Abstract: A substrate retaining apparatus, a load lock assembly comprising the substrate retaining apparatus, and a system including the substrate retaining apparatus are disclosed. The substrate retaining apparatus can include at least one sidewall and one or more heat shields. One or more of the at least one sidewall can include a cooling fluid conduit to facilitate cooling of substrates retained by the substrate retaining apparatus. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the at least one sidewall can include a gas conduit to provide gas to a surface of a retained substrate.

Abstract: An orthopedic implant with an inferior portion having a tibia contact surface configured to extend over a tibia; a superior portion opposite to the inferior portion having a tendon contact surface configured to change a position of a patellar tendon by lifting or tilting the patellar tendon when the curved surface of the first portion is engaged with the tibia; and a fixation mechanism adapted to attach the orthopedic implant to the tibia, the orthopedic implant being further configured to change shape from a first configuration to a second configuration in response to a load applied between the tendon contact surface and the tibia contact surface. The invention also addresses corresponding methods.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are various embodiments of clutching mechanisms applicable to a dual reservoir pumping mechanism for a drug delivery device, the clutching mechanisms serving to allow translation of one of the reservoirs during the filling process and thereafter connecting the reservoirs together such that one can be driven relative to the other one by means of a leadscrew or other driving mechanism.

Abstract: A substrate retaining apparatus, a load lock assembly comprising the substrate retaining apparatus, and a system including the substrate retaining apparatus are disclosed. The substrate retaining apparatus can include at least one sidewall and one or more heat shields. One or more of the at least one sidewall can include a cooling fluid conduit to facilitate cooling of substrates retained by the substrate retaining apparatus. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the at least one sidewall can include a gas conduit to provide gas to a surface of a retained substrate.

Abstract: A substrate retaining apparatus, a load lock assembly comprising the substrate retaining apparatus, and a system including the substrate retaining apparatus are disclosed. The substrate retaining apparatus can include at least one sidewall and one or more heat shields. One or more of the at least one sidewall can include a cooling fluid conduit to facilitate cooling of substrates retained by the substrate retaining apparatus. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the at least one sidewall can include a gas conduit to provide gas to a surface of a retained substrate.

Abstract: An ecommerce system for marketing mixed lots of distressed inventory, as embodied in various systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media, is provided. The system may generate and communicate offers for mixed lots of distressed inventory. Individual buyers may join together to form buying teams that may collectively purchase a mixed lot. The system may charge buyers and distribute portions of the purchased lot, some of which may be upgraded items, to individual buyers based on respective levels of demand indicated by each buyer. The system may also include a network-based inventory tracking function that permits buyers to store electronic representations or records of purchased items in a remote storage location. The system may then aggregate the purchased items for shipping at a later time.

Abstract: A method of storing and retrieving a utilization data associated to a sensitive information which requires to be secured in an environment including a plurality of application systems that can use the information, includes: at a given application system of the plurality of application systems: receiving the information, generating from the information an extracted data and a complementary data, generating an encoded information from the information, sending the extracted data and the encoded information to a server system, at the server system: generating an index and assigning it to the encoded information and the extracted data, storing the encoded information, the extracted data, and the index in a database associated to the server system, forwarding the index to the given application system of the plurality of application systems, at the given application system: assigning the index to an application stored data related to the information, storing the index and the application stored data in a database

Abstract: The disclosed subject matter relates to methods, systems, and computer-usable storage mediums for detecting and reducing the occurrence of fraud in obtaining virtual currency from advertisers for use in network-based virtual persistent worlds.

Abstract: One embodiment of an apparatus includes a flat, plate-shaped template adapted for facilities integration. The template defines a plurality of apertures arranged in a predetermined pattern of locations, each template aperture adapted to position a facility conduit passing through each template aperture in a predetermined location to facilitate subsequently coupling the positioned facility conduit to the wafer processing tool. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling knock in a lean burn internal combustion (IC) engine includes a spark plug having an electrode, an electrical circuit, and a controller. The electrical circuit is configured to provide a first voltage to the electrode and detect an ion current during a thermal-ionization phase of the combustion process, and provide a second voltage to the electrode to create a spark and initiate a combustion process within the combustion chamber. The controller is configured to monitor the ion current for a knock condition that includes at least an incipient knock condition, determine a crank angle of the IC engine where the incipient knock occurs, and adjust timing of the IC engine to operate at a crank angle that does not exceed a threshold level beyond inception of incipient knock.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and system of allowing the user-defined code to be written in such a way as to be independent on the underlying transport yet still send and receive information via transport-specific artifacts. As such, a user may not be required to develop unique code for each different transport. A developer may set user-defined transport-agnostic properties and associated values without concerning an underlying transport. A deployer will provide an external mapping of those user-defined transport-agnostic properties to one or more specific transports which are to be supported. The system may allow new or different transports to be supported by the user-defined code without requiring the developer to change the user-defined code. Only the mapping information decoupled from the user-defined properties may need to be changed for different transports.