Abstract: A seat belt pretensioner for a seat belt device in a vehicle, the pretensioner including a frame, a ball housing attached to the frame and a drive wheel located within the ball housing. A spool is connected to the drive wheel and is fixed to one end of a seat belt webbing so that the webbing may be wound around the spool. The pretensioner further includes a pipe connected to the ball housing and a gas generator connected to the pipe. At least one power transmission element is carried in the pipe and is driven by gas provided from the gas generator to contact the drive wheel and rotate the spool to retract the seat belt. A seal member is located between the at least one power transmission element and the gas generator. The seal member is sized to plug the pipe at an inlet to the ball housing.

Abstract: A droplet generating system includes a reservoir configured to receive an organic fluid and an aqueous fluid, a barrier separating the reservoir into a first reservoir portion and a second reservoir portion, a tube, and an indexer. The barrier is capable of preventing the aqueous fluid from entering the second reservoir portion from the first reservoir portion. The tube is disposed near the barrier, and the tube has a microfluidic channel. The indexer guides the aqueous fluid and the organic fluid into the microfluidic channel so as to form droplets of the aqueous fluid.

Abstract: A pre-formed glazing unit for installation in an opening defined in a structure such as a shed, greenhouse or other temporary building comprises a face panel having a periphery enclosing the face panel and a mounting flange for attachment to an inward side of the structure around a peripheral edge of the opening in use, the mounting flange being connected to the periphery of the face panel by a connecting wall. The connecting wall is integrally formed with the face panel and the mounting flange and extends away from the mounting flange to space the face panel from the mounting flange in an outward direction. The face panel and/or a top panel of the connecting wall may be inclined and/or a bottom panel of the connecting wall may include a drip-inducing formation to direct water away from the structure in use. A double-glazed variant is also disclosed.

Abstract: Engineered nanoscale multicomponent particles are introduced and are called “quants.” Methods and apparatuses for producing such multicomponent nanoparticles are provided. A single quant can be manufactured to contain a variety of different internal component molecules. Likewise, a plurality of such quants may be manufactured wherein the plurality of quants are suspended in an aqueous solution. Typically, quants are produced in quantity and concentration adequate to support human scale therapeutics. In some embodiments, millions or billions of quants are suspended in a volume of aqueous solution for delivery to a patient. When manufactured to the same specification, the plurality of quants are uniform in size, uniform in chemical composition, and therefore uniform in functionality. Functional uniformity is an important aspect of quants, manifested in design and production.

Abstract: A vehicle control system comprising one or more controllers, the vehicle control system comprising a global power state and comprising at least two virtual machines being hosted on the one or more controllers wherein each virtual machine has a local power state, the vehicle control system configured to: receive a vehicle parameter signal indicative of a required global power state of the vehicle control system; and determine a local power state for each virtual machine in dependence on the received vehicle parameter signal; update a current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective determined local power state therefor.

Abstract: A seat belt pretensioner for a seat belt device in a vehicle, the pretensioner including a frame, a ball housing attached to the frame and a drive wheel located within the ball housing. A spool is connected to the drive wheel and is fixed to one end of a seat belt webbing so that the webbing may be wound around the spool. The pretensioner further includes a pipe connected to the ball housing and a gas generator connected to the pipe. At least one power transmission element is carried in the pipe and is driven by gas provided from the gas generator to contact the drive wheel and rotate the spool to retract the seat belt. A seal member is located between the at least one power transmission element and the gas generator. The seal member is sized to plug the pipe at an inlet to the ball housing.

Abstract: A seat belt system for restraining an occupant of a vehicle. The system includes a webbing and a pretensioner. A cable connects the webbing to the pretensioner. The pretensioner includes a housing, a gas generator, and an outer cylinder connected to the housing. A gas generator provides gases into a pressure chamber in the outer cylinder to drive a piston, an inner cylinder and the cable in a pretensioning direction. A sealing ring is located between the outer cylinder and inner cylinder. The sealing ring is configured to provide a seal to prevent the gases provided by the gas generator from passing. A deflector shield is located between the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder and closer to the pressure chamber than the sealing ring, wherein the deflector shield is configured to deflect the gases away from the sealing ring.

Abstract: A pretensioner for a seat belt device in a vehicle includes a cable connected to the seat belt device at a first end of the cable. The pretensioner also includes a base frame containing a pipe. A rod is located within the pipe, and one end of the rod is configured to be subjected to pressure from gas provided by a gas generator. A second end of the cable and a second end of the rod are connected to a swage block. The rod is configured to be driven within the pipe in the pretensioning direction by gas from the gas generator when the gas generator initiates in response to an acceleration of the vehicle greater than a predetermined high acceleration thereby causing the swage block to move and pull the cable to thereby cause a corresponding movement of the seat belt device.

Abstract: Engineered nanoscale multicomponent particles are introduced and are called “quants.” Methods and apparatuses for producing such multicomponent nanoparticles are provided. A single quant can be manufactured to contain a variety of different internal component molecules. Likewise, a plurality of such quants may be manufactured wherein the plurality of quants are suspended in an aqueous solution. Typically, quants are produced in quantity and concentration adequate to support human scale therapeutics. In some embodiments, millions or billions of quants are suspended in a volume of aqueous solution for delivery to a patient. When manufactured to the same specification, the plurality of quants are uniform in size, uniform in chemical composition, and therefore uniform in functionality. Functional uniformity is an essential aspect of quants, manifested in design and production.

Abstract: A system may comprise a group of processor cores configured to generate kernel-space threads in a kernel space and user-space threads in a user space of a Linux operating system. Each kernel-space thread may be executable by one of the processor cores to perform operations. For example, a kernel-space thread may receive a data packet transmitted from a client device via a network. The kernel-space thread may determine a particular communication channel assigned to a processor core that is executing the kernel-space thread. The kernel-space thread may determine if the data packet satisfies a condition based on information extracted from the data packet. In response to determining that the data packet does not satisfy the condition, the kernel-space thread may transmit data from the data packet via the particular communication channel to a user-space thread. The user-space thread may be configured to receive and process the data.

Abstract: A pre-formed glazing unit for installation in an opening defined in a structure such as a shed, greenhouse or other temporary building comprises a face panel having a periphery enclosing the face panel and a mounting flange for attachment to an inward side of the structure around a peripheral edge of the opening in use, the mounting flange being connected to the periphery of the face panel by a connecting wall. The connecting wall is integrally formed with the face panel and the mounting flange and extends away from the mounting flange to space the face panel from the mounting flange in an outward direction. The face panel and/or a top panel of the connecting wall may be inclined and/or a bottom panel of the connecting wall may include a drip-inducing formation to direct water away from the structure in use. A double-glazed variant is also disclosed.

Abstract: A new compound exhibiting particularly advantageous antibacterial properties, and having the structural formula: L-pyroglutamyl-L-1-aminoethyltetrazole (or N-(1-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)ethyl)-5-oxopyrrolidine-2-carboxamide). Also, the use of this compound in microbiological culture methods and media intended for the detection, identification, enrichment, counting and/or isolation of target microorganisms that may be encountered in samples taken for clinical diagnosis or microbiological health control purposes.

Abstract: A pretensioner for a seat belt device in a vehicle includes a cable connected to the seat belt device at a first end of the cable. The pretensioner also includes a base frame containing a pipe. A rod is located within the pipe, and one end of the rod is configured to be subjected to pressure from gas provided by a gas generator. A second end of the cable and a second end of the rod are connected to a swage block. The rod is configured to be driven within the pipe in the pretensioning direction by gas from the gas generator when the gas generator initiates in response to an acceleration of the vehicle greater than a predetermined high acceleration thereby causing the swage block to move and pull the cable to thereby cause a corresponding movement of the seat belt device.

Abstract: A seat belt system for protecting an occupant of a vehicle, the system having seat belt webbing connected to a seat belt retractor that includes (a) a frame; (b) a spool with the seat belt webbing wound around, wherein the spool is rotatably mounted to the frame and configured to rotate in a webbing extraction direction and a webbing retraction direction; (c) an energy absorbing device for absorbing energy when the spool is rotated in the webbing extraction direction after an emergency event has occurred; and (d) a mechanism for selectively cancelling the operation of the energy absorbing device by preventing motion of the spool in the webbing extraction direction.

Abstract: A droplet generating system includes a reservoir configured to receive an organic fluid and an aqueous fluid, a barrier separating the reservoir into a first reservoir portion and a second reservoir portion, a tube, and an indexer. The barrier is capable of preventing the aqueous fluid from entering the second reservoir portion from the first reservoir portion. The tube is disposed near the barrier, and the tube has a microfluidic channel. The indexer guides the aqueous fluid and the organic fluid into the microfluidic channel so as to form droplets of the aqueous fluid.

Abstract: An article for forming emulsion droplets includes a body having an inlet port, an outlet, and a reservoir configured to receive both an aqueous phase and an organic phase through the inlet port. By applying a force to the contents of the reservoir, an aqueous phase stream and a separate organic phase stream from the reservoir are generated and later combined to form emulsion droplets which are dispensed through the outlet, typically into a receptacle for analysis or further processing.

Abstract: A seat belt system for restraining an occupant of a vehicle. The system includes a webbing and a pretensioner. A cable connects the webbing to the pretensioner. The pretensioner includes a housing, a gas generator, and an outer cylinder connected to the housing. A gas generator provides gases into a pressure chamber in the outer cylinder to drive a piston, an inner cylinder and the cable in a pretensioning direction. A sealing ring is located between the outer cylinder and inner cylinder. The sealing ring is configured to provide a seal to prevent the gases provided by the gas generator from passing. A deflector shield is located between the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder and closer to the pressure chamber than the sealing ring, wherein the deflector shield is configured to deflect the gases away from the sealing ring.

Abstract: A seat belt pretensioner for a seat belt device in a vehicle, the pretensioner including a frame, a ball housing attached to the frame and a drive wheel located within the ball housing. A spool is connected to the drive wheel and is fixed to one end of a seat belt webbing so that the webbing may be wound around the spool. The pretensioner further includes a pipe connected to the ball housing and a gas generator connected to the pipe. At least one power transmission element is carried in the pipe and is driven by gas provided from the gas generator to contact the drive wheel and rotate the spool to retract the seat belt. A seal member is located between the at least one power transmission element and the gas generator. The seal member is sized to plug the pipe at an inlet to the ball housing.

Abstract: A seatbelt retractor for a seat belt device in a vehicle. The retractor includes a frame and a spool configured to be fixed to one end of a seat belt webbing so that the webbing may be wound around the spool. The spool is rotatably mounted at both ends to the frame and configured to rotate in a webbing extraction direction and a webbing retraction direction. The retractor includes a staged torsion bar positioned end to end in the spool along an axis of rotation of the spool. The retractor also includes a shift assembly to shift between the stages of the staged torsion bar. The shift assembly includes a shift link locked by a shift collar and a shift ring meshed in a shift plate.

Abstract: Technologies are provided for non-monotonic eventual convergence for desired state configuration (“DSC”). In some situations DSC cannot move toward a desired state without first moving further from that state. For example, a file that needs to be replaced with a newer version but that is currently executing (desired state of “operating”) cannot be replaced without first being stopped. But stopping moves in the wrong direction relative to the desired state, which is to have the service operating. This moving away so as to be able to move forward is a problem for conventional DSC systems that results in failures. The solution to this problem is non-monotonic eventual convergence (“NMEC”) which enables a DSC system to configure a target system for a desired state by moving further away from a desired state if that is needed to eventually reach the desired state.