow can more accurately be measured by a gas flow meter. A damping device is placed between the driver and the flow meter, and has an enclosed volume, an input tube, and an output tube. Particular dimensions of the damping device, namely the volume of the chamber and the diameter and length of the input tube, are calculated to result in a desired damping efficiency.

Abstract: A method of mitigating noise in source image data representing pixels of a 3-D image. The “3-D image” may be any type of 3-D image, regardless of whether the third dimension is spatial, temporal, or some other parameter. The 3-D image is divided into three-dimensional chunks of pixels. These chunks are apodized and a three-dimensional Fourier transform is performed on each chunk, thereby producing a three-dimensional spectrum of each chunk. The transformed chunks are processed to estimate a noise floor based on spectral values of the pixels within each chunk. A noise threshold is then determined, and the spectrum of each chunk is filtered with a denoising filter based on the noise threshold. The chunks are then inverse transformed, and recombined into a denoised 3-D image.

Abstract: A system and method for testing the integrity of signals incoming to a satellite navigation system. The method is implemented with an array of antenna elements, and a receiver connected to each antenna element. The receivers simultaneously and continuously make measurements on all tracked signals. Each receiver measures the carrier phase of an incoming signal. Based on the carrier phase differences between antenna elements and the distance between them, the azimuth and elevation of the signal source can be calculated. This measured angle of arrival can then be compared to an expected angle of arrival to determine if the signal source is legitimate. The system and method can be also applied to determining the angle of arrival of sources of interference, and to mitigating the effects of both illegitimate and interfering signals.

Abstract: A method of detecting urea-derived deposits in the exhaust line of an internal combustion engine having an SCR (selective catalyst reduction) aftertreatment system. A radio frequency (RF) transmitter is placed upstream of the SCR system's urea injector, and an RF receiver is placed downstream of the mixer. The transmitter and receiver are used to acquire baseline RF data representing a clean condition exhaust line without deposits. During subsequent operation of the engine, the transmitter and receiver are used to acquire subsequent RF data, which is compared to the baseline data after being corrected for temperature differences. If the comparison indicates the presence of one or more deposits, an alert signal is generated.