Abstract: On a coffee machine, a pressurized-hot-water sprinkler is positioned facing a dispenser cup for receiving a rigid sealed capsule closed, on the side facing the sprinkler, by a foil seal, which is pierced, in use, by a piercing device interposed between the sprinkler and the dispenser cup and having a number of needles, each of which is in the form of a pyramid with concave faces, so that each needle cuts the foil seal into portions defining a non-return blade valve, which closes, when the needle is extracted, to prevent pressurized water from escaping from the sealed capsule onto the sprinkler. (FIGS. 1, 7 and 9).

Abstract: Database system comprising a storage means for storing encoded and compressed multidimensional array data; a storage interface; an application programming interface; and processing means for effecting a storage and query processing, and for providing processed data to the storage interface or the application programming interface, said processing means comprising an encoder/decoder, a compressor/decompressor, a query processor, a query optimizer and a format converter. The provision of to be stored data to the storage interface through the processing means takes place in a storage format predetermined by an indicator assigned to the data. The provision of to be output data to the application programming interface through the processing means takes place in an output format predetermined by an indicator transmitted via the application programming interface.