83 results about "Bounding surface" patented technology

The invention describes devices for controlling fluid flow, such as valves. The devices may include one or more electroactive polymer transducers with an electroactive polymer that deflects in response to an application of an electric field. The electroactive polymer may be in contact with a fluid where the deflection of the electroactive polymer may be used to change a characteristic of the fluid. Some of the characteristic of the fluid that may be changed include but are not limited to 1) a flow rate, 2) a flow direction, 3) a flow vorticity, 4) a flow momentum, 5) a flow mixing rate, 6) a flow turbulence rate, 7) a flow energy, 8) a flow thermodynamic property. The electroactive polymer may be a portion of a surface of a structure that is immersed in an external fluid flow, such as the surface of an airplane wing or the electroactive polymer may be a portion of a surface of a structure used in an internal flow, such as a bounding surface of a fluid conduit.

Described herein is an orthodontic system, including an appliance configured to cover substantially at least two adjacent teeth in a person's mouth, the appliance including a wedge configured to contact a first surface of a tooth and exert a force on the tooth in a direction. The appliance, when positioned in the mouth, defines a first bounding surface of a movement volume into which the first tooth is permitted to move substantially in response to the force. A second surface of the first tooth defines a second bounding surface of the movement volume, when the appliance is positioned in the mouth.

The invention describes devices for controlling fluid flow, such as valves. The devices may include one or more electroactive polymer transducers with an electroactive polymer that deflects in response to an application of an electric field. The electroactive polymer may be in contact with a fluid where the deflection of the electroactive polymer may be used to change a characteristic of the fluid. Some of the characteristic of the fluid that may be changed include but are not limited to 1) a flow rate, 2) a flow direction, 3) a flow vorticity, 4) a flow momentum, 5) a flow mixing rate, 6) a flow turbulence rate, 7) a flow energy, 8) a flow thermodynamic property. The electroactive polymer may be a portion of a surface of a structure that is immersed in an external fluid flow, such as the surface of an airplane wing or the electroactive polymer may be a portion of a surface of a structure used in an internal flow, such as a bounding surface of a fluid conduit.

A MIS type semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor layer provided with a recess portion having a side wall with an obtuse angle at least at a portion of the recess portion, a gate electrode formed over a bottom surface of the recess portion, with a gate insulating film interposed, a source region and a drain region formed on sides of the gate electrode with an insulating film interposed, such that boundary planes between the source region and the drain region, on one hand, and the insulating film, on the other hand, are formed in the semiconductor layer at an angle to a surface of the semiconductor layer, and wiring portions for contact with the surface of the semiconductor layer. Wherein an edge of the gate electrode is located inside the recess portion provided in the semiconductor layer, and there is provided at least one of a mutually opposed portion between the gate electrode and the source region and a mutually opposed portion between the gate electrode and the drain region, whereby at least one of a portion of the source region and a portion of the drain region, which lie in the associated mutually opposed portions, functions as an accumulation layer.

The presence of trace molecules in air may be determined using an ion mobility spectrometer. Such devices may be used in the fields of explosives detection, identification of narcotics, and in applications characterized by the presence of very low airborne concentrations of organic molecules of special interest. The sensitivity of such instruments may depend upon on the method of gas sampling utilized. A virtual wall gas sampling system can greatly improve the sampling efficiency, particularly when the sampling needs to be performed at a distance from the air intake and large volumes need to be sampled. The virtual wall gas sampling system consists of an intake gas flow and a separate group of one or more sheet-like gas flows, which may be either mutually deflected to move with a circular motion or may be formed into a cylindrical bounding surface.

A damping bearing (20) including an inner ball portion (34) attached to an end of a support shaft (32), and an outer collar portion (30) attached to a housing (22) for rotation of the housing relative to the support shaft about a center point. A chamber (28) for a damping fluid such as grease is defined by clearance between the end of the shaft and the housing. The fluid chamber has opposed bounding surfaces (29, 37) that are non-spherical about the center of rotation so that the chamber changes shape upon rotation of the bearing, thus shifting damping fluid across the chamber. The chamber may be a flat cylindrical void normal to a centerline (33) of the shaft. It may provide only enough clearance for less than ±10 of relative rotation between the housing and shaft. A set-screw (26) may pressurize the fluid in the chamber.

A method of bounding an anatomical object of interest in a 3-dimensional volume image includes displaying an image of at least a portion of the object, selecting a plurality of points in the displayed image, at least a first and second point of the plurality of points spanning the object, forming a non-rectilinear surface bounding the plurality of points, identifying a seed point within the surface and extracting a plurality of statistical values corresponding to image voxels disposed proximate the seed point, and classifying image voxels within the surface into a first class and a second class based on the plurality of statistical values.

An electrical integrated modular power node includes a power module having a common backplane with a plurality of bus bars for supplying the power requirements for the node, functional components and circuitry for connection through selected bus bars to a power supply for providing loads with power as required thereby with individual functional modules providing geometrical packages having bounding surfaces conforming to bounding surfaces of adjacent modules including the power module, for enclosing and supporting functional components and circuitry design so the conforming surfaces of the modules abut with one another in a position to be connected at abutting surfaces with at least some of the modules facing the power module to connect to connectors on the bus bars providing power as required by the load to which circuitry within the connected module is connected with the connectors mechanically supporting the modules relative to power module and to one another.

A rod or piston primary seal, which includes a primary seal (2) facing the space (1) to be sealed and a secondary seal (3) facing away from it, in which the primary seal (2) is fitted into the groove (4), of a holding element (5), open in the direction of the relatively movable machine part (11) which is bounded, on the side facing away from the space (1) to be sealed, by a first side surface (7) which extends essentially at right angles to the sealing axis (6), and includes a sealing edge ring (8) made of tough, hard plastic which has a sealing edge (9) lying adjacent to the machine part (11) and is pressed with its sealing edge (9) onto the machine part (11) by a profile ring (10) made of elastomeric material which is supported on the bottom surface (12) of groove (4) and lies adjacent to sealing edge ring (8) with its inner surface (13), the sealing edge ring (8) having a profile bounded essentially by a right angle between the sealing edge (9) and the bounding surface (14) facing the first side surface (7); and, in the unloaded state of seal (2), surface (15) bounding the sealing edge (9) on the side facing away from the pressure subtends an angle (β) of at most 8° with the sealing axis (6); and the sealing edge ring (8) is penetrated by at least one discharge opening (16) positioned between sealing edge (9) and the outer surface of wiper ring (8) and opens out onto the bounding surface (14).

A vehicle frame, in particular a bicycle frame with frame tubes, in particular with a seat tube and a down tube. At least one frame tube has at least one mounting for at least one energy storage device. Provision is made for at least one mounting to be designed as a recess in at least one frame tube, for the frame tube to have at least one bounding surface bounding the recess in at least one or more sections, for the frame tube to have a locating edge bounding the recess in at least one or more sections, and for at least one bounding surface to have at least one clamping projection.

The invention relates to a translucent building block (1) having at least two, a first and a second bounding surfaces (2, 3), between which there is at least a part of a translucent member (4) and cast material surrounding said member (4) connected to an retainer structure (5), whereas the latter is arranged between said surfaces (2, 3). The invention also relates to a an insert (8) for producing a translucent building block (1) having an retainer structure (5) and at least one translucent member (4) arranged on said auxiliary retainer (5), and the translucent member (4) has at least one section (9, 10) projecting from said retainer structure (5), and said insert is provided with an opening formed on said retainer structure (5) and/or with a fixing member (19, 20, 21). The invention also discloses a method for producing a translucent building block (1).

Biomimetic adhesive compositions can be used in various aspects of subterranean treatment operations. Methods for treating a subterranean formation can comprise: providing an adhesive composition that comprises a first polymer comprising a plurality of monomers that comprise a phenolic moiety, a biopolymer that is crosslinkable with the first polymer, a crosslinking agent, and an oxidizing agent; introducing the adhesive composition into a subterranean formation; and forming a coacervate-bound surface in the subterranean formation by crosslinking the first polymer.

The invention provides a system and method for turbulent flow drag reduction using discrete counter-rotating elements disposed adjacent a bounding surface and arranged to effectively disrupt or suppress stream-wise vortices and/or traveling waves thereby reducing turbulence and increasing fluid flow. In embodiments, the counter-rotating elements effectively decouple the interaction between traveling waves and stream-wise vortices. By using discrete counter-rotating elements as disclosed, the energy input to the counter-rotating elements is advantageously less than the energy gained from the flow rate increase. The counter-rotating elements may comprise e.g., counter-rotating strips, counter-rotating disks or a plurality of sequentially activated jets. In addition, the bounding surface may comprise a section or pipe, a substantially planar surface, etc. The counter-rotating elements may be used along a section of a pipe, on a surface of an aircraft wing, in HVAC systems, etc. Examples of fluids include, but are not limited to: water, air, natural gas, oil, etc.

A system, for providing power to a workspace by induction, comprises at least one inductive power outlet incorporated into a bounding surface of the workspace. The inductive power outlet comprises at least one primary inductor connectable to a power supply via a driver. The driver provides an oscillating voltage supply to the primary inductor and the primary inductor may inductively couple with a secondary inductor wired to an electric load.

The present invention relates to conjugated polyelectrolyte (CPE) or oligoelectrolyte (COE) compounds represented by general structural formulae (I)-(IV), or a salt thereof and methods of using these compounds to detect targets in samples. In particular, the methods include: (1) exposing a sample to a compound of structural formula (I), (II) or (IV) or a salt thereof, allowing the compound to bind to a target and detecting a signal produced by the compound; (2) functionalizing a solid support with a ligand, incubating the sample with a charged CPE or COE and detecting the fluorescence of the solid support and thereby detecting the target or (3) functionalizing a surface of a solid support with a charged ligand, thereby creating a charge on the surface of the solid support; incubating the ligand-functionalized solid support with a sample, whereupon binding of the target, the charge on the surface of the solid support switches; incubating the sample with CPE or COE that has a complementary charge to the charge of the target-bound surface; and detecting the fluorescence of the solid support and thereby detecting the target. The compounds of the present invention possess high photoluminescence quantum yields in biological media, low cytotoxicity, and excellent environmental stability and photostability and can be used in biosensor and bioimaging applications.