Abstract: Vehicle brake performance monitoring is provided. The braking capabilities are dynamically learned or otherwise calculated or determined in each vehicle and shared between the vehicles of the platoon. The platoon may be reorganized based on differences between the learned or otherwise calculated or determined relative braking capabilities. Desired gaps between the platooning vehicles may be modified in accordance with the learned or otherwise calculated or determined relative braking capabilities as necessary or desired. During every vehicle stop, the vehicle and axle loads together with information on the time from brake apply to when the vehicle decelerates is monitored and entered as a data point defining the vehicle response delay. The axle loads and the ABS Activation of a wheel end for a given pressure is further selectively used to create another data point. The data points are selectively used to develop overall performance (e.g., quality score) of the brake system.

Abstract: A vertical pump features a shaft having an end with an impeller arranged thereon and rotates about an axis; a stationary bushing having an axial bushing surface, a radial bushing surface, and a central bushing bore; and a thrust balance drum that includes a central balancing drum bore to receive the shaft, that couples to the shaft so as to rotate about the axis, that includes an axial balance drum surface and a radial balance drum surface, and that is arranged in the central bushing bore of the stationary bushing with the axial balance drum surface positioned with respect to the axial bushing surface to define an axial clearance, and with the radial balance drum surface positioned with respect to the radial bushing surface to define a radial clearance. In operation, the thrust balance drum balances thrust loads produced by the impeller.

Abstract: Technologies are described for devices and methods for adjusting a position of impellers within a bowl assembly. The devices may comprise an adjuster at the second end of a spacer coupling. The adjuster may include an adjuster sleeve. The adjuster sleeve may be a cylindrical sleeve. The adjuster sleeve may be threaded on an internal side. The adjuster sleeve may be spaced from the driven hub so that the adjuster sleeve can rotate around a driven shaft. The adjuster sleeve may threadedly mate and engage with an externally threaded first end of the driven shaft when the adjuster sleeve is rotated. The rotation of the adjuster sleeve may adjust a position of the driven shaft with respect to the driven hub and may thereby adjust a position of an impeller attached to a second end of the driven shaft with respect to a stationary bowl.

Abstract: A mobile application for integrating a location sharing event with a messaging platform such as a text messaging or email platform allows users to be prompted about location sharing when at least a part of the message includes location or time information. In one embodiment, the mobile application takes the form of an integrated location sharing application that parses the message to discern the relevant location or time information. The application may also provide a notification of a future event and may optionally generate a location sharing event based on the notification. In another embodiment, the application permits interactive route sharing between at least two computing devices.

Abstract: The fracturing methods can provide an advantage over the current fracturing methods. The fracturing methods can change the fracture gradient of the downhole subterranean formation. For example, one or more of the fracture gradients of the low and high stress zones of the downhole subterranean formation can be changed. Furthermore, the methods, in relation to current practices, can decrease the extent and/or degree of fracturing within low stress downhole formations and increase the degree of fracturing within high stress formations.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling use of an autonomous vehicle includes an interior occupant sensing system to obtain data of occupants from a video camera. An occupant sensing controller is configured to receive the video and detect a number of faces of occupants disposed in the vehicle. Further, the occupant sensing controller determines demographic information from the video data of each of the detected faces and then stores the vehicle location, the number of faces, and the demographic information for occupants as data in the vehicle. The occupant sensing controller determines from the demographic information an age of occupants in the autonomous vehicle, and when the demographic information indicates that all occupants in the autonomous vehicle are less than a certain age, limits travel to a destination or operation of the autonomous vehicle in response to age.

Abstract: An automated frothing assembly. The automated frothing assembly has a wand module that includes an elongate member having an inlet, one or more outlets, and a fluid passageway extending between and in fluid communication with the inlet and the plurality of outlets. At least one of the one or more outlets extends parallel to a vertical plane that includes the centerline of the elongate member and at an acute angle relative to a horizontal plane that is perpendicular to both the vertical plane and the centerline of the elongate member. The assembly further includes an actuator configured to be operatively coupled to the wand module and to drive the movement of at least a portion of the wand module along an axis, and an electronic controller configured to be electrically coupled to the actuator and to control the operation of the actuator to control the movement of the wand module.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling fluid flow to provide long-term access to the vascular system, and methods of making the same, are disclosed. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention describe a wedge or other similarly shaped geometrical features for fixing an elastic component and controlling an internal stress of the elastic component.

Abstract: This disclosure provides novel anionic amphiphilic ?-hairpin peptides that self-assemble under appropriate conditions to form a reversible gel-sol hydrogel that can be used, for example, to readily deliver protein therapeutics and cells by injection to a target location in a subject.

Abstract: Systems and methods for determining an angle of a movement path of a trailer (205). The system (200) for determining an angle of a movement path of a trailer (205) comprises a camera (250); and an electronic controller (260) communicatively coupled to the camera (250) and configured to receive first data from the camera (250), determine an absolute angle of the trailer (205) based on matching one portion of an image received in the first data to a template, receive second data from the camera (250), estimate a change in the angle of the trailer (205) based on tracking one or more points on the trailer (205) received in the second data, and determine the angle of the movement path of the trailer (205) based upon the trailer angle and the change in the angle of the trailer (205).

Abstract: Apparatus and methods implementing a hardware queue management device for reducing inter-core data transfer overhead by offloading request management and data coherency tasks from the CPU cores. The apparatus include multi-core processors, a shared L3 or last-level cache (“LLC”), and a hardware queue management device to receive, store, and process inter-core data transfer requests. The hardware queue management device further comprises a resource management system to control the rate in which the cores may submit requests to reduce core stalls and dropped requests. Additionally, software instructions are introduced to optimize communication between the cores and the queue management device.

Abstract: A platoon management control uses the GPS position of the rear of a lead vehicle. The lead vehicle deceleration demand is overlaid upon the position of the rear of the lead vehicle. The following vehicle uses its own GPS position along with the radar or vision system of the following vehicle to determine the rear of the lead vehicle. When a lead vehicle's deceleration signal is subtracted from the position of the rear of the forward vehicle as determined by the following vehicle, the deceleration profile must be within an acceptable window to be valid. Also, one or more local sensors on adjacent platooning vehicles are used to communicate encoding scheme selection information and also to communicate the deceleration command signals. This permits the following vehicle to decode the deceleration command signals using a decoding scheme corresponding to the encoding scheme indicated as being used by the leading vehicle.

Abstract: Platoon management control systems and methods arrange two or more vehicles cooperatively travelling seriatim as a platoon along an associated roadway into a platoon arrangement in accordance with their relative braking capabilities and other brake-related performance characteristics such as braking efficiency. Braking efficiency can change over time and is in general affected by many factors such as brake temperature, brake type, burnishing, vehicle weight, number of tires, tire wear, vehicle loading, road surface type and weather conditions. The relative braking capabilities are learned or otherwise calculated or determined in each vehicle and shared between the vehicles of the platoon. The platoon may be reorganized based on differences between the learned or otherwise calculated or determined relative braking capabilities.

Abstract: An apparatus for controlling fluid flow to provide long-term access to the vascular system, and methods of making the same, are disclosed. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention describe a wedge or other similarly shaped geometrical features for fixing an elastic component and controlling an internal stress of the elastic component.

Abstract: An applicator for dispensing a liquid, the applicator including: a body, a holder for holding a supply of liquid to be dispensed, a nozzle mounted on the body for dispensing the liquid, an elongate priming chamber within the body for receiving liquid from the holder, an elongate delivery chamber within the body for receiving liquid from the priming chamber, a piston assembly having a piston located in the delivery chamber and being moveable in a first direction to draw liquid from the priming chamber into the delivery chamber and in a second opposite direction for passing liquid from the delivery chamber to the nozzle, a drive arrangement capable of effecting incremental movement of the piston in the second direction for metered dispense of the liquid, and a first actuator for operating the drive arrangement for effecting the incremental movement.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and architecture for thermal waveguide-based phase shifters which improve thermal efficiency by having multi-pass waveguides arranged under the heating element in a serpentine fashion, with the waveguides having mismatched propagation constants. The combination allows for an increase in phase shift without increasing the length or the power consumption of the resistive heating element by increasing the total length of waveguide being heated by a singular heating element.

Abstract: A trailer reversing assist system for controlling reversing operations of a vehicle and trailer connected to the vehicle includes a module that detects an angle of the trailer relative to the vehicle, and outputs a trailer angle signal corresponding to the detected angle. The system also includes a human machine interface (HMI) device that provides an output signal based upon an input of the user, where the generated output signal includes information regarding magnitude and direction of a desired change to the angle. The system calculates a trailer trajectory that positions the trailer at a target location or calculates a trailer trajectory correction, wherein the calculation is performed using the output signal as corresponding to a change relative to the detected angle, and the detected angle corresponds to the trailer angle signal generated at the time of operation of the HMI device by the user.

Abstract: A method and system for determining a size and pose of an occupant (305, 310, 315) within a vehicle interior. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving one or more images (FIG. 3) of a vehicle interior from a camera (114). The method also includes classifying interior regions (130, 132, 134, 136, 138) of the vehicle interior (100) in the one or more images. The method also includes identifying an occupant (305, 310, 315) in the one or more images based on the classification of the interior regions (130, 132, 134, 136, 138) of the vehicle interior (100). The method also includes determining a size range of the occupant (305, 310, 315) based on the classification (404) of the interior regions of the vehicle interior (100). The method also includes determining a pose of the occupant (305, 310, 315) based on the classification (404) of the interior regions of the vehicle interior (100).

Abstract: A new method, system and apparatus for mounting mechanically, thermally and electrically light emitting diode (LED), crystals, arrays or packages. The above provides an LED assembly having reduced number of components and costs, superior heat dissipation, mechanical properties and a compact structure. The use of a grid or mesh allows for more efficient and inexpensive removal of heat from one or more LEDs within an LED fixture.

Abstract: A system and method for estimating characteristics of a trailer. The system includes a trailer a vehicle with a sensor, a camera, and an electronic controller configured to receive first data from at least one of the sensor and the camera at a first location relative to the trailer, determine a second location relative to the trailer for the vehicle, the second location being a different location than the first location, generate a signal to move the vehicle from the first location to the second location, receive second data from at least one of the sensor and the camera at the second location, determine a characteristic of the trailer based upon the first data and the second data, and determine a movement behavior of the trailer based upon the characteristic before the vehicle couples to the trailer.