Electronic dispensers and refill units for electronic dispensers. An exemplary electronic dispenser includes a housing, a processor and a first battery secured to the dispenser. The first battery provides power to the processor. The dispenser further includes actuator drive circuitry for causing the dispenser to move an actuator to dispense fluid from a refill unit. In addition, the dispenser includes a rechargeable energy storage device for providing power to the actuator drive circuitry. Circuitry for charging the rechargeable energy storage device is also provided. The dispenser includes a holder for holding a refill unit and a connector for releasably connecting to a second battery that is provided with the refill unit. The second battery is installed in the connector when a refill unit is installed in the dispenser and removed from the connector when the refill unit is removed from the dispenser.

Many touch free dispensers are powered by a plurality of batteries, such as 3-4 "D" or "C" size batteries. As the touch-free dispenser is used, the battery power is depleted and a maintenance worker must open up the dispenser and replace the batteries. This requires maintenance personnel to stock batteries and identify whether a touch-free dispenser has stopped working because the batteries need to be replaced or if there is another problem with the dispenser.

Power systems for touch free dispensers and refill units containing a power source


In a system and method for operating a system having a rectifier which is supplyable from an electric AC-voltage supply network, an inverter which feeds an electric motor, and a DC/DC converter which is connected to an energy accumulator, the DC-voltage side connection of the inverter is connected to the DC-voltage side connection of the rectifier, in particular, the electric motor is supplied from the AC-voltage side connection of the inverter, a first DC-voltage side connection of the DC/DC converter is connected to the DC-voltage side connection of the rectifier, in particular, the DC-voltage side connection of the inverter and the first DC-voltage side connection of the DC/DC converter are connected in parallel, the DC/DC converter has a housing in which a device for current acquisition is situated, which acquires either the current, in particular network phase currents, flowing into the rectifier at the AC-voltage side connection of the rectifier, or the current emerging from the rectifier at the DC-voltage side connection of the rectifier, and the acquired value is forwarded to a signal electronics situated in the housing of the DC/DC converter, which generates control signals for semiconductor switches of the DC/DC converter.

The rotational speed of a three-phase motor can be varied with the aid of an inverter by which it is supplied.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0137945 describes a lift control.
Japanese Patent Document No. H06-225458 describes a power control method.
PCT Patent Document No. WO 01/74699 describes a method for reducing the power of the network connection of lift systems.
German Patent Document No. 10 2013 006 964 describes a device for operating a system.

System and method for operating a system


A gate valve has a communication block with a communication passage and a valve unit having a valve plate movable between a partitioning position and an open position. A lower end part of the valve plate comes into pressurized contact with a surface of a band-shaped base material transferred through the communication passage between a first chamber and a second chamber. Due to a force of this pressurized contact, a back surface of the base material is seated on a seating surface provided in the communication passage. A groove is formed in the lower end of the valve plate, and a roller-shaped sealing member with a central shaft is inserted into the groove. Opening parts are formed in both axial side-wall surfaces of the groove such that the end parts of the central shaft of the sealing member are inserted into the opening parts and pivotally supported with a clearance.

This kind of gate valve device is known, e.g., in Patent Document 1. This gate valve device is provided with: a communication block (valve main body) having opened therethrough a communication passage which allows for communication between a first chamber and a second chamber; and a valve unit having a valve plate which is moveable forward and backward between a partitioning position in which the valve plate is seated on seating surfaces formed in the communication passage, thereby partitioning (i.e., closing) the communication passage, and an open position in which the valve plate is away from the seating surfaces, thereby opening the communication passage. The width of the communication passage is generally set depending on the width of an object to be transferred (e.g., a silicon substrate, a glass substrate) which is transferred between the first chamber and the second chamber. The plate length of the valve plate will accordingly be set. In addition, according to this arrangement, a plurality of shafts are vertically disposed on a lower surface of the valve plate at a distance from one another in the direction of plate length of the valve plate. Motive power of drive means such as air cylinders, motors, and the like is transmitted to each of the shafts, thereby causing the valve plate to move forward and backward. In this case, it is normal practice, e.g., to design the elements such as the number and the distance of the shafts to be disposed on the valve plate, as well as the power to be applied to each of the shafts so that, at the time of moving the valve plate from the open position to the partitioning position, the seal members disposed on the valve plate come into pressurized contact with the seating surfaces substantially uniformly (preferably substantially simultaneously) over the entire length of the sealing members.
It is to be noted here that, in the vacuum processing apparatus in which the above-mentioned gate valve device is generally used, there is a tendency in that the size of the substrate to be processed, as the object to be transferred, is getting larger and, in response to this tendency, the size of the vacuum processing apparatus, and consequently the size of the communication passage for the substrate to pass therethrough also are being changed in size. At this time, it is necessary to change (make longer) the plate length of the valve plate depending on the change in size of the communication passage. However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, there is a problem in that the construction of the gate valve device becomes complicated. By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional example, once the plate length of the valve plate has been changed, the above-mentioned elements will have to be reviewed so as to newly design them again. This brings about poor ease-of-use.


A photographic processor and method of operation is disclosed. The processor includes a circular drum and a disk positioned inside the drum. The disk comprises at least one set of teeth along an outer periphery thereof for engagement with perforations on film. The processor also includes a circular dryer for drying the processed film. The dryer extends around an outer periphery of the drum.

The present invention is directed to a photographic processor and method of operation.
Photographic processors come in a variety of shapes and sizes from large wholesale photographic processors to small micro-labs. As photographic processors become more and more technologically sophisticated, there is a continued need to make the photographic processor as user-friendly and as maintenance-free as possible.
Currently available photographic processors have one or more of the following shortcomings: (1) the film processing time is relatively high; (2) some photographic processors, because of their size, require a large amount of space; (3) some photographic processors may require an unacceptable amount of developing solution due to the design of the processing tank; and (4) some photographic processor generate an unacceptable amount of developing solution waste due to the design of the processing tank.
What is needed in the art is a portable photographic processor, which provides exceptional print quality while requiring a minimal number of tasks necessary for an operator to process a roll of film. What is also needed in the art is a portable photographic processor, which is designed to efficiently process a roll of film while minimizing the amount of waste generated during the photographic process.
The present invention addresses some of the difficulties and problems discussed above by the discovery of a novel, compact, and portable photographic processor having an internal drum design, which minimizes the chemicals required to process a roll of film and consequently minimizes the amount of waste generated per roll of film processing. The photographic processor is extremely user-friendly and low maintenance.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a photographic processor and a method of processing film using the photographic processor. The present invention is further directed to individual processor components within the photographic processor, such as the drum itself, the film loading system, and other components.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent after a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and the appended claims.

Photographic processor and method of operation


A method and arrangement for determining the level of at least two measurement points with a light beam direct along a first direction and being deflected through 90° with respect to the first direction to a second direction, the second direction being rotated through a rotation angle corresponding to the position of the measurement point about an axis which is formed by the first direction. The light beam has a cross-sectional intensity distribution with a preferred direction, and after being deflected to the second direction, falls on a detector surface which is positioned successively at each measurement point, the incidence level of the light beam and the orientation of the preferred direction of the cross-section intensity distribution of the light beam on the detector surface being determined for each measurement point, and the rotation angle for each measurement point being determined from the respective orientation of the preferred direction on the detector surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement using a detector surface and a light source for determination of the level of two or more measurement points, a light beam being produced along a first direction, the light beam being deflected through 90° with respect to the first direction to a second direction, with the second direction being rotated through a rotation angle corresponding to the position of the measurement point about an axis which is formed by the first direction.
2. Description of Related Art
A method and an arrangement of the generic type described above are known from Japanese patent publications JP 2000-46551 and JP 2000-213937, respectively, with the beam direction of a laser being steered accurately in a desired azimuth rotation direction. For this purpose, the beam of a laser diode which is emitted vertically upwards is deflected through 90° by means of a pentagonal prism. The pentagonal prism rotates the laser beam in a plane at right angles to the emission direction. An encoder with a round encoder plate is used in order to determine the respective rotation angle of this rotation, and the rotation angle is evaluated via an encoder sensor. In order to determine the position of a measurement point in this way, its height z above a horizontal reference plane (for example, the rotation plane of the laser beam) must be determined by means of an additional measurement method, using cylindrical coordinates, and its radial distance from a vertical reference axis (for example, the emission axis of the laser) must be determined by means of a further measurement method.

Method for determination of the level of two or more measurement points, and an arrangement for this purpose


Instantiable gesture object techniques are described in which native gesture functionality is abstracted to applications using a script-based recognition interface. Gesture objects may be instantiated for different interaction contexts at the direction of applications programmed using dynamic scripting languages. Gesture objects can be configured to designate particular touch contacts and/or other inputs to consider for gesture recognition and a target element of content to which corresponding recognized gestures are applicable. After creation, gesture objects manage gesture processing operations on behalf of the applications including creating recognizers with the native gesture system, feeding input data for processing, and transforming raw gesture data into formats appropriate for the application and/or a target element. Accordingly, script-based applications may use the gesture objects to offload processing tasks associated with gesture recognition and take advantage of native gesture functionality.

The number and types of gestures that are supported by computing devices as a way for users to interact with content is ever increasing. Users may expect supported gestures to be available for various different applications and content interactions throughout the user experience. Traditionally, though, natively supported gesture functionality may require complex configuration, which makes it difficult or cost prohibitive for some developers to incorporate gestures in their applications. Additionally, native gesture functionality in existing systems may be limited or entirely unavailable for "modern" applications and/or content that employ dynamic scripting languages, such as JavaScript and HTML.


Heat-equalizing rotation of a fixing member and a pressing member for equalizing the distribution of the temperature of a surface of the fixing member in a width direction is performed after a recording medium having a size less than or equal to a predetermined size in the width direction passes a nip portion and before a recording medium having a size greater than the predetermined size in the width direction passes the nip portion. Further, a termination condition of the heat-equalizing rotation is selected from among a plurality of different kinds of termination conditions, based on image formation related information related to next image formation performed after the heat-equalizing rotation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a fixing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a fixing device used in an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile, or an MFP including any of these, a device including a belt-shaped or film-shaped fixing member having an endlessly moving surface and having lower heat capacity, and a heat source for heating the fixing member has been known (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-334205, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-233011, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-032625, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-217257). The provision of the fixing member with lower heat capacity can drastically reduce the energy required for heating the fixing member and shorten the warm-up time or first printing time. Here, the warm-up time refers to the time required for increasing the temperature of the fixing member when powered on, for example, from normal temperature to a predetermined printable temperature (reload temperature). The first printing time refers to the time after the reception of a printing request through printing preparation and printing operation until the completion of discharge of paper.
In the conventional fixing device described above, for surely heating a recording medium such as paper to which an image is transferred, a wider range of the fixing member is heated than a range of the fixing member where the printing medium passing a nip portion is in contact in a width direction orthogonal to the surface moving direction. Then, the temperature rise in a part of the range where the surface of the fixing member is heated, that is not in contact with the recording medium, i.e., a portion that corresponds to the outside of both ends of the recording medium in a width direction thereof becomes larger than that in a portion that is in contact with the recording medium; thus, a high-temperature portion having high temperature is formed locally on the surface of the fixing member. The high-temperature portion on the surface of the fixing member is easily formed particularly in the fixing device in which the fixing member with an endless belt form is directly heated as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-233011. The formation of the high-temperature portion on the surface of the fixing member might causes the fixing failure such as a hot-offset image or gloss unevenness when the passage of a recording medium with small width is followed by the passage of a recording medium with large width through a nip portion.
Meanwhile, in the image forming apparatus including the fixing device, there has been a request for shortening the image forming time required for forming an image on the recording medium.
Therefore, there is a need for an image forming apparatus that is capable of preventing the occurrence of fixing failure due to the inhomogeneous distribution of temperature of the fixing member in a width direction of the recording medium, which is orthogonal to a recording medium conveying direction, and is capable of shortening the image forming time required for forming the images on these recording media in the case where an image is formed on a recording medium with a size in the width direction, at a nip portion of the fixing device, less than or equal to a predetermined size, and then, an image is formed on a recording medium with the size in the width direction larger than the predetermined size.


The air mixing device, for use in an air conditioning apparatus or a vehicle heater system as a flow control device which consists of at least two flap members, the flap members being mutually independently movable between first and second positions in which they respectively obturate first and second air inlet openings.

An air conditioning apparatus for a motor vehicle conventionally includes an air mixing chamber having two inlets, one for cooled air directly received from an evaporator and the other for heated air which has been passed over a heater core. A so-called "blend door" device pivots between a first position in which it substantially closes the first opening and a second position in which it substantially closes the second opening. Controls, such as hand-operated controls, set the position of the blend door either to one of the first or second positions, or to an intermediate position.
The air conditioning apparatus also has a number of outlets from the air mixing chamber, the outlets being connected via suitable conduits to different parts of the vehicle cabin, for example to the drivers side and to the passengers side.
A disadvantage of the known apparatus is that different temperatures exist within the air mixing chamber and thus that depending upon the location of the outlet within the chamber, different temperatures may be delivered to different parts of the vehicle cabin. The reason for the differing temperatures in the air mixing chamber lies in the different flow properties of the heated and the cooled air. Referring to FIG. 1, it will be seen that the cooled air arrives at a mixing chamber directly from the evaporator, whereas the heated air also emanates from the evaporator, but then passes through the heater core, which restricts air flow.
It will therefore be clear to one skilled in the art that with the conventional device the effect of the cooled air will predominate, at least on the left hand side, as shown in FIG. 1.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate the above-mentioned difficulties.


The invention relates to a local communication network between a mobile telephone and a fixed-line telephone through a relay antenna and a connection for data transmission, connecting the antenna to a fixed radio-frequency station. The transmission connection is a wireless transmission connection at a radio frequency.

In known systems of this type coaxial cables are used as the data transmission link. The use of coaxial cables has a major problem in that construction of the installation is subject to strict constraints which entail, in general, the deployment of a group of receivers for the placement of the coaxial cables and an operation test. In addition, testing a fixed station antenna necessitates the use of highly expensive materials which are difficult to transport. These known systems are furthermore subject to other kinds of constraints having to do with the physical installation of a fixed set with respect to the antenna which must be within a 30-meter perimeter and which depends on the power source as well as the presence of carriers in the area where the system is installed. As a result, known systems, especially owing to the use of coaxial cables, are difficult to put into operation and costly.

Mobile telephone network for communication between two communication sets


The present invention relates to an urchin-like iron oxide and a method for producing the urchin-like iron oxide. The urchin-like iron oxide comprises a core and multiple needle-like elongations protruded from the core. The needle-like elongations could be wire, rod, tube, cone, and flake. The length/width ratio of the needle-like elongation is high enough to apply in an optoelectronic field. The method in accordance with the present invention is to stably heat an iron-contained powder under room temperature by a thermal oxidation. The surface of the iron-contained powder is slow oxidized to form an urchin-like iron oxide with multiple uniform distributed needle-like elongations protruded from the surface. The size of each needle-like elongation is easily adjusted and changed by controlling the heating temperature. The method has advantages of simplified operation and lowered expense.

Iron oxide, such as iron (III) oxide, is a popular material for producing an N-type semiconductor. Iron oxide has features of toxic-free property, light stability, and great shield capability and is widely applied in coating, catalytic, electrochemical and bioengineering fields. However, the electrochemical properties of iron oxide will be significantly affected by the particle size, pore structure and form of an iron oxide particle.
The iron oxide particle might be spheral shaped and a size on a nano or micro scale. Some researchers also try to produce screw or urchin-like shaped iron oxide. Methods for producing specific iron oxides include a hydrothermal synthesis and a template technique. The hydrothermal synthesis uses a metallic oxide to form a metal-surfactant precursor by reacting with a surfactant under a water-free environment. Then the metal-surfactant precursor is acted with an additive and some water so that the surfactant is self-arranged spontaneously and the metallic oxide undergoes a hydrolysis and poly-condensation process to form an urchin-like iron oxide (Du and Cao, 2008). The template technique uses a micro spheral-shaped sulfonate polystyrene as a hard template. The sulfonate polystyrene reacts with an iron-containing solution in a hydrothermal condition to form an urchin-shaped iron oxide. The final step is to remove the template by a sintering process.
The urchin-like iron oxides in accordance with the above mentioned methods are merely urchin-shaped in geometry without uniform needle-arrangement. Otherwise, the process of the hydrothermal synthesis and the template formation of the template technique are highly complex so that the production cost will be increased. The above two methods also have the disadvantage of limiting operation requirements such as specific atmosphere control or solution formulation. Accordingly, it is difficult to precisely control multiple parameters of the iron oxide and to form a standardized urchin-like product.

Urchin-like iron oxide and a method for producing the urchin-like iron oxide


Systems and methods of Planckian and non-Planckian dimming of solid state light sources are disclosed. For a given first range of correlated color temperature values on the 1931 CIE Chromaticity Diagram, the current through a plurality of solid state light sources is adjusted so that the light output thereby follows the correlated color temperature values relating to the black body curve over that given first range. For a given second range of correlated color temperature values, the current through a plurality of solid state light sources is adjusted so that the light output thereby deviates from black body curve and instead relates to a series of coordinates that tracks a line between the curve and a color point for one of the solid state light sources.

A conventional light source, such as a halogen lamp or an incandescent lamp, when dimmed, acts like a near exact black body radiator and follows the Planckian curve on the 1931 CIE Chromaticity Diagram. For example, a conventional halogen lamp at its maximum output may output light having a color temperature of 2600K. As that halogen lamp is dimmed, the current running through its tungsten filament is reduced, resulting in a lower, warmer color temperature (e.g., 2000K). Because such dimming results in more red light being included in the output of the lamp, such dimming is typically known as red dimming.
As solid state light sources become more widely used, lighting designers and lighting consumers desire that the solid state light sources behave similarly to conventional light sources. Unlike a halogen lamp, however, as a solid state light source is dimmed, it typically holds its color temperature. This has been overcome to a degree by using a color mixing technique. For example, a solid state light source that generates white light and a solid state light source that generates orange/red light (e.g., 590 nm or substantially 590 nm) may both be placed inside a lighting device. At maximum output, only the white light-generating solid state light source is on. As the output is dimmed, the orange/red light-generating solid state light source is turned on and its intensity is increased, with a corresponding decrease in the white light-generating solid state light source. This mimics the effect of red dimming and the color temperature of the dimmed light output exactly, or nearly exactly, follows the Planckian curve.

Planckian and non-planckian dimming of solid state light sources


A system and method is provided for enabling venue-to-venue communication. A message is sent from a messaging device located in a first venue. The system receives the message via a communications network. The system transmits the message via the communications network to a local venue exchange associated with a second venue. The message is presented to an audience present at the second venue.

The following description of the background of the invention is provided simply as an aid in understanding the invention and is not admitted to describe or constitute prior art to the invention.
The present invention relates generally to the field of audience interaction systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to audience messaging systems.
Methods for sending electronic messages such as the short message service (SMS) or text messaging allows a user to send simple text messages from a mobile device, computer or handheld device to a recipient device such as a mobile phone. FIG. 1 illustrates a general communications architecture for mobile device to mobile device messaging. When a text message is sent from a mobile device 10 it is first received by a mobile switching center (MSC) 20. The MSC 20 then forwards the message to a short message service center (SMSC) 30. The SMSC 30 routes SMS messages within a wireless provider's network. The text message is saved at the SMSC and then forwarded to a second MSC 40 associated with the recipient device 50 which then routes the text message to a recipients mobile device 50. SMS messages are stored by the SMSC until the destination device is available to receive the message. Thus, the save and forward capability of the SMSC guarantees deliver of the SMS message.
Text messaging is an increasingly popular communication method. Several commercial applications for text messaging exist. For example, companies use broadcast text messages to send information to multiple consumers. Text messaging is used by television programs to allow viewers to participate in interactive polls. In addition, venues for concerts and sporting events use displays such as giant screens, "JUMBOTRONS®, "ribbon boards", video displays in the venue, electronic marquees and scoreboards to display text messages sent from audience members. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary communication architecture for a conventional venue messaging system. A user sends a message on her mobile device 10 to a number associated with the venue's display 80. The message is transmitted to a MSC 20 which routs the message to a SMSC 30. The SMSC 30 stores the message and then routes the message to a message server 60. The message server 60 passes the message through a content filter 70. The filtered message is then shown on the venue display 80.
It is common for multiple events such as concerts or sporting events to occur at different venues at the same time. Thus, a system and method is desired that will allow an audience member located in one venue to send a message to be displayed to audience members attending a different event at a separate venue.

System and method for venue-to-venue messaging


Methods and systems for computing what a healthcare organization charged for a procedure, based on analysis of MedPAR data.

For a healthcare organization, such as a hospital, competitor pricing information is useful competitive intelligence. One source for such pricing information is MedPAR data, which is based on information reported by healthcare organizations to the government, and thusly made available to the public for a fee. For various reasons, MedPAR data often has several or many charge amounts associated with a particular procedure for a particular healthcare organization.


The invention provides a general illumination luminaire comprising one or more adjustable light modules. In particular, the luminaire generally comprises one or more light modules, each one of which comprising one or more light-emitting elements, and optionally comprising a heat sink in thermal contact therewith and output optics for managing light output from the one or more light emitting elements. In general, the light modules are adjustably coupled to the luminaire via a coupling structure that provides one or more adjustment mechanisms for adjusting the orientation of the light modules for adjusting an output directionality of the luminaire, while substantially maintaining the spatial profile of the luminaire.

Advances in the development and improvements of the luminous flux of light-emitting devices such as solid-state semiconductor and organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have made these devices suitable for use in general illumination applications, including architectural, entertainment, and roadway lighting. Light-emitting diodes are becoming increasingly competitive with light sources such as incandescent, fluorescent, and high-intensity discharge lamps.
One challenge common to all light sources, and particularly to all light sources used in general and specific illumination applications wherein the visual appearance and/or aesthetics of a given light source may be of importance, or at least of interest, resides in the conceptual, configurational and/or architectural design of a light source which provides adequate lighting for the application while generating minimal visual clutter. In other words, a specific or general purpose light source used in a given environment, such as a luminaire, or the like, should provide adequate lighting while remaining visually pleasing within the context of the given environment.
One type of light source which provides particular challenges in this context are light sources configured to provide an adjustable output, namely with regards to directionality and shape. For instance, various currently available light sources provide such adjustments to the directionality and/or shape of an output beam, but do not provide adequate solutions for providing a visually and aesthetically pleasing design that reduces visual clutter.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,077 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,363 describe lighting devices having an adjustable lamp direction and output beam width. A reflector and discharge or arc lamp are mounted to an adjustable mount for tilting and panning the lighting device while a position of the lamp is further adjustable relative to the reflector along an optical axis thereof to adjust the output beam width.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,945,671 describes a similar light source mounted on a pivoting support, wherein fluorescent tubes are disposed within a concave reflector at any one of three positions along an optical axis thereof to select a desired output beam width.
Also, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,354 a lamp fixture is described to include a lamp fixedly mounted within an adjustable domed reflector configured to pivot relative to a base of the fixture to direct light in a selected direction.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,395 a lighting device is described to comprise two lamp assemblies, each having a respective lamp and output lens, which are adjustably mounted to a base unit via respective internal tracks that allow for the independent orientation of each lamp assembly relative to the base unit. Rotation of a bezel fixedly holding the output lens of a given light assembly moves this output lens relative to the lamp thereby adjusting an output beam width.
Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,876 a variable beam flashlight is described to include a lamp axially movable relative to a fixed output lens, thereby also allowing adjustment of an output beam width.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,907,648 and 6,200,011, luminaires are described to include a light source, such as a lamp or optical fibre assembly, which is moveable relative to a fixed output lens to selectively control output directionality and beam width.
Similarly, in United States Patent Application No. 2005/0018434 a positional luminaire is described to include one or more LEDs moveable via an X, Y and/or Z translation relative to an output lens to again adjust an output directionality and beam width.
Furthermore, other currently available light sources providing an adjustable output have been developed for the automobile industry. One example of an adjustable automobile light source is provided in United States Patent Application No. 2006/0023461 wherein an angle and direction of a light beam generated by a vehicle's spot lights are adjusted for driving conditions and circumstances.
The above examples, however, are generally mainly focused on the adjustability of a light source's output, primarily via a displacement of the light source's lighting element relative to the light source's output optics, while providing little or no attention to its general structural, configurational and/or architectural disposition, and/or overall visual or aesthetic impact on its environment.
Furthermore, typical luminaires, such as track light fixtures and the like, must change shape or spatial position in order to change the direction of the projected light beam. For example, the result of aiming a row of track heads on a track light may generate significant visual clutter, illustratively described as "Dead Bats" by architects and designers.
Consequently, there is a need for an improved light source, such as a luminaire or the like, that addresses some of the drawbacks of known sources.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the invention.

Luminaire comprising adjustable light modules


Determining an impact of an event identified in a first topic map meta-model will have on at least one asset identified in a second topic map meta-model representative of weight. A third topic map meta-model is created which maps at least one asset from the second topic map meta-model to an event from the first topic map meta-model and is comprised of: a topic map representation of assets of the second topic map meta-model and events of the first topic map meta-model, a topic map based index with instance ontology of the first and second topic map meta-models, identification of at least one association between an event identified in the first topic map meta-model and at least one asset identified in the second topic map meta-model; and weight assigned to the at least one association.

Manufacturing based companies have enormous investments in assets that are part of the operational processes that drive their business. Optimizing the use of those assets is critical to a company's operational effectiveness and therefore its bottom line.
The equipment or assets that run the manufacturing or production processes are generally connected to servers or controllers to generate operational data that can be used to monitor the manufacturing or production process. Typically, companies will collect the operational data and perform operational analysis to provide immediate performance characteristics that can often be represented in dashboards, score sheets, or reports. Information models can be used to represent how assets are deployed and the relationships between assets such as connections, associations or containment. Armed with both the model information and the "real time" operational data, organizations can perform current or future condition analyses on assets and asset groups.
Similarly, organizations may use event models to understand relationships between events within their physical infrastructure. These event models may be explicitly defined, or they could be implicit in the deployment of business operational processes. These processes could be programmatic, rule based, or supplied by a knowledge expert. But independent of how they are manifested, they represent relationships between events that occur within the operational process. For example, the event model would be able to tell a customer what response needs to occur if a critical piece of equipment is operating over a specific threshold, for example running too hot or consuming too much power.

Semantic mapping of topic map meta-models identifying assets and events to include weights

International Business Machines Corporation


A roller includes an outer cylindrical portion and an inner cylindrical portion arranged concentrically with the outer cylindrical portion. A plurality of connection spokes are provided for connecting the outer cylindrical portion and the inner cylindrical portion to each other, wherein each of the connection spokes are connected along a non-linear connection path with respect to an axis extending between the outer cylindrical portion and the inner cylindrical portion of the roller to provide a tunable spring constant in the roller.

Media processors such as printers utilize many components to control how media such as paper is guided though the printers during a printing process. Such printing components can include a feed system having rollers to initially guide the media toward a print zone where a print head applies ink on to the media, or where an image is transferred to the media. Rollers for guiding media in the printer can serve different functions. A retard roller is required in a document feeder (e.g., ADF, sheet feeder) to work in conjunction with a separation roller to help separate a single sheet of media to be fed from a small stack of media. The retard roller should have the friction, wear life, torsional stiffness, low compression set, and compression deflection characteristics to meet product performance needs. The compression deflection characteristic allows the roller to deform significantly when pressed against the separation roller to increase the contact area with the separation roller. The increased contact area provides a distance within which several sheets of paper (or other media) are separated so that only one sheet is fed through the printer.

HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.


A computer controlled all-in-one reel mower sharpener and roller alignment system can be rolled under a mower to be conditioned. No removal of the cutting unit is needed. A linear voltage displacement transducer (LVDT 715 or a mechanical dial indicator 7155; alternatively a friction wheel 7150 with a rotary encoder 7151 may be used, or any combination of sensors 715, 7155, 7151) or equivalent instructs the machinist how to align the front and rear rollers in parallel. A laser scanner or probe determines the location for the cutter, and then the machining head sharpens each blade automatically. A separate cutter sharpens the bed knife. Most all mowers can be conditioned based on the laser or probe calibration of the blade size. The laser or probe measures the height of cut by sensing the blade location.

Maintaining golf course grass is a science. A clean cut on each blade of grass is preferred because a ragged cut stunts growth and weakens the grass. When the grass is weakened it becomes prone to disease. Diseased grass is attacked by weeds. When weeds develop costly chemicals are needed to kill the weeds. In order to cut the grass cleanly, reel mower blades need to be sharpened frequently. Most prior art sharpening systems require removing the reels from the mower frame to perform the sharpening process. This removal and re-installation of the reel blades is costly in terms of labor costs as well as downtime for the expensive power lawnmower.
A brief summary of the prior art sharpeners follows below. Dieck et al. '581 claims to perform both the "true" grind of the reel tips and the "relief" grind of the trailing edge of each blade without the removal of the reel from the mower.
U.S. Pat. No. Re 28,200 (1974) to W. E. Witt et al. discloses a reel lawnmower sharpener, wherein a motorized grinder is mounted to the frame to sharpen the blades.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,158 (1979) to Hewitt discloses a lathe-type machine, which receives the frame of a reel mower, and mechanically grinds each blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,345 (1979) to Meili discloses a rotary lawnmower sharpener.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,103 (1980) to Sousek discloses a reel lawnmower grinder that has an automatic indexing device to advance the cutter reel blades into the grinder.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,591 (1984) to Bolin discloses a portable, ground mounted motorized grinder on a frame which can connect to the underside of a reel type mower.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,532 (1985) to Fletcher, Jr. et al. discloses a robotic grinder for grinding an elongated blank.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,330 (1988) to Johnson discloses a reel mower blade sharpener with a pulley system to rotate the blades in synch with the sharpener.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,617 (1991) to Winstanley discloses in FIG. 4 a reel mower blade assembly mounted on a dual purpose grinder for sharpening both the rotating blades and the fixed bottom blades.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,912 (1994) to Neary et al. discloses a tabletop spin grinder for a reel type mower, wherein the perfect cylindrical shape of the blade is assured.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,224 (1999) to Pilger discloses a tabletop grinder for a reel mower, with an automatic blade indexer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,508 (1996) to Searle et al. discloses a tabletop grinder for a reel mower, with an indexer and a dampening mechanism to minimize grinding vibrations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,415 (1998) to Bernhard discloses a portable grinder for the bed knife or bottom blade of a reel mower.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,394 (2000) to Dieck et al. discloses a tabletop reel grinder with sophisticated blade indexing to reduce manual adjustments after initial first blade setup.
U.K. Patent No. 2 170 740 A (1986) discloses a tabletop reel grinder with a single hydraulic actuator for the traverse means for the grinder and the blade rotator is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,581 B1 (2001) to Dieck et al. is assigned to Foley-Belsaw Company. The invention features a tabletop grinder for a reel blade. Both the "true" grind and the "relief" grind steps and automatic indexing are provided. A mechanical sensor (FIG. 7, 42) senses the blade position which controls the vertical positioning of the grinding head.
Each reel has a front and a rear roller which need to be parallel and set to a proper height. All known methods are manual to align these rollers.
Height adjustments for a golf course are complex. Generally the deep rough is set at 1½ to 2 inches. The intermediate rough is set at 1 to ¼ inch. The fairway is set at ½ to 1 inch. The greens are set at 3/32– 3/16 inch. The tees are set from 3/16–½ inch. Height adjustments are set to 0.001 inch for precision.
The present invention is rolled under a power lawnmower which is usually lifted on a power lift. No removal of the cutting units is necessary. A laser or a mechanical probe, an encoder, and a cutter based system is operated by the machinist using an on-board computer controller. The rollers are aligned using the encoder. The reel blades are sharpened using a machining head with end cutter. The bed knife is sharpened using the machining head with back facing cutter. The height adjustment is measured by the laser scanner or encoder probe to the exacting requirements of each height setting. Additionally the reel cylinder axis is measured by the laser scanner or encoder probe.
The overall benefits to the golf course owner are a very precisely conditioned reel mower which reduces costs to maintain the grass. The precise conditioning is also achieved in less time, thus reducing maintenance costs for the golf course. The system offers benefits to any grass mowing maintenance operation.


A control device executes an overlap injection operation, in which one of the plurality of injectors is energized first to inject fuel, and a next one of the plurality of injectors is energized to inject fuel after starting of the energization of the one of the plurality of injectors while the one of the plurality of injectors is still kept energized. The control device corrects an energization period of the next one of the injectors by lengthening the energization period of the next one of the injectors in comparison to a normal energization period of the next one of the injectors, which is set for a non-overlap injection operation of the next one of the plurality of injectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel injection system having a plurality of injectors, and particularly to a fuel injection system that executes an overlap injection operation, in which one of a plurality of injectors is energized first to inject fuel, and a next one of the injectors is energized after starting of the energization of the one of the injectors while the one of the injectors is still kept energized.
2. Description of Related Art
In one previously proposed fuel injection system, a large electric energy (high voltage) is stored in a charge capacitor. At the time of operating an injector, the electric energy, which has been stored in the charge capacitor, and electric energy, which is supplied from a constant-current circuit, are applied to a solenoid valve of the injector to improve response of the solenoid valve and thereby to improve the response of the injector (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H07-71639).
It has been demanded to perform multiple injections (e.g., pilot injection m1, pre-injection m2, main injection m3 and after-injection m4, which are similar to those depicted in FIG. 2) per compression and expansion cycle of each cylinder to limit engine vibration and engine noise, to purify exhaust gas and to achieve high engine power and low fuel consumption at good balance.
Also, for the purpose of purifying the exhaust gas, it has been also demanded to perform one or more fuel injections (post-injection p1, which is similar to one depicted in FIG. 2) after combustion of the fuel in each corresponding cylinder.
With reference to FIG. 2, one of the multiple injections (e.g., the pilot injection m1) of one of the cylinders and the post injection p1 of another one of the cylinders may overlap with one another to perform an overlap injection operation.
In the overlap injection operation, as discussed above, one of the injectors (hereinafter referred to as an injector A or a former one of the overlapping injectors) is energized first to inject fuel, and a next one of the injectors (hereinafter, referred to as an injector B or a latter one of the overlapping injectors) is energized after starting of the energization of the one of injectors while the one of the injectors is still kept energized. As shown in FIG. 1A, it is conceivable to provide a plurality of charge capacitors in a charge circuit of an injector drive circuit. One of the charge capacitors supplies electric energy to the injector A, and another one of the charge capacitors supplies electric energy to the injector B. In this way, the high voltage is supplied to the injections A, B from the different charge capacitors, respectively.
A ground (GND) of the injector drive circuit is common to all of the injectors. Thus, the electric potential of the ground is increased right after application of the electric energy to the injector A. Thus, when the electric energy is supplied to the injector B right after the application of the electric energy to the injector A, the discharge current of the charge capacitor at the time of energizing the injector B is reduced. More specifically, the electric current supplied to the injector B is reduced.
When the discharge current of the charge capacitor is reduced at the time of energizing the injector B, the valve opening response of the injector B is reduced to reduce the accuracy of the injection amount in the injector B.
Due to the above described reason, the overlap injection operation has been avoided.
However, due to the diversification of fuel injection (e.g., the above multiple injections) and/or adaptation of the post processing system (e.g., the above post-injection), there is a strong demand for the overlap injection operation.

Fuel injection system executing overlap injection operation


The invention relates to belt (1) for a conveyor. The inventive belt is made of rubber or a plastic similar to rubber and is provided with incorporated traction carriers (2) in the form of cables or cords that are made of steel. The inventive conveyor belt comprises, in relation to its total width (B), a center part (A) and two side parts (Axe2x80x2). The invention is characterized in that the center part (A) is interchangeable as a result of a joint (4) between both side parts (1xe2x80x2). Various embodiments of said joint (1) are described.

The invention relates to a conveyor belt made of rubber or a plastic material similar to rubber, with embedded traction carriers in particular in the form of cables or cords which, in turn, particularly are made of steel, whereby the conveyor belt comprises with respect to its total width a center part and two side parts (DE-A-44 33 755; DE-A-44 36 042).
The center part of a conveyor belt is, in the normal case, stressed to a higher degree than the two side parts. Now, when the center part was worn or damaged, it was necessary heretofore, as a rule, to replace the entire conveyor belt, whereas it was possible to continue to use other parts of the conveyor installation.
Laid-open patent DE-B-1 148 81 describes a hose conveyor belt installation in connection with which it is possible, in a reversed way, to replace the longitudinal profiled stripsxe2x80x94which are susceptible to wearxe2x80x94by means of detachable pull-out elements, whereas the conveyor belt is used further.
Now, with the conveyor belt as defined by the invention and characterized in claim 1, it is possible to remove a worn or damaged center part of a conveyor belt and to replace said center part by a new one, using a joint. The two side parts, however, are used further without being replaced.
With respect to the joint between the center part and the two side parts of the conveyor belt, use is advantageously made of the following variations:
Variation I
The center part is mechanically joined with the two side parts, specifically on the basis of a plug-groove principle. The design variations that are useful in this regard are described as follows:
The plug-groove principle is realized in such a way that the groove and the corresponding plug part are aligned in the direction of the carrying (top) side or running (bottom) side of the conveyor belt. The groove and the corresponding plug part each have a substantial trapezoidal cross sectional shape, or said parts change into each other substantially in the form of a wave.
Reinforcing materials consisting of steel or synthetic materials are advantageously present within the zone of the joint. The reinforcement may be an angle-shaped part that extends in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt, such shaped part being usefully made from steel fabric. Another possibility is to realize the reinforcement in such a way that it consists of at least one cable or cord extending in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt.
The plug-groove principle is realized in such a way that the groove and the corresponding plug part are aligned in the direction of the center part or side parts, preferably in the direction of the center part. The groove and the corresponding plug part extend in this connection substantially in the form of a wedge, whereby the deepest point of the groove or the peak of the plug part are approximately located at the level of the center plane of the conveyor belt, said plane extending parallel with the carrying or running side of the conveyor belt.
Irrespective of the possibilities introduced above for realizing the joint, the effectiveness of the mechanical joint of the center part with the two side parts can be increased within the zone of the joint by means of cold gluing or hot vulcanization.
Variation II
The joint of the center part with the two side parts is produced by means of a groove, which is located within the zone of the joint and extends from the carrying and/or running side of the conveyor belt in the direction of the center plane of the conveyor belt, said center plane extending parallel with the carrying or running side, whereby the groove is filled with a compound that can be vulcanized. The groove advantageously extends substantially in the form of a wedge.
Entirely irrespective of the variations introduced above, the conveyor belt as defined by the invention is usefully characterized also by the following design possibilities:
The joint between the center part and the two side parts is designed in such a way that a smooth surface is produced in the site of the joint in relation to the carrying side and the running side of the conveyor belt.
The center part has a width amounting to 0.3 to 0.8 times the overall width of the conveyor belt.
The traction carriers are located either in the two side parts or in the center part. The traction carriers are advantageously arranged exclusively in the two side parts, whereas the center part, which is substantially free of traction carriers, has an embedded conveyor belt carrier that particularly consists of a fabric. The number of fabric layers of the conveyor belt amounts to between 1 and 6. Polyamide, polyester, synthetic silk (rayon), rayon, cotton, aramide or steel are used as materials for said fabric; however, a fabric consisting of a mixture of said materials can be employed as well.


A light emitting unit may include a housing having a bottom portion parallel to an xz plane and an opened top opposite to the bottom portion, a light emitting chip on the bottom portion and generating light, and a lens which overlaps the opened top of the housing. The lens may have a convex structure with respect to the xz plane when viewed from a cross section parallel to an xy plane and a concave structure with respect to the xz plane when viewed from a cross section parallel to a yz plane.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed herein relates to light emitting units, backlight assemblies including the same, and methods of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to light emitting units used in display devices, backlight assemblies including the same, and methods of manufacturing the same.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a display device may include a display panel, a backlight unit providing light to the display panel, and a chassis fixing the display panel and the backlight unit. The backlight unit may include a light emitting unit generating light, and a light guide plate guiding the light generated from the light emitting unit to the display panel. The light emitting unit may be generally provided in a plural number, and the plurality of the light emitting units may provide the light to the light guide plate. Various researches have been conducted for improving performance of the light irradiated to the light guide plate.

Light emitting unit, backlight assembly including the same, and method of manufacturing the same


A printing system for printing a repeated pattern of esthetical and/or informative character on a substrate including a plurality of parallel webs is provided. The printing system comprises at least two overlapping non-impact printer units, each of which having a lateral elongation defining a maximum printing width, and a controller connected to each one of the printer units and configured to set an actual printing width extending between a start position and an end position of the lateral elongation, wherein the controller is configured to determine the actual printing width by receiving the lateral position of a non-printed area defined by the interface between two adjacent webs of the substrate and located laterally somewhere in the overlap between two printer units, such that the end position of a first printer unit and the start position of an overlapping printer unit is located within the non-printed area.

Different techniques for industrial printing on a paper-based material are well known. For some purposes it may be suitable to separate the known techniques into two categories, namely impact printing and non-impact printing.
Examples of impact printing techniques include flexography, rotogravure, and offset printing. Common for these examples is the requirement of a master image, often called a cliché, which is at least partially covered with ink in a pattern representing the image to be printed. The cliché is then pressed against a substrate to be printed, either directly or indirectly via one or several compression cylinders, in order to transfer the ink with high resolution to the substrate. The substrate may e.g. be paper, film, laminate, or board. Impact printers are typically implemented in large scale and high speed printing systems where static images need to be printed.
On the other hand, non-impact printing techniques do not require the printer to be in direct contact with the substrate to be printed. Inkjet printers, to mention one well known technique within this category, are thus arranged at a distance from the substrate and are controlled digitally thus being capable of providing high resolution dynamic images.
Within food packaging technology impact printing techniques are so far chosen due to their high speed and robust operation in providing high quality printing of static images. Large scale printing is conventionally performed by printers being up to 2 m wide, even though a final roll fed packaging system web width only is a part of the total width such that it is possible to print up to ten parallel webs simultaneously. Roll fed substrates are generally slitted to single webs at the finalization of the substrate production for later use as a packaging material in the filling equipment.
Nevertheless impact printer, used when printing e.g. a décor layer on a carton based material for later use as a packaging material in food packaging industry, require vast amount of resources. The production of the clichés is time consuming and costly, and is dependent on the use of expensive development chemicals. Further, clichés are usually fastened by means of adhesive tape which contributes to the rather high overall cost of such system when utilized in industrial mass production applications.
Hence, it would be advantageous to replace the impact printers with non-impact printers within the food packaging material production in order to reduce time and costs of the printing process, but also for allowing a rapid change of the image to be printed without the need for a shutdown and cliché exchange. However, since there is no easy way of providing sufficiently wide non-impact printers it would be necessary to arrange several printer units adjacent to each other in order to cover the complete paper. This would also require so called stitching, which is a complex algorithm for providing a seamless continuation of the printed image where two printer units overlap. Further, it would be required to apply a significant tension to the substrate in order to ensure the correct position of each part of the substrate. However, in case of thin substrates, such as paper etc., such tensioning would increase the risk of substrate damages, as well as a reduction in the printing quality since the printed pattern will be deformed once the tension is removed from the substrate. Since the human eye is extremely sensitive for detecting misalignment of image pixels it would thus be beneficial to provide a solution utilizing overlapping non-impact printer units in an efficient and robust manner.

Printing system, and a method for printing


Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to model a process, and clustering techniques are used to group excursions representative of events based on sensor residuals of the PCA model. The PCA model is trained on normal data, and then run on historical data that includes both normal data, and data that contains events. Bad actor data for the events is identified by excursions in Q (residual error) and T2 (unusual variance) statistics from the normal model, resulting in a temporal sequence of bad actor vectors. Clusters of bad actor patterns that resemble one another are formed and then associated with events.

A complicated process may be monitored by hundreds of sensors. When there is a problem or event with the process, residuals of the problem may be reflected by measurements of many different sensors. While the event may be manifested in one part of the process, sensors monitoring that part of the process will provide values that reflect the event. Sensors monitoring other parts of the process may also sense values that are outside of normal range. With sensors in different parts of the process all reflecting out of range values, it becomes difficult to recognize the actual part of the process that is directly involved in the event. There is a need for a mechanism to help operators of the process understand events that occur.

Principal component analysis based fault classification


A coating composition and a cooking device and/or cooking receptacle coated with the coating composition are described. The coating composition includes 10 to 30 wt. % of SiO2, 10 to 30 wt. % of P2O5, 10 to 30 wt. % of Al2O3, 1 to 20 wt. % of TiO2, 7 to 15 wt. % of Na2O, 7 to 15 wt. % of K2O, 5 to 10 wt. % of ZrO2, 2 to 5 wt. % of BaO, 2 to 5 wt. % of B2O3, 1 to 2 wt. % of MnO2, and an adhesion enhancer. The coating composition provides favorable thermal resistance, acid resistance and mechanical properties, such that a cooking device and/or receptacle coated with the coating composition may be easily cleaned at a relatively low temperature.

1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a coating composition, and a cooking device and/or a cooking receptacle coated with the same, and, more particularly, to a coating composition with favorable thermal resistance, acid resistance, mechanical strength and washability, as well as a cooking device and/or a receptacle coated with the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Enamel is a coating formed by applying vitreous glazes to a surface of a metal. The enamel has combined properties including the toughness of a metal ingredient and the corrosion resistance and cleanliness of a glass ingredient and, therefore, is widely used in cooking devices and/or cooking receptacles.
Among coating materials used in the manufacture of cooking devices and/or cooking receptacles, Teflon materials such as polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) are frequently used. Teflon has low surface energy and is typically only slightly smeared by water or oil contained in foods and, thus, exhibits excellent washability. However, this material has disadvantages such as: low thermal resistance that may cause difficulty in using the material at temperatures exceeding 250 degrees C.; low mechanical strength, which in turn, requires careful washing thereof; and decreased adhesion properties of a coating surface if repeatedly used.
In order to remove waste adhered to the coating surface, a catalytic enamel comprising SiO2, Na2O and MnO2 has been developed. This material is based on a principle that oils and/or impurities are absorbed into microfine pores of the catalytic enamel. Thus, the catalytic enamel must have the microfine pores to receive such impurities. The microfine pores of the catalytic enamel may lead to problems in that the catalytic enamel has an uneven surface, small surface strength and/or low abrasion resistance, may be easily released from a metal body to which the catalytic enamel is coated by external impact, and may adversely affect health since the impurities are accumulated in the microfine pores after long periods of use.
Conventional glazes show favorable adhesiveness to an oily surface, a polished surface and/or a layer to be coated with the glazes but disadvantageously exhibit poor thermal resistance. In particular, when continuously used at a temperature of at least 450° C., the enamel may encounter serious problems including, for example, cracks, scumming, loss of a glaze layer in the enamel, etc.
In recent years, therefore, pyrolytic enamels have been used to coat inner frames, a fan and/or a door of an oven, in particular, among different cooking devices, so as to achieve improved washability of the oven. The pyrolytic enamel may provide sufficient heat to the oven during cleaning thereof so as to burn and remove waste, in particular, oily waste adhered to an inner surface of the oven. Therefore, pyrolytic enamel typically has moderate thermal resistance sufficient to withstand high temperatures in the range of 450 to 500° C., at which waste, in particular oily waste, can be completely combusted. However, using the pyrolytic enamel, all parts of an oven structure (including a heat insulation material for the oven) must endure high temperature conditions. Also, even if the oven temperature is raised to the range of 450 to 500° C., the entire oven does not typically reach the temperature in the range of 450 to 500° C. Especially at corners and/or at other portions near the door the temperature does not reach the temperature range of 450 to 500 and, therefore, the waste still remains thereon. In order to solve this problem, it may be proposed to continuously maintain the temperature of the entire oven at 500° C. or more so that the temperature of the corner parts and/or the portions near the door part can be increased to the range of 450 to 500° C. However, this approach causes a problem in that other parts of the oven may malfunction or suffer damage due to the high temperature.
TABLE 1constitutional compositions of conventional enamelsNormal enamelCatalyticPyrolyticComponents(wt. %)enamel (wt. %)enamel (wt. %)SiO230~60 10~60 10~60 Na2O5~200~20 0~20K2O0~200~20 0~20CaO0~100~100~5BaO0~100~100~5MgO0~5B2O30~20 0~20Al2O30~100~5TiO20~20 0~10P2O50~100~100~5Li2O0~100~10 0~10Sb2O30~20ZnO0~5 0~200~5ZrO20~5 0~5Co2O30~3 0~3NiO0~3 0~3MnO20~2 0~500~2CuO0~2 0~2

Coating composition, and cooking device or cooking receptacle coated with the same


A process for making a crayon that permanently colors fabric. The process includes combining Carnauba wax, a mixture containing triglycerides, stearic acid, and a coloring agent to form a crayon. The crayon of the present invention forms a bright, permanent mark when contacted with a fabric. The present invention further includes a method for adhering the crayon material to the fabric and permanently fixing the crayon material onto the fabric. The present invention additionally includes a kit that includes a plurality of the crayons of the present invention and an article made of fabric.

The present invention relates to crayons, and in particular, to crayons for coloring fabric.
A first box of crayons has, for generations of children, marked an initiation into the life of school and learning. For many children, it is a first experience of contacting paper with a writing instrument.
Crayons have historically contained a predominant concentration of paraffin, a wax such as Bee's wax or Carnauba wax, stearic acid and a non-toxic pigment to impart color. Crayons used in industry, however, do contain toxic pigments such as lead cromate.
The process by which the paraffin-based crayons are made includes mixing stearic acid and pigments with paraffin heated to 160.degree. F. Once mixed, and further heated to 210.degree.-250.degree. F., the molten solution is added to molds. When cooled, the crayons are removed from molds and packaged. The process of making crayons has been described in Chemical & Engineering News, Feb. 11, 1991 at 20.
Another crayon writing instrument includes the marking crayon. Unlike the crayon described above, the marking crayon imparts color when contacted with materials other than paper, such as fabric. One formulation of marking crayons includes hard soap, Bee's wax crude, spermatic crude, carbon black, and Prussion Blue pigment as described in The Chemical Formulary (1948) edited by H. Bennett. Another formulation described in The Chemical Formulary includes a carbamate and stearate mixture.
Use of the marking crayon frequently requires the fabric surface to be conditioned before contact with the marking crayon. Conditioning includes moistening the fabric.
Other fabric marking instruments include markers containing volatile organic chemicals and chemicals imparting odor when used. These markers are not for use by children and do not confer a permanent, bright mark.


The present invention has demonstrated for the first time that orally administered type I collagen (CI) induced tolerance to CI in patients suffering from systemic sclerosis (SSc) and ameliorated clinical manifestations of the disease. Accordingly, the present invention provides methods of treating a fibrosing disease by oral administration of a tissue protein, for example, collagen, derived from the tissue undergoing fibrosis.

Acquired fibrosing diseases in humans have several common features. Tissue fibrosis is preceded by injury to and/or inflammation of the normal tissue. Infiltrations of the tissue by T cells and monocytes are present in the early phases of fibrosis development.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma) is a prototypic systemic fibrosing disease associated with increased accumulation of collagen type I, III, IV, VI, VII, XVI, XVIII. Cellular and/or humoral immunity to types I, III and IV have been described in patients with SSc. The disease most characteristically involves the skin which becomes thick and tightly bound to underlying structures. The internal organs commonly involved are gastrointestinal tract, lungs, kidneys, and heart.
T lymphocytes via synthesis of cytokines of different types can modulate the functions of fibroblasts and monocytes/macrophages as well as a variety of other target cells. With regards to fibrosis, the production of fibrogenic cytokines by T cells such as IL-4, TGF-β1 and β2, can directly stimulate synthesis of collagen by fibroblasts in culture. T cells by secreting interferon (IFN) gamma can activate macrophages, which in turn can synthesize several fibrogenic cytokines including platelet derived growth factor, TGF-β1 and β2 which in turn can stimulate fibroblasts to increase synthesis of collagen.

Methods of treating fibrosing diseases by induction of immune tolerance

The University of Tennessee Research Foundation


An epoxy adhesive composition of an epoxy resin, an epoxy terminated liquid rubber, filler, and an amine curing package for said epoxy resin is disclosed. Advantageously, a short chain diol will be incorporated into the adhesive in order to enhance reactivity and strength build. Advantageously, a mixture of amines will be used in the curative including multifunctional aliphatic amines that improve adhesion and strength build; tertiary amines which are used to enhance adhesion and strength build, polyamides which can be used to provide flexibility; and amine-terminated rubbers (ATBN) which can improve toughness and impact resistance to the cured system. The preferred short chain diol is glycerin. Surfaces of adherends are joined with the dried residue of the epoxy adhesive composition by applying the epoxy resin composition to one or both surfaces, joining the surfaces, and applying pressure, optionally with heating.

The disclosure generally relates to epoxy adhesives and more particularly to a toughened epoxy adhesive with enhanced adhesion to sheet molding compound (SMC).
Sheet molding compound (SMC), for example, is defined (ASTM) as a molding compound in integral sheet form comprising a thermosetting resin, fibrous reinforcement, and additives required for processing or product performance, e.g., resin, catalyst, thickener, mold release agent, particulate filler, pigment, shrink control agent, etc. These materials and others generally are known as fiber-reinforced composites, reinforced composites, or simply composites. Due to their brittleness, traditional SMC's may micro-crack due to handling, flexing, etc., during and after molding. When those parts are painted, solvents used in the paint process can wick into the cracks and volatilize during the paint oven curing process. This volatilization pushes the paint off the substrate resulting in paint pops.
Recent developments in SMC technology for the automotive industry have resulted in improvements to the toughness of the SMC composites, resulting in reduced micro-cracking and, therefore, reduced paint pops and higher quality. Toughness refers to the resistance to cracking including higher elongation and increased area under the stress/strain curves. Past SMC composites have used brittle resins with high crosslink density to achieve the performance attributes needed for automotive applications. New SMC materials have been developed by increasing the elongation of the unsaturated polyester resins through a decrease in the crosslink density of the matrix resin. In addition, there can also be added improvements resulting from the inclusion of low Tg elastomeric toughening additives. This addition typically results in a 2-phase morphology that improves toughness through energy dissipation and crack stoppage mechanisms. These modification designed to increase toughness may result in a more difficult to bond to surface.
A common class of structural adhesives useful in adhering metal parts to the same and to different substrates (e.g. composites) is epoxy adhesives. Epoxy adhesive compositions most often contain a polyfunctional epoxy resin and are cured by addition of a curative, which typically is provided in a separate package, often referred to as Part A and Part B. The rate of cure and product characteristics are influenced by the choice of curing agent, which itself is influenced by the make-up of the adhesive composition, as dictated by the final properties desired by the user. Metal may include, but not be limited to, hot dipped galvanized steel, electro galvanized steel, e-coat steel, cold rolled steel, bare aluminum, anodized aluminum, etched aluminum, magnesium, etc.
Acceleration of two-part epoxy adhesives has taken many paths over the years, such as, for example, the use of acrylic esters, mercaptans, and hydroxyl groups. The acrylic esters produce a rapid reaction, but typically result in brittle-glassy polymers with low adhesion to SMC. The mercaptans also react vigorously, but result in brittle polymers with low adhesion and have a strong odor. The catalytic affect of hydroxyl groups was first reported by Shechter, et al., Industrial Engineering and Chemistry, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 94-97 (1956) where a termolecular mechanism was proposed. Phenol was cited as being far more efficient than aliphatic alcohols due to its relative acidity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,670 claims the use of dihydric phenols, such as catechol or resorcinol, as epoxy chain extenders that "may reduce the cure time and/or temperature". U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,990 claims the use of substituted aromatic phenols, where the substitution is an electron withdrawing group that causes an increase in the pKa value. This latter patent cites the previous work of U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,670 and, thus, excludes use of non-substituted aromatic phenols. Their preferred additive is p-chlorophenol, which is quite effective; however, it is plagued by an objectionable strong odor and recently chlorinated compounds, as a class, have been under scrutiny for being hazardous to the environment by such companies as Ford and Volvo.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,341 B1 claims a two-part epoxy that contains a polyester or polyether polyol at 10%-40% with a monomeric acrylic toughener and a curative consisting of polyoxyalkyleneamine, polyamide, reactive liquid rubber, amino functional silane, and tris(dimethylaminomethyl)phenol. The disclosed adhesive composition utilizes a polyol but at concentrations less than about 9.9% and does not use polyoxyalkyleneamine, acrylic monomer, or silane.
Additional representative epoxy structural adhesive compositions can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,977,332, 5,385,990, 6,645,341, 6,451,876, 5,001,193, 4,740,539, 6,486,256, and 6,572,971 and published application US2004/0197563A1, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Various combinations of epoxy resins, rubber modifiers, amine curing agents, amide curing agents, mercaptan curing agents, etc. have been proposed for formulating high strength adhesive compositions.

Two-component adhesive of epoxy resin/polyol pack and polyamide/aliphatic amine/tertiary amine pack

Ashland Licensing & Intellectual Property LLC


A scalable system and method for authenticating entities such as consumers to entities with a diverse set of authentication requirements, such as merchants, banks, vendors, other consumers, and so on. An authentication credential such as a token can be shared among several resources as a way to authenticate the credential owner.

Enterprises are known to employ strong authentication techniques to protect the confidentiality, integrity and assured service of their data and information technology. This has been accomplished using a variety of methods, including issuing a digital certificate to each employee, providing a token to each employee, etc. Strong authentication for an enterprise can be relatively straightforward to implement because there is generally a single entity to which a controlled group of users must authenticate themselves, i.e., the enterprise itself.
It can be difficult to apply strong authentication techniques for consumer applications. Digital certificates and tokens can be perceived as an encumbrance to the consumer's interaction with other entities, such as merchants, and can be an expense that neither the consumer nor the other entity is willing to bear. However, the consumer's willingness to adopt certain strong authentication techniques can be expected to grow in view of the increasingly sophisticated and damaging threat posed by hackers, such as identity theft, phishing, man-in-the-middle attacks and credit card theft. This is further accentuated by the increasing amount of commerce and other activities that take place online each year.
Indeed, the unanswered threat of compromise and the resultant accumulation of negative events can itself be considered a modern impediment to the continued migration of consumer activities to an online environment. Although stronger authentication is needed for the consumer, certain known solutions can be difficult to implement. For example, unlike most enterprise clients, a consumer must authenticate itself to a broad range of diverse entities. A consumer typically may not want to keep track of a different authentication credentials that are associated with different entities. For example, many consumers have multiple bank, credit card, service provider, healthcare and government accounts. Each of these could benefit from strong authentication by the consumer. In this case, if the consumer is issued one authentication device per account, he or she may potentially have a pocket or key ring full of devices. This may be undesirable to the consumer.
What is needed is an authentication system and method that can operate using a shared token that can be used by the consumer to authenticate himself to a wide variety of enterprises. If a single token can be shared across many sites, then it is much more likely that the consumer will begin to carry it around as a necessary personal tool much like a cell phone, car keys or credit cards.


An apparatus for applying a cosmetic, such as mascara to eyelashes, includes a handle, a stem, and an applicator head coupled to the stem and supported for movement relative to the handle in a direction substantially parallel to the stem axis. An actuator moves the applicator head in an axial motion comprising a forward stroke and a reverse stroke. Additionally or alternatively, the actuator may move the applicator head in a composite motion including an axial component substantially parallel to the stem axis and having a forward stroke and a reverse stroke, and a rotational oscillating component. The actuator may be a motor having a rotating motor shaft, and the applicator may further include a transmission coupling disposed between the motor shaft and the applicator head for automatically converting rotation of the motor shaft in one direction into axially reciprocating movement of the applicator head.

Various types of cosmetic applicators are known in the art. Brushes for applying mascara to eyelashes, for example, generally include a stem having a first end attached to a handle. An applicator head, such as brush bristles, are coupled to a second end of the stem. In use, the brush head loaded with mascara is applied to the eyelashes.
Mascaras come in a variety of forms including cakes or blocks, creams, gels, semi-solids, and low viscosity liquids. Cake mascaras were originally the most popular form consisting of at least 50% soap with the pigment mixed in with the soap cakes. With a wet brush, the mascara could be lathered and then applied to the lashes resulting in a satisfactory smooth application, but with a thin cosmetic coating on the individual lashes. The primary drawback was that the film on the lashes was very water soluble and prone to smudging and running on the skin around the perimeter of the eye. As a resolution, waxes were incorporated into mascara compositions thereby improving their water-resistant properties. Unfortunately, the smoothness of the application was adversely affected. That is, as the viscosity of the mascara formulation increased, it became increasingly harder to apply, messier, and yielded less separation of the lashes.
With the advent of mascara applicators a means for expanding formulation options for mascaras came into existence. Creams, for example, combined with a twisted metal wire brush or wand application provided a convenient use and composition that enabled the incorporation of film formers to improve the rubbing resistance and flexibility of mascara films. This also allowed a convenient implement to separate and build the lashes. Today, there are several types of mascara formulations including anhydrous, water-in-oil emulsions, oil-in-water emulsions, and water-based mascaras that contain little or no oil phase. The emulsions, previously mentioned, may also be multiple emulsions for example, but not limited to water-in-oil-in-water emulsion. Many mascaras are water-based emulsions and contain emulsified waxes and polymers usually with pigments dispersed into the water phase. The water provides curling and application properties, while the waxes and polymers create the transfer resistant end mascara film on the lash that is colored by the pigments. Anhydrous and water-in-oil mascaras are generally referred to as waterproof mascaras, as they have superior transfer resistance, especially to water. Their high content of hydrophobic materials creates a film which contains very little materials that allow water to break up the film and make it wear away. In the case of the water-in-oil mascaras, the internal droplets of water can deliver water-soluble/dispersible materials that would otherwise not be able to be incorporated into an oily phase. The water-based mascaras are typically gelled water with a polymer to create deposition and hold of the lashes. These mascaras usually do not have colorants, although colorants can be added in.
Consumers expect particular properties from their mascara products such as adhesion to the lashes, lengthening/curling of the lashes, lack of smudging or flaking, thick lashes, and good separation of clumps of lashes. Particularly, the desire is for long, luscious, full, soft, and separated lashes. Mascaras generally distribute a smooth and relatively thin (coating thickness) film over the eyelashes producing a satisfactory array of reasonably separated lashes that are darker and thicker than bare lashes, making the eyes more noticeably beautiful. It is well understood that some lash clumping will naturally occur since lashes are arranged in both rows and columns above and below one's eye. Therefore, "separated" lashes are not necessarily envisioning every lash as a single entity. Mascara that is deemed by a user to separate well will leave more clumps of lashes than mascara that is deemed not to separate lashes well. Typically, the deposition of mascara has a coating that is 5-15 microns thick. Many "volumizing" mascaras, however, are messy and clumpy and tend to clump too many lashes together in a thick, less separated look which gives the look of fewer lashes.
Conventional mascara brushes typically require manipulation of the handle or other member, and often require repeated passes of the brush across the eyelash, to completely and uniformly coat each eyelash with mascara while maintaining or promoting separation of the eyelashes from one another. To coat the entire eyelash, for example, a user may move the brush in a vertical direction to ensure that the entire eyelash is covered. In addition, a user may rotate the brush to place different portions of the brush head in contact with the eyelash, depending on the desired amount of mascara to be applied to the eyelashes. Still further, a user may also reciprocate the brush in a horizontal direction to promote separation of the eyelashes and/or to ensure better coverage of the eyelashes. Consequently, a user must provide the motive force for applying the brush to the eyelashes and must have sufficient dexterity to manipulate the brush as needed to cover the eyelashes in a satisfactory manner. In addition, mascara application with conventional brushes requires several brush passes and therefore is inefficient.
More recently, rotating mascara brushes have been proposed in which a stem of the brush is supported for rotational movement with respect to the handle. The force for rotating the stem and attached brush head may be either manual, such as for the brushes described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,514 to Clay and U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,871 to Clay, or may be electrically driven, such as the brush described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,276 to Diaz. While these rotating stem brushes eliminate the need for a user to roll the handle during application of mascara, they do not optimally coat and separate the eyelashes. Furthermore, these brushes are limited to simple, uni-directional rotation of the brush head, and therefore are not capable of performing certain, potentially more complex, application techniques.
In addition, various types of applicators have been designed which are adapted to impart different types of eyelash effects. For example, a first brush design may promote separation of eyelashes while a second brush design promotes volume or coverage of the eyelashes. Consequently, a user must use two separate brushes or, if a single brush head is provided with both types of brush designs, the user must reposition the handle to use both sides.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Described herein is a user interface that enables messages within a collaborative workspace environment to be propagated to different workspaces that are associated with different tabs in the collaborative workspace environment. Thus, a comment made in a workspace associated with a first tab is reflected in a workspace associated with a different tab and vice versa.

In current collaborative workspace environments, there is no notion of allowing a user to seamlessly switch between different tasks in various groups the user may be associated with, provide comments about content that is shared in the workspace and have conversations about the content.
It is with respect to these and other general considerations that embodiments have been described. Also, although relatively specific problems have been discussed, it should be understood that the embodiments should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background.

Contextual conversations for a collaborative workspace environment


A secure communication channel between first and second radio frequency communication devices is indicated by the synchronized indicators on each of the two devices. The indicator may be a light or speaker. After a secure channel is established, the indicators may be simultaneously operated so that a user may definitively and positively determine that the two devices are securely connected to each other. Any interloper devices would not be indicating on the same pattern and thereby be identified.

Many devices connect to each other using radio frequency communications. Several protocols and standards, including BLUETOOTH™, can be used to establish secure communications between two devices. For example, a cellular telephone may establish a secure communication channel with a wireless headset to enable hands-free operation of the cellular telephone.
Because of the ubiquitous nature of wireless devices, there is an opportunity for security breaches as several devices may operate in the same general vicinity and in the same frequency space. Interloper devices may intentionally or unintentionally establish a connection with a user's device and breach the user's security.
As devices become more miniaturized, the user interface for the device becomes very limited. For example, today's wireless headsets may have a button that is used for on/off power as well as other functions for the headset. The other interfaces may be an indicator light, a microphone, and a speaker. There is often no place for a user interface display with text, graphics, or other visual indicator, and sometimes there is very limited space for input devices such as switches. When such a limited user interface exists, it is difficult to positively communicate the status of a communication session.

Synchronized indicator light for secure connections