Abstract: A system and method by which energy from ocean waves is converted into hydrogen, and that hydrogen is used to manifest electrical and mechanical energies by an energy consuming device. A portion of the generated electrical power is communicated to water electrolyzers which produce oxygen and hydrogen from water as gases. At least a portion of the generated hydrogen gas is transferred to a transportation ship via a hose-carrying, remotely operated (or otherwise unmanned) vehicle, and subsequently transferred to an energy-consuming module or infrastructure, where a portion of the hydrogen is consumed in order to manifest a generation of electrical energy, a mechanical motion, and/or a chemical reaction.

Abstract: A buoyant hydrodynamic pump is disclosed that can float on a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. The pump incorporates an open-bottomed tube with a constriction. The tube partially encloses a substantial volume of water with which the tube's constriction interacts, creating and/or amplifying oscillations therein in response to wave action. Wave-driven oscillations result in periodic upward ejections of portions of the water inside the tube that can be collected in a reservoir that is at least partially positioned above the mean water level of the body of water, or pressurized by compressed air or gas, or both. Water within such a reservoir may return to the body of water via a turbine, thereby generating electrical power (making the device a wave engine), or else the device's pumping action can be used for other purposes such as water circulation, propulsion, or cloud seeding.

Abstract: An assembly for an image forming device according to one example embodiment includes a toner container removably installable in the image forming device and a latch movable between a latching position restraining the toner container along a longitudinal dimension of the toner container and an unlatching position freeing the toner container to move along the longitudinal dimension of the toner container. A latch actuator has a user engagement surface that is movable along the longitudinal dimension of the toner container between a home position and an actuating position. Pushing the user engagement surface moves the latch actuator from the home position toward the actuating position causing the latch actuator to move the latch from the latching position to the unlatching position to free the toner container for removal from the image forming device.

Abstract: A stabilizer bar includes a housing configured to be fixed to a first side-bar, a hydraulic power unit and a clutch piston disposed within the housing, and a clutch ring configured to be fixed to a second side-bar. The hydraulic power unit is configured to selectively move the clutch piston from a first connected position to a second disconnected position.

Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus that floats at the surface of a body of water over which waves pass. Passing waves cause a nominally vertical axis of the apparatus to tilt away from an axis normal to the resting surface of the body of water. Tilting of sufficient magnitude and duration allows a fluid to flow through a channel that in an un-tilted apparatus would require the gravitational potential energy of the fluid to increase (i.e., to flow uphill), but, because of the tilt allows the fluid to flow through the channel in a downhill direction. Flowing water is trapped at a plurality of levels which in an un-tilted apparatus are higher than the respective levels from which the fluid has flowed. A subsequent tilt of the apparatus in a sufficiently different direction, and of a sufficient magnitude and duration, causes the trapped water to flow to new, yet higher levels.

Abstract: Described are acoustic absorber materials with high acoustic attenuation and high thermal conductivity comprising an inorganic, porous foam and an absorbing material within at least a portion of the pores of the foam, ultrasound transducers and devices including the same, as well as methods of making the materials.

Abstract: A vehicle ride-height adjustment device with a locking mechanism that has a simple control path and avoids the need for a separate actuator to control locking. The locking mechanism includes a locking gear coupled for rotation with a driven gear of a ride-height actuator, a locking pawl supported adjacent the driven gear for pivoting movement between a locked position engaged with a surface of the locking gear and restricting rotation thereof in at least one direction and a disengaged position spaced apart from the locking gear and permitting rotation of the driven gear. A shifting fork is coupled for rotation with the drive gear configured to move the locking pawl between engaged and disengaged positions. A torque limiter allows the shifting fork to rotate independent from the drive gear when a torque threshold is exceeded.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for transient fluidic coupling via reversibly couplable conduits. In one example, a method includes directing a conduit assembly to a receiving port by releasing one or more fluid streams from the conduit assembly. The method may further include fluidly coupling an internal passage of the conduit assembly to the receiving port. The internal passage may extend from the conduit assembly and along a conduit between a pair of free-floating bodies, such as between a wave engine and a tanker ship, so as to exchange one or more fluids, such as an electrolysis reactant and an electrolysis product. The fluidic coupling may be reversible, in that the conduit assembly may be detached from the receiving port to sever the fluidic coupling. In certain examples, the detaching may be actuated by releasing one or more additional fluid streams from the conduit assembly.

Abstract: Disclosed is buoyant wave energy capture device, adapted to float adjacent to an upper surface of a body of water over which waves pass, and adapted to capture a portion of the radiated waves created by its own rising and falling in response to incident and/or passing environmental waves. A power take off mechanism combined with the disclosed wave energy capture device may be tuned to a specific wave frequency, and thereby optimally extract energy from a motion of a single frequency, even the wave energy capture device may be excited and/or energized by waves of any of a relatively broad range of frequencies, thereby increasing the power-generation and cost efficiencies of such devices relative to wave energy conversion devices of the prior art.

Abstract: A system and method by which energy from ocean waves is converted into hydrogen, and that hydrogen is used to manifest electrical and mechanical energies by an energy consuming device. A portion of the generated electrical power is communicated to water electrolyzers which produce oxygen and hydrogen from water as gases. At least a portion of the generated hydrogen gas is transferred to a transportation ship via a hose-carrying, remotely operated (or otherwise unmanned) vehicle, and subsequently transferred to an energy-consuming module or infrastructur, where a portion of the hydrogen is consumed in order to manifest a generation of electrical energy, a mechanical motion, and/or a chemical reaction.

Abstract: A job matching algorithm improves matching a job opening profile to a job-seeker with accuracy and efficiency by breaking down the job opening profile into a data model of standard codes. Job criteria are abstracted as attributes into at least categories of qualifications and characteristics, having an associated assigned weight. Job-seeker profile's corresponding attributes in qualifications and characteristics are multi-dimensionally mapped to those in the job opening profile to calculate an overall score against a threshold score for successful matching. The job-seeker's profile and the job opening's profile may also be re-matched using an elastic analysis to model job seeker's strengths and growth potential for a same or a different job, through adjusting individual weights of each attribute of the qualifications and characteristics of one or both of the job-seeker's profile and the job opening profile to predict risks or successes for the job-seeker in taking the job opening.

Abstract: Disclosed are embodiments of a novel type of wave-powered propulsion adapted for use by buoyant vessels in order to provide or supplement their self-propulsion. An approximately vertical and semi-cylindrical propulsive shroud attached to a vessel interacts with a wave motion at and below the vessel in order to impart a thrust to the vessel.

Abstract: A vehicle ride-height adjustment device with a locking mechanism that has a simple control path and avoids the need for a separate actuator to control locking. The locking mechanism includes a locking gear coupled for rotation with a driven gear of a ride-height actuator, a locking pawl supported adjacent the driven gear for pivoting movement between a locked position engaged with a surface of the locking gear and restricting rotation thereof in at least one direction and a disengaged position spaced apart from the locking gear and permitting rotation of the driven gear. A shifting fork is coupled for rotation with the drive gear configured to move the locking pawl between engaged and disengaged positions. A torque limiter allows the shifting fork to rotate independent from the drive gear when a torque threshold is exceeded.

Abstract: An arthropod trapping device having a housing including a base and a shade coupled to the base. The base includes a convex outward-facing wall and an opposing rear-facing wall, electrically conductive prongs, a circuit board, and a first and second LED electrically connected to the circuit board. The shade includes an outward-facing surface and a LED-facing surface. A first end region of the shade is adjacent to the outward-facing wall of the base such that the first end region of the shade overlaps at least a portion of the outward-facing wall of the base. The LED-facing surface that overlaps the base is spaced apart from the outward-facing wall of the base such that an opening is defined between the LED-facing surface of the shade and the outward-facing wall of the base. The opening extends from a first side edge of the base to a second side edge of the base.

Abstract: Disclosed are embodiments of a novel type of wave-powered propulsion adapted for use by buoyant vessels in order to provide or supplement their self-propulsion. An approximately vertical and semi-cylindrical propulsive shroud attached to a vessel interacts with a wave motion at and below the vessel in order to impart a thrust to the vessel.

Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein include a vessel for floating and traveling adjacent to an upper surface of a body of water. In an embodiment, the vessel comprises a support structure, a first floatation chamber coupled to the support structure, a second floatation chamber coupled to the support structure, the second floatation chamber laterally spaced apart from and fluidly coupled to the first floatation chamber, and a third floatation chamber coupled to the support structure, the third floatation chamber laterally spaced apart from the first floatation chamber and from the second floatation chamber. In an embodiment, the vessel further comprises a robot system coupled to the support structure, where the robot system comprises an end effector and a nozzle head coupled to the end effector.

Abstract: A toner container according to one example embodiment includes a latch catch projecting upward on a top of a body of the toner container. The latch catch is spaced from a second longitudinal end of the body and positioned closer to the second longitudinal end of the body than to a first longitudinal end of the body. The latch catch includes a first contact surface that faces toward the second longitudinal end of the body for contacting a first corresponding surface of a latch in an image forming device to restrain the toner container along a longitudinal dimension of the toner container in a direction from the first longitudinal end of the body toward the second longitudinal end of the body when the toner container is in an installed position in the image forming device.

Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein include a vessel for floating and traveling adjacent to an upper surface of a body of water. In an embodiment, the vessel comprises a support structure, a first floatation chamber coupled to the support structure, a second floatation chamber coupled to the support structure, the second floatation chamber laterally spaced apart from and fluidly coupled to the first floatation chamber, and a third floatation chamber coupled to the support structure, the third floatation chamber laterally spaced apart from the first floatation chamber and from the second floatation chamber. In an embodiment, the vessel further comprises a robot system coupled to the support structure, where the robot system comprises an end effector and a nozzle head coupled to the end effector.

Abstract: A buoyant hydrodynamic pump is disclosed that can float on a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. Embodiments incorporate an open-bottomed tube with a constriction. The tube partially encloses a substantial volume of water with which the tube's constriction interacts, creating and/or amplifying fluid-flow oscillations therein in response to wave action. Wave-driven oscillations result in periodic upward ejections of portions of the water inside the tube that can be collected in a reservoir that is at least partially positioned above the mean water level of the body of water, or pressurized by compressed air or gas, or both. Water within such a reservoir may return to the body of water via a turbine, thereby generating electrical power (making the device a wave engine), or the device's pumping action can be used for other purposes such as water circulation, propulsion, dissolved minerals extraction, or cloud seeding.

Abstract: A toner container according to one example embodiment includes a drive coupler and an electrical contact positioned on a first longitudinal end thereof. A first guide post and a second guide post project outward along a longitudinal dimension of the toner container from the first longitudinal end of the body. The first guide post is spaced toward a first side of the body from the drive coupler, and the second guide post is spaced toward a second side of the body from the drive coupler. The first guide post and the second guide post overlap with the drive coupler along a vertical dimension of the toner container such that an imaginary horizontal plane intersects the first and second guide posts and the drive coupler. Bottom surfaces of the first and second guide posts may be positioned lower in the vertical dimension than a rotational axis of the drive coupler.