Abstract: A clutch arrangement comprises a rotatable drive input, a rotatable output, and an epicyclic gear arrangement comprising a ring gear, a series of planet gears meshing with the ring gear, a sun gear meshing with the planet gears, and a carrier upon which the planet gears are mounted, the drive input being connected to one of the ring gear and the carrier, the output being connected to the other of the ring gear and the carrier, and a clutch device operable to control relative rotation between the ring gear and the sun gear. The invention also relates to a nosewheel landing gear steering arrangement including such a clutch arrangement.

Abstract: A damping arrangement comprises a drive member arranged to be driven for angular movement relative to a housing by a motor, and a damping device independent of the motor and operable to damp oscillating motion of the drive member relative to the housing.

Abstract: A landing gear assembly comprises a wheel support housing rotatably connected to a support member, the wheel support housing containing an electrically powered motor operable to adjust the angular position of the wheel support housing relative to the support member.

Abstract: A technique that is usable with a well includes changing the temperature of a local environment of a distributed temperature sensor, which is deployed in a region of the well and using the sensor to acquire measurements of a temperature versus depth profile. The region contains at least two different well fluid layers, and the technique includes determining the depth of a boundary of at least one of the well fluid layers based at least in part on a response of the temperature versus depth profile to the changing of the temperature.

Abstract: An optical tracker system comprises an optical sensor 1 and associated signal processing circuitry 12, 24 for conditioning signals output from the sensor and rejecting signal indicative of false sensor information. A signal rejection circuit 24 comprises a guard time monostable 28 arranged to generate a guard time pulse defining a guard time when a pulse is input from the sensor 1, an output monostable 35 arranged to generate an output pulse in response to the guard time pulse, and an output suppress monostable 30 arranged to suppress the output monostable 35 when a false signal condition occurs during the guard time.

Abstract: An amplifier circuit (1) is arranged to amplify a signal of variable magnitude from a photodiode (3) having capacitive characteristics. The circuit (1) comprises a first feedback path containing a voltage controlled variable resistor (8) for varying the gain of the amplifier in relation to the magnitude of the signal so as to provide an output signal of substantially uniform magnitude. The first feedback path also contains a capacitor (7) which compensates for adverse effects of reactance in the circuit caused by the capacitance of the photodiode (3) and of the variable resistor (8) in order to optimize the frequency response characteristics of the amplifier. A second feedback path comprising a fixed value resistor (9) becomes operable when the resistance of the first feedback path is large to provide fixed gain amplification of signals received from the photodiode (3).