Abstract: A soft child carrier including a soft body member attached to a relatively rigid back portion. A pair of shoulder straps are attached to the carrier adjacent to upper and lower ends of the back portion, and a waist belt extends from opposing sides of the lower end of the back portion. The relatively stiff back portion facilitates the transferring of the weight of a child to the waist belt such that a substantial portion of the child's weight is transferred away from the shoulder straps to thereby relieve the amount of weight carried on the shoulders and upper back of a person supporting the carrier. A seat adjustment is also provided whereby an adjustment strap extending along the back portion may be pulled or released to cause a height for the seat portion of the carrier to be increased or decreased depending on the size of the child.

Abstract: A micromachined miniature valve used for gas chromatography has very low valve and interconnection dimensions to reduce the fluid volume inherent in other gas switching valves to thereby provide accurate measurements involving small gas flows. In order to reduce actuating diaphragm size, without encountering excessive stress concentrations in the diaphragm, the diaphragm can be polyimide film actuated in connection with a silicon valve body having valve seats with ports that are opened or closed by deflection of the diaphragm. Silicon wafers can be micromachined using batch fabrication techniques to provide the necessary valve seats and passageways for operating. The valve assembly is produced as a layered sandwich made up of individual wafers, including an actuator layer, a stop layer, a valve seat layer, and a layer which has flow channels receiving gas from the valve seat layer and making the necessary interconnections to provided outlets.