Abstract: A flotage trapping device has at least one plus electrode and at least one minus electrode. The plus electrode and minus electrode are alternately disposed. The electrodes trap the flotage floating in the air. Another flotage trapping device has at least one electrode of a single polarity and a space ion generating device for generatingions of polarity opposite to that of the electrode so as to form an ion space around or adjacent the electrode. A flotage repelling device has at least one electrode of a single polarity, and a space ion generating device for generating ions of the same polarity as that of the electrode so as to form an ion space around or adjacent of the electrode.

Abstract: An implement for mechanically filling multiple sandbags at a time is used on a loader bucket of loader-type equipment. The implement has a planar surface in which a plurality of filler apertures are formed in a plurality of rows evenly spaced over its surface area. Each filler aperture has a tensioner ring around the aperture for holding a drawstring held in a sleeve around an open end of the sandbag. A trigger mechanism is movable to a locked position in which the drawstring of the sandbag is pulled tight so that the open end of the sandbag is held in place on the tensioner ring, to an unlocked position in which the trigger mechanism lifts the drawstring off the tensioner ring to allow the sandbag filled with filler material to pull on and cinch the open end of the sandbag closed, and to a release position in which the cinched sandbag is released to the ground.

Abstract: A water-cooling jacket structure 10 for an inspection hole of a flash furnace 1 is arranged at the periphery of a concentrate burner 7 to inspect and clean the inside of the furnace and the concentrate burner 7, and formed in a cylindrical shape by combining a plurality of jacket plates 11, 12, 13, 14 cast internally with cooling tubes 21, 22, 23, 24 for circulating cooling-water, and configured to adjust its cooling capacity and amount of cooling-water by circulating cooling-water to a single or multiple systems of the respective cooling-water systems of each jacket 11, 12, 13, 14 depending on the heat-load of the flash furnace 1.

Abstract: An Electronic Shark Deterrent provides protection from, and for, sharks and other aquatic creatures. Compact low power circuitry generates high voltage periodic pulse train bursts, disturbing the electroreceptors of the aquatic Elasmobranchi subclass. A train of thirty 33 us 250 Volt (V) electric pulses lasting one second is produced every six seconds. The device is fully portable, requiring no bulky activity impeding buoys, cords, or external power supplies. Advanced circuitry is compact enough to be worn on a watch sized band or attached to garments and recreation or safety equipment. The deterrent can be used in a fixed configuration to protect fish farms and vacation resort swimming areas. It can be affixed to offshore oil rigs and research stations to protect workers. The Electronic Shark Deterrent is compact and portable enough to be used on longlines, trawls and gillnets to reduce the numbers of endangered aquatic creatures unnecessarily destroyed as bycatch.

Abstract: This invention deals with the general topic of adaptive non-imaging tracking of the sun. A transmission-mode electro-optical system is presented for solar energy tracking and collection. The scale of the system may range from small portable systems to large-scale industrial power plants used for the production of environmentally benign energy. It maybe integrated directly into buildings and other platforms without the need for heliostats to hold photovoltaic cells or other energy conversion devices above the building or other host platform. It makes solar energy harvesting systems practical by allowing the separation of tracking, collection, concentration, aggregation, distribution, and energy conversion. This novel system is unique and distinct from other sun tracking and energy conversion systems because it allows adaptive solid-state electronics to be used in place of conventional mechanical tracking heliostats.

Abstract: A plaque tack device for treating atherosclerotic occlusive disease is formed as a thin, annular band of durable, flexible material having a plurality of barbs or anchoring points on its outer periphery for preventing it from being dislodged. The plaque tack may be used with a balloon angioplasty procedure or as a de novo treatment for blood vessel blockage to reopen the vessel lumen for desired blood flow. It has a width that is small relative to its diameter, to minimize the amount of foreign structure placed in the blood vessel. One or more tacks may be applied in positions along a plaque accumulation site as needed to stabilize the site and/or hold pieces of plaque out of the way of blood flow. The barbs of the tack may be pressed into the plaque and/or blood vessel walls by balloon expansion.

Abstract: A solar power plant (10) capable of generating electricity comprising a light pipe carrying highly concentrated solar light (19), a hot reservoir (24), a cold reservoir (20), and a plurality of large-scale solid-state nano-structured photonic crystals (12) that are capable of recycling out-of-band photons with transition energies associated with a photovoltaic cell (13) into photons with in-band energies associated with the same photovoltaic cell (13) when photon energy is subjected to propagation through a thermal temperature gradient that is held across a suitably nano-structured photonic crystal (12). The input thermal photons from the hot thermal reservoir (24) are shifted in energy to the optimal photovoltaic cell energy for electron-hole pair generation by work that is expanded by the heat engine to convert said input photons into phonons and then back to photons again at a new wavelength through a process of phonon rethermalization occurring inside the nano-structured photonic crystal (12).

Abstract: There is provided a flotage trapping device using electrostatic field. The flotage trapping device has a body including a power source portion and a boosting portion fed from the power source portion, and a collector portion including a collector to which the plus and/or minus high voltage obtained from the boosting portion is applied. The collector portion is formed as a collector cassette by unitizing the collector portion in the form of a cassette. A fixing mechanism is provided between the body and the collector cassette for connecting and disconnecting the body and the collector cassette through one-touch operation. The electric connector for high voltage is provided between the body and the collector cassette for electrically connecting and disconnecting the body and the collector cassette through one-touch operation. As a result the collector cassette is detachably mounted on the body.

Abstract: A system and method for online ordering of items of real-time availability from vendor inventories in which an online agent ordering server acts as an intermediary between a TV system and an online ordering website. The online agent ordering server stores TV ordering display templates for presenting displays on the TV system of TV ordering forms for respective items, and online ordering templates for formatting online orders that are recognized by the online ordering website. When a viewer inputs a request for a selected item to the TV system, the online agent ordering server provides a corresponding TV ordering form to the TV system for display. Upon the viewer inputting order selection data to the TV ordering form, the online agent ordering server automatically converts the data into an online order for the item that is recognized by the online ordering website.

Abstract: An adhesion device is made up of three parts: an anchor portion; a peeler layer; and a “biomimetic microstructure adhesive” (BMA) portion. The anchor portion has one side affixed to a part of an object to be releasably adhered to a surface. The peeler layer has an inwardly facing side thereof affixed to the other side of the anchor portion. The BMA portion is affixed to an outward side of the peeler layer with its setae facing outwardly towards the surface to be adhered to. The anchor portion is affixed to the peeler layer at a position offset from the position at which the BMA portion is affixed, so that the object may be releasably detached from adhesion with the surface.

Abstract: A video-on-demand (VOD) content delivery system has a VOD Application Server which manages a database of templates ordered in a hierarchy for presentation of video content elements of different selected types categorized in hierarchical order. The templates include those for higher-order displays which have one or more links to lower-order displays of specific content. The VOD Application Server, in response to viewer request, displays a high-order templatized display, and in response to viewer selection of a link, displays the lower-order display of specific content. The hierarchical templatized displays enable viewers to navigate to an end subject of interest while having a unique visual experience of moving through a series of displays to the end subject of interest. For example, the higher-order display may be a product ad and the lower-order display may be an ad for a local retailer of the product.

Abstract: A conventionally available pile for civil engineering work is constructed such that the pile has in its inside a core body with wedges that stick into soil deep in the ground and function to prevent the pile from coming out of place. A problem exists with such a pile in that placing the core body at an appropriate position inside the pile is difficult. A pile for civil engineering work of this invention enables a core body to be placed at an appropriate position and labor required for the placement to be reduced. A pile (1) for civil engineering work is characterized in that, for example, a guide rail (4) that enables a core body (6) to be guided is provided inside a body of the pile (1), the core body (6) is guided through the guide rail (4), and wedges (6a, 6b) are appropriately guided to cut/pushed-in openings (2a, 2b, 3a, 3b).