Abstract: An energy recovery apparatus used in the seawater desalination system includes a cylindrical chamber (CH) having a space for containing concentrated seawater and seawater therein and being installed such that a longitudinal direction of the chamber is placed in a vertical direction, a concentrated seawater port (P1) provided at the lower part of the chamber (CH) for supplying and discharging the concentrated seawater, a seawater port (P2) provided at the upper part of the chamber (CH) for supplying and discharging the seawater, a flow resistor (23) provided at a concentrated seawater port side in the chamber, and a flow resistor (23) provided at a seawater port side in the chamber. A circular plate (30) having a hole at the center thereof is provided between the concentrated seawater port (P1) and the flow resistor (23), or between the seawater port (P2) and the flow resistor (23).

Abstract: An energy recovery apparatus which is used in a seawater desalination system includes a cylindrical chamber (CH) being installed such that a longitudinal direction of the chamber is placed in a vertical direction, a concentrated seawater port (P1) for supplying and discharging the concentrated seawater, a seawater port (P2) for supplying and discharging the seawater, a flow resistor (23) provided at a concentrated seawater port (P1) side in the chamber (CH), and a flow resistor (23) provided at a seawater port (P2) side in the chamber (CH). The flow resistor (23) provided at the concentrated seawater port (P1) side and the flow resistor (23) provided at the seawater port (P2) side comprise at least one perforated circular plate, and the perforated circular plate has holes formed at an outer circumferential area outside a predetermined diameter of the circular plate.

Abstract: A character recognition method for recognizing a character printed over a background pattern on a valuable medium includes acquiring a character image captured by capturing the character printed on the valuable medium; evaluating a degree of similarity between the character image and each template image, the template image having been obtained beforehand by capturing each character that had a possibility of having been printed on the valuable medium and of which background area is evenly filled; and determining that the character corresponding to the template image showing the highest degree of similarity at the evaluating is the character included in the character image.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a dental curable composition that can be suitably used as a dental material that can substitute part or all of a natural tooth, in particular, a resin material for dental cutting and machining in the field of dental care. An object of the present invention is to provide a dental curable composition in which, when a block shape usable as a resin material for dental cutting and machining is produced while mechanical properties such as hardness, bending strength and compressive strength as well as aesthetic property required for a crown prosthetic appliance are maintained, the dental curable composition can be molded and processed with pressure and heating while strain generated in the block is reduced and no cracks and chipping occur. There is provided a dental curable composition including (a) a polymerizable monomer and (b) a filler in a weight ratio of 10:90 to 70:30, and including 0.01 to 10 parts by weight of (c) a polymerization initiator and 0.

Abstract: An oil strainer includes a cover member provided with an oil flow-in port and a first weld portion, a body member provided with an oil flow-out port and a second weld portion opposing to the first weld portion, and a filter member disposed so as to be held between the first weld portion and the second weld portion. The first weld portion and the second weld portion are formed with an abutting weld portion at which the first and second weld portions abuts to each other and formed with a filtration portion abutting the filter member.

Abstract: A user interface of a mobile computing device having a mobile operating system and a display device utilizes a picker application to facilitate selection of an activity. More specifically, the picker application presents at least one radial list of items to provide an effective process for selecting activities categorized amongst one or more locales or neighborhoods associated with a location.

Abstract: [Problem] The purpose of the present invention is to stably supply high-quality and highly uniform Wisteria floribunda agglutinin (WFA) that recognizes biologically important sugar-chain markers, to elucidate the sugar-chain recognition activity in detail, and to furthermore increase the specificity of the sugar-chain recognition activity. [Solution] The present invention involves the development of a technique for cloning genes for coding Wisteria floribunda agglutinin (WFA) and producing recombinant WFA having the same sugar-chain recognition activity as natural WFA from transformed bacteria. Natural WFA is reduced to thereby manufacture a reduced WFA monomer for specifically recognizing terminal GalNAc residue. A recombinant monomer WFA for recognizing LDN (GalNAc?1, 4GlcNAc) sugar chain, which is important as a diagnostic marker among sugar chains having a terminal GalNAc residue, is manufactured by introducing cysteine mutation to recombinant WFA or by C-terminal-side amino acid deletion.

Abstract: To efficiently provide commercial content in geographic applications, an indication of first visits to a first business entity having a first geographic location, by a first subset of a group of users, is received. An indication of second visits to a second business entity having a second geographic location, by a second subset of the group of users, is also received. A correlation coefficient indicative of correlation between the first visits and the second visits is determined. When it is determined that the correlation coefficient exceeds a certain threshold value, commercial content related to the second business entity is generated, for display at user devices located at the first physical location.

Abstract: In a seawater desalination system for producing fresh water from seawater by passing the seawater pressurized by a pump through a reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus to separate the seawater into fresh water and concentrated seawater, an energy exchange chamber for utilizing pressure energy of the concentrated seawater discharged from the reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus as energy for pressurizing part of the seawater is provided. The energy exchange chamber includes a concentrated seawater port for introducing and discharging the concentrated seawater, a seawater port for introducing and discharging the seawater, a plurality of flow regulators, and a plurality of partitioned fluid passages provided in the chamber to allow the concentrated seawater port and the seawater port to communicate with each other.

Abstract: An energy exchange chamber is used for exchanging pressure energy between concentrated seawater discharged from a reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus and a part of seawater to be treated by the reverse-osmosis membrane separation apparatus in a seawater desalination system. The energy exchange chamber includes a concentrated seawater distributor communicating with a concentrated seawater port and configured to distribute a flow of concentrated seawater all over a horizontal plane of an interior of a chamber, and a seawater distributor communicating with a seawater port and configured to distribute a flow of seawater all over the horizontal plane of the interior of the chamber. The concentrated seawater and the seawater introduced into the chamber are brought into direct contact with each other over the horizontal plane of the interior of the chamber to exchange pressure energy between the concentrated seawater and the seawater introduced into the chamber.

Abstract: In a character string extraction method, a character portion, a rim portion, a character frame, and a character string frame are set, a feature value of each image in the character portion and the rim portion is calculated for each character frame, a character string frame evaluation value is calculated based on the feature value for the character string frame, a position of the character string frame is moved on the paper sheet image, and the image in the character portion is extracted by using the character string frame at a position at which the character string frame evaluation value reaches a maximum.

Abstract: Provided are opaque materials exhibiting a good adhesive strength and a good color tone reproduction comparable with natural dental crowns as well as having a good operability. In addition, the opaque materials may exhibit a stain-resistance property in rebuilding-up a dental composition on the opaque materials in a cured form with a metal instrument. Further, the opaque materials may exhibit a good color tone reproduction comparable with natural dental crowns even if a dental membrane is thinly formed from the opaque metals. The dental membrane is formed from a first opaque layer and a second opaque layer, wherein the first opaque layer contains a filler of indefinite-shape particles and the second opaque layer contains a filler of spherical-shape particles, and wherein the first opaque layer is formed on a metal base and the second opaque layer is formed on the first opaque layer.

Abstract: A seawater desalination system which can solve a problem of wear of a sliding member and can suppress mixing of concentrated seawater and seawater by making an energy exchange chamber no-piston configuration is provided. In a seawater desalination system for producing fresh water from seawater by passing the seawater pressurized by a pump through a reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus (4) to separate the seawater into fresh water and concentrated seawater, an energy exchange chamber (20) for utilizing pressure energy of the concentrated seawater discharged from the reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus (3) as energy for pressurizing part of the seawater is provided.

Abstract: The projection type image display apparatus is equipped with a lamp unit (22), an optical block (21) which modulates light from the lamp unit and projects an image signal, a circuit board (24) having via holes and on which an external connector (25) is mounted, and a cabinet (2) for housing the aforementioned elements. The display apparatus is equipped with a back cover (26) provided to cover around the external connector from the outside and a dustproof cover (29) provided to cover around the external connector from the inside. A closed space is formed by the circuit board, the back cover (26) and the dustproof cover (29), and the dustproof cover closely shields at least a space below the circuit board from the exterior. Excellent dustproof characteristics enabling use even in installation environments with a large amount of dust and dirt can be obtained.

Abstract: A seawater desalination system produces fresh water from seawater by passing the seawater pressurized by a pump through a reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus to separate the seawater into fresh water and concentrated seawater. An energy exchange chamber is provided for utilizing pressure energy of the concentrated seawater discharged from the reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus as energy for pressurizing part of the seawater. The energy exchange chamber includes a concentrated seawater port for introducing and discharging the concentrated seawater, a seawater port for introducing and discharging the seawater, and a plurality of partitioned fluid passages provided in the chamber to allow the concentrated seawater port and the seawater port to communicate with each other.

Abstract: In a character string extraction method, a character portion, a rim portion, a character frame, and a character string frame are set, a feature value of each image in the character portion and the rim portion is calculated for each character frame, a character string frame evaluation value is calculated based on the feature value for the character string frame, a position of the character string frame is moved on the paper sheet image, and the image in the character portion is extracted by using the character string frame at a position at which the character string frame evaluation value reaches a maximum.

Abstract: An energy recovery apparatus exchanges pressure energy between concentrated seawater discharged from a reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus and a part of seawater to be treated by the reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus in a seawater desalination system for producing fresh water from the seawater. The energy recovery apparatus includes two perforated plates provided at a concentrated seawater port side in a chamber, and two perforated plates provided at a seawater port side in the chamber. The two perforated plates comprises a first perforated plate and a second perforated plate. The first perforated plate and the second perforated plate at the concentrated seawater port side and the seawater port side are arranged to meet certain requirements including one of an open area ratio of the first perforated plate, an open area ratio of the second perforated plate, and a distance between the first perforated plate and the second perforated plate.

Abstract: An energy exchange chamber is used for exchanging pressure energy between concentrated seawater discharged from a reverse-osmosis membrane-separation apparatus and a part of seawater to be treated by the reverse-osmosis membrane separation apparatus in a seawater desalination system. The energy exchange chamber includes a concentrated seawater distributor communicating with a concentrated seawater port and configured to distribute a flow of the concentrated seawater flowing therein all over a horizontal plane of an interior of a chamber, and a seawater distributor communicating with a seawater port and configured to distribute a flow of the seawater flowing therein all over a horizontal plane of the interior of the chamber. The concentrated seawater and the seawater introduced into the chamber are brought into direct contact with each other over the horizontal plane of the interior of the chamber to exchange pressure energy between the concentrated seawater and the seawater.

Abstract: A cluster control apparatus controls an allocation of a job to each node in a cluster system formed by mutually connecting a plurality of nodes by a high-speed network. A node selecting unit selects an allocation node for allocating the job and a similar node that is similar to the allocation node. A data-redundancy command unit issues a command to store data created from the job executed by the allocation node in the allocation node and the similar node.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to an assembly of an optical fiber and an optical fiber holder for holding the optical fiber, the optical fiber having an end surface formed at an end portion thereof, the end surface being configured to perform light coupling with a light emitting element or with a light receiving element. The optical fiber holder comprises; a throughhole which extends through the optical fiber holder and a recess that is positioned on a surface of the optical fiber holder and that is provided with an opening of the throughhole. The optical fiber is inserted through the throughhole and an adhesive is filled in a gap between an inner wall of the throughhole and an outer periphery of the optical fiber, the adhesive being used for adhering the optical fiber to the optical fiber holder. The end portion, on which is formed the end surface of the optical fiber, protrudes from the opening and terminates within the recess.