Abstract: The present invention relates to a textile fiber structure comprising man-made fibers fortified by a binder comprising a polymer latex obtained from the emulsion polymerization in aqueous medium of a mixture of ethylenically unsaturated monomers comprising: (a) an aliphatic conjugated diene (b) a vinyl aromatic compound; (c) an ethylenically unsaturated silane bearing at least one silicon bonded hydrolysable group, and (d) an ethylenically unsaturated acid and to its use in construction applications, and to the use of the above binder to fortify textile fiber structures.

Abstract: A printer head (200, 300, 400) for a 3D-printing apparatus, comprising a nozzle (210, 310, 450) arranged to deposit one or more adjacently arranged filaments of printing material to form at least one layer of an object to be produced. The nozzle comprises at least one exterior surface (220) configured to be brought into abutting contact with a peripheral edge (280) of the at least one layer, and configured to be guided along the peripheral edge of the at least one layer and on a predetermined distance into the at least one layer.

Abstract: A hoisting system for hoisting a load relative to a body includes a hoisting cable, a hoisting mechanism selectively operable to deploy and retract the hoisting cable, and a guide mechanism movably mounted to the body at a position between the body and the hoisting cable. The guide mechanism includes at least one locking device that selectively locks the guide mechanism against movement in a first direction.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for providing an alternate content delivery mechanism available to content-based network users. In one embodiment, the network comprises a cable television network, and subscribers are able to retrieve requested content from one or more other subscriber's storage medium and without going outside the cable network (or accessing the network core in any significant capacity) using a peer-to-peer (P2P) network protocol. Using this approach, bandwidth consumption is advantageously pushed out to the edge of the network from the core, also obviating content requests outside the network (e.g., to third-party servers on the Internet). Methods of operating the aforementioned P2P network, and various business paradigms relating thereto, are also disclosed.

Abstract: An active wheel suspension element has a ball screw drive having a screw drive with a threaded spindle and a spindle nut which is mounted in a housing via an axial bearing. The axial bearing is formed as a rolling bearing, whose rolling element rolls directly on the spindle nut.

Abstract: The invention relates to a thermal power station and a method for storing heat by means of a steam generator a water-steam cycle which is connected to the steam generator and to a thermal store. Said thermal store comprises a first container for a heat store medium when it is cold, a second container for the heat store medium when it is hot, and a heat exchanger which is connected to the two containers and which is connected to the heat-steam cycle via a water-steam feed line and a water-steam discharge line. The thermal store has an additional heat exchanger which is connected to the two containers, an air feed line and an air discharge line being provided, the air discharge line being connected to the combustion air feed line leading to the combustion chamber.

Abstract: A method for producing a round tube from a ceramic material or a glass-ceramic material or mixtures thereof is described. The method comprises introducing a silicate-ceramic, oxide-ceramic and/or non-oxide-ceramic material-forming agent into a melting vessel, which has along a longitudinal axis a tubular wall which defines a tubular cavity, wherein the melting vessel rotates about its longitudinal axis. A uniform layer of the ceramic and/or glass-ceramic material-forming agents is thereby formed, lying on the inner side of the wall, by means of centrifugal forces generated by rotation and is heated by means of a heat source arranged in the inner cavity of the melting vessel until at least the inner side of the layer of material-forming agents has melted. Such tubes can be used for various industrial purposes.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes methods and apparatus for remote sensing with data analytics. The methods and apparatus have many applications including monitoring the quality of grain during storage and/or transport. The present disclosure describes a way to collect temperature and other environmental data to describe and predict quality of stored grains, current and future, based on a myriad factors including fumigation, external temperature and humidity, in storage grain temperature and humidity.

Abstract: A method of moving a component of a harvester that includes a topper for cutting top portions of crops, a conveyor for transporting the cut stalks of the crops, a primary hood, and a secondary hood, each of the primary and secondary hoods operable to direct the cut top portions of the crops away from the conveyor. The method includes selecting a cutting mode of operation from the following modes of operation: circular cutting mode and face cutting mode; selecting a crop position from the following crop positions: crop at right and crop at left; selecting at least one component from the following components: the conveyor, the primary hood, or the secondary hood; and in response to selecting at least one component, automatically moving the selected at least one component to one of a first operational position or a second operational position.

Abstract: Provided are methods of forming thermally conductive flexible bonds for use in electronic boards of unmanned spacecraft and other types of aircraft. Also provided are methods of preparing adhesive materials to form these bonds including methods of preparing treated filler particles. In some aspects, an adhesive material includes filler particles having organofunctional groups, such as boron nitride particles treated in silane. These particles may be combined with a urethane modified epoxy to form the adhesive material. The weight ratio of the particles in the adhesive material may be about 40-60%. The adhesive material may be thermally cured using a temperature of less than 110° C. to prevent damage to bonded electronic components. The cured adhesive may have a thermal conductivity of at least about 2 W/m K measured in vacuum and may have a glass transition temperature if less than ?40° C.

Abstract: Outage detection and recovery in heterogeneous networks may benefit from sub-cell level, multi-layer degradation detection, diagnosis, and recovery. For example, cell outage detection and cell outage compensation may benefit from appropriate use of sub-cell level and multi-layer diagnosis and recovery techniques applied to degradation and outage scenarios. A method can include self-healing at least one first cell in a network or at least one second cell in the network. The network includes the at least one first cell and the at least one second cell. The at least one first cell and the at least one second cell have at least partially overlapping coverage. The self-healing can include a network device, such as a network management device, applying at least one of multi-layer reasoning to integrate information of different cell layers or sub-cell level reasoning to consider fine-granular location information. The self-healing can be based on location information.

Abstract: Indentation approaches for foil-based metallization of solar cells, and the resulting solar cells, are described. For example, a method of fabricating a solar cell includes forming a plurality of alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions in or above a substrate. The method also includes locating a metal foil above the alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions. The method also includes forming a plurality of indentations through only a portion of the metal foil, the plurality of indentations formed at regions corresponding to locations between the alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions. The method also includes, subsequent to forming the plurality of indentations, isolating regions of the remaining metal foil corresponding to the alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions.

Abstract: An apparatus includes signal control circuitry, a phase-locked loop (PLL), and a correlation circuit. The signal control circuitry provides a reference clock signal carrying pseudo-random phase noise and as derived from an application clock signal and pseudo-random noise. The PLL, responsive to the reference clock signal carrying the pseudo-random phase noise, provides an output signal that is related to the phase of the reference clock signal. The correlation circuit self-tests the PLL by cross-correlating a signal corresponding to the output signal from the phase detector with the pseudo-random noise and, in response, by assessing results of the cross-correlation relative to a known threshold indicative of a performance level of the PLL.

Abstract: A battery pack for an electric vehicle is disclosed. The battery pack includes an upper tray, a first busbar attached to the upper tray, a lower tray, a second busbar attached to the lower tray, and a plurality of battery cells arranged in the upper and lower trays between the first and second busbars. The first busbar is between the battery cells and the upper tray, and the second busbar is between the battery cells and the lower tray. The battery pack also includes a first cooling plate, connected with one of at least one of the lower tray and the second busbar, and at least one of the upper tray and the first busbar.

Abstract: The invention relates to a heat exchanger, comprising a hollow central body which is received in a housing and defines an inner channel for a first medium, wherein a space surrounding the central body in the housing defines at least one outer channel for a second medium, wherein the central body has on either side parts which protrude from a main plane thereof and are connected to mutually opposite parts of the housing and which bound the outer channel such that the outer channel has a meandering form substantially parallel to the main plane of the central body. The invention further relates to a method for forming such a heat exchanger, and to a method for use thereof.

Abstract: A process for the incineration of activated coal-supported PGM catalysts, the process comprising a joint incineration of a multilayer arrangement, wherein the multilayer arrangement includes (i) a top layer of particulate activated coal-supported PGM catalyst, (ii) a layer of coarse charcoal located beneath said top layer and, optionally, (iii) a layer of particulate coke located beneath the charcoal layer, and wherein an upward flow of oxidizing gas is homogeneously passed through said multilayer arrangement during the incineration.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a post associated with a first user of an online social network; extracting n-grams from the post; determining whether the post is associated with a trending topic based on whether one or more of the extracted n-grams are associated with the trending topic; identifying one or more second users, wherein each second user is a first-degree connection of the first user within the online social network and wherein each second user is a subscribing user; generating, for each second user, a live social module comprising the post; and sending, to a system of each second user, the live social module.

Abstract: A combine harvester includes a housing having a rear hood and defining an interior, a blower for generating an air stream in a substantially rearward direction, and a cleaning system separating residue from a crop material such that the residue is transported via the air stream rearwardly to be discharged from the housing. A chopper rotor assembly is disposed within the interior below the rear hood and includes a chopper rotor having a plurality of blades for chopping the residue as it is received via the air stream. A chopper housing is disposed within the interior and includes a roof structure located above the chopper rotor such that a minimal gap is defined therebetween. The air stream flows out of the interior via a flow path defined through the chopper rotor without being substantially redirected from flowing in the rearward direction by the plurality of blades of the chopper rotor.

Abstract: Virtual machines with low active thread counts are prioritized during periods of high system load in a virtualized computing environment to improve the performance of such virtual machines.