A surgical stapler including an anvil, a staple cartridge, and a buttress material removably retained to the anvil and/or staple cartridge. In various embodiments, the staple cartridge can include at least one staple removably stored therein which can, when deployed, or fired, therefrom, contact the buttress material and remove the buttress material from the anvil and/or staple cartridge. In at least one embodiment, the anvil can include at least one lip and/or groove configured to removably retain the buttress material to the anvil until deformable members extending from the surgical staple are bent by the anvil and are directed toward and contact the buttress material.

A control apparatus is applied to an internal combustion engine that is capable of implementing reduced-cylinder operation and all-cylinder operation. When the internal combustion engine is stopped during implementation of reduced-cylinder operation, and then the internal combustion engine is restarted in reduced-cylinder operation with the same cylinders as idling cylinders, the initial crank angle when cranking starts is controlled so that the position of the piston of at least one among the idling cylinders is in the vicinity of its top dead center.

Disclosed is a method for estimating a physical stoppage of an engine of a motor vehicle, subject to bounce-back, a target equipped with teeth being borne by the crankshaft and successive passes of the teeth past a sensor being detected, a first time count incrementing since a last detection of the passing of a tooth and being associated with a first time threshold with the first count being reset to zero when the time between passes of two successive teeth is below the first threshold. A second count associated with a second time threshold is performed, with this count being suspended when and for as long as a time between the passes of two successive teeth is below the second threshold, the engine being estimated to have stopped as soon as the counts have respectively reached the first and second thresholds.

Systems and methods for operating an internal combustion engine based on output of an intake manifold pressure sensor and output of an in cylinder pressure sensor are described. The systems and methods provide a way of determining cylinder air charge so that a fuel injector has sufficient time to provide a desired amount of fuel to a cylinder during a cycle of the cylinder.

Systems and methods for operating an internal combustion engine based on output of an intake manifold pressure sensor and output of an in cylinder pressure sensor are described. The systems and methods provide a way of determining cylinder air charge so that a fuel injector has sufficient time to provide a desired amount of fuel to a cylinder during a cycle of the cylinder.

A hybrid electric vehicle includes a controller and control method to control position of a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine when the engine is stopped and the vehicle is moving to balance bearing wear associated with road-surface induced vibrations or oscillations imparted to the bearings while the crankshaft is not rotating. The controller is configured to store information relating to a cumulative time stopped at a plurality of angular positions of the crankshaft while the vehicle is in operation and/or moving, and to control stopping or repositioning of the crankshaft to balance or approximately evenly distribute the stopping positions among the plurality angular stopping positions to reduce or eliminate the possibility of excessive wear at any particular position relative to the others.

Methods and systems are provided for detecting leaks in an intake manifold of an engine. In one example, a method may include closing all intake valves of all cylinders of the engine during an engine shut down responsive to vacuum in the intake manifold reaching a pre-determined vacuum level. The method may further include indicating a leak in the intake manifold responsive to a change in a level of vacuum in the intake manifold after closing all the intake valves of all cylinders.

A method of implementing start-stop in an internal combustion engine, the engine having exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) from at least one dedicated EGR (D-EGR) cylinder. For stopping the engine, the camshaft is locked, and a hydraulic cam phaser is used to cushion the engine inertia. The engine is stopped such that one of the D-EGR cylinders is in top-dead center position. For starting the engine, that D-EGR cylinder is fuel-injected, and exhaust bleed-off performed if necessary.

A method for improving engine start performance of a vehicle performing engine synchronization at the time of the engine start may include performing a first synchronization task from an engine stop position stored when the engine stops in immediately previous traveling, and performing the first synchronization task when a crank signal of a crank sensor is first input to an engine position management (EPM) module.

A surgical stapler including an anvil, a staple cartridge, and a buttress material removably retained to the anvil and/or staple cartridge. In various embodiments, the staple cartridge can include at least one staple removably stored therein which can, when deployed, or fired, therefrom, contact the buttress material and remove the buttress material from the anvil and/or staple cartridge. In at least one embodiment, the anvil can include at least one lip and/or groove configured to removably retain the buttress material to the anvil until deformable members extending from the surgical staple are bent by the anvil and are directed toward and contact the buttress material.