Abstract: A control valve assembly for a fluid treatment system including a valve housing defining a plurality of compartments and a piston assembly associated with each of the compartments. Each of the piston assemblies is configured to be independently movable in each of the compartments. The control valve assembly also includes a gearbox that is associated with the housing and includes a plurality of cams driven by a motor, where each of the cams is configured to drive a corresponding one of the piston assemblies.

Abstract: A device for assembling components having metal bonding pads includes plates that can move relative to each other, bearing metal components respectively and leaving between them a flat chamber surrounding the components when the latter are in contact with each other. The flat chambers can be saturated with deoxidizing gaseous fluid.

Abstract: A cleat is provided, including a head and a shank connected to the head. The shank has a pair of opposing planar faces and a pair of opposing short edges, a wide portion and a point. The edges are provided with at least one serration fixed relative to the wide portion.

Abstract: A removable spike or cleat assembly for footwear, including a sole, wherein the assembly includes a spike or cleat constructed from an elastically deformable material and including one or more leg members and mounting apparatus adapted to engage with the sole, wherein the spike or cleat is adapted to engage with a projection located on the mounting apparatus, the engagement between the spike or cleat and the projection being achieved by rotating the spike or cleat relative to the projection and at least partially inserting the one or more leg members into one or more apertures located on the mounting apparatus, and wherein the spike or cleat is disengaged from the mounting apparatus by producing an elastic deformation of the one or more leg members.

Abstract: A fuel cell is provided and is constructed and arranged for use with a combustion tool including a cylinder head frame. The fuel cell includes an outer shell having a closed lower end and an open upper end, and a closure crimped over the upper end and defining an opening for accommodating a reciprocating valve stem. An adapter frictionally engages the closure and includes a flange configured for suspending the fuel cell in the fuel cell chamber.

Abstract: A high performance gear type oil pump for an internal combustion engine which has drive and driven gears which are, on one common side of the gears, respectively supported from the housing by a drive shaft and an idler shaft. In order to avoid cantilevering of the gears when generating pressurized oil, the other common side of the gears are each rotatable mounted on stub axles or pins which themselves are fixedly attached to the housing. In order to minimize wear, oil under pressure is supplied to the bearing surfaces of stub axles or pins which extend interiorly of the gears and also to the bearing surfaces of the housing which faces the common side of the gears where the stub axles are located, through oil supply passageways in the stub axles or pins.

Abstract: A closure for a container having a support device for fillers, in particular a tablet tube, the support device providing an elastically deformable support element that is capable of being brought from a first position, in which the support element is undeformed, into a second position in which the support element is deformed. The support element has a contact area that, in the second position, transmits a supporting force to the fillers; in the second position the support element is situated closer to the container mid-axis than is the case in the first position.

Abstract: A method for controlling an apparatus for treating blood outside the human body, with a view to improving the operation of the apparatus, the apparatus including a semi-permeable membrane carrying out an exchange of solutes, referred to as dialysis, and of liquid, referred to as ultrafiltration, with the blood, the method including at least one iteration of the following steps: determination of a so-called instantaneous value, of an ultrafiltration coefficient corresponding to the ratio of an ultrafiltration flow rate to a difference in pressure, the so-called transmembrane pressure, on either side of the semi-permeable membrane, comparison of the instantaneous value with at least one previously determined characteristic value; and control of the treatment apparatus to reach a maximum value of the ultrafiltration coefficient, the control including a variation of the ultrafiltration flow rate up to a value corresponding to the maximum value of the ultrafiltration coefficient.

Abstract: An irregular, tessellated building unit comprises x primary elements, wherein x is an integer equal to or greater than 1. The primary element is a rotational tessellation having a plural pairs of sides extending in a generally radial direction from plural vertices, respectively. In each pair, the two sides are rotationally spaced by an angle that is divided evenly into 360 degrees. Preferably, all of the sides are irregularly shaped, but one or more sides could be wholly or partially straight. Optionally, spacers are provided on the sides of each unit. A wide variety of units may be constructed having different numbers and arrangements of primary elements. As all the units are combinations of primary elements, they readily mate with each other. A surface covering comprises a multiplicity of units assembled to form a continuous surface without overlap between units and without substantial gaps between units. A structure, such as a wall or column can be formed of building units of the invention.

Abstract: Described are embodiments of multi-functional footwear. In one example, an article of footwear includes a climbing arch configured to receive at least a portion of a climbing surface. The climbing arch also includes a plurality of engagement members extending from the arch and configured to engage a climbing surface. The article of footwear may also include a protective plate, a plurality of outwardly extending protrusions that form a receiving area configured to receive a portion of a second body, a drainage system configured to drain liquid from within the article of footwear, and/or an anti-rope burn upper. The described, multi-functional footwear may be designed with significantly less mass than known footwear.

Abstract: According to an aspect of an embodiment, a method for manufacturing a storage medium includes providing a medium plate member for forming the storage medium and a guide member; and aligning the medium plate member and the guide member so that the medium plate member and the guide member are placed adjacently and the surfaces of the medium plate member and the guide member form a substantially common plane. The method further includes guiding a burnishing member for burnishing the medium plate member onto the surface of the guide member; and sliding the burnishing member on the guide member onto the medium plate member so as to burnish the surface of the medium plate member.

Abstract: A server management program, a server management method, and a server management apparatus that allows an environment for providing a service corresponding to a server group for executing processing in cooperation with a server computer to be formed automatically in a standby server computer added to the server group. An image data collector collects disk image data from server computers and stores the data in an image data storage section. When an instruction to add a server computer to a server group is received, an image data addition section obtains the disk image data from the image data storage section and copies the data onto a disk of the server computer to be added. A configuration setup section sets up unique information of a mating server computer having a processing request relationship, in the server computer to be added, in accordance with processing request relationships among the server computers included in the different server groups.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide, among other things, methods, apparatus, and systems for tuning a semiempirical process for predicting energy for different molecular configurations. In an example method, an energy value and an energy gradient are determined for each of a plurality of molecular configurations using an accurate method. A functional form of the semiempirical process is optimized using the determined energy values and energy gradients via multiobjective optimization. The functional form relates one or more parameters to energy values and energy gradients.

Abstract: A magnesium alloy, comprising: Y: 0.5-10? Zn: 0.5-6?? Ca: 0.05-1?? Mn: ??0-0.5 Ag: 0-1 Ce: 0-1 Zr: 0-1 or Si: 0-0.4, wherein the amounts are based on weight-percent of the alloy and Mg, and manufacturing-related impurities constitute the remainder of the alloy to a total of 100 weight-percent. Also disclosed is a method for manufacturing such an alloy and a biodegradable implant formed therefrom.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention is a soft tissue impact assessment device. The device includes a skin that is shaped or moldable to a human-like form. A positional force or pressure sensor within the skin measures force or pressure and location of impact or contact with the skin and provides data regarding the force or pressure and location of impact or contact with the skin. In preferred embodiments, the skin includes a top layer made of a material and thickness that simulates the protection provided by particular human skin to underlying tissue. A pressure or force sensor sheet closely contacts the top layer in a manner that avoids any substantial movement between the top layer and the pressure or force sensor sheet during a range of anticipated force or pressure conditions to be experienced by the human surrogate during testing. A lining layer is suitable to be in close contact with a surface of a human like form.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device is provided which has a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the pair of substrates, in which liquid crystal molecules are vertically aligned with respect to the substrates when no voltage is applied between the substrates and the liquid crystal molecules tilt in a plurality of directions to be almost parallel to the substrates by applying a voltage between the substrates. In the liquid crystal layer, when the voltage is applied, a proportion of a region where the liquid crystal molecules tilt in a direction of 0 degrees to 180 degrees is different from a proportion of a region where the liquid crystal molecules tilt in a direction of 180 degrees to 360 degrees with the angle being defined counterclockwise with the right direction on a screen being 0 degrees.

Abstract: The present scent distributor is a cartridge for attaching to a permeable substrate such as an air filter or humidifier pad. The cartridge housing is configured to hold the scenting media, said housing including a body and a cover; a plurality of openings in said housing to allow air to flow through at least a portion of said housing for interaction with the scenting media; a restrictor that slidingly engages with said housing to selectively restrict the flow of air through said housing; and an attachment device on said housing to attach said housing to a porous substrate.

Abstract: The method and system evaluate driving conditions of a vehicle whereby drivability of the vehicle can be evaluated accurately and objectively. To evaluate drivability of the vehicle under different driving conditions, a plural pieces of driving load information including biological information on a driver and movement information of the vehicle being driven are measured. Then, a group of weighting coefficients as many as or fewer than pieces of the driving load information is selected from groups of weighting coefficients that are set according to representative values of the driving load information in order to use a weighted linear sum of the representative values of the driving load information as an index of an integrated evaluation of the drivability of the vehicle. Subsequently, a weighted linear sum is obtained using the selected group of weighting coefficients and used to perform the integrated evaluation of the drivability under various driving conditions.

Abstract: The invention relates to a package and a blank comprising a front panel (10), a back panel (12) and two side panels (14, 16) forming a tubular container body extending in a longitudinal direction (L) from a bottom to a top, a first top panel (30) formed by an extension of the front panel (10) in the longitudinal direction (L) and being folded to essentially form the top of the package, a first set of two flaps (40, 60) each formed by an extension of respective side panel (14, 16) in the longitudinal direction (L), and a second set of two flaps (45, 65) extending in mutual opposing transverse directions (T1, T2) which are transverse to the longitudinal direction (L), each flap (45, 65) being formed by an extension of the first top panel (30) on a respective side edge of the first top panel (30).

Abstract: An image correction apparatus stores therein a plurality of correction curves for determining a correction amount, calculates a feature value of average brightness in an input image, determines whether the calculated feature value is equal to or greater than a first threshold, and, for the input bright image with the feature value equal to or greater than the first threshold, counts the number of pixels equal to or less than a second threshold in the input image. The image correction apparatus calculates a feature value of average brightness from pixel values of the counted pixels, on a basis of whether the calculated feature value is equal to or greater than a third threshold, or, whether the number of pixels equal to or greater than the third threshold is a fourth threshold or more, obtains a correction curve to correct the input image.